Is the UVic Real Estate Club Acting as a Lobby for the Development and Real Estate Industries in Greater Victoria?

Recently, a pattern has emerged and become noticed by many, of University of Victoria (British Columbia) Real Estate Club members speaking in favour of controversial development proposals at council meetings including at public hearings.  On first glance, one might simply conclude that UVIC students are in desperate need of housing and so it is natural for them to speak out on these issues, but other patterns become quickly visible that suggests that there is potentially more that immediately meets the eye here. It doesn’t take a lot of time to ask a basic question:  is the real estate industry primarily focussed on delivering affordable housing, or is it primarily focussed on generating profit for itself?

            Do the members of the UVic Real Estate Club understand the distinction?  Why are they the group that appears the most vocal among the UVic student population at government hearings on this issue?  Aren’t many of the students involved in the Real Estate Club likely to look for future careers and profitable ones at that in this industry?  Doesn’t that speak to potential self-interest potentially involved in the club, rather than mere humanitarian interests as one might glean from their speeches at council meetings?

            Another question quickly emerges: are elements of the real estate industry and development industries in any way pulling their strings, either directly or indirectly, seeing as these industries, their investors and speculators, are poised to potentially reap the most profits from favourable zoning and given that they provide the vast bulk of the private funding for the organization? 

           The students have been time and again speaking in favour of zoning that is likely to be most favourable to the financial interests of those involved with the industry and their investors.  Is this simply a random pattern, or is there more than meets the eye taking place? I decided to investigate.

             In 2022, the UVic (University of Victoria) Real Estate Club was founded.[i]  In early 2023 members of the UVic Real Estate Club were attending council meetings/public hearings regarding proposed projects by Abstract Developments.  At least one student declared at the meetings that they are a member of the UVic Real Estate Club and spoke in support of their projects, other students chimed in support as well.

            One of the key figures in Abstract Developments at the time was Adam Cooper, who was also Chair of the Urban Development Institute’s Capital Region branch.  The UDI is a registered lobbyist group with the BC Lobbyists Registry and at the time, the address provided on the registry for the Capital Region was at Abstract’s office on Cook Street in Victoria B.C.

              Adam had been asking speakers to speak in favour of his company’s projects on the Homes for Living online Discord channel.  Homes for Living was a third-party electoral organization that during the general local election of 2022 pushed to get pro-development candidates elected and it did.  The majority of those elected to council in the City of Victoria and in the City of Victoria had been endorsed by the organization during the election.

           The majority of Saanich councillors that got elected 5 out of 8, had received campaign funding from one or more Abstract executives, to a combined total running over $11,000 dollars.

After the election, Abstract was looking to get major developments passed in Saanich, including very controversial developments that would wipe out dozens of mature trees including Garry Oaks in the watershed of the Swan Lake Nature Preserve/Sanctuary and a similar proposed development in the Shelbourne Valley that would also see the elimination of numerous trees and caused controversy over what many perceived as loopholes in the Shelbourne Valley Action Plan that nullified much of what locals saw as the spirit of the plan, including tree protections.

          After numerous locals from Swan Lake and other Saanich residents voiced serious potential conflict of interest concerns with the UDI Capital Region, which had a registration address provided to Abstract’s Office on Cook Street, the council was quick to unanimously vote to withdraw their membership from the lobby. 

        This certainly did not stop those from UVic’s Real Estate Club from speaking in favour of Abstract’s and other UDI member company’s redevelopment proposals at public hearings and other council meetings.

           At the time of writing (Jan 17, 2024) the UVIC Real Estate Club’s Partners/Sponsor list includes[ii] 12 members.  9 of these members are UDI members.  3 are non-UDI members.

The UDI members include:

Urban Development Institute Capital Region
Chard

Starlight
CBRE
Avison Young
Abstract
Pooni Group
Aryze
BC Assessment

Non-UDI Members sponsors/partners of the UVIC Real Estate Society:

Clover Residential
Pemberton Holmes Real Estate
Commerce Students’ Society

The top 3 tiers of sponsors/partners are all UDI members. 

The highest level of sponsorship is listed as “Diamond Tier”, which includes the UDI and Chard (David Chard was a former president of the UDI[iii])

“Golden Tier” has Starlight listed.  Starlight, a UDI member is, a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and also had a major project being considered in 2023 at the City of Victoria’s Council, known as the Harris Green project.

Starlight is a company that has a received a lot of criticism for its housing investment model, that many have noted seems to be based on increasing prices/rents, rather than decreasing them.  Starlight Investments CEO Daniel Drimmer famously stated:

         “We think there is a definite housing shortage, or almost a crisis level in Canada … and the good news for investors is there is no easy solution in sight. … This is not good news for consumers.”[iv]

“Silver Tier” has listed UDI members CBRE and Avison Young.

Prior to the UVIC Real Estate Club, there was the UVIC Urban Development Club that was founded in 2013, according to their Facebook page, which is private with 514 users at the time of writing. 

The organization appears to be defunct at present, but I could be wrong.

Their listed website: http://uvicurbandevelopmentclub.com/ currently has a broken link.  The earliest snapshot of it on the Archive.org Waybackmachine appears in 2014 and the latest in 2018.[v]

The first snapshot of their sponsors’ page is from 2016.[vi]  The Urban Development Institute logo was listed, as was that of UDI member Colliers International (the Project Manager for the construction of the new UVic Student Housing and Dining building[vii] that towers over the former site of the Cadboro Commons building that was destroyed (some have said very prematurely, given its solid construction and room for renovation) to allow the new construction in its former place. 

UDI member Concert Properties Ltd. was also listed as a sponsor at this time.  Tri-Eagle Developments, which is headed by a former president of the UDI was also listed.  The Swans Pub had their logo listed.  It is owned by UVIC Properties which is a UDI member. 

Thus 5 Urban Development Institute members in 2016 were sponsors of the UVIC Urban Development Club. 3 of those whose logos were featured are not UDI members.


The following are blog entries from the UVic Urban Development Club, one of their logos was the acronym “UDC”:

December 6, 2014

Last month the club was invited to the inaugural Under 40: Urban Development Institute Kick-Off. It was a networking event at Moon Under Water Brewery! There was a write-up in Snapd Victoria and photo of us!

 “October 15, 2014

Our sponsorship posters are now in the printing press for our Bridge the Gap event presented by us and the Urban Development Institute: Capital Region!

“
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bridge the Gap is a series that continues on with the UDI and the UVIC Real Estate Club, that I will go more into detail.  This snippet of information, I think is reasonable to confirm that the UVIC Real Estate Club is the UVIC Urban Development Club’s successor.

Just below that section of the blog was written:

 “October 7, 2014 

A few weeks ago top notch local development company, Abstract Developments, came to us looking for an intern in their Sales and Marketing department.

“

Earlier than that was another post (actually their 2^nd blog post ever from appearances):

 June 23, 2014

 Our “Bridge the Gap” event made it into the Urban Development Institute: Capital Region June 2014 newsletter!

Their last blog post was:

September 17, 2015

Huge shout out to club member Chris Tang who got brought on by local RE commercial brokerage firm CBRE!

As you know we work closely with the Urban Development Institute: Capital Region and through their membership we have been reached out to for many co-ops, full time jobs, internships etc. This time it was CBRE!

Not surprisingly, other mentions of the UDI and its member companies abound on their old blog and website.


Their ‘About us’ section had written:

“The UVic Urban Development Club is a group 300 University of Victoria students from a broad range of academic backgrounds. We work to bridge the gap between students and professionals in the real estate industry and educate our members on urban development issues by putting on private tours, visiting open houses, inviting professionals to come speak, attending and volunteering at local industry events, and involving ourselves in a handful of outside projects.”


Their future and past events pages abounded with abundant glowing talks about tours of the projects of UDI members companies, attending UDI events and attending meetings and tours with politicians including mayors, city councillors and city staffers, often with those from the UDI also in attendance.  So glowing and continuous were these repeating themes in events that one might even think of the organization as having been a UDI fan club.

I think given that their events page reads like it could have been designed by a UDI events-coordinator; that the UDC was essentially operating, as if were a UDI branch at UVic for students.

Fast forward now to 2022, the UVIC Urban Development Club appears to have been succeeded by the UVIC Real Estate Club.

The following information about the organization is quoted from their Linkedin page:

“About us

The UVic Real Estate Club (UVic REC) is a platform for students to actively engage with the real estate industry in Victoria and across Canada. We work throughout the year to host networking events, guest speakers, office tours, and technical workshops, all meant to speak to our three core values: education, networking, and advocacy.

There is a distinct lack of real estate education at the University of Victoria, a problem we were founded to solve. We want to make it easy for students to learn about the basics of real estate, how to buy their first home, get an internship, or start investing.

Our slate of events for the 2023/2024 school year will be aimed to nurture personal relationships with real estate professionals on the West Coast. We want connections to go further than just a handshake, ultimately bridging the gap between students and industry leaders.

With thousands of Victoria students facing a rental crisis, we recognize the dire need for more housing. As UVic’s only community devoted to real estate, we are committed to advocating for the student perspective and being a part of lasting, positive change in our vibrant city.

To learn more about the UVic REC offering you can explore our website, sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter, or send us an email at .”

                                                         


Advocating or Lobbying?



              The corporate media has come to refer to lobbyists as “advocates” and lobbying as “advocacy”, a form of newspeak that I have mentioned elsewhere.  Gone are the days of critical reporting about lobbyists by the supposedly free press in a supposed democracy, who are actually addicted/dependent on revenue from the development/real estate industries. Now are the days of the corporate media functioning as their Public Relations.  Instead of investigating and offering critical coverage, coded euphemisms are used by the media to disguise lobbying/influence campaigns on politicians and the public by industry seeking to make vast profits,

              In Victoria this couldn’t be clearer with the Times Colonist newspaper being a paid member and "Media Partner" of the UDI Capital Region.  The TC’s parent company Glacier media is also a member of the UDI and has financial interests in the real estate industry.

            The UDI portrays itself as an educational institute, offering benevolent educational opportunities for politicians and those involved with the industry.  It describes “networking”, as a key benefit that its membership and events provide.  The UDI is truthful on this; they really are networking, and they is a very extensive network in place.  In looking at their connections to the UVic Real Estate Club, we are only looking at one branch of a vast network of lobbying.

          The UDI tends to prefer to use the word “advocacy” about itself rather than lobbying, although sometimes these two words are occasionally mentioned in the same breath, as took place in one of the CRD Regional Housing Advisory Committee (RHAC) Minutes from 2022. The UDI has a permanent seat on the RHAC, where it advises the regional government the CRD on housing policy. 

           The UDI only consistently uses the word lobbyist about themselves, when they are required to by law to register on the BC Lobbyists Registry.  The Executive Director of the UDI Capital Region publicly denied that they are a lobbyist group at a Committee of the Whole meeting at the Township of View Royal on September 12, 2023, despite that they are registered as their “in-house lobbyist” on the registry.
 

            Under the UVicREC’s “Vision” on their website[viii] is the following statement:

“We bridge the gap between students and industry professionals by addressing our three core values: Education, Networking, and Advocacy.”

As mentioned previously, bridging the gap is a term that the UDI and the UVicREC’s predecessor the UDC used; and Education, Networking and Advocacy are terms all regularly utilized by the UDI about themselves and their activities. 

Their vision statement is followed by:

“Who we are.

The UVic Real Estate Club (UVic REC) is a platform for students to actively engage with the real estate industry in Victoria and across Canada. We work throughout the year to host networking events, guest speakers, office tours, and technical workshops.”

“Technical workshops” is another resource offered by the UDI.

There is more information then under their three pillars:

“Education

Interested in real estate and don’t know where to start? Explore our education offering and learn about the basics of real estate, how to buy your first home, get an internship, or start investing. There’s something for everyone!


Networking

We nurture a close-knit community of helpful industry professionals to make it easy for you to learn about opportunities in the industry. Stay tuned to take advantage of our upcoming events for the 2023/2024 year.

Advocacy

With thousands of Victoria students facing a rental crisis, we recognize the need for more supply. As UVic’s only community devoted to real estate, we are committed to advocating for the student perspective and being a part of lasting, positive change in our vibrant city.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A “need for more supply” is something that is better demonstrated with mathematics and reasoning than with a mere a claim in a mission statement in a club dedicated to real estate.  Does the organization recognize that an increased housing supply is something that benefits the development/real estate/construction industries financially?  

Like the UDI, they never provide math and timelines to show how much and on what timeline it will take to deliver affordability across the board.  Why don’t they?  Clearly many UVic students train in mathematics and certainly some looking to work in a future in the industry should be well versed in it.  They certainly should have done their homework on the issue prior to making such bold claims.

I’ve asked the UDI’s so-called Head of Faculty publicly in a letter in the newspaper to provide such mathematics[ix], but even though they responded to my previous letter in the paper, they did not respond to that one.  I wasn’t surprised.  I wasn’t expecting them to respond with actual mathematics.

I suggest that the UVicREC spend less time advocating and attending UDI events/tours and more time studying mathematics, if they want to do something serious about solving what they and the industry refer to as a “housing crisis” that only seems to benefit their industry financially and provide reasoning for politicians to keep amping up construction with no end in sight, at the cost of massive environmental destruction through natural habitat loss and GHG emissions.

Under the UVicREC’s website at: Victoria Housing — UVic Real Estate in a section with the description:

 “Dive into our perspective on upcoming projects, council decisions, and new city initiatives that will make a difference to the state of Victoria housing. Our team wants to keep students in the loop on news that will have an impact on the housing crisis.”

3 news headings can be seen.  These include:

2023-11-18 Multi-Unit Zoning Comes To BC
2023-11-18 Densifying Transit Hubs
2023-10-23 Missing Middle Housing

All of these items are key items the UDI has been lobbying the government on, as evinced in their own reports including their 2022-2023 annual report, and as well as in their registration of lobbying activities on the BC Lobbyists Registry.  The provincial and local governments had been pushing the UDI’s agenda at breakneck pace, particularly as 2023 was coming to a close, and the Housing Minister (who had earlier in the year had a fireside chat with the UDI) invoked closure on Bills 44-47, that instituted all three of these agenda points.

Not surprisingly, the articles appear to be cheering on these developments, but as usual no mathematics are provided to show how this will lead to affordability across the board, because they won’t and aren’t intended to.

The Bayview Hearing

The UVIC Real Estate Club’s logo has an appearance as if it could be an illustration for Ayn Rand’s book The Fountainhead and it seems kind of fitting for the proposals at the Roundhouse – Bayview Place in Vic West.

            The logo depicts 3 giant towers, without particular distinguishing features, looming above a hill, or is it the planet earth?  One tower stands above them all in the centre.  It is easy to think of the proposed towers at the Roundhouse – Bayview Place property in Vic West, the developer of which is proposing among a number of towers to have a 30+ storey building towering over the City of Victoria, which is thought to be somewhere between 1-2 billion dollars in value, as proposed.

According to the UDI's annual report (2022-2023), they had an event titled "Bridging the Gap with UVIC's Real Estate Club" on March 7, 2023

As mentioned previously “bridging the gap” is a term that goes back to the former UVic Urban Development Club.

Other mission statements on the UVicREC’s website include similar language:

"Building Bridges Between Students and The Real Estate Industry"

"We bridge the gap between students and industry professionals by addressing our three core values: Education, Networking, and Advocacy."

"The UVic Real Estate Club (UVic REC) is a platform for students to actively engage with the real estate industry in Victoria and across Canada. We work throughout the year to host networking events, guest speakers, office tours, and technical workshops."

"Networking

We nurture a close-knit community of helpful industry professionals to make it easy for you to learn about opportunities in the industry. Stay tuned to take advantage of our upcoming events for the 2023/2024 year."

"Advocacy

With thousands of Victoria students facing a rental crisis, we recognize the need for more supply. As UVic’s only community devoted to real estate, we are committed to advocating for the student perspective and being a part of lasting, positive change in our vibrant city."

On November 7, 2023 another event titled "Bridging the Gap" took place at Bayview Place at the so-called Bayview Presentation Centre.  The image brings to mind personally the construction of the new Johnson Street Bridge, with Bayview’s proposed towers lingering over it in the form of the UVicRec’s logo.

The description of the event[x] went as follows:

“​Welcome to our biggest event of 2023.

​This evening of networking between students and real estate professionals is hosted in partnership with the Urban Development Institute (UDI).

​With half the tickets for students and half the tickets for professionals, Bridging the Gap is meant to encourage one-on-one conversations. This event is the perfect opportunity to catch up with a past connection or meet someone new.

​Join us at the stunning Bayview Place Presentation Centre overlooking the ocean on November 7 to explore your interest in real estate.

​Dress code is business casual.

​Light drinks and snacks will be provided.”

The so-called Bayview presentation centre is an interesting place.  Located on the property it overlooks the Songhees area of the inner harbour.  If one rolled a red carpet down from it one would land at the luxury yacht docking spot.  I strolled by there one evening and saw the tallest masted ship parked there, that I’ve ever seen.  I would not be surprised if it was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records.

There are two entrances. There is the office/presentation centre on the inland side and on the other side was a deck with a big barbecue, a door with a picture just inside of the developer and his wife on the wall, round tables and comfortable chairs with projectors on the walls overlooking the harbour; a perfect place for having guests, showing ambitious plans and visions of what Victoria could look like, with visions of the developer’s dream towers, towering above it.

There are a number of pictures of the Bayview Presentation Centre on the UVIC Real Estate Club’s webpages including from their Linkedin page with the following words:

“Thank you to everyone who came to Bridging the Gap! Professionals from across the real estate industry and students came together for a night of conversations, drinks, and new connections. A special thank you to our event partner, the Urban Development Institute - Capital Region, and for the team at Bayview for access to their beautiful venue.”

A photo of the event can also be seen on the UVicREC’s Events page:  Events — UVic Real Estate


A screenshot of an event flyer can also be seen on their Linkedin page:

On Thursday Jan 11, 2024 a Public Hearing took Place at the City of Victoria over the proposed rezoning of the Roundhouse – Bayview Place property.  A video of it can be watched by clicking on the end-note.[xi]

It was an interesting evening, with many speakers with differing opinions that night, but there was a time when it seemed presenter after presenter included Realtors and Developers, who with only one notable exception that I can think of, supported the proposed plans.  Some of their presentations seemed to border on being almost teary eyed about the project and what it could accomplish.

           Gene Miller who was involved with the UDI over a number of years, a former New Yorker and founder of Monday Magazine, spoke in favour of the proposed Bayview project with “trans-form-ation” (it seemed of not just the property but of the city), and a ‘vision of the future’ as theme.  “Transformation” and a ‘transformational vision of the future’ has certainly been a line about the proposed Bayview project that has been a theme repeated over and over again in the media.[xii]

          At 3:12:50 in the presentation, a block of UVic Real Estate Club members spoke one after another in favour of the proposal, starting with their listed Principal.[xiii]  Having seen UVic Real Estate members speak at other council meetings, I wasn’t particularly surprised at the content of their presentations.  Always a dire housing crisis is portrayed (a sense of urgency is a key draw in marketing) and increased supply is the reflexive solution provided, but as with the UDI (that primarily pushes market-rate housing), no math, timelines, or end-game is ever provided for a solution based on supply. 

           Pardon, if I find that without mathematics being presented with an end-solution, that I am more than skeptical about those pushing supply-based solutions.  If you have a genuine solution, then you should be able to show it mathematically.  That is crucial for evidence-based decision-making.  Otherwise, the issue looks like to me to be one of political ideology, or potentially emotive reasoning, rather than calculated real-world solutions, and there is always a danger of potential self-interest getting in the way of what otherwise should be calculated before coming to a definitive conclusion.

My
Presentation at the
Jan 11, 2024
Bayview
 Public Hearing
at Victoria City Hall

          Full disclosure, I too spoke at the Bayview Public Hearing, not much time after the lineup of the UVic Real Estate Club students that spoke in favour of the public hearing.  I didn’t speak against the proposed developmnet per se, rather I spoke against what I saw and still do see as a very real danger of conflict of interest in the project that should be remedied before any rezoning takes place, mainly that the City of Victoria should withdraw its paid lobby membership from the UDI.  The video of my speech can be viewed by clicking on the end-note.[xiv]

           I will quote in this section the presentation, as I had planned to give it.  With the 5 minute time limit I was crunched for time and this posed serious challenges for speaking that night. I also did not speak 2 paragraphs about the Greater Victoria Housing Society that night, but you can read them in the copy below of my planned the presentation.  I left out those 2 paragraphs that night, because the City of Victoria declined their representatives’ offer to speak, on the basis of potential conflicts involved, given their relationship to developments on the property. 

             I asked the council to apply the same logic in removing potential conflicts from themselves, by withdrawing the City from its UDI membership prior to any rezoning.  So, the planned presentation differs somewhat from what actually got spoken that night, nonetheless I’ve kept it here in full, as it was intended to be:

             I would like to bring attention this evening to a number of potential conflict of interest issues regarding the proposed Bayview developments for the Roundhouse area, the City of Victoria and the Urban Development Institute development lobby, also known as the UDI.

The head of Focus Equities (Formerly Bayview Properties), has donated generously over the years to various political campaigns, which included one or more donations to the last three Mayors in the City of Victoria and also to the current Mayor of Esquimalt.  Both the City of Victoria and the Township of Esquimalt are paying members of the Urban Development Institute development and real estate lobby. Numerous politicians, especially councillors and Mayors, as well as provincial ministers, including the current Housing Minister Kahlon and Premier Eby have attended and spoken at UDI lobby events.

Focus Management Incorporated,[xv] the website for which is listed as BayviewProperties.com is a paying member of the UDI.

The current Executive Director of the UDI Capital Region, previously worked for Bayview Properties.[xvi]  On September 12, 2023 the Executive Director told the council of View Royal: quote "UDI is not a lobbying group”.  This is despite that according to the BC Lobbyists Registry the UDI is legally registered as a lobbying group, and the Executive Director is registered as their “in-house lobbyist”,[xvii] and they are registered as having lobbied the province by lobbying the “Housing Solutions Advisor to the Premier,” who is Victoria’s previous Mayor.[xviii] A recent head of the UDI donated generously to the previous Mayor of Victoria’s re-election campaign in 2018.[xix]

That the City of Victoria is a paying member of the UDI lobby is a serious 'potential conflict of interest'.  The City of Victoria did not join the lobby as a paying member by a vote from elected officials.  Rather, City of Victoria staff signed the municipality up unilaterally to be a paying member of the lobby without a vote by elected officials.

In a 2018 article by Focus on Victoria editor Leslie Campbell titled “Developers of luxury condos can't fix the affordability problem”, it was revealed that the former Mayor of Victoria, the Chair of the UDI and the head of Focus Equities/developer of Bayview, spoke at the same housing forum in his name, that received so much criticism from the public that it led the UN Association of Canada to publicly deny that they had sponsored the event.[xx]

The Times Colonist and its parent company Glacier Media are both paying members of the UDI.  Until it was taken down recently, the UDI Capital Region’s homepage had the Times Colonist listed as “Media Partner” with the UDI.

In one Times Colonist article titled: “Investing in community is Mariash’s modus operandi”[xxi] with the subtitle: “There’s no way a developer can come in with grand plans and a long-term vision for a neighbourhood and make it a success without buying into the community,” the first example they gave of his donations to a “community development organization” was the Urban Development Institute.

Hey, if it was Donald Trump it could make good business sense to be donating to the development lobby as well.  One could call it investing indeed.  If the business one owns just happens to be a paying member of the same lobby, that is merely incidental. If the local media is also a paying member and media partner of that lobby and has been providing great PR material, instead of critical coverage, well, c’est la vie!

That the City of Victoria is also a paying member of that lobby, creates a full circle between the development company, the city poised to potentially approve favourable and incredibly profitable zoning for it, politicians, media, and even NGOs. I think it would be difficult to not see the dangers of full circle conflict of interest here to be more than apparent.

Taken together, I see too much influence at work, in what could well be described as a real danger of undue influence operating on this zoning process.

There is also an NGO apparently speaking tonight in favour of the project, according to the CBC radio show “On The Island with Gregor Craigie” this morning.[xxii] It is the Greater Victoria Housing Society, which is also a member of the UDI and has numerous connections to it that I have documented extensively.  The CBC radio episode this morning was titled: “In support of the Roundhouse - We spoke with the Executive Director of the Greater Victoria Housing Society”.

When you add up all of the organizations that the GVHS receives funding and/or support, which can be seen at the bottom of their front page, you get: 8 organizations that have been UDI members in 2023 and 3 that have not been.

On the ‘Coming Soon’ section on the GVHS website, 5 Projects are listed, all of which have connections to UDI member companies, all except one of which are directly benefitting or going to be directly benefitting monetarily from these projects. In the other instance, one member company could potentially benefit monetarily from the project indirectly, in a major way, and that is Focus Equities through gaining favourable coverage through offering some token affordable housing on site, according to what the industry is referring to as ‘filtering-down’, which is nothing other than a rebranding of ‘trickle-down economics.’

The recent buzz in the press and on-air around this development, might come across of having an aura of timely hype, and pardon if I find the Times Colonist’s coverage over the years to have an appearance of priming the public for the development, rather than asking important questions about it that one would expect from a genuine free press in a democratic society.
Before I conclude, I would like to ask one more question regarding potential conflict of interest regarding this project and the City of Victoria.

Has the position of Manager of Executive Operations and City Communications for the City of Victoria been filled at any recent time by a person that has ever been at any time a spouse of the current Chair of the UDI Capital Region?  Indications on Social Media over the years, in posts by relatives, indicate that this is very likely to have been the case.

To conclude: there is more than enough material (and there is far more than I could ever fit into 5 minutes), to suggest that there are serious potential conflict of interest issues involving the City of Victoria, its politicians over the years, and the company seeking to gain favourable rezoning in this application due to their shared relation with the lobby they are both simultaneously paying members of.

I think that prior to any rezoning of this application, that it is essential, in the interests of democracy, public transparency and accountability, and certainly in terms of ethics; to remove such concerns.  The City of Victoria without a doubt, should discontinue its paid membership from the UDI lobby, as did the councils of Saanich and View Royal, which both unanimously voted to do so last year, after numerous similar concerns had arisen.          
                  
Thank you.

UVIC and Development

                 When it comes to the University of Victoria and development, I make no qualms that I think UVic should practice what it preaches about sustainability, instead of demonstrating an unsustainable model of development that is environmentally destructive including numerous mature tree removals on their property to help foster increasing development on the land they own.  I have also criticized UVic for often it seems expecting those around it to also adopt an unsustainable model of increasing development and densification simply because they have.  I have had letters to the editor published on more than one occasion in the local newspapers on this theme.[xxiii]

                 Cadboro Bay, which is situated just beneath the campus was the focus of what appears to have been a concerted attempt by the development lobby including the UDI, and to many it seemed UVic as well, to heavily densify a quiet seaside and considerable forested community that once served as a bird sanctuary/migratory crossing point between the mainland and the Southern tip of Vancouver Island.

                In 2022, two Local Area Plan updates were attempted for Cadboro Bay. The UDI included “Cadboro Bay Area Plan Review” in their “Advocacy Highlights” in their annual report 2022-2023.  They were interviewed as a stakeholder on Cadboro Bay by the municipality of Saanich in December of 2021.  UVIC was considered another stakeholder.  At both the in-person workshop and Zoom sessions done on the Local Area Plan update, UVIC students flooded the presentations, demanding more housing in Cadboro Bay over and over and a number of perturbed residents wrote into local newspapers in response.

              I don’t know if those students included members of the UVic Real Estate Club or not.  That isn’t the point I am making here.  The student position that affordable housing was going to materialize in this, or other locations by increasing the amount of market-rate housing, was clearly not being calculated by the students.  I had a very simple question for them.  How much do they think the proposed additional units are going to cost?  The answer in Cadboro Bay, as at the proposed 30+ storey of luxury condos at Bayview, was always going to be that the students will not able to afford the proposed units. 

            Students pushing an increase of market-supply are not pushing the interests of students when it comes to housing, regardless if they think they are or not.  They are serving the interests of developers, realtors, investors, REITs, other investment pools/speculators.  They are not going to be able to compete with both domestic and international finance in being able to buy up these lots, any more so than those who are homeless and are in need of actual affordable housing.

            I’m not merely speculating that UVic and the UDI have been getting too close to each other.  I have evidence of it.  A document shows that UVic has been lobbying side by side with the UDI in trying to push missing middle housing to the City of Victoria as an election was approaching. UVic as an institution that receives public funding, is supposed to be non-partisan and this took place in early May of 2022, when the Mayor and Council at the time were looking to potentially pass the controversial proposition just prior to an election, in which the issue became perhaps the most spoken of during the campaign that year.  ‘Missing Middle Housing’ (an idea that originally appeared in the U.S. and has not been known to have led to housing affordability) was made the central election issue and it was passed as soon as possible afterward.

The document can be seen here: https://pub-victoria.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=80179

The document includes 2 letters side by side in support of proposed ‘missing middle housing’ to the City of Victoria.  The first is from UVic and was signed by its President/Vice Chancellor at the time.  The second was from the UDI and it was signed by its Executive Director, the same executive director that the following month in June was promoting lobbying within the CRD Regional Housing Advisory system in the interests of the UDI (which has a permanent seat on the RHAC).

The following are two quotes from the minutes of the June 29, 2022 Regional Housing Advisory Committee meeting at the CRD:

"UDI has been meeting with Minister Eby and have found him to be very receptive to hearing from and receiving feedback from groups like the RHAC"

"What can we do as a committee? Kathy Whitcher suggested RHAC members be more active in finding out what policies municipalities are working on and helping to push these policies forward via advocating and lobbying (e.g., Victoria’s missing middle)."

It is worth noting that Whitcher while the Executive Director of the UDI, has simultaneously been serving on the RHAC.

In the UDI's 2022-2023 Annual Report on page 6 under the heading "Advocacy Initiatives", the first item to appear is the subheading "CRD", followed under it by the point titled "Regional Housing Advisory Committee".

At the time of the UVic/UDI lobbying on missing middle, a former UDI director was on the UVic Board of Governors.  He was the head of a development company and another company, which is the parent of a company that would subsequently buy up the Cadboro Bay liquor store.

UVic Properties is a UDI member.  Although UVic Properties is a separate entity from the university, this relationship should be kept in mind.

UVic has what it calls a "University District Real Estate Strategy”

https://www.uvic.ca/about-uvic/university-district/index.php

Included is “The cost of housing in Victoria has increased drastically over the past five years, and our region is experiencing a serious housing shortage. UVic can help address these regional challenges and transform campus life by creating a vibrant and sustainable housing and commercial district. 

We are planning to create a real estate strategy that incorporates residential, commercial and other amenities on lands close to UVic’s Gordon Head (main) campus.”

“Future phases Cedar Hill Corner and the Queenswood Campus are future sites for development. As with all our plans for redevelopment, these projects will include opportunities for community engagement.”

The Queenswood Campus project in particular has the potential to lead to serious deforestation in the area.  Numerous trees were recently cut down at UVIC, ironically around its Environmental Law Department building for more development.  A number of trees were also recently cut down to expand UVIC’s transit hub, as had numerous mature Garry Oak trees along Finnerty, the road leading to it several years before had been brought down to expand the transportation network leading to and from the institution.

Conclusion:

Recently in Kelowna, a developer got caught paying students money through a public relations outfit to speak in favour of their proposed development, and in favour of more rental housing at council meetings.[xxiv]  This received considerable press coverage in British Columbia.

I am not suggesting that members of the UVic Real Estate club are paid to speak at council meetings.

I am suggesting however that there are forms of payments that could be considered ethically to be indirect payments to student organizations that can translate into potential support at council meetings and that this poses real potential for ethical conflict of interest.

              If the UVic Real Estate club is primarily sponsored financially by the Urban Development Institute and its paying member companies, which it appears to be from their website, as did previously the website of the UVic Urban Development Club before it; if students are attending UDI events and functions (The UDI is a registered lobbyist group), and receiving food and drink at some of these functions, and if the primary go-to source for these clubs at a post-secondary institution over the years for information, tours, event-hosting etc., is the UDI and its members; then club members lined up speaking in favour of their members’ developments is a very real potential conflict of interest. 

             If the UVic real estate club has become financially dependent on the UDI, then the dangers of undue influence are very strong and financial pressures could be felt by those involved with the organization that could lead them to speak in favour of developments of member companies at local government hearings.

            The University of Victoria receives significant public funding and is supposed to be non-partisan.  Given what could be seen as favouritism toward the UDI and its member companies, particularly in terms of their focus in content, this could be seen as a sort of partisanship by the UVic Real Estate Club. 

            Although the UDI claims to be non-partisan, a quick provincial political contributions search reveals otherwise.  The UDI donated directly to the BC NDP political party in more than one payment over the years 2011 and 2017.[xxv] The latter year is when the BC NDP formed the government through the formation of a leading role in a coalition government.  Given that I have found no other donations from the lobbyist group to other political parties, their claim that they are non-partisan is more than suspect.

            I hope that the UVic Real Estate Club members and their potential members read this and pause to think how close their organization and its predecessor has been over the years to the lobby and pause to think if they are really acting non-partisan when speaking in favour of the development proposals from UDI member companies, a number of which have supported the club financially.

           The next time they, choose to “advocate” to local government, might they pause and think about whether or not by doing so they are lobbying on behalf of those who have shown overwhelming patronage to the organization and among whose key functions it is to lobby/influence government?  Do those that have shown overwhelming patronage to the organization and its predecessor over the years, not have potentially vested interests in its outcome?

[i] Their foundation date of 2022 is according to UVic Real Estate Club | LinkedIn (Accessed: Jan 17, 2023)

[ii] Partners — UVic Real Estate (Accessed: Jan 17, 2023)

[iii] Developers build bigger tax base in Victoria - Victoria Times Colonist “Developers build bigger tax base in Victoria: Developer Dave Chard has been turning over the earth in Victoria for a decade.” 
Article by Andrew A. Duffy Apr 30, 2015
 (Accessed: Jan 17, 2023)

David Chard is listed as Executive Director and Founder of Chard Developments:
Chard Development | Vancouver and Victoria | Team

[iv] Article: “Big money bets big on B.C. rental: 'Good news' for investors, 'worst fears' for residents  Canada's housing shortage is almost at a "crisis level," said the CEO of an investment firm that owns dozens of B.C. apartment buildings. "The good news for investors is there is no easy solution in sight.” Dan Fumano Aug 15, 2020 Vancouver Sun (Accessed: Dec 1, 2022)
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/rental-housing-investment-feature (Accessed: Dec 1, 2012)

[v] UVic Urban Development Club (archive.org)

[vi] Sponsors | UVic Urban Development Club (archive.org)

[vii] University of Victoria Student Housing and… | Colliers Project Leaders

[viii] Vision — UVic Real Estate (Accessed: Jan 17, 2023)

[ix] LETTER: Increasing supply isn’t enough to solve housing crisis - Saanich News (Sept 17, 2023)

[x]: Bridging the Gap · Luma

[xi] pub-victoria.escribemeetings.com/Players/ISIStandAlonePlayer.aspx?Id=1c8dcc6d-709e-46d9-b4d9-7f750d16fdfd (Click to watch the Jan 11, 2024 Public Hearing at the City of Victoria)

[xii] Vic West neighbourhood undergoing transformation from industrial to urban (cheknews.ca)
“Vic West neighbourhood undergoing transformation from industrial to urban” article by Mary Griffin  Mar. 12, 2021

Excerpt from the beginning of the article (bolding added by myself):

“The historic Vic West neighbourhood of Victoria is undergoing a transformation as the City plans to house thousands of people in the area over the next decade.
Victoria Mayor, Lisa Helps, says the aim is to build out the area’s capacity to handle an additional 5,000 residents, targeting high-density near the harbour.
Helps notes it’s just close enough to the downtown core to have an urban feel, without the urban sprawl.
“I think it’s a very exciting time on in Vic West right now, lots of change,” Helps said. “And again, it connects Vic West more seamlessly into the downtown.”
Bayview Place developer, Ken Mariash, said re-vamped plans for the project include keeping its unique Roundhouse architecture.”

Massive Roundhouse project to go to public hearing - Victoria Times Colonist

Excerpt (bolding added by myself):
“Alto said the project would be nothing short of “transforming” if it is ultimately given the green light in January.

“It has been a long time and perhaps that’s good in the sense that this is a ­significant — and should it be adopted — an iconic and remarkable showpiece for this part of the city,” she said. “It is, in fact, something that will be ­transformational. This is a vision of the future, which is inevitable.”

Mariash, who has said he doesn’t expect to turn a profit on the Roundhouse project given his monthly carrying costs, said he was pleased to hear the mayor characterize the project as transformative.”

Roundhouse fate still up in the air - Victoria Times Colonist
Article by Andrew Duffy Jan 12, 2024

Excerpts (bolding added by myself):

“A long line of ­speakers jammed phone lines and crowded the municipal chamber to weigh in on what could be a transformational project at the western entrance to Victoria’s downtown.”

“Mayor Marianne Alto has been an enthusiastic supporter, saying it is likely to be a transformational project and a remarkable opportunity for not just the city but the region.”

Nor was this the first time that one of Focus Equities development projects in a rail area has been trumpeted as being transformational.

“In 2018, CentrePort Canada Inc., with the support of the Province of Manitoba, issued a Request for Proposal to attract a private developer for the Rail Park project. Focus Equities Inc. was selected as the most experienced and qualified developer following that process. The company provides a full range of development, investment, financing, construction, and operation of complex real estate, energy, and infrastructure projects.

“This development, strategically situated at the hub of international trading corridors, capitalizes on Manitoba’s historical strengths as a leader in trade and transportation and positions the province as a key player now and well into the future,” said David Filmon, Chair, CentrePort Canada Inc. Board of Directors and Chair, MLT Aikins LLP. “Congratulations to the Province of Manitoba for their long-term strategic planning and foresight that has enabled this transformational project to take shape.”

MEDIA RELEASE: Government of Manitoba Announces Development Partner for the CentrePort Canada Rail Park - CentrePort Canada (March 25, 2022)

“Focus Equities Inc. Projects Economic Impact of the Rail Park Project Could Exceed $3 Billion”

[xiii] Their Principal according to their Linkedin page at the time of writing. UVic Real Estate Club | LinkedIn

[xiv] pub-victoria.escribemeetings.com/Players/ISIStandAlonePlayer.aspx?Id=1c8dcc6d-709e-46d9-b4d9-7f750d16fdfd (I spoke starting at 3:37:55)

[xv] Focus Management Inc | Capital Region (memberzone.com)

“Focus Management Inc VISIT WEBSITE 80 Saghalie Road Victoria, BC V9A 0A1 www.bayviewproperties.com

Whom to Contact: David Fullbrook Ken Mariash Brandon Oye Karina Perkins David Stefanson”

[xvi] Kathy Hogan - Bayview Properties | LinkedIn

Kathy Hogan changed her name to Kathy Whitcher

Kathy Whitcher - Urban Development - Capital Region | LinkedIn

Developers build bigger tax base in Victoria - Victoria Times Colonist

[xvii] Urban Development Institute / Anne McMullin, President & CEO - 12-Month Lobbying Summary - Lobbyists Registry - Office of the Registrar or Lobbying of BC (lobbyistsregistrar.bc.ca)

[xviii] Under “What lobbying activities have taken place in the last 12 months” (Accessed Jan 11, 2023)

Urban Development Institute / Anne McMullin, President & CEO - 12-Month Lobbying Summary - Lobbyists Registry - Office of the Registrar or Lobbying of BC (lobbyistsregistrar.bc.ca)

[xix] FRPC - Local Election Contributions Search Results (gov.bc.ca)

[xx] Developers of luxury condos can't fix the affordability problem - Development and architecture - Focus on Victoria (Leslie Campbell)

[xxi] Investing in community is Mariash’s modus operandi - Victoria Times Colonist

[xxii] “BC On the Island” with Gregor Craigie Nov 11, 2023

"In support of the Roundhouse - We spoke with the Executive Director of the Greater Victoria Housing Society"

[xxiii] One such example was my letter: UVic's Expansionism Behind Push to Densify Cadboro Bay (Published ironically as "UVic would benefit from Cadboro Bay density") [July 3, 2022 - Saanich News] LETTER: UVic would benefit from Cadboro Bay density - Saanich News

[xxiv] Developer who paid public hearing supporters sues City of Kelowna for rescinding permits | CBC News
Article by Brady Strachan CBC News · Sep 13, 2023

Kelowna developer says it's 'common' to pay people to speak at public hearings | iNhome (infotel.ca)
Article by Rob Munro Aug 12, 2023

BC Developer Paid 'Supporters' To Appear At Public Hearing (storeys.com) “BC Developer Has Permit Revoked For Paying ‘Supporters’ To Appear At Public Hearing” article by Howard Chai August 16, 2023

[xxv] Financial Reports and Political Contributions System

“Provincial Combined Political Contributions Search Results

Total For This Search: $3,650.00

Records 1 to 3 of 3

“

https://contributions.electionsbc.gov.bc.ca/pcs/SA1ASearchResults.aspx?Contributor=Urban+development+institute&PartySK=0&Party=(ALL)&ClassSK=0&ClassificationName=(ALL)&DateTo=&DateFrom= (Accessed: July 28, 2022)