Business in Vancouver (Issue 1807)

| Pages

Platforming Indigenous entrepreneurs

Geena Jackson’s hit TV show Bears’ Lair is one part of a long career dedicated to supporting First Nations success | Pages 11-12

HOW LULULEMON IS MAKING LEMONADE

INSIDE JOKE INSIDE JOKE

More B.C. companies schedule four-day work weeks

WORK | The shift can attract talent and boost productivity, but doesn’t work for all firms, say experts

BY DAISY XIONG DXIONG@BIV.COM

More B.C. companies and organizations have joined a growing movement to challenge the traditional five-day work week model and allow their employees to work just four days a week.

The central idea behind it is that by reducing work hours, companies will have more engaged and productive employees who perform the same—if not better— with fewer work hours.

In the past year, there was a 34-per-cent increase in the number of Canadian businesses implementing four-day schedules, according to May data from human resources software provider BrightHR.

B.C.-based organizations including the Vancouver Foundation and the City of Merritt , and tech firms such as Procurify and Blackbird Interactive , have shifted to four-day work weeks in recent years. Game studio Brace Yourself Games officially switched to four-day, 32-hour work weeks in January after trying flexible Fridays for a while, with no change in salaries.

“Increasingly, we had been doing research into best practices, and the growing practice of a four-day work week really seemed to show an increase in productivity, in employee happiness and retention,” said Kimberly Voll, CEO of Brace Yourself Games.

“Because humans aren’t so good at focusing and paying attention for such long stretches, and the more fatigued we get, the lower quality our work becomes.… Particularly with knowledge work, there’s diminishing returns on keeping people in their seats for too long.”

Voll said she has since seen higher productivity and better overall performance than when employees worked 40 hours per week “because they feel more refreshed and focused at work.” The shift has also helped the company compete for top talent against large U.S. companies that offer “huge salaries.”

“In our industry, it’s very hard

to retain talent, and creating a space that shows you prioritize employee wellness and that you give people a high degree of agency and empowerment, people are going to be happier, do better work and have greater loyalty,” said Voll.

The David Suzuki Foundation, a Vancouver-based environmental not-for-profit, implemented a four-day, 34-hour work week when it was launched in 1990 to provide employees with better work-life balance, and time to recover from working on what can be draining environmental issues, according to the organization.

“The five-day work week was something that came about postWorld War II, and everything about work has changed, except for the hours,” said Ian Hanington, senior editor at the foundation, who said the four-day work week is one reason he has stayed with the organization for 17 years.

“We’ve become more technologically advanced, we’ve got search engines and computers

and things are more automated now, and usually more people in the household are going out to work … but we’re still working a five-day work week, which to me just doesn’t really make sense.”

Four-day work week not yet for everyone

Michale Daniels , assistant professor at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC)Sauder School of Business, said a number of factors can be attributed to the recent “renewed interest” in the four-day work week model in B.C. and across Canada.

The pandemic exposed some of the work-life balance problems employees were facing and created a cultural shift toward more flexibility and balance. Technological advancements such as artificial intelligence are also helping to increase productivity, which makes the model a possibility, he said. However, he said the model does not fit all companies, especially in B.C. where there is a tight labour market and where many

The ve-day work week was something that came about post-World War II, and everything about work has changed, except for the hours

IAN HANINGTON SENIOR EDITOR, DAVID SUZUKI FOUNDATION

businesses struggle to find talent. Companies trying a four-day work week also need to take into account clients and competitors who are still working five days a week.

“It’s still a bit niche, and there’s a lot of reasons why people may be hesitant to try it,” said Daniels. Vancouver-based work analytics platform Produce8 Inc. launched a three-month, fourday work week pilot project in 2022 but then decided it was not the best model for the company and its employees.

“We have a lot of parents on our team. If they are going to work shorter, they would prefer to have the flexibility to not stress out about going to pick up their kids at 3:00 p.m. if their eight-hour day ends at 5:00 p.m.,” said Marcus Stein , manager of customer success for Produce8.

And as a start-up, the business found it challenging to compare the performance of a four-day week to a typical five-day week, he added. So instead of sticking to a four-day schedule, the

company allows for greater flexibility in work hours and measures employees by performance, not hours, so they can work reduced hours once their work is complete.

“The four-day week is not meant to be a trade-off to say organizations need to accept less to make their employees happier. The premise of the four-day week is, if you move from five days to four days, the outputs go up,” said Stein.

Daniels said for employees who are interested in the model, it’s important to understand their company’s expectations when hours are reduced. A company reducing working hours but expecting the same amount of work can lead to more stress and fatigue for workers.

The approach is less practical for hourly employees and those in service roles, he added.

“There is the potential for this to enhance more structural, embedded inequalities between different types of workers,” said Daniels.

“I do see this as a phase of experimentation, but it does seem to be growing. And eventually, I think there will be a tipping point at which it becomes the norm.” ■

Kimberly Voll, CEO of Brace Yourself Games, said the company has seen better overall output after adopting a four-day work week model | CHUNG CHOW

Operational challenges and frugal

RETAIL | Inventory mistakes and executive departures come as sales

BY GLEN KORSTROM GKORSTROM@BIV.COM

One of B.C.’s largest homegrown retailers, Lululemon Athletica Inc. (Nasdaq:LULU), saw its sales, profit and share price soar during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s operational growth has since slowed, raising concerns that more subdued performance could become the retailer’s new normal.

After Lululemon shares hit an all-time-high closing price of US$511.29 on Dec. 29—the last trading day of 2023—the company’s share price plunged despite stock markets having a banner year. By June 5, ahead of the company’s first-quarter earnings release, Lululemon’s share price had fallen 39.7 per cent from that 2023 closing high, to US$308.27.

Founder Chip Wilson still owns a large stake in the company, but that has not kept him from criticizing the athleisure giant for trying to chase higher profit margins and embarking on what he said was a “slow march to becoming The Gap (NYSE:GPS), with cheap acrylic sweaters,” according to a March LinkedIn post.

Another contributing factor to the company’s share-price decline was its May 22 announcement that its well-regarded, longtime chief product officer,

Sun Choe , was leaving the company. Shares fell as much as seven per cent that day.

VF Corp. (NYSE:VFC) two weeks later announced that it had hired Choe to become global brand president at its Vans division in late July. VF Corp.’s share price rose 10 per cent following that news, again underscoring Choe’s influence and esteem in the fashion world.

Instead of replacing Choe, Lululemon said it will have a team of leaders with new roles.

Multiple reasons for slowing sales growth

Lululemon’s first-quarter sales increased 10 per cent year-overyear, to US$2.2 billion. That was in line with what stock market analysts had expected.

The company kept its sales

outlook for the year unchanged, at between 11 and 12 per cent growth, year over year, which would put sales between US$10.7 billion and US$10.8 billion.

“That’s still really good,” Retail Insider Media owner and retail analyst Craig Patterson told BIV.

The problem is that Lululemon was coming off of two consecutive years where annual sales

growth topped 20 per cent. Customers returning to work in offices, and consumer frugality due to higher interest rates and inflation, may be part of the reason for the slowdown, Wedbush analyst Tom Nikic told BIV.

He added that the law of large numbers also plays a role.

“This is a business that did a little under US$4 billion in revenue in 2019 and they did US$9.6 billion in revenue last year,” he said.

“For a single apparel brand, there are not many that are bigger than Lululemon and growing faster. Nike (NYSE:NKE) is not growing this fast. Adidas (ETG:ADS) is not growing this fast.” Operational mistakes have not helped, he added.

Lululemon warned the market in March that mistakes were made with its spring fashion line. The clothing was largely black, white and tan, and lacked colours that consumers wanted to buy, Nikic explained.

“Lululemon is never going to be the kind of brand that has a lot of super-bright, in-your-face products, but [the assortment] really was just too muted,” he said.

Lululemon’s other inventory problem was that it lacked sufficient clothing in smaller sizes.

Nikic chalked that up to the company’s customer base shifting younger, and youth tending to be smaller than the average Lululemon customer of previous

Ottawa’s fish-farm transition plan could sink

RESOURCES | Industry awaits federal government renewal

BY NELSON BENNETT NBENNETT@BIV.COM

By the end of this month, federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier is expected to decide whether to renew 66 federal licences for salmon farms in B.C.

An industry that directly

employs 5,000 people hangs in the balance.

Fish farm opponents and the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance are lobbying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Lebouthillier to live up to Trudeau’s 2019 election promise to “transition” opennet salmon farms out of coastal waters in B.C.

Meanwhile, salmon farmers are lobbying for six-year licence renewals to allow them to invest in technology and aquaculture practices that would reduce interactions between wild and farmed fish and reduce disease and pest transmissions.

In a recent letter, 46 conservation, community and animal

welfare organizations urged Trudeau to abide by his commitment.

“Do not renew these licences for a duration past 2025 and begin the removal of salmon farms from British Columbia immediately,” the letter read.

Trudeau’s mandate to fisheries ministers has been to develop a transition plan for B.C. salmon

farms by 2025. Anti-fish-farm activists understandably interpreted that to mean all open-net salmon farms would have to be out of the water by 2025.

But the original mandate has been massaged somewhat, and Lebouthillier told Ha-Shilth-Sa newspaper in December that there “will be no closure of

A Lululemon location in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood | ROB KRUYT

consumers squeeze Lululemon sales

growth slows at the Vancouver-headquartered athleisure giant years.

He said the company has a history of being able to turn around operational mistakes.

It faced a similar challenge of insufficient inventory in the first quarter of 2018 and was able to weather that storm, he said. Conversely, it had too much inventory in 2022, and was also able to soon get back on track, said Nikic.

International expansion seen as opportunity Lululemon’s sales slowdown is particularly acute in what the company calls “the Americas,” even though that only includes the U.S. and Canada. This is where the company generates 73 per cent of its revenue.

The company’s sales increase in the U.S. and Canada was a comparatively paltry three per cent, or four per cent on a constant-dollar basis, to US$1.6 billion, in the quarter that ended April 28.

In the same quarter one year ago, year-over-year revenue growth in the U.S. and Canada was nearly 18.5 per cent.

The saving grace for Lululemon is that its international sales growth has been spectacular, and that helped raise overall sales growth in the most recent quarter.

In its hottest market—mainland China—sales rose 45 per cent on a reported basis and 52

per cent on a constant-currency basis to US$210.1 million. But even that was slower growth than what was seen in recent quarters: Lululemon saw 67-percent year-over-year revenue growth in mainland China in the fiscal year that ended in January.

CEO Calvin McDonald cited Asia as his company’s biggest growth opportunity when he was hired in 2018.

“We have a real big opportunity internationally, in particular in Asia,” he said weeks after he joined the company. Six years later, Lululemon doesn’t appear to have established itself more fully in the region.

In the company’s first quarter, about 14 per cent of Lululemon’s revenue came from mainland China, up from 10 per cent in the same quarter one year earlier.

“The thing with China is it’s a very challenging market to operate in,” Nikic said. “Obviously, it’s a big market, but navigating the local can be a challenge. Every city is like a different ecosystem, and finding the right real estate can be difficult.”

The COVID-19 pandemic no doubt slowed progress in opening new stores.

Lululemon first expanded beyond Canada and the U.S. by opening franchised stores in Australia in 2004 and Japan in 2005. The stores struggled. Lululemon bought out its franchisees and closed most overseas

locations in 2008.

It now operates in 25 countries around the world but is relatively unknown in most.

“Our unaided brand awareness remains low in every country where we operate, except our home market of Canada,” McDonald told analysts on a June 5 conference call, hinting that this low brand recognition was an opportunity.

The company had 711 stores on April 28, which was the same as three months earlier.

More than half, or 369, are in the U.S., while 127 are in China. Canada, where the company rose to prominence in the 1990s and 2000s, boasts the third-greatest number of stores at 71.

CFO Meghan Frank said on the company’s conference call earlier this month that Lululemon plans to open a net total of 35 to 40 new stores this fiscal year, with five to 10 of them in the Americas.

The rest are slated to be in international markets, “primarily” mainland China, she said.

Competition nips at Lululemon’s heels

On the call, McDonald dismissed suggestions that his company was vulnerable to upstart competitors.

“Competition in our space has always been there and been intense and we’ve always been able to continue to perform and

compete,” he said.

Patterson is not as sure.

“Lululemon’s main competitor right now is Alo Yoga ,” he said.

“[The Gap-owned] Athleta is one of them to a degree, but it’s a lower price point and it’s probably a different quality level.”

Vuori is another fast-growing apparel chain with a similar price-point to Lululemon, and it is seen by many as a competitor, but Patterson said he thinks Alo Yoga is the real threat.

That Beverly Hills, California-based company opened its first store in Canada in September 2022 and Patterson said he is confident that it will have 15 stores across the country by mid-2025.

“The fifth location in the Greater Toronto Area is under construction and the company is penetrating every single major market in Canada right now, with at least two stores,” he said.

Alo Yoga operates a store at CF Pacific Centre in Vancouver and Patterson said he expects the company to open stores in Burnaby, at Metropolis at Metrotown, and at Vancouver’s Oakridge Park, when that development reopens, likely next spring.

Nikic acknowledged the rise of competitors but said he believes Lululemon has benefits from being the sector’s behemoth. He is also maintaining the “outperform” rating that he has

industry if mishandled, businesses say

decision as 66 B.C. salmon farm licences expire this

aquaculture centres in 2025.”

The salmon farming industry and First Nations that support it are lobbying for a compromise— technology and hybrid systems that could minimize interactions and disease transmission. They propose, for example, to rear salmon longer in landbased recirculating aquaculture

systems before transferring them to open-net cages to reduce the amount of time fish spend in open water.

Technological approaches include a laser system made by Stingray Marine Solutions that zaps sea lice in salmon farms with lasers, eliminating the need for pesticides.

given Lululemon’s shares since he started covering the company two years ago.

“Alo [Yoga] and Vuori seem to be doing very, very well,” said Nikic, who is based in New York. “Just walking around New York you just see people in those two brands a lot more than you used to.”

Alo Yoga and Vuori remain much smaller. He estimated Vuori’s overall store count at about 50, versus 80 to 90 for Alo Yoga. That compares with 440 North American stores for Lululemon.

Lululemon bullish on its own future Lululemon’s share price popped 4.8 per cent the day after its June 5 earnings report, likely in part because the company raised its profit outlook for the fiscal year that ends in January. It also increased the size of its stock buyback program to US$1.7 billion from US$1 billion.

Lululemon now estimates its earnings per share to be between US$14.27 and US$14.47 this fiscal year. That is up from previous guidance of between US$14 and US$14.20.

The company generated US$321.4 million in net profit in the quarter that ended in April. That was up nearly 10.7 per cent, compared with US$290.4 million in the same quarter one year earlier. ■

month

Such approaches would require multimillion-dollar investments.

And to make those kinds of investments, salmon farmers say they need some guarantees they won’t be shut down anytime soon. They are asking for licence renewals of at least six years.

“The minister has said farms will not be moving out of the

water in the near term, but we are waiting to see what the term of licences will be,” said Brian Kingzett , executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association.

“We’ve been asking for a sixyear licence to justify making those massive investments into B.C. They’re not going to invest

unless they can see a runway that there will be some sort of return on investment, and that will allow them to invest in these new technologies.”

Sonia Strobel , CEO and co-founder of Skipper Otto , which supports mom-and-pop

commercial fishers through their seafood subscription business, wants open-net salmon farms shut down. She said she believes they are a real threat to wild salmon, and fears the original mandate for transitioning salmon farms is being watered down to allow for the hybrid systems supported by industry.

“I feel really strongly that the time has passed for that kind of experimentation,” she said. “It should have happened by now.”

Those opposed to salmon farming were led to believe the Trudeau government’s “transition” plan meant a wholesale relocation of open-net salmon farms onto land, through the use of recirculating aquaculture systems, by 2025.

That would cost about $1.8 billion, according to a 2022 study commissioned by the provincial government, and so far no major investors have stepped forward with plans to build any largescale systems in B.C. Fisheries and Oceans Canada

said in a 2019 report that such systems were ready for commercial development in B.C., but large land-based recirculating aquaculture systems in Florida and Nova Scotia have so far proven to be major money losers.

In Nova Scotia, Sustainable Blue was forced into receivership in

April, after equipment failure led to the loss of an entire harvest of mature Atlantic salmon.

In its 2023 annual financial report, Atlantic Sapphire ASA , which developed large a recirculating aquaculture system in Florida, reported revenues of US$14 million, expenditures of

US$105 million, and a net loss of US$134 million.

Meanwhile in B.C., a pioneer in small-scale salmon farming systems was forced to switch from growing Atlantic salmon to steelhead after the federal government’s closure of 15 open-net salmon farms in the Discovery Islands took down a whole supply chain that it had relied on.

Kuterra Salmon was originally co-developed by the Namgis First Nation near Port McNeill. Under an operating agreement with the Namgis, Kuterra Salmon is now operated by Whole Oceans

Cody Smith , general manager of Kuterra, said a supply chain that served the open-net salmon farming sector in the region was also critical to Kuterra’s Atlantic salmon farming.

“The [recirculating aquaculture systems] industry really rides in the slipstream of the net-pen industry,” Smith explained.

“When that public pressure tilted the government to remove those sites, land-based

producers—generally smaller producers that are looking to pioneer a new method—were also inadvertently impacted by that.

“The net-pen farmers effectively reduced their infrastructure in B.C. by 25 per cent, and that includes hatchery production. And we’re reliant on hatcheries. We lost our access to quality Atlantic salmon smolt due to that government decision.”

Cody said the recent financial troubles of large projects like Sustainable Blue are unfortunate, but that he believes there is a future for land-based salmon farming.

However, he doesn’t think shutting down the existing salmon-farming industry in B.C. will help foster land-based salmon farming.

“I think that could have some pretty tragic consequences for the province, in terms of jobs in coastal communities,” he said.

“We believe there’s a place in aquaculture for a variety of operators.” ■

University of B.C. powers up new smart hydrogen hub

BY NELSON BENNETT

NBENNETT@BIV.COM

The University of British Columbia (UBC) showcased a new $23 million “smart” hydrogen hub last Wednesday that will use solar power to both charge electric vehicles and produce green hydrogen.

UBC’s new Smart Hydrogen Energy District (SHED) is a demonstration project that uses the university’s 5G network and machine learning to optimize clean energy use.

“The whole idea behind this project is really to stop thinking about individual assets in the built environment or in transportation … as separate entities and really start thinking about integrated energy systems,” said Walter Merida, a UBC professor of mechanical engineering and the SHED research lead.

“By integrating energy, transportation, and design, SHED

not only supports our CleanBC goals but it also positions British Columbia as a world leader in the hydrogen economy,” said Josie Osborne , B.C. minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon

Innovation.

Located at the corner of Westbrook Mall and Thunderbird Boulvevard, the new clean energy project includes solar panels installed on a covered parkade, an

electrolyzer for making green hydrogen, large-scale battery storage and a hydrogen fuelling station for hydrogen fuel-cell cars and trucks.

The electrolyzer will use the solar power generated on site, as well as BC Hydro power, to produce about 65 kilograms of green hydrogen per day. A typical hydrogen fuel-cell car’s tank holds about four kilograms of hydrogen.

Cars and parking garages are “two of the most unglamorous and underutilized assets in the world,” Merida said.

As electric vehicle adoption increases, it will make sense to cover parkades and parking lots with solar panels to provide the power to charge EVs. Those EVs can then provide battery storage.

“Each car is 60, 80, 100 kilowatts of power plant onboard,” Merida said. “And as cars become electrified, that power sitting there could be used by delivering

some of that power back to the grid.”

Harnessing the UBC campus’s 5G network, a digital twin of the energy district will be created. It will use real-time data and machine learning to optimize efficiencies—like determining when to charge vehicles, or when to reverse the charge and put power back onto the grid, or when to use surplus power to produce hydrogen.

The $23 million project was funded largely by the provincial and federal governments:

■ $8.3 million from the B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation;

■ $5 million from the federal government;

■ $4.6 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation;

■ $4.6 million from the BC Knowledge Development Fund; and

■ $800,000 from HTEC . ■

The Kuterra land-based fish farm had to switch from Atlantic salmon to steelhead | SUBMITTED

Hydrogen fueling station at UBC will use hydrogen generated on site

FINANCE

Home sales sluggish as B.C. employment outpaces country average

DATA POINTS

BRYAN

YU

The sluggish spring market in the Lower Mainland continued as buyers sat on the fence through May, waiting for the Bank of Canada’s now-commenced rate cut cycle.

Dashing hopes of a more robust spring bounce, MLS home sales in the region spanning Metro Vancouver and Abbotsford-Mission came in at 4,166 units in May—a level of activity that was 1.5 per cent lower than April and 17 per cent below a year ago. Seasonally adjusted sales were steady from April but remained near cycle lows.

For May, this was the fewest sales since the 2020 pandemic, and sales last month were 20 per cent below the 2010-2019 same-month average, despite a period of rapid population growth. In 2023, Metro Vancouver’s population expanded by four per cent, and over a three-year period, it has grown by eight per cent. Abbotsford-Mission grew by 3.1 per cent and 5.3 per cent,

respectively. The economy has held steady.

While demand bubbled under the surface, the latest data points to a market that is stifled by record-low affordability due to a combination of high mortgage rates and still elevated prices. At the same time, more sellers listed their homes, reflecting normal spring optimism, financial pressures on investor-owners and the consequences of Ottawa’s changes to the capital gains inclusion rate. New listings were 9.5 per cent higher than a year ago, albeit lower than late-year peaks. Inventory (active listings) surpassed 20,000 units and was the highest since September 2020, with seasonally adjusted levels at their highest since late 2019. For buyers able to qualify for financing, there are more homes available to choose from, but prices are not showing significant downward pressure, if at all. The average price reached $1.25 million, which was one per cent higher than May 2023, albeit with decelerated growth. The seasonally adjusted trend held steady and, by our calculation, moved higher. Moreover, unadjusted benchmark values for single-family homes and townhomes rose by one per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively,

while condominium apartment prices fell by 0.2 per cent.

The Bank of Canada’s recent cut will lift home sales in coming months with improved affordability and increased buyer confidence, but it is unlikely to fuel a surge in home values as affordability remains stressed.

Following consecutive labour force expansions, employment in British Columbia reported a decline of 7,900 people (down 0.3 per cent) in May. Despite the dip, year-over-year hiring rose by 2.8 per cent and exceeded the national gain of two per cent. The unemployment rate jumped 0.6 percentage points (up 0.3 per cent) to reach 5.6 per cent as B.C.’s labour force expansion continued, reversing the drop seen last month. The labour participation rate edged up to 65.3 per cent from 65.2 per cent last month along with a 0.3-percent increase in population.

Part-time employment in the province fell by 1.7 per cent (10,000 people) following an increase during the previous month. Full-time employment edged up 0.1 per cent (2,100 people). The Vancouver census metropolitan area (CMA) saw a 1.1-per-cent decrease in its employment level, while the area’s unemployment rate jumped to 6.1 per cent from 5.3

per cent in April. During May of last year, Vancouver CMA’s unemployment rate also sat at 5.3 per cent.

By sector, B.C.’s services-producing industries led the May decline in employment with a 0.6-per-cent decrease, offsetting a 1.3-per-cent gain in goods-producing industries.

The province’s manufacturing sector saw the highest proportional monthly increase at 4.6 per cent (7,800 people), leading the overall increase on

the goods-producing side and reversing April’s drop. Information, culture and recreation (down 17,400 people or 10.6 per cent) reported a large decline in May following a jump the month prior. An employment contraction was also seen in sectors such as educational services (down 2.6 per cent) and wholesale and retail trade (down 1.6 per cent). ■

Bryan Yu is chief economist at Central 1.

AWARDIN GINDUS TRYE XCELLENCE

OnMay2 3rd/24, BC 's co mme rc ia lrea le state( CRE)lead er s ga th ered to celebratetheir outstandinga ch ieve mentsatthe BO MA '24 Awards Ga la,p re sented by SerVantage Ser vi ce sG ro up!

Hos te dbythe ch arisma ti cKev in Li m, awel l-known ra di oa nd TV hos t, th eb allroom at th eF ai rm ont Pa cifi cR im wa sfi lled wi th excitement as hundreds of BO MA memb er sa ss embled to ch eer on th ei rcoll ea gue sa nd te ams

Wi th arecordn um b er of aw arde ntri es an dn omin ations, th is event hi gh li gh te dthe vi brantCREcommuni ty in BC ,s ho wcas in g th ecompani es andindi vi dualswhoares et ti ng ne ws ta ndards in ser vi ce,p er fo rm an ce,a ndsus ta inabilit y. Th eG ala wa s ates ta ment to th ecommuni ty an dcamarad er ie wi th in th e indus tr y, demon stra ti ng th ecoll e ctivecommitment to exce llen ce andinnovati on.

Th is ye ar's qu alifyin gw inn e rswi ll go on to co mp etea tthe

Na ti onal Aw ards Ga lain Va ncou ve rthi sS ep te mber,c ulmina ti ng BO MA Ca nad a’ sa nnua lN ational Co nference, BO ME X2 024. Le ar nm orea bout BO MA BC at www.boma.bc.ca .

ƒ BuildingOperations Teamof theYearAward King George Hub Team –WarringtonPCIManagement

ƒ Health&Safet yAward: BeeCleanBuildingMaintenance ƒ Memberof theYearAward: AnneS. Woodruff –GDIIntegrated Facilit ySer vices ƒ PINNACLE:

Above andBeyond Award: SerVantageSer vicesGroup

Customer ServiceAward:

REALESTATE

Each new home needs $100k in infrastructure: report

INFRASTRUCTURE | Additional spending on municipal infrastructure needed to build homes faster

BY SAMMY HUDES, THE CANADIAN PRESS NEWS@BIV.COM

As Canada aims to build homes faster, both the public and private sectors will need to boost spending on municipal infrastructure, a new report from the Canadian Urban Institute says.

The report, funded by the Canada Infrastructure Bank , estimated the average cost of infrastructure needed to support housing likely exceeds $100,000 for each newly built home. That includes funding for resources such as public transit, roads, water lines, schools, fire halls or recreational facilities.

The total cost of housing-related infrastructure doesn’t constitute an “immediate price tag,” said report author Michael Fenn, Ontario’s former deputy minister of municipal affairs and housing. But he said coming up with a plan to finance the needs of residents is a crucial element to solving Canada’s housing crisis.

“Some of that infrastructure is required right away. I mean, you have to flush a toilet, you have to turn on the taps in a new house. But other infrastructure is a little farther out,” he said in an interview.

“We need to be conscious of

Younger

the fact the infrastructure has to be put in place. Without the infrastructure, all the efforts we’re making to accelerate housing production will not come to fruition.”

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. forecasts Canada will require an additional 3.5 million housing units by 2030, on top of the 2.3 million already projected to be built, to restore affordability to levels seen in 2004.

That level of increased housing starts—more than 500,000 homes annually—is equivalent to building a new city the size of Calgary each year, for seven years, noted

Fenn, who has also served as a municipal chief administrator in Hamilton and Burlington, Ont. Canadian Urban Institute CEO Mary W. Rowe cautioned there’s “no silver bullet” to achieving the goals outlined in the report.

“Obviously, we’ve made this mistake before where we build housing units without the amenities, without the servicing that’s required, and then it ends up biting you in the backside not too long after,” she said in an interview.

“We need to figure out how to get other sources of investment into the underlying conditions around which housing needs to

be built so that you actually have all the necessary infrastructures that are also part of it.”

While some new housing will benefit from pre-existing infrastructure, the report said there are barriers to financing newly required projects.

For example, municipalities are often reluctant to either incur debt or pass along capital costs through property tax hikes for political reasons.

In some cases, growth is stifled by municipalities insisting developers shoulder the financial burden by pre-paying for the full capital cost of long-life infrastructure. The report noted there is also municipal opposition toward leaning on the private sector to deliver public infrastructure, especially if it involves transferring ownership or control.

It proposed multiple alternatives, such as moving away from requiring pre-paid development charges to an approach that provides secured payments over the lifetime of the asset.

Municipalities should also develop new financing tools that allow them to share the costs of infrastructure among those who benefit from it, including developers, the report recommended. It said developing tools such as land value capture and tax increment financing can help

cities deliver more services.

Other recommendations include leveraging private capital to invest in public infrastructure through measures such as utility and development corporations. It said financial risks should be shared with institutional investors that are in a better position to absorb them.

“It’s kind of an all-hands-ondeck discussion,” said Rowe.

“We have to find all sorts of other mechanisms to get both public capital and private capital, institutional capital ... and municipalities have to be at the core of that.”

Fenn added it’s important that smaller communities don’t get forgotten amid the push for more infrastructure funding, even if more housing development is concentrated in larger cities.

“The housing crisis is probably mostly located in metropolitan areas but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be doing something to help the infrastructure situation in the rest of the country,” he said.

“That means doing it in a way that’s easier for smaller municipalities to secure financing, to take some of the red tape and complexity out of it ... which they’re in many cases, they’re not in a position to shoulder.” ■

—The Canadian Press

homeowners more likely to be financially stressed, says

Leger survey

RESIDENTIAL | Approximately six in 10 Canadians with a mortgage say they feel financially stressed

financially stressed about their mortgages, compared with 62 per cent across all homeowners.

Roughly six in 10 Canadians with a mortgage are financially stressed, with younger homeowners more likely to be under pressure.

In a new Leger survey, 68 per cent of respondents between 18 and 34 years of age with a mortgage say they are very or somewhat

Earlier this month, the Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate, offering some relief to borrowers after the central bank’s fight against inflation saw its key lending rate rise to a peak of five per cent.

Four out of 10 Canadians surveyed by Leger said they think the

Bank of Canada should be cautious as it lowers interest rates, but another third think it’s not going fast enough.

Respondents in households making more than $100,000 a year were more likely to say they support the central bank’s caution.

Though the steep rise in interest rates has brought inflation within reach of the Bank of Canada’s two

per cent target, it has put pressure on Canadian households and weighed on the economy.

Among the survey respondents with mortgages, 77 per cent have a fixed rate.

Of those with fixed-rate mortgages, 43 per cent say their mortgage is up for renewal this year or next year.

Two thirds of respondents whose mortgages are up for renewal in

the next two years say they plan to go for a fixed-rate mortgage. Younger respondents were more likely to say they will opt for a variable rate.

Leger surveyed 1,528 Canadians between June 7 and June 9. Online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population. ■

—The Canadian Press

A rental apartment complex is seen under construction at a new housing development in Langford, B.C. | DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Indigenous leaders seek fair share of venture capital

FUNDING | Raven takes flight as a First Nations-led venture capital firm filling a

BY GLEN KORSTROM GKORSTROM@BIV.COM

Indigenous Peoples in B.C. have been entrepreneurial for time immemorial, although in recent decades many say they believe they have been unfairly left out of being able to access venture capital to pursue their dream companies.

This has prompted the creation of programs to support Indigenous entrepreneurs, and has led to some venture capital funds that specifically seek out Indigenous-owned investee companies.

The B.C. government’s Indigenous Small Business Resources program lists 22 different available programs—some of them run by outside organizations and 20 of them exclusively open to Indigenous people.

There are loan programs, run by organizations such as the 100-per-cent Indigenous-owned All Nations Trust Co.

The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) has an Indigenous banking department. Its portfolio company Indigenous Growth Fund Inc. is an open-ended debt fund that provides lines of credit to Indigenous financial institutions across Canada, which in turn provide loans to Indigenous entrepreneurs.

Venture capital funds aimed specifically at First Nations entrepreneurs are, however, hard to find.

“ Raven [ Indigenous Capital Partners] is the only venture fund that exists with a thesis to fund Indigenous and Native American entrepreneurs,” Raven’s general partner Althea Wishloff told BIV. “There is no other venture fund with a similar thesis.”

Raven tends to provide Indigenous-led equity investments, which are between $250,000 and $3.5 million each, to businesses with substantial Indigenous leadership and solid prospects, she said.

The venture capital firm launched in 2018 with a $25 million fund. A $110 million fund came later.

“We have a mix of institutional corporate partners,” said

Wishloff, who is originally from B.C. and is a member of the Gitxsan Nation. “BDC is our anchor LP [limited partner] for funds.”

BDC provides a minority component of the equity investments with the rest coming from a mix of institutions and corporate partners, Wishloff said.

There are about a dozen people at Raven who are focused on executing the company’s venture fund strategy, she said.

Another part of the company works on what Raven calls its outcomes fund, which is focused on social-impact bonds and project finance, Wishloff added.

Since inception, Raven has made 20 investments, she said.

The most recent investment announcement was for Artemis—a company based in Vancouver even though its website lists a Seattle address as its contact location.

That funding round took place last summer, though nothing was announced until May 22 of this year.

Artemis raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding. Raven led the round with Telegraph Hill Capital , Ripple Ventures and angel investors rounding out those who participated.

Artemis executives had been acquainted with partners at Raven long before the investment.

Wishloff and other partners then conducted due diligence between May and July last year and were impressed enough to lead the fundraising round.

Artemis employs five people and has a 1,200-square-foot office near Smithe and Cambie streets, Artemis co-founder and CEO Josh Gray told BIV.

“We’re looking to hire probably another two to five people by the end of the year,” he said.

Gray, a serial entrepreneur, co-founded Artemis with William Shi , who he said he has known since middle school.

Their company makes software that helps companies “clean up their data,” or essentially standardize it so data input from

He said his technology employs artificial intelligence (AI) agents that plan and execute tasks for users.

different sources is consistent, searchable and usable.

“Companies today are swimming in data but what’s difficult about that is that data is actually really messy,” he said.

It is messy because data-set owners have often input data from various tools, such as Salesforce Inc.’s (NYSE:CRM) customer relationship management software, Intuit Inc. ’s (Nasdaq:INYU) Quickbooks and other software from HubSpot Inc. (NYSE:HUBS), Gray said.

In HubSpot, he suggested, the software might list customers as “customers,” whereas in Stripe’s software, those customers might be listed as “accounts.”

Corporate names might include “Inc.” or “Ltd.” in certain instances, and drop the abbreviations in others.

“To get any sort of value out of the data, you have to clean it, you have to make it reliable,” Gray said. “Once it is clean and ready to go, you can start to extract value out of it.”

“Let’s say I’m a data engineer and I’m building an analysis to understand marketing on our website and how it is impacting our bottom line,” Gray said. To clean and build data sheets, that data engineer would likely have to document a lot of data, he said.

“I need to document what the formulas are that I’m using and what columns and tables I’m using. A lot of that documentation work is taking you away from doing the hard work of building that analysis.”

His company’s AI agents, he said, can read code that users are writing, understand how it is being used and then document it for the user.

Gray described his company as “pre-revenue,” with about 30 customers using the platform as part of a beta phase.

He is aiming to start charging some customers to use the software later this year.

Gray attended many tradeshows this year and he said that networking is helping to get the word out about his company.

“We’ve seen really good traction with the in-person events,” he said. ■

Raven Capital Partners general partner Althea Wishloff says Raven is the only venture fund that exists with a thesis to fund Indigenous and Native American entrepreneurs | SUBMITTED

Artemis CEO Josh Gray | SUBMITTED

Building a platform for Indigenous entrepreneurship

MEDIA |

The second season of the B.C.-founded hit TV show Bears’ Lair launched earlier this month

BY NELSON BENNETT NBENNETT@BIV.COM

Within Canada’s Indigenous business community, Geena Jackson may be best known as the creator and executive producer of Bears’ Lair—a Dragons’ Den-style reality TV series that showcases Indigenous entrepreneurs and their ventures.

But that is just one Jackson’s business initiatives, most of which are focused on helping other Indigenous entrepreneurs grow their companies.

Her main business is Indigenous Initiatives, which she runs with her husband, Dean Montgomery. She is also vice-president of business development of Sunspear Renewables , a business partner in the renewable energy space that works with Indigenous communities on projects like rooftop solar.

A member of the Frog Clan of the shíshálh (Sechelt) Nation, Jackson obtained a degree in broadcast journalism from the BC Institute of Technology, but it would be more than two decades before she put it to use as a TV producer in 2020, which was when she pitched Bears’ Lair TV to the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).

In the interim, she interned for the TV show Hardcopy in the late 1990s in Los Angeles, ran a hot tub business in Toronto and then returned to B.C. and spent 13 years working for the Squamish First Nation in the nation’s economic development office. There, she worked as the economic development business officer and project administrator for the Squamish Nation Trust. While at the Squamish Nation’s economic development office, one of Jackson’s jobs was helping Squamish entrepreneurs. She’s still doing that, just on a broader scale.

One of the barriers faced by Indigenous entrepreneurs and Indigenous-led companies is access to capital. Another is capacity.

“We do capacity building for nations,” Jackson said recently at the Indigenous Partnership Success Showcase (IPSS), where

she was a panelist. “And there is tons of money out there for people to assist you. You are not alone.”

Indigenous Initiatives provides a grant-writing and project-management service for Indigenous communities and businesses.

Organizations such as the National Aboriginal Capital Corporation Association provide grants and loans to Indigenous entrepreneurs. But applying for grants—and in particular, federal grants—can be an arduous task.

Indigenous Initiatives makes grant applications for Indigenous communities free of charge. If the application is successful and grant funding is provided, the applicant agrees to hire Indigenous Initiatives as their project manager.

“So you don’t have to hire an

[economic development] officer,” Jackson explained. “You don’t have to hire a grant writer for $10,000 to write a grant for you and not knowing if that grant was going to get approved.”

A main area of focus for Indigenous Initiatives is project development in the renewable energy space—mostly solar power. To get Indigenous youth interested in business, Indigenous Initiatives also holds entrepreneurship camps for First Nations children aged 12 to 18, and annually holds an Indigenous youth summit.

In 2020, Jackson and her husband hatched a reality TV show idea based on Dragons’ Den , but with a focus on Indigenous entrepreneurs.

“During COVID, my husband said, ‘Why don’t we pitch this to APTN?’ So we did, and they liked

it,” she told BIV

Although APTN green-lit the show, Jackson and Montgomery were responsible for raising the capital to finance it. The first two seasons were shot in North Vancouver.

In each episode, three businesses compete for prize money with pitches to a panel of accomplished judges. Contestants must have more than just a good idea—they must have established businesses.

“You have to have a business for at least one to two years,” Jackson said. “You have to be making a profit, and you have to have some sort of transactional good or service that you’re selling.” Jackson is one of the four core judges, or “bears,” as they are called. Other core judges are high-profile Canadian Indigenous business leaders: Dave Tuccaro,

founder and president of the Alberta-based industrial service company Tuccaro Group; Tabatha Bull , president of the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business (formerly the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business); and Clint Davis, former CEO of the Inuitowned development company Nunasi Corporation and current CEO of the Indigenous-led advisory firm North35

The first season of Bears’ Lair was successful enough to be renewed for a second season, the first episode of which aired June 4. The show got an additional boost when CBC picked up season one.

“Season one is on Air Canada ,” Jackson added. “It’s also on Apple TV and also internationally it’s getting sold to different markets.” ■

Geena Jackson and her husband created the hit entrepreneurship show Bears’ Lair | CHUNG CHOW

Businessin Vancouver isseeking B.C.’s outstanding entrepreneurs, executives,managersand professionalsinpublic,private andnon-profit sec tors forits 2024 Fortyunder40 awards. We look foracross-sectionofimpressive peoplefrom awide rangeofindustries we coverwhohave risen the ranksoftheir companiesorindustries at a relatively youngage.

Winnerswillbechosenbasedonsuch values asachievementsinbusiness, experienceand innovation,vision,leadership,and community involvement. Winnerswillbeprofiledina DecemberissueofBusinessin Vancouverand honoured at agala awards reception.

Ken Sim

Peter Armstrong

Don Mattrick

Rick Hansen

Susan Mendelson

Yves Potvin

Bev Briscoe

Frank Giustra

Bob Rennie

Terry Hui

Dorothy Grant

Chip Wilson

Paul Lee

Brian Scudamore

Wendy Lisogar- Cocchia

Darren Entwistle

Thomas Gaglardi

Cybele Negris

Eventandsponsorshipinquiries: events@biv.com

Government ignorance is playing into B.C.’s food industry crisis

PODIUM

SYLVAIN CHARLEBOIS

The B.C. government is not recognizing the crisis in its food processing sector, simply because it has chosen not to. The province’s food and beverage industry stands at a critical juncture, facing substantial challenges that hinder its competitiveness and threaten its long-term sustainability. According to BC Food & Beverage’s recent State of the Industry Report 2024, the sector is grappling with rising costs, squeezed profit margins and inadequate infrastructure. These issues demand immediate attention and strategic interventions to ensure the industry continues to thrive and contribute significantly to the provincial economy.

The B.C. food and beverage sector is a crucial economic driver, generating $14.2 billion in annual revenues and employing

more than 39,000 individuals in the province. Food processing is the key node within the food supply chain, connecting farmers to the market and consumers. However, the industry’s growth and profitability have been stifled by a confluence of factors. The report highlights that any revenue growth in recent years has predominantly stemmed from business expansion and new product introductions rather than price increases, which have been challenging to secure from grocery retailers. Simply put, food processors are subject to more supply chain “bullying” by grocers than ever before. This inability to adjust prices in response to rising costs has eroded gross margins, particularly for small and mediumsized businesses, which have seen their profitability decline more sharply than larger manufacturers. Smaller processors, which include many family businesses, are financially suffocating.

Key challenges identified include the rising cost of inputs, labour and transportation, exacerbated by an inability to pass these costs on to retailers.

Smaller manufacturers are disproportionately affected due to their limited bargaining power and financial resources. The report reveals that small and medium-sized manufacturers are achieving negative profit margins, in stark contrast to the modest profit margins of retailers. This discrepancy underscores the urgent need for measures to support these manufacturers in maintaining their operations and competitiveness.

One of the most pressing issues is the lack of affordable and suitable manufacturing space and land. Greater Vancouver, a hub for food and beverage manufacturing, is experiencing a critical shortage of industrial land, driving up costs and forcing some manufacturers to relocate to Alberta and Washington state. This trend not only threatens the local economy but also exacerbates food insecurity by disrupting the supply chain. Seeing food processors leave the province or even the country will make the B.C.’s food supply chain more vulnerable.

Think of the food economy as a large, thriving tree with a strong

trunk and lush canopy. The tree represents the visible aspects of the economy: Businesses, products, jobs and economic growth. Roots are to the tree what food processing is to the agri-food economy. Roots are hidden but essential for the tree’s survival and growth. Food processors operate out of sight, yet they are critical to the food economy’s health, growth and stability.

The report provides several recommendations. First, developing a comprehensive competitiveness strategy for the industry is essential. This strategy should include an inventory classification of Agricultural Land Reserve land to identify areas that can be reclassified for manufacturing use and incentives for landowners to prioritize food and beverage manufacturing. This is the report’s most important recommendation. Additionally, increasing funding for infrastructure upgrades and manufacturing technology is crucial to help manufacturers control costs and improve efficiency.

Addressing labour shortages and upskilling the workforce is another critical area. The

provincial government should develop targeted funding programs to attract, retain and upskill labour, particularly skilled workers.

Furthermore, the imbalance between grocery retailers and food manufacturers must be rectified. Advocating for the implementation of the Grocery Code of Conduct and supporting the Competition Bureau’s recommendation to attract more grocery competition are vital steps to ensure fairer pricing practices.

The B.C. food and beverage industry is at a crossroads, and the decisions made today will shape its future. By addressing identified challenges through strategic investments and supportive policies, the industry can overcome current obstacles, enhance its competitiveness and continue to be a vital contributor to the B.C. economy. However, if the province continues to ignore these issues, it risks the collapse of the roots holding its agri-food sector together. ■

Sylvain Charlebois is director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.

Hiking B.C.’s minimum wage won’t meaningfully alleviate poverty

In June, British Columbia’s minimum wage increased from $16.75 per hour to $17.40, which is the highest of any province in the country. Proponents of the increase argue that it will reduce poverty—but what does the evidence show?

According to a 2021 study, 8.8 per cent of all Canadian workers earned the minimum wage. Of those minimum-wage earners, in British Columbia, just 7.9 per cent lived in households below the low-income cut-off or LICO, which is often used as a proxy for the poverty line.

Put simply, 92.1 per cent of minimum-wage earners in British Columbia lived in households above the LICO threshold, mainly because most minimum-wage workers are not the primary breadwinners in their households, but are rather secondary or tertiary wage earners. Such an individual may be, for example, a spouse working parttime, or a school-aged child still living at home who works part-time.

These results are borne out by a separate study, which analyzed the impact of minimum wages in Canada from 1997 to 2007 and found no statistically significant effect on poverty. Another study measured the impact of increases in the minimum wage from 1981 to 2004 and found that a 10-per-cent increase in the minimum wage was associated with a four-percent to six-per-cent increase in

the percentage of families falling below the LICO threshold, due to a reduction in employment (and correspondingly, a reduction in income).

Indeed, a vast body of empirical research shows that a higher minimum wage actually may hurt—not help—workers as it can have negative effects on employment. Why? Because as the cost of labour increases, employers tend to hire fewer workers (and may even fire workers), and/or reduce the number of work hours for their remaining workers. In other words, we shouldn’t assume that minimum wage workers retain their employment or the number of hours available to work when the government increases the minimum wage. In fact, according to the evidence, both employment and work hours often decrease when minimum wages rise.

And unfortunately, the least advantaged are often hardest hit, as younger and less educated workers often suffer the most job losses resulting from higher minimum wages.

So, what should the government do?

B.C. has some of the highest personal income tax rates in North America, particularly after the provincial NDP government’s recent series of tax hikes, which were exacerbated by federal tax increases. Rather than increase the minimum wage, the government should cut taxes. Moreover, many government benefit programs are based on income, which means that workers at certain income levels will lose some of those benefits—that is, their financial benefits will be “clawed back”— as they earn additional income. At the same time, workers pay higher taxes as their income

increases. Economists call this combined effect of clawed-back financial benefits and higher taxes the marginal effective tax rate, or METR. In B.C., METRs hit low-income families particularly hard. In fact, many low-income workers in B.C. take home 40 cents or less on each additional dollar earned due to the METR.

Despite any rhetoric from Victoria, the vast majority of minimum-wage workers aren’t poor, which means a higher minimum wage in B.C. won’t meaningfully alleviate poverty. In fact, due to negative employment effects, a higher minimum wage hurts many B.C. workers. If the government wants to help B.C. workers deal with the rising cost of living, it should reduce taxes. ■

PODIUM

TEGAN HILL

Tegan Hill is associate director of Alberta policy at the Fraser Institute.

B.C.’s land use and resource agenda puts economy on shaky ground

PODIUM

JOCK FINLAYSON, KEN PEACOCK

British Columbia is an unusual place for several reasons. One is the outsized role land-based industries play in our economy. The energy, mining, forestry and agri-food sectors, together with landbased tourism, collectively account directly for 12 per cent of the province’s GDP. These industries underpin regional economies outside of Vancouver and Victoria and supply more than half of the province’s total international exports of goods and services combined.

A second differentiating characteristic is that the government owns and controls more than 90 per cent of all land in the province, although the Crown’s jurisdiction is limited by the legal rights and historic claims of

First Nations.

Against this backdrop, over the past several months the David Eby government has unveiled a host of initiatives affecting land use and the management of natural resources. The extent of the proposed changes to laws, policies and regulatory frameworks, if enacted, will be highly consequential for industry, workers and resource-dependent communities, and will dampen real income growth.

Some of the most far-reaching proposals are being hammered out at secretive “government-to-government” tables involving provincial officials and First Nations representatives. In this setting, there is little scope for the voices of other stakeholders, such as industry and the public, to be heard. In the government’s rush to advance its reconciliation agenda, it is fair to ask who is looking after the interests of the 96 per cent of British Columbians who aren’t Indigenous.

While often well-intentioned, the province’s actions risk creating widespread uncertainty

about the investment and operating environment for all landbased industries. And this comes at an inopportune time as B.C.’s economy is visibly sputtering, and the government’s fiscal position is deteriorating at a breathtaking pace.

To say the policy and legal frameworks affecting land use and access to natural resources in B.C. are in flux is an understatement. Consider a few of the initiatives being advanced in Victoria so far in 2024.

Following strong public backlash, the provincial government paused work on a sweeping overhaul of the Land Act. The act is the most important statute governing the use of public lands in British Columbia. To our knowledge, the province never released any consultative or background documents to inform legislators, industry and other stakeholders of the planned changes; nor did it provide substantive guidance on what a revised Land Act would look like.

There have been policy announcements pausing claim

staking and mining within the traditional territories of the Gitxaala and Ehattesaht Frist Nations under the Environment and Land Use Act. In the mineral exploration sector, there is fear that this decision could herald broader policy changes that will curtail claim-staking in large parts of the province.

Some well-respected legal commentators have noted that the model that informs the recent Haida Title Agreement— which recognizes Aboriginal Title on Haida Gwaii—is inconsistent with Aboriginal title as defined by the Supreme Court of Canada and raises questions about private property rights once the interim phase of the agreement has passed.

Several other significant policy changes under consideration in Victoria also have implications for B.C.’s land-based industries, including: a new watershed security strategy and fund; an updated coastal marine strategy; an ambitious biodiversity and health ecosystem framework that may lead to a new layer of regulatory decision-making

covering Crown land; and modernized land-use planning processes.

Fundamentally, land-based industries need to know the rules of the game and have confidence the rules will not be subject to arbitrary change or short-term, politically inspired meddling. That confidence is eroding.

To maintain investor confidence and a vibrant natural resource economy, the provincial government should call a time out on its policy agenda that affects public lands and natural resources. A commitment to greater openness and transparency, coupled with more careful and deliberative decision-making, would bring stakeholders together and tamp down the uncertainty that now plagues all resource industries. Indigenous communities, industry, workers and the public all have a stake in the future of B.C.’s land-based economy and deserve to be heard. ■

Jock Finlayson is chief economist of the ICBA. Ken Peacock is BCBC’s senior vice-president and chief economist.

British Columbians’ top Canadian relocation destination? Alberta

PODIUM

Earlier this year, we asked a simple question to residents of six Canadian provinces: “Suppose you had to move out of your province and live in any other region of Canada. Where would you move?” The responses gave us a glimpse into what residents would like and what they would dread.

For British Columbians, Alberta emerged as the preferred destination (24 per cent), followed by Ontario at 19 per cent. No other province made it to double-digits, with Nova Scotia coming in at six per cent and Yukon at five per cent.

Close to three in 10 (29 per

cent) were undecided—the highest proportion by far of all provinces included in the survey. More than a third of British Columbians aged 55 and over (34 per cent) do not know where to go if they had to leave. There is a sense of adventure among British Columbia’s youngest adults, with 15 per cent of those aged 18 to 34 picking Yukon as their “Plan B” if they had to pack up and leave.

For Albertans, B.C. is the undisputed champion, with 50 per cent of residents saying they would “Go West” if they had to move. Saskatchewan is a distant second at 11 per cent, followed by Ontario at 10 per cent.

In Alberta, the generational divide is pronounced. More than half of residents aged 18 to 34 (54 per cent) and aged 35 to 54 (55 per cent) would make a go of it in B.C. The proportion drops to 41 per cent among those aged 55 and over.

B.C. also emerges victorious in

Saskatchewan, albeit by a smaller margin. While 29 per cent of Saskatchewanians would choose British Columbia as their destination for resettlement, 26 per cent pick Alberta and 13 per cent select Ontario.

Manitoba’s numbers are similar to what was expressed by western neighbours: 27 per cent pick B.C., 24 per cent select Alberta and 11 per cent choose Ontario.

Manitobans who voted for the New Democratic Party NDP in last year’s provincial election place B.C. at the top of their list (30 per cent), while the first choice for those who cast ballots for the Progressive Conservatives is Alberta (29 per cent).

In Canada’s most populous province, the fondness for the Pacific Ocean is evident. Almost a third of Ontarians (32 per cent) would move to B.C. if they had to leave their current province, followed by Nova Scotia (15 per cent), Alberta (12 per cent) and

Quebec (six per cent). More than a third of Ontarians aged 18 to 34 (37 per cent) would have no problem “starting over” in British Columbia.

Finally, we reach Quebec. While 19 per cent of Quebecers would relocate to British Columbia, more than a third (34 per cent) would head to Ontario.

New Brunswick, perhaps attractive due to its bilingualism, is the choice for nine per cent of Quebecers, followed by Alberta (eight per cent).

Ontario is clearly the land of opportunity for Quebecers aged 18 to 34, with 46 per cent selecting it for relocation. The proportions drop to 23 per cent among those aged 35 to 54, and to 18 per cent along those aged 55 and over.

Our survey shows that relocation does not have a onesize-fits-all solution across the country. For starters, British Columbians appear confused, perhaps even terrified, about

having to choose another province to call home. For others, regional proximity plays a significant role in what a move could look like. Still, British Columbia is appealing to young and middle-aged Albertans, soon-to-be-retired Saskatchewanians, centre-left leaning Manitobans and urban Ontarians who are already acquainted with expensive real estate. ■

Mario Canseco is president of Research Co.

Results are based on online surveys conducted from March 29-31, 2024, among 800 adults in B.C., 600 adults in Alberta, 600 adults in Saskatchewan, 600 adults in Manitoba, 600 adults in Ontario and 600 adults in Quebec. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region for each province. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for B.C. and four percentage points for Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, 19 times out of 20.

MARIO CANSECO

TROUBLE

WHO’S GETTING SUED

These corporate claims were filed with the B.C. Supreme Court registry in Vancouver. Information is derived from notices of civil claim. Civil claims have not been tested or proven in court.

DEFENDANT

San Industries Ltd.

PLAINTIFF

John Langstroth

CLAIM

Damages for wrongful dismissal plus punitive damages. This relates to the defendant terminating the plaintiff from a job that paid $290,000 in salary plus RRSP matching, which was $17,409.60 per year plus other benefits. The defendant allegedly made “fabricated” allegations against the plaintiff and then wanted to reduce the plaintiff’s salary to $100,000. When the plaintiff would not sign a new contract, he was allegedly directed to leave the office. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant also went into an employee portal and reduced his hours to zero for the week of April 30 through May 6, when the plaintiff alleges he was working.

DEFENDANTS

Devon McCaw and Devon R McCaw Consulting Inc.

PLAINTIFF

JDS Energy & Mining Inc.

CLAIM

An order that the defendant destroy all confidential information forwarded to his personal email address and/or otherwise appropriated to his personal possession, and damages for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of confidence and conversion. This relates to the employee defendant downloading corporate information just prior to resigning from his job.

DEFENDANT

MJN Investments Inc.

PLAINTIFF

Naomi Melo

CLAIM

$1,498,491.01 for money owed under a promissory note.

COURTS

DEFENDANTS

Asia Pacific Food Co. Ltd. and Da Hua Lu (formerly Da Hua Pei Ying Lu) and Da Hua International Trading Ltd.

PLAINTIFF

Business Development Bank of Canada

CLAIM

$482,127.11 for loans and interest.

DEFENDANTS

Mingguo Liu dba Botanic Workshop Ltd. and Jing Zhou dba Botanic Workshop Ltd. and Botanic Workshop Ltd.

PLAINTIFF

USA Cannabis LLC

CLAIM

General, special and aggravated damages for breach of contract. This relates to the defendant allegedly agreeing to build a cannabis facility for the plaintiff. When the plaintiff made some payments, the defendants Liu and Zhou allegedly caused the corporate entity of Botanic Workshop Ltd. to dissolve before it had fulfilled its contractual obligations.

DEFENDANT

Intersection Capital LLC

PLAINTIFF

Manatee Holdings Ltd.

CLAIM

General damages for breach of contract, including but not limited to the return of a US$550,000 investment.This relates to the defendant allegedly breaching agreements related to taking the plaintiff company public.

DEFENDANTS

Jonathan Lotz and Lotz Law Corp.

PLAINTIFFS

Preveceutical Medical Inc. and Stephen Van Deventer and Asterion Cannabis Inc.

CLAIM

General and special damages plus costs related to negligence resulting from work the defendants performed for the plaintiff. The defendants did not provide the plaintiff with any warning regarding any legal or regulatory risks or any risk of exposure to regulatory proceedings in relation to a press release and material change report. The BC Securities Commission issued a notice of hearing to the plaintiff, where it was alleged

that a press release and material change report contained misrepresentations because they did not state that some proceeds from a private placement had been spent on consultants or would be owed to consultants.

DEFENDANTS

CGC Centred Group Construction (Modus) Ltd. and Grandlake Investments Corp.

PLAINTIFF

TX Contracting Ltd.

CLAIM

$239,993.26 in a builders lien for money allegedly owed related to a development project.

DEFENDANTS

Fulton & Co. LLP and Lyle Backman

PLAINTIFF

Whispering Pines/Clinton Indian Band

CLAIM

$336,453.18 in damages related to alleged negligent legal work.

DEFENDANT

AMPD Ventures Inc.

PLAINTIFF

Dale Matheson Carr-Hilton Labonte LLP

CLAIM

$85,312.90 for an outstanding bill for accounting and auditing ser-

BIV.COM/NEWSLETTERS

vices provided by the plaintiff.

DEFENDANT

Fair Ticket Solutions (Canada) Ltd.

PLAINTIFF

Dale Matheson Carr-Hilton Labonte LLP

CLAIM

$70,875 for an outstanding bill for accounting and auditing services.

K biv.com TO VIEW PAST LAWSUITS, GO TO BIV.COM/DIGITAL AND REVIEW

PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF BIV ’S PAPER

Signupforour newsletters and feelsmarterinstantly.