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Bob Mackin

The Chinese government is scolding Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart again. 

This time, after a Chinese language newspaper quoted Stewart for supporting U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan.

U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (left) and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei (ROC/Twitter)

Last fall, then-Consul-General Tong Xiaoling publicly berated Stewart for considering a friendship city relationship with Taiwan’s second-biggest city, Kaohsiung. 

Tong finished an almost five-year term at the end of July. But, last week, an unnamed spokesman at the People’s Republic of China consulate in Vancouver called Stewart’s remarks to Sing Tao Daily on Aug. 3 “ridiculous and unacceptable” 

In the story, translated to English, Stewart said “[Pelosi] is a politician who has long supported democratic, free human rights. Her decision is right.” He also told a reporter that he wants to visit Taiwan.

A statement on the consulate’s Chinese website told Stewart to “be cautious in his words and deeds on Taiwan-related issues, and to focus on solving the livelihood and security of [Vancouver] citizens, especially in eliminating crimes of hatred and discrimination against Asians.”

“Don’t waste your time to win fire for Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, China, take advantage of the Taiwan issue to gain personal political interests, and don’t play with fire on the Taiwan issue and send wrong signals to the separatist forces of ‘Taiwan independence’, otherwise those who play with fire will burn themselves.”

The latter phrase echoed Chairman Xi Jinping’s words in a July 28 call with U.S. President Joe Biden, who has pledged to defend Taiwan. Pelosi’s visit triggered live fire war games by China’s navy and air force off Taiwan’s coast and in Taiwanese airspace. China also sanctioned Taiwanese businesses and stopped climate change talks with the U.S. Foreign ministers of G-7 countries, including Canada, criticized China for its “unnecessary escalation.”

Stewart said in 2021 that he would not meet with Chinese government officials after Beijing sanctioned several Members of Parliament, including friend and Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong. China’s move was in retaliation for Canadian government sanctions several senior officials after the House of Commons declared China is committing genocide against Uyghur Muslims.

Kennedy Stewart and the Taiwan government’s B.C. envoy, Angel Liu, discuss twinning Kaohsiung and Vancouver. (TECO/Twitter)

In the Sing Tao story, Stewart said he is critical of the Chinese government, but has no prejudice toward Chinese people and treats all citizens equally. He also said he would be willing to talk to the mayor of Guangzhou, Vancouver’s Chinese sister city. “I just choose not to meet with Chinese government officials,” he said.

Stewart’s office has not responded for comment.

At the end of May, Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents warned Stewart that the Chinese government could meddle in the Oct. 15 civic election. 

The Chinese Communist Party maintains an official program called the United Front Work Department which aims to influence foreign countries via state-sponsored disinformation, hacking, spying, co-opting of politicians and intimidation of the Chinese diaspora.

CSIS director David Vigneault has pinpointed the governments of Russia and China as primary threats to Canada’s national security.

“Efforts by foreign states to target politicians, political parties, and electoral processes in order to covertly influence Canadian public policy, public opinion and ultimately undermine our democracy and democratic processes represent some of the most paramount concerns,” Vigneault said in a 2021 speech.

The United Nations has recognized only Mainland China since 1971 and Mainland China considers Taiwan a rebel province. Xi has threatened to use force to take control of Taiwan, an independent, democratic country with a free press and 23 million people living on a land mass similar in size to Vancouver Island. 

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Bob Mackin The Chinese government is scolding Vancouver

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Bob Mackin

More than two months after overspending to win the BC Liberal leadership, Kevin Falcon ran a balanced by-election campaign in Vancouver-Quilchena.

North Vancouver-resident Falcon handily won the April 30 by-election by a 3,610-vote margin.

He was sworn in May 16 to fill the seat vacated by ex-leader Andrew Wilkinson.

Kevin Falcon

Elections BC returns released Aug. 4 show that Falcon received $84,374.37 in transfers from party headquarters and spent the same amount in his MLA comeback.

Falcon spent $40,302.09 on advertising, including lawn signs, promotional materials, door-to-door and phone canvassing, social media and polling. Salaries and benefits were the next-biggest line item at $9,647.06. 

He sought reimbursement for $33,539.87, half the eligible expenses counted under the campaign finance subsidy program. 

The biggest supplier at $13,860 was ElectRight Inc., a company that advertises polling, robocalling and telephone townhall services. 

Falcon’s biggest fundraiser netted $27,348.59 on April 8 at the Shun Feng Seafood Restaurant in Richmond, attended by 23 people. 

NDP runner-up Jeanette Ashe, the wife of Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart, received $53,704.43 in transfers from her party’s headquarters and reported $53,662.92 in expenses.

Ashe spent $12,509.87 on professional services and only $10,997.02 on advertising. The biggest single supplier was Airbnb for $6,279.96. She sought reimbursement for $21,896.16 in expenses.

Ashe’s major fundraiser was April 8 at the Croatian Cultural Centre in East Vancouver, where the party netted $12,692.69 at an event involving seven caucus members, including Adrian Dix and David Eby. The party’s biggest fundraiser during the by-election period was Premier John Horgan’s April 21 hometown fundraiser in Langford, which netted $24,000.38. 

In June, Falcon reported his leadership campaign cost $1.078 million, almost $500,000 more than the party-imposed cap for each contestant. Falcon spent more than $519,000 during the leadership campaign on professional services, but neither Falcon nor the party provided details.

Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s wife, Jeanette Ashe, appears on the right in Stewart’s first anniversary video (City of Vancouver)

The party said it was satisfied Falcon followed appropriate rules and guidelines, so it did not fine or disqualify him. He was, however, fined $500 by Elections BC for late filing. 

The race was held under a cloud of controversy as Falcon’s six opponents complained about thousands of fraudulent memberships sold by Falcon’s team. A B.C. Supreme Court judge rejected a party member’s petition that aimed to delay the release of results by 15 days in order to investigate the allegations.

The next provincial election is scheduled for October 2024, but Falcon will not face Horgan, who announced in late June that he would retire from the premiership this fall. David Eby is the only declared candidate and could be acclaimed Horgan’s successor if nobody else enters by Oct. 4.

Meanwhile, the BC Liberals are on track to beat their 2021 fundraising total and the NDP is lagging behind last year’s pace.

The second quarter figures released Aug. 5 by Elections BC show the opposition party under Falcon raised $667,866.45 from April 1 to June 30 for a half-year total of $993,555.31.

In 2021, the year after their worst election defeat in three decades, they raised $1.42 million. 

The ruling NDP reported $988,717.09 in donations in the second quarter, for a total of $1.73 million. In 2021, Horgan’s party took in almost $3.6 million. 

The B.C. Greens, meanwhile, have raised $471,926.57 after two quarters. They reported almost $1.1 million in 2021. 

In May and June, the BC Liberals transferred $30,414.79 to Elenore Sturko’s campaign for the upcoming Surrey South by-election to replace BC Liberal Stephanie Cadieux, who quit to become the first federal chief accessibility officer.

Premier John Horgan, April 19 (BC Gov)

The party transferred $106,780 to Falcon’s by-election campaign on April 29, the day before the vote, and $63,658.98 between April 7 and June 30. 

On July 15, the three parties also received their latest bi-annual instalments of taxpayer-funded allowances under a program to replace the 2017-banned corporate and union donations. Until this year, the payments were annual. 

Sums for the NDP ($786,086), BC Liberals ($556,629.50) and Greens ($248,632.12) are based on $1.75 per vote from the last election and doled out every January and July. 

Instead of phasing out the allowances, the NDP made them permanent, but subject to the consumer price index beginning in 2024. 

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Bob Mackin More than two months after overspending

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Bob Mackin

The Non-Partisan Association is looking for a new leader, just over a month until the deadline for candidates to register for the Oct. 15 civic election.

Park Board Commissioner John Coupar resigned as the mayoral candidate Aug. 4, leaving three declared challengers to Mayor Kennedy Stewart. The party announced the next morning that it met the previous evening and accepted Coupar’s resignation.

Ex-NPA mayoral candidate John Coupar (NPA)

“We thank John for his remarkable service and tireless dedication to Vancouver as an elected Park Board Commissioner since 2011 and we wish him well,” said the NPA statement.

Multiple sources say that Coupar’s internal polling was below expectations and there was a dispute between the party board and Coupar about financial support, spending and policy advice from real estate developer Peter Wall. The board wanted to cut ties with Wall, but Coupar didn’t. 

The NPA has a storefront office at the Wall Centre in downtown Vancouver. Wall’s hotel, the Sheraton Wall Centre, was the venue for a party after the office ribbon-cutting on June 25. The party is relocating to space in Kerrisdale. 

Wall has not immediately responded for comment. Coupar did not respond to a message to his personal mobile phone. He Tweeted that he had resigned Thursday and looked forward to spending time with his family and friends. 

“I am grateful to the NPA for the opportunity to run and for the wonderful team of NPA candidates who surrounded me,” Coupar Tweeted. “I love this city and have enjoyed serving the residents of Vancouver over the last 11 years. I have always strived to walk with the utmost integrity and with an unwavering commitment to those I serve.”

Wall is a longtime BC Liberal supporter who backed Vision Vancouver under Gregor Robertson’s leadership. Four years ago, Wall funnelled $85,000 into a billboard campaign for YES Vancouver mayoral candidate and former NPA councillor Hector Bremner. The controversy sparked amendments to third-party advertising rules and extended regulation prior to civic elections.

Angelo Isidorou, a former NPA board member, said he was volunteering as digital director for the NPA until a month ago and was disappointed to see Coupar quit. “He’s a good man and genuinely wants to see Kennedy Stewart defeated,” he said.

“I know there’s some disagreements regarding the Walls as being major fundraisers for the campaign, but at the end of the day, you need money,” he said. “You can’t run a campaign without money.” 

NPA vacated its Wall Centre street level campaign office the same day it announced mayoral candidate John Coupar had resigned.

Coupar was the first candidate to declare a run for the mayoralty and the first to depart the race. 

On Easter Monday in 2021, the NPA board announced it chose Coupar behind closed doors. 

That prompted 2018-elected NPA councillors Sarah Kirby-Yung, Lisa Dominato and Colleen Hardwick to quit the party and sit as independents, leaving Melissa De Genova as the only NPA member of city council. Rebecca Bligh was also elected on the 2018 ticket, but she already left in late 2019 after a dispute with conservative-leaning board members. 

Earlier this year, Kirby-Yung, Dominato and Bligh joined ABC Vancouver under Ken Sim, who defeated Coupar for the NPA mayoral nomination in 2018 and fell 957 votes shy of Stewart. 

Hardwick formed TEAM for a Livable Vancouver and is now the only elected official aiming to unseat Stewart.

The other candidate is Progress Vancouver’s Mark Marissen, the driving force behind Bremner’s campaign in 2018 and a longtime BC Liberal and federal Liberal backroom strategist and lobbyist who was formerly married to ex-Premier Christy Clark. 

NPA campaign manager Mark Werner declined comment. Werner was campaign manager for BC Liberal leadership runner-up Ellis Ross.

Ken Charko, one of the NPA city council candidates, said he has “nothing but respect for the time that John has put into the city and saving the Bloedel Conservatory.” 

Time is running out to find a new mayoral candidate. Charko still thinks it’s possible, noting that in 2018, the NPA announced its slate of candidates at the end of July. For this cycle, council candidates were named in late May.

“We’ve raised a good portion of funds outside of the involvement of the Walls, we already have a campaign office that will be fully up and running,” Charko said. “It’s my understanding that it is always our intention to leave the Walls.”

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Bob Mackin The Non-Partisan Association is looking for

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For the week of Aug. 7, 2022:

Six months ago, Xi Jinping hosted Vladimir Putin at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, which were boycotted by leaders of major western nations due to China’s human rights abuses. They agreed on a “no limits” alliance.

Before the end of February, Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine. Last week, Xi’s troops encircled Taiwan for war games to intimidate the island nation after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to support President Tsai Ing-wen.

On this edition, host Bob Mackin welcomes back international supply chain expert Glenn Ross of ACC Group to discuss the geopolitical and economic ramifications.

Plus, hear from former Canadian diplomat Charles Burton and Canadian Friends of Hong Kong’s Fenella Sung about Taiwan and the departure of the Xi Jinping’s mouthpiece in Vancouver, Tong Xiaoling.

Also, headlines from the Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest. 

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn or Apple Podcasts.

Now on Google Podcasts!

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For the week of Aug. 7, 2022: Six

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Bob Mackin

Premier John Horgan’s legacy when he steps down this fall will include his record as a job creator in his own office, where millions of dollars have been spent on new hires.

In the 2021 budget, the Office of the Premier was allotted $14.68 million, a whopping $3.34 million increase from a year earlier. The office got a further $14,000 top-up in the 2022 budget.

Premier John Horgan (BC Gov)

The total number of people employed a year after the snap 2020 election grew to almost 100, according to a payroll list obtained under freedom of information. Horgan’s office includes the intergovernmental relations secretariat, cabinet operations, executive and support services and the planning and priorities secretariat.

The latter was created after the 2020 election, costs $1.6 million a year and includes 10 new hires tasked to work with ministries on cabinet social, economic and environmental initiatives.

The heart of Horgan’s office is the executive branch, which includes political staff and correspondence clerks. A background note for 2021 budget estimates hearings said there were 27 political staffers as of June 2021 and eight others in the correspondence unit.

“Salary costs for executive operations of the Premier’s Office are approximately $2.7 million,” said the briefing note. “In July 2017 under the BC Liberal government, the executive branch had a total of 21 [full-time equivalents] and salary cost of $1.77 million.”

Documents show that there were 86 people on the payroll in August 2020, the month before the snap election. In October 2021, which had three pay periods, there were 97 employed and the total gross payroll for that month was $1.072 million.

The reason for the hiring spree? “To meet the needs of a majority government and respond effectively to COVID and recovery,” the briefing note said.

The highest-paid employee in October 2021’s payroll was Lori Wanamaker, the Deputy Minister to the Premier ($38,438), followed by special advisor John Allan ($34,929) and Deputy Minister of Special Initiatives Jill Kot, ($29,244). The top two officials in the intergovernmental relations secretariat and the assistant deputy minister of policy and coordination were the other bureaucrats making more than $24,000 in October 2021.

Meanwhile, Horgan’s chief of staff Geoff Meggs was the highest-paid political appointee, at $24,051, along with Assistant Deputy Minister of Strategic Issues Eric Kristianson ($18,507), Assistant Deputy Minister of Planning and Priorities Secretariat Donna Sanford ($18,435) and Deputy Chiefs of Staff Amber Hockin ($18,073) and Don Bain ($17,979).

Premier John Horgan in the $15,000-a-month virtual studio (BC Gov)

There were seven people titled deputy minister or assistant deputy minister, nine executive directors, 12 directors and 14 assistants.

During the 2022 budget estimates hearing on June 1, Horgan said that the planning and priorities secretariat is similar to other jurisdictions in Canada and was created “to better support cabinet operations, to ensure timely understanding of issues as they emerge and to make sure that the appropriate work can be done.”

BC Liberal opposition leader Kevin Falcon said he struggled to understand the spending increase, because an additional office was not needed when he was in cabinet between 2001 and 2012.

“Quite frankly, it sounds to me like a lot more people just spending a lot more time pushing a lot more paper and having a lot more meetings without a discernible improved outcome,” Falcon said on June 1.

The estimates note also said the Office of the Premier spent $259,000 on contractors in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, including $138,493 on strategic advisor Robert Dewar and $50,000 on five, short-term, no-bid agreements for an unusual, post-2020 election transition team.

Transition teams are traditionally struck only when there is a new premier.

Premier John Horgan with chief of staff Geoff Meggs on a February 2019 trip to Washington State (BC Gov)

In Horgan’s case, he hired Robert Chamberlin ($1,750), Roshan Danesh Law Corp. ($8,000), Raj Sihota ($14,945), Emily Rose White ($14,374) and Stewart Group Strategic Consulting ($10,000). Sihota was the NDP’s executive director through the 2020 election. Stewart Group president Lecia Stewart was the NDP-appointed chair of BC Ferries.

NDP finance minister Selina Robinson is expected sometime this month to release the government’s public accounts for the 2021-2022 fiscal year. Horgan has continued his public lobbying for billions of dollars of additional federal healthcare funds. He flippantly suggested the purchase of a newspaper ad to convince the federal Liberal government to send more money after Order of B.C. recipient Nadine Mort bought space in the Victoria Times Colonist in a desperate measure to find a doctor to write a prescription for her husband.

On June 28, Horgan announced he would retire from the premiership when the NDP chooses a successor. Party members are scheduled to vote Dec. 3. The only declared candidate is David Eby, who could be acclaimed if nobody else enters by Oct. 4.

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Bob Mackin Premier John Horgan’s legacy when he

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Bob Mackin

A B.C. Court of Appeal tribunal dismissed a man’s bid to stop his extradition to the United States, after he failed to convince a lower court judge that police violated his constitutional rights. 

The Vancouver Police Department’s gang crime unit arrested Wayne Steven Hollaus in an Oct. 24, 2014, sting that also nabbed another man, alleged ex-Hells Angel David James Oliynyk. 

The two men picked up a suitcase containing 26 kilograms of what turned out to be fake cocaine and loaded it on the flatbed of a pickup truck. The VPD officers used a traffic stop as a ruse to seize the suitcase and arrest the duo as part of an ongoing U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigation.

Law Courts Vancouver (Joe Mabel)

Hollaus contended he was also subjected to unreasonable search and seizure and arbitrary detention, because he claimed the arresting officer did not have proper grounds for his arrest. B.C. Supreme Court rejected his arguments in 2020. 

Hollaus’s appeal was heard on April 29. Justice Peter Voith wrote the Aug. 3 appeal decision. Justices Mary Newbury and Peter WIllcock concurred.

“The police had reasonable grounds to arrest the appellant based on information from the operation, shared with the arresting officer, that the appellant had picked up a suitcase which he believed contained cocaine,” said the verdict. “At that point, he was arrestable for the Canadian offence of attempted possession for the purpose of trafficking.”

The appeal court said Hollaus’s rights were not breached, because he was advised that he was under arrest for possession for the purpose of trafficking, as opposed to attempted possession for the purpose of trafficking. 

The identities of the police officers are protected by a publication ban. The judgment said they planned tell Hollaus and Oliynyk that a 9-1-1 call from an unknown source reported they had transferred a suitcase from one vehicle to another. The first officer to stop the vehicle and be in contact with Hollaus improvised, using the fact that the Chevy Silverado was missing a validation tag on its rear licence plate in an effort to coax Hollaus out of the vehicle. 

Both men were handcuffed outside the vehicle and told they were detained for a suspicious vehicle check. Another officer searched the flatbed and found the suitcase containing the fake cocaine before Hollaus’s arrest.

“The use of the ruse was short-lived. Four minutes after the police first stopped Mr. Hollaus, he was advised he was being arrested for possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking,” Voith wrote. “Certainly, another aspect of the ruse was to conceal the DHS investigation, but there was no need, as I have earlier explained, to advise the appellant of the ongoing American investigation.”

On June 8, Oliynyk lost his appeal of a U.S. bid to extradite him on a conspiracy to smuggle cocaine case.

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Bob Mackin A B.C. Court of Appeal tribunal

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Bob Mackin

The most-visible foreign diplomat in B.C. has left her post after almost five years. 

People’s Republic of China Consul-General Tong Xiaoling bid farewell on July 28 to Vancouver, where she was the 13th person to hold the post, in a letter published in Chinese on the consulate’s Chinese language website.

China consul general Tong Xiaoling, left, and Premier John Horgan on Feb. 4, 2019 in Richmond (BC Gov)

“Although the international situation is ever-changing, and the relationship between the two countries has been ups and downs, it cannot change the historical trend of peaceful cooperation, nor the realistic logic of local exchanges,” Tong wrote in the letter, translated to English. “I wish the friendly cooperation between the consular district and China will continue to achieve fruitful results.”

Tong also thanked the “vast number of overseas Chinese for building bridges for China-Canada friendship and contributing to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

Beijing-born Tong, 60, arrived in Vancouver in late November 2017. She had previously been China’s ambassador to Brunei and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and deputy commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong. The consulate media office has not responded to questions about Tong’s replacement or her next career move.

“The fact that her posting extended for an unusually long period of five years, suggests that the Chinese Communist Party felt that her job performance was furthering China’s agenda in the Vancouver area very well,” said Charles Burton, a former diplomat in Canada’s Beijing embassy and a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute think-tank. 

Tong Xiaoling receiving a plaque from B.C. NDP Minister Bruce Ralston (PRC Consulate)

Just over a year after Tong’s arrival, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested at Vancouver International Airport on a warrant alleging fraud in the United States. That began a period of almost three years in which Vancouver and the Chinese consulate were in the foreground or background of international and domestic geopolitical intrigue and upheaval. 

Tong often publicly demanded Meng’s release and criticized the Canadian government, which was bound by the terms of Canada’s extradition treaty with the U.S. She sometimes observed extradition hearings in court and delivered gifts to Meng’s residences, while Chinese state-friendly media outlets watched. 

In early 2020, when the coronavirus broke out in Wuhan, Tong demanded the Province newspaper apologize for using the words “China virus” in a headline. Meanwhile, the consulate became involved in exporting bulk shipments of personal protective equipment to China and outfitting Chinese students with masks and gloves at Lower Mainland universities. After Canadian supplies were exhausted, Tong helped arrange a donation to B.C. hospitals from sister province Guangdong. 

Tong was often photographed with municipal, provincial and federal politicians who sought to maintain ties with China, despite the kidnapping of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, an international diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Olympics and Xi Jinping’s alliance with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Tong Xiaoling (standing) with NDP Minister George Chow (right) and Liberal MP Wilson Miao (left) during her last-known public appearance in Vancouver on July 10. (PRC Consulate)

Tong’s tenure also included coordinating local celebrations for the 70th anniversary of dictator Mao Zedong’s founding of modern China in 2019, the centennial of the CCP in 2021, and Beijing 2022. The consulate became a lightning rod for protests by groups demanding China release the Two Michaels, free Uyghur Muslims interned in Xinjiang and stop the crackdown on human rights in Hong Kong. Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West led a boycott of the Tong-hosted cocktail party at the 2019 Union of B.C. Municipalities convention. The UBCM voted to ban foreign-government lobbying events at future conventions. 

Last November, Tong lashed out at Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart for a proposed “friendship city” arrangement with Taiwan’s third-largest city, Kaohsiung. Earlier in 2021, Stewart had indefinitely cancelled all meetings with Chinese government officials after former colleague and Conservative MP Michael Chong was among the Canadians that China sanctioned in retaliation for sanctions aimed at condemning the Uyghur genocide. 

At the end of May, Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents warned Stewart that the upcoming civic election could be a target for Chinese government meddling. 

Despite the controversies, Burton said Tong was “exceptionally effective” in furthering the political objectives of China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD) foreign influence program. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s watershed 2020 report called UFWD the “exportation of the CCP’s political system” that undermines social cohesion, exacerbates racial tension, influences politics, harms media integrity, facilitates espionage, and increases unsupervised technology transfer.

“Her departure is probably something that we would welcome as this kind of United Front work engagement of people, particularly persons of Chinese origin, who have Canadian citizenship, is not really consistent with normal diplomatic functions,” Burton said.

Consul-General Tong Xiaoling visiting Meng Wanzhou on Dec. 1, 2019. (Phoenix TV)

“So one hopes that we will see someone coming into the job who will be more oriented towards diplomatic activities consistent with their mandate as as a consul general, like other consul generals in Vancouver, and not one who has such an explicitly political role in seeking to divert the loyalty of Canadians towards a foreign country, that being China.”

Burton wondered if Tong’s next post will be diplomatic or somewhere else in the Communist Party regime. “It’d be interesting to watch where her career goes from here,” he said. 

The consulate’s Chinese website also includes a photograph of NDP Energy Minister Bruce Ralston presenting Tong with a B.C. government plaque on the deck outside the Canada Place cabinet office.

Ralston is the cabinet liaison to B.C.’s foreign diplomatic corps. He did not publish a version of that photo to his Twitter account, as he normally does when he meets, greets or says goodbye to a diplomat.

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Bob Mackin The most-visible foreign diplomat in B.C.

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Bob Mackin

The CEO of BC Housing is retiring, less than a month after the board was replaced in the wake of a damning report about mismanagement of the Crown social housing corporation. 

Shayne Ramsay, who spent 26 years with BC Housing, and was CEO since May 2000, said he celebrated his 61st birthday in July and wants to spend more time with family. His last day will be Sept. 6.

Ramsay (BC Housing)

In a 10-part Tweet thread midday Aug. 2, Ramsay said “something shifted” on May 7, after a neighbour was bowled over by two men who had allegedly committed murder at the CRAB Park homeless camp. He said the last straw was the July 30 Vancouver Police shooting of a man alleged to have seriously injured a police officer on the Downtown Eastside. 

“I think the shooting on Hastings Street, surrounded by the encampment and during another heat wave, finally did it for me,” Ramsay wrote. “I no longer have confidence I can solve the complex problems facing us at BC Housing.”

Ramsay also referred to the July 25 rampage shooting in Langley, which killed a homeless man and a man in social housing, and the July 26 public hearing on the controversial Arbutus social housing tower. He claimed he was swarmed and threatened by opponents after he spoke with reporters. A majority of Vancouver city council approved the project two days later.

It took housing ministry officials four hours to respond to a query for comment on Ramsay’s announcement, but they did not indicate in the four-paragraph statement whether there had been a board of directors meeting.

“The BC Housing board will immediately begin work to identify a new CEO to lead the organization into the future,” said the statement, attributed to Murray Rankin, the Acting Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing.

“Shayne Ramsay has dedicated many years to the challenging work of CEO at BC Housing. In his retirement announcement today, he mentioned his desire to spend time with family,” said the statement. 

The other two paragraphs were about the NDP’s housing strategy since taking power in 2017 and aspirations to expand affordable housing. Rankin, coincidentally, was officially designated the housing minister on Aug. 2, almost two weeks after predecessor David Eby said he was stepping down in a bid to succeed the retiring John Horgan. 

While Ramsay referred to a litany of external turmoil for his retirement decision, there was no shortage of problems inside BC Housing under his watch. 

On July 8 at 6:35 p.m., Eby announced the firing of a majority of the board and the immediate appointment of two current and two former deputy ministers and a former acting auditor general to implement the recommendations of a May 10 report by Ernst and Young. Eby has since resigned in a bid to become NDP leader and succeed John Horgan as premier. 

Attorney General Eby (Mackin)

The Ernst and Young report, called Financial Systems and Operational Review of BC Housing, was dated May 10, but kept secret until June 30. 

The report said BC Housing suffers a siloed approach to delivery, has made limited investments in IT infrastructure and resources, and its project administration is largely undocumented and does not include a risk-based approach.

The report also described a perfect storm of increased homelessness and encampments along with demands to house mentally ill and addicted clients amid a competitive job market.

BC Housing’s budget grew from $782 million in 2017-2018, the first year of the NDP government, to $1.9 billion in 2020-2021. The NDP committed to $7 billion more over 10 years

and expanded borrowing power from $165 million to $2.8 billion. Despite the funding windfall, BC Housing became one of the first major Crown corporations to adopt the controversial, non-refundable $10-per-application freedom of information fee enacted last fall by the NDP majority.

Meanwhile, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth ordered B.C. Coroners Service on July 21 to hold an inquest into the deaths of two people in the April 11 fire at the Winters Hotel in Gastown. 

The demolished property was funded by BC Housing and managed by Atira, an organization run by Ramsay’s wife Janice Abbott. 

For more than a decade, Ramsay has been dogged by questions about his marriage to Abbott. They disclosed their relationship to the BC Housing board in 2010 and managed the conflict of interest according to a June 2010 protocol that was updated last November. 

Under that protocol, Ramsay agreed not to communicate with any employee or board member about Atira and to recuse himself from, and avoid any discussions or decisions about anything directly related to Atira. He also agreed not to access any BC Housing information directly related to Atira, except that which is of general application or already in the public domain.

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Bob Mackin The CEO of BC Housing is

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For the week of July 31, 2022:

Meet Leo Seewald, Taiwan’s newest video star.

Leo Seewald, the Happy Fisherman on TaiwanPlus, at Go Fish in Vancouver on July 13, 2022 (Mackin)

He is the Happy Fisherman on the TaiwanPlus show of the same name.

The former Vancouverite is now Taiwanese, speaks Mandarin and has an ambitious goal: to sail in all 250 of Taiwan’s fishing harbours and document his journeys, the people he meets and the seafood he catches and eats.

When Leo visited Vancouver in July, theBreaker.news Podcast host Bob Mackin caught up with him for a seafood lunch at Go Fish and walk around the False Creek Fishermen’s Wharf.

On this edition, hear the story of how Leo became the Happy Fisherman. 

Also, headlines from the Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest. 

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn or Apple Podcasts.

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For the week of July 31, 2022: Meet

Business, News, Sports

Bob Mackin

In one of its final moves before the civic election campaign’s official kickoff, Vancouver city council decided to give up the $500,000 deposit paid by the Montreal-based promoter of the cancelled electric car race and festival, on the condition that it use the money to refund ticket buyers, suppliers and/or sponsors.

The 2018-2022 Vancouver City Council (City of Vancouver)

Officially known as Canadian E-Fest, the event was scheduled for June 30-July 2 and it was to include a Nickelback concert, an environmental conference and the ABB Formula E World Championship race.

Promoter One-Stop Strategy Group (OSS) failed to secure all necessary permits to use land around East False Creek, so the event was cancelled in late April. OSS lost its contract in June with U.K.-based Formula E, which did not include Vancouver in the 2023 race calendar.

“Questions about funds being paid or refunded by OSS to ticket-holders, suppliers, sponsors, and/or other potential creditors should be directed to OSS,” said city hall’s July 29 announcement. 

OSS CEO Matthew Carter declined comment when reached by a reporter. He recently said ticket holders would receive refunds, but refused to say when, citing unspecified legal restrictions.

Clauses in the Jan. 26 contract between city hall and OSS, obtained under freedom of information, allowed city hall to keep the full sum.

“It is correct that, according to the Host City Agreement, OSS’s performance security payments were not refundable to OSS, whether the July 2022 event took place or not,” confirmed city hall senior communications specialist Kai-lani Rutland. “However, because the event did not ultimately take place, it was city council’s view that it would be appropriate to return these funds so that they could be applied to refunding and/or paying ticket-holders, suppliers, sponsors and other creditors involved with the cancelled event.

OSS Group’s Matthew Carter (LinkedIn)

The agreement said the city was entitled to draw down on the deposit “at any time and from time to time” to reimburse taxpayers for any and all costs under the agreement. In the event of termination of the agreement due to the promoter’s default, the portion of the deposit intended to subsidize local musicians and as many as 20 car charging stations for community centres was non-refundable.

Had the event happened, the city would have been obliged to return any remaining balance within 180 days after the event. 

OSS was responsible for all costs of producing the event, including city engineering and policing. The choice of summer’s first long weekend meant OSS was also on the hook for city staff overtime costs.

“[OSS] recognizes it is a ‘late-comer’ event that has selected a location and date typically blacked out for new major events; specifically, the downtown core on Canada Day long weekend and has declined recommendations by the city to select a date that is not ‘blacked out’,” said the contract.

Map of the proposed route for the Vancouver Formula E race.

“Furthermore, the organizer recognizes that it was informed that the selection of the Canada Day long weekend could increase costs due to resource constraints and has selected the event dates knowing that risk.”

The parties agreed to “maintain an open book policy towards each other” and provide each other full inspection rights to all records relating to the event. But the financial terms and timelines in the contract were redacted from the copy released by the city hall FOI office, under a section of the law dealing with fear of harm to a third-party’s business interests. The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has consistently upheld the public’s right to see entire government contracts with private companies. 

OSS was also required to create a community benefits agreement. The city suggested that include affirmative action hiring of women in trades and Indigenous people and procuring of goods and services from “social impact and/or equity-seeking businesses.” To measure the community benefits agreement and the tourism and economic impact of the event, the city also required hiring independent third-party monitors to conduct separate reviews. Had Canadian E-Fest gone ahead, city hall ultimately wanted to know whether it aligned and supported council priorities about affordability, diversity, equity, reconciliation and climate change. 

Coun. Michael Wiebe (left) and Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung in 2018 (Mackin)

In return for all that, OSS agreed to give city hall space for community engagement and fundraising activities with a footprint of no less than 20 feet by 20 feet, “in a location having comparable frontage, visibility and accessibility as that of the organizer’s sponsors.”

Green Party Coun. Mike Wiebe and ABC Vancouver Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung co-sponsored the April 2021 city council motion to bring Formula E to Vancouver. They did not immediately respond for comment.

The deposit refund announcement came the day after the 2018-elected city council held its last scheduled meeting before the Oct. 15 civic election. 

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Bob Mackin In one of its final moves

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