Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, left, with Janice Abbott, CEO of Atira Property Management and Atira Women's Resource Society in Surrey, B.C., on April 13, 2022.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
B.C. Premier David Eby says a prominent non-profit housing provider for vulnerable women will undergo an intensive review and will get no new contracts in the meantime after a highly critical report released Monday found there were serious violations of conflict-of-interest rules between the CEO of the provider and her husband, who has resigned as CEO of BC Housing.
Mr. Eby said the report found significant breaches of conflict-of-interest guidelines between Janice Abbott, who runs Atira Women’s Resource Society, and her husband, Shayne Ramsay, who ran the agency responsible for social and supportive housing in the province.
As well, there was evidence that Mr. Ramsay and then-BC Housing CFO Abbas Barodawalla, had deleted text messages “which effectively obstructed the investigation,” according to the report.
Mr. Eby said the probe found problems with financial reporting and the allocation of millions of dollars.
“No one is above the rules. We cannot allow bad behaviour to slow down our progress.”
He said no one living or working in Atira housing will be negatively affected, as the money for supports and rents will continue to flow.
The forensic investigation found no evidence that any money handed out from BC Housing, now a $2-billion-a-year organization, went to enrich anyone personally or that it was diverted from the services contracted for. There were no concerns raised about any other non-profit organizations.
Atira has been providing housing and services to primarily vulnerable women since 1983 and, under Ms. Abbott’s leadership, saw its funding grow from $18-million in the 2016-2017 fiscal year to $52.3-million in 2020-2021.
Many other housing non-profits also expanded rapidly during the first two pandemic years, as the province acquired hotels and other buildings to house people and asked non-profits to take on managing them. However, none had a portfolio expansion as large as Atira.
But Mr. Eby sharply criticized the actions of Mr. Ramsay. According to the investigation done by Ernst & Young, Mr. Ramsay repeatedly ignored conflict-of-interest policy and sent messages to people at BC Housing on how to handle various requests and proposals from Atira.
“The concerns raised seriously undermined my confidence in Mr. Ramsay’s leadership,” the Premier said.
The report noted Mr. Ramsay’s messages to those at BC Housing regarding Atira “calls into question whether Atira received preferential treatment from BC Housing and was afforded greater access to public funds than similar providers and casts doubt upon the ability of BC Housing and its then board to appropriately manage” conflict of interest situations.
Although Mr. Ramsay had erased many texts from his phone, some remained that showed he had on at least two occasions told others at BC Housing to make sure his name was left off any directives he gave about Atira.
The report names the former chief financial officer, Mr. Barodawalla, as someone who also appears to have deleted text messages that would have provided evidence about how business decisions were made at the agency.
Three particular decisions were highlighted as problematic in the investigation, all involving Atira’s purchases of buildings that were done using unorthodox and unapproved methods for securing mortgages.
The report noted that Ms. Abbott used “restricted” BC Housing funding to help pay for the purchase of a building on Columbia Street. In another case, “Atira assigned the operating agreement for Sereenas House for Women to a credit union as additional security for a mortgage.” That meant BC Housing was on the hook in case of a default, “representing significant additional financial risk” to the agency. “This led to BC Housing entering into an inter-lender agreement in order to induce the credit union to release the assignment.”
The report also noted that Atira got contracts to manage other, government-owned properties without going through any apparent usual channels and that the organization was constantly late with its financial reports. That was compounded by BC Housing taking a long time to do financial reviews.
As a result, in 2020, BC Housing provided Atira with its standard funding even though the organization had a $2.5-million surplus for that year – something that wasn’t discovered until two years later.
Mr. Eby said Mr. Ramsay quit without getting a severance package, but that Mr. Barodawalla received one; the government is looking at trying to claw that back.
Ms. Abbott did not answer The Globe and Mail’s questions on Monday. But, in the past, she has frequently defended her actions by saying she was taking on work that other non-profit housing providers didn’t want and that Atira’s portfolio includes a much higher number of old and dilapidated buildings that have required extra money to keep operating.
As well, she has said, sometimes she moved quickly to acquire buildings in order to secure them for supportive housing.
Her organization has had at least two major financial bailouts in the past decade. In 2014, Atira got almost $1-million extra from BC Housing to cover repair bills. In 2018, after an external review by the public accounting firm BDO, which examined Atira’s financial state and found many concerns, BC Housing provided another almost $700,000 to help pay for shortfalls and repairs.
The Ernst & Young investigation noted several times that Ms. Abbott went directly to senior staff at the agency when she needed something, rather than the standard channels other housing providers used.
“Atira regularly bypassed the traditional communication channels by approaching more senior members of BC Housing directly for matters such as funding requests. In turn, the senior members of BC Housing told other BC Housing employees to ‘make it happen,’” said the report.
Mr. Ramsay quit his $320,000-a-year job last year, saying he no longer had confidence he could solve the complex problems facing the agency.
He now works for a development agency at the Squamish Nation, which is currently starting construction on its massive housing project near the Burrard Bridge.