I would think, as a new board takes over at PHS Community Services, that one of the first of the organization’s unusual ventures they’ll be looking at are the many social enterprises that operated under the PHS umbrella. Both the VCH and BC Housing audits raise a lot of questions about all these affiliated companies, […]

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Here they are. http://www.vch.ca/about_us/accountability/audit-reports/audit-reports http://www.bchousing.org/resources/Media_Centre/PHS/PHS_Financial_Review.pdf  

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Mark Townsend and Liz Evans of PHS Community Services tried one last time to make the case to the provincial government that there were no problems at their organization that couldn’t be fixed with some good will. But they acknowledged, in the end, that the province had simply lost faith in them. Last Thursday, they […]

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Everyone’s waiting for the axe to fall any day now on PHS Community Services Society, the DTES non-profit started by Mark Townsend and his wife, psychiatric nurse Liz Evans, 20 years ago. Housing Minister Rich Coleman has given more than one news conference saying “documents will be coming” and making references to financial irregularities at […]

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It was heartbreaking, for those who were listening to the council delegations Friday and Saturday, to hear some of the stories of people from the Downtown Eastside who came to argue for more from the city’s plan for the area. They recounted horrific things that had happened to them, as they asked for a red-light […]

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Hard to keep up with all the major thingies getting approved by council these days. Oakridge was Friday, where it was fascinating to see two very different views come out among councillors among what it all means. For the Visionistas, this is the exciting new future. For the opposition (NPA, Green), this redevelopment is a […]

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In case you couldn’t follow everything Coun. Raymond Louie just said in moving approval of Oakridge, he added these conditions: THAT staff ensure there is space set aside within the kitchen of the community centre for the exclusive use of seniors and that a joint use agreement between the seniors and the Park Board is […]

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So the mayor has hired one of the province’s best-known (and presumably not cheap) lawyers to file a response to the lawsuit recently initiated by Cedar Party leader Glen Chernen over the HootSuite lease. (See previous blog post for the lawsuit.) Joe Arvay didn’t just set out a defence. This we’re-fighting-back lawsuit is also asking […]

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We all think we know the Canada Line inside out and we take it for granted. But it turns out others don’t. This American organization asked me to write about it, which made me realize, as I was doing my research, how preoccupied we had been with other parts of the story during the years […]

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This poll out today from Insights West, with mayoral approval ratings, city ratings on handling of various issues (Vancouver’s disapproval over growth and development is at 42 per cent), and biggest areas of concern. I’m struck by the low number of undecideds in Vancouver and Surrey. Usually it’s higher than that in polling taken at […]

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