Peter Wilson
Sun

Motorist-friendly, designed-in-B.C. parking meters that make it easy to pay fees and fines and allow drivers to top up expired meters instead of facing a ticket could start appearing soon in cities across Canada.

Instead of having to hunt their pockets for coins, users of the new Photo Violation Meter (PVM) could pay with credit cards, debit cards and even cellphones

And the meters, from Vancouver-based Photo Violations Technology Corp., would allow for grace periods — say 15 or 30 minutes — so that when drivers arrive back at the meter they can simply pay for the extra time with another swipe of the credit card.

But they’ll also photograph your licence plate if you try to drive off without paying for that extra time.

“I was tired of parking my car and never having enough change to pay into the parking meter and always getting a ticket because I was running late,” said company president Fred Mitschele, a parking industry veteran who believes the PVMs, because of their efficiency, will help keep parking rates low.

He’s particularly proud of the grace-period concept.

“Of course, if you were to drive away from that meter without paying for your extra time the city would issue you a ticket on that,” said Mitschele.

Motorists who exceed the grace period can pay their fines right at the meter, probably at a reduced rate.

Not only that, but the meters will refuse to operate if a driver tries to pay during rush hour when parking is prohibited.

“If there’s just five minutes left, then the meter will return your money and ask you if you want to pay for the five minutes before parking is prohibited,” said Mitschele.

That way, he said, users can avoid being towed because the meter will have warned them.

Despite all these benefits for motorists, he adds, it’s not just drivers who will welcome the meters — which are going to be tested in the Lower Mainland in January, although Mitschele would not say where.

Municipalities will be happy too, because the PVM has built-in sensors to detect vehicles arriving and departing parking spaces, a camera to take photos of the licence plates of scofflaws and wireless capability that immediately sends out information on overtime parking violations.

Mitschele — who has been a Canadian regional vice-president for Diamond Parking Ltd., and founded another Vancouver-based meter firm, Digital Pioneer Technologies Corp. — said that municipalities do make money from fines, but they’d rather make sure that everything works smoothly.

“The bottom line is they just want to make sure that everyone will pay,” said Mitschele. “And generally people do want to pay.

“They’re not purposely not paying to get a violation. The inconvenience of not having enough change has always been a parking problem.”

The PVMs will not only track violators, but they will be cleared the minute the car occupying the space drives away.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

Sun

VANCOUVER – Dog owners should be prepared to shell out extra cash when they license their pets for 2006.

New licences sold in the city have staggered expiry dates, and dog owners in different parts of the city must license their dogs at different times of the year. The first time you purchase one under the new system, you’ll pay more for the licence, although your dog will be licensed for longer than one year.

Bob Cristofoli, supervisor of field operations for the Vancouver Animal Shelter, said the system will make the shelter more efficient by spreading the workload over the year.

“The city has been broken into geographic areas,” said Cristofoli. “Letters have been sent out to dog owners explaining the new procedure.”

Any dog older than three months living in Vancouver must be licensed. Bylaw supporters note the licences helps owners reunite with lost pets. Every year more than 3,500 dogs are lost in the city. A large percentage of lost dogs wearing a licence are returned to their owners, while a higher percentage of dogs lost without a tag never find their way back home. In 2004 animal shelter staff members rescued 1,400 lost, abandoned or abused dogs. More than 400 dogs received a free ride home to their owners, another 700 dogs were collected by their owners at the shelter and the lives of another 233 dogs were improved because they were adopted by loving families.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

Book shows that with a little thought, it is possible to build a one-of-a-kind house for a reasonable amount

Kim Pemberton
Sun

The book Good House Cheap House: Adventures in Creating an Extraordinary Home at an Everyday Price (Taunton Press $35) poses the question: Is it possible to get a one-of-a-kind house at an affordable price? Happily for homeowners the answer is yes. And this book tells you how.

Author Kira Obolensky, who co-authored Sarah Susanka’s national bestseller, The Not So Big House, concludes that there are three main ingredients that go into creating a good but cheap house.

They are: homeowners willing to try something new; “cutting-edge” architects and designers, and innovative uses of materials.

For instance, using sliding doors for oversized windows; infusing character into a concrete floor by using a rich-hued stain or finding a decorative mantle piece in an industrial bridge washer.

Obolensky admits she never spent much time dreaming about the “fully loaded” country estate, with its marble bathroom, gourmet-style kitchen and spa-bathrooms. Instead, her dream house would be well-designed and on budget with enough money left over in the bank to enjoy a vacation or two.

The author’s home is a study of how to spend wisely. Instead of choosing the expensive tile backsplash she opted for a slate backsplash from recycled chalkboard, instead of spending $800 on her ideal sink she found the same one, slightly used, at a local recycling centre for $50. Granite countertops were nixed in favour of Formica but the edge was finished with aluminum to give them an “old-fashioned” feeling.

And when it came to the kitchen the often-mentioned tip of using as many of the existing cabinets as possible was employed, with Obolensky then splurging on handcrafted leather drawer pulls. Her biggest individual purchase was for a skylight, which thanks to the natural light transformed her small space.

Obolensky features 27 homes in Good House Cheap House, applauding homeowners who take a similar resourceful approach to homes, sharing the best of their ideas with the readers. As she writes, anyone can build a good home on a big budget, but it is much more commendable to build an interesting and unique home on a small one.

Still, the homes featured here cost slightly more than a typical builder home,, but considerably less than a house featured in most design magazines. The cheapest house in the book was a prefabricated house at $68 US per square foot and the most expensive was $185 US per square foot. To put this in perspective, architects in B.C. generally say the minimum to build new would be about $200 Cdn per square foot.

If you are in the category of wanting to build your own home, but don’t want it to cost a million, the $35 investment in Good House Cheap House promises to be money well spent.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

An investment policy statement will keep you on track

Kevin Greenard and Keith Greenard
Province

Imagine building a house without a set of plans. How would that house look if you randomly selected flooring, furniture and window coverings without regard to how they would look together?

It certainly can be done, but we all know that when building or decorating a home, it is best to follow a plan. Once it is put in place, the results can be spectacular.

Too often investors select investments without considering the other investments within their portfolio. Does purchasing the new investment increase or reduce the risk to the portfolio? Does it increase the return potential or reduce it? Does it complement the other investments?

The equivalent to a blueprint for building a home is an Investment Policy Statement. Ideally an IPS should be laid out in advance of the portfolio’s construction. However, an IPS can be done at any time — call it a renovation if done after the fact.

Developing an IPS normally begins with the investment adviser asking the client to answer a series of questions. The adviser should review the answers to these questions with the investor and clarify any inconsistencies. The responses, along with notes made during the discussions, are the foundation of an IPS.

An IPS is part of a disciplined approach that attempts to remove some of the emotional component of investing. Uncertainty about the markets, fear of losing your money and confusion as to what is the best course of action during volatile market times can cause investors to abandon the plan. Sticking to the IPS during difficult times is critical. As we all know, we cannot individually control the market, but we can control how we react to it. An IPS can help manage those bumpy times.

The easiest way to look at risk tolerance is by the percentage of equities in the account. An investor who is averse to risk would have a lower percentage of equities. Such an investor should have a larger proportion of GICs, treasury bills and investment- grade bonds in the portfolio.

As fixed-income investments are not as volatile as equities, they are a key component for those who have capital preservation as a primary investment objective. Most investors desire total returns greater than those currently offered by fixed income and are willing to hold some equities.

Every investor reacts differently to volatility. A risk-tolerant investor typically has a longer time horizon, high annual income, high net worth and multiple sources of income. The typical investor who is risk-averse would have a shorter time horizon, be retired or approaching retirement, have a fixed income, low to moderate net worth and limited sources of income.

These general rules do not apply to everyone. This is why a customized IPS is necessary for each investor.

Determining the balance of cash, fixed income and equities is ultimately the decision of the investor. An IPS is not set in stone — changes may occur with time, life-changing events and investment experience. Some advisers may recommend increasing or decreasing the fixed-income component during certain economic cycles.

One rule of thumb used by some advisers is that the fixed-income component should reflect one’s age. A 20 year-old investor should have 20 per cent in fixed income, while an 80-year-old investor should have 80 per cent in fixed income. This method of determining asset mix is simplistic but does show how an investor should have a larger fixed income component as he or she gets older.

It takes time and patience to build a house; ditto with a portfolio. Once built, it requires maintenance. The IPS is a plan, not an immediate reflection of how the portfolio will look on Day 1.

© The Vancouver Province 2005

Chris Carter
Province

I know I should be allocating a greater portion of my investments to fixed-income securities like bonds, but I’m worried about interest rates rising after I’ve locked in my funds. Is there any way a regular investor like me can insulate his or her portfolio against rising rates, like a portfolio manager would?

— Todd, Kelowna

Dear Todd,

In some instances, investment-fund managers will hedge the risk of rising interest rates by buying sophisticated derivative contracts such as options and futures. If rates move higher, the derivatives would increase in value, offsetting any declines in the long-term bond prices.

Unfortunately, these derivative-type investments can be expensive and, in the hands of an unsophisticated investor, might just as likely cause more harm than good when it comes to improving your portfolio returns.

A more practical approach that any investor can take is to invest in several different bonds of varying maturities, selecting bonds with staggered, or “laddered,” maturities — that is, spacing your bonds to mature every two or three years.

You ensure liquidity by always owning a bond nearing its maturity. And by diversifying your investments between short-, medium- and longer-term holdings, your portfolio value stands to fluctuate much less, even during volatile swings in the bond market. If rates rise persistently, you can reinvest each bond as it matures at a new and improved rate of return.

© The Vancouver Province 2005

Marketing will focus on what’s been hot

Ray Turchansky
Province

EDMONTON — Recent visits from financial-institution executives have provided a hint of what’s in store this coming RRSP season.

“Mutual-fund companies, generally speaking, are marketing machines,” said Michael Lee-Chin, chairman and CEO of AIC Ltd.

“If they are marketing machines, they are going to sell what is hot. So just look at what was hot in 2005 and it will tell you what the theme will be for the RRSP season.”

That would be income trusts, plus dividend-paying stocks and mutual funds, areas that recovered nicely after federal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale’s pre-election announcement of no tax on income trusts and an increase in the dividend tax credit.

“We are careful and skeptical of some of the best-performing areas,” said Jonathan Wellum, chief investment officer with AIC. “The trusts are a good example.

“It goes back to our fundamentals that wealth is ultimately

created by staying in the right places and not getting sidetracked.

“One of the things we focus on is tax efficiency; we’re not moving around the market and market-timing. We make sure the companies we’re buying can take any economic downturn and come through it in a stronger position from a business point of view, even if their stocks are weaker.”

AIC’s decision to spit into the wind by shunning income trusts is part of its strategy to project itself as being different from other mutual fund companies.

“The banks are certainly very, very strong in the industry since their entry in 1989, to the point where the mutual-fund product has been commoditized — a lack of differentiation,” said Lee-Chin.

“Most companies will find it a challenge to differentiate themselves, and if they can’t differentiate themselves, they can’t grow.”

Fund companies are using a variety of approaches in an attempt to set themselves apart. AGF Funds Inc., for instance, is presenting a novel approach to fees. Four of five new portfolios it is launching will rebate portions of their management fees if they fail to meet their performance benchmarks.

In the case of AIC, it’s staking its territory through long-term value investing and globalization.

“What we’ve tried to do, again for differentiation, is to add more

global funds to our stable,” said Wellum. “For the next 10 years, people should be taking advantage of a high Canadian dollar and taking advantage of the fact that while their assets are creating high

valuations today, they should be diversifying prudently and carefully.”

“We are interested in long-term secular trends,” said Lee-Chin. “For instance, we have invested in an Indian company, Infosys, which provides software business solutions. A software engineer in India makes $12,000 a year; a software engineer in North America makes $72,000 a year.

“Infosys in 2002 had 13,000 engineers; today they have over 42,000 engineers. And software engineering standards are universal.”

However, by reducing exposure to energy among Canadian holdings and retaining financial stocks, AIC is joining an industry trend.

Mutual-fund research firm Morningstar Canada reports that “energy stocks have continued their torrid pace while managers continued to underweight this hot sector. Meanwhile, the S&P/TSX composite index’s largest sector, financial services, saw its weighting in Canadian equity funds increase as the weight of the sector dipped slightly within the index.”

It comes down to volatility.

“We do have very good financials in this country, when you look at Manulife, Sun Life, Power Financial and TD Bank,” said Wellum.

“I think financials — although they’ve done well and some of them might be a little ahead on price-to-book and some valuations you use — they still have pretty decent embedded growth in them.

“The energy market is more of a wild card.”

Lee-Chin said AIC is unique in using the philosophy of the richest people in the world: Use other people’s money, own fewer than a handful of high-quality businesses that you understand and are in long-term growth industries, and hold them for the long run.

© The Vancouver Province 2005

New regional board questions bridge plan

Kent Spencer
Province

The province’s plan to twin the Port Mann Bridge will come under scrutiny at the new GVRD, say board members.

Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini said 16 newcomers on the 32-member board, including Delta Mayor Lois Jackson as chairwoman, will set a new direction.

“Does twinning the Port Mann adhere to the Livable Region Strategic Plan?” asked Trasolini. “The GVRD needs to discuss it with the province.”

The board elected Jackson as its chairwoman and Vancouver Coun. Peter Ladner as vice-chairman.

“I have worked with Lois for several years. She seems to approach things in a reasonable manner,” said Langley City Coun. Gayle Martin.

Surrey Coun. Marvin Hunt, whose city was accused by GVRD staff of contravening the regional plan, was defeated in a bid to be re-elected chairman.

The GVRD chairman earns about $40,000 annually. Directors receive $200 per meeting, $400 if meetings last more than four hours.

North Vancouver City Mayor Darrell Mussatto said the “new leadership gives a shot in the arm to the Livable Region Strategy.

“The strategy was being followed, but not as well as it could have been. The Agricultural Land Reserve in the Fraser Valley was being challenged for conversion to residential subdivisions,” he said.

The province says the Port Mann must be twinned because hundreds of thousands of residents south of the Fraser River sit in traffic jams for hours each day. Commercial traffic also suffers.

Martin, who lives south of the Fraser, believes the twinning is a done deal. “It’s coming from the province. It appears it is going to happen.

“I’m not sure how much say the GVRD is going to have,” said Martin. “It may not fit in with the Livable Region Strategy, but something has to give to relieve the congestion.”

The next major item on the GVRD’s agenda will be to choose 12 TransLink directors, 10 of whom will likely be new. TransLink has a budget of about $800 million and major decisions on its plate, including funding for a light rapid transit line in the northeast sector.

© The Vancouver Province 2005

Hurricanes will have to huff and puff to level this building experiment

Charles Mandel
Sun

Imagine your house on steroids. That’s the idea behind fortified homes, the latest home-building trend in the wake of the powerful hurricanes that ripped apart houses along the U.S. Gulf Coast this year.

The North American insurance industry is encouraging builders to construct houses capable of withstanding extreme conditions, with such features as armour-like garage doors and frames made of fibreglass composite or precast concrete.

In Canada, scientists from the University of Western Ontario are studying how to build better, stronger houses at the so-called Three Little Pigs facility. Inside a hangar at the London, Ont., airport, researchers are constructing a two-storey, wood frame house that will be subjected to simulated hurricane-force blasts.

“What we’re interested in doing is developing science-based evidence on how a house bears load, so that it will perform better in an extreme event,” says Mike Bartlett, an associate professor in Western’s faculty of civil and environmental engineering. “Current Canadian housing is not bad, but we think it could probably be improved.”

That’s a sentiment many in Canada’s insurance industry share.

“We need to see this as a growing and urgent issue that we all need to respond to,” says Kathy Bardswick, CEO of the Co-operators Group, a conglomerate of Canadian insurance companies.

While Canada hasn’t experienced the same level of devastation as the American south, climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of storms and consequently the property damage price tag, according to insurers.

“We thought last year was a significant year for storms and yet this year Ontario saw its most serious storm ever,” Bardswick says. The damage from the August storm in the Toronto area resulted in a $500-million payout.

In the West, summer storms that battered southern Alberta cost insurers an estimated $275 million.

Ice storms, fires and vicious winter blizzards are battering Canadians. “We’re seeing more damage to homes all across the country,” says Paul Kovacs, executive director of the Toronto-based Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.

Kovacs is leading the charge for fortified housing in Canada. The institute is introducing a new program which advocates homes be built with certain features in order to become certified as a fortified.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

Builder picked for the six-lane crossing that will link Surrey with Maple Ridge

William Boei
Sun

TransLink directors picked a builder Wednesday for Greater Vancouver’s latest megaproject — a six-lane, cable-stayed, $800-million toll bridge that will link Surrey and Langley on the south shore of the Fraser River to Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows on the north side.

The decision to build the bridge, due to open in 2009, capped a stormy three-year reign for an often-divided TransLink board that nevertheless managed to sketch out an ambitious long-term regional transportation plan and approve four big-money projects:

– The $1.9-billion Canada Line, a rapid transit line running through tunnels and over elevated guideways, linking downtown Vancouver with the international airport and downtown Richmond, also due to open in 2009.

– The $800-million northeast rapid transit line, a street-level light-rail system joining Burnaby’s Lougheed SkyTrain station to Coquitlam Centre via Port Moody, also due in 2009.

– The Golden Ears Bridge, to be built and operated by the 21-member Golden Crossing Group, led by Bilfinger Berger BOT, a German giant specializing in joint government-private projects around the world.

– $500-million worth of new trolley buses, compressed natural gas buses and local shuttle buses, some to replace TransLink’s existing bus fleet as it ages, others to expand the fleet.

The bridge project passed with little debate. Only Vancouver director Raymond Louie objected, saying it was the product of “a flawed process.”

Louie said he wanted to see an independent “value for money” report on the Bilfinger bid before giving it final approval. TransLink staff said the report will not be available until mid-February.

It remains for TransLink staff to negotiate an agreement with the Golden Crossing Group. But unless there is a snag, the project does not need to come back to the TransLink board for further approvals.

It was the last meeting of the current TransLink board, chaired by former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum, who was defeated in the Nov. 19 civic election, and it was a busy one.

Besides approving the bridge builder, directors also:

– Decided to plow ahead with a renewed AirCare program.

– Agreed to spend nearly $43 million on a new communications system for the bus fleet.

– Agreed that the northeast light rail line will be called the Evergreen Line, and to look into naming all its cars for famous people and regional geography.

– Approved a controversial parking-stall tax that will help pay for its operations in the coming years.

– Decided to stick with a region-wide property-tax increase that will collect a windfall $18 million on top of the $235.3 million budgeted for, as a side effect of rising property values.

TransLink staff said the board could roll back the tax rate and not collect the extra $18 million, but if it ran short of money, it couldn’t reinstate the increase unless it went through a lengthy public consultation process and had it ratified by the Greater Vancouver Regional District board.

Directors decided to keep the money, but asked for a staff report on easier ways to adjust the property-tax rate in future.

– Voted to have Canada Line stations designed without ticket gates or turnstiles, but in a way that would allow them to be added in future if necessary.

TransLink vice-president Sheri Plewes said the TransLink police force, newly armed and doubling in size over the next several years, will be more effective than fare gates in ensuring passengers pay.

Plewes said the amount of fare cheating on the system is less than commonly believed. TransLink surveys indicate the public thinks up to 27 per cent of passengers ride free, but a fare audit had shown only 6.29 per cent fail to pay.

If the public perception was correct, TransLink would be losing $29 million a year in unpaid fares, Plewes said, but the audit showed the actual loss is only $6 million — less than the combined capital and operating cost of installing fare gates.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

Unit will replace pair of AA batteries

Jim Jamieson
Province

Angstrom Power couldn’t have chosen a better product to showcase for its micro fuel cell than a tiny, super-bright bike headlamp.

The technology is green — as are most committed cyclists — and, let’s face it, what gadget-happy yuppie wouldn’t love to be the first on the block to brag about owning a hydrogen-powered anything.

In fact, Angstrom, a North Vancouver company that is internationally known for its micro fuel cell technology, has just begun a trial program with 10 of its own employees to use the fuel cell powered LED light for commutes to and from work.

Taking the place of two AA batteries is a teensy fuel cell about the size of a walnut, which provides 300 milliwatts of power for about 20 hours. The 13.5 gram fuel cell is powered by a small cartridge that holds about one gram of hydrogen, the cost of which is about 15 cents. The fuel cartridge is refillable to 90 per cent in about two minutes.

Angstrom (www.angstrompower.com) says the units are for sale, which would be the company’s first, although they are coy about how much they would cost.

Even so, Angstrom spokeswoman Annalise Czerny said the aim of the company is to put fuel cell technology increasingly in the public eye and plans a series of trial programs for a fuel cell powered flashlight, headlamp and possibly other devices with Vancouver International Airport, University of Victoria and North Shore Search and Rescue.

“We’ll get some experience of how users handle the product and how it would work with consumers,” she said.

Angstrom sees the final vision as home-based chargers or charging stations at Starbucks so you can top up your mobile while buying a latte.

Angstrom will target fleet organizations, which can have a central spot for refuelling by 2007.

After that the plan is to be in the commercial stream by 2008, going after the cellphone market, which is potentially the most lucrative because of its sheer size but also the most challenging due to shrinking form factors.

Just as with fuel cell powered autos, the infrastructure puzzle is key to commercial adoption.

Without it, pricing can’t come down because there is no mass production.

“The first cellphones we had cost hundreds of dollars,” said Czerny.

“By targeting this segment of users, where there is an obvious need, they are willing to pay a high premium. It will get consumers used to hydrogen, to seeing how it works.”

 

© The Vancouver Province 2005