Deep concerns raised by Surrey board directors about Metro Vancouver paint a troubling portrait of an organization that lacks expertise, fails to consult, and forces the region’s officials to make multibillion-dollar decisions affecting taxpayers without adequate information. The criticism, in the form of a sharply worded letter Nov. 12 to Metro’s finance committee and obtained by Glacier Media, is the most extensive and prominent challenge yet from board directors for change at the regional federation of 21 municipalities, one electoral area and one treaty First Nation. It calls for an overhaul of the 2025 budgeting methods, arguing that inaccurate and insufficient information has been provided to directors, including an exhaustive review of decisions on development cost charges (DCCs), and a repeal of various bylaws. More broadly it calls for changes in how the body is governed. It identifies as specific pain points two Metro Vancouver projects, the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant in North Vancouver and the looming Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in Richmond, and disparages how they are among the seven top projects reporting directly into Chief Administrative Officer Jerry Dobrovolny “with no independent third-party engineering and financial auditor to provide transparency, accountability and evaluate cost-benefit design-based principles/assumptions.” The projects lack detailed and audited information on how costs are calculated, says the letter. In the case of the North Shore plant, the budget has soared seven-fold to $3.86 billion from an original $550-million contract with little public information along the way. Already the budget for the Iona plant in Richmond has risen to $14 billion from the $9.9 billion mark two years ago, and construction remains years away. The letter was submitted moments before the committee’s most recent Nov. 13 meeting by Surrey Coun. Pardeep Kooner on behalf of five other Surrey directors, including Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke. Surrey’s six directors are second-most to Vancouver’s seven on the 41-director board. The letter’s general contents were briefly discussed but the letter itself was not part of the meeting package. It wasn’t formally dealt with at the committee meeting and has been referred to Metro Vancouver staff for a response early in 2025. But its language argues nothing short of significant shifts in its operating culture and quality of competence are necessary. “I believe there must be additional board oversight and decisions made on the costing of these Major Capital projects at a minimum,” Kooner wrote. The letter reflects the frustration many directors have expressed of a staff-dominated operation that leaves them without the necessary decision-making information – but with the accountability as elected officials to taxpayers in their districts. There have been calls for a third-party audit to examine what Kooner and others have complained is a chronic sprawl of budgets and a culture of indifference about them. While a performance audit will be conducted in-house on the North Shore plant costs, it hasn’t satisfied those who feel it is insufficiently independent. The provincial government, which created Metro Vancouver as a corporate entity, has so far declined publicly to involve itself, whether to launch a fuller-fledged inquiry into costs, provide additional funds to defray significant property tax levies for the North Shore plant, or to take back the responsibilities of the operation, which at the moment is overseeing some 300 infrastructural projects. The three-page letter goes on: “The way the current board is operating has many gaps in information, lacks sufficient details to make the decisions we need to and the full financial impacts or options are not being provided. “For instance, the board is often asked to approve or endorse a very broad strategy that has a suite of staff-led sub-action items and staff-driven priorities. There is often little or no discussion on the broad strategy let alone no consultation is provided on the sub-action items. “This results in a lack of crystal-clear strategies and policies which enables staff to make their own interpretations and significant decisions without Board consideration. I have found that staff has been using the strategic plan to pick and choose areas of focus with no clear direct board resolution which is affecting the information we are provided. I believe that the current governance model is not sufficient to ensure the Board is fully prepared and knowledgeable.” The letter outlines the need to defer the 2025 budget planning to deal with six issues, including what Kooner terms “a huge concern” about DCCs, how they are apportioned to communities, and the quality of the population and dwelling forecasts. “I have been told that there are many factors that are considered; however, these other factors have not been provided.” As it is, the budget information and methodology “is not accurate/insufficient and does not portray the true impact on the decisions that have been brought to the Board.” Kirk LaPointe is a Glacier Media columnist with an extensive background in journalismAfter a sprawling hacking campaign exposed the communications of an unknown number of Americans, U.S. cybersecurity officials are advising people to use encryption in their communications. To safeguard against the risks highlighted by the campaign, which originated in China, federal cybersecurity authorities released an extensive list of security recommendations for U.S. telecom companies — such as Verizon and AT&T — that were targeted. The advice includes one tip we can all put into practice with our phones: “Ensure that traffic is end-to-end encrypted to the maximum extent possible.” End-to-end encryption, also known as E2EE, means that messages are scrambled so that only the sender and recipient can see them. If anyone else intercepts the message, all they will see is garble that can't be unscrambled without the key. Law enforcement officials had until now resisted this type of encryption because it means the technology companies themselves won't be able to look at the messages, nor respond to law enforcement requests to turn the data over. Here's a look at various ways ordinary consumers can use end-to-end encryption: Officials said the hackers targeted the metadata of a large number of customers, including information on the dates, times and recipients of calls and texts. They also managed to see the content from texts from a much smaller number of victims. If you're an iPhone user, information in text messages that you send to someone else who also has an iPhone will be encrypted end-to-end. Just look for the blue text bubbles, which indicate that they are encrypted iMessages. The same goes for Android users sending texts through Google Messages. There will be a lock next to the timestamp on each message to indicate the encryption is on. But there's a weakness. When iPhone and Android users text each other, the messages are encrypted only using Rich Communication Services, an industry standard for instant messaging that replaces the older SMS and MMS standards. Apple has noted that RCS messages “aren’t end-to-end encrypted, which means they’re not protected from a third party reading them while they’re sent between devices.” Samsung, which sells Android smartphones, has also hinted at the issue in a footnote at the bottom of a press release last month on RCS, saying, “Encryption only available for Android to Android communication.” To avoid getting caught out when trading texts, experts recommend using encrypted messaging apps. Privacy advocates are big fans of Signal, which applies end-to-end encryption to all messages and voice calls. The independent nonprofit group behind the app promises never to sell, rent or lease customer data and has made its source code publicly available so that it can be audited by anyone to examine it “for security and correctness.” Signal's encryption protocol is so reputable that it has been integrated into rival WhatsApp, so users will enjoy the same level of security protection as Signal, which has a much smaller user base. End-to-end encryption is also the default mode for Facebook Messenger, which like WhatsApp is owned by Meta Platforms. Telegram is an app that can be used for one-on-one conversations, group chats and broadcast “channels" but contrary to popular perception, it doesn't turn on end-to-end encryption by default. Users have to switch on the option. And it doesn’t work with group chats. Cybersecurity experts have warned people against using Telegram for private communications and pointed out that only its opt-in ‘secret chat’ feature is encrypted from end-to-end. The app also has a reputation for being a haven for scammers and criminal activity, highlighted by founder and CEO Pavel Durov's arrest in France. Instead of using your phone to make calls through a wireless cellular network, you can make voice calls with Signal and WhatsApp. Both apps encrypt calls with the same technology that they use to encrypt messages. There are other options. If you have an iPhone you can use Facetime for calls, while Android owners can use the Google Fi service, which are both end-to-end encrypted. The only catch with all these options is that, as with using the chat services to send messages, the person on the other end will also have to have the app installed. WhatsApp and Signal users can customize their privacy preferences in the settings, including hiding an IP address during calls to prevent your general location from being guessed. Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly!
Massive fire hits Manila
Raheem Akingbolu Financial institutions in the emerging Markets across the world can successfully weather the storm of their operations and record growth if the right tools are made available, the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Orandian, Antonio Separovic, has stated. Separovic, who led a conversation at a media parley in Lagos recently, as part of the ’Oradian Core Banking Summit: The Future Is Now’, reeled out the company’s mission to transform financial inclusion across Africa and Southeast Asia. Though the CEO admitted that the place of technology in the financial sector cannot be undermined, he pointed out that having the right technology on its own doesn’t automatically mean that everything is fixed, adding that the right technology is one of the enablers of financial inclusion. To this end, he pointed out that the foundation of financial inclusion lies in providing the right tools that empower individuals and communities while enabling financial institutions to thrive. “If you have the right technology in place and you have the right team in place, then you create magic, that’s really important. At Orandian, we believe that if we give the right tools to the right types of financial institutions, they can actually have fantastic growth.” According to him, a good financial inclusion regime would enable individuals and businesses to have access to financial products and services like savings, loans, easy payment systems and insurance. To enable financial institutions to work better and grow, he said Oradian, a global core banking platform SaaS provider has created innovative banking software which assists to solve problems that are from the ground up. The CEO, who stated that Oradian focuses on emerging markets, said the company has over 55 financial institutions – banks, microfinance, digital banks, all in 13 different countries in Africa and Southeast Asia, with a deep understanding of what the targeted financial institutions needed. According to him, being a cloud system means that “we provide the software as well as the infrastructure. As a bank, all you need is an Internet connection to be able to use this tool. “This tool enables financial institutions to keep track of their clients, keep track of loans, deposits, do reporting and assist in the end of day process. Basically it’s the operating system of a bank. We have all the modules that you need to be able to run and operate the bank. The entire infrastructure, the back end, the servers, the hosting, data recovery, all of this is part of the service. Again all packaged under one subscription”. On partnerships for effective operations, he said as a financial institution “you cannot work by yourself. What you need to do is work with others, integrate with others. And this is where the architecture is amazing that through APIs it’s very easy to integrate with other services”. Antonio who said he sees a change of how banks think about technology said the next phase for Oradian is to on-board tier two banks and tier one banks. According to him, the change of how banks think about technology “requires strong leadership because you can either choose to be a technology company or you can choose to be a bank. Being both is very difficult”. On what appears to be carefulness over frauds or fear by some banks to outsource certain services, Antonio instead linked it to ‘attitude’, saying that some banks want to own everything and do everything by themselves which limits how they grow. “So what we see is why fintechs are stronger than banks in certain areas, moving fast”. The Summit attended by representatives of banks and fintech companies provided a first-hand look at Oradian’s roadmap and showcased ground-breaking innovations, including Oradian Custom Code, aimed at empowering financial institutions to scale and innovate fast, securely, and efficiently in ways that traditional systems cannot offer. While speaking on features that single out Oradian in the market, he pointed out that the company’s commitment to innovation remains an edge. According to him, the company operates on a single source code—a decision that he said is critical to ensuring agility and continuous improvement. “What makes Oradian fantastic is that we only have one source code. All our customers are using the same code, which is important for innovation. We can constantly innovate without managing multiple versions,” he explained.