Don Butler
Sun

OTTAWA — A stunning 15 million Canadians were repeatedly targeted by mass-marketing fraud artists in the past year and one million were victims, a major study commissioned by Competition Bureau of Canada has found.

The study, the first of its kind in Canada, also debunks the myth that victims are likely to be older and poorly educated. In fact, it says, Canadians under 30 and middle-income earners are most likely to be defrauded.

Based on a survey of 6,116 Canadians, the Environics study was delivered to the Competition of Bureau Canada earlier this month and posted to a government website this week. It defined mass-marketing fraud as that committed by telephone, mail and over the Internet, including deceptive e-mail. It focused only on fraud that targeted consumers and did not examine attempts to defraud businesses.

The study looked at the 12 most commonly reported scams, including prize, lottery or sweepstakes fraud, the West African scam, work-from-home fraud, high-pressure sales-pitch vacation fraud, bogus-health-product fraud and investment fraud.

AMONG ITS KEY FINDINGS:

– Almost six in 10 adult Canadians say they were targeted by mass-marketing fraud in the previous 12 months — about 15 million in total. Targets say they received an average of 16 fraudulent contacts, mostly by phone or e-mail.

– About four per cent of adult Canadians — nearly one million — have fallen victim to one of the 12 frauds examined over the past year. Victims report an average of 21 contacts from mass-marketing fraudsters.

– Victims report demands from fraud artists averaging $1,900. Direct financial losses range from a few dollars to $50,000, with an average loss of $557. Total losses from this group of frauds alone amount to at least $450 million annually, the study says, though it adds loss estimates likely are seriously under-reported.

– Victimization crosses all demographic and socio-economic lines, the study says. In fact, the most striking characteristic of victims is their youth, the study says. Almost one-third of victims are under 30, compared to just 19 per cent of the total population. By contrast, people over 60, who make up more than one-fifth of the population, constitute just 13 per cent of victims. Victims also disproportionately have annual household incomes between $30,000 and $60,000 and live in Ontario. They are twice as likely as the general population to be at home full time. Those with university degrees and incomes of more than $100,000 are just as likely to be victimized as those who did not complete high school and earned less than $30,000 annually, the study found.

Until now, there has been no widely accepted estimate of the scope of consumer mass-marketing fraud in Canada, nor empirical evidence of its financial impact and effect on consumer attitudes and behaviour.

Environics conducted the survey between June 13 and Aug. 14, 2007. Because of the large sample size, results are considered accurate to within plus or minus 1.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The study found the telephone is the preferred tool for fraud artists, with 57 per cent of targets reporting telephone contact. E-mail, at 36 per cent, is the next most common method. Fifteen per cent report contact through the mail, and 10 per cent saw a solicitation for a fraudulent scheme on a website.

FAVOURITE FRAUDS

Here are some types of consumer-mass-marketing fraud, along with the percentage of Canadians targeted or victims of each in the past year:

– HIGH-PRESSURE SALES PITCH VACATION FRAUD

Targets offered gift or reward to attend a sales presentation where they are subjected to high-pressure sales tactics and/or misleading offers. Targeted: 34 per cent Victimized: 0.5 per cent

– ADVANCE FEE VACATION FRAUD

Targets pay an advance fee to secure or hold a discount or free vacation. Targeted: 33 per cent Victimized: 0.4 per cent

– PRIZE, LOTTERY, SWEEPSTAKES FRAUD

Targets advised they have won — or have a chance to win — something, but must first purchase something or pay advance fee. Targeted: 27 per cent Victimized: 0.3 per cent

– BOGUS HEALTH PRODUCT/CURE FRAUD

Targets purchase health product or cure that does not work as advertised. Targeted: 27 per cent Victimized: 1.9 per cent

– WEST AFRICAN/419 FRAUD

Targets promised a share of a large sum of money being transferred from another country to Canada in exchange for a fee. The fortune is fictitious. Targeted: 19 per cent Victimized: 0 per cent

– INVESTMENT FRAUD

Targets offered investment opportunity promising higher-than-normal returns, but lose most or all money they supposedly invest. Targeted: 15 per cent Victimized: 0.2 per cent

– EMPLOYMENT/WORK FROM HOME FRAUD

Targets offered employment and asked to pay advance fee to secure job or obtain materials to do work from home. Job promises more earnings than are possible. Targeted: 14 per cent Victimized: 0.5 per cent

– ADVANCE FEE LOAN FRAUD

Targets offered loan for which advance fee must be paid. Loan never arrives. Targeted: 6 per cent Victimized: less than 0.1 per cent

– BILL FOR UNSUITABLE MERCHANDISE FRAUD

Targets order and pay for something through Internet or mail-order catalogue. Item does not arrive, arrives very late or is not what was expected. Targeted: 4 per cent Victimized: 2.4 per cent

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Researching your past has never been easier

Randy Shore
Sun

Anyone with roots in B.C. can search the provincial archives online for birth records, death and marriage registrations. Copies of the original documents can be ordered for a fee.

Each record has the potential to extend your family tree back one generation. Birth and marriage records usually contain the principals’ birthplace, as well as the names of parents. Use those clues to search for births and marriages of the parents and you get the names of the parents’ parents, and so on.

Rural birth records can be spotty but there are easy workarounds. Baptismal records often list the birthdate and birthplace, even when no birth has been officially registered.

Then there is the census. If you know what city or town your ancestors hail from, you can read the original handwritten ledgers online and the picture those records paint is beyond compare.

The Mormon church has an extraordinary website that includes birth, death and transcribed census records from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. The census data includes every person living at a particular residence on a given date, providing a nice window into family life in the late 19th and early 20th century, including the children, hired hands, lodgers, and displaced cousins. Hyperlinking makes it easy to cross-reference between databases.

The provincial archives also have a searchable database of photographs, so if you turn up a famous relative, you might even find a picture. The City of Vancouver archives are also searchable. Local museums in your ancestors’ hometown are also rich hunting grounds for traces of the past.

War service records are available from the National Archive, right from the attestation papers recruits signed when they joined up (complete with chest measurements, hair colour and tattoos) to entire service records and commendations. Officers’ logs (war diaries) and intelligence reports have also been scanned.

You’ll need to play detective to find your way through the records. Be prepared to make the odd leap of faith. Records contain errors of spelling and omission. The people who fill out forms will sometimes guess at data they didn’t have at hand. Trust your gut.

Here are the best references to start your search

– http://search.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca

Births, deaths, marriages and baptisms in B.C.

– http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca

CENSUS, WAR RECORDS, IMMIGRATION RECORDS, LAND GRANTS

– http://www.familysearch.org/

The genealogy project run by the Church of Latter Day Saints. Combines births, deaths, marriages, and census data in an integrated way. If your family slipped back and forth between the U.S. and Canada, this database can be useful.

– http://www.censusfinder.com

Choose a province and follow the links to access the handwritten ledgers from local census areas. This is painstaking work.

– http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/archives/

Collections of documents and photographs, searchable online.

MARRIAGE REGISTRATION

Legal name – many records will use nicknames like “Annie” for Annabeth.

Age – can be used to estimate a birthdate in search for baptismal and birth records.

Birthplace – use this to find original census records.

Parent names – takes you back one more generation. Having both names makes it easier to confirm marriage records.

Witness names – these are sometimes friends, but often they are siblings you may not have known about. Their hometowns are a clue to where you might look for relatives.

Faith and clergyman – could lead you to church records, including other marriages and baptisms.

MILITARY SERVICE ATTESTATION – PARTICULARS OF RECRUIT

Legal name – military records are surprisingly accurate.

Address – can be used to confirm links to relatives of different names through other documents or census records. This one turned out to be a heritage house owned by a millionaire.

Birthdate and birthplace – used to confirm identity. Lloyd’s birth was not legally registered, so this is the only record of birth.

Next of kin – confirms family link.

Signature – useful for comparisons between documents.

Physical description – if your great-grandfather had a tattoo or odd birthmark, wouldn’t you want to know what it was?

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Province

Download Document

Miro Cernetig
Sun

A walk through the lush, rolling grounds of the Riverview psychiatric hospital is still an unsettling trip down memory lane, evoking a darker age in the care of the mentally ill.

It’s a welcome brush stroke of pastoral green in Metro Vancouver’s suburban sprawl, with large lawns and a world-renowned collection of temperate-climate trees known as the arboretum. On that level, it’s idyllic.

But the eye is inevitably drawn to the crumbling buildings, massive examples of faux-Victorian institutionalism that dominate the grounds.

They are dark and dank, full of asbestos and disturbing memories that bring to mind the hellish asylum in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

On a cold, grey day, I almost thought I glimpsed Nurse Ratched doing her rounds behind the iron-barred windows, clutching a ring of keys for doors leading into — but rarely out of — the asylum.

That’s the sort of image — one that was accurate not so long ago for how society dealt with the mentally ill — that nobody wants for the new Riverview.

We all want to treat the mentally ill with humanity and give them the hope the Victorian-era asylums smothered.

But in the age Nimbyism, when even small group homes often encounter the Not-In-My-Backyard reflex, it’s easier said than done to remake a massive old asylum. That’s why the provincial government is keeping the lid on what will be an entirely new approach to this social policy conundrum.

The idea the province has been quietly developing in private — plans have been circulating within the government — is modelled after what was done with an old asylum, similar to Riverview, in London, England.

Known today as Springfield Hospital, it initially opened in 1841 as the Surrey County Pauper Lunatic Asylum. The name said it all. Not unlike Riverview in its darkest years, it became notorious for the lock-them-in-and-throw-away-the-key philosophy to treating the mentally ill. Patients were in essence excluded from the rest of us. No wonder these buildings still seem to radiate bad karma.

But a heartening new approach was taken at Springfield. Why not bring the community into the asylum?

So the old Victorian buildings were redeveloped, a residential community of condos and apartments was built on — and around — the old asylum grounds. And the profits were used to build a modern psychiatric facility weaved into a real-world community. Patients’ neighbours will be more than just the dreaded Nurse Ratched.

“Historically, Springfield Hospital‘s purpose was to facilitate the exclusion of the mentally ill [from society], and that was defined very broadly,” Andrew Simpson, an official at the facility, has explained to The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health. “Now . . . we are historically reclaiming the asylum. We are quite deliberately building a new bit of London around the asylum, reversing the process of exclusion.”

It’s a marvelous and humane concept. Rich Coleman, the B.C. minister spearheading this project, deserves kudos for making the bold and progressive move to improve the lives of our most vulnerable. But there may be real questions of scale to deal with. Is the minister thinking too big?

The draft of the plans for Riverview obtained by The Vancouver Sun indicates Coleman is intent on a super-sized version of the Springfield model.

The heritage principles are there. There’s going to be complete preservation of the arboretum, and refits of many of the landmark buildings. But there’s also a multi-billion-dollar, multi-year building plan. There will be phalanxes of 20-plus-storey apartment towers, and dozens of smaller ones. My understanding is Coleman is even seeking higher density than on the draft obtained by The Sun, to maximize the taxpayers’ profit from the real-estate development.

What we’re talking about is something in the neighbourhood of 10,000 residences. That means 20,000 to 30,000 new residents for Coquitlam. Updated numbers floating around the government suggest about 2,000 of the residences would be for the mentally ill. They would live in the revamped institution, either as patients or benefitting from low-rise assisted-living lodges that would be scattered around the condos, a village square with retail store and even a school.

The government appears to be calling this Coquitlam Commons, a nice title that suggests the quaint British village model. But this, let’s face it, will virtually be a new town in the middle of what is now a sprawl of suburban homes. A new town, it should be added, with a sizeable part of British Columbia‘s mentally ill.

That will inevitably raise questions about security.

London‘s Springfield is justifiably hailed as a triumph, but there have been serious problems. Last year, the hospital was criticized for giving “too much liberty” to a patient who walked out of the ward and murdered a 50-year-old banker cycling in a park. In 2006, a fitness instructor was murdered by another of the hospital’s patients.

When it comes to marketing Riverview as a place to live, buyers are going to want assurances that won’t happen here.

There are also major urban planning issues. This massive makeover of Riverview raises the question of increased traffic congestion. Don’t be surprised if we see the creation of a SkyTrain stop in the new Riverview, once the new Evergreen commuter rail line gets built. I’ll bet that will be one of the deal-breaking demands of Coquitlam’s council if they embrace — or are forced by the province to accept — this plan.

In his old life, Coleman, B.C.’s minister in charge of social housing, used to work in the real estate business. As a cabinet minister, however, he’s now carving out deals on a scale he probably never imagined.

In fact, Coleman is probably only getting started. Riverview is probably just our first taste of how much this man might remake the urban landscape. What most people don’t know is that one of Coleman’s jobs is overseeing billions of dollars worth of provincial social-housing assets, many of them handed to the province by the federal government.

Once, when I asked him what he had planned for that property, he said two words: “More density.”

And that — along with the prospect of a cutting-edge psychiatric hospital — is what he’s aiming to deliver.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Proposal calls for towers ringing new and old psychiatric facilities

Darah Hansen
Sun

The B.C. government is planning a multibillion-dollar development with dozens of residential towers on the historic Riverview lands in Coquitlam, according to internal government documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

The resulting community — to be called the Coquitlam Commons — would include everything from facilities for the mentally ill to high-end market housing.

The concept calls for more than a dozen residential towers of 20 storeys or higher on the eastern part of the 98-hectare site, which has been home to the Riverview psychiatric hospital for more than a century.

At least 25 more “mid-range” towers are included in the proposals, more than half of which would rise to 15 storeys or higher.

The plans include at least 10 additional condominium and apartment buildings.

Riverview psychiatric facilities, both existing and new ones, would be scattered in the centre of the property.

The plan could generate billions of dollars in real estate deals, with millions potentially flowing to the province.

The documents offer the first detailed glimpse of what the province is considering for the site.

In the 1990s, the province started shuttering parts of Riverview, formerly B.C.’s major institution for the mentally ill. Newer specialized mental health centres are being developed in health authorities across B.C.

The Sun reported last summer that a large development was being planned for the property, prompting the government to admit in July it was looking to trade land to private developers in return for a share of the profits to bolster social housing supplies.

At that time, the proposal called for as many as 7,000 residences to be built. Since then, the plan appears to have increased in scale, and Coquitlam councillors suggested 10,000 or more residential units could be in the works.

Housing Minister Rich Coleman downplayed the draft documents on Wednesday, insisting any development of the site is “a long ways down the road.”

But he confirmed his office is planning to put a proposed site design out to tender to explore the “opportunities and options.”

He said the public could get a chance to weigh in on the issue “over the new few months.”

Right now, he said, “there is nothing designed for Riverview.”

The fact the government continues to plan for residential development at Riverview came as news to Coquitlam Mayor Maxine Wilson, whose council has vocally opposed any market development of the land.

The city is poised to give consideration to a resolution in support of maintaining Riverview as a haven for the mentally ill, as well as preserving its historic architecture and protecting one of the last major green spaces in the Vancouver region.

Wilson said Wednesday she expects to be supported by surrounding Metro municipalities.

“We all see it as the one place in the Lower Mainland that can house those with mental illness humanely, and allow for their reintegration into the community,” she said.

Wilson said her council has no intention of granting any rezoning of the hospital lands to allow for residential development, and is banking on previous assurances from Coleman that the government will not override Coquitlam’s wishes.

New Democrat MLA Diane Thorne (Coquitlam-Maillardville) said she’s heard the same promises, but doesn’t believe them.

“It’s a done deal, that’s what I’m afraid of,” she said.

Thorne said her concerns about the future of Riverview grew more urgent earlier this month when the government resurrected interest in pursuing a southeastern route for the proposed Evergreen rapid-transit line, with projected annual ridership figures of 33.3 million by 2031.

Those ridership numbers could only be achieved through heavy development of Riverview, said Thorne.

Coquitlam council favours a northeastern route chosen earlier by TransLink for the proposed line. It has projected ridership figures of 31.8 million by 2031.

Councillors openly questioned the province’s projections for the southeastern route at a meeting Monday.

“That’s basically Riverview being developed,” Coun. Fin Donnelly said of the southeastern route.

Coun. Lou Sekora said it could only mean the development of 10,000 or more housing units at Riverview, adding “I wouldn’t support that.”

Thorne said her heart sank again when Tuesday’s throne speech referred to plans to build a new facility to house mentally ill patients at the site of the former Willingdon youth detention centre in Burnaby.

She worried that could spell a future downsizing of psychiatric services at Riverview.

“There are just too many things happening here,” she said.

Health Minister George Abbott said the plans for Willingdon will add to the province’s existing mental health services.

The proposed 100-bed facility will specifically serve patients who suffer from both mental illness and drug and alcohol addictions.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Derrick Penner
Sun

Ivanhoe waits for Mongolian decision

Company a buy but valuation cut, analyst says

For Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. and Mongolian Prime Minister Sanjaa Bayar, it is not a question of if, but rather a question of when the Mongolian government will approve an investment agreement for the Vancouver-based mining firm’s massive Oyu Tolgoi copper mine.

However, that question of when — and whether parliamentary elections in Mongolia will mean further delays — prompted analysts at the Canadian branch of investment bank UBS on Tuesday to decrease their valuation of the company.

UBS analyst Tony Lesiak still rates Ivanhoe a “buy”, but cut his valuation of Ivanhoe to $15.19 a share, and UBS’ target price to $15 from $19 because of the possibility approval of the agreement with the Mongolian government may be delayed, pushing the timeline for Ivanhoe to build Oyu Tolgoi and put it into production out to mid-2011 from early 2010.

Ivanhoe Mines shares declined 44 cents to close at $9.72 in trading Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The 52-week high was $17.48, achieved last July 9, its low was $8.50 on Jan. 21.

The company points to a December letter to Bayar and Rio Tinto, Ivanhoe’s partner in developing the mine, that states that completing the long-awaited agreement with Ivanhoe before the election is one of the prime minister’s priorities.

However, in his report Lesiak said news reports from Mongolia indicate there is uncertainty over whether a draft agreement drawn up last June has been pulled back, and how much work still needs to be done to bring it to conclusion.

Lesiak said he doubts an agreement can be finalized before the election, although investment analysts who cover Ivanhoe are of divided opinions on that question.

On Jan. 30, BMO analyst Craig Miller upgraded his recommendation on the stock to a speculative outperform based on “a high probability that the Oyu Tolgoi investment agreement gets ratified” during the first-half of this year.

He valued Ivanhoe at $16.56 per share in his Jan. 30 note.

However, regardless of the lack of consensus, analysts do not disagree that Oyu Tolgoi is an extremely valuable asset that the Mongolian government wants to see developed.

Lesiak called the mine “a very scarce asset” in his report.

“Oyu Tolgoi is one of the largest and most lucrative mining development projects in the world,” Lesiak wrote.

According to data from Bloomberg, three of five analysts that cover Ivanhoe rated it a “buy”, one rated it a “hold”, and one as a “sell.”

The outlook for copper, at least in the medium term, is for strong prices because continued growth of the Chinese economy is expected to outweigh the decline of copper consumption in the U.S., where the possibility of a recession is growing.

“Consumption of copper in China is probably double what it is in the U.S. in terms of its share of world consumption,” said Patricia Mohr, vice-president of industry and commodities research at Scotiabank.

And China still has big investments in copper-intensive infrastructure projects, she added. Spending on consumer products is also still rising in China, which will require the use of more copper.

Don Lindsay, CEO of Vancouver-based miner Teck Cominco, said during a conference call on Tuesday that a drop in U.S. consumption hasn’t phased world markets.

“We have a significant slowdown in the U.S., probably a recession, which historically would have a major effect on metal prices,” he said.

“But so far, at least in copper and the outlook in metallurgical coal related to steel, it doesn’t seem to be having much effect.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

School for ‘CEOs of the household’

Paul Luke
Province

You’re a billionaire and your wealth is choking you.

You’ve got a sprawling mansion, a Palm Beach hideaway, a few yachts and a frayed teddy you love more than anything else.

You have no idea how to manage all this stuff. But you don’t want to give it away, especially the bear.

Two Canadian companies have come to the rescue. In April, Butlers of Canada will begin its first six-week training course for butlers at Galiano Oceanfront Inn and Spa on Galiano Island.

Butlers of Canada’s six students will be schooled by Olivier Lepetit, a Paris-based butler whose rich-and-famous former clients glitter like diamonds on his resumé.

The following month, Toronto-based Charles MacPherson Associates launches its first eight-week butler training course at Graydon Hall Manor in North York, Ont.

Charles MacPherson will charge the 15 to 20 students in its inaugural class $15,000 each.

Butlers of Canada’s tuition fee is $20,000. Grads should eventually command a salary of 100 grand a year or more, company founder and boss Linda Samis says.

“When a billionaire can find someone they can trust, $100,000 is nothing,” Steveston-based Samis says. “It’s like buying a coffee for them.” Butling is booming. The explosion of millies and billies in Russia, China and the Middle East has got the world ringing for these senior servants, says Clive McGonigal, founder of Thebutlerbureau.com, an online resource.

“Employing a butler makes good financial sense,” says McGonigal, an ex-butler living in Normandy.

“Also, there is now a massive market for butlers in the luxury-hotel and spa markets.” Over the years, the butler has been stereotyped as a wry British dude in tails, possibly with a twittish name like Jeeves, who answers doors, fetches brandies and gets blamed for household murders.

Today, butling is a complex and demanding job. A butler is the CEO of a household, who ensures everything from the garden to the kitchen to the garage runs smoothly, Samis says.

The man or woman working as a butler may supervise a staff of 40, manage half-a-dozen residences and oversee a huge fleet of vehicles, says Rodger Campbell, director of corporate development at Charles MacPherson.

“In a large household, the butler would never do the shoe polishing. A valet would do that sort of work,” Campbell says. “But a good butler can step in and take on any task.” Estate or household or ranch managers handle even larger staffs and budgets. They can earn up to $200,000 a year, he says.

Campbell divides butlers into three groups: residential, hotel and, in China, apartment butlers.

Hotel butlers are the interface between guest and facility. They’re responsible for selling extra services to visitors and ensuring guests are treated well enough to return.

An apartment butler is more like a concierge, delivering packages and running errands, Campbell says.

Rising demand for butlers has triggered an increase in butler schools around the world. Besides its North York operation, Charles MacPherson hopes to open butler-training academies in the Philippines and China.

McGonigal, 51, advises potential students to check trainers’ qualifications and assess a school’s placement service.

Butlers of Canada accepts only Canadians. Its first wave of closely screened male and female students ranges in age from 32 to 59.

“For people who have been displaced or downsized, being a butler can be a new avenue,” Samis says.

“Maybe their kids have grown up and they want to travel and make a lot of money, and why not?” At Charles MacPherson, students will move through courses on table setting and service, housekeeping, laundry, security and driving and cooking. They will learn to steam a ball gown, pack a suitcase and set a flawless fireplace.

Today’s butlers must be computer-savvy to survive the blizzard of responsibilities, Campbell says. MacPherson devotes two days to training students on software that helps manage calendars, wine cellars, inventories, maintenance and guest visits.

Traits on a butler’s “must have” list are flexibility, dedication, discretion and unobtrusive empathy.

“If you have a superb butler, you might not know they were around. They would be almost invisible,” Campbell says.

“But you would never want for anything. They would anticipate your every move and your every demand.” Butlers must be graceful about taking an employer’s calls at all hours. Demanding families will push you hard, Campbell says.

On the other hand, butlers live in luxury and travel their coattails off.

“You get to live a high lifestyle. You just need to remember that it’s not your money,” he says.

McGonigal, whose last butling job was a freelance assignment in a Moroccan palace, took enormous satisfaction from exceeding clients’ expectations. Blowing dinner guests’ minds with a stunning fusion of food, wine, service and ambience made it all worthwhile.

“Downsides? The occasional twit who had to be reminded that my serving him did not necessarily make me his inferior,” he says.

“And, being a very opinionated and verbal person, keeping my mouth shut when a guest talked total tripe”

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Downtown Vancouver suffers the most robberies and assaults, police statistics reveal

Kelly Sinoski and Glenn Bohn
Sun

The city’s central business district reported more crimes than some of its poorer areas last year, mainly because it is a “target-rich environment” for the city’s chronic thieves looking for loot to steal, police statistics show.

Despite the Downtown Eastside’s grim reputation as a drug and crime hot spot, someone is more likely to get hurt or robbed in downtown Vancouver, according to Vancouver police department statistics.

Const. Tim Fanning said the condo-and-office-dotted downtown is often hit hardest because it attracts well-heeled business people and others who park in the downtown core for arts, entertainment or sporting events.

Compounding the problem, he said, is that police are often dealing with the same 50 chronic drug-addicted offenders, many of whom live in the neighbouring Downtown Eastside.

Those petty offenders often scour the CBD parking lots looking for something of value to steal.

“Most of the crime down there is property crime, mostly attributable to theft from autos,” Fanning said. “There are a lot of cars down there. There’s not a lot of opportunity in the Downtown Eastside.”

According to the latest police statistics, the CBD, which doesn’t include the West End, had the most reported robberies (497), burglaries (1,150), thefts from cars (630), other thefts (7,947), arsons (34) and mischief (1,133).

Fanning said property-theft crime in the CBD has dropped 24 per cent since 2003 as police educate people to take all valuables out of their vehicles and try to provide treatment for chronic offenders.

The CBD also had the most assaults with 1,840, beating out second-place finisher Strathcona with 514 assaults.

Strathcona includes a section of the Downtown Eastside.

The same downtown Vancouver area — which encompasses the so-called “entertainment district” along Granville, with all its pubs and nightclubs — also recorded the largest number of “offensive-weapon” crimes: 504. Police have been warning about a rise in violence and gun incidents for the last decade.

By comparison, there were 163 offensive-weapon crimes in Strathcona, 124 in Grandview Woodlands, and 123 in the West End.

Stanley Park, the city’s internationally renowned refuge of nature, seems to be a relatively safe place. There were just eight reported assaults, three robberies and seven offensive-weapons crimes.

Some of Vancouver‘s wealthiest neighbourhoods are also its safest neighbourhoods. For example, there were 34 assaults and eight robberies last year in the Arbutus Ridge neighbourhood, 30 assaults and nine robberies in Dunbar Southlands, and 18 assaults and eight robberies in Kerrisdale.

Drive carefully in downtown Vancouver.

The CBD had the largest number (195) of non-fatal traffic accidents. The second-place finisher, Mount Pleasant, had 111 non-fatal traffic accidents. Grandview-Woodland came in third, with 80 non-fatal accidents.

Deadly accidents occurred in many neighbourhoods. There were three fatal traffic accidents in the CBD, Fairview and Oakridge; two fatals in each of Hastings-Sunrise, Kerrisdale, Kitsilano, Victoria Fraserview and West Point Grey; and single-fatality stats for several other west and east side neighbourhoods.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Studios giving way to condos

John Bermingham
Province

It’s not a pretty picture for Vancouver artist Jane Wolsak, who has been painting for 17 years in the same studio on Prior Street and now faces possible eviction.

Next Tuesday, city council will decide whether to allow a developer to turn her studio — and 29 others in a five-storey building next to the Cobalt Hotel — into apartments.

Amacon, the owner, plans to refurbish the building and add a nine-storey tower behind it.

Wolsak says artists’ spaces in Vancouver are getting squeezed by the condo craze. Vancouver artists are packing up and moving to cheaper spaces in the suburbs, she says.

“The property values are going up to the extent that people are cashing in,” said Wolsak. “We’re going to be losing them all, one after another.”

Richard Wittstock of Amacon says the company will help the artists find new studios over the next year.

But, with new projects going up in False Creek and Chinatown, it makes sense to redevelop, he said.

“Artists are a really important part of our community,” said Wittstock. “We can’t fight the reality. The city is changing. You can’t fight a trend like that.”

Vision Vancouver Coun. Heather Deal said there’s little or no protection for artists who work in the city.

“As downtown marches east, the property values are driving artists out,” said Deal. “We’re in a real danger of losing our creative zones in the city, as artists are forced out of the downtown core.”

She wants to allow visual artists and writers to work on industrial land. Developers could also be rewarded for protecting art spaces.

Valerie Arntzen, who runs the annual Eastside Culture Crawl, said other art spaces in Vancouver are threatened.

Rents have doubled for some artists at the Parker Street Studios, which houses 90 artists.

“It’s not like we cannot afford it,” said Arntzen. “We just need the space.

“We need to protect what is here right now. And that is what is scary. We’re moving too fast.”

NPA Coun. Elizabeth Ball said the city is completing a study into how many art spaces are left in Vancouver and how many have been lost.

Ball, an artist, would like art studios in every new apartment building.

“It makes all the difference between wanting to live in a city and not wanting to,” she said.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

Imperial’s plans to close put on hold as it searches for an owner to take over operation

Fiona Anderson
Sun

The marine gas station in False Creek — the only fuel source for thousands of boats that dock near Granville Island — has had its life extended until the end of March to enable Imperial Oil to find a potential alternative operator.

False Creek Marine Esso was originally slated to close on Feb. 13 as part of Imperial’s decision to close all seven of its floating gas stations in British Columbia.

Imperial’s spokesman Pius Rolheiser said the extension was “to allow additional time for any interested parties who might like to approach us to explore the possibility of providing a fuel offering at that location.”

Imperial has already closed four of its floating stations, with at least one — Fisherman’s Cove in West Vancouver — expected to open under new ownership.

But while Allan Keefe, who has been operating the False Creek site for 22 years, is eager to continue operating the station, his offer has not yet been accepted. And what is still needed to seal the deal is unclear.

Keefe said Imperial is looking for an indemnity of $10 million for the operation to continue, even though whoever operates the gas station would do so as an independent, and not as an Esso-brand station. Keefe can’t provide that indemnity but he believes the city should step in and ensure the station — which has been operated in the same location since 1938 — remains open. The city could do that by leasing the waterlot from the province and becoming the landlord, Keefe said.

“My pockets aren’t deep enough to give [Imperial] comfort that if there was an incident 20 years from now as a result of operations there that they wouldn’t come back at Imperial,” Keefe said.

Keefe understands why Imperial no longer wants to operate the gas station, with the station selling about two million litres of fuel a year including fueling the harbour ferries and Aquabuses. That’s down from as much as 20 million litres in the days when False Creek was a commercial hub with three floating gas stations, he said.

But if the False Creek station closes, the nearest gas available would be in Coal Harbour, under the Lion’s Gate Bridge, and too far away for many boaters. As a result Keefe believes that boaters would fill their own tanks using jerry cans.

“And every single boat will then be spilling fuel over the sides,” Keefe said.

Rolheiser would not say what was needed to conclude a deal with Keefe and whether there had been any discussions with the City of Vancouver or the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, which manages park lands for the city, including the land Imperial uses at False Creek.

“At this point we have had discussions with a number of parties and we have not yet been successful in finding an alternative service provider,” Rolheiser said. “And that’s all I’m going to say.”

With respect to what terms would be needed to complete a deal, Rolheiser said “those are confidential commercial discussions.”

But Parks Board chairwoman Korina Houghton confirmed that Imperial had met with park board officials in January. However the meeting was informational, she said. “I know that we’ll certainly be negatively impacted [by the closure] but whether or not we would take something like that over is difficult to say,” Houghton said. “There would have to be a very strong business case and it’s not a service we are currently in right now.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2008