Normally, Vancouver city councillors don’t engage in a great deal of debate over a $6,000 civic grant. But toss in connections to Vision Vancouver’s treasurer, Martha Burton, and the mayor’s chief financial backer and supporter, Joel Solomon, and suddenly the sparks start flying.
On October 19, the Vision-controlled council voted to approve a staff recommendation to allocate $6,000 to the Vancity Community Foundation to support the city’s first Social Purpose Real Estate Conference. It will be held on November 8 and 9 at the Marriott Vancouver Pinnacle Downtown Hotel.
The event was created to help nonprofit organizations interested in buying real estate or sharing facilities with other nonprofit groups. Delegates will include foundations, philanthropists, and government funders, as well as people who work in the nonprofit sector.
In addition to Vancity and its community foundation, sponsors include three city departments, the Central City Foundation, the Law Foundation of B.C., the Real Estate Foundation of B.C., Renewal Partners, and Tides Canada.
Burton is senior vice president of Renewal Parters and is former assistant treasurer of Tides Canada, which funds many nonprofit organizations. Solomon is president of Renewal Partners and vice-chair of Tides Canada. Mayor Gregor Robertson’s company, Happy Planet, was the beneficiary of investment from Renewal Partners, and he served on the board of Tides Canada before becoming a politician in 2005. Robertson’s chief of staff, Mike Magee, was Tides Canada’s senior adviser from 2002 to 2007.
The only councillor to vote against the staff recommendation was the NPA’s Suzanne Anton. “Vancouver city council does not pick and choose between conferences,” she told the Georgia Straight by phone before the vote. “Generally, the city does not support them. That’s obviously changing under this mayor.”
She also stated that council should have rejected the request in part because the conference is linked to one of the mayor’s biggest backers. Anton emphasized that she didn’t want to disparage the Real Estate Foundation of B.C. and other sponsors.
“I’m not taking aim at Joel Solomon here,” the NPA councillor insisted. “He can do whatever he pleases. I am taking aim at the mayor and his Vision people for this kind of report. It is written by staff. I don’t want to draw staff into this, but staff would never have written a report like this and presented it to [former mayor] Sam Sullivan.”
Anton’s comments puzzled Vision councillor Andrea Reimer, who is a close ally of Robertson’s. In a phone interview with the Straight, Reimer said the city cosponsors many conferences. In addition, Reimer noted that council approved spending $30,000 earlier this year to enhance the capacity-building of nonprofit organizations. The $6,000 conference grant will come out of that pot of money.
“I find it odd that she would be so adamantly opposed to something that is quite critical for the arts-and-culture community, the environmental community, the social community,” the Vision councillor said. “It’s pretty simple, and something our staff identified as a need over two years ago. They have been working with other organizations to pull this together.”
Burton is one of many speakers at the event. She will discuss what nonprofit groups need to watch for when negotiating a lease.
Reimer recalled that when she was the executive director of the Wilderness Committee, which is a large environmental group, it was a challenge dealing with real-estate issues. She noted that the staff knew a great deal about biodiversity, but they didn’t have sufficient depth to determine the pros and cons of buying versus renting office space.
“I know we missed opportunities that would have allowed us to get to a place where we actually would have been saving upwards of $50,000 a year, which is a huge amount for a nonprofit,” Reimer said. “It’s good to see the nonprofit community and the capacity builders around them, like Vancity, coming together to make sure that expertise is there.”
