ROB SHAW
The Province

B.C.’s acting privacy commissioner is warning private businesses that they might be breaking the law if they install video-surveillance cameras without thinking through the privacy implications.

Drew McArthur said a recent audit of an unnamed Lower Mainland medical clinic that had eight video cameras in operation is an example of the growing trend of cheap and easy-to-install surveillance systems that likely violate B.C.’s privacy laws.

McArthur rejected the clinic’s argument that it had installed the cameras in common areas to prevent crime, improve security and monitor employee behaviour.

“The fundamental premise of our private-sector privacy legislation is you require the purpose for collection has to be reasonable for the circumstances,” he said. “In this case, there’s no crime issue or threat-to-security issue, it’s just a medical clinic in a stand-alone location and they have not had a rash of crime or security issues.

“And so they don’t meet the threshold for reasonableness in terms of the collection of personal information. So where they are, they are over-collecting personal information.”

It would be more acceptable for a bank, with a lot of assets, or a convenience store, where employees might be working through the night, to justify surveillance, McArthur said. And it’s not acceptable to record all your employees and customers as a deterrent against possible future crimes because that doesn’t satisfy the legal requirements either, he said.

McArthur’s report on the medical clinic was the first of its kind involving a private business. The clinic has been given three months to remove its cameras and delete its video footage or face an order from the commissioner’s office that could be backed up in court.

McArthur declined to name the clinic, saying he wasn’t trying to single it out, but rather to use it as an illustrative example of a larger problem.

“You can go into Costco and acquire a video-surveillance system very economically and implement it yourself, and for that reason we’re providing this as an educational opportunity,” he said.

The clinic put cameras in its lobby, hallways, back exits and a fitness room, collecting video 24 hours a day of all the employees, patients and cleaning staff. The footage was only supposed be watched by the clinic’s owner, a physician, but McArthur noted others had access, too.

Although the clinic had signs pointing out the cameras, it failed to explain to people that the cameras were also recording the audio of their conversations, and it failed to tell people they had a right to see their own footage, the report ead.

In short, it failed to get people’s informed consent.

McArthur’s office published a tip sheet for private businesses that called on them to develop a policy, limit the time the cameras are on, avoid recorded unintended people, display adequate signs, store the footage in a secure location and limit access to the footage.

McArthur said businesses also need to know that the video they capture of employees and customers is their personal information and they’re liable for it being stolen or misused.

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc

Some doctors charging corporation thousands to examine claimants

PETE MCMARTIN
The Vancouver Sun

I’ve come to the conclusion that the question is no longer, “What’s wrong with ICBC?”

The question is, “Is there anything right?”

I wrote two previous columns on ICBC’s financial woes — one on a seniors discount that costs an estimated $100 million annually, another on the climbing cost of litigation. Those were but two contributors to the corporation’s financial woes. There are many strands that one can pull to explain ICBC’s unravelling.

Readers responded. Some, no surprise, were civilians complaining about what they felt were ICBC’s unfair tactics. But several were from insiders to the process — lawyers, doctors and claims adjusters. They identified a problem affecting ICBC’s bottom line the public never hears about.

The high cost of medical reports.

One senior ICBC injury adjuster, whose job is to settle lawyer-represented claims, wrote:

“Lawyers routinely hire experts (doctors) to produce reports to support how badly injured the individual is/was from the accident. It is quite common to have two to five different experts report on a single file. These experts charge between $4,000-$6,000 to examine the patient and write a report. ICBC will have to hire their own experts, typically one to two per file for the same costs as above.

“We often settle a claim, for example, between $50,000 to $100,000 and then pay on top of that between $30,000 and $40,000 for costs and disbursements. So not only are the lawyers making tidy sums, but the medical experts make a fair chunk off the litigation process as well.”

This system of costs and disbursements, which dictates ICBC must pay its legal costs as well as those of the injured party, was the subject of an email from Wes Mussio, a personal injury lawyer. Medical reports, he wrote, cause costs to skyrocket:

“Our good doctors have ‘jacked up’ the cost of medical legal reports exponentially over the last two decades. When I was a young lawyer, a medical report would cost somewhere in the range of $200 to $800, but now even a one- or two-page report is in the range of $1,500 to $5,000. Some doctors charge over $10,000 for a report on the basis that they are worth something in the range of $800 to $1,000 an hour. The end result is that the current system requires that ICBC pay these massive bills.

“There is a large number of medical professionals in B.C. that are making well in excess of $1 million per year from writing medical reports now. This money is coming from ICBC ratepayers … (and it) is a cost the ratepayers should not be required to pay. ICBC has to challenge doctors that are grossly overcharging ICBC for their services.”

An ICBC spokesman responded by stating the corporation pays “far more” in reimbursing plaintiffs’ counsels for expert reports than it pays for its own reports, which it obtains at negotiated rates, and it doesn’t have any control over the cost of reports ordered by a plaintiff’s lawyer.

As for ICBC’s need for medical reports, the spokesman said: “We don’t think anyone would reasonably suggest we should pay out on an injury claim based solely on someone’s self-reporting of the injury and subsequent financial loss, without any substantiating documentation.”

As if to triangulate this round of recriminations, a doctor offered his opinion of medical reports. Cost was not so much on his mind as the questionable need for them. He wrote:

“I occasionally have to fill out medical reports on (patients’) behalf for ICBC. The vast majority … are fender bender type of accidents with minor vehicle damage. The most common injuries are soft-tissue injuries and sprains, from which most people should recover uneventfully in days to weeks.

“In my experience, the biggest barrier to patients making a recovery from these minor injuries is the act of hiring a lawyer … Many times, they have hired a lawyer before they even make their initial ICBC claim! Whiplash is the most common injury and I always explain to patients that is a lawyer’s term, not a doctor’s. It is notoriously difficult to confirm objectively, and patients who hire a lawyer may complain of pain for many months.”

(Author’s note: A significant body of peer-reviewed literature exists that debates whiplash and the effect of minor vehicle crashes as a cause. One researcher sent me his study that concluded people were more likely to suffer the effects of whiplash in daily life than in minor car crashes.)

“(Whiplash) often miraculously resolves shortly after they get a financial settlement,” the doctor added. “In medicine we sometimes invoke the concept of ‘secondary gain,’ where a patient maintains illness behaviour in the absence o f any measurable illness, injury or disease, because they gain something else, whether it be sympathy, attention or financial award.”

There you have it. The lawyers are to blame. The doctors are to blame. ICBC is to blame. The public is to blame.

Glad I could help.

© 2010-2017 Postmedia Network Inc.

MATT ROBINSON AND NICK EAGLAND
The Vancouver Sun

The fentanyl crisis could soon hit the pocketbooks of every homeowner in Vancouver.

City councillors are poised to consider using a 0.5-per-cent, property-tax increase to create a $3.5-million contingency fund intended to combat the growing crisis. That’s in addition to the city’s previously reported 3.4-per-cent, property-tax increase, which will be voted on next week.

While Vision Vancouver councillors and those on the front lines of the fight against fentanyl said the increased funding was muchneeded, Non-Partisan Association councillors attacked it as a calculated distraction from rising taxes.

City staff don’t yet know where the extra money raised by the tax increase will be spent, according to a memo to councillors from Patrice Impey, the city’s general manager of finance, risk and supply-chain management.

“As it is difficult to anticipate the future needs for 2017 as the crisis may continue, increase or moderate, it would be prudent to give flexibility to staff and council in determining opportunities as they arise … ” Impey wrote in the memo.

Listed among the areas that could receive funding are mental-health support for front-line workers (up to $130,000), educational programs for youth ($200,000), additional outreach workers ($65,000 per position), a community policing station ($200,000 a year) and an additional three-person Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services medic unit ($1.8 million for 24/7 coverage).

Also listed was $50,000 for increased street sweeping and flushing, and $250,000 for low-barrier work cleaning up discarded needles. That spending is in addition to $3.8 million in new public cleanliness initiatives already included in the broader budget.

The incoming cash would boost council’s contingency funds from $4 million to $7.5 million.

Non-Partisan Association councillors criticized the last-minute increase, stating that cash could have been found elsewhere in the $1.3-billion budget, noting that it’s not just a municipal issue, and questioning the timing of the news. Coun. George Affleck charged that the new funding — which didn’t appear in the draft 2017 budget released last month — was intended to draw attention away from the city’s rising taxes and fees.

During the first 10 months of 2016, 622 people died from an overdose, and, in about 60 per cent of those cases, fentanyl was detected.

Robert Weeks, president of the Vancouver Firefighters Association, urged council to fund an additional medic unit, noting that call volumes had doubled since last year.

“A third medic unit … will have a direct impact on saving lives,” Weeks said.

Fire hall No. 2 in the Downtown Eastside responded to 1,255 calls in November, more than 700 of which were in response to overdoses, Weeks said. Crews are on pace for 1,600 runs this month.

“That puts us at the busiest fire hall in Canada by a significant amount,” he said.

“This is the new normal. We don’t look at this as a spike anymore. This trend has grown from last year and it looks to only get worse.

“With the low cost, availability, of this drug, we expect these overdoses to continue.”

Without additional resources, firefighters’ training, community outreach and response times will suffer, Weeks said.

Sarah Blyth of the Overdose Prevention Society, which runs an unsanctioned supervised injection site in the DTES, welcomed additional funds to combat the overdose crisis.

She said it’s prudent that more front-line staff are trained to use the overdose-reversing drug Naloxone and respond appropriately to overdoses in general.

“All of the front-line staff are really pushed to their absolute limits,” she said.

© 2010-2017 Postmedia Network Inc

BETHANY LINDSAY
The Province

Patients of a West Vancouver doctor who sent out a plea for help paying for his retirement are defending their longtime general practitioner and say they’ll do what they can to make sure he has enough money in his golden years.

Dr. Myron MacDonald’s goodbye letter to his patients was brought to the attention of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. last week because of its closing paragraphs, which suggest donations of “perhaps $20-$30 a month on your credit card.” The college described the request as a breach of medical ethics and asked the doctor to make things right.

But Ilze Bebris, who has been MacDonald’s patient for 35 years, didn’t see anything wrong with the letter and sent a bit of cash his way.

“It’s just a donation — there’s no repercussions if you say no. I certainly don’t have a lot of discomfort with that,” she said. “He’s offered exceptional services and has gone above and beyond.”

She has been told to expect her money back, as well as a letter of apology from MacDonald.

MacDonald’s letter suggested he had no pension and little in the way of savings for his retirement, circumstances he attributed in part to spending too much time with each patient. That’s something Bebris confirmed and she doubts she’ll be able to find another family doctor so committed to holistic care.

“He’s very personable, he’s very professional and he’s very interested not just in the issue before him, but in his patients’ well-being overall,” she said. “He’s really an outstanding doctor on all fronts.”

Despite the college’s ethical concerns with MacDonald’s letter, some patients are trying to figure out a way to help their doctor make ends meet.

“I’m not a wealthy guy, but I can spare a little bit,” said Bob Munro, who has been a patient for 40 years. “Everybody I’ve talked to wants to do something to help him. I don’t know what that’s going to look like. The college is saying he can’t accept money from his patients — well, we’ll still figure out a way to help him.”

He plans to spend some time with MacDonald over the next few months to determine his financial needs. Munro added that MacDonald lives in a rented apartment, drives a beat-up old car and seldom billed for uninsured services like annual physicals. Patient care came first at the expense of good financial practices.

“How does this happen, that a doctor — a good doctor — that spends 48 years of his life helping people winds up at the end of his career with almost nothing?” Munro said. “He’s not a good businessman, but that doesn’t make him a bad doctor or a bad person.”

B.C. does have a savings plan specifically geared toward helping physicians retire. The Contributory Professional Retirement Savings Plan (CPRSP) is administered by the B.C. Medical Association and provides matching contributions toward RRSPs and pension plans. This year, the B.C. government provided $53.7 million for the CPRSP.

MacDonald’s voice-mail message Wednesday said his office will be closed until further notice. He informed a reporter through one of his patients he couldn’t comment on the matter.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

JENNIFER SALTMAN
The Province

Starting at noon Friday, transit users will finally be able to travel to Port Moody and Coquitlam quickly and easily on the new Evergreen line.

“We’re excited to open the Evergreen extension and we think this is an exciting time for Tri-Cities residents. They’re eager to get out and try the new line and find out how it fits into their lives,” said TransLink spokesman Chris Bryan.

TransLink has planned celebrations at each station beginning at 10:30 a.m., and the gates will roll up to allow passengers to board trains starting at noon.

The line is an extension of the Millennium Line and joins the existing SkyTrain system at Lougheed Town Centre. It features six stations — Burquitlam, Moody Centre, Inlet Centre, Coquitlam Central, Lincoln and Lafarge Lake-Douglas — along an 11-kilometre route.

The ride between Lafarge Lake-Douglas station and Lougheed station takes 15 minutes, about half the time it takes to get between Coquitlam Central and Lougheed by bus. Going to Commercial-Broadway station will take 30 minutes, and the ride to Waterfront station will take 40 to 45 minutes.

It’s expected that the extension will carry 70,000 passengers by 2021.

Bryan said the addition of a major rapid transit line is going to affect the entire system, but some stations will be hit harder than others.

Commercial-Broadway, which is already the second-busiest station in the SkyTrain system, is expected to get even more traffic as Tri-Cities customers transfer from Millennium trains to the Expo Line to travel downtown. It is also in the process of being upgraded, which will restrict access at some times.

“That’s always been a really busy hub,” Bryan said. “We’re watching that one closely.” Lougheed Town Centre will also be a busy station because it is a busy bus and SkyTrain line transfer point, but Bryan said that may be alleviated somewhat because people will be boarding trains in Coquitlam and Port Moody and riding through.

Coquitlam Central is expected to be the busiest station on the new extension, because of its connection with the West Coast Express commuter trains and a multitude of buses that run throughout Coquitlam and farther east.

Bryan said TransLink will be constantly monitoring the Expo and Millennium lines to see where adjustments need to be made to deal with congestion.

“We certainly know there may be some crowding issues, et cetera, certainly in the early days with new people eager to try out the new line,” Bryan said. “We have some sense but there are a lot of factors at play and sometimes trying to predict commuter behaviour is a bit more of an art than a science.”

The SkyTrain operating pattern was changed on Oct. 22 to accommodate the extension and ease existing congestion. One change was increasing the frequency of trains on the Millennium Line, which now runs every three to four minutes during peak times rather than every five to six minutes.

The extension took 46 months to build and had a budget of $1.43 billion. The provincial government said earlier this week it is expected to come in under budget, despite issues and delays that happened while boring the line’s two-kilometre-long tunnel.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Chuck Chiang
The Vancouver Sun

Downtown Vancouver’s retail market continues to be the strongest in Canada, but among the sea of strength may be pockets of weakness and a risk from increased competition.

According to the latest figures from Statistics Canada, B.C. retail sales grew 5.7 per cent in September compared with the number last year, more than double the national average growth of 2.5 per cent.

Craig Patterson, editor-in-chief of industry publication Retail Insider, said Vancouver has consistently “punched above its weight class” in retail sales, partly due to the large influx of wealthy immigrants from the China in the past decade.

But Patterson cautioned that because the luxury retail sector that flourished is also reliant on high-end tourism, there are risks that could change things quickly.

“About 50 per cent of all luxury sales globally are to wealthy tourists,” Patterson said. “Right now, places like Vancouver, Toronto or London (England) are where people want to buy luxury goods because of things like the Brexit leading to the pound sterling and the Canadian dollar being bargains.

“There are a lot of cities worldwide that are also adding luxury stores, and if the Canadian dollar rises suddenly, all luxury retailers here could be vulnerable because we would no longer be an attractive market.”

The demand for retail space downtown varies by location, said Sherman Scott, associate vice-president of Colliers in Vancouver. Scott noted the addition of the Nordstrom department store has pulled interest eastward, with the western end of Robson Street — a traditional retail haven — taking the brunt of the impact.

“The 1100 block of Robson has definitely suffered,” he said. “Demand on the 1000 block is still very strong … but there’s downward pressure on the rental rate in (the western end of) the area, and in my opinion, they really need an anchor store or some new development to kickstart business.”

On Alberni Street — Vancouver’s new luxury row — some stores said the sales pace has moderated recently. But real estate officials noted demand for retail space on the strip remains at an all-time high.

“I will note that in discussions with almost every retailer we have spoken with in this sector, the sales in Vancouver are significantly higher than in Toronto and rents in Toronto still far exceed Alberni Street rents,” said Mario Negris, executive vice-president of CBRE’s Retail group in Vancouver.

Negris added that a real estate tax (like the one B.C. imposed on foreign buyers in August) typically does not affect retail sales.

“I have not seen any indication of a softening of the luxury market. The demand we are seeing from luxury tenants seeking to enter the Vancouver market is unwavering. In actuality, the deals we are working on — and the rents which will be achieved — will signal a continuing strength in that sector.”

Patterson said one aspect to Vancouver’s upscale retail to watch is whether Pacific Centre’s swing towards luxury brands with the addition of Nordstrom and other high-end retailers would draw foot traffic from Alberni as it did with the western blocks of Robson.

The Pacific Centre mall — which already has a Holt Renfrew store — recently Berluti menswear, where a pair of shoes regularly exceed $2,000. According to Cadillac Fairview, Pacific Centre’s foot traffic has increased by about 30 per cent since Nordstrom opened.

“Downtown Vancouver really has two luxury nodes now, and they compete,” Patterson said. “It’s challenging because Pacific Centre — which is not an area you traditionally find luxury brands — all of a sudden has a wider selection than it has ever had in its history. It’s been explosive.”

It does not mean Alberni has been standing still. Saint Laurent Paris, formerly Yves Saint Laurent, opened its first Canadian store on the “luxury row” between the Moncler and Prada stores this year, with several brands, including Rolex, confirmed to be arriving soon.

On Friday, Chinese jewelry giant LFX flew in almost 300 pieces of imperial jade — which had never left China before — to its Vancouver store to boost visibility and brand recognition beyond its traditional base of Chinese-Canadians.

Shi Li-hua, general manager of Shanghai LFX Co. Ltd., said his company chose Vancouver over New York for the showing particularly because their belief in the city as a premier upscale/luxury goods market in North America — despite the Vancouver location having opened only one year ago.

“We’ve been very happy with the Vancouver market so far,” Shi said, noting the city’s high Chinese population as a key factor for optimism. “Vancouver is an affluent city, and these items require a consumer base with the corresponding resources. There’s a sizable number of consumers that fit that profile in Vancouver.”

He acknowledged that upscale retail faces many challenges, but added that the market has been on a consistent upward trend since the economic crisis of 2008. That trend is no different here in B.C., he said, and the key is to connect with the consumers in a more emotional, personal way.

“We’re not just trying to sell and to boost visibility for ourselves,” Shi said. “We decided to put our regional operations here. Through whatever efforts we make in business, we are also hoping to do our part in contributing to the Canadian and B.C. economy, to grow together.”

Patterson said that the competition between the two luxury clusters doesn’t necessarily mean they cannot coexist, although he did note that West Hastings and Granville — previously a potential cluster for high-end retail — has faded due to the strong draws of Alberni Street and the Pacific Centre.

He pointed to Toronto, where multiple zones of luxury retail thrive.

“I think that, with one outdoor strip and a shopping-centre strip, you will have customers patronizing all of them — as long as consumers know the stores are there,” Patterson said. “For Alberni, as long as they keep adding luxury retailers — which it is — they’ll be fine. … If tourism remains strong and wealthy locals continue to shop, I think Vancouver will continue to be a very strong retail environment.”

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Toronto-based asset manager makes play for owner of clean-power assets

SCOTT DEVEAU AND BRIAN ECKHOUSE
The Vancouver Sun

Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Canada’s largest alternative asset manager, said it’s prepared to offer US$13 a share in cash to acquire TerraForm Power Inc., valuing the yieldco at about US$1.8 billion.

The Toronto-based asset manager said it’s also prepared to make an offer for another unit of bankrupt SunEdison Inc., TerraForm Global Inc., for an undisclosed sum, according to a letter released in a filing on Friday. The offer is below TerraForm Power’s Thursday closing price of US$13.01 a share, and well below its US$42 peak in April 2015.

The company’s market value has slumped in the past 18 months as SunEdison’s fortunes waned after a US$2.6 billion buying spree left it overextended.

Sachin Shah, Brookfield senior managing partner and CEO of Brookfield Renewable Partners, said the valuation is fair given the current state of the market, noting that it’s 49 per cent above the closing price on June 28, the day before Brookfield initially disclosed its holdings.

“We firmly believe these proposals represent unique, extremely attractive opportunities for TERP and GLBL shareholders, as well as the creditors of SunEdison,” Shah said in the letter to the companies’ boards, using the stock tickers for the two TerraForm companies.

He said TerraForm Power and TerraForm Global should act quickly to avoid further “diminution of value,” and is seeking a response by the end of business hours Monday.

MARKET VALUE

Brookfield and billionaire David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP are prepared to enter into a binding agreement, subject to due diligence, by Dec. 6 for an all-cash offer for TerraForm Power, according to the letter. Alternatively, it would make an all-cash offer for a 50-60 per cent stake, in connection with a long-term agreement where Brookfield would become a financial sponsor.

Brookfield is also prepared to act as interim sponsor for both companies for as long as six months under the assumption that if its proposal was accepted, it would continue in that role.

Brookfield and Appaloosa, which collectively hold about 34 per cent of TerraForm Power’s Class A shares, attempted to take control of the company earlier this year by offering to acquire SunEdison’s stake in the company, kicking off a formal auction for the company.

Brookfield last week also disclosed it has proposed buying TerraForm Global as part of a deal for TerraForm Power.

The latest disclosure comes days after TerraForm Power said it’s again seeking an extension from bondholders over its failure to file its 2015 annual report. The delay, which puts the company at risk of default, is the result of TerraForm Power’s reliance on SunEdison’s reporting systems. SunEdison’s filings are also delinquent.

Shah expressed concerned that there would be a “price” paid to bondholders for their consent to such requests. He said he was also concerned that bondholders might not agree, and push the company into bankruptcy protection. Brookfield’s proposal was meant to stave off both outcomes, he said.

Spokesmen for TerraForm Power and SunEdison didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment. A representative for Brookfield declined to comment.

SunEdison founded and controls the TerraForm yieldcos. SunEdison’s Class B shares in TerraForm Power give it about 84 per cent of the voting rights while holding about 35 per cent of the total shares outstanding, according to a July 26 regulatory filing.

In the third quarter, the TerraForm yieldcos managed to convince bondholders to extend the deadline to file the 2015 report and its first-quarter report to Dec. 6.

In May, bondholders slapped the Bethesda, Md.-based yieldco with notices of default for failing to file the annual report. That left TerraForm with about 90 days to file or extend the deadline — or face a demand for accelerated payments.

TerraForm Power said Nov. 15 that it’s again seeking extensions under its 2023 and 2025 bond packages, which would waive any and all defaults “as a result of the expiration of the August waiver.”

In bankruptcy court Thursday, SunEdison acknowledged that it may need to reorganize around its yieldcos, which are two of its most valuable assets. The yieldcos, meanwhile, are attempting to untangle themselves from SunEdison — potentially through a sale.

Besides Brookfield, D.E. Shaw & Co., Golden Concord Holdings Ltd., and funds of BlackRock Inc. have expressed interest in TerraForm Power, which owns assets in OECD countries including the U.S. TerraForm Global owns assets in India and Brazil.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc

GLEN SCHAEFER
The Vancouver Sun

“It’s been a hard 24 hours,” John Nightingale, the aquarium’s president, told a news conference Thursday afternoon. “In the 30 years I’ve worked in aquariums, never has the loss of an animal affected me like this has. Qila wasn’t just another whale. … We saw her born. We watched her grow up. We watched her engage millions of people, which is exactly our mission.”

Qila died Wednesday morning under the gaze of trainers just before the aquarium opened after showing symptoms of abdominal discomfort and nausea, and refusing to interact with staff or eat, Nightingale said.

He said staff are keeping a 24hour watch over Aurora, the lone surviving beluga at the aquarium.

“She appears to be displaying some of the same symptoms as Qila did before her very sudden passing away,” he said.

Nightingale said a necropsy performed on Qila Wednesday didn’t yield any conclusions. Blood and tissue samples have since been sent for analysis to specialists in the U.S. and around the world, Nightingale said.

 Blood and tissue samples have since been sent for analysis to specialists in the U.S. and around the world, Nightingale said.

Fewer than 100 captive belugas have been closely studied, making diagnosis a challenge, he said.

“You don’t have as much to go on,” Nightingale said. “The fact that we saw something new in Qila’s death is not surprising. It’s demoralizing, but it’s not surprising.”

He said Aurora is “off display, in a hospital-like environment in our medical pool, and will remain so until she recovers her health.”

Martin Haulena, the aquarium’s head veterinarian, accompanied Qila to the provincial animalhealth centre in Abbotsford for Wednesday’s necropsy. Aurora’s worsening condition gave urgency to global efforts to find out what killed Qila, Haulena said.

“There is nothing, unfortunately, for us to hang our hats on in terms of guiding treatment for Aurora, who is now exhibiting similar signs,” Haulena said.

A walled-off abscess found in one of Qila’s lungs had been there longer than she was sick. Analysts are searching for signs of a viral or bacterial cause, or a food- or waterborne toxin.

“Obviously we have to assume that whatever Qila succumbed to is also what is affecting Aurora, but that might not be the case,” Haulena said.

Qila’s death reignited the debate over keeping belugas and other cetaceans in captivity, with activists calling for an end to in-captivity breeding of the animals and a phasing out of beluga displays.

Nightingale rejected that idea Thursday, saying the whale displays raise awareness of threats to the world’s oceans.

“(The animals) are going to be just as important or maybe more important 25 years from now,” he said.

The aquarium stopped accepting animals captured from the wild in 1996 — Aurora was caught in Hudson Bay in 1990 — but continues breeding the whales, with its other five belugas on loan to U.S. marine parks for breeding purposes.

The aquarium is set to begin construction next year on an expanded beluga tank, to be completed by late 2018 or early 2019. Some of those five belugas will be brought back to Vancouver then, Nightingale said.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc

other

Joe Girard was honored by the Guinness Book of World Records for selling more cars than any single person in history, 12 times achieving the top vehicle sales in the world. In his best year, he sold 1425 units, all retail.

Employing two assistants out of his own pocket, “Joe sent out nearly 13,000 greeting cards a month to his customers, celebrating everything from Halloween to Groundhog Day,” according to the Detroit News.  Every year he commissioned an artist to draw up 12 cards and then send them out. That’s all he did. He would send out one card every month. Each card had the same message, “I like you.” So on Valentine ’s Day, major holidays, anniversaries, birthdays, Joe’s clients received a card. It is said that with Joe’s card coming every month, his clients considered him a part of the family.

Joe Girard proved, without doubt, that greeting cards inspire customer loyalty. Joe proved that greeting cards motivate customers to refer their friends. Of course, it was not the paper or colorful ink that did the trick. It was a man who cared enough to recognize and honor his customers’ birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. The simple act of sending greeting cards aroused a sense of loyalty in his clients.

The engine that drives this powerful business tool is the technology that makes this nearly effortless for you.

So why aren’t you sending cards on a regular basis to increase your sales? It’s probably because of the hassle that’s involved with sending cards.You have to go to a card store, find a card, write a message, put it into an envelope, and take it to the post office. What a pain? But that’s exactly why people appreciate cards when they receive them! They know that you’ve taken a lot of time and effort to send them a card.

Joe Girard proved it. Sending cards is what helped Joe become the # 1 salesperson in the world for 12 years straight.And Joe isn’t the only one to tout the importance of sending cards to generate referrals. All the top referral marketers say the same thing. Sharing the secret to sending heartfelt quality cards is easy.

Copyright © 2016, McRae Portraits

JENNY LEE
The Vancouver Sun

Harry Watson hadn’t planned on owning a big company.

“I never wanted any more than six employees. That was my goal,” said Watson, 71, who started Metro Testing Laboratories in 1987 and found a niche providing quick and convenient concrete testing for the construction industry.

“We were cost effective and there was no bureaucracy. We came out to do the test and gave them the results the next day,” said Watson, who added that his competitors were mostly larger firms that took longer, required more paperwork and offered tests only as part of a larger package of professional engineering services.

“I kind of grew like mushrooms,” Watson said. “We started in Vancouver, then we started to get phone calls for Langley and Abbotsford. One of our technicians was living out there. (We said) ‘Why don’t we just open up a small lab out there and you can run it?’ ”

The same thing happened in Whistler.

Each time Watson expanded, he started a new company and gave its manager a 10 to 20 per cent share for a small investment.

“I just thought if they are going to manage the business, they should have a stake in the business,” Watson said. Then those managers began making shareholders of their key employees.

By 2014, Metro Testing had been rebranded as Canadian Construction Materials Engineering & Testing, comprising 14 incorporated companies with 64 shareholders and 275 employees. And that’s when Watson realized he had a problem.

“It became a bit unmanageable,” Watson said. “The model was good at the start.”

Just as Watson started reorganizing to reduce risk to individual owners, someone offered to buy CCMET. That deal fell through, but Watson kept going both with reorganization and selling. His accountant Mike McIsaac, a partner with Renaissance Group chartered professional accountants, handled both jobs.

“It was a big process, and the amount of paperwork, it scared me,” Watson said. “I saw this 14foot table and there was inches of paper from one end to the other. Piles and piles and piles. ‘I have to sign all these?’ (McIsaac) said yes.”

Multiple shareholders are common in professional services firms such as engineering and accounting, and entertainment groups such as pubs and nightclubs — “anything where you need to have

somebody’s boots on the ground,” McIsaac said.

But the structure can create issues around confidentiality, gaining consensus and fairly allocating sale proceeds to each shareholder.

Many professional services firms like CCMET also set up new entities as they expand, but this can mean higher accounting and legal fees and challenges when selling.

“Every potential purchaser we talked to, their requirement was one company that owned all the locations,” McIsaac said. “Executing a restructure of that magnitude is not an easy feat. It involves many months of co-ordinating, planning, legal work.”

An employee-ownership culture can be achieved through one holding company with multiple divisions, an employee stock ownership plan, phantom shares (where employees are compensated as though they were shareholders) or profit-share plans, said Axel Christiansen, vice-president of mergers and acquisitions at Renaissance Group.

But a change to a unified corporate structure can create difficult feelings.

“You may go from owning 10 per cent to a fractional share position, and although your dollar value should be the same in theory, you might not feel the same way about it,” McIsaac said.

Gaining consensus to sell among many shareholders can be difficult. One way to ensure a sale isn’t sidetracked by a few shareholders is a plan of arrangement, drawn up via a court process, in which a vote of 75 per cent approval would be enough to go ahead, McIsaac said. Watson chose not to do this. “I think my 64 people will all say yes. I took that risk,” Watson said. “If it hadn’t worked, that would have delayed the whole transaction by at least a year … (but) I didn’t like the other way.”

Professional services firms are also often project-based so their working capital requirements (current assets minus current liabilities) can vary significantly, leading them to hold more cash as a buffer. This can lead to tax consequences such as not qualifying for capital gains deductions due to excess non-business assets, and difficulty negotiating working capital when selling the company.

“Working capital is invariably one of the most heated negotiation points in a sale,” Christiansen said.

If the company hasn’t been managing its working capital efficiently, the average net working capital is higher than it needs to be and the purchaser will push to have those excess funds included as part of the sale.

“My company was very complicated for someone to buy,” Watson said. “It’s one of the reasons the first offer fell through.”

Even though the entire presale process cost him about $250,000, he has no regrets. “If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it the same way.”

He believes his managers, who nicknamed the parent company “Mama Metro,” felt “more ownership because it was their own company rather than a big company.”

Watson ultimately sold 70 per cent of CCMET to Equicapita, a Calgary private equity firm, earlier this year at 80 per cent above the early target price. CCMET is now one of the largest material testing firms in B.C., and Watson is looking to expand eastward.

Fifteen original shareholders now own 30 per cent of CCMET and still work at the company. “But now we have some money to put in the bank. If something happens to us and our families, we’ve all got our security blanket,” Watson said.

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