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The Municipal Finance Authority reveals how much it paid UBCM for sponsorship of the 2024 keynote address by George Stromboulopoulos. UBCM however, continues to stonewall.


By Sasha Izard
Nov 8, 2025


This fall, I’ve been writing a whole series of articles about the Union of BC Municipalities’ shocking lack of transparency. You can read about them in the following index:

Index of articles and other material regarding the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) – CRD Watch Homepage

The previous two articles in the series were:

6. How much was George Stroumboulopoulos paid, for being Keynote Speaker for the 2024 UBCM Conference? – CRD Watch Homepage

7. No Transparency: The Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) denies that it is subject to Freedom of Information legislation. – CRD Watch Homepage

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In article 6, my dialogue with Peter Urban, the CEO of the Municipal Finance Authority left off, with my freedom of information request sent to him on October 24, 2025:

Hello MFA,

Thank you for your response.

I submit the following Freedom of Information request.

I would like to see the documents, showing all the money that the Municipal Finance Authority paid to UBCM in 2024.

Thank you,
Sasha


[The FOI was partly a test, as it appears that the Municipal Finance Authority like UBCM, does not consider itself subject to Freedom of Information legislation.]

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On October 29, 2025 Peter Urbanc responded,

Sasha,

I can confirm that MFA paid UBCM a total of CAD $18,630 in connection with the 2024 UBCM Convention.  CAD$18,000 was paid as a general sponsor of the 2024 Convention.  We also paid UBCM CAD$630 to rent a room used to conduct MFA’s 2024 semi-annual general meeting that took place during the Convention.

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I replied,

Thank you Peter,

Where are the documents requested?

– Sasha

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Urbanc wrote back:

Call me tomorrow or give me a time to call you. 

Peter

[He left a telephone #]

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I wrote back:

Hi Peter,

I can’t receive documents by phone.

Please send the documents by email,
Sasha

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Urbanc responded:

“See attached.”

[The attachment was titled 2024_UBCM_Invoices.pdf
The 2 page document is below.]

Note: In all my “FOI” inquiries, I’ve never previously as far as I recall, been sent a document where it appears the redactions were made using the program “Paintbrush”. This however is the form I received the documentation in from the Municipal Finance Authority of British Columbia.

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I replied,

Hi Peter,

Thank you for your response.

Where is the document(s) showing proof of payment?

i.e. those are the numbers on the invoice.  Were those the total amounts paid by the MFA for those items?

Thank you again,
Sasha

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Urbanc responded several days later,

Yes, of course, I can confirm amounts on the invoice were exact amounts paid.  There are no “documents” showing proof of payments.  Peter

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I replied,

Hi Peter,

Fair enough.

Thank you.

You have been much more forthcoming with documentation and answers in this regard than UBCM has.

– Sasha

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Which takes us back to UBCM. While I now know that the Municipal Finance Authority (MFA) paid $9500 to UBCM to sponsor the 2024 Keynote Address by George Stromboulopoulos, I still do not know how much money he and/or his agent or agency was paid in total for the keynote address. It could be that the MFA’s sponsorship money for the address was only a fraction of what Stromboulopoulos was paid in total for the keynote address. Afterall, as I showed in an earlier article, Stromboulopoulos has advertised on the internet through an agency a fee range for speaking at events ranging from $35,000 to $50,000 USD.

UBCM openly refused my FOI request as mentioned in the previous article in the series. I subsequently reported UBCM to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) for refusing an FOI request. So far the OIPC, has yet to respond.

My FOI request sent to UBCM on Oct 24, 2025 was: I am submitting a Freedom of Information request for all documents showing the sponsorship and other arrangements for George Stroumboulopoulos to be keynote speaker at UBCM in 2024.

While I did not receive a response from the Minister of, or Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs; as to whether or not UBCM and the Municipal Finance Authority are subject to freedom of information legislation (FOIPPA), I did receive a response on Oct 28, 2025 from the Ministry of Citizens Services, which is responsible for Freedom of Information operations.

Hello Sasha,

Both of these would process their own requests outside of our FOI process. You will need to contact them directly.

Thank you,

Merissa Hughes | Intake and Development Team Lead – CIAPP-C

FOI Operations | Ministry of Citizens’ Services

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I replied the same day,

Hello Ministry of Citizen’s Services Information Access Operations,

You didn’t answer my question.

I wrote:

I am writing to ask you whether or not the Union of BC Municipalities, and the Municipal Finance Authority are subject to BC’s Freedom of Information legislation (FOIPPA).

Please answer with a yes, or a no.  Are these bodies subject to FOIPPA or not?

Thank you again,
Sasha

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After over 10 days, I have not heard back from them.

Today I wrote:

Hello Ministry of Citizens Services,

Are you going to answer the question?

Thank you again,
Sasha

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Asking a second time from a bureaucracy is often the only way to get a response, if one arrives at all. Otherwise, often one will be waiting forever, for a response that never arrives.

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See also:

Index of articles and other material regarding the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) – CRD Watch Homepage