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Neil Chantler, a lawyer for the newspaper, said that he was “pleased” that the society had agreed to provide the disclosure being sought in the petition.

The newspaper filed the petition earlier this month after publishing an article which questioned the 29-year-old program’s job creation results, transparency and benefits to B.C. residents. The article stated that the program, which is administered by the B.C. finance ministry and which was defended by Liberal leader Christy Clark, has cost $140 million in tax refunds and created up to 300 jobs.

In March, the paper wrote to Hansen, a former B.C. finance minister, requesting copies of the society’s financial records but Hansen denied the request on the basis that AdvantageBC was a member-funded society, according to the court documents.

The paper applied to the B.C. Registrar of Societies for an order that the society produce the records and on March 31, the registrar found that the society was not member-funded and that it had failed to comply with the Societies Act.

The registrar ordered that AdvantageBC provide the records within 15 days or an explanation as to why the documents could not be provided.

On April 13, Hansen provided a statement to the registrar in which he again asserted the society was member-funded and thus was exempt from disclosure, a move that prompted the paper to file the petition.

In the response to the petition, the society says that there is a valid policy reason — to ensure oversight and accountability — for imposing different disclosure requirements on societies that receive public funds and those that are member-funded or largely member-funded.

“Government and Canadian taxpayers have a right to know precisely how public funds are being allocated,” says the response. “A different logic applies to societies that do not receive public funds.”

The response says that AdvantageBC has not received any government funds for its operations for many years and even if it was not formally registered as a member-funded society when the paper made its application for records, it was in fact member-funded. Hansen could not be reached Monday.

kfraser@postmedia.com

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