BC Business
Viaduct visionToday the public weighs in on what the city of Vancouver might look like without the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts. On October 6, Brian Jackson, the city’s general manager of planning and development services, and Jerry Dobrovolny, acting general manager of engineering, presented their report on a plan that would dramatically–and some feel negatively–change the city. This afternoon, those with comments have been invited to share them at a city finance and services committee. But it looks like they’re counting on a big turnout—overflow speakers are invited to the next meeting set for Tuesday, October 27.
Premier plansPremier Christy Clark hopes to work with the new federal government to “build a strong economy and create jobs across the country.” At an appearance yesterday she called B.C. “a bit of an outlier” in the county due to our economic growth, and said the top issues she plans to address with the new regime are restoring the Coast Guard station to Kitsilano and negotiating a softwood lumber agreement with the States. The mayors also have some infrastructure projects in mind for the new government, especially transit for Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner.
B.C.’s most enterprising communities What B.C. communities appeal to entrepreneurs? According to the eighth annual Entrepreneurial Communities report, published in the lead-up to Canada’s Small Business Saturday (October 24), Kelowna took second after Calgary as the most attractive environment for promoting entrepreneurial success, a move up from last year’s third place. Vancouver also moved up the ranks, scoring the eighth spot this year, after landing just 18 last year. Among mid-sized urban areas, Penticton, which didn’t even make the top ten last year, ranked number one. The report examines how 121 Canadian cities/regions foster entrepreneurship. Each is given a grade out of a possible 100 points, based on 14 specific indicators covering three main categories: presence, perspective and policy.