BC Assessment claims that its employees received reimbursements for memberships in a registered organization on the BC Lobbyists Registry. The organization, the Urban Development Institute (UDI) offers representation for private member companies involved in development and real estate that pay for its membership.
Evidence shows that BC Assessment purchased and renewed its memberships with the UDI over many years, and as recently as April of 2024. No evidence shows that any reimbursements were made to BC Assessment employees.
(This is the 3rd part of what has become a series of articles regarding Crown Corporations listed on the backed up copy of UDI’s hidden members directory).
By Sasha Izard
Oct 15, 2024
On September 27, 2024 I received a response package to a Freedom of Information request that I had made previously regarding BC Assessment’s membership in the Urban Development Institute.
In the FOI response package from BC Assessment it was written:
“To further assist with the Request, we provide the below noted information:
“BC Assessment reimburses employees for their membership with the Urban
Development Institute (UDI)
BC Assessment has not made a decision to discontinue or terminate
reimbursing employees for UDI memberships
We were unable to locate the “year” that BC Assessment began to reimburse
employees for UDI memberships
The oldest invoice BC Assessment has in relation to reimbursing a UDI
membership is from 2018, however, we understand BC Assessment
reimbursed employees for UDI memberships prior to 2018″
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On October 1, 2024 I made a Freedom of Information request to BC Assessment for “all records of BC Assessment staff being reimbursed for UDI fees”.
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On October 4, BC Assessment responded:
“Good afternoon,
Please find the attached correspondence in relation to your recent request for records.
Thank you,”
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The information that was sent to me in the brief FOI were the same invoices, receipt and emails that I was sent in my previous FOI as written about in the previous article that I wrote on BC Assessment.
These invoices, receipts and emails were regarding payments BC Assessment had been making over the years for its membership in the Urban Development Institute including a payment as recently as April of 2024, yet BC Assessment continues to deny that it is a member of the UDI despite the clear evidence from their own FOI response.
I sent the following email response to BC Assessment the same day on Oct 4:
Hello BC Assessment,
Not one of those invoices, emails, or receipt was a reimbursement of any staffer at BC Assessment.
Where are the records of reimbursements of BC Assessment staff for UDI memberships?
This is how dictionary.com defines reimbursement:
reimburse
verb
re·im·burseˌrē-əm-ˈbərs
reimbursed; reimbursing
1
: to pay back to someone : repay
reimburse travel expenses
2
: to make restoration or payment of an equivalent to
reimburse him for his traveling expenses
reimbursable
adjective
reimbursement
noun
Synonyms
Looking forward to your answer,
Sasha
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On October 7, 2024 BC Assessment responded to me:
“Good morning,
As noted on the attached, should you wish to request a review under section 52 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act please contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
Best,”
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OK, I get it, BC Assessment again didn’t want to answer my question, once I’d put clear information in front of them contradicting their own claims/information.
Nonetheless, I immediately responded to them (Oct 7):
Hello,
If I request a review under section 52 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act of the FOI response, as you stated, does that review include investigating whether or not material (including records) has not been included in the FOI response that should have been?
Thank you,
Sasha
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In a different email thread regarding another FOI response that BC Assessment had made mentioned in the previous article already linked to, I was also not receiving a response to my questions from BC Assessment, instead BC Assessment had previously thrown up the same sort of wall by telling me instead:
“BC Assessment conducted a thorough search of their records to provide a response to the attached freedom of information request.
As noted on the attached response letter, should you have concerns with BC Assessment’s response you may, pursuant to section 52 of FIPPA, request a review by the Commissioner. Please refer to the attached letter for how to request a review.”.
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On Oct 7, I also responded to that thread with the following email:
Hello BC Assessment, I wrote to you the following in regard to your FOI response, as seen in the email chain above:
“The receipt shows that BC Assessment, as a Crown Corporation does hold a paid membership with the Urban Development Institute.”
I have attached that receipt from your own Freedom of Information response to this email.
The information on the receipt shows that BC Assessment paid the Urban Development Institute for membership renewal on April 2, 2024.
In your previous email you wrote “our intention with the information provided was to make clear BC Assessment, as a crown corporation, does not hold a membership with Urban Development Institute.”
The receipt that you provided through your FOI response, shows that BC Assessment paid to renew its membership with the UDI in the spring of this year.
Question: On what basis can you claim that BC Assessment does not hold a membership with the Urban Development Institute, when the information on the receipt attached to this email shows that BC Assessment does hold a membership with the Urban Development Institute?
Not answering this simple question, will be deemed by myself as a refusal to answer it – and would indicate that BC Assessment has refused to explain its claim that it does not hold a membership with the Urban Development Institute, when the evidence provided by BC Assessment in a document in its FOI response, shows this to be false.
If this public governmental institution refuses to answer the question, it will be exposed to the public.
Responding to this email with an answer that is not directly related to my question, and without including the answer directly applicable to this question, will also be considered by myself to be a refusal to answer the question.
If you cannot provide a direct answer to the question that I have asked in regard to your own statement, then please direct me to the correct person who works at BC Assessment who can answer that question directly, without obfuscation and without delay tactics.
Thank you,
Sasha Izard
Attached to the email that I had sent was a copy of the receipt showing BC Assessments’ paid membership renewal with the Urban Development Institute made on April 2, 2024:
As the receipt above reveals, BC Assessment paid the UDI to renew BC Assessment’s membership in it. No payment can be seen made from BC Assessment to reimburse their employees for their UDI memberships as they claim.
If they were at all serious about backing their claim about employee reimbursements with facts, they could have pointed me to financial lines in their budget to indicate them. Instead they had presented no facts to back up their claims, and the information in the FOI response directly contradicted their claims that they did not hold a UDI membership.
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On October 15 there was still no response to either of my questions and I ceased to expect one.
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However, on October 15, 2024 I received a response from a different Crown Corporation: BC Transit, that proved that the Associate III level that BC Assessment had paid for (something that I proved in the previous article) was indeed a UDI membership held by Crown Corporations.
“Good morning,
I can confirm BC Transit has a paid membership with the Urban Development Institute at the Capital Region Associate III level.
Thank you, “
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The verdict?
BC Assessment’s claims of “reimbursing employees for UDI memberships” appears to be just that: nonsense/misinformation. The only reason I can figure for them making such unsubstantiated claims, is as a smokescreen to distract from the question I had raised about whether or not the organization had become a member of the UDI.
BC Transit has finally come clean and been honest about their membership with the UDI, while BC Assessment has not.
BC Transit has the same type of membership with the UDI that BC Assessment paid for in the spring of this year. Both Crown Corporations were listed as UDI members on the backed-up copy of the UDI’s members directory. The UDI pulled down their members directory from public view from their websites on November 21, 2023.
Why did BC Transit finally admit to what had become obvious?
So will begin the next part of our saga regarding Crown Corporations and the UDI’s hidden members directory.
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Update to article:: On Oct 19, 2024 I received as part of a Freedom of Information response from another government institution, the following message that had been sent to that institution warning about the change in membership system that took place on November 21, 2023 (the day the UDI pulled down all their branch websites, took to hiding their members directory, and put up a new site UDI.org):
The information although very difficult to read, shows that contrary to BC Assessment’s faulty narrative, memberships in the UDI are by organization. Employees can receive a member profile, but only under the aegis/umbrella of the corporate membership of the member organizations that they work for. Before seeing this, this membership system was something that I had already determined in this article through reviewing other material. I didn’t have this material available at the time, but it vindicates very clearly the conclusions that I had come to in this regard in the article.
Reference: Reimburse Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster
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See also:
BC Assessment denied that it is a paying member of a registered organization on the BC Lobbyists Registry. However, the evidence shows otherwise. – CRD Watch Homepage (Article 1)
How Crown Corporation BC Assessment’s Paid Membership with the Urban Development Institute is Being Obscured – CRD Watch Homepage (Article 2)
This article was the 3rd article in the series: BC Assessment claims that its employees received reimbursements for memberships in a registered organization on the BC Lobbyists Registry that represents private companies involved in development and real estate. – CRD Watch Homepage
This is the 4th and next article in the series: After a Comedic Exchange of Emails, BC Transit Admits that it has a Membership with the Urban Development Institute. The Implications of that for BC, may be more Tragic than Comic. – CRD Watch Homepage
Article 5: The Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia (LTSA) is a paying member of a registered lobbying organization for real estate and development. – CRD Watch Homepage
6. It’s Official: B.C. Provincial Government entities are reimbursing government employees for expenses spent on a registered lobbying organization representing corporate interests, involved in development and real estate. – CRD Watch Homepage
7. The federal department Public Services and Procurement Canada had (or still has) paid memberships in a lobbying organization for development and real estate interests. – CRD Watch Homepage
CRD Watch Homepage 
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