May 2019
In this issue
Although B.C. has arguably been the biggest beneficiary of the most recent housing boom, a tidal wave of cheap money has flooded across the nation and into the hands of real estate developers desperately trying to keep up with a home-buying frenzy. Thanks to their efforts, housing starts hit record highs, and so did bank loans. Canadian real estate developers are...
SOCIAL LIFE In April, 23 Canadian women business owners interested in catering to the elderly in Japan travelled there under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Kris Stewart, CEO and clinical director of Advanced Home Care Solutions in Kelowna and Victoria, was one of three from B.C. and the only home-care provider. Stewart says that in retirement homes...
GREENER AIR Carbon offsets for air travel keep your conscience and your carbon footprint cleaner. Air Canada partners with Toronto-based Less Emissions, making it easy to tack the cost on to your flight purchase: $30-$40, for instance, for Vancouver-Toronto return. Organizations like Offsetters, based in Vancouver and Oregon, calculate the impact of driving or flying, and offer trip or by-the-tonne offsets.
Back in the spring of 2009, Karn Manhas was doing what law students do best: argue. His latest venture, a tech consulting firm named Karyon Group, had recently folded in the wake of the 2008-09 economic crisis, and the Port Moody native had decided to go back to school. There he was one day, in between classes at UBC, having...
Music and science have been twin passions for Sandy Eix since her teens. Now director of STEM learning at Science World in Vancouver, she studied piano and played in the orchestra for high school musicals in her hometown of Oakville, Ontario. Her love of science led to degrees in physics: a BSc from Waterloo, followed by an MSc and a...
MEMORABLE MOMENT: Jimmy told a story of visiting one of his supermarkets on Vancouver Island. He noticed how clean and shiny the floors were, but yet they weren’t slippery. So he said to the general manager, “Who’s responsible for this?” He brought the janitor over, and I don’t think the janitor really knew who he was talking to. Because Jimmy...
Alice de Crom has always loved flowers (her parents owned a greenhouse when she was young), so after graduating high school, she enrolled in the only florist class she could find, about an hour away at Kerrisdale’s famed Thomas Hobbs. Meanwhile, de Crom was working part-time at a local Starbucks, where she displayed her arrangements on the counter. As luck would...
As of March, the value of Canada’s six largest cannabis companies totalled almost $43 billion—that’s a lot of cash (or kush). But not all the buzz is reserved for the biggest firms. Take these four B.C.-based companies, all of which have the potential to play in the pot space for the foreseeable future. CATEGORY: Cannabis products, accessories and clothing LOCATION: Its first, flagship...
Lee Genier doesn’t have to look far from the Abbotsford Centre for proof that outside Vancouver, professional sports in the Lower Mainland are a tenuous bet at best. It’s a 20-minute drive to the Langley Events Centre (LEC), home of the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants. The team just finished its third season in the building after 15 in Vancouver’s Pacific...
The Maya, who may once have numbered a couple of million people spread across what are now Guatemala, Belize and parts of Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador, are renowned for their architecture, mathematics skills, astronomical system and sophisticated calendar. This month, Victoria’s Royal BC Museum launches Maya: The Great Jaguar Rises, presented in North America for the first time. The...