“Canada is one of the easiest places in the world to set up a company. All you need is a few hundred dollars, an address and someone to appoint as a director,” said the report, released on Dec. 9, World Anti-Corruption Day. “There is no need to show documentation to prove who you are, and you are free to list other people – nominees – as the company’s directors or shareholders. In all but two provinces – Alberta and Quebec – companies are not required to identify their shareholders. Beneficial owners can remain totally anonymous.”

The report, titled No Reason to Hide: Unmasking the Anonymous Owners of Canadian Companies and Trusts, said that British Columbia has 385,410 of the country’s 3.4 million registered companies and the lack of identity verification means the beneficial owners of vast amounts of real estate are shielded from the public.

TI found Canada to be among the bottom three countries in the G20, with Brazil and South Korea, in fighting corruption. Conversely, U.K., France, Australia and South Africa are in various stages of setting-up beneficial ownership registries.

The report calls anonymous companies and trusts “the getaway cars of financial crime” because hiding beneficial ownership enables money-laundering, tax evasion, corruption and terrorist financing. Only 210,000 of the estimated 1 million trusts in Canada are registered to pay taxes. Trustees need not keep record of the beneficial owners or disclose that they are acting for others in bank transactions.

“The lack of available information on private companies and trusts, and who owns them, is a huge obstacle for law enforcement and tax authorities. The RCMP’s success rate in pursuing money laundering is a fraction of what it is for other crimes. A suspect cannot be identified in more than 80 percent of cases, and only a third of the cases that go to trial result in a conviction.”

TI found Canada’s performance to be weak or very weak in seven of the G20’s 10 principles on beneficial ownership. Apart from tabling legislation to eliminate bearer shares — unregistered securities owned by whoever holds the share certificate —there has been no progress under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government.

The report includes a chapter on the skyrocketing cost of real estate in Toronto and Vancouver and the influx of overseas capital. It noted the cases of high profile Chinese immigrants Li Dongzhe, Li Donghu and Gang Yuan. The Li brothers were jailed in 2014 for fraud after they “placed vehicles, properties, utility bills, businesses and bank accounts into nominee names in order to avoid detection from the authorities.” Mining tycoon Gang was murdered in 2015. He used nominees to hold his real estate. One of them, Li Zhao, was charged with his murder.

“The extent and impact of foreign investment remains unknown since very little data is collected on property owners. Individuals can use shell companies, trusts and nominees to hide their beneficial interest in Canadian real estate,” it said.

Beneficial ownership is hidden in nearly half of the 100 most-expensive houses in Greater Vancouver. Nearly a third of the properties examined are owned through sell companies and at least 11% have a nominee listed on the title.

“The use of nominees appears to be on the rise; more than a quarter of the high-end homes bought in the last five years are owned by students or homemakers with no clear source of income.”

The TI report referenced several properties on Belmont Avenue and Point Grey Road in Vancouver’s West Side that are owned through trusts, numbered companies and offshore shell companies.

Six of the 100 titles are held through trusts, but the actual number may be higher, because there is no requirement in B.C. to register a trust’s existence.

The report’s key recommendation is for mandatory reporting of beneficial owners in all companies and trusts and for such information to be published in a central registry that is easily accessible by the public.

“A public registry of companies and trusts that includes beneficial ownership information would be a low-cost, high-impact way of preventing their misuse,” the report said. “It would improve the effectiveness of law enforcement and tax authorities. It would help the private sector comply with regulations and make better business and investment decisions. It would also bolster Canada’s reputation for fairness and transparency both at home and abroad.”

Among the other recommendations are that nominees disclose who they are acting for; governments to beef-up corporate registry staffing and budgets so they can independently verify identities of directors and shareholders; require beneficial ownership disclosure before approving any real estate transaction; and, for all government authorities to require disclosure of beneficial ownership by all bidders for public contracts.

The former Global BC TV reporter quit journalism to become the spokesman for the B.C. LNG Alliance. He left the lobby group last week.

Did he get the itch to get into politics because the global gas glut and resulting development delays made him feel like the Maytag Man?

While he was a well-respected reporter, Johal broke stories about BC Liberal misconduct and corruption under the leadership of Premier Christy Clark. You may remember two of them: The Ken Boessenkool “incident of concern” and the leak of the Basi-Virk indemnity agreement that shut down the B.C. Rail trial. Now he wants to be part of the Clark Clique, apparently in the new Richmond-Queensborough riding.

Johal has not responded to my numerous calls and emails.

Another LNG cheerleader keeping her plans to herself is ResourceWorks advisory board member Puneet Sandhar. I’m told that she could be appointed a candidate as soon as a BC Liberal “Women Empowering Women” event on Oct. 5 at the Crystal at York Conference and Event Centre.  Sandhar is listed as the contact for the event, but she didn’t respond for comment.

The Surrey real estate lawyer was a 2015 Clark appointee to the Legal Services Society and is married to Jatinder Sandhar, a supporter of controversial Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal.

Neither BC Liberal president Sharon White (who is also a real estate lawyer) nor spokeswoman Jillian Stead responded for comment.

The party is in campaign mode. The fall sitting of the Legislature was supposed to begin Oct. 3, but it was cancelled instead. The party has nine, count ’em, nine fundraisers scheduled for October alone. The BC Liberal government also launched a new wave of those Our Opportunity is Here ads that we’re all paying for. Before the 2013 election, they spent more than $16 million of taxpayers’ funds. In July, they reported they were halfway there.

That’s “controlling spending,” BC Liberal-style.

The Metro Vancouver real estate bubble is weighing heavily in polling. There is plenty of time to right the ship, but the NDP is sailing forward at full sail after putting the Liberals on their heels.

One: They’re Going Back to the Legislature (When They’d Rather Be at a BBQ)

The last summer before an election is normally time to rub shoulders, rouse the troops, enjoy burgers and beer and raise some bucks. The BC Liberals weren’t counting on returning to Victoria to amend the Real Estate Services Act to re-regulate real estate agents or pass a law to enable City of Vancouver to tax owners of vacant houses and condos.

Reconvening the Legislature in the final week of July takes time and energy away from those all-important activities. Mind you, the expected Question Period grilling from the NDP will not have as much traction in summer as would Question Periods this fall, should the Oct. 3-Nov. 24 sitting go ahead as scheduled.

The anti-red tape crusaders are reluctantly about to christen a brand new roll of red tape.

Two: Premier Christy Clark Flies Commercial

More than five months after chastising those who dared question her preference to ding taxpayers for private jet flights around B.C. with her entourage — including omnipresent videographer Kyle Surovy — Clark took to Twitter on July 12 to show an aerial photo that she said was shot while flying on Air Canada to Penticton for a hospital construction photo op.

I recently revealed that #AirChristy had exceeded the $560,000 mark and that Clark led an entourage to a Prince George BC Liberal fundraiser on a taxpayer-funded charter. 

Clark’s press secretary, Stephen Smart, did not immediately respond to my query about who accompanied the premier to Penticton and how much the flight cost taxpayers. I’ll let you know if he replies.

Three: George Gretes is Back in the News

The former aide to Transport Minister and B.C. Liberal re-election campaign co-chair Todd Stone is expected in a Victoria Provincial Court room on Thursday to plead guilty.

He was charged on March 11 with two counts of lying under oath to the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, when she was investigating the triple delete scandal last year. Gretes will avoid trial, but questions about the Triple Delete scandal and BC Liberals misbehaving won’t go away. As they say, it’s not the scandal, but the attempted cover-up that does more damage in the long-run.

Four: Another Booze Newser

Clark is going on a tour of Vernon’s BC Liberal-friendly Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery on Wednesday. The distillery has vodkawhiskeyginabsintheaquavit… and fruit brandy. Which will she throw back first?

When they’re in hot water, the BC Liberals have a habit of using liquor industry announcements and photo ops to divert from bigger, badder stories. 

That’s one of those Canada’s Economic Action Plan signs that became part of the Canadian landscape during the rule of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Until very recently, this one stood on West First in North Vancouver, by Pemberton Avenue, a short walk from the vacant lot where the BC Rail station stood before the 2013 B.C. election. (Yes, that BC Rail, the one the BC Liberals sold to CN Rail under scandalous circumstances.)

The infrastructure spending spree signs are disappearing, one-by-one, as projects started under the previous Conservative government get finished under the new Liberal one.

But that’s not the sign that mattered.

The one beside it, also gone, said that the Philip Avenue Overpass would be finished in fall 2015. When I drove by July 1, only metal posts remained where the signs were once erected.

For those keeping score, fall 2015 began on Sept. 23 and ended Dec. 21.

This blog post is dated July 4, 2016. The project is as much as nine months late.

I noticed last weekend that lines were painted on the bridge, which was semi-protected by a fence. The politicians arrive for a photo opportunity on July 5. Which one will dare repeat the traditional “on-time, on-budget” falsehood?

Construction crews, under the eye of project manager Binnie, should have been down the home stretch toward completion last fall. But, on Nov. 18, 2015, according to the District of North Vancouver website, they installed the steel archway. That meant they could begin work on the decking.

Funny enough, the same website about the project doesn’t show budget or cost information. In 2014, it was supposed to be $13.4 million federal, $10 million provincial, $400,000 North Vancouver District, $4.2 million CN Rail and $2.1 million Kinder Morgan.

One of the funding partners is the Province of British Columbia, which wants to build a $3.5 billion bridge to replace the George Massey Tunnel and it wants to spend nearly $9 billion on the BC Hydro Site C dam. BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark wants the federal Liberals to help fund both projects. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is running a $30 billion deficit, three times what was promised, for an infrastructure spending spree to rival the Conservatives.

That’s the same BC Liberal government that won’t come clean on the cost overruns for the Evergreen Line. The troubled SkyTrain extension won’t open as scheduled this month, but sometime in early 2017, we are told.

I await an official explanation for the late delivery. But the Philip Avenue Overpass is a relatively simple bridge over six railway tracks that was supposed to cost $30 million. If governments hungry to spend your money on infrastructure can’t get simple builds done on time, then what schedule and cost surprises await the 10-lane bridge over the Fraser River, between Richmond and Delta or the mega-dam that will force flooding of the Peace River Valley?

While you ponder that question, rewind to fall 2014, when the federal Conservatives and BC Liberals announced in a news release that the North Vancouver project was underway.

Construction of the Philip Avenue Overpass in the North Shore Trade Area

October 17, 2014 – North Vancouver, British Columbia – Transport Canada

Construction of the new Philip Avenue overpass south of West 1st Street in North Vancouver is now underway. The project was made possible through a partnership between the federal, provincial and municipal governments and private-sector partners.

The new overpass in the North Shore Trade Area (NSTA) will decrease traffic congestion and improve safety by eliminating the at-grade rail crossing. The project will make it possible to ship products through the area using longer trains, and will reduce rail-car switching noise, shunting and whistles. It will also improve the flow of up to 3,500 vehicles that pass through the area daily, including traffic bound for marine terminals, local businesses, and the Norgate community.

•Construction of the Philip Avenue Overpass is expected to be completed in the fall of 2015.

•The new overpass will cross the rail tracks at Philip Avenue, with a loop ramp on the south side to connect to McKeen Avenue and a straight ramp on the north side to connect to West 1st Street.

 

One of the emails to Clark stood out. A citizen linked the two biggest provincial issues of 2016: the BC Liberals’ out-of-control re-election fundraising and Metro Vancouver’s out-of-control housing market.

Anyone from anywhere can donate any sum to political parties in B.C. The BC Liberals refuse to do anything to limit corporations and unions from donating to political parties. Meanwhile, waves of Chinese investment are turning the real estate market upside down.

The citizen, whose name was censored by the government, wrote: “I cannot pay $10,000 to have dinner with you, but I would like you to come to Vancouver and meet with some ordinary Vancouverites. We can give you a different perspective on what is happening in our communities.”

A key paragraph read:

“What really concerns me is what the head of your fund raising committee, Bob

Rennie, had to say about the value of these events (apart from the dollars they add to the war chest). According to Mr. Rennie, they provide an opportunity for business leaders who support the government’s policies to ensure that it stays in power. I am alarmed that you are spending time with Mr. Rennie and his associates in the real estate industry. If they are controlling your view of the housing crisis in the Lower Mainland, then you are seriously out of touch with reality. The development and real l estate industry is not at all interested in regulation. They do not want you to put the brakes on foreign investment. They have been doing very well out of the great sell-off  of British Columbia and they don’t want the provincial government to interfere.”

The response? In a show of utter arrogance and carelessness, an unidentified person in the Office of the Premier replied with a form letter thank-you and copied-and-pasted government propaganda about B.C. keeping its AAA credit rating from Moody’s Investor Service.

Yes, that is how seriously out-of-touch this government is.

The response is priceless. Read the document in its entirety below.

If you are the citizen who authored the email (or you know who he or she is), please contact me.

If the premier won’t visit your neighbourhood, then I will. Your story deserves to be told.

Who Wrote This? by BobMackin

We know Bill Bennett, Moira Stilwell and Don McRae are out. But who is in?

On that note, this post is brought to you by the letter J.

Ex-Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu didn’t throw his hat in the ring for the federal election in 2015. There is a strong push inside the party to draft the Aquilini Investment Group vice-president. (Yes, those Aquilinis, one of the party’s biggest backers.)

Chu retired after 36 years on the force in May 2015 and joined the Aquilinis last summer. Before he left the force, he registered the JimChu.ca domain. He claims he doesn’t plan on using it for political purposes.

“In the past year, I have had approaches by more than one political party to run for office,” Chu tells me. “It is an honour to be considered. But I have said that I am happy at Aquilini and I have no plans to leave.”

Chu was in the news last week, vowing to fight back at an Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner misconduct hearing over a dispute about a constable that he wanted to fire.

Adman Jatinder Rai, owner of Response Advertising, was pondering a move out of the backroom and onto the hustings. He is a former interim chair of ICBC who was appointed to the Medal of Good Citizenship Committee last October. Sources tell me the federal Liberal and longtime Christy Clark loyalist will remain on the inside.

You might have seen a certain campaign on which he has worked. The B.C. government won’t say how much it has spent or budgeted on the multimillion-dollar Our Opportunity Is Here propaganda. Opposition politicians, like Delta independent Vicki Huntington, have slammed it for being wasteful, partisan advertising, paid for by the public.

And, the third J?

Jas Johal.

One of B.C.’s best journalists quit the craft in September 2014, going from Global BC to the B.C. LNG Alliance. The world LNG slump means that industry is stuck in neutral, but the Liberals are eyeing him as a star candidate.

He has not responded to my emails or phone calls to his office.

If he does, I’ll let you know.

Jane Bird, a protege of Ken Dobell (remember him?), is expected to take a senior management or advisory role on some major infrastructure projects around Southwestern British Columbia. My sources tell me that her initial assignments could include the controversial demolition of the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts in Vancouver and the on-again, off-again Victoria sewage treatment plant.

Bird’s resume includes stints under ex-Premier Gordon Campbell at Canada’s high commission in London, as CEO of the Columbia Power Corporation and CEO of the Canada Line, the SNC-Lavalin built-and-operated airport-to-downtown SkyTrain. The Canada Line construction caused major havoc for merchants in a retail district on Cambie Street. Hundreds of those merchants are eligible for compensation.

Bird’s corporate directorships include Global Container Terminals, Western Forest Products, IBI Group and BC Ferries.

In March, she joined the Vancouver office of law firm Bennett Jones as the (get ready for this mouthful) senior business advisor, complex public and private construction and infrastructure advisor.

I noticed that Bird met last Oct. 19 — federal election day — with Mike Magee, Mayor Gregor Robertson’s chief of staff. The meeting, but not the reason for it, was recorded in Magee’s calendar, which I obtained under Freedom of Information.

It’s a good time for anyone in Bird’s business. Because it’s 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is running deficits and unleashing billions of dollars for infrastructure spending. Meanwhile, the B.C. government is in mediation with SNC-Lavalin over Evergreen Line cost overruns and TransLink is keeping secret the new and higher cost estimates for the proposed Broadway subway and Surrey light rail projects that rely on federal taxpayers’  money.

Bird has not responded to my phone and email messages. I will let you know if she does.

UPDATE: Bird was named June 9 to chair the board that is planning the on-again, off-again, on-again sewage treatment plant in Victoria. The transit (but not sewage) expert will be paid $120,000 for the first six months. More details at this story in Business in Vancouver. 

While Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump voice their concerns about United States political campaign financing from opposite ends of the political spectrum, a March 28 Globe and Mail column by Gary Mason, “Pricey meetings with premier fuel B.C. Liberal fundraising machine,” reignited debate in British Columbia on big money in politics.

Mason revealed that Premier Christy Clark had appeared at exclusive, big bucks party fundraisers. It appeared as if the party was selling access to the premier, for up to $20,000-a-pop. In B.C., unlike other jurisdictions, the sky’s the limit when it comes to political donations and the BC Liberals have refused to set maximums. The BC Liberals dipped below $10 million in donations last year, but still out-raised the B.C. NDP by a three-to-one ratio.

Democracy Watch’s Duff Conacher (March 31) and the B.C. NDP’s David Eby (April 1) complained separately to Paul Fraser, B.C.’s conflict of interest commissioner, about the Clark fundraisers. Fraser agreed the following week to investigate and render a single report.

I called Fraser’s office on April 7. To my surprise, he answered. He was not interested in taking my questions, but, before he abruptly hung up the phone up on me, he claimed to have no recollection of ever donating to the BC Liberals. I had pointed out the listings in the Elections BC database for a Paul Fraser who gave $300 in 2006.

I was also trying to ask why he figured he was fit to investigate the Conacher and Eby complaints in 2016 after admitting his own apparent conflict of interest after a 2012 complaint by John van Dongen. A “familial connection” in 2012 caused Fraser to reluctantly refer the report to an out-of-province commissioner. Fraser’s son, John Paul, is Premier Christy Clark’s Deputy Minister of Government Communications and Public Engagement. The younger Fraser’s job is to use tens of millions of taxpayer dollars between elections to help Clark convince the public that the BC Liberals are doing a good job. Bluntly stated, John Paul Fraser is Clark’s propaganda chief. The longer the Liberals stay in power, the better it is for him.

I followed that short phone call with an email, to which Fraser replied the next day. I included that response in my April 16 story for The Tyee. Fraser gave a vague explanation of the efforts taken by his office to separate him from those donations. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and carried his denial. I know first-hand about mistaken identity; my father and I share the same name.

On Sept. 29, 2006, a person named Paul Fraser donated $290 to the BC Liberals. On the same day, Fraser Milner Casgrain, the law firm where Fraser was a partner before he became commissioner in 2007, donated $2,000 to the party. I still want to give him the opportunity to clear the air. Where was he on Sept. 29, 2006? Could he, perhaps, consult his calendar and bank statements?

I called the commissioner’s office to follow-up my April 8 email and left a message with his receptionist. I did not receive a response.

Fast forward to May 4, when Fraser’s opinion was tabled in the Legislature. He cleared Clark of the conflict of interest allegations. It does not appear that he used his powers under section 21 of the Members’ Conflict of Interest Act to order Clark to testify under oath or show him documents about the controversial, yet legal, BC Liberal fundraisers mentioned in Mason’s column.

I sent Fraser a list of questions on May 5 and, after receiving no reply, I re-sent it on May 6. I always prefer a one-on-one interview, but when the subject is not co-operating and it is a last resort, then I will reluctantly send email.

I still sought answers to the donation issue as well as the matter of his 2012 recusal. But, Paul Fraser made a startling revelation that seemed to be for someone else’s eyes.

At 11:40 a.m. on May 6, I received an email from Paul Fraser that simply said: “Let’s continue to ignore all of his requests.” I called his office and was told he was not there. I fired off a quick email to him, wondering politely why he wanted to ignore my reasonable, public interest questions. I also decided to share his response with the world. It garnered more than 50,000 impressions on Twitter.

The full email is below, including Fraser’s unfortunate, ill-conceived response. Below that, you will find those Elections BC filings, with an emphasis on the 2006 donations.

My questions still stand and I would welcome Fraser’s call.

I’m not holding my breath. My Tyee colleague, Andrew MacLeod, tried unsuccessfully to rouse Fraser.

Fraser’s duty is ultimately to the public as one of  the Legislature’s official watchdogs.  He is entrusted to keep our elected officials from mixing private interests with their very important public responsibilities.

While I can be amused by Fraser’s May 6 email response, those who pay his $270,000-a-year salary should not be.

Mobile users, click here >> Paul Fraser: “Let’s continue to ignore all of his requests.” by BobMackin

Mobile users, click here >> Elections BC – Frasers by BobMackin

On one end of the scale is Rugby Canada, which gets top marks for the page on its website devoted to annual audited financial reports going back to 2003. That is the hallmark of an organization that wants to be engaged with its players, coaches, fans and sponsors.

On the other end of the scale is the Canadian Soccer Association, the Canadian member of scandal-plagued FIFA. It does not publish its financials.

CSA relies on fees charged to members, taxpayer grants and sponsorship for much of its revenue. CSA also relies on public venues at which to stage matches and training.

President Victor Montagliani, who is running to be president of CONCACAF, told me in April that the 2015 financial report would be released, but would not say when. I am eager to see what it looks like. Montagliani, however, said the previous years would remain confidential.

What is the CSA trying to hide?

While we wait for publication of the financial report (which will undoubtedly go before the board of directors at the 96th annual general meeting in Saskatoon on May 7), we are left to ponder what could be motivating the CSA’s secrecy.

To tide you over, here is this nugget. I obtained a copy of an October memo to the CSA board of directors about CSA finances as they stood last summer.

Mobile users, click here >> CSA Financial Package – August 2015 by BobMackin