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Major BC Liberal Donor Named in Panama Papers
Major BC Liberal Donor Named in Panama Papers
Haywood Securities listed as a shareholder in firms registered in British Virgin Islands.
Finance Minister Michael de Jong said he had ‘no knowledge’ of a BC Liberal donor being named in the Panama Papers. Photo: BC Gov’t Flickr.
Haywood Securities Inc., a Vancouver company that has giventhe BC Liberals $332,000 since 2005, is described in the database as a shareholder in companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, a researcher with the Dogwood Initiative environmental group in B.C. discovered.
According to the database, Haywood held shares in Kola Gold Ltd., a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in 2014. The investment firm held the shares both directly and in trust for a holding company.
The database also lists Haywood as holding shares in African Aura Resources Ltd., a mining company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, in trust for 22 investors. And it held shares in trust for an investor in Gem Diamond Mining Company of Africa, which is also registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published the database on May 9. On its website, the ICIJ describes the Panama Papers as a “giant leak of more than 11.5 million financial and legal records exposes a system that enables crime, corruption and wrongdoing, hidden by secretive offshore companies.”
A disclaimer in the ICIJ website stresses that there are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts, and the organization does not intend to imply anyone appearing in the database has broken any laws or otherwise acted improperly.
Finance minister won’t ‘speculate’
The Tyee’s call to Haywood was put through to company president Rob Blanchard’s office. An assistant to Blanchard took the message, but the call was not returned by publication time.
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Gov’t Using Misleading Accounting at BC Hydro, Charges Dix
Gov’t Using Misleading Accounting at BC Hydro, Charges Dix
Minister counters that ‘rate-smoothing’ accounts make sense due to 10-year plan for rate increases.
BC Hydro transmission tower on Mt. Seymour. Photo by agaumont from Your BC: The Tyee’s Photo Pool.
The British Columbia government has chosen to use misleading accounting at BC Hydro to fudge the province’s finances ahead of the 2017 election, charges NDP energy critic Adrian Dix.
“They misled people about the state of B.C.’s finances, and they misled people about the state of BC Hydro’s finances,” said Dix, the MLA for Vancouver-Kingsway, in an interview. “This will affect every single person in the province.”
In particular, he said, the government is using “rate smoothing” or “rate stabilization” accounts to move up about $1 billion in revenue that the Crown utility won’t actually receive from ratepayers until after 2021 so that it is included as income for earlier years.
The accounting trick lets the government continue to take money out of the utility to help balance its own books, Dix said.
“We’re borrowing against nothing here,” he said. “This is a pure attempt to mislead people about the state of the province’s finances.”
A table from a March 30 BC Hydro presentation shows the practice peaks in 2017, which happens to be the same year as the next provincial election.
For context, the provincial government has budgeted an overall surplus of $287 million in 2017-2018, which in part depends on receiving $706 million from BC Hydro.
The rate-smoothing money is therefore more than one-third of the amount the government plans to take from the utility in the election year.
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As Hydro Rates Climb, an Idea to Reduce Bills for Low-income Folks
As Hydro Rates Climb, an Idea to Reduce Bills for Low-income Folks
Advocates pitch affordability program, but minister insists rates are modest.
‘Most other jurisdictions in North America have bill affordability programs. We don’t.’ Bill photo via Shutterstock.
“Most other jurisdictions in North America have bill affordability programs,” said Sarah Khan, a lawyer with the British Columbia Public Interest Advocacy Centre. “We don’t.”
Confirmation of the latest BC Hydro rate hike came Friday when president and CEO Jessica McDonald said the Crown utility is seeking to raise rates by four per cent on April 1, consistent with a 10-year plan set out in 2013.
BC Hydro rates have gone up by 50 per cent over the past 10 years and they are scheduled to go up another 11 per cent over the next three years, Khan said.
They’ll rise even further when the $10-billion Site C dam is completed on the Peace River and customers start paying for it, she said.
Meanwhile, the provincial minimum wage and welfare rates haven’t kept up while the cost of living has become more expensive, leaving many struggling to pay their bills, Khan said.
The advocacy centre has a proposal to make bills more affordable for some 170,000 families in B.C. who live below the low-income cut-offs set by Statistics Canada, around $32,000 a year for a family of four depending on what size community they live in.
On behalf of seven anti-poverty and seniors’ groups, the centre plans to submit the proposal in April as part of BC Hydro’s ongoing rate design review in front of the B.C. Utilities Commission. Launched by the provincial government, the review’s mandate includes evaluating the current rate structures to ensure they are fair.
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As Housing Prices Soar, Finance Minister Is Well Invested
As Housing Prices Soar, Finance Minister Is Well Invested
Gov’t must be ‘careful about intervening,’ says Mike de Jong, who has a stake in several properties.
Finance Minister Mike de Jong’s most recent financial disclosure shows he received rental income from seven investment properties. Photo: BC Gov’t Flickr.
The hit from anything the provincial government might do to drop real estate prices in B.C. would be particularly painful for investors like de Jong, who has a personal ownership stake in seven investment properties in Abbotsford, an hour’s drive from Vancouver.
“You’ve got to be careful about intervening, about having the state intervene to try and regulate pricing, or depress pricing,” de Jong said last May as the #Don’tHave1Million campaign drew attention to the negative effects of high house prices in the region.
“Those who are expressing a concern, I think if you really assess what they are seeking, it is a reduction in the value of homes in Vancouver and that will have consequences for a lot of families,” de Jong said.
“If property values in Vancouver were to reduce by, let us say five per cent, that could easily translate into a reduction in equity for families that own homes in Vancouver of 60, 70 or $80,000,” he said.
“All I’m saying is you’ve got to be careful about how you use the tools and levers of taxation, and you have to be clear on what your objective is.”
If de Jong sounded more sympathetic to people who already own homes than to people trying to enter the market, it could be because like them he would be personally exposed to the pain that would come with dropping prices.
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