North Vancouver visual effects company will receive Oscar award

Four B.C. film industry professionals were nominated for their work in survival drama The Revenant
Four B.C. film industry professionals were nominated for their work in survival drama The Revenant.

THE#BCBIZDAILY
Plus, mortgage brokers resist new rules on revealing their commissions and Richmond mayor spars with port over farmland

Inflatable ingenuity
The North Vancouver developers of an inflatable screen will receive a Technical Achievement Award at this year’s Academy Awards. The Air Wall is a patented visual effects screen that was invented in 2012 by David McIntosh, Steve Smith, Mike Kirilenko and Mike Branham of Aircover Inflatables. It was developed as a safer and more environmental alternative to a conventional green screen, which is made with painted wood and aluminum. The Airwall, which can deflate and inflate in minutes, is also easily transportable in specially adapted trailers. It has been used in many films including the X-Men Apocalypse, Tomorrowland and Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Four others from the Vancouver film industry also received nominations for their work in The Revenant. Those nominated were: Cameron Waldbauer in visual effects, Chris Duesterdiek in sound mixing, Robert Pandini in makeup and hairstyling, and Hamish Purdy in production design. While not nominated for an Oscar, B.C. stuntman Glenn Ennis has received much attention for his work as the grizzly bear in the wilderness epic. 

Show us the money
Homebuyers who get a mortgage through a broker should be told how much commission the broker receives, says the provincial agency that regulates real estate and mortgages. 

In an open letter to mortgage brokers, the Financial Institutions Commission (FICOM) indicated that it is proposing changes to conflict of interest disclosure that would require brokers to reveal to clients commission and volume bonuses, plus other rewards, that they receive from a lender. This letter follows on a six-month consultation with brokers. 

As for why these changes are necessary now, Registrar of Mortgage Brokers Carolyn Rogers wrote, “FICOM has observed the intense competition between lenders for a mortgage broker’s business, the types of incentives this competition generates, and the influence this can have on advice to clients on individual files. We are concerned about the potential conflicts this creates.”

Many mortgage brokers, who are expected by their clients to find the best rate from multiple lenders, were not happy about these proposed changes.

Pitchfork politics
A simmering dispute between the City of Richmond and Port Metro Vancouver is threatening to boil over as the port eyes Richmond’s farmland.
 
The port owns the 90-acre Gilmore farm in East Richmond, a site protected under the provincial Agricultural Land Reserve, and CEO Robin Sylvester has recently indicated that he would like to turn it to industrial use. “We see a situation looming that might have to happen,” he told the Province, in reference to the region’s shortage of industrial land.
 
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie protested the port’s purchase of the Gilmore farm and has argued for the importance of protecting agricultural land for the purpose of growing food. He previously took the fight to the Union of BC Municipalities, which passed a resolution asking the federal transport minister to order the Gilmore farm to be sold and to direct the port to stay away from agricultural land.
 
But Silvester believes that the port, which is a federal agency, could trump the provincial ALR and use the Gilmore farm as it sees fit. He says only about 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of suitable industrial land is available in Metro Vancouver. Richmond is particularly attractive to industry because of its proximity to highways, trains and ships.