In case youre not up on the significance of what certain days of the week mean at certain times of the year, let me inform you that Monday Jan. 16 was considered Blue Monday.
Somebody, somewhere dubbed the third Monday in January as the most depressing day of the year. Wow, and I thought that fell on tax return day.
But I digress. I bring up Monday, which also happened to be Martin Luther King Day south of the border, for another reasonone that may bore you, enlighten you or lead to you to ask more questions.
So here goes
Monday was the deadline for Mayor Gregor Robertson and his 10 councillors to file a statement of disclosure under B.C.s Financial Disclosure Act.
No, this is not the same Act where you can discover how much money wealthy businessmen and their companies donated to politicians to get them elected in November.
That comes in March.
For now, youll have to be satisfied with knowing what shares Robertson and his councillors have in companies.
Lets begin with Mr. Mayor. Under the section titled assets, Robertson lists Happy Planet Ventures, Treedom Ventures Ltd., Ohana Partners Ltd. and Glen Valley Organic Farm Co-op.
I wanted to speak to the mayor about this on Blue Monday but I was told by his media guy that he was too depressed to spend five minutes explaining his assets. Actually thats not true, he was too busy.
Anyway, what I did get is an email on Tuesday from his media guy saying that Robertson owns minority shares in Happy Planet (the juice company he co-founded), Ohana Partners, Treedom Ventures and the farm co-op, which he belonged to when he and his wife owned a farm in the valley. Ohana, by the way, is listed as the holding company that owns Robertsons house in Vancouver. But in case youre wondering, he pays a residential tax on the property, not a business tax.
Treedom is a company that holds a piece of property on Cortes Island, home to the Hollyhock retreat overseen by Robertsons pal and moneyman, Joel Solomon.
Now to councillors.
After reviewing all but one of the 10 councillors disclosure documentsGreen Party Coun. Adriane Carr still hadnt filed hers when I checked Tuesday morningthose who listed multiple shares were Vision councillors Raymond Louie, Tony Tang and NPA councillors Elizabeth Ball and George Affleck.
Louie holds one or more shares in the Bank of Montreal, Crescent Point Energy Corp., CGI Group, Manitoba Telecom, Marret, Nortel Networks, Rainmaker Mining, Royal Bank, Nokia and Warrior Energy.
Tang holds one or more shares in his own company, Annex Management Ltd., and lists himself as a director and shareholder of K Tang Enterprises Inc.
Ball holds one or more shares in Ball Welch Holdings Ltd., Lightscene Ventures Inc. and is a shareholder and part-owner of Eos Lightmedia Corp.
Affleck owns more than a 30 per cent share in Curve Communications Group Ltd. and holds one or more shares in Pakit Inc., Optima Minerals Inc., Realm Energy Inc., Citigroup, Finavera Wind Energy Inc., Yaletown Capital Corp., Bombardier Inc. andwait for itBuild-A-Bear Workshops.
Yep, the teddy bear place, which according to children across the Lower Mainland never leaves them feeling blue on any day of the week.
Twitter: @Howellings
