Delta-North MLA Kahlon began investigating the mysterious grant the previous Liberal government gave New Horizons Village Society headed by Satnam Johal, Kulwinder Badesha and Jagmohan Singh, all BC Liberal insiders. Kahlon began looking into why the grant was given to these long time South Asian BC Liberals after another controversial Indo-Canadian political operative working for the Watts campaign, who got into a tiff with the former Mayor’s campaign team and then released personal texts between him and Watts, revealed the not previously known grant given to Johal, Badesha and Singh.
SURREY – NDP MLA Ravi Kahlon has asked the BC Liberal insiders, who are rumoured to be helping the Dianne Watts campaign with membership and fundraising, to provide a progress report on the $200,000 grant a Society they headed received from the BC government in the dying days of the Christy Clark regime.
Delta-North MLA Kahlon began investigating the mysterious grant the previous Liberal government gave New Horizons Village Society headed by Satnam Johal, Kulwinder Badesha and Jagmohan Singh, all BC Liberal insiders.
Kahlon began looking into why the grant was given to these long time South Asian BC Liberals after another controversial Indo-Canadian political operative working for the Watts campaign, who got into a tiff with the former Mayor’s campaign team and then released personal texts between him and Watts, revealed the not previously known grant given to Johal, Badesha and Singh.
New Horizons Village Society was supposed to use the money to do a feasibility analysis, including preparing a business plan, to build a community centre for the Fraser Valley and Surrey.
Johal, Singh and Badesha said when the story broke on their secretive grant that the funds are still in the Society bank account and fully unspent.
“The fact that nothing has happened so far … it raises more questions about the whole process,” said Kahlon.
Kahlon has since passed his findings on to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, which sent a letter to two of the society’s directors, Johal and Badesha, reported Vancouver Sun.
“The Ministry has recently understood, from information attributed to the Society through media, that no funds have been expended to advance the project. Could the ministry please receive a status update?” assistant deputy minister Tracy Campbell wrote.
Kahlon told the Sun last week that to his knowledge the ministry has not yet received a response, but he hopes to hear something early in the new year. He said his phone has been ringing off the hook since the story came out in South Asian and mainstream media, with calls from both concerned citizens and community groups.
“For me, it’s just trying to get to the truth of this thing — to find out what happened, and why they were given this money, and what the decision making was around it because ultimately, we need to ensure that if there is a flaw in system that it gets corrected,” Kahlon said.
Johal told the Sun via text message to a request for comment, saying, “We have not received any letter from the ministry” and confirming that the grant money remains unspent.
