Pubdate: Thu, 20 Mar 2014
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Tiffany Crawford
Page: A9

MANAGERS OF PORTLAND HOTEL SOCIETY RESIGN

Several senior managers at the Portland Hotel Society are resigning
because of an ultimatum from the provincial government, according to
the society's executive director.

Mark Townsend said Wednesday that the managers and board were given
the "stark choice" of resigning or having their contracts with the
province cut.

Townsend said in order to keep operations running, the managers of the
society which runs Insite, Vancouver's supervised injection site for
drug users, decided to let the provincial government take over by the
end of the month.

"We were told we could fight an effort to put this into receivership,
in which case all of our contracts would be cancelled; or alternately
the board could step aside, so obviously we didn't have any choice,
because we care about the residents and the staff and that sort of
thing would just cause chaos," he said.

Townsend emphasized that no society staff members other than the
senior management would be affected, nor would operations at Insite or
any of the social housing be disrupted.

"The residents have to come first," he said.

"We are people who fight, but we can't cause that kind of disruption.
All services are remaining in place. No question."

Outgoing management will not retain salaries, he said. He didn't know
specifically who would be replacing them, but said the government will
have a new board in place by the end of the month.

Minister Rich Coleman said earlier this month an independent audit of
the society's accounting raised problems and said receivership was an
option for the non-profit society, which also provides social housing
and support for people with mental illnesses and addictions.

Coleman said the results of the audit by accounting firm Deloitte
would soon be made public.

The audit raised concerns about how the society spends its
administration fees. Townsend said the society charges a total
management fee of 9.1 per cent for its work, and some of that money
has been used for advocacy, including opposition to some B.C. Housing
policies like shutting down shelters.

"It's a weird position to be in because we are providing a bunch of
services and we do advocacy, and that's complicated. It's not the way
things are normally done."

B.C. Housing funds the society with about $9 million for 17 housing
and service contracts.
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MAP posted-by: Matt