UVic Real Estate Club 2025 Spring Industry Social once again shows how the club is inseparable from the UDI, its finances, and its agenda.

UVic Real Estate Club 2025 Spring Industry Social once again shows how the club is inseparable from the UDI, its finances, and its agenda.

By Sasha Izard
April 5, 2025

In numerous previous articles, I have exposed that the UVic Real Estate Club and its predecessor the UVic Urban Development Club (UDC) have been overwhelmingly under the influence of the Urban Development Institute (UDI) a registered lobbying organization for development and real estate interests.

Earlier this year, the UVic Real Estate Club was compelled to rename its Board of Directors (overwhelmingly represented by the UDI’s own leadership), the “Advisory Board.“

The UVicREC’s Industry Spring Social held on April Fools day 2025 (no joke), showed that the UDI’s influence is as alive and well as ever.

“Check out shots from the gorgeous Hudson House penthouse floor where we’ll be hosting our final and biggest event of the year.“

Because you know the penthouse floor is the gateway to affordable student housing.

Who will be profiting from rentals in the building? Well it is owned by Townline, whose CEO is the head of the UDI in British Columbia.

One of the UVicREC Board members is Lauren Antifeau who worked for Townline for years, prior to becoming the Provincial Director of Redevelopment at B.C. Housing, and who just happens to have been described as the admin of BC Housing’s UDI membership. Antifeau also worked for worked for Townline’s subsidiary TL Housing Solutions, which is situated in the building.

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

The description of the event posted by the club on Luma was as follows:

“Join us at The Hudson House to celebrate the end of the school year with an exclusive networking event connecting 100 students and industry professionals.

This is a unique opportunity to strengthen the relationships you’ve built at our events throughout the year and expand your professional network.

Enjoy the opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations over light refreshments as we close out the year on a high note.”

The event schedule was more telling:

To put the event schedule into perspective: the event began with a 5 minute welcome speech, followed by Kathy Whitcher the UDI Capital Region’s Executive Director and simultaneous UVic Real Estate Club Advisory Board member, announcing the placements in a competition to hand out $850 in prizes, followed by the Announcement of the club’s new president, and an hour of “networking” between students and industry professionals and then the event ended.

The UVic Real Estate Club’s motto is: “Education, Networking, Advocacy.”

In 2023, the UDI advertised to its industry members, connecting with UVic Real Estate Club students for UDI member company’s public hearings, followed by Whitcher advertising for local government officials to be involved in the UDI’s advocacy work. The UDI files vast amounts of lobbying activities on the BC Lobbyists Registry as “advocating”.

The UDI advertised this event as well to its members. How else did that 2 to 1 ratio of students and industry professionals meeting come to be?

Where did all that prize money for the event come from?

The top sponsor of the UVic Real Estate club, is the UDI, followed by its member companies.

The UDI Capital Region’s Executive Director Kathy Whitcher currently serves on the UVic Real Estate Club “Advisory Board”. She can be seen featured on the UVicRec “Partners” (Sponsors) page at the right with the microphone: Partners — UVic Real Estate

Whitcher previously told View Royal Council on Sept 12, 2023 that “UDI is not a lobbying group.” It turned out that she was registered on the BC Lobbyists Registry at the time, and at the time of writing, as the UDI’s in-house lobbyist.

At the UVicRec Spring Industry Social, she got to announce the placement winners of the Case Competition that involved $850 of prize handouts.

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Why does UVic’s student newspaper, The Martlet refuse to report on the merging of lobby and state on campus, with a so-called students group, that doesn’t even qualify for UVSS membership because it involves industry players. Players, that have been directing and financing the organization, as its student members have repeatedly shown up as groups at public hearings lobbying local governments in favour of the development proposals of the same companies?

Perhaps those involved with The Martlet are preparing themselves for a future career in a decaying and subservient media industry, that if it doesn’t turn a blind eye to the government’s ongoing collaboration and funding of the lobby, itself actively collaborates with it. The UDI has a Communications membership category open to media, and the Times Colonist has been a paying member, media partner and sponsor of the UDI.

From the Udicapitalregion.ca’s homepage, before the website was taken down in the fall of 2023:

Yes, government, the media, and the development industry, certainly do converge, and they have great difficulty being at arm’s length.

Note: Gary Pooni of Pooni Group is on the UVic Real Estate Club “Board of Advisors” (recently compelled to be renamed from the very recent “UVic Real Estate Club Board of Directors”.
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Here are 2 screenshots of last year’s (2024) UVicRec Spring Social program: held in the atrium building owned by UDI member Jawl Properties (Robert Jawl junior was a former president of the UDI) and was present at the event:

Quite a similar format isn’t it?

A 5 minute welcome speech, followed by Victoria’s former mayor making some quick remarks, The UVicRec’s new president then being announced followed by a keynote speech by the head of a UDI member company, half an hour of “networking”, and the end of the event.

A video of the event showed Calabrian bubbly being poured for the students. The video also included the former Housing Solutions Advisor to the Premier/current lead of BC Builds Lisa Helps and it also showed Robert Jawl. Byron Chard who held the keynote speech is the head of Chard Developments and can be seen speaking in the video. David Chard, the founder of Chard developments was the head of the UDI.

Both Chard Developments and UVic have overlapped interests before.
Redevelopment proposal for Broad Street – University of Victoria

UVic Properties was a member of the UDI according to the backed-up copy of the UDI’s now hidden members directory, and likely still is today.

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