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UVic Real Estate Club Seeking New Hires: Job Descriptions Appear to Describe Lobbying Activities

By Sasha Izard
Feb 11, 2025

The UVic Real Estate club was recently compelled to rename its Board of Directors the “Advisory Board”, after it was exposed that 6 out of 8 of the Board are non-students being 4 current and 2 past directors of the same registered lobbying organization for development and real estate interests, the Urban Development Institute (UDI).

In addition, the overwhelming financing of the so-called students club also comes from the UDI and its paying member companies, while students under the UVICRec banner have been speaking at numerous public hearings in favour of UDI member company projects, while the UDI was advertising to its paying members connecting to the UVic Real Estate club for their public hearings and hosting UVicRec events on their company properties.

Now the UVic Real Estate Club has released a hiring package due on Feb 28, 2025, as it is looking for new hires to fill its positions. Let’s look at some of the job descriptions:

Wait, I thought UVic, as it receives public funding was supposed to be non-political, yet here we see the job description for a Vice President of “Political Engagement” that connects students with key industry and government stakeholders, fostering discussions on real estate policy, market regulations and urban development through events and so-called advocacy initiatives (The UDI registers its lobbying activities as “advocating”), building partnerships with policymakers, industry leaders and organizations.

That’s right a Vice President of events will work closely with the executive team and with an advisory board overwhelmingly made of non-student lobby directors current and past from the same lobbying organization to build a comprehensive event schedule. Well nothing unusual for the club and its predecessor the UVic Urban Development Club. It always appeared as if the UDI was arranging their events schedule ever since they were founded, and now we have the official text that the UVicRec will be working closely with an advisory board dominated by the UDI’s present and past directors to do it.

“Plan events that align with the REC core values of education, networking and advocacy.”

Or as the UVicRec website put it:

Guess what the UDI’s motto in comparison is?

“Connection Education Advocacy Research”

“Research new points of contact for potential industry partners across Western Canada. Collaborate with the VP of External Relations to update and share sponsorship opportunities with the real estate industry. Conduct outreach to industry partners about event and engagement opportunities”.

What I find really amazing here is that the UVic Rec makes no connection between

“Collaborate with the VP of External Relations to update and share sponsorship opportunities with the real estate industry.”

and the club speaking in droves under the UVicRec banner at public hearings in favour of their corporate sponsors in the real estate industry.

What the UVicRec, the Commerce Students Society and the Gustavson School of Business, needs in my view, is a course on conflict of interest, and in particular on UVic’s own guidelines around it.

Networking with and being advised by directors of a registered lobbying group, and networking with their paying member companies that are financing the club, and then advocating to government on their behalf is well, you guessed it lobbying.

That UVic and the Gustavson School of Business continues to allow this to happen begs the question not only of undue influence from the development and real estate industry on post-secondary education in British Columbia, but also of corporate capture of the institution.

Is UVic an independent publicly funded institution, or has it allowed itself to become a lobbying arm of the development industry?

A clue to this may come from the City of Victoria website, in which a document signed by UVic’s President Kevin Hall, and another by the UDI shows that UVic and the UDI were lobbying in parallel for so-called “missing middle” (yet non-affordable) housing, prior to the last local government election. The UDI document was signed by the UDI Capital Region’s Executive Director Kathy Whitcher, who currently serves on the UVic Real Estate Club “Advisory Board”and whose image is featured on the UVicRec “Partners” (Sponsors) page at the right with the microphone at the time of writing: Partners — UVic Real Estate

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Bibliography:

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

UVIC Real Estate Club compelled to rename its Board of Directors the “Advisory Board” after it turned out that the board was overwhelmingly dominated by current and past Directors from the same Provincially registered development/real estate lobbying organization. 6 out of 8 of the UVIC club Board members as it turned out, were not students attending UVIC. – CRD Watch Homepage

UDI (registered lobbying organization) Newsletter from March 2023 Advertised “connecting with the University of Victoria Real Estate Club for your next public hearing” – CRD Watch Homepage

Surely, that must be the other way around? University of Victoria (UVic) paid lobbying group $500 for the group to have a tour of UVic’s facilities, and a month earlier, $577.50 for a UVic staffer to take the lobbying group’s course on “Community Relations”. – CRD Watch Homepage

Urban Development Institute / Anne McMullin, President & CEO – 12-Month Lobbying Summary – Lobbyists Registry – Office of the Registrar or Lobbying of BC
(Accessed: Nov 16, 2024)

Is the UVic Real Estate Club Acting as a Lobby for the Development and Real Estate Industries in Greater Victoria? – Sasha Izard

LETTER: UVic club has close ties to Urban Development Institute – Saanich News

LETTER: Club’s pro-development stance weakens UVic’s reputation – Saanich News

LETTER: Local governments should distance themselves from lobbyists – Saanich News

The Urban Development Institute (UDI) Caught Misleading the Public Again – CRD Watch Homepage

UVICRealEstate.com
(Accessed: Nov 16, 2024)


Partners — UVic Real Estate (The list of sponsors of the UVIC Real Estate Club)
(Accessed: Nov 16, 2024)

UDI.org
(Accessed: Nov 16, 2024)


Leadership | UDI – Urban Development Institute (Click on Capital Region in the blue bar under Leadership to see the Directors of the UDI Capital Region)

(Accessed: Nov 16, 2024)

Archived copy of the UDI Capital Region website, which was taken down and replaced with UDI.org in late 2023: UDI Capital Region – Your voice in the local development industry

Board of Directors – UDI Capital Region Archived copy of the UDI Capital Region Board of Directors (late 2023)

City of Victoria website: filestream.ashx