Registered Organization on the BC Lobbyists Registry: Urban Development Institute (UDI) Board Directors Officiate Over ‘University of Victoria’ (“UVic”) “Student Group”

Registered Organization on the BC Lobbyists Registry: Urban Development Institute (UDI) Board Directors Officiate Over ‘University of Victoria’ (“UVic”) “Student Group”

By Sasha Izard
July 25, 2024

Early this year in January 2024, I wrote an article exposing that the UVic Real Estate Club appeared to be acting as a lobby for the development/real estate industries. In particular, they appeared to be operating as a front wittingly or otherwise, for the Urban Development Institute (UDI), a registered lobbyist organization on the BC Lobbyists Registry.

The UVicRec’s predecessor was the UVic Urban Development Club (UDC), which had very close ties to the UDI. The UVicRec was also generously funded by the UDI and UDI member companies.

The UVicRec first came to my attention when attending Saanich Council meetings. Time and again representative(s) of the club and students would speak in favour of projects and often controversial ones being proposed by UDI member companies, both in Saanich and in the City of Victoria as well.

After my exposé of the UVicRec and it’s numerous connections to the UDI, the representatives/students of the UVicRec appeared to have stopped attending meetings in Saanich (at least I hadn’t seen them there) and from what I’d heard from residents in the City of Victoria, they hadn’t noticed club members attending/speaking at Victoria City Hall either.

As such, between the publishing of the article early in the year and up to a few days ago, the UVicRec presence at council meetings for the most part had fallen out of sight and out of mind for myself. That is until a few days ago, when I pondered the metaphorical crickets chirping from that direction and it dawned on me to see what they were up to.

I found to my surprise that their website now includes, as I write this, a Board of Directors page, something that doesn’t seem to have been there until relatively recently. Previous snapshots of the site uvicrealestate.com on archive.org from the previous year don’t show a link to it.

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Two Organizations
Same Board Members

Upon looking at the UVicRec Board of Directors page, I was immediately struck by many familiar faces having, followed and reported on the UDI’s exploits for some time. The vast majority on the “student group” Board, 6 out of 8 (or 75%) of it were either currently on the UDI Board of Directors, or they were on it previously. Included on the Board is the Executive Director of the UDI Capital Region at the time of writing.

The introductory text on the Board of Directors Page is as follows:

“Board of Directors

UVic Real Estate is the first student group at the University of Victoria to have a Board of Directors made up entirely of industry professionals. Keep reading to meet the leaders mentoring the UVic Real Estate team.”

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At this point I was really floored. Those involved with the UDI had been pretty brazen in the past, but this seemed to take the cake. Since when is a “student group” “made up entirely of industry professionals”? This may be a “first” at UVic as they claim, but I don’t know if that is something to be proud of…

Isn’t a student group supposed to be led by students?

The following is a screenshot from the UVic Real Estate Club website at the time of writing:

Looking further down, one might even get the impression that this is a student-led board based on the pictures of the 2 UVicRec co-founders at top:

Until one moves down to the next row:

Kathy Whitcher (left) is the Executive Director of the UDI Capital Region at the time of writing, as she has been for some time. Whitcher told View Royal Council at the September 12, 2023, Committee of the Whole that “UDI is not a lobbying group”, while she was incidentally registered as UDI in-house lobbyist on the BC Lobbyists Registry, along with the UDI’s organizational registration.[i]

To her immediate right is listed Mack Carson who is also on the Board of Directors at the UDI Capital Region at the time of writing. His UDI Board profile reads: “Regional Committee Director[Director, Mortgage Origination, Canada ICI]”

According to his LinkedIn profile:

“Mack is currently based out of Victoria, and is focused on land, multifamily, and industrial financing across Western BC. To date, Mack has been involved in securing over $1 Billion in capital for clients. He is part UDI Capital Region U40 Committee, the UDI Colwood Industry Liaison, and is a current faculty member of the UDI RED Management Certificate Program instructing on Proforma skills.”[ii]

To Carson’s right is Amanda Neil. Her LinkedIn profile at the time of writing reads: “Amanda is a partner and owner of Devencore Realty Victoria Ltd., she sits on the Board of Directors for the Capital Region Urban Development Institute (UDI), and is a member of the Victoria Real Estate Board Commercial Division (VREB).”[iii] She was also according to the profile, senior Vice President of Avison Young, a company which is listed as a Silver Tier partner (sponsor) of the UVicRec. (The UDI is a diamond tier partner (sponsor) of the UVicRec).[iv]

Continuing to the next column, one sees:

Justin Filuk (left) according to his LinkedIn Profile[v] worked for The Salient Group, Starlight Investments, Aryze Developments, Townline, and BC Housing, all of which have been UDI member organizations. Also, according to this profile, he was on the Board of the UDI Capital Region. Starlight is at the time of writing listed as a Gold Tier partner (sponsor) of the UVicRec, and Aryze is listed as a Bronze Tier partner (sponsor) of the “student group”.

To Justin’s right is Lauren Antifeau. Her UDI Board profile reads:

“Lauren Antifeau

Regional Committee Director [Provincial Director of Redevelopment, BC Housing]”

Antifeau, like Justin worked for UDI members BC Housing and Townline, according to her LinkedIn profile.[vi] She was also according to her profile UDI Capital Region U40 Committee Chair and previously Vice Chair of that committee.

Finally, to Antifeau’s right is listed Gary Pooni. Pooni is on the UDI Board of Directors at the time of writing. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has been President of the Pooni Group for 2 decades. At the time of writing, UDI member Pooni Group is listed as a Bronze Tier partner (sponsor) of the UVicRec.

The following are screenshots from the UDI’s website (UDI.org) at the time of writing, showing the board of directors of the UDI Capital Region. Notice any familiar names?

So there it is: 6 out of 8 people on the UVicRec’s board of directors at the time of writing, either are currently on the UDI Board of directors (4), or have been in the past (2).

The UVicRec partners page has a picture of UDI Executive Director Kathy Whitcher (speaker situated at far right) addressing a group of listeners:

Johnathon Cook, one of the co-founders of the UVicRec did a 3 month financial internship with UDI member company Chard Development Ltd. in 2023.

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The following are two screenshots of the April 2, 2024 Spring Social Program for the UVicRec held in the atrium building owned by UDI member Jawl Properties (Robert Jawl junior was a former president of the UDI):

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The vision statement on the UVicREC’s website reads:

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

At the time of writing, the UVicREC’s LinkedIn page[vii] states:

“About us

UVic Real Estate 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 Real Estate offering you can explore our website, sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter, or send us an email at hello@uvicrealestate.com.

Website

https://uvicrealestate.com/

Industry

Real Estate

Company size

11-50 employees

Headquarters

Victoria

Type

Educational

Founded

2022”

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So, what exactly is the UVicRec? The UVicRec refers to itself as a “club” and a “student group”. Is it actually a registered club with the UVic Students Society? I haven’t found an answer searching online.

The UVicRec’s Board leadership indicates very clearly that the majority of power resides in a combination of current and past board members of the Urban Development Institute, a registered organization on the BC Lobbyists Registry that advances the interests of its paying member companies that it offers “representation” to through membership to multiple levels of government.

This does not appear to me to be a student group at all, but rather an example of lobbyist astroturfing on campus. You are welcome to your own opinion as to what this club represents and what it’s real purpose really is.

Whatever its true nature, the UVic’s current President Kevin Hall is someone, who should have an idea about it. He provided an interview with the organization, which can be watched on Youtube, in which he discussed potential developments on campus, and the need to secure more funding for construction and working with developers.[viii] UVic has seen considerable development in recent years involving UDI member companies, including Colliers and Chandos.

A document on the City of Victoria webpage shows the UDI lobbied side by side with supposedly politically non-partisan (publicly funded) UVic to convince the City of Victoria to adopt so-called “missing middle housing”, something the UDI had been advancing years previously. The document was dated to May 2, 2022. The issue became a key election issue, which was subsequently passed in the City of Victoria after the October 2022 election.

Around the same time as the UVic document, Kathy Whitcher, the UDI’s executive director advanced through the UDI’s permanent seat on the CRD’s Regional Housing Advisory Committee “missing middle housing”.

The minutes of the June 29, 2022 Regional Housing Advisory Committee meeting at the CRD include the following text:

“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).”

In this regard it is worth recalling the 3 keystones of the UVicRec (Whitcher is on the board of directors):

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

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