More space so more art can be displayed

Christina Montgomery
Province

The Vancouver Art Gallery is about to unveil a portrait of its future, sketched in bold, optimistic strokes.

The 75-year-old gallery, now overflowing the heritage building between Georgia and Robson it has occupied for 25 years, has launched a public campaign to seal the deal for a new city-owned site at Georgia and Cambie streets and to raise the hundreds of millions of dollars it will need for a gallery rivalling the world’s most memorable and iconic art centres.

The move, in the quiet planning stages since March 2005, would see the gallery relocate into a 30,000-square-metre building that would: n Offer space for some of the permanent collection now in storage.

– Enlarge gallery space for high- profile travelling exhibits where crowds are now forced to line up outside for long periods.

– Improve the highly controlled storage and display environment that the artworks require.

– And expand children’s and community programming and facilities for group bookings.

Touring the gallery’s cramped basement storage room yesterday — where beneath the Georgia Street lawn a large proportion of the centre’s 10,000 artworks are stored — director Kathleen Bartels and relocation committee chairman Michael Audain lamented the gallery’s inability to display more than three per cent of the collection at any given time.

Bartels said the goal would be to create a leading gallery for the Pacific Rim that would focus not only on Pacific art and international works but the many artists born in B.C. who have risen to international fame.

They include photographer Jeff Wall, who this year became the first Canadian artist to be offered a solo exhibit at New York‘s Museum of Modern Art.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Other

RE/MAX is concerned about online consumer fraud. It has come to our attention that some classified ads for rental properties featured on Craigslist have attempted to convince potential renters to pay rental deposits by incorrectly stating that a RE/MAX office would be facilitating the transaction.

Responding to e-mail inquiries, the landlord says that he or she is out of the country and is working with a RE/MAX office in the country where he or she is located (in some versions of the scam, Greece) and has arranged for the U.S.-based RE/MAX office to send keys and a lease. In return, the potential renter is asked to pay a deposit using an online payment service or to overnight a check to an address that was claimed to be a RE/MAX office. However, there is no RE/MAX office involved in any of these transactions.

If you encounter any online advertisements like this, please be very careful. You can check the name, address and contact information for any RE/MAX office or agent on remax.com using the Find an Office or Find an Agent features on remax.com. Please feel free to contact the appropriate RE/MAX office directly to verify the information.

If you believe you have been the victim of an online scam involving the RE/MAX name, e-mail it to us at [email protected]. If possible, please include the URL of the ad you responded to, and include full e-mail headers of messages you received so we can try to determine the message’s origin. In addition, you may wish to report the incident to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov or to Craigslist.

Royal Bank expert says bankers in this country figuring out who faces most risk

Michael Kane
Sun

The U.S. sub-prime mortgage fiasco is already squeezing borrowers in Canada as bankers struggle to determine which lenders are exposed to the greatest risk, RBC chief economist Craig Wright said Monday.

But while a recession in the U.S. is possible as a result of the lending crisis, it is not considered probable, Wright told the Vancouver Board of Trade.

He said the dramatic slowdown in the U.S. housing market is being offset by strong growth in American trade as a result of the weakening greenback.

And in Canada, the relatively strong Canadian dollar is helping productivity, since about three-quarters of our machinery and equipment is imported from the U.S.

Tougher lending standards arising out of the sub-prime crisis — in which American consumers could get mortgages with no income, no job and no assets — are more of an issue in the U.S. than Canada, Wright said in an interview.

“Credit is still available, but it is probably going to be done at different pricing — a little higher — and on different terms,” he said.

“The sub-prime market is $1 billion, but it is only a small piece of the mortgage market and it is a very small piece of the overall credit market.

“The problem is knowing where this exposure has been held and that’s what everybody is trying to get through.”

On the gloomy side, he told the board, one U.K. hedge fund manager has likened the sub-prime crisis to fishing with dynamite. The small fish float to the surface first, and then the big ones come up later.

Alternatively, there is the view that derivatives spread risk across the globe, so that everybody shares a bit of the pain but not everybody feels all the pain.

“Others like Warren Buffett hold that derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction. So he’s obviously more bearish. The wild card is the banking sector is based on confidence and trust and [that’s] quite strained right now after a long period of over-confidence.”

Wright said the economies of Canada and B.C. are being helped by a long period of strong global growth but could be hit by “friendly fire” if the U.S. resorts to protectionist measures as a result of a weak dollar and a weak economy in an election year.

Given the fiscal freedom enjoyed by both the federal and B.C. governments as the result of surpluses, he called for corporate tax relief to help firms adjust to recent shocks such as U.S. weakness and Canadian dollar strength.

“Canada is pretty close to average on personal taxes relative to other OECD countries, whereas we’re quite high on the corporate side,” he said.

RBC Financial is predicting economic growth of about 3.0 per cent this year and next in B.C., down from a peak of 4.5 per cent in 2005 and a little more than 3.0 per cent last year.

“It will still be fairly strong growth but we’re looking for some moderation in the housing sector and probably some slowing down in the remarkable employment growth in the province,” he said.

“That’s probably not a bad news story because it will mitigate any inflationary pressures that are building on the wage side.”

Wright said RBC is sticking to its 2003 assessment that the 2010 Winter Games will add about one per cent to B.C. economic growth each year between 2005 and 2011.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

DEBBIE TRAVIS
Sun

Are you expecting company during the holidays? At this time of year I start gearing up for overnight guests and my first priority is the sleeping arrangement.

No matter how much I and my visiting family and friends love to spend time together, there is a point when everyone needs a break.

And I know that I appreciate having a corner set up just for me when I’m away. It doesn’t have to be posh, just fresh and clean.

It’s all about the bed really, and that’s my story for today. I’ve done some research and what I’ve learned is pretty scary. That bed in my guest room that I’ve just covered with clean sheets and a fluffy duvet seemed just right until I learned the dirty truth about what was going on under the sheets.

When was the last time you changed your pillows? ( The average is 20 years.) Those pillows are full of dust mites. According to the experts you should actually change your pillow every six months.

Traditionally we have made our beds around comfort and style. There was nothing better than that perfect feather bed mattress with our favourite designer sheets tucked in.

There is now a third feature that should be considered. Our health. What we can’t see can hurt us.

I have recently discovered news about SilverClear, a solution that has the power to combat all those nasty bacteria and more.

To understand fully how it works, visit their website www. silverclearsolution. com. You will see what a breakthrough this is for preparing and keeping a healthy bed. SilverClear is waterbased, and has no solvents. It’s applied during the manufacturing stage and has been clinically proven to be safe.

Mattress pads and pillows treated with SilverClear are able to fight dust mites and bacteria at the source.

What you see in the photo shown here is an inviting bed layered with a peaceful Lotus pattern comforter, sheets and pillow shams. For products to combat what you don’t see, contact SilverClear through their website. Dear Debbie; We are doing a major renovation on our 35- year- old side- split and have a question about the new floors. Which direction should hardwood run, where do we start and stop it to join up to limestone floor.

Also, do we lay the same hardwood on both levels? Living room and kitchen on one level and family room below. We don’t know how to proceed. Thank you.

Tristan Dear Tristan; As a general rule hardwood planks run the length of a room.

I suggest you choose the same wood for upper and lower levels as this unifies your home.

However, you can create a special look with the hardwood, such as laying it in a pattern produced by alternating light and dark stained planks.

This would make a stunning accent in your living room or family room.

At the doorways, or when you transition from wood to stone you will need a trim piece that fits neatly between the two levels and bridges the gap smoothly. Quarter round trim around the perimeter of the rooms will tidy up the edges.

Debbie Travis’ House to Home column is produced by Debbie Travis and Barbara Dingle. Please e- mail your questions to h o u s e 2 h o m e @ d e b b i e t rav i s . com.

Tax treaty with U.S. could come into play as early as next year

Province

OTTAWA — Employees, private contractors and companies are facing some changes to rules relating to cross-border activity as early as next year, and at least one professional-services firm says it’s worth getting up to speed now on the changes, even if they don’t come into effect for another few years.

A new tax treaty that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty signed with the U.S. in September is to take effect in January. It could come into play as early as next year if the two governments get it passed through their legislative bodies by then, though meeting that timeline is unlikely at this point.

“Even though the protocol may not come into force for another year or two, [individuals and companies] have to get ready to start recording the information to become compliant with these rules,” said Kerry Gray, a partner with Ernst & Young’s human-capital practice.

Some of the new rules on the way may benefit workers and companies involved in cross-border activity, though others will add to the homework required and possibly result in more expenses.

Some cross-border workers will be able to save more on income taxes when it comes to rules concerning pension plans. For example, Canadians stationed in the U.S. for up to five years will be able to deduct RRSP contributions from U.S. tax returns.

The agreement is reciprocal in the sense that Americans working in Canada contributing to a U.S. plan will be able to do the same.

As well, cross-border commuters — such as Windsor, Ont., residents working in Detroit — contributing to a U.S. pension will be allowed, under the new rules, to deduct some of those contributions from their taxable income in Canada.

But on the other hand, workers based in Canada and paid by a Canadian employer can currently avoid paying U.S. income tax if they work less than 183 days in the U.S. during a calendar year. Under the new agreement, that will change to 183 days within a 12-month period.

“What it’s doing is it’s broadening the number of people that might be taxable in the other jurisdiction,” said Gray.

He added that companies, which avoid paying taxes in the neighbouring jurisdiction on projects that last less than 183 days in a calendar year will also have that allowance changed to within a 12-month period. But Gray said this requirement will not kick in until the third year of the agreement.

Independent contractors who do work in the neighbouring country, who get more than 50 per cent of their revenue in the other country, are facing a similar change in the 183-day rule before taxation requirements in the neighbouring country kick in, Gray said.

Gray said Ernst & Young is making an effort to inform affected parties of the coming changes because it represents potential business growth in the firm’s global-mobility unit and its affiliated law practice in the area of business immigration.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Public meetings start discussion of choosing a sustainable future

Randy Shore
Sun

Metro Vancouver has a hit a wall.

Boxed in by parks, watersheds, mountains, ocean and protected agricultural land, the region faces a very different kind of growth and home ownership — landless and compact.

Metro Vancouver, that layer of government known until recently as the Greater Vancouver Regional District, is embarking on an extensive round of public consultation on a plan for the city’s next phase of growth, a period that will see changes in how we live, where we work and how we will get from one to the other.

The new growth plan under development is the successor to the Livable Region Strategy that has been guiding municipal decision-makers for the past decade.

The growth strategy amounts to a shared vision of the region we would like to live in and is used by municipal planners and councils to shape their land-use planning and decide how they will compel or encourage builders to create compact, efficient town centres and to limit wasteful sprawl.

The physical transformation started 20 years ago, at a time when 75 per cent of new homes could be described as a house with a yard and a fence — the homes that most of us grew up in. Today, only 25 per cent of new homes fit that description, said Metro Vancouver regional development manager Christina DeMarco.

The combination of increasing residential density and traffic congestion has already begun to shape the area in more sustainable ways. When getting around is difficult it has a number of effects:

– People take transit more, 26 million transit trips per month.

– Businesses and retailers move out to suburbs where people live.

– Demand for affordable living spaces close to jobs goes up, giving rise to high-density in downtown Vancouver and around Burnaby‘s SkyTrain stations.

Even Surrey, the bad boy of suburban sprawl, is changing its ways, according Mayor Dianne Watts. The city is reaching the edge of buildable space for single-family residential development and has taken steps to preserve its undeveloped industrial land.

“The future is going to look very different,” Watts predicted. Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford and Coquitlam last month signed a sustainability accord in an attempt to ensure that the last raw land in the metro area is developed sensibly.

“Those high-growth communities need to produce 250,000 jobs between now and 2031,” Watts said. “We need to resist the pressure to turn those industrial lands over to residential development.”

But people still need places to live. In Surrey that means developing their own little Manhattan, a still mostly unbuilt city centre that Watts envisions as a forest of office and residential towers with commercial space at street level. Fifteen such towers are already under application, she says.

The former GVRD and its predecessor organizations have stuck to the vision of “cities in a sea of green” since the 1940s, SFU lecturer and five-term Vancouver city councillor Gordon Price said, and every growth strategy since that time has been an iteration of that basic concept. “It’s a good one.”

But driving long distances for work and play on a daily basis is no longer a viable lifestyle.

“Climate change is the gun to our heads,” said Price. “And I guess you could say that peak oil is too.”

The province’s Gateway plan is the spanner in Metro Vancouver’s sustainable growth machine, he said.

The planned freeway expansion and the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge is meant to reduce traffic congestion and speed the movement of goods in the region. But it could undo the greatest achievement of decades of planning, Price said.

Traffic congestion has helped spur job growth in the outlying municipalities and regional town centres. Transit use is high, people are choosing to live closer to work and car ownership is actually decreasing in the City of Vancouver. Metro Vancouver is the only Canadian city to achieve a reduction in the length of the average commute.

Watts argues that Gateway, which includes a perimeter road intended to move truck traffic off Surrey‘s urban arterials, is needed to accommodate the movement of goods from the port, the border and across the Fraser River. And she says that Surrey is committed to halting the kind of sprawl that critics fear will result from the freeway expansion.

That light rail and buses across the Fraser could be incorporated into the bridge plan makes Gateway more palatable, she says.

How the municipalities that make up Metro Vancouver move toward greater sustainability is the subject of a just-released 24-page document called Choosing a Sustainable Future for Metro Vancouver and it will all be up for discussion at a series of public meetings to be held around the region beginning today through Dec. 11.

The guide is available at www.gvrd.bc.ca/growth/strategy-review.htm.

How the region will absorb one million more people and generate 400,000 more jobs is the topic. Discuss.

SAY YOUR PIECE

Metro Vancouver‘s Growth Strategy Review tours the region.

PUBLIC MEETINGS

Burnaby/New Westminster
Nov. 14, 7 to 9 p.m.
Metro Vancouver head office,
4330 Kingsway, Burnaby

Vancouver
Nov. 19, 7 to 9 p.m.
Vancouver Public Library
350 West Georgia St.,
Vancouver

Pitt Meadows/Maple Ridge
Nov. 21, 7 to 9 p.m.
12150 – 224th St.
Maple Ridge

Northeast sector
Nov. 22, 7 to 9 p.m.
Port Coquitlam
Recreation Complex
2150 Wilson Ave.
Port Coquitlam

North Shore
Nov. 28, 7 to 9 p.m.
Harry Jerome Recreation Complex
123 E. 23rd St.,
North Vancouver

Richmond
Dec. 5, 7 to 9 p.m.
Richmond Cultural Centre
180-7700 Minoru Gate
Richmond

Surrey/Delta/White Rock
Dec. 6, 7 to 9 p.m.
Newton Rec. Centre
7120 – 136 B St.
Surrey

Langley
Dec. 11, 7 to 9 p.m.
George Preston Recreation Centre,
20699 – 42nd Ave.
Langley

Special meetings
(registration required)

Future of the Region Sustainability Dialogue
Nov. 28,
11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.,
SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue,
580 West Hastings St.
Vancouver

Sustainability Breakfast
Dec. 5, 7:30 – 9 a.m.
Canada Export Centre
602 West Hastings St.
Vancouver
Source: Metro Vancouver

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Canada’s largest bank to take a $360 million hit in fourth quarter

Grant Surridge
Sun

TORONTO –The mortgage mess in the United States ensnared the biggest Canadian bank on Tuesday, as Royal Bank of Canada said it would take a $360-million hit to its fourth-quarter earnings.

RBC said it will record the charge, which should be about $160 million after tax, to account for lower valuations on its stable of subprime collateralized debt obligations and residential mortgage-backed securities.

Investors reacted positively to the news from RBC, pushing up shares close to two per cent in mid-morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

On Nov. 9, CIBC said it would take a $463-million pre-tax writedown in the fourth quarter on investments related to the U.S. subprime market. Major U.S. banks have already announced billions in writedowns and fired senior executives as turmoil in the debt markets continues to spread.

Citigroup, the world’s biggest bank, said its losses could come to $12 billion US.

Barclays bank and Royal Bank of Scotland, as well as some in Germany and Switzerland, are also expected to announce writedowns that could reach similar scales.

RBC also said on Tuesday it would take a $120-million ($80 million after-tax) charge related to increased liabilities in its credit card customer loyalty program.

However, the bank said the charges will likely be largely offset by a $325-million gain related to its stake in Visa Inc. following that company’s global restructuring.

RBC said in a press release that it expects its bottom line to be “only modestly affected” by the combined charges.

“Royal Bank is taking advantage of the Visa gain in order to shore up some areas on its balance sheet that may have some cracks. We view this as a prudent move, particularly as Royal and the other banks were not likely to receive much valuation credit from the one-time gain,” wrote Dundee Securities analyst John Aiken in a morning note to clients.

The bank reports its fourth quarter and full-year fiscal results on Nov. 30.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Lora Grindlay
Province

The B.C. government announced yesterday $49.3 million will go toward a new Downtown Eastside campus for Simon Fraser University‘s School for the Contemporary Arts.

The 30-year-old school, now at SFU’s Burnaby campus, is to become the centrepiece of the ongoing redevelopment of the Woodwards site in the 100-block West Hastings Street.

Aspiring artists, dancers, filmmakers and musicians and their professors will move into the 127,500-square-foot, five-storey facility in late 2009.

It will feature performance theatres, galleries, a cinema, soundstage, dance and music studios, computer labs and film-editing suites.

The parcel of land for the school, at the southwest corner of West Hastings and Abbott streets, is valued at more than $10 million.

It was donated to the school by Westbank Projects Corp. and the Peterson Group, developers of the Woodwards site.

The former department-store site will also contain both market and social housing, public spaces, office and retail space.

The new campus is expected to cost $71.5 million.

Along with Victoria‘s money, the university has launched a $30-million fundraising campaign to pay for the new digs.

SFU president Michael Stevenson said about $15 million has already been raised.

Third-year film student Kelvin Redvers, 20, was thrilled after seeing a computerized tour of the environmentally sustainable building yesterday.

“I want that building now,” he said.

He said currently each art discipline is housed in separate buildings.

“We don’t have a community where the Woodwards building will bring us under one roof,” said Redvers, who has won numerous international awards for his films.

“We will inspire each other. Music is a huge part of film, dance is a huge part of theatre. Every art is interconnected and this building will allow that to flourish.” A visual fly-through tour can be seen at http:// cgi.sfu.ca/~scahome/?q=woodwards_gallery [email protected]

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Other

Download Document

Report sounds city jobs warning

Fiona Anderson
Sun

If Vancouver is to remain one of the best places to live, the city must do more to attract and retain business, according to a report released by the Vancouver Economic Development Commission (VEDC).

“Quality of life does not come free,” said economist Roslyn Kunin, special adviser to the VEDC.

“If you’re going to clean up the air, if you’re going to have parks, if you’re going to have social services and affordable housing for the citizens who need them, somebody is going to have to pay for them.

“Generally they are paid out of the tax base,” she said. “And taxes are paid by businesses and taxes are paid by people who have good jobs with high income.

“And we’re a little bit short on the businesses and the jobs.”

So while Vancouver is seen as a great place to live, it’s not considered a great place to do business, Kunin said. And that has to change if Vancouver is going to continue to be a great place to live.

Job growth in Vancouver is less than two per cent, while job growth in Metro Vancouver is close to 10 per cent, Kunin said. And many of the jobs in Vancouver are lower paying, reducing the tax base.

Vancouver is also losing businesses that choose to either start up or move outside the city, Kunin said.

The main issues raised by businesses, who were consulted in preparing the report, were an excessive regulatory burden, high taxes and Vancouver‘s crime rate, she said.

To make Vancouver more business-friendly, the city and its inhabitants have to realize the important role business plays in making Vancouver a great place to live, Kunin said.

There are three main components to sustainability: the social side, the environmental side and the economic side. “And you can’t afford to support the social and environmental side unless you have the economic base to do it,” she said.

“We want [people] to think not only is Vancouver one of the greatest places in the world to live, but also one of the greatest places in the world to

do business.”

Laura Jones, western vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, has long been lobbying for fewer regulations and lower taxes.

“Vancouver is one of the worst offenders when it comes to charging businesses more than residents for property taxes,” Jones said. “So the city needs to look at getting that situation fixed.”

And while the city froze tax levels for businesses this year, the gap between what residents pay and what businesses pay is still very high, she said.

“Business owners are still paying in Vancouver upward of five times what residents are paying,” she said. “And they’re not using five times the services.”

But taxes shouldn’t be shifted to residents. Instead, the city should curb its spending, she said.

Over the past six years spending has doubled what population and inflation growth would warrant, Jones said.

“And I think that’s a key challenge the report didn’t emphasize enough,” she said.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007