Business in Vancouver August 9-15, 2011 issue 1137 by GLACIER MEDIA DIGITAL LIMITED PARTNERSHIP dba BUSINESS IN VANCOUVER

Local. Business. Intelligence. August 9–15, 2011 • Issue 1137

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B.C. ups visual arts ambitions

INSide Catherine Runnals’ company hitting right summer festival notes 3

>Vancouver’s fast-growing visual effects companies are winning key Hollywood business, attracting new studios to town and positioning Vancouver to become the next world centre for VFX work

Battling for survival in the broadband marketplace 6 Aerospace deal drives growth plan for Burnaby company 10 Digital data bases revolutionizing B.C.’s real estate trade 11 Under the B: Bingo hall profits for local casino owners 13

By Jenny Wagler

s Vancouver’s visual effects (VFX) industry continues to add new players and weightier projects, insiders are pointing to the city’s potential to become the next world centre for VFX. “London [U.K.] is the premiere place with the most big [VFX] companies; studios feel that they can put a big film in London and that London has the resources and can do it,” said Dennis Hoffman, senior vice-president and general manager at Method Studios, the latest incarnation of CIS Vancouver and prior to that, Rainmaker

Entertainment Inc.’s VFX division. “I think Vancouver is on the precipice of, over the next couple of years, having the opportunity to be another area similar to that.” Vancouver’s VFX industry has taken off since B.C.’s 2003 institution of a digital animation or visual effects tax credit. Growth drivers have included the province’s strong film industry, a Los Angelesaligned time zone and moves by local players such as Rainmaker and Vancouver-based Image Engine Design Inc. to expand their horizons beyond television and pursue feature film work. see VFX, 6

Libraries increasingly redundant in the digital world 24

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Forestry’s new eastern front

Larry Berg’s business flight plan for Vancouver’s award-winning airport 27

With U.S. market falling, Asian market is on the rise, but is it enough to ensure survival in B.C. lumber sector?

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Green Space BC: Your annual guide to the business of sustainability Biggest casinos and bingo halls 14 Biggest airlines at YVR 17

Jhajj Lumber CEO Parm Jhajj: among a growing number of B.C. lumber operators establishing markets in India and elsewhere in Asia

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Daily business news at www.biv.com August 9–15, 2011

contents Columnists Golden Goals Bob Mackin Money Business Harry Jaako High-Tech Office Alan Zisman Real Estate Roundup Peter Mitham Sales Calls Rob Malec Employment Briefs Geoff Howard At Large Peter Ladner National Affairs Mark Milke

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Now online Island-based REIT expands holdings Fireworks set to break even

Local champions of women in business honoured internationally

BIV Business Today Daily Online Edition

HSBC job cuts unlikely to affect Vancouver

Strike by B.C., Yukon Finning workers ends Metro Vancouver land-use plan approved

Mountain Equipment Co-op turns 40

Pakit partners with Pepsi

B.C. consumers shop online more than other Canadians Vancouver telecom cuts deal with Rogers to stay afloat Feds support UVic’s worldfirst “green” ship

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Full Disclosure B.C. lumbermen are storming foreign shores in search of new markets for their wares, but can B.C.’s ports handle the volume of overseas shipments? More importantly, are those shipments cost effective?

Surrey report BIV’s quarterly look at Surrey includes a feature on the push by the city’s business leaders and politicians for TransLink’s post-Evergreen Line priority to be light rail for the community

Profile Canfor’s new boss Don Kayne is banking on more than three decades of forestry expertise to transform the company into a top-quartile performer

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August 9–15, 2011 Business in Vancouver

Summer concert success helps boost brand.LIVE’s bottom line

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BUSINESS TODAY Businesses damaged in riot receive funding

Despite slow economy, event management company carves out profitable niche producing large events million plan to woo visitors; •building Holland’s Heinekin House; and •designing and operating Vancouver House and organizing parties for Team Canada. This is the second year that brand.LIVE has organized the Celebration of Light – a threenight fireworks festival with a $1.2 million budget, which does not include the hundreds of thousands of dollars the City of Vancouver spends on police and sanitation. Runnals oversaw spending on everything from pyrotechnics, sound, lights, fencing, lifeguards a nd ma rke t i ng a mong ot her expenses.

By Glen Korstrom

ising concert spending across North America is encouraging Vancouver event producer brand.LIVE to forecast that its second annual Live in Squamish music festival will be twice as big as it was last year. Landing global phone giant Virgin Mobile to be the title sponsor for the August 20 and 21 festival adds to brand.LIVE president Catherine Runnals’ optimism. “We do a lot of large-scale public gatherings such as the Celebration of Light and Canada Day at Canada Place,” Runnals told Business in Vancouver. “Those are for clients. Live at Squamish is our own festival. It’s part of our growth plan as a company.” Live music is proving to be a sustainable sector despite consumer concerns over the jittery economy. The largest 100 North American concert tours combined to sell US$1.12 billion worth of tickets in 2011’s first half, according to trade publication Pollstar. That’s up 16.2% compared with the same period last year. Ticket sales increased 5.3% while ticket prices rose 10.2% to US$67.02. Runnals expects between 10,000 and 15,000 people to attend each of her festival’s two days. Last year, 7,000 people attended the event, which many industry insiders doubted would happen. Part of their skepticism stemmed from the debacle that followed Live Nation Canada’s successful 2008 Pemberton Festival, which featured acts such as Coldplay and Tom Petty. A lengthy permit process with B.C.’s Agricultural Land Commission in 2009 left Pemberton Festival organizer Shane Bourbonnais

Richard Lam

“Squamish officials are

Brand.LIVE president Catherine Runnals: estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 people will attend each day of her August 20 and 21 Live in Squamish festival

unsure that he would have a site so he cancelled that year’s concert, promising that the festival would return in 2010. Live Nation then blamed unsuccessful negotiations with local officials when it cancelled the 2010 festival. Runnals’ festival is different from the one Live Nation staged because: •it’s a relatively short 45-minute drive from downtown Vancouver; •headline acts such as Weezer and Metric are more affordable; and •tickets, at $89 for a day-pass, are 60% of what Live Nation charged. Perhaps the biggest difference, however, is that the festival has buy-in from local officials. “Squamish officials are complete partners, and we’ve been working with them in every stage of the process – from traffic plans to fire and police to make sure everything

is safe,” said Jordan Melville, who is president of T&M Management Services Inc. Melville’s father, George Melville, and well-known local investor Jim Treliving founded T&M. The two own stakes in Boston Pizza International and Mr. Lube as well as half of brand.LIVE. The younger Melville told Business in Vancouver that brand.LIVE has a five-year lease on the current site in Squamish, which doubles as baseball fields much of the rest of the year. “So, we will have a minimum of six Live at Squamish festivals,” he said. Brand.LIVE’s business has been steady the past few years largely thanks to the 2010 Olympic Games, where work included: •organizing initiatives such as Alberta House and a train to Whistler that were part of Alberta’s $7

complete partners, and we’ve been working with them in every stage of the process” – Jordan Melville, president, T&M Management Services

And while sponsors financed the lion’s share of the festival, she restarted selling tickets on bleachers to raise about $30,000. With that festival now history, her attention has turned to the next large Vancouver spectacle: the November 24-27 2011 Grey Cup. “We produced the street festival and other events [at Vancouver’s Grey Cup] in 2005,” Runnals said, “so we’re back this year working with Scott Ackles and his team to produce the street festival, the player awards, the gala and we’ll also be doing the Molson headquarters, which is their big beer garden.” • gkorstrom@biv.com

Nine of the roughly 55 businesses damaged in the Stanley Cup riot have received between $1,500 and $7,000 in funding from the Vancouver Restoration Fund. The Vancouver Economic Development Commission set up the fund with help from Vancity, Telus Corp., the Fan Zoo and To The Point Tattoo. Thursday, August 4

Ballard Power posts another quarterly loss Hydrogen fuel-cell-maker Ballard Power Systems (TSX:BLD) reported second quarter earnings that suggest the company is not likely to be in the black until at least 2012. The company increased revenue 23% over its second quarter in 2010 and 26% compared with 2010’s first half. But it is still in a negative position, with a net loss of $8.7 million in 2011’s second quarter and $18.9 in the year’s first half. Thursday, August 4

Feds fund green ship The Government of Canada has pledged $1.19 million in funding to the University of Victoria’s new green ship technology. The funding will help retrofit the former Tsekoa II into the world’s first plug-in hybrid ship powered by electricity, hydrogen fuel cells and low-emission diesel fuel. Tuesday, August 2

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Daily business news at www.biv.com August 9–15, 2011

full disclosure

B.C. lumber firms court more clients in Asia Desperation drove the province’s lumber producers to chase new markets overseas, but that increasingly diverse global clientele has yet to make up for the massive downturn in exports to the United States juggernaut’s demand continues to grow it could make up for the losses in the U.S. “My gut instinct from travelling back and forth is we could send 30 billion board feet there and they would eat it all up,” Bell told Business in Vancouver. But few in the industry share his level of optimism. Both Canfor (TSX:CFP) and West Fraser Timber (TSX:WFT), the province’s largest lumber producers, believe the B.C. forestry sector is unlikely to fully recover until the U.S. starts building houses again.

By Joel McKay

Canadian lumber exports to China, mainly from B.C., soared 97% in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2010

Richard Lam

chance phone call about a business mission to India forever altered the direction of Parm Jhajj’s lumber venture earlier this year. A few months ago, the Surrey businessman was happy shipping his 2x4s to local remanufacturers. Taiwan was about as far as his lumber went, and the thought of loading his product on a ship bound for the Indian subcontinent was little more than a passing fancy. After all, what profit could possibly be generated in a market that accounted for less than 1% of B.C. lumber demand? But Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts had a different idea. Watts was convinced that a trade mission to India would generate all kinds of business opportunities for her city. Jhajj wasn’t certain of that, but a friend had asked him to come along for the ride, providing, if nothing else, a little company while they toured one of the fastest growing nations on Earth. So he went, and somewhere along the way got talking to people interested in construction materials. “It was just a matter of talking to this fellow and that fellow and so on and away it went,” described the Jhajj Lumber CEO. It turned out that pine tree logging in India’s Kashmir region had been curtailed in recent months, leaving local manufacturers without a steady supply. The opportunity was obvious. Jhajj shook a few hands and raced back to B.C. Two months later, he packed five containers full of lumber and sent them to new customers in India. Today, Jhajj is putting the final touches on a second deal to send 30 more containers to even more customers on the subcontinent. “Before a long period of time we could see India being 30% to 35% of our business.” To say he’s excited would be an understatement. “It’s huge; it’s huge,” enthused Jhajj. But he isn’t the only one looking to overseas markets to lift the lumber business out of a multiyear depression. In fact, Jhajj Lumber is a

Jhajj Lumber CEO Parm Jhajj: “I hate to use this term, but we’re almost buying market share”

microcosm of a startling transformation underway in one of B.C.’s oldest and largest industries. Lumber producers big and small, from the coast to the Interior, have set their sights on customers on the other side of the world’s largest ocean. While lumber shipments to India were 143% higher in the first five months of 2011 compared with the entirety of 2010, it’s another Asian nation that’s on every forester’s lips these days – China. Canadian lumber exports to China, mainly from B.C., soared 97% in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2010, according to International WOOD Markets Group. In May, the value of B.C. lumber shipments to China exceeded the value of shipments to the U.S. for the first time in history. That’s a huge increase for a market that accounted for just 1%

of total B.C. lumber exports in 2004. There are a number of reasons for that growth. They range from China’s stupendous economic expansion to Russian log taxes and carefully crafted trade missions led by the B.C. government and the province’s largest lumber producers. But the single most important reason is desperation. When the U.S. housing market collapsed it took the B.C. lumber industry with it. Nearly four-dozen mills closed, resulting in pink slips for 10,000 mill workers, according to a government report. The value of lumber exports to the U.S., which accounted for 75% of exports in 2004, tanked. Things aren’t much better today. In the first five months of 2011, the value and volume of lumber

exports to the U.S. dropped below 50% of B.C.’s total production for the first time in more than two decades. That’s why Pat Bell, B.C.’s jobs minister, is so keen on Chinese demand. In fact, he believes if the Asian

Paul Quinn, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, doesn’t believe the B.C. forestry sector can return to its former glory without a recovery in the U.S. “North American producers can easily outstrip North American demand right now, and that’s why you have operating rates down in the 60% level – and that’s given pretty strong demand out of Asia,” said Quinn. BCStats trade figures reveal that China has a long way to go before it can make up for the downturn in the U.S. In 1997, the value of total B.C. lumber shipments to all markets hit a peak of $7.8 billion. By 2010, that figure had dropped to $3.6 billion. Although shipments to China have increased dramatically in

2010 lumber exports:

$3.6 billion $1.8 billion $687 million $648 million $156 million $2.5 million

value generated by B.C. lumber exports worldwide value generated by B.C. lumber exports to the U.S. value generated by B.C. lumber exports to China value generated by B.C. lumber exports to Japan value generated by B.C. lumber exports to Western Europe value generated by B.C. lumber exports to India

News

August 9–15, 2011 Business in Vancouver

full disclosure

B.C. exports of softwood lumber by the top four destinations January 1988–May 2011

Value of exports ($ millions per month)

C ENTRAL.

Volume of exports (millions of cubic metres per month)

$900

3.5

$800

Q U I ET.

$700

2.5

$600 $500

$400

1.5

$300

B EAUTI F U L.

$200

$100 1988

1993

1998

n World total

recent years, they totalled only $683 million in 2010. In terms of volume, the U.S. accounted for 77% of B.C. lumber exports in 1997, dropping to 59% in 2010. China, meantime, accounted for only 22% of 2010 volume. BCStats figures also show that Japan’s market share according to value slipped to 19% in 2010 from 28% in 1997. On top of that, Western Europe, which was once the province’s third largest market, has dropped to a 4% market share by value from 15% in 1988. In sum, B.C.’s traditionally largest markets have borne significant decreases in both the volume and value of lumber shipped in recent years. China has yet to make up for those declines. And China hasn’t embraced B.C.’s top-quality products either. Chinese buyers prefer low-grade lumber used for concrete forming, that is, when they can’t buy logs from B.C., which creates other challenges for local sawmillers (see “Log export animosity accelerating” – issue 1133; July 12-18.) And no one in the industry has said how profit margins in China compare with the U.S. “That market is known … to make sure they squeeze profit margins out,” Hanif Karmally, CFO of Surrey-based lumber producer Teal-Jones Group, said of China. But trading with China does have political benefits for B.C. business. Forestry analyst Peter Woodbridge

B.C. forestry’s key numbers:

60% 4% 64,800 $126

The amount of B.C. that’s forested Forestry’s share of direct provincial GDP The number of forest-based jobs in B.C. The average contribution to GDP for each cubic metre of timber harvested

2003

2008 2011

1988

1993

1998

2003

2008

2011

n Western Europe n Japan

n U.S. n Mainland World China

U.S. China Western Europe Japan

Source: Statistics Canada

B.C. exports of softwood lumber by percentage January 1988–May 2011

1988

61%

1997 2011

66%

51%

n U.S. n Japan n Western Europe

15%

22%

28%

19%

1% 2% 4%

n Mainland China n Other Source: Statistics Canada

Jobs Minister Pat Bell on Chinese market for lumber: “I think we’re still just skimming the surface”

Forestry analyst Peter Woodbridge on Chinese lumber demand: “it’s not likely to replace the United States”

believes China provides B.C. with a better bargaining position with the U.S. when it comes to the oft-criticized softwood lumber agreement. He also said Chinese demand has had a positive impact on lumber prices, which are traditionally set by the U.S. “China can start defining price and that, six months ago, was worth [an extra] $30 to $40 per thousand board feet,” said Woodbridge. Finally, China has begun substituting hardwood lumber with softwood lumber, meaning a greater demand for high-value softwood lumber from B.C. could be on the horizon. Woodbridge agreed that China is not likely to replace the U.S, but that doesn’t mean lumber producers are any less dedicated to it. In 2010, a rise in lumber prices, in

part driven by Chinese demand, helped more than 25 mills in B.C. re-open their doors and get people back to work. The province’s major lumber producers have also set aside their competitive nature and joined forces to build a ship to transport products to Asia. But when asked about profit margins in India, which many consider “tomorrow’s market,” Jhajj snickered. “Virtually nothing,” he said. “At this point, I hate to use this term, but we’re almost buying market share, right?” But, like every other lumber business in the province, Jhajj believes real growth opportunities exist overseas. The trick is making them profitable. “We’ve got our toes in the door and next it’s up to us. Can we make it a little more profitable? That will come.” • jmckay@biv.com

theloden.com 1177 Melville Street Vancouver Canada t 604 669 5060 1 877 225 6336

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Daily business news at www.biv.com August 9–15, 2011

Bearing broadband battle scars Despite TSX threat to delist Tranzeo Wireless, president says his Pitt Meadows company is poised to profit from a growing demand for broadband wireless technology overseas

Tranzeo Wireless Technologies Inc. (TSX:TZT) $1.00 $0.80 $0.60 $0.40 $0.20

By Nelson Bennett

Pitt Meadows company that specializes in Wi-Fi and WiMAX broadband wireless technology is dismissing recent developments suggesting the company is in dire straits. Tranzeo Wireless Technologies Inc. (TSX: TZT) is facing delisting from the Toronto Stock Exchange, and its auditors have expressed “substantial doubt” the company can continue as a going concern. On July 25, the TSX announced it is reviewing Tranzeo’s common shares. The company has been given 120 days to regain compliance with listing requirements. James Tocher, Tranzeo’s president and CEO, said the company’s auditors have been issuing the same warnings for the last three years and he expects his company will keep its TSX listing, even though its per-share stock has plunged from a high of $1.67 in March 2010 to a low of $0.15 July 11. “It is our intention to satisfy the exchange on our listing and to remain listed on the [TSX],” Tocher told Business in Vancouver. Tocher said he could not expand on how the company plans to meet the listing requirements, although Tranzeo said in a March 31 management discussion and analysis that generating profits through sales this year is critical to the company’s

“continued existence.” Paradigm Capital analyst Barry Richards said Tranzeo is in a tough market, but added that Tocher is resilient. “It’s probably been frustrating for Tranzeo, because they have good technology,” Richards said. “I think it’s a fragmented market with a lot of players. “It’s a new technology, and it’s on the outside looking in.” There are plenty of manufacturers in the wireless broadband space, but Richards said Tranzeo managed to distinguish itself by concentrating on making quality, low-cost equipment. “They designed something very cleverly that’s low-cost,” Richards said, “and they’re very good at manufacturing.” Sometimes referred to as Wi-Fi on steroids, WiMAX is a form of broadband wireless Internet technology that obviates the need for cable. In rural regions where it’s too expensive or otherwise impractical to hardwire communities, WiMAX can provide wireless broadband from service providers to the home or business without costly cable installations. In other words, you never have to wait around for the cable guy to show up. Over the last few years, Tranzeo has been investing heavily in research and development, as well as acquisitions, and burning

through cash reserves in the process. In 2007, it bought the assets of Sensoria Corp., which made wireless mesh networks (used for wireless voice, video and data delivery) and in April 2010, Tranzeo bought Aperto Networks, a San Jose-based manufacturer of broadband wireless technology. Those investments have helped put Tran-

“It’s probably been frustrating for Tranzeo, because they have good technology” – Barry Richards, analyst, Paradigm Capital

zeo into a deficit, which, according to the company’s 2010 audited financial statements, doubled to $30.2 million in 2010 from $14.4 million in 2009. The company’s cash reserves were drawn down to $72,066 in 2010 from $1.8 million in 2009. Worse, sales were down by about $1 million in 2011’s first quarter compared with the same period in 2010, although Tranzeo managed to offset that drop with a nearly commensurate decrease in sales costs. Tocher said the company has spent the last two years working with large service

Pitt Meadows CEO: James Tocher Employees: 87

Market cap: $10.9m P/E ratio: N/A EPS: ($0.32) Sources: Stockwatch, TSX

providers in places like Indonesia and India, where Tranzeo’s products are used in to install high-speed wireless data networks. “We’re going to be meeting some pretty big milestones on shipments over the next number of weeks into India,” Tocher said. “India is definitely a market that is moving very, very quickly for us. “It took almost two years to break into the market. Now that we’ve gone through the qualification phases … we’re shipping to India once a week.” As of March 31, the company’s cash position was $215,311. If Tranzeo fails to meet its TSX listing requirements, Richards said it’s “probably not the end of the world for them.” He pointed out that the company could always list on another exchange or go private, but Richards added that whatever happens, Tranzeo needs to increase sales. “Really, in the end, they need orders.” At press time, Tranzeo’s stock was valued at $0.19 per share. • nbennett@biv.com

VFX: Vancouver cultivating aspirations of becoming a global centre for visual effects “There really hasn’t been a boombust cycle in Vancouver yet in VFX; there’s been a very good progressive healthy kind of growth,” he said. “I think that’s the kind of thing that all the companies would look forward to seeing transpire.”

from B.C., 1

Some of the high-profile work done locally includes Image Engine’s creation of hundreds of aliens for District 9 and werewolves and vampire deaths for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Shawn Walsh, partner and VFX executive producer at Image Engine, said the company’s staff has ballooned to 160 from 20 since the company began aggressively pursuing feature film work in 2006. Throughout the past five years, Walsh said, Vancouver can accurately be characterized as “an emerging centre” for VFX. While he said that’s still the fair term to use, the key change is in “the scale of that emergence.” “We have probably five times as many visual effects artists in the city working steadily now than we did in 2006, so the growth of staff has been tremendous,” he said. “And the kind of level of accomplishment, the size of the budget, the creative tasks that we’re being asked to try to achieve has all really stepped up a huge level.” Hoffman said “tremendous” growth in Vancouver has occurred in the past three or four years. “Every week I hear somebody else is opening a new facility up here.”

“Vancouver has kind of hit a sweet spot right now where people feel they’re getting immense value for the money they’re paying” Vancouver-based Image Engine won a 2010 Academy Award nomination for its visual effects work on District 9

With the growth of the city’s VFX reputation, Walsh said business is now seeking out Vancouver, instead of the reverse scenario a few years back. “I’ve done far fewer trips to L.A. this year than I ever have and that’s just because we’ve been so busy on the home front, managing the work that we have,” he said. “I think there’s absolutely been a change of temperature in terms of clients really looking at Vancouver as a place that they want to bring work.” Hoffman voiced a similar

opinion. “Vancouver has become one of the primary places [studios] look at to bring visual effects now,” he said. “That didn’t exist four years ago.” Walsh said that while there are both cheaper and more expensive places to get VFX work done than Vancouver, the city has developed a reputation for producing quality, cost-effective work. “Vancouver has kind of hit a sweet spot right now where people feel they’re getting immense value for the money that they’re paying.”

Walsh added that the VFX market is not saturated in Vancouver, and he expects to see more companies move into the city and the ones that are already here to continue to grow. “There’s still a lot of growth potential in Vancouver,” he said. “The infrastructure’s good, the city’s wellmanaged and immigration policy is still pretty positive.” He added that he’s keen to see the local VFX industry continue to grow at the pace the city has seen thus far.

– Shawn Walsh, partner and VFX executive producer, Image Engine Design Inc.

As to what’s going to keep driving that growth, Hoffman stressed Vancouver’s proximity to the studio heartland of L.A. “This is just a prime location,” he said. “It has a really good base of VFX companies already and because we’re in the same time zone, studio executives – who we talk to all the time – don’t have to think about being on the phone at 6 p.m. at night.” • jwagler@biv.com

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August 9–15, 2011 Business in Vancouver

Golden Goals

Bob Mackin Social networking, anyone? Site for tennis players seeking cohorts and competitors has high hopes

cott Dunlop coincidentally shares a name with a famous, international tennis equipment company, but he’s hoping to make his tennis brand an even bigger hit online. Vancouver lawyer Dunlop is co-founder of Juump. com, a social networking site that connects tennis players seeking others for training or playing. On Juump, they can sign in free via Facebook or Twitter and use Google Maps to find tennis partners who enjoy the same community court. Yes, that’s Juump with a consecutive “u.” Just like vacuum, which is something Juump Sports Interactive aims to fill. “People who play tennis stop because they can’t find anybody to play with,” Dunlop said. “They play more when they can find someone to play with. We used that as the foundation for Juump.” Juump has 10,000 members listed in Atlanta, Austin, Texas, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Singapore, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, D.C. and Winnipeg. Each player’s profile includes his or her skill rating and court of preference. Dunlop wants to quint uple Juu mp’s users to 50,000 and eventually generate enough revenue to reach 100,000. He hopes to monetize via transactions for value-added memberships, lessons, camps and competitions and court bookings, advertising and sponsorship and tennisplaying data. Dunlop, who practises with Davis LLP, played on Canada’s Junior Davis Cup team and at Princeton University and spent a year as a touring pro in Europe. He was on Tennis BC’s board for a dozen years, including 2002 to 2005 as its president. In that position, he realized that tennis organizations were not doing enough to foster the game on the recreational, community or school levels. Dunlop and Juump co-founders Alan Albert and Ken Yang pondered how to capitalize on the market of 32 million tennis players in Canada and the United States, because 85% of them were “outside what you’d call regular, organized tennis,” Dunlop said.

As with anything online, the domain name is everything.“We were hunting for a name that would invoke the idea that you can take action, you can find people to play your favourite sport or activity – the idea that you could meet to play or play to meet,” he said. “Juump popped out of a list that was for sale. We liked it because it was singular, short, easy to read and unique.” The consecutive u represents “two ‘yous’ that want to play,” he explained. Dunlop said Juump can ideally expand to be a platform for other social, non-

“We were hunting for a name that would invoke the idea that you can take action, you can find people to play your favourite sport or activity – the idea that you could meet to play or play to meet” – Scott Dunlop, co-founder, Juump Sports Interactive

team recreational sports, such as sailing, cycling, hiking, fishing and golf. T he compa ny bega n in September 2008 with $175,000 in seed capital, and its opening service was in June 2009. It also had grants from the Canada Media Fund ($135,000) and NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program ($100,000). The rewards could be huge. Since Juump’s launch, targeted social networking has exploded with business-focused LinkedIn as the leader. When its $45-ashare initial public offering launched May 19 on the New York Stock Exchange, LinkedIn had a valuation of $4.3 billion. Prices remain above $100 a share. “There’s going to be a waterfall effect from that,” Dunlop said. “It’s legitimized the social media business.” Heat wave The Abbotsford Heat remains t he American

Hockey League affiliate of the Calgary Flames after the Vancouver Canucks hitched up with the Chicago Wolves. Fraser Valley hockey fans would prefer to watch the Canucks of today for free on TV instead of paying to see the Flames of the future in person. Taxpayers

are expected to absorb the Heat’s $1.2 million loss from 2010-11, certain to be an issue in the fall civic election. The Heat, however, have a new president with Canuck ties and a new message aimed to win the hearts and pocketbooks of skeptics. On August 2, Ryan Walter replaced the departed

Tom Mauthe. Walter played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), including his last two as a Canuck. He was an assistant coach for two seasons under Alain Vigneault until general manager Mike Gillis fired him last summer. His key message on Day 1 was that

the team is stocked with future NHLers who might not be Flames for life, but could someday be a Canuck by trade or free agency. Walter is an engaging speaker and author. His devotion to Christianity will no doubt help in a market sometimes called B.C.’s Bible belt. • 2010goldrush@gmail.com

Finance

Daily business news at www.biv.com August 9–15, 2011

BY THE NUMBERS

Losses are shown in brackets. Graph information by Stockwatch.

Glentel Inc. (TSX:GLN)

▲69%

$11m

Revenue: $259m 6 months 2011

Net income 6 months 2011

Dialed in: The Burnaby telecom company saw its secondquarter sales soar 75% to $138m thanks to an increase in smartphone sales in both of the company’s retail divisions. Sales of mobile phone products and services in Glentel’s Canadian division were up 30% to $90.1m in the second Earnings per share quarter compared with 2010. The company also saw its net 6 months 2011 income increase to $6.2m from $3.8m.

$0.49

$40 $30 $20 $10 $0

CanWel Building Materials Group Ltd. (TSX:CWX) Building bungle: CanWel’s revenue drop was the result of a significant reduction in the volume of construction materials sold earlier in the quarter, lower industry sales and key construction material prices. The company also suffered the temporary closure of its wood treatment facility in Alberta Earnings per share due to weather-related damage. CanWel also accrued $800k 6 months 2011 in costs related to the acquisition of Broadleaf Logistics.

▼40% $2.6m ($0.06) Revenue: $205m 6 months 2011

Net income 6 months 2011

$6 $5 $4 $3 $2

Cantronic Systems (TSX-V:CTS)

▲198% $319k Revenue: $4.5m 3 months 2011

Net income 3 months 2011

Spy story: New surveillance technology contracts in China helped Cantronic’s revenue soar 198% in the first quarter and its net income climb to $319k compared with a loss of $914k in the same quarter the year before. Cantronic also sold its thermal imaging business in Coquitlam in the first Earnings per share quarter. Cantronic finished the period with $963k in cash 3 months 2011 compared with $1.5m at the beginning of the quarter.

$0.01

$0.40 $0.30 $0.20 $0.10

Money business

Harry Jaako Bridging B.C.’s innovation gap is key to maintaining province’s economic growth

nnovation is an economic game changer, and the most profound innovations can change the game so much that enormous economic activity and wealth is generated. This is why the smarter developed nations chase innovation so hard, with large investments in education, research and development, setting the stage for spontaneous innovation that then needs to be commercialized to reap the benefits. The following is a highly subjective list of the most profound innovations that have occurred in just the information technology space since the 1970s that have changed the game so profoundly that we, as consumers, just couldn’t cope anymore without them. The microcomputer. HP was the first to fit a computer

on a desk in the early 1970s, followed by the Wang 2200 in 1973, the IBM 5100 in 1975, the Apple I, the TRS 80 and others. Into the 1980s computers were developed for household use, with software for personal productivity, programming and games. For the game changer, I pick the Commodore 64 for opening up the mass market and selling 17 million units, making it the bestselling single personal computer model of all time. Database software. It’s hard to believe that early computers relied on cumbersome “flat file” storage for decades. Database management systems, first navigational, then relational, then object-oriented, allowed random access to data. Profound. Early breakthroughs were the Codasyl approach, and IBM’s

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IMS, but I consider the breakthrough to be IBMer Edgar Codd’s work, which eventually became SQL, though this will be challenged by Oracle fans. The mouse. Early com-

We have chronically underused our innovation and commercialization capacity compared with, say, Israel, and we continue to do so at our peril puters used punch cards and keyboards. The mouse really enabled interaction with a computer screen. The trackball was invented by scientists working on the Royal Canadian Navy’s DATAR project in 1952. All kinds of point, push and touch devices now enable us to “drive” our electronic devices, but the game-changing moment was Apple’s blockbuster 1984 Superbowl TV ad for the new Macintosh showing a mouse

user wearing a driving glove. The PDA. The “personal digital device” has morphed into the ubiquitous “smartphone” with annual sales of 150 million units. Cellular communication technology emerged from Bell Labs showed up first in vehiclebased phones, then gave us the Palm, the Apple Newton, the Nokia Communicator and the BlackBerry, among others. I say the Motorola “brick” was the game changer – the first popular handheld mobile phone. Fibre optic cable. For 100 years, we pushed electrons down copper wire. Then came fibre optic cable, and that changed everything. Unimaginable amounts of data move every second through a world totally connected by these thin strands of glass. Transmission of light through glass was first demonstrated in Paris in the 1840s, and even Alexander Bell played with it. However, the game changer was Charles Kao’s work at Britain’s STC much later where he discovered the right material to use for communications fibres: silica glass with high purity. This discovery earned Kao the Nobel Prize in physics in 2009. The Internet. It started out as ARPANET, a U.S. military project, and the first interconnections to it were UCLA and Stanford in 1969,

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followed by UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah. Today, hundreds of millions of us use it every day. Web search engine. The first simple search tool was Archie, created by computer science students at McGill University in 1990, followed by Gopher from the University of Minnesota in 1991. Simple tools grew into search engines, and there have been dozens of them, including AltaVista, Yahoo, Excite, Inktomi, Yandex and MSN Search (Bing). We just can’t seem to get enough search. Though a latecomer in 1998, Google is the game changer because, despite competition, it gained a search market share of more than 80% – a stunning achievement in this market. Social networking. Social networks using information technology go back to ARPANET and LISTSERV, and include America Online, Prodigy, CompuServe, Friendster, MySpace. However, as a game changer, Facebook probably represents the largest shareholder value ever created in the shortest amount of time, from the smallest pre-launch investment. It happened because Mark Zuckerberg built a more addictive way for people to socialize electronically. He might be more of a human

1100 – 1177 West Hastings Street Vancouver, BC V6E 4T5 Tel: (604) 687-4511 Fax:(604) 687-5805

behaviourist than a technology entrepreneur. So what’s the point of this history lesson? B.C. is blessed in so many ways. We can sell our natural gas, we can mine metals and minerals, we can sell logs to China, we can catch or grow fish in our tidal waters, and perhaps build more ships for the military. However, none of these pursuits comes close to generating the economic leverage that any of the above innovations has achieved. We have the talent, the educational institutions, the research infrastructure and a location that clearly attracts intellectual capital from all over the world. We have chronically underused our innovation and commercialization capacity compared with, say, Israel, and we continue to do so at our peril. The rest of this century will prove to us that simply harvesting our abundant natural resources alone will not build the economic future and a high standard of living for a population that will double here before the end of the century. • Harry Jaako (hjaako@discoverycapital.com) is chairman of Discovery Capital Corp., a Vancouver-based venture capital firm. His column appears monthly.

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finance

August 9–15, 2011 Business in Vancouver

B.C. retail sales slip

Insider Trading

May ends three straight months of gains

▼0.7% ▼1.1% ▼2.0% ▲1.2% The following is a list of trades made by corporate executives, directors and other company insiders of B.C.’s public companies filed by the week ending July 28. The information comes from a compilation of required reports filed with the BC Securities Commission within five calendar days of a change in an insider’s holdings.

and CEO Company: Coastal Contacts Inc. (TSX:COA) Shares owned: 6,979,277 Trade date: July 13 Trade total: $444,000 (net) Trade: Purchase of 110,000 shares at $2.90 per share plus the acquisition of 100,000 shares for $1.25 per share through the exercise of options.

Insider: Tony Giardini, CFO Company: Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (TSX:IVN) Shares owned: 75,917 Trade date: July 22 Trade total: $934,500 (net) Trade: Sale of 50,000 shares at prices ranging from US$27 to US$27.12 per share after the acquisition of 50,000 shares for $8.35 per share through the exercise of options.

Insider: Daniel MacInnis, president and CEO Company: MAG Silver Corp. (TSX:MAG) Shares owned: 232,500 Trade date: July 20, 21 Trade total: $314,808 Trade: Sale of 20,000 shares for $11.05 per share and sale of 8,800 shares for $10.66 per share.

Insider: Peter Megaw, director Company: MAG Silver Corp. (TSX:MAG) Shares owned: 600 Trade date: July 21 Trade total: $547,500 Trade: Sale of 50,000 shares at $10.95 per share. Insider: Roger Hardy, founder

Insider: Bradford Cooke, CEO Company: Endeavour Silver Corp. (TSX:EXK) Shares owned: 1,197,837 Trade date: July 20 Trade total: $306,000 Trade: Sale of 30,000 shares for $10.20 per share. Insider: Walter Forrest, cochairman Company: Polymet Mining Corp.

(TSX:POM) Shares owned: 1,528,000 Trade date: July 20 Trade total: $231,000 Trade: Acquisition of 350,000 shares at $0.66 per share through the exercise of options. Insider: Bruce McDonald, managing director, investment banking, and global head of energy Company: Canaccord Financial Inc. (TSX:CF) Shares owned: 0 Trade date: June 15 Trade total: $219,555 Trade: Sale of 17,850 shares for $12.30 per share. Insider: David Dreisinger, director Company: Polymet Mining Corp. (TSX:POM) Shares owned: 876,300 Trade date: July 20 Trade total: $198,000 Trade: Acquisition of 300,000 shares at $0.66 per share through the exercise of options. Insider: David Shaw, director Company: First Majestic Silver Corp. (TSX:FR) Shares owned: 80,000 Trade date: July 21

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Trade total: $115,250 Trade: Sale of 5,000 shares at prices ranging from $23.03 to $23.06 per share. Insider: Fausto Taddei, CFO Company: Aura Minerals Inc. (TSX:ORA) Shares owned: 0 Trade date: June 21 Trade total: $100,330 Trade: Sale of 41,000 shares at $2.18 per share and 5,000 shares at $2.19 per share. Insider: David Hsu, chairman Company: CIBT Education Group Inc. (TSX:MBA) Shares owned: 2,063,546 Trade date: July 18 Trade total: $100,000 Trade: Acquisition of 333,333 shares at $0.30 per share through the grant of warrants. Insider: Shane Weir, director Company: CIBT Education Group Inc. (TSX:MBA) Shares owned: 333,333 Trade date: July 18 Trade total: $100,000 Trade: Acquisition of 333,333 shares at $0.30 per share through the grant of warrants. rchu@biv.com

May retail sales (overall)

May retail sales (gas)

May retail sales (furniture)

May retail sales (vehicles, parts)

Retail sales in B.C. slipped 0.7% (seasonally adjusted) in May, following three straight monthly gains. Increased sales by health and personal care (2.3%), electronics and appliance (1.2%) and miscellaneous (5.6%) retailers were offset by flagging sales at gasoline stations (-1.1%), furniture stores (-2%) and motor vehicle and parts dealers (-2.4%). Nationally, sales edged up 0.1% in May. P.E.I. (2%) and Manitoba (1.5%) posted the largest increases, while Nova Scotia (-1%) and B.C. (-0.7%) registered the deepest drops.

Food bills jump 5.9% in June, year over year Compared with the previous year, the cost of food in B.C. jumped 5.9% in June; bills for meals bought from restaurants rose 8.8%. It should be noted, however, that this inflation rate includes the impact of the introduction of the HST, which came into effect on July 1, 2010.

-BC Stats Infoline, Issue 11-29, July 22

Prices rise 2.7% in June, year over year Consumer prices in B.C. rose 2.7% in June compared with the same month in 2010, a slowdown from the 3.1% recorded in May. Inflation in June was largely driven by substantial increases to the price of gasoline (19.6%) and the cost of restaurant meals (8.8%).

-BC Stats Infoline, Issue 11-29, July 22

Sales of new motor vehicles plunge in May New motor vehicle sales in B.C. stalled in May, plunging 10.9% (seasonally adjusted). Canada-wide, sales of new motor vehicles fell 6.1%, reflecting slower activity in nine provinces. P.E.I. (-12.3%) recorded the most substantial decline, while Saskatchewan (1.7%) was the only province to see an increase.

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Business Excellence Breakfast Series

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Technology

Daily business news at www.biv.com August 9–15, 2011

Aerospace deal jump-starts growth plan After divesting the commercial and industrial side of its business in 2005 to focus on aerospace, Burnaby’s International Water-Guard is now looking to grow in the market it knows best: internal airplane technology Fox said his company plans to continue what International Water-Guard began in 2005: its divestiture of the industrial and commercial side of what was then a broader water treatment technology company and focus solely on aerospace.

By Jenny Wagler

“It’s very, very difficult to get anything approved to go on board an airplane; that was really, when you got right down to it, the secret sauce

Dominic Schaefer

ith the purchase of a new aerospace product line from Delton, Michigan-based Keltech, Inc. earlier this month, Burnabybased IWG Technologies, Inc. (TSX-V:IWG) has jump-started an acquisition-focused growth strategy. The just-formed IWG Technologies is a holding company for Burnaby-based International Water-Guard Industries Inc., which produces water treatment products for aircraft and has operated locally since 1982. David Fox, president and CEO of both companies, said IWG was formed earlier this year as an umbrella company to hold and finance International Water-Guard and any new business units IWG acquires. “We’re looking throughout the aviation world at products and technologies that are complementary to the things that we’re doing.” As part of the Keltech deal, which was announced July 6, IWG bought the Michigan company’s aviation water heater product line for US$700,000. International Water-Guard will absorb the new product line and look to have it

that this business had” – David Fox, president and CEO, IWG Technologies

David Fox, president and CEO of IWG Technologies and International Water-Guard Industries: “we’re looking throughout the aviation world at products and technologies that are complementary to the things that we’re doing”

fully qualified by aviation safety agencies for use on board aircraft. It ’s a r igorous qua li f ication process that International Water-Guard knows well and has achieved for its water treatment technology – but something Fox said would have taken Keltech away from its strategic focus. He added that the new Keltech

product line complements International Water-Guard’s current offerings and appeals to the same customer base. As IWG looks for further acquisitions, Fox said it plans to focus on the market subsection it knows best: products and systems that are used in aircraft interiors. “It could be that there is a

company with a product very much like Keltech in the fact that it is applicable to the aviation world, but the company doesn’t have the track record or skillset to get it qualified or get it into the supply chain,” he said. “In other cases, there may be technologies that are directly compatible with our own and would expand our offerings.”

Fox said the strategy has allowed International Water-Guard to capitalize on its first f lightqualified water treatment unit. “It’s very, very difficult to get anything approved to go on board an airplane,” he said. “That was really, when you got right down to it, the secret sauce that this business had.” • jwagler@biv.com

High-Tech Office

Alan Zisman New Apple OS aims to leverage iPad technology

pple has always been good at cutting the cord on older technologies. It has moved Macintosh computers to new families of processors, dropped support for floppy and optical drives and replaced its classic Mac operating system with OS X. First released in 2001, OS X has been continually revised; 2009’s seventhgeneration OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) dropped support for older Macs built using PowerPC processors, but otherwise was – similar to Windows 7 – a modest release optimizing the previous version. OS X 10.7 (Lion), released July 20, is more ambitious, with changes starting with the way it’s distributed and installed. It’s not available in stores and not sold on disc; instead, it’s a download from Apple’s Mac app store.

Priced at $29, the 3.5-gigabyte file takes about an hour to download. Especially nice – (Microsoft take note!) – users with multiple Macs only have to buy it once; it can be downloaded free for installation onto additional systems. Users can also save the installer onto a blank DVD disc or USB flash drive, but do this before running the installer; once you’ve upgraded, the install file vanishes. A $69 version on a flash drive is promised for some time in August. Once again, Lion cuts the cord to older technologies. You’ll need a dual-core Intelpowered Mac with at least two gigabytes of memory, and Lion lacks support for software written for older PowerPC Macs. (Contact me for help checking whether you’re using any of these older programs.) I was keeping

financial data in an older version of Intuit’s Quicken, and needed to export my data prior to installing Lion. Afterward would have been too late! A migration assistant imports settings, data and applications from another Mac or a backup; Lion’s version can also import Outlook email, photos and other data (but not applications) from a Windows PC. Lion promises 250 new features. Several give your Mac some of the look and feel of an iPad or iPhone. A Launchpad icon displays icons of your Mac’s applications, mimicking the iPad home screen. Appl icat ions ca n be viewed in full-screen mode, again à la iPad. And laptop users will discover new iPad-like gestures, including a track pad that scrolls in

reverse: moving two fingers downward scrolls up – the opposite of how it’s previously worked. Don’t like it? Uncheck what Apple calls “natural scrolling.” As on an iPad or iPhone, text auto-corrects, while

Once again, Lion cuts the cord to older technologies holding down a letter like “e” pops up accented and other variations – finally, an easy way to make those sorts of additions! However, you still can’t run iPhone/iPad apps on your Mac. Other improvements are under the hood. Lion installs a hidden hard drive recovery partition. Along with Apple’s Disk Utility for hard drive repairs, it includes a builtin web browser so you can

search online for solutions. (Hold down the “option” key at boot up for access.) You can encrypt your entire hard drive and Time Machine backups; previously, you were limited to your documents. When you boot your computer, it will automatically load applications and documents that were running when it was shut down. There’s system-wide support for auto-saving documents and for accessing older versions. AirDrop is perhaps the easiest way to share files with other computers across a local network. Boot time and performance seem on par with the previous version, despite all the new features. Many of these new features, including full-screen mode and document autosaving, however, require applications that have been

rewritten to support them. Apple’s applications (mostly) are Lion-friendly; other applications will have to gain support in a future update. And AirDrop works only with recent Macs. Assuming you’re not dependent on old PowerPC-era Mac software, Lion is an affordable and attractive upgrade for Mac users. Something completely different: Vancouver is one of a dozen cities worldwide hosting Social Media Week September 19-23, a social media Olympics with events from seminars to soirées. You can get involved as a sponsor, panel speaker or volunteer (in many capacities): socialmediaweek.org/vancouver. • Alan Zisman (www.zisman. ca) is a Vancouver educator and computer specialist. His column appears weekly.

Real estate

August 9–15, 2011 Business in Vancouver

Beyond the MLS: New digital data bases radically changing the province’s property sales landscape B.C. entrepreneurs are redefining real estate data sharing with unprecedented access to information By Frank O’Brien/ Western Investor

he Canadian Real Estate Association’s (www.realtor.ca) multiple listing service (MLS) remains the largest online real estate listing system in Canada, but B.C. realtors can now access the most advanced data delivery platforms in the country. Available so far only in B.C., the services recently launched by New Westminster-based Landcor Data and Vancouver’s HQ Real Estate Services take real estate information delivery to a whole new level. Landcor’s (www.landcor.com) is not a listing service but a market research tool, according to company founder and president Rudy Nielsen. Landcor purports to have the province’s deepest and most sophisticated real estate information. Its database, for example, includes sales and permit history on all 1,912,211 titles in B.C., and it updates between 3,000 and 8,000 Land Title Office transactions every week. The system tracks every commercial and residential real estate transaction in the province, including private sales, family transfers, strata deals and new developments, as well as those on MLS. The assessments go back as far as 1991, and sales data to 1972, which is unique to Landcor. Also unique to its system is the ability to see lot boundary lines, which allows a realtor with an iPad or iPhone to find boundary markers while on a wooded acre in the Cariboo or building lot in downtown Nanaimo. The system’s search engine can find properties by address, identification number, legal description or even GPS. “This type of access to so much information is something that has never been available in the past,” Nielsen said. Major banks, credit unions, mortgage insurers, large investors and other parties have long mined Landcor’s data. Realtors can now access the same data and use a custom search engine that will locate properties by virtually any variable, from the assessed value to square footage to whether it has a view or a swimming pool. The monthly subscription cost for residential realtors ranges from $15 for 30 property searches and

Landcor Data’s web page (left); David England of HQ Realty Services: “people want to see listings, not flash”

reports to $20 for 50 properties, or virtually unlimited reports for $30. The service is not available to the general public. Nielsen said the entire system will be updated every quarter with new features, which are automatically added at no charge for subscribers. He pointed out that a realtor could view the 10 most recent sales in an area, tour the subject property and its environs through the Microsoft BING mapping system, see property assessments and even get an evaluation report that suggests an uncannily accurate listing price on the property. Landcor system also tracks all new development sales, which are normally not publicly released. “It turns any realtor into an instant expert on any property or area in the province,” Nielsen said. Nielsen said Landcor plans to launch a similar service for commercial realtors that will add some specific features. For example, a commercial realtor could sit with a client in Hong Kong and find every vacant retailzoned lot in Kelowna along with recent sales and price information on the entire market. “That realtor would know more about the Okanagan market than an Okanagan realtor.” Nielsen added that realtors are quickly falling into two camps: those with instant access to the hottest information and those without. The latter, he said, are in trouble.

HQ Real Estate Services What started as a recruitment campaign and lead generator has evolved into perhaps the most sophisticated online commercial and residential listing service in B.C. HQ Real Estate Services teamed up with Eco Realty Inc. in creating www.ecorealty.ca, which it launched this year with Grant Wilson, a former realtor and now CEO of Eco

“This type of access to so much information is something that has never been available in the past” – Rudy Nielsen, president, Landcor Data

Realty. The free, open-access service covers residential and commercial listings with an elegant and powerful search engine. “People want to see listings, not flash,” said HQ’s CEO David England. The MLS system used by most real estate companies includes a voluntary reciprocity program that allows listing information to be shared with other companies. Eco Realty’s web page takes that further, including both MLS and exclusive listings from its realtors and other companies. The businesses operate out of two Vancouver locations with 47 brokers, including such well-known

names as apartment brokers David and Mark Goodman. The premise is simple: post lots of listings and generate leads from the online response at www.ecorealtyinc.ca. The listings make as much information as possible available to online search engines, while inquiries from prospective clients are routed to the responsible HQ broker. The system has some geographical limitations: HQ so far covers the Lower Mainland and Whistler, but does not include Vancouver Island or Interior listings. Wilson, who has an aptitude for software development, knows buyers are looking for properties, not realtors, when they go online. But the software underpinning Eco Realty ensures customers reach the brokers who can handle them with less hassle. That speeds deal velocity. “What we’re trying to do is lower our conversion ratio,” Wilson explained. “We’re now down to about 68 [visits per lead], and we think we can get it down to about 55 visits for one lead.” The site currently generates about 300 leads per month for HQ brokers. It also features a feed of new listings, which is what people are looking for after they’ve gone through the existing inventory. With more than 2,000 visitors a day spending an average of 10 minutes on Eco Realty’s site, and each visitor viewing about 18 listings per visit, the site excites consultants such as Ben Nyland, president of

Rampworth Capital Services Inc. in North Vancouver. Nyland helped develop financial projections for Eco Realty and created the pitch England and Wilson made to the venture’s initial investors, who have since anted up $2 million. “It’s a very promising company,” Nyland said. “They’re going to change the way commercial real estate is done in Vancouver.” While most franchise real estate companies place tight control on information, England and Wilson’s mantra is to put everything up online and work in co-operation. “What Eco Realty and HQ are bringing is a really solid understanding both of how the web works, in terms of how people are searching, as well as ... how the real estate industry works,” Nyland said. “They’re doing a great job of bringing the two together in a way that just naturally fits with the way people want to find real estate and do business.” The site is already wired into social media, so listings can be monitored or added on the fly. “This is the future of real estate,” England said, “The old franchise model is dead.” • With files from Peter Mitham. Western Investor (www.westerninvestor.com) is a division of Business In Vancouver Media Group. Published monthly, it focuses on commercial real estate in Western Canada.

Real estate

Daily business news at www.biv.com August 9–15, 2011

real estate roundup

Peter Mitham Summertime and the home real estate sales are steady

Conquering

Clean start: the second phase of Port Coquitlam’s Aviva townhome development launched recently, but buyers are looking twice before committing thanks to the wealth of selection in the market

from sea to sky

with you! Back to market Home buyers haven’t been spooked by the latest jitters rippling through financial markets, according to White Rock-based Azura Management Corp. Azura recently launched the second phase of Aviva, a 64-unit townhome development in Port Coquitlam. Aviva was originally launched by Brixton Development Ltd. in 2007, but financial challenges led to Azura assuming control of the project following completion of the first phase. “Absorptions aren’t at the peak by any means, but everything’s fairly steady,” said Trent Blackwell, vicepre sident w it h A z u r a . “We’re getting good turnouts even though it’s summer. But it’s not like people are lining up right now to make offers. The consumer is still shopping around.” Ta k ing over projects from other developers is a common strategy for Azura, which also assumed control of the Pepin Brook development in Abbotsford and La Casa, a 200-cottage recreational project near Kelowna that it brought to market in 2005. “We get contacted at times by banks and various other agencies when they have developments that are distressed or projects that are distressed,” Blackwell said. “With our expertise, we are called in to help

reposition them, fix them up and market them.” Many of the projects were originally launched by smaller developers, allowing Azura to keep a low profile while keeping busy. Blackwell expects to keep busy even as new jitters ripple through markets.

“Absorptions aren’t at the peak by any means, but everything’s fairly steady” – Trent Blackwell, vice-president, Azura Management

“We are finding that there is enough confidence right now, and I think a lot of people still feel like they are getting a good deal,” he said. “We do still have a lot of people entering the market, so I think that we’re fairly good in that sense. A lot of people look down the road and also think what will happen as land becomes less and less available, will they be able to get in?” Back to black The latest f igures from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver are a counterpoint to the steady interest Azura is seeing in Port Coquitlam. The total number of listings in the region rose in July 2011, giving buyers greater

selection and breathing room when it came to making a purchase decision. The average days-onmarket for listings was 41, region-wide, pushing sales tallies below the 10-year average for July. The greater number of listings and leisurely pace of sales is reflected in a slight slip in the region’s benchmark sales price. The benchmark price is now $630,251, down 0.1% from June’s benchmark price. That’s 30.2% greater than at the benchmark price of $484,211 at the end of 2008. The dip in the benchmark price also throws a grain of salt at the bold prediction from Royal LePage that Vancouver home prices will continue rising and close 2011 an average of 15.4% higher than they were at the end of 2010. Real estate board figures indicate the benchmark price in July is just 9.1% higher than in December 2010, though prices of detached homes – if any – are the most likely to buoy the overall average with increases in Vancouver proper in excess of 28%.

Back to school UBC Okanagan is preparing for the start of school next month with the completion of the final two buildings in an ambitious, multi-year development program. The six-year-old campus north of Kelowna has shed its rustic roots as Okanagan University College to become an urbane destination adjacent to the Kelowna International Airport. The f inal two buildings in the $450 million development program include a 46,000-square-foot health science centre and 156,000-square-foot engineering-management education complex.The value of the two projects is close to $110 million, representing a significant economic stimulus for Kelowna during the ongoing slump in residential construction. While student residences remain under construction, the two buildings round out the academic buildings on a campus that boasts an enrolment of more than 7,600 students and hosts conferences during the off-season in its state-of-the-art lecture halls. • pmitham@telus.net

daily online edition

BUSINESS TODAY Island-based REIT expands holdings Partners Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX V:PAR.UN) has acquired the Evergreen Shopping Centre in Sooke, B.C. The property, which

cost $15.8 million, generates approximately $1.2 million a year and management expects it will generate $400,000 in incremental funds to the trust. The openair centre is 96.2% occupied. Thursday, August 4

Full stories and other local business news at www.biv.com/businesstoday Daily business news direct to your inbox! Sign up at www.biv.com/newsletters

Hospitality & tourism Quarterly News Report

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August 9-15, 2011; issue 1137

Horse racing revenue decline picks up speed

Biggest casinos in B.C. and Washington state 14 Biggest airlines at YVR 17

Source of Great Canadian Gaming revenue in 2010 8%

42%

12%

27%

n Slot machines n Food and beverage n TableSlot games Machines Food and Beverage n Racetrack Racetrack n Facility development commission n Other

Bingo hall acquisitions highlight Great Canadian Gaming growth strategy

Table Games

Facility Development Commission Other

Source: BIV Research

Gaming revenue is more stable for casino operators than is revenue from horse racing

of dollars on a parkade, a renovated back stretch and other upgrades. C i t y o f Va n c o u v e r spokeswoman Wendy Stewart told BIV the city and CGC have only had “preliminary discussions” about the

Remington Park racecourse in Oklahoma in March. GCG’s gaming revenue, however, is performing much better than its racing revenue. Ga mi ng revenue i ncreased 2% to $274.9 million in 2010 and fell a comparatively small 1.5% to $67.5 million in the three months that ended March 31.

“Great Canadian’s 2010 revenues of $383.5 million represent a year of transition” Ross McLeod, CEO Great Canadian Gaming

Those figures support GCG CEO Ross McLeod’s view that this is still a challenging time for the gaming sector. “Great Canadian’s 2010 revenues of $383.5 million represent a year of transition,” McLeod noted in the company’s 2010 annual report. see Tough, 16

lot machine and other gaming revenue is proving to be more stable than racetrack revenue prompting casino operators to be keen to invest in new bingo halls and casino assets. Great Canadian Gaming Corp. (GCG) spokesman Howard Blank was quick to say, “There are no racetrack assets for sale right now.” But, the trend of horse racing tracks producing lower revenue is picking up speed and could also be a reason why GCG (TSX:GC) has recently put more focus on its gaming assets. Racing revenue at GCG’s four racetracks fell 26% to $4.6 million in the three months that ended March 31, compared with the same period in 2010. That drop would likely have been steeper had the 2010 Olympics not

“We have to communicate to our shareholders all the options out there.” Blank said his company is negotiating with the City of Vancouver to renew the lease and that the city wants his company to spend millions

DI F F E R E N

forced Hastings Racecourse to close between February 1 and March 3, 2010, thereby cutting off simulcast horse racing revenue from that track. In 2010, GCG’s $23.3 million in racetrack revenue was 19% less than the $28.7 million that it generated from racetracks in 2009. “The racetrack business is obviously difficult because people are going and spending their entertainment dollar on other options,” Blank told Business in Vancouver in July. Ea rlier t his yea r, he speculated that GCG may close Hastings Racecourse in September 2012, when its lease with the City of Vancouver expires. “Is there a chance that Hastings won’t exist? Yes, there’s a chance, but that’s not something that we’re pushing,” Blank told Business in Vancouver in March.

UNIQUELY

By Glen Korstrom

lease renewal so far. GCG i nvested $4.4 million to build t he 7,000-square-foot Hastings Park Childcare Centre, which has 44 daycare spaces and opened on April 9. Several years ago, it also spent $40 million to: •create a 42,000-square-foot racino that includes 596 slot machines; •put on a new roof; •install new restroom facilities; and •add more than 100 new televisions. A large, outdoor screen was installed in July on a trial basis for what Blank called “community movie nights” It also shows live racing. Track regulars, such as Ian Ross, told BIV in early July that they had long wanted to have a screen in Hastings Racecourse’ infield that shows live racing. Other track operators, such as Global Gaming Solutions (GGS), have similarly been installing screens. GGS unveiled a 47-foot-tall, 60-foot-wide screen – the largest high-definition video screen at a horse racing facility in North America – at its

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Biggest casinos and bingo halls in B.C. Ranked by total gaming revenue in 2010

Rank '11 Gaming centre

Primary business

Year Top local executive(s) Operator founded

River Rock Casino Resort

Casino, hotel, show 2004 theatre

Grand Villa Casino

Casino, hotel and 2008 convention centre

Matt Ballesty, executive general manager

Boulevard Casino

2001

Starlight Casino

Casino and Red Robinson Show Theatre Casino

2007

Tim Barnett, executive general manager

Cascades Langley Casino and Coast Hotel

Casino, hotel and 2005 conference centre

Doedy Reisler, executive general manager

Edgewater Casino

Casino

2005

Great Canadian Casinos View Royal

Casino

2001

Paul Ahluwalia, vicepresident and general manager NP

Fraser Downs Racetrack & Casino

Horse racing and casino

1973

Chuck Keeling, vicepresident operations

Treasure Cove Casino and Hotel

Casino and hotel

John Major Shelley Major, co-owners

Great Canadian Casinos Nanaimo

Casino

1997

Lake City Casino Kelowna

Casino

Lake City Casino Vernon

Casino

1992

Len Vadeboncoeur, general manager

Chances Kelowna

Community gaming centre

2002

Lake City Casino Kamloops

Casino

1992

Lake City Casino Penticton

Casino

2000

8811 River Rd, Richmond V6X 3P8 P: 604-247-8900 F: 604-207-2641 www.riverrock.com 4331 Dominion St, Burnaby V5G 1C7 P: 604-436-2211 F: 604-436-2130 www.grandvillacasino.com 2080 United Blvd, Coquitlam V3K 6W3 P: 604-523-6888 F: 604-523-6806 www.blvdcasino.com 350 Gifford St, New Westminster V3M 7A3 P: 604-777-2946 F: 604-777-3525 www.starlightcasino.ca 20393 Fraser Hwy, Langley V3A 7N2 P: 604-530-2211 F: 604-539-4400 www.cascadescasino.ca 750 Pacific Blvd Suite 311, Vancouver V6B 5E7 P: 604-687-3343 F: 604-687-4279 www.edgewatercasino.ca 1708 Island Hwy, Victoria V9B 1H8 P: 250-391-0311 F: 250-391-0310 www.greatcanadiancasinos.com/ viewroyal 17755 60th Ave, Surrey V3S 1V3 P: 604-576-9141 F: 604-576-9821 www.fraserdowns.com 2003 Highway 97 S, Prince George V2N 7A3 P: 866-561-2421 F: 250-564-7079 www.treasurecovehotel.net 620 Terminal Ave, Nanaimo V9R 5E2 P: 250-753-3033 F: 250-753-9433 www.greatcanadian casinos.com/nanaimo 1300 Water St, Kelowna V1Y 9P4 P: 250-860-9467 F: NP www.lakecitycasinos.com/kelowna 4900 Anderson Way, Vernon V1T 9V2 P: 250-545-3505 F: NP www.lakecitycasinos.com/vernon 1585 Springfield Rd, Kelowna V1Y 5V5 P: 250-860-9577 F: 250-860-1764 www.chances.ca/locations/ kelowna 540 Victoria St, Kamloops V2C 2B2 P: 250-372-3336 F: NP www.lakecitycasinos.com/kamloops 21 Lakeshore Dr W , Penticton V2A 7M5 P: 250-487-1280 F: NP www.lakecitycasinos.com/penticton

Source: Interviews with above companies, the latest BC Lottery Corporation annual report and BIV research. NP Not provided 1 - BCLC figures will differ from corporate reports due to several factors including different year ends from casino operators and exclusion of non-gaming revenue 2 - Includes electronic table games 3 - Does not include race track revenue generated in the year 4 - Discontinued table games in mid-2009

No. slots/ Bingo game tables/ revenue bingo seats '10/'09

Table game Slot machine Total casino revenue '10/ revenue '10/ revenue '10/ '09 '09 '09

Great Canadian 990 Gaming Corp. (TSX:GC) 108 0 Gateway Casinos & 1,001 Entertainment Ltd. 50 0 Great Canadian 1,0032 Gaming Corp. (TSX:GC) 64 0 Gateway Casinos & 857 Entertainment Ltd. 49 0 Gateway Casinos & 815 Entertainment Ltd. 27 0 Paragon Gaming LLC 521 55 0 Great Canadian 602 Gaming Corp. (TSX:GC) 14 0

$0 $0

$138,096,000 $121,543,000 $259,639,000 $116,795,000 $108,659,000 $225,454,000

$0 $0

$60,677,000 $122,564,000 $183,241,000 $61,724,000 $125,018,000 $186,742,000

$0 $0

$41,366,000 $43,194,000

$110,660,000 $152,026,000 $118,053,000 $161,247,000

$0 $0

$42,191,000 $38,707,000

$76,464,000 $118,655,000 $73,909,000 $112,616,000

$0 $0

$17,997,000 $19,055,000

$95,031,000 $99,979,000

$113,028,000 $119,034,000

$0 $0

$50,449,000 $61,506,000 $57,477,000 $60,355,000

$111,955,000 $117,832,000

$0 $0

$8,631,000 $8,328,000

$69,875,000 $78,506,000 $70,744,000 $80,292,000

Great Canadian 469 Gaming Corp. (TSX:GC) 10 0 Prince George Casino 501 Supply Ltd. 8 0 Great Canadian 407 Gaming Corp. (TSX:GC) 6 0

$0 $0

$5,519,000 $5,581,000

$45,263,000 $50,782,0003 $54,741,0003 $45,469,000

$0 $0

$2,131,000 $2,348,000

$42,610,000 $38,951,000

$44,741,000 $41,300,000

$0 $0

$2,934,000 $3,322,000

$40,911,000 $40,838,000

$43,845,000 $44,160,000

Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Ltd.

349 11 0 Gateway Casinos & 406 Entertainment Ltd. 0 0 Goldwing Investments 225 (Saskatoon) Ltd. 0 494

$4,073,000

$34,135,000 NP

$38,208,000 NP

$0 $0

$04 $260,0004

$36,443,000 $36,443,000 $35,135,000 $35,395,000

$7,813,000 $0 $8,058,000 $0

$25,957,000 $33,770,000 $22,994,000 $31,052,000

Fred Ramgren, general manager

Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Ltd.

$0 $0

$2,529,000 $2,645,000

$30,218,000 $30,894,000

$32,747,000 $33,539,000

Jerry Pokorny, general manager

Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Ltd.

$1,715,000 $2,225,000

$27,831,000 $26,330,000

$29,546,000 $28,555,000

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301 8 0 293 9 0

Business in Vancouver makes every attempt to publish accurate information in The List, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Researched by Richard Chu, lists@biv.com

Biggest casinos in Washington state Ranked by total square footage of gaming facilities Rank '11 Gaming centre

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Tulalip Resort Casino 10200 Quil Ceda Blvd, Tulalip 98271 P: 360-716-6000 F: 360-653-5068 www.tulalipcasino.com Northern Quest Resort & Casino 100 Hayford Rd N, Airway Heights 99001 P: 509-242-7000 F: 509-481-2163 www.northernquest.com Snoqualmie Casino 37500 N Bend Way SE, Snoqualmie 98065 P: 425-888-1234 F: 425-888-3278 www.snocasino.com Angel of the Winds Casino 3438 Stoluckquamish Ln, Arlington 98223 P: 360-474-9740 F: NP www.angelofthewinds.com Nisqually Red Wind Casino 12819 Yelm Hwy, Olympia 98513 P: 360-412-5000 F: 360-412-8275 www.redwindcasino.com Muckleshoot Casino 2402 Auburn Way S, Auburn 98002 P: 253-804-4444 F: 253-939-7484 www.muckleshootcasino.com Swinomish Northern Lights Casino 12885 Casino Dr, Anacortes 98221 P: 360-293-2691 F: 360-293-1273 www.swinomishcasino.com Yakama Nation Legends Casino 580 Fort Rd, Toppenish 98948 P: 509-865-8800 F: 509-865-5322 www.yakamalegends.com Skagit Valley Casino Resort 5984 Darrk Ln N, Bow 98232 P: 360-275-2448 F: 360-724-0222 www.theskagit.com 7 Cedars Casino 270756 Hwy 101, Sequim 98382 P: 360-683-7777 F: 360-681-6711 www.7cedarsresort.com

Source: Interviews with above companies and BIV research.

Amenities

Year founded

Top local executive(s)

Operator

No. slot Gaming machines/ squaregame tables footage

Five restaurants, hotel with 375 rooms, free parking, valet parking, gift shop, non-smoking bingo

1992

Tulalip Tribes

2,200 70

222,000

AAA four-diamond resort, 250-room hotel, 14 restaurants and lounges, the only AAA four-diamond restaurant in Eastern Washington, luxurious Current Spa & Salon

2000

Kalispel Tribe of Indians

2,000 46

210,000

Six restaurants, Mist Bar

2008

Ken Kettler, president and CEO Marci Fryberg-Tyson, executive vicepresident of gaming operations Phillip Haugen, general manager Jeff Duke, vice-president of resort operations NP

Snoqualmie Indian Tribe

1,700 60

170,000

Four restaurants/lounges, live band entertainment Thurs-Sat, RV park with full hookups

Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians Nisqually Indian Tribe

1,000 16

116,000

975 22

95,000

Blue Camas Buffet, Medicine Creek Deli, Pealo's Landing Bar, Squalli- 1997 Absch Grille

Cheebo Frazier, casino manager

Eight restaurants/bars, ATM, convention and meeting space, free parking, free valet parking, gaming instruction, gift shop, lounge

1995

Darryl Blackburn, general manager

Muckleshoot Indian Tribe

3,000 136

78,000

Four restaurants, arcade, ballroom, complimentary drinks, convention and meeting space, dance floor, close-in parking, RV park, tournaments, TV room, valet parking

1985

690 19

73,000

Daubers Deli, Espresso Bar snack bar, Legends Sunset Strips deli, Mountain View Buffet

1998

Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Yakama Indian Nation

1,200 38

70,000

Three restaurants, two hotels with 144 rooms, banquet hall, gift shop, live entertainment, sports lounge, 1,000 parking spaces

1995

Don Guglielmino, general manager

Upper Skagit Indian Tribe

781 12

64,000

Three restaurants, gift shop, smoke shop

1995

Jerry Allen, CEO

Jamestown 490 S'Klallam Tribe 26

63,000

NP Not provided

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16 Hospitality & Tourism

Daily business news at www.biv.com August 9–15, 2011

Cultural master plan 10200 Quil Ceda Blvd., Tulalip, WA 98271 www.tulalipresort.com Troy Longwith T: 360.716.6500 F: 360.716.6509 E: sales@tulalipresort.com

GenerAL DesCripTion The AAA Four Diamond Tulalip Resort Casino is among the premier destinations in Washington State offering luxurious accommodations, award-winning dining options, a rejuvenating spa, casino excitement and world-class shopping.

MeeTinG spACe Tulalip Resort Casino offers extraordinary value to meeting planners with more than 30,000 square feet of flexible meeting space. Options range from the 15,000 square foot Orca Ballroom to several breakout rooms. Each meeting space is equipped with complimentary WiFi, high lumen LCD projectors and drop down screens.

ACCoMMoDATions The property’s 12-story hotel features 370 spacious and elegantly-appointed guestrooms and suites that welcome guests with majestic floor to ceiling windows, gorgeous Italian tile and sleek granite countertops. Each guest room showcases local Coast Salish artwork, created exclusively for Tulalip Resort Casino. Standard amenities include 47” HD televisions, premium pillow top beds, full-sized makeup vanities, large walk-in showers with three body sprays, 24-hour room service and complimentary local calls and Wi-Fi. Exceptional dining options range from casual bites to sophisticated cuisine. A number of culinary-focused events throughout the year allow guests to immerse themselves in the culture and tradition of the Pacific Northwest including Winemaker Dinners featuring pairings expertly selected by Tulalip’s award-winning sommelier Tommy Thompson. In addition, Tulalip hosts the Taste of Tulalip each November, the region’s premier culinary event featuring wine tasting, culinary sampling, seminars and more. For a rejuvenating, relaxing retreat, the 14,000-square-foot full service T Spa boasts 16 treatment rooms and a variety of native-inspired services in addition to its full range of skin and body therapies designed to rejuvenate the body, enrich the mind and soothe the soul. Separate men’s and women’s lounges include quiet rooms with double-sided fireplaces, eucalyptus steam rooms, saunas built from cedar and grotto showers with rain shower heads and performance body sprays. Guests looking for exciting entertainment need to look no further than Tulalip Resort Casino. Gaming has long been a Tulalip tradition and the 192,000-square-foot casino features the best selection of games and the most cash back of any Northwest casino. Canoes Cabaret offers comedy and musical performances to keep guests entertained and mpulse lounge provides a place to meet and mingle with a mix of tech and glam. The Summer Concert Series, held from July to September at the Tulalip Amphitheater, features a mix of musical styles in an outdoor setting during the warm summer months. Finally, no shop-a-holic will be disappointed after visiting Seattle Premium Outlets, with 110 brand name designer outlet stores including high-end designers such as Coach, Polo Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Nike and Banana Republic. Visitors can also experience more Northwest culture with Tulalip’s proximity to The Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve – the cultural center features 23,000 square feet of rich history and the traditional culture of the Tulalip Tribes, The Future of Flight Museum, Boeing Tour Center, and Woodinville wineries.

For more information about Tulalip resort Casino, visit www.Tulalipresort.com or call toll free (888) 272-1111.

Tourism Vancouver’s focus turns to promoting visual, performing and culinary arts By Baila Lazarus

he new chair of Tourism Vancouver comes with a unique background – one that’s sure to contribute to the organization’s 10-year vision. With a bachelor’s degree in music from UBC and experience as a symphony performer, orchestra manager and, currently, executive director of the Arts Club Theatre, Brian Jeng has been immersed in cultural activities for decades. And culture is now the key word for Tourism Vancouver. “I thought cultural tourism was an oxymoron,” said Jang, who took over from James Terry earlier this year. “A lot of the work I was doing was around developing a local marketplace [for symphony, ballet, etc.] as opposed to a tourism marketplace, so I never got my head around the role tourism plays in developing an arts-and-culture framework.

Incoming Tourism Vancouver chair Howard Jang: “I’m thrilled to take people to the restaurants here. And I view that as the cultural attraction”

“I never realized how the cultural organizations and cultural fabric of a city is actually part of its destination, part of its soul.” What Jang started to appreciate was that culture “is the calling card for some of the greatest cities.” “I’m thrilled to take people to the restaurants here,” he said “And I view that as the cultural attraction.”

At Tourism Vancouver’s AGM in June, the focus was on a master plan for Vancouver 2020. “Culture has become a bigger part of the framework of how we position Vancouver,” Jang said. “It’s my intention and my hope that this is the beginning of a decade of culture ahead of us.” Current international draws in the cultural realm include the culinary arts, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Museum of Anthropology. “The connection to the aboriginal community is extremely exciting,” said Jang. “The work that the Bill Reid Gallery is doing and other visual arts are a huge opportunity.” Jang said the PuSh festival, which takes place annually in January and February, is an internationally known festival, and it’s that kind of event Tourism Vancouver wants to draw attention to. “When we talk about

what a decade of culture means, the way that connects with our objectives and opportunities, we want to highlight every month one cultural event that is happening in Vancouver.” Even what’s happening in terms of programming, music and visual arts in the Woodwards area is serving to revitalize Vancouver and provide a history of the city, Jang said. “I’m very excited what Vancouver can do to partne r w it h ou r c u lt u r a l community.” As a reflection of the work the tourism association is doing, Tourism Vancouver has changed its description from a destination marketing organization to a destination marketing and management organization. “That’s a very significant change to take on,” said Jang, “not just the marketing but the management of positioning Vancouver as a world destination.” • blazarus@biv.com

Tough times: Sinking asset values lead to buying opportunities from Horse, 13

“W hi le revenues increased by $1.3 million from the prior year, they remained $20.2 million below the level achieved in 2008.” McL e o d went on to note that because times remain tough for many casino operators, asset values have sunk. The result is buying opportunities for those stable enough to buy new properties. In April, GCG spent $10 million to buy Chilliwack Bingo and, Blank said,

his company “will put in a Chances Community Gaming Centre in that facility in the future. That would have slots and a racebook, food and bingo but no tables.” Back in 2007, GCG spent $1 million to buy Ridge Meadows Bingo Association’s assets. GCG plans to replace the Haney Bingo Plex in Maple Ridge with a facility that would house bingo and also have slot machines and other gaming options. On Ju ly 18, Gateway

Casinos & Entertainment Ltd. announced that it had spent an undisclosed amount of money to buy Boardwalk Gaming & Entertainment Inc.’s B.C. assets including Chances Community Gaming Centres located in Mission, Squamish and Surrey. The most high-profile proposed casino expansion in Metro Vancouver during the past year was Paragon Gaming’s failed attempt for a mega-casino connected to BC Place. That casino remains

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open at its Plaza of Nations location and will continue to operate there until its lease is up in 2013, said Paragon spokeswoman Tamara Hicks. What will it do when its lease ends? “We’re looking at various options and once we decide we’ll make a formal announcement,” Hicks said. “It’s a private company so we don’t even talk about revenue. It’s business as usual.” • gkorstrom@biv.com

August 9–15, 2011 Business in Vancouver

Biggest airlines at YVR Ranked by the number of outbound seats leaving Vancouver International Airport Rank Airline '10 Website

Airline Phone code

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37

Air Canada1

Destinations to/from Vancouver International Airport

Year Stock symbol founded

Canadian U.S. and international destinations

1937

888-247-2262 6001 Grant McConachie Way, Richmond V7B 1K3 888-937-8538 Box 24212 APO, Richmond V7B 1A3

Westjet

Canadian, U.S. and Mexican destinations

1996

United Airlines

800-538-2929 77 W Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601

Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco

1934

Alaska Airlines Inc2

800-252-7522 PO Box 68900, Seattle 98168

Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle

1932

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd

Hong Kong, New York Kennedy

1946

Pacific Coastal Airlines Ltd

8P TS

Vancouver Island, Interior and northern BC destinations Europe, Mexico, Costa Rica and Caribbean

1985

Air Transat

604-606-8888 550 6th Ave W Suite 500, Vancouver V5Z 4S2 800-663-2872 4440 Cowley Cres Unit 204, Richmond V7B 1B8 877-872-6728 4360 Agar Dr, Richmond V7B 1A3

Delta Air Lines3

800-221-1212

Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Detroit, Minneapois, Memphis

1928

British Airways Plc

800-247-9297 Box 24289 APO, Richmond V7B 1Y4

London Heathrow

1935

American Airlines Inc

800-433-7300 Box 23955 APO, Richmond V7B 1Y1

Dallas

1926

Philippine Airlines Inc

Manila, Las Vegas

1941

Japan Airlines Co Ltd

Tokyo, Mexico City (discontinued January 2010)

1951

Air China

800-435-9725 3211 Grant McConachie Way Room 4110.0A, Richmond V7B 1Y7 800-525-3663 PO Box 44631, RPO YVR Terminal, Richmond V7B 1W2 604-685-0921 1100 Nelson St, Vancouver V6E 4A6

Beijing

1988

US Airways Inc

Phoenix

Lufthansa

800-428-4322 111 W Rio Salado Parkway, Tempe 85281 800-563-5954 Box 23914 APO, Richmond V7B 1Y1

Frankfurt

1926

Continental Airlines Inc

800-231-0856 PO Box 4607, Houston 77210-4607

Houston, Newark

1934

China Airlines Ltd

Taipei

1959

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

Amsterdam

1919

Thomas Cook Airlines

TCX

London Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow

2008

China Eastern Airlines

Shanghai

1988

Korean Air Lines Co Ltd

604-682-6777 1030 Georgia St W Suite 1416, Vancouver V6E 2Y3 800-447-4747 PO Box 32012 3880 Grant McConachie Way, Richmond V7B 1W2 877-835-9285 75 Eglinton Avenue E, Toronto M4P 3A4 604-689-8998 1030 Georgia Street W Suite 1307, Vancouver V6E 2Y3 800-438-5000 4360 Agar Dr, Richmond V7B 1Y1

Seoul

1962

Central Mountain Air

250-877-5000 Box 998, Smithers V0J 2N0

Vancouver Island and Northern BC

1987

Air North

800-661-0407 150 Condor Road, Whitehorse V1A 6E6 Whitehorse

1977

Eva Airways Corp

604-303-3338 PO Box 32434, Richmond V7B 1W2

Taipei

1989

Hawkair

800-487-1216 Bristol Rd RR 4, Terrace V8G 4V2

Smithers, Terrace, Prince Rupert

1994

Air New Zealand

Auckland

Sunwing

800-663-5494 1960 E. Grand Ave Suite 300, El Segundo, CA 90245 877-978-6946 27 Fasken Dr, Etobicoke M9W 1K6

Mexico and Caribbean

2005

Mexicana4

800-531-7921

Mexico City

1921

Harbour Air Ltd

1177 Hastings St W, Vancouver V6E 2K3 800-665-0212 4760 Inglis Dr, Richmond V7B 1W4

Victoria Inner Harbour, Nanaimo Harbour and Sechelt

1981

West Coast Air

Victoria Inner Harbour, Nanaimo Harbour and Sechelt

1970s

Canjet

800-347-2222 1177 Hastings St W Suite 2310, Vancouver V6E 2K3 800-809-7777 PO Box 980, Enfield B2T 1R6

Mexico and Caribbean

KD Air Corp

Qualicum Beach

1991

Air Berlin

800-665-4244 3539 Veldham Rd, Port Alberni V9Y 8S5 866-266-5588 NA, NA NA

Dusseldorf

Condor Flugdienst GmbH

Helijet International Inc

www.aircanada.com www.westjet.com www.united.ca

www.alaskaair.com

www.cathaypacific.com

www.pacificcoastal.com www.airtransat.com www.delta.com

www.britishairways.com www.aa.com

www.philippineairlines.com www.jal.co.jp/en/

www.airchina.com.cn/en www.usairways.com www.lufthansa-ca.com www.continental.com

www.china-airlines.com www.klm.com

www.canadian-affair.ca

www.flychinaeastern.com www.koreanair.com www.flycma.com

www.flyairnorth.com www.evaair.com www.hawkair.ca www.airnewzealand.ca www.flysunwing.com www.mexicana.com www.harbour-air.com www.westcoastair.com www.canjet.com www.kdair.com www.airberlin.com www.condor.com www.helijet.com

Enerjet

www.enerjet.ca

Edelweiss Air

www.edelweissair.ch/e/

Address

1030 Delta Blvd, Atlanta 30320-6001

1987

800-524-6975 Am Grünen Weg 3, 65451 Kelsterbach Frankfurt Germany 604-273-4688 5911 Airport Rd S, Richmond V7B 1B5 Victoria Inner Harbour, Nanaimo Harbour

1955

877-363-7538 119-1440 Aviation Park NE, Calgary T2E Mexico 7E2 NA B. O. Box 8058 Zurich-Airport, Zurich, Zurich Switzerland NA

2008

Source: Information from the Vancouver International Airport Authority and BIV research. NA Not available 1 - Includes Jazz LP 2 - Includes Horizon Air 3 - Includes Northwest Airlines 4 - Discontinued service in August 2010

1985

1995

Market Percentage Outbound share change in seats '10/ '10/'09 seats '10/ '09 '09

TSX:ACE

44.3% 46.3% TSX:WJA 20.6% 19.5% Nasdaq:UAUA 4.7% 5% NYSE:ALK 4.4% 4.4% Privately held 3.3% 2.7% Privately held 1.7% 1.9% TSX:TRZ 1.6% 0.6% OTCBB:DALRQ 1.5% 0.6% LSE:BAY; 1.4% NYSE:BAB 1.3% NYSE:AMR 1.4% 1.2% PSE:BGH 1.4% 1.5% TSE:JALSY 1.3% 1.8% LSE:AIRC 1.2% 1% NYSE:LCC 0.9% 1.3% XETRA:LHA 0.9% 1% NYSE:CAL 0.9% 0.8% State-owned 0.9% 0.9% NYSE:AKH 0.9% 0.8% LSE:TCG 0.8% 0.3% NYSE:CEA 0.8% 0.6% KSE:KRNRF.PK 0.7% 0.6% Privately held 0.6% NA Privately held 0.6% 0.4% Privately held 0.5% 0.7% NA 0.5% 0.4% NZX:AIR; ASX:AIZ 0.4% 0.5% Privately held 0.4% 0.2% NA 0.3% 0.6% Privately held 0.3% 0.4% Privately held 0.3% 0.1% NA 0.2% NA Privately held 0.1% 0.1% NA 0.1% NA Privately held 0.1% 0.1% TSX-V:HJI 0.1% 0.1% Privately held 0.1% NA NA 0% NA

8.4% -1.3% -2.1% 3.1% -26% -5.9% 10.3% 4.1% 15.4% 1.6% -27.9% 23.7% -27.3% -7.4% 4.4% -2.1% 6.8% 17.7% 33.7% 10.3% -5.6% 18.1% -14.1% 6.7% -3.8% -13.5% -42.2% -8% 87.1% 92% 3.1% -21.7% -8.7% -41% 12% NA

4,862,126 4,898,877 2,262,761 2,087,508 513,276 520,012 479,723 489,822 367,072 355,970 190,848 258,040 171,394 182,095 161,652 146,612 157,140 150,984 156,064 135,272 151,800 149,424 138,358 191,821 128,482 103,866 103,770 142,760 100,045 108,077 97,860 93,714 95,205 97,276 94,080 88,067 83,248 70,719 83,083 62,131 75,006 68,031 70,080 74,257 63,056 53,412 59,388 69,116 51,208 47,989 46,954 48,787 41,202 47,628 37,4404 64,800 32,720 35,546 31,562 16,872 20,979 10,926 14,292 13,860 12,726 16,259 11,298 12,374 7,920 13,428 7,672 6,850 4,912 NA

Business in Vancouver makes every attempt to publish accurate information in The List, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Researched by Richard Chu, lists@biv.com

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18 News

Daily business news at www.biv.com August 9–15, 2011

Sales calls

Rob Malec Focus on one key indicator to drive sales in tough times

How-To

o maximize the revenue your sales staff members generates, focus their selling energies. When everything is important, nothing is important. So pick one thing they should chase and let them loose. Reward them well for catching it and success will follow. Determining what that one thing should be requires an analysis of your sales and revenue-generation priorities. For example: a software company makes its money selling product licences, consulting services and renewals/

upgrades. Its sales goals ramp up quarterly, with the Q4 goal being the biggest. At the start of the year, the team was lean and already very busy. In Q2 it brought on three temps and trained them to sell renewals and upgrades to existing customers. This freed up the tenured reps to sell the more complex licence and consulting products. The incremental revenue it produced, along with the uptick in licence and consulting revenue, helped the company reach the sales quota. A sport eyewear company

realizes most of its revenue in the sunny summer months. Unfortunately, last year’s early summer was cloudy and retail sales stalled. Knowing things would brighten up, the company focused the team on opening new accounts. Using modest initial orders for the new sites, it sowed the seeds for net new revenue generation when the sun came out. In both of these instances, sales leadership did a few simple but important things that set the stage for the initiatives to work.

prepare your business for an emergency

By Rebecca Edwards

ould your company continue to function normally if an earthquake or fire damaged your headquarters? Would you be able to keep your staff safe during an emergency? Do you have backup systems to get your business up and running again? Concord Security Corp. has operated throughout British Columbia and Alberta since 1983, and it added risk and emergency-management services in 1999. Its risk experts offer the following advice for emergency preparation. What to do Get started: The sooner you begin, the more prepared you will be. Begin by thinking about the possible risks to your company and how to prevent or mitigate them. Get an expert: Overwhelmed by the thought of resolving power failures, computer viruses, winter storms, a major earthquake, forest fires or a pandemic? A trained emergency-management professional can offer a fresh perspective on how to weather the storm. What are you up against? Concord’s risk manager, Sandor Maradi, said that a proper hazard, risks and vulnerability assessment shows you what problems you could realistically face, from a major earthquake to a truck hitting a gas main in

your street. Plan your planning: Form a planning committee that will meet regularly, develop an emergency-management plan, co-ordinate staff training and plan drills and table-top exercises. Meet often and keep updating the plan to reflect new hazards and regulations such as the B.C. fire code and requirements from WorksafeBC. Keep plans user-friendly: “Too many emergency plans are kept in big binders and never get used,” said Concord general manager Mark Forward. “At Concord, we condense a client’s documents into a single handbook that the client can keep in a briefcase so that it’s always close by in an emergency.” Get everyone on board: “All staff members from the receptionist to the sales clerk to the president need to know what their roles are,” said Maradi. “Don’t inundate them with information; give regular, short training sessions and hold regular practices. Make sure everyone has emergency supplies at home too.” Test your plans: “Tabletop exercises give everyone a chance to consider a scenario and how he or she would deal with it,” said Forward. “They are very popular with our clients. We might ask them to consider what they would do without power for several days

or how to protect their business assets.” Get supplies: Do you have emergency first-aid kits, high-visibility vests, emergency lighting and backup power? B.C.’s Provi ncia l Emergenc y Program recommends that every home and office have enough food, water and essential supplies to last 72 hours. How would you communicate with your staff in an emergency if electricity or telecommunications were unavailable? Involve your suppliers: Ask your key suppliers what their emergency plans are. Include them when you are creating your plan and training staff. If your company’s survival relies on a supplier’s showing up no matter what, build a servicelevel agreement into your contract so that the supplier knows what you need. Planning is easier than explaining: “If emergency planning seems tough, imagine explaining to an employee’s family why you didn’t have a management plan to save his or her life, or explaining to your staff why the business folded,” said Maradi. “Split pla nni ng i nto manageable steps or hire a professional to save you valuable time.” • Originally published in BIV’s How~2 magazine – expert advice on essential business products and services.

Create initiatives First, the companies created incentives for their people. Both companies also set parameters for their respective programs to promote the right selling behaviours and avoid post-initiative pains. Set targets co-operatively The eyewear company set the targets for new account openings co-operatively between the reps and their managers. This ensured the goals were realistic. Criteria for the quality of new accounts and order size were also set. This prevented product loading and potential credit nightmares at the end of the season. The software company set its goals similarly. It let the temps run for four weeks prior to the initiative to get their

feet under them. Then, each rep was given an equal-sized customer list and the team came up with a renewal and upgrade goal to hit. For the tenured reps, a different approach was taken. Because the composition of each territory was different, a common goal did not make sense. Co-operative goal setting was again done, but this time the goal for new licences and consulting services varied by territory. As such, reps had goals they could realistically make if they ran hard enough. Measure results Next, both companies set up measurement systems that were simple and transparent. Sales results for the initiatives were posted

weekly for all to see. Praise and encouragement were also given publicly. Support in the form of peer-topeer coaching was given for those who were struggling to reach their goals. Set the stage for next time Finally, when the initiatives had reached their end, all incentives were paid out in full and on time. This kept the behaviour and the reward tightly tied, setting the stage for the next time. Chasing too many things at once leads to goal diffusion and inferior results. For great performance, get your team focused. • Rob Malec (rob@robmalec. com), president of Businessworks Consulting.

>“We give employees freedom and trust their choices. People usually make the right choices. [Drinking alcohol] can be good for creative aspects of the job” – Qmetrix CEO Christopher Krywulak, on his company’s policy of providing free beer to employees. From the BIV Profile (issue 1135; July 26-August 1)

>”In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later” – Harold Geneen, former president of the ITT Corp.

Book Reviews

Blind Spots: Why we fail to do what’s right and what to do about it By Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel Princeton University Press, 2011

ven those of us who consider ourselves morally conscientious can be unaware of our own ethical lapses. And these often occur because we fail to consider the ethical element of our decisions. Bazerman, professor of business administration at Harvard, and Tenbrunsel, professor of business ethics at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, categorize the reasons for ethical blind spots and demonstrate how they have caused havoc – from Enron’s collapse to the current global financial crisis. What the authors call “bounded awareness” can cause a gap between who we think we are and who we actually are. It’s what causes some people who

see themselves as morally “good” to cheat on simple tests where the possibility of being caught is low or to make a self-interested decision without considering the effects on others. An example of bounded awareness is the NASA decision to launch the Challenger space shuttle in 1986. Engineers at Morton Thiokol cautioned their managers not to approve the launch, but NASA, the customer, clearly wanted to proceed. Post-crash analyses showed that the O-ring on one of the shuttle’s rocket boosters failed to seal at low temperatures. Although it was known that previous launches with O-ring problems had occurred in cold weather, no one had collected all the data about previous launches together with weather data. Thus, the decision was made without the fundamental piece of information that could have prevented the deaths of seven people. “It is common for decision-makers to err by limiting their analysis to the data in the room, rather than asking what data would best answer the question being asked,” noted the authors. Pulling no punches, they observe that had managers obtained the relevant data

and considered the possible effects of their decision more fully, the disaster could have been averted. Other examples provide a good story and provoke some soul-searching. Many people would be more likely to do a favour for a friend who shares the same alma mater, religion, race or gender. For example, many would not hesitate to recommend a friend’s child to university officials for admission. Is this ethical? Is the potential student worthy of the recommendation? Might this favour displace other more qualified candidates? Behavioural ethics studies the psychology that allows us to maintain a double standard – breaking our own moral rules while continuing to believe in them. The book offers suggestions for individuals and workplaces to anticipate self-interested motives, give voice to the “should” self (the one that tells us what we “should” do), evaluate ethical choices accurately and identify hidden values. It provides fascinating insights into the reasons for bad decisions and poor ethical choices. • Jan Wallace is head of the David Lam Management Research Library at UBC’s Sauder School of Business.

Law

August 9–15, 2011 Business in Vancouver

Employment Briefs

Geoff Howard Implications of equity partner held to be employee in mandatory retirement challenge

he recent decision of the BC Supreme Court in Fasken Martineau Dumoulin LLP vs. McCormick has confirmed that even full equity partners in major consulting firms are protected by human rights legislation. (See “A partner in name only?” – issue 1136; August 2-8.) In a surprise result for these firms and their legal counsel, the court upheld a Human Rights Tribunal decision ruling that even the firm “owners,” the equity partners, can be deemed to be “employees” of the firm for human rights purposes and thus protected from any form of discrimination banned by the Human Rights Code. With mandatory retirement no longer permitted under legislation across Canada, partnerships may no longer be able enforce their mandatory retirement policies. Although likely to be appealed, the decision may well be upheld and serves as a wake up call to all employers, but particularly partnerships, about the wide application given human rights legislation. Traditionally, legal, accounting, design, management and some other consultancies have carried on business in the form of partnerships rather than corporations. As the larger ones grew to the point where the number of partners numbered in the hundreds with revenue comparable to those of major corporations, they tended to develop corporate-style management controls over partner work and pay. While most firms’ equity partners, like those at Faskens, continue to vote on major matters, elect their managers for temporary periods of office, contribute to firm capital and share in profits rather than receive a fixed salary or bonus, they are also subject to firm policies and oversight by firm management. In fact, the trend in larger partnerships has been toward a more “corporate” model under which managers, some of whom may not even be partners, or small groups of partners with management roles have wide powers to direct partners in their work and set their pay. Many f irms have

mandatory retirement policies to encourage and, if necessary, force partners as early as their late 50s to age 65 to leave the partnership or step down to a lesser, non-equity partner status. In some of the “Big 4” accounting firms and international law firms, the retirement age can be as low as the upper 50s. T he s e p ol ic ie s were based on the view that older partners tend to be highly paid yet less motivated and less productive, so that it is in the firm’s interest to have them transition out of equity partner status and to transition their clients and work to younger partners or employees. At the time these policies were written, Canadian human rights legislation permitted mandatory retirement of employees, so mandatory retirement was permissible even for employees.

The decision may well be upheld and serves as a wake-up call to all employers, but particularly partnerships, about the wide application given human rights legislation Bot h t he lega l a nd demographic landscape has changed in the past 10 years. Human rights legislation across Canada has been amended to remove the exemption for mandatory retirement (and other adverse treatment) at age 65. Over the same period, a series of decisions have seen human rights tribunals stretch the scope of the protection of their statute to cover workers who would normally not be considered “employees,” e.g., contractors and volunteers. Meanwhile, baby boomers are living longer, healthier l ives a nd a re more interested in working into their 60s. Demographic data indicate the average Canadian worker retires around age 62, and the vast majority

before age 65. However, equity partners in the professional firms are among those most likely to want to continue working longer. While many will welcome a scaled-down work commitment, a minority want to stay on at the pinnacle as an equity partner. McCormick was one of those baby boomers. He spent his entire career as a lawyer with Faskens and its predecessor firms. When asked to step down on attaining age 65, he refused and filed a complaint with Human Rights Tribunal. He argued that although an equity partner, with rights to vote on major matters, elect managers and participate in profits and an investment in firm capital, he should still be treated as an “employee” under the broad language of the Human Rights Code. The court rejected arguments made by Faskens that, as a partner and owner, McCormick, along with other partners, “was the firm,” so could not claim discrimination by himself against himself. The court found that there were contexts in which the law recognizes a partner and the partnership as separate entities and this was one of them. The court approved a multi-factored test for “employment” status under the wide definition in the Human Rights Code that considered various aspects of the relative power, control and dependency of the partner vis-a-vis the partnership. The court agreed that the partnership’s cont rol over McCormick ’s work and pay justified applying the code. This preliminary decision will, if upheld, be in favour of the complainant, since there is little chance the firm’s mandatory retirement policy will be upheld if the code applies. Even if McCormick is successfully appealed (and it may well end up at the Supreme Court of Canada), partnerships operating in Ontario need to be aware of a little-invoked ban on discrimination in contracting in that province’s Human Rights Code. This presumably includes contracting with one’s partners and may lead to the same result for mandatory retirement

provisions in partnership agreements in Ontario, typically the site of the largest offices of the major partnership businesses. McCormick shou ld serve as a wake-up call for all employers. For nonpartnership employers, it is reminder that the scope of employer obligations to ensure a discrimination free workplace is very broad and extends beyond just employees formally on the payroll.

For partnerships, particularly those with more formal policies and controls over partners as those with partners in Ontario, it is time to review partnership agreements and policy provisions for possible human rights violations. Not only mandatory retirement policies but policies on partner selection, compensation and accommodation of maternity and disability leaves may come

under human rights scrutiny. In many cases, a full assessment of the need for existing policies in the face of shifting demographics and economics, along with the legal considerations above, may support a decision to amend these policies. •

The panel found that between Sept. 24, 2007, and Oct. 12, 2007, Hu purchased 847,800 shares of Maple Leaf through an online brokerage account held by another individual. The panel also found that Hu made false and misleading statements to commission staff when he denied knowing the individual who held the online brokerage account. The panel directed the parties to make submissions on sanctions according to the schedule set out in the findings. The executive director of the BCSC has issued a notice of hearing alleging that a man purporting to be an independent broker dealer committed fraud and engaged in unregistered trading, the regulator announced July 28. The notice alleges that Michael Robert Shantz, a B.C. resident, through his company, Canada Pacific Consulting Inc. (CPC), solicited German and Swiss

residents to open trading accounts with CPC. Shantz and CPC claimed that they would conduct gold futures or foreign exchange trading on behalf of these individuals. Between June 2009 and September 2010, 11 investors forwarded $1.5 million to CPC. Neither Shantz nor CPC were registered in any capacity under the securities act. The notice also states that: •CPC made false claims on its website about the company employing 120 staff members in Vancouver and Richmond; •CPC did not have an office at the Richmond address listed on its website; and •CPC did not have a physical office in Vancouver The Vancouver office was instead occupied by a company offering packaged and virtual office services, which CPC used between April 2009 and December 2010 to maintain the appearance of a

Geoffrey Howard is a lawyer with Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP. Email geoffrey. howard@gowlings.com.

Trouble

DISCIPLINE •British Columbia

Securities Commission

A British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) panel has found that a man engaged in illegal insider trading and made false and misleading statements to commission staff, the regulator announced July 28. The panel found that Michael Kyaw Myint Hua Hu, while a director and chairman of Maple Leaf Reforestation Inc., bought shares in the company while knowing undisclosed material information about a biodiesel project (known as the Xinjiang project) that Maple Leaf was negotiating in China. The panel found that Hu was aware of material information about the project on Sept. 24, 2007. The material information was not generally disclosed until Oct. 16, 2007.

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20 Law

Daily business news at www.biv.com August 9–15, 2011

Trouble business presence in British Columbia . In addition to alleging that Shantz wired $1.2 million to bank accounts in Spain, the notice states that he also used investors’ funds for personal purposes such as cash withdrawals of approximately $172,000, depositing $35,000 into his personal bank account and spending at least $2,600 on personal expenses. These allegations have not been proven.

BUYER’S ALERT Companies listed below,

which are not members of the Better Business Bureau, have failed to respond, as of July 29, 2011, to Better Business Bureau of Mainland B.C.’s efforts to mediate complaints from July 18 to July 22, 2011. In some instances, the company may have taken care of the complaint and considered the matter closed, or may believe the complaint is unjustified; however, if the BBB has not received a response, records cannot reveal either position. Please note that BBB members must respond to customer complaints that are brought to their attention. Source: BBB. 604-Rubbish, Burnaby Able Glass Ltd., Burnaby BM Truck Sales Ltd., Surrey Bugden Audio, Kamloops Canada China Air Express Inc., Richmond Canadian Massaging Chairs, Langley Cantex, Burnaby Condoor Contracting Inc., Port Coquitlam D&L Plumbing & Heating Ltd., Langley Dave’s Flashing, Vancouver Delta Cable Communications Ltd., Delta Direct Survey Solutions, Vancouver Doall Services Ltd., Vancouver Done Right Solutions Ltd., Vancouver dvdlink.ca, Surrey Executive Hotel Harrison Hot Springs, Harrison Hot Springs Furniture Direct Sales, Vancouver Galaxy Mobile Storage Inc., Vancouver Great Canadian Oil Change Ltd., Coquitlam Greenline Pharmacy, Vancouver Heiltsuk freight Agency, Port Coquitlam Imperial Hotel Management College, Vancouver International Moves Ltd., New Westminster Khan’s General Automotive & Repair Ltd., Richmond Look Out Landscaping Ltd., Kamloops Newport Vacuums Inc., Port Moody Nomorerack Retail Group, Vancouver Our Little Secret Corp., Vancouver Pacific Sunrooms Only Mfg Inc., Langley Peoples Card Services, Vancouver Riverside Golf Centres Ltd., Vancouver Roto Rooter Plumbing Service, Port Coquitlam Shaw Cablesystems GP,

Vancouver Sleep Centre, Surrey Slim Force 7, Vancouver Solace Homeworks, Burnaby Stock Market Magic, Vancouver Studio Trends Hair & Tanning Ltd., Surrey Swoopo Entertainment Shopping Inc., Vancouver Tabi International, Kelowna The Handymen, Kelowna The Source By Circuit City, Burnaby The Spy Store, Vancouver Tire Capital, Prince George Toms & Merritt Towing Ltd., Merritt Tubmasters, Port Coquitlam Village Hair, Langley Win’s Holiday (Canada) Ltd., Richmond The following companies have responded to the BBB subsequent to being published: Chateau Homes, Richmond Jensen Appliance Services, Kelowna Valley Mobile Mechanic, West Kelowna

Who’s Getting Sued These corporate writs were

filed with the B.C. Supreme Court registry in Vancouver. Information is derived from notices of civil claim. Civil claims have yet to be proven in court. Defendant: Chartis Insurance Co. of Canada 1100–666 Burrard St., Vancouver Plaintiff: Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Ltd. 300–4621 Canada Way, Burnaby Claim: $798,358 for indemnity under an insurance policy related to a fire and business interruption. Defendants: James Holland and 0746120 B.C. Ltd. and 0801753 B.C. Ltd. Address unavailable and 600–1090 W. Georgia St., Vancouver Plaintiff: Transportaction Lease Systems Inc. 250–4011 Viking Way, Richmond Claim: $633,112 for vehicle leases; a declaration Holland and 0746120 are in breach of leases with Transportaction for four vehicles; a declaration that 0801753 is in breach of its guarantee and general security agreement with Transportaction; an order that Holland and 0746120 pay $31,805 and that 0801753 pay $601,307; a declaration that Transportaction has an interest in the Nelson Street property; and damages. Defendant: Endurance Wind Power Inc. Box 49314, 2600–595 Burrard St., Vancouver Plaintiff: Énergie PGE Inc. 117 av. De Gaspé Ouest, Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, QC Claim: $500,000 for breach of a contract for the sale of intellectual property relating to the design of wind turbines. Defendants: Aly B. Mawji

aka Ali Mawji and Yasmin Babu Husein Mawji 627 Kenwood Rd., West Vancouver and 624 Chapman Ave., Coquitlam Plaintiff: Couillard Developments Ltd. 40250 Township Rd. 250, Calgary Claim: US$335,000 and $35,000 for a property sale agreement; a declaration the properties are owned by the defendants related to the advancement of monies for the upgrade and sale of the properties; a declaration proceeds from any sale of the properties is held in a constructive trust; and damages. Defendant: Alchem International Inc. 1260–4871 Shell Rd., Richmond Plaintiffs: On On Wong and Shan Shan Wong 1010–1030 W. Georgia St., Vancouver Claim: $250,000 for a guarantee agreement related to credit accommodations; and damages. Defendants: Coast Marine Services Inc. and Katzie Coast Marine Services Inc. 208–1899 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby and 10946 Katzie Rd., Pitt Meadows Plaintiff: 4Refuel Canada LP 215–9440 202nd St., Langley Claim: $179,275 for debt related to equipment and refuelling products. Defendants: Microline Veneer & Forest Products Corp. and Eagle River Industries Inc. and Eagle Wood Fiber Inc. 4872A Lybarger Rs., Malakwa, B.C. Plaintiff: Clay Anderson 200–879 Marine Dr., North Vancouver Claim: $156,713 for engineering services related to a pellet plant; and a builder’s lien for $156,713. Defendants: Norman Porter and Katsura Holdings Ltd. and 0751931 B.C. Ltd. and Ed Geortzen and Konrad Goertzen 265–21320 Gordon Way, Richmond and Box 49130, 2900–595 Burrard St., Vancouver and 500–5811 Cooney Rd., Richmond and 4301 40th St., Delta Plaintiff: 662347 B.C. Ltd. 800–885 W. Georgia St., Vancouver Claim: $128,833 against Porter, Katsura, Ed Goertzen and Konrad Goertzen, arising from a breached cost-sharing agreement for the construction of certain works including a new water main in Surrey, or, damages. Defendants: Envision Building Solutions Inc. and Harald Strehlau and Maojin Liu 19375 96th Ave., Surrey and 1029–4710 Kingsway, Burnaby Plaintiff: Cascadia Metals Ltd. 7630 Berg Rd., Delta Claim: $125,391 for debt

related to goods and services. Defendants: Win Sun Produce Co. Ltd. and Helen Wu Addresses unavailable Plaintiff: Northwest Leaseholds Ltd. 302–543 Granville St., Vancouver Claim: $105,401 for rent. Defendants: Amir Behzad Shoolestani 750 North Boundary Rd., Burnaby Defendant: Canada Construction Lifts (2009) Ltd. 1290–12599 Vickers Way, Richmond Plaintiffs: Specialized Engineered Products Ltd. and SEP Products Group Ltd. Box 32013, RPO Walnut Grove, B.C. Claim: $85,555 for construction hoists related to the Port Mann Bridge project; and damages for breach of the elevators agreement and truss supply agreement. Defendants: Black Rock Oceanfront Resort Inc. and Amarjit Baines and Michael Duggan and David John Ehrhardt and Lombard General Insurance Co. of Canada 1000–840 Howe St., Vancouver and 701–117655 66A Ave., Surrey and 9845 Eastside Rd., Vernon and 5439 Buckingham Ave., Burnaby Plaintiff: Gail Davies 939 Calverhall St., North Vancouver Claim: $53,800 for the deposits, arising from a breached purchase agreement for a strata lot; damages; a declaration the purchase agreement is void, illegal, contrary to public policy and not enforceable. Defendant: Can-Pacific Farms Inc. 4586 176th St., Surrey Plaintiff: Norampac Inc. 3300 Viking Way, Richmond Claim: $46,580 for debt related to pallet charges and packaging products. Defendant: Coast Hotels Ltd. 800–885 W. Georgia St., Vancouver Plaintiff: Clean–Rite Drycleaners Corp. 1700–1075 W. Georgia St., Vancouver Claim: $43,867 for dry cleaning and laundry services at Coast Plaza Hotel & Suites, or, damages. Defendant: Marilyn Ruth Everett Box 452, Garibaldi Highlands, B.C. Plaintiff: Robert Forsyth and Robert Forsyth dba Conan Contracting Ltd. (BC0723025) Box 3453, Garibaldi Highlands Claim: $19,940 for labour and supplies, or, damages. Defendants: John Doe 1 aka

Lawsuit of the week

Richmond yacht found in Colombia after deal goes south A retired Vancouver engineer and his holding company have filed suit against a B.C. man for absconding with a yacht after a deal to sell the vessel went awry. According to a June 13 B.C. Supreme Court notice of civil claim, Wolfgang Schmidt and 0345269 B.C. Ltd. (formerly Can-Sea Productions) used a third party to enter into an agreement to sell the Atlantis V for $115,000. Schmidt, who allegedly suffered a stroke in 2004, engaged shipbroker Bernie Teng to act as his agent in the deal. In June 2010, the defendant, Philip John Stirling, expressed an interest in the yacht. In the course of discussions, Stirling said he was willing to take out a mortgage on a property he owned in Chase, B.C. as a security for the purchase price for the vessel. Stirling, it is alleged, claimed the Chase property was worth approximately $1.25 million. Court documents claim the parties entered an agreement to transfer ownership of the vessel in June, and a few weeks later Stirling started living on the Atlantis V, which was moored in Richmond. Schmidt claims the deal did not allow for Stirling to live on the boat at that time, and in the following weeks the plaintiffs allegedly took steps to have the defendant removed from the vessel, going as far as requesting assistance from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In August of 2010, Stirling allegedly claimed he would no longer buy the vessel under the original terms of the agreement, instead offering $110,000 for the vessel with a deposit of $5,000. The plaintiff claims he was induced to sign the amended deal, and a few weeks later Stirling sailed the Atlantis V from its Richmond marina. Schmidt further claims the Chase property was only worth $400,000. Earlier this year, Schmidt learned through his broker that the Atlantis V was allegedly being offered for sale through another broker in Florida, and that the vessel was moored in Cartagena, Colombia. In May, the defendant allegedly caused the mortgage to be registered against the Chase property. Afterward, the plaintiff allegedly learned the property was “so encumbered by financial charges … that the mortgage was, and remains, completely valueless.” Schmidt is seeking a declaration that his numbered business is the sole owner of the vessel, and that he is the sole owner of his numbered business. The plaintiff is also seeking an order to rescind the sale agreement, and another for Stirling to deliver the Atlantis V to him. Finally, the plaintiff seeks damages for conversion. A notice of response had not been filed by press time.

WhattheF and John Doe 2 aka Beachman and John Doe 3 aka Clchan Addresses unavailable Plaintiffs: Augen Gold Corp. and David Mason 20th floor, 250 Howe St., Vancouver Claim: Damages arising from defamatory postings on stockhouse.com’s Augen Bullboard; and an injunction. Defendant: Chateau Landmark Apartments Ltd. 410–1770 W. 7th Ave., Vancouver Plaintiff: 2225 Triumph Apartments Ltd. 1800–1095 W. Pender St., Vancouver Claim: A declaration Chateau has breached the property contract, related to incomplete re-roofing and other work, or, that Chateau’s conduct amounts to an anticipatory breach of the contract; and damages.

Defendant: VSA Highway Maintenance Ltd. Fourth floor, 3201 30th ave., Vernon Plaintiff: Her Majesty the Queen in right of the Province of British Columbia Address unavailable Claim: The proportion of health-care costs associated with VSA’s contribution to Yan Li’s injuries, arising from a vehicle collision on Highway No. 5. Defendants: Kenneth Darcy Campbell dba Back in the Saddle Again Horse Guiding and Cynthia Doe 3067 202nd St., Langley and address unavailable Plaintiff: Sandra Starrett 1395 E. 18th St., North Vancouver Claim: Damages arising from injuries suffered when the plaintiff was mounting a horse and fell off; an in-trust award for family members who provided services as the result of

Law 21

August 9â&#x20AC;&#x201C;15, 2011â&#x20AC;&#x192; Business in Vancouver

Trouble the injuries suffered; and an award for diminution in the ability to carry out household tasks. Defendants: Almaval Building Inc. and Michael Knight and Jeffrey Wiegel and John Does 1-3 and Jane Does 1-3 and ABC Co.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1-3 200â&#x20AC;&#x201C;5611 Cooney Rd., Richmond and addresses unavailable Plaintiffs: John Borrell and Athena Balogh 6911 208A St., Langley Claim: A declaration the transfers were fraudulent and are null and void arising from the transfer of property after Almaval defaulted on a loan; and orders. Defendants: 416760 B.C. Ltd. and Amardeip Singh Doman and Jaswant Kaur Doman and ASD Investments One Ltd. and Rupinder Singh Doman and Didar Singh Doman and John Doeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s #1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2 103â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1006 Fort St., Victoria and 2970â&#x20AC;&#x201C;700 W. Georgia St., Vancouver and 2450 Chiltern Pl., Victoria and 2800â&#x20AC;&#x201C;666 Burrard St., Vancouver Plaintiffs: Wilson Properties Inc. and Kelfor Properties Inc. 410â&#x20AC;&#x201C;900 Howe St., Vancouver Claim: A declaration the Wilson property is a contaminated site and the defendants are responsible persons; recovery of all costs of remediation incurred by Kelfor in environmental investigation and remediation; and damages. Defendants: Bobby Paul Boutique Ltd. and Robert Horvath 1600â&#x20AC;&#x201C;925 W. Georgia St., Vancouver and 412 Elm St., Port Moody Plaintiff: Onni Development (Ioco Road) Corp. 300â&#x20AC;&#x201C;550 Robson St., Vancouver Claim: Damages for breach of lease related to abandonment of a premises. Defendants: Clarkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Community Services Ltd. (formerly known as Family Choice Funeral Center Inc.) and Clarkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Funeral Services Inc. and Justin Clark and Schoening Funeral Service Ltd. 2549 Skeena Dr., Kamloops and 300â&#x20AC;&#x201C;350 Lansdowne St., Kamloops Plaintiff: Personal Alternative Franchise Corp. 1540â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1090 W. Georgia St., Vancouver Claim: An injunction restraining Justin Clark and Clarkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Funeral Services and Schoening from passing off or attempting to pass off their services as those of the plaintiff; injunctions; an accounting; an order; and damages. Defendants: Select Roofing Ltd. and ABC Co. and John Doe

1413 King Albert Ave., Coquitlam and addresses unavailable Plaintiffs: Maywood Investments Ltd. and Taylan Holdings Ltd. 4355 Maywood St., Burnaby and 1260â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1188 W. Georgia St., Vancouver Claim: Damages for breach of a contract to repair and replace a roof and negligence. Defendants: Canmerica Mortgage Corp. and Lim & Co. LLP and William H. Lim and Justin B. Lim and Helena H. Shum 202â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2232 W. 41st Ave., Vancouver and 320â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 7480 Westminster Hwy., Richmond Plaintiffs: Pak Yip Yu and Li Yi Wu and Xi Bo Wu 4529 Napier St., Burnaby Claim: An order the plaintiffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s obligations under the promissory note be declared null and void for breach of fiduciary duty and a failure of counsel to disclose a conflict of interest; an order, or, $3,100,000 against Lim & Co. LLP and William H. Lim and Justin B. Lim and Helena H. Shum; and damages. Defendants: Thi Tuyet Nga Tran and Sutton Group-West Coast Realty and Chiaâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Lung Jamie Chen and Tim Chen and Cushman & Wakefield LePage Inc. and Brett Aura and Craig Ballantyne and City of Burnaby 14615 Marine Dr., White Rock and 205â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2607 E. 49th Ave., Vancouver and 700â&#x20AC;&#x201C;700 W. Georgia St., Vancouver and 4949 Canada Way, Burnaby Plaintiffs: Parviz Behrouzi and Behrouzi Investment Corp. 6825 Cypress St., Vancouver Claim: Damages against Tran for breach of the offer to purchase two unauthorized rental suites; damages for misrepresentations against Tran, the Chens, Sutton Group, Aura, Ballantyne and Cushman; damages for breach of fiduciary duty and negligence against Aura and Ballantyne and Cushman; and damages for negligence against the City of Burnaby. Defendant: Nextenergy Geothermal Ltd. Box 117, 5009 Baldonnel Rd., Baldonnel Plaintiff: Patrick Moore 700â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1006 Beach Ave., Vancouver Claim: Damages for breach of contract including wrongful dismissal from the role of vice-presidentindustry and government affairs, or, payment of debt owing, or, an award for unjust enrichment. Defendants: Dutch Gold Resources Inc. and Shamika 2 Gold and Daniel W. Hollis and Robert Vivian and Aultra Gold Inc. 1500â&#x20AC;&#x201C;3500 Lenox Rd., Atlanta, GA and 1100â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1980

Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal Plaintiff: Jassam Al Kassab 4386 Keith Rd., West Vancouver Claim: A declaration that Dutch Gold and Aultra Gold and Shamika 2 Gold repudiated the agreements for the transfer of 400,000 common shares of Shamika 2 Gold, or, a declaration they fundamentally breached the agreements, and/or, a declaration the agreements be rescinded on the ground that they are void due to misrepresentation; and damages, against all the defendants. Defendants: Ernst & Young LLP and Ernst & Young Inc. and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. and Irene Jacob and Mark Elliott and Lori Lui Box 10101, 700 W. Georgia St., Vancouver and 800â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 885 Georgia St., Vancouver and 2900â&#x20AC;&#x201C;550 Burrard St., Vancouver Plaintiff: Anita Felty 3200â&#x20AC;&#x201C;650 W. Georgia St., Vancouver Claim: Damages for negligent provision of services related to tax advice; damages for negligent misrepresentation; damages for breach of fiduciary duty; and special damages. Defendants: Her Majesty the Queen in right of British Columbia and Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada, as represented by the Attorney General of Canada 1001 Douglas St., Victoria and 900â&#x20AC;&#x201C;840 Howe St., Vancouver Plaintiffs: The Tsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;kwâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;aylaxw First Nation and Chief Clifford Aleck suing on his own behalf and on behalf of all members of the Tsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;kwâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;aylaxw First Nation Box 2200, Lillooet Claim: A declaration the plaintiff has an un-extinguished aboriginal title to the territory; a declaration the plaintiff has some or all of the aboriginal rights set out within the territory; a declaration the plaintiff is entitled to an accounting; an order; appointment of an interim receiver; a declaration that neither of the defendants can use or renew grants, licenses, leases, permits or any other interest in lands within the territory; a declaration the defendants have breached their common law, fiduciary and constitutional obligations to the plaintiff; damages; and equitable compensation. Defendants: Chateau Landmark Apartments Ltd. and Stephen Tick and Benjamin Pulvers and HTR Management Ltd. 410â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1770 W. 7th Ave., Vancouver and 1815 W. 37th Ave., Vancouver Plaintiff: 2225 Triumph Apartments Ltd. and Adi Bunim 1800â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1095 W. Pender St.,

Vancouver Claim: A declaration Chateau has breached the apartment purchase contract; damages for breach of contract; a declaration Tick and Pulvers are liable; damages; a declaration for an abatement in the purchase price; and a declaration the plaintiff may set off the value of the work against the balance of the purchase price. Defendants: John Abel Ronnekleiv and Judith Marie Ronnekleiv and Edward Oddvin Ronnekleiv

Address unavailable Plaintiff: Irving Apartments Ltd. 5670 Yew St., Vancouver Claim: An order for immediate exclusive and vacant possession of the premises related to a share and lease agreement; and orders. Defendants: JJ Bean Inc. and Really Neat Enterprises Corp. and Jane/John Doe 19th Floor, 885 W. Georgia St., Vancouver and address unavailable Plaintiff: Katherine Elo 3481 Grandview Hwy., Vancouver Claim: Damages for injuries

sustained after the plaintiff fell forward into a counter due to an unexpected drop at a storefront entrance. Defendants: Canacemal Investment Inc. and UPG Property Group Inc. and ABC Co. and John Doe 3000â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1055 W. Georgia St., Vancouver and address unavailable Plaintiff: Ludmilla (Lydia) Schultz 304â&#x20AC;&#x201C;68 Richmond St., New Westminster Claim: Damages for injuries sustained after the plaintiff tripped over hoses and cords left on the pavement in front of a building.Â â&#x20AC;˘

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For the record

Daily business news at www.biv.com August 9–15, 2011

People on the Move Email your For the Record information to: fortherecord@biv.com. Please include a high-resolution, colour headshot where possible.

•Associations/Societies

Ken McCormack has been appointed president of the Automotive Retailers Association of BC. He was previously general manager of the BC Milk Marketing Board and executive director of the Agriculture and Food Council of Alberta.

Owais Ahmed joins Harper Grey as associate

Gord Nelson is a director at the Vancouver Board of Trade Wendy Zajac, event co-ordinator, Zajak Ranch for Children (front left); Mel Zajac, chair, Zajak (front, second from left); and Telus linemen

•Energy

Christopher Brown has been appointed vice-president, exploration and operations, at Petra Petroleum Inc. He was previously exploration director for Aurelian Oil and Gas plc and Suncor Energy.

•General

Gord Nelson, regional vicepresident, business market at Rogers Communications Inc., has been appointed a director at the Vancouver Board of Trade.

•Legal

Jeff Read has joined Borden Ladner Gervais LLP as partner in the corporate and commercial group. He was previously at Fraser Milner Casgrain. Owais Ahmed has joined Harper Grey LLP as an associate in the commercial

litigation and securities practice. He was previously an associate with Groia & Co. Professional Corp. Jeremy Chan has been promoted to senior counsel at Methanex Corp. He is president of the Hong Kong Canada Business Association (Vancouver) and a director at the SUCCESS Foundation. He was previously corporate counsel at Methanex and senior associate at Miller Thompson LLP.

•Resources

Richard Haslinger, George Nicholson, Peter Rees and Jason Leikam have joined Stratton Resources Inc. as COO; vice-president,

exploration; CFO; and vicepresident, corporate development; respectively. Haslinger was previously vice-president, exploration, at Keegan Resources Inc. Nicholson was a founder of AZ Copper. Rees is CFO at Cayden Resources Inc. and was previously corporate controller at Keegan Resources and a manager at Deloitte and Touche LLP. Leikam was previously manager of corporate development at Silvermex Resources. Don Larmour has been appointed to the board of Pacific Potash Corp. He is principal of Global Potash Solutions. Bruce Youngman has been

appointed a director of Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. He is chair and director of Strategic Metals Ltd. and director of ATAC Resources Ltd. He was previously president and COO of Canplats Resources Corp. and president, vice-president and director with Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Mark Forsyth and Gregory Radke have been appointed to the board of Gold Hawk Resources Inc. Forsyth is principal of Cliveden AG and was previously a senior trader with the Tarafigura Group and head trader at Marc Rich & Co Investment AG. Radke is general counsel for Pala Investments AG and a director of Coalcorp Mining Inc.

and Churchill Mining. Charles Allen and Bob Middleton have joined Giya n i G old C or p. a s president and vice-president of exploration, respectively. Allen replaces Alex Helmel, who will remain a director. Allen was previously president and CEO of Oneworld Energy Inc. and president at New Dawn Mining. Middleton is senior vicepresident of exploration at Rainy Mountain Royalty Corp. and was previously vice-president of exploration and an independent director of Cascadia Resources Inc. Shijin Qin ha s been appointed senior engineer at Sterling Group Ventures,

Inc.’s Hongyu phosphate project. He was previously director of mining for the Yichang District Chemical Industry Bureau of Hubei Province in China and senior engineer and vice-chief engineer of Yichang Phosphorus Chemical Industry Group Ltd. Khalid Amlani has been appointed CFO of Guyana Frontier Mining Corp. He was previously a manager at DMCL, Chartered Accountants. Gar y Powers has been appointed president and CEO of Mercer Gold Corp. He owns and operates a private management consulting business and was previously assistant deputy minister

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for the record 23

August 9–15, 2011 Business in Vancouver

Careers

• www.employmentinvancouver.com • E-mail: employpaper@biv.com • Tel: 604-688-8828 • Fax: 604-669-2154

Work With us & groW a career Glacier Media Group is growing. Check our job board regularly for the latest openings: www.glaciermedia.ca/careers Business in Vancouver Media Group staff, family and friends

with the Yukon Territorial Government.

•Technology

Mark Kohler has been elected a director of QHR Technologies Inc. He is president and CEO of Exelerate Inc. and an adjunct professor at York University. He was previously interim CFO, chief risk officer and corporate secretary of Jameson Bank. Shane Meyers has resigned from the board of VendTek Systems Inc.

Hats Off Business in Vancouver wel-

comes submissions from local small businesses and large corporations alike that demonstrate examples of corporate philanthropy and community involvement in the Vancouver area. High-resolution images are also welcome. The British Columbia Hospitality Foundation’s 2011 golf tournament raised over $100,000 toward providing financial support to individuals within the hospitality community who are coping with extraordinary costs arising from a serious health crisis. Telus donated $50,000 on behalf of its linemen, who have been donating their time to build a new fibreoptic network to the Zajac Ranch for Children. The

ranch provides a safe and fun camp experience to children with serious and chronic illnesses and disabilities. B u s i n e s s i n Va n c o u ver Media Group donated $4,610.48 to the Heart & Stroke Foundation of B.C. and Yukon. Funds were raised through BIV’s Paper Peddlers participation in the 2011 Heart & Stroke Big Bike Ride. The Vancouver Regional Construction Association silver award winners in general contractor over $40 million: Bird Construction Co. (Jim Pattison Outpatient and Surgery Centre); PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. (Sparkling Hill Resort); and

TASK Construction Management Inc. (Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex). General contractor, $15 million to $40 million: Stuart Olson Dominion Construction Ltd. (Penticton Aquatic Centre); Carillion Pacific Construction Inc. (TRU – House of Learning); and Scott Construction Group (Robert H.N. Ho Research Centre). General contractor under $15 million: Manley Design & Construction Management Ltd. (Mahony & Sons Public House); Ledcor Construction Ltd. (Klahoose New Relationship Building/ Multi-Centre); and Vancouver Pile Driving Ltd. (Nanaimo Cruise Ship Terminal). •

Legal Assistant The Tsawwassen First Nation has an exciting opportunity for a full time regular Legal Assistant to assist with litigation and solicitor files, prepare documents and other correspondence, filing, arrange meetings and travel or conference attendance, prepare expense reports, access and monitor document data bases and collate documents, maintain “bring-forward” system, and other duties as required. Requirements: Legal Assistant Certificate, 2-3 years experience, working knowledge of Word 7, Excel, Publisher, Summation or Ringtail software, teamwork skills, familiar with “bring-forward” systems, and able to work 8:30 – 4:30 p.m. Submit cover letter and resume by August 29, 2011, to: Saira Bradley Human Resource Manager 1926 Tsawwassen Drive Tsawwassen BC, V4M 4G2 Fax: 604-943-9226 E-mail: sbradley@tsawwassenfirstnation.com

      

Project Buyer (#310318)



            

       

   

    

Hiring?

Read about Sandvik www.sandvik.com

Reach qualified candidates through the Recruitment Advertising Specialists at Business in Vancouver Media Group. Call for a quote 604.688.8828

Short-listed applicants will be contacted for interview.

VP, Corporate Services/CFO BC Safety Authority

All qualified applicants are encouraged to reply, in confidence, by quoting file #14468 to:

search@janetdavid.com We thank and acknowledge all applicants and will proactively contact those selected for interviews.

+ asso ciates in c.

he BC Safety Authority (BCSA) delivers one of the most comprehensive, cost-recovered technical public safety systems in North America. As the Province’s delegated, non-profit authority, the BCSA mandates the safe installation and use of technical equipment. With a commitment to collaboration, fairness, consistency and a risk-managed approach to regulatory oversight, the BCSA promotes safety through research, education, issuance of permits and licenses, development of policies and safety standards, and the monitoring and enforcement of compliance to safety standards across a wide variety of industries and sectors. The BCSA maintains a central office in New Westminster and delivers services from 28 regional and community offices located throughout the province. Recognized as one of the top 100 Employers in Canada, the BCSA employs approximately 300 persons. The BCSA wishes to attract a proven leader to the position of VP, Corporate Services/CFO. Based in New Westminster, this role reports to the CEO and works collaboratively with other members of the executive team, the Board of Directors and a wide array of external stakeholders. The position guides a team of five direct reports. The role is actively involved in formulating and executing corporate strategy and has key accountabilities for risk management, financial forecasting, planning and reporting, asset management, budgets and controls, and information technology. The ideal candidate is a university graduate and strategic financial professional with a recognized accounting designation and at least 10 years of progressive management experience in complex organizations. The candidate must have experience in leading change and in working with Finance and Audit Committees of Boards of Directors. The candidate must have a track record of providing effective and integrative leadership in asset and risk management, finance, management and external reporting, financial controls, asset management and information systems. A flexible thinker with the ability and courage to contribute and to respectfully confront to move issues forward with transparency, the ideal candidate is a decisive team player who enjoys coaching and mentoring others. The BCSA offers competitive compensation and benefits and an engaging culture. For more information about the organization, please visit www.safetyauthority.ca.

Comment

Daily business news at www.biv.com August 9–15, 2011

letters

Energy minister takes issue with Site C column Re: “B.C. in need of Plan B for Site C” (Timothy Renshaw’s Public Offerings column – issue 1135; July 26-August 1) Site C will provide enough energy to power more than 450,000 homes a year for more than 100 years and produce lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions, per gigawatt hour, compared with other electricity generation options. As the third project on one river, Site C will gain significant efficiencies by taking advantage of water already stored in the Williston Reservoir. It will generate more than one-third of the energy produced at the W.A.C. Bennett Dam with only 5% of the reservoir area. Site C will provide dependable capacity, supplying energy in periods of peak demand. This is one of the reasons why almost every province with hydroelectric potential is pursuing projects like Site C. Site C will help keep long-term rates lower, producing electricity at a cost of between $87 and $95 per megawatt hour. This is much less than other options, which cost $129 per megawatt hour. Your column also suggests that operating Burrard Thermal is a better solution for British Columbia’s future energy needs. Burrard Thermal is less dependable than Site C and has higher operating costs due to fluctuations in the cost of natural gas. With this in mind, the provincial government has legislated that Burrard Thermal be used for emergency back-up purposes, as part of the province’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gases. Over the next 20 years, our population is expected to grow by over a million people and our electricity demands will increase by approximately 40%. We are working to minimize the need for new energy sources through conservation measures. However, in the face of rising demand new sources of clean, reliable and cost-effective electricity will be required. Site C is an integral part of our plan to ensure a reliable power supply for generations to come. Rich Coleman, B.C. minister of energy and mines and minister responsible for housing

Run-of-river’s impact on salmon overblown Most people intuitively understand that salmon can only swim up a river until they reach an impassable barrier like a steep waterfall. Most people also have come to know that run-of-river hydro projects are built above natural salmon barriers like the aforementioned steep, impassable waterfalls. Why, then, do some people continue to claim that run-of-river projects harm salmon when salmon and run-of-river projects don’t even come into close contact? How does making such a claim contribute to an intelligent discussion of clean energy? Fish biologists study potential run-of-river sites extensively to ensure that salmon, fish and other aquatic wildlife are not affected. In fact, no project can proceed without their sign off. So here’s hoping that future discussions about run-of-river projects will begin with facts, not false claims. Donald Leung, Burnaby

More energy solutions blowing in the wind I was pleased to discover, and quite recently, that B.C. now gets some of its electricity from B.C. wind farms. B.C. was the last province in the country to get wind farms despite having some of the best locations for wind energy in Canada. However, I was not nearly as pleased to find out how much electricity is flowing into our homes from coal-fired generators in the United States and Alberta. I do understand that buying cheap coal power from outside B.C. at night, when demand is low and the supply is high, helps to keep our B.C. electricity rates low (coal burning plants are apparently difficult to shut down once they are at operating temperature, so they keep them running all the time). But if we’re purchasing coal power just because it’s cheap and available aren’t we just as guilty of polluting the air as those who burned the coal? Energy from the wind is clean and free, and it’s not going to leave a big environmental problem for our kids and grandkids to sort out. The same cannot be said for the energy from burning coal. That should make it obvious what energy path we should be pursuing. Wind energy seems like an ideal energy source for B.C. and we’re fortunate to have it as one of our clean energy options. Marney Hogan, Langley

What’s your opinion? BIV welcomes readers’ opinions. All letters, including those sent by e-mail, must include the author’s name, address and daytime telephone number. Business in Vancouver, 102 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V5T 1G2. Fax: 604-688‑1963. E-mail: news@biv.com. We reserve the right to edit for brevity, clarity and legality.

Cartoon by Rice

At Large

Peter Ladner Of city security, library futures and rancorous referenda

ummertime, and the thinking is queasy. Those two days of sun really put my brain in the dryer, so here are some dried-out beads of unrelated thoughts that were gathering mould until the sun hardened them off and compelled me to share them. First, a dangling hypothesis on why the mayor of Vancouver is having such trouble finding out how many police officers were on duty for the Stanley Cup riot, and why the police chief won’t say. (OK, Chief Jim Chu has been quoted as saying, “If I told you it was 350 officers, what difference would it make?” Isn’t it up to the citizens of the city to decide that?) Maybe it’s in neither of their interests to discuss this number. Suppose the mayor did limit the resources available to the police, and told them to make do with a fixed amount of spending that precluded an adequate number of police on duty for Game 7. This would be perfectly understandable given the relative peace after the first six games, the happy Olympic experience and the long history of the police digging inordinately deep in their requests to council for dubious extra funding for big-crowd events. Suppose the chief doesn’t want to admit he was shortchanged by council, for fear of consequences for embarrassing his paymasters. Suppose his paymasters really don’t want to be embarrassed for their mistake in organizing such a big expensive party and not spending enough on security?

Then it’s in both of their interest to just shut each other up about the number of police on duty, so much so that the mayor is willing to look like a bumbling doofus who can’t get basic information from someone who works for him. Next up, libraries on the e-cusp; how much longer can libraries es-

Toronto is right to be questioning the value of library budgets in the new e-world cape the fate of video rental stores, photo printing stores, encyclopedias, print newspapers and bookstores? Toronto city council has included library shutdowns in a list of proposed cuts to make up a $774 million budget deficit. There is a predictable uproar, but libraries as repositories of reference books are no longer necessary. Reference books are no longer necessary. They’re all online, at the end of a click, in an instant, at no cost. Amazon’s e-book sales overtook printed book sales almost two years ago. Libraries as dispensaries of e-books are an elaborate extravagance, given the space required for e-book contents (none). Libraries are evolving into necessary places for going online at no cost to find out things to read things on-screen, but their signature role as keepers of free access to print literature and public information has disappeared.

As havens for equal access to the Internet, quiet places for learning and reading and a lingering luxury resource for those (like me) who insist on printed books, they serve a noble purpose. But that role doesn’t include warehousing the thousands of books that no one needs or reads anymore. Toronto is right to be questioning the value of library budgets in the new e-world. Vancouver should be doing the same. Thirdly, enough with referenda. Now that we have survived the long, dreary and convoluted no-meansyes HST referendum, can we please put this decision-making tool on the “too-blunt-to-handle” shelf? I don’t want to be B.C. finance minister. I just want to be able to vote for who is, and know – in advance, preferably – what the minister plans to do and why. Governing by expensive one-off votes on emotional bumper-sticker slogans leads governments into California-style dysfunctional culde-sacs – bankruptcy, to be precise. Sorry, but public finance policy is way too complicated to be left to occasional unpredictable public outbursts in referenda to get it right. And, finally, a scary parting thought courtesy of Bill Moyers, venerated U.S. public broadcaster, on his greatest fear, in the July 2011 issue of Vanity Fair: “[that] democracy proves to be a Potemkin village and gross inequality becomes our permanent way of life.” • Peter Ladner (pladner@biv.com) is a founder of Business in Vancouver and a former Vancouver city councillor. His book, The Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Cities, will be published by New Society in October 2011.

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comment 25

August 9–15, 2011 Business in Vancouver

National Affairs

Mark Milke The social welfare state will never be sustainable

t a recent closed-door meeting with some European and American politicians in Washington, D.C., one former prime minister of a European Union (EU) nation queried out loud as to how Europe could create jobs. He thought the current obsession in the United States and Europe with reducing deficits was a mistake. Another politician argued that Europe’s social welfare model was a stunning success and must be preserved at all costs. In my presentation – I was there to brief those present on how Canada’s provincial and federal governments achieved balanced budgets in the 1990s – I tried tactfully to point out that if it’s jobs you want, it’s probably not a good idea to run public finances into the ground by piling up ever-more public debt. After all, business leaders who have a buck or a billion to throw around will likely look at your country and assume that significantly more debt equals significantly more taxes, at least eventually. The let’s-just-run-upmore-debt crowd includes even Nobel-Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. That’s evidence that even smart people can forget how

the private sector works. For instance, when people think you’re a risky borrower, they might demand higher interest to compensate for the elevated risk or they might stop lending money altogether. The Krugmans of the world assume that despite the level of the visible public debt (incurred from spending beyond government revenue) or of the off-the-books debt (liabilities built up by promising public-sector pensions and other items on behalf of future taxpayers), the rest of the world will always hand over another billion or trillion dollars to fiscally drunk governments. The 2008 financial crisis should have popped that balloon; bank lending froze up precisely because of concerns over creditworthiness. Greece should also have thrown cold water on the errant notion that countries can borrow their way out of difficulty ad infinitum. What’s spectacularly fascinating about the moredebt brigade is how it also assumes, as some of the European politicians did at this recent conference, that the social welfare state is an accomplishment. Fact is, the debt explosion, be it in EU countries, in the United States at the federal and state levels or in Canada, resulted from the

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attempt to buy a social welfare model on the cheap. Over the decades, Europe has had higher taxes while the U.S. had lower taxes; Canada was somewhere inbetween. But all, regardless of the tax levels, borrowed massively to finance presentday public- sector spending. In Canada’s case, where so many assume our leaders have been responsible because once in 50 years a few politicians cut spending, the federal debt was nonetheless $519 billion at the end of fiscal 2010. Total provincial

debt added up to $388 billion. That’s $907 billion in federalprovincial debt, but it doesn’t include all the red ink in the past year. (I’m using March 2010 figures from the federal finance department’s fiscal reference tables, which have not yet presented 2011 data.) Nor does it include unfunded liabilities. If I could wave a wand and re-start federal and provincial budgets post-Second World War, I’d ensure pensions and other social program funding were financed via individual but mandatory

savings accounts. That would have avoided the worst excesses of the buy-now, paynever welfare state. I can’t perform such magic, but I can outline some sense of how often this deferred financing mentality has been in play. It will provide context for the claim the unfunded welfare state was a successful model in Europe or anywhere else. In Canada, consider how many deficits the federal government alone has incurred in the half-century leading up to the 2010-11 fiscal year:

37 years were in the red; only 13 were in the black. In other words, governments ordered the public policy equivalent of pizza (many times over) but sent the bill to future generations. That’s not a successful model of anything. And as Europe and America are finding out, it’s not sustainable either. • Mark Milke (mmilke@telus. net) is the editorial board chairman of C2C Journal, Canada’s journal of ideas. His column appears monthly in Business in Vancouver.

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Profile

August 9–15, 2011 Business in Vancouver

Larry Berg By Jenny Wagler

Wingman

Dominic Schaefer

Larry Berg, who headed YVR’s labour relations during the airport’s tempestuous transition from government to corporate management, aims to make YVR a leading gateway between Asia and North America

Larry Berg, president and CEO of the Vancouver Airport Authority: “whether it’s cellphones, golf clubs or passenger services at airports, you have to be absolutely bitten by that chronic dissatisfaction that things can be better”

espite growing up by Canada’s largest air force base in Cold Lake, Alberta, doing a stint as an air cadet, having a pilot brother and sisters married to air force men, it took Larry Berg two earlier careers before he considered running an airport. Berg now heads the Vancouver Airport Authority (VAA) as its president and CEO. The VAA this year celebrated Vancouver International Airport’s (YVR) 80th anniversary and won North America’s best airport category at the 2011 World Airport Awards. Berg points to his experiences prior to running the VAA as key to helping him develop the skills that have contributed to the airport’s success. With a bachelor of education from the University of Alberta, Berg taught high-school social sciences in Edmonton for four years before deciding to pursue a business career. “My line is when I taught them all I knew, I quit,” he said with his characteristic dry wit. Berg completed a master of science in business from the University of Oregon and worked as a personnel supervisor for a potash mine in Saskatchewan. He then landed the job that would hone the key skills he’d need for his VAA success: a labour relations role with Edmonton-based coal mining company Luscar Ltd. It was the mid-1970s – a time of rapid expansion for coal companies.

Berg said Luscar was selling metallurgical coal to Japan’s steel industry and thermo coal to Canadian provincial utilities to fuel power plants. It was also a heavily unionized corporation. The combination, Berg said, created a tense labour relations climate at Luscar. “We were frequently starting new mines up, acquiring operations and in some cases, when the markets were difficult, downsizing operations as well. You were in a pretty hot kitchen at times.” Berg added that the labour disputes and protracted strikes of that era taught him a lot about building a common culture and creating a shared vision between management and staff. Achieving that, he said, involved a lot of time spent at remote mine sites from northern Alberta to northern B.C., working to bridge the gap between management and employees. “You had to get out of the balcony and down on the dance floor and actually interact with people.” Berg said his work at Luscar also taught him the value of running an efficient corporation, because the industry’s competitiveness and vulnerability to chronic commodity price volatility meant that only the bestrun companies survived. Inefficiency, he said, could be devastating. “It could mean for any individual

mine that you’re going into the community and telling the folks, ‘You know, there’s going to be 100 less of you people here next month than there are this month because we just lost a whole bunch of sales and there’s no work. You get that drilled into you in the mining business, so you realize that a) you don’t overstaff your people and b) you make sure that your costs are as low as you can make them and still maintain a high-quality product.” Over Berg’s 17 years with Luscar, his job expanded to include administrative and corporate service responsibilities that led to his taking on the role of vice-president of human resources and administration. In 1992, as the VAA prepared to assume YVR’s management from Transport Canada, Berg was headhunted for the position of vicepresident of human resources. He knew the HR part of the job well, but at VAA the position came with the unique challenges of turning a government bureaucracy into a stand-alone corporation – a change not all employees were keen on. Berg said an influx of outsiders, including him, increased employee misgivings. “I was showing up from a coal mine in Alberta; that strikes fear into the hearts of people,” he quipped. But Berg proved a great fit for the job, according to former Canadian

Mission: To establish YVR as one of the leading gateway airports between Asia and North America Assets: Led Vancouver Airport Authority human resources division during high-tension days as YVR management switched from a federal government operation to a stand-alone corporation Yield: Under Berg’s watch, the annual passenger count at YVR has nearly doubled to 17 million, and it recently won best airport in North America at 2011’s World Airport Awards

foreign affairs minister David Emerson, who at the time was the VAA’s president and CEO. Emerson described Berg as having a very dry sense of humour, good horse sense about people and “understated Prairie grit.” “And he’s unflappable – he’s not a guy who gets overly excited, and he takes pressure well,” Emerson said. “He’s very stable and calm in the world of labour negotiations and, particularly in the early days of the airport authority, his skill sets were really invaluable.” Helping build up the new organization from scratch, Berg said, involved “endless” meetings going over vision, mission, the corporation’s values and defining what success would look like. But Berg said while it took five years for the dust to settle on the transition, the VAA transformed the airport’s culture in a way that has proved as significant as YVR’s bricksand-mortar expansions and its near doubling of passenger volumes between 1992 and today. “We had to shift the culture to being more entrepreneurial, focused on the best-quality, lowest-cost service product that we’re offering,” he said. “It’s really in the DNA of people here now; they really want to create a firstclass corporation and airport.” Berg, whose role expanded until he finally took on the president and CEO title in 1998, said he’s not resting on his laurels. “Every good manager has to be somewhat dissatisfied with the effectiveness, the quality, the timeliness of the product or service he’s offering,” he said. “If not, he becomes complacent. Whether it’s cellphones, golf clubs or passenger services at airports, you have to be absolutely bitten by that chronic dissatisfaction that things can be better.” Berg said he’ll continue to lead the airport in its long-established mission to be one of the leading gateways linking Asia and North America. A key focus now, he said is turning YVR into North America’s best connecting airport – a plan that involves a large capital project to expedite clearance processes and baggage movement. Taking stock of his years leading the VAA, Berg credits the “outstanding” team he works with for the job he loves. “It has been and is a wonderful role,” he said. “If there’s a better role than this one here in this town, I haven’t yet seen it.” • jwagler@biv.com

DiD you miss these recent eDitorial profiles? Andy Dunn

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Check them out at www.biv.com/profiles

Daily business news at www.biv.com Business in Vancouver August 9–15, 2011

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