BC Business
Two Dougs and a BobTwo senior executives are out at TransLink, and its interim CEO has been replaced by another interim CEO. In a memo to staff on Tuesday, Doug Allen, the current CEO, announced that the transit authority had let go of Doug Kelsey, president and general manager of SkyTrain operator the B.C. Rapid Transit Company, and Bob Paddon, the executive vice-president of strategic planning and stakeholder relations. The latter will not be replaced. And the kicker: Allen—whose term ends in August—will be replaced by current CFO Cathy McLay. Her eventual replacement will be the fourth head of TransLink in about as many months
Given that rage over executive pay dominated the debate in the lead up to the transit referendum, it’s hardly surprising that TransLink’s top management make for an easy cut. But as with any management replacement, executives will be replaced with executives—and the mayors are fed up. Members of the Lower Mainland’s Mayors’ Council have come out criticizing the provincial government in recent days over TransLink’s byzantine governance structure and chronic underfunding—which a few of them view as the root of the problem (via the Globe and Mail). Or, you know, it could just be a matter of trust.
What’s in the water?British Columbians, around 218,000 of them, are mad as hell that Nestlé is bottling B.C. pristine water. And now premier Christy Clark is weighing in: “What we have heard is people say they don’t think it is appropriate. They think we should be at the top end charging for some of that water that the big bottlers are extracting,” she said on Monday. At issue: the aftereffects of legislation that introduced a fee of $2.25 per million litres for water use, in large part to address consumption by the water table-guzzling oil and gas industry in the northeast. But somehow, somewhere, exports of plastic bottles became a lightning rod for debate. So, is the province charging enough, too much or too little? Or should it be charging for water at all? Weigh in below:
Should we pay more for water use?
Who swiped right?PlentyOfFish, the little Vancouver dating website that could, has cashed in for $732 million, purchased by its behemoth competitor, IAC—the owner of Tinder, OkCupid, Dictionary.com, CollegeHumor, PrincetonReview… and, well, pretty much every other site you’ve visited online today. “We are thrilled to be joining forces with Match,” said Markus Frind, CEO of PlentyOfFish. “I am confident that Match will help accelerate our growth even further.” Unlike that of two algorithmically-matched lovers, however, this new relationship is still subject to Industry Canada’s approval.