Josh Vander Vies, Liberal Party (federal), Candidate for Vancouver East and ..... The Bromley Charities PART 2

Two of the major projects of The Bromley Charities are Quest University Canada (“Quest”) in Squamish, B.C., and Fortius Sport & Health Centre (“The Sports Centre”) in Burnaby, B.C. CHIMP was heavily involved in both. For example, in 2018 CHIMP gave a gift of $74.7 million to Fortius Foundation which funded the construction of The Sports Centre.

Despite more than half a billion ($525 million and $106 million) in tax-receipted donations and gifts reported by The Bromley Charities that funded the start-up of Quest and The Sports Centre, both have faltered and were sold last year. 

In January of 2020, Quest was forced into creditor protection and sold to repay a loan secured by a $30 million mortgage against Quest's land. The mortgage was held by CHIMP and then "gifted" to another Bromley Charity, Vanchorveuve Foundation. When Quest failed to repay the loan, Bromley initiated foreclosure proceedings. Of the $46 million from Quest’s sale, $25.2 million (Pwc Report) was paid to Vanchorverve. Likewise, the sale of The Sport Centre resulted in payment of $26.6 million to Fortius Foundation from the City of Burnaby. Thus, the sale of Quest and Fortius resulted in payments of $51.8 million to The Bromley Charities. 

One of The Bromley Charities, Foundation For Public Good, made large loans to both Quest and Fortius Foundation, financial statements show. In the process, Foundation For Public Good collected $4 million as interest and made “gifts” for a total of $57 million to The Bromley Charities, including $34 million to CHIMP. But not one dollar was given to organizations that are outside the Bromley network.

Over the same years that Quest and The Sports Centre were forced to close, CHIMP paid $40 million (2014-2020) to Chimp Technology Inc., a private company run by John Bromley, Blake Bromley's son, to provide human resources and technology services to CHIMP.  In 2018 alone, CHIMP Foundation paid $12.7 million to the John Bromley's company. That same year, Quest had to shut down its varsity sports program for lack of $300,000 or $400,000 to keep the teams playing.

Since it began, CHIMP received $775 million in donations, it says. That includes $150 million in 2020 alone. With all that money, why couldn't CHIMP save Quest nor The Sports Centre?

Financial statements show that some of the large "gifts" between The Bromley Charities were actually loans, not gifts. In one case, Timothy Foundation, reports seven loans receivable from other Bromley Charities. As of 2020, these loans account for 80 percent of total assets. Evidently, making loans is a large part of what this charity does.

Fortius Foundation advertised that it funded the construction of The Sports Centre with a gift of $23 million, calling it "the largest philanthropic gift in Canadian sports history." But the financial statements for Fortius Foundation clearly show that it began with a loan for $17 million from a related party, not a gift of $23 million.

Two of the main problems that I see with The Bromley Charities are:

1. Some of the large tax-receipted “donations” reported by The Bromley Charities appear to have been loans, not true gifts. For example, financial statements for Fortius Foundation clearly show that the $23 million “gift” reportedly made by Scott Cousens to fund the start-up of Fortius Sport & Health Centre, or a large portion of that “gift,” was actually a loan (more here). Mr. Cousens says he made a $23 million donation, calling it "largest philanthropic gift in Canadian Sports History" but provides no evidence that he actually made that gift. As an example of the lending between The Bromley Charities, consider Timothy Foundation; 80 percent its total assets are accounted for by seven loans and interest receivable on loans to other Bromley Charities.
2. Very large tax-receipted donations have been written off. For example, consider the Stewart & Marilyn Blusson Foundation. Stewart Blusson is said to have donated $100 million to start Quest. The year Quest opened, Blusson Foundation reported $10 535 900 in tax-receipted donations and wrote off precisely the same amount that very same year. A few years later, the same foundation wrote off $119 million and then a further $75 million.

In my opinion, many of The Bromley Charities are "charities" in name only. I'll cite two examples:

1. Angel Philanthropy Foundation – This charity began in 2007. For more than ten years, it was inactive. In 2019, it sprung to life with a tax-receipted donation of $6.4 million. But one year later, none of that remains. Financial statements show that $2.9 million was written off, $20,727 was paid as fees and $3.5 million was gifted to CHIMP. As of 2020, Angel Philanthropy reported zero dollars. Its only asset is $500 as GST receivable.
2. Viva Voce Charitable Foundation – Registered by employees of Blake Bromley, Viva Voce has had revenues of $40 million of which $35 million was gifts from CHIMP. Viva Voce used most of that money to buy life insurance policies. The only charity that Viva Voce has ever funded is CHIMP, which received a non-cash gift of nearly $1.8 million in 2020.

Over the past five years, I have written a long series of detailed letters to Blake Bromley, John Bromley and Scott Cousens in order to share my concerns and ask legitimate questions. Blake and John Bromley have both replied but did not answer my questions. In the absence of answers from them, I wrote to CRA to request a proper audit of CHIMP and a full investigation of The Bromley Charities as a whole. Indeed, CRA has already shut down at least eight of The Bromley Charities but the CRA audits take far too long. The audit of Theanon Foundation and the transactions that it covered had a span of 19 years.

Questions for Josh Vander Vies

Given that Josh Vander Vies, the lawyer who is currently the in-house counsel for CHIMP, is seeking public office, he should answer questions about the charity with which he has been involved for nearly ten years. Specifically:

1. What is Mr. Vander Vies’ response to the Independent Auditor's Report prepared by Deloitte, which states that the accountants were unable to vouch for $193 million of CHIMP’s unlisted securities?
2. Why did CHIMP’s entire board resign in the spring of 2020? Was Mr. Vander Vies involved in any of the activities that led to the resignation of the entire board?
   • CHIMP Corporate Records Signed by Josh Vander Vies (2 pages)
3. What was Mr. Vander Vies’ role at CHIMP in 2018, when CHIMP made a “gift” of  $74,711,535 to Fortius Foundation? Was he CHIMP’s in-house legal counsel at that time?
4. Will Mr. Vander Vies ensure that CHIMP posts the financial statements at its website for the two most recent years? 
5. What was the software license agreement for $1,845,000 that Real Champions Foundation reported when Mr. Vander Vies was on its board of directors in 2015? Why was this asset gifted through a daisy chain of five of The Bromley Charities before it was written off entirely by Mighty Oaks Foundation?
6. Why is there no mention of Mr. Vander Vies’ involvement with CHIMP in the biography for him that is posted at the website of The Liberal Party of Canada?
7. Is CHIMP currently under CRA audit?