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BC Housing claims records don’t exist regarding a previous membership in a lobbying organization, but at the same time estimates charging me over $1000 to find information about that membership.

By Sasha Izard
March 27, 2025

In several previous articles (see links at end), it was revealed that BC Housing’s Provincial Director of Redevelopment is also simultaneously a director of a development/real estate lobby, while pressing to get BC Housing’s latest membership in the branch they are a director on paid, and that this transaction took place.

I also showed that BC Housing has estimated charging over $1700 for combined 3 Freedom of Information requests on the issue of membership and other payments the crown corporation has made to the registered lobbying organization.

Now BC Housing is claiming that they have no evidence for previous payment(s) for a specific membership and that no evidence of the predecessors of that specific membership exists.

Yet, I have evidence in the form of communications from BC Housing’s previous Freedom of Information response that the previous membership existed. While in contrast, they are saying that no payments for it were made, they simultaneously have estimated charging me over $1000 for records regarding the specific membership.

If they only ever made one payment for this specific membership for the latest period (Nov 2, 2024 -Nov 1, 2025), why the ransom-like cost estimate for information about the payment and about the previous membership?

Is BC Housing trying to charge for their equivalent of Schrödinger’s cat paradox?|

The paradox was a thought experiment that offered the possibility that something can exist in one place, and not exist in the same place – at the same time.

Is BC Housing simply trying to get over $1000 from me for something they claim doesn’t exist?

Or is BC Housing simply making elaborate ruses not to reveal something?


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The background:

The following is the initial response to a freedom of information request that I made to BC Housing:

The estimated cost BC Housing gave me was $1048.50 for information about the membership. The cost of the UDI Capital Region Secondary Associate II membership was $1000 + 5% GST ($1050), just $1.50 more.

Is BC Housing trying to get me to pay for their membership in a lobbying organization for development and real estate?

What do I a member of the public get for that price, some bare bones information about it? Would I even get that?

On Feb 28, 2025,

I received an acknowledgment asking whether I would like to proceed, from the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner regarding my first FOI request to BC Housing that I had complained about previously. That FOI is (BC Housing file: 292-30-09324), which was written about in this article. The file # for the complaint is: OIPC File: INV-F-24-98808

I asked the OIPC several questions one of which was the following:

“It appears likely that there were other invoices and/or receipts related to the UDI Capital Region Associate II membership, as the FOI material reveals the membership was discussed and a renewal was being asked for, thus a previous UDI Capital Region Associate II membership should have existed.  These also did not materialize.”

From the FOI response:

Thank you,
Sasha

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The OIPC responded to my question:

“I did reach out to BC Housing regarding your below questions. BC Housing advised our office that no receipts/invoices exist regarding your below request because no payment was made. BC Housing provided correspondence in which they informed you of this previously.”

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I replied: Do you mind copying and pasting that section of correspondence?

BC Housing is putting the cart before the horse.  Invoices can exist without any payment being made. 

If the p-card records were not searched, which they weren’t, how can they know that no payment was made? 

It was stated in their communications: “The caveat with this info is that if folks pay for any memberships directly on p-card without going through the proper process of using TMS for the membership approval and tracking, there is no access to that data.”

This is what it states on p.44 of the FOI request:

The UDI Capital Region Secondary Associate II membership was said in BC Housing communications to expire on November 1, of 2024.

How can it have been said by a BC Housing employee to be set to expire, if it didn’t exist?

I made a subsequent FOI about this specific membership.  BC Housing’s FIPPA department replied that it would cost over $1000 to find the information, about the same cost of the entire membership itself and likely requiring about 35 hours of work by BC Housing.

If it doesn’t exist, and there are no records of payments, then why on earth are they estimating to charge me over $1000 dollars for finding information about them?

Thank you,
Sasha Izard

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The OIPC responded:


I have attached an email thread provided from BC Housing. On page 17 a member of BC Housing states

“Based on our review of records, we believe that the receipt of payment does not exist because the membership renewal amount was not paid. BC Housing reached out to UDI who confirmed that they are awaiting payment for this renewal and that the invoice is still outstanding.”

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I replied:


Very simple logic here:

How could the UDI have been awaiting for a renewal payment, if what was being renewed didn’t exist previously?

Thank you,
Sasha

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See also:

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

Part 2: 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

Index of Crown Corporations and Statutory Entities that have acted evasively about their UDI memberships. – CRD Watch Homepage