The Strange Case of How a Municipality in BC Became a Development and Real Estate Lobby Member Without Informing Mayor and Council and How a Local Government in BC Joining the Development and Real Estate Lobby as a Paying Member Without a Vote from Elected Officials Turned Out to Not be an Unusual Practice After All… Part I.

The Strange Case of How a Municipality in BC

Became a Development and Real Estate Lobby Member

Without Informing Mayor and Council


And How a Local Government in BC
 Joining the Development and Real Estate Lobby
As a Paying Member
Without a Vote from Elected Officials
Turned Out to Not be an Unusual Practice After All…




Part I.

On October 15, 2022 the Town of View Royal elected a new Mayor Sid Tobias, and two new councillors were added to the council.

            Only a few months later, in early 2023, View Royal joined the Urban Development Institute, a development/real estate lobby as a paying member.  Only no one seemed to have noticed…  Unlike other municipalities, this was not achieved by a council vote and the Mayor, was not informed of this serious change.

            On March 14, 2023 the neighbouring District of Saanich withdrew its paid membership from the UDI,[i] after numerous members of the public stated that they had potential conflict of interest concerns with the situation. The most fundamental of these concerns was the strange situation, whereby a level of government had joined a lobby organization as a member and was paying it with tax dollars; while at the same time, they were being lobbied by that same organization.  In essence, the municipality was lobbying itself through an organization, whose members that receive representation through the organization, include many of the highest profile development and real estate companies in BC.

Upon learning that the Town of View Royal had joined the UDI without telling him, Mayor Tobias asked senior staff how this had happened.  As a result, over a month later in September, the Town’s Director of Development Services issued a report on UDI membership and staff also put together a presentation about it.

When the report was released it was brief, comprising 2 pages.  The following are some excerpts:

“The purpose of this report is to provide Council with information about the Urban Development Institute (UDI) - Capital Region and the benefits for being a member of the Institute.”


 “Since the Town became a member of UDI, staff have attended a few UDI events and learning opportunities related to housing and building healthy communities, received several updates on legislative changes at the provincial level, updates on current projects taking place in neighbouring municipalities, etc.”

“CONCLUSION: UDI represents many stakeholders involved in all facets of land development and planning, and supports the industry through research, professional development and education, and relationship building. Staff wish to continue benefiting from the membership opportunities provided by UDI for another year given the number of projects that are earmarked for 2024 and opportunities for stakeholder engagement. Staff recommend that Council receive this report for information.”

Notably missing from the report, was an explanation of how the Town of View Royal became a paying member of the UDI and who was responsible for that.

On September 12, 2023 View Royal had a Committee of the Whole meeting.  On the agenda that night was Membership to the Urban Development Institute - Capital Region and included in the agenda were the report and presentation.

The previous item on the agenda was: “Review of Business License Fees for Cannabis Retail Stores”.  After this ended, Councillor Mattson, Chair of the Planning, Development & Engagement Committee (According to View Royal’s website[ii]), left his desk and would not take part in the discussion of the UDI’s membership.  Thus, with one person out of the room, any motion that might have arisen, if it ended in a 3-3 vote, would end in a tie. In such a scenario this would result in a defeated motion.

The CAO, Kim Anema seemed pensive, as he read from the staff presentation, much of which seemed to be comprised of content from the UDI’s own PR statements.

The report began with a brief section titled “Purpose of UDI”, which appeared practically identical to statements from the UDI’s websites.

Then followed the section titled “Membership Benefits”. 

These included:

1. “remain informed of policy changes at all levels of government;”
2. “receive information on current market trends and projections;”
3. “network and build partnerships with industry professionals”
4. “attend professional development opportunities, some of which are only available to members”
5. “establish UDI liaison group made up of local stakeholders and department heads to discuss emerging issues and how UDI may be able to assist with policy initiatives and provide feedback;
6. “promote engagement events through the UDI network, and;”
7. “transparency to all stakeholders represented by the varied membership of UDI.”

The “Background” provided included 3 items.

1. “Town became a member of UDI in January 2023”
2. “The annual UDI membership fee is $600”
3. “In the past 13 years, UDI lobbying has never been recorded or recognized as part of the council agenda.”

Reading the last item, I’m still a bit perplexed as to what exactly it means, or why it was mentioned.  “Recognized” is a word quite open to interpretation and “recorded” doesn’t offer all that much either, in terms of concrete information; as meetings take place that are unrecorded between the UDI and municipal staff on a semi-regular basis in some municipalities, e.g. neighbouring Saanich, which continued this practice in the form of what the UDI calls “Muncipal-Liaison Sub-Committees,” even after withdrawing its lobby membership.

The report then concluded with a list of all the Local Government and Regional Government entities in BC that are members of the UDI; 30 in total, according to the brief report.

The CAO in concluding, stated that “the report had been made up in request of council in terms of considering whether or not we should continue participating with UDI.”

Discussion began after, with Councillor MacKenzie stating that she had an issue with the organization not being the most objective source of information and that more academic sources should be considered “more heavily”.  She also stated that she didn’t think paying into the organization and having membership in it was necessary for the municipality to engage with developers.

Councillor Lemon spoke next, stating that she thinks that “staff are the experts in what they need and the education and networking available to them through this particular organization which has a long history in British Columbia and is active and is perhaps the only resource of this type available to them like this.”

Councillor Rogers spoke next in agreement with Cllr. MacKenzie.  He noted that he had a problem in this situation, with the organization being developer-oriented and having a development/real estate bias and a bias toward removing green space for buildings.

Councillor Brown spoke next: “You know, well, this is hardly any money for one thing and I can see the value of it. I can see other points as well, but I think I would support the motion that to me, even though it was considered a lobby group, because it’s got staff people involved in it, I can’t really see it as that and there’s tons of lobby groups out there and if that’s the case, no, I will be supporting the motion.”

Mayor Tobias, as Chair seeking clarification; asked to confirm that Brown will be supporting the motion to receive the report, which Brown confirmed.

Councillor Kowalewich spoke next by saying: “Easy decision.  I promote our staff members to continue to learn and benefit from this long-standing institute who has deep roots in this province, with every major city and town across the province.”

Mayor Tobias then spoke: “I guess my concern is that when first elected, I was looking at just about everything and the Town of View Royal was not listed on their website as a member and then in January, without it coming to council, I see us being listed as a member.  It’s’ not the development staff of the Town of View Royal, it’s the Town of View Royal.  My concern was that we go through great efforts to have debate on the things that we join and it never came to us.”

[…]

“My concern is that we are paying for a membership that is promoting something that I don’t know what they are promoting, but we’re a member of it.  We’re a member of UBCM […] we’re a member of [difficult to hear], but those decisions have come from this council to be member of.  So, I’m just concerned that this membership has been taken without council consideration, considering we look at grants and aids for a few hundred dollars to put our name behind support and even though its not an amount of money that I’m concerned with, I’m just concerned that our membership here now is on a website and they could be advancing an agenda we may not agree with and we have no control over and nor do we vote to join it.  So those are my concerns.”

After council accepted the staff report, Cllr. Rogers proposed a subsequent motion that “membership to the UID [Sic.] be discontinued in 2024”. The motion was seconded by Cllr. MacKenzie.

Rogers continued: “I note with I think respect that Saanich has discontinued their membership.” He also proposed that there were more rounded organizations to turn to.

Cllr. Brown spoke next: “Remember South Island Prosperity Partners as well and that’s way more than $800, I can’t remember the exact amount, but I believe it’s in the neighbourhood of little over $20,000 and I suppose the previous council approved this, but certainly not this council.  So, if we’re starting to look at groups that we belong to and we pay into and we look into this one, we should be looking into all of them, but this is a small group and to me it sounds like an educational group and to me it’s not a lobby group, but if it became that, then all means axe-it, but personally I don’t see it that way.”

Cllr. Lemon spoke next: “Briefly, council doesn’t vote on staff education and courses and the organizations that they belong to and largely they would be the beneficiaries of this.”

Cllr. Kowalewich spoke next: “I can empathize with some of the views that I’ve heard in regards to this vote and I will acknowledge that some council members receive more communication and transparencies with the groups that our staff joins.  That being said, I think this is something that our staff has joined, because they want to benefit from and make better decisions and help us.  So, for that reason I’m supporting it.  I’m sure that this is all being…, they are paying very close attention to all our comments, and I’m certain that, you know, we can keep the UDI membership for staff, that it could be a moment we all think fondly of in the future.”

Finishing, the councillor seems to have made a humorous ironic grimace, as seen on camera.

At this point, there is a muffled voice that appears to be laughing in the background and the CAO is seen on camera laughing.  If there was a joke, they got it.

Cllr. MacKenzie spoke next responding to Cllr. Lemon’s comments, by saying that this isn’t the case of the staff individually being members of the organization, but rather that it is the Town being a member of the organization that is at issue. 

Cllr. MacKenzie also responded to Councillor Brown’s point, saying that it’s not that she is saying that she believes that they are a lobbyist group, but rather that in terms of the perception of the community that when they have policy being advanced, that they should be clear and transparent that they are not going into a process being biased based on having a membership.

Cllr. Kowalewich responded: “I can’t help, but point out that that is not the strongest argument.  If you just look up on the screen there.  By your rationale, every single town and city up there is being influenced by the UDI, and should remove themselves immediately.”

Cllr. Rogers spoke next, saying “If you look at the memberships, if you look at the municipal liaison committees, you know that is also very insightful, you know Burnaby, Richmond, or whatever.  It’s all made up of development. You know, you have the municipality of Burnaby, but that committee is 99% developers and that influence, so there is some issues there.  Now, if, let me ask you a question.  If the annual membership fees, is paid what, through the town’s taxes? Is it taxable, is it paid through resident taxes? [A voice in the background confirms this] So again, it’s a tax base point that is I think a public perception, so I call the motion.”

Roger’s motion that the UDI membership be discontinued in 2024 was then voted on.  Cllrs., Rogers and MacKenzie as well as Mayor Tobias, were in favour: Cllrs., Lemon, Kowalewich and Brown were opposed.  Cllr. Mattson, as mentioned previously, had left the room just prior to the agenda item and so was not present at the time of the vote.  6 days later, I emailed him to ask the reason why he had left the room, and if he had done so to recuse himself from the vote.  He didn’t reply.  If he had been present, his vote would have been a tie-breaker.  That the motion ended in a tie, meant that the motion was defeated.

And so ended an often at times confusing, but interesting round of deliberations. The next day however, some crucial confusion would be clarified.

During the deliberations, Cllr. Brown (based on his statements) had come to the view that the UDI is not a lobby.  This in turn, led Cllr. MacKenzie while responding to Brown, to dispel the notion that she believed the UDI to be a lobby.

What this meant is that going into the voting process, the council was under a false impression that the UDI was not a lobby.  How did this happen?  It is not difficult going through UDI literature to be confused as to what the UDI really is, but it is a legally registered lobby and this was made apparent to the councillors the following day and this in turn, would trigger the issue to reappear at the next council meeting (this ended up being postponed however, until the item appeared again on the November 14 Committee of the Whole agenda).

The only time I think that I’ve seen the UDI ever use the word lobby about themselves is when they have to, and that is when they are required to file the forms of the BC provincial Lobbyists Registrar, which is publicly available and viewable through a quick search of the term “Urban Development Institute” on the Registrar’s website: Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists for BC | Home (lobbyistsregistrar.bc.ca)

Until then, if to gauge from their various statements about themselves; the UDI puts forward and often comes across as simply an educational institute dedicated to improving communities, complete with Faculty Chair.  All three councillors that voted against the motion to discontinue membership had spoken that night of the UDI in educational terms, as did the conclusion to the report from the Director of Development Services.  The only mention of the term lobby from staff came from the presentation which included the words “In the past 13 years, UDI lobbying has never been recorded or recognized as part of the council agenda.”

Cllr. Brown’s quote seems to have summed up this confusion the best that night: “but this is a small group and to me it sounds like an educational group and to me it’s not a lobby group, but if it became that, then all means axe-it, but personally I don’t see it that way.”

It is not difficult to see then, why many people, if not the majority of those that encounter the organization do not realize that the UDI is actually a lobby and a legally registered one at that; with considerable frequent lobbying aimed at the Provincial Government.  It’s municipal lobbying activity tends to go under the radar, because of a lack of lobbyist registries at the municipal level in the province and if in the very rare case they do exist at the local level, the province ensures by law that filling them out cannot be made mandatory by local governments.

Rather than use the term lobby about themselves and their activities when they don’t have to, the UDI prefers to use other terms instead, like advocacy, education, and representation.  By doing so, for many members of the public, they are seen as an advocacy group, an educational group, or a representational group, rather than a lobby, which they are. When it comes to the discourse of politicians, this fact often becomes overlooked, or is unrecognized entirely.

As mentioned, although the municipalities fall under the Province, they are not required to have lobbyist registries and the few lobbyist registries that do exist in municipalities in the province, are to be on a voluntary basis, thus rendering them ineffective at best.

This leaves a strange double standard in law, whereby the Province of BC, has a mandatory lobbyist registry for itself with strict rules accompanying it in the form of the BC Lobbyists Transparency Act (LTA), but municipalities, which fall under the Province, do not.

This situation becomes even stranger, when looking at Regional Governments (which also seem to be immune from being recorded in the Provincial Lobbyist Registry).  The CRD (the Capital Regional District of Greater Victoria) is a regional government for example. It is not only a paying member of the UDI Capital Region, which targets the area, but the UDI Capital Region also has a permanent seat (similar to how the UN Security Council has members with permanent seats) on the CRD Regional Housing Advisory Committee.  The Victoria Real Estate board, a UDI member and also a lobby, has another.  All the other non-municipal organizations, including governmental that have permanent seats on the committee have all in one form or another been UDI members.[iii]  As for permanent municipal seats on the committee, a number of those are also UDI members.  An individual representative from the development industry is also appointed on rotation to be an RHAC member and not surprisingly given the pattern, this has included those with associations to the UDI.

The CRD sets some housing policy that the Official Community Plans of municipalities that fall under its Regional Growth Strategy must adhere to by law.  All 11 of the Housing Needs Reports for those municipalities were created by Urban Matters, a subsidiary of Urban Systems, which is a paying member of the UDI.  The Housing Needs Reports define how many units those municipalities must build by law.

In this regard, perhaps Kowalewich said it best when he said: “If you just look up on the screen there.  By your rationale, every single town and city up there is being influenced by the UDI, and should remove themselves immediately.”

Yes, maybe they actually should, and on a very ethical basis.  Such a situation, particularly without lobbyist registries for local and regional governments, for those levels of government to actually join lobbies and become paying members, is an incredibly rife environment and potential fermenting ground for both potential, or very real and serious conflict of interest.

It wouldn’t be difficult and not surprising then to come under an impression that perhaps this is the very reason that the Provincial Government allows this double standard in law to continue unchecked.  Why else would it allow this situation to continue?  They are perfectly aware of it.  The Union of BC Municipalities had already brought this to their attention a few years previously, as had myself more recently, and yet they continue to foster and even defend this internally contradictory situation, both knowingly and willingly.

The logic that, because so many government organizations are joining; that nothing wrong is taking place, is simply a non sequitur.

It's the same non sequitur, that because everyone else is doing something, then it must be OK.

That doesn’t make it so.

One could well argue that by having so many government organizations become members of a lobby that targets the same government, it normalizes conflict of interest in government.  Perhaps that is the point?

On this subject, I suggest for those interested, to read the book The Persuaders: The Hidden Industry that Wants to Change Your Mind by James Garvey.  In the well researched book, Garvey notes a scientifically known psychological phenomenon that the PR industry understands very well and that is that common membership in a group, often has the psychological impact of making one accept its premises and be more open to its message.  Add familiar names to the list and the average member of the public, or organization, is then considerably more likely to be inclined toward accepting it.

If development and real estate have a talented PR industry, and I would suggest that they have some of the best, well-financed and strongest in the world, then it is unlikely that they would not exploit this psychological trait in those they attempt to influence.

Now let’s take a look at the recent front page of the UDI Capital Region’s website.  (I say recent, because the UDI pulled this website down on November 21, 2023 the same day that View Royal ratified its decision to withdraw from the organization).

What is the first thing it says? 

“Your voice in the Capital Region’s development industry
Join the team of industry leaders and professionals who are influencing the issues that affect your bottom line.”

They are open in that influence is one of their key functions and purposes.

The UDI Edmonton Metro even had a page titled “Influence”[iv] that included “District Planning”, which would seem to imply the target being elected officials and/or planning departments, who have the power to not only plan, but also to implement such planning. 

Mysteriously, as UDI influence was coming under increasing scrutiny, the UDI Edmonton Metro redirected to a new page with the term “Impact”, instead of simply “Influence”.  Veiled word games and euphemisms are a key feature of public relations techniques in influencing public thought and are often utilized in disguising methods and agendas of organizations, in order to make them more palatable for the public.

The text that followed from the udicapitalregion.ca, is:

“Why Join UDI?

With members-only access to local trends, education, and representation, you can make a difference in your industry and your community.”

And they are not shy in who they are trying to influence.  The following is the next text quoted from their website:

“PRIMARY AREAS OF FOCUS

Government Relations We are the public voice for Capital Region’s development industry, liaising with local governments and the media”

If to look at their website, there is no mystery.  Some councillors might not have done their homework, as well as they might have on this subject, but who can blame them? They are very busy and have much to deal with.  There is a lot on the agenda and UDI items, not infrequently end up appearing at the bottom of municipal agendas, or cloistered amid a multitude of other seemingly more pressing items, if they are to appear at all.  Yet this is a very serious issue.  The council were not told that their municipality had even joined the lobby, and had done so without their vote, the vote of democratically elected officials.  If the officials were thus, caught off-guard, it will be of no surprise.

As to the specifics of how the municipality joined; at the time of writing (September 19, 2023) it is still a mystery, although that staff did so, has been made certain through the proceedings.  This would become apparent however later on, through the use of access-to-information (FOI).  Just as the UDI through common membership, makes joining for levels of government seem like the natural evolution of something perhaps fated, or even inevitable, if not providential, through joining a shared club that can easily seem that they all should belong in; perhaps even should have from the beginning, so the UDI also makes it exceptionally easy for levels of government to join. 

All it takes for a local government to begin joining the UDI in BC, is a click of a mouse by checking a convenient box off for municipalities on the UDI’s website.  The price can even seem comparatively cheap, like any other minor online purchase.  The subscription is thus statistically very likely to be renewed year after year. 

Gone are the days of traditional lobbying, whereby lobbyists had to approach politicians. Now the politicians and staffers can be brought to the lobby, maybe even on a regular basis, perhaps not even realizing that is a lobby to begin with. As for who will pay for this? The taxpayer is conveniently left to foot the bill, whether they realize it or not, and odds are that most likely they don't.

Another psychological trick well studied and understood in PR/marketing, is that a person, or organization is much more likely to stay with something: be it a subscription, continuing to receive advertising, continuing a membership, or regular service etc., regardless of whether they opted in voluntarily or not; if they have to take the effort to opt out, in order to leave.

Like a proverbial finger trap, opting into the UDI, especially for local government; can be a lot more effortless, than by undertaking the sometimes difficult process of opting out…

Although it didn’t take a council vote for View Royal to join; it would take not only one, but more than one, if it was ever to leave...










End of Part I. (To be continued in Part II.)
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Appendix:

After completing both parts I and II of this article, I found a clue as to why some of the councillors may have been a bit confused about the nature of the UDI, particularly whether or not, it was simply an educational organization, and as to whether or not it is a lobby (it is legally registered on the BC Lobbyists Registry).

The following is a transcription (with the help of Vimeo subtitles) of a public presentation to View Royal Council provided at the September 12 Committee of the Whole (prior to the elected officials that night trying to figure out how they joined the UDI without having been informed that they had):

“Thank you. Um, my name is, uh, Kathy Whitcher and I’m the executive director of the Urban Development Institute the Capital Region. So I’m here to address the membership item on your agenda.
Um so thank you, Mayor and Council, um, so UDI, I’m just here to give a little bit more context to our membership. And, so, um, we kind of relate UDI as collaborators and educators, um, uh, this, by way of, of giving us, you know, kind of the the [sic] thought that we’re community builders with the partners that we, that we work with. Um, so we’re a nonprofit, um, organization, and our members are made up of, um, the development industry.

So engineers, architects, developers, appraisers, lawyers, financial institutions. Uh, the majority of the uh, if not all of the nonprofit housing providers are member of ours, um, as are some of the First Nations, um organizations. Um, so some of the membership benefits that uh, we have of UDI um, are educational programming, uh, we’ve, we’ve [sic] created a nine month, uh, program. We did this during COVID, um, because that we saw that there was a gap in education. Um, there was no education for developers. And, uh, so we’ve put together this 9 month program. It’s called the Real Estate Development Management Program. Um, and we’re working with Royal Roads and with VIU, um, hoping to get them to recognize it as one of their micro-credentials. Um, we also have, um, an educational series that would be interesting, uh, to all of you. Um, we call it Understanding Development Reality, uh, series. And it’s, um, done quarterly. It’s a presentation. It’s about an hour long. It um, and it is virtual, so online and and [sic] it is we invites are sent out to all the elected officials and staff uh, for the municipalities on Vancouver Island. And we choose topics that are, are, [sic] um, we find that would be educational for, for [sic] you. Um, and our first one was on performance, and our second one was on parking. And we’ll be doing another one in the fall. Um, so look for your email, you’ll be receiving, um, and it’s free, um, and so we just encourage everybody to attend those.

Uh, we um, have a monthly lunch series that we do. Uh, this is our events, um, and it’s a presentation and networking for our, for our members. We have social events. Uh, we have a golf tournament. We have a summer social, a Christmas social, a summer social, and our Christmas social. We uh, uh, donate our net revenue to a charity that is chosen by our members. Um, and we do um, development tours as well. So we do local ones, um, for our members here, as well as out of town tours, uh, that we’ve done kind of all over North America. Um, and we just uh, go and, look at what other people are doing in other areas of, of the world or well in North America, just to see their challenges, their successes, and how we can learn from them.

We do extensive policy work, um, and this is where we look at informed changes across all levels of government. So we try to align the uh, policies, that are being, um brought forward by the federal government, the provincial government, and the municipal government, and to kind of help them align, so that they don’t, uh, collide with each other. Um, so we’re working with the province and the Feds, mainly the province on BC building code changes, the uh, step code and zero carbon, um BC Transit, um, BC Hydro, um, a a variety of of different policies we’re working with them on.

Um, the municipalities, uh we have what is called a liaison committee. And, um, Victoria, Esquimalt Colwood. We’re working with, uh, Sooke to get it up running with them. And I’ve also talked to Leanne Taylor, uh, here at View Royal, and she’s interested. Um, and basically what it is, is it’s uh, UDI representatives get together with the directors of the develop or the departments that work directly with development, and we exchange information and we help the municipalities out by creating working groups that can inform and, and help make decisions, uh for your policies. Um, do we do community outreach to help, um, membering community organizations like daycares and so on, um, with small jobs they need done. Um, and we have, uh, extensive research and analyses that we, uh, are provided by a couple of our members. Uh, new research, which, uh, provides us, uh, quarterly stats, um, and realm, island realm, uh, that gives us, uh, real estate stats.

So, UDI is not a lobbying group. We pride ourselves on working collaboratively with all levels of government by sharing information and working together to achieve the goal of uh, creating sustainable, vibrant communities. So, thank you very much for listening tonight."

Bolding was added to the text to add emphasis on that point, as the question of whether or not the UDI is a lobby became crucial in both the Sept 12 and Nov 14 VR Committee of the Wholes

At the time of writing (Jan 4, 2023) the UDI is calling itself a "thought-leader."

"UDI is focused on being a credible, factual and effective thought-leader for the development industry in B.C. "

https://udi.org/knowledge/advocacy/policy

An FOI request made it apparent that it was the View Royal Director of Development Services, upon meeting with the same executive director of the UDI and discussing potential municipal benefits of membership with the organization, that provided the initial impetus for what led to the municipality joining the UDI as a paying member.

The executive director has also sat regularly representing the UDI through the organization’s permanent seat on the CRD Regional Housing Advisory Committee.

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).”

A quick perusal of the BC Lobbyists Registry turned up not only the UDI’s registration (below screenshot 1.), but Whitcher’s name under the registration for the “Urban Development Institute” turned up as well under the section "In-House Lobbyists" under the title "Lobbyist" (screenshot 2.)

Despite being a registered in-house lobbyist for the UDI under the organization's registration on the BC Lobbyists Registrary, the executive director denied that they are a lobby on record to the government at the View Royal Committee of the Whole with the following words: "So, UDI is not a lobbying group. We pride ourselves on working collaboratively with all levels of government by sharing information and working together"

"We do extensive policy work, um, and this is where we look at informed changes across all levels of government. So we try to align the uh, policies, that are being, um brought forward by the federal government, the provincial government, and the municipal government, and to kind of help them align, so that they don’t, uh, collide with each other. Um, so we’re working with the province and the Feds, mainly the province on BC building code changes, the uh, step code and zero carbon, um BC Transit, um, BC Hydro, um, a a variety of of different policies we’re working with them on."

In regard to the crown corporations they mentioned that they work with (BC Transit, BC Hydro), these are also paying members of the UDI, along with numerous other crown corporations including BC Housing. The UDI has received thousands of dollars in grant money from some of the same crown corporations that are paying members of them, according to the lobbyist registry. In fact, according to the registry the UDI has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from more than one level of government in funding, including alone an almost $300,000 dollar payment from the federal government for aid, among other payments during the pandemic.

Government Funding Requested Report - Lobbyists Registry - Office of the Registrar or Lobbying of BC (lobbyistsregistrar.bc.ca) (Accessed: Jan 7, 2024)

The UDI seems to have positioned itself to play a role in 'helping' all levels of governments generate, coordinate and then acting as if they are officiating over their housing policy, which is something that could be thought of, given their own description of their activities, as acting as a sort of shadow government on housing, that represents industry, or more accurately their members from industry. If through lobbying they gain influence on one level of government when it comes to housing policy that leads to policy changes in their favour; they are also simultaneously there to ensure that other levels of government align, or are made to align and coordinate themselves with often the same policies their influence helped to generate in the other levels of government. Yet despite this position of often unseen multi-level power, they only seem to be actively registered as lobbyists on one level of government: the provincial level.

The federal crown corporation the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) pulled both of its memberships from the organization in BC this year.


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Resources:

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

To view the video of the September 12, 2023 View Royal Committee of the Whole, click on the link:

2023 09 12 Committee of the Whole Meeting on Vimeo

Public participation in the video starts at 2:36:43

The Agenda item (under 9.3.3e under Reports - Staff Reports) can be viewed at the same link starting at 4:42:00

Notes to article:

[i] Saanich bails on membership in developers’ organization - Victoria Times Colonist March 16, 2023 article by Andrew Duffy (Accessed: September 18, 2023)

[ii] View Royal - Meet the Mayor & Council (Accessed: September 18, 2023)

[iii] The non-municipal organization with permanent seats in addition to the UDI, include UDI member BC Housing, UDI member the CMHC, UDI member, the Victoria Real Estate Board and the Canadian Home Builders Association, which has branches that are members of the UDI Pacific at the time of writing, including the Homebuilders Association Vancouver and the Canadian Home Builders’ Association - Fraser Valley.
For the composition of the permanent seats, see: https://www.crd.bc.ca/docs/default-source/housing-pdf/housing-planning-and-programs/pps-rh-2019-02-rhac-tor-appendixa-final.pdf?sfvrsn=d2f3c1ca_4 (Accessed: Sept 19, 2023

[iv] Recently the link https://www.udiedmonton.com/influence led to a page (see screenshot below):

Now at the time of this post, if I follow that same URL, it redirects me to: https://www.udiedmonton.com/impact/

In other words, the word "influence" has now changed to "impact", which is not entirely surprising, because Impact Canada https://impact.canada.ca/en is a government organization involved in behavioural analytics and "behavioural design" (according to their own website). Presumably this is accomplished through the use of propaganda and other techniques. 

As I found, Impact Canada are very cagey about their methodology and target audiences and it should be worth noting that they teamed up with the CMHC when it was still a UDI member to put together the $300 million dollar “housing supply challenge,” whose mission is to decrease barriers to increasing the housing supply.

The PR lingo is constantly shifting and changing.