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Fact Checking the UDI Capital Region Executive Director’s Claim that Some First Nations Organizations are Among the UDI’s Members

August 25, 2024
By Sasha Izard

At the September 12, 2023 View Royal Committee of the Whole, the Urban Development Institute (UDI) Capital Region’s Executive Director explained to View Royal Council about the organization’s activities, after it had become apparent that the District had joined the UDI without a vote by elected officials and without their knowledge, and an explanation needed to be made.

Perhaps the most striking of the Executive Directors’ claims that night was “UDI is not a lobbying group.” The UDI is a registered organization on the BC Lobbyists Registry, and the Executive Director who made that claim was registered at the time on it as the UDI’s “in-house lobbyist”. Two months and a week later, View Royal Council was unanimously ratifying their decision to discontinue their membership with the lobbying organization.

Another statement that when fact checked, appeared to not hold water that night involved projections of coming UDI liaison Committees to various municipalities.

Another statement made that night was worth looking into:

“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,“

The UDI’s British Columbia chapters pulled down their Members Directory from the public eye less than 2 and a half months afterward.

However, predicting this was imminent, with BC Bill-44 being tabled at that time and the embarrassing issue of paid Government memberships in the registered lobbyist organization reaching public attention; some forward thinking members of the public made a backup copy of the UDI’s Members Directory.

The backed-up UDI members directory (November 2023) contains 5 First Nations organizations listed:

1. M’akola Development Services
2. Musqueam Capital Corporation (Greater Vancouver) Vancouver.
3. Nch‘ḵay̓ Development Corporation of the Squamish Nation.
4. Songhees Development Corporation (Victoria)
5. Westbank First Nation (Kelowna)
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Fact Check Conclusion: True, although whether mostly true or barely true; the reader can determine on their own.

The Executive Director’s statement was a bit vague regarding the First Nations. Was she referring to First Nations bands, First Nations development organizations, or First Nation non-profit housing providers?

While the list is not lengthy, and there aren’t too many plurals in the categories; a combination of all of the above (as seen listed) can be found on a backed-up copy of the UDI’s now hidden Members Directory.

Although the UDI’s track record on the veracity of its statements, has not been particularly good including that night; the Executive Director was correct, to a certain degree on this subject, in that some First Nations organizations are members of the UDI.

5 First Nations organizations were listed out of around 1100 organizational entries at the time of November 2023, accounting for around 0.45% of the UDI’s membership base in British Columbia at that time.

Only 1 First Nation band was listed as a UDI member in the backed-up members directory. There are over 200 First Nations bands in British Columbia, and many First Nations organizations in addition are also present in the province. Thus the one band’s membership in the UDI accounts for less than 0.5% of the First Nations bands in British Columbia.

The UDI has yet to release a statement about its corporate members’ innumerable constructions and plans/proposals for construction on numerous unceded lands of indigenous peoples.


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