TESTS: New rules after huge levels of the deadly metal show up

SARAH SCHMIDT
Province

 

OTTAWA — Sixty per cent of children’s jewelry items tested at the government’s product-safety laboratory in the past two years had dangerous levels of lead — some comparable to lead car batteries.

Health Canada oversaw the targeted testing of 205 samples of suspicious items and identified 120 illegal products. The worst case was an item containing 92 per cent lead, suggesting the jewelry was made from old car batteries and other scrap lead.

Wearing jewelry made of lead is not a health risk, but lead poisoning can be fatal if children chew, suck or swallow it.

University of Toronto engineering professor Doug Perovic said the tests show lead levels in some of the jewelry are far worse than levels in old plumbing pipes.

“Who knows what these people are thinking. The stuff is thrown into a furnace, melted and cast into shapes of hearts and pendants,” Perovic said. “They’re putting on a thick coat of paint to make it look shiny and that’s it.”

The Health Canada data show 47 of 83 samples tested in 2006 exceeded the legal limit of .06 per cent lead, or 600 parts per million. Health Canada’s product safety lab tested another 108 samples for the 2007 survey, of which 67 had illegal levels.

The department said it followed up with the companies to ensure that the items were removed from sale and that “appropriate action was taken to advise parents and caregivers who may have purchased the product.”

Langley mother Dianna Peters is deeply troubled by the results. She has four children, including three daughters ages nine, seven and four, and has purchased earrings, necklaces, and bracelets for the girls at a popular jewelry store for girls and tweens.

“There’s no way I would buy them if I knew that they contained lead. What we’re buying should be safe. How do you know unless you have a lead test when you’re shopping?” said Peters.

She’s particularly concerned about her youngest girl. “Everything goes in the mouth. Even when she’s not thinking about it, she’ll be chewing on the necklaces.”

The testing of the suspect products was conducted after Health Canada toughened up regulations in April 2005, making it illegal for children’s jewelry items to contain more than .06 per cent lead.

Health Canada does not have the power to order a recall of products, including toys and jewelry, that violate the law, but can seize products from store shelves.

A new consumer-product safety law, to be tabled in Parliament today, will give officials the authority to issue mandatory product recalls when companies fail to act on legitimate safety concerns.

The bill provides for fines of up to $1 million for importers who bring the goods into Canada.

More than 65 per cent of products on store shelves in Canada are imports.

Aggressive marketing push into Europe is planned

Bruce Constantineau
Sun

The Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre will get a new president and a new marketing focus under major structural changes initiated by B.C. Pavilion Corp. (PavCo) chief executive Warren Buckley.

Former VCEC president Barbara Maple left her position last month as part of “organizational changes” needed to boost business, Buckley said in an interview.

“We’re reorganizing the structure of the entire organization — right from the sales people to the markets we go into,” he said. “It’s a different plan — to be more aggressive and more tactical in some of the overseas European markets.”

Buckley is the acting VCEC president until the organization completes a global search for a new president.

Maple was general manager of the convention centre for eight years before being appointed president two years ago. She served as president of the International Association of Congress Centres and chaired the Joint Meetings Industry Council and the World Council for Venue Management.

Buckley refused to discuss any “personal reasons” for Maple’s departure.

The $800-million-plus Vancouver convention centre expansion project, which will triple the facility’s meeting and convention space, is set to open by March 2009. Buckley noted about 70 per cent of international business at the centre now comes from the U.S. market.

“We want to change that and move into the European market more aggressively and look for more conventions and thematic trade show kinds of activities,” he said. “I don’t mean we’re not there but we’re just not there the way I want to be. So it’s just a change in the way we’re going to focus.”

Buckley said the organization will definitely get more marketing dollars to go after European business more aggressively but he’s not yet certain of the exact amount.

He said he’s satisfied with the future business the expanded centre has already attracted, noting 2011 is shaping up to be a “superb” year while 2012 is “okay.”

“The level of tentative bookings is also quite good and it’s our job now to convert those tentatives into real bookings and generate more business going into 2013 and beyond,” Buckley said.

He said Melbourne and Sydney average about 20 major international conventions a year and Vancouver is “approaching” that level now.

The convention centre says it has attracted 36 events for the year ending March 31, 2011 — including 15 “expansion” events that could not have been accommodated without the expansion. It said 17 events have been confirmed for the following year, including 12 “expansion” events.

Dave Gazley, vice-president of meeting and convention sales for Tourism Vancouver, said Maple has been a “wonderful ambassador” for Vancouver.

“She put in a lot of dedicated years with the convention centre and with PavCo and her representation on some major international groups gave Vancouver a great profile,” he said.

Buckley returned to Vancouver to head PavCo this year after six years in Singapore as CEO of the Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre. He was CEO of PavCo — the Crown corporation responsible for VCEC and BC Place Stadium — before heading to Singapore in 2001.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Turn your clutter into cash through online sales

Dana Gee
Province

Until about a year ago, my eBay experience was pretty limited. Actually, it mostly consisted of answering the door and signing for packages containing items my husband had ordered from the online auction house late at night after I had gone to bed.

Yes, some people watch late- night talk shows; He shops for weird stuff online.

One memorable arrival — oh, there have been a few — was a package in plain brown wrapping about the size of a large tissue box. I know what you’re thinking. Relax.

Anyway, I signed the courier’s electronic notepad, then headed up the stairs and deposited the package on the dining-room table. As I did so, I noticed that on the customs form, the contents of the package were listed as “antique surgical tools.”

I am not kidding.

Add the fact my husband’s last name is Hyde and you have the makings of a Victorian horror story.

But I never woke up with a tip of my finger missing or a bandage on my kidney area. No, it seems my husband, who is of the arty persuasion, planned on using the strange occluders and retractors in a multimedia art piece.

I haven’t yet seen the art piece, but I have seen my interest in EBay grow.

OK, it’s not as eclectic an interest as his. I order clothing, not creepy collectibles.

And I don’t go crazy. I hate clutter and, after recently talking to home-organizing experts for this column, I am even more mindful of the popular clutter-free fan’s rule that states when you bring an item into a house, you should try to take something else out.

EBay can help with that.

First appearing in 1995, EBay has grown faster than you can say Louis Vuitton at cost. Hundreds of millions of people regularly take part in the two million or so auctions that are happening daily in more than 1,600 categories.

“At the right price, nearly anything can be sold on EBay,” says Aron Hsiao, a New York-based consultant and former employee at EBay’s customer service/operations centre.

Hsiao knows this first hand, as everything from his jeans to his printer ink to his car’s air filter comes from EBay.

“I buy and sell on EBay as a matter of lifestyle,” he says. “Not only are the prices better, but my selling on EBay is a form of recycling. The things I sell don’t end up in the garbage, but can instead continue to be used by others.”

Hsiao says for EBay sales, the main dos and don’ts are roughly the same.

“Do spend a little time learning about EBay before listing items for sale,” says Hsiao. “And don’t simply rush into EBay with the expectation that it works the same way that more informal venues like Craigslist do.”

© The Vancouver Province 2008

Christina Montgomery
Province

DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE – Vancouver city council has voted to give a much-lauded private Downtown Eastside movie theatre a liquor licence for private events — despite a licensing moratorium in the area.

The rationale? Allowing District 319 Theatre, which operates out of the former Golden Harvest Theatre on Main Street, to serve drinks at its screenings, seminars and film-related events will help build the troubled neighbourhood into a cultural hub.

The licensed theatre is located next to the offices of Infinity Features, a Vancouver-based international film-production company.

Its president, producer William Vince, has purchased other properties along the same 300-block Main Street with the aim of redeveloping those north of the theatre for further office space for the company.

A staff report says the screening facility will be used by the industry for invitation-only private screenings, by producers, directors and actors, for industry social events including invitation-only premieres and post-award screenings; for seminars and script readings and press conferences.

It will also be used by local youth-training groups like Projections, which the theatre has offered to young area adults to help them learn film and video skills.

Most of the community supported the licence application and praised the company for its community support.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

New outlet opens 11 years after main store on Terminal Avenue

Bruce Constantineau
Sun

Home Depot officially put its name on the burgeoning Cambie-Broadway retail corridor Thursday by opening a new urban-format store at Seventh and Cambie.

It’s only the home improvement giant’s second Vancouver store, coming 11 years after it opened its Terminal Avenue location. “The density around this store is unbelievable and growing,” Home Depot Canada and Asia president Annette Verschuren said in an interview.

“We could put many more stores in downtown Vancouver and we’d love to have one on Marine Drive. It’s all about real estate [availability].”

Home Depot urban-format stores emphasize interior design products popular with urban customers — like paint, wall coverings, lighting, moulding and appliances — so the two-level, 77,000-square-foot Cambie store won’t carry lumber or large materials.

Verschuren said the residential densification of Canadian downtown cores has clearly increased the demand for slightly smaller and more interior-design focused Home Depot outlets.

The new Vancouver store is the company’s 23rd in B.C. and 166th in Canada and Verschuren said there’s still room for substantial growth across the country.

Typical Home Depot stores range from about 60,000 to 115,000 square feet but the retail chain is currently developing a 40,000-square-foot format that would fit in smaller Canadian markets.

The first is set to open this summer in Parry Sound, Ont., and Verschuren feels the Canadian market could support 100 to 200 of the smaller stores.

Home Depot and Rona Inc. traditionally run neck and neck for the market share lead in the Canadian home improvement retail sector and Verschuren said Home Depot currently has the lead — at about 17 per cent compared with 15 to 16 per cent for Rona.

She said Home Depot will open 10 new Canadian stores this year, as a relatively strong retail economy still supports ongoing growth.

“Western Canada has been phenomenal for us the last two years, but it will moderate and it’s probably better that it does,” Verschuren said, noting labour shortages make it hard to retain good staff.

“You just can’t compete with other jobs that pay $35 an hour so I’m more comfortable with things settling down, quite frankly.”

But she doubts the Canadian retail market will drop to the levels now being experienced in the U.S.

Home Depot recently reported a 27-per-cent drop in fourth-quarter profits last year as a slowing U.S. housing market led to the company’s first annual sales decline. Sales fell from $79 billion in 2006 to $77.3 billion last year, with profits dropping from $5.76 billion to $4.4 billion.

“The U.S. is probably experiencing its toughest economic downturn in 50 years,” Verschuren said.

“There are places where the housing market has lost 25 per cent of its equity and people have bigger mortgages than their homes are worth.

“So are they going to put in a new kitchen? I don’t think so.”

She said Canadian Home Depot sales are “significantly” better than those in the U.S. now, which is why the parent company continues to invest more than $20 million a store (including inventory costs) for each new Canadian outlet.

Verschuren also runs Home Depot’s Asian operations — currently limited to 12 stores in China that were purchased from an existing retailer — and is taking Mandarin lessons and flying to China at least six times a year to monitor progress in that market.

“I’d really like to explore [new stores] in India and Vietnam and lots of other exciting opportunities there too but we need to get China right first,” she said.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

It’s the most expensive city in Canada, according to KPMG study

Bruce Constantineau
Sun

High real estate values have bolstered Vancouver‘s position as the most expensive Canadian city in which to conduct business, according to a KPMG study.

The study — which examines 27 cost components and assigns a value of 100 to average costs in the U.S. — said Vancouver‘s cost index has risen from 96.9 to 104.2 in the past two years.

Calgary is the second-most expensive Canadian business city, with an index that has risen from 94.7 to 102, while Chilliwack is third, with an index that has gone from 94 to 101.6.

MMK Consulting representative Glenn Mair, an author of the study, said high house prices and other real estate values continue to drive up business costs in Vancouver.

“Industrial property costs, construction costs and office leasing costs are all quite high in Vancouver as a result,” he said.

Mair said Chilliwack‘s proximity to Vancouver has clearly driven up business costs in that Fraser Valley community, which also faces high real estate values and labour shortages that have driven up wages.

The study noted the strong Canadian dollar has taken away much of the business cost advantage Vancouver used to enjoy over Seattle. Vancouver‘s cost index is just 1.3 points lower than Seattle‘s but in 2006, it was 7.5 points lower.

“The strong increase in the Canadian dollar has really closed the gap in business costs between Canada and the U.S.,” Mair said. “But even with the dollar at par, Canada can still be competitive with the U.S. because of some significant cost-competitive changes that have occurred in the past decade.”

He noted federal and provincial cuts to corporate income taxes across Canada have been a major boost to businesses throughout the country.

The study said Canada (99.4), the U.S. (100) and Australia (100.2) are the business cost leaders among nine developed countries surveyed. Mexico, an emerging industrial country, had a business cost index of just 79.5 — the lowest of 10 countries examined in the study.

Mexican labour costs were the lowest by a wide margin but Canada ranked much higher than Mexico on quality-of-life issues like health care, crime rates and education.

Germany (116.8), Japan (114.3) and Italy (107.9) had the three highest national business cost ratings in the study. The three countries face the added challenge of having the oldest populations — having the largest proportion of citizens older than 44 and the smallest proportion under 25.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

KPMG study says Canada leads the way among G7 nations

Paul Luke
Province

Vancouver remains Canada‘s costliest city in which to do business, a new study shows.

And if that dubious honour isn’t enough, the declining U.S. dollar has eaten into the city’s previous cost advantage in the Pacific Northwest, according to the KPMG study released yesterday.

The study, which is done every two years, measured 27 business costs in 136 cities across 10 countries.

Vancouver‘s overall cost advantage over Seattle has been whittled down to “a minor 1.3-point lead,” KPMG said.

Housing affordability is challenging in B.C. but the province’s cities rate well on other factors, the study found.

“Although the high Canadian dollar does present challenges, British Columbia enjoys a strong economy with low unemployment, a highly educated workforce including foreign-born professionals and strong GDP growth,” said Elio Luongo, KPMG’s Vancouver managing partner.

Chilliwack is Canada‘s third-most-expensive city in which to do business and Calgary placed second.

Canada maintained its ranking as the world’s second most cost-competitive country to do business in as tax cuts offset some of the impact of the rising loonie, the study found.

Canada ranked only behind Mexico, which was included in KPMG’s Competitive Alternatives study for the first time this year.

The cost of doing business in Mexico is about 20.5-per-cent cheaper than in the United States, which is used as the benchmark indicator for the study.

Of the G7 group of countries, Canada now leads the way, followed closely by the U.S.

The study found the weaker U.S. dollar had helped the U.S. move up four places to rank third, followed by Australia, which previously ranked first. While Canada retained its second spot, the figures showed its cost-competitive edge had narrowed to less than one per cent with these two countries.

France was in fifth spot, followed by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Italy. Japan and Germany were at the end of the list as the least cost-competitive places for business.

“With the Canadian dollar at par, Canada is challenged to maintain the competitive edge it once held,” said Mark MacDonald, global director, competitive alternatives at KPMG.

“Canada has to present a clear value proposition to businesses in other areas. One example of this is the federal government’s recent cuts to corporate income tax rates, which are among the lowest for a wide range of operations among countries surveyed.”

Glenn Mair, a co-author in the study from MMK Consulting, said Canada also ranks highly in terms of non-cost factors, such as education. “Canada consistently ranks well when we consider environmental regulation, education attainment, housing affordability, labour force, and energy availability — all of which are important business-location considerations,” Mair said.

The survey found that among major Canadian cities, Montreal and Halifax had the greatest cost advantage relative to comparable U.S. cities.

It found business costs had risen the fastest in British Columbia and Alberta over the past two years, reflecting the western economic boom. Vancouver was still the country’s most expensive city, followed by Calgary and Chilliwack, then Toronto.

The study measured 27 significant cost components that are most likely to vary by location, including labour, taxes, real estate, and utilities, as they are applied to 17 business operations, over a 10-year planning horizon.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Companies and individuals have thriving businesses serving needs of busy consumers

Gillian Shaw
Sun

When Elide Centanni has to get from her job in Burnaby to pick up a cheque for her husband’s business and get it to a bank before closing, she doesn’t worry about battling rush hour.

Instead she calls up her personal concierge, who copes with the traffic headaches and gets to the bank in time, all while Centanni is still at work.

At a dinner party when the special dessert she has ordered is in Vancouver and she’s busy setting the table at her home in Burnaby, there’s no panic.

Her concierge from Thirsty Muse, a company headquartered in Burnaby and offering service in cities across Canada, is at the door dessert in hand before the guests arrive.

And when a colleague faced hours of lineups to get a passport, a personal assistant stood in line, calling in the passport applicant when there was only 20 minutes left to get to the head of the lineup.

“I use them all the time, I love them, I don’t think I could live without them,” Centanni says of her on-call personal assistants at Thirsty Muse who answer her every request — from taking her car in for an oil change to filling her daughter’s Advent calendar with gifts and treats, to researching a shopping buy at Bloomingdale’s.

“I don’t know what I would do without them, they are my saving grace, every time I have something that is going to cause great stress in my life, I think Thirsty Muse.”

Outsource your life: It’s a growing and lucrative field for companies and individuals that are stepping in to fulfil the every need of today’s time-strapped consumer. The practice has moved from the corporate boardroom to the consumer’s kitchen and beyond.

At a time when people are finding there are just not enough hours in the day, they are buying more time by outsourcing everything from making dinner to balancing the bank account.

“What we set out to do was to teach the world to delegate the tasks we are never going to talk about during our deathbed conversations,” said Jason Rawn, co-founder and president of Thirsty Muse. “People say I can take care of that stuff myself.

“But the fact is no one cares, the fact is those tasks take you away from things that really matter — from projects at work, from families — it allows you to delegate those tasks that do not require your time, your energy or your love and care to a group of personal assistants right across Canada.”

Thirsty Muse is capitalizing on a shift that is seeing us go back to the days when taking care of a home and family were so labour intensive that even full-time homemakers might be expected to farm out certain tasks to helpers — whether it was having the cleaner deliver starched shirts or having someone come in to help beat the rugs for spring cleaning.

With the Internet levelling the global playing field, outsourcing is provided by everyone from virtual assistants overseas to the dog walker down the street.

It’s a burgeoning sector of the economy that is seeing traditional service providers like security companies morphing into all-around concierge offerings and new companies emerging to meet demand for services as diverse as driving kids to soccer practice or stocking the family fridge.

Such services are being seen as corporate perks and can be included in packages delivered by companies anxious to attract and retain employees who are struggling with the work-life balance dilemma.

We take a look at some of the services geared to helping you outsource your life.

Corinne Stadel could be her own best customer. The owner of the meal preparation service Sensational Suppers in North Vancouver, she juggles family life with a full-time job as a service manager at a car dealership plus running her own business.

While she offers customers a way to outsource meal making, she has her own system of outsourcing home tasks.

“I have a lady who comes in and cleans twice a month,” she said.

“Now she is bottling wine for me. I don’t have time, nobody has time — you have to outsource, otherwise you stay home.”

Sensational Suppers offers different options for farming out kitchen cooking chores, including one in which customers assemble meals at the store to take home and another where the meals are made and delivered or available for pick up.

“We do all the shopping and the prep work, they come in and put it all together to take home,” Stadel said.

“You could do 12 meals easily in two hours.”

Full meals at Sensational Suppers, a franchise operation on the Web at www.sensationalsuppers.com, range from $28 to $30 for six-portion meals with half-meal portions $17 to $19.

Susan Woodhouse takes the personal chef service right into the home. She works part-time at the University Women’s Club and in response to a request from a club member whose daughter was looking for help with meals, now also spends time as a personal cook and shopper.

“I didn’t actually set out to do this particular type of work,” she said. “She basically wanted somebody to come in and make some home-cooked meals in her house.

“She chooses what she wants to have made and I go out and shop for ingredients. I come back and cook it for her; put it in containers so it is all ready when she and her family come home.”

Woodhouse usually spends about a day every two weeks shopping and filling the larder and freezer and she is constantly turning down offers for more work.

By the time she leaves, entrees are in the fridge or freezer for dinner, fruit is chopped up for fruit salad, veggies are prepared for later reheating and cookies and muffins are freshly baked.

Like Stadel, Woodhouse, a busy mom who juggles different part-time work, could probably use some outsourcing help herself.

“I’m not a gourmet cook, I’m just the mom in the kitchen making casseroles,” she said.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Money Mart cashes postdated cheque

Province

A Vancouver businessman has donated $2 million to help the YMCA with the redevelopment of its Vancouver property.

YMCA Greater Vancouver president Bill Stewart said the donation from Robert Lee will result in the new downtown premises being named the Robert Lee YMCA.

“This is a milestone for us as we look towards our goal of raising $10 million so we can welcome everyone through the doors of our brand-new YMCA,” Stewart said.

Lee is founder and chairman of the Prospero Group and well known for his business leadership and real-estate development, as well as philanthropy.

In November 2006, the Robert H. Lee Graduate School was established at the University of B.C.‘s Sauder School of Business to recognize a gift from Lee. He graduated from UBC in 1956 and has served on the UBC board of governors and was a founder of the UBC Properties Trust.

Lee has been a YMCA member for 45 years.

“You know, I can just be myself there. I’m very proud to be associated with the YMCA,” Lee said. “Children and youth need to get active and stay active in life, for themselves, their families and the health of their communities.”

The new downtown YMCA at 955 Burrard Street is currently under construction. The project is a joint venture with Concert Properties that will result in a 42-storey condo tower and a 95,000-square-foot YMCA facility.

The Robert Lee YMCA will be six storeys and geared toward people from all backgrounds, abilities and walks of life. The top two floors will be home to a 69-space child-care centre.

© The Vancouver Province 2008