Below
is Part Two of the series on BC Governments Sell-Off of Public Lands to
Powerful Public Interests. Part One appeared in Workers' Forum
September 15.
The private buyers of BC public property in many cases soon made
outsized profits. The following are examples of this profiteering from
the legalized corruption of the BC government to pay the rich.
Burke Mountain
In a 2018 report, the BC
Auditor General Carol Bellringer noted that
the Liberal government sold off 150 hectares of public properties
in Coquitlam's Burke Mountain area for $85 million to a single buyer.
This was $43 million less than the known appraised market value.
In reviewing Bellinger's report, Vaughn Palmer writes in the Vancouver Sun,
"The Liberals must have known they were unloading the 14 parcels for
$43 million less than they were worth. When they signed off on the sale
in February 2014, they had in hand the appraiser's report putting the
value at $128 million. 'The appraisal was timely in
relation to the sale of the land,' says Bellringer. 'The quality of the
appraisal work was appropriate, and the appraised values for the
parcels of land were reasonable.'"
Palmer
continues, "Knowing the shortfall, why didn't the Liberals
cancel the sale and do a proper one? I'm guessing it was because the
transaction, like other land sales at the time, was part of a rush-job
effort by the government of then-premier Christy Clark to try to
balance the budget.
"The prime beneficiary of the
expensive-for-taxpayers transaction
involving the Burke Mountain lands, acquiring all 14 properties for
two-thirds of the appraised value, was Vancouver-based Wesbild
Holdings. In blowing the whistle on the sale to the legislature in the
spring of 2015, the then NDP Opposition noted that the company's
billionaire founder and chair, Hassan Khosrowshali, was a major donor
to the BC Liberals."
George Pearson Centre and
Dogwood Lodge
These two public health care
facilities on Cambie Street in Vancouver
comprised 25 acres. A SkyTrain line, which opened in 2009, runs
north-south
under Cambie. Onni developers bought both parcels from the government
in 2015-16 with plans to build thousands of housing units and
commercial spaces.
Onni bought Dogwood Lodge in
2015 for $85 million and immediately
subdivided the land into two lots and began seeking city construction
permits. By 2019, the same property, now cleared of buildings, was
appraised at $380 million.
Onni bought Pearson
Centre in 2016 for $217 million and subdivided
it into four lots. Officially appraised after its subdivision, the
market value of the four lots increased to $462 million.
Without
building anything, Onni turned the $302 million it paid to
the BC government for the public lands of the two health care centres
into a total assessed value of $842 million. This meant a possible
profit of $540 million merely for being privileged recipients of a
state-run pay-the-rich scheme. By building on the lots, the return for
the
Onni oligarchs in control will be even greater.
According
to the Elections BC website, the Onni oligarchs gave the
BC Liberal Party $575,000 and the BC NDP $115,000 between 2005 and 2018.
Cottonwood Lands
The NDP/Green Party
coalition government sold the Cottonwood Lands
in Maple Ridge, which comprised 11 public properties on 21 hectares (52
acres) for $20 million in September 2017. Developers Polygon and
Morningstar together bought the 11 parcels and subdivided them into 71
lots. The 2019 assessed value of just eight lots of the 71 exceeded the
original $20 million the government received for all 11 parcels.
Polygon also bought Steveston Secondary School in Richmond and
Coronation Park Elementary School in Coquitlam during the sell-off.
The Elections BC website says the Polygon oligarchs gave the
BC
Liberal Party $962,000 and the BC NDP $87,000 between 2005 and 2018.
Moody Centre SkyTrain Station
Developer
Ryan Beedie partnered with others to buy four public
properties near the new Moody Centre SkyTrain Station in 2017 and 2018
for a total of $29 million. The BC Liberal government initiated the
sale, which was completed after the BC NDP/Green Party coalition
government took power in 2017. Soon after Beedie took possession
of the four properties the appraised market value ballooned to
$116 million. Elections BC says Beedie donated $668,000 to the BC
Liberal Party between 2005 and 2018.
The Aquilini
Investment cartel, well-known for its ownership of the
Vancouver Canucks, during the same 2005-18 period gave $1.5 million to
the BC Liberal Party and $270,000 to the BC NDP. The Aquilini group
partnered with others in 2014 to purchase 40 acres of public property
in Burnaby for $58 million. The property is known as the
Willingdon Lands. Even though designated as "surplus," the government,
after selling the property which houses several mental health and drug
treatment centres, leased it back from the Aquilini group. The rental
fee has not been disclosed. By 2018 the appraised market value of the
property without any additional development has risen from
$58 million to $123 million. The Aquilini cartel has submitted a
"master plan" for development of the Willingdon Lands, which is now
before Burnaby City Council.
Lisa Moore, a
principal with the BC auditor general's office told the Vancouver Sun
that her office was aware of all the donations to the Liberals and the
NDP and the involvement of the donors in purchasing public
property. She said the donations did not violate the election rules in
force at the time.
The BC government changed the
rules governing donations to BC
political parties in November 2017, banning most donations from
companies and unions. The BC public treasury is now the largest source
of funds for the three cartel parties in the BC Legislature. The
government pays the cartel parties an annual allowance according to the
number of votes received in the election. In the two and a half years
prior to the 2020 BC election, the government paid out approximately
$16.5-million to the three cartel parties that have members in the
legislature.
To
be continued — Part Three: "BC
Sold 50 Schools and Educational Land Lots in Six Years and Now Faces a
Shortage of K-12 Space"
This article was published in
September 17, 2021 -
No. 84
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08844.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
