BC Business
Proposed new MEC flagship store
MEC moves Last fall, Vancouver-based retailer Mountain Equipment Co-op moved into a brand-new $28-million, four-storey head office at the edge of the False Creek Flats. This week it announced plans to build a new flagship store in the nearby Olympic Village on a site owned by Beedie Development Group at 2nd Avenue and Quebec Street. The 60,000-square-foot mixed-use project would include a two-level 45,000-square-foot retail store with third-floor offices for MEC and other tenants plus community space. Like the head office, the building would be sustainable, aiming for at least LEED gold certification.
Trucking news Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Todd Stone has appointed two experienced labour relations experts to work with Vancouver’s fractious container trucking industry: Corinn Bell as acting commissioner and Vince Ready as acting deputy commissioner of the Container Trucking Commissioner Office. Previous commissioner Andy Smith resigned in September. Bell and Ready, partners in a private mediation, training and arbitration practice launched in 2012, co-authored a report on Port Metro Vancouver’s trucking sector following a one-month job action by truck drivers in March 2014. Though the drivers ended the job action more than a year ago, enforcement of new regulations introduced to bring stability to the sector has been irregular, according to a release from Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union, which welcomes the appointments. The commissioners are responsible for truck licensing; investigating, auditing and enforcing compliance of regulated and retroactive rates; setting future rates based on consultations with industry and the Industry Advisory Committee; and overseeing the whistleblower line.
Chip shotsChip Wilson no longer owns Lululemon, but he is taking ownership of his controversial comments blaming the company’s 2013 see-through pants debacle on the women who wore them. This week at an International Council of Shopping Centres conference he said, “I was honest, but, I tell you, I was wrong.” He still claims women bought Lululemon pants that were too small but says it was because they really wanted Spanx-like pants that hugged their bodies and hid their flaws. He also suggested former CEO Christine Day shared some of the blame, saying the company had stopped hiring product, quality and innovation experts. (via Globe and Mail)
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