Another shipment from across the border arrives at the Tides Canada offices
Vivian Krause is an expert on the complex subject of charitable foundation money flowing into British Columbia for a variety of activist causes. CityCaucus.com recently featured a report based upon her unlikely encounter with David Suzuki. Our weekend report on Mayor Gregor Robertson's trip to New York prompted her to open up the books on Robertson's biggest backers – Joel Solomon and Carol Newell. The following article from her blog is re-printed here with Krause's permission.
Vancouver's Mayor Gregor Robertson says that he wants our city to re-think the transit of oil tankers through our waters. In light of the horrific oil spill in the Gulf, surely every port city should be re-check plans and preparations for mitigating inevitable risks. No matter how well-prepared we are, accidents still happen. So if Mayor Gregor Robertson has Canada's interests at heart, that's great. On the other hand, if the Mayor's recent move is partially to please the U.S. funders of his entourage, Vancouver voters have the right to know.
As far as I can tell, one of the biggest contributors to Mayor Robertson's campaign is Joel Solomon. According to the Vancouver Sun's Donor Database, Solomon's company, Renewal Partners, contributed about $70,629 to the mayor's campaign.
Solomon is the vice-chair of Tides Canada Foundation and for at least 10 years, Solomon has also been a director of the U.S.-based Tides Foundation, the parent organization of Tides Canada Foundation. Mike Magee, Mayor Gregor Robertson's Chief of Staff, has been an advisor to Tides Canada Foundation since 2005. (See Tides Canada's 2005 Annual Report, page 8).
According to Strategic Communications Inc., it is one of the major clients of Renewal Partners, Solomon's company. The Vancouver Sun reports that Strategic Communications Inc. was also a major source of campaign financing for Mayor Robertson's campaign. In fact, Strategic Communications contributed $83,314. Thus, two organizations close to Tides Canada Foundation contributed about $153,000 to the mayor's campaign. Obviously the folks at the leadership of Tides Canada have quite an interest in Vancouver politics. My calculations suggest that a handful of huge U.S. foundations have granted at least to $US 43.7 Million to Tides Canada Foundation. For quite some time, I've been asking Tides Canada about how it re-grants U.S. funds to B.C. organizations. So far, no answers. (See also: To whom was $US 43.7 Million re-granted?)
The "Big Four" U.S. foundations that have granted $US 43.7 Million to Tides Canada have about $US 21 BILLION in assets and grant about $US 1.2 BILLION each year. These folks have deep pockets.
