BC, Canada, economy, hype, politics, prices

BC seeks Ottawa support on money laundering

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The BC Attorney General is headed to Ottawa to ask for more support to crack down on money laundering.

He plans to outline the challenges here in BC before the federal Finance Committee.

“The issues that we’re grappling with around real estate and casinos, and the seriousness of the impact that gang violence has when these gangs are able to launder money,” he outlines.

“The federal government has a huge role to play in supporting British Columbia in our fight against money laundering. The role really includes key actors like Fintrac, which is the anti-money laundering agency that receives all the reports from casinos, realtors, [and] notaries,” says Eby.

He believes drug dealers and other criminals have been spending millions of dollars in illegally gained cash at local casinos and then getting clean bills back in return. He has said the issue is so prevalent here, experts call it “the Vancouver Model.”

He’s pushing for more support and coordination to clamp down on money laundering. He also wants more public accountability.

Read the full article here.

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Lost...but not Leased

Re Green Party Weaver , Furstenau and Olsen Weaver won in both 2013 and 2017 election and in 2nd place both times was a Liberal. Weaver riding is “Oak Bay Gordon Head”..population of approx, 48,000 He had approx, 15,000 votes…approx 8,000 more than 2nd place Liberal Furstenau won by approx 4,000 votes(approx. total,11,500) in the riding of “Cowichan” (population of approx. 55,000…..2nd place was NDP) Olsen also won by about 4,000 votes(approx. total 14,800 ) in the riding of “Saanich and the Islands” (southern Gulf Islands) Population of approx 53,000……2nd place was NDP. So???? ALL 3 RIDINGS are literally connected at the southerly tip of Vancouver Island. Why do they vote GREEN ? and in a cluster? Regardless, all of BC is held hostage to the whims of the voters in these 3 ridings. As noted..NDP came in 2nd place… Read more »

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Selective Memory

You seem troubled that the Greens hold the balance of power with only 3 seats. But of course they won 16% of the popular vote, which would give them about 14 MLAs if seats were fairly allocated. Maybe you’d feel less outraged if we had PR?

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patriotz

From Andy7 at HHV. I can’t verify the sale price, maybe someone else can. Back in the 1980’s a friend of mine bought a house on the same street for $150K.

A recent west side of Vancouver sale (SFH/ Point Grey)

4117 w 11th ave.
Listed $3,388,000.
Assessed $3,704,600.
Sold $2,880,000.

$825,000 below assessed and $500,000 below listed

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Name

prices are really starting to slide at the high end.

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Spec

Getting harder for Poloz to deny the inevitable “Loonie rallies as rising inflation boosts rate hike chances”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-forex/canadian-dollar-rallies-as-rising-inflation-boosts-rate-hike-chances-idUSKBN1GZ22M

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Burnabonian

Poloz seems to be the only person who thinks that Poloz will not be hiking rates.

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Dave

That’s funny because it’s true.

The market knows what he doesn’t which is that rising US rates and an improving US economy are going to force his hand.

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Just me

Poloz is still hoping he can pull off a soft landing for housing while stimulating the economy through a weak currency.

Won’t work.

This is what happens when you put someone mediocre in charge.

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Doomcouver

Almost made me spit out my coffee. It’s hilarious because it’s true. The BoC has very little wiggle room to enact policy counter to what the Fed is doing. We almost always move relatively in lock-step with them or face some serious economic backlash if our rates are much higher or lower than theirs. Poloz talks a big game but when the rubber hits the road he’ll fall in line like all his predecessors did.

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Name

Landlords are collecting too much personal information: BC privacy commissioner

http://www.news1130.com/2018/03/22/landlords-personal-information-privacy/

“Landlords are over-collecting information, when it comes to prospective tenants looking for accommodation,” says Drew McArthur, the acting privacy commissioner. “We found 10 out of 13 landlords that required credit checks for prospective tenants — and credit checks are not appropriate, if you’ve got good references.”

credit checks and ‘good’ references mean nothing anyways. just because someone has good credit doesn’t mean they will pay their rent on time and references can be easily faked.

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Shut It Down Already (original)

Most people with good credit have a proven history of paying bills on time. That’s sort of the point.

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Name

someone can have bad credit and still pay their rent on time. people can get a bad credit score for many reasons but it doesn’t always mean they are deadbeats.

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Shut It Down Already (original)

Mostly there’s a strong correlation. Not always. Mostly.

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Doomcouver

Well the rental yields are pure garbage thanks to the housing bubble. I guess that makes landlords extra paranoid about prospective tenants.

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Name

OTTAWA – Canada’s national annual inflation rate was 2.2 per cent in February, Statistics Canada says. Here’s what happened in the provinces (previous month in brackets):

— Newfoundland and Labrador: 1.7 per cent (1.1)

— Prince Edward Island: 3.0 (1.6)

— Nova Scotia: 2.3 (1.4)

— New Brunswick: 2.7 (1.8)

— Quebec: 1.5 (1.3)

— Ontario: 2.1 (1.8)

— Manitoba: 2.4 (2.1)

— Saskatchewan: 2.9 (2.5)

— Alberta: 2.2 (1.4)

— British Columbia: 2.8 (2.1)

inflation rates are getting quite high and again I have to ask: where’s Poloz ?

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Just me

Poloz is praying the housing market does not crash during his tenure.

Wilkins is waiting in the wings, fully expecting our feminist prime minister will elevate her to the governor chair when the time comes.

Bunch of useless bureaucrats.

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Doomcouver

If Poloz is smart he’ll step down any day now and leave the next guy holding the flaming bag of feces. aka. the Greenspan / Bernanke experience.

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Screwed

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/business/inflation-february-1.4589458
April interest rate hike?

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Best place on meth

Trump’s war on china has officially begun today. The dog faced emperor of the middle kingdom has responded by vowing to “fight until the end”.

Hopefully that means to the last man which would be very enjoyable for all the world to witness.

As an added bonus, Trump signs into law the Taiwan Travel Act, which encourages “visits between officials of the United States and Taiwan at all levels.” President of Taiwan and other top government officials, who for four decades have been barred from visiting the United States, to come for official visits and allows senior Americans to go there as well.

I wouldn’t want to be one of Emperor Shar-pei’s concubines tonight. They will be very sore in the morning.

On another note, I have scheduled a home delivery of 500 pounds of popcorn this weekend.

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Doomcouver

Calling him the dog-faced emperor is an unacceptable insult towards dogs.

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Spec

“On another note, I have scheduled a home delivery of 500 pounds of popcorn this weekend.”

Yeah. Pot gives me the munchies too. Gotta deal with the idea of “National Security Advisor Bolton” somehow though….

🙂

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YVR

“Pot gives me the munchies too.”

That explains a lot.

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YVR

Trump is smart. Fighting the war on his terms. Most others in history waited until the enemy backs them in a corner before going to war. After the enemy has enough strength to win. If they wait 10 years to confront China it will be much more difficult. China will either conform now or be crushed. Just like Little Kim.

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Shut It Down Already (original)

So smart he can’t even employ the right people and has to constantly shuffle top positions. Let’s also see if he’s smart enough to delay the inevitable divorce until he leaves office.

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YVR

But what are the polls telling you? Is this good or bad?

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Lost...but not Leased

Oh great….
……we have thousands of Chinese spies (aka foreign locusts) in our midst…

recall that ,in essence, ALL Chinese investments etc.are effectively the property of Chinese Communist Party.

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paulb

New
139
Price Change
52
Sold
107
TI:8944

http://www.clivestevepaul.com

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Spec

That 10K threshold is proving elusive LOL…

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Strata Hackee

Yes the bear wish projections never seem to materialize do they?

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Shut It Down Already (original)

They’ll just cherrypick a new metric once again. They’ve not mentioned number of price changes recently, have they? Let’s see.

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Doomcouver

No panic = no rush to sell. Everyone is waiting for their 38% annual increase on their Vancouver house. If I was a housing bull I wouldn’t be selling. They think they’re sitting on an infinite gold mine after all. Reality will creep back in one way or another.

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Bag it and tag it

Cmon on Friday stats…delivery us the Friday night rollover party. We’ll all get dressed up in costumes and search for westside empty homes. . Throw a huge costume party in the best empty house we find, but thinking Shaughnessy old school mansion. And yes, I most definitely sayin. Oracle will make samosas served with his famous chutney. I’m in charge of DJ and topless severs (we’ve suffered enough)

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MarKoz

Corruption loves real estate…

“In the Commons earlier this week, Cable cited Igor Shuvalov, Russian’s first deputy prime minister, who owns two flats in Whitehall near the Ministry of Defence, which were bought in 2014 for £11.4m by a company that Russian anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Nalvany says the minister owns. An official declaration by Shuvalov in 2014 said his official salary was £112,000.”

C’mon, he probably just got help with the downpayment from his parents!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/17/russian-elite-must-reveal-how-they-paid-for-uk-property-say-mps

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backwardsevolution

Shuvalov graduated with a law degree in 1993. From Wiki: “After graduation, Shuvalov was assigned as attaché to the legal department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was responsible for pursuing developments in international law. The same year he joined the law firm ‘ALM Consulting’, named after Alexander Mamut where ALM stands for his initials A. L. Mamut. Shuvalov was senior attorney, then managing partner until 1997. The firm is affiliated with the Moscow Bar Association. In 1995 – 1996, Shuvalov became a co-founder of Stalker, a wholesale Open joint-stock company (OJSC), Fanteim, a real estate OJSC, RANDO Joint-stock company (JSC), a consumer goods manufacturer, and the bank consortium of Channel One Russia JSC, which consolidated the capital of those banks that hold shares in Public Television of Russia JSC (ORT).” Looks like the guy is in law,… Read more »

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stagnate

I agree with you on Horgan Dave but the rest of the ndp looks like the 90’s crew. they’re really in a tough spot with the unions, most union members actually benefited disproportionately from liberal policies on taxes and housing. these are unpredictable times, I suppose the ndp will try to tread carefully

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stagnate

don’t be fooled by ndp popularity, soon they will need to shovel money off the back of the truck for the public unions. there is no money for this, taxes and deficits will be even less palatable than in the 70’s and 90’s. for now people are thinking the ndp is tackling the housing problem at the same time they haven’t seen a lower assessment yet on their own property. when people realize payoffs and social engineering affect them directly watch out.

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Dave

I dislike social engineering as much as anybody, but I’m not seeing a terrible amount of it at this point. It’s possible that Horgan wants to be a middle of the road pragmatic leader and not repeat the mistakes of previous NDP governments. There are a lot more votes for him in the middle silent majority than his vocal minority. I think Horgan has the ability to appeal to regular voters by being strongly in favour of things like LNG and fixing the housing crisis. Maybe Horgan wants to throw his weight around with the Greens, hoping they take him down (by pushing LNG). Worst case, he looks like a strong leader. There are a lot of populist things Horgan can do early on to increase his popularity. I think Horgan’s weakness are a few wingnut activist MPs, such as… Read more »

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Lost...but not Leased

PR is just a waste of time.

The voters will set themselves up for dysfunctional gov’ts…we have no idea what will shake down given the combinations and permutuations after elections. Whose to say in 10 years we won’t have 10 parties on the ballot ?

As it stands…and reading the excerpts of book re 2017 BC Election…ONE GREEN MLA(Furstenau) had a major grudge against Clark based on a local issue in her riding….it appears that this “rookie” from Van Island effectively swayed the entire election as there was a possibility Greens would side with Liberals.

That’s enough PR for me….its dangerous.

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Bag it and tag it

PR is the only way to have some semblance of a democracy so you don’t get multiple terms of Liberal destruction with 40% support.

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Whister or Bust?

PR is terrible. You can forget about your “local” MLA.

First past the post may be flawed but its the best system we have.

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Hibernating Renter

Is STV too complicated for you?

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Dave

Yes for me.

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Best place on meth

Don’t be afraid of it, Dave.

It’s not a disease, despite what it sounds like.

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Selective Memory

Funny how the countries that switch to PR never vote to go back to FPTP in subsequent referendums.

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Lost...but not Leased

How could they go back?….once you opened the door to PR..STV etc…
You could have 10 parties in place who would never agree to cutting their own throats…

That’s the irony once we have it…the people may want to go back to FPTP…..but the politicians will never let it happen.

You leave the public vulnerable to potential of some crackpot who may hold the balance of power.

BC was effectively controlled by Green MLA Furstenau and L.G. Guichon…is that democracy ?

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Selective Memory

It’s common for the switch to PR to include provision for a referendum on whether to keep the new system after trying it out for a couple of elections. It’s not up to the politicians — the citizens never choose to go back.

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Lost...but not Leased

According to the media….and various contracts coming up for renewal…300,000 parties under the umbrella of the civil service will seek pay raises etc.

The new norm is perhaps these parties be thankful they have a job and all the perks, as the writing on the wall elsewhere is their defined benefit package is not sustainable, likely underfunded to point of bankruptcy.(ie like may major US Cities)

Talk about an elite class in context of punishing others with speculation etc. tax ???

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Whister or Bust?

And why would a union member be thankful for anything?

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Name

because they are people like you are ?

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Burnabonian

Horgan doubling down on hydrocarbon transport to market (Kitimat LNG) while opposing hydrocarbon transport to market (Kinder Morgan).

His explanation for why one is good for Canadians and the other is evil: Different length of hydrocarbon chains. No shit.

Coincidentally, the LNG he is paying $6B to help get to market comes from BC whereas the oil he is fighting to leave in rail cars comes from Alberta.

Could he possibly be more grabasstic?

Will he make it to Christmas?

Nobody knows.

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Burnabonian

PS serious question. What does it take for the public to trigger an election?

Only a non-confidence vote caused by unhappy voters screaming at MLAs? Or is there another mechanism?

I sense that the honeymoon is coming *rapidly* to a close.

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Lost...but not Leased

IMHO, Weaver made a bad move via coalition with NDP. His nervousness will be quantifiable via directly related to how soon they try a referendum on PR. Olde Dr. math Professor Weaver must be calculating the optimum moment before the tides turn…my guess is Fall 2018.

Horgan seems to be acting like a fly fisherman…casting vague ideas out ,and see whether the bait is taken or spit out. Speculation tax has aroused enough ire, then he sends Eby to Ottawa to red herring the “Vancouver Model” re RE.

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Dave

If he gets PR, it will have been a good move, at the expense of the NDP and Liberals.

If he doesn’t get PR, it will have been a terrible political move because he will literally walk away with nothing.

The LNG announcement is a direct slap in the face to Weaver. And he’ll turn the other cheak too. Green voters should be embarrassed. They all care more about PR and power than they do about their green beliefs. It’s hilarious. What’s the point if you sell yourself out?

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Reasonfirst

“They all care more about PR and power than they do about their green beliefs.” Isn’t that called pragmatism that you seemingly praised Horgan for? Beliefs mean diddly squat if you have no power.

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patriotz

“The LNG announcement is a direct slap in the face to Weaver.”

There is nothing in the NDP-Green agreement that mentions LNG. That’s a deliberate omission. It lets the NDP go ahead, and Weaver can complain about it all he wants, but if he wanted it to be a deal breaker he would have insisted the NDP adopt the Green position. Same with Site C – the agreement quotes the NDP platform verbatim.

https://www.thetyee.ca/Documents/2017/05/30/BC%20Green-BC%20NDP%20Agreement_vf%20May%2029th%202017%20copy.pdf

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patriotz

” What does it take for the public to trigger an election?”

Calling a general election is the prerogative of the L-G. Recall is still on the books though, so if you took down a few NDP MLA’s that would do it. Not one MLA has been recalled in the 25 odd years it’s been law.

“I sense that the honeymoon is coming *rapidly* to a close.”

I guess your spider sense is better than Angus Reid, who says that Horgan is Canada’s most popular premier (in a tie).

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Dave

If Plecas doesn’t get recalled, it will never happen.

Once PR passes and this clown allows it to go through, voters in Abbotsford will be up in arms. The Liberal Party will naturally lend their organizing ability to the cause. Once he goes down, the Legislature will be at a stale mate, so an election will occur.

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Best place on meth

52% approval rating for Horgan compared to 40% for Turd.

The feminist is even behind Trump now.

http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/justin-trudeau-is-less-popular-than-stephen-harper-was-at-this-point-in-his-tenure-as-prime-minister

Trudeau’s net approval rating of -16 is well below Stephen Harper’s rating of -1 at a similar point in his tenure. Fifty-six per cent of respondents say they disapprove of Trudeau at his government’s 29-month mark, while 40 per cent say they approve. At Harper’s 28-month mark, 47 per cent disapproved while 46 per cent approved.

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YVR

Polls and approval ratings are worthless. They have been wrong more than right over the last 5 years. Remember how the NDP got in Alberta? Polls said the Conservatives would win so they called an early election. Remember Britain’s last election called early because of polling? They got a minority. Remember it was supposed to be premier Adrian Dix 5 years ago? Then there is the worst of them all. Trump was only given a 5% chance according to polls days before the election.

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Best place on meth

I’m sure Kathleen Wynn’s 19% approval rating is worthless too.

She’s actually very popular and on the verge of a surprising re-election.

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YVR

Polls are for people too dumb to think for themselves. I guess that is how you form your opinions. All based on how the media tells you should feel.

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Lost...but not Leased

IMHO,…50% of NDP support is from VCI posters, their relatives and shoeshine boys.

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Bubble

It is time to buy properties:
https://youtu.be/HPR4V2dDggg

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Doomcouver

This guy is the biggest shill in the city. What a dirtbag. He’s like Steve Saretzky’s evil twin brother.

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Best place on meth

He looks like Bob Rennie’s slightly less gay twin.

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Spec

It’s a look. “Vancouver Douchebag”

Hot.

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Spec

Yeah. Can’t be unwatched. Tried washing my eyes and ears out with soap. Didn’t help.

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ostritch

Glad he is doing this. But China has a ninety eight percent conviction rate followed by summary executions and they can’t control these idiots.

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Doomcouver

Yeah I don’t know if the tariffs are going to stop the rampant IP theft. A lot of it is outside of the Chinese state’s control. Even if they wanted to stop it they’d be hard-pressed to make much progress against a tsunami of bootleg products.

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Spec

A tsunami of bribe money for officials to look in other directions is also hard to stop…. Inertia and all that.
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/the-china-hustle/

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Lost...but not Leased

As I have stated numerous times…and Sam Cooper has reported..there are enough cases to proceed to the courts.

Why is Eby taking this approach?…all he is doing is giving the criminals a heads up.

He should be having a news conference that he, the Feds and RCMP have started court proceedings involving usual suspects.

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Spec

A couple of items at play here. He’ll go after the most egregious ones, but the courts will be jammed with these cases (as has been mentioned here) AND it’s expensive. Signalling and getting the word out will go a long way to ending the problem in the future. Also, the CRA needs to be involved and that is on the feds.

I see it as akin to when the cops set up an obviously visible speed trap. It gets folks to slow down and they only need to hand out afew tickets for the message to be received (in that little area).

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YVR

Too expensive to prosecute criminals? Only and NDPer could come up with such a lame excuse. How about start out with just one? It would cost less than all the consultants and political grand standing. More effective too.

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Spec

After years of cutbacks to the court system, to turn that around and hire enough qualified people to get the capacity back into the system would be also time-prohibitive. There will be prosecutions – they’ll start with the most egregious ones. Once there’s transparency (end to bare trusts), it will get easier. It will take time…. but you’ll complain about costs and how long it takes.

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Best place on meth

At least he hasn’t bitched about Horgan being a Keg waiter recently.

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YVR

Why remind everyone when we can see it daily. Latest example Horgan got taken in the LNG negotiation after his flip flog on even pursuing LNG. Next week he will be flip flopping on the spec tax because he cant handle the pressure from a few whiners. The guy is not qualified.

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Doomcouver

These money launderers are exceptionally good at playing our legal system against us. We’ll need all the investigative and legal muscle the federal government can provide to take these dirtbags down. Too bad Turdeau repealed the ability to strip Chinese dual citizens of their Canadian citizenship, otherwise that would be a good way to go.

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Spec

If Eby can get national traction/attention on this issue, the game of whack a mole becomes a little easier… and the all important lucrative nature of the “Vancouver model” goes down the drain. Win Win.

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Doomcouver

Getting the RCMP to do their job is tougher than it seems. Many of the RCMP in Richmond have been doing nothing for so long the worthless Richmond city council almost got rid of them.

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Spec

They’re cheaper than creating a local force (just ask Port Moody), so Richmond will be keeping them I suspect.

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