The plot thickens.
In addition to being a hub for shadow-flipping realtors, Vancouver also happens to be have a disproportionate number of addresses linked to the Panama Papers.
While looking for Canadian names associated with the Panama Papers— a list of over 214,488 offshore entities, revealing how the world's wealthy use tax havens — in early May, National Observer stumbled upon entries that appeared to be some well-known Canadian energy companies, like "Enbridge", "Alberta Oilsands Inc. and "Encana Energy", though the companies denied any affiliation with offshore entities with similar names. It also found that a high number of Canadian addresses listed in the Panama Papers database were in Vancouver. The database showed 246 addresses in Vancouver (375 in Metro Vancouver), compared to just 57 addresses in Calgary and five in Winnipeg.
Even the German capital of Berlin, with a population far larger than Metro Vancouver, had a meager 36 addresses appearing in the database.
This finding was highlighted in South China Morning Post this week, revealing that Vancouver addresses are 8.2 times more likely to show up in the Panama Papers compared to Canadian addresses as a whole. West Vancouver was described as the epicentre of Panama Papers-linked addresses, a whopping 19 times higher than the rest of Canada.
Addresses aside, the names of some well-known political donors appears in the database as well. Haywood Securities, which has given the BC Liberals $332,000 since 2005, also appeared in the Panama Papers as being a shareholder in companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, according to research by the Dogwood Initiative.
Familiar-sounding names like "Canaccord" and "Ledcor" have also appeared, though it's unconfirmed if they are connected to any Canadian companies.
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