Archive for November, 2006
Made in Vancouver
Friday, November 3rd, 2006Corporations want to control Internet
Friday, November 3rd, 2006Battle over Web democracy has begun
Province
TORONTO — The battle in the U.S. by major telecoms to control Web content has arrived in Canada with little fanfare — and it’s a fight that could forever change the Net as we know it.
It’s being waged over something called Net neutrality, dubbed the First Amendment of the Internet in the U.S. Net neutrality aims to ensure the public can view the smallest blogs just as easily as the largest corporate websites.
“Right now, the Internet is almost a perfect, universal democracy,” says Pippa Lawson, the executive director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Law Clinic. “The smallest bloggers can be accessed as easily and as quickly as the websites of major corporations.”
That could change drastically if telecommunications firms, including Bell and Telus, have their way. Following the lead of their U.S. counterparts such as Verizon and AT&T, Canadian telecoms are pushing to have more control over the web — and to make a lot more money doing so.
Industry Minister Maxime Bernier is poring over a report by the federally appointed Telecommunications Policy Review Panel that recommends changes to the Telecommunications Act, including replacing a clause on “unjust discrimination” that does little to either uphold the principles of Net neutrality or prevent it from being violated.
“Our position on network diversity/neutrality is that it should be determined by market forces, not regulation,” Jacqueline Michelis, a spokeswoman for Bell Canada.
In other words, says Lawson, the fight is on. “There’s a big push in Canada right now to allow those sort of discriminatory practices,” she says.
“The companies that own the pipes of the Internet — the telecom companies — haven’t liked sitting back and watching big content providers like Google and Yahoo make billions of dollars. They want a piece of the pie, and they want to be able to favour their own content or the content of the corporations that would pay them big money.”
Telecoms want to determine which sites load quickly or slowly and which don’t load at all — and, especially, to promote their own content, says Ben Scott of the U.S. media watchdog Free Press and SavetheInternet.com.
“If I’m Telus and I’ve just created my own Telus iTunes and I decide I want my Telus iTunes to work better than Apple’s, well, too bad for Apple,” says Scott from Washington, D.C.
“Essentially they set themselves up as gatekeepers and they say: ‘Well, we own the wires and instead of treating all bits alike in a non-discriminatory fashion, we’re going to set up special deals and if you have the money, you can pay us to make your websites go much faster. And you can pay us to set up an exclusive deal where your website goes very fast and your competitor’s doesn’t.’ “
That’s something big content providers such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are dead set against, arguing it will destroy the free and open nature of the Internet and also create a tiered, dollar-driven Net that favours the wealthiest corporations over everyone else.
“Telephone companies cannot tell consumers who they can call. Network operators should not dictate what people can do online,” Google’s Vint Cerf said.
© The Vancouver Province 2006
New housing supply outstripping demand
Friday, November 3rd, 2006‘Small corrections in some areas’ more signs of cooling market
Derrick Penner
Sun
Source: MPC Intelligence (MPC Intelligence tracks multi-family development projects of 10 or more units or an end value greater than $5 million.) Home supplies Supply has outpaced demand in some areas of Greater Vancouver, leading to ‘a raised level of uncertainty for both the resale and new home market,’ according to MPC Intelligence, which tracks the B.C. new housing market. Here’s a look at what came into the market in the 61 days from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31, and what happened to that inventory.
New housing construction shows more signs of cooling in British Columbia, with a local research firm finding supply outstripping demand in some areas.
Also on Thursday, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. predicted that new housing starts in B.C. will top out at 36,900 this year and taper off to 35,300 in 2007.
In a report, the Vancouver-based development-research firm MPC Intelligence said markets are still strong, but “for the first time we are beginning to see small corrections in some areas.”
MPC president Jennifer Podmore said the corrections referred to in the report relate to the slowdown of new-project sales seen in pockets of the region such as New Westminster, parts of Richmond and Maple Ridge.
“For the first time we’re finding the market needs just a little bit of time to recharge before the next introduction of supply,” Podmore said.
In other words, “instead of six months to sell out a development, some sites are taking eight months.” And buyers are able to take their time making decisions, she added.
A large number of projects were launched over the summer in Richmond and it is taking time for the market to absorb all the units, she said.
In New Westminster, Podmore added, sales have slowed because little new supply has been put out. In Maple Ridge, a large amount of the same type of housing is being built and it is taking more time for the market to absorb all the units.
In the 60 days between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31, Podmore tracked the release of 3,833 units for sale in the pre-sale market. At the end of that period, she counted 2,235 sales, which left 1,598 — 41.6 per cent — as unsold inventory.
Podmore added that when she reviewed the year-to-date, of 20,355 units for sale, only 4,212, or 20.6 per cent, remained unsold.
MPC conducts research for clients in the development industry, and in its report Podmore advised developers to stagger the release of new projects to avoid flooding the market.
Podmore added that in her recent research, she has seen the number of “speculative investors” buying units in housing projects drop.
“Market fundamentals still make sense,” she said. “We still know we’re building to meet consumption numbers.”
Podmore said allowing a bit of air out of the housing balloon so that prices and sales slow down a bit is probably a good thing for the market.
Canada Mortgage and Housing, in its forecast for 2007, said a slowing of sales in the resale market will leave less spill-over of demand into the new housing market, which will lead to a dip in new housing starts.
Carol Frketich, CMHC’s regional economist in B.C., said the combination of rising prices and moderately higher interest rates will be the main factors that reduce housing starts.
“The impact [those factors] are going to have on monthly mortgage payments is going to slow demand,” Frketich said. “We’re seeing that in the market now.”
CMHC’s forecast estimates that declining sales in B.C. and Ontario will contribute to a nationwide drop in housing sales from a record high in 2005. Nationally, the federal mortgage insurer predicts housing starts next year will dip to 210,900 units from 227,900 this year.
Forecasts for lower sales and fewer housing starts are not surprising to Helmut Pastrick, chief economist for Credit Union Central B.C., who also expects the mortgage rate increases seen between July 2005 and August 2006 to continue dampening demand.
“My view has been that we are headed for a soft landing, metaphorically speaking, over the next couple of years,” Pastrick said.
“The market is beginning to show some signs of shifting from a tight sellers market.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Cleanup cost for Olympic Village site has tripled in 2 years
Friday, November 3rd, 2006City official says level of soil contamination unexpectedly high
John Bermingham
Province
Architect Graham McGarva’s design for the athletes’ village in southeast False Creek in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The City of Vancouver is going deeper in the hole when it comes to cleaning up the site of the 2010 athletes’ village on the south side of False Creek.
City councillors were told yesterday that the estimated cleanup cost for the 20-hectare southeast False Creek site — which includes the six-hectare Olympic village — has tripled to more than $30 million in two years.
Kenneth Bayne, the city’s director of financial planning, said early excavation has uncovered much more contaminated soil than was previously thought.
“When you start to dig, you find things you don’t know about,” Bayne said outside council yesterday.
“We found much more extensive contaminants than we had anticipated, and the costs have gone up. The costs are significantly higher than anticipated.”
Bayne said the earlier estimate was based on test drill-holes. But when builders dug into the soil, they discovered there was a bigger volume of contaminated soil.
The city plans to take the soil to the landfill, which will keep some costs down.
It will be used for covering solid waste, he said.
But Bayne said if the soil contamination gets worse, it could be taken to dumping sites out of the province, which will push the costs even higher.
The city owns the 20-hectare site, but has recently sold a large parcel to Vancouver developer Millennium SEFC Properties. That parcel includes the Olympic village.
As part of the deal, the city has agreed to pay all the cleanup costs for the site.
Back in early 2004, Bayne said the estimate for cleanup was $8.5 million.
Since then, however, “we’ve had an inflation in the cost of remediating, and also an increase in the extent of the contamination that has to be dealt with,” he said.
Bayne said soil cleanup on the village site will start when excavation begins in January.
“I don’t want to be an alarmist,” said Bayne. “We’re not talking of soil that’s a significant risk.
“But the standards for residential communities are higher.”
An environmental report that was presented to council in 2005 said the soil is contaminated with metals and hydrocarbons.
It includes minerals in the soil, wood waste and such debris as glass shards, metal fragments, rags, masonry and ash.
The southeast False Creek site has been used for industrial purposes going back to the late 1800s.
It’s been used for sawmills, shipbuilding, metal workshops, salt distribution and warehousing.
It’s most recently been the city’s public-works yard.
© The Vancouver Province 2006
Where schnitzels are just the start
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006Mia Stainsby
Sun
Chef Mike Kruse (left), Gordon Matheson and Meredith Madderom of Cafe Katzenjammer. Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
I’m not a schnitzels and sausages fan but I can say that every now and then, readers ask me where they could go for schnitzels. Well, for those of you who have asked, Cafe Katzenjammer offers up schnitzels as well as other German and Austrian dishes.
The name is from the Katzenjammer Kids comic strip which was created in 1897 and is still in syndication. The cafe displays some of the comics as well as very old German movie posters.
Gordon Matheson opened the cafe three years ago. His background happens to be Scottish. No matter. Studying German at the Goethe Institute in Germany and in Vancouver steered him in the direction of schnitzels, bratwurst and kartoffelreibekuchen (potato pancakes). “What a long word,” I say, and Matheson explains that Germans tend not to put spaces between words and that Hausspezialitaten, writ large across the menu, means house specials.
And those specials would be goulash, beef rouladen (beef rolled with bacon, onion, pickles and braised in a red wine gravy), duck breast with mushroom and orange jus, B.C. venison roast with poached cranberry pear jus and salmon filet.
My partner’s Jager schnitzel, one of five offered on the menu, was a massive affair with two pieces of meat, spaetzle and red cabbage. I liked the goulash better — it, too, came with spaetzle as well as rye bread. The potato pancakes are grated potatoes with fillings of spinach and feta or smoked salmon or apple sauce. I thought it might make a good starter but we went too far and ate the whole thing, which put me in a bad way for my goulash.
Since it was pelting with rain outside, we felt compelled to stay dry, loosen our belts and try the Viennese apple strudel, a light and flaky pastry filled with apples, raisins and nuts.
To cut some of the heaviness of German food, there are 14 German beers.
The evening we visited, a young server called Michael was working all the tables at astonishing speed. The place was full and I was impressed. He managed to keep cheerful and professional against all odds. (Cafe Katzenjammer, like many restaurants in the city, is finding the city’s in short supply of servers.)
The cafe is closed on Monday and open for lunch Thursday to Sunday and dinner, Tuesday to Sunday.
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone.
– – –
CAFE KATZENJAMMER
4441 West 10th Ave., 604-222-2775.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
High spice, low price to singe your tastebuds
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006Fourth Avenue eatery flares with pyrotechnics from the kitchen and buzzes with an appreciative clientele
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Suzanne Goligher and Robyn Donio serve up The Noodle Box’s high octane dishes in takeout boxes. Photograph by : Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun
You know how we think we’re so hip to spicy heat? “Mild” is Pablum so we order “medium” as a matter of course. Even “hot,” we figure, isn’t exactly flicking a Bic to our tongues.
At the Noodle Box, beware! The heat isn’t adjusted for the rosebud tongues of North Americans. After an encounter with their medium hot, I thought I should correct their heat-level guide to read first-, second- and third-degree burns. Seriously, you’d better watch your tongue.
In spite of its incinerating capabilities, The Noodle Box has line-ups at lunch and dinner, eager for their fast-food style of noodle and rice dishes from Asia. Price is part of it — the menu tops off at $14 for the slow-cooked lamb curry with jasmine rice. The rest are about $10 and for that, you get plenty of fuel to burn.
It’s also a cool place with its 20-foot-high ceilings, wall of glass facing Fourth and good music that competes with the buzz of activity including the cacophony at the six wok stations in the open kitchen. Flames leap, sauces sizzle, cooks hustle behind the counter.
I like the Chinese-style takeout containers that main meals are served in. Inevitably, there are leftovers to take home, so it cuts out a step. Appies are served in porcelain versions of the takeout containers.
The regular menu board features Tom Yum soup; Singapore Cashew Curry; Cambodian, Thai and Malaysian curries; Black Bean and Garlic Hokkein Noodles; Thai Chow Mein; Teriyaki Box; Spicy Peanut Noodle Box; Malaysian Fried Rice and Chili Plum Hokkein Noodles. As well, there are daily specials suited to the season. Comfort foods, all.
On the appies side, there are spring rolls, satay, fried dumplings and Malaysian roti.
Noodle Box is the third of a series. The first two are in downtown Victoria, and it all began five years ago when Nick Crooks and Jodi Mann returned from Asia and opened a streetcart with hawker style food. The city shut them down so they opened up a shop.
Suzanne Goligher and Robyn Donio came on board to run the Vancouver location. She runs the front and he oversees the pyrotechnics in the kitchen. Most of the sauces are house-made although they bring in their black bean sauce, dumplings and roti. The noodles come from the delightfully named Double Happiness and Hon’s.
Getting back to the chili factor, there’s a water tap at the counter where diners (including me) instinctively go to douse fires in their mouth. It’s counter-intuitive but water doesn’t help. Capsaicin, the irritant in chili pepper, is better quelled by a fatty or fat-dissolving liquid, like milk or beer. (It’s not a temperature thing so much as upset nerve endings.) Since Noodle Box doesn’t sell milk, better order a beer.
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THE NOODLE BOX
Overall: 3 1/2
Food: 3 1/2
Ambience: 3 1/2
Service: 3
Price: $
1867 West Fourth Ave., 604-734-1310.
Open Monday to Thursday, noon to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday to 10 p.m.; Sunday to 8 p.m.
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars. ([email protected])
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
High housing costs could curb migration to B.C.
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006Population gain in 2005 was higher that of Alberta and Manitoba combined
Richard Rees
Sun
Booming economy coupled with natural beauty lures Canadians from other parts of the country. Photograph by : Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
When assessing British Columbia as a place to live, work and invest, there are very few measures that capture the economic health of our province as well as migration numbers. That’s because people vote with their feet and come to the province where they believe they have the greatest opportunities.
According to the 2006 BC Check-Up report, published this month by the Chartered Accountants of B.C, people are voting for B.C. in large numbers.
In 2005, B.C. gained 40,816 new residents — an eight-year high –from both international and provincial sources. The population increase for B.C. was 26-per-cent higher than Alberta and Manitoba combined.
Last year also saw more people move into the province from other parts of Canada than move out, with a net gain of 7,456 people. It was the second consecutive year of net gains in inter-provincial migration, after experiencing six consecutive years of losses. All indications are that B.C. will register another strong inflow of people from other provinces this year.
Our natural beauty and quality of life are obvious reasons why people want to live here, but our economy is ultimately what brings people here or motivates them to leave. In fact, inter-provincial migration is generally influenced by the economic and labour market conditions of B.C. relative to the rest of Canada.
The BC Check-Up report helps to put these population numbers in perspective. It showed that our province has a thriving economy, which grew by 3.5 per cent in 2005, ahead of the national average of 2.9 per cent. B.C.’s economy is on track for an even stronger performance this year. The Royal Bank expects B.C.’s economy to grow by 4.0 per cent this year, compared to 2.8 per cent nationally, and forecasts B.C. to outperform the Canadian average through 2008.
Another benefit of our economic growth outpacing the nation is that incomes are rising faster than the Canadian average. B.C.’s real personal disposable income (i.e., after taxes and inflation) in 2005 was $913 higher than in 2000 — an increase of 4.1 per cent, and ahead of the 3.1 per cent increase across Canada. The province’s strong economy suggests that further gains in disposable income are on the horizon, adding to the province’s attractiveness.
The economic growth has also benefited businesses. After years of stagnation, we are now seeing some good growth in corporate profits in B.C. According to the BC Check-Up report, B.C.’s after-tax corporate profits, as a share of private sector GDP, increased by 55 per cent between 2000 and 2005, compared to 25 per cent growth across Canada. The increased profitability means that companies have more money to invest and hire employees.
The report found that B.C. led all provinces in job growth in 2005, recording a 3.3 per cent year-over-year increase and adding 67,800 jobs. This represented 30 per cent of all new jobs created in Canada in 2005.
Not only did we see a 30-year low in the unemployment rate last year, it was also the first time since 1997 that B.C.’s rate bettered the national average.
B.C.’s employment situation has continued to improve in 2006, and our job growth continues to exceed the nation. In September, B.C.’s unemployment rate dropped to just 4.8 per cent, compared to 6.4 per cent across Canada. In fact, with an unemployment rate below five per cent, the issue for B.C. now is finding enough skilled workers to fill jobs.
With continued economic strength, B.C. can expect to keep attracting more people from other parts of Canada.
Unfortunately, the BC Check-Up report was not all rosy. Among the concerns in B.C. is the high cost of housing and its impact on personal debt levels. B.C.’s personal debt levels rose by six per cent last year, primarily due to rising mortgage debt. In fact, the study found that mortgages comprise 75 per cent of B.C.’s total personal debt, compared to between 55 to 68 per cent in other provinces.
While mortgage debt is not altogether bad, since it is for an asset, affordability is a concern as B.C. is the most expensive province in Canada for housing, and Vancouver is the 15th most expensive city in the world.
High housing costs make it more difficult to entice people to move to B.C., and this is a concern in today’s competitive labour market.
There are also concerns about the current state of the U.S. economy, particularly with its housing slump and its impact on B.C. wood exports.
However, overall, the BC Check-Up report found that B.C.’s economy continues to be strong, and our province remains a very desirable place to live, work and invest.
Richard Rees is chief executive officer of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Canada’s largest house goes on sale in Abbotsford
Wednesday, November 1st, 2006Mansion was a dot.com millionaire’s unfulfilled dream
Derrick Penner
Sun
This 47,000-square-foot, 10-bedroom Abbotsford mansion is up for sale. The main house includes a hydraulic elevator, formal dining room with marble and Brazilian cherrywood foyer, billiard room, movie theatre and NATHAN WAITE/SPECIAL TO THE SUN small library. It’s topped with a glassed-in cupola with a grand view of Mount Baker. Below the house is the large cabana/spa structure and pool connected by a tunnel. The asking price: $9.9 million
IAN LINDSAY/VANCOUVER SUN Below the Abbotsford mansion is a large cabana-spa structure and pool connected to the house by a tunnel.
This Abbotsford mansion of 47,000 square feet is coming on the market listed by agent Danny Evans for $9.9 million. Photograph by : Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun
The residence at 29444 58th Ave. in Abbotsford is no plain farmhouse.
It is possibly Canada’s biggest single-family residence stretching 47,000 square feet from a cathedral-like front entrance to a grand dining room, spacious conservatory and tunnel that leads to a serpentine pool.
And it can all be yours for a cool $9.9 million, said listing realtor Danny Evans with Homelife Benchmark Realty Corp. in Langley. He thinks it’s perfect for an ultra-wealthy family or company looking for a private retreat nestled in the Fraser Valley farm belt.
The home contains a modest number of bedrooms, seven in the areas classed as the main house and coach house with an additional three in the staff house. It boasts five “engineering rooms” to manage state-of-the art heating systems and a backup generator.
The main house, which includes the master bedroom, den, hydraulic elevator, breakfast room, morning room, sewing room, formal dining room with marble and Brazilian cherrywood foyer, billiard room, movie theatre and small library.
It’s topped with a glassed-in cupola with a grand view of Mount Baker. Stretched out, the home’s square-footage would cover more than half a CFL football field.
“I’ve been selling 27 years in real estate, and never have I come close to [representing] a property like this,” Evans said.
Carmen Wright, with the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, said her staff has been unable to find any single-family homes as big as the Abbotsford residence, although there is rumour a 55,000-square-foot house might be being built somewhere in Ontario.
However, compare that with the $37.5 million singer Billy Joel is asking for his 14,000-square-foot mansion on Long Island, according to the Wall Street Journal. Or the $8 million CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric is reported to have spent on a 5,000 square-foot Southampton, N.Y. estate.
The $9.9 million — $210 per square foot — is relatively a steal, according to Evans, representing a steep price reduction from the $12.5 million owner Donald Beaupre put it on the market for a little over a year ago.
The home’s 2006 property assessment by the B.C. Assessment authority was for $3.31 million.
That price also represents a substantial loss from the $15 million Evans said the 77-year-old Beaupre, a retired telecom inventor and entrepreneur, poured into what was to be his dream home for himself and his wife, as well as a family retreat for the families of their seven grown children.
Beaupre, founder of the firm SR Telecom, bought the 20-acre Abbotsford farm property for $475,000 in 1992, then starting in about 1997, began working full time with designer John Anthony Lewis to build his grand vision.
Alas, Evans said Beaupre was hit by deteriorating health as the project progressed. The owner is now too frail to continue with the project and wants to sell. Evans said there is still finishing work to be completed.
Who would buy it? Evans said a couple of offshore parties have looked at it in the past and are still interested. Another party has also enquired with a mind to making it a retreat.
Evans is holding a realtors’ open house today as a means to “get the word out.”
JUST HOW BIG IS IT?
The house has 10 bedrooms and covers a total of 47,000 sq. feet on a lot measuring 20 acres all for a cost of $9.9 million
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
