BC Pipeline Approval Could Bring More Chinese Oil Tankers To Puget Sound

BC Pipeline Approval Will Bring More Chinese Oil Tankers To Puget Sound

By ASHLEY AHEARN • NOV 29, 2016

An Endeavour-class oil tanker, which is operated by Polar Tankers, a subsidiary of Houston-based Conoco Phillips, is seen anchored in Padilla Bay, near Anacortes, Washington, with a view of Mount Baker in the distance on Nov. 19, 2005.

The Canadian government approved a crude-oil pipeline project that is much larger than the one generating protests in North Dakota and could bring a seven-fold increase in tanker traffic to the Salish Sea.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved the Kinder-Morgan, Trans-mountain pipeline expansion project. The pipeline currently brings crude from Alberta’s oil sands region to the coast of British Columbia.

Now the company is approved to more than double the pipeline’s capacity.

That could mean a significant increase in the number of oil tankers traveling to and from the pipeline terminal, through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and northern Puget Sound. Right now there’s one tanker making that trip per week. When the pipeline’s expanded, that could increase to more than one oil tanker per day.

The Tsleil-Waututh nation of British Columbia called the permits “illegitimate” and said the issue is as black and white as the killer whales the oil ships will endanger. The tribe said it will fight the decision in court.

Trudeau previously rejected the Northern Gateway project to northwest British Columbia which passes through the Great Bear Rainforest. Northern Gateway would have transported 525,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta's oil sands to the Pacific to deliver oil to oil-hungry China.

"The Great Bear Rainforest is no place for a pipeline and the Douglas Channel is no place for oil tanker traffic," Trudeau said.

These are the first major pipeline decisions for Trudeau, whose Liberal government is trying to balance the oil industry's desire to tap new markets in Asia with environmentalists' concerns.

Alberta, which has the world's third largest oil reserves, needs infrastructure in place to export its growing oil sands production. Approving Trans Mountain helps diversify Canada's oil exports. Ninety-seven percent of Canadian oil exports now go to the U.S.

The importance of Trudeau's decisions on pipelines only grew after the Obama administration turned down TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline that would have taken Alberta oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast. President-elect Donald Trump has expressed support for Keystone XL.

Trudeau noted that more oil would end up being transported by rail if more pipelines are not built.

Officials say wave of fentanyl overdoses being fueled by Chinese Labs

By Geri Gibbons

Federal law enforcement officials say variants of fentanyl — shown here in its brick powder form — have become increasingly prolific in the United States.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration photo

FOR WEB

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration photo

WILKES-BARRE — A highly publicized local surge of overdoses involving synthetic opiates, often mixed with heroin, is part of a nationwide trend that federal law enforcement officials say is being fueled by a steady supply of the drugs from China, a scenario law enforcement and health officials have described to the Times Leader as a “perfect storm.”

Most of the drugs are variants of fentanyl, a Schedule II pharmaceutical similar to morphine but 50 to 100 times more potent, according to the National Institute for Drug Abuse.

In Luzerne County alone, coroner’s officials say fentanyl or its variants were present in 32 of the 89 fatal opioid overdoses recorded so far this year, according to the county coroner’s office.
With eight suspected overdoses still awaiting a determination of cause of death, it is more than likely overdose deaths in 2016 will far exceed 2015’s total of 95 deaths, officials told the Times Leader.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, most of the drugs are being manufactured in laboratories in China before being smuggled into the United States. According to law enforcement reports, many of the labs are marketing the drugs directly to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, Canada and the United States.

Jeremiah Daley, who heads the federally funded High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program in Philadelphia, says the drugs, which are typically used to “cut” heroin or are pressed into pill form, have become increasingly common in the Northeast since about 2013 despite the best efforts of both the U.S. and Chinese governments.

According to recent DEA reports, law enforcement seizures of fentanyl increased 400 percent from 2013 to 2014, and more than 80 percent of fentanyl seizures in the country in 2014 were reported in 10 states predominantly in the eastern U.S., including Pennsylvania.

An endless supply

Daley, the HIDTA director, says many of the drugs and their chemical precursors are often purchased online via the so-called “Dark Web” — websites and networks not accessible through normal web browsers — and shipped through the postal system. Daley says a lack of manpower in the postal system makes it difficult for the drugs to be intercepted in transit.

“The mail is a huge thing,” says Hazleton Police Chief Jerry Speziale. “And it’s difficult to monitor. It’s coming to New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and postal authorities don’t know that it’s coming through.”

According to DEA reports, the drugs are often shipped either directly to the United States or first to Mexico, although some make their way to Canada and are then smuggled into the Northeast.

Daley says precursors of the drug also are often shipped by mail in powdered form and processed later.

In one recent case, West Wyoming police discovered an apparent fentanyl lab on Aug. 17 when they served a search warrant on an Eighth Street residence they’d had under surveillance for months.

Officer-in-charge Jason Slatcoff says departments in smaller communities are finding they have to reach out for outside funding and investigative resources to deal with the trend.

“In our case, we couldn’t have completed the shutdown of this operation if it wasn’t for the (Office of Attorney General) and the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office,” Slatcoff says.

Vito Guarino, a former DEA special agent who once served as a liaison to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, says that in general, heroin dealers are lacing their product with fentanyl to make it more potent.

The resulting mix, he says, varies in potency from batch to batch and bag to bag, with one bag tolerable and the next potentially deadly.

“Drug dealers aren’t pharmacists,” Guarino says. “They have no way to determine exact potency.”

Daley says law enforcement agencies are particularly concerned about chemical analogs of fentanyl, which include furanyl fentanyl and carfentanil, that he says are often difficult for law enforcement to identify when first introduced into the market.

Difficult to treat

In a region already in the grips of a nationwide heroin crisis, the increasing presence of fentanyl and its analogs in the local drug supply is only making matters worse for first responders.

Looking at a map of the U.S. titled “Increase in fentanyl incidents,” Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney points to a green dot in the northeast corner of Pennsylvania. While eastern Pennsylvania is covered with the green dots, which represent spikes in fentanyl-related emergencies, this particular dot stands alone.

“That’s us, that’s this city and surrounding areas,” he says.

Delaney said the increase in the use of fentanyl and other opioids has stressed the resources of the department.

Since last January, he says, the department has used about 260 doses of naloxone, a drug administered to reverse opioid overdoses.

But Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s physician general, says that because fentanyl is so much more potent than heroin, overdose victims often requires several doses of naloxone over a period of time because the drug reasserts itself in their system.

A public health matter

Both law enforcement and health officials say they view the problems posed by fentanyls in the context of the nationwide opioid crisis.

Levine, the physician general, says her department is addressing the issue from a public safety and health standpoint.

Although she applauds law enforcement agencies for their efforts to reduce trafficking and to identify offenders, Levine says the long-term goal of her office is addressing opioid addiction as a disease.

Interactions with law enforcement, she says, are a chance for opioid addicts to be detoxed and get treatment.

“Police can’t arrest their way out of this problem,” she says. “But it can be an opportunity for identification and rehabilitation.”

While the Philadelphia HIDTA director stresses that law enforcement agencies are busy targeting high and mid-level drug distributors, Daley says his organization — which facilitates cooperation between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in regional drug cases — is also partnering with public health agencies to address the demand.

“There’s no silver bullet,” he says.

London Male Charged with Importing Furanyl-fentanyl

(London, Ontario – Tuesday, November 8, 2016) - On Thursday, November 3, 2016 members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) London Detachment and Synthetic Drug Operations, Ontario Provincial Police Biker Enforcement Unit, London Police Service Guns and Drugs Section and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), arrested a London area male for importing Furanyl-fentanyl and possession of Furanyl-fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking.

As a result of a search warrant at a residence on Patann Drive in London, Ontario, Justin Donald Brown, age 28, has been charged with possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking contrary to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and importing a controlled substance contrary to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

On October 24, 2016, CBSA border services officers (BSO) at the Vancouver International Mail Centre intercepted a package from China destined for London, Ontario. During a routine inspection, BSOs examined a parcel weighing over 30 grams that was declared as “plastic bags.” An x-ray image of the parcel indicated suspected powder.  The parcel was alleged to contain 10 grams of Furanyl-fentanyl.  The CBSA alerted the RCMP and further investigation led to the search warrant and arrest.   

"The production of fentanyl laced drugs in clandestine labs can lead to fatal concentrations of illicit substances,” stated Inspector Joe Czenze, Officer in Charge of the London RCMP Detachment, “This is an excellent example of several law enforcement agencies working together to prevent the importation and trafficking of a dangerous substance in our community."

“Fentanyl and its derivatives pose a serious risk to public safety. The London Police Service will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to try to prevent this substance from becoming prevalent in London,” stated Chief John Pare of the London Police Service.

“This interception demonstrates how the CBSA continues to collaborate with the RCMP and other law enforcement partners in preserving the integrity of our borders and in keeping our country safe,” stated David Lee, Chief of Operations at the Vancouver International Mail Centre.

Justin Brown will make his next appearance at the London court house on November 25, 2016.

Arrest made in theft of baby formula that police say was destined for China

VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016 

Vancouver police have arrested a man they allege was paying drug users to steal baby formula from local stores, then shipping it to buyers in China for a large profit.

China’s baby-formula crisis of eight years ago, in which six infants died and thousands were affected, generated a lasting distrust of Chinese suppliers and a massive demand for formula produced in other countries, says a University of British Columbia researcher.

Detective Constable Doug Fell announced at a news conference Thursday the arrest and the recovery of $50,000 worth of baby formula. He said a container of baby formula retailing for about $30 in the Lower Mainland can sell for $80 to $90 abroad.

He said the department received information last month that an individual was purchasing stolen baby formula from people in the Downtown Eastside. Police believe the man had 10 to 20 people working for him on a daily basis and paid them about 30 per cent of the product’s retail value.

“They use a predatory method, and the predatory method is they take our Downtown Eastside drug-addicted persons who are disadvantaged and they put them to work,” Det. Fell said.

The 46-year-old man was arrested last week but has not yet been charged, and police have not released his name. The department has recommended charges including counselling to commit an indictable offence, trafficking in property obtained by crime and possession of stolen property over $5,000.

The department also said it expects to recommend charges against two more suspects.

Det. Fell said the department conducted surveillance of the main suspect and believes he may have been receiving at least 100 containers of baby formula a day. He said the man may have moved $200,000 in product over the past year and may be responsible for 70 per cent of the baby-formula thefts in the Metro Vancouver area over that time, adding that the time frame coincides with a spike in baby-formula thefts reported by local stores.

Tony Hunt, general manager of loss prevention for London Drugs, said retail theft puts the safety of employees and customers at risk. Mr. Hunt, who joined Det. Fell at the news conference, said the resale of stolen goods has become increasingly common.

“The thefts that take place, they’re not simple acts of impulsive shoplifting. The individuals commiting these thefts are often very desperate, they have to commit numerous thefts a day in order to fill their need and they’re prone to violence against retail staff,” Mr. Hunt said.

Amy Hanser, a UBC associate professor of sociology who has researched China’s food safety and importing of milk, says the demand for baby formula produced in other countries can be linked to the 2008 crisis, when formula made by a Chinese company was found to contain melamine, an industrial chemical that can artificially elevate the protein levels in the formula. The adulteration killed six babies, and thousands more were hospitalized.

“This happened quite a long time ago, but it left a permanent distrust among Chinese consumers,” she said in an interview.

Dr. Hanser says affluent people can either buy baby formula online or have friends ship it to them. She adds that breastfeeding is very common among China’s working class because formula can be expensive.

B.C. is not the only province that has seen baby-formula thefts in recent months. In October, police in Guelph, Ont., announced they had arrested three people for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of formula.

Trudeau Fundraiser with Chinese Canadian Business Leaders Raises ‘Cash For Access’ Concerns

Event at Toronto home broke no rules, says Liberal spokesman.

By Jeremy J. Nuttall 16 Nov 2016 | TheTyee.ca

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Toronto private fundraising evening with Chinese-Canadian business leaders broke no rules, a Liberal party spokesperson said Tuesday.The May 19 exclusive event wasn’t revealed on Trudeau’s daily itinerary, which said Trudeau was spending the day in “private meetings.”

But Dawa News, a Chinese-language business news website, reported the dinner party took place at the home of Toronto businessman Benson Wong, chair of the Chinese Business Chamber of Canada.

Trudeau held two events in Toronto that day, both asking for $1,525 donations from people who wanted to spend time with the prime minister.

Photos of the fundraiser have been posted on Dawa and other news sites and the website of a financial firm. They show a relaxed Trudeau drinking beer and helping to make dumplings for about 35 attendees. He gave a speech on China-Canada relations, Chinese-language media reported.

Liberal communications director Braeden Caley confirmed Trudeau was at a fundraiser at a private home in Toronto that evening.

“As one would expect, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau meets with thousands of people each month, at a wide variety of events and meetings all across Canada,” Caley said in an email. “Mr. Trudeau attended a fundraising event on May 19 of this year in the private residence of a volunteer.”

The Dawa News article lists representatives of Chinese-Canadian business groups at the fundraiser.

They include Shenglin Xian, the founder of Wealth One Bank of Canada, a bank aimed at Chinese Canadians. Xian posted photos of himself and Trudeau at the dinner on his company’s web page.

Another dinner guest was Liu Meng, chairman of the Yangtze River International Chamber of Commerce, which is opening a branch in Canada.

‘Stand Up to China on Rights,’ Jan Wong Tells Trudeau

His photo appears with Trudeau in the publication Yangtze River Network, a Chinese-government-run media outlet based in Wuhan, China.

Liu has travelled the world on behalf of the association forging business ties, including with former Italian president Silvio Berlusconi.

Caley said Liu, as a Chinese resident, was at the dinner as a guest of the host and did not make a political contribution or pay to attend.

The Liberals have been slammed for “cash for access” fundraisers that critics say offer those with money the chance to lobby the prime minister and cabinet members.

Trudeau is reported to have held a similar fundraiser at a private home in Vancouver on Nov. 7.

Last month groups concerned about human rights in China complained the Liberal government is paying far more attention to Beijing-friendly business groups than to human rights groups.

Caley said Trudeau and other Liberal MPs have been at hundreds of outreach events across Canada for different causes. 

Chinese company Anbang buys stake in B.C.-based retirement home chain

STEVEN CHASE

OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Nov. 28, 2016

A massive Chinese insurance company with a murky ownership structure is buying a majority stake in one of British Columbia’s biggest retirement home chains, a deal believed to exceed $1-billion that would give Beijing-based Anbang Insurance an important role in the delivery of health care in B.C.

Anbang Insurance Group, which has emerged in recent years to launch a global buying spree, has cut a deal to buy Vancouver-based Retirement Concepts, a family-owned retirement home business established in 1988.

This foreign takeover is currently under scrutiny by the federal government’s Investment Review Division because it exceeds the $600-million threshold and it will ultimately be up to Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains to make a decision.

Subscribers: Chinese investors top commercial-property buyers in Canada

Read more: Anbang poised to take control of Vancouver’s Bentall Centre

Retirement Concepts owns and operates about 24 retirement “communities,” mostly in B.C., except for several properties in Calgary and Montreal. What makes it even more attractive is that it also owns holdings of unused or partly developed land that would allow a major expansion of facilities in the future.

The company is an important part of B.C.’s health-care delivery system. Retirement Concepts is the highest-billing provider of assisted living and residential care services in the province. The B.C. government paid the company $86.5-million in the 2015-16 fiscal year, more than any other of the 130 similar providers.

A source familiar with the deal said it exceeds $1-billion, but Retirement Concepts declined to confirm the size of the transaction. “The terms of the proposed transaction have not been disclosed publicly and we cannot comment on the amount you refer to,” said Azim Jamal, president and chief executive of Retirement Concepts.

Foreign investments are reviewed to determine whether they provide a net benefit to Canada and are compatible with this country’s industrial, economic and cultural policies and what impact they will have on Canadian participation in the business.

The Canadian government is eager to attract foreign money to make up for insufficient investment capital within Canada and acquisitions by foreigners are rarely rejected. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is particularly eager to attract more investment from China and has begun exploratory free-trade talks with Beijing. The Liberals have already signalled they are open to rolling back a ban on state-owned Chinese investment in the oil sands imposed by former prime minister Stephen Harper.

Anbang appears to have gone to some lengths to conduct this B.C. deal below the radar.

The name of the firm acquiring Retirement Concepts is Cedar Tree Investment Canada, which was incorporated as a federal Canadian company only in July. Cedar Tree’s registration initially gave the names of its two directors as Hong Zhao and Ye Zhang with their contact address as Suite 2560 at 200 Granville St. in downtown Vancouver. People with the same names and address are also the two listed directors for Maple Red Financial Management Canada Inc., the company that Anbang used to buy a controlling interest in all four towers of Vancouver’s Bentall Centre last year.

The directors have since changed, as has their address, and Cedar Tree’s contact information is now a major Canadian law firm’s downtown Vancouver office.

Telephone calls and e-mails to Cedar Tree Investment’s listed directors were not returned. The Globe and Mail was also unable to reach anyone at Anbang International, Anbang Insurance’s global investment arm, at its Vancouver number.

In April, after abruptly walking away from an effort to buy Starwood Hotels & Resorts, one the world’s largest hotel companies, Anbang appears to have been shifting its attention to the Canadian market with a bid for Innvest, one of this country’s biggest hotel owners. This came amid reports from China that Chinese regulators were looking into whether its foreign asset acquisition binge – including the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York – exceeded allowable limits.

Bloomberg News, citing a source involved in the transaction, reported that the CEO of the firm that would go on to buy Innvest, Bluesky Hotels & Resorts’ Li Chen, had said at the outset of the acquisition talks that she was representing Anbang but did not wish this company to be publicly identified as the buyer. Anbang later publicly denied “any connection” between it and Bluesky.

An investigation by The New York Times earlier this year revealed that 92 per cent of Anbang is currently held by firms either fully or partly owned by relatives of Anbang’s chairman, Wu Xiaohui, or his wife, the granddaughter of the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, or Chen Xiaolu, the son of a famous People’s Liberation Army leader.

The B.C. retirement home acquisition thrusts Anbang into a new area of business: Canada’s health-care system.

Under international trade deals that Canada has signed, the provinces retain the right to refuse to give health-care contracts to foreign companies. That’s because Canada reserved the right in trade agreements for governments to discriminate against foreign suppliers of services in the health-care sector and foreign investors when it comes to health care.

Retirement Concepts, however, says it will remain as operator under a deal with Cedar Tree. Asked about how the Beijing company conducted itself in the transaction, Mr. Jamal said, “Anbang was transparent in its bidding from the outset.”

Mr. Jamal said Retirement Concept’s existing corporate team will remain intact to “provide continuity” to residents and the business.

“Under the partnership agreement, Retirement Concepts will retain a minority share and will continue to manage the day-to-day operations of all of our seniors’ communities,” the CEO said.

“As a result, there will be no change to staffing plans, the quality of care provided to our residents, nor to our policies, procedures and other operating standards.”

British Columbia’s Liberal government, however, says it is not concerned about the Retirement Concepts deal because it does not believe the patients at the company’s facilities will see a difference in the care they receive.

“Cedar Tree has assured patients, families and staff that it does not intend to make any changes to day to day operations, patient care, staff or leadership. In fact, they will all remain in operation as they are today,” B.C. Minister of Health Terry Lake said in a statement.

“We expect this change to be seamless, and that the patients residing in these facilities will continue to get the same quality of care.”

The B.C. government said nothing also prevents a foreign-owned company from owning a health-care provider.

“The Community Care and Assisted Living Act does not prohibit facilities from being sold to an out-of-province, or to an off-shore purchaser,” spokeswoman Kristy Anderson of B.C.’s Health Ministry said.

The Investment Review Division at the federal department of Innovation confirmed it’s reviewing the acquisition before Mr. Bains makes a decision. “Cedar Tree Investment Canada has filed an application for review under the Investment Canada Act of its proposed acquisition of Retirement Concepts,” spokeswoman Stéfanie Power said in a statement.

“Due to the confidentiality provisions of the Investment Canada Act, we cannot comment further on the timing of the review.”

The department likely received the application in late September or early October but it will not confirm the date the review began. “In general terms, the Minister has 45 days from the date the application is received to make a decision. However, the Minister can extend this period by 30 days. Further extensions are possible with the investor’s consent,” Ms. Power said.

China itself faces a daunting retirement-care challenge with a rapidly greying population and it is seeking the expertise and capacity to design the vast system necessary to look after its elderly.

With reports from Stephanie Chambers and Rick Cash

--------------

The blocked deals

In 2008, Ottawa surprised international investors by rejecting a bid by U.S.-based Alliant Techsystems Inc. to acquire the space division of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. on the grounds of protecting Canadian sovereignty.

And in November, 2010, the Conservatives blocked Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton’s $38.6-billion offer for fertilizer company Potash Corp., a decision the minister for Saskatchewan, Gerry Ritz, later explained was a move to protect a “strategic resource.”

Finally, in late 2012, the government erected new barriers to investment by state-owned companies, fencing off the Canadian oil sands from further control by foreign governments – a decision Tory officials later explained was aimed at China.

In 2013, Ottawa quashed an Egyptian billionaire’s bid to buy a division of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. because of national security concerns.

-- Steven Chase