Capital magazine, Fall 2014

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VICTORIA’S HOT FILM LOCATIONS • ELITE ATHLETES POWER ECONOMY

Capital FALL 2014

HOW VICTORIA WORKS

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WHAT WE MAKE, HOW WE ROLL

What’s up, dock?

A day at Seaspan shipyard

GRAHAM LEE

The rise of Victoria’s arena king

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Films: Victoria makes the scene

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Mandy Farmer: focused, focused, focused

For Island brewers, a full head of steam

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Elite athletes energize economy

Tony Hoar’s cycling dreams

Dave Obee 6 Mike Colgate 16 Suromitra Sanatani 20 Pedro Márquez 39 Sybil Verch 79 Jack Knox 114

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UVic goes deep for ‘blue economy’

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columnists

A new school of thought

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Capital NO. 2

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DAVE OBEE | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DAVID WHITMAN | ADVERTISING DIRECTOR DARRON KLOSTER | EDITOR ROGER WHITE | DESIGN DIRECTOR JASON SCRIVEN | SALES MANAGER

People making our town better

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Capital is published by the Times Colonist, a division of TC Publication Limited Partnership, at 2621 Douglas St., Victoria, British Columbia V8T 4M2. Canadian Publications Registration No. 0530646. GST No. 84505 1507 RT0001 Please send comments about Capital to: Editor-in-Chief Dave Obee, dobee@timescolonist.com To advertise in the next edition, phone 250-995-4464, or email Sales Manager Jason Scriven at jscriven@timescolonist.com

COVER PHOTO: BRUCE STOTESBURY

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DAVE OBEE • Editor-in-chief, Times Colonist

Innovation, evolution and ideas hat drives our economy? New ideas. What drives marketing? New ideas.

What do we have, in abundance, in Greater Victoria? Yes, new ideas.

It takes courage, commitment and perseverance to build a successful business, but new ideas are the first building block. Without them, our region would stagnate.

This, our second issue of Capital, is all about ideas and the people who have the drive to turn them into reality. These people are of all ages from a variety of backgrounds and they have different goals; getting rich is hardly the only reason why people open businesses.

With Capital, the Times Colonist is providing in-depth information on some people — your friends and neighbours — who are doing world-class work while enjoying life in what is, quite simply, one of the best places to be.

On these pages, you will read about people still in their 20s, already making a difference — people such as Natasha Grau-Ensminger. They are willing to take big chances because they believe in their ideas.

You will read about ideas developed by mashing together ideas that have already been proven to work.

Consider Hotel Zed, a fresh new look for a motel, one that borrows heavily from the past. Be bold or go home, you might say.

That could also apply to Graham Lee, the man fea-

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tured on our cover. He was instrumental in the construction, a decade ago, of the Victoria arena. Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre has allowed us to bring in major events, entertainers who would not have appeared in the old building and the return of the Western Hockey League.

Business really does make this a better place and Lee’s work proves that.

Sports helps drive the local economy, a lasting benefit from the 1994 Comonwealth Games. And while many think of Victoria as a home to tourism and government, we also have a thriving manufacturing sector.

One of the oldest businesses in the area is the graving dock in Esquimalt — yet, at that facility, you will find some of the latest technology and the most precise equipment. That shouldn’t be a surprise; every industry has had to adapt or die.

And then there are the only-in-Victoria stories, the ones that remind us that, yes, life here is different. Consider Rev. Ian Powell, who runs a major hotel — one with a unique Arthur Erickson design — when he is not at work at Christ Church Cathedral. And think of Christopher Causton or Dennis Murray, who are serving as ambassadors while having the time of their lives, ferrying people around the harbour.

Capital is about the community, the people who are shaping it for the next generation, and the people in that next generation, the ones who will be setting the stage for the next century. It’s all about innovation and evolution — and above all else, ideas.

Enjoy.

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Ian Powell at the Inn at Laurel Point. Pardon me, father, do you have a room?

The priest who runs a hotel B Y L I N D S AY K I N E S

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alk about service.

If you’re a guest of the Inn at Laurel Point, and you happen to have a concern, you could end up speaking to an emissary of God. That might be more clout than you need to get the heat in your room turned down, but it’s one of the perks of having a general manager who is also a priest.

The Rev. Ian Powell is known to perform early morning mass at Christ Church Cathedral before heading into the office at the Laurel Point.

His staff tend to appreciate those days, especially if an overly pushy guest demands to speak to the boss, only to have Powell arrive still wearing his collar.

“It’s amazing how the problems go away,” he said, grinning.

Mind you, Powell, 59, could handle most issues with or without his priestly trappings.

He’s been a hotelier far longer than a priest, having gone to hotel school in England PHOTO: ADRIAN LAM, TIMES COLONIST

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before embarking on 35 years in the business, including stints running the Fairmont Palliser in Calgary, the Empress Hotel in Victoria and the Hamilton Princess Hotel in Bermuda.

It was while in Bermuda, with the Fairmont facing the prospect of a hostile takeover in 2005, that Powell got the call from above.

“It was a voice in my head as clear as day that said: ‘You know what you’re bloody well supposed to be doing, just get on and do it.’ ” That Christmas, he returned to Victoria and spoke to the bishop about becoming a part-time priest.

“There is no such thing as a part-time priest,” the bishop sternly reminded him.

“But you don’t have to do it all the time.”

“I said: ‘OK, I get the subtlety,’ ” Powell recalls.

He was, however, still stuck in the middle of the Atlantic. Then, a few months later, the Laurel Point came looking for a general manager.

As befitting a hotel run by a priest, the inn has an unusual history. Built by Delta Hotels in the 1970s, the inn sits on a peninsula at the entrance to Victoria’s Inner Harbour where First Nations people once held potlatch ceremonies.

Paul Arsens purchased the hotel in 1980.

A local entrepreneur, he had established Paul’s Restaurants Ltd. in 1938, opened the Sussex Café on Douglas Street, followed by the Majorette and, finally, the landmark Paul’s Restaurant and Motor Inn. In 1989, he and his wife, Artie, commissioned their friend and famed architect, Arthur Erickson, to design a second wing at the inn. “The story says [Paul] wanted to expand it, they were playing cards and Arthur lost and he said: ‘Well, you can design me a new wing,’ ” Powell said.

“That’s why we call it the Erickson wing.”

Viewed from the harbour, it looks like a ship coming into port.

Arsens died of cancer in 1997, but Artie remained at the helm until her death in 2008 at age 94.

“Theirs was quite the love match,” Powell said.

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“Paul had started his stuff from nothing in 1938; he’d built up a lot. So she was determined that when she was gone that stuff that he’d built wasn’t going to just disappear, get turned into something else or get bought by a big company and become a widget.”

So she set up a trust with three trustees who serve as directors of Paul’s Restaurant Ltd., and Powell as the managing director.

His arrival at Laurel Point in 2006 was met with some trepidation given his long service with the Fairmont chain.

“I personally remember thinking: ‘Oh my goodness, we do not need someone corporate; we are just such a family-run, fun, independent property,’” recalls Julie Wright, human resources director and a 17-year employee of Laurel Point.

Her fears were quickly allayed by Powell, whom she credits with protecting the family atmosphere while still using his wealth of experience to strengthen the leadership team, update the hotel and raise

the level of professionalism and respect.

“He’s certainly not your typical general manager,” she said. “He really gets to know the staff. He comes in quite early in the morning, between 6 and 6:30, and he’ll chat with our night audit and front-desk team.

“He knows all of our colleagues by name and will say ‘hi.’ And that culture spreads.”

Former Victoria councillor Helen Hughes, whose Souper Bowls of Hope charity moved to the Laurel Point in 2012, said Powell’s influence is noticeable.

“You can tell if the staff is happy when you go into a hotel,” she said.

Everyone at the inn pitches in to help with her annual fundraiser for at-risk youth. “They’ve been most generous and very, very willing and able to help us to put on a good event. You have to have that kind of generous spirit, but also a business-like spirit. Our organizing committee has always said: ‘Oh, aren’t they marvellous.’ ”

It’s also in keeping with one of the trust’s goals of giving back to the community. At present, the company’s profits get plowed back into fixing up the inn and bringing it up to date, Powell said.

“But when we are in a situation where we’ve fixed it up and there’s some excess profits, they will be used for good works in the community.”

That will mesh nicely with multiple roles. An early riser, he stops at Paul’s Restaurant on the way to the Inn before 6 a.m., and by the afternoon he’s off to visit parishioners in hospital.

He decided a while ago, he said, to stop putting his life in boxes.

“I’m one person, so I decided that all of this stuff would blend together,” he said.

“I would suggest that who I am is why I am a priest and a hotelier.

“They are so close it’s not even funny, because it all comes down to dealing with people. And how you deal with them in a fair and ethical and equitable way — that’s the basis of my faith.” Capital

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Working the dry dock

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lectrician Jessica Lawson arrives from her Saanich home to begin work at Esquimalt Graving Dock ahead of most of her co-workers.

As a charge hand working for Seaspan Victoria Shipyards, Lawson supervises five other electricians and her day begins at 7 a.m. or earlier to get a jump. “I just need that extra half hour to get ahead of my guys,” said Lawson, 38.

She begins with a walk around “the boat.” (It’s a quirk of slang at the Esquimalt Graving Dock that likely appals mariners. But for shipyard workers, once a vessel — regardless of its size — is parked in dry dock, it becomes a boat, not a ship.)

Last month, the “boat” was HMCS Ottawa, commissioned in 1996 and undergoing a mid-life reconditioning at the dock.

PHOTOS: SEASPAN VICTORIA SHIPYARDS | DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST 10

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Top: Aerial view of the Esquimalt Graving Dock.

Left: Electrician Jessica Lawson in front of HMCS Ottawa dry docked at Seaspan Victoria Shipyards.

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Lawson’s first check is always for safety, making sure her crew’s working area is clear and neat. Safety is a near religion at the facility.

Everyone begins each week with safety meetings and every worker has the right to shut down the job over safety concerns at any time.

After her daily safety check, Lawson makes contact with the charge hands supervising other trades. She has to make sure her crew can begin without interfering with other work.

For example: Have the metal fabricators finished installing a new piece in the bulkhead? Have their welds been tested? Has the bare metal been primed and painted? Has insulation ture, its own project schedule been installed? and its own shipyard.

Crane Are any fitters about to Brody Smith, a 26-yearoperator John install new pipe? That’s old welder who started Smith runs the important because pipes working at Seaspan Vic27-tonne Ebco crane are heavier and harder to toria Shipyards while above HMCS Ottawa move than electrical cable. still in Grade 12, recalls at Seaspan Victoria So, in the hierarchy of shipthe touchiest piece of Shipyards. repair work, pipefitters usuwork he ever performed ally get priority. on a ship.

Now, imagine Lawson’s job It involved a double-length and her crew, repeated over and welding rod fashioned to reach into over across a workforce consisting of 10 a small, out-of-the-way space. separate, unionized trades, including elecSmith could only see what he was doing tricians, welders, steel fabricators and by deploying a mirror and looking at the carpenters. reflection.

Imagine it across a workforce ranging And he fashioned a good weld. from 800 to about 1,100, depending on the “You can be in a tank crawling around, ship being reconditioned. underneath a motor in a fish boat,” said Finally, imagine this workforce reguSmith.

“It gets pretty cramped.” larly refitting, reconditioning and repairAnd before a welder such as Smith even ing several vessels at the same time. strikes a spark in any enclosed space, speThey could be navy frigates or subcially trained and equipped safety officers marines, ferries or Holland America have to check to make sure it’s safe. cruise ships.

Every ship is a series of tight, enclosed Then throw in a fishing boat or two and spaces: rooms, tanks, bilges and crawl a coast guard cutter. spaces packed with machinery.

And consider every ship has its own Electro-chemical reactions between “snowflake quality.” No two are exactly metal, water or other substances regularly the same, even when they are the same render the contained airspace unbreathclass or type. able or flammable.

Each is a product of its own manufac-

Heavy stuff at Esquimalt graving dock Dock size: Length: 357.5 metres, width: 38.4 metres — can be divided into two using caissons to split the space.

Pumps: Three centrifugal pumps are used, each discharging 227,000 litres of seawater per minute.

Heavy equipment: Three rail-mounted travelling cranes — a 150-tonne crane capable of lifting some vessels to land and two 30-tonne cranes; one tower crane services vessels berthed at the south jetty; three mobile, rubber-tired cranes with 30-tonne, 25-tonne and 10-tonne capacities; four- and six-tonne forklifts Capacity: Three vessels can be in dry dock at the same time, with four more tied to jetties.

PHOTOS: SEASPAN VICTORIA SHIPYARDS | DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

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HMCS Ottawa in dry dock at Seaspan Victoria Shipyards.

That gives an idea of the complexity, the skill level, the organizational enormity that is undertaken every time a ship pulls into the Esquimalt Graving Dock. The words “project management” begin to take on special significance.

The graving dock can easily lay claim to being the single largest concentration of skilled and professional workers in one job site on southern Vancouver Island.

Nothing else comes close to the variety and numbers of accredited, ticketed journeyman and professional workers.

A federally owned facility, the Esquimalt Graving Dock is operated by Public Works and Government Services Canada. About 40 government workers operate the cranes and pumps and dock

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the ships. But the work of repairing those ships is done by private companies leasing the facility.

The biggest company, with a workforce that can reach 1,100 people depending on the job, is Seaspan Victoria Shipyards.

“We have sheet-metal workers, electricians, steel fabricators, welders, joiners, mechanics and engine fitters,” said Malcolm Barker, vice-president and general manager of Seaspan Victoria Shipyards.

“And all of these work together as an integrated team,” said Barker.

The shipyard almost died in 1994.

Yarrows Ltd., once the biggest shipyard operation in B.C. with more than 1,200 employees operating out of Esquimalt and the Lower Mainland, closed its doors. It was

DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

a typical corporate shutdown.

Management officials blamed unions, which had a reputation for turf wars, for being inflexible and not allowing the company to remain competitive.

Unions blamed management, saying it was not even trying to drum up new business because it wanted to kill the company to put it into receivership.

But before the end of 1994, a glimmer of hope for shipyard work in Victoria started to appear. A company then known as Vancouver Shipyards (Esquimalt) Ltd. emerged.

It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Seaspan International Ltd., a Vancouver company that had operated in Victoria until moving out in 1985.

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How the graving dock works

When a ship arrives, a complex series of manoeuvres come into play: • Draining: A caisson, a massive floating wall made of steel and concrete, is pushed into place by a tug. Pumps on board the caisson fill its interior with water to sink it into tight-fitting seats. By using two caissons at once, dry dock space can be divided into two enclosures.

• Pumping: Three giant pumps, each one discharging 227,000 litres a minute located inside a pumphouse on shore, empty the dry dock section behind the seated caisson to reveal the drydock floor.

• Setup: A dock master and crew construct and position blocks to receive the ship’s hull. Each ship block is about the size of a railway tie and is fashioned from steel and wood. With a ship designed to have its hull weight supported by water, care must be taken when transferring its weight to the blocks.

Each ship owner presents its docking plan, including schematic diagrams of the hull, to the ship-repair company. The plan is used to draw up precise arrangement of the blocks.

• Refloating: With the ship blocks arranged, the drydock is reflooded. The caisson is then pumped out, refloated and removed. A system of tugs and winches then push and pull the ship into the flooded dry dock. Once the ship is floated in over the top of the blocks still sitting on the submerged floor, the caisson is floated back into position. It is then flooded and settles into its seat to seal off the dry dock.

• Bubbles: A “bubble curtain” is installed at the entrance of the dry dock.

Steel pipes discharge compressed air to create a barrier of bubbles to deter fish or seals from entering and becoming trapped when the dry dock is drained.

• Pump out: Once the caisson is sunk and the drydock sealed off, on-shore pumps begin removing water. As the ship settles on its blocks, divers are sent below to make sure nothing gets crushed and the hull’s weight settles down evenly.

• The entire reflooding operation takes four to six hours.

In April 1994, as Yarrows wound down, unions and the new company announced a major employment coup.

The Labour Relations Board had certified the Boilermakers Union Local 191 as bargaining agent for Vancouver Shipyards (Esquimalt).

It had been feared that unions from the Lower Mainland might have tried to block the certification.

Instead, they all agreed to work through the Boilermakers Union as long as workers’ dues and benefit contributions went to their own unions.

Instead of building new ships, the company would concentrate on ship repair and refurbishment and operate out of the federally owned Esquimalt Graving Dock.

Within two weeks of the certification announcement, the Seaspan-owned Vancouver Shipyards (Esquimalt) had opened an office at the graving dock.

It also announced its first repair contract, a four-day refit of B.C. Ferries’ Queen of Vancouver, worth $49,598.

By the following year, the company had 50 full-time employees and had hired about 600 workers.

It also had about $6 million worth of contracts signed for deep-sea vessels.

By 2013, Seaspan Victoria Shipyards was supporting an annual payroll of $78 million and a workforce ranging from 800 to 1,100.

The company was buying more than $12 million in goods and services every

year from businesses in Greater Victoria.

Barker said the yard has proven itself and has years of work already lined up.

“When we deliver projects on budget and on time, with the quality of work we are doing, as good if not better than anyone else in the world, then ship owners come to us,” said Barker.

As proof, he said that after every job is finished, Seaspan Victoria Shipyards contracts idependent evaluations based on five areas: employees, quality of work, delivery time, safety and environmental practices.

Barker said the company is scoring more than 95 per cent, or 4.65 out of five.

Most yards would be delighted to hit a rating close to 4.5. Capital Capital FALL 2014

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Our dry dock history • Esquimalt has two dry docks, Naden and Esquimalt.

• Naden was the first and, although much smaller, still operates today inside CFB Esquimalt. It was built by the governments of Great Britain, Canada and British Columbia, and opened on July 20, 1887.

Celebrate.

• HMS Cormorant was the first ship in Naden. Cormorant Street, near Victoria City Hall, is named for the vessel.

• Naden replaced a facility in Chile that had been the Royal Navy’s previous Pacific refit station. But by the early 20th century, Naden was no longer big enough to accommodate most ships, particularly merchant vessels. In 1905, the Royal Navy stopped using the facility.

• In 1927, the Canadian government officially opened Esquimalt Graving Dock off Admirals Road to accommodate the maximum-sized ships already travelling through the Panama Canal, which had opened in 1914. Those ship dimensions came to be known as Panamax.

• The Esquimalt Graving Dock has been widened and lengthened several times since completion and can handle 90 per cent of the world’s ships.

• Perhaps the most famous vessel to be taken into the new dry dock was the Cunard Line’s Queen Elizabeth, converted into a troop ship in February 1942. As the largest ocean liner in the world at the time, the QE would eventually be capable of carrying a full army division of 15,000 soldiers. Because the Queen Elizabeth was so large, Victoria authorities were worried she would make a tempting target for a bombing raid. Military police blocked off streets, people were warned to say little and the two daily newspapers did not mention the ship’s name. Work proceeded around the clock for 13 days before she put out to sea again.

• The Esquimalt Graving Dock has remained in continual use since 1927. Most recently, large pockets were constructed in the concrete sides of the dry dock to allow ships to extend their stabilizers for inspection and maintenance.

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MARK C O L G AT E • Associate dean, University of Victoria Peter B. Gustavson School of Business

Cracking the code to customer service hen it comes to a company’s financial success, one of the most overlooked drivers is the customer experience.

Customer service has a huge impact on the bottom line.

The research is clear. Happy customers spend more and provide free word-of-mouth marketing, boosting revenues and lowering customer-acquisition costs.

Despite its enormous value to a company, providing great customer service can be an exceedingly difficult code to crack.

While the majority of companies say they strive to offer a great customer experience, very few are able to execute and deliver a world-class experience on a consistent basis. It’s not that chief executives and their teams don’t want to offer great service — no one sets out to disappoint — it’s that they have underestimated the challenge and have not spent the time and effort to carefully lay the foundation of a great customer-service system.

Looking at companies that have earned a reputation as customer-service leaders, five best practices emerge in providing an exceptional customer experience, day in and day out: • Make employee engagement a priority. It all starts with people.

If employees aren’t happy, they won’t provide great customer service. WestJet Airlines believes highly engaged employees, who are also stockholders, will go above and beyond to provide a truly memorable experience. The strategy is successful. West-

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Jet has earned a spot in Canada’s 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures Hall of Fame. J.D. Power and Associates has recognized the airline as a Customer Service Champion and they are one of the most profitable airlines in North America.

• Define a clear vision and goals. Brokerage firm Edward Jones works hard to have a clear and compelling strategy that everyone in the firm understands and is excited to deliver. In fact, they go so far as to create a concise “activity map” to show how all the major functions of the firm connect to its “customer-value proposition.” It’s no accident they are again No. 1 in J.D. Power’s latest Canadian Full Service Investor Satisfaction Study.

• Make customer service an integral part of your brand. When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, he set out to create “the Earth’s most customer-centric company.” Bezos’ meetings were famous for the empty chair at the boardroom table to represent the customer’s point of view. When customer service is inextricable from a brand, it can’t be an afterthought, it must influence every decision.

• Build a system. If there are no measures to represent what great service means to the customer, no process for identifying and fixing customer pain points and no method for linking employee rewards and recognition for achieving customer-focused goals, then companies are reinforcing the wrong types of behaviours.

In the hotel industry, Ritz-Carlton is known for its fixation with customer metrics and process improvements. While on the outside, Ritz-Carlton employees seem to be astonishing at delivering personalized service, the reality is that the company has created a comprehensive customer-service program that includes extensive training programs, a robust customer relationship management system, as well as policies that reward employees for going above and beyond to delight guests.

• Create cultural norms, not rules. Customer-service leaders must strike a balance between micro-managing employees and giving them carte blanche. Letting employees do what they think is best can be risky, but a rigid system of rules and scripts prevents them from being empathetic and creating a connection with customers.

At Telus, employees are guided by a set of commitments it crowdsourced from its team. When a Telus employee picks up the phone, they know they should be “friendly, helpful and thoughtful” and “take ownership of every customer experience.” But from there they are empowered to let their personality shine through and deliver an unforgettable experience.

Most of us can think of at least one organization that has been so consistently impressive, we are compelled to tell family and friends. Behind great customer service, there’s a clear vision, strong leadership and a balance of goals, people and systems.

Becoming a customer-service leader doesn’t happen overnight.

It’s a journey that takes focus, persistence and resilience.

By taking the time to understand the necessary building blocks of a great customer-service experience, along with the effort required to get there, companies can crack the code and turn customer service into a powerful and sustainable competitive advantage, creating satisfied customers and happy shareholders.

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Tapas lounge entrepreneur’s incredible adventure

Leaders in LED

MIKE DEVLIN

T

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NANAIMO

he journey to bring her first business to life has been an incredible two-year adventure for Natasha Grau-Ensminger.

The 25-year-old founder and operator of Lacey-Lou Tapas Lounge on Broad Street is run off her feet most days.

Time off is a luxury she can’t afford.

Being a new small-business owner, money is tight. But her mixed-use space has been met with a warm response since opening last spring, particularly from the local arts community. Music, poetry, live painting and comedy fills the Lacey-Lou calendar seven days a week.

“The performers are so excited about it,” Grau-Ensminger said of the business, which promotes local art, food and music on an equal-share basis. “We’re filling the place on a Sunday now, so it’s going well in that aspect. We are at capacity a few times a week.”

With help from a team of friends and volunteers, the project eventually found its footing. Grau-Ensminger did plenty of the renovation work herself, a tough job since the former site of Rising Star Bakery, at 1320 Broad St., had not been substantially upgraded in years.

It took a month to find her niche, Grau-Ensminger said. As an entrepreneur, she’s new to the business world, though her range of experience has come in handy. For starters, she’s an artist, so she knows the arts environment. She is hoping to make life easier for some of the 15 local artists whose work is rotated through the gallery, and has sold plenty in the few months Lacey-Lou has been open (including the occasional piece created by the boss).

She is also a music fan. She sees her role as giving up-and-coming musicians a stress-free stage to play. At first, audiences came because of the ticket price — just five per cent of the shows at Lacey-Lou have a cover charge. Most of the shows, Grau-Ensminger said, are either free or by donation. Over time, however, audiences began coming back for the quality of the undiscovered talent. “This is something that is different, and it’s based on community,” she said.

Her background is in the hospitality business, so she is wellversed in customer service. She does find it ironic, in some ways, that she is offering food, given what she learned while receiving her diploma in hotel and resort management.

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“I never in a million years would have wanted to start a business with food,” she said, laughing at her predicament. “I know the failure rate with restaurants.”

Though she was born in Winnipeg, where she lived until she was four, her roots are well-established on Vancouver Island.

Grau-Ensminger was raised on a 13-hectare organic farm in Yellow Point, near Ladysmith. The family grew vegetables and fruit and raised chickens, skills Grau-Ensminger learned at an early age and has put to use with the organic-leaning Lacey-Lou menu. Grau-Ensminger considers it a point of pride that everything on offer at the lounge — from art and music to food and beverage — is local.

The nature of a rural upbringing meant she was bound to become passionate about horses. Some of her first jobs away from the family farm were on guest ranches, where vacationers pay for back-to-the-land holidays. It was through stints at ranches in the B.C. Interior that she developed an interest in hospitality.

She was ready to take on the workplace after receiving her diploma in hotel and resort management from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, but fate intervened.

“Once I completed school, I came back to Victoria kind of by default. I was a broke student, so it was never my intention to stay. I thought I would end up out in the boonies working at a ranch.”

Instead, she opened a lounge — but not before taking a run of Victoria jobs, which included an upscale Victoria hotel and a backpacker hostel. Neither position fit, so she went back on the road, landing a job at a remote New Mexico wild-horse ranch through a work-for-stay program in which the volunteers work in return for free accommodation.

At one point, Grau-Ensminger was so moved by the cause that she was donating 30 per cent of her horse paintings and prints to the non-profit mustang ranch.

Her other left-field work opportunity was in 2011, when she took a post at a Las Vegas hostel.

It was more fun than it sounds, she said.

“I never thought I’d ever want to go to Vegas, but that was the whole point of travelling on my own. I wanted to experience different things.”

In 2012, she began putting the pieces together for Lacey-Lou, which she affectionately named after her dog, a scrappy six-yearold “pound mutt” of undetermined heritage who rarely acts its age.

The learning curve was enough to make her want to quit, she said. But with help from a fundraising campaign through Indiegogo, which netted her a local investor, Grau-Ensminger eventually got her project off the ground. It has become in a few months what she envisioned it to be: a space for the community, by the community.

The lounge is hamstrung, to a degree, by its small scale (for performances, the venue has a capacity of 93, 100 with staff).

That said, Grau-Ensminger likes the intimacy created during the concerts. Seeing smiles on the faces of her customers helps ease the pain of running a business so close to the bone.

“It’s a challenge,” she said. “I started this idea when I was 22 years old and without a dime in my pocket. But I am somebody who loves to create.” Capital

Natasha Grau-Ensminger founded Lacey-Lou Tapas Lounge: “I never in a million years would have wanted to start a business with food.”

DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

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SUROMITRA S A N ATA N I • Board chairwoman for the Royal British Columbia Museum

Guardians of past look to the future

I

n 1886, our founding pioneers signed a proclamation to establish the Royal British Columbia Museum, leading to the preservation, research and exhibition of the province’s heritage. The millions of artifacts and archival records collected since tell the story of our great province. The striking mix of natural and social history enables us to tell stories of a land, people and place that is integral to the Canadian mosaic.

The Royal B.C. Museum is on an exciting trajectory that exposes magnificent collections and research to the world and, at the same time, supports the local and provincial economy. Every year, we welcome almost one million visitors (and another two million online). People not only visit the galleries, but also undertake research in our collections and the largest archives in Western Canada.

They take in a movie with our partner, the Imax Victoria theatre, and enjoy the visitor amenities and services provided by other businesses on site. According to visitors surveyed in August, 33 per cent said the primary reason they came to Victoria was to see the Vikings exhibition. Furthermore, 48 per cent of summer visitors were from outside the province.

The economic impact of the activities of the museum and archives are wide-ranging: filling hotel rooms, supporting businesses by buying an array of supplies and employing 120 staff and engaging 600 volunteers. The list goes on.

The Royal B.C. Museum generates more than $36 million 20

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in GDP for the province and additional income supports a further 300 full-time jobs.

As befits a provincial institution, our work touches every corner of British Columbia. Our scientists undertake field research, documenting changes to the natural world. Our historians, scientists and archivists support researchers all over the world. They acquire rare objects to add to our already significant Emily Carr collection, assist families with their own genealogy and support the curating of public exhibitions.

Under the leadership of Jack Lohman, we have put a focus on building partnerships with tourism, academia, First Nations, community groups and museums around the world.

We are entering into dialogue about the future of the province we live in, and with the citizens we serve. We actively seek new ways to support community museums and archives and provide opportunities for stakeholders to be involved in their museum and archives.

The museum understands the importance of contemporary research and is involved in many of the most important issues of our modern day, including environmental reviews as a result of natural-resource extraction and the inherent changes to the landscape. We provide ongoing support for treaty negotiations and First Nations reconciliation, and support education through the delivery of school programs for students all over B.C. Further, there is a recognition that the museum has an important contribution to make on the international stage.

We are sought out by our national and international colleagues, particularly in China and the Asia Pacific, as we are recognized for our skills, experience and collections.

We recognize that the stories of British Columbia don’t just belong here, so we are taking the opportunity to reach out and share our unique world view through international partnerships, loans and exhibitions. This strategy of building opportunities, increasing awareness of the region and enhancing economic sustainability for our institution is also directed toward strengthening our exhibits to audiences across Canada.

In order to continue to move forward, build on our successes and safeguard our collections for the future, we have developed a master plan that guides our ideas, showcases unseen collections, ensures previous investment on our site is enhanced, and gives us the opportunity to be leaders and advocates for a vibrant provincial cultural community.

Beyond being a proven economic driver for the province, the museum is critical to the future success of British Columbia. Without the museum and archives, we cannot tell the story of British Columbia and Canada. It is time for renewal. After almost 130 years of growth, we must look forward and leave a strong legacy for future generations.

Our forefathers had the vision to establish this institution and in 1967 create the existing site. The time for reinvestment in infrastructure has come. The opportunity exists to celebrate the Royal B.C. Museum’s 130th birthday in 2016 and Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017. We call on the citizens of British Columbia to support us on this exciting journey of transformation.

After all, we’re more than just a simple displayer of artifacts.

We are the proud stewards of your heritage.

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Technology gave it life. She gave it heart.

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$100,000,000

>>> The Eagle Creek Village development in View Royal near Victoria General Hospital was the capital region’s largest construction start in 2013 — and ranked No. 13 in B.C. — at $100 million. The mixed-used project includes Quality Foods and Tim Hortons. The Johnson Street Bridge replacement project was pegged at $93 million, but critics contend that, with cost overruns, it could surpass $100 million.

Biggest Island real estate deals 1 $25.8 million. Partner REIT acquired the Mariner Square Shopping Centre in Campbell River. The sale of 101,000 square feet of leasable space was the most expensive real estate deal of 2013.

$70,000,000

>>> View Royal Casino was ranked No. 7 among casinos in B.C. last year in total gaming revenue at $70.435 million. That’s a slip from $73.695 million in 2012. The loss was split evenly between slots and tables. The View Royal Casino, part of Great Canadian Gaming Corp., has 565 slots. Casino Nanaimo, also owned by Great Canadian, was ranked No. 10 in B.C. with $41.796 million in gaming revenues, down from $43.240 million in 2012. River Rock Casino in Richmond was B.C.’s gambling mecca with $343 million in gambling revenues last year. Grand Villa Casino in Burnaby was a distant No. 2 at $183 million.

By the numbers

2 $17.1 million. Port Alberni’s Pacific Rim Shopping Centre, acquired by Strathallen Acquisitions Inc. from Sun Life Assurance Co. 3 $15.5 million. 82,530-square-foot retail building at 975 Langford Parkway acquired by Jim Pattison Developments Inc. from Langford Furniture Park Inc. 4 $10.2 million. Aquattro condominium project in Colwood. Ernst & Young sold the development land to Seacliff Properties.

1,104,718

5 $9.4 million. Victoria Professional Building, 1120 Yates St. First Capital Realty Inc. acquired the 38,000-square-foot medical office building.

$11.4 billion

>>> Telus is the top public company in the province, based on 2013 revenues.

6 $8.09 million. Milne Building, 752-756 Fort St. 7 $8.07 million. Board of Trade

Building, 31 Bastion Square, bought by the Reliance Property Group.

8 $7.84 million. 1635 Cook St.

apartment building.

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>>> The number of passengers served at Victoria International Airport for the first eight months of 2014.

YYJ had 171,764 passengers in August, a record total for any month. This year’s numbers are expected to easily eclipse the 1,556,960 who used the airport in 2013.

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$1,772,000,000 >>> Coastal Community Credit Union, based in Nanaimo, is the eighthlargest credit union in the province based on 2013 assets, with $1.772 billion under management. Duncan-based Island Savings Credit Union follows at No. 9 with $1.480 billion. VanCity is No. 1 at $17.54 billion, followed by Coast Capital at $12.52 billion.

$1,100,000,000 >>> The John Hart Dam replacement project near Campbell River was the biggest construction start of 2013 in B.C., based on the $1.1 billion cost.

Completion is set for 2019.

76

>>> Neverblue, a performancebased online marketing company based in downtown Victoria, is the fourth-largest digital agency and web developer in B.C. in terms of staff with 76. Falcon Software Company Inc. in Langford is ranked No. 13 with 30 staff.

B.C.’s biggest professional organizations Ranked by dues-paying members in 2014 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

College of Registered Nurses of B.C. 38,072 Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. 28,000 B.C. Real Estate Association 18,687 Law Society of B.C. 13,105 Institute of Chartered Accountants of B.C. 11,934 College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. 11,194 Certified General Accountants of B.C. 11,105 Applied Science Technologists & Technicians of B.C. 10,286 Doctors of B.C. 9,500 College of Dental Surgeons of B.C. 9,204

$102,800,000,000 [$102.8 billion] >>> British Columbia Investment Management Corp., based on the Selkirk Waterfront, is by far the largest investment management firm in the province with $102.8 billion in assets under administration. The firm, headed by CEO Doug Pearce with 192 staff, invests in the infrastructure, mortgage, fixed income, public and private equity and real estate sectors.

BCIMC completed the biggest real estate deal in the province last year, the $159-million purchase of the Canada Post office building in Vancouver.

73,000

>>> The Victoria Conference Centre is ranked 11th in B.C. in terms of total rentable square footage among convention/meeting places — although that could shrink if the city finds an alternative use for Crystal Garden. Vancouver Convention Centre is No. 1 at 466,500 square feet.

Capital

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Slow-fashion

movement gains speed

The Makehouse rekindles the lost art of sewing, and a passion for fashion Jenny Ambrose is the force behind Makehouse, where people can learn the craft, create their own fashion expressions — and feel good about their place in a consumer world.

BRUCE STOTESBURY, TIMES COLONIST

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That’s how many people visit The Bay Centre, Victoria’s centre of downtown shopping, year after year. When shopping is your business, there’s only one place to be. thebaycentre.ca

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B Y R I C H A R D W AT T S

J

enny Ambrose has always known that behind every great fashion trend is someone with a sewing machine.

Now Ambrose, owner of The Makehouse in Victoria, is hoping to put women and men not just on the forefront of the fashion trend, but in the driver’s seat on the road to creating their own wardrobe.

The Makehouse is a retail operation on Fort Street where customers pay to attend workshops or take courses based on sewing.

Workshops range from beginner to refresher sessions, from working with patterns to creating patterns of your own.

Courses for kids are also an option and even birthday parties can be arranged. People can also drop in at certain times to use the high-end digital sewing machines.

“I want to teach people not just the practical side of sewing, but the creative aspects as well,” Ambrose said.

“People don’t need to go to fashion school to be able to have sewing as part of their lives, to be able to do things for themselves.”

Sewing your own clothes can lead to bigger things. For proof, consider Eliza Faulkner, who owns her own label. She says it all began at age 12 in the Cowichan Valley, when she sewed clothes for herself.

Faulkner went on to fashion school in London, England, and did design work for several labels in the city.

She now works in a studio in Duncan while an agent beats the worldwide bushes on her behalf. “[Sewing] was a great place to start,” said Faulkner. “And it’s fun Eliza Faulkner to say you’ve made it yourself and, at the same time, you know nobody else can have it.”

Ambrose, 36, has been in Victoria since 2011. She was born in Saskatoon.

Her father taught industrial arts at a public school and was handy enough to build the family home.

Her mother, too, was not afraid to do things for herself or the family, including some sewing, although it was not an avocation.

But Ambrose moved to England in 1998 and found inspiration.

In Brighton, she founded and managed her own line of women’s wear under the Enamore label. The line lasted six years. She later taught fashion students about sewing and clothing construction in Bath.

When she opened her first Victoria storefront sewing shop, many people told her she was nuts. But she has since moved to an area with more traffic and has a steady stream of clients and customers, including repeats.

She recently invested in new digital sewing machines. These have the added benefit of operating with or without a foot pedal, making them accessible to people in wheelchairs.

For Ambrose, much of her inspiration comes from what’s been dubbed the “slow-fashion movement.” It’s about returning to wellmade clothes. Preferably, they are made in a business close to home.

Maybe they are even made by somebody in your family.

Ambrose said she often uses off-the-rack garments to show her clients things such as stitches placed far apart that take less thread and keep costs down. She said such cost-cutting moves affect the quality of clothing today.

“Only the rich can afford to buy cheap things because they will wear out and they will have to keep buying new things,” said Ambrose. “If things are well made, you will invest the time into repairing them because they are worth it.”

High-end fashion designers and outlets, such as Vogue, publish and sell printed patterns for people to use to sew their own on-trend clothing. Done well, these look fantastic.

“Just because something is homemade doesn’t mean it has to look homemade,” Ambrose said.

And it’s not just about high fashion. Ambrose said she had one customer, a carpenter, who came in with four pairs of heavily used Carhartt overalls (which can retail for more than $100) and his new sewing machine, a Christmas gift.

“He left knowing how to use his sewing machine and how to put heavy-duty patches on his Carhartts,” she said. “That’s all he wanted to know and I haven’t seen him since.”

She also gets women who are interested in sewing basic clothing items such as leggings. Underwear is another favourite.

“Women will always complain they can’t find something that is pretty but still sensible in underwear,” Ambrose said.

“They just don’t make underwear for a woman who has any kind of a butt,” she said. “If you have any kind of booty, everything on you will be a thong.”

Ambrose said any comments about sewing and modern clothes would be incomplete without a reference to the working conditions in developing-world garment factories, such as the factory in Bangladesh that collapsed last year, killing 1,129 people.

“You feel all great because you got a T-shirt for $5, but there is another price to pay,” she said. “[The Makehouse] is my way of fighting against that,” said Ambrose. “This is my soapbox.”

Ultimately, she hopes to help revive something that has been lost. In recent decades, with both parents working, it has become a rarity to pass on a skill such as sewing to the younger generation.

It was once common for houses to have a sewing room. Most families had at least one member who was good at it. Now, people can be flummoxed by the idea of sewing on a button.

But Ambrose is convinced slow fashion, clothes-making and sewing will be a good fit with Victoria.

“People in Victoria like to be unique,” she said. “They like to express themselves through their lifestyle and clothing is a part of that. So, if people can learn how to alter things or make things for themselves, then they can express themselves any way they want.” Capital

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After some investigating, my business partner and I bought the franchise for Victoria. We started with one apartment and $3000 over 9 years ago. We now have almost 50 apartments and 10 staff.

The most attractive part for companies with staff coming in and out of the city is the value. A fully furnished condo with Premiers Suites costs less than a comparable hotel suite. It is larger, includes everything from hydro, cable, housekeeping, to in-suite laundry and parking. A big plus is that stays over 30 days are non taxable. This is a huge advantage for any company housing staff for a long-term project.

Local Managing Partner Rachelle Keeley

Premiere Suites was started about 14 years ago by Tim Moore, who saw a need for furnished accommodation for the business traveller or displaced home owners.

was teaching French at UVic when I first heard about Premiere Suites.

I was really intrigued by a hotel model that used fully furnished condos instead.

Tim’s vision was that there would be a lot more business travel. He was right. We have people staying with us from all over the world. No two days

I

are the same. We might have a team of engineers arrive on Monday followed by a full production company arriving on the Wednesday, and everybody staying different lengths of time.

Premiere Suites is now in 26 cities in Canada as well as Tampa, Fl. There are 1320 suites ready for business travellers on short assignment, for new staff relocating to the city or for home owners that have been displaced by fire or flood. We are not about the suites as much as we are about the relationships with people. We want our guests to be sleeping on the best linen and have the best experience knowing they are cared for by the team here.

“One of the biggest pleasures we have is placing families that have been displaced from their homes because of a fire or flood. Taking people from a high stress situation into a beautiful place to stay is really rewarding, it feels great to be able to help,” says Leah Speller, Office Manager.

Premiere Victoria is in its 9th year of business with Katie Unger moving into the reservations and guest services department. “I am really looking forward to welcoming guests to our city and our absolutely amazing living spaces.”

Dennis Li, Operations Manager, has greatly enjoyed his time at Premiere thus far. “I’ve been given the opportunity to expand my knowledge and skills while also getting to interact with our guests and make sure that they have everything they need. It makes me happy to see repeat guests coming back every year to stay with us again.”

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Graham Lee: WHL saviour, concert king, entrepreneur Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre operator learned early in life that hard work can build business empires

BY MIKE DEVLIN

T

he man who built Victoria’s arena, brought back major junior hockey and led us out of the wilderness with world-class entertainment took little for granted as a kid.

Success was never a given for Graham Lee until he earned his keep, learned the ropes and paid his dues.

“We didn’t grow up with silver spoons,” said Lee, founder and chief executive of GSL Holdings Ltd., the parent company of RG Properties, which operates Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre and owns the Victoria Royals hockey team.

“We lived very frugally.”

The expectation was that Lee would make something of himself, an ethic instilled in all four siblings by their father, Robert H. Lee, a prolific Vancouver real estate developer awarded both the Order of B.C. and the Order of Canada for his philanthropy and business developments. His presence continues to loom large in Lee’s life, as does the influence of other family members, such as his uncle Ron Lou-Poy, a former chancellor of the University of Victoria.

Graham Lee, owner of the Victoria Royals, employs 4,000 people among the businesses in his GSL Holdings Ltd. DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

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Rock bands, such as Kiss, and the Victoria Royals hockey team attract thousands to Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST | BRUCE STOTESBURY, TIMES COLONIST

With that inherent drive, it was inevitable Lee would work hard and aim high. Evidence of his entrepreneurial bent emerged early, at age six, when Lee started selling his Halloween treats for a nickel apiece. “When I was young, I didn’t know there were 9-to-5 jobs. I thought everybody went out and found businesses to run. As a kid, I thought that’s what I had to get ready for.”

Lee developed an early business sense, which has served him well on various fronts, including the conception, construction and continued operation of Save-onFoods Memorial Centre.

Lee’s RG Properties opened the $30-million, multi-purpose venue, which replaced the Memorial Arena in 2005. A once concert-starved city came to life with acts such as Bob Dylan, Cher, Elton John and Rod Stewart. Lee also brought high-profile sports back to Victoria — which had been without a professional or major junior hockey team since 1994 — first with the ECHL’s Salmon Kings and now the Western Hockey League’s Victoria Royals.

Lee shouldered part of the risk to build the arena, spending $12 million in a pubCapital FALL 2014

30

lic-private partnership where the City of Victoria owns the land and building and RG Properties operates the facility.

Through a 40-year lease agreement, Lee sees it as a relationship with benefits for both sides.

According to the latest revenue-sharing contract, running from 2015 to 2025, RG Properties will pay the city an annual fee of $235,000 to operate the building and the city will receive a per-ticket surcharge for both hockey and non-sports related events, ranging from 50 cents to $2 per ticket, depending on the admission price.

RG Properties is responsible for any losses.

RG booked 31 non-hockey events in 2007, its busiest year to date. On average during the past decade, 22 non-hockey events have been staged every year, with the bulk of the events being concerts.

“We have paid the city over $6 million for its share of operating revenues, all tickets sold and naming rights over the 10 years we have operated,” said Lee. “It’s a partnership. It’s a very long-term arrangement and we have a very strong attachment to the building. It’s not like a typical lease-holder of a shopping mall,

who doesn’t have an attachment to the building. At the end of the lease, they can move out. Our team put our hearts and souls in this building and a lot of money.”

Victoria architect Alan Lowe, mayor when the arena was built, credits Lee with playing a pivotal role in raising the offIsland profile of Victoria. The old Memorial Arena, built in 1949, was outdated and under-sized. The new arena, which holds 7,000 for hockey games and 8,000 for concerts, puts Victoria on a level playing field in the province, both economically and culturally. “[Memorial Arena] was losing $500,000 a year and no concerts were coming,” Lowe said. “Now, we have a hockey team, concerts are happening and the city is making money. It was a win-win.”

Even the most critical people agree the arena was a boon. The quality of hockey improved in 2011 when Lee acquired the WHL Chilliwack Bruins franchise, brought the team to Victoria and named them the Royals. And the concert activity is much higher than average for a similarly sized city in Canada.

Lee was well on his way in business by the time he graduated from the Univer-

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sity of British Columbia in 1987. With momentum from a school project and a $150,000 loan from his family, he created his own property development company to buy industrial sites. He named it RG, an abbreviation melding Lee’s first initial with that of his father, Robert.

Graham Lee’s GSL Holdings is the parent company to several businesses and considered one of the largest private employers in B.C. with more than 4,000 on its payroll and annual operating revenues of $50 million. GSL includes the building and operation of multi-purpose arenas and recreation facilities, e-commerce, hospitality, sports and entertainment, fitness centres and agriculture. Subsidiaries include RG Properties, Planet Ice, Planet Fitness, Boomers Bar & Grill, Leeberry Farms, the Victoria Royals, RG Sports and Entertainment and RG Construction Ltd..

RG Properties started building hockey rinks around Vancouver in 1995. Lee’s big break in the hockey-entertainment sector came in a chance meeting with a Kelowna city councillor during a plane ride home from Las Vegas. An arena was to be built in Kelowna and Lee was interested. While

other construction bids fell apart or were rejected, RG Properties got a green light for its ambitious plans.

Prospera Place opened in 1999 with an in-house restaurant, luxury suites and club seats — traits that became RG’s trademark in arena projects. “No one in North America” was building small arenas with a bigmarket feel, Lee said. “It’s a huge success.”

In Victoria, RG Properties’ long-term lease with the city is essentially viewed as ownership for Lee. But that has its disadvantages. As the operator, Lee is on the hook for upgrades to the building. And the equity of his investment will ultimately benefit an entity other than his own.

“I will spend money there, regardless of the fact we don’t physically own the building. I spent a lot of money putting up video screens. I didn’t need to do that, but that is something I wanted to do, because I thought it would give a better fan experience. I will keep spending money on the building, even though I don’t expect to get a return. But hopefully it improves, indirectly, the experience for fans.”

Despite his Vancouver base, Lee has Island roots stretching to 1911. His grand-

father arrived in Victoria “with nothing but a dream” and managed to build a life for his family despite arriving without knowing any English. The Lee family tree also made its way to Alert Bay before landing in Vancouver. Lee’s father, Robert, who became chancellor of UBC in 1993, made his mark in real estate and still lives on the Lower Mainland, where Lee, his wife, Angela, and their four children also make their home.

The torch will be passed one day, Lee said. Some of his children already help in facets of the family business, which he hopes will continue in the future. There is certainly room for his family to find their niche: RG Properties has a diversified portfolio that ranges from Wembley Mall in Parksville to mixed-use Planet Ice facilities in Coquitlam and Maple Ridge.

“I have big shoes to fill,” Lee said of his family’s legacy.

“But I am still living that dream my grandfather had over 100 years ago. It is more possible today in B.C. than it ever has been, and building the arena in Victoria is part of that dream for me.”

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JOB TIPS GALORE You really do get just one chance to make a first impression.

Turns out employers make up their minds about candidates within the first minutes of a job interview.

According to an online survey by CareerBuilder, almost half decide whether a candidate is a good or bad fit within the first five minutes.

So it’s wise to avoid these mistakes, as provided by some CareerBuilder poll respondents: • Warned the interviewer that she “took too much valium” and didn’t think her interview was indicative of her personality • Acted out a Star Trek role • Acted like he was answering a phone call for an interview with a competitor • Wore a jogging suit (he

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was going running after the interview) • Asked for a hug • Tried to secretly record the interview • Brought personal photo albums • Called himself his own personal hero • Checked Facebook • Crashed her car into the building • Popped out his teeth when discussing dental benefits • Kept his iPod headphones on during the interview • Set fire to the interviewer’s newspaper while reading it when the interviewer said “impress me” • Said that he questioned his daughter’s paternity • Wanted to know the number of the receptionist because he really liked her T E C H T H R E AT Is your job under threat from computerization? Do you fear robot overlords looming to rob you of your career?

According to the latest Randstad Workmonitor study, one in four Canadians believe his of her job could vanish in a few years due to the rise of technology. The

The

survey found 68 per cent of Canadians see the impact of technology as an opportunity, while 32 per cent see it as a potential threat.

How can employees stay ahead of the curve? Some tips to avoid being made redundant by new technologies: • Take advantage of internal and external training programs • Stay engaged in industry innovations • Be first to introduce new tools, systems or processes.

T H E E Y E S H AV E I T First impressions aren’t just about what comes out of your mouth — how you say it can also affect how potential employers see you. Here are some body-language behaviours to avoid, as cited by 2,201 hiring managers and human resource professionals in a CareerBuilder online survey: • Failure to make eye contact: 70 per cent • Failure to smile: 44 per cent • Bad posture: 35 per cent • Fidgeting too much in

one’s seat: 35 per cent • Playing with something on the table: 29 per cent • Handshake that is too weak: 27 per cent • Crossing arms over the chest: 24 per cent • Playing with hair or touching one’s face: 24 per cent • Using too many hand gestures: 10 per cent • Handshake that is too strong: five per cent PERKY Sure, cash bonuses are nice, but employee perks don’t have to cost a lot to inspire loyalty. Here are some ideas (courtesy of job site Monster.ca) for motivating employees and increasing productivity.

• Free hot beverages so staff don’t have to leave the premises on breaks.

• Make one day a casual dress day.

• Flex-time or telecommuting options if it suits your workplace.

• Laundry service, having a cleaner pick up and return clothing at the office.

• Wellness benefits where employers reimburse staff,

up to a limit, for purchases to improve health, such a running shoes, gym memberships and yoga mats.

• Car care — have a service come to the workplace for the vehicle.

• Paid time off to volunteer.

• Match charitable donations.

• Employee referral program, with a cash bonus.

• Innovation days where workers can tackle projects connected to the way they work and the spaces they work in.

• Tuition forgiveness.

FA S T FA C T 80 per cent of all jobs in British Columbia are in the services sector, ranging from healthcare to business services to retail clerks and Starbucks baristas. Retail and wholesale trade leads the way, accounting for 15 per cent of all jobs in B.C. These include low wage entry-level and low-skilled jobs, allowing workers to build their experience.

— troymedia.com Capital

OFFICE

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ESCHERVICTORIA.COM

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Warren Strome with a printer he made with a 3-D printer at his home studio.

DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

3D

Former aviation engineer wanted to build a better printer

BY ANDREW A. DUFFY

W

arren Strome knew he had something more than a new toy for his man cave and workshop when he unpacked the 3-D printer he ordered online four years ago.

The former aviation engineer certainly knew the new machine’s capabilities, but it still came as a surprise when he realized there was a living to be made in playing the role of creator and starting a business that builds 3-D printers.

“At first I just wanted to see where it would take me,” Strome said. He tinkered with the first machine, testing his creative limits, and then made plastic parts he sold on EBay. “I think those that get into 3-D printing and start using the tool find their minds open up to what they can do with it as they use it.”

The printers create 3-D objects from a digital file by laying down thin layers of plastic, although a variety of materials, including concrete, metal and ceramics, can also be used.

As he developed some skill, Strome realized he wanted a more robust machine that worked better.

That was the spark that led to establishing Revolution 3D Printers.

Strome said the printers available to hobbyists and those who like to tinker and create “just weren’t very good.”

“The quality was pretty low. For me, I have 20 years in aviation, [so] my standards are pretty high,” he said.

“For me, it has to fly. I’m used to working in an industry where, if you make one mistake, people can die.

For me, quality is everything and making it look as good and clean as possible.”

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TINY REALMS GOES GLOBAL

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Victoria’s TinyMob games studio has released Tiny Realms — a real-time strategy game of fantasy warfare — globally for iOS devices. The full release of the game, first launched in the spring, includes new features such as “Battlegrounds,” a modern take on classic strategy board games, mixed with the latest in online mobile games technology. “Tiny Realms is the first game of its kind to offer true real-time strategy on a global scale for iOS devices,” said Alex Mendelev, chief executive at TinyMob. “Battlegrounds redefines what it means to be a gamer on mobile. We’ve delivered the kind of experience that wouldn’t be out of place on a console or PC and we’re delighted to be the only games studio to give that experience to gamers.” Players around the world can fight and collaborate with each other as they battle for domination. Players will also be kept up to date in real time on the changing frontlines between various factions through battlefield reports. War councils will also be called at the end of each period of conflict and the top real-world champions will vote on the next point of attack.

So what does an engineer do when he wants something? He makes it. In fact, Strome estimates he can print off every component piece he needs for a new printer, except the wiring, motor and metal pieces, in about 30 hours on one printer.

And the irony of knowing he basically used a 3-D printer to create a new 3-D printer, which he can sell to others who could then make another, is not lost on Strome. “When you design a machine that can basically print itself out you can kind of put yourself out of business,” he said with a laugh.

But Strome sees Revolution 3D, nearing its first year in business and with 20 machines under its belt over the past six months, as developing products for a market with other ideas.

“They are not interested in building a printer. They want a tool that works.”

Strome envisions his printers on the desks of engineers, who might want to test theories, improve on the design of parts or create one-off prototypes. “This is a prototype machine,” he said.

His printers range from about $2,700 to just over $3,000, making him fairly competitive with what’s on the market.

Strome said Vancouver Island is a perfect place for this kind of business, which is designed to make custom manufacturing and prototyping more readily available and improve the self-sufficiency of the Island’s manufacturing sector.

“Local manufacturers have to support each other, otherwise things have to come from the mainland. So it’s a good test area

to see how this works out,” Strome said.

Revolution is also involved with the Victoria Advanced Technology Council’s accelerator program for start-up companies, which provides guidance on how to grow and mature as a firm.

Revolution is different from most of the companies in the program, because the others are working in software.

Program director Rob Bennett said that’s to be expected. “It has never been easier, certainly in terms of cost, to try and launch a venture. In terms of software development, it’s never been less expensive to develop an application,” he said.

“There are a wide variety of ventures that apply [for the program], but most are software-based. Even hardware companies have a software component.”

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Bennett said the program, which is working with 20 companies and has a wait list of 15, has two lightmanufacturing firms with Revolution 3D and Iris Dynamics, which makes a high-end flight simulator for video games.

In a perfect world, Bennett said, the program would have a broader mix. “I think part of [stimulating more manufacturing start-ups] is finding ways to get people to collaborate to share more tools, share space, expertise and networks. This is an area we are trying to promote,” he said.

VIATeC hopes to establish labs in the basement of its new Fort Street office for that purpose.

Strome works out of a home office, but is looking at new digs for a production facility with business partner Dhalie Patara, who is in charge of business development.

Strome said 3-D printing is evolving quickly.

However, he said he is confident Revolution is on the cutting edge “along with everyone else” and he has his eye on raising capital through sales to establish high-end production 3-D printers on the Island.

He is also trying to get involved in expanding training courses in using the printers. A lack of training has been a barrier to the expansion of businesses such as his that cater to individuals and small businesses. Capital

FREE RIDER, FREE GAME

Victoria game studios KANO/APPS and OneMoreLevel have released a free multi-platform game, Free Rider HD, on Facebook. A challenging bike racing adventure, the game is a sequel to the hugely popular Free Rider game series. That series has been played more than 500 million times and created more than two million tracks, which have been drawn by the player community using the game’s built-in track-creation tools and shared online to test the skill of other players. Free Rider is playable on any device and is updated regularly using player feedback to improve the experience. To play: apps.facebook.com/freeriderhd or at freeriderhd.com.

WINN MONEY

Western Economic Diversification Canada has put out a call to small- and medium-size businesses to apply for loans under the Western Innovation Initiative (WINN), a five-year, $100-million funding pool designed to help businesses commercialize new technology-based products and services. WINN funding is designed to stimulate private-sector investments and increase jobs in Western Canada.

Deadline for applications is Oct. 30.

To apply: wd-deo.gc.ca/eng/14859.asp

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CLARITY FOUND

WINDS OF CHANGE.ORG A bit of social change swept into town this fall with San Francisco-based Change.org snapping up Victoria engineering talent and opening an office in the historic Customs Building on Wharf Street. Change.org has hired six engineers, most of whom previously worked for Zynga, Flock and Mercurial Communications.

“The team here has been working together for quite some time,” said Chris Campbell, principal engineer in Victoria. “We had some colleagues in San Francisco that had moved over to Change.org and they saw a good fit between the way Change wanted to expand their engineering team and the skill set we have up here.”

It’s the first time Change has expanded the engineering team outside Silicon Valley.

Change offers the largest online petition platform in the world, boasting more than 70 million users in 196 countries.

Change.org campaigns started in Victoria have included a petition to have B.C. hospitals provide mental-health services for children and a Girl Guide and her mother petitioning the Girl Guides to remove all genetically modified ingredients from their cookies.

Campbell said the Victoria office expects to expand by three engineers this year, with further expansion expected next year. “Victoria has a good talent pool and the prospects here for being able to expand the engineering team are good compared to Silicon Valley,” he said. “The situation down there right now, it’s quite hard to attract and retain talent for a lot of companies.”

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ORCHARD HARVEST

VECIMA HITS MARK

Victoria’s GenoLogics has been selected by U.S.-based life sciences company Illumina to provide a laboratory information management system called Clarity. GenoLogics software improves the efficiency of laboratories with increased accuracy and quick turnaround to easily and rapidly expand genome-sequencing operations.

Illumina will be using a GenoLogics system to support its collaboration with Genomics England to sequence 100,000 genomes.

Bruno Wong, a University of Victoria graduate, is co-founder of a Torontobased company that believes it has found a new cellphone market. His Getorchard.com is an online marketplace for people buying and selling iPhones. The company says it offers a safe, secure way for people to sell an older iPhone or buy a new-to-you phone. The company stocks used iPhones that have been tested after being bought directly from individuals and businesses. Buyers can search an online database to see what’s available.

After they pay online, the phone is shipped.

Vecima Networks shipped more than $3.6 million worth of its newest digital video access platform to a major United States cable customer over the last year, the initial step in a $19-million contract signed two years ago.

Sumit Kumar, Vecima chief executive, said the ramp-up in deployment of the hardware is a major milestone and could just be the start. “Vecima expects to receive approval from additional cable companies in the short term,” he said. The digital video access platform is required for two-way communications to an extensive network of video subscriber devices. Capital

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PEDRO MÁRQUEZ

• Pedro Márquez is acting vice-president of Global Advancement, Marketing and Business Development at Royal Roads University

Ethics: Part of your business’s DNA

B

usiness ethics. In today’s competitive environment, some will argue that you don’t often hear those two words in the same sentence.

And certainly there are many recent incidents of corporate behaviour that are considered unacceptable: financial accounting and mortgage scandals in the U.S.; corruption in Quebec’s construction industry; and the collapse of a severely overcrowded clothing factory in Bangladesh.

Why do companies succumb to these practices?

Historically, the prevailing attitudes have supported these three classic excuses for not having an ethical plan: 1. It’s too difficult. In a globalized business environment with plenty of competition, companies are driven to focus on winning market share at any cost.

Indeed, in a highly competitive environment, some firms wrongly believe that business ethics are a luxury that many cannot afford.

2. Greed is good. A common misunderstanding that continues to permeate some economic sectors concerns 18th-century economist Adam Smith and his “Homo

Economicus” notion that hyper-rational and selfish human behaviour forms the basis for economic growth. Such misrepresentation was further popularized by Gordon Gekko, the fictional stockbroker in the 1987 movie Wall Street.

3. No need for business ethics. Popular economists in the 1970s and 1980s, such as Milton Friedman, argued that a company’s only responsibility was to the shareholders. Thus, any corporate actions to protect the environment or society contravened the fundamental business raison d’être. Fortunately, even hard-core followers of Friedman have recognized the risks and negative consequences of following this precept.

The excuses that opportunism is all part of human nature or that everyone else is doing it or that the rules aren’t the same outside the country are increasingly challenged by consumers, suppliers and shareholders.

As a result, corporate social responsibility has surged in the past decade as an effective business guideline.

It has been adopted by many companies as a fundamental principle that businesses have a responsibility to play by the rules, protect society and become stewards of the natural environment.

Leaders can buy into corporate social responsibility in a number of ways.

While morals are thought of as personal beliefs, ethics are usually set out by your company (frequently in the form of a code of ethics), your business sector (Codes of Conduct for Human Resources Professionals, for example) or professional associations (such as the Certified General Accountants’ Code of Ethical Principles and Rules of Conduct).

Many of these beliefs are enshrined in the law so that infractions become not only immoral and unethical but possibly illegal.

To demonstrate their commitments, companies can do other things such as getting involved with community affairs, operating a safe workplace that is family friendly, and taking extra care to protect the environment.

That message is reaching a new generation of leaders, as many commerce and MBA programs at schools such as Royal Roads University are teaching these concepts to future entrepreneurs.

Leaders should remember that doing all those things will not only earn the respect of stakeholders, but also go a long way to contributing to the sustainability for your company.

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X marks the spot When it comes to film locations, Greater Victoria is king of the castles

BY MICHAEL D. REID ans of The Killing who binge-watched the Netflix crime drama’s fourth season got a breathtaking bonus — a surprise appearance

by Hatley Castle, doubling as a U.S. military school in aerial shots.

Royal Roads University’s historic centrepiece heads a list of the region’s hottest film and TV locations, including Craigdarroch Castle, Fisgard Lighthouse, the legislature, the Empress Hotel and Bastion Square.

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Victoria film commissioner Kathleen Gilbert at Hatley Castle.

DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

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It most famously masqueraded as Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in the X-Men movies. Who can forget that elaborate nighttime invasion sequence in X2, when choppers descended and rappelling SWAT teams swarmed the grounds where an X-shaped hedge still stands.

The castle more recently stood in as Queen Mansion in CW’s Arrow, and the Gardiner home in Lifetime’s supernatural drama Witches of East End. The striking location coveted by producers — who can work around unpredictable peacocks — will also be seen in Disney Channel’s 2015 film Descendants.

It has hosted royal weddings (The Duke), played an eccentric billionaire’s palatial estate (Fierce People), the gothic San Francisco headquarters for a secret society of ghostbusters (Poltergeist: The Legacy), DC Comics villain Lex Luthor’s estate (Smallville) and an ancient Romanian castle in Nickelodeon’s The Boy Who Cried Werewolf.

Hatley Castle was also penetrated by larcenous Swedes during a jewel heist sequence in 2001 for The Mole and doubled as The Magician’s House (1999) in the BBC TV series.

Before returning to play X-Men’s telepathic Prof.

Charles Xavier, Patrick Stewart’s first appearance at Hatley Castle was in 1996 when it played a New England prep school for the action-comedy Masterminds. Long before he achieved fame as Mad Men’s smarmy hotshot adman Pete Campbell, a skinny teenaged newcomer named Vincent Kartheiser played a mischievous student in that film.

“Without Hatley Castle, we wouldn’t have been able to attract X-Men,” said Victoria film commissioner Kathleen Gilbert. “Tax incentives draw producers to B.C., but locations like these bring them here.”

Royal Roads University campus services director Bonnie Nelson fields two or three filming inquiries monthly. “It’s good for our local economy to have this in our own backyard,” Nelson said.

“We always look at it in the context of not creating disruptions.”

Craigdarroch Castle, meanwhile, has been doubling as spooky mountaintop mansion Shadowmire in Spooksville.

It was also the Spooky House in the 1998 family feature starring Ben Kingsley. Crews still reminisce about the black panther that impulsively urinated while descending a staircase.

Ballroom dancing sequences for Little Women were filmed there in 1994, and it was passed off as a Hollywood mansion in Stuart Margolin’s 1983 HBO crime drama The Glitter Dome. The castle was also featured in the Roger Moore movie The Man Who Wouldn’t Die; a 1999 episode of The Outer Limits starring Cary Elwes as Jack the Ripper, Take-Off, an ill-fated 1980 TV comedy series starring Phyllis Diller, and a 1981 music video in which Cheryl Ladd danced down the staircase clad in leather lingerie.

Executive director John Hughes said while Craigdarroch Cas-

Film crews set up a newspaper office on Oak Bay Avenue for the TV series Gracepoint in January.

DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

tle Historic Museum Society is film-friendly, hosting shoots can be a mixed blessing. “The revenue bump is awesome, especially October through May,” said Hughes.

“It’s wonderful to be associated with filming, but there’s always a risk when you invite crews in.”

Allen Lewis, vice-president of production for Front Street Pictures, said he was equally pleased shooting Spooksville scenes at Fisgard Lighthouse. “Having a lighthouse so close to an urban centre is just fantastic,” Lewis said. “We’d otherwise have to go up the West Coast Trail.”

The national historic site soon to be seen in the thriller Lighthouse, has also been featured in Stonados, Pictures of Hollis Woods, The Watchtower, and The Amazing Race Canada.

Naomi Watts played a “dream interpreter” in a Sleepwalkers episode filmed there in 1997. The late David Carradine played a lighthouse keeper there two years later in a cheesy thriller, G.O.D. (Guaranteed On Delivery), his final night of filming disrupted by an apparent suicide attempt nearby.

Film liaison Sophie Lauro said Parks Canada welcomes crews. “We [just] want to ensure there’s no impact on our visitors and cultural/environmental resources,” said Lauro, who briefs producers on location fees and filming guidelines. “If they want to drill a hole in the wall ... that’s not going to happen.”

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Our most popular film locations Here is a selective list of movies and TV shows produced around the capital region

Fisgard Lighthouse/ Fort Rodd Hill

Craigdarroch Castle Royal Roads/Hatley Castle The Killing X-Men 2 X-Men: The Last Stand The Egg Factory The Changeling The Magician’s House Arrow The Mermaid’s Chair Masterminds Impact The Boy Who Cried Werewolf Disney’s Descendants Perfect Match No Night Is Too Long Lucky 7 The Man Who Wouldn’t Die Knight Moves Little Women The Duke MacGyver: Legend of the Holly Rose Ripper Seven Days Witches of East End

The Glitter Dome Take-Off The Outer Limits Little Women The Duke Spooky House Spooksville The Man Who Wouldn’t Die America’s Castles

The Empress Hotel Maritime Museum/ Bastion Square Cleaverville Bird on a Wire Murder on Spec Final Destination Against Their Will

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Gracepoint Lighthouse Sleepwalkers G.O.D. Spooksville The Watchtower Augusta, Gone The Amazing Race Canada Arrow

Knight Moves Disney’s Descendants White Chicks Year of the Dragon Emile

Capital

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A closeup look at nine of the region’s manufacturers

BY CARLA WILSON

P

roducts manufactured in the capital region can crop up just about anywhere.

Visit an exotic location and you might be island hopping in a Twin Otter airplane built on the Saanich Peninsula. Hiking boots made by Viberg may stride by on the streets of New York or Tokyo. A trophy fish in the Bahamas or Haida Gwaii may be landed with an Islander Reel. And you just might be on a train in Beijing with some of its automated features designed and manufactured in Central Saanich.

While everyone seems to agree that manufacturing accounts for a significant chunk of Greater Victoria’s economy, just how significant isn’t really clear. That’s why the Greater Victoria Economic Development Agency and other organizations are undertaking a comprehensive survey to get a handle on what is made here and how much it is worth. Results are expected this fall.

Most local manufacturing companies are small and supply niche markets. Many are specialized and part of the technology sector. It’s estimated there are 120 manu-

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What we

make

facturing firms in the region. On the Saanich Peninsula alone, estimated annual revenue from the sector tops $650 million, with a payroll of $110 million for 2,200 employees on the front lines.

Manufacturing development is a lesson in evolution. Each venture finds its own way to startup and grow. Financing can come from friends and family, banks or angel investors. Some make it. Some don’t.

Post-secondary schools are turning out skilled workers and acting as hothouses for new companies.

Favourable tax rates, tax credits through the Industry Training Authority, a booming natural-resource industry and proximity to markets such as India and China all support manufacturing.

But there are challenges, including the return to the provincial sales tax last year, currency fluctuations and competition from other jurisdictions that provide substantial incentives to attract investment money.

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Reels keep on rolling Fishermen love bragging about catching a big one. Add a locally made Islander Reel to their gear and that’s something else to crow about.

Islander Reels have been made in Victoria for more than two decades. Every year, between 3,500 and 4,000 reels roll off the lines at JS Foster Corp., said Elliot Williams, who manages the Islander division.

The coveted, smooth-running reels come in a variety of colours to match custom rods and increasing demand, Williams said. Gold is the “flagship colour.”

The company is owned by Jack Foster and is part of JS Foster, a Saanichton company that makes machined components for several industries — from subsea instruments to high-pressure gas systems and aerospace parts.

The company, with 12 employees, uses lathes and milling machines to produce intricate, precision parts, and it designs and engineers the components from the prototype stage to final volume production.

Islander manufactures 22 models of reels, sold through dealers in Canada and the U.S. Most customers are in the two countries, but there’s also demand from other nations. Some customers like to buy them for occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries and have them engraved.

Suggested retail prices for fly reels are $340 to $825.

Mooching and centre-pin reel prices range from $425 to $650. Revenue details are kept confidential, but Williams said “sales are strong.”

Boots for the ages Walk into Viberg Boot Manufacturing Ltd. on Boleskine Road in Saanich and you’ll get an immediate whiff of leather and hear muffled sounds of hammering.

Every day, 30 to 35 high-quality pairs of boots are turned in the 8,600-squarefoot manufacturing space behind a retail shop, said Jason Viberg.

The 83-year-old business uses skills passed down through generations, as well as modern technology to track in-house production and to market its boots.

Europe, Asia and North America are key markets.

Viberg tailors for work, fashion.

Boots are sold wholesale to between 250 and 275 retail outlets and to individual customers worldwide.

The third-generation, family-owned business has 27 staff, including four

Train talking Central Saanich technology manufacturer Quester Tangent provides a translation service that allows transit trains to talk to the people who operate them. Its monitoring and control systems are used in subway and high-speed train fleets around the world, including SkyTrain in Vancouver and commuter lines in Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., as well as Beijing and Kuala Lumpur.

The 31-year-old company designs and manufactures the monitoring and diagnostics equipment with 85 employees, including 39 engineers, many educated at the University of Victoria. “[The equipment

Richard Lyne tests a rail engineer control panel at Quester Tangent. takes] information, makes sure it is valid and then distributes it to decision makers,” said Bill Collins, company vice-president and chief operating officer.

For example, a system collects data, compiles information on the status of a

Kate Foster shows off Islander Reels

Vibergs — brothers Jason and Brett and parents Leslee and Glen.

Viberg was founded on work boots, but today the blue-collar footwear shares the revenue spotlight with men’s fashion boots.

Each has its own website. Workboot.com was set up a decade ago.

Viberg.com started selling fashion boots about a year ago and the line has taken off, Jason Viberg said. Wholesale sales account for 55 per cent of business, with retail at 45 per cent.

When it comes to fashion, “we almost sell it as fast as we can put it up online,” he said. “It just seems to keep on growing.

It definitely hasn’t peaked. It really makes a difference to our bottom line.”

train car to find out where a potential fault may exist and what can be done about it.

This includes monitoring circuit breakers, batteries and detecting ground faults.

It could also mean controlling windshield wipers, headlights and doors.

Or it might involve monitoring software that provides information on operating systems, on-board communications and other data about the fleet.

Quester Tangent’s annual revenue surpasses $10 million. The privately held company saw revenue growth of 20 per cent year-over-year between 2009 and 2013. In the next five years, revenues are expected to double.

“There’s a lot of potential for the train business to deliver, in North America in particular,” Collins said.

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Viking’s flying high Viking Air is the undisputed darling of the region’s manufacturing sector. And who can argue? The North Saanich company has 450 local workers, average wages of more than $30 an hour, international sales and the success of bringing the Canadian icon Twin Otter airplane back into production.

Annual sales are “pushing $200 million,” said Dan Tharp, executive vice-president of operations.

Through salaries and services supporting their operation at Victoria International Airport, Tharp said Viking sends

Viking Air’s Robert Kutzner works on a wing grid. millions into the local economy every year.

The company has been instrumental in developing programs at Camosun and North Island colleges to train for its skilled workforce.

Viking has evolved from making air-

Eyes on accessories Today’s paddleboards and kayaks are sporting all sorts of accessories, including specialized mounts for cameras, fishing rods and global positioning systems.

Increasing demand for the products is helping to reinvent product lines and propel sales for Scott Plastics Ltd. in Sidney, a company founded in 1952 that now employs 100 workers.

“We are incredibly busy right now,” said Robin Richardson, vice-president of operations. “I think the U.S. market is definitely picking up and stronger. Europe seems good. We are 15 to 18 per cent up this year on [sales, versus] last year. We are seeing

The intricacies of an electric down rigger being made at Scott Plastics. some fairly significant growth. Part of that is due to some expanding markets in our canoe, kayak and paddleboard markets.”

He said a significant trend is big-game fishing off kayaks, which requires special mounts.

Push for plankton Industrial Plankton is wrapping up its second round of financing to expand the young technology company’s market beyond aquaculture and into nutraceuticals.

Siblings and University of Victoria graduates Ashley Roulston, 27, and Robert Roulston, 33, and their two employees build bioreactors in a Saanich business park.

Industrial Plankton shows what it takes for a start-up to get out of the gate with seed financing from family, friends and angel investors and using mentors in the local tech community. The company recently launched a new financing effort to raise between $250,000 and $500,000.

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Ashley and Robert Roulston, with bioreactors that raise algae.

When the business started four years ago, it was known as Reef Safe Fish and won the B.C. Innovation Council’s New Ventures competition for its closed-loop, waste-recycling technology to produce food for penned fish.

Industrial Plankton changed its name

plane parts to modernizing the popular Twin Otter plane.

To date, 65 Twin Otters have been produced since 2009. Add in confirmed orders and the total reaches 100 sold to 26 countries.

This year, 24 custom planes will be built.

Prices vary according to customer needs, ranging from $6 million to $10 million.

Twin Otters are produced through a massive manufacturing plant on Victoria Airport lands, with final assembly in Calgary, where another 150 workers are employed.

Viking is owned by local resident Sherry Brydson, through Westerkirk Capital, a Toronto-based company.

Scott’s annual sales are in excess of $15 million, Richardson said.

Founded by Blayney and Almeda Scott in 1952, the company has long been known for manufacturing marine equipment — including its famous downrigger, used extensively in the sport fishery — and has had a decades-long reputation for innovation. Three decades ago, Scott was turning out precision instruments for astronomers in Switzerland to use in spectroscopic analysis of stars.

Fishing gear, boating supplies and firefighting equipment are among its many products.

The firm also offers custom plastic moulding and tool-making services using high-tech software and equipment. to produce bioreactors for customers raising algae for shellfish hatcheries and now for bio-technology customers who want algae as an ingredient in nutraceuticals.

A nutraceutical is a product isolated or purified from foods that is generally sold in medicinal forms not usually associated with food, according to Health Canada.

Industrial Plankton is targeting the larger biotechnology market because it sees plenty of sales potential. Ashley contacts biotech firms individually, saying about 90 per cent reply.

Like many Greater Victoria manufacturing firms, Industrial Plankton is targeting offshore markets. It has sold equipment in Australia and the United States.

The aim is to produce 10 bioreactors per month.

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Making waves The surf’s up at Anian, a lean — and definitely green — surfboard and apparel manufacturer on the edge of downtown Victoria. Long-time friends and passionate surfers Nick Van Buren and Paul Long, both 26, built their shop at 516 Discovery St., in December. Like any new business, Anian is striving to build its customer base and revenues, but it is also encouraging others to turn on to solar power.

They partly operate on solar now, but hope to be off the grid by the end of the year. To reach that goal, Anian is running a crowdfunding push by selling products

Paul Long and Nick Van Buren make surfboards and design clothing. to raise $12,000. Long said they want to turn off traditional power sources “to show other people it’s possible.”

Van Buren and Long raised the capital to open Anian through a construction firm they started in 2012. Each Anian owner is

Precision the key The components manufactured by Straitline Precision Industries are used in the sea, on land and in the air.

The 18-year-old family company makes an array of machined products and its Straitline Components division builds highend parts for mountain and trick bikes.

Straitline started in the Paulson family garage with manual machines. Founder and father Mike Paulson, who died in 2011, and sons Dennis and D.J. transformed Straitline into a high-tech manufacturing firm with annual revenues of more than $2 million.

The Sidney company also makes components for Viking Air’s new Twin Otter

At Straitline, specialized parts are being machined for Viking Air. plane, said Dennis Paulson. It’s a relationship that signifies what manufacturing can mean to a community.

Viking’s Twin Otter has taken off in popularity, with orders coming in from around the globe. That success has fuelled orders

Recycling rainbows An emerging Esquimalt company turning out recycled-glass countertops in a rainbow of colours is finding ready local markets for its products.

Long-time friends Kees Schaddelee and Des Carpenter are partners in Vittrium Building Products, which they set up in April 2012.

The main ingredient in their “100-mile countertop” is crushed recycled glass from suppliers in Greater Victoria. A polymer resin binds the glass.

Since Vittrium opened, two employees

Vittrium’s material for countertops is made from recycled glass. have been hired. Revenue has almost doubled year-over-year, Schaddelee said.

“Things are good. We are, for the most part, pretty busy,” he said. “We are a lean, small operation.”

responsible for his own product line.

Van Buren makes surfboards selling for between $650 and $1,000. So far, he’s made 75 boards and is working “flat out.” He makes them to order for a customer base in B.C. and Alberta. That market could grow as more boards ride the waves and word travels in the surfing community.

Long designs shirts, jackets and other apparel, sourcing high-quality materials that are sewn by contractors in Victoria and Vancouver. Prices run from $25 to $130.

They are hoping to sell their clothing in retail outlets in Canada and the U.S. Van Buren also plans to make surfboards in fun designs using recycled wood.

at Straitline, where nine workers are on the job.

Aerospace work is where Straitline sees growth potential, said Paulson, who is hoping to line up contracts with larger companies.

The ability to supply diverse components — made out of everything from aluminum and titanium to plastic — has kept the company healthy. “We are making different parts pretty much every day of the week,” Paulson said.

Oceanographic equipment, micro-electronic connectors and medical components are in its repertoire of products supplied to domestic and international customers.

Mountain-bike parts, including 10,000 pairs of pedals each year, are sold to distributors who send them around the world.

Most orders are from southern Vancouver Island, but Vittrium is also supplying countertops for Mountain Equipment Coop’s new energy-efficient head office at False Creek in Vancouver.

Residential work accounts for about 80 per cent of orders.

The countertop is called Environite and is manufactured in a range of colours, including brown sparkles derived from discarded beer bottles.

A light gray, dubbed Finlayson Fog, is the top selling colour.

Most of the company’s sales are direct from the showroom, but Vittrium also Capital works with dealers.

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Cutting Edge: Water, grit & speed

S

B Y S A N D R A M CC U L L O C H

Dwayne Epp of Eppic Waterjet uses sophisticated machinery to slice sheet metal to within a thousandth of an inch, meeting the exacting standards of the aviation industry.

PHOTOS BY ADRIAN LAM, TIMES COLONIST

peed is everything in Dwayne Epp’s business of fabricating metal parts for industrial customers.

“The ability to deliver when you say you’re going to deliver — I think it’s the only thing that matters,” said Epp, 45, at his Central Saanich plant, where water infused with a gritty material cuts through metal, stone or ceramic up to 20 centimetres thick.

Epp and his wife, Nicole, own Eppic Waterjet Inc., a business they started in April 2013 after moving to the Island from their native Saskatchewan.

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The jets shoot water at 90,000 pounds per square inch, and can cut twice as fast as Eppic’s closest competitors.

“It’s how fast you can get the product out to the customer, and if you can do it before anyone else does,” Epp said.

Customers include everyone from aircraft manufacturers to artists requiring precisely cut metal, glass, granite and other material. “You basically can cut anything you want,” he said.

The high-tech equipment also allows Epp to cut metal to the high degree of accuracy demanded by aircraft manufacturers such as Viking Air of North Saanich.

Epp said there’s an advantage to cutting metal with water — as opposed to using a laser — because heat from a laser can change the structure of the material. And in the aircraft industry, there’s no room for error, he added.

The cuts are also accurate to a thousandth of an inch, which is the standard required by the aircraft-manufacturing industry.

The equipment sits on a two-by-four-metre table. The water is mixed with grit to make the cuts. The sound of the powerful equipment reverberates through the shop.

Used water is diverted to a recycling unit. “Nothing goes into the drain, into the ocean,” Epp said.

The Epps had another manufacturing business in Fiske, Sask. (pop. 90) before they moved west and started Eppic Waterjet — first in Parksville and Nanaimo and then on the Saanich Peninsula.

Epp, born into a farm family, has spent more than 25 years in manufacturing and said that experience helps him to know what other manufacturers want.

They moved to be closer to family, and the mild climate was also a draw.

“The climate is so much nicer here and Nicole’s family is here — but really, it was just time for a change,” Epp said.

The move, Nicole said, “has been absolutely wonderful — the best decision ever.”

Their two children — a 14- and 13-year-old — miss the snow that comes with Prairie winters, but not Dwayne and Nicole.

Nicole works in the office out front, while Dwayne keeps busy in the back.

The future of manufacturing in Greater Victoria looks bright, Dwayne Epp said.

“I can’t see how it’s going to be bad — you’ve got guys like Viking Air that are growing. I don’t think it makes a difference where you are manufacturing as long as you’ve got a good product at a good price and you can deliver on time.”

The work demands a high degree of concentration, which is why Epp prefers to do much of the work himself.

“You have to put the owner on the machine and not many owners want to be out there on the machine when they are running the company,” he said.

Epp wants to see the business grow so he can hire someone to do the hands-on work while he focuses on fabrication.

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Matt Phillips, known for his popular beers, plans to make clear premium spirits and rye whiskies in a 1920s copper distilling pot.

DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

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Spirits soaring Distillers rise to meet demand for local brands

BY CINDY E. HARNETT

T

he race is on to build distilleries on Vancouver Island.

But local entrepreneurs are more interested in building the industry than competing for consumers.

In a few years, there could be walking tours of distilleries across Vancouver Island or sections for local spirits in liquor stores. New and experienced distillers and brewers are envisioning big things as they plan to build on the frothy renaissance that craft breweries have enjoyed during the past two decades. Consider: • Phillips Beer in Victoria has just released a new hop liquor called Hop Drop and is gearing up for new releases of spirits in 2015.

• Victoria Spirits in Saanichton, known for its award-winning gin, has a non-traditional single-malt whisky due out in the new year.

• Wayward Distillation House in Courtenay is opening this fall, making vodka and gin from B.C. honey.

• Shelter Point Distillery in Campbell River is aging a “field-to-flask” single-malt whisky.

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• Victoria entrepreneur Graeme Macaloney has secured financing and is looking for a location for a tourist-destination commercial distillery that would produce premium-branded whiskies for international sale.

Throughout B.C., distillers are ordering stills and sourcing grains and fruits to create distinct flavour. The province’s Liquor Control and Licensing Branch has 19 distillery applications, including five from Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. B.C. already has 36 licensed distilleries, including seven on the Island: Duncan’s Ampersand Distilling Co.; Nanaimo’s Arbutus Distillery; Victoria’s Fermentorium Distilling; Hornby Island’s Island Spirits; Cobble Hill’s Merridale Artisan Distillery; Campbell River’s Shelter Point Distillery; and Saanichton’s Victoria Spirits.

“We’ve seen exciting and unprecedented growth in B.C.’s craft distillery industry over the past few years,” said John Yap, parliamentary secretary for liquor policy reform.

What’s behind this hot trend? Local entrepreneurs and the government say there’s a perfect storm of factors: rising interest in distilling because of the huge success of the craft beer market; positive reaction to the Craft Distillery Policy introduced by the province in 54

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April 2013; the demand for more local products;and an educated palate thirsting for greater, more complex flavours.

The new legislation allows craft distillers to produce up to 50,000 litres a year without the 163 per cent government markup large companies pay, leaving the crafters with a greater profit margin. The opening of Wayward Distillation in Courtenay this fall is a direct result of the change. Dave Brimacombe, 33, planned to leave the military and open a distillery when he was 45, but decided not to wait. He is leaving his job as an aircraft structures technician at CFB Comox and is banking on his background in management, fermentation and distillation to make Wayward a success.

“We are starting with vodka and gin and we’ll have a rum by next Christmas,” said Brimacombe, noting the distillery’s niche is using B.C. honey as a base ingredient. He said there are plenty of meaderies in B.C., but Wayward is the first to distill honey into vodka.

The Liquor Distribution Branch will also allow distilleries to apply for on-site consumption areas and the option to sell liquor at farmers’ markets, which Arbutus Distillery in Nanaimo and Island Spirits on Hornby Island did during the summer.

Peter Hunt of Victoria Spirits on Old West Saanich Road says consumers are looking for “more local and more creative products.” The company is following its popular Victoria Gin brand with a single-malt whisky in the new year.

BRUCE STOTESBURY, TIMES COLONIST

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Yap said these incentives help craft distilleries grow businesses, create jobs and provide benefits to the agricultural sector. More changes are contemplated.

Phillips Beer founder Matt Phillips, who has had a distilling licence for seven years, is throwing himself into distilling full tilt. “We’re looking at doing interesting stuff, not great volumes,” Phillips said.

He is using a 1920s copper distilling pot in his Government Street brewery and recently received a new 500-litre still from Germany. He plans to distill clear premium spirits first and rye whiskies later.

Phillips is building a malting plant in the back of his brewery for beer and spirits and has up to 120 hectares of barley growing at four farms to produce signature flavours.

The craft-beer trendsetter, who has made his product an integral part of local music festivals and community events, finds “the ferocity of interest” in distilling exciting and hopes it will mimic the popular local beer-tourism scene.

“The density will force interesting creativity and differentiation of products,” and will make Victoria a more interesting place to live and visit, Phillips said. “It’s really helpful to have a few distilleries opening at the same time.”

The tourism draw is a big component of Graeme Macaloney’s plan for Victoria Caledonian Distillery. Macaloney’s destination business would boast an on-site liquor store and two Scottishmade copper-pot stills (5,000 and 3,700 litres) for the production of malt whiskies.

Macaloney was a fermentation engineer and businessman in Scotland before arriving in Victoria to sell investors on his dream.

“I’m hoping to take advantage of the lifestyle and tourism in Victoria,” said Macaloney.

“It’s a perfect fit for a Scotch-style whisky distillery.”

Macaloney said he has the initial investors and a management team in place, but doesn’t yet have a location. There’s time, he said. “These cycles of new industry are not measured in a few years, they are measured in a few decades.”

Master distiller Peter Hunt blends an award-winning gin for Victoria Spirits. The commercial distillery on Old West Saanich Road started in 2008. He believes the renewed interest in distilling will keep growing.

“People are tired of the same top-10 brands that are available internationally and they are starting to look for more local and more creative products,” Hunt said.

He warns that not everyone who enters the industry will find success. Realistically, “there’s going to be some casualties along the way,” Hunt said.

“People want to buy local products, but they don’t want to buy local products that are not as good as the bigger, cheaper ones they can get.”

Those craft breweries that already have a foot in the market, a good product and a solid revenue stream are more likely to be successful, he said.

The more local distilleries, the better. Competition will likely inspire everyone to try to produce the best local product possible, Hunt said. Capital

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Paul Hadfield, owner of Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub and the grandfather of Victoria’s craft brewing scene, says demand is so great for local beers that current brewers can’t supply enough to quench the thirst.

ADRIAN LAM, TIMES COLONIST

Beer de force

BY ANDREW A. DUFFY

The tab: 6 craft breweries, 5 brew pubs.

The tip: Expect it to double 56

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P

aul Hadfield is clearly not a patient man.

You might think the owner of Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub — one of the original craft brewers who sparked a “real beer” revolution on the West Coast when it opened in 1984 — would appreciate taking stock of where the industry is these days.

It has, after all, blossomed into more than 70 B.C.based craft brewers.

In the capital region, there are five brewpubs and six brewery operations, counting the addition of Category 12 Brewing in Saanich by the end of this year.

It follows the opening of Four Mile Brewing in View Royal this year, Hoyne Brewing in late 2011 and Moon Under Water brewpub in 2010. There’s also been significant expansion at the Phillips, Lighthouse and Driftwood breweries, and several new product offerings from Vancouver Island Brewing.

Hadfield’s reaction? “It’s about time.”

He may have a point.

The industry veteran notes the barriers to entry

are as low as they ever have been as the heavy lifting over regulations was done in the early years.

Equipment and ingredients are readily available and there’s a growing demand for unique and interesting beer.

“It’s probably harder to open a coffee shop these days than it is to open a brewery,” said Matt Phillips, owner of Phillips Brewing, the largest craft brewer on the Island, noting that growth brings competition for shelf and tap space. “The challenge isn’t to get started anymore. It’s staying started.”

Hadfield hopes the number of Victoria brewers doubles in the next five years, saying the sky is the limit for the local scene.

“We cannot supply the marketplace. The demand is too big. And it isn’t mindless consumption we’re talking about — it’s focused, with people chasing certain products, chasing certain brewers and chasing certain styles.”

Hadfield expects growth to come from brewers exploring niches and playing with styles and flavours.

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“I think Matt [Phillips] has exposed the sweet spot in the market, rolling out one or two seasonal beers every month as new beers,” said Hadfield, who does something similar at Spinnakers.

“We’re morphing from brewpub to production brewery.”

Phillips, which employs about 50 people, has established a fulltime development brewer to work on new beers that can be introduced through the year.

That kind of experimentation is not likely to ebb, as craft brewers grab more market share each year.

In its latest quarterly review, the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch showed larger brewers, defined as producing more than 160,000 hectolitres annually, saw a 2.2 per cent drop in sales to $718 million in 2014, while smaller brewers saw sales increase across the board.

According to the LDB, mid-size brewers (who produce between 15,000 and 160,000 hectolitres a year) saw sales grow 1.67 per cent to $122 million over the last 12 months and the smallest brewers (up to 15,000 hectolitres annually) saw a 43 per cent increase in sales to $67 million.

“This is the healthiest the craft brew industry has ever been,” said Sean Hoyne, owner of Hoyne Brewing and an industry veteran. “This is the time [that] those of us who have been in the craft brewing industry a long time have been waiting for.

“We have been on our soap boxes extolling the virtues of craft beer for years and the crowd has really come on board.”

And Hoyne notes that for every person who switches over to a craft brew, there is someone who is more likely to be open-minded about trying a wide variety of beer, which is good for the industry.

“Gone are the days of single brand loyalty,” Hoyne said.

That may be just as well, considering the variety available on the shelves and at Victoria’s breweries, to say nothing of the willingness of those breweries to experiment.

“What we’re seeing now is small brewers coming with real niche beers or styles — some will do just lagers, for example,” Phillips said. “The industry is still about individual flair.

Every brewery doing their own thing their own way, which I always liked.”

But there is still plenty of collaboration and brainstorming — in part because most brewers have worked for or learned from someone else still in the business.

Phillips, who worked at Spinnakers and other breweries before starting his own in 2001, said everyone gets along because they share a common interest: The understanding that beer is more than a fizzy yellow liquid.

“There’s a level of mutual respect, and there’s an excitement that creates a subculture,” Phillips said, noting that brewers guard that collegial atmosphere. “You always worry about [expansion ruining it] but we make it clear that this is how we work.

“We all share ideas.”

Being open and approachable raises everyone’s game and allows further experimentation. Both Spinnakers and Phillips are starting to dabble in distilling, for example.

“We need to drink each other’s beers. We need to know what each other is making and learn from each other and play off each other,” Phillips said. “And the winner is the consumer.” Capital

Breweries Driftwood Brewing Co. 450 Hillside Ave., Victoria driftwoodbeer.com Category 12 Brewing 2200 Keating X Road Central Saanich category12brewing.com Hoyne Brewing Co. 2740 Bridge St., Victoria hoynebrewing.ca Lighthouse Brewing Co. 836 Devonshire Rd., Esquimalt lighthousebrewing.com Phillips Brewing Co. 2010 Government St., Victoria phillipsbeer.com Vancouver Island Brewery 2330 Government St. vanislandbrewery.com

Brewpubs Canoe Brewpub 450 Swift St., Victoria canoebrewpub.com Four Mile Brewing Co. 199 Island Hwy., View Royal fourmilehouse.com Moon Under Water Pub and Brewery 350B Bay St., Victoria moonunderwater.ca Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub 308 Catherine St., Victoria spinnakers.com Swans Brewpub 506 Pandora Ave. swanshotel.com

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We build skilled trades people.

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Welding. Plumbing. Carpentry. Shipbuilding.

The multi-billion dollar federal shipbuilding contract for BC is good news for Camosun College and our students.

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Camosun is the largest trades education centre on Vancouver Island with more than 2,700 students enrolled in 20 different trades foundation and apprenticeship programs every year. We are also the top regional provider of skilled workers for BC’s shipbuilding industry.

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Murray and Lynda Farmer Co-Chairs Camosun Foundation TRADEmark of Excellence Campaign

S E D A R T F O E R U T THE FU IS CHANGING. Camosun College: a Trades Training Powerhouse

Camosun will educate 2,700 trades and technology students every year thanks to the new state-of-the-art Trades Education and Innovation Complex now under development at the college’s Interurban campus.

At $35 million, it’s the largest capital trades education project now under construction in BC. It’s critical to filling the impending skills gap and an investment in the future of our regional and provincial economy.

The Province of BC has made an important $30 million capital investment in helping build and revamp our new Trades Complex, and now we have an opportunity to ensure Camosun’s trades training experience is second to none.

The Camosun Foundation is embarking on a $5 million TRADEmark of Excellence Campaign raising financial support and partnering with community, business and industry to help enhance our programs and put the latest classroom materials and teaching technology available in the hands of our gifted faculty and dedicated students. We will deliver qualified new workers who are well trained with the most current materials, equipment and technology available today – making them job-ready for tomorrow.

Camosun teaches real skills for real jobs and provides a learning environment like none other.

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Mike Corrigan, CEO, BC Ferries Shari Corrigan, Camosun Foundation Board and faculty member Wayne Dalby, General Manager, Ralmax Group Bruce Dyck, President, Chew Excavating Ltd. John Knappett, President, Knappett Projects John Mutton, President, Municipal Solutions - Energy & Infrastructure Craig Norris, Sr. Principal, Stantec

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Revolution on wheels Last man in the Tour de France has big dreams for Island cycling ADRIAN CHAMBERLAIN

F

inishing the 4,495-kilometre Tour de France in 1955 was a gruelling slog.

Especially after cyclist Tony Hoar endured a spectacular wipeout in an unlit tunnel.

“I got torn a bit,” said Hoar, now 82, recalling his flesh-tearing road-rash with typical understatement. Refusing to drop out, he was the last man to complete the Tour de France that year. This earned him the “Lanterne Rouge” designation, viewed as an honour because it’s a testament to the dogged determination of the last-place cyclist.

Today, British-born Hoar — white-bearded and genial — is as driven as ever. He still cycles regularly. Each day he designs and constructs bike trailers for his one-man business, Tony’s Trailers, typically toiling until midnight at his Mill Bay workshop. When not working, Hoar is out buying trailer and bicycle parts, sometimes making the rounds in his 1956 Morgan sports car.

Now, Hoar has a new dream. He’s lobbying hard to make it happen, tapping into the same grit that propelled him through the Tour de France.

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Works in progress: Tony Hoar’s workshop in Mill Bay. DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

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He wants to establish what he calls an “Integrated Cycling Resource Centre” in Victoria. Hoar believes such a facility would revolutionize recycling in the downtown core. And it would help out the homeless as well.

His proposed cycling resource centre requires a large warehouse where old bicycles would be refurbished for sale, rent and loan. The centre would also construct and sell bike trailers. The latter is a field of expertise for Hoar. His custom-designed bicycle trailers, sold worldwide, have hauled everything from sailboats to 400 kilograms of recycling.

He believes the Integrated Cycling Resource Centre could also: • serve as a bottle and can recycling depot for binners • provide bike-powered commercial delivery services • offer training programs for those (particularly the disadvantaged) wanting to learn about repairing bicycles and designing/constructing bike trailers • convert discarded shopping carts into bike trailers • provide bikes and trailers that could be used as disaster-relief vehicles It’s more than a pipe dream. Hoar — who designed the heavy-duty wheelchairs for Rick Hansen’s 1985 Man in Motion tour — is no run-of-the-mill bike aficionado.

He’s a widely respected figure in British Columbia’s

Tony Hoar explains the manufacturing process behind his successful bike trailers, used to haul everything from sailboats to recycling materials.

DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

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cycling community. And he’s steadily gathering support for his Integrated Cycling Resource Centre, some of it from influential people.

A key ally is Jutta Gutberlet, an associate geography professor at the University of Victoria. For six years, Gutberlet led the Participatory Sustainable Waste Management project in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in which poor people collected waste for recycling, mostly using carts pushed by hand.

Gutberlet previously partnered with Hoar on a pilot project in 2008 to help homeless people in Victoria. He invented a tent-trailer for bicycles, which could be converted into a regular trailer to carry goods. Gutberlet believes Hoar’s proposed cycling resource centre would work. “I think Victoria would be a perfect city to do something like that. It’s a medium-sized city. It has a lot of forward-thinking people. It has the university. It’s a wealthy city, too,� she said.

Gutberlet notes cities such as Vancouver and Montreal already host successful human-powered recycling programs. Vancouver’s United We Can bottle depot — which operates downtown — processes 20 million recyclable containers annually.

Another supporter of Hoar’s project is Sarah Webb, active transportation program manager for the Capital Regional District. Webb is also founder of the University of Victoria’s longrunning Spokes program, which reconditions donated bicycles for loan or rental.

Webb said Hoar’s resource centre could work in conjunction with existing Victoria bike-friendly programs such as Spokes.

She said immediate steps for the project would include deciding on a governance model (for instance, forming a co-operative) and finding a partner (government or private sector) for the warehouse facility. “Based on all the research, on examples and demand of what exists in Victoria, there’s no reason why a cycling centre like this couldn’t be a huge success,� Webb said. “We’ve just started pulling [Hoar’s project] together. The CRD and other local government agencies will be engaged in the future, I think. But for right now, we’re still putting our ducks in a row.�

As far as bike-powered recycling goes, the biggest success story on Vancouver Island has been Cowichan Recyclists. The business, founded in 2007 by Aaron Bichard and Katie Harris, recycles waste for 110 businesses in Duncan. They use four trailers constructed by Hoar, ranging in length from 1.2 to 2.4 metres.

Using two trailers in tandem, a cyclist can haul as much as 400 kilograms on a single load, Bichard said.

Cowichan Recyclists also operates a cargo tricycle that recycles waste in downtown Victoria.

Bichard believes the proposed resource centre would be a boon for this city. “It’s definitely a great idea and I think that kind of thing could really work,� he said.

Hoar realizes Victoria won’t convert to bicycle recycling overnight. He imagines the Integrated Cycling Resource Centre would be introduced downtown in stages, increased year by year. “The thing is getting it going,� he said with a smile. “I’m getting more people interested.� Capital

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we roll There are good reasons for the way we get to work Regular transit rider Brian Cant uses the 20-minute ride to prepare his day and the return to “decompress.”

DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

BY PEDRO ARRAIS

Spending 25 minutes to get to work can be a mundane task. But a growing number of people in Greater Victoria are leading the country when it comes to choosing healthier commuting alternatives — by bike, by bus or on foot.

BY CAR Nationally, 74 per cent of commuters reported in the 2011 census using a private vehicle to get to work.

But Victoria boasts the lowest number of car commuters in Western Canada at 70.7 per cent, which is also the third lowest number in all of Canada, behind only Toronto and Ottawa. The number of people behind the wheel dropped by one percentage point from 2006 to 2011, when the last census was done.

For some, driving is still the fastest and most convenient way to get to work.

“For now, there are no practical alternatives to using a car,” said Gillie Easdon, who runs the Every Step Counts running program. “Every day, I use it to drive my child to daycare before I go to work.”

Easdon said that although she loves working downtown, she cherishes her downtime in her Interurban-area home. Her son’s daycare is close to her previous home in the Lansdowne area. She stayed with the daycare because she wanted her son, Felix, now 41⁄2, to keep the friendships he had developed over the years.

Even though she drives, her flexible work schedule means her commute is never during rush hour, meaning a trip to work takes only 10 minutes.

“I could ride my bike, but it would mean up to three hours commuting — time I would rather spend with loved ones,” said Easdon, 41.

While others walk and cycle to improve their health, her job as the coach for a fitness program for clients with addiction, mental illness, poverty, homelessness and other problems, sees her walking and running up to 32 kilometres a week. She runs an additional 20 kilometres just for fun.

PUBLIC TRANSIT Just over 11 per cent of Victorians take public transit, putting us in the middle of the pack in Canada. That mostly means riding the bus, though ferries are involved for some people. Commuters in other cities might use subways, elevated rail, light rail, commuter train or streetcars, all options not available here.

Brian Cant, manager of client and media relations at the Tartan Group, has been taking a bus to get to work from his View Royal home for a decade. “It takes me 20 minutes to get home,” said the 33-year-old. “I don’t mind the commute.

I use the time to get ready for the day in the morning and to decompress on my way home.”

Apart from the mental-health benefits, Cant also saves money. A monthly bus pass costs $85 and he sometimes catches a bus more than twice a day. He still has a car, but finds transit works for 90 per cent of his transportation needs.

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WALKING Ten per cent of all commuters in Greater Victoria use their feet to get to work, which makes us the walking capital of Canada. Our mild climate, short distances and pleasant scenery are the envy of people everywhere else. By comparison, only five per cent of Calgarians hoof it to work.

After living through 30 Calgary winters, with temperatures that can drop to minus-40 C, Grant McKenzie, the director of communications at Our Place Society, says he appreciates the year-round temperate weather in Victoria.

“The walk re-energizes me,” said McKenzie, 51. “I live in James Bay, so I like to take different routes through Beacon Hill Park on my way to work.”

He likes to walk throughout the year, save for the most miserable days in the winter. His favourite time of year is the fall, when he can gather horse chestnuts. The chestnuts are used to play Conkers, a traditional children’s game from his childhood in the United Kingdom. He said others simply collect the smooth seeds to use as worry stones.

CYCLING Vancouver has made a big deal of the work that has gone into bicycle infrastructure. Despite the hype, only 1.8 per cent of that city’s workers cycle to work, compared with 5.9 per cent in Victoria, the highest in the country. That number comes from the 2011 census, which saw an increase from the 5.6 per cent recorded in the census five years earlier.

Casey Edge, executive officer of the Victoria Residential Builders Association, has been pedalling 10 kilometres to work, off and on, for 15 years. “It’s always a good idea to get another vehicle with a single person off the road,” said Edge, 59. He said the roads and trails in Victoria are “the perfect partner” for cyclists to get around. His newest bike is a Scott Addict, a light and fast road bike he takes on the highway because he finds commuter traffic on the Lochside Trail too slow for him. He rides to keep in top shape for his other passion — hockey.

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More than a million Canadians work from home, but you won’t find Sandra Hudson answering emails or talking to clients on the telephone in a bathrobe and slippers. “I make it a point to dress up for the work day, even if I don’t have any plans to leave the house,” said Hudson, account director for Good Relations, a public relations company. “Dressing in office attire puts me in the right frame of mind.”

She has been working from home, on-and-off, for 15 years and has learned to be prepared in her line of work for any eventuality. “In my experience, the one day you are not ready will be the day a client calls in a panic to tell you something has happened, the television crews are arriving and they need you there immediately,” said Hudson, 50. “If you’re not ready to run out that door, you’re hooped.” Capital

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Mandy Farmer

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Never stopped battling.

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Running Hotel Zed. Mandy Farmer, president and CEO of Accent Inns, at Hotel Zed. DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

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o some, it’s a sign of loving a challenge; to others an indication of single-minded determination. For Mandy Farmer, the internal drive to always reach higher is a little of both.

The president and chief executive of Accent Inns and Hotel Zed is the first to admit she’s known for pushing her own limits and, at times, pushing the patience and understanding of those around her in the pursuit of innovation, creativity and business success.

But don’t expect her to apologize for it.

“I know for sure I am an innovator and so I know there will always be something interesting that I’m doing. You have to make sure things evolve with the times rather than doing the same-old same-old.

I love making sure we evolve with the times,” said Farmer.

She is someone who loves nothing more than relaxing with a cold beer and a blank piece of paper on which she can start to imagine new and interesting ways of delivering a quality and fun night’s stay at any Accent Inns property.

That drive and willingness to poke and prod at the boundaries paid off this year with Hotel Zed, which has been humming since it opened in the spring.

The hotel, which could be the first of a few retrothemed hotels launched by the company, pays homage to the 1960s and 1970s with a bright colour scheme, authentic retro touches such as rotary phones, a 1967 Volkswagen van as a shuttle bus, bulletin boards in lieu of guest directories and board games and ping pong instead of video games and movies.

It was an idea 12 years in the making, coming to Farmer during her master’s program at Royal Roads University.

And it took 10 years before the partners at Accent Inns agreed to give it a shot.

“Letting me do the Hotel Zed was all about faith,” said Farmer. “They initially read the business plan and said no way it would work. I argued and they went out on a limb and I will be forever grateful.”

That she fought for it should surprise no one.

After all, when asked what advice she would give to her younger self, the 40-year-old Farmer is quick to say “never stop dreaming.”

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“Hotel Zed took me 10 years to get my business partners onside. I think youth today have some phenomenal ideas that we often think will never happen and they get shelved,” Farmer said. “But this goes to show that if you keep those dreams alive, keep them watered, you may be surprised where they end up.

“Don’t give up after your first [idea fails] or your 10th.”

Her father, Terry Farmer, who founded Accent Inns in 1986, expected nothing less when he brought his daughter back to Victoria as a sales manager in 1997.

“She loves a challenge, thrives on a challenge,” he said, noting his daughter has taken the ball and run with it since he made her president of the company in 2008. “She has followed along with everything I started here and she’s taken it a further step and it’s been great to see her do that.”

Terry Farmer has stepped back from day-to-day operations, but remains chairman of the company’s board of directors and still shares an office with his daughter. Both say, with wry smiles, that’s because neither of them will completely divulge what they are doing at any given time and expect the other to catch up.

Their close relationship, both personally and professionally, is built on mutual respect and admiration.

“I greatly respect the wisdom that my dad and partners bring. They have a wealth of experience so completely beyond my knowledge that I try to listen to them, be taught and mentored by them and, at the same time, they let me come up with crazy ideas and implement them,” said Mandy.

“It’s been a natural fit,” added Terry.

“We get on very well. There have been very few serious conflicts. There have been a couple of things that she has been stubborn on and, to be fair, she’s probably right.”

The ease with which they work together may have been a foregone conclusion, but working together was never a given.

Mandy Farmer was told the business would not be handed over to her. Terry Farmer had been told the same thing by his father, a co-founder of Farmer Construction. Mandy had designs on following her interests in neuro-psychology at university. It was only when she couldn’t land a job after school that she came to Accent

Inns looking for a start. She was hired to do sales and earned her stripes before her dad brought her back to the head office in Victoria.

Mandy admits to being a little surprised at where she has ended up and how she has managed to fuel her drive through work while finding balance in her life with husband Geoff Wong and children, Ginger, 8, and Oscar, 7.

She has kept a journal since she was in Grade 3. In it, there are several mentions of her mother suggesting Mandy didn’t know who she was and where she was going.

“It wasn’t until I started working at Accent Inns and really figuring out my passion for hotels and what I do here that I really finally feel like I do totally know who I am.

“I made the right decision. I’m so lucky I completely love my job and I work with amazing people I love to work with,” she said. “We have something special here.”

Frank Bourree, principal of Chemistry ConMandy Farmer sulting, has known has been Good relationships Farmer for more described with employees were than 20 years and as innovative, always important when believes she’s come driven, caring Terry Farmer ran the into her own as the and a natural show, and Mandy has head of Accent fit as the hotel continued that.

Inns.

“I have chain’s CEO “There is caring there watched her grow and it’s real,” said Accent up in the industry DARREN STONE, Inns director of marketing and she is the real TIMES COLONIST John Espley. deal,” he said. “She is “She travels around the propsharp as a tack, bright, enererties and tries to get to know every getic, professional. I would have employee she can.” to say she has really grown into herself.”

Espley, who has worked at Accent Inns Growth has come with increasing for 26 years and briefly was Mandy’s boss responsibility. Mandy Farmer said she may when she worked at the front desk, said the add to that, as Accent has eyes on expandchief executive has always maintained her ing in B.C. and possibly Alberta. down-to-Earth nature.

There are currently five Accent Inns — “At work, we’re down to business, but two in Vancouver, one each in Victoria, she is fun and what I really like is she’s not Kamloops and Kelowna — and Hotel Zed afraid to be unique and work with someacross from Mayfair Shopping Centre. one in their style,” Espley said, recalling Terry Farmer believes his daughter is an annual review Mandy conducted with the perfect person to guide that growth. him while hiking Mount Doug.

“She got her MBA at Royal Roads while “She knows who you are as an employee she was working here and I could see her and a lot of employers don’t go that far.” skills increase every week. She just got better and better,” he said. “The company is in great hands and the staff like her.”

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Trading up at Camosun

B Y R I C H A R D W AT T S

S

ara Wilson has always been fascinated with Lego, tinkering with the popular building toy from the time she was a child, through university and into her adult life.

So it’s no surprise that Wilson, now 29, has turned to building much bigger things as a sheet-metal worker. At Seaspan Victoria Shipyards, she spends days much as she did when she was younger, following designs step-by-step — but this time creating storage lockers, duct work and other metal gear on board navy vessels, submarines and other ships.

Wilson earned a degree in creative writing, but it seemed to be launching her on a career working in a coffee shop.

She’s now in the final year of a four-year sheet-metal apprenticeship that began with an exploration trades course at Camosun College, where Wilson was able to try her hand at different trades before settling on sheet metal.

Sara Wilson works with a metal roller at Victoria Shipyards.

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Wilson said the jump from academics to trades wasn’t the jolt she expected. She wanted to use both hands and head — and the pay is good. It has allowed Wilson to buy a house in Sidney with her husband, afford a second car and take a yearly vacation. It has also meant she can indulge in a few dreams, such as playing the cello and season tickets at Pacific Opera Victoria.

“There is a lot of things I always wanted to do and now I can,” said Wilson. “I’m not covered in diamonds, but I think it can be viewed as a pretty luxurious lifestyle.”

Wilson is part of the growing trend of Canadians turning to skilled trades as an aging workforce, a surge in capital projects and higher wages fuel opportunities.

Alberta and Saskatchewan’s oil patches are honey pots for workers. Shipbuilding is booming. British Columbia’s plan to become a major exporter of liquefied natural gas will also require thousands of skilled trades.

“If even just a few of those LNG projects are approved in B.C., it’s going to soak up all the skilled tradespeople we have,” said Eric Sehn, dean of trades and technology at Camosun. “It’s going to take an entire post-secondary system to train enough people to be able to provide them with the workforce they need.”

The provincial government’s Industry Training Authority, which oversees apprenticeships and credentials for tradespeople, has about 35,000 in registered apprenticeship programs. In a recent report, the authority said 8,250 new trades workers are needed next year. That rises to 8,750 in 2016-17.

Camosun is answering the call with $30 million worth of new construction and renovation work at its Interurban campus, which will increase capacity by 500 students to 2,700 a year.

The new Trades Learning Centre for Excellence project, to be complete in 2016, will include: • Marine and Metal Trades Centre for welding, sheet metal, fabrication and ship building/repair.

• Mechanical Trades Centre for automotive programs.

• A sustainable construction and renewable-energy centre for electrical, plumbing and green energy programs in the repurposed Jack White Trades Building.

• A technology and innovation centre for

Murray and Lynda Farmer are spearheading an ambitious fundraising drive to raise at least $5 million to acquire equipment for the new trades-training centre at Camosun College.

“I’m retired from an industry that has supplied us both with a good retirement. And it’s based in a large part on the efforts of skilled trades people I have known and had the pleasure of working with through the years,” said Murray Farmer.

Farmer Construction has been a household name around Vancouver Island for more than six decades, building everything from schools and residential towers to mines and bridges.

The Farmers are co-chairs of the Camosun TRADEmark of Excellence campaign, which will use the funds to outfit $30 million in new and renovated trades buildings at the college’s Interurban campus. The project, scheduled for completion in 2016, is expected to change the face of Camosun and turn the institution into a trades powerhouse.

The Farmers have assembled a group of business leaders to help in the campaign, including B.C. Ferries chief execuLynda and Murray Farmer. tive Mike Corrigan; James Carson, head ADRIAN LAM, TIMES COLONIST of Carson Automotive Group; and Tom Siemens, vice-president of commercial banking at RBC Royal Bank. The one thing all have in common is an enthusiasm for the idea of promoting excellence in the training and education of trades people, said Farmer.

The couple, married for 33 years, are both heavily involved in the community and education. Murray is finishing a five-year term as chancellor at the University of Victoria and Lynda is a former board chairwoman at Camosun.

For Lynda Farmer, the campaign is a chance to build on what she learned during her working life in non-profit groups. A good education and a pathway to a good career offer more than just a salary, she said. “It can change your life ... the life of your family and it’s going to change the life of your community.”

Thinking big for trades training

fundraising campaign to outfit the buildings with the most-modern equipment, has been launched.

“The faculty are constantly pushing to teach the front edge of the technology, not the past,” said Angus Matthews, TRADEmark of Excellence campaign director.

Kyle Broad, Camosun chairman of Artist’s conception of Camosun College’s mechanical and metal trades, said high on Trades Learning Centre for Excellence at the wish list is welding simulators, which the Interurban campus. allow students to put on helmets and weld CAMOSUN COLLEGE via computer screen. That allows welders to practise using various body positions. carpentry in the repurposed John DrysWelding overhead, for example, is tricky, dale Trades Building. as molten metal drips down.

• New central student commons facility A simulator can also allow a qualified to serve the combined trades centres. welder to practise the trickier welds, high• Expanded trades yard space, outdoor pressure pipes for example, in preparastorage and construction project areas. tion for gaining better tickets. Capital TRADEmark of Excellence, a major Capital FALL 2014

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Elite athletes energize economy B Y K AT I E D E R O S A

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The black and pink Cervélo road bike and signature pink Giro d’Italia jersey are set up in Trek Bikes like a shrine, welcoming customers to the Vic West bike shop. And it’s not out of the realm of possibilities for Ryder Hesjedal to be hanging around the shop, catching up with longtime friend Troy Woodburn, the bike mechanic who helped him conquer the 2012 Giro d’Italia, solidifying his place as one of the top cyclists in the world. The store’s strong ties with

Trek Bikes co-owner Bill Fry with Ryder Hesjedal's racing bike and pink jersey. Worldclass athletes create a culture of fitness and a healthy industry is being built around it.

PHOTO: ADRIAN LAM, TIMES COLONISTT

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the 33-year-old cyclist from Metchosin is sometimes the factor that brings people through the door and inspires amateurs to pick up the sport, said co-owner Bill Fry. And Hesjedal’s role in spearheading the Tour de Victoria allows relatively new cyclists to rub shoulders with some of the country’s top athletes during the 140-kilometre ride Kelly Guest is a through the region. former professional Reid said if you took a With a forgiving clitriathlete who trains kids to bird’s-eye view of the mate and ample terrain pursue elite sports. He city, every street would for training, Greater believes the proximity of so likely have a cyclist or Victoria’s status as a many top-level athletes helps a runner.

“It’s really hub for elite athletes youth realize they can aspire impressive.” has had a drag-up to the highest levels. “[People] don’t neceseffect for recreational sarily come here to make athletes, creating a culBRUCE STOTESBURY, TIMES COLONIST millions, but they come ture of fitness and fosterhere to enjoy the lifestyle of ing an industry that shows no what our geography and what our signs of slowing. brand is.”

The spin-off economic effects are Reid sees the economic opportunities myriad, from specialty sport shops to in pushing that brand — “fittest city in state-of-the-art training centres and gyms Canada.” to coaching services. That web also “That’s something we should be using reaches countless businesses that benefit as far as our marketing,” he said. from the thousands of athletes who flock Reid pointed to the GoodLife Fitness here for races such as the Victoria Victoria Marathon as a measurable examMarathon. ple of how much recreational running has Rob Reid, running guru, Frontrunners grown. owner and race director for the GoodLife “I’ve been involved in the Victoria Fitness Victoria Marathon, said the 1994 Marathon for 26 years and I remember Commonwealth Games were a major when we barely broke 1,000 people in the driver in Victoria promoting health and early 1990s. And now we’re attracting sport as a brand.

12,000.”

“Victoria just has the climate to attract Mark Nelson is the man who tracks lead athletes. We end up with an industry those athletes as they cross the finish line, building around it,” Reid said. someone whose business relies on millisecWatching elite athletes train has a cononds. Nelson operates Race Day Timing, tagious effect, he said, where some peowhich provides registration and time-keepple pick up a sport or activity just to be ing services for big races across Vancoupart of it all.

ver Island and the province.

The company has grown from working 16 events in 2009 to almost 90 events this year in B.C. Nelson said while the elite racers are definitely entertaining to watch in a big race such as the Times Colonist 10K, the majority of people running the race are doing it as a personal goal or as a social event.

“I think the masses are going to these events because of the community we have in Victoria, the gyms, the fitness centres, the sporting-goods stores and all the coaches that are trying to build their own businesses and, as a result, adding these new people to the fitness pool,” Nelson said.

Former pro triathlete Kelly Guest said the crop of elite athletes also inspires younger generations to follow in their footsteps. Guest moved to Victoria from London, Ont., in 1999 to train alongside Simon Whitfield on the men’s national team.

“In my own story, I was kind of a product of the hub that is elite sport in Victoria,” he said. “I was here to get better and this is the place to do it. It doesn’t matter what sport you’re in — cycling rowing, running, triathlons — it’s happening here.”

Guest now runs Kelly’s Kids Triathlon, a coaching service for kids between the ages of 10 and 16.

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He’s priming them to be the country’s top-level athletes and there’s no shortage of former Olympians at their races to provide the motivation they need to get there.

Whitfield often comes out to training sessions to talk to the kids and answer their questions.

“I think it’s that proximity to greatness that helps the kids realize that they can do it,” Guest said.

Like Guest, many former pros have started coaching businesses.

One of Guest’s students, Hannah Henry, 14, is aiming to join the junior elite triathlete team next year, which would have her training six times a week.

It’s part of her goal to one day make it to the Canada Summer Games and beyond that, to the Olympics.

Hannah said she looks up to professional athletes such as Kirsten Sweetland, former world junior triathlon champion, who was at the B.C. Summer Games in her hometown Nanaimo in August.

Hannah’s mother, Della Henry, said interacting with top athletes at these com-

petitions is a huge motivator for her daughter. “It makes the whole sport more real and attainable,” Henry said.

Reid said when Simon Whitfield returned from Sydney with his gold medal, he asked him to show up at a track-andfield event for students.

“I thought, ‘This will be like Beatlemania,’ ” he said, and the result wasn’t far off, with young athletes squealing after a highfive from the triathlete and peppering him with questions.

Elk Lake has been the training ground for many rowers who have eventually stood atop an Olympic podium, from Silken Laumann, who captured bronze in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona just weeks after a serious injury to her leg, to the men’s eight team that captivated the country with their gold medal finish in Beijing in 2008.

“I think rowing has a much higher profile in Victoria than it does in many other parts of Canada,” said Brenda Taylor, an Olympian who brought home two gold medals from the 1992 Olympics. She now works as the club manager at Victoria City

Rowing Club.

The club is housed in the Victoria Rowing Society boathouse at Elk Lake, which is also shared by the Canadian national team, the University of Victoria and the Greater Victoria Youth Rowing Society.

“The boathouse at Elk Lake is bursting at the seams,” Taylor said.

There’s an annual Christmas rowing event in which national athletes, masters, juniors and UVic students are thrown into the same boat.

The club also hosts major events such as the National Rowing Championships, B.C. Championships, the Canadian Masters Championships and regattas hosted

by UVic. “So there’s a lot of high-level athletes training here and that trickle down affects everybody,” Taylor said. “It’s just a culture of fitness and activity whether you’re a competitive high-performance athlete or masters athlete or recreational athletes doing it for fitness.”

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Sports centres building athletic excellence B Y C L E V E D H E E N S AW

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Artist’s conception of the atrium in the new Centre for Athletics, Recreation and Special Abilities at the University of Victoria, featuring a twostorey climbing wall.

In Saanich, on et used to the acronyms CARSA and PISE. Camosun College’s The athletic and fitness facilities at the UniverInterurban Camsity of Victoria and Camosun College are the new pus, Pacific Institwin jewels of the capital’s already vaunted sports tute for Sports Exand recreation scene. Each will strengthen the region’s UNIVERSITY OF cellence (PISE) has legacy of producing scores of athletes who have won VICTORIA been open since 2008 medals at the Olympics, played in soccer and rugby World and is still expanding. It’s Cups and won college and university championships. Both will also provide another incubator of internabenefits to thousands of students and regular folks in pursuit of healthy lifestyles.

The $77-million Centre for Athletics, Recreation and Special Abilities (CARSA), under tional-level athletes, national teams and construction on the University of Victoria campus, will open in spring 2015. The 190,000- recreational athletes.

The facility was part of the legacy of square-foot facility — about the size of three football fields — will accommodate athletes of all abilities. The university has produced 161 Olympic and Paralympic Vikes the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

In the $162-million budget at the time, athletes and coaches who have won 68 medals, 37 of them gold. Another 70 UVic teams $10 million was put aside for a post-Games have won national titles.

CARSA’s features will be impressive — a new gymnasium with seating for about 2,000; training legacy for Canadian athletes.

Of the eventual $6.2-million profit from a two-storey fitness and weight-training space; a 16-metre climbing tower rising through the fitness and weight-training area; an indoor field house; dedicated team training the Games, $5 million was added for an rooms; dance space, a spin-class room and a yoga studio; squash and racquetball courts; endowment for what became the Commonwealth Centre for Sport Development, rowing ergometer centre; and sports therapy clinic.

The facility will also house offices, labs and a machine shop for UVic’s CanAssist. which morphed into PacificSport and now PISE, with its cutting-edge facility at This is the only North American university to develop customized technologies, proCamosun Interurban. grams and services that improve the quality of life of people living with disabilities.

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PISE is still capitalized at $19 million, using that to leverage partnerships with government programs such as Own the Podium, educational institutions such as Camosun, private sponsors and hooking into the Canadian Sport Institute-Pacific, part of a nationwide system of training centres.

A million dollars in fundraising is underway to build a fourlane, 400-metre track with seating for 500 spectators. The facility would be used by elite and amateur athletes with the goal of it eventually becoming a national Paralympic training centre.

PISE’s other long-term project is a proposed $10-million addition to create more space for athlete training.

PISE’s impact is evident everywhere when you enter the doors.

The walls are adorned with framed prints of every Summer and Winter Olympian from B.C. since 2000. The sports that have significant national team presence in Victoria are rowing, rugby, triathlon, swimming, cycling and middle-distance track.

There are moves afoot also to lure elements of the Canadian national soccer and tennis programs.

PISE works closely with Canadian Sport-Institute Pacific — a national training centre with campuses in Victoria, Richmond and Whistler — to deliver medical, coaching, strength training, nutritional, sport-technical and physiotherapy/massage services to national team athletes who train all over the region, from Elk Lake and Saanich Commonwealth Place to Langford’s Westhills Stadium.

The region is brimming with national-team ambitions, but what sets PISE and CARSA apart is the integration of programming for the community at large.

PISE’s plan for a four-lane track and seating for 500.

It’s not uncommon at PISE to see people taking spin or yoga classes alongside Olympians. “Our mission statement incorporates both excellence in sport at the highest level to excellence in general health, physical activity and active living,” said PISE chief executive Robert Bettauer.

“That’s a powerful shift [in the Canadian sport delivery model].”

It’s also good for the bottom line, with community programming bringing in registration fees.

“Only $90,000 of the [annual PISE operating budget of] $2.5 million comes from government,” said Bettauer.

“We sustain ourselves through our business model. Other Canadian sports training institutes are looking very closely at what we’re doing.” Capital

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PISE

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More courses, fewer players: Local golf industry gets competitive.

DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

BY MARIO ANNICCHIARICO

Golf feeling player pinch

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t’s a sunny summer afternoon at Bear Mountain Resort and the pings of metal meeting golf balls echo off the trees near the first hole of the Mountain Course and up from the depths of the Valley Course. Golf balls soar into the warm, blue sky and bound endlessly on the lush green fairways, taking the contours of the hilly terrain.

Laughter from discussions of both successes and failures abounds on the patio at the clubhouse at the 36-hole facility that borders Langford and Highlands. It’s a steady day as locals and tourists make their way to tee boxes on two Jack Nicklausdesigned courses that offer challenges and beautiful vistas.

Although business isn’t booming like a Rory McIlroy tee shot at all Vancouver Island golf courses (in particular on the up-Island where the clientele is older and land is less populated), the Victoria area Capital FALL 2014

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Smaller, less expensive tracks such as remains alive and healthy as a destination Royal Oak, Prospect Lake, Metchosin, Ardfor those still infatuated with rolling a dimmore, Juan de Fuca, Mount Douglas and pled sphere into a hole in the minimal Henderson also try to find their niche in amount of strokes over 18 holes. the market.

There is far less doom and gloom here Olympic View head pro Kevin Maxwell than in the United States, where golf said the dynamics have changed. courses are closing.

He said that in 2004 and 2005, as Bear “There are a lot of articles saying golf Mountain was opening its first course, “if is in trouble, but most of those are Ameryou weren’t a member or didn’t know a ican-based,” said Royal Colwood Golf member, you were pretty much choosing Course general manager Philip Nurse, who to play between Cordova Bay and heads the century-old club.

[Olympic View].”

“I’m not saying it’s not an issue in “There was a lot of interest in golf. I Canada, but from a Victoria standpoint it think that’s still there, but now we have to remains very healthy.” share all that business with two Bear The exception may be Glen Meadows Mountain courses, in North Saanich, which Highland Pacific is seeking a zoning with a full course change to agricultural and Cordova Bay.” and could be destined Olympic View, a for change. Plans for the public course that course are not finalized. sells seasonal mem“Right now, it’s business berships, has 250 as usual,” said head pro regulars, with room Robin Hutchinson. But for 300. It costs some members are leav$2,499 for unlimited ing “because of the Chip shot at Bear Mountain. play. Unlike private uncertainty.” Glen MeadDARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST clubs, there is no ows marks its 50th initiation fee. anniversary in 2015.

Recently, initiation fees at some of the “The biggest challenge for our industry region’s private clubs have bounced and is people have less time and less disposable danced around like a tightly spun Tiger income,” said Hutchinson.

Woods approach shot.

“It’s a leisure sport and, unfortunately, Royal Colwood went from what used to it’s easy to cut out of people’s lives. be a $19,000 fee to a special $1,913 rate to “We need an influx of people in their 30s reflect the year it was established. That and early 40s.” special ended Aug. 1 and the rate is now Glen Meadows has gone from a peak of up to $4,000. There is a two-year waiting 600 members 30 years ago to about 100. list to become a member. Its 675 members That may not be a true indication of also pay $293 a month in dues, which where the industry is headed, but Victoincludes full-service club storage and ria courses are in a battle to divvy up access to practice facilities. Juniors pay shares in a competitive pie by loosening $55 a month. Royal Colwood will push membership regulations and dropping through about 54,000 rounds this year. prices and fees.

“You have to remember we’ve added a Royal Colwood, which played host to the lot of holes of golf in the area [over the Canadian Amateur men’s championship in last 20 years],” said Nurse. “It’s not like the summer summer, is one of the more we’re doubling our population. Somebody recognized properties in the region, along has to give up some of that pie.” with other private courses such as Scott Kolb agrees. The general manager Uplands, Victoria and Gorge Vale. Public of Victoria Golf Club has a membership of courses such as Bear Mountain, Olympic 660 adults and 1,000 in total when adding View, Highland Pacific and Cordova Bay intermediates and juniors and non-resident also draw rave reviews and the popular members. About 45,000 rounds a year are Cedar Hill, owned and operated by played on the scenic oceanside course.

Saanich, remains one of the busiest “Since [2003], there have been two courses in B.C.

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courses added at Bear Mountain and one at Highland Pacific. If you think they’re trying to average 48,000 rounds each, if not more, I can guarantee you we don’t have 120,000 more rounds being played from 2003 to now, so they’re getting spread out somewhere,” Kolb said.

“For a long time the pie was getting bigger. Now there isn’t a golf club that’s maxing out by any means. There are more discounted fares for public play. We don’t do that, but I can see it out there.”

The deals are easy to find.

While members are paying a $35,000 initiation fee at Victoria Golf Club and adding $312 in dues a month and maintaining a $600 seasonal tab in the clubhouse, daily greens-fee players are finding Groupon deals at other courses or booking specials online. Golf Now, for example, occasionally features a $5.99 rate, plus taxes and fees, for nine holes at Metchosin or an 18-hole $30 fare at Morningstar in the Parksville area.

Fairwinds Golf Course in Nanoose Bay features a $39 afternoon special rate for tee times between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

In some cases, it’s comparing apples to oranges, but there are a wide range of options for golfers.

Bear Mountain is a semi-private course where memberships are sold, but it also caters to daily greens-fee players. It sees about 60,000 rounds a year. In the winter months, the facility cuts back to play on one course.

The initiation fee there is now $18,000 for adults, which can be spread out interest-free over 10 years. That fee was initially $50,000 and dropped as low as $12,000. Monthly dues at Bear Mountain are $325, which includes play, use of GPS power carts, club storage and lockers and an affiliation with Pacific Links, which provides access to courses around the world.

With new ownership (Ecoasis Developments LLP) and real estate once again picking up in the region, Bear Mountain director of golf Jordan Ray said golf is very much alive, with the course hosting 330 private members.

“This area is growing,” Ray said. “Our play is diverse. We have a pretty unique product and our hotel has been real strong this year. This is my fourth year and this is the busiest it’s been, for sure.”

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SYBIL VERCH • Raymond James Ltd. financial adviser

Find the balance in career and life

H

philanthropy and spirituality. When one area gets neglected, other ow can women achieve a work-life balance? areas of life can also be negatively affected.

First, understand that living a balanced life Maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle will make you feel means different things to different people. strong and healthy and help you to reduce stress. It’s easy to put It can also be more challenging for women, off going to the gym or out for a run, but if you don’t make exeras traditional expectations still exist. cise a priority, you will pay the price as your health suffers. Once A successful woman often faces judgments. sick, you can’t run your business or take care of your family.

Long hours at work are often viewed as being at Five years ago, I made a promise that I would exercise a minthe expense of family time, and society is more accepting of that imum average of three days per week. I’ve kept that promise and for men than for women. feel energized as a result.

We’re not yet at the stage where it’s 100 per cent acceptable A business coach told me I needed to take more vacaand considered normal for women to be the main breadtion time. Sounds great, but easier said than done. winners. It takes a secure and confident man to be Life wheel Successful business owners are notorious for happy and supportive in a relationship with a being workaholics. What I’ve learned over successful woman. And the smart ones figthe years is that my production level has ure out that it can be a great thing. increased dramatically since taking more As a society, we need to better support Family Career vacation time. men who choose to take on more domesWhat do you do the few days before tic duties in order for women to take on Financial a vacation? Most people get extremely more leadership roles.

Relationships stability focused, complete projects that are outWe need to embrace the true meanstanding and clean up pending tasks. ing of partnership before we can truly Personal Typically, the week before taking time achieve equal opportunity.

Philanthropy growth off is extremely productive, and so is the I am passionate about my career and week upon return, as you feel refreshed love what I do, so working 50 to 60 hours and recharged. per week is enjoyable for me. I don’t view Spirituality Health For optimal performance, try taking at what I do for a living as work. I prefer to least one week off every three months. Your think of it as a hobby that I get paid to do. But mind, body, spirit, business and family will thank it’s still essential to fit in other things. you for it.

I frequently refer to a life wheel to rank how Draft your own life wheel and rank the different areas happy I am in various aspects of my life. of your life to see if you are doing everything you can to mainIt’s a good checkpoint and allows me to consider and shift my tain a healthy work-life balance. priorities accordingly.

It’s not about doing it all.

The life wheel includes personal relationships, career, finanIt’s about doing what’s right for you. cial stability, continuing education and self-improvement, health, Capital Fall 2014

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New school, new method for shaping young minds

BY JEFF BELL

J

eff Hopkins was 44 and had the top job in the Gulf Islands school district, but he decided to take his career in a different direction.

From superintendent and a salary of about $120,000 a year, Hopkins switched to a much different educational task — creating a new school from the ground up. He is the founder and principal of Victoria’s Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, often referred to by its abbreviation PSII, pronounced “sigh.”

The philosophy behind the school — learning based on what motivates and captivates each student — has been on his mind for just about all of his 20 years in education.

“I’ve been trying to make this change in the system pretty much ever since I started teaching,” he said.

Hopkins was also the inaugural “educator-in-residence” at the University of Victoria this past school year, which provided an opportunity to let people know what 80

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PSII was all about. “I went there once a month and talked to teachers who were being trained and also faculty.”

He said it sparked considerable interest in PSII from both groups, who wanted to see the school in action.

“Also, we’ve had a lot of principals and teams of teachers coming from districts all over the place,” Hopkins said.

The school opened in September 2013, in space leased from the Victoria Truth Centre on Fort Street. “It’s a neat spot because we’re close to everything, but it’s quiet,” Hopkins said.

Some of the programs are off-site, including the physical education program at the YM-YWCA. The idea was to start small, with tuition set at $7,000 per student — a total approaching the ministry’s per-student funding in the Greater Victoria school district. “We’re trying to show you can do this,” Hopkins said. “You don’t have to charge $20,000 tuition.”

The school’s website and publicinformation sessions combined to generate most of the initial interest in the school, and now word-of-mouth has taken over.

There were 46 students in the first year, and Hopkins sees the second year topping out at about 60 to 65.

Jeff Hopkins in the atrium area of the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry. The school emphasizes the personal interests and learning styles of students.

BRUCE STOTESBURY, TIMES COLONIST

Seven students graduated from Grade 12 in 2014 and enjoyed a ceremony at the school. “We took them out for dinner afterward, which you can do when you have seven grads,” Hopkins said with a laugh.

Among the growing student population in 2014-15 are dancers from the Victoria Academy of Ballet, who are at PSII because the flexibility built into its program works well with their training. As well, Hopkins’ 14-year-old son, Brennan, has entered Grade 9.

PSII’s aims are similar to those in the emerging concept of “personalized learning,” which has been gaining traction in the public-education system for the past few years. Personalized learning aims to put the needs of students first and let their personal interests and learning styles be front-and-centre.

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Hopkins takes a bit of a different tack with what he calls an “inquiry-based” method. Students come up with questions to establish their own learning path. Teachers are there to ensure that students cover the necessary course content. “They follow that inquiry and that, actually, is their curriculum. It’s what they’re interested in and it’s actual questions they have, and we help them come up with the kind of questions to follow the subject in a deep enough way to make it part of high school.”

An example of an inquiry from the 201314 school year was a student pursuing an interest in sleep and dreams, Hopkins said.

“That inquiry became a massive set of projects which involved doing some psychology, interviewing people in the sleep clinic, talking to artists about the influence of dreams on their art.”

Students Teagan Gosling, Avery Stefanson and Matthew Ankersen worked on a shared interest by creating a 20-minute film. They were involved in every facet of the filmmaking process.

The friends praised the inquiry-based style of learning because it allowed them to follow their passion and make a film,

rather than simply write a paper on the subject.

“The inquiry-based learning is so much better than courses,” said Gosling. “I’m interested in this, in filmmaking, so I’m going to do filmmaking.”

Keating Gudgeon, who spent his Grade 12 year at PSII after moving from Oak Bay Secondary, said the structure in place was ideal for the way he learns as someone with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and dyslexia.

The atmosphere was “very soothing and very accommodating,” he said.

“I got a lot of reading and writing done.

It’s helped me broaden my view on learning on other subjects, especially through literature, touching upon specifically brain psychology and biology for my sciences.”

He also found himself steered toward music. Gudgeon said the staff was always helpful along the way. “It was at my own pace but [I was] able to get lots of things done at a time, as opposed to being focused on a linear sort of scale and going in one direction at one time.”

Charlotte Close decided to go to PSII after attending both St. Margaret’s School

and Oak Bay Secondary. She is taking Grade 11 and 12 courses in 2014-15, with an emphasis on sciences.

The smaller size of the school is a good fit for her, she said. “I’m glad I went. I found it really helpful and a good environment to work in.”

Hopkins said he realized the best way to develop his vision was to create a school himself. What he has come up with is, without a doubt, a labour of love. “My mortgage is the funding,” Hopkins chuckled, adding that the school receives some financial support from the Ministry of Education.

He said creating a school was not an easy route to take, but it is one that he relishes.

There are five faculty members, two of them full-time. Hopkins received more than 400 applications from teachers before the first year.

He said one of his goals for PSII is to be an influence on the public education system. “We don’t want people to think of us as a way to get away from it, but we do recognize that people are looking for needs that sometimes aren’t being met,” Hopkins said. Capital

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Young inventors keep watch over water Vicki Kleu and Austin Sawyer won an award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Windsor, Ont., for their specially designed pads to clean up fuel and oil spills in waterways. SUBMITTED

V

B Y R I C H A R D W AT T S icki Kleu figured there had to be a better way to retrieve spilled oil in marine waterways.

“If you look at [our] harbour you always see an oil film on the water,” said Kleu. “I wondered how much it would take for someone to get out there and actually clean it up.”

So the 18-year-old Lambrick Park Secondary School graduate, now beginning first-year sciences at the University of Victoria, started making phone calls.

“I started with a boat company and they said ‘Call the fire department,’ and they said ‘call the coast guard,’ ” said Kleu. “I got redirected a whole bunch of times. It turns out it all depends on how big is the spill whether someone will actually even come out and clean it up.”

When she considered how toxic even a small amount of oil can be in a marine environment, she decided to put the cleanup potential into the public’s hands, developing a special pad to soak up spilled oil.

With the help of a teacher acting as mentor, she developed a fibrous pad to sop up spilled oil, something to be carried in a boat or the trunk of a car. The pad was a winner at the 2014 Canada-Wide Science Fair in Windsor, Ont. She also took the oil-soaking pad to the CBC television show Dragon’s Den and received an expression of interest. But it came with a condition that Kleu sign on with an existing company as partner before any cash was advanced.

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This year, Kleu decided to take her pad to a wider audience. But instead of just developing a product to soak up small spills, she decided to aim a little higher.

Kleu and longtime pal Austin Sawyer, a Grade 12 student at Lambrick Park, decided to use the material in the pads in large booms already used to contain oil spills.

It’s a development that took the Manning Innovation Achievement Award in May at the CanadaWide Science Fair, winning a $500 prize. It also came with a bronze medal that earned Sawyer and Kleu an entrance scholarship to their choice of Canadian universities.

The real innovation behind the pair’s boom was being able to make two oil-spill responses with one device, containing spilled oil and then retrieving it.

John Jessup, manager of Canadyne Technologies Inc., a Vancouver-based manufacturer and seller of oil-spill response equipment, said oil spills are typically contained with floating booms.

These cylindrical booms sit with a portion above the surface of the water and the other below.

They can be inflatable or filled with foam.

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They can be stretched out in a ring around a ship leaking oil or deployed along a shore to protect sensitive areas, such as mudflats or saltwater marshes. These booms are mostly designed to stop oil from spreading, or to contain it.

Meanwhile, picking up spilled oil can involve pads, mats, sheets or rolled logs of material designed to soak up oil floating on top of the water.

“Typically, these things are done separately,” said Jessup. “So you are buying either a containment boom or they are buying an absorbents.”

After being contacted by Kleu and Sawyer about their containment and absorbent boom, he was intrigued.

“I really like the idea that people are doing research on this area.”

Sawyer, 17, said he and Kleu learned the containment phase of oil-spill response can last days.

“It really doesn’t seem to make sense to put the boom out there for three days,” said Sawyer. “They are wasting days.”

Better, thought the pair, would be a boom that would not only contain a spill but immediately begin removing oil from

the surface of the marine environment.

The two came up with a floating boom, filled with the same material that is in Kleu’s pads.

But deploying the material in a boom became a problem during the experimentation phase.

The material initially soaked up oil with no problem, but after about two days, oil started to drain out and was replaced by water.

The partners wondered if the problem could be fixed by altering the electrochemical nature of the oil-soaking fibres.

After selecting a chemical material they thought might do the trick, the two used it to soak and then boil the fibrous pad material. Then the fibres were removed, dried out and tried again.

“It actually worked perfectly,” said Sawyer. “It solved our whole problem.”

The pair have also taken their absorbent product another step further, investigating what can be done once it’s fully saturated with oil.

For a start, applying pressure can squeeze out as much as 95 per cent of the oil. Then, soaking it in a lighter oil, such

as canola oil, can remove most of what’s left over.

The amount of oil left in the fibrous material is small enough that the used fibres are biodegradable. That aspect was tested at laboratories at UVic. Sawyer said another positive aspect of the boom is that it is manufactured with simple materials, most of which can be purchased at groceries or hardware stores.

“You don’t really need anything exotic to make it,” said Sawyer.

“The bad things about the booms on the markets now is they are made with things like really expensive, chemically treated plastics,” he said. “They are reusable but it is just insane how expensive they are.”

Sawyer and Kleu plan to see if a patent can be arranged for their boom.

They are also still in touch with the members of the Dragon’s Den panel and are finishing up a report to present to Jessup at Canadyne.

The two are also preparing to present their boom and explain its worth at the TED Talks in November.

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The lawyer who became a ferry captain After 40 years in the courts, Dennis Murray has joined an eclectic crew — including former Oak Bay mayor Christopher Causton — at Victoria Harbour Ferry

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Christopher Causton and Dennis Murray made the transition from high-pressure jobs to piloting the harbour boats.

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BY BILL CLEVERLEY

A

nd now for something completely different …

After more than 40 years in the pressure-cooker environment of B.C. courtrooms, criminal lawyer Dennis Murray walked away this summer to begin a second career as a Victoria Harbour Ferry captain.

“I really made myself a promise some years ago that I would hang them up while I could still skate and I would do it definitely, definitely, before I reached the age of 70,” said Murray, 69.

About three years ago, he started to muse about what he might do post-law.

“I thought about being a guy who helps people figure out things at Home Depot because they have people working part time and I’m a bit of a MacGyver guy and I had the harbour ferries in the back of my head,” Murray said.

The latter seemed a natural fit, he said.

“I love the water. I’ve been on the water since I was a kid with my dad and I like people. I knew it would be so completely different than anything I’d done in my law career, so I decided to give it a stab. My big fear was I wouldn’t be able to pass the commercial passenger operator exams at my age.”

In June, Murray pulled the plug. He farmed out all his files among colleagues and closed his law practice.

He loves the change.

“What’s not to love? I absolutely love kibitzing with the people who get on board from all over the world — you wouldn’t believe it. It’s just amazing. And the second thing I enjoy is the people [I work with]. Many of the guys are retired navy guys.

They’re all just fantastic people.”

There’s never any shortage of resumés from people wanting to drive a harbour ferry, said Barry Hobbis, a company partner and vice-president of operations.

Most of the people who sign on “have been walking along the harbour and they see a harbour ferry scooting along.

They’re either about to retire or they’re retired and they basically come to the conclusion: ‘Gee, I’d like to do that,’ ” Hobbis said.

Those who are really interested are prepared to take the next step, which involves completing more than $1,000 worth of certification courses before coming back for a job interview.

“Having boating skills is not at the top of the list in terms of what we’re looking for,” Hobbis said. “Really, what’s at the top of the list is, do they like to work with people? Are they happy when they’re sitting on a boat and they’ve got 12 people from all over the world? And can they interact with them? And do they like it? That’s the primary objective.”

The job attracts an eclectic bunch, Hobbis said. Over the years, harbour ferry captains have included retired military personnel, among them a retired rear admiral and several navy

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The Victoria Harbour Ferry operation Fleet Victoria Harbour Ferry has 16 vessels

Routes

Cost

18 ferry stops around the Inner and Upper harbours from Ogden Point to the Tillicum Bridge

Water taxi ride from one stop to another averages $5.

Harbour tours and Gorge cruises range from $22 to $26 for adults. Pickle Pub Crawls are $15 per person.

Crew Victoria Harbour Ferry employs as many as 70 staff, with 45 to 50 captains in peak season

Season The season usually begins in late February with the Be a Tourist in Your Hometown event and closes the middle of October

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‘‘

You’re actually talking about a city you like, or in my case, you love.

You’re talking about the good side of the city and you try to tend away from some of the bad things. Most of the time I don’t talk about sewage.

CHRISTOPHER CAUSTON

captains; a medical doctor, a 747 pilot, Telus linemen and two local mayors — former Victoria mayor Bob Cross and former Oak Bay mayor Christopher Causton.

Causton started with the harbour ferries after retiring from office three years ago.

“It’s always busy. You’ve got kayaks, you’ve got boats, you’ve got planes. So every day is an interesting day. A busy day,” Causton said.

Like Murray, he loves the interaction with the passengers. And his background in the hospitality field and in local politics serves him well in explaining points of interest.

“You’re actually talking about a city you like, or in my case, you love. You’re talking about the good side of the city and you try to tend away from some of the bad things. Most of the time I don’t talk about sewage,” Causton said.

Causton bought an annual pass over the last couple of years he was mayor, so he could spend a lot of time on the ferries and get a better understanding of the job.

Both Causton and Murray also cite the camaraderie among the team as a highlight of the job.

Hobbis, meanwhile, gets a chuckle out of the expression on the newbies’ faces when they realize for the first time a more tangible expression of a job well done.

“The first time they go out on a water taxi or they do a Gorge tour and people get off the boat and they turn around to their empty boat and they go, ‘What?

What the heck?’ They realize their tip cup is full of money. They just kind of go, ‘Wow!’ That’s immediate reward for immediate results. It just cracks me up every time I see it.” Capital

INvested over $20m in capital projects since 2002

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Outdoor havens the cat’s meow B Y S A N D R A M CC U L L O C H

S

ome of John Creviston’s projects look like outdoor art — floating staircases encircling backyard trees.

Others are more basic, a boxlike structure on a back deck with shelves at various heights to offer views of the yard.

The black wire mesh serves two functions — to keep domestic cats from wandering off their property and to protect songbirds from falling prey to the natural hunters.

Creviston, a former zookeeper at the Calgary Zoo and curator of the Crystal Garden Conservation Centre, has been building outdoor cat enclosures for homeowners for the past five years.

He explained his reasons for starting his company, Catscape: Beautiful World Living Environments, in an interview from his Brentwood Bay home, with his maincoon, Moonie, comfortably nestled on his lap. “I grew up seeing a lot of cats being killed on roads, a lot of lost posters,” said Creviston, 54.

After leaving the Calgary Zoo, Creviston worked at the SPCA’s wild animal recovery centre in Metchosin and saw a number of wild birds brought in, victims of cat attacks.

“At Wild Arc, we traditionally gave peo-

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ple hell for people [letting their cats] do that,” said Creviston.

He worked with an Ontario company that built components for cat enclosures and later decided to go into business for himself.

Creviston fell back on his knowledge of building exhibits and tried to give cat owners what they were looking for — giving their cats an expanded quality of life “but without the risks.”

Susan Nash hired Creviston to give her three rescued cats — Molly, Charlie and Minou — access to her Saanich backyard.

The result has pleased both Nash and her cats.

“It’s amazing — it’s great for the cats because they can go outside anytime. When we’re outside, we find they go out, too,” said Nash.

Her cats can leave the house near the living room window and follow a series of platforms, passageways and ramps through the backyard.

“It goes over a garden and you can walk under the enclosure,” said Nash.

There are several runs going in different directions so her cats don’t have to cross paths.

“I find the very end spot is the prime location, so one cat will wait for the other to leave that spot,” said Nash.

Molly makes her way through a cat run as John Creviston talks with homeowner Susan Nash.

ADRIAN LAM, TIMES COLONIST

“I feel this gives the cats an outside experience. They’re out there all the time.”

Many Canadian cities have adopted bylaws that require cats, as well as dogs, to be licensed.

Cats in those areas are not allowed to wander or the owner can face fines.

“I think we’ll see it more and more in large cities,” said Creviston. “I provide an option to keep cats safe.”

Coyotes pose a threat for cats and small dogs in many urban areas as well, said Creviston.

Typical enclosures cost $800 to $1,000.

Access is typically through an existing window or cat door. Some are attached to the house while others are freestanding.

Creviston has built close to 100 enclosures at homes on the Island, the Lower Mainland, Princeton, Kelowna, Calgary and Edmonton.

“Each one is unique, each one is a mental challenge for me,” said Creviston He has done enclosures in high rises and condominiums and he has built backyard enclosures on wheels.

“People want something that makes their cat happy,” he said. Capital

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blue economy

UVicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

As the oceans play an increasing role in a global economy, Victoria researchers go deep for answers

Ian Kulin helps to prepare a Slocum Electric Glider for the Ocean Networks Canada project.

The 52-kilogram, 1.5-metre long glider, one of two at UVic, was deployed in late summer in Barkley Sound and is equipped with sensors to collect water temperature, salinity and other detailed data. The glider can descend 350 metres and has a range of 1,500 kilometres with information gathered via Iridium satellite.

BRUCE STOTESBURY, TIMES COLONIST

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>>> Reece Hasanen

with a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) subsea camera used to document undersea life for the VENUS and NEPTUNE projects. >>> Kate Moran, Oceans Network Canada president, on the Joides drilling ship: The network helps Canadian industry tap international markets.

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SOURCE: OCEAN NETWORKS CANADA

BY JEFF BELL

The University of Victoria is making a big splash in the so-called “blue economy,” where climate change, natural hazards, security concerns and other factors are fuelling new marine-based business around the world.

UVic’s strong position comes through the presence of the NEPTUNE and VENUS ocean observatories, undersea cable networks off Vancouver Island that provide researchers with continuous physical, chemical, biological and geological data from beneath the waves.

The technology that powers the networks has broad applications for other ventures linked to the ocean and the potential for growth as part of the blue economy is huge, said Kate Moran,

P GO DEE

president of UVic-based Ocean Netvideo View live works Canada — which operates NEPocean at r u o r unde TUNE and VENUS. orks.ca oceannetw “It’s an emerging economy, and it’s really driven from the fact that we have increasing global population and increased use of the oceans.”

On top of that, most commerce has some dependence on the oceans, Moran said.

“Over 90 per cent of the products that we use globally are transported by ship,” she said.

An Ocean Networks Canada business division — the ONC Innovation Centre — has been established to explore commercial applications for the NEPTUNE and VENUS technology. Its goal is to become self-sustaining and deliver $270 million in business over the next seven years.

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This year began with $18-million worth of international contracts under negotiation.

“What the centre is established to do is help Canadian industry grow and tap into that international market,” Moran said.

A prime example is the signing of agreements to develop sensors for a tide-energy project in Nova Scotia, an example of what Moran called “exactly those kinds of growing markets that we’re uniquely positioned for.”

There have also been talks with Brazil, where there is interest in emulating the UVic example with an underwater-cable system for marine research.

But the applications go far beyond that, said Innovation Centre director Scott McLean.

“Brazil, as an example, is looking at an investment of $225 billion in five years just for their oil-and-gas sector,” McLean said. “We’re looking at countries investing staggering amounts of money in offshore projects.”

Port security is another promising realm, as is public safety related to early-warning systems for tsunamis and earthquakes. The capability of NEPTUNE and VENUS technology in theses areas is being expanded through another program, Smart Oceans B.C., that is adding more infrastructure to the monitoring effort.

A round of federal funding for Smart Oceans B.C. was announced in April through Western Economic Diversification.

“It was about $9 million to put infrastructure in for marine safety, public safety and environmental monitoring,” McLean said. “We hope to make B.C. a showcase for a world-class safety program and market it in other countries.”

Vancouver, Campbell River, Port Alberni, Prince Rupert and Kitimat will have locations for a series of smaller-scale ocean observatories to be installed through the program over the next year or so.

The Innovation Centre is part of a national program, McLean said, so it has the potential to benefit universities other than UVic. Technology developed at ONC is owned by UVic. “My responsibility is to protect that [intellectual property] and commercialize it,” McLean said. “UVic definitely benefits, but it’s not direct.”

McLean said UVic and ONC have a management agreement in place. Revenue that comes in goes first to meet the expenses of the Innovation Centre, and beyond that goes to ONC. Money generated beyond the annual operating expenses for ONC — about $15 million — would go to the university, McLean said, but it is a lofty benchmark.

For example, he said that if the $270-million goal for business activity over the next seven years is realized, 90 per cent of that would go to industry. “The 10 per cent or so that comes into ONC would pretty much all come to fund the Innovation Centre.” Capital

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iinn the

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Lorna Knowles and Bill Finley of Hemp & Company

TO: C raig

Green products â&#x20AC;&#x201C; GREEN STORE

chan

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

New green location for a longstanding Victoria business H emp & Company’s new store at 1312 Government Street is a prime example of a modern eco-friendly retail space.

“We now have a very green store to match our green products,” says owner Bill Finley. “We strive to reduce our footprint and practice our values in-store and throughout our supply chain.

Moving and building out this new location in 2014 gave us the opportunity to complete a green renovation.”

Hemp & Company (H&C) is the go-to store for eco savvy customers looking for comfortable, natural clothing that doesn’t harm the earth.

H&C first opened in 1999, when Mike Finley and Kelly Wheeler realized the potential for a natural fibre clothing store. Mike’s father, Bill, soon joined the team. In 2004, Bill moved to Victoria and then, with wife Lorna Knowles, expanded the business from Johnson Street (LoJo) to its prominent space on Government Street.

In May 2014, they decided that the newly renovated New England Hotel building offered a terrific new fit for the business.

The renovation of the charming heritage 1865 building has embraced its character and now aligns with the same values and standards H&C have for their products. Working with JC Scott Eco Design and Synergy Enterprises, the goal was to create a beautiful and inviting retail space with ultra-low environmental impact which would also achieve the highest level of Vancouver Island Green Business Certification (www.VIGBC.ca).

“We focused first on reusing and upcycling materials like the D Fir flooring recycled from a deconstructed hanger, with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified Wood for construction and refurbished industrial Holophane light fixtures, lamped with energy efficient LED bulbs,” explains Scott Beams from a demolished Comox air hanger were milled locally to become flooring and many light fixtures are recertified heritage fixtures. Paints and stains were chosen for their low Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) to maintain healthy air quality resulting in a welcoming, natural space.

“With a new energy saving heat exchange sys-

fabric, it has a much lower impact on the environment in terms of growing requirements and actually absorbs four times more CO2 than trees.

Hemp seeds and oils are very nutritious and the fibres can also be used for building materials and paper.

The restored New England Hotel building will be the new home of Hemp & Company.

Centric Photography

tem customers and staff will find the air clear and refreshing”, says Lorna Low-flow plumbing fixtures, high efficiency lighting and motion sensors were installed to minimize water and energy use. A full composting and recycling station including soft plastics and styrofoam is set up with a goal to divert 95 per cent of waste from the landfill.

One of H&C’s business goals is to create a market for Canadian grown hemp food and fibres.“If everyone owned a hemp shirt, we could have a hemp fibre processing plant in Canada,” Lorna states. “We need hemp in every home to make this possible.”

Hemp & Company carries everything from bamboo sunglasses to hemp acupressure mats and have their own line of clothing designed and manufactured entirely in Canada. They use a variety of imported natural fibres such as hemp, organic cotton and bamboo. Their signature fabric is a hemp and organic cotton blend, custom dyed in Winnipeg using low impact dyes and a 100 per cent uptake process to produce West Coast inspired colours.

Bill says “We promote natural fibres because we know they make a positive impact on our environment.”

Not only is hemp a durable and comfortable

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

T

The only safe place for pool chemicals is in your pool.

Left over pool chemicals can be a health hazard to collection crews, landfill workers and the environment if they are not safely and properly disposed. Make sure to transport pool chemicals in labeled, sealed, original containers to Hartland’s recycling facility. Pool chemicals and other household hazardous waste is accepted at Hartland free of charge.

For more information on proper household hazardous waste disposal, visit www.crd.bc.ca/hhw or call the CRD Hotline at 250.360.3030.

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he leaves are falling and the days of relaxing by the lake or pool are quickly disappearing. It’s time to begin preparing for winter by cleaning up your pool and hot tub – and when doing so, it’s important to ensure you are disposing of chemicals, such as chlorines, acids, bases and neutralizers properly. Many people do not realize that these chemicals should not be disposed of in household garbage, as they are potentially a serious health risk to Hartland landfill staff, to wildlife and to residents who live near Hartland landfill.

Each year, one or two small fires occur at Hartland landfill that are attributed to the improper disposal of pool chemicals in household garbage. Incidents involving pool chemical fires can release chlorine gas, also known as mustard gas, and can compromise the health and safety of collection and disposal staff, and nearby wildlife and residents.

How can you ensure that you are properly disposing of your expired or unwanted pool chemicals? The Capital Regional District’s (CRD) Hartland landfill and recycling facility contains a Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) depot where residents can drop off pool chemicals safely at no cost. The HHW depot offers the safest way for residents to dispose of unwanted chemicals, paints, solvents, oils and other items including batteries and electronics. Items should be transported to Hartland unmixed and in a sealed and marked container.

Always ensure that you cover and secure any and all loads when driving to Hartland. Loads that are not covered are subject to a fine.

Looking for an alternative to chlorine? New chemical technology has made chlorine and other harsh chemicals unnecessary for keeping swimming pools clean. Some great alternatives are: • Salt Water: Salt is used in a small proportion and cleans water when broken by electrolysis, creating a natural, bacterial-killing, non-threatening form of chlorine.

• Ionization: Ionic pool cleaner unleashes copper and silver to kill bacteria and stop algae growth.

• Sonic Waves: Certain sound waves can kill algae and contaminants. An underwater sound wave emitting device causes algae to resonate and break down.

• Purifying Plants: Specific plants enrich the pool with oxygen, support beneficial bacteria and deprive algae of nutrients.

Proper disposal of pool chemicals protects wildlife and residents

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Effective and efficient spa technologies conserve water, energy and dollars

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wning an energy efficient hot tub will save you thousands of dollars over the life of the spa. The more insulated your spa is, the more it will retain heat and save you money … but that’s only part of the picture. Your spa’s heating and filtration system are also a major consideration.

The use of an energy-efficient heater such as the Sundance Spas 880 series titanium heater vertical coil design – considered the most cost effective spa heater in the industry – significantly increases thermal efficiency and cost savings.

The less frequently you have to change and heat the water, the more you will conserve water and save energy, as well as saving on water care products (approximately 75 per cent of water-care products are used when the water is changed).

Water should be changed based on the T.D.S (Total Dissolved Solids) present in the spa. While most swimming pools can go for years without changing the water, the ratio of people to water is far greater for spas (two people in a hot tub can be like hundreds of people in a pool.)

While Greater Victoria water has about 50 ppm of T.D.S, the water will become less safe as the T.D.S rises, and should be changed before reaching 1500 ppm. Older water is harder to maintain and can become cloudy and odorous. Vintage Hot Tubs’ customers are able to bring their water in for a free lab analysis to measure the T.D.S. Customers with superior filtration and factory installed ClearRay and aftermarket ClearZone systems can expect to go significantly longer before needing to drain their spas.

All in all, the more effective and efficient your spa’s insulation/ heater/pump/filtration, and water maintenance technologies are, the less expensive it is to own. You will enjoy cleaner, more comfortable water, and spend considerably less time maintaining it. Jacuzzi and Sundance Spas have hundreds of patented spa technologies to greatly enhance your spa experience and dramatically reduce your ownership costs.

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Moving into a greener future

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veritable local ‘fixture’, Andrew Sheret Limited has been operating in Victoria since 1892. That adds up to 122 years of experience in addressing the city’s plumbing and heating needs, and building a solid reputation for quality and customer service. This fall, the company is proud to be making the move to their new LEED Silver Certified building at 740 Hillside Ave. The company’s founder, Andrew Sheret, was born in 1870 in Montrose, Scotland. After apprenticing as a plumbing and heating tradesman he emigrated to Victoria, where two years later he went into business as a plumbing and heating contractor and opened the first small shop on lower Fort Street. By 1912, the growing company had developed the Montrose Building at 1114 Blanshard St., and moved operations into the new location. In 1955, the firm 98

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once again relocated to 712 Bay St. where it has continued to serve contractors and the public through Splashes Bath and Kitchen Centre. The current move to the new Midtown Court Building at 740 Hillside Ave. represents a long term investment for Andrew Sheret Limited. It will be home to the Andrew Sheret Limited Branch for Contractors, a new Victoria Splashes Bath and Kitchen showroom, as well as the head office for the company – which has expanded over the years to include 21 locations across British Columbia.

The Hillside Ave. property, then site of the vacant Holiday Court Motel, was acquired by Andrew Sheret Limited through a court-ordered sale in 2005. The company had been searching for a new trade and retail location after outgrowing their Bay St. location. Planning for the new office building began in 2008, and in late August 2012 the dilapidated motel was demolished and excavation work began. The name of the new building, Midtown Court, references not only the convenient location between Mayfair and Uptown shopping Centres, and downtown Victoria (Midtown), but also the historical motel name (Court).

As a sustainable LEED Silver Certified building, Midtown Court features an impressive combination of high efficiency systems and environmentally-friendly facilities. Offering five floors

of Class A office space, the building also includes ground floor retail space complemented by a daycare facility (run by Centennial Day Care Society), a common boardroom and fitness facility, and the possible addition of a coffee shop or small deli. It is easily accessible by walking, cycling and public transportation, with provisions for tenants such as secure bicycle storage, showers and change room, a private courtyard on the main level and outdoor patio decks on upper office levels.

The state-of-the-art steel and concrete building is enhanced by an attractive granite and glass curtain wall. Low VOC (volatile organic compounds) materials were used throughout construction. Environmental and energy efficiency systems in place include a solar-heated hot water supply, low-flow fixtures and efficient lighting, a rainwater harvesting system and a waste and recycling program. In addition to surface and underground parking, several electric car plugin stations are available.

As the new Andrew Sheret Limited head office building, Midtown Court marks a commitment to a sustainable future, and the company is looking forward to the next 122 years.

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Reliable Controls – people and technology you can rely on

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ictoria is closing the gap between its historical Western lifestyle and sustainable green living. From our expanding bicycle infrastructure which makes us Canada’s cycling capital, to the super-natural coastal playground that features nature-based learning, to our Capital Region rain gardens that filter and divert storm water from city drains, Victoria is continually striving to balance work, play and societal advancement. Our local high-tech industry is one important area that is helping to achieve that balance, by creating opportunities for young people to pursue challenging, enjoyable, and long-term careers while remaining environmentally responsible.

Reliable Controls Corporation is an ideal fit for those wanting to contribute to green living.

The company specializes in the design and manufacture of electronic controls that are at the heart of the world’s green buildings. These software and hardware products monitor and control the energy and water usage for a building’s mechanical and electrical systems. As the demand for green buildings grows, Reliable Controls provides solutions that enable architects and building owners to minimize their energy and environmental footprints, while achieving a superior level of indoor comfort. The Victoria-based headquarters is an ISO 9001 (Quality) and ISO 14001 (Environment) certified facility and its new LEED Platinum certified annex achieves a 54 per cent reduction in energy costs compared to conventional standards. Contrary to the popular trend of outsourcing, Reliable Controls has retained its entire R&D, manufacturing, and assembly processes here in Victoria, while remaining resilient, competitive and profitable.

A growing network of independently owned and operated Authorized Dealers perform sales, installation, service, and support for Reliable Controls products in over 30 countries. In Victoria, Houle Electric, Foster Air Conditioning and Kerr Controls proudly represent Reliable Controls as Authorized Dealers. They have completed many local projects of significance, including the Legislative Assembly, the Empress Hotel, Butchart Gardens, Dockside Green, UVIC, Camosun College Interurban, Delta Ocean Pointe Resort and Victoria City Hall. The web100

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site, www.reliablecontrols.com contains a listing of all Authorized Dealers and a sample of noteworthy projects completed around the globe.

Reliable Controls is a privately owned Canadian corporation that started developing solutions for the controls industry in 1986. Since its inception, the primary focus of the company has been to provide simple, flexible, and sustainable systems, economically targeted to meet the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit.

The company has grown steadily as a high-tech manufacturer, not only providing energy management solutions for green buildings, but also providing employment for the 100+ employees located at its headquarters. With sales offices in Calgary, Toronto, San Francisco, Columbus, Philadelphia, Shanghai, X’ian, Singapore, and Sydney Australia, Reliable Controls has the capability to truly implement a “think global and act local” approach to sustainability.

The company’s corporate culture embraces basic principles. Employees are expected to be honest and respectful in their business and with one another. They are focused and diligent in their work, and are encouraged to be open and responsive when sharing ideas or concerns. As a

result, employee morale and retention remain very high, particularly for the high-tech industry, where an elevated turnover can be commonplace. By following these simple principles and working together in a safe, clean and sustainable environment, the company and its employees achieve their common goal, to become in the eyes of their dealers and customers, “people and technology you can rely on”.

Reliable Controls is also closely coupled with Victoria’s post-secondary co-operative education programs, hiring over 40 UVIC and Camosun co-op students in the past decade. This helps to keep research and development projects in the company moving forward. “Co-op is a core part of our recruitment strategy,” says company founder Roland Laird. “Co-op students are quick learners, adapt well and make significant contributions.” The company often hires co-op students for second work terms and many full-time employees are former co-op students.

By implementing a “dependable” people and technology strategy, and balancing it’s environmental and business impacts, Reliable Controls remains focused on a bright future in the green living and green buildings industry.

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

Three electric vehicles accelerate Saanich fuel savings

By Mark Boysen Sustainability Coordinator, District of Saanich

F

or the District of Saanich, the shift to Electric Vehicles (EV’s) has produced both financial savings and environmental benefits. The Municipality has gradually integrated EV’s into the municipal fleet since 2011 and this has now evolved into an EV fleet at the Saanich Municipal Hall and an auxiliary EV vehicle for the Saanich Police Department, a first in Canada.

The savings come from reduced fuel and maintenance costs. While Hydro rates are increasing, so are fuel prices, and Saanich has found that a kilometer in an EV is 90 per cent cheaper than in a gasoline vehicle. And when it comes to maintenance, there are no oil changes and other internal combustion engine upkeep to worry about.

With increasing EV options in the marketplace, electric vehicles are becoming more common on our streets.

While range anxiety remains a concern for some, most daily use in Greater Victoria will not come close to exceeding the 140km range that EVs provide. That range anxiety is also being alleviated by the many charging stations installed across the Capital Region and the province. The

Plugshare.com website now provides directions to over 80 stations in the Region and more than 600 public stations across B.C.. In Saanich you can find public charging stations at our recreation centres.

However, EV’s are but one tool to reduce vehicle emissions, as there are plenty of opportunities for existing diesel and gasoline vehicles too. Saanich committed to greening its vehicle fleet almost a decade ago to increase vehicle fuel efficiency, reduce harmful emissions and incorporate new technologies and fuels into operations.

Transitioning to high efficiency diesel, hybrid, and electric vehicles, low-emission transport options has helped reduce total fuel emissions by an amazing 25 per cent. These gradual fleet changes now annually save 200,000 litres of fuel, 700 tonnes of carbon emissions and produced $260,000 in annual financial savings.

Working together for a healthy, vibrant, and Sustainable Saanich.

Learn more about our goals, programs and rebates at climateaction.saanich.ca

/sustainasaanich /sustainablesaanich

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

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arlier this spring, the entire province transitioned responsibility for end-of-life management of packaging and printed paper (PPP) from governments and their taxpayers to industry and their consumers, which is overseen by an organization called Multi-Materials B.C. Here in the capital region, PPP includes all materials destined for your blue boxes and blue bags.

In our region, this transition affected the acceptable materials list and the preparation of recyclable materials in just a few small ways. One change is that people are now required to separate glass from all other recyclables. Multi-Materials B.C.’s processing facilities require glass to be kept separate, therefore clean glass packaging (bottles and jars) should now be placed in a separate receptacle. An appropriate receptacle can be a second blue box, or another container similar in size.

As well, other new materials have now been added to the acceptable blue box items, including clean, disposable coffee cups (remove lids).

Clean ice cream tubs are also now accepted in the blue box.

Here are some useful tips for preparing your curbside recycling: • Label your CRD blue boxes and blue bags with your address to ensure that they find their way home.

• Use CRD blue boxes and bags to make sure that your containers are not oversized.

• Do not cross-contaminate the streams: paper (in the blue bag), mixed containers (in the blue box), and glass (in a separate blue box or similar sized container). Collection trucks have separate compartments for these three streams.

• Keep a recycling receptacle in the bathroom to make it convenient for items like empty toilet rolls to join your recyclables.

The CRD has also introduced several easy ways to ensure that you don’t forget your recycling day and avoid dashing to the curb in your pajamas in the morning. Options to access your next collection day include: 1. Download an electronic copy of the recycling schedule for your neighbourhood from our website 2. Sign up for text, email, twitter or phone reminders on our website 3. Download the ‘recycleCRD’ app to your phone for automatic recycling tips and updates

Curbside blue box recycling: program updates and reminders

Never forget your collection day again.

The current recycling schedule runs until April 30, 2015 and is available in several different ways. You can download a schedule from the CRD website and print it at home.

Or you can download our free ‘recycleCRD’ smartphone app to have your collection details at your fingertips and subscribe for program reminders via text message, email, voicemail or Twitter – plus recycling news and updates.

The choice is entirely yours. For details visit www.crd.bc.ca/bluebox or call the CRD Hotline at 250.360.3030.

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

You take steps every day to lessen your environmental footprint.

As our region’s only Green Burial option, we can honour your values.

GREEN BURIAL CREMATION

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250-658-5621 ROBP.CA

Why choose green burial?

A

s we live increasingly environmentally-friendly lifestyles, people want their eco-conscious choices to include their death, final disposition and how they are remembered. For people who have lived a lifestyle mindful of the cyclical nature of life, Green Burial is a philosophical statement and a spiritually fulfilling final act.

Green Burial is an environmentally sensitive alternative to traditional burial and even cremation. It is called “green” because the body, prepared for burial without embalming, is interred in a manner that allows it to recycle naturally into the soil. After burial, native groundcover, plants and trees are planted on the grave and the body’s natural decomposition contributes to the forest’s growth.

With this form of simple burial and natural planting, every grave becomes a ‘living’ memorial and individual graves collectively become part of a larger conserved landscape, contributing to the preservation of the local, natural eco-system for perpetuity.

The modern Green Burial movement had its start in the UK where the first green cemetery opened in 1993. Now, the UK has over 270 natural burial sites and Green Burial represents about 12 per cent of all dispositions in the UK. The first Green Burial cemetery in the USA was opened in 1998 in South Carolina and there are now many green cemeteries from coast to coast across the US. Green Burial came to Victoria’s Royal Oak Burial Park in October 2008 when they opened Canada’s first urban conservation Green Burial site called the Woodlands. Since opening, the Burial Park has performed more than 100 Green Burials and many more families have preplanned their Green burials at the Woodlands. Graves in the Burial Park Woodlands can be used for human remains burial or cremation scattering. The public are welcome to visit the Burial Park and see the Woodlands site at any time and visitors who have seen the Woodlands setting often say “this feels right for me when my time comes”.

Efficient land use, biodiversity enhancement, eco-system restoration and conservation are some of the key benefits of Green Burial. Ultimately, Green Burial is viewed as a statement of personal values for those who seek to minimize their impact on the environment.

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Carbon Neutral

Business in Victoria

By Jill Doucette and Kayli Anderson Increasingly more of us are aware of our own carbon footprints and are looking for ways to reduce it. But what is being done to green our economy? Over 95% of BC’s businesses have less than 50 employees, so small business plays a major role in climate action.

Five Victoria businesses are leading the sustainability movement by going Carbon Neutral.

Being Carbon Neutral is about taking responsibility for environmental impact. First, a business must measure its carbon footprint by converting all of their activities such as electricity, natural gas, waste and staff commuting to tonnes of CO2 equivalent. This process tells a business where they should focus on reducing their environmental impact. They then work to reduce those emissions wherever possible - by driving less, purchasing local, using less energy and keeping waste out of the landfill. Finally, the emissions that remain are neutralized by purchasing Carbon Offsets.

Offsets are third party verified projects that measurably reduce CO2 emissions and would not occur without the investment from carbon offsets.

Projects include capturing methane from local landfills and converting it to usable gas for heating homes and renewable energy projects in India, both provided by Vancouver based company, Offsetters.

Eagle Wing Tours (496 tCO2e) became Canada’s First Carbon Neutral whale watching company four years ago. Their office is powered with Bullfrog energy and has a full composting and recycling set up. This year, they purchased and retrofitted a catamaran style boat which is four times more fuel efficient per passenger than the boat it will replace. The new 50 passenger boat, 4 Ever Wild, in combination with new motors installed on the other boats will shatter their goal of a 10% reduction in emissions in just one year.

Habit Coffee (16.2 tCO2e) is celebrating their 5th year of carbon neutrality. The Chinatown and Atrium locations work together to minimize emissions by transporting goods between shops with a custom

www.synergyenterprises.ca

cargo bike. Both use LED lighting and have recycled wood floors, tables and benches. The composting and recycling program, diverts 97.5% of their waste from the landfill, saving 32 tCO2e per year. Last year, Habit reduced its carbon footprint by another 15% through lighting upgrades and waste reduction. Both locations are certified Green by the Vancouver Island Green Business Certification. (VIGBC)

Inn at Laurel Point (254.1 tCO2e) was the first Carbon Neutral hotel in BC, and has accommodated 284,000 visitors with a Carbon Neutral stay. Managed by a Trust, Inn at Laurel Point re-invests back into the community through long-standing partnerships with organizations like the BC Cancer Foundation.

Hydrothermal technology combined with 114 heat pumps and automatic thermostats manage heating and cooling for the hotel with an ultra-low carbon footprint. 200 low-flow shower heads were installed to minimize water use and LED lights will reduce electricity use by ~80,000 kWh/year. Through compost and recycling programs, the Inn saves an additional 91 tCO2e per year.

Oughtred Coffee & Tea (355.3 tCO2e) first measured and offset their footprint in 2009. They set the goal to reduce it by 20% over the next two years, exceeding that goal by four percent By installing a waste heat recapturing system at their roasting facility and switching to more fuel-efficient delivery vehicles, they have reduced their fuel and energy use by 16%, with total emissions reductions of 33% (595 tonnes) over the past 5 years, the equivalent of 136 cars on the road for one year. Their Victoria office is Certified Green by VIGBC. Zambri’s (66 tCO2e) became carbon neutral in 2014. Dedicated to reducing their impact on the environment, they chose to move into the Certified LEED Gold Atrium Building in 2010. Soon after, they started a full sustainability program to measure and reduce their emissions. Their baseline Carbon Footprint is equivalent to 15 cars or 3 homes per year.

Their waste management program alone saves 190 tonnes of emissions through composting and recycling everything from tin to plastic bags and Styrofoam. The restaurant is also a part of the Mealshare Program, in which they donate funds to local non-profits that serve meals for those in need.

Synergy Enterprises

Synergy Enterprises is a local company that works with businesses who want to be leaders in sustainability. Our team has developed award-winning services for businesses to green their operations and communicate their results.

www.synergyenterprises.ca (250) 516-2317

@synergy_vic

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The people in your community Greater Victoria’s business leaders can be a busy bunch. You won’t find them only behind their counters and desks running day-to-day operations; their calendars also include special events to support charities, arts and culture and other good causes across the capital region. Here’s a sampling of the faces that make our community a better place.

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>>> Township Community Arts Council founding president Morlene Tomlinson, left, secretary-treasurer Louise Ryan and their dynamic team of volunteers cheerfully dispelled misconceptions about Esquimalt — or E-Town, as the hipsters like to call it — during the family-friendly finale for the inaugural six-week free summer concert series, Memorial Park Music Fest.

>>> Royal B.C. Museum CEO Jack Lohman, flanked by B.C.’s Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, Coralee Oakes, and Sweden’s ambassador to Canada, Teppo Tauriainen, was clearly over the moon during a VIP preview and black-tie dinner in celebration of the North American debut of Vikings: Lives Beyond the Legends, a dramatic exhibition that challenges pop culture-fuelled assumptions about the Viking Age.

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>>> Marcus Goldsmith, Grand Uncle Augie Thomas and his nephew, Nicholas Thomas, of the Esquimalt Dancers enhanced the First Nations flavour during the Aboriginal Cultural Festival’s reception for local businesses, community and government partners at the Robert Bateman Centre. The free festival that took place at Royal B.C. Museum celebrated the diversity of aboriginal cultures in B.C.

>>> Think Local First was celebrated as the new brand name for the non-profit Shop Local Victoria campaign at The Atrium, a social event where there was no such thing as too much shop talk. Island Blue’s Merle Duffus and Mike Shemilt and Tanya Brady from The Alpine Group were among representatives from 130 businesses on board, including the Times Colonist.

>>> Rui Cheng, left, Rishi Makan and Herbert Zhu were exhausted but elated at a send-off event for their EcoCAR2 at the University of Victoria’s Green Garage. Nearly 50 computer and mechanical engineering and business students spent three years redesigning and optimizing a green, hybrid-electric 2013 Chevy Malibu Eco to be showcased during EcoCar 2: Plugging into the Future. >>> Dale Chan of Timeless Toys sucks it up using a unique beveragedispensing device during the Oak Bay Village Night Market, the popular community event the Oak Bay Business Improvement Association held on the second Wednesday of each summer month.

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Capital FALL 2014

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Regency Fireplaces and Beam Vacuums are now available at Capital Iron!

Come in store today to take advantage of these great introductory offers while they last...

>>> Terrilyn Hindle, left, Lisa Kindi and Hayley Derton showed you can have a good time (and wear your Daisy Dukes) while supporting a good cause at Wheelies Motorcyle Shop Cafe.

Three hundred generous country fans went a little bit Nashville during Gone Country, local nightclub owner Joel Friesen’s fundraiser that lassoed $10,000 to help cancer survivors and fund research.

Gas & Wood Fireplaces are now available at Capital Iron! $300 Rebate for Energy Star Gas Fireplaces...

PLUS a FREE Accessory up to $568 with the purchase of a Fireplace!*

>>> Harbour Air Group executives Meredith Moll and Randy Wright joined 80 local tourism industry stakeholders at Coast Victoria Harbourside Hotel for Tourism Turbo Drive, hosted by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada and the Canada Tourism Mission. The event’s focus was on Greater Victoria’s $1.9-billion tourism industry and how the sector can become more competitive globally.

Visit our Victoria or Langford Showrooms!

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>>> Philanthropists and Island IT owners Derek and Julie Sanderson and Darren Ausmus were among 100 guests invited by media baron and longtime B.C. Cancer Foundation supporter David Black to Riffington, his Uplands mansion. Guests heard Dr. Brad Nelson, director of the Trev and Joyce Deeley Research Centre, share updates about the B.C. Cancer Foundation’s cutting-edge immunotherapy.

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Call today to register your wishes and to receive a complimentary Personal Planning Guide.

Nothing is more important than planning for your family’s future. >>> Supporters and volunteers Andrew Clarke, Lauren Moline, Cyrena Matheson, Morgan Purves and Maureen Sherlock hammed it up in Centennial Square after donning “llama-corn” headgear in honour of the Fringe Festival’s magical mascot — a llama/unicorn hybrid — at the colourful preview and launch party for this year’s Fringe Festival. >>> The only word that would describe the 700-block Fort Street one sunny late-summer weekday was fabulous. It was the adjective-du-jour used by Oscar & Libby’s owner Teri Hustins and her volunteer committee during Eat on the Street, a food-and-culture event to raise awareness of the busy block’s vibrant blend of the old and the new.

When you pre-arrange your cemetery and funeral needs with us, you help to relieve your family of unnecessary stress and discomfort.

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>>> Leonardo Di Caprio was nowhere to be seen, but that didn’t stop Lorne Carnes, Deb Carnes and husband Ken, centre, from recapturing The Great Gatsby spirit during The Great Gatsbowl at Canadian Pacific Lawn Bowling Club. The Kingsberry Crescent Sissies teammates were among 90 bowlers who raised $4,000 at the Cops for Cancer fundraiser hosted by Times Colonist reporter Katie DeRosa and fellow Tour de Rock media rider, CTV sportscaster Chandler Grieve. Capital Capital FALL 2014

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It would be hard to imagine Mike Murphy anywhere else. The corner seat he takes at the end of the bar at 10 Acres Bistro suits him. It was built for him. Murphy, 56, the owner of the bistro and the two restaurants that share the block where Gordon and Humboldt streets meet — Pescatores and Oyster — is admittedly most comfortable in his “natural habitat” of busy kitchens, buzzing staff and the clink of glasses at a well-appointed bar. He comes by that comfort honestly. After all, he’s been in the restaurant game since he worked at Mr. Mikes as a 16-year-old saving for his first car.

BY ANDREW A. DUFFY PHOTO: BRUCE STOTESBURY

&A Restaurateur Mike Murphy Over four decades of slinging food, drawing pints and feeding hundreds of young staff to the industry, Murphy has had a hand in restaurants that run the gamut from Il Terrazzo, Cecconi’s Trattoria and Bon Rouge to Tommy Tuckers, with plenty of stops in between. It’s shown him all sides of what can be a brutal and tough business, taught him a few things about himself and afforded him a window on the world. And as the Victoriaborn and raised Murphy prepares to shutter Pescatores and Oyster in January in order to renovate the two spots and bring them under a new name, Pescatores Fish House and Oyster Bar, before next spring, he shared some of what he’s learned from the other side of the bar.

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TC: When did you know the restaurant business was going to be your life?

MM: “I was in my early 20s and bought the Tommy Tuckers in Rutherford Mall in Nanaimo, and it was probably six months into it and it dawned on me — I don’t have a boss, it’s just me. The downside is I’m unemployable. After working for yourself for so long you’re master of your own domain and of your own success or failure. I couldn’t imagine working for someone else.”

TC: Did you ever want to do anything else?

MM: I would probably have liked to have gone through and finished [at UVic] and become a lawyer.

Arguing is a long suit for me, and I’m a huge problemsolver ... But other than that, I’m pretty satisfied.”

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TC: What’s the best move you’ve made as a restaurateur?

MM: “Coming back to Victoria from Nanaimo, that led to Cecconi’s (a conversion from his Shelbourne Street Tommy Tuckers restaurant) and then Il Terrazzo, and those set the stage for this as much as anything.”

TC: What is the best lesson you’ve learned?

MM: “There have been lots of ups and downs and lots of bad choices along the way, but I probably learned more from watching something implode [the Tommy Tuckers chain crumbled after too much expansion.] When business is going up, it’s because you’re good looking and smart, right? So when business goes down, it can’t be because you’re ugly and stupid. You have to look at the real reasons these things happen — you get lazy, lose focus on the business — that was good training.”

TC: What is the hardest part of being in the restaurant business?

MM: “The toughest part may be realizing your life is never going to be normal. You need a different group of peers. This is not 9-to-5 and you rarely get weekends off. Most people don’t get that. You’re never home for dinner and, if you are, chances are you’re not paying enough attention to your business.”

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TC: What makes a restaurant successful in Victoria?

MM: “When it gets right down to it, the ones that are paying attention to the little things make a difference. You can’t cater to any one crowd. You need the people living in [downtown] condos, the kids and the older crowd. You can’t survive on tourists alone. You need the locals. You need your credibility with the locals — if for no other reason than the locals tell the tourists where to go.”

TC: What trends are driving the industry right now?

MM: “Local [sourcing of food] is still big, but not essential. In a lot of respects it has been over-used and become a bit trite. But then again, in reality, I love supporting local and I have my own farm. We are seeing fewer vegetarians. People are eating everything, though they are more concerned about how it’s raised, and if it’s free of antibiotics, pesticides and hormones.

TC: What’s your favourite restaurant in Greater Victoria?

MM: “Bar none, Deep Cove Chalet. Especially now that I live in the country I go there a lot more often. It’s old school, definitely three courses and it’s lovely.”

TC: Which of your restaurants do you like the most?

MM: “Right now, [10 Acres] is my favourite because I have the farm and just did the reno. But once we do the remake of Pescatores that will be my new baby.”

TC: Can you see yourself opening another restaurant?

MM: “It is great fun coming up with new concepts and plans.

But I always said when I bought the farm that it would stop me from doing something stupid like buy another restaurant, because sometimes I can’t help myself. I see things and think ‘what a great idea, that would make a great barbecue joint, beach house or Japanese place.’ ” Capital

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A tattoo artist is making his mark in an Oak Bay enclave

V O O D O O

BY CINDY E. HARNETT

Victoria was clean, quiet and full of nice people.

It was everything a rebellious private school youth named Voodoo didn’t want. So, to the dismay of his doctor parents, he ran off to Spain to become a tattoo artist.

That was then and this is now.

A Queen’s University psychology graduate, Voodoo waxes philosophical about everything from life to art and why, at age 50, he’s back with a shop in — of all places — the heart of Oak Bay. His plan is to leave an indelible mark on the city he rejected, and now embraces for its beauty.

“At 25, I didn’t want to live in [Greater] Victoria. It was too quiet and people were too nice,” Voodoo said. “When you’re young, you don’t want happy, smiley people. But when you’re 50, that’s exactly what you want.

“So what drove me away at 25 is what’s brought me running back at 50,” he said.

Voodoo Tattoo opened in Monterey Mews at 2250 Oak Bay Ave., in June 2013. Business is going well with mostly adult clients. Word-of-mouth about his shop continues to spread, he said.

Called Voodoo by family and friends for the better part of his life — for reasons best left untold — Voodoo surprised his Oxford University educated parents (Anne, a family doctor now deceased, and Derek, a general surgeon) when he left Victoria for Spain in 1991.

Voodoo arrived on his motorbike in Barcelona late at night with nowhere to stay. Unable to speak Spanish but able to draw — he had studied fine arts throughout school and had dabbled in some graphic design-type work — he decided upon tattoo art as a way to earn a living.

Soon, he met his wife, Francina Carandell, and before long built a business.

His parents hoped it was a passing interest. “They weren’t very happy about it, but they weren’t angry,” Voodoo said.

“I think they thought, ‘When are you going to get a real job?’ ” (His brother sells real estate in Oak Bay.)

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Tattoo artist Voodoo in his Oak Bay studio with some of his art — on canvas and skin.

PHOTO: BRUCE STOTESBURY, TIMES COLONIST

Instead, for close to 20 years, the business thrived.

“We saw a niche,” Voodoo said. “There were no tattoo shops that normal people felt like going into. They were all biker dives or drug havens or whatever. So we opened the first studio in Barcelona that looked very clinical.”

The shop was out of the downtown centre and, at its height, operated 12 hours a day with a two- to three-month waiting list, he said. Tattoos cost from $50 to $4,000 based on the coverage area.

After the economy faltered in 2008, the tattoo business suffered very little, but the Barcelona that Voodoo had found so exciting in his youth became depressing and stressful in his older years.

Meanwhile, each time he came home to visit his parents in Oak Bay, he became increasingly aware of the quality of life here.

“We marvelled at just how good a life it is — how happy people are, how relaxed, how pleasant, how polite. And as you get older, those things start to become important — and the time of night that the bars close starts to become not so important.”

But why would a tattoo artist tuck himself away in an Oak Bay enclave rather than battle it out in Victoria, where tattoo shops are thriving? One of Victoria’s oldest has been in operation for more than three decades. Voodoo said he wants the kind of clientele willing to travel to find him. “Those people are usually really serious about their tattoos,” said Voodoo.

On the main strip of any downtown, it’s almost impossible to turn down walk-by clients who want a tattoo on a whim, he said.

TAT T O O YOU

Do you w ant to sh are your about yo story ur tattoo ? Do the and art h ink ave a spe cial mean The Time ing? s Colonist wa a regular feature — nts to start Tattoo Yo showing u— tattoos a nd the st behind th ories em. Email you comments and photo r s to localnew s@timesc olonist.co Include ta m. ttoo in th e subject line.

And once you start accepting that clientele, there’s no going back, he said.

Voodoo winces at the soul-crushing times when customers came in demanding bad drawings, symbols or text. “I felt I was [frightening] people with things I thought were horrendously ugly and really bad ideas and it really made me uncomfortable, sad.”

After almost 20 years of tattooing, Voodoo said he has a good grip on what kind of tattoo art people will like for a long time and what kind of tattoos can tire quickly.

The best tattoos are good art and last a lifetime, Voodoo said.

The worst are often those that are based on trends or a misguided idea of what is meaningful at the time.

“Our sense of esthetics doesn’t change that much, but our sense of what’s important or significant to us does.”

Voodoo said the idea for any tattoo comes from clients, but he reserves the right to discuss ways to make the tatto look more attractive.

Capital Voodoo’s art is born from those collaborations.

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Once the home of Lucky Lager, Victoria is now known for its craft beer. The most popular brand is: A) Esquimalt Drawbridge Bitter (doesn’t go down without a fight) B) Langford Big Box Bock (only sold in Costco-size crates of 48) C) Colwood Crawl Cream Ale (known for its distinctive bottleneck) D) Amalgamation IPA (one case, 12 distinct flavours) As a Victorian, you wear a tuque: A) To Mount Finlayson in winter B) To Royal Athletic Park in summer C) To Rifflandia D) To your own wedding

JACK KNOX • Columnist, Times Colonist

New to the Island?

Try this quick quiz

R

ight, you have moved to Victoria, surfing the leading edge of the tech wave until it broke over our shores.

Now you want to fit in. So you have traded your Calgary/Toronto/Saskatchewan clothes (power suit, shiny shoes, John Deere cap) for hipsterwear, gumboots and Gore-Tex. You have learned to sprinkle your conversation with references to cold quinoa, hot yoga and two-sailing waits.

You are no longer frightened of bull kelp on the beach.

The question remains: How well do you really know your new home? Here’s a quick quiz to measure your knowledge.

The colony of Vancouver Island was merged with mainland British Columbia in: A) 1866 B) 1867 C) 1871 D) A moment of weakness Who wrote this description of the capital: “To realize Victoria you must take all that the eye admires most in Bournemouth, Torquay, the Isle of Wight, the Happy Valley at Hong Kong, the Doon, Sorrento and Camps Bay; add reminiscences of the Thousand Islands and arrange the whole around the Bay of Naples, with some Himalayas for the background.”

A) Rudyard Kipling B) Alice Munro C) The Amazing Race Canada D) Tourism Victoria The golden figure atop the legislature is: A) George Vancouver B) Queen Victoria C) Mr. Floatie D) A drunken American tourist, too frightened to climb down

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Rifflandia is: A) A phenomenally successful annual music festival B) Across the hall from Tectoria C) A beloved children’s entertainer from Saltspring Island. Wait, no, that’s Raffi.

D) Our 14th municipality The mayor of Rifflandia is: A) Gordon Head B) Ross Bay C) Glen Lake D) Sidney Spit When it rains for 47 days in a row, you say: A) “At least we don’t have to shovel it.”

B) “Two tickets to Puerto Vallarta, please.”

C) “It’s global warming. I blame Andrew Weaver.”

D) “If you say, ‘At least we don’t have to shovel it,’ I will drown you in a ditch.”

When it snows for one day in a row, you: A) Natter on about the Blizzard of ’96 B) Write a furious letter to the Times Colonist C) Clear your driveway with a garden hose D) Blame global warming/Andrew Weaver Juan de Fuca Strait was named for: A) A Greek navigator said to have discovered the strait in the 1500s.

B) Juan de Fuca y Quadra, who claimed Vancouver Island for Spain after landing at Songhees (an aboriginal word meaning “Place where the Albertans retire”) in 1789.

C) Wanda Fuca, who died tragically while trying to swim from Victoria to the Olympic Peninsula (a feat later accomplished by Marilyn Bell in 1956).

D) Country singer George Strait’s mariachi-playing cousin Juan.

Bonus question. When you hear the phrase “strait flush” do you think of: A) A poker hand B) Victoria sewage treatment The answer to all questions is A, except when it’s not. Enjoy your new life in Paradise, but don’t let it stop you from complaining about ferry fares.

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