Luxury ferry service to offer 3 pricing levels

JEFF BELL
The Vancouver Sun

V2V Vacations says it expects to launch its passenger ferry service between downtown Victoria and downtown Vancouver on May 1 with three tiers of service, at $120, $199 and $240 one way.

The company is billing its offering as a luxury cruise service, using the V2V Empress, a 254-seat, 126-foot catamaran that will sail from downtown to downtown in 3 1⁄2 hours.

Daily sailings will leave Vancouver at 8 a.m. and Victoria at 2 p.m., travelling from beside the Steamship Terminal Building in Victoria to the Convention Centre docks in Vancouver.

V2V Vacations purchased a used catamaran and is having it refitted for the new service. That work is “at the home stretch” at Point Hope Maritime’s yard in Victoria, said Nick Cheong, V2V Vacations’ vice-president of operations.

“A lot of the core structural work has been done,” he said.

“We’re now moving to more aesthetic (work), the stuff that you can actually touch and feel, things like the external decals on the boat, creature comforts like the interior, ceiling panels.”

Cheong has said the cost of the refit will be in the millions.

Australia’s Riverside Marine, parent company of V2V Vacations, had earlier estimated a $15-million cost to establish the service.

Cheong said the company is looking forward to getting started.

“We’re both excited and obviously running full steam ahead to get this together,” he said.

“There’s still a bit to do until launch day, so all hands on deck.”

Cheong said the “tourism demographic” is the main focus, but the company also wants to attract locals.

“I wouldn’t say that it’s exclusive to one group of people.”

One-way fares (taxes not included) start at $120 for adults and $60 for children ages two to 12 in “premium comfort” class, and rise to $199 each for adults and children in first class. The highest level is “royal” class, where the price is $240 each for adults and children.

Royal class, with 22 seats, features a three-course meal, the most luxurious seats and the best views. First class also features a three-course meal and has luxury seats. Personal power ports for charging devices will be available in the two top classes.

In premium comfort class, food and beverages will be sold separately.

The company believes that its pricing will fit in with other transportation services in the area, Cheong said.

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.

CRTC
other

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced today that Hamel Système d’Information 2000 Inc., also known as Telelisting, will pay $260,000 in monetary penalties as part of a settlement for violations of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules. Telelisting provides telephone directory services for online lead generation.

Acting on information received from Canadians, the CRTC investigated Telelisting for alleged violations of the Rules. The CRTC concluded that the company had divulged contents of the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) to its clients in violation of the Rules.

During the period from July 10, 2012, to July 10, 2014, Telelisting shared contents of the DNCL with persons outside its organization; those persons had not paid a subscription fee to the DNCL operator or were not subscribers. In addition to paying the penalty, Telelisting has committed to complying with the Rules in the future by voluntarily implementing a comprehensive corporate compliance program and contributing to awareness of the Rules within the Real Estate industry.

The CRTC would like to reiterate that it is the duty of anyone making telemarketing calls to comply with the Rules. The use of third-party telephone directory services is not a replacement for a subscription to the DNCL. All telemarketers, including real estate agents and brokers, must subscribe to the DNCL. Unless they are making telemarketing calls that are not subject to the Rules, telemarketers are required to subscribe to the DNCL to obtain a list of numbers they may not call and update their own lists.

The CRTC is continuing to enhance its monitoring to ensure telemarketers follow the Rules, and to reduce the number of unwanted calls to Canadians. The CRTC can discuss corrective actions with individuals, firms or organizations engaged in telemarketing, which may lead to a settlement that includes an administrative monetary penalty and other corrective measures. The CRTC can also issue warnings and citations, conduct inspections and issue notices of violation.

To date, the CRTC’s enforcement efforts have yielded over $5.7 million in monetary penalties.

About the National Do Not Call List

The DNCL was launched in 2008 to protect Canadians from unsolicited telecommunications. Canadians may register permanently on the List at no charge. Over 12.7 million numbers are currently registered on the List.

Canadians can register their numbers, verify whether a number is on the List or file a complaint about a telemarketer by calling 1-866-580-DNCL (3625) or visiting www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca.

Quick Facts

• Telelisting will pay $260,000 as part of a settlement for violations of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules.
• The use of third-party telephone directory services is not a replacement for a subscription to the DNCL when telemarketing calls are being made.
• The Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules are a set of strict rules that individuals, companies and organizations must follow when making telemarketing calls.
• The CRTC is committed to protecting Canadians and is continuing to enhance its monitoring to ensure that all telemarketers follow the Rules.
• To date, the CRTC’s enforcement efforts have yielded over $5.7 million in administrative monetary penalties.

Randy Shore
The Province

A switch to hourly sailings on the Horseshoe Bay-Langdale ferry route has Sunshine Coast residents ecstatic, and B.C. Ferries is paying attention.

More than 100 people responded to a straw poll about the temporary schedule on the Sunshine Coast Facebook page with responses ranging from “amazing” and “fantastic” to “it actually runs on time.”

The praise is “insane,” according to the page administrator Duane Burnett. “It’s not at all what I was expecting.”

The outpouring of positivity is unusual in a community where bagging on B.C. Ferries is a popular pastime, said Roberts Creek resident Lars Guinard.

“Hourly ferry service is awesome,” he said. “We don’t need a bridge, just proper ferry service.”

Maria Kojic is relieved she no longer has to worry about when she gets back to Horseshoe Bay on a trip to the city.

“It doesn’t matter when the worst case is an hour wait and most of the time less than that,” she said. 

The service change was implemented while Berth 1 in Langdale is upgraded and two vessels were put on the route instead of one. During the construction, two ferries accommodate about 165 vehicles each using just the main car deck, while a single ferry in regular service can load about 310 vehicles on two decks.

Regular service, with sailings roughly every second hour with a single vessel, will resume after work on the berth is completed in April, said B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall.

“Labour and fuel costs are double (with hourly service),” said Marshall. “This is a temporary measure and is not sustainable.”

But that doesn’t mean the company won’t find a way to make the popular service work at some future date.

“We are getting positive feedback from our customers,” said Marshall, who said the temporary hourly service is a good trial for service changes when B.C. Ferries’ Class C vessels retire in the mid-2020s.

“Future plans for the Langdale route could include two smaller vessels operating on an hourly schedule,” she said. “It’s not currently possible with the current vessels.”

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.

 

Lindsay Kines
The Province

The B.C. government has suspended a permit that allowed a quarry to receive and store contaminated soil upstream from Shawnigan Lake.

Environment Minister Mary Polak announced the move late Friday, using rarely used powers under the Environmental Management Act.

“Effective immediately, I have suspended the waste discharge permit for Cobble Hill Holdings due to their failure to address both outstanding as well as past non-compliances,” Polak said in a statement.

“I am also signalling my intention to cancel the permit if the Ministry of Environment statutory decision-maker does not receive the required documents, as outlined in my suspension letter to the company, within 15 business days.”

Polak said she has informed the company that it must still meet all monitoring requirements and prevent pollution regardless of the suspension.

“I am also issuing a spill prevention order to ensure appropriate measures are taken to reduce the risk of leachate escaping from the facility into the environment.”

Polak said the decision was based on advice from technical experts in the ministry.

She first threatened to shut down the site last fall over Cobble Hill’s failure to comply with the permit.

The permit to store soil in the quarry was awarded in 2013, stayed pending an appeal and then upheld by the environmental appeal board in 2015.

But in a 49-page decision released last week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Sewell found the board’s handling of expert evidence led to an unfair hearing of the case.

He also concluded that the board was misled about the relationship between the quarry’s owners and Active Earth Engineering Ltd., which carried out the site’s technical assessment.

The justice said there was “overwhelming evidence” that Active Earth had “an ownership interest of some sort” in the soil storage facility — information that came to light only after the appeal board rendered its decision.

The justice said that if the question before him had been whether to set aside the permit, he would have had no difficulty doing so because the technical assessment was done “by persons who were biased in favour of approving the project.”

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.

Call comes after boy dies at unlicensed daycare

Bethany Lindsay
The Province

Some Vancouver families are echoing the call for an overhaul of B.C.’s child care system, following a heartfelt plea for reform from the grieving parents of a toddler who died at a daycare earlier this month.

Shelley Sheppard and Chris Saini lost their 16-month-old son Macallan Wayne Saini while he was being cared for at an unlicensed facility on Kitchener Street near Commercial Drive, and are now calling for a “massive reform.”

Police say the death is not considered suspicious, but the circumstances that led to it remain under investigation.

For Anna Tran, a registered nurse with a 15-month-old daughter, the struggle to find safe and reliable child care hits close to home. She’s on waiting lists for three licensed daycares.

“It’s been really challenging,” Tran said. “The first couple of weeks on mat leave you take your time, don’t get too worried.”

But as the end of her maternity leave approached, she felt increasingly desperate for a solution. She seriously considered two unlicensed daycares, even though one was caring for more children than the law allows and the other left her feeling uneasy. She eventually decided to pay the extra money to hire a nanny.

Vancouver Coastal Health requires licences for all daycare facilities caring for three or more children. It’s not clear how many children were in the care of the unlicensed facility where Macallan died. No one answered the door of the daycare on Friday afternoon.

Licensed daycares are inspected at least once a year to check for compliance with provincial regulations, says VCH spokeswoman Anna Marie D’Angelo. There are no similar requirements for unlicensed arrangements.

“We act on complaints … any time we are made aware of any possible licensing infraction,” D’Angelo wrote in an email.

Jodie Wickens, the NDP’s new critic for early childhood development and child care, said she was heartbroken over Macallan’s death. Her party is campaigning for $10-a-day daycare across the province.

“The position families are put in is to make really tough decisions about the care … because they’re in desperation,” she said.

“There is no reason that we can’t provide better than what children have today in a province like British Columbia. It should be one of our No. 1 priorities.”

According to the Ministry of Children and Family Development, the province has created more than 4,300 new licensed child care spaces since 2014, with the goal of reaching 13,000 by 2020. Minister Stephanie Cadieux has said the $10-a-day plan isn’t affordable.

“We acknowledge the challenges that many parents face when trying to balance raising a family with pursuing work and training opportunities — and we recognize that access to quality child care is an important part of finding that balance,” a ministry spokesperson wrote in an email.

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.

Underfunding for mine cleanups rises to more than $1.27 billion

Gordon Hoekstra
The Vancouver Sun

Underfunding for the clean-up of mines inched up to $1.273 billion in 2015, upping the level of financial risk to taxpayers above what it was the year before.

The estimate is up from $1.263 billion in 2014 and may continue to increase, according to B.C. Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett.

B.C. law requires mining companies to post security, for example a bond, to cover the costs of reclamation and any continuing treatment of tailings pond water, which contains mine waste, when a mine closes.

In a report last year, B.C. auditor general Carol Bellringer said the shortfall meant taxpayers could be on the hook if a company couldn’t pay for cleaning up a closed mine.

Bellringer recommended mine-by-mine details be reported and that government “safeguard” taxpayers by ensuring the estimate of the reclamation liability is accurate and that security demanded by government is sufficient to cover potential costs.

On Thursday, for the first time, the mine-by-mine details were posted publicly in the province’s chief inspector of mines annual report — a practice that will continue, said Bennett. Last year, the mine details were made public following a request by The Vancouver Sun.

To address the auditor’s other concerns, the B.C. Ministry of Energy and Mines is determining how to tighten requirements on security for mine clean-up, which includes an analysis by Ernst and Young.

In an interview Thursday, Bennett characterized the past process to determine how much money mines needed to post as security as somewhat ad-hoc.

“We are going to have to establish some concrete, specific, measurable objectives and principles or parameters — whatever you want to call it — on how do we actually assess the amount of financial security we need to have full assurance for the taxpayer,” he said.

A plan is meant to be in place by April.

However, Bennett said there was no way to give assurances that the amount of underfunding would decrease over time, particularly as new mines are started when the estimated liability may be at its greatest. The amount of bonding posted by mines has increased over time — from $200 million in 2006 to $1 billion in 2015 — but has not kept pace with estimated reclamation costs.

Bennett said the approach in B.C. has been to not require security for the full estimated reclamation cost, particularly if companies are considered a low financial risk. Some jurisdictions, such as Alaska and Nevada, require 100-per-cent funding.

Mining giant Teck, which has a long history in B.C., had an underfunded reclamation liability of $874 million in 2015, up from $742 million in 2014. It accounted for nearly 70 per cent of the provincial mining total.

Although Teck’s bonding increased from $463 million in 2014 to $525 million in 2015, the estimated reclamation cost for its numerous coal and metal mines increased nearly $200 million to $1.4 billion over the same period.

In a written statement, Teck spokesman Chris Stannell said the company has met reclamation-bonding security required by the province.

“We are committed to meeting our obligation to responsibly close and reclaim our mine sites — at no cost to taxpayers — and ensuring that reclamation bonding security never needs to be accessed,” Stannell said in an email.

Global mining giant Barrick Gold saw a more than $100-million decrease in its underfunded liability to $107 million in 2015, as it undertook reclamation work on the closed Eskay Creek silver mine in northwest B.C., said ministry officials.

Barrick spokesman Andy Lloyd noted the reclamation costs were also over-stated in 2014.

Walter Energy, which entered bankruptcy protection in 2015 and was purchased last fall by U.S.-based Conuma Coal Resources Ltd., saw its underfunded liability increase by $44 million to a total of $62 million.

Asked if that was a concern for a company coming out of bankruptcy proceedings, Bennett said yes.

The B.C. auditor general’s office declined to comment on the increase in the underfunded liability.

“The auditor general doesn’t comment beyond what’s published in her reports,” spokeswoman Sara Van Steinburg said in an email.

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.

Potential consumer backlash could discourage Trump?s plans: analyst

JESSE SNYDER
The Vancouver Sun

Days ahead of the inauguration of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, Canadian oil and gas companies are feeling anxious about the spectre of a U.S. border tax on imported goods, but a leading oilpatch analyst says the economic implications of such a levy are likely to dissuade the incoming U.S. administration.

Martin King, the director of institutional research at GMP FirstEnergy, said Tuesday that consumers would ultimately push back against rising prices.

“It’s unclear how that’s going to shake out, and the U.S. is still very dependent on Canadian crude oil imports, it’s still very dependent on natural gas imports from Canada,” he said. “That’s going to have to be clear to them, that it’s just going to make prices higher for everyone in the United States.”

King, speaking at an oil and gas outlook session, said there has been plenty of uncertainty on the part of energy companies assessing how an import tax would affect their bottom lines.

Trump has said he would place a broad-based tax on imported goods, potentially including oil and gas. Trump has provided little detail of the policy, but some analysts have pegged the tax rate at about 20 per cent.

King said that such a tax would be negative for Canadian oil and gas players, but ultimately would not materially shift the movement of those commodities into the U.S.

“It probably will not impact the export flows out of Canada, because essentially the market will balance itself out at whatever prices it needs to keep the imports flowing,” he said.

The appointment of former ExxonMobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, King said, could also encourage Trump to soften his stance on an import tax. Tillerson has in the past supported policies that promote the free movement of products over borders, particularly commodities.

“It could be certainly a very informative process for Mr. Trump, in terms of having Mr. Tillerson as secretary of state.”

King said that oil markets will likely continue to edge toward a healthier balance in 2017, as OPEC and non-OPEC members say they are beginning to pare back oil output.

The agreement to cut production, reached in December last year, has “changed the psychology” of oil markets, he said.

He predicts that OPEC cuts will be far below the agreed levels, but enough to put global oil markets into a position of undersupply in 2017.

However, the open question in oil markets remains whether U.S. shale players will ramp up production, sending prices downward. FirstEnergy GMP estimates West Texas Intermediate will average US$58 over 2017, down from its earlier estimate of US$60.

King said that while U.S. production is set to rise, activity levels are not high enough to justify another collapse in prices.

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc

$24B deal creates global giant in lenses, frames, eyeglasses

Thomas Mulier and Dan Liefgreen
The Vancouver Sun

French lensmaker Essilor International SA agreed to buy Luxottica Group SpA, the maker of Ray-Ban sunglasses, for about 22.8 billion euros ($24 billion) in stock, combining the largest manufacturer and retailer in eyewear.

Leonardo Del Vecchio, who created Luxottica in 1961 and controls 62 percent of its stock, will be executive chairman and chief executive officer of the combined business, which will be named EssilorLuxottica, the companies said Monday in a statement. Essilor CEO Hubert Sagnieres, 61, will be executive vice chairman and deputy CEO with powers equal to Del Vecchio’s. Essilor shares gained as much as 19 percent while Luxottica rose as much as 15 percent.

Four years after talks began, the 81-year-old Italian billionaire said he’s achieving his dream of combining the two businesses, creating one company that’s strong in lenses, frames and eyeglass retailing. The deal also solves a protracted succession puzzle for Luxottica, which has had difficulty retaining top management, with two CEOs resigning in 2014. Del Vecchio has said he didn’t want to bring any of his six children into the company.

“This operation would be a perfect fit on paper as both groups are leading their respective categories,” said Cedric Rossi, an analyst at Bryan Garnier & Co. “Nevertheless, two main question marks remain at this stage: EssilorLuxottica might face antitrust barriers, and management appointments in newcos are quite complicated.”

The deal is the largest acquisition ever of an Italian company by a foreign buyer, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and it adds to a string of such takeovers that has shrunk Italy’s roster of multinational corporations. ChemChina bought tiremaker Pirelli & C. SpA in 2015 and the Pesenti family last year ceded control of cement producer Italcementi SpA to Germany’s HeidelbergCement AG. Luxottica is Italy’s fourth-largest publicly traded company by market value.

The companies described the transaction as a combination rather than an acquisition of Luxottica by Essilor. In addition to the two top executives sharing power, Del Vecchio’s Delfin investment company and Essilor will each nominate eight directors for the combined company’s 16-member board and the equity of EssilorLuxottica will be about 50 percent owned by each company’s shareholders.

Luxury Brands

Luxottica makes frames for luxury brands such as Armani, Chanel, and Prada, and is the biggest eyeglass retailer, with chains including Lenscrafters, Pearle Vision and Sunglass Hut. Essilor is No. 1 in lenses, and also has been expanding in eyewear retailing via acquisitions.

The transaction should generate cost savings and increased revenue of 400 million euros to 600 million euros a year within about three to four years, Sagnieres said. The combined company will have more than 15 billion euros in annual revenue. Del Vecchio, Italy’s second-richest person, will be the single largest shareholder, controlling a stake of between 31 and 38 percent. 

“This is a merger where they will be able to complement each other and create economies of scale on the supply chain,” said Catherine Lim, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst. “Luxottica is a licensee of major branded eyewear while Essilor has been more focused on making lenses.”

EssilorLuxottica will be able to overcome antitrust hurdles, because its combined revenue would only account for about 16 percent of the market, Del Vecchio said on a call with analysts. However, the new company will have more than 50 percent of the sunglasses market and be the largest maker of spectacle frames, lenses and ready-made reading glasses, according to Jasmine Seng, an analyst at Euromonitor.

Delisting Luxottica

Delfin will sell each of its Luxottica shares to Essilor in exchange for 0.461 of an Essilor share. Essilor, based in Charenton-le-Pont near Paris, will then begin an offer for the remaining Luxottica stock at the same exchange ratio, with a goal of delisting the Italian company. Mediobanca SpA advised Delfin, while Citigroup Global Markets and Rothschild worked for Essilor.

The bid values Milan-based Luxottica at 47.07 euros a share based on Friday’s closing price for Essilor, 5 percent lower than where Luxottica finished the week. Luxottica had a market value of about 24 billion euros as of Friday, with about 22 billion euros for Essilor.

Essilor shares surged 13 percent to 115.25 euros at 2:45 p.m. in Paris, lifting the value of the takeover to about 53.13 euros per Luxottica share. Luxottica climbed 8.8 percent to 53.90 euros.

Luxury Competitor

Luxottica increasingly competes with large luxury players such as Kering in a global eyewear industry worth about $121 billion last year, according to data from Euromonitor. The company’s expansion into lenses is attractive amid rising consumer demand and as the segment offers high margins, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Demand for eyewear is expanding in emerging markets with more than 2.3 billion people in Asia, Africa and Latin America needing optical frames, according to Exane BNP Paribas.

The two companies had been on a “collision course,” Exane said in a note in October as Luxottica moved into lens manufacturing while Essilor advanced into frames and acquired online eyewear retailers. Lens manufacturing will be a big deal for Luxottica as it makes it independent for sun and prescription lenses, it said.

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc

REPAIR WORK: Cities prepare for more road damage because of this winter?s harsher than usual weather

JENNIFER SALTMAN
The Province

Snow and ice aren’t the only hazards Lower Mainland drivers face this winter — potholes are also causing issues across the region.

“There will be more potholes — there always is after cold weather,” said Jamie Umpleby, director of public works for the City of Coquitlam. “It really isn’t unexpected for this to happen.”

Potholes form when water gets into cracks in asphalt, seeps in between layers and into the ground underneath, then freezes, expands and causes larger cracks. When the ice thaws, the weakened asphalt collapses.

Thanks to the multiple freezing and thawing cycles that have taken place since early December, potholes are popping up everywhere, from the Oak Street Bridge in Vancouver to the streets of Surrey.

Although most City of Vancouver staff are focused on snow and ice mitigation, a couple of crews began to repair potholes on Tuesday, starting with high-priority locations.

The city anticipates more damage than usual due to the weather. Each year, Vancouver repairs an average of 32,000 potholes.

Rob Costanzo, Surrey’s manager of engineering operations, said the city typically deals with 7,000 potholes per year and the last harsh winter, which was 2008/2009, added about 2,000 potholes to the annual tally.

Since the week of Dec. 5, when the snow first started to fall, Costanzo’s department has fielded 192 service requests about potholes. Many of those requests include multiple people complaining about the same pothole. In December, crews filled in 700 potholes.

Other than that, Costanzo said, there have been no major road issues.

“We just don’t have enough snow,” he said. “It’s relatively tame compared to other parts of Canada, where they have greater concerns.”

So far, the City of North Vancouver’s main roads have not been hit by many extra potholes, but the freezing and thawing cycles will likely result in more road maintenance when temperatures become more spring like.

“Right now our priority is ensuring the streets are cleared and passable, particularly the main roads and collector routes,” said city spokeswoman Connie Rabold.

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.

LARRY PYNN
The Province

Transport Canada launched a record 118 investigations into the illegal use of drones this year across the country, including 18 in B.C.

The federal department also issued a record 16 fines for drone-related violations in Canada to Dec. 1 this year — half of those in B.C. There were just five fines issued in 2015, three of those in this region.

Among the B.C. enforcement actions, Moves Media Ltd., a Vancouver video production company, was fined $5,000 for operating a drone — also known as an unmanned air vehicle, or UAV — contrary to its Special Flight Operations Certificate issued by Transport Canada.

The federal government also issued about 4,300 such certificates for commercial or research purposes this year before Dec. 1, up from the 2,480 in 2015 and 1,672 issued in 2014.

Penalties against individuals for illegal use of drones were closer to $1,000, although violators may get off with a warning.

The numbers reflect how fast the activity is growing and hint at Ottawa’s difficulty in keeping pace.

“We’ve seen a tremendous increase,” said Aaron McCrorie, director-general of civil aviation for Transport Canada. “Most of it is legitimate, but we’re also seeing an increase in the number of incidents that cause safety concerns.”

McCrorie said that the federal government is expecting to introduce new rules in 2017 to guard against crashes and to protect people on the ground.

He says the current regulations “haven’t kept up with technology.

“… We need to modernize the rules, to deal with the growing safety risk around airports and built-up areas where they shouldn’t be.”

One of the new regulations may require persons flying drones under 25 kilograms to pay a fee to complete an online course — similar to anyone wanting to obtain a boating licence.

Other regulations proposed by Ottawa include the requirement to mark and register drones.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.