BC Business
Plus, Cineplex blames minimum wage, Sauder launches Creative Destruction, and Twitter speculation
With B.C.’s agreement to federal reforms of the Canada Pension Plan, Ottawa can now move forward with long-awaited enhancements that needed the partnership of the majority of provinces representing two-thirds of Canadians. The provincial government’s decision, announced on Tuesday, comes “after hearing from thousands” of citizens over the summer, said B.C. Finance Minister Michael de Jong. The CPP increases will be implemented over seven years starting in 2019 and fully in effect in 2025. A Canadian who makes an annual income of $50,000 can expect to receive $16,000, up from $12,000. An $83,000 annual income is eligible to receive the maximum $20,000, up from $13,000. (Financial Post)
Moviegoers to Cineplex theatres in B.C. will be paying a little more since the company announced a rate increase of 22 to 55 cents. The Canada-wide move follows minimum wage increases across the provinces, with B.C. currently sitting at $10.85. According to the company’s last quarterly results, roughly 90 per cent of Cineplex’s 13,000 employees earn minimum wage. Some locations in the province saw the increase as early as Oct. 1. (CBC)
The UBC Sauder School of Business has partnered with the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management to launch Western Canada’s version of Creative Destruction Lab. The accelerator aims to provide funding and support needed to scale innovations and high-tech ventures formulated on UBC campuses to “maximize their commercial impact and benefit to society,” according to an announcement from UBC last Wednesday. CDL-West hopes to see some of the success that CDL, based out of Rotman, has already generated. Between 2012 and 2016, CDL companies generated over $800 million in value. The accelerator has a track record of supporting startups like Thalmic Labs—a computer-human interface company which announced nearly US$120 million in funding on September 19, one of the largest Series B financings in Canadian history. (UBC)
Speculation about Twitter’s future owners boosted its shares by 4 per cent Wednesday morning, with bids reportedly coming in this week. Potential buyers including Salesforce, Walt Disney and Google, are seeing their shares drop, bucking the trend that share prices surge when a new ownership is announced. Shareholders may be nervous about big-money digital deals following Microsoft’s $26 billion acquisition of struggling tech company, LinkedIn. (Forbes)