Another #QuickWins bombshell: was a bribe in the works?

The NDP hammered BC Liberal rookie multiculturalism minister Teresa Wat and finance minister Mike de Jong in Question Period on July 15 over an alleged bribery attempt that was uncovered in the nearly 8,000 pages of Quick Wins scandal documents.

A heavily censored Sept. 18, 2012 email originating from multiculturalism communications director Brian Bonney says:

"Have Harry Bloy meet with her and explain how doing anything would damage the Premier and the party. Have him say how he will try to find her work and get her back involved... Assess her response and advise... Have Brian (Bonney) meet with her and do the same... Assess her response and advise... If need be, offer x dollars per month to do non public work up to election (developing her database of potential supporters)."

The identity of the disgruntled staffer is not evident, but speculation is already underway.

DybleReport Bribe?

The $70,000 Question: Answered

On March 14, Premier Christy Clark tabled the in-house Dyble Report investigation into the Multicultural Outreach Strategy scandal. The report was not independent, but conducted by John Dyble, the Deputy Minister who serves at the pleasure of Clark.

The NDP revealed on Feb. 27 -- Pink Shirt Anti-Bullying Day -- that Clark's staff was doing party work on government time, spending the public dime, in a bid to win votes from ethnic groups in the 2013 election. That was against government rules.

Clark announced that the B.C. Liberal Party had paid $70,000 to the public purse, representing some of Quick Wins co-conspirator Brian Bonney's salary. Media outlets took the Premier for her word and published the $70,000 repayment as fact.

I wanted proof. So I filed a Freedom of Information request on March 22. The government told me that the deadline for disclosure would be May 2.

On May 2, I got a response from six ministries with a few pages of email that appears to be from citizens. But there is one important document missing.

I complained to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner and senior staff at Information Access Operations -- the government's FOI clearinghouse. I even left phone and email messages on May 8 for Liberal president Sharon White, encouraging her to release a copy of the cheque.

Finally, a copy of the $70,000 cheque arrived on May 9. Albeit a calendar week late.

Two questions:

Why was it not provided to me on time?

Why didn't Premier Christy Clark -- who claims she champions open information and data -- just order her staff to publish a copy of the cheque when it was written on March 14?

See the request and the documents below.

QuickWins Repayment FOI

Liberal big shots skip historic news conference

The March 21 announcement that FIFA chose Vancouver’s B.C. Place Stadium as the site of the 2015 Women’s World Cup final was both historic and underwhelming.

Vancouver's nine games, including the championship final, will make this the biggest international sporting event in the city since the 2010 Winter Olympics climaxed with the men’s Olympic gold medal hockey game at Rogers Arena. 

The July 5, 2015 final will likely have a bigger international TV audience, in more countries, than the biggest hockey game in history. FIFA estimated 62.8 million people tuned-in for Japan's upset of the United States in 2011 at Commerzbank Arena, the Frankfurt, Germany stadium that inspired B.C. Place's retractable roof. 

The 2015 Women’s World Cup final broadcast will also draw 10 times more pairs of eyeballs than the anticipated audience of the 2014 Grey Cup. 

The Grey Cup was announced March 8 with much fanfare in a B.C. Place news conference starring Premier Christy Clark (who didn’t mention Vancouver once during her speech). Nobody from Vancouver city hall was invited, not even Mayor Gregor Robertson. That was the end of a hell week for Clark, who was hammered with the Quick Wins Multicultural Outreach scandal and the Prince George plyscraper procurement scandal. Her handlers wanted a quick win before the weekend.

The March 21 Women’s World Cup news conference was a low-key affair, held at the Hampton Inn hotel across from B.C. Place. National Organizing Committee spokesman Richard Scott said top officials from all three levels of government were invited at the start of the week for the announcements in Vancouver and Edmonton, once it was confirmed that the Canada 2015 schedule would be on the FIFA executive committee agenda's March 21 meeting in Zurich. (It was not on the agenda released March 13.)

Federal Conservatives were unavailable, because of the federal budget in Ottawa. 

Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel hosted Alberta Tourism Minister Richard Starke at city hall in Edmonton, where the City of Champions was told it would host the opening match on June 6, 2015.

Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs subbed for Robertson, who was apparently out-of-town. Small Business Minister Naomi Yamamoto attended on behalf of the provincial government. Clark, Sport Minister Bill Bennett, Tourism Minister Pat Bell and Deputy Premier/B.C. Pavilion Corporation Minister Rich Coleman were all unavailable. 

Normally, politicians would rearrange their agendas and flock, like moths to light, to a photo opportunity at a good news announcement about a global event coming to their jurisdiction. Evidently, Canada 2015 is not top of mind for the Liberals, because they may have no future after May 14, 2013. 

Polling suggests the Liberals are en route to defeat and they are focusing on clinging to power in ridings that are in jeopardy of falling to the NDP. Additionally, too many big city reporters still have too many questions about the lingering Liberal scandals, whether it be public employees breaking rules by doing party work on government time, the Prince George plyscraper procurement or a new investigation by the Information and Privacy Commissioner into public employees using personal email accounts to elude the Freedom of Information act. 

While Clark was campaigning in the interior, the Liberals quietly tweaked their website to remove the link to their MLAs and replace it with content all about candidates for the May 14 election. Make no mistake, the Liberals are in full campaign mode. The website now implores Liberal supporters to "push back" against "misinformation and bias" on radio and "misinformation and spin" in newspapers. 

The 2013 Liberals would be foolish to neglect history. Demonization of the media was also a feature of the 1991 Social Credit Party and 2001 NDP. Those drunk-on-power parties went into election campaigns desperate and emerged decimated after voting day. The Socreds fell from 47 to seven seats, the NDP collapsed from 39 to just two. 

Today's BC Liberals have 45. For now.

Morning Interviews, Liberally Fixed

More information is emerging on how Clark got into the MILF mess last year. That infamous interview with Justin "Drex" Wilcomes on 98.9 Jet FM was part of a nine interview blitz on FM morning drive shows over three December mornings, according to entries in her agenda that I obtained via Freedom of Information. 

The last interview was with a Victoria station. The preceding eight were all with small market outlets where the Liberals could suffer defeat in the election. 

Dec. 14: 7:30 a.m.-7:40 a.m. Dawn Tyndall, KISS FM Vernon, 7:50 a.m.-8 a.m. Brian Martin and Vicki Proulx, Sun FM Vernon, 8:30 a.m.-8:35 a.m. Kevin and Sonia, Sun FM Mornings, Kelowna; Dec. 18: 6:35 a.m.-6:45 a.m. Darren McPeak and John Helm, Mountain FM Kootenays, 6:45 a.m.-6:50 a.m. Bob Johnston and Bill Nation, The Eagle, Courtenay, 6:50 a.m.-6:55 a.m. Kyle Wightman, The Wolf FM Prince George; Dec. 19: 6:45 a.m.-6:50 a.m. Uncle Scotty, The River, Campbell River, 6:50 a.m.-6:55 a.m. Drex of Jet FM Comox Valley and 8:40 a.m.-8:50 a.m. Robin and Brian, Kool FM Victoria. 

These interviews were part of a coordinated strategy, perhaps inspired by the Swing Teams playbook revealed by reporter Cassidy Olivier in The Province. 

Bell, Bond, de-BID

PCL Constructors Westcoast was chosen to design and build the Wood Innovation and Design Centre "plyscraper" in Prince George. The announcement came March 22 in Prince George. The company is a major donor to the BC Liberals that expanded the Vancouver Convention Centre and renovated B.C. Place Stadium. The Auditor General investigated the $883.2 million convention centre expansion and is conducting a fact-finding mission on the $514 million B.C. Place project. PCL was named a defendant (along with B.C. Pavilion Corporation) in cable installer Freyssinet's B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit. 

Serious questions remain about the integrity of the procurement for this plyscraper. A representative of the BID Group responded on behalf of CEO Brian Fehr, turning down my request for an interview to learn more about the situation and his quotes that appear on Alex Tsakumis’s blog. 

Fehr claimed Minister Pat Bell reneged on a pledge that his company would be shortlisted for the plyscraper job. On Tsakumis's blog, Fehr is quoted as saying he met with the Premier, who apparently called, texted and emailed him about the project. Clark was quoted by the Vancouver Sun as saying "the issue has been handled by civil servants. It hasn't been handled by politicians at all." The NDP has called for an independent inquiry.

These are very serious allegations that deserve to be confirmed or denied, but my queries to Bell and to the Premier’s press secretary Mike Morton were met with silence. 

Lawyer Jane Shackell was the government-hired fairness monitor on the WIDC tendering, but her terms of reference were too narrow to do anything about Fehr's claims of unfairness. Here is her final report, dated March 18. Elections BC records show Shackell donated $700 to the BC Liberals in 2009.

Shackell was also the fairness monitor on the Evergreen Line Project. The main $889 million contract was awarded to SNC-Lavalin, the Montreal-based engineering giant that is accused of widespread corruption on a number of fronts. 

SNC-Lavalin donated $27,647 to the Liberals from 2005 to 2010. SNC-Lavalin board chairman Gwyn Morgan was on Clark's transition team when she won the Liberal leadership in 2011 and donated $117,510 from 2009 to 2012, including $10,000 to Clark's leadership bid. Director Claude Mongeau is the CEO of CN, which privatized BC Rail amid controversy in 2003 while Clark was deputy premier. Clark is under investigation by the Conflict of Interest office after MLA John van Dongen's fall 2012 complaint. 

According to meeting minutes that I received from the Evergreen Line Project board, Shackell's final fairness report was received by the board on Sept. 21, 2012. That was six months ago. It has still not been published. 

The Partnerships BC and the Ministry of Transportation media offices play an Alphonse and Gaston routine whenever I ask for the Shackell report on SNC-Lavalin. 

I'm not amused.

Two years on: her words don’t match the picture

Two years ago, on March 14, 2011, The Christy Clark Show: Taxpayer-Funded, Victoria Edition officially debuted. Political powerbroker Patrick Kinsella was among the guests in the live studio audience at Government House.

Christy Clark's swearing-in, March 14, 2011.

The Christy Clark Show: Taxpayer-Funded, Victoria Edition is a reality show that has been both a tragedy and a comedy. So many people are watching, despite the unpopular star and her supporting cast. The series will be cancelled as of May 14 if enough voters across this beautiful province go to the voting stations and (with the mark of an X on a ballot) figuratively say that they're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. 

Conversely, Clark and Today's BC Liberals (not to be confused with Yesterday's BC Liberals or BC Christy) could be renewed for a four-year term. Stranger things have happened, but it is an extreme longshot, because March 2013 is only half over and it is shaping up to be as bad as, if not worse, than her March 2012. 

I said it before and I’ll say it again. March is the worst month to be a Premier in British Columbia. There is no “in like a lamb, out like a lion” maxim. If anything, it is a lacklustre month full of letdown for the person in the top elected office of the province. History shows the Premier is the author of his or her own misfortune.

March 2013 has been dominated by the Quick Wins Multicultural Outreach scandal, which actually began with the NDP's bombshell release of leaked Liberal election strategy documents on Feb. 27 (Clark's Pink Shirt Anti-Bullying Day). Clark's deputy chief of staff and closest confidant, Kim Haakstad, resigned March 1 because of it all. The Prince George plyscraper has received second billing on this month's scandal stage.

On March 4, Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham slammed Clark for running an "oral government" in an investigation into the non-disclosure of records by the Premier's Office. On March 9, the Victoria Times-Colonist cited the Comox Valley Business Gazette's report on a February speech in which she poked fun at her ex-husband's manhood. On March 11, independent MLA John van Dongen fired his latest salvo at the Liberals over the unanswered questions about the BC Rail scandal and the Basi-Virk $6 million legal indemnity. 

The quagmire continued on March 15 (the Ides of March!) when Clark went to meet with the Christians at the B.C. Leadership Prayer Breakfast. 

Clark left without answering any questions from reporters about caucus chair Gordon Hogg’s pronouncement that he is in favour of an external investigation of the scandal. As opposed to the in-house review conducted by John Dyble, the deputy minister that she hired for his $310,000-a-year job. 

Dyble’s March 14-released, in-house review of his boss confirmed Liberals broke government rules by performing party work on government time for the taxpayers’ dime. There is no evidence that Dyble probed what the premier knew and when she knew. She only denied knowledge of the Quick Wins memo. 

Here is CKNW AM 980’s account of how the Premier -- a self-styled champion of public engagement and openness -- refused to answer reporters' questions. She may have said grace before breakfast, but she did not stay with grace after breakfast.

This is the same Clark who famously said during the last Question Period of the Legislative session on March 14, 2013:

“The essence of leadership is not to hide. It's not to run away.”

This is the same Clark who famously said in her March 14, 2011 swearing-in speech: 

“Our government will be open to the people of British Columbia. We will talk about our problems; we will set our priorities openly; and we will work with citizens to find solutions. And we will explain why we make the decisions that we do. You may not always agree with us and all the decisions that we make, but to the greatest degree possible, you won’t be surprised at the course that we take, and you will know for certain why we’ve chosen it.”

Many of us in the media are grudgingly accustomed to Clark hiding and/or running away. It is an unsettling trend. 

Two examples from 2012. 

• The famous “gum-chewing” incident on March 14, 2012 at the Globe 2012 convention involving newly hired communications gatekeeper Sara MacIntyre. 
• The April 2, 2012 incident at a downtown Vancouver hotel where CTV ace reporter Mi-Jung Lee pursued Clark for comment on the Liberals’ plummeting popularity. On the video, watch how Clark turns around and takes a step toward Lee to deliver her non-answer. 

Another from 2013: the day her cabinet met for an emergency Sunday meeting on March 3, Clark finally emerged from Canada Place for a quick two-minute scrum at 7 p.m., conveniently after the local supper-hour newscasts had signed-off. When politicians are confident and have a message they want to share with the public, they crave the chance to be on live TV. But on this night, embattled Clark was not ready for prime time. 

I have my own snubbed-by-Clark stories. She wouldn’t answer my question in the elevator lobby outside CKNW on Oct. 23, 2012 about her spending of taxpayer dollars on charter jets owned by CN Rail chairman and Liberal donor David McLean. 

Clark (left) and Dennis Skulsky, March 8, 2013.

I also tried asking a question on March 8 at B.C. Place Stadium, about how she could justify the $2.7 million subsidy to buy the Grey Cup hosting rights for 2014, while selling public assets to claim a balanced budget. Earlier, while at the podium, she looked right into my camera lens. But in the post-news conference mixed zone, she turned away and walked out before I could finish my sentence. I was standing less than 10 feet away and had unsuccessfully tried to gain her attention twice before. I was not alone. Laura Baziuk of CKNW had also hoped to ask a question.

This wasn’t the behaviour of Gordon Campbell when he was premier. His answers may have been insufficient at times, but he took questions and dealt with them. This was also not the behaviour of Clark when she was on the opposition side of the Legislature and actively sought attention from reporters.

Which brings me back to the March 8 news conference to announce the British Columbia government had bought the rights to host the 102nd Grey Cup in 2014. The Canadian Football League conducted no open, competitive bidding process, so it is incorrect to say hosting was awarded to the B.C. Lions and their owner, Sen. David Braley. The news conference had apparently been a rush job, to help the Liberals end a week on a high note after the Quick Wins scandal exploded.

When Clark arrived, she sat between Lions’ president Dennis Skulsky and legendary Leos' lineman Al Wilson. Liberal MLAs Richard T. Lee and Doug Horne and Deputy Premier Rich Coleman were also in the front row. All wearing B.C. Lions’ #14 jerseys. (Notice about 20 seconds into the video below how she greeted Coleman with a perky “Richie, hi!”) 

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was not invited to the news conference; the decision was apparently Skulsky's, but protocol should have dictated a mandatory invitation for top officials at Vancouver city hall. Robertson was invited to the Feb. 27, 2009 news conference when Campbell announced the 2011 Grey Cup would come to B.C. Place in Vancouver.

Clark, in fact, did not even acknowledge during her time at the podium that Vancouver would be the host city. (Fast-forward to the 19:00 mark of the CFL YouTube news conference video and follow the transcript below).

She made reference to Burnaby, but didn’t even say “Vancouver College” when she took note of the school's football players in the purple jerseys who carried the trophy into the news conference. She only said “V.C.”

Vancouver is the city in which she is an MLA (Vancouver-Point Grey, to be precise) and it is also the city whose taxpayers will get the bill for keeping the streets safe and clean in 2014. Cops, firefighters and sanitation crews don’t work for cheap, and they’re necessary for a successful event. 

Here is what she was supposed to say (notice the references to Vancouver):

Grey Cup Speech March 8

Here is what she actually said (as seen on the video below, notice the lack of Vancouver references):

“Thank you very much, I'm absolutely delighted. And Travis (Lulay) and team, I know of course you can't guarantee we'll win it, I believe we will, and when we win it let's just promise we're not going to break it. What do you think? 

“Sen. Braley, I'm delighted to be here with you and all the great football players from VC. Thanks. I hope that some of you are going to have a great future in the CFL. 

“And Al Wilson, Jim Young, I grew up in a family of BC Lions fans, my grandfather was a season ticketholder, my father was a season ticketholder. I remember the days at Empire when we would go and we'd get free tickets to Playland afterwards.  

“This team has been a part of British Columbia families for generations. I'm just one example of that, and of course the original Lu, a fellow Burnabyite, who was a great representative for my city, for my province and made us all so proud.  

“Thank you to my colleagues who are here today as well.  

“British Columbia this month created 40% of the new jobs in the country. One of the ways that we did that is because we stayed focussed on job creation.  

"This is a great sporting event, it is a great source of pride for all Canadians, it is a tremendous opportunity for Canadians to come together and celebrate what makes this country tick.  

“But it's also a great economic opportunity for us. So when we made that over $2 million investment in bringing the Grey Cup to British Columbia, when we made that decision as a province, we did it because it would create jobs for people here. We know that the over $100 million in benefits that will come to british columbia are going to put a lot of people to work. 

“I'd say that's a great investment for our province, it's a great investment economically, but much more importantly, or just as importantly, it's a great investment in pride, in our pride.  

“I'm delighted, here we are at this incredible stadium, one that some said should never have been rebuilt. Well if there is proof that it was the right decision, it's this announcement today.  

“Because it's this stadium that's allowed us to be able to win the Grey Cup, it's been this great team, this fantastic organization this proud legion of fans and our bright history.  

“We're going to keep making history folks, we're going to win this Grey Cup. 

“We're not just going to win it with the right to host it, our players are going to win the right to hoist that cup again, out here on this field and give British Columbians something to cheer about. 

“Thank-you very much.” 

Here's what she was going to say:  

Footnotes: 

The B.C. government granted $2.7 million to B.C. Pavilion Corporation to bring another event to B.C. Place Stadium. The renovations to make this a (pardon the cliche) world-class stadium were supposed to help it sell itself to promoters. 

I can’t wait for another Grey Cup. I have attended all eight at B.C. Place, including the Lions' 1994 and 2011 victories. There is, unfortunately, no academic or scientific study to quantify the net economic impact of the game for the host city and province. Big sporting events rarely deliver what their boosters claim, according to the research of respected sports economist Victor Matheson. It is a fact that the Grey Cup is a boon for the hotel and hospitality industries wherever it is held. It would otherwise be a dull November weekend in Canada without the festival. 

I only question the wisdom of a taxpayer subsidy at a time when the public finances are in shambles and hospitals and schools claim to be underfunded. The Lions are privately owned by a wealthy senator who is a respected, skilled businessman that knows how to turn an investment into a profit. Why does he need more taxpayer help, especially when taxpayers were already dinged for the $514 million stadium renovation? 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Enjoy the black beer, not the green. Be kind, not mean. Slainte! (I’m eager to see what kind of multicultural outreach activities the Liberals have up their sleeve!) 

Quick Wins scandal report soft on Clark

The first line of the Analysis and Conclusions section in the Review of the Draft Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan says everything.

"It is the conclusion of the review team that there were violations of the Public Service Standards of Conduct." 

Put simply, government employees were doing party business on government time, using the public dime. It confirms what you saw here first. That Premier Christy Clark's deputy chief of staff Kim Haakstad held meetings during government working hours, contrary to government rules. But it gets worse than that, as you can read below in the full report.

Instead of referring this scandal to an independent watchdog (such as Auditor-General John Doyle) for a thorough investigation, Clark opted for an in-house review. She appointed her Deputy Minister John Dyble -- the mandarin she hired for $310,000-a-year -- to rush it out in two weeks. It was tabled on the morning of the last day of the Legislative session. The scandal dominated the last Question Period, where Clark trotted out her well-rehearsed lines in response to hard questioning from NDP house leader John Horgan: 

"...the essence of leadership is not to hide. It's not to run away. It's not to deny responsibility. It's to accept responsibility when something wrong has been done and then do everything you can to make it right. That is the definition of leadership... When we make mistakes, we have a responsibility to step up, not to deny that a mistake was ever made. We have a responsibility to look into it, not to deny the opportunity for the light to shine on it. And we have a responsibility to fix it so that it doesn't happen again."

On this day, Clark was taking "responsibility" for "mistakes." Admitting no culpability or knowledge, but minimizing the affair, by calling it a "mistake." She might as well have labelled it a "boo boo." It was a well-thought strategy and the Liberals got caught. Clark had previously apologized for only the "language" in the Quick Wins memo and denied that public funds were used improperly. Haakstad and Multiculturalism Minister John Yap resigned. Yap's aide, Mike Lee, also resigned. In the report, Lee communicated with the now disgraced Yap via private email about leaving no trace of evidence.

Clark pledged for the Liberals to repay the government $70,000 for the misused resources. That is the equivalent of 175 of the $400-a-plate tickets to the Liberals' annual Premier's Dinner on April 8 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. 

Dyble seems to have done the best he could under the circumstances, but there are holes that could have been filled by an independent investigator. We might have to wait until June -- after the May 14, 2013 election -- to see some of the 10,000 documents gathered (but not read) as part of the review! (More on that in a moment.)

Dyble only mentioned his boss, Premier Clark, three times: 

Page 3: On February 28, 2013, John Dyble, Deputy Minister to the Premier, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the BC Public Service was asked by Premier Christy Clark and Cabinet to undertake a review of the draft Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan to ensure that no government resources were inappropriately used or violations of the Public Service Act (Public Service Standards of Conduct) committed.
Page 8: On February 28, 2013, John Dyble, Deputy Minister to the Premier, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the BC Public Service was asked by Premier Christy Clark and Cabinet to undertake a review of the draft Plan to ensure that no government resources were inappropriately used or violations of the Public Service Act (Public Service Standards of Conduct) committed.
Page 19: Premier Christy Clark, MLA Harry Bloy and MLA John Yap were all interviewed as part of this review. All of them stated that they had never seen the draft strategy document or work plan until they were in the public domain in the week of February 25, 2013.

That's right, on page 19, she is said to have claimed to have never seen the "Quick Wins" document. The key question that is unanswered is this: did she know about the strategy? 

She met on a weekly basis with Haakstad to discuss communications and event planning. Haakstad was her closest confidant, a sidekick since 2001. 

If Clark, both Premier and leader of the BC Liberals, truly knew nothing, then is she oblivious to the activities of her staff and is she worthy of holding the Premiership?

As for those 10,000 pages, this is what the news release said: 

"With the completion of this review, the review team has directed the approximately 10,000 pages of records be prepared for public release consistent with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act within 60 working days from release of this report, to post them on the Open Information website."

This is a nifty trick played by the government, to keep the background information on Dyble's in-house review secret until after the election. 

Section 20(1)(b) of the Act says a public body may refuse to disclose records that are to be published within 60 days. The government gave public notice in the news release that it intends to release thousands of pages "within 60 working days." So, by my count, there were 43 working days until the election when the report was released on March 14. A "document dump" in early June, perhaps? 

The full report is at the bottom of this post, but read the timeline first. 

Appendix D: Detailed Chronology

March 14, 2011: Harry Bloy appointed Minister of Social Development and Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism.

September 26, 2011: Harry Bloy appointed Minister of State for Multiculturalism, Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation. 

December 1, 2011: Kim Haakstad calls the Meeting: Brian Bonney, Dave Ritchie, Mike Lee, Barinder Bhullar, and Pamela Martin attend along with caucus employees, Primrose Carson, Jeff Melland, Lorne Mayencourt, a fourth caucus employee and Fiera Lo for the BC Liberal Party. 

December 5, 2011: The first draft of the excel spreadsheet (work plan) is developed by Mike Lee and Dave Ritchie. 

Dave Ritchie sends the first draft of the work plan to Primrose Carson. 

December 20, 2011: Stephen Harris creates the first draft of draft Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan. 

January 6, 2012:  Dave Ritchie sends the documents to Primrose Carson (Caucus) as the “coordinator” of the documents. His note says that Kim Haakstad’s edits are incorporated. 

January 10, 2012: Kim Haakstad uses her personal email to send the final drafts of the documents to some of the meeting participants using their personal email accounts. She references a conference call on January 11, 2012. 

January 11, 2012: Kim Haakstad chairs a conference call at 11:30 am to discuss the documents.

February 29, 2012: Dave Ritchie is appointed Ministerial Assistant to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General. 

March 16, 2012 (sic):  Minister of State Harry Bloy resigns. (Bob note: Resignation was March 15). 

March 24, 2012: John Yap is appointed Minister of State for Multiculturalism, Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation. 

May 3, 2012: Chair of Treasury Board approves spending plan for Minister of State for Multiculturalism office. 

May 28, 2012: Fiera Lo is appointed Executive Assistant to Minister of State for Multiculturalism. 

June 11, 2012: Request for Qualifications for Multiculturalism Community Liaison Contractors is released. 

June 16, 2012: Minister Yap attends an event in Richmond organized by one of the Community Liaison Contractors. 

June 28, 2012: Mike Lee confirms to Minister Yap by email that he has assisted with three prospective proponents with the procurement process. 

July 4, 2012: Request for Qualifications for Community Liaison Contractors closes. 

July 31, 2012: Shannon Baskerville, responsible Assistant Deputy Minister with the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation, confirms with Minister Yap by email the names of the six people confirmed as qualified for the community liaison consultants. 

August 2, 2012: A decision note is prepared by program director Mark Seeley to Shannon Baskerville confirming the decision to select and proceed to contract with four of the six community liaison consultants. 

August 7, 2012: Minister of State Yap sends an email to Sarah Welch, Fiera Lo and Brian Bonney suggesting an agenda for a meeting to be held with the caucus outreach workers and the community liaison contractors. 

August 7, 2012: Mike Lee is appointed Executive Assistant to the Minister of Transportation and Sarah Welch is appointed Ministerial Assistant to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism. 

August 9, 2012: Brian Bonney sends an email to Minister Yap confirming that he’s booked the room for a meeting on August 13, 2012 and suggesting that he’ll call both the caucus outreach workers and the community liaison contractors to confirm their attendance. 

August 13, 2012: A meeting is convened in Minister of State Yap’s office with Minister Yap, Brian Bonney, Fiera Lo, Sarah Welch, the two caucus outreach workers along with the four proposed community liaison contractors. 

August 14, 2012: Brian Bonney sends an email to the four community liaison contractors saying he would like to set up individuals meetings with them to go over job duties, expectations and processes and references a template document that he will soon be sending to them. 

September 5, 2012: Minister of State responsibilities are transferred to the Ministry of Advanced Education, Innovation and Technology and John Yap is appointed the Minister of Advanced Education, Innovation and Technology and the Minister responsible for Multiculturalism. 

September 18, 2012: Brian Bonney sends an email to the community liaison contractors advising them to submit their event profiles but not to use the “party” form that had previously been provided. 

September 26, 2012: Another anonymous call is made to Mark Seeley, Multiculturalism program director. The caller advises Mark that they provided their name and personal information, which seemed odd to them at the time. Following that, they began receiving political information at their home and made the connection that this must have resulted from the meeting. 

September 28, 2012: Anonymous call made to Deb Zehr, the former Executive Director at Jobs, Tourism and Innovation, to complain that they were being “threatened” that if they didn’t put on an event for the minister, their organization may not receive funding under the grant program. 

Early October, 2012: A third anonymous call is made to Madhavee Inamdar, (sometime between the 5th and the 16th of October). The caller states that they were at a function and pressured to provide a full list of the names and phone numbers of all club members. The names of Fiera Lo and Brian Bonney were mentioned. It was also suggested by Fiera Lo that the caller should not call the Chair of the Multicultural Advisory Council to report this as it would make trouble for the organization. 

October 24, 2012: Dawn Minty, Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for the Multiculturalism program meets with Rishi Sharma and Sarah Welch, the two Ministerial Assistants to Minister Yap, and advised them that she will be recommending that the contracts not proceed with the community liaison contractors. 

November 9, 2012: A letter is sent to the four proposed community liaison contractors to advise them that the contracts will not proceed. They are invited to submit invoices for any planning work undertaken. 

January 15, 2013: A payment is made to one of the contractors in the amount of $6800.00. 

January 24, 2013: Brian Bonney resigns with an effective date of February 21, 2013. 

February 27, 2013: The memo with the draft Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan attached is tabled in Question Period.

Review of the Draft Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan

No records no longer a surprise

I hate to tell you a "dog bites man" story, but this one is too important to ignore.

On Nov. 18, 2012, The Province's Cassidy Olivier revealed how workers in the Office of Premier Christy Clark and the BC Liberal caucus worked on government time, for the public dime to devise attack advertising against NDP leader Adrian Dix. Specifically, the CantAffordDix.ca website (which redirects to RiskyDix.ca, which doesn't appear to be online anymore).

The government's own Standards of Conduct are clear: "employees must not engage in political activities during working hours or use government facilities, equipment or resources in support of these activities." 

I asked the Public Service Agency, via Freedom of Information, if the misconduct described in Olivier's story had been investigated. No surprise -- the PSA claims no records exist. See the letter below.

I say no surprise, because this non-response was delivered to me a week after Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham released a report on the disturbing trend toward an "oral government," in which important government information is not recorded. The government, particularly the Office of the Premier, is escaping public scrutiny.

Denham's report was in response to a complaint from the Freedom of Information and Privacy Association of B.C., but focusses on the "no records" claims surrounding the departure of Clark's chief of staff Ken Boessenkool.

Some of the characters in Olivier's story are involved in the Multicultural Outreach Strategy saga, such as Liberal caucus executive director Primrose "You Can't Be Doing Party Work Here. For Sure, I Would Agree With That" Carson.

John Dyble, Clark's deputy minister and chief of the public service, is working on an internal review of the Quick Wins ethnic vote-wooing conspiracy, despite calls from the NDP and Conservatives for an independent investigation. Dyble was hired to his $310,000-a-year gig by Clark and serves at her pleasure.

Here is some essential reading at this link for Mr. Dyble: copies of Pamela Martin and Kim Haakstad's agendas, showing that they discussed the Multicultural Outreach plan during government working hours. 

Public Service Agency: No Records, Again by

From #QuickWins to Touchdown?

The beleaguered BC Liberal government needs a quick win. Pronto.

No, not one of the Quick Wins of the Multicultural Outreach Strategy variety. The party's playbook to use government (read: public) resources to win the ethnic vote was exposed by the NDP on Pink Shirt Day and threatens to end the Liberals' 12-year dynasty on May 14. 

The quick win I'm talking about would involve an orange shirt. Definitely not NDP orange, but, instead, an orange B.C. Lions' jersey. Premier Christy Clark has one of those (number 35, to be exact) and it is displayed in a frame in the reception area of the downtown Vancouver cabinet office.

On Feb. 19, I revealed how the Lions were granted $2.7 million of taxpayers' funds via B.C. Pavilion Corporation to buy the rights to the 102nd Grey Cup in 2014. 

The 2014 game was expected to be awarded to Winnipeg, but the Canadian Football League began looking elsewhere because the stadium's construction is behind schedule.

If CFL commissioner Mark Cohon hasn't already given Lions' owner David Braley the touchdown signal, then he is on the verge of doing so.  

Lions president Dennis Skulsky told me in late February that he expected the CFL's decision to be announced before the end of March. 

Sources tell me that such a big announcement is coming Fri. March 8 at B.C. Place Stadium and preparations are being made for the Premier to be there. She could even be wearing her orange jersey. 

"Jersey Girl" Clark, B.C. Lions edition, Sept. 30, 2011

While the Bell-sponsored Vancouver Whitecaps have the pitch reserved for an 11 a.m. training session, the Telus-sponsored Lions are planning a big announcement at or near Gate H. Tentatively scheduled for 9 a.m.

Well-timed, because the Vancouver Canucks, who dominate local sports media attention, will be on the first day of their only two-day break of the month, amid a trio of road games. 

Cohon is not expected to be in Vancouver, but another high-ranking CFL executive may be. Coincidentally, CTV and TSN's top sports anchor Brian Williams, a veteran of 37 Grey Cups, will be in the area. He is the emcee for the 47th British Columbia Athlete of the Year Awards on March 7 at River Rock Show Theatre in Richmond.

Asked March 6 whether the 2014 host had been decided, CFL spokesman Jamie Dykstra told me: "An announcement is forthcoming but I can't confirm when at this time."

Pressed further, Dykstra would neither confirm nor deny that the announcement would be this week. 

B.C. Place has hosted eight Grey Cups, most recently in 2011, when the Lions were victorious. 

The timing is intriguing.

Remember this week last year? The Liberal scandal du jour was over the cancellation of the 20-year, $40 million plan to rename B.C. Place as Telus Park and the muddled explanation offered by the government for nixing the deal. It may have had more to do with the direct award of a $1 billion, 10-year government-wide contract to Telus than the politics of the Whitecaps dubbing their field Bell Pitch. 

The Telus Park sign is still in storage at a Pattison-owned warehouse. The Liberals paid Telus an undisclosed sum in August 2012 under a B.C. Place telecommunications supply agreement. That was not the "exclusive telecommunications supplier" agreement that Telus wanted as consolation. 

Then, last fall, talks began anew to resurrect the naming rights deal. B.C. Pavilion Corporation minister (and Deputy Premier) Rich Coleman even huddled with Liberal bagman and ex-PavCo director Peter Brown and Telus CEO Darren Entwistle on Oct. 5. Brown and Entwistle represent $740,000 of donations to the BC Liberals.

The Liberals desperately need some B.C. Place quick wins. The stadium is to host the Times of India Film Awards on April 6, the $11 million-plus pre-election ploy. The Auditor General is taking a look at how the renovation project went from $75 million to $514 million. Steel contractor Canam Group and cable subcontractor Freyssinet Canada are lawyered-up for a 100-day, B.C. Supreme Court trial to begin Oct. 21. General contractor PCL and PavCo were named as defendants by Freyssinet. All the while, PavCo seeks to silence this inconvenient sleuth.