Local. Business. Intelligence. September 13–20, 2011 • Issue 1142
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Dammed if we do: Site C revisited Victoria proceeding with plans for an $8 billion dam despite suspect electricity-demand forecasts, a restrictive clean-energy policy and the destruction of a valuable river valley
fastest-growing
Economic uncertainty not slowing growth of B.C. companies 15-34
By Joel McKay
T
he business plan for the province’s next mega project – the $7.9 billion Site C hydroelectric dam – is rife with problems. A Business in Vancouver investigation has revealed that the electricity forecasts the province is using to justify the project contradict historic increases in demand and the cost to produce electricity from the dam is more than what taxpayers pay for energy
Rocky labour road for Rocky Mountaineer 3 HST elimination could yield rental boon for B.C. landlords 10 Building biotech businesses 12 Social media week’s small-business bonanza 14
today. On top of that, the dam would flood an area of prime agricultural land roughly 13 times the size of Stanley Park, forcing farmers to abandon their livelihood, killing fish, destroying aboriginal burial grounds and animal habitat and increasing the risk of landslides. The Liberal government has also removed the taxpayer-funded project from the oversight of the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC), a policy that even
Site C’s supporters don’t agree with. And even though the provincial and federal environmental assessment offices have yet to complete independent assessments of the project, Energy Minister Rich Coleman has said the province is committed to building the dam. “Site C will be a project that’s going ahead,” Coleman told reporters in August. “It’s a project that we’ve already committed to.” Business in Vancouver special report – 6, 7
Absolute Software case raises cyber-surveillance concerns 35 Renshaw on B.C.’s quest for taxation complication 44 Ladner on cultivating urban farming’s new political might 44
Capstone CEO Darren Pylot’s deal-making helping limit shareholder risk in the volatile resource sector 47 Subscriber details
Dominic Schaefer
Meggs on black ink from green city economics 45
Interfilm director Julia Ivanova and president Boris Ivanov have thus far bucked the trend of documentary makers abandoning the genre for the reality TV market
Filmmakers opting for reality cheque >Market squeeze pushing more documentary makers to reality TV and stifling growth of local film entrepreneurs Business in Vancouver Issue 1142
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By Jenny Wagler
BC
’s documentary makers can’t pinpoint when, exactly, their business model began to fall apart.
But they’re virtually unanimous: the industry is in crisis. “I think it’s the worst period for documentaries in Canada in the 28 years I’ve been in the television
business producing current affairs programming,” said David Paperny, president and co-founder of Vancouver-based Paperny Films. see Documentaries, 5