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Entries from January 2016

Developer Ian Gillespie: “This is going to sound arrogant but no one else is willing to do what I’m doing”

March 30th, 2014 · 93 Comments

Developer Ian Gillespie is much in the news these days. He launched his Gesamtkunstwerk exhibit a week ago as part of the build-up to Vancouver House, the Bjarke Ingels-designed tower that will be blooming flower-like (thin stalk, showy bee-attracting thing on top) next to the Granville Bridge. Here’s a recent feature I did on him […]

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No nays recorded for this move to improved horse-and-carriage transit in Stanley Park

March 26th, 2014 · 3 Comments

Okay, we all needed a break from the heavy stuff of the week. Here it is, the saga of the horse-and-carriage terminal at Stanley Park. Please excuse the terrible pun in the headline, but it was irresistible. (Thank you, Stan Dellarocca at the Globe’s editing desk, for the suggestion.)

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Social enterprises, real-estate deals put PHS in precarious financial state

March 25th, 2014 · 34 Comments

A lot of different octopus legs to follow on this PHS story. Here’s mine for today, a look at what got the province interested in examining the PHS books more closely — deficits caused, in part, by subsidies to the organization’s many social enterprises and its real-estate ventures, which were aimed at acquiring bits of […]

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Former Van Foundation leader becomes interim chair for PHS: “Preserve innovation, values, set on a course for independent governance”

March 22nd, 2014 · 8 Comments

I’ve received this now from a few people so, since people are so anxious to pass it on, here you are. Sent to all PHS from Faye Wightman > Good morning everyone, >   > As Chair of the interim Board of Directors for PHS, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all staff […]

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The new PHS board and agenda of its first meeting

March 21st, 2014 · 6 Comments

Apparently people don’t have all the names yet. Here they are. Interesting to see there Ida Goodreau, the former president of Vancouver Coastal Health, who was very supportive of PHS in her time there, and Jim O’Dea, a PHS board member in the early days who was appointed by the NDP to be head of […]

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PHS top executives made up to $186,000 a year, deserved it because they worked so hard, said board chair

March 20th, 2014 · 56 Comments

There’s so much to ponder in the audit reports on PHS Community Services, but one paragraph that stood out for me was the response from board members when asked if they knew and approved of the fact that the top five managers were making far more than their contracts stipulated. The salaries for those five […]

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Are PHS social enterprises doomed?

March 20th, 2014 · 2 Comments

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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PHS audits from Vancouver Coastal Health and BC Housing: no good news for anyone

March 20th, 2014 · 1 Comment

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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Province takes control of the Downtown Eastside’s PHS, housing, injection site as founders agree to step aside

March 19th, 2014 · 31 Comments

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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Years of tension preceded current messy situation between PHS Community Services and province

March 18th, 2014 · No Comments

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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