Matt O'Grady

Recycling, as an exercise in sustainability, has always been fraught. It’s been almost 40 years since the introduction of Canada’s first municipal recycling program, and yet much of what is produced as packaging, consumer or industrial goods still doesn’t get...

One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that you don’t have to follow somebody else’s game plan for business success. You can go out and build an enterprise that addresses a meaningful market need, yes—but also one...

Living in the Age of COVID has taught us different lessons. For some, it’s been a lesson in how to rethink the way we work; for others, it’s about learning to live in a world of heightened biosecurity. But surely...

Awareness about autism—and the range of conditions that fall under its umbrella—is a relatively recent thing. The word first appeared in 1938, when Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger used it to describe a pattern of developmental behaviour in children—posthumously referred to...

When Geoff Dickson entered the aviation world 35 years ago, it was, he recalls, “quite a challenging time.” The federal government had just launched airline deregulation, and Dickson—hired as a financial analyst for Pacific Western Airlines—was helping the company shift...

This article was originally published in our April issue, and written before the COVID-19 pandemic came to Canada. Sometimes when you’re looking for the root of a problem, the culprit is clear. With B.C.’s forestry sector, rotten roots could be seen...

Growing up in West Van, a teenaged Erik Lees pined for only one thing: “It was the late 1960s, man. I just wanted to go back to the land—to check out of the city.” He soon achieved that dream, moving...

This article was originally published in our March issue, before the COVID-19 pandemic came to Canada. When BCBusiness last caught up with venture capitalist Stephen Sidwell, it was the spring of 2014, and Sidwell had just brought in Christine Day as...

Last November, more than 100 people gathered in Microsoft’s airy downtown Vancouver offices to learn about the future of artificial intelligence. They listened as the panellists—Tim O’Brien, Microsoft’s GM of AI programs; Maya Medeiros, an intellectual property lawyer at Norton...

In every election, including the one just past, Canadians put health care at the top of their political priorities. We have a love-hate relationship with this country’s system: love that it’s (mostly) free and (mostly) equitable, but hate the waiting...

This fall, we’re promised, ride-hailing will arrive in B.C. after many years of obstruction and obfuscation. In fact, you may even be reading this column right now from your mobile phone, seated in the back of a Lyft or Uber...

Discrimination against persons with disabilities has been outlawed by Canada’s Human Rights Act since 1985. Over the past three decades, attitudes and laws have continued to progress—with a new British Columbia Accessibility Act, coming into effect this fall, enshrining the right to barrier-free...