BC Housing estimates charging an outrageous $1768.50 combined, for 3 Freedom of Information Requests to do with basic financial and other information regarding payments to a registered lobbying organization that represents development and real estate interests.
By Sasha Izard Feb 8, 2025
On August 25, 2024 I emailed the BC crown corporation BC Housing to ascertain whether or not they still have a paid membership with the Urban Development Institute (UDI), an organization registered on the BC Lobbyists Registry. BC Housing was previously listed on the UDI’s members directory, which was hidden from the public in 2 phases at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. A backed-up copy from that time is still in myself and other’s possession.
BC Housing responded to my inquiry by recommending that I contact Corporate Services and “Unfortunately, Corporate Services does not have an email address and can only be contacted through the phone number provided.” It appeared that BC Housing didn’t want to provide an answer in writing, a pattern made apparent previously by various other crown corporations and other government entities.
Thus I began a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the crown corporation, the initial of which I will cover in a subsequent article.
Fast forward to Dec 27, 2024, BC Housing received from myself an additional 3 FOI requests. I had paid $10 each for the 3 FOI requests. The FOI requests that I made were for a moderate amount of information regarding payments made by BC Housing to the Urban Development Institute, and information around them, as well as information regarding funding the UDI had received from the crown corporation.
Previously I had been in a lengthy and protracted back and forth with BC Housing’s Freedom of Information department, over payments made for UDI memberships by the organization, that involved what looked like a serious lack of transparency regarding its accounting, and after many emails back and forth, and insisting that it must exist – at least one key document suddenly appeared out of the blue that should have been provided from the get-go.
On Jan 17, 2025 BC Housing estimated that the combined costs of my new FOI requests to be an outrageous and skyrocketing $1738.50 in addition to the $30 I had already paid for them coming to a whopping estimate of $1768.50 combined.
Does this look like democratic transparency and accountability before the public? Or, does it look like BC Housing has something to hide? The public can decide for itself after reading the organization’s response to the my FOI requests and the fee estimates below.
Is Freedom of Information in British Columbia really free, or is it merely a convenient way for the government to charge outrageous amounts from the public, in order to put a wall preventing public view around information when the government wants, and can’t merely otherwise legally redact (censor) it away?
The following are copies of the fee estimates that I received from BC Housing’s FIPPA department on Jan 17, 2025. On Jan 31, 2025 I informed BC Housing FIPPA I that I will be publishing these fee requests for the public to see in full and that if they have any questions, or comments, to please let me know. They did not respond.
As such, and without their having offered any objections, they are published below in full:
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A sequel to this article can be read here: The mysterious case of BC Housing’s paid memberships in a registered lobbying organization for real estate and development interests the Urban Development Institute (UDI), and how it revealed that a top BC Housing official was pushing for the crown corporation’s membership renewal in the UDI, while they were also simultaneously a UDI director. – CRD Watch Homepage
This article was the eighth installment of a series of articles about Crown Corporations and other governmental entities in Canada that have been evasive about their paid memberships in the UDI:
1. 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
2. How Crown Corporation BC Assessment’s Paid Membership with the Urban Development Institute is Being Obscured – CRD Watch Homepage (Article 2)
3. 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
4. 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
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
8. BC Housing estimates charging an outrageous $1768.50 combined, for 3 Freedom of Information Requests to do with basic financial and other information regarding payments to a registered lobbying organization that represents development and real estate interests. – CRD Watch Homepage
CRD Watch Homepage 
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