B.C. MLA investigating grant for community organization
Speed at which $200,000 given to group raises red flag for parliamentary secretary
A B.C. MLA is trying to determine how a Surrey society run by three men with B.C. Liberal party links received a $200,000 government grant less than three weeks after it was incorporated.
“I’m kind of blown away by it, to be honest with you,” said Delta North MLA Ravi Kahlon, who is the parliamentary secretary for sport and multiculturalism. “It’s amazing how this went about.”
In February 2017, Surrey businessmen Satnam Johal and Kulwinder Singh Badesha sent a letter to former Housing Minister Rich Coleman asking for $200,000 in financial support for a proposed “community well-being centre” to connect youths and seniors in the Fraser Valley and Surrey. The letter stated that the centre would include affordable housing for seniors and a health and wellness centre.
The idea was to build the centre under the umbrella of an organization called the New Horizons Village Society. The society’s mantra is “Elders can be young and youth can be responsible.”
Kahlon said he’s been active in the South of Fraser area and South Asian community and “we’ve never heard of this proposal before.”
According to corporate records, New Horizons Village Society was incorporated on March 1. A day later, it changed its name to Horizons Village Society. It has three listed directors: Badesha, Johal and Jagmohan Singh.
It is not listed as a registered charity with the federal government.
Singh ran unsuccessfully for the B.C. Liberals in 2009 in the riding of Surrey-Panorama. Johal was intending to run for the Liberals in the most recent election, but failed in nomination fights in two ridings. Badesha said he is a member of the B.C. Liberals.
On March 17, the Treasury Board sent a letter to former Minister of Community, Sport & Cultural Development Peter Fassbender stating $8.13 million in one-time grants would be awarded to 317 organizations, including $200,000 for a “feasibility analysis to build a community centre for the Fraser Valley and Surrey.” It was the fifthlargest grant issued and the money was to come from Fassbender’s ministry.
The letter noted that “these approvals are subject to your ministry staff ensuring that due diligence is undertaken to confirm that the recipients are bona fide organizations and that there is a report back to the ministry on outcomes achieved by each organization.”
The approval came less than a month before the provincial election.
“I have never seen a grant issued in the time frame that this one was issued,” Kahlon said, adding that he also wants to know why the grant was never publicly announced.
Kahlon said he has been unable to find a record of any reports on the organization’s activities since March.
Badesha told Postmedia on Friday that he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the society. The banquet hall owner got involved because “I would like to do something, a good thing, for the community.”
Reached on his cellphone Friday, Johal said he was travelling and unable to talk about New Horizons.
He instead forwarded a news release that confirms no money — either the government grant or any private donations — has been spent thus far.
“This project is in the infancy stages and we are in the business case, strategy and planning phase. As we establish our digital footprint, all such information will be available online,” the release states.
Singh told Postmedia that the grant was not a special case.
“Government issues the grant, not us. We applied, we received,” he said.
Kahlon said he’s only a week into his investigation and will pass on his findings to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (which replaced Fassbender’s ministry).
“We thought it was prudent, myself as an MLA, to look into this and assure the public that the province believes this process should be a fair transparent process and we want people to have faith in the government,” said Kahlon.