Plant hired for his influence

This was a meeting of power and influence. Housing Minister Rich Coleman, of course, has the power. Geoff Plant is all about influence. It is what the former B.C. attorney general sells. In case you were wondering, Plant is on the board of a company called West Pac LNG. That's the Alberta based outfit that wants to build a $2 billion liquefied natural gas plant at the north end of Texada Island./

Allen Garr
Vancouver Courier
Friday, November 16, 2007

On Oct. 12, as a small crowd waited for a provincial government housing announcement at the Lookout Shelter on Yukon Street, B.C.'s Minister of Housing Rich Coleman strode into the room and headed directly for Geoff Plant. "Mr. Commissioner," he said as he grasped Vancouver's civil city commissioner in one of those warm, two-handed handshakes. They smiled in the way friends smile at each other while sharing a private joke.

This was a meeting of power and influence. Coleman, of course, has the power. Plant is all about influence. It is what the former B.C. attorney general sells.

In case you were wondering, the city isn't his only customer. Plant is on the board of a company called West Pac LNG. That's the Alberta based outfit that wants to build a $2 billion liquefied natural gas plant at the north end of Texada Island. It will mean bringing in LNG tankers into Georgia Strait. They will then either burn off the gas to produce electricity or turn the LNG into a gas, most of which will be shipped south of the border.

The locals are freaked out about emissions from the gas burning and the security issues around steering those tankers in inland water.

According to the B.C. lobbyist registry, Plant has been working for West Pac and bending the ear of the B.C. minister of energy and his old boss and former roommate (they shared a condo together in Victoria) Premier Gordon Campbell. (see lobbyists report below, and notice the registry error - they have him registered as Paul Plant!)

He is also using his connections to get what he can for the city. He is the second high profile lobbyist Vancouver has paid for. The first was and still is Ken Dobell, who is Campbell's former deputy minister and a guy who has connections to Campbell that go back to the days when Campbell was mayor of Vancouver and Dobell was his city manager.

This strategy of hiring people with influence in Victoria, and to some extent in Ottawa, to deal with the problems of homelessness coupled with drug addiction, mental illness and poverty was cooked up by city manager Judy Rogers. She was mentored in the skills of effective political persuasion by her former boss Ken Dobell.

And you could not find two people closer to the premier than Dobell and Plant. So far Plant is on record as lobbying Campbell and 10 other cabinet ministers on Vancouver's behalf.

On Tuesday, Plant delivered his first progress report as civil city commissioner to council. His mandate was to work on pledges made by Mayor Sam Sullivan: By 2010 homelessness, panhandling and the city's open drug market would be reduced by 50 per cent. Public satisfaction with the city's handling of public disorder would increase.

Plant points out that aside from homelessness, which apparently affects 2,000 people, the other matters are near impossible to measure when trying to set benchmarks.

Opposition councillors were not impressed with this, nor were they impressed with the overall report, which spent much of the space it took up reviewing existing city programs.

Questions were raised about why we needed Plant and the $300,000 budget that goes with him. We have city staff to work on these issues, and the mayor should be the one convincing people in Victoria and Ottawa to help us out. But obviously Rogers and her senior management team have looked at their own resources and the mayor's abilities and found them wanting.

They are convinced that regardless of the problems setting benchmarks for Sullivan's promises, Plant and Dobell before him have access to people in power that is unique and unparalleled. They look at the recent housing announcements as proof of that.

And, you may well ask, will Sam Sullivan take credit for the work done by the influential hired help? You can count on it. But then we will have those new units of supportive housing, too.

© Vancouver Courier 2007