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For the week of Dec. 1, 2024:

News

No FIFA 26 fever in South Vancouver

Briefly: Neighbours finally have their say about Memorial South Park closure for a 2026 World Cup training site at Nov. 30 John Oliver gym drop-in session.

Bob Mackin

Memorial South Park neighbours got their first chance to tell civic officials what they think about the surprise July announcement to close the heart of the South Vancouver park for nearly two years.

Feedback from attendees of the Nov. 30 FIFA 26 information session at John Oliver secondary (Mackin)

Rather than a town hall about the temporary training facility for FIFA World Cup 26, they got an information walk-through in the John Oliver secondary gymnasium on Nov. 30 with managers, posters and pamphlets.

Attendees were invited to leave their thoughts on sticky notes and attach them to a poster near the exit.

Just before the scheduled 2 p.m. end of the three-hour opening, theBreaker.news counted 115 messages. The prevailing mood was on the skeptical-to-opposed end of the spectrum. Such as:

We need the track not a new soccer field. Event will be for rich people only.
How/who chose South Memorial? Does this comply with Vancouver Charter?
Too little info too late.
It should stop ASAP.
Force this through?Ask for forgiveness after?
Tickets from FIFA to close residents to buy good will.
This info session is late in the process. There should have been more consultation prior.
Such waste of space, energy, water, money. I do not agree!
Where are we going to go? #Followthemoney
Community compensation for running clubs.

Outside the gym, Friends of Memorial South Park had their own display, to collect messages for the World Cup-boosting Mayor Ken Sim.

The Park Board plan includes transplanting four trees and chopping down 11 others (seven younger trees that an arborist says are dead and four older trees that are in the way of the temporary training facility).

Vancouver Park Board Comm. Tom Digby hopes his fellow commissioners will consider a motion at the Dec. 9 meeting to postpone tree removal until staff report back on what, if any, efforts have been made to secure an alternative, soccer-specific site for World Cup team training in June and July 2026.

Digby’s motion suggests Burnaby’s Swangard Stadium, Christine Sinclair Community Centre and Simon Fraser University or the University of B.C. are viable alternatives to Memorial South Park and Killarney Park.

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November 30, 2024

Briefly: Neighbours finally have their say about

HEAR: Surrey’s municipal police chief signs-on, ending RCMP command

Briefly: RCMP help needed for two more years as new force hires recruits. Chief Lipinski signs-on at midnight.

Bob Mackin

After 73 and-a-half years, Surrey is under local police command again.

At midnight Nov. 29, the Surrey RCMP ceased to be the police of jurisdiction in British Columbia’s second most-populous city. The Surrey Police Service (SPS) era began.

theBreaker.news has obtained an audio clip of Chief Norm Lipinski signing-on. A source said that Lipinski’s comments extended to nearly seven minutes and took precedence over all other radio communication.

For the time being, SPS will patrol Whalley and Newton while it continues to recruit officers. The RCMP, under its provincial contract, will police the rest of Surrey. The transition, which began under 2018-elected mayor Doug McCallum, could take until 2026 or 2027 to be complete.

Mayor Brenda Locke defeated McCallum in 2022 on a promise to keep the RCMP. Surrey lost a court challenge and the NDP government agreed to pay $250 million to enable the transition. theBreaker.news revealed secret elements of the pre-election deal, including the silencing of Locke.

The RCMP began policing Surrey on May 1, 1951, after voters decided to phase out the 1887-founded Surrey Police Force. Voters were not given a say this time around.

CLICK AND LISTEN TO THE SURREY POLICE CHIEF’S FIRST DISPATCH

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November 29, 2024

Briefly: RCMP help needed for two more

Richmond city councillor reveals he moonlights with a law firm

Briefly: Chak Au exits meeting after disclosing gig with Remedios and Company. The former B.C. NDP candidate is seeking a Conservative nomination.

Bob Mackin

A longtime Richmond city councillor, who is seeking the Conservative nomination in the Richmond Centre-Marpole federal riding, revealed that he is working for a Vancouver law firm.

At the start of a Nov. 25 special meeting, which was called to decided the fate of a cosmetic store’s business licence, Coun. Chak Au told Mayor Malcolm Brodie he had to leave.

Lawyer Anthony Remedios (left) and Richmond Coun. Chak Au at a September 2022 BC Liberal Party event (Remedios.Lawyer)

“I could have a perceived conflict of interest because I’m a consultant of Remedios and Company,” Au said. “I don’t want to be seen as having a conflict, so I will excuse myself from the meeting.”

Remedios and Company represents the owners of Tokyo Beauty and Healthcare in Aberdeen Centre, Nagoya Trading Ltd. Health Canada has issued five warnings about Tokyo Beauty. One of which was for selling Pabron Gold A Granules Cold Medication, a product containing an opioid.

Neither Au nor Remedios and Company principal Anthony Remedios have responded for comment.

In 2023, Au received $99,735 in salary and benefits from Richmond taxpayers. He also racked up $11,856 in expenses.

On Aug. 25, 2017, Remedios was among 22 guests invited to an Au-arranged lunchwith Premier John Horgan. Earlier in 2017, Au ran unsuccessfully for the NDP in the provincial election riding of Richmond-South Centre. Elections BC’s database shows two $500 donations to the NDP from Remedios and Company in September 2017.

Remedios and Company’s website says it specializes in Trans-Pacific investment and immigration: “We act for multinationals, banks, mining companies, solar companies, pharmaceutical companies, financial firms, private investors from Asia, real estate developers, etc.”

The Remedios and Company website also includes a photo of Remedios and Au at a September 2022 BC Liberal event in Richmond and at a July 2023 meeting in Richmond city hall with Vietnam’s Consul General Nguyen Quang Truong.

During the Nov. 25 council meeting, Remedios and Company articled student Matthew Remedios said that Tokyo Beauty has made “extraordinary efforts to ensure full compliance with all applicable regulations.”

“These efforts underscore a sincere commitment to maintaining the highest regulatory standards and ensuring the safety and well-being of its customers,” Matthew Remedios said.

Council members voted unanimously to cancel the Aberdeen Centre store’s licence. Tokyo Beauty operates two other locations in Richmond.

WATCH: Richmond Coun. Chak Au reveals he works for a law firm.

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November 28, 2024

Briefly: Chak Au exits meeting after disclosing

WATCH: Vancouver’s mayor wants to make city “Bitcoin friendly”

Briefly: Ken Sim holds shares in crypto companies and wants to make Vancouver a “Bitcoin friendly” city.

Bob Mackin

Vancouver’s mayor wants to make the city “Bitcoin friendly.”

Near the end of the Nov. 26 city council meeting, when members gave notice of motions they will table at the Dec. 11 committee meeting, Mayor Ken Sim was last to speak:

“For a motion titled: Preserving of the City’s Purchasing Power Through Diversification of Financial Resources, Becoming a Bitcoin Friendly City.”

Details will come when the agenda for Dec. 11 is published.

But, can Sim table the motion?

His 2024 Statement of Disclosure, required under the Financial Information Act, lists three cryptocurrency corporations among his assets.

Purpose Bitcoin ETF, which markets itself as the “world’s first Bitcoin exchange traded fund”;
The Coinbase Global cryptocurrency exchange platform; and
Bitcoin miner MGT Capital.

Under the Vancouver Charter (Section 145.2), a member must not participate in a discussion or vote on a matter if one has a direct or pecuniary interest in the matter or another interest in the matter that constitutes a conflict of interest.

Earlier on Nov. 26, Bitcoin investors were disappointed when it fell shy of the US$100,000 mark and slipped below US$92,000. It appeared to be the end of a rally that began with Donald Trump’s Nov. 5 election as the 47th U.S. president.

In Canadian dollars, the price was $130,000 on Nov. 26.

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November 27, 2024

Briefly: Ken Sim holds shares in crypto

B.C. taxpayers on the hook for $581 million: 2026 World Cup hosting contract revealed

Briefly: Vancouver taxpayers (and, ultimately, B.C. taxpayers) are responsible for “all costs and expenses” incurred to fulfil obligations to FIFA and “shall indemnify and hold free and harmless” FIFA and subsidiaries from municipal taxes. When the World Cup starts in June 2026, Vancouverites will not be allowed to enjoy a potential Stanley Cup run from the Vancouver Canucks, other major sports events, concerts or festivals.

Bob Mackin

theBreaker.news has obtained, via an adjudicated appeal to the Information and Privacy Commissioner, a copy of the contract between the City of Vancouver, FIFA, and the Canadian Soccer Association. The contract was signed during the original bid phase, in March 2018, by then-city manager Sadhu Johnston and city solicitor Francie Connell.

West Vancouver’s Victor Montagliani announces Vancouver will host 2026 World Cup matches (FIFA/YouTube)

The contents of the contract are similar to the ones reported by theBreaker.news from Seattle last year and Toronto earlier this year.

In August 2023, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim told Bob Mackin that “we are bound by confidentiality agreements.” While the host city agreement does contain a blanket confidentiality clause, there is an exception for when “disclosure is required by relevant laws or court orders.” One of those laws is B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

The contract regulates almost every aspect of the tournament, from police escorts for FIFA executives and heads of state and road closures to backup power supply and protecting FIFA sponsors from competitors. The host city agreement is separate from the B.C. Place Stadium agreement, which theBreaker.news exclusively obtained under a separate freedom of information request.

The contract details:

Who pays what?

The NDP government revealed last April that it could cost taxpayers up to $581 million to host seven matches in June and July 2026.

Controlled area

The host city and senior governments are responsible for safety, security, fire protection and medical services. Beyond B.C. Place’s outer perimeter, the city must create a FIFA-determined “controlled area” where certain commercial activities are banned on each match day and the day prior.

Vancouver must ensure that airspace above and around the stadium and FIFA Fan Festival (at Hastings Park) be “free and clear of all commercial signage and/or advertising.” That is because FIFA will showcase its own sponsors.

Vancouver must also temporarily cover and decorate construction sites “at important locations” around the stadium, fan fest, hotels and transportation stations.

Title page of the FIFA 26 contract with the City of Vancouver (FOI/CoV)

Getting around (or the runaround)

The city must arrange free match day transit for ticketholders and accredited passholders. Elsewhere, FIFA gets temporary roadblocks, special traffic access lanes and police escorts for teams, FIFA and member association executives, VIP guests and competition officials. FIFA set a May 31, 2024 deadline for Vancouver to provide a traffic management plan.

Front of the line

City hall will be entitled to buy “a certain number” of tickets for matches at B.C. Place, “in an amount to be determined by FIFA at a later stage” before they go on sale to the general public. But those tickets must not be used for commercial purposes or given away in contests.

The only game in town

Starting seven days prior to the opening match to seven days after the last one, the city cannot allow any other major sporting event. “No other substantial cultural events (such as music concerts)” shall be allowed the day before, the day of or the day after a match, except FIFA-approved concerts or events.

Movable goalposts

FIFA was scheduled to issue the final version of hosting requirements by June 30, 2023. However, it may “from time to time” provide Vancouver with further detailed specifications.

Host cities must follow all directions in a timely manner to prevent FIFA and its partners from suffering “substantial and irreparable losses and damages.” Otherwise, FIFA could appoint a third-party to finish the job or even end the contract and give another city hosting rights.

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November 26, 2024

Briefly: Vancouver taxpayers (and, ultimately, B.C. taxpayers)

Will British Columbians get to see Eby’s real mandate letters?

Briefly: Supreme Court of Canada decided cabinet mandate letters are protected from disclosure, after B.C. government lawyers intervened in Ontario’s Supreme Court challenge.

Bob Mackin

British Columbia has a new cabinet, but the Nov. 18-sworn NDP ministers do not have their mandate letters.

Premier David Eby said they are delayed while his single-seat majority NDP forges an alliance with the two Green MLAs.

B.C. Premier David Eby (left) and Ontario Premier Doug Ford at the 2024 Premiers’ meeting in Halifax (Canada’s Premiers/Flickr)

Eby said after the Government House ceremony that the post-Oct. 19 election priorities are housing affordability, healthcare, community safety and economic growth.

“That is the consistent set of priorities for every single minister for the detailed mandate letters,” Eby told reporters, without setting a date for publishing the letters.

Will it be a case of one set of mandate letters for cabinet eyes only and another version for public consumption?

Under the freedom of information law, a CBC reporter unsuccessfully sought Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s marching orders for his ministers after the 2018 election. The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario intervened and ordered their release. But Ford’s government appealed.

Last February, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Ontario’s cabinet mandate letters would stay secret because releasing them would reveal the substance of deliberations of cabinet, which relies on confidentiality.

The judge who wrote the majority decision, Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, was the cabinet secretary under Ontario Premier Mike Harris from 2000 to 2002. Vincent Gogolek, the former executive director of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, called it a win for government secrecy.

Three B.C. government lawyers intervened in the case. They filed their statement with the Supreme Court the week after Eby became premier in November 2022.

B.C. officially took no position specific to Ford’s mandate letters, but agreed with Ontario, “that statutory protections for cabinet information and documents should be widely construed.”

“The [Ford cabinet] mandate letters were not publicly disclosed or prepared for the public’s consumption as a public relations document, and there is evidence that they were handed out at a cabinet meeting and appeared on the cabinet meeting agenda,” said the B.C. government submission.

In 2001, Gordon Campbell was the first B.C. premier to issue mandate letters. Campbell also briefly held open meetings of the BC Liberal cabinet.

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Briefly: Supreme Court of Canada decided cabinet

Kenny Chiu on comeback trail, aims to take back seat from Trudeau Liberal Bains

Briefly: Foreign interference led to Conservative MP’s 2021 defeat

Bob Mackin

Conservative Kenny Chiu wants to return to Ottawa as the Steveston-Richmond East MP in 2025.

The 2019-elected Chiu was upset in the 2021 election by Liberal rookie Parm Bains, whose campaign benefitted from supporters of the Chinese Communist Party.

An invitation to a Nov. 23 lunch in Steveston said Chiu is recruiting new party members, volunteers and donors to his nomination campaign. Chiu supported Pierre Poilievre’s winning leadership campaign in 2022.

Kenny Chiu at David Lam Park during the June 4, 2024 Tiananmen Square Massacre memorial (Mackin)

Before the 2021 election, Chiu proposed a registry of foreign agents, supported the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and voted to declare China was committing genocide against Uyghur Muslims. China retaliated by adding him to its sanctions list.

Documents tabled in September at the Hogue Commission on foreign interference from the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections said the People’s Republic of China government gave “the impetus and direction” for the successful campaign to defeat Chiu and his party in the 2021 election. Investigators, however, said they did not have enough evidence to file Canada Elections Act charges for undue foreign influence, intimidation, unregistered third party or use of foreign funds.

Also named on the invitation for the Ember Kitchen event is Richmond Coun. Chak Au, who is seeking the Conservative nomination for the new Richmond Centre-Marpole riding. Trudeau Liberal rookie Wilson Miao upset incumbent Conservative Alice Wong in the Richmond Centre riding in 2021.

Au, first elected to Richmond city council in 2011, was courted by the BC Liberals before the 2017 provincial election, but ran for the B.C. NDP and lost to Linda Reid in Richmond-South Centre. He donated $700 to the B.C. NDP and $1,288 to the federal Conservatives in 2023.

In Richmond’s 2022 civic election, Au topped the polls for the eight city councillor seats with 16,515 votes.

Au has gained attention for attending many events over the years involving Chinese consular officials and their supporters. One of them was an October 2021 ceremony at Jack Poole Plaza to promote the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

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Briefly: Foreign interference led to Conservative MP’s

WATCH: Helicopter logging in Stanley Park

The latest phase of the $18 million Stanley Park logging operation lifted-off Nov. 19.

Two helicopters from Black Tusk Helicopter Inc. are using the Prospect Point Picnic Area as a temporary landing and refuelling site. Their job is to pick-up logs felled on the cliffs above the Stanley Park Seawall, between Third Beach and Prospect Point. The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation says they will fly only between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The Park Board said the logging is necessary due to the Hemlock looper moth infestation and wildfire fears. Contractor B.A. Blackwell and Associates estimated the pest affected 160,000 trees in the park.

In the Stanley Park Preservation Society’s unsuccessful court bid to halt the logging, a lawyer for city hall said another 30 hectares will be logged this fall and winter.

Blackwell estimates it will chop down 6,000 trees — of which 2,000 are greater than 20 centimetres in diameter. Last fall and winter, Blackwell subcontractors took down more than 7,200 trees.

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The latest phase of the $18 million

A baker’s dozen facts about the new NDP cabinet

Briefly: B.C. Premier David Eby trades health and energy ministers. Meanwhile, solicitor general now B.C.’s transportation and transit czar.

Bob Mackin

Two years after he assumed the British Columbia premiership from John Horgan, David Eby named his post-election cabinet on Nov. 18 at Government House in Victoria.

Premier David Eby takes the oath of office on Nov. 18 (BC Gov/YouTube)

The NDP cabinet totals 28 (24 ministers and four ministers of state), plus another 14 parliamentary secretaries in the 47-seat caucus.

Some highlights of who is in and who is out.

1: There’s a new JEDI in town

New Finance minister Brenda Bailey (Vancouver-Granville South) is the old Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation minister. Rookie Diana Gibson (Oak Bay-Gordon Head) takes over from Bailey.

2: Minister of State for Rest of B.C.

Brittny Anderson (Nelson-Creston) is Minister of State for Local Governments and Rural Communities, the only cabinet member for the interior.

3: Dirt Ministry Rookies

Environment and Parks: Tamara Davidson (North Coast-Haida Gwaii); Forests: Ravi Parmar (Langford-Juan de Fuca); and Water, Land and Resource Stewardship: Randene Neill (Powell River-Sunshine Coast).

4: Minister of Getting On-Time, On-Budget

Bowinn Ma (North Vancouver-Lonsdale) was transferred from Emergency Management and Climate Readiness to Infrastructure, a new ministry described as: “Responsible for major capital project planning, procurement and delivery for things such as schools, post-secondary institutions, court houses, correctional facilities and health facilities.”

Every major transportation, healthcare and utility development in the province is either late, over budget or both.

Ma’s riding happens to be the site of B.C.’s biggest public infrastructure problem, Metro Vancouver’s $3.86 billion North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant — which will cost another $3 billion and is scheduled to be delivered 10 years late in 2030.

5: Steveston standing

Kelly Greene is the last NDP MLA in Richmond, which relies on dikes to protect from floods. First elected in 2020, she succeeds Ma as the Emergency Management and Climate Readiness minister.

6: Comeback

Lana Popham (Saanich South) is out of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, and back to Agriculture and Food after the defeat of Pam Alexis (Abbotsford-Mission).

Popham’s portfolio includes the Buy BC program that promotes B.C. food and beverage products. While she signed the oath book at the Nov. 18 ceremony, Popham was flanked by bottles of Perrier.

“All Perrier products are bottled at source in Vergèze in south or France before being shipped to Canada,” says the Perrier website.

7: Minister of FIFA

Spencer Chandra Herbert (Vancouver-West End) becomes the Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, responsible for the FIFA World Cup 26 in Vancouver.

During his time in opposition, Chandra Herbert was the NDP critic of the B.C. Pavilion Corporation, which runs B.C. Place and the Vancouver Convention Centre. Now he is in charge of the province’s two biggest tourism magnets.

8: Bye-bye, Brenda?

Mike Farnworth is no longer Solicitor-General.

His biggest headache in recent years was the Surrey policing saga. Despite the protests from Mayor Brenda Locke, he mandated Surrey switch from the RCMP to the Surrey Police Service. It’s one of the reasons why the NDP has only four seats in Surrey after the election.

Now he’ll get letters from Locke about the late Pattullo Bridge and Surrey-Langley SkyTrain projects.

9: Crime-fighting duo

Ex-Mountie Garry Begg and his 22-vote victory in Surrey-Guildford earned him a promotion from caucus whip to solicitor general. He’ll be aided by former Vancouver Police officer Terry Yung (Vancouver-Yaletown), now minister of state for public safety.

10: Minister of Site C

After seven-and-a-half years in the Ministry of Health (including the pandemic), Adrian Dix (Vancouver-Kingsway) becomes the Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions.

It’s a straight-up portfolio trade with Josie Osborne (Mid-Island-Pacific Rim), now Minister of Health. The standalone Mental Health and Addictions portfolio is folded into health.

Dix famously lost the 2013 election for the NDP after he announced his opposition to the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion.

Mining gets its own ministry, under Jagrup Brar (Surrey-Fleetwood).

11: Task master

Ravi Kahlon (Delta-North) adds Municipal Affairs to his Housing portfolio. Before the election, Kahlon imposed new laws on local governments, demanding they deregulate and accelerate housing construction. He also removed the requirement for most development public hearings.

12: What’s it all worth?

MLAs are paid a $119,532.72 base per-year. Eby gets a 90% top-up ($107,579.45), while Ministers get another $59,766.37. Ministers of State ($41,836.46) and Parliamentary Secretaries ($17,929.91) also receive higher pay.

13: In case you’re wondering

theBreaker.news thePodcast guest Alan Mullen and host Bob Mackin correctly predicted six cabinet appointments each during the special Nov. 17 edition of the podcast.

Click and listen here.

Mullen is expected to officially claim the title when Raj Chouhan is returned as speaker.

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