Ian Mulgrew
Sun

Former Social Credit premier William Vander Zalm cut a figure like a young Fred Astaire.

Without her once-trademark headband, his wife Lillian looked every inch a vivacious Zsa Zsa Gabor in movie-star sunglasses, Hillary Clinton pantsuit and platinum hair.

She grabbed my arm and cooed, “I need two men, d-a-a-r-ling!”

We laughed.

And with that -the Zalm on one arm, I on the other – the three of us headed down the sweeping staircase of the Vancouver Law Courts as if characters in some old-time musical extravaganza.

I looked around half-expecting the eccentric Faye Leung, the Zalm’s long-ago hat-wearing nemesis, to come screeching out of the wings as she used to do.

Surely, her constant sidekick, “Uncle Joe,” would be waddling behind in his bowler hat, swinging an umbrella like the Penguin.

There always has been a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera air surrounding Vander Zalm.

From his days as a cabinet minister, portrayed by cartoonists pulling the wings off flies, to his days as premier living in a castle in Fantasy Gardens, the charismatic gardener has always been larger than life.

Former Liberal, crusading social services minister, would-be mayor of Vancouver, now champion of the grassroots – age has not dulled his spark, his energy or his drive.

Vander Zalm was luminous last week in B.C. Supreme Court as he continued his fight against the Liberal government and its Big Business allies.

Two decades after he was driven from public office – jeers and catcalls echoing in his ears -the Zalm has returned to the provincial political stage at the front of the anti-HST revolt as if he were the lead in Les Miserables.

He relishes the role.

Memories of the disgrace that followed the controversial sale of his theme park to Taiwanese entrepreneur Tan Yu have been erased.

On Friday, Vander Zalm was triumphant, winner in the high-stakes challenge of his petition to repeal the controversial blended tax.

In the moments between Chief Justice Robert Bauman’s decision and the media frenzy, we reflected on the vagaries of his career, his days of ignominy and the collapse of the party that once governed the province as a fiefdom.

His is an incredible journey. Who could have guessed?

“Never say never in politics,” I told him.

He held my gaze and allowed himself a smile, a self-satisfied smile, not that blazing Cheshire grin he offers the camera.

“Never say ‘never’ in politics,” he repeated with a nod.

From a fifth-floor perch, Vander Zalm stared through the glittering glass of the courthouse at the media satellite trucks and the horde of journalists waiting below.

He was really back.

He looked around for his bride. Lillian was beaming: Her man was back on top. She grabbed my arm.

As we reached the bottom of the stairs, as the glass doors slid open, I gently removed her hand from my arm and whispered: “It’s your moment again in the limelight. Enjoy.”

The Zalm flashed his megawatt incisors and the happy couple veritably danced towards the battery of cameras and microphones.

Who could have guessed? It had taken 20 years. Twenty years!

But the Zalm was back.

And the Liberals should be afraid, very afraid.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Whatever course they take, expect them to keep stumbling and sink deeper

Vaughn Palmer
Sun

As the organizers of the campaign against the harmonized sales tax celebrated a victory in court Friday, the B.C. Liberals continued their stubborn defence of the much-hated tax.

“We still believe it is the best tax structure for B. C,” said Finance Minister Colin Hansen. “Instead of being a drag on the economy, as the old provincial sales tax was, it is one that will stimulate the economy and job growth.”

Far from convening the legislature to adopt the proposed-by-petition HST Extinguishment Act as anti-HST organizers demanded, Hansen said the government would instead follow the letter of the lengthy procedure set down in law for handling legislative initiatives.

“There is a process there and we will make sure that it is followed,” Hansen told reporter Jeff Lee of The Vancouver Sun. “Obviously, the sooner we get through it, the better for everybody.”

Sooner would surely be better for him and his colleagues. But I see no way they will be through this thing any time soon.

The next step in the process is the one set down by B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman in his 13-page decision rejecting the attempt by six business groups to derail the initiative.

“I would respectfully ask that the chief electoral officer perform his remaining duties under the Recall and Initiative Act forthwith,” wrote the judge. Meaning, as he noted elsewhere, the electoral officer should: “Advance the initiative petition and the draft bill accompanying it to the select standing committee of the legislature.”

But the select standing committee on legislative initiatives has no ability to move the measure to any definitive resolution. Its powers are limited to considering the contents without making any changes.

The Liberals inexplicably filled their six slots on the committee with inexperienced rookies and obscure back-benchers. The four New Democrats, led by house leader Mike Farnworth, are among the most experienced on the Opposition side.

If the Liberals try anything cute in the procedural realm, they are likely to be outmanoeuvred. They might try to convene hearings on the tax. But those would only provide another platform for attacks on the government.

Most likely committee members will convene in Victoria sometime in September, argue among themselves for as long as they can stand it, then opt for one of the two courses of action set down in the initiative act before the end-of-December deadline.

Either they recommend the HST Extinguishment Act to the legislature for the session scheduled to begin in February 2011. Or they vote thumbs down, effectively sending it to a provincewide initiative vote (much like a referendum), which would be held in September 2011. Either route is fraught with pitfalls for the government.

The legislature, as underscored in the court judgment, does have the leeway to reject the measure or tinker with the contents. Some Liberals would like to use the legislative process to broaden the debate around the HST by, say, forcing consideration of what would happen if the province did extinguish the tax.

Suppose the government added an amendment that would force the province to cut spending or increase taxes to the degree necessary to pay back the $1.6 billion in federal transition funding for the HST. Might that force the New Democrats to climb down off the fence and say what they would do about the tax?

But any parliamentary manoeuvring to preserve the tax would open the Liberals to accusations that they were defying the “will of the people” as expressed in the petition.

Other Liberals favour the referendum option, never mind the estimated $30-million cost of staging a provincewide vote. Because the day of reckoning would be postponed to the fall of next year, they hope by then people might have become used to the tax.

Plus the unique law surrounding what is technically called “an initiative vote” requires approval by 50 per cent of all registered voters, not just 50 per cent of those who cast a ballot. Not all that likely in these days of 50-per-cent turnouts.

Some Liberals figure the government could diminish the chances of passage by adding a second question to the referendum, making repeal of the HST contingent on, say, public approval of the means to come up with the $1.6 billion necessary to compensate Ottawa.

Still the government would be rolling the dice. If the anti-HST measure were endorsed by 50 per cent of the electorate, the government would be compelled to abide by the verdict, humiliating and expensive though the backdown would be.

Each of these scenarios could have an impact on the separate, though related process of recall. Recall procedures are designed to be tough, but the chances of success would be boosted by any further government bungling on the initiative petition.

From the day the Liberals sprang the HST on an unsuspecting public 13 lucky months ago, they’ve not put a foot right on their handling of the file. On that basis, bet that whatever course of action they choose to follow in the months ahead, the decline and stumbling will continue.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Painting is the largest public mural in Western Canada

Jes Abeita
Sun

The largest public mural in Western Canada depicts ravens, canoes, dancers and even a heartbreaking scene of children being sent off to residential schools.

The 7,600-square-foot scene on the wall of a Downtown Eastside hotel celebrates native culture and its history, but it’s also aimed at bringing together natives and non-natives.

“It touches a little bit on everybody, so I think when people look at it they’ll recognize something that comes from their [background],” said artist Jerry Whitehead, co-creative director of the project.

The mural, named Through the Eye of the Raven, was officially named and blessed Thursday morning at a gathering of first nations artists and community members, politicians and onlookers.

It decorates the Orwell Hotel in the 400-block of East Hastings, a provincially owned single room occupancy hotel managed by the Vancouver Native Housing Society

One of the major images on the mural is that of a raven dancer, whose eye beams a ray of light down toward the street below.

Whitehead said including the raven dancer was important because of the place ravens hold in the cultures of many coastal peoples.

The mural also includes images of sweetgrass, a totem pole and two blue serpents. The serpents are part of the creation stories of the Coast Salish.

There is a also an image of a woman weeping as children are depicted going to a residential school, represented by small figures floating out of her hands toward the outline of a building flying a British flag.

A group of eagles, representing healing, fly above the woman, the flag and the school. “Someone mentioned our past history with residential schools and we thought we’d address it in a different way like that,” said Whitehead.

The centre of the mural includes a canoe, a group of dancers and teepees, and a city scene that Whitehead said is important because it’s hoped the mural will become a bright spot for people in the area.

Noted muralist Richard Tetrault, who coordinated the six artists who worked on the mural, said when he began the project in February, it seemed a bit overwhelming.

“It had physical challenge, it had technical challenge and it had artistry that we all had to bring and fuse together,” he said of the process. By the time the team was finishing the mural, it was in the heat of summer and they had learned to work together seamlessly, Tetrault said.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

More offices see bedbug infestations

Laura Petrecca
USA Today

Your abusive boss isn’t the only vermin in the office.

Defying their reputation as a scourge of households, blood-sucking bedbugs are creeping into a growing number of cubicles, break rooms and filing cabinets.

Nearly one in five exterminators have found bedbugs in office buildings in the U.S., according to a recent survey of extermination firms by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky. That compares with less than 1% in 2007.

“It’s a national issue,” says Ron Harrison of pest control firm Orkin. “Not all of us have to go to work and worry about it, but we all have to be sensitive to it.”

Most cubicle dwellers and corner office executives are blissfully unaware of bug problems. And many wrongly think infestations take place only in the homes of unclean folks or in college dorms. But bedbugs can survive in a multitude of eek-evoking settings, such as offices, movie theaters and libraries.

Concerned about the swelling number of infestations in New York City, publishing giant Time recently brought in bedbug-sniffing dogs. The canines found a few cases, which Time had treated two weeks ago.

The District Attorney’s office in Brooklyn recently discovered that they had the critters, as well, and exterminated over a weekend.

The IRS had bedbugs in its offices in Philadelphia and Covington, Ky. It had exterminators into those offices and is still monitoring the situation.

Adding to physical problems — the bites of bedbugs can itch like crazy — is the mental anguish that comes with an infestation.

When word gets out that an office building has bedbugs, a kind of mass hysteria often occurs, followed by fierce finger pointing about who’s to blame for bringing them in.

Bedbug issues are “a complicated mess,” says entomology professor Michael Potter of the University of Kentucky. “In my career — and I’ve dealt with just about every critter that bothers people — this is the most complex.”

Commuting in

Once bedbugs settle into corporate digs, it’s tough to get them out.

The apple-seed-size insects dine on human blood. They hide in crevices and are resilient to many insecticides. They can live for a year without feeding, and they replicate quickly. The offspring of two bedbugs that move into an office in September can produce more than 300 bugs and lay about 1,000 additional eggs by January, says Harrison.

They infiltrate the workplace through various routes, such as on the suitcases of frequent travelers or on the purses, laptop cases and gym bags of employees who have infestations at home. They can also be brought in by office visitors, vendors or maintenance staff.

“Bedbugs are hitchhikers; they travel with people and with items that travel with people,” says National Pest Management Association spokeswoman Missy Henriksen.

As the parasites spread at hotels, hospitals, schools and homes, it’s natural that some workers will inadvertently transport them into the office, says Larry Pinto, co-author of the Bed Bug Handbook. And in a big office, there can be more than one carrier. “(Different) people can be bringing them in,” he says.

Pest management firms have had a 57% increase in bedbug-related calls in the last five years, and an 81% increase since 2000, according to the survey. Nearly all the firms polled — 95% — said they’ve had to tackle a bedbug case in the last year.

Four out of every 10 treatments were in commercial buildings.

“It shouldn’t be any surprise that it’s on the rise in office buildings,” says Potter, who is considered one of the top bedbug experts in the country. “If you look at where they show up, apartments, hotels and (houses) are on the top of the food chain. But with time, they move into other places.”

In one bizarre case this summer, custodians at the Argonne Armory municipal office building in Des Moines found a bag of bedbugs left on a hallway floor. Police have no idea who left the bag of bugs or why.

“It’s a very odd case,” says Sgt. Lori Lavorato. The investigation is still open. There are no suspects.

Infestations spreading

Putting aside the rare, rogue acts of a saboteur, pest control professionals have a few main theories about why the bugs are resurging in the U.S. They include increased travel, more immigration and the bug’s resiliency to pesticides.

In addition, the “denial/lack of incident reporting by tenants, workers, landlords, hotel or business management (and) universities,” has exacerbated the problem, according to the survey.

The insects are especially troublesome in densely populated cities, where they can spread quickly. But smaller areas aren’t immune.

“Cincinnati is awash in bedbugs, and Detroit is coming on strong,” says Mark Sheperdigian, vice president of technical services at Troy, Mich.-based Rose Pest Solutions. “We even have some small towns here in Michigan that have way more troubles with bedbugs than they deserve.”

Some ways they have an impact on the workplace:

•Lawsuits and human resource woes. “Bedbug lawsuits are starting to grow like crazy,” says Sheperdigian. Once the bugs start to spread, “You have other employees saying, ‘I got bedbugs because you had them in the office, and I took them home.’ “

Jane Clark, a Fox News Channel employee who claims she got bugs from the network’s New York City newsroom, didn’t sue her employer. But she did sue the building owner, management company and other entities in May 2008 for unspecified damages.

The lawsuit says that Clark first began to get bites at work around the fall of 2007, and that the defendants were negligent in rectifying the situation.

Clark’s lawyer, Alan Schnurman, says Clark was wrongly reassured by managers that the bug problem “had been taken care of,” but she kept getting bitten. Fox parent company News Corp. is paying her worker’s compensation, and the legal case is still pending. Clark couldn’t be reached for comment.

Being proactive is the best way to keep such lawsuits at bay, Sheperdigian says. “If you have a policy and you are upfront, it’s a lot harder to sue an employer.”

•Unwanted publicity. Global ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, which had a minor bedbug incident at its New York office last year, had those troubles posted on popular gossip site Gawker and ad industry blog AgencySpy.

Fears of incurring brand damage is what keeps many firms from broaching the subject with employees, vendors or customers.

“No one wants to be known as the company with bedbugs,” says Glenn Waldorf, a director at Parsippany, N.J.-based Bell Environmental Services.

Even the folks at former president Bill Clinton‘s office in New York are mum on the bedbug topic. The Daily News reported that the New York City-based charity had exterminators in for bedbugs last year, but the office didn’t respond to multiple USA TODAY requests for comment.

•Physical and mental anguish for workers. Some victims have absolutely no reaction, while for others, the subsequent swelling and itching can be painful.

Even without an extreme physical reaction, a bout with bedbugs can be psychologically scarring, says Potter, with victims reporting depression, anxiety, paranoia and stress. “Probably one of the most under-reported issues is the mental anguish that comes with having bedbugs,” says NPMA’s Henriksen

The bedbug situation was “very traumatic” for Fox’s Clark, says Schnurman. When many folks think of bedbugs, they have a half-smile remembering the popular “good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite,” rhyme, he says. “But when it hits home, it’s horrible. It’s absolutely horrible.”

•Widespread infestations. If caught early enough, the bug troubles can be contained to just a few cubicles. But if management doesn’t spot a problem — or ignores bug sightings — the critters can eventually take over multiple floors of an office building.

“If you go to an apartment where there’s an infestation, it’ll typically be centered on the bed or by the couch. But in an office, it can be anywhere,” says Pinto. “They start wandering down the cubicles and down the walls looking for food.”

The nocturnal critters prefer late-night dining if evening-shift workers are around, but can adjust to daytime feeding if necessary, says NPMA’s Henriksen: “They are in (a) search for the human blood meal, and they will find it any way they can.”

Challenging to destroy

There can be indications that bedbugs have moved in, such as employees seeing the six-legged crawler or its black fecal matter. But usually it takes a professional exterminator — and even a bedbug-sniffing dog — to unearth the full extent of the problem.

It often takes multiple treatments to completely quash an infestation.

“Their ability to survive is legendary,” says Sheperdigian. “We don’t have anything that works really well on them.”

It took three fumigations and a heat treatment to get the situation under control at the Des Moines Armory. The total cost was $5,150.

Smaller offices often pay $5,000 to $10,000 for bedbug exterminations, while the price for larger offices can easily hit six figures, says Pinto.

Just to hire the keen-smelling canines to investigate a full floor at a large corporate office building could cost $1,000 to $5,000, says Bell Environmental Services’ Waldorf.

Barry Beck, chief operating officer of New York City-based exterminator Assured Environments, says client requests for examinations and treatments of commercial buildings have skyrocketed.

Even after shelling out big bucks, it’s almost impossible to know that every bug is dead. And if an unidentified worker has a large infestation at home — or if company business travelers stay at bedbug-ridden hotels — the critters will likely keep coming back.

“Until we find a magic bullet that deals with bedbugs, It’s going to keep getting worse,” Pinto says. “They’ll keep popping up, and (exterminators) will keep knocking them down.”

Copyright 2010 USA TODAY

Next stop: Construction controversy

Frank Luba
Province

One year after the opening of the $2-billion Canada Line, commuters are hopping the rapid-transit link between Richmond and Vancouver in massive numbers — and the people who planned it are crowing about how lovingly the once-controversial line has been embraced.

The latter group should probably strap themselves in. Because their ride is about to get a whole lot rougher.

The construction dust has barely had a chance to settle in the year since Aug. 17, 2009, when the line began operation.

But it will soon begin to stir again as development chases after the more than 100,000 riders who now use the 19-kilometre line every day. The push will be especially strong along its low-density residential leg through Vancouver.

The debates over what will be built to house people within striking distance of Canada Line stations — how that housing will look, where it will be, how significantly it will affect the existing neighbourhoods — promise to be as lively as the original arguments about the line, its cost and its construction methods.

The City of Vancouver began studying the entire Cambie corridor well before the Canada Line opened, with council adopting a set of “planning principles” and an “interim rezoning policy” in January of this year.

That’s not just bureaucratic bafflegab. Planning is turning into reality, and fast.

There’s already one enormous project contemplated under the Cambie Corridor Planning Program: the bulky Marine Gateway at the foot of Cambie Street and Marine Drive. Critics fear the tallest tower could reach 35 storeys.

It would be the biggest building in the city outside the downtown core. And it’s creating controversy among neighbours concerned about having 483 residential units (both condominiums and rental units), retail facilities (such as grocery and drug stores), a cinema and offices all dumped into their corner of the city.

Gudrun Langolf, president of the Marpole Oakridge Area Council Society, says she’d prefer a park on the site. If it must be developed, she says, she’d prefer something on a smaller, more “human” scale.

“I believe Marpole is one of the last neighbourhoods being targeted by the developers,” says Langolf. “I think people are very wary of what is being dumped in the neighbourhood.”

Jo-Anne Pringle co-founded the Marpole Area Residents’ Association created in June to find out more about development in the neighbourhood.

“There is a feeling in our community that there is a sense of panic to hurry and densify all along the Cambie Corridor,” Pringle told The Province.

“Now that the [Canada Line] is here, I think most residents all along the line expect development to take place around the stations, but this sense of panic seems to be causing the public consultation process to be shoved aside,” she said. “This type of process isn’t only a concern for Marpole, but for any area in Vancouver that is now, or will be facing development or redevelopment.”

Pringle is right about the sense of haste.

Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs admits the Cambie corridor has become a “priority” for the city.

The massive Marine Gateway development has yet to come before council for rezoning, but one stormy public meeting has already been held and another is set for September.

Planning staff opposed the Marine Gateway from the beginning, because the property is zoned industrial and isn’t far from the city’s waste-transfer station.

Langolf says the smell from the garbage is “very strong,” depending on the prevailing wind.

But Meggs says council made the decision to overrule staff.

“The opportunity to develop on a transit site like that is too good to pass up, so we have to mitigate any impacts,” Meggs says.

“The other side of the coin is [that] the community, which includes Marpole, has raised real questions about the height and the amount of density,” he says.

The city can expect more of the same concern as housing densifies all along the line, Meggs admits.

“I think it’s fair to say that in all of these cases, you’re going to see that tension play out, because all along the Cambie corridor is mostly residential,” he says.

Brent Toderian, Vancouver’s director of planning, is working with the developers of Marine Gateway to ease the residential component of the project onto industrial land — and he says he’s optimistic about the outcome.

“It’s been a very challenging process for us, because this is a first for Vancouver with a project of this scale outside the downtown area,” he says.

“It’s not a surprising application, because of the Canada Line. This is what significant transit infrastructure does. It changes the assumptions for what happens around it.

“It can be a challenge, but let’s be clear, it’s also a very good thing. The reason why we’re motivated to find well-designed solution to this is [that] putting mixed-use density, density done well, around station areas is a key component to increasing ridership, decreasing our carbon footprint and helping us become, as our goal states, the greenest city in the world by 2020.

“It may be tough, but it’s worth doing.”

Gateway is just one of the projects being contemplated for the Marine and Cambie area. Others are expected to surface north along the line at King Edward, Oakridge and Langara.

The density debate isn’t really about convincing people to use the line. Average ridership has already hit levels not initially expected until 2013.

WAS THE CANADA LINE THE BEST USE OF TRANSIT DOLLARS?

After the rousing success of the line, particularly during the 2010 Winter Olympics, it’s hard to remember that the Canada Line was controversial.

In spite of shiny trains and sparkling ridership, University of B. C commerce professor Tsur Somerville still isn’t convinced the line was the right thing to do.

“They put it along the right corridor,” says Somerville, director of the Centre

for Urban Economics and Real Estate at the Sauder School of Business. “Cambie is the correct place to put a rapid transit line going from Richmond to Vancouver.

“[But] I do not feel that a subway-system investment was the best use of transit funds for the transit challenges in the Lower Mainland,” adds Somerville, who lives near the King Edward station and owns property there that will likely grow in value.

“It’s an extremely expensive investment,” he says. “The biggest public transit challenge is moving people from suburb to suburb, particularly in the [Fraser] Valley.

“Moving people from the airport and Richmond into Vancouver was not the biggest, most pressing transit issue in my mind. To a great extent, what they did was take everybody riding on buses along Granville from the suburbs and Richmond and put them on a transit line.”

But Somerville is aware of the political machinations that got the shovels into the ground for the Canada Line.

The line is a unique mix of federal government contributions ($450 million), provincial money ($370 million), airport money ($300 million), funding from regional transportation authority Trans-Link ($370 million) and from the private sector ($700 million).

The province’s money was dependent on the project being a public-private partnership. And Victoria wanted it built before the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Unlike the skeptical Somerville, Trans-Link CEO Ian Jarvis prefers to take the “long-term view” of the Canada Line.

“An investment like this really helps us achieve our long-term objectives for the region,” says Jarvis, who says that maintaining livability and economic viability in the region requires an effective transportation network.

There were other, and possibly more pressing, rapid-transit needs — the long-delayed Evergreen Line to Coquitlam, as well as an extension in Surrey and on the Broadway corridor in Vancouver, he admits.

“They’re all priorities,” Jarvis says. “We got a check mark beside one. Isn’t that good?”

Roberta Napoleao thinks so.

She and her family were visiting sister Renata from Brazil recently, and their entire party of five hauled nine bags, including a baby stroller, to the airport for their trip home.

They even had to walk three blocks to a SkyTrain station to get over to the Canada Line.

“It wasn’t easy to carry the bags on the street,” concedes Napoleao, who still thinks that “the Canada Line is very good.”

Vancouver resident Gerold Kuklinski, who normally drives to the airport (and everywhere else), agrees. The 74-year-old decided to give transit a try to see his daughter off on a recent flight, he says.

“I think it’s fantastic. It should have been done 10 years ago or more,” says Kuklinski, who notes that he wasted time and spent $12 on parking the last time he drove to pick a friend up at the airport. His tab on the Canada Line was the concession fare of $2.50.

In fact, Vancouver’s airport is probably the most prominent beneficiary of the Canada Line.

About 15 per cent of the people coming to or from YVR are using public transit, compared to just three per cent before the Canada Line opened, says airport communications director Rebecca Catley.

Other beneficiaries? Shopping at malls

along the line is suddenly easier, as is going to the River Rock Resort Casino just across the street from the Bridgeport Station.

Howard Blank, vice-president of Great Canadian Gaming, said visits to River Rock are up by 10 per cent.

The Oakridge Centre mall has seen an increase in business of around 10 per cent after the Canada Line, according to general manager Kathy Barr.

Worst off? There are more than 1,500 cabs in the Lower Mainland and of that total, 525 service YVR, says B.C. Taxi Association president Mohan Kang.

Kang says no official figures have been compiled, but he’s heard that business is off as much as 30 per cent. He thinks that might be right, given that ridership on the line is booming and that some of those riders clearly used to take cabs.

“We’re not against the Canada Line,” he says. “We’re just saying it has hurt the taxi industry.” [email protected]

THE NUMBERS

– Average weekday ridership has topped 100,000 people for the last four months, according to TransLink. That wasn’t forecast to happen until 2013.

– Daily averages, factoring in lower-ridership weekends, are almost at 100,000 as well, hitting 99,210 in July.

– Big numbers mean the break-even financial point for the line could come in 2020, three years ahead of the projected 2023.

– High numbers and crowded platforms don’t mean more trains. There are no immediate plans for buying additional trains, but TransLink has budgeted for pulling two cars out of the “spares” garage, bumping the fleet to 16 cars in August of 2011 and increasing capacity by 12 per cent.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Sponsorship will help cover cost of the new roof

Brad Ziemer
Sun

General Motors Place has become Rogers Arena and soon its neighbour, BC Place Stadium, will have a new name.

By the time it reopens in the fall of 2011 with a new retractable roof, the 60,000-seat facility will have a corporate moniker of its own.

General manager Howard Crosley said Wednesday the process of finding a naming-rights sponsor for the stadium is well underway.

“We are working on a whole number of things, but that is one of the things that we are working on,” he said.

BC Place Stadium has become a rarity in today’s sports world, where the vast majority of stadiums and arenas have corporate names.

A name change to BC Place Stadium figures to require an even bigger adjustment for consumers than the one announced Tuesday by the Canucks and Rogers. BC Place has been BC Place since it opened in 1983, and Crosley agreed that a new name, whatever it may be, will take getting used to.

“I have been listening to radio reports over the last day and there seems to be some negative reaction to the change from GM Place to Rogers Arena,” he said. “So there is going to be some negative reaction, I’m sure, but we would hope that people will understand that this is all to assist the taxpayers and helping us to refurbish the stadium.”

Money received by selling the naming rights will be used to pay back the provincial government loan for the new roof, which is costing nearly $500 million.

General Motors is believed to have paid more than $800,000 a year for naming rights for GM Place, while more recent deals have netted NHL teams much more money. Air Canada pays $1.5 million a year for naming rights to the Air Canada Centre, home of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors of the NBA. The refurbished BC Place will be home to the B.C. Lions and Major League Soccer’s Vancouver Whitecaps.

Crosley said his team is in the research stage of their search for a sponsor.

“It’s not something where you take out an ad in a newspaper and hope somebody responds to it,” he said. “It is something you have to do a lot of research on, which is kind of the phase that we are in now, and target specific companies that have certain objectives within the marketplace.”

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

GM Place now called Rogers Arena after Canucks strike sponsorship deal with Toronto-based telecommunications giant

Brad Ziemer, with a file from Fiona Anderson
Sun

The Vancouver Canucks have parlayed a cellphone turf war into a multi-million-dollar deal that has resulted in an immediate name change to the team’s downtown arena.

After 15 years, General Motors Place is no more. The building is now called Rogers Arena after the Toronto-based national telecommunications giant struck a 10-year deal with the National Hockey League team.

The deal, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, gives Rogers a significant presence in B.C. and serves notice to Vancouver-based Telus that its rival is serious about growing its business in the West.

“There is no question this is reinforcing our commitment to the province, to the West, to being a national player,” Nadir Mohamed, Rogers’ president and chief executive officer, told a news conference Tuesday at the arena that now bears his company’s name.

“We have been in a competitive market for a long time,” Mohamed said. “We like to compete. Our history is being a challenger brand if you go back to the legacy of [company founder] Ted [Rogers]. We took on the phone guys way back in our early days. We like competing. Frankly, we have done well in this market. We plan to grow, we plan to invest. Today is an example of building on our investment.”

The Canucks shopped the arena naming rights after General Motors decided it wanted out. GM has had the naming rights since the arena opened in 1995 and had another five years to run on its 20-year deal.

Telus, long the dominant player in the West, was approached about buying the naming rights, but spokesman Shawn Hall said the company decided against it.

“We looked at this opportunity and it wasn’t a good fit for us,” Hall said. “So our focus continues to be on expanding our network.”

Telus plans to spend $650 million in British Columbia this year on upgrades to its broadband and wireless service.

And Telus already has its name nearby, at the Telus World of Science.

“There certainly is value that comes with these kinds of things,” Hall said.

But despite Telus’s long-standing relationship with the Canucks, naming the hockey arena wasn’t something Telus wanted to do, he said.

“We wish them well,” Hall added.

As part of its new deal, Rogers also now holds the Canucks’ telecommunication sponsorship rights previously owned by Telus.

GM remains a significant corporate sponsor of the Canucks, but Tony LaRocca, GM Canada’s communications director, said the company wanted its advertising to be more product focused.

“If we wanted to stay within the existing contract it lasted longer than this year, but we have moved forward with this new agreement that works for all parties involved,” LaRocca said. “This is a good thing for us, a good thing for the Canucks.”

General Motors will retain a strong promotional presence inside the arena.

“We want to be more focused on our brands and on the specific products and the attributes of the products,” LaRocca said. “This give us an opportunity to do that in a way that allowed us to keep our partnership with these folks, which has been really good for us over the years.”

Mohamed said Rogers will use its wireless technology to enhance the experience of Canucks fans.

“We will partner with the Canucks to score new and revolutionary ways to use wireless technology to engage Vancouver fans any time, any place and especially at the Rogers Arena,” he said.

“This is an enormously exciting opportunity for us to build, invest and serve British Columbians. Sports and Rogers go together. Nationally, this adds to our broad investment in sports properties. It represents a natural and powerful extension of our existing relationships. That would include our ownership of the [Toronto] Blue Jays, our ownership of Sportsnet, our long-standing relationships with local sports organizations right here in British Columbia, like the Canadians and the B.C. Lions.”

Canuck owner Francesco Aquilini donned a Rogers sweatshirt while posing for pictures with Mohamed, who was clad in a Canucks’ jersey.

“Rogers Sportsnet has broadcast the majority of our games for nine years,” Aquilini said. “It is the first time in franchise history that local television, arena naming rights and telecommunications sponsorship rights have been held by one company.”

Mohamed also hinted that the company might be interested in acquiring the team’s radio rights when they come up for bidding.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Telecom giant seals naming rights to downtown stadium for undisclosed fee

Andy Ivens
Province

The Vancouver Canucks are getting on Rogers Communications’ wavelength.

The NHL team announced Tuesday that Rogers Arena will be the new name of the Canucks’ downtown stadium that has been known as General Motors Place since it opened in 1995.

Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini and Rogers president and CEO Nadir Mohamed said the deal is for 10 years, but neither man would disclose the price Rogers paid for the sponsorship. Other NHL rinks receive in the neighbourhood of $5 million a year for naming rights.

Asked whether he thought Rogers got a bargain in the naming rights, Aquilini cracked: “I think they did,” which garnered a few laughs.

“We will partner with the Canucks to explore new and revolutionary ways to use wireless technology to engage Vancouver fans any time, any place and especially at Rogers Arena,” beamed a proud Mohamed, who grew up in Burnaby and went to high school in New Westminster.

“We will also join forces on local Canucks charitable initiatives.”

Cable channel Rogers Sportsnet has broadcast the majority of Canucks games over the last nine years.

Rogers owns the Toronto Blue Jays and their home field, the Rogers Centre, and also sponsors the annual Rogers Cup of tennis, which is held in Toronto and Montreal.

Mohamed said Rogers will “leverage our technologies . . . to take the game to the fans wherever they may be.”

“Obviously, it’s going to be a tremendous experience at the Rogers Arena, but we’re hoping there is also a tremendous experience in terms of using technology in new ways so people can have access to the team,” he added.

How the company plans to do that will be revealed later this summer, said Victor de Bonis, Canucks chief operating officer.

“We don’t want to overwhelm you today,” he added. “But before the season starts, we’re going to go through and give you some samples of what we’re planning on doing.”

The Canucks already have one of the most successful sports-related mobile applications. The Canucks’ iPhone app, launched in February, “was the most downloaded sports app in Canada at certain points following the launch,” the team’s media relations director, T.C. Carling, told The Province.

The team launched its BlackBerry app in March. General Motors’ original deal for the arena’s naming rights still had five years to run.

GM will continue to be the exclusive automotive sponsor inside the arena, concentrating on the Chevrolet brand.

© Copyright (c) The Province

When guests skip on daily service or clean towels, staff get fewer shifts and work harder

Cheryl Chan
Province

When Brigida Ruiz opened the door to a “green” hotel room that hadn’t been cleaned for several days, she says her heart sank at the sight of the dusty, stained carpet.

“Can you imagine how a room gets after one week without cleaning service?” says Ruiz, who has worked as a hotel-room attendant for 18 years at the Sheraton Centre Toronto.

“It’s dirty, filthy. Really stinky.”

Ruiz says it took her longer to clean the room and she used more electricity, more water and more cleaning products than she normally would — hardly a save-the-planet exercise, she argues.

But that’s exactly what the U.S.-based Starwood Hotels chain is touting with its “Make a Green Choice” program, which invites guests to “conserve natural resources” by declining daily housekeeping in return for 500 loyalty points or $5 in food and beverage vouchers a day.

The green initiative, rolled out last summer in 140 Starwood hotels across North America — including at least five properties in Metro Vancouver — has hotel workers and their union seeing red.

They say the program is a bogus green plan that does nothing for the environment. But it does result in reduced shifts and more work for housekeeping staff, says Michelle Travis of Unite Here Local 40.

The union represents about 8,000 hospitality workers in B.C., including Starwood’s Westin Bayshore in Coal Harbour and the Sheraton Vancouver Airport in Richmond.

“This has been a real problem for housekeepers for the hotels,” says Travis.

“It’s just a cost-cutting measure on the part of the hotel employer.”

The Westin Bayshore defended the “Make a Green Choice” program in a statement emailed to The Province.

The program helps “hotels save energy and reduce water and chemical use” and has saved more than 31 million litres of water, 38,000 kilowatts of electricity and 42,000 litres of chemicals across the Starwood chain in its first six months, the statement said.

An estimated 4.5 to five per cent of guests at the Bayshore avail themselves of the program, compared to eight per cent companywide, says hotel spokesman Mitchell Fawcett.

The Bayshore was unable to say exactly how much water and electricity it has saved, Fawcett says.

“Since it’s been such a short time, we’re still assembling property statistics and don’t have a full tally we can share at this point,” he says.

One room attendant at the Bayshore, who asked that her identity not be published for fear of repercussions in the workplace, says she doesn’t see how the program — dubbed the “fake green-card program” by critics — is environmentally friendly.

“It doesn’t save the environment. But it’s bad for us, because we are losing hours and there’s more work,” she told The Province.

If 45 rooms opt out of housekeeping in a day, three staff members lose their shifts, says the 18-year employee.

But by the time workers finally clean a “green” room, the rooms are messier, the garbage stinkier and the towels are “like a mountain,” she says.

They also take longer to clean, forcing workers to rush the job in order to meet their daily quota, she says.

Sometimes, guests who turn down housekeeping still ask workers to bring them coffee, clear their garbage or make their beds, she adds.

And while guests are officially allowed a maximum of three straight days before their rooms are cleaned, in practice, Ruiz says, guests at her Toronto hotel sometimes do not have their rooms cleaned for longer periods of time.

Other hotels that have implemented the program include the Westin Grand, the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre and the Westin Wall Centre in Richmond.

Two other Starwood properties — the Four Points by Sheraton in Richmond and the Sheraton in Guildford — do not offer the opt-out.

Hospitality-industry experts say the program has environmental benefits, but agree there is no doubt the move also saves the hotel money.

“They won’t need as many housekeeping staff, and that’s a serious cost,” says Heather Ranson of the University of Victoria.

Rachel Dodds, associate professor of hospitality at Ryerson University in Toronto, says hotel guests are usually hedonistic creatures who overuse resources when checked in to a hotel, even if they lead a more environmentally conscious lifestyle at home.

“You go on holiday and that entire collective [approach] goes out the window,” says Dodds.

She says the hotel should be commended for trying to reduce its environmental footprint — especially since hotels, just behind hospitals, are the most wasteful and consumptive buildings — but agrees there is a social impact that’s not being considered by the program.

Ranson believes the opt-out is the latest example of an industry trend that’s seen airlines cut down on meals and amenities offered to customers in exchange for lower costs.

But she is skeptical about how popular the program will be at the Bayshore, whose clientele might not be easily swayed to give up perks.

“There will be a fair bit of resistance from their luxury guests who might not be brought off by coupons and points,” she says.

A further problem? The program confuses guests who really want to make a difference, says Unite Here’s Travis.

“Guests don’t realize this particular program has a negligible impact on the environment but a detrimental impact on housekeepers,” she says.

Adds Ruiz: “If we are talking about saving the environment, then let’s do it the right way.”

Meanwhile, Travis says the issue will likely be discussed at ongoing contract negotiations between the union and the Greater Vancouver Hotel Employers Association, which represents the Bayshore, as well as the Four Seasons, the Hyatt Regency Vancouver and the Renaissance Vancouver Harbourside.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Fiona Anderson
Sun

According to a recent poll, 47 per cent of small businesses in British Columbia said they weren’t ready to implement the new harmonized sales tax, even though it is less than a week away.

And Ken Ghag, executive director of commodity tax at Ernst & Young in Vancouver says he’s still getting calls from companies asking for help.

For some companies it may be pretty straightforward — just increase the goods and services tax from five per cent to 12 per cent, rename it, and then delete any reference to the seven per cent provincial sales tax. Because in most cases if the item was subject to GST, it now will be subject to HST.

But that only applies to companies whose customers are all in B.C. and don’t sell any items that are subject to the province’s point of sale rebates, which the government has put in place to keep some of the exemptions B.C.’s taxpayers have enjoyed to date.

Then it gets more complicated, Ghag said.

One of the main complications is charging different customers different amounts of tax, depending on where the customer is, he said. For example, if the product is shipped to an Ontario customer, the B.C. business has to charge 13 per cent tax, the rate in that province.

Under the old system, B.C. merchants weren’t registered to collect Ontario tax, so all they charged for out-of town customers was the five per cent goods and services tax. The Ontario purchaser was then supposed to “self-assess” the tax it owed to its own government.

Businesses that sell goods subject to point-of-sale rebates, they have the choice of charging 12 per cent and then rebating the seven per cent provincial portion, or just charging five per cent, Ghag said.

So businesses have to make sure whatever system they use, its up-to date to ensure everything is taxed properly, he said.

And that’s a lot easier than it sounds, with companies like Home Depot and Loblaw Companies Ltd., which owns Real Canadian Superstores, recently admitting they’d been charging B.C. customers provincial sales tax on items that were exempt.

To make sure they don’t make the same mistake, companies should do a “post-implementation review” a few weeks after the HST comes into effect to make sure it’s being charged properly, Ghag said. “Because you don’t want to have that Home Depot situation a year down the road [where] people find you’ve been charging the tax [when you shouldn’t], he said. “The reputation risk is pretty high for these retailers.”

On the flip side, companies should also make sure they are properly keeping track of the amount of HST they are paying so they can make sure they get it all back.

Because the advantage of the HST — a value added tax — is that only the final consumer pays the tax. That means companies who charge HST get refunds for the tax they pay.

While companies are used to updating their systems for tax changes, the switch to HST is on a much broader scale than they’d be used to, so there is a lot to do, Ghag said.

And if that wasn’t enough, an unrelated change means that starting July 1, companies with revenues of more than $1.5 million a year now have to file their returns electronically.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun