B.C. gets a ‘B’ for innovation: report

THE#BCBIZDAILY
Plus, questions at UBC and alleged death threats at Domino’s

Second-tier student
B.C. is better than most provinces when it comes to innovation, but there’s room to grow—with countries likes Sweden outperforming us. That’s according to a new report from the Conference Board of Canada on innovation. The “report card”—which doles out letter grades accordingly—compares Canada, 10 provinces and 15 other countries. B-rated B.C. was 10th overall. B-grade bedfellows include Ontario, Quebec and America (as the image above shows). For B.C., high scores were given for entrepreneurial ambition (A+) and venture capital investment (A)—with, as the report notes, investment having doubled over the last few years (although it’s worth mentioning that much of that went to a single company: Hootsuite, which raised $165 million in a single round in 2013). But high-achieving B.C. is still no perfect student: the province had multiple Ds, two of them in research and development categories. Room to grow, indeed.

Take my money, but…
In a Globe and Mail report, a handful of UBC’s biggest donors—Michael Audain, Peter Wall, Peter Dhillon—say the recent resignation of ex-UBC president Arvind Gupta will not impact their giving. But they also wouldn’t mind a few answers. (Though speculation abounds, no official explanation has been provided for Gupta’s sudden resignation.) Donations are crucial to UBC, which received over $200 million in 2013-14, and the university will no doubt listen carefully to what its biggest donors have to say.
 
Trouble in Pizzaland
The operators of a North Vancouver-based Domino’s—accused of uttering death threats when two former employees asked for back pay—will keep their pizza store, the CBC reports. But not without conditions. The B.C. Supreme Court civil case, settled August 27, requires the operators to pay Domino’s Canada $30,000 as well as hire a third party to handle payroll going forward.