‘I am at peace with myself and my religion’

Province

The following are excerpts from a Province story by former staffer Lyn Cockburn when Benazir Bhutto visited Vancouver on Jan. 22, 1991:

She is above all a tightrope walker. She walks the line between the old and the new. She balances delicately between Muslim tradition and the modern world.

For example, she wears an approximation of the veil, something she did not do when she studied at Harvard and Oxford.

She agreed to an arranged marriage with Asif Ali Zardari, a wealthy businessman. On the other hand, she promises to increase the rights of women in Pakistan.

She was in Vancouver yesterday and I interviewed her just hours before she was to address the black-tie World Affairs fund-raising dinner at the Hyatt Regency.

We sit at a huge conference-style table in her [hotel] suite. She is composed; I am a little nervous.

“Sit over on this side, I’m a little hard of hearing,” she says, instantly making me feel better.

There is a dignity about her, a presence, a sense of power, a feeling of serenity.

She knows exactly what she wants to say and she says it. For however long she wants to say it. If you try to interrupt her to ask another question, she says calmly, “May I please finish my sentence.”

Her tones are measured, considered and, in some cases, careful.

She is ever on that tightrope.

For example, she is aware that she has often been accused of being an insincere Muslim educated in western ways.

“I am at peace with myself and my religion,” she says.

“I am deeply religious. I believe in the power of prayer but I don’t believe that fundamentalist Muslims have any right to tell me or the people of Pakistan how to run our lives.

“We are answerable to God, not the fundamentalists.”

Bhutto states that she and her Pakistan People’s Party represent the liberal face of Islam while the fundamentalists would take Muslims back to the world of centuries ago.

“Islam is not just a set of narrow, rigid laws,” she says.

If she is a trifle circumspect when discussing religion, she makes up for it when she talks about the Oct. 24, 1990, election which gave her a mere 45 seats in the 217-member National Assembly.

“It was rigged,” she states flatly.

A Canadian team of observers was present for that election and declared the polling largely free and fair.

Bhutto points out that the Canadian team went home right after the election while a French team did not. “The French observers said publicly that fraudulent ballots were added after the polls closed at night,” she says.

“We won that election,” she announces, conviction evident in her voice. “And we would win again.”

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 The Les Twarog Team Honors a Courageous Woman…

Home Hardware’s computer program can take the stress out of remodelling your home

Joanne Hatherly
Sun

Everybody loves to try before they buy. Consider taste-test tables set up in grocery store aisles, or the mandatory road-test for a car.

But renovating a house is a bigger undertaking than sipping on a can of Coke or test-driving a car, so it can be challenging for homeowners to stretch their imaginations to visualize the effects of a makeover.

Would the living room look better with ceramic tile or hardwood floors? How about the front door: Should it be a craftsman, colonial or mission?

The computer revolution changed all that, so that now with the click of a mouse, the phrase “what you see is what you get” is becoming reality.

At the end of 2006, Home Hardware introduced HomeWorks, a home-imaging software package that allows consumers to piece together a digital do-over. It paints, installs doors and windows, refloors rooms, sets up new columns, re-surfaces the driveway and more.

Andrew Pantelides, a national product manager at Home Hardware in Montreal, says the software was designed for contractors and as an in-store retail tool, but they quickly saw it “had legs” for the customer’s in-home use.

They linked it up with more than 30 national suppliers so the package uses manufacturers’ windows, doors, flooring, interior and exterior paints, landscaping, siding, roofs, screens, masonry, stone pavers, railings and more.

It might be the most comprehensive digital remodelling package on the market. Other retailers are picking up the trail, as well. Browse the Rona website that features virtual walk-throughs on home plans and downloadable landscaping plans. (rona.ca).

Before HomeWorks, the best-known digital imaging application for the home was introduced through paint manufacturers’ websites where browsers could digitally repaint virtual rooms. Benjamin Moore has its Personal Colour Viewer; Glidden had Color@HomeII, Sherwin-Williams Color Visualizer, and Behr Paint Your Place.

Increasingly, manufacturers have posted these packages on their sites as free downloads. Upgrades that allow shoppers to use photos of their own homes can be purchased for less than $20.

Other home-related manufacturers and retailers followed. Now consumers can digitally tinker with landscaping, design their own closet organizer, and figure out how to make over kitchens and bathrooms.

The programs have grown more sophisticated while they’ve become simpler to use. Daryl Stanley at Victoria‘s Floor Covering International retail started using a digital flooring program in October. He still bumps around as he navigates the program, but in a short time, he has become adept enough that the program has changed his sales calls.

“I used to draw diagrams for customers,” says Stanley. “Now I can show them whatever it is they want — tile, hardwood, carpet, luxury vinyl. If they want to see what Brazilian cherry will look like in their living room, I can show it to them.”

He notes, however, that consultation is still a big part of the selection process. “I don’t think any program can make it perfect, and there are still things to discuss.”

Those things include lifestyle, traffic and decorating preferences.

How easy — or hard — is it to use HomeWorks? The proof, in this case, is in the computer’s disk drawer.

Ross Bay Home Hardware owner-manager Greg Hellyer invited a reporter to navigate the program with James Cook, 23, a staffer who had never used it.

The program loads quickly into the store’s computer. Cook wanders through the options and opens a detailed illustration of a craftsman-style house complete with porch. He scrolls through paint choices — the variety is as wide as the stock on the store’s shelves. He picks a brand and then a style, which opens a sidebar of colour choices.

The program is brand specific — those 30 to 40 big-name suppliers Pantelides mentioned — and provides a product list that users can take to the store, which means when they order a specific paint colour, that’s the colour they will get.

Cook cautions, however, that colours on a computer monitor do not always look the same on the wall, so customers should check the paint colours in the store.

The software designers planned ahead on the HomeWorks program: It not only provides images of products available through the store, it also lists regional availability. For example, when Cook selected a particular type of masonry, the system advised him that it was only available in Eastern Canada.

“What that tells you is that we would have to order that in,” Cook says.

Use the Internet to download updates, so the user won’t select items that are no longer stocked.

Before Cook shuts down the program, he stumbles over one unexplored key.

“Ah, the tutorial!” Cook says as a detailed how-to list pops up. “Ordinarily, it would be a good idea to look at that first.”

PLANTING IDEAS

Nothing “greens” a home better than a few well-placed plants. For most of us, that means using the trial-and-error method — purchasing the plant, selecting a pot that dovetails nicely with our home’s interior look, and then stepping back to measure the overall effect.

It’s simple, and for the most part it works, but what about when the pot in question is more than one metre tall and hauling it to your home produced enough back strain that you dread the idea of returning it? What if your plant acumen is somewhat on the low side and you’ve lost some money when you put those shade-friendly plants under a south-facing skylight, thus scorching the leaves to an autumnal brown?

A little digital enhancement might go a long way in making this process easier. Such a service — its roots well-established in hotels, businesses and malls — is creeping into the residential market.

Joanne Craft, B.C. vice-president for Initial Tropical Plants, says residential clients are taking advantage of the technology that allows them to show how a home would look with a variety of plant selections.

“It’s created a huge ‘wow’ factor with our clients,” says Craft.

The process is as simple as a consultation, taking photos of the home and digitally enhancing them to show the plant selections in the exact location.

No more brain-strain while you try to imagine how that palm tree would look in your foyer.

“With digital imaging, clients can make that decision very easily,” Craft says.

Getting others in the act is simple, too, by e-mailing the images around for those second, third and fourth opinions. Most of the homes taking advantage of this service fall into the “mansion” category, says Craft, but she can see its appeal to the mid-range market, especially with the growing interest in home interiors.

Plants are, after all, the ultimate organic green accent.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Most retailers are prepared for the tax cut, but consumers still have lingering questions

Kristin Goff
Sun

OTTAWA — Retailers are ready to cut the GST by one percentage point on Jan. 1 without much difficulty, according to the Retail Council of Canada.

But in case some haven’t had time to brief staff during the Christmas rush on all the details of the switch to a five-per-cent GST tax rate, it could be wise for consumers to know how the changes will apply.

Some of the changes aren’t as straightforward as you might guess.

Take this example, based on information from tax consultant, KPMG Canada:

If you exchange the purple shirt Aunt Maxine gave you at Christmas for the same shirt in the colour blue on Jan. 2, are you due a refund on the difference in the GST?

The answer is yes, although we’re talking small change — 30 cents on a $30 shirt.

“If the shirt is purchased before Jan. 1, 2008 and returned on or after that date, the GST refund on the returned shirt will be six per cent. The exchange will be considered a purchase of a new shirt, which will be taxed at five per cent because it took place after Dec. 31, 2007,” according to KPMG.

While it is true that retailers have just gone through their busiest season of the year, Derek Nighbor of the Retail Council of Canada expects things to go smoothly when the lower tax rate goes into effect.

Retailers and other types of businesses have already reduced the GST once. On July 1, 2006, the GST was reduced to six per cent from seven per cent with relatively few reported problems, said Nighbor, vice-president of national affairs for the Retail Council.

“Our sense is, that as with the first iteration, retailers large and small will be ready,” he said.

“It is a big chunk of money.”

Nighbor estimates the tax reduction will put $5 billion into the pockets of consumers.

In most cases, the GST appears separately on bills for goods and services, making it relatively easy to see whether you are getting the reduction you are due.

But businesses do have the option of including the tax within their prices. During the last GST reduction, some businesses chose to increase their prices by an amount equal to the tax reduction, so the $12 price of a movie ticket or the $1.50 cost of a vending-machine treat stayed the same for consumers, but represented a seemingly painless way to raise prices for the business operator.

The Canada Revenue Agency has a toll-free GST information line for consumers and businesses from 8:15 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, to answer questions (1-866-959-7797 English, 1-866-959-7798 French). There is also information for consumers and businesses on the Internet at www.gst.gc.ca.

Here is a sampling of questions and answers for consumers, taken from information by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and KPMG.

Q. What GST rate applies if I return a purchase for a cash refund?

A. If the item was purchased before Jan. 1, the cash refund should be based on the six-per-cent GST that applied at the time of purchase.

Q. What is the GST rate on the chimney cleaning done on Dec. 17, if I don’t pay until Jan. 4?

A. The GST rate is usually based on the earlier of the date that payment is made or the date the supplier issues an invoice. So if the chimney sweeper gave you a bill on Dec. 17, the rate would be six-per-cent GST. But it could be five per cent if the invoice was issued after Jan. 1, regardless of when the work was done. CRA also cautions that there can’t be an “undue” delay in issuing invoices in order to jump to the lower GST rate.

Q. I made lots of purchases in December with my credit card. Since I won’t get the bill until January, does the lower five per cent GST rate apply?

A. No such luck. You’ve already paid the six-per-cent rate when you made the December purchase, and your credit-card company doesn’t owe you a rebate.

Q. I bought furniture in October under a “don’t pay a cent” deal which delays payment until October 2008. What is the GST rate?

A. You still have to pay last year’s six-per-cent GST because you became owner of the furniture in 2007.

Q. If I purchase hockey tickets in December to attend a February game, what is the GST rate?

A. Six per cent. It is based on when you pay.

Q. What should I do if I am charged six per cent GST on a purchase made after Jan. 1, 2008?

A. First request a refund from the company that overcharged the tax. If that doesn’t work, you can file for a rebate from the government on taxes paid in error, using the form GST189, known as the General Application for Rebate of GST/HST. The form is available from GST information phone line staff or on the CRA website: www.cra-arc.gc.ca.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Naramata operation is owned by two investment industry veterans

Michael Kane
Sun

When the financial services industry is clamouring for your retirement savings this February, two investment veterans will be singing a discordant but possibly more delightful tune.

David and Cynthia Enns will be inviting people to invest in Portfolio, their award-winning Okanagan red wine with its distinctive circular ticker-tape label quoting actual stock prices from the day the grapes were harvested.

Those who pay $35 a bottle in February will be saving $5 on the retail price when the wine is released six months later. While that’s a modest financial return for entering this futures market, it does guarantee delivery of a wine that is becoming increasingly popular and difficult to find.

$50 a bottle on the shelf in wine stores in Vancouver, so the futures program is a really advantageous way to make sure you are on the list,” said Cynthia Enns, the marketing half of the partnership behind Laughing Stock Vineyards, a boutique estate on the Naramata Bench north of Penticton.

The Enns, who met while toiling in the mutual fund industry, are well aware of the investment mantra that past returns are no guarantee of future performance, but they’re hoping their next liquid investment will prove as successful as the last.

Portfolio, their flagship product, is a classic Bordeaux blend featuring cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc varietals. The current edition, Laughing Stock Portfolio 2005, collected the gold medal for Meritage Red at the 2007 Canadian Wine Awards.

That’s especially gratifying for 50-year-old winemaker Enns because it was his first independently produced vintage from the winery at Laughing Stock. The first two vintages, the 2003 and 2004, were produced with the help of consultant Ian Sutherland at his nearby Poplar Grove Winery.

Enns picked up his passion for wine while living in France as a child and started making it in a neighbour’s garage when the couple lived in Crescent Beach, near White Rock.

He recalls trucking in his first batch of grapes from Walla Walla in southeastern Washington state in the border-clogged days after Sept. 11, 2001. Since then he has taken winemaking courses at the University of California at Davis and at Okanagan College.

Still, it was a leap of faith when the couple transitioned from successful careers in the investment industry and their own distribution and marketing company, Credo Consulting, to an uncertain future in winemaking.

Cynthia Enns, now 39, was turning her back on an MBA. When they bought two hectares (five acres) in Naramata, they stuck with the playful name Laughing Stock because not a few people thought they were crazy.

Yet there was some marketing method to their madness. They reasoned their financial industry connections would resonate with the many wine aficionados in the business community.

With the task of making a small Okanagan winery stand out from a field of about 150, Cynthia Enns made “initial public offerings” of “private placements” to chief financial officers, trying to convince them that the gift of a bottle or even a case of Portfolio would impress valuable clients.

This year’s corporate customer targets included Telus, Ballard, QLT, Royal Bank and CIBC — all companies whose stock prices are quoted on the Portfolio bottle thanks to the novel label designed by Bernie Hadley-Beauregard of Vancouver’s Brandever

Strategy Inc.

Laughing Stock also produces a chardonnay and a pinot gris, and this year introduced a new wine for grapes that are surplus to requirements or don’t quite make the cut for the premium Portfolio offering. In keeping with the financial theme, the new wine is called Blind Trust.

As with many small producers in the Okanagan, their products rarely show up in BC Liquor Stores or the VQA outlets which sell exclusively B.C. wines. Laughing Stock typically sells out through more profitable channels, including their mailing list and about 150 restaurants in Vancouver and Whistler.

Less than 10 per cent is sold through their tasting room because it is often closed, even at the height of the tourist season.

“We’re supposed to be here for the lifestyle, so it’s nice to have some balance between making and marketing wine and making sure we get the boat into the water a bit in the summer,” Cynthia said. That suits their nine-year-old son, Joshua, just fine.

Laughing Stock’s wine futures program generates important early cash flow in a business that requires large and patient capital investment but it is limited to six months because the Enns don’t want to promote their wine until they have a good idea what it looks like. February’s offering will feature grapes that were picked in 2006 and are well advanced in the wine-making process.

Bigger producers, like Tinhorn Creek in Oliver, are able to offer merlot futures at a 20-per-cent discount in May with the wine shipped 18 months later.

Tinhorn Creek introduced futures in the late 1990s as a way of getting around regulations that prohibited wine discounts, said marketing manager Shaun Everest.

“Those regulations have been lifted and now the futures program is really a way for consumers to make sure they are going to get access to something before it gets snapped up,” he said. “Many long-term buyers of the futures like to keep a few bottles for several years to see how they age.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

It will soon work here, but with so many un-named streets, it

The city’s park board has become a committed sponsor of great design and now has several centres, pools and rinks that are modern works of art

Frances Bula
Sun

VANCOUVER – The kids who poured in for the first time this week to the shiny new building on Vancouver’s Main Street –playing basketball on the pristine floor, tumbling into the wood-panelled pre-school rooms, running across the interior second-floor bridge — think they were in a place called the Sunset Community Centre.

That’s the official name of the distinctive sculpted glass-and-metal building created by architect Bing Thom that now adorns Main between 51st and 53rd in south Vancouver.

But the park planners and project managers who watched this exceptional structure grow out of the ground over the last year have another, private name for it.

The Sunset Museum of Modern Art.

It’s a name that seemed entirely fitting on Monday morning, the centre’s opening day, as pale winter sunlight flooded through the arched skylight band that spans the building and warmed the gray of the soaring nine-metre concrete walls in the central passageway.

From the outside, the centre, with its roof lines that swoop and curve like falling flower petals and its curved front whose windows are a pale-gray crossword puzzle of clear and milky rectangles, is so striking amid its neighbourhood of sari shops and Vancouver specials that people driving by have been known to brake to an abrupt halt to marvel at this small and elegant piece of building art.

But the most interesting part about the Sunset Museum of Modern Art is that, while it is beautiful in a unique way, its high-quality design is not at all unusual for a Vancouver community centre these days.

In fact, the city whose community centres used to be monuments to utilitarian construction now has more than half a dozen centres, pools and rinks — finished or on the way — that are works of modern art.

That’s because the Vancouver park board, backed by an enthusiastic chorus of high-energy community-centre associations, has become one of the most active and committed sponsors of great design in the city.

In the past 10 years, the board has spent $200 million on its renovations, replacements and additions, starting with the Coal Harbour Centre, completed in 2000, up to the current project to replace all the buildings at VanDusen Gardens with new, ecologically sensitive structures.

That’s not including the innovative Roundhouse centre, which kicked off the new era of the “Community Centre Beautiful” in the 1990s, when the park board took the former storage and maintenance buildings for the railroad and transformed them into the gathering place for the emerging north False Creek neighbourhood.

During that decade, the park board has attracted some of the city’s most renowned and innovative architects — Peter Busby, Jerry Doll, Arthur Erickson, Walter Francl, Gregory Henriquez, Roger Hughes and Darryl Condon, Nick Milkovich, Bing Thom — and won five lieutenant-governor’s awards for architecture.

“The pursuit of beauty is part of what the parks are all about,” says Piet Rutgers, the park board’s chief planner. “And these community centres are basically the living rooms of the community. So we want to make them beautiful.”

Architects and architecture critics are often prone to wringing their hands about the lack of iconic buildings in Vancouver, which they blame on repressive forces at city hall. But the fact is that most iconic buildings in other cities emanate from two sources Vancouver hasn’t had.

In the past, it was mostly governments who commissioned image-defining museums, libraries, art galleries, train stations, airports and concert halls. Vancouver has had very little of that kind of building for decades, unlike the cities of Toronto, Montreal or Ottawa.

And increasingly, as Nicolai Ouroussoff observed in the New York Times recently, it’s corporate clients who are commissioning the best architects to produce idiosyncratic buildings that show off their companies to the world.

Again, Vancouver doesn’t have those kinds of big corporate builders.

Instead, most of the new buildings here are condos or, less frequently, commercial towers that have a collection of clients rather than one dominant one.

Since those buildings have to be designed to appeal to a broad market and since residential-condo developers are typically not the most experimental group on the planet (Their apparent motto: Whatever sold last, build another one just like it!), it means conservative design prevails, with a few notable exceptions.

Not so with community centres, where a coalition of the willing has emerged as park-board politicians and planners, architects and the public have all embraced the concept of gorgeous civic facilities. First, the park board has seasoned planners, architects and engineers on staff who like and promote good design.

“It’s been our objective to get the best architects. We want them,” says the board’s project manager, Rudy Roelefson.

They don’t pay any extra fees to get those great architects. In fact, Thom says he probably lost money doing the Sunset Centre. But the park board is willing to spend the extra money to build their designs, which don’t come at bargain prices. As Roelefson notes, “It costs more to build a curve than a straight line.”

Every architect who has built for the park board comes up with variations on a remarkably similar theme to explain why all of that is important.

“The best clients get the best buildings,” says Nick Milkovich, who has collaborated with Erickson and Francl to design the swooping-roofed community centre for Southeast False Creek. “The [park board planners] have functional ways that they know work but they’re willing to be tested.”

Roger Hughes has echoes that. “There are no great architects. There are only great clients.”

Hughes notes that only a few Lower Mainland cities have built up strong project-management departments — Vancouver, Burnaby, West Vancouver — and kept them through the ’90s, when other cities were cutting back.

Burnaby was the first to hire Hughes to build what has become a pearl necklace of beautiful pools throughout the Lower Mainland.

Its Eileen Dailly pool, opened in 1992, thrilled visitors with its soaring glass front on the north side that offers views of the North Shore mountains while they were swimming, sliding or playing in the water pool. The centre, which also included a fitness room, was soon jammed with users from miles around. Hughes then went on to build pools with similar appeal in Langley, Delta, Coquitlam, and West Vancouver. But it’s Vancouver that has used him and his firm the most, for the new Killarney Pool, the Thunderbird Centre renovation, and now the new Hillcrest Centre that includes the Olympic curling rink.

There are some who might think all public agencies take the same approach as the park board.

But architects who’ve worked in other types of public building say that’s not true.

Francl has done several projects for BC Housing, where, he says, there’s a different mindset.

“It’s got to be durable and it can be nice, but it can’t be too nice because there’s a perception you’re throwing money away.”

It’s the same with schools, where many city architects have noted the way the provincial government, after a few schools won architecture awards in the 1990s, pulled back and asked for blander buildings.

“The schools are almost purposely dumbed down. They can’t be too nice,” said Francl.

But architects aren’t only attracted to working on recreation centres because of the possibility of doing creative design, as attractive as that is, and the opportunity to work on the kinds of big sites the park board can offer them.

They all say they also do it for the community.

It was Thom’s firm, which has projects on the go around the world from Shanghai to Tulsa to Brno in the Czech Republic, that approached the Sunset community-centre association and asked how they could get involved with building their centre.

“Architects love to do public buildings,” says Thom, whose undisguised pleasure in the new centre spilled over as he visited it on opening day. “There’s more of a chance to create community spirit.”

Thom was particularly interested in doing a project with a diverse community like Sunset, once dominated by German immigrants, now the geographic centre for the city’s Indo-Canadians.

“I wanted to use the community centre to break down barriers.” To that end, he designed it with two intersecting passageways through the building. One links Main Street on the west to the park-board nursery and local school on the east, while the other runs parallel to Main and will allow the city’s traditional Indo-Canadian parades to move through the centre.

Working further down Main, Busby said he was interested in doing the new Mount Pleasant centre at 1 Kingsway for a couple of reasons. First, to water his Vancouver roots.

“Our work around the world is gratifying,” said Busby, who is planning and building in a range of cities from Toronto to Abu Dhabi. “But we’re a Vancouver architecture firm. We built our business in Vancouver and we have a relationship with this city.”

He also was attracted to Mount Pleasant because it is a “pioneering building” that creates a community centre in a very urban setting and combines it with rental housing above, a daycare and a library.

It’s a model for the future,” says Busby, as cities become more dense and lose the luxury of setting their recreation facilities in the middle of empty fields. And he’s excited about doing something equally pioneering with his latest park board project, VanDusen Garden, which will continue on with the park board’s push to create greener and greener buildings.

“Here, we have a chance for buildings to enter into a dialogue with the ecology around them.”

The park planners and the architects have both been helped by the fact that the city got some influxes of money just as some existing centres were coming to the ends of their lives and the board had come up with a clear-cut plan for replacing them. Between money from developers for community centres in the new neighbourhoods and Olympic money going into three existing centres, the board got to do more than it would have in normal budgets.

The final secret of success for the new, beautiful centres has been the people in the Vancouver Community Centre Association, who have been diehard advocates for their centres.

Walter Schultz, the current association president, spent years badgering everyone he could think of to get a new centre to replace the 1950 building.

He even ran for a position on the park board once, knowing he didn’t have a chance of being elected as an independent. But it gave him a chance to be invited as a candidate to all kinds of campaign debates, where he could leave other future park-board commissioners with the message that his neighbourhood needed a new centre.

Schultz was also successful in getting the federal government to contribute $4 million to the total $12-million cost. His association also chipped in $900,000. That’s probably a record for a contribution from a centre association, but the concept isn’t unique. The Trout Lake community put in $250,000 of their association’s money for that facility.

Now, Schultz, whose blog features an aerial picture of the centre, is utterly thrilled with the results. “This is a piece of beauty in a neighbourhood that has lacked beauty for a long time.”

And more to come.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Investors, families with children take note

Paul Delean
Province

MONTREAL –For those who haven’t been paying attention, a lot has changed in the Canadian tax system in the past year, with more changes afoot for 2008.

For starters, the federal goods and services tax (currently six per cent) will drop by one per cent, effective Jan. 1. Remember that as you ponder big Boxing Week buys.

The rules for charitable donations in effect since March 19 make it much more attractive to donate stock and mutual funds to registered charities, since they’ll be spared any capital-gains tax on the appreciation and still get a charitable tax credit on the market value of the holdings donated.

But it has to be a direct transfer of investments, not a sale and subsequent donation of the proceeds.

Donations must be made before Dec. 31, however, to count for the 2007 tax year. The same applies for medical expenses, for those who want to claim the deductions for 2007, and business expenses for the self-employed.

Stock owners who want to trigger capital gains or losses for the current year have until Dec. 24 to make Canadian trades and Dec. 26 to complete U.S. transactions.

Registered Education Savings Plans to help finance children’s post-secondary studies were enhanced by both the federal and provincial governments this past year, but Dec. 31 remains a pivotal date, since the amount of government assistance available is limited by calendar year.

Although there’s no longer an annual limit on the amount that can be put into an RESP, the optimal contribution, for those who haven’t fully accessed the grants they were entitled to for each child since 1998, is $5,000. Ottawa limits its annual grant contribution to $500. (The maximum is $1,000 for those with unused room from previous years).

Also new is the federal tax credit for activities promoting fitness for children 16 and under. (It also applies to children who turned 16 during the year). Up to $500 a year in enrolment fees, per child, is eligible for the credit. The key is when it’s paid, not the period it covers. So if you’re already at the limit for 2007, you might want to date the next cheque for 2008 to maximize next year’s deduction.

On the other hand, if you’re below the limit for 2007, you could prepay an activity beginning next year and be eligible for the credit in 2007.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Author who offers independent reviews of portfolios shares his wisdom

Don Macdonald
Sun

Here are 10 tips, provided with the help of author Warren MacKenzie, to help consumers avoid becoming victims of an investment scandal. MacKenzie runs Second Opinion Investor Services, a Toronto firm that offers an independent review of portfolios, and is the author of book The Unbiased Advisor.

1. Only deal with representatives who are licensed and have proper credentials. Find out about their education and professional accreditation and ensure they are registered with your provincial investment regulating agency. Check to see if there have been decisions against the person by searching the regulator’s website (for mutual fund, insurance reps and financial planners) and the Investment Dealers Association of Canada for (full-service stockbrokers).

2. Use your common sense. “There’s no such thing as an investment that pays a higher rate of return without higher risk,” MacKenzie said. Ask yourself why you’re so lucky to get this great opportunity. The expression is hackneyed but true: If it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.

3. Get another opinion on an investment product or opportunity from an objective source. It could be another adviser, someone at the bank or a trusted friend or family member with knowledge of investing matters. And try taking a step back and asking yourself: how would a bank or a sophisticated investor analyze this? Where is the risk?

4. Be highly suspicious of any time pressure — it’s a red flag for fraud. “Don’t ever feel that you have to do this or you’ll lose the opportunity,” MacKenzie said. “Pressure to make a decision quickly is always a bad sign. There will always be another opportunity.”

5. Make sure your portfolio is diversified and never put more than 10 per cent of your nest egg in any one investment.

6. Be wary of tax-avoidance schemes. A product should have investment merit above and beyond any tax-sheltering angle. While you want to be smart about minimizing taxes on your portfolio, be prepared to pay your fair share. And, by the way, if someone is willing to break the law to help you evade taxes, what’s to stop them from breaking the law to take your money?

7. Ask yourself how well you understand the investment that’s being pitched to you? Could you explain it to a family member or neighbour? Or are you just taking what’s being told to you on faith?

8. Stick to large, well-known investments. Don’t get involved with obscure private companies and schemes.

9. Be patient, not greedy. The idea is to get rich slowly by protecting your capital and investing prudently. Consider this: $20,000 invested at a rate of eight per cent a year, with monthly contributions of $250, will turn into $245,000 in 20 years.

10. Realize the importance of your savings to a secure and happy retirement. Focus your mind and take the relatively small amount of time required to shepherd your savings properly. You owe that to yourself and your family.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

Provincial gov’t proposes to amend Notaries Act

John Colebourn
Province

A red-hot real-estate market has been keeping notary Jessie Vaid very busy with his red seal.

Since graduating in 2004, Vaid has built a business to where he now has four assistants helping with his North Delta office.

“It is very busy,” said Vaid of his practice. “Anyone who is affiliated with construction and real estate is busy.”

While not complaining about the workload, Vaid, 32, notes there are added pressures as he builds up a clientele. “Now we have all these clients and now the challenge is to make sure each client gets the same level of service,” he said.

Much could change for Vaid and the other 322 notaries around B.C. if proposals by the Ministry of Attorney General to amend the Notaries Act go through. A consultation paper last month was passed on to the province’s notaries for review.

“The new legislation could significantly affect notaries,” said Vaid.

In Delta, only five notaries have offices under current regulations. “With the legislation right now I can only practise in Delta,” notes Vaid. “But with these new regulations there would be no boundaries.”

Wayne Braid, executive-director of the Society of Notaries Public of B.C., said his group has not yet taken a position on the proposed legislation. The 15-member society board will debate the merits of the proposed amendments at a meeting tomorrow. The B.C. government has asked for input by Friday.

“We don’t know how this new legislation would work out,” said Braid. “We will be drafting a response to this consultation paper.”

Ken Sherk, the society’s president, said the landscape for notaries has changed in the past 26 years.

“The requirements of the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement between the governments of British Columbia and Alberta have created an interesting situation for B.C. notaries and the Society of Notaries Public of B.C.,” he said..

“The current legislation, which limits the number of notaries to 323 and to specific districts throughout the province, was put in place over 26 years ago. Since that time, British Columbia has grown in population. Some communities have lost significant population and new communities have sprung up.”

Sherk said the demographic changes “have resulted in many instances where a notary was not available to the residents.”

The consultation paper on amending the Notaries Act calls for the removal of set jurisdictions that limit a notary.

“It is highly unusual in today’s society to limit the number of persons that may practise in a particular field, and to limit the provision of services geographically,” it says, noting that the current restrictions could be seen “as creating an unfair monopoly for notaries public and contrary to market-demand principles.”

“Notarial districts create artificial borders that unnecessarily limit the provision of services. Additionally, a qualified applicant cannot be enrolled or practise until there is a vacancy, unless the applicant can demonstrate there is need for a notary public in an area outside of a notarial district. Even if a vacancy arises, the applicant may be competing with other applicants for the desired district.”

Despite the restrictions, Braid said the society receives more than 1,600 applications for the 20 to 25 spots for students each year.

The notary masters graduate course is open to anyone with an undergraduate university degree. This fall the program will be based out of Simon Fraser University.

The society advises students to budget abut $10,000 per year for tuition, legal and membership fees, enrolment dues, bonding, books and reference materials.

The chosen few take a 15- to 18-month course by long-distance education. Subjects range from estate planning and powers of attorney to mortgage refinancings and zoning applications.

The pressure to maintain high standards continues after notaries begin their practice. Their books are audited every two years and the society regularly dispatches a practice-inspection team.

LOOK AT SERVICES

B.C. notaries provide non-contentious legal services, including:

– All documents required at a public registry within B.C.

– Authorization of minor-child travel.

– Business purchase/sale.

– Certified true copies of documents.

– Commercial leases and assignment of leases.

– Contracts and agreements.

– Easements and rights of way.

– Estate planning.

– Insurance loss declarations.

– Manufactured home transfers.

– Marine bills of sale and mortgages.

– Passport application documentation.

– Powers of attorney.

– Residential and commercial real-estate transfers.

– Wills preparation.

– Zoning applications.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

66 swimming pools, hot tubs hit with ‘high’ hazard ratings

Larry Pynn
Sun

You’ve had a long hard day, and now it’s time — ahhhh — for a soothing soak in the hot tub or a refreshing swim in the pool of your hotel or condo development.

But even as the stress slips away, there is a nagging question in the back of your mind: is this water safe?

Turns out the answer too often is no, and that the same hotel that may caringly vacuum the carpets and ensures clean towels are on the rack might be failing to meet health standards poolside.

An extensive survey by The Vancouver Sun of Fraser Health Region inspection reports has found 66 pools and hot tubs — mainly in hotel and condo developments — that received a “high” hazard rating for failing to meet provincial health regulations so far this year.

Pool and hot tub violations typically involve a lack of disinfectant, improper pH balance, poor water clarity, improper water temperature and levels, failure to keep daily records, and maintain change rooms, handrails, and poor equipment such as flow meters and skimmers.

“If they’re not maintaining it properly, we’re in there, inspecting them, and letting them know,” said Surjeet Gill, health protection manager for the Fraser Health Region.

The authority provides the following definition for a high-hazard rating: “Significant problems were noted related to sanitation and/or infection-control procedures.

“The facility’s current operation significantly increases the risk of infection to clients and the operator must take immediate corrective action. The facility is approaching the highest level of risk considered acceptable for its continued operation. The facility may be closed if conditions worsen or the operator fails to eliminate the hazards.”

Don’t think the problem applies merely to flea-bag operations. The hotels cited by health inspectors are among North America‘s largest and most familiar chains.

Best Western had three hotels with high-hazard ratings: Maple Ridge (hot tub), Langley (pool) and Aldergrove (pool and hot tub). The Sun sought comment from the Best Western International Inc. corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., but no one called back.

Other hotels to violate health regulations included Ramada Inn in Surrey (pool) and Coquitlam (pool); Holiday Inn Metrotown in Burnaby (pool) and Holiday Inn Express in Langley (hot tub); and Hilton (hot tub) in Metrotown Burnaby.

The Travelodge Chilliwack achieved one of the worst records of compliance of any facility.

The hotel’s hot tub had a total of five high-hazard ratings during separate inspections between January and October for issues such as water temperature, disinfection, flow meter and re-circulation systems out of compliance. The hot tub also had high ratings twice in November 2006.

The pool, meanwhile, received high ratings in November 2006, and twice in June 2007.

Both the pool and hot tub are now at a low-hazard level. The hotel refused to comment.

Gill said that it is important to properly balance pH levels and maintain disinfectants such as chlorine or bromine to protect against the spread of skin diseases and irritation of the skin and eyes.

He said it’s especially important to properly maintain hot tubs because of the greater chance of spreading bacteria in a relative low volume of water; the higher temperature also allows chlorine to dissipate faster.

“The degree of risk is high in recreational water facilities,” Gill said. “There are so many variables — temperature, chlorine levels, pH, and the constant maintenance of these. Naturally, you’ll find more high-hazard facilities.”

He added that it’s important to keep the hot tub no hotter than 104 Celsius to avoid potential heart attacks.

Pool decks must also be disinfected to ward against transmission of ailments such as athlete’s foot.

Standards are set out under the Health Act’s Swimming Pool, Spray Pool, and Wading Pool Regulations.

Condo developments that feature common-use pools and hot tubs can just as easily fall afoul of the regulations.

Some of the condos given high-hazard ratings included Central Park Place (pool and hot tub) and Parkside Manor (hot tub) in Burnaby; Carnarvon Place (hot tub) and Promenade (hot tub) in New Westminster; Odyssey Towers and the Southmere Villa in Surrey; and the Embassy (hot tub) and Monterey (hot tub) in White Rock.

And while condos may contract out maintenance of pools and hot tubs, it is the strata that is ultimately responsible for ensuring health regulations are being met.

One of the more surprising facilities to make the list is the hot tub/therapeutic pool at the B.C. Lions training facility in Surrey.

The hot tub received high-hazard ratings for failing to maintain the pH balance and maintain water clarify, with similar past ratings dating back to 2003.

One can image a team of big sweaty players cramming the tub, then driving home with red rashes.

But the football team’s head trainer Bill Reichelt insists that’s not the case. “Not a big deal at all, actually.”

He said “every one of those times pretty well” the problem resulted from the hot tub’s lack of maintenance when the team is away on a road trip.

When players return home, they do not go into the water until the water condition has been made compliant, he insisted. “It’s not like a normal facility, where it’s used every day.”

The Fitness 2000 hot tub on Erickson Drive in Burnaby scored high-hazard ratings in January and February, for issues such as adequate pH controls, incomplete or lack of posted safety rules, and operating permit not posted in a conspicuous location.

One public facility to make the list is the Ladner Outdoor Swimming Pool, which received a high-hazard rating in August for “drinking water available not in compliance” and violations related to flow balance and pool water levels out of compliance. A follow-up inspection one week later reduce the hazard rating to low.

To view health inspection results for pools and hot tubs in the Fraser Health Region, visit www.healthspace.com/Clients/FHA/FHA_Website.nsf/Env-Frameset. Click on “recreational water” then “facilities and inspections” under quick links. There is a list of municipalities on the left.

Note that pools and hot tubs in private homes are exempt from the health regulations, as are those in bed-and-breakfast operations based out of single-family dwellings.

The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority — which covers Richmond, Vancouver, North Shore, Sea to Sky and Sunshine Coast — lists restaurant inspections, but not pool and hot tub inspections on its website.

Nick Losito, Vancouver Coastal’s regional director of health protection, said the authority is “probably six months to a year out from adding these to our public portal.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2007