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According to my calculations based on U.S. and Canadian tax returns, since 2000 Tides Canada, Tides USA and the Endswell Foundation have granted at least $1.3 million to various organizations on Cortes Island. Of that, approximately $445,000 was granted to Hollyhock, an ocean-front charity facility with which Joel Solomon and his wife, Dana Bass Solomon, are intimately involved. Ms. Solomon is the CEO of Hollyhock. Joel Solomon is the chairman of the board.
The Linnaea Farm Society received at least $700,000 and other organizations received at least $143,000. From 2000 to 2005, the president of the Linnaea Farm Society was Amy Robertson, the wife of Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.
The $1.3 million dollar figure is only for the grants for which I have found documentation. This figure may be a substantial under-estimate of the total amount that has been granted by Cortes organizations, for two reasons: 1) the amounts granted by Tides Canada are not included for 2000 - 2005, and for 2007. This is because, to the best of my knowledge, no information about the amounts of individuals grants made by Tides Canada is publicly available for these years, and 2) Between 2003 and 2009, Endswell made 99 percent of its grants to Tides Canada, for a total of $8.7 million. How much of that went to Cortes Island is not reported.
As I have reviewed the U.S. tax and Canadian tax returns for Tides Canada, Tides USA and the Endswell Foundation, I have not found any other place in Canada where these foundations have spent as much money on a similar number of organizations over a similar period. In my opinion, this raises a fair question: of all the places in Canada, why have Tides Canada, Tides USA and Endswell chosen to focus on Cortes Island - a place where it just so happens that Drummond Pike and Joel Solomon own private property?
Below, here are the excerpts of U.S. and Canadian tax returns on which the above table is based.
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