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Friday, August 6, 2010

EOI for the DERAH towers re Resolutions

One thing I do not understand and that is the need for Resolutions for the EOIs. BC Housng wants Resolutions signed by the President. Does that mean the President signs a REsolutions without the majority approval of all the directors. This isn't what happened when DERAH decided to cave to the demands of BC Housing for the good of the residents of the DERAH buildings and signed a secret agreement terminating DERAH's interest in the buildings as there was no Resolution of the directors giving any power to the President of DERAHS to do this and not all the directors knew or even signed anything except for the President. I was in the court all that day and I was a legal director of DERAH and I did not know of the terms of the secret agreement and other directors were not there. Even if I wasn't a director nothing should be secret when the money comes from the public purse. A President's only power is to vote in case of a tie with the directors. She doesn't have any power to sign a resolution unless all the directors are aware of it. The President can't just chose a few directors in favour of a motion. I still maintain that the secret agreement signed by Sister Elizabeth Kellihier, who was the President at the court on May 18, 2010, was illegal. How BC Housing has been able to get away with it is beyond me. For expediency Broughton and Company twist/broke the law and the judge who was not interested in reading the mountain of pleadings as he instructed the parties to go out in the hall and settle the matter as this litigation is not in the public interest. I beg to differ, this litigation is in the best interest of the public. $billions are spent on social housing and yet the process is flawed.

Speaking of public interest: two weeks ago for a period of three days the elevators in the Tellier Tower were closed do lack of repairs. One of the argument by BC Housng was that the antiquated elevators had to be replaced as soon as possible
and short leave i.e. get the order of the receiver manager signed as soon as possible because it was necessary to replace the elevators with new ones. This is not true. BC Housing knew for years that the elevators had to be replaced and yet did nothing except to say that DERAH had to pay for them when in fact BC Housing knew that the reserve monies were not there. BC Housing has a lot of money for safety. This year BC Housing had a budget of $100 billion so BC Housing could have replaced the elevators and worried about what happened to the reserves later. Only one elevator is in working condition. BC Housing has put all the tenants of the ten story Tellier at risk (most are elderly and disabled) for years and still the elevators have not been replaced. BC Housing used the courts to press for the receiver-manager Order by a court short leave so that the elevators could be installed and yet the elevators have not been replaced and the tenants have not been advised if and when BC Housing will ever replace them.

I am very disappointed with the media as none of them have shown any interest in what happened to DERAH. This story isn't about DERAH alone, it is also about BC Housing and its tactics, and the failure of the Society Act.

And of course there is CUPE and it knew about the elevators being defective and it did nothing except tell their members not to walk up the ten flight of stairs to assist the elderly. Something in their Union contract not to walk up more than two stories without an elevator...and not being allowed to physically assist tenants but union members can verbally assault and threaten tenants, directors and specific employees. The entertainment one gets from reading a collective union agreement.
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