Capital Fall 2015

Capital FA L L 2 0 1 5

HOW VICTORIA WORKS

IAN ROBERTSON: HARBOUR AUTHORITY’S NEW CEO SPECIAL REPORT: THE PROS AND CONS OF DRONES

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CONTENTS Dave Obee 6 Jack Knox 82 Cover photo: Greater Victoria Harbour Authority chief executive Ian Robertson

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A $10,000 loan from his mother launched Phil Dagger to become the province’s largest used-car dealer.

Unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones, are buzzing our skies. Some consider them useful tools. Others a public menace. New rules are in the works.

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Pizzeria Prima Strada is growing again.

The restaurant that brought Victorians authentic Neapolitan pizza and other Italian food has found the right formula for a third location.

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COVER: Ian Robertson, new CEO of the Harbour Authority, is a big believer in transparency.

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When disaster strikes, a purpose-built facility in Saanich will be ready to allow businesses and governments the space — and records — to resume operations.

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Best foot forward: Victoria men turn a hobby into a home business, using historical wood to create impressive shoe-shine boxes and ride a resurgence in men’s grooming

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Hats off to a rare breed.

Colleen Whitman is a certified milliner, making interesting hats from her home.

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Level Ground Trading, the Saanichton company that invests in farmers in developing countries, is expanding its offerings from coffee to other food items.

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Maureen Murphy is a veteran foley artist who uses props and her own body to create sound effects for films, TV shows and video games synchronized to a moving picture.

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John Wilson has grown his bus company and his own profile in the region, and believes getting involved with regional issues and sports teams helps the local economy.

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Retirement planning is one of dozens of topics Sybil Verch will address as host of The Wealthy Life, her 13-episode talk show on CHEK TV.

PHOTO: DARREN STONE

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After spending many years in Eastern Canada, Lorne MacLean is settling into his new role as general manager of B.C.’s Thrifty Foods.

FALL 2015

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

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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

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DAVE OBEE • Editor-in-chief, Times Colonist

Our chance to build on a special place t might be difficult to see it this way right now, but one of Greater Victoria’s greatest assets is, basically, a clean sheet of paper.

Cities around the world would be thrilled to have a site such as we have at Ogden Point: A showpiece chunk of land, big enough to see several different dreams come to reality.

So, with that in mind, what should Ogden Point become?

It’s a question being posed this fall, and it is one that we should all try to answer. The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority is keen to know what you think.

Perhaps we need to look at some of the other harbours along the Pacific Coast, and around the world for that matter, to get a sense of what is possible.

And, of course, we can see what not to do.

If we dare to dream big, the possibilities are almost endless.

The best cruise-ship terminals have quality shopping choices and activities within a minute or two of the ships.

There is plenty of room for a shopping area at Ogden

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Point — but it should be a selection of stores that are unique to Victoria, and not found in every other port of call in North America.

Cruise ships are only here for five months a year, though, and any development at Ogden Point should be open year-round. We don’t want an area like downtown Ketchikan, which is for the most part boarded up when the Alaska cruises are not running.

Does the area need a strong link to the water, celebrating our location and our maritime heritage? Should it embrace the environment, the natural beauty all around us? How about working in partnership with local First Nations?

Should we look at the work that has been done in other cities, where large parcels of land close to downtown became available? Brisbane, Australia, comes to mind, with its South Bank home to museums, a performing arts centre, art galleries, the state library, restaurants, activities for children, and a big wheel similar to the London Eye. We could do much of the same, and create a new home for the Maritime Museum while we are at it. This kind of area could benefit cruise-ship passengers and locals alike.

Of course, blue-sky thinking is only the first step. We need to ensure that our ideas are viable, and make sense for all the partners.

The best future for Ogden Point will be one that has strong support from throughout the community.

Residents are being asked to share their vision of Ogden Point as part of a masterplan at ogdenpointmasterplan.mindmixer.com.

The future of Ogden Point — and the man behind the push, Greater Victoria Harbour Authority CEO Ian Robertson — is just one topic we are looking at in this issue of Capital.

We are also profiling John Wilson, who is building upon the Island’s largest bus company and is also behind other local economic initiatives as well as supporting two prominent sports teams.

Drones are making headlines almost every day for innovative uses, but in some cases are seen as distractions and pests to privacy. So licensing and use issues are top of mind these days as Transport Canada prepares new rules.

We’ll also have closer looks at local entrepreneurs from home-based businesses to big employers and a unique studio that creates sound effects for the movie and television industry.

With every issue of Capital magazine, the Times Colonist takes a fresh look at what makes Greater Victoria work. This is a vibrant region, filled with great ideas and inspiring people.

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THE POWER

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OF DRONES David Carlos, owner Victoria Aerial Photography and Survey, with the unmanned aerial vehicle that assisted search and rescue personnel secure a lost hiker on Mount Finlayson this summer.

DARREN STONE PHOTO

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

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are proving to be both useful tools and public pests.

New rules are in the works — and needed fast 10

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David Carlos was puttering around his Saanich home on a Saturday when he got a phone call about a hiker who had fallen and was injured and stranded on Mount Finlayson.

It was Aug. 8, and Carlos, commercial drone pilot and owner of Victoria Aerial Photos and Survey, had been waiting for the call.

Months earlier, the Langford Fire Department had approached him, interested to see if drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, could assist in a search and rescue at Goldstream Park. Carlos was ready to go with two UAVS, cameras, 10-battery packs, a laptop computer and additional monitors all powered up.

So when firefighters and paramedics were strapping the 20-year-old hiker to a spine board and roping him six metres up Mount Finlayson, their every move was captured on a video camera attached to Carlos’ hovering drone.

Senior fire officials, meanwhile, watched the entire rescue’s every step on a 32-inch monitor connected to the camera on Carlos’ UAV. They did not even leave the rescue command centre on Bear Mountain a short distance away.

Langford Assistant Fire Chief Geoff Spriegs said the UAV was a boon to rescue command, a task often shared by multiple agencies — fire, police and ambulance. “When you can show all that is happening right there, it’s much easier to co-ordinate and help the patient,” said Spriegs.

Just eight days after the Mount Finlayson operation, firefighters battling a forest blaze in the Testalinden Creek area, near Oliver, were singing a different song after a drone was spotted in the air near a wildfire.

For five valuable hours, eight helicopters fitted with buckets to carry water and five fixed-wing aircraft water skimmers sat grounded for fear they might collide with the UAV. Police investigated but failed to identify the pilot of the UAV. Weeks later, Mike Morris, parliamentary secretary to the B.C. minister of forests, was calling on the federal government, which administers the Aviation Act, to crack down on drones.

Transport Canada failed to respond to requests for interviews, but its website offers a listing of the rules, including directions to stay away from restricted airspace, which includes forest fires.

Transport Canada is at work on a set of regulations for UAVs, to be completed in 2016.

Intrigued by their possibilities or infuriated about their intrusions, drones are a new feature in Canadian airspace.

They are on sale and hovering in all sorts of unlikely places. Staples is selling two models, $1,349 and $1,639. London Drugs is selling another for $1,299. Meanwhile, peddlers in pop-up booths are selling toy versions in shopping malls and even B.C. Ferries terminals.

It’s difficult to know how many drones are flying, although the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration makes a conservative estimate that 7,500 commercial UAVs may be in operation by 2018.

That, however, doesn’t include the hobby operators.

Dave Kroetsch, president and CEO of Aeryon Labs Inc., maker of the Sky Ranger, a top-end device ranging in cost from $65,000 to $200,000, said the sudden onslaught is the result of several technologies arriving at once.

After all, small engines have been taking miniature and model airplanes and helicopters aloft for decades. But the multi-rotor, usually four-rotor drone devices have required a few breakthroughs.

Number 1 is batteries, which have drastically improved “energy density.” A new lithium polymer battery can deliver the same energy as a big, high-cranking car battery, but at a fraction of its weight. This allows reliable power at a weight light enough to take the UAVs airborne.

Number 2 is improvements and miniaturization of computers have allowed UAVs to carry enough processing ability to control speed of the rotors separately.

An operator may push something like a joy stick to make the device go up or down or fly north, south, east or west. Meanwhile, the device’s onboard computer program adjusts the speeds of the various rotors to make the device comply with the joystick instructions.

“It reads how much to speed up each rotor and it even knows how to adjust to a gust of wind,” said Kroetch.

“All of that just happens automatically,” he said from company headquarters in Waterloo, Ont. Kroetsch said his high-end systems are being used by Ontario Provincial Police to map traffic accidents, allowing investigators to gather information faster and reopen roads sooner. They are also used to inspect utility lines and cellphone towers.

So for him, the UAV is a tool and operators should be taught how to operate it appropriately. Lessons, rules of the air and licences are good ideas for all UAV operators.

His attitude is echoed by commercial pilots like Capt. Ed Bunoza, chairman of the flight safety division of the Air Canada Pilot’s Association.

Commercial pilots are adamant that drone operators be licensed. ‘All we need is one of those things to fall down over a schoolyard and hit a kid.’

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“If they are going to be operating in our airspace, the pilot should be licensed, with a medical and that aircraft has to be certified,” said Bunoza.

Ultimately, he believes operators of the large commercial UAVs will soon fall into line with Transport Canada rules. The federal agency already differentiates between devices two kilograms or less, presumably the toys and hobby items, and those between 2.1 and 25 kilograms, usually operated by commercial pilots.

As for the toy and hobby items, Bunoza has little time or patience for them. Ultimately, he said it will fall to municipalities who will probably just ban them.

“I was out in my backyard last week and one of those things was hovering over my pool,” he said. “What purpose is it serving?”

“All we need is for one of those things to fall down over a school yard and hit a kid,” said Bunoza.

Local police forces have been called on several occasions to investigate small drones hovering around windows, decks and rooftops, with owners concerned about their privacy and spying.

The idea of restricting, licensing and regulating something that is basically a toy or a hobby item is not without precedent.

The U.S. FAA suggestions for UAV flyers include an encouragement to join a local model airplane club and to take lessons and learn the rules of the air.

Victoria has such a club, the Victoria Radio Controlled Model Society. That club has its own airstrip, Michell Airfield, on Lochside Drive near Island View Road, on land owned by Michell Farms.

Mike Scholefield, a former instructor with the club, said everyone who flies from the club’s airstrip must be a club member and take and pass a course for the appropriate aircraft.

Scholefield said a person who wants to fly a fixed-wing aircraft must take and pass the course. The same goes for helicopters and UAVs, drones, or “multi-rotors” as the club calls them.

“We teach guys how to fly from the beginning,” he said. “If you don’t take our course, then you don’t fly at our field.”

But it doesn’t stop there. To fly at Michell Airfield, a person must also be a member of the Model Aeronautics Association of Canada. Membership provides insurance for up to $2 million.

Transport Canada, meanwhile, demands $100,000 for both over and under the two-kilogram categories.

Calvin Reich, an insurance broker with Capri Insurance in Vancouver who specializes in policies for aircraft and UAVs, said he has sold policies covering commercial UAV operators for up to $10 million.

Reich said he advises hobbyists to join the Model Aeronautics Association. He said people can check their home insurance and will mostly likely find it doesn’t cover their UAVs. All buyers of UAVS need to recognize they are purchasing a real aircraft, even the hobbyists, he said.

“Often they don’t look upon it as an aircraft,” said Reich. “They look upon it as a toy and think they can do whatever they like with it.”

“That’s the biggest problem we are seeing out there right now,” he said.

SMOOTHING THE

WAT E R S Ian Robertson has taken the helm of the Victoria Harbour Authority, a non-profit agency that manages some of the city’s key waterfront properties. He wants the authority to be more entrepreneurial and business-friendly.

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Ian Robertson at the end of the breakwater at Ogden Point. His parents, who retired in Victoria, enjoyed strolling around the Inner Harbour. A bench, dedicated to them, overlooks the water near the Delta Ocean Point Resort. DARREN STONE PHOTO

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The Norwegian Jewel at Ogden Point. One of Ian Robertson’s first tasks as CEO of the Victoria Harbour Authority will be to oversee a master plan for Ogden Point that will lay the groundwork for developing the 30-acre property. DARREN STONE PHOTO

I

B Y L I N D S AY K I N E S It was 2006 and Ian Robertson was just two weeks into his job as chairman of the Vancouver park board when he got a call at home just after six one morning.

“It was the general manager,” he recalls. “She said, ‘Ian, we’ve had a significant storm in the park.’

“I remember thinking, ‘What are you talking about?’ Because I lived in Vancouver and where we lived, there was nothing. Nothing had hit.”

He hopped in his car and drove to Stanley Park.

“It was devastating,” Robertson said. “The farthest I could get was the rose garden and then I had to walk all the way up to Prospect Point. It was like a logging road. It was all rocks and dirt and trees. It was really amazing to see the force. I remember thinking, ‘Holy cow. What do we do?’ ” The wind storm that leveled parts of Stanley Park that December thrust Robertson to the forefront of an international story and a massive effort to put the park back together again.

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“My role, I think, was to encourage my commissioners to park their political differences at the table and to work together to restore the park,” he said. “I just said, ‘Look, the public is not going to put up with any political infighting or petty situations.

So I just want all of us to work together to do our jobs.’ ” Aside from learning how to handle a deluge of media interviews, Robertson said he came away from the experience with a renewed belief in the importance of openness and transparency and of being able to say, ‘Look, we haven’t got all the answers, but we’ll work through it.’ ” He expects those values to come in handy in his new role as chief executive officer of the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority. The non-profit agency, which manages some of the city’s key waterfront properties, has come under fire in recent years for being arrogant and anti-democratic.

That criticism intensified in 2013 when the authority tried to block the City of Victoria’s appointee to the board of directors,

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claiming that Coun. Shellie Gudgeon lacked the skill-set necessary for the job.

The board later relented on Gudgeon, but continues to reserve the right to vet appointees.

Robertson, who began work in April, admits the harbour authority still has “perception” problems.

“In the early days, as I got out and met various stakeholders, I learned that the perception of the harbour authority was that it was bureaucratic, that it was not flexible, that it was not collaborative,” he said. “And I’ve started to kind of change that.”

He said he wants the authority to “think more entrepreneurially” and to recognize that, in addition to managing its properties and facilities, it also has to “support the businesses that depend and rely on tourism and that also look at Victoria and the harbour as a working harbour.”

But Marg Gardiner, president of the James Bay Neighborhood Association, said problems with the harbour authority exceed Robertson’s reach.

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“I think that Ian Robertson’s biggest challenge will be that, for some reason, people in Victoria ... seem to build up this expectation of a new person going to come in and solve the problems that the city and others have not solved for years,” she said.

Gardiner said Transport Canada has authority on the water, and the City of Victoria has the authority on land, while the GVHA is a mere landlord. “That’s all they are,” she said. “So I think part of Ian Robertson’s challenge will be to resist buying into the myth of GVHA being a harbour authority and having any authority.”

She said that the real problem with the GVHA is its governance structure and the creeping bylaw changes that have reduced transparency and undermined the public interest over the years. “The games played and the governance structure is still the major issue with the GVHA.” She said those problems may explain why the authority has had four CEOs or general managers since it was established in 2002. Robertson follows Curtis Grad, Paul Servos, and Michael Cormier.

“It is the board that is running GVHA; it has been since Day 1 and it still is,” Gardiner said.

Robertson, who served six years on the Vancouver park board, said he’s prepared for such scrutiny.

“There are people and organizations that are very critical of what we do and that’s okay,” he said. “I welcome the criticism. The experience I had at the park board in dealing with community associations around parks and recreation serv-

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ices really stood me well in giving me that experience in working collaboratively and having empathy.”

He also draws on his experience in sales and marketing with a series of big companies, including Procter and Gamble, Nabob, Kraft and Bayer pharamaceuticals. More recently, he was director of sales for the Rocky Mountaineer tourist train company before becoming chief executive officer of the Tourism Industry Association of B.C. Last year, he was short-listed to be the Non-Partisan Association’s candidate for mayor in Vancouver. Instead, he ran for one of 10 seats on council, finishing 11th with 56,319 votes.

“It was a neat opportunity,” he said. “There’s nothing I regret about it. It was a fun ride and then to run for council; I came up short by 500 votes and change. But that really reinforced to me how one door closes and another one opens up.”

Three week after the election, he got a call from a headhunting firm, asking if he might be interested in a job in Victoria.

For Robertson, it was an easy decision. A father of two grown boys, he was ready for a change and leapt at the opportunity to move to a city where he has strong family ties. His grandfather’s company, McAlpine-Robertson, built the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Saanich. Robertson’s late brother, John, was head of exhibit design at the Royal B.C. Museum until his retirement in 2007. And his parents retired to Victoria, where one of their favourite pastimes was strolling around the Inner Harbour. A bench, dedicated to them, overlooks the water near the Delta Ocean Point Resort.

“So my connections go back quite a long way,” he said.

One of his first tasks will be to oversee a master plan for Ogden Point that will lay the groundwork for developing the 30-acre property. The authority expects to present its plan to Victoria city council next year.

Robertson said most people think of Ogden Point as a cruise ship port, but he noted that it’s also home to Global Marine Systems Ltd.’s Wave Venture vessel, which spends much of the year at sea, laying fibre-optic cable. Robertson believes there are more opportunities to position Ogden Point as a deep-water, commercial port.

The authority also hopes to make Victoria the home port for one cruise ship by 2020. Already the busiest cruise ship port-of-call in Canada, Victoria would benefit from becoming the first and last stop for a cruise ship, Robertson said.

“The economic activity driven by cruise ships coming into Victoria is significant,” he said. “It can be even more with a home port because then you’ve got tourists spending two or three days at either end of their journey in and around Greater Victoria, spending money on hotels, excursions, restaurants.”

Robertson said the authority also hopes to work with the City of Victoria to improve Fisherman’s Wharf and the Inner Harbour, specifically the causeway, Steamship Terminal, Ship Point and the marinas.

“I think there is more that we can do — not just the harbour authority — but all of the various stakeholders to make Victoria one of those signature ports in the world,” he said.

WHAT IT OWNS IN S A’ VICTORI R HARBOU

services to Vancouver Harbour and Vancouver International Airport.

A popular spot to visit at Ogden Point is the 762-metre concrete breakwater.

The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority is a not-for-profit organization that owns and operates the following properties in Victoria’s harbour:

• Fisherman’s Wharf is a unique marine destination with working fishing vessels, pleasure boats with live-aboard residents, float homes and commercial businesses all moored at the docks. The wharf is a destination for fresh seafood.

• Ogden Point is a deepwater port facility with four piers able to handle large vessels and is the busiest cruise ship port-ofcall in Canada. It is also a depot for undersea fibreoptic cable repair. A heliport provides direct

• CPR Steamship Terminal building is steeped in Victoria’s maritime history.

It contains the Robert Bateman Centre art gallery, interactive centre and gallery shop. Steamship Grill and Bar delivers a tourist-friendly dining

experience. University of Victoria’s VENUS and NEPTUNE undersea projects and Australianbased company Riverside Marine, which is planning a harbour-to-harbour service between Victoria and Vancouver, are negotiating leases.

• The Causeway and Ship Point marinas are the epicentre of Victoria’s tourism sector, close to the provincial legislature, the Empress Hotel and the Royal B.C. Museum. The causeway hosts pleasure vessels year-round. Ship Point is the harbour authority’s luxury yacht and large-vessel facility.

Ship Point offers slips that can accommodate vessels from 58 feet up to 250 feet.

The Causeway offers moorage to vessels 57 feet

and under and has more than 2,500 feet of lineal moorage space.

• The Wharf Street floats are north of the seaplane terminal and offer yearround transient moorage, monthly moorage and low-season moorage from October to May. Vessels from 20 feet to 375 feet can be accommodated.

• The Johnson Street marina is monthly moorage only and mostly used to tie up fishing vessels and commercial floats.

• The Hyack Terminal provides float plane services and vessel moorage in Victoria’s Inner Harbour. Marine adventure companies also operate from the facility.

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LET IT SHINE, BOYS A resurgence in men’s grooming leads to novel idea: Shoe-shine boxes with a piece of history in each one

James Gagan, left, and James Neilson with the kits they sell online for $189.

DARREN STONE PHOTOS

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What’s inside the box: bees wax polish, horse-hair brushes.

B Y K AT H E R I N E D E D Y N A

In days of yore, before running shoes took over the world, a well-dressed man wouldn’t dream of leaving home without wellshined shoes. A shoe-shine kit, quite likely scruffier than the man, occupied some cubbyhole in his life, and he ritually applied the contents to produce the proper, prosperous sheen.

Given the resurgence in men’s grooming — paging Don Draper — two local home-based businessmen have found their niche in bringing the best-foot-forward tradition back in the form of upscale West Coast wooden kit boxes filled with high-quality products sold via www.Shinekits.com.

Positioned as an affordable but useful luxury, the kits convey a woodsy appeal and are handsome enough to warrant a family room shelf, not the back of a closet.

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“We wanted something heirloom grade,” said James Neilson, who believes that shined shoes are a signifier of manhood that announces you believe in taking care of yourself.

At an early stage, he had a frantic time having the boxes made on deadline in his Oak Bay garage.

Now he and partner, James Gagan, employ a Fernwood carpenter in a Sidney factory to produce shoebox-sized kits made from Vancouver Island fir or cedar in various finishes, filled with beeswaxbased polishes from the oldest manufacturer in North America, flannel polishing cloths that are locally sewn and horsehair brushes imported from Brazil.

“We looked for North American brush makers and they’re gone,” said Neilson, adding they learned a lot about horsehair, including its cost of $17 a pound.

“There’s a piece of B.C. history in every box,” said Gagan, referring to the mahogany

SED A B E M HO SES S E N I S U B

BY THE S NUMBER There are more than 4,500 licensed home businesses in the four core municipalities, according to figures gathered up to the end of September, including 1,598 in Victoria.

In Saanich, there are more homebased businesses at 2,515 than commercial licensed businesses at 1,677, said assistant business licence inspector Derek Archer.

In Oak Bay, one third of all business licences are issued to homebased businesses — 209 so far in 2015 out of about 600 total. And that’s in a community where the home-based 24

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box trim sourced from the Princess Mary, a steamship built in 1911 that took Canadian soldiers to war — twice.

Gagan keeps many of the kit components in his Langford home and says working at home is the starting point for e-commerce.

“There’s no overhead in starting e-commerce.”

Both men — who met at Mrs. Shantz’s Ding Dong Bell nursery school in Burlington, Ont. — are amazed at the intensely personal stories men from all over North America reveal on their website about the meaning of shoe shining. One of the most moving came from a rural Tennessee resident who wrote that he was taught to shine his shoes at age 12 — the first time he owned a pair of shoes.

“When someone is willing to write an essay for your site, it’s a sign that it has really resonated,” Gagan said.

The business provides free shipping, which is getting tougher as the Canadian

dollar slides, given half their buyers have been Americans.

“I just sent one to Texas and it was $34,” he said. It costs $20 to $30 to ship in Canada; $12 to $16 within the U.S. On the up side, the lower dollar means the kits are a “bargain” at $189.99 Cdn. The price point was deliberately kept under $200 so U.S. buyers would avoid paying duty.

It was Gagan who discovered that there were 50,000 people searching “shoe-shine kit” on Google every month. With a background in computers, he’s ensured the Shine-kit profile is near the top of Google searches.

It’s not a full-time time job for either man, but it’s definitely more than a hobby.

“It’s been profitable from the start,” said Gagan.

“And we’re on an upward trajectory. We just need to convince the world that they need shined shoes.”

business bylaw prohibits merchandise, repair parts or supplies being delivered by a commercial vehicle.

Esquimalt has issued 245 licences this year.

The Canadian Federation of Small Business stopped collecting homebased business data in 2010, but at that point B.C. had barely half as many home-based businesses as the federation average of 8.1 per cent.

The need for more assistance for people working home alone is something worth pursuing aggressively, said Brian Wesley, chairman of Business Victoria.

“I’m a crusader — we’d better get our act together,” said Wesley. He said the term home-based business is “an old-fashioned misnomer” that connotes hobbyists making a small income or a pursuit that won’t amount to much. He prefers to use the term solo-preneurs or solo startups and stressed they have as much potential to add to the economy as any other company.

Bill Gates started in his garage, Wesley noted, and he did okay.

“We as a country, as a province, as an economic region have no significant programs to support, train and help reach the critical stage of success” — which is staying in business for five years. “Certainly, financing is a major issue but it’s not the only issue,” Wesley said.

The major engine of economic growth is powered by people who can be based anywhere, approaching issues in new ways, such as taking advantage of 3-D printers that are revolutionizing the way things get made.

“People working out of their homes and garages can become significant players in a very, very different market” — and one that ever more technological innovation could be bringing to a kitchen near you.

Micro businesses are “the critical component of growth as a city, as a region as a province. We have got to find ways of supporting people wherever they may be working in terms of developing ideas, and supporting them and creating an entrepreneurial mindset.”

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Level Ground’s warehouse in Saanichton is stacked to the ceiling with coffee packs ready for national distribution. DARREN STONE PHOTOS

LEVEL GROUND IS ALL ABOUT FAIR TRADE 26

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BY MIKE DEVLIN

L Level Ground Trading Co. is known primarily for its coffee.

But with the ongoing arrival of new items to its lineup — including rice, coconut oil, vanilla beans, tea, dried fruit and a line of bottled spices — the Central Saanich company is adding more branches to its tree of fair-trade products.

Level Ground has been growing steadily since the company’s inception in 1997, but rapid product expansion in recent months is something that brings a quick smile to co-owner Stacey Toews.

“I want to get into the everyday foods that feed the world.

I don’t want coffee to be our focus. I want coffee to have been the springboard to get us recognized as a food company, not a coffee roaster.”

The company Toews co-founded with his wife, Laurie Klassen, and friend Hugo Ciro, is making good on that promise.

Toews said he is receiving calls from “big chains” wanting to talk to him about carrying Level Ground’s line of spices, which suggests “they could go on a meteoric rise in the next year.” Toews has also just secured a deal that will see the company pioneer a line of packaged coffee housed in a certified compostable package of wood pulp made in Canada.

Level Ground’s mission is to trade fair and trade direct with small-scale producers in developing countries. Plenty of people share in its success, too. The more product lines it carries, the more farmers it employs. At the end of the day, the company’s ability to improve and innovate while furthering the lives of others is a dream scenario for Toews.

“That is our reason for being in existence. No one is coming out with fair-trade anything beyond coffee. No one is looking to deal with on-the-ground farmer relationships in awkward, conflictoriented places where impoverishment is the norm, and saying, ‘how do we get rice from indigenous farmers?’ or ‘how do we get tea growers finishing their own tea?’ For us, it’s about changing the quality of life for hundreds or thousands of workers on smallscale farms.”

Klassen and Toews, Regina natives who were both raised on Vancouver Island, spend hours developing new product lines for the company to explore, while Ciro handles the farming side for Level Ground. The business operates out of a large facility near the Butchart Gardens and has 30 on-site employees, but its network of collaborators — some 5,000 farmers in 10 countries — makes it feel much larger than it actually is.

Level Ground does what other consumable food companies do not, which is pre-finance most of the products it purchases. Smallscale farmers often struggle with cash flow, Toews said, so Level Ground gets them up and running.

Stacey Toews, co-owner of Level Ground Trading Co. “For us, it’s about changing the quality of life for hundreds or thousands of workers on small-scale farms.

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Fresh-roasted coffee spills into a cooling tray, ready for new compostable packaging. The company is stretching its product offerings to include more products in more countries — ultimately helping more small farmers.

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“When we’re getting tea from a garden in India, and that garden has 15 or 20 employees, they need to get paid. But they are only harvesting and shipping to us a once a year, so the ability for them to create an environment for employees to do well is entirely dependent upon us. They are getting money long before we get tea.”

The concept is basic, albeit unique.

Toews is hoping that by seeing Level Ground’s ethical example other companies will follow their lead.

Given that coffee beans are one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world, Level Ground used the beverage as a way to bring the fair-trade topic to the corporate table. The challenge that lies ahead, however, is applying the same philosophy to niche products, where profit margins are slim.

Large corporations, by nature, look for ways to improve their effectiveness, which invariably means shortcuts will be made.

Even some outwardly ethical companies look to cheapen their product to increase profit, which results in what Toews refers to as “dumbed-down fair trade.” As a

result, Level Ground goes to great lengths to ensure their ethics, philosophy and business model are kept intact, no matter the scenario. “We shake the hands that pick the coffee” is a mantra proudly emblazoned on the company’s website.

Clear messaging — such as prices paid for coffee, which are posted on their website — is key.

“If people want to take issue with anything, we try to be as transparent and open as possible,” Toews said.

When they buy coconut oil from the central Philippines, or vanilla beans from western Uganda, they document the process.

“We’re setting up networks of people who represent us and buy on our behalf.

We visit and take photos, and use these photos as the basis for our marketing message.”

There is such thing as “less-fair fair trade,” Toews said, so Level Ground is attempting to go above and beyond what is expected of them. Just because something bears the fair-trade logo, doesn’t mean all the necessary boxes have been checked. “That has never been properly

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messaged. You can get fair-trade certified Kit-Kat bars in the U.K. now. But you also have fair-trade certified Divine Chocolate, which is a workers’ co-op from West Africa which owns the cocoa plantation and does the processing. People can easily see there’s a big variance.”

That is why Level Ground is focused on bringing products to market for which there is no fair-trade standard written.

“The cost is borne by the one who is trying to be ethical and upright,” said Toews.

Level Ground has done so while based in Victoria, which is remarkable. Toews calls it “the perfect microcosm” in which to run such a business, especially given the geographical boundaries.

“I feel like we’ve got a captive audience of people who are willing to learn and understand and support a business that is trying to think and be articulate. We don’t default as a company to a simple logo or a simple stamp that is supposed to encapsulate what we do. We’re not looking at comparing ourselves to others. We’re looking at doing what we set out to accomplish, which is alleviate poverty through trade.”

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ON THE BUSES 30

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B

BY ANDREW A. DUFFY

JOHN WILSON IS THE BIG WHEEL AT WILSON’S TRANSPORTATION — AND HE HAS EXPANSION ON HIS MIND

By his own admission, John Wilson isn’t much for sitting still. That’s probably because he’s spent a working life on and around wheels.

Wilson, chief executive of Wilson’s Transportation and the second generation to run the family bus business, is on the move — yet again.

Already the largest transportation company on Vancouver Island, Wilson’s has expansion on its mind.

“I’m not really good at settling down,” Wilson says with a laugh.

“I like to grow. I like exploring opportunities.”

The company counts a fleet of 140 buses, 175 employees at peak season and offices in Victoria, Campbell River, Chemainus and soon in Nanaimo.

Wilson sees room to grow in the company’s school bus division, through partnerships with B.C. Transit and expanding to handle a cruise ship industry, which expects a 30 per cent increase in passenger visits next year.

“We are busy preparing for that now, but we are also looking at expansion up-Island,” says Wilson.

That could mean acquiring smaller transport firms and looking at complementary businesses. “Things like fueling companies, they may not be directly related, but they may make some sense for me to get involved.”

The growth theme has been a constant with Wilson’s. In recent years, the company has added an airport shuttle service, taken over Gray Line’s sightseeing franchise and ramped up significantly to handle the cruise-ship business.

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John Wilson has ownership stakes in the HarbourCats, Peninsula Panthers. PHOTOS BY BRUCE STOTESBURY, TIMES COLONIST

“There’s been huge growth there,” Wilson says. “We have between 40 and 50 cruise-designated buses that we basically put to bed in the winter.”

It’s been a big jump for the firm, which counts Wilson, wife Valerie, son Andrew, daughter Samantha and nephew Travis as part of the day-to-day operations team.

“I think I always saw it growing. I’d be lying if I said I saw it growing this way, but we saw a few opportunities along the way.

We weighed them out and, if the reward was there, we did it.”

Wilson’s started with company president Kello Wilson, John’s father, running a trucking firm on Salt Spring in the 1960s. Needing to grow, the company moved to Victoria, where it landed a

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delivery contract with Woolco department store at the then-new Town and Country Shopping Centre.

It evolved into Town and Country Truck Rentals across the parking lot from the shopping centre, and that expanded to passenger vans at the request of customers and then to small buses, school buses and coaches.

The most pronounced growth has happened in the last 10 years.

In 2005, the company had just 18 full-time employees and a list of 30 bus drivers.

While the firm has grown, so has the profile of its chief executive.

Wilson is involved in several other local business pursuits: the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, Tourism Victoria and the mayor’s economic development task force.

He has an ownership stake in local sports teams — the Peninsula Panthers and Victoria Grizzlies hockey teams and Victoria HarbourCats minor-pro baseball club.

“We decided a long time ago that being part of the community was important,” Wilson says. “I was born and raised here, my son and daughter were born here — we’re committed to Victoria. So we decided, as a company, that the key to our growth was to give back and get involved."

Ryan Burles, chief executive of Black Ball Ferry Line, says Wilson is a straight-shooter who always seems to have the good of the community on his mind.

“He’s a collaborative kind of guy who will bring people together to work together,” Burles says. “He wants to help his company obviously, but often what he does will help others improve their business or the industry as well.”

Wilson says working with groups such as the Chamber or with the mayor’s task force helps grow the city economically and helps his company in return.

“Victoria is a different city. They really support the people that support them,” says Wilson.

He notes it’s been hard to watch some other long-standing family firms sell to larger corporations. “I think it’s somewhat sad that some of our real heroes in business did wind up having to sell to the big guys. It’s changed the components of those businesses. When you talk to the employees, they tell you there’s a different atmosphere.

“Wilson’s is kind of unique. We’re a midsize, bigger business,

John Wilson is steering Wilson's Transportation, with its fleet of 140 buses and 175 employees at peak season. He’s also into baseball.

Wilson, second from right, is pictured with fellow Victoria HarbourCats owners Rich Harder, left, Ken Swanson and Jim Swanson.

PHOTOS: DARREN STONE, BRUCE STOTESBURY

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still locally owned and operated and we give back a tonne of time and money to the community and that makes a difference here.”

The sports franchises are not about making money, Wilson says. It is more about filling a hole in the region.

Wilson has stepped in to help operate all three teams as they were struggling or needed new ownership and leadership.

In 2011, Wilson and Pete Zubersky, both former owners of that team, stepped in to save the Panthers. “So we got involved [with the Grizzlies and HarbourCats], and it's been fun, though it’s very time consuming. But these teams are a big part of the community. It’s entertaining to have these teams. Supporting young men trying to expand their sporting careers and educations is all good.”

The next major focus for Wilson’s Transportation is establishing a transportation precinct downtown to replace the existing bus depot on the Empress Hotel grounds. That site is slated for demolition this spring.

“We are leading the way and have

joined with Greyhound, Pacific Coach Lines and B.C. Transit to replace the depot,” says Wilson.

“The idea is to have it in the Crystal Gardens with bus parking along Douglas Street.”

Wilson stressed it will not be a depot in the traditional sense, as there will only be a small, 1,300-square-foot office and waiting room inside Crystal Gardens where tickets are sold, while buses will be parked in front only as they are loading or unloading.

“Bus depots are archaic ... we don't need them anymore,” Wilson says.

Bruce Carter, chief executive of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, says Wilson’s community focus bleeds into everything he and his company do, including the new transportation precinct. ‘‘He has a very sharp mind and is very business focused,” says Carter, noting Wilson has a talent for bringing people together and understanding the impact big projects have throughout the region.

“He has a very good understanding of how decisions will affect tourism, the con-

ference business and the other players.

And he’s able to get from the bare concept to how it’s to be executed and what it will cost very quickly.”

While plans have not yet been finalized, B.C. Transit is to establish and beautify the space on Douglas Street where there will be “pull-alongside stops” for scheduled service such as B.C. Transit, airport shuttles and the Pacific Coach Lines service to Vancouver as well as sightseeing services.

Wilson’s will be running the retail operation and all entities will joint-fund the operation.

It’s just another stop and notch on the belt for Wilson’s. “I’ve always been about surrounding myself with smarter people than me and hard-working people. I make no bones about it. The reason this company has [grown is because there are] key management people and hard-working people.

They helped make the decisions that helped the company grow,” Wilson says.

“It’s not just the Wilson family that made this happen.”

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DRIVE FOR SUCCESS Phil Dagger built one of B.C.’s largest used-vehicle dealerships during a mid-life career change — and investment from mom DARREN STONE PHOTO

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A

BY PEDRO ARRAIS

A former chef has discovered the recipe to success not in front of a stove but behind the wheel, transforming Galaxy Motors from a small used-car lot into a multi-million-dollar empire that is still growing.

The used-car dealership marks a quarter century this year under the helm of Phil Dagger, a former chef who worked 16-hour days trying to make his restaurant turn a profit — until he hung up his apron for the last time on Christmas Eve 1986.

The dejected restaurateur found out he wasn’t much good at his next job as well. “I was a mediocre salesperson at best,” said Dagger of his job selling cars at Empress Motors (now Wheaton).

“But that was an improvement over the absolute disaster of running my own restaurant.”

Being a chef for 20 years, with stints at well-known hotels including Jasper Park Lodge, gave the U.K. native the confidence that he could be successful as the proprietor of a small restaurant in Brentwood Bay. “When I closed the restaurant, it wasn’t sadness, but a sense of relief that washed over me,” Dagger said. “I was burned out.”

Not content to work for somebody else, Dagger struck out on his own when Galaxy Motors, a used-car lot in Colwood, became available. “I bought it with no money down, with payments of $1,666.66 per month for 24 months in August, 1990.”

But no bank would extend him credit to purchase inventory for his business, making the survival of the fledgling business tenuous at best. He turned to his mother. “My mum, who was in her 70s at that time, had to make a reluctant leap of faith, loaning me $10,000.”

The next few years were more 16-hour days, with Dagger doing what needed to be done, from washing to selling cars, to make the business profitable. He would still be doing the same chores today, but for one change in the market — the emergence of

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Phil Dagger struck out on his own when Galaxy Motors, a used-car lot in Colwood, became available. “I bought it with no money down, with payments of $1,666.66 per month for 24 months in August 1990.” sub-prime loans in the early 2000s.

“The concept was shunned by the major franchise stores,” recalled Dagger. “But I had experience on how hard it was to purchase a decent vehicle when my credit was bad and the regular banks wouldn’t touch me. I reckoned there were other people out there who needed a second chance.”

He was right on the money, with up to 70 per cent of his sales in the period to people who had been turned down by the major banks.

His empire grew, with storefronts on Government Street, in Esquimalt, Langford and Nanaimo. Store locations have changed over the years. Today, the network includes lots in Colwood, Nanaimo, Duncan, Courtenay and a new store in Langley, the first on the mainland.

He readily admits he can’t really say how he successfully grew the business in the last two and a half decades, as he has had no formal business training. “Somehow or other, I made it work.”

These days, sub-prime loans are mainstream, with major car franchises offering the option alongside more conventional financing. While it is still part of the product mix, it only represents a third of the sales at the dealerships.

Dagger said a key to Galaxy’s success is treating people right the first time.

“A huge part of my business is repeat and referrals.”

All vehicles are mechanically inspected, have safety issues addressed and are reconditioned by in-house mechanics. Vehicles are offered for sale with standard or extended warranties for peace of mind.

Along the way, the major banks came knocking once they saw the volume the independent used car dealership was selling.

Today, the business has an inventory of more than 700 vehicles at any one time, worth about $12.5 million.

The business also owns all of the real estate the cars are on, save the main office on the Old Island Highway where the administrative staff are housed.

Vehicles find their way on to the lot in a number of ways — through private sales, trade-ins, other dealers and an industryonly auction in Vancouver.

People try to sell their vehicles by themselves, with varying degrees of success.

A car dealer has several advantages over those who sell from their driveways — they can offer a warranty, the vehicles are mechanically inspected and the customer has recourse if anything goes awry.

People naturally want to get the highest price for their cars and often price it out of the market. A dealer will not purchase a vehicle with an inflated price. But for those who need their car sold in a timely manner, with no worry about the cheque bouncing, selling to a dealer is a quick process.

Because of the structure of the provincial sales tax, buyers of a new (or new to you) vehicle pay tax only on the difference between what the dealer will offer for the trade-in and the new vehicle. This makes

trading-in advantageous for the majority of owners as it effectively lowers their tax.

Used vehicles are a commodity in the car trade, with dealers buying and trading from one another regularly. A vehicle that would languish in one store for more than 90 days can sell immediately when introduced in a new locale.

Some new-car franchises will not keep a vehicle — regardless of how nice it is — that is over a certain number of years or has exceeded a pre-set number of kilometres. Many one-year-old vehicles you many encounter on the Galaxy Motors lot are from rental-car companies, short-term lease returns and overstocks bought at the Adesa Auction in Richmond.

Sellers use the auction because the price reflects the best price possible at that point in time. Dealers from across the province, as well as buyers from the U.S., competitively bid. Buyers like it because the sheer volume of vehicles is a good indication of the floor and ceiling on prices for a wide assortment of vehicles.

Want a red 2014 Camaro Z28? If one is not on the auction block this week, one is sure to show up in a week or two.

With $75 million in sales a year, Galaxy Motors easily dwarfs the performance of a typical used-car lot.

“Our bankers tell us that we are the largest independent used-car franchise in the province,” said Dagger. “They call us one-of-a-kind, not a typical used-car lot, but run a lot like a [new car] franchise.”

There are fewer 16-hour days for Dagger, thanks to a staff of more than 100 to do the work he once did himself. He still works six days a week, but often it is to buy lunch for the staff or throw the occasional barbecue.

“I still like to cook.”

At 63, Dagger said he still feels that he has a few more years growing the business. He envisions a payroll of up to 250 and 10 locations under the right conditions.

With the successful opening in Langley, he sees an opportunity to expand in the Metro Vancouver market, which has an abundance of small lots and no major player.

“I can’t stop growing,” he said, gazing over a hectare of shiny vehicles.

“But I don’t see it as work. I enjoy doing it as much as a retired person would enjoy playing a game of golf.”

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FIRE AND PIZZA At Pizzeria Prima Strada, a strict code is followed to produce traditional Neapolitan-style pies

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BY JEFF BELL

P

Pizzeria Prima Strada is on the move again.

The popular restaurant that has put authentic Neapolitan pizza on Victoria’s culinary map is adding a third location.

Prima Strada debuted in August 2008 in Cook Street Village, a second site was established on Bridge Street in February 2010 and a third is on the way on Fort Street, near Foul Bay Road.

Cristen DeCarolis Dallas, 46, who owns Prima Strada with her husband, Geoffrey, 52, said she would like to see an October opening.

Geoffrey said the growth of the business has been rewarding, and there will be more than 70 employees in the fold by the time the new site opens it doors.

The couple feels that pizzeria No. 3 is coming at just the right time.

> Continued on page 44

Pizzeria Prima Strada’s Geoffrey Dallas and Cristen DeCarolis Dallas. Veracea Pizza Napoletana, a global regulatory body based in Naples, sets a standard for their authentic Neapolitan pizza.

BRUCE STOTESBURY PHOTO

Pages 40, 41: A Neapolitan-style pizza cooks next to a wood fire inside a brick oven at Prima Strada's Bridge Street location.

DARREN STONE PHOTO

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THE MAKING OF A PIZZA

Tomoko Inoue uses traditional techniques honed by Italian masters for more than 150 years to create Neapolitan pizza. She uses Caputo 00 flour, Italian plum tomatoes and local ingredients, including cheeses and meats from Vancouver Island. When fireroasted, Neapolitan pizza is crispy, tender and fragrant.

DARREN STONE PHOTOS

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Fresh pie is pulled from the oven at Pizzeria Prima Strada, brimming with tomato sauce and its signature Mozzarella du Bufala, or water buffalo cheese, from Fairburn Farm on Vancouver Island.

There’s more than just pizza on the menu.

The restaurants are consistently rated as one of Greater Victoria’s best places to eat.

DARREN STONE PHOTO

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“We really wanted to make sure we had all our ducks in a row, and now we’re really ready to take that next step,” Cristen said.

The Italian name of the operation sets the tone for the business. “Prima is first or best, and then Strada is street, so it’s First Street, Best Street,” Cristen said.

“Best Street Pizza, if you will,” Geoffrey added.

They borrowed the name from a pizzeria that Cristen’s Italian-born father used to own in her native California.

“We chose Prima Strada as an homage to him,” Geoffrey said.

He said the Neapolitan style of pizza served at Prima Strada was “born in Naples, hundreds and hundreds of years ago.”

It developed from bread made in traditional wood-fired ovens — the same basic ovens used today at Prima Strada’s restaurants.

Tradition is a big part of things, Geoffrey said.

Prima Strada has gained approval from Veracea Pizza Napoletana, a global regulatory body based in Naples that sets a standard for authentic Neapolitan pizza.

Under those rules, basic ingredients such as flour, olive oil and tomatoes are brought in from Italy — as are the ovens — to meet the strict standards. The Italian edge doesn’t stop there.

“We smoke our own pepperoni here, we make our own sausages, we make our own pancetta,” Geoffrey said.

Gelato has recently been added to the madein-house list.

Cristen and Geoffrey began their venture after moving here from California, where both had jobs in the software industry. It’s also where they met.

Cristen was in financial software, Geoffrey was in human resources.

It was helpful that Geoffrey had also spent a decade working in the restaurant business, from age 14 to 23. Locally, that included jobs at the Union Club and what was then the Faculty Club — now the University Club — at the University of Victoria.

The move to Victoria, where Geoffrey still has family, came after freeway commuting and the general bustle in the San Francisco Bay Area took their toll.

Once settled, the couple decided to open a restaurant that featured the pizza they enjoyed themselves. “Wood-fired, dough with character, thin crust,” Geoffrey explained. “It didn’t exist in Victoria when we moved here 10 years ago.”

Expanding the business has always been part of the plan.

“We developed Prima Strada as a multi-store endeavour,” Geoffrey said. “Before we even opened the doors we had determined that there was room on the Island for multiple stores.

“We took a business approach to it, not a romantic approach.”

But there’s still romance at the restaurants, Cristen said with a smile.

She said the whole idea is to create neighbourhood pizzerias.

“Even though Victoria is still fairly small, we all kind of like our little neighbourhoods and we all kind of like to tuck in.”

The Cook Street Village spot, featuring a centrally located oven, provided a great start and has turned out just as it was envisioned. Lineups for seats are common.

“It’s a neighbourhood place and you’re going to go there and see people from the neighbourhood, you’re going to see your friends,” Geoffrey said.

Creating an atmosphere for families is also important for the parents of a 13-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy.

Bridge Street, a bigger venue, has become the production hub for dough and other items. It’s also where the office is located and where all the wood needed for the ovens is stored. There is a separate room for private functions, as well.

For Cristen, Bridge Street literally freed her from the confines of the garage at home in Oak Bay, where she did the office work in the early years. “I did all of the finances and everything out of the garage.”

A move up-Island could be next for Prima Strada. “We’ve got our eyes on some things,” Geoffrey said.

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David Miller checks the locks on the secure ‘hot rooms’ set up for use by companies and governments during disasters. “We’re basically designed around being self-sufficient, with nothing else coming in to us, for seven days.” DARREN STONE PHOTOS

HARD COPY, SAFELY STORED (JUST IN CASE) Capital

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I

BY JEFF BELL

In a world where digital storage of information is becoming the norm, hardcopy documents still have a major role to play.

A case in point can be found at Cube Global Storage, a Victoria company that keeps material safely stored for all levels of government and an array of businesses, including legal, medical and financial firms.

“Each industry has its own requirements,” said Cube’s David Miller. He points at a vast expanse of hard-copy filled boxes piled neatly in a warehouselike room.

“This is probably the coolest part of the whole operation, just because of its volume,” he said. “We have over a half million boxes in storage.”

The room has fire-suppression equipment and stringent environmental controls that keep humidity in check, and the entire building is designed to withstand a 9.5-magnitude earthquake, Miller said. Add to that sensors to detect motion, vibration and glass breakage.

“A lot of organizations don’t have the space for the documents and they have a legal requirement to hold onto them,” Miller said. “Some of them will just hold onto them for historical reasons, too, whether they have a legal requirement to do it or not. A lot of organizations will put them here because they’re critical documents and they’re way safer here than they’re going to be anywhere else.”

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“ The disaster-recovery services we offer aren’t required for every organization. Most organizations, to be fair, have almost no disaster-recovery plan.”

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Cube’s David Miller: “People are always thinking ‘Oh well, I’ll just digitize it,’ but it’s actually typically way less expensive to store physical documents than it is to turn them into electronic documents.”

That can include insurance companies, which could have claims to process after a disaster hits.

“They’re an industry that’s hugely aware of their disasterrecovery, business-continuity plans,” Miller said.

Digital storage is also important and Cube deals with that, as well, Miller said.

While clients could decide to digitize the hard copy in the stored boxes, he said it would come at a cost.

“People are always thinking ‘Oh well, I’ll just digitize it,’ but it’s actually typically way less expensive to store physical documents than it is to turn them into electronic documents.”

Hard copy was starting to drift out of use “but now a lot of organizations are using physical documents as their fail-safe document,” Miller said.

“One of the big things with digital documentation is the health of the document is hard to assess,” he said. “Outside of a fire or something catastrophic, most paper stuff degrades slowly.”

Still, there is overlap, with some of the boxes in the towering

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stacks containing items like floppy disks, Miller said.

Despite the huge numbers of boxes in the room, retrieval is relatively simple.

“We have a database that basically keeps the location of every box,” Miller said.

“We can get something back to anybody in two hours, 24 hours a day. So Christmas Day, if you’re working on a case, we will come and have your documents pulled.”

That sort of document work is what the business was built on when it started more than 30 years ago, he said. While Cube has plenty of local customers, its client base covers 42 countries There are a variety of reasons for that, Miller said.

“One of the big ones is geopolitical stability. If you’re going to pick a place, Canada is one of the most stable.”

Other factors in Canada help, too, Miller said.

“We’ve got a lot of good national policy around security.”

Many Americans are among the clientele, Miller said.

The operation is housed in a purpose-built facility that has been in place since the early 1990s and is decidedly low-key — an added level of security.

“The construction is steel-and-concrete, the location is away from the ocean,” Miller said. “We’re on a high point, there’s no flooding, we’re on solid igneous rock that goes down 22 kilometres.”

There is a generator with backup systems to ensure an uninterrupted source of power.

“We’re basically designed around being self-sufficient, with nothing else coming in to us for seven days,” Miller said. “We’ve got a wireless connection and a satellite connection so that we can stay connected all the time.

“So if you’ve got all that basic infrastructure, you’ve also got the infrastructure for a really robust data centre and a really robust disaster-recovery centre.”

Should the need arise, there is food, fuel and even chemical toilets to get through an incident.

While there are other disaster-recovery businesses in the area, Miller said the range of services at Cube is unique.

“It’s highly specialized. The disaster-recovery services we offer aren’t required for every organization. Most organizations, to be fair, have almost no disaster-recovery plan.”

Security at the building includes a rooftop helicopter pad to provide access if an incident were to block off roads, for instance.

Should a client be affected by a damaging incident like a flood or fire, Cube can provide work spaces to help keep a business going. Some clients maintain space at Cube that stays locked behind fence-like barriers.

“If my office downtown burned down, the only time that it takes me [to start to recover] is the time it takes to get to here.

If I was up-Island, that’s where the helicopter pad would come in handy.”

The most common reason for a business to have to vacate a building is actually a sewer backup, followed by fires and police incidents, Miller said. Some businesses will set up in a nearby hotel when those things happen, he said, but that won’t always be enough if there is a large regional disaster.

He recalled a large downtown flood that affected clients. They headed to the Cube building were able to stay up and running.

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HATS OFF TO A RARE BREED In Victoria, only a talented few continue the old craft of designing and making hats by hand

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BY ADRIAN CHAMBERLAIN

T Colleen Whitman with some of the colourful cloch-style hats she designs and makes by hand. “I like a bit of bling.”

DARREN STONE PHOTO

The world of milliners is small. That’s especially so in this city, where just a handful of people practise the ancient craft of designing and making hats by hand.

Among this rarefied few is Victoria’s Colleen Whitman, who specializes in cloches, the bell-shaped hat popularized in the 1920s. Jazz-age icon Josephine Baker famously wore them. So did Angelina Jolie in the 2008 film The Changeling, set in the late 1920s.

Whitman studied hatmaking in 2005 at England’s Wombourne School of Millinery. Although it closed its doors in 2007, she still buys hat blocks (the wooden forms used in hat-making) from Guy Morse-Brown. He ran the school and received an Order of the British Empire medal in recognition of his millinery contributions.

“I’ve just always liked hats,” says Whitman. “I think I just had a flair for it.”

The Edmonton native became a milliner after working as a hairstylist. Whitman makes hats in her apartment, which is lined with hat blocks and finished creations. She has sold them to stores such as O’Farrell Hats and The Hatsmith in Sante Fe, New Mexico. She sells them at the Bastion Square Market in the summer, and takes online orders.

Her hats, which start at $250, typically take three days to make. Part of the process is stretching the wetted hats (typically made from felt) on a block to obtain the correct size and look.

Whitman was drawn to the cloche style because of its versatility.

“I like the style. You can dress it up or dress it down.

It generally looks good on everybody, young and old,” she says.

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Former Victoria resident Tierre Taylor was ‘discovered’ wearing one of her unique hats in New York. She’s since moved to Toronto and is pursuing her craft fulltime.

ADRIAN LAM PHOTO

Whitman says custom-made hats are sometimes sought by people seeking unusual colours or embellishment such as feathers or ribbons done to taste.

“Normally, I just try to make them very simply,” Whitman says. “But I like a bit of bling.”

The Victoria millinery community also includes Lynda Marie, who started in 2010. She studied hatmaking in London, England, with Rose Cory (former milliner to the late Queen Mother) and Anya Caliendo in New York City. Like Whitman, her custom-made hats also start around $250.

One of the best-known milliners who worked Victoria is Tierre Taylor. Her career zoomed after a reporter for the website Humans of New York spotted her wearing one of her hats at Penn Station in Manhattan.

When her photo and a quote was posted on Humans of New York, Taylor was inundated with orders and queries. The milliner, who’d worked out of her Fernwood home, was able to move to Toronto and pursue her passion full time.

Whitman, who can afford to work only part-time as a milliner, has yet to reach such a level. But she hopes her small business will continue to grow.

“I’ve always like fashion and hats. I just have an eye for it,” she says.

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sound magic

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MAUREEN MURPHY IS A WIZARD AT MAKING SOUND EFFECTS IN HER STUDIO, USING PROPS OF ALL SHAPES AND SIZES PHOTO BY DARREN STONE Capital

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sound magic What’s that noise?

It’s quite possibly the creation of veteran foley artist Maureen Murphy, at work in a Victoria studio

m

BY MICHAEL D. REID

Maureen Murphy didn’t take offence when a fellow foley artist told her an episode of the CBC western drama series Strange Empire she had worked on didn’t use much of her audio artistry.

Her reaction was the opposite, recalled Murphy, one of those unsung film and TV production industry heroes whose names appear in the credits, but whose titles are often misunderstood.

“He didn’t realize he paid me a compliment,” said the veteran foley artist who uses props and her own body to create sound effects for films, TV shows and video games synchronized to a moving picture.

As it turned out, the producers had used almost all of her foley, those sound effects that are recorded in a post-production studio, but appear to have been captured on location.

“If [characters] walk in high heels, I walk in high heels. If they pick up a glass, I pick up a glass,” says Murphy. “You want foley to be seamless — so unnoticeable it’s almost like they didn’t do foley.”

It’s hard to miss the tools of Murphy’s trade when you wander through 1010 Audio, her post-production studio housed in a nondescript little white building on Discovery Street in Victoria.

As you pass bins and cabinets bulging with thousands of categorized props — including dishes, glassware, coffeemakers, wood in all shapes and sizes, jewelry, fabric, books, papers, magazines, cigarette lighters, ashtrays, key sets, purses, wallets, gloves, briefcases, 200 pairs of shoes and even the proverbial kitchen sink — you momentarily feel as if you’ve stumbled into a thrift shop.

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But the wider shot tells a different story. It reveals the complexity of her company’s integrated, acoustically designed stage in the 1,850-square-foot facility, with an additional 1,000-squarefoot storage space.

The compact complex includes a control room that doubles as a monitoring and mix room, a dedicated vocal booth and a live open-room suitable for vocals and music recording.

The foley room where Murphy spins her audio magic can also be used for ADR [additional dialogue recording], voiceover work and Walla, the sound effect where actors replicate background conversation.

“Okay, in this scene it’s a Japanese restaurant and you’re talking about food or it’s the 7th of December and Christmas is coming up,” says Murphy, mimicking a director’s instructions to a Walla crew.

Customizing sound based on a client’s budget and sound-design needs, Murphy collaborates with a close-knit team. Her creative partner Dave Hibbert, a veteran editor and re-recording mixer, is at the helm in the adjacent soundproof recording studio, surrounded by equipment that includes a multitude of microphones to capture sounds from different perspectives for domestic or foreign projects.

“Dave’s a gem,” says Murphy. “He’s a very talented, experienced guy and not only do I have his insights, we also make decisions together.”

Murphy has a background in visual arts and designed jewelry before she got into film and TV production in the mid-1990s. She broke Some of the in as an extras wrangler who worked with casttelevision ing director Lori Kuchera. shows and “On set, the guys I liked the most were the movies sound guys. I found sound people to be the funbrought to niest,” said Murphy, who got into foley after life with meeting a sound recordist at a party. sound by Her long list of foley artist credits since 1010 Audio have included the films Better Than Chocolate, The Snow Walker, Just Friends, Stone of Destiny, Beyond the Black Rainbow and Foreverland. Her TV credits include Terminal City, Andromeda, The Outer Limits, Stargate: Atlantis, Arctic Air, Cedar Cove and Motive.

Before relocating to Victoria, where her partner, archeologist Jeff Bailey of Golder Associates, was based, Murphy was in-house foley artist with DBC Sound, the small Vancouver post-production audio facility.

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She credits owners Bill Sheppard and Dean Giammarco with enabling her to open her own facility here four years ago, by referring business and giving her equipment deals after they closed their foley department.

“It was like the stars had aligned,” she recalled.

“Bill and Dean gave me their starter kit, their dupes, microphones, baffles — the stuff that goes into setting up a soundstage. It’s immense.”

It’s a good thing creative fulfilment is Murphy’s greatest reward because a foley artist’s work is often under-appreciated.

“If you sit in front of your TV and watch a big blockbuster movie, and turn the sound off, tell me how interesting that is,” deadpans Murphy, who emphasizes a foley artist isn’t responsible for every sound you hear.

While she might replicate the sound of a gun yanked from a holster or its trigger being pulled, the gunshots would be generated by a sound- effects editor.

“I don’t know any Canadian foley artist who has a gun,” laughs Murphy, who has taken two pieces of metal of the same vintage as the gun, tied them together with cloth and manipulated them.

“I’m adventurous with sounds, but it’s easy for me to do that because someone else put me in that direction. They’re the real geniuses,” she says, referring to Jack Donovan Foley, the art form’s pioneer who created live environmental sound effects for radio dramas before being hired by Universal Studios in 1914.

Foley inspired generations of audio magicians who would use empty coconut shells to mimic a horse galloping, cellophane to mimic an active fireplace, or snap celery sticks for the sounds of broken bones.

When time is money, the craftsperson who “can get to the sound faster” is usually the one assigned the task of creating a particular sound but there are also creative considerations, says Murphy.

“A sound-effects editor could [digitally] sample a footstep and cut it in, but it’s going to sound like the same sound-effects footstep. For them to make it sound original and fresh, it’s a lot of work,” she says.

Foley artist Maureen Murphy and engineer David Hibbert at 1010 Audio’s post-production facility on Discovery Street.

DARREN STONE PHOTO

“I do it in real time. If the walk is 10 seconds, it takes me 10 seconds to do it whereas it might take them hours.”

Her most high-profile sound effects include the car crash, like the variation she contributed to for Wrecked, the thriller filmed in Cowichan with Adrien Brody six years ago.

She used a “crash can” — a metal can containing items such as tiny nails, bolts, hinges, metal doorknobs and keys — for a scene where Brody’s character is trapped in his wrecked car in a ravine after it hurtles down a forested hill.

“I had to create a car without it being

the actual car,” says Murphy, who built a prop car with a wood base and a “zaptrapped” car seat.

“It was a huge amount of setup for a 10-second scene,” says Murphy.

She has spent hours creating effects for Michael Greenspan, the film’s Montreal director, who she later reunited with on the thriller Kill for Me. “That was a lot of work, but really interesting, really textural,” she says, recalling her effects for a Kill for Me scene in which a character is trapped in a shed. “It was really challenging but we made it sound seamless.”

Using Google Translate to communicate, Murphy has also been working with Mexican producers on films, including Luis Estrada’s political black comedy La Dictadura Perfecta and Cinco de Mayo.

Closer to home, Motive, Daniel Cerone’s acclaimed mystery series that has attracted top Canadian talent in front of and behind the camera, is particularly rewarding, she says.

“It’s a labour of love, that one is,” says Murphy, who has done 39 episodes of the series during its first three seasons.

“It’s so well-written, and the acting’s so solid. The drama is fantastic but so is the craftsmanship.”

With the recent surge in production of films and TV projects in the capital region, the challenge now is discovering and training new talent and growing the local postproduction industry.

“Every year I’ve had growth, but I’d love to get more stuff happening here and get people [who shoot here] to do their post in town.”

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PHOTO: Christian Arias-Carrasco

P Dogs get a cool new “leash” on life, with WildPlay Element Parks new up-cycling project

rotecting Mother Nature and all her critters is part of the mantra at WildPlay Element Parks, and that includes man’s best friend. With the launch of a new pilot project, WildPlay is converting retired climbing rope used in their Monkido® Adventure Courses into dog leashes. Named the “UpcycLeash”, the product is a way for the company to put its sustainability value into practice by diverting waste from the landfill through “upcycling”: reusing discarded objects or material in such a way as to create a higher-value product.

“There’s ample opportunity and no downside for us to try this approach to product development,” says Katherine Walker, WildPlay Element Parks VP of Development and Client Relations. The company operates Monkido® Adventure Courses at five Parks in B.C. and Alberta. Each course uses rope, carabineers, and harnesses that meet high quality standards, but must be retired after a certain period.

“We have oodles of rope,” says Walker, “and instead of it ending up in the landfill we’re giving people a unique product, and giving-back to our communities.” A portion of the proceeds from the pilot will be donated to wildlife and conservation projects.

The leashes are made using a method known as splicing, in which two parts of the same rope are partly untwisted and then interwoven to create a secure loop. Leash clips come from repurposed carabineers; the metal clips used in the Monkido Adventure Courses at WildPlay. The only material in the leash that does not come directly from diverted waste is a small heat shrink-wrap near the handle, making the project primarily a closed-loop system.

The idea for the UpcycLeash came from WildPlay employees Hilary Arias-Carrasco and Nick Graham, while shopping for their German shepherd. “I’ve easily spent $200 on leashes for our dog, and was still having trouble finding one that worked well for training,” says Arias-Carrasco.

“When we saw a similar type of leash, Nick thought of all the retired rope from the Parks and said, ‘we could make this!’.”

Arias-Carrasco and Graham pitched the idea to their co-workers at WildPlay and the seed was planted. The company saw a natural fit between the simple concept and their “Treading Lightly” practices that include reducing waste, encouraging outdoor activity and wellness (for all animals), and supporting environmental improvement activities in the community. “This project is a perfect fit to our values,” comments Walker, “and I’m excited to demonstrate that sustainability is good business and hopefully inspire other companies to follow our lead by thinking creatively about waste.”

The pilot project, which is currently underway, and extends to the Spring of 2016, will produce CONTINUED ON PAGE 64 …

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about 300 dog leashes. The product will be sold at the Kelowna, Nanaimo, Maple Ridge, and Victoria, B.C. locations, as well as in WildPlay’s online store at WildPlay.com. The pilot will be used to gather data about the longterm viability of dog leash production, and product feedback will be sought from animal experts including the SPCA and dog trainers for test response and improvements.

The UpcycLeash project is the

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latest, but not the only, sustainability initiative at WildPlay.

Their nature stewardship includes their Element activity products, such as the Monkido® Adventure Courses, that are built using environmentally-sensitive methods that have minimal impact on the trees and protect forest ecosystems.

The company’s Treading Lightly program ensures that their Parks practice waste management, invasive species removal, and paper reduction.

Fall 2014

WildPlay will continue to seek ways to bring new life to materials that would otherwise be discarded.

The company is a regular participant in the Upcycling Working Group hosted by Synergy Sustainability Institute, which connects creative entrepreneurs with businesses to rethink their waste use and find new alternatives.

Future projects for WildPlay’s upcycling efforts may include incorporating harness materials into purses, messenger bags, and

growler carriers.

“The UpcycLeash is a great example of a company thinking about waste as a resource and turning it into a new, sellable product. We hope to see more of this from WildPlay and other businesses on Vancouver Island as a way to tackle waste issues, create new jobs and give back to the community,” says Jill Doucette, Executive Director of Synergy Sustainability Institute.

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Supporting sustainable food production

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he Root Cellar Village Green Grocer keeps their friends close and their farmers closer. Working directly with over 300 growers, farmers and suppliers across the CRD, Vancouver Island and B.C., their local focus gives shoppers the comfort of knowing where their food comes from and the assurance that it was sourced with care.

Their support of sustainable food production goes full cycle as The Root Cellar works with several organizations to ensure that less than one per cent of the food they buy from farmers ends up in the compost and instead goes to feeding hungry people in our community. Over 500lbs of produce is donated weekly to The Rainbow Kitchen and the Community Cabbage, and food waste like corn husks and carrot tops are saved for local farmers to

feed their chickens and pigs. Ripe produce is discounted and offered to customers at the reduced carts.

Watch close and you’ll often see the city’s top chefs selecting ingredients at their peak of flavour and perfect for sauces, stews, juices and baking – proof that reducing food waste can be both economical and delicious!

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• Bulk Bins are your BFF. Take as much or as little as you need and swing by The Root Cellar’s new bulk section for a huge variety of organic and conventional dry goods.

• Make a list. Sign up to receive

The Root Cellar is open 7 days a week and is located at 1286 McKenzie Ave. Stop by and say hello or visit us online at www.therootcellar.ca

The Root Cellar’s weekly specials sent to your inbox twice a week, making it easy to meal plan around the freshest seasonal offerings.

• Practice FIFO. It stands for First In, First Out. When unpacking groceries, move older products to the front of the fridge/freezer/pantry and put the new stuff in the back.

• Leftovers Love You. They make the best lunches (and midnight snacks).

• Waste Not Want Not by Cinda Chavich. Pick up a copy of this local cookbook, which is full of great tips and recipes around reducing food waste. Copies are available at The Root Cellar.

Experience

local food

1286

ADVERTISING FEATURE

250.477.9495

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Catch basin 101

id you know that stormwater is the largest source of pollution to our local creeks and marine environment? If you own a business or a building with a parking lot or other paved surface, you can help prevent stormwater from polluting our waterways by maintaining the catch basins on your property.

Catch basins are common in parking lots and on streets. They are chambers, usually covered by grates, that collect stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces and discharge it to nearby water bodies, such as streams, wetlands or the ocean.

When it rains, stormwater runs over paved surfaces and picks up oil, grease, litter and other debris. Catch basins are designed to remove these pollutants from the water by allowing solids to settle and light debris to float. However, if a catch basin is full or clogged when it rains, it can release those contaminants into our waterways and cause flooding. As well, the waste in the catch basin can accumulate to hazardous waste levels,

necessitating costly disposal.

Property owners are responsible for servicing catch basins on their property. Some municipalities have bylaws that require regular catch basin maintenance and inspection, so it’s best to check with your local municipality for more information.

How to maintain your catch basin 1. Inspect your catch basin twice per year and record your findings. If solids in the unit are more than halfway to the outlet pipe, it’s time to clean it out.

2. Clean your catch basin right before the fall rains begin. This will ensure the unit will function properly and direct stormwater away from your property, preventing flooding.

3. Hire a qualified company to pump out your catch basin. A list of service providers is available on the CRD website.

For more information on catch basins, and to find a service provider, visit www.crd.bc.ca/catchbasin.

Catch basins, found in large parking lots and other paved surfaces, can collect pollutants and debris like oil, car grease and cigarette butts. If a catch basin is full or clogged when it rains, it can flood property and release contaminants into our waterways and the ocean.

You are responsible for cleaning out the catch basins on your property.

For information on how to maintain your catch basins and for a list of service providers, visit www.crd.bc.ca/catchbasin.

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

The Alpine Group – a family-owned, local business dedicated to a greener tomorrow

F

or over 30 years Alpine Recycling and Waste Depot at 1045 Dunford Avenue has offered an extensive range of recycling and waste services, all conveniently in one location. Alpine offers convenience for local residents and businesses when it comes to a one-stop drop off – they are one of the only locations in B.C. that offers such a range of options for customers.

Their drop-off materials list has been expanded to include small appliances, electronics, drywall, mattresses, and furniture. This supports Alpine’s goal to create sustainability and green initiatives in the community.

Alpine is also celebrating

over 20 years as a bottle depot and transfer station. They offer bottle drives with full refunds on all beverage containers, free pick up and a chance to win $1,000.00 cash. The bottle depot is a major component of the business for waste diversion, with over 60,000,000 beverage containers having been kept out of the landfill.

In addition, organics collection has been expanded this year, offering service to residential and commercial customers.

If you want to find out what you can do to make a difference in your home, business or event, visit Alpine’s website Alpinegroup.ca, or call 250-4745145.

DROP BY 1045 DUNFORD AVE. RECYCLING & WASTE DEPOT CALL 250-474-5145 FOR ALL YOUR NEEDS!

DISPOSAL

SOIL MART

RECYCLING

DROP OFF

OTTLE DEPOT ISPOSAL & RECYCLING OLL OFF BINS PORARY FENCING & TOILETS OIL MART

ER SERVICE WELDING & FABRICATION I EAVY DUTY TRUCK REPAIR

E AR SALES & DETAIL UTO REPAIR

TAIN DINER ARINE SALES & SERVICE IDNEY SPIT FERRY IER BISTRO

Demolition Waste Wood Furniture Household Recycling Yard & Garden Drywall Metal and so much more!

FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED FOR OVER 30 YEARS

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Fall 2015 67

Fresh, local and delicious

ADVERTISING FEATURE

P

escatores Kitchen l Raw Bar l Commons and 10 Acres Bistro + Bar are passionately committed to supporting locally grown, sustainable ingredients. Our locally inspired menus guarantee you that the freshest, often most innovative ingredients available, are used to prepare your meal.

What we don’t grow and ethically raise on our organic farm in North Saanich, we proudly source from other like minded farmers, food purveyors and fishermen.

Our farm is located on the Saanich Peninsula, supplying Pescatores and 10 Acres Bistro with the finest seasonal and organically grown produce, as well as pasture-raised heritage breed pork, duck, chicken, rabbit and free range eggs.

The composting program ensures that nothing from our restaurants goes to waste – we compost everything we can to enrich our soil as well as sharing vegetable waste with our pigs. The spent vegetable oil from our kitchens is used to fuel our farmer’s car and will power the generator to heat our greenhouses over winter.

10 Acres farm is helping to secure the future of local agriculture by utilizing local rural land to grow nutritious food, using organic seeds and soil amendments, practicing natural pest management by encouraging beneficial insects and ensuring healthy habitat for pollinating bees, birds and butterflies. Our recently planted orchard was a feast of pollen for our busy bees which arrived in time to help pollinate all 43 varieties of our 17 different fruit trees and vines.

Our seafood offerings are sustainable, local and diverse, with items on our menu selected for their seasonal availability and freshness. We consider ourselves ocean ambassadors and follow the recommendations of Ocean Wise and the Marine Stewardship Council.

Fall 2015 69

Accelerate your smartness

FOR more fun in the city.

E

The all-new 2016 smart fortwo.

Completely redesigned exterior and interior, with improvements in virtually all areas while retaining its proven concept of urban mobility.

smart – a Daimler brand

Three Point Motors

A Division of the GAIN Dealer Group

2546 Government Street | 250-385-6737 | threepointmotors.com

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> facebook.com/smartcarvictoria > twitter.com/victoria_smart

lectric cars like the smart fortwo are putting the brakes on pollution – diverting tons of climate-changing carbon pollution from our atmosphere every day. Electric smart cars are environmentally friendly, producing zero emissions.

Not only are they speedy, quiet and cool looking, smart electric cars are one of the most important tools we have today to break our dependence on oil, clean up the air, improve our health, and protect our climate and our environment. And smart cars leap these major hurdles.

If you’re interested in saving money, you’ll be pleased to know that the smart fortwo is inexpensive to maintain – no belts, spark plugs or oil filters to change, and zero gas needed to make it go.

For every 100 kilometres driven, approximately $2 is spent on hydro costs. The car is easy to charge from any household plug with the 110V charger that travels with the vehicle, or a 220V charger can be installed in your home for a faster charge. Plus there’s an additional rebate available for the 220V charger.

Transportation accounts for nearly half of our greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s important we switch to more electric vehicles.

Charging networks are being extended throughout our region and incentives are being expanded.

There are currently 220 accessible

charging stations located throughout Victoria and Vancouver Island, with more soon to come. Check out plugshare.ca for a map of all 220 stations.

The third generation smart fortwo is responsive, delivering quick acceleration for a fun drive (0 to 60 km/hr in five seconds) sporting a 70 hp motor – the exact same hp as the gas-powered smart cars. You can reach speeds up to 140 km/hr.

Safe, spacious, well engineered, smooth and virtually noiseless power and shift-free driving – why wouldn’t you want one?

Receive extra smart benefits, including a $5000 rebate on a full electric vehicle (which the smart is).

SMART BENEFITS + REBATES • $5000 rebate for a full electric vehicle (which the smart is).

• Plus Mercedes Benz Canada offers $3000 program support on smart electric.

• An additional $3000 available for the Scrap-it program for a trade vehicle that is model year 2000 or older, that has been registered in the owner’s name for 12 months minimum.

• Plus Mercedes Benz Canada offers one per cent rate reduction for loyal MB and smart clients on top.

• Starting price $20,485 which includes freight and PDI.

Check out plugshare.ca for a map of all 220 charging stations.

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Environmentally friendly construction top priority with K&T Builders K&T Builders will guide you through your building project from the design process, construction phase, selection of interior and exterior finishes, to landscaping.

One source for all!

BENEFITS OF WORKING WITH K&T BUILDERS We bring your concept to life: Working with you in a cost controlled and quality assured environment, we ensure your needs and interests are carefully considered, tastes reflected and expectations exceeded.

Professional and Reliable Service: Providing you with a single point of contact, we can manage a particular stage, or all aspects of your project from concept to completion, which ensures it’s delivered on time, on budget and to your satisfaction.

Ensuring the journey is an enjoyable one: Working with a team of trusted, reliable, considerate and highly experienced professionals, ensures you can rely on our knowledge, experience and commitment to excellence in everything we do.

Professional Responsibility: Providing a comprehensive quote, our prices reflect the quality of workmanship and service you will receive. An industry standard contract confirms the scope of work, fixed costing and payment schedule.

K

&T Builders Ltd. is a family owned business established in 1996. The principle owner, Ted Lapshinoff, believes that the environment and sustainability should be the main focus when choosing materials to build with.

Keeping the customer happy while building an environmentally friendly house on budget can be a real challenge. Ted will work with the owners to come up with solutions to meet these challenges.

K&T Builders has five basic principles that need to be followed: • Optimizing use of the sun.

• Improving indoor air quality.

• Using the land responsibly.

• Creating high performance and moisture resistant houses.

• Wisely using the Earth’s natural resources.

K&T Builders looks at each of these principles to come up with a

ADVERTISING FEATURE

strategy for building an environmentally friendly house.

Building Green doesn’t end at the design stage, all through the course of construction the focus is on keeping material out of the landfill. All packaging material is separated and recycled. Even the scrap lumber can be ground down and reused elsewhere.

Building a home with a healthy environment is K&T Builders’ top priority. Energy efficiency and sustainability also play an important role in providing a home that is comfortable and gives peace of mind in knowing you have kept the impact on the environment to a minimum.

You’ll be delighted with the results: We pride ourselves on innovative solutions, quality workmanship and superior results.

276 View Royal Avenue, Victoria, BC V9B 1A8 Office: 250-590-2458 kandbuilders@shaw.ca

Ted was excellent – we got the quality home we wanted on time and on budget.

We would recommend K&T Builders without any hesitation.”

Alex and Carole Mackie

Fall 2015 71

Be a WatershedWise Business – Prevent Storm Water Pollution

B

eing a watershed-wise business is not only good for the local creeks and harbours — it is simply good business. Businesses can do their part to protect their property and our aquatic environment by taking steps to prevent stormwater pollution. Following Best Management Practices helps ensure that contaminants in stormwater runoff from business properties are not entering into the storm drain networks which lead directly into our local creeks, lakes and marine shorelines.

Business can follow BMP's to ensure that contaminants in stormwater runoff from business properties are not entering into the storm drain networks which lead directly into our local creeks, lakes & marine shorelines.

By allowing rainwater to infiltrate rather than enter the stormwater system, we can reduce the peak flows during rainfall events which reduces flooding and erosion in downstream creeks and streams. There are many benefits of creating a rain garden.

RAIN GARDENS CAN HELP:

• reduce flooding on neighbouring property • reduce erosion in creeks and streams • filter out pollutants before they reach the storm drain and enter our waterways • recharge aquifers • provide habitat for beneficial insects, birds and wildlife.

Some businesses are starting to lead the

BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES way by adding raingardens into their • Employee Education • Outside Maintenance & Washing (only rain down the storm drain) • Spill prevention plan, spill response plans with spill kits on hand • Maintenance & pump out of catch basins • Green Infrastructure

parking lots or working with municipalities to add raingardens along sides of roads.

Raingardens are one type of green infrastructure that aims to mimic nature by allowing rain and stormwater to soak into the ground and be filtered naturally by the soil, trees and vegetation.

Visit our website www.crd.bc.ca/watersheds for more information and online resources including videos, watershed maps and BMP's for businesses and homeowners.

Where does your storm drain go?

Discover your watershed.

Get involved and learn about ways you can clean, protect and enhance watersheds in the capital region. www.crd.bc.ca/watersheds

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Eco-Tourism Pioneering Victoria’s GREEN ECONOMY

By Jessica Iida Synergy Enterprises

V

ictoria has always experienced a seasonal boom in the summer months, with an influx of domestic, international, and business travellers arriving to experience the city’s natural beauty, vibrant food scene, and top-notch tourist attractions. This summer in particular signified a boom for Victoria’s tourism economy, with hotel occupancy rates higher than they have been since the 1990s. With increased traffic comes a greater impact on our natural environment, making sustainable business practices more important now than ever. The city’s fast-growing eco-tourism sector is transcending consumer demands, blazing a trail for their competitors, and transforming Victoria’s thriving business ecosystem.

Inn at Laurel Point This harbour-side hotel is a leader in green hospitality – becoming BC’s first Carbon Neutral hotel in 2010 and a founding member of the Victoria Sustainable Tourism Alliance (ViSTA).

They’re committed to reducing their impact by choosing biodegradable options for items from room keys to dry-cleaning bags, recycling everything from cooking oil to batteries, and featuring home-grown, local, and sustainably-sourced ingredients at their waterfront restaurant, AURA. 7UẌHV *URXS Every Truffles Group business, including The Canoe Brew Pub, Cascadia Liquor Stores, Truffles Catering, and Victoria Butterfly Gardens are certified to the highest ‘Green’ standard with the Vancouver Island Green Business Certification program (VIGBC), and continue to make strides to increase their scores. From their focus on BC wines, to reducing packing and waste in their businesses, to major renovations to reduce energy and natural gas usage, Truffles Group is leading the way in sustainable business practices.

Eagle Wing Tours Victoria’s leading multiple award-winning whale watching tour operator, Eagle Wing Tours has not only reduced their impact on the environment, but is also making a positive impact by educating and encouraging guests to get involved in marine conservation. They are Canada’s first Carbon Neutral whale watching company, the first whale watch business to give a percentage of their profits to 1% For The Planet, and a founding member of the Victoria Sustainable Tourism Alliance (ViSTA).

Their new catamaran, 4 Ever Wild, further reduces emissions with new engine and hull technologies and by accommodating more passengers per trip.

Victoria Conference Centre The Victoria Conference Centre is transforming the business travel industry by moving towards its vision of facilitating net-zero impact meetings and events by 2020. In the past year, the Conference Centre has invested in energy and lighting upgrades that are expected to save over 1,000,000 kWh per year. They are also working to reduce waste and water consumption, and have committed to choosing eco-friendly vendors and menu items, making them a green venue choice.

A member of the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) and a BOMA BESt Level 4 certified building – one of seven buildings in British Columbia and one of 59 buildings Canada-wide with this accreditation – they are advancing best practices in the conference and event sector.

;=;<)16)*4-

<7=:1;5 Victoria is a leader in the global movement towards environmentally responsible travel

2XWHU 6KRUHV ([SHGLWLRQV Environmental conservation and collaboration with First Nations communities are top priorities for Outer Shores, a company that offers sailing expeditions to the most remote areas of BC’s coastline, such as Haida Gwaii and the Great Bear Rainforest. Outer Shores recently became Carbon Neutral after measuring and reducing their carbon footprint and purchasing credits that invest in Great Bear Rainforest conservation for the small amount of remaining emissions. They’ve also launched a citizen science project called SpotterPro App – a platform for crowd-sourcing information about marine life encounters.

On Outer Shores expeditions, every wildlife sighting is entered into a database that is passed along to Parks Canada at the end of the season, providing valuable information that would otherwise not be available for research and analysis.

Victoria Golf Club Victoria Golf Club, the oldest golf club in the region, is teeing up at the forefront of sustainable business. The Club is leading the way in responsible tourism and recreation, having completed their first carbon footprint report and a FortisBC Energy Assessment. In early 2015, the Club’s pub and restaurant, Macan’s, completed a full kitchen renovation, installing efficient equipment and air-cooled refrigeration units which greatly reduce both energy and water use. Water conservation is a top priority for the Club, which has installed weather-sensored irrigation and a wash-water recycling system – the first on Vancouver Island – to clean grounds equipment, saving over 1.5 million gallons of water annually. Helping the Club keep sustainability a priority is an active ‘Green Team’, with staff representatives from each department.

www.synergyenterprises.ca | 415-620 View Street | info@synergyenterprises.ca

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Fall 2015 73

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SYBIL VERCH SHOWS US THE MONEY

BY MICHAEL D. REID

Sybil Verch is the host of The Wealthy Life, a 13-episode talk show on CHEK

Sybil Verch doesn’t miss a beat when challenged to name the question she’s been asked most often during her 21 years in the financial services industry.

“How much do I need to save to retire?” says the Victoria investment adviser.

“But there isn’t just one answer to that question. It depends on how much they think they’re going to need, at what age they want to retire, and how long do they plan on working.”

Retirement planning is one of dozens of topics Verch will address as host of The Wealthy Life, her 13-episode talk show premiering Oct. 10 at 5:30 p.m. on CHEK. “I think retirement is a dirty word. I prefer to use the term ‘financial independence,’ ” says Verch, who hopes her televised “reality check” will help viewers make the most of what they have.

Verch, who is also executive producer, says while everyone wants to make more money “very few people are willing to do what it takes to make it happen,” often because of fear or misconceptions.

“Some people look at going to a financial adviser as about as exciting as going to the dentist,” says the financial guru who is on

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a mission to dispel such attitudes and make financial planning more accessible.

Topics covered include wise credit-card use, how to avoid bankruptcy, whether a couple whose relationship is failing should stay together for the money, and whether to invest or pay off a mortgage first.

Guest experts provide practical financial advice, and Verch answers questions submitted online. Tips, online resources and other tools to help viewers manage their finances are shared.

“Making money isn’t just about investing money,” says Verch, senior vice-president and western regional manager for Raymond James Ltd., the investment dealer that sponsors the show.

The first season’s guest lineup includes Chris Grew of 4 Pillars, the debt consolidation services firm; Cindy David, senior estate planning adviser; chartered accountant Chad Linger; Mike Todd, executive director of Raymond James Canada Foundation; and Craig Williams, general manager and funeral director with McCall Bros.

Verch says she’ll also show viewers how to save money by pre-planning their own

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funeral, which many erroneously assume will cost a fortune.

“We wanted to debunk some myths about that,” she says. “A lot of people think it’s extremely expensive, but it’s not necessarily. It’s like a wedding. You can get married at City Hall with a witness and it will cost nothing, or have a big elaborate party and eat up your savings. Funerals are the same way, but a lot of people don’t think about it. You don’t want to put that burden on your family.”

Since nothing in The Wealthy Life is “time-sensitive,” don’t expect a magic solution to cope with recent stock market volatility, but do expect general reminders about the importance of diversification.

The series will also offer tax-planning tips and general financial planning principles that many of us either misunderstand or don’t take enough time to think about, she says. “A lot of people don’t get excited about these things until they get close to retirement. We just want to get people thinking about money and finance, but to make it fun.”

One guest expert drew parallels between retirement and planning a dream vacation.

“If I said, ‘I’m planning this amazing holiday, staying at fantastic hotels [and so on] and you said, ‘That sounds amazing!

When are you going?’ and I said ‘In 20 years’ it loses its oomph,” Verch says.

“That’s what retirement is like. You need to plan, but don’t wait until retirement to do the things you want to do. Plan for the future, but also your shorter-term goals, like vacation property or a new car or that trip.”

The show’s telegenic host, a seasoned motivational speaker, is no stranger to the camera, but she admits doing The Wealthy Life was tougher than appearing as a mentor on the business reality series The Hard Way, which also appeared on CHEK. “I was completely comfortable but it was a helluva lot of work,” says Verch, who had 13 outfit changes while recording 13 episodes, each with three segments, in just four days, covering 39 topics with 26 guests. “It was a blast, and worth it absolutely,” says Verch, who saw the show as a way to “leverage my time” and help more people than her company’s client base. “It’s my way of giving back and helping others.”

Lorne MacLean woos the West as new head of Thrifty Foods

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LORNE MACLEAN GOT HIS START AT AGE 16, EARNING $3.05 AN HOUR. NOW, HE’S THE NEW GENERAL MANAGER OF THE THRIFTY FOODS GROCERY CHAIN

L

BY CARLA WILSON

Lorne MacLean says Thrifty Foods is looking to expand all over B.C. despite increasing competition.

BRUCE STOTESBURY PHOTOS

Lorne MacLean is looking forward to his first West Coast winter.

The new general manager of the Thrifty Foods grocery chain has spent his life in Atlantic Canada and Ontario. Along with wife, Sherry, they’re keen to experience a winter of milder temperatures and little snow.

They’ve been tipped to the wet weather and bought rain coats.

MacLean was amazed to see cherry blossoms in bloom in February during a work-related visit to Victoria five years ago. He called Sherry and sent her a photo of flowers outside a Thrifty Foods store.

After arriving this past summer, MacLean, 52, is settling into his new role as general manager of Thrifty Foods, which has 26 stores, on Vancouver Island, Salt Spring and the Lower Mainland. A major employer in the province, the company has about 5,000 staff.

Thrifty Foods became part of Sobeys grocery group when the late Alex Campbell Sr. sold it in 2007. Sobeys Inc. has headquarters in Stellarton, N.S., and owns or franchises more than 1,500 stores in Canada under banners including Safeway, IGA, Foodland, and FreshCo. Sobeys is owned by Empire Company Ltd. Despite being founded on opposite sides of the country, MacLean said Sobeys and Thrifty Foods have plenty in common.

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THRIFTY FOODS, PART OF SOBEYS GROCERY GROUP, HAS 5,000 EMPLOYEES AND 26 STORES ON VANCOUVER ISLAND, SALT SPRING AND THE LOWER MAINLAND

Debt Problems?

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www.debtsolutions.deloitte.ca

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Each was a family operation and both families brought similar values, such as supporting local suppliers, to their companies.

One of those values is fostering relationships with staff and customers. As MacLean walked through a Thrifty Foods store recently, he repeatedly stopped to chat and say hello to shoppers and employees.

MacLean has always been fascinated by business. Born in New Waterford on Cape Breton Island, he grew up watching his creative and entrepreneurial parents own and operate a number of businesses, experiencing both good and bad times.

That home-grown education instilled a strong work ethic in MacLean.

He got his start at Sobeys at age 16 thanks to older brother Francis, who worked part-time at the local store and was heading off to post-secondary school. Francis asked the store manager if his younger brother could take over his part-time position.

Lorne MacLean was hired without an interview, earning $3.05 per hour, to pack groceries for pickup by customers. His first paycheque was $9.15.

That started him on a career path with Sobeys, where he’s been for 36 years.

After graduating from high school, MacLean spent two days at college before deciding he wanted to work and be independent. He returned to Sobeys. He asked the manager how the store made money. Instead of brushing the teenager off, the manager pulled out profit-and-loss statements and gave MacLean an early lesson in business operations.

He has since completed other business-related post-secondary courses at Memorial and Queen’s universities, plus professional development through Sobeys.

MacLean was soon training for management, becoming a store manager in his mid-20s in Dartmouth, N.S. He then managed a store in Cape Breton for two years. From there, he worked at Empire’s Stellarton head office in grocery merchandising, moving to become a category manager for Sobeys’ Atlantic operations. He was general manager for a discount chain within the company, graduating to director of operations for 16 stores in the Halifax area, then moving to Newfoundland, and then back to Stellarton in business development.

MacLean continued to move within the company and, in 2012, he became senior vice-president of operations and optimization for Sobeys, and other full-service grocers under that banner, such as Thrifty Foods, and was based in Pickering, Ont. He arrived in Victoria this summer, replacing Jim Dores, who joined Thrifty Foods in 2011.

MacLean has noticed the organic products market is especially well developed, thanks to a strong “foodie environment.”

The West Coast climate allows Thrifty Foods to stock local food produced through different growing seasons, resulting in long partnerships with suppliers, said MacLean. “We are making sure that we don’t lose the focus on local.”

MacLean arrives as the fight for customers heats up in Greater Victoria as new players move onto the scene and existing ones expand.

This kind of “intense” market is not unusual, MacLean said. “The business itself is this way.”

Island-based Quality Foods, partly owned

by Jim Pattison who also owns Save-OnFoods, launched a store in Langford last year and its next store at Eagle Creek Village in View Royal is under construction.

U.S.-based organic giant Whole Foods is moving into the market in fall 2016 after construction of its Uptown Centre store is completed.

Other grocers in the mix include Country Grocer, Fairway Markets, Save-OnFoods, Costco, Walmart, True Value Foods, the Root Cellar Village Green Grocer, the Market on Yates and Market at Millstream, and Lifestyle Markets.

Red Barn Market is adding to its outlets by opening its newest store this year on Oak Bay Avenue.

Despite increasing competition, Thrifty Foods plans continued growth.

“We are looking all over B.C.,” said MacLean.

Customers are seeking quality convenience items, he said, and Thrifty’s job is to make sure it offers the best value.

MacLean said the grocery industry is challenged by rising food costs brought on by drought conditions in major production areas and the slumping Canadian dollar.

Thrifty Foods will concentrate on strengths such as fresh products, its focus on customers and community involvement, he said.

Having its own commercial kitchen gives it the ability to innovate quickly, MacLean said.

Sobeys plans internal restructuring in its Thrifty Foods administrative functions.

Asked what that means to Victoria, MacLean said administration numbers will remain close to the current 130 staff positions. In some cases, employees have moved to Calgary, where Sobeys’ western business unit is located, while new staff have relocated here.

He did not discuss specifics, saying internal changes are more geared to Sobeys and Safeway than Thrifty Foods, which has its own team in Victoria.

Locally family owned & operated

Rush, same day & overnight service

Can customize rates & service to fit your needs

Serving Victoria, Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland, Nationally & Internationally

250-721-3278 • 1-866-721-3278 3-576 Hillside Ave. Victoria, BC

info@maxcourier.com • www.maxcourier.com Capital

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JACK KNOX • Columnist, Times Colonist

Spam, spam, everywhere the spam don’t need spam to remind me that I am a dull man.

I’ve never been charming, or scary, or heroic. Never been the life of the party. Were I a pair of pants, I would be khaki Dockers.

I even bore myself, have been known to nod off while looking in a mirror. Other people like to listen to their own inner voice, but I just find myself glancing at my watch, desperately searching for an excuse to end the conversation.

So, no, I don’t need my banality confirmed by technology, which is what happens every single day at 4 p.m.

That’s when the daily summary of quarantined email — the messages caught up in the company’s ultra-vigilant spam filter — pop into my inbox. “We think these messages are junk, but are checking with you to make sure,” is what the summary says.

No, no, thanks for asking, but it’s all junk, and soul-suckingly bland junk at that: offers for cut-rate phones, mortgage relief and pre-approved credit cards, with the odd phishing expedition from a wealthy-but-in-a-pickle Niger-

I

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ian general thrown in for old time’s sake. Nigerian generals are like the classic rock radio of Internet scams.

The most exciting bits in my quarantine are the messages shotgunned to news outlets by crackpots from places like Armed Compound, Kentucky, or Tinfoil Hat, New Brunswick. One guy writes almost daily with ALL-CAPS SCREEDS that combine perpetual rage, butchered English, political conspiracy theories and biblical citations (the frightening Old Testament ones, not the comfy New Testament hug-your-neighbour ones). “LIEING SCUM MASONIC MEDIA WHY ARE YOU HIDEING LIER STEVEN HARPER’S CHEMTRAIL TRUTH?? DON’T CRY FOR MERCI WHEN YOU ARE COVERED IN WEEPING BOILS!!!!!!.”

At least his messages are from a real person, not a spambot, a change so refreshing that I felt compelled to begin responding to his outbursts with e-mails of my own: “The fruit flies are CRAZY this year. I finally had to take the compost bucket outside. …”

So then he dropped me from his distribution list. Even the crackpots find me dull.

Meanwhile, my colleagues treat their daily quarantine summaries like a Kinder Surprise. Whoa, you wouldn’t believe the weird and wild stuff that’s in there! Fabulous travel deals, firearms, contraband cigarettes, ecstasy pills!

One workmate gleefully read aloud an ad for sex aids “banned in 51 states,” along with one promising access to HORNY! COLLEGE! GIRLS! Not, I must hasten to add, that I am interested in meeting HORNY! COLLEGE! GIRLS! At this point in life, I am more likely to be wooed by AN! AFTERNOON! NAP! Still, it would be nice to be asked.

Alas, someone out in Spam Land has come up with an algorithm that has determined I am so dreary that it’s not worth trying to pitch me anything except discount inkjet printer cartridges, cheap Chinese display racks, hair-replacement therapies and “vitamins for male strength.” I think the algorithm fell asleep while building my market profile.

In truth, the spam in your inbox might be thinning out, too. While spam went from an estimated eight per cent of all email in 2001 to, by one account, roughly 90 per cent in 2010, recent analyses show it to be in a rapid decline. The BBC reported that, for the first time in a dozen years, spam makes up less than half of all traffic. That’s due largely to a focus on botnets, the networks of hijacked computers usually used to spread messages.

Still, spam slips through. “Be pleasings her all nites long,” read the subject line on one message this week.

I’m not sure what pleasings her all nites long entails, but I’m pretty sure it has to do with installing new closet organizers or sitting through seasons one through 147 of Downton Abbey on Netflix.

So mINI options.

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m still the classic MINI you know and love, I just have 5 Doors so you can bring everyone along for the ride.

daily commute turn heads!

Family sized MINI 5 Door Only

Classic MINI 3 Door Only

$24,035

$22,785

Including freight & PDI

Including freight & PDI

*

MINI Victoria

**

J 8 # #6 ": KJ > K # B

95 Esquimalt Rd | 250.995.9250 | victoriamini.ca

@MINI_Victoria

MINIVictoria

European models shown for illustration purposes only. *Starting from pricing based on the 2015 MINI 5 Door(MSRP $22,240) and freight and PDI($1,795) included. **Starting from pricing based on the 2015 MINI 3 Door (MSRP $20,990) and freight and

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School of Business

Gustavson See things differently.