Jamie Golombek
Other

Your vacation property may be located beyond Canada‘s borders, but that doesn’t mean that it is outside the reach of the tax man.

As a resident of Canada, you are taxed on your worldwide income. When you dispose your property you could have a capital gains tax liability on its appreciation from the date you bought it until the sale. If you own the property at death, you are deemed to dispose of it at fair market value. Any of these scenarios might pose a significant tax problem.

First, let’s deal with worldwide income. If you are like many vacation-property owners, chances are that you rent or at least try to rent your property when you are not occupying it. If so, any rental income after deducting the appropriate expenses is taxable in Canada.

The unique problem with foreign rental income is that the country in which the property is located may also tax rental income, potentially resulting in double taxation. The good news is that you can generally claim a credit for any foreign tax paid on your Canadian return. You may end up paying the higher tax rate, but that is still better than paying tax twice.

Some countries, such as the United States, may impose a withholding tax on the gross rental income (pre-expenses), which must be deducted by the rental agent or tenant before paying you the rent.

As surprising as that may sound, Canada has a similar rule, generally requiring a Canadian tenant to withhold 25% of gross rental income paid to a non-resident. There was a 2003 tax case involving a tenant who failed to report such tax withholdings to the CRA. The CRA successfully

argued before the court that the tenant was “deemed to know the law? Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

The U.S. withholding tax, set at 30%, can be avoided if you file a special tax form to have the rental income “effectively connected” to the U.S. This is done by sending the Internal Revenue Service a letter attached to Form 1040NR — U.S. Nonresident Alien Income Tax Return. On this return, you will report your rental income after expenses and will be taxed at graduated U.S. tax rates. Details can be found in the IRS Publication 519, Tax Guide for Aliens (www.irs.gov/ pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf).

When disposing of foreign property, if you sell it for a profit the capital gain is taxable in Canada. However, the same gain may be taxable in the country in which it arose. Again, a foreign tax credit is generally available and you’ll end up paying the higher tax rate. If your vacation home is in the U.S., you may find that the purchaser is obligated to withhold 10% of the proceeds, which you would then claim as a credit against any capital gains tax owing when you file a U.S. return.

Finally, if you die owning your vacation property, Canada’s tax rules consider you to have sold it for proceeds equal to fair market value, which can give rise to Canadian capital gains tax. The country in which the property is located may also impose a capital gains tax or, as is the case in the U.S., may impose an estate tax based not merely on the appreciation of the property but on the property’s full fair market value. While a foreign tax credit may be available, the U.S. estate tax can often be considerably more than any Canadian taxes paid on the gain. – Jamie Golombek, CA, CPA, CFP, CLU, TEP, is vice-president, taxation and estate planning, at AIM Trimark Investments in Toronto.

[email protected]

© National Post 2007

 

Other

NEW YORK – American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., one of the country’s biggest mortgage companies, ceased new business yesterday and blamed its woes on the stricken U.S. housing market and a related credit crunch.

Numerous mortgage lenders have gone out of business in recent months, but American Home Mortgage is one of the largest to be hit by problems. It minted US$59-billion in loans last year, up from US$45-billion in 2005.

In a statement late Thursday, the home-loan giant said it had stopped taking new mortgage applications and had told most of its employees they would be laid off yesterday.

“The company employee base will be reduced from over 7,000 to approximately 750,” the company said.

“The market conditions in both the secondary mortgage market, as well as the national real-estate market, have deteriorated to the point that we have no realistic alternative,” said Michael Strauss, American Home Mortgage’s chief executive.

The multitrillion-dollar U.S. mortgage sector has been buffeted by a national housing slump, a sharp rise in home foreclosures, and tightening credit conditions, which makes it difficult to borrow fresh cash and offer new loans.

The market’s troubles have also hit Wall Street because some large banks bundled mortgage portfolios into complex securities that were traded as debt instruments.

The Standard & Poor’s ratings agency announced yesterday it had downgraded its outlook on Wall Street investment bank and brokerage Bear Stearns to “negative” due to mortgage-related concerns.

“Bearn Stearns has a relatively high degree of reliance on the U.S. mortgage and leveraged finance sectors, and its revenues and profitability would be especially affected if there were an extended downturn in those markets,” the ratings agency cautioned.

American Home Mortgage’s problems worsened considerably this week after it revealed Tuesday that it was unable to fund lending obligations of US$300-million and also unable to borrow fresh capital to shore up its operations.

Its share price and market worth has been pounded in the past week.

The company’s share price fell US76 to close at US69 yesterday, down from US$1.45 a day earlier and off from US$10.47 a week ago. The company’s market worth, meanwhile, has slumped from over US$500-million to around US$40-million in the same period.

Mr. Strauss founded the Melville, N.Y.-based firm in 1998, and it grew rapidly into one of America‘s largest lenders. Business soared during the housing boom of recent years, but the U.S. property binge ended abruptly in early 2006.

American Home Mortgage is not the only ailing lender.

Another big firm, Countrywide Financial, reported a steep drop in its latest quarterly profit last month.

The lender said coming months were likely to be “increasingly challenging.”

Countrywide Financial ‘s shares dropped US$1.77, or 6.6%, to close at US$25 on the New York Stock Exchange amid wider market losses.

Foreign investors have also taken substantial hits from the distressed US mortgage market and credit crunch.

The German mutual fund Union Investment has frozen one of its funds linked to U.S. mortgage bets, Union Investment administrator Nikolaus Sillem told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

Fears about U.S. real estate and America‘s mortgage industry have also rattled global stock markets this week.

© National Post 2007

Chad Skelton
Sun

LOWER MAINLAND

First Used: The term Lower Mainland is believed to have been used as early as the first non-native settlements in southwest B.C.

Meaning: “Lower Mainland” remains one of the most common ways to describe the region’s two million residents. Indeed, for several years it was the title of The Vancouver Sun’s local news section (now known as Westcoast News). The term Lower Mainland has generally been used to describe the region from West Vancouver to Hope. Depending on the person using the term, however, the Lower Mainland may include eastern Fraser Valley cities such as Abbotsford and Chilliwack, or it may not.

GREATER VANCOUVER

First Used: Sometime in the early 1900s, if not earlier. Its first official use was in 1914 in the name of the Greater Vancouver Sewerage District. The Greater Vancouver Regional District was formed in 1967.

Meaning: The term “Greater Vancouver” is usually used to describe the 21 municipalities and one electoral area that are members of the GVRD, a government body in charge of things like water and sewage. However, the term is sometimes used more generally to describe suburbs around Vancouver, whether they’re members of the GVRD or not.

METRO VANCOUVER

First Used: “Metro Vancouver,” and “metropolitan Vancouver,” have been used as casual terms to describe the region for decades. If it receives provincial approval, it will replace GVRD as the official name for the region and its government in September. It is also the name of a free commuter newspaper in the city.

Meaning: The terms “metro” and “metropolitan” have been used for more than a century around the world to describe large urban areas. For example, London‘s Metropolitan Police was established in 1829. The term Metro Toronto was used for more than 40 years to describe the regional level of government in that city until 1997, when its six municipalities were amalgamated into one megacity of Toronto.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Sun

Condos, apartments, and smaller homes all offer unique design challenges: will everything fit, which colors should be used, and how can spaces be multi-functional and still beautiful?

COLOR

When choosing a color scheme for a small space it is best to stick to maximum of three colors and patterns. Solid colors and tiny patterns work best. Too many colors or designs in a small space can create a look of chaos. Do not add more than one item, color or pattern not in your scheme to maintain better synchronization.

When painting walls, use light, bright colors. Save bolder and darker colors for furniture and accessories. Light colored walls and white ceilings are more reflective and amplify the effects of natural light. Choosing a trim and molding color that is lighter than your walls will also make your room appear larger since darker colors appear further away and lighter colors appear closer.

If you wish to use darker colors, or you are not able to change a darker wall color, move darker colors to the background by emphasizing whites and very light neutrals.

DECOR

A large mirror in a small room serves many purposes. In addition to looking attractive, mirrors reflect light, brightening the room day and night. Mirrors also reflect images of open space, making the room appear larger. This effect can be increased by slanting a mirror slightly upward and reflecting more of the ceiling or by placing a mirror opposite of a window with an outdoor view. Glass-front cabinets and reflective surfaces can be used to mimic the reflective qualities of mirrors and help keep small spaces looking clean and open.

Mirrors can also be used to increase the impact of decorative items without taking up addition space. By placing items such as flower arrangements or collectable figurines directly in front of a mirror, you can double the appearance of the items’ size or number.

FURNITURE

Keep furniture in scale with the room. Large, overstuffed furnishings can overpower a small space. Choose instead smaller, dual purpose items such as a chest of drawers that can serve as an end-table and a storage area, or chairs and items that can be easily stacked and placed in a corner when more space is needed. When selecting furniture, look for open, airy designs such as sofas with no arms or open back chairs and bed frames.

A line drawn diagonally across a room from corner to corner is the longest straight line in any room. Arranging larger pieces of furniture at an angle can give a room a larger appearance by drawing attention to the room’s diagonal length. Keeping the view at eyelevel unobstructed and placing tall items furthest from the main entry also increases the visual depth of a room.

For in-depth design information and links to a host of useful online tools visit www.myspacedesigners.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

Costs covered by levy on new merchandise

Cheryl Chan
Province

A B.C.-wide electronics recycling program starting tomorrow will provide a proper place for e-waste.

Old and broken electronics such as computers, laptops, printers and faxes can be left at recycling depots for free, instead of being dumped in landfills.

The cost will be passed on to consumers who will pay a levy of $10 to $45 on new electronics purchases.

“Landfills are not appropriate places for electronics,” said Malcolm Harvey of Encorp, a non-profit stewardship corporation running the Return-It electronics program.

“There’s toxic materials in electronics that could potentially leak out, like lead and mercury.”

The program will also prevent obsolete equipment being shipped to countries such as China or

Nigeria, where they are recycled “in the most appalling conditions,” said Harvey.

About a quarter of B.C. households have old tech equipment gathering dust, he said. In its first year, Encorp expects to receive about 10,000 tonnes of electronics junk.

Victoria’s Hartland landfill receives about 2,000 tonnes of e-waste annually, representing one to two per cent of its total intake, he said.

E-waste dumped in Greater Vancouver Regional District landfills has ballooned from 2,100 tonnes in 1998 to 20,000 tonnes in 2005. This breaks down to about 8,000 tonnes in computers, 3,000 tonnes in monitors, 2,000 tonnes in printers and 7,000 tonnes in TVs, said GVRD engineer Ken Carrusca.

People can bring in their old equipment to one of 70 recycling depots across the province. Three firms will handle the recycling, salvaging usable metal and plastic parts and disposing of hazardous materials safely. Privacy will be the consumer’s responsibility, Harvey said, advising people to “delete the hard drives before bringing it in for recycling.”

Most retailers, covering 80 per cent of the B.C. market, have signed up for the program.

Consumers say they wouldn’t mind paying the additional fee.

“I think it’s fantastic,” said Mike Holmberg, 27, who just bought a “completely unnecessary” 22-inch computer monitor to hook up to his stereo. “I love pay-by-use, especially for unnecessary things like alcohol and cigarettes.”

Even if he bought the monitor tomorrow, Holmberg said he wouldn’t mind paying the $12 levy “if it was invisible rather than at the till.”

David Taylor, 41, of Vancouver also agrees with the levy.

“I was recently at the [Kent Avenue] transfer station and there were piles of appliances and computers,” Taylor said. “People trade things in quicker than they should. I think in a way as consumers we should be penalized for over-spending and buying more than we need.”

– – –

WHAT’S COVERED

THE ENVIRONMENTAL HANDLING FEE WILL BE CHARGED ON THE SALE OF NEW ELECTRONICS:

– Televisions: $15 to $45, depending on size

– Desktop computers (includes CPUs, mouse, keyboards and cables): $10

– Computer monitors: $12

– Notebook computers (includes laptops, notebook and tablet PCs): $5

– Printers and fax machines: $8

NOT INCLUDED:

– CD players

– VHS and DVD players

– Cellphones

– Cordless phones

– Photocopiers

– Radios

– Computers and TVs that are part of or built in to vehicles, marine vessels or commercial/industrial equipment.

 

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Frances Bula
Sun

When Jim Green lost his bid to be mayor of Vancouver on Nov. 19, 2005, Rob Macdonald was one of the first people to call him the next day.

Not what some might have expected from Macdonald: avowed champion of free enterprise, major developer, contributor of many tens of thousands to the B.C. Liberals.

When he called, Macdonald thanked Green for his service to the city. Green thanked him for his vote. Macdonald, in his retelling of that conversation, said, “Oh, I didn’t vote for you. I voted for the other guys. But you did a good job for the city.”

On the basis of that peculiar conversation, the two got together for lunch the next day. It was the first time Macdonald, arch-capitalist, and Green, champion of the Downtown Eastside, had ever sat down together like that, although they had had contact over a couple of Macdonald’s other projects that had come to council. It was also one of the rare outings Green had in the weeks after an election loss that was the biggest personal defeat of his life, one that still aches like an amputated limb in spite of his best efforts to maintain a state of zen calm.

Green and Macdonald ended up spending two hours talking about development and social housing.

The result of that lunch, a year and a half later, is that Macdonald’s company, with Green as the consultant, has put in a detailed 50-page application to the city’s planning department for a tower on East Hastings at Carrall that would combine 200 market condos with 66 social-housing apartments.

That kind of project is a first not only for Macdonald but for any private developer in the city.

Green calls it revolutionary.

Macdonald calls Jim Green an interesting guy: “I really enjoy immensely working with Jim. He’s been just a great teacher and I’ve tried to be a decent student. He does a tremendous job.”

This is Jim Green’s new life. The man who has been a longshoreman, cab driver, marine boilermaker, social activist, government bureaucrat, university teacher, and politician is, for the first time in his life, an independent businessman and freelance urban-ideas guy.

He is working with a handful of developers, from those he’s had a long association with, like Bastion, to new alliances, like Macdonald, typically on projects that have a heritage or affordable-housing component to them. He’s fundraising for the Vancouver East Cultural Centre and working on a proposal for an aboriginal housing project.

He’s part of a team that put in a pitch to do a master plan for Fort McMurray in Alberta, currently the top Canadian contender for City That’s Growing So Explosively That It’s A Complete Mess. He’s kickstarted a little non-profit called Urban Solutions, whose goal is to bring discussions about big ideas to the city.

To his surprise, he’s making more money than he ever has in his 64-year life. He’s even got an assistant and an office.

But it’s not just any office, some functional place to put a desk and a phone. Instead, it’s a shrine to the life of Jim Green.

From his third-floor window in the Dominion Building, Green can look out over most of his life’s work: the Woodward’s project across the street, which is at the moment mostly a deep hole in the ground, and all the social housing he got built when he worked with the Downtown Eastside Residents Association and, later, as a bureaucrat in Glen Clark’s NDP government: Four Sisters, Pendera, Solheim Place, Bruce Ericksen, Lore Krill.

And the room is filled with such a dense and personal collection of memorabilia, artwork, books and music that being in it feels eerily like walking around in Green’s brain.

There are hundreds of books — on architecture, urbanism and cultural theory — lining the walls and stacked on tables.

Postcards from the Fred Herzog photo exhibit of 1950s Vancouver, a Carmen poster, and primitive masks.

Pictures of Green with everyone who’s been important in his life, from the magazine cover showing him with then-mayor Larry Campbell as though they were in a boxing ring to snapshots of him with Jane Jacobs.

The sound system is tuned to CBC and classical music, while a CD of Arvo Part, the composer whose music has the meditative quality of trickling water, sits on top of a stack of books nearby.

All of which are consolations and a way to stay balanced in what Green admits has been a painful 18 months since he lost to the NPA’s Sam Sullivan by fewer than 5,000 votes.

It was his second try at being mayor, but this more recent defeat was far more bitter than the earlier one.

In 1990, Green was unequivocally seen as the champion of the poor and the hero of the left. Even coming as close as he did to beating

Gordon Campbell was a triumph of sorts.

The big issue of the day was housing, from the old men who had been evicted from their hotels in the Downtown Eastside for Expo 86 to old ladies being evicted from their three-storey apartments in Kerrisdale. And Green was the housing crusader.

Green’s opponents painted him as a single-issue candidate and hinted that he was a socialist. That was about as nasty as it got.

Gordon Campbell told reporters that Green was “a worthy opponent — he’s someone who’s done a good job in the Downtown Eastside.”

In another campaign story, then-NPA alderman Gordon Price commented, “I like him, but I think he comes from too narrow an interest group. If he were mayor, it would be a most interesting learning experience at the expense of the city.”

In the official biography of the Coalition of Progressive Electors, Green was a champion.

“In the best campaign that COPE ever had, [Green] almost made it, sending shivers of fright down the collective spine of the Establishment,” was the description of that election year.

The 2005 campaign was utterly different.

Green, inheriting the mantle from departing mayor Larry Campbell, was seen to have a chance of winning, in spite of the fact that he and Campbell, along with others, had split from COPE and formed a new party.

He had the support (and money) of several prominent developers in town, a track record on council, and a somewhat unpopular Liberal government in Victoria — crucial factors in civic politics.

But the election turned into one of the nastiest on record, one where personal issues played a much bigger part than policy on both sides. Green was attacked, not for being a socialist or a one-issue candidate, but on all kinds of other fronts.

Green, who always has been a contradictory mix of prickly and mentoring, pugnacious and philosophical, gracious and contemptuous, was accused of being a bully. The flamboyant Jamie Lee Hamilton dredged up stories about financial allegations from the early 1990s, when Green was head of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, and posted innuendoes about his personal life.

Old enemies from fractious Downtown Eastside battles came out to denounce him, and it was clear, in informal conversations with longtime left-wing voters, that Green had generated a considerable list of enemies over the years.

There were problems, too, on his own side of the political fence. COPE and Vision candidates tried to patch up their differences for the election and run a cooperative slate, but COPE Coun. Tim Louis let it be known in many ways that he didn’t support Green and he encouraged people to vote for Green’s opponent. Longtime COPE supporters saw Green as someone who had betrayed the party and become too friendly with developers.

There were also quiet, personal defections in that 2005 campaign. Green had been friends with retired architecture professor Abraham Rogatnick for a long time; one of the many pictures in Green’s office shows him with Rogatnick. But in the 2005 campaign, Rogatnick decided he would support Sullivan. He was constantly at his side during the campaign and ran personal ads supporting him.

And then, finally, the campaign was clouded by the presence of a candidate by the name of James Green, a former music teacher who insisted he had a chance to become the mayor. He pulled in almost 5,000 votes — slightly more votes than Jim Green lost by — to the delight of the NPA and the dismay of Jim Green and his party.

Friends and colleagues say Green was shattered, not just by the defeat, but by the particularly personal nature of it.

“I think because of the way the election happened, it was pretty devastating for him,” says Heather Redfern, the director of the Vancouver East Cultural Centre.

Green spent a month in England almost immediately after the election. Since returning, he has tried determinedly to keep it behind him.

He has not been inside city hall once since his last meeting there as a councillor on Dec. 5, 2005.

That’s in contrast to James Green, who has made occasional appearances in council chambers, occasionally sitting next to Jamie Lee Hamilton, and has emerged recently as a public spokesman for the Little Mountain social-housing residents.

Jim Green even tries to be philosophical about the limitations of city council.

“I have a lot more control over my time and my schedule,” he says now. In a way, it’s an ideal life. “I get to do all the things I like to do, to bring some kind of a vision to what people are doing. I don’t have to gear up for a battle. There are certain ways the city works that are really dysfunctional.”

He still finds it puzzling that city councillors might end up having no say at all in a development worth $1 billion, yet end up sitting through hours of debate over something like speed bumps on a residential street.

And he shows genuine pleasure in being able to use his personal time for creative projects. He’s writing a book called Glass Bridges about “my work and the work of people I admire, like Jane Jacobs and Phyllis Lambert.”

He is writing a paper on culture and economics for the University of Bologna, where he spent some time last year.

And he is working on his favourite projects, like getting people from the Downtown Eastside to the opera and teaching them all about it before they go to the performance.

That last one is all part of his practical application of the theory of activation, which says that getting people engaged and interested in culture builds a city.

“If you can activate people, it builds social cohesion.”

But in spite of all his enthusiastic talk about these projects and more, it doesn’t take a psychiatry degree to figure out that this guy who is always restless to see things happen, to be part of the mover-shaker class, to get public acclaim for what he’s done, would love to have even the dysfunctional power that a Vancouver mayor has.

“I think I could have done a lot as mayor,” he muses aloud. “I don’t know. I feel like I’m doing a lot, though I could do a lot more.”

He still works hard to exert some influence. He had a personal meeting with Vanoc CEO John Furlong earlier this year, urging him to take more of a leadership role in making sure that the 2010 Olympics meets the commitments it made not to have a negative impact on the inner city.

He started up a new group, called Urban Solutions, as a way of showcasing speakers and ideas that he likes, especially the concept he’s pushing these days of reciprocal development — development that brings together developers and neighbourhoods in a collaborative way to create projects that ultimately benefit both.

And he clearly loves the sense of being in on big projects and working with developers and architects, although he concedes that it’s not always easy to define what he’s doing with them.

“I think they look to me for creative solutions, a creative way of looking at things. There’s no sense in coming to me if they already know what they’re going to do,” says Green.

The hardest part of his life right now, he says, is that “50 times a day, people say, ‘Jim, you were robbed.’ You try not to think about it. But you keep being pulled back to that consciousness.”

So, did that election loss change him profoundly, make him more reflective or alter his view of life?

There’s a pause.

“I’ll tell you one thing about your question,” he finally answers. “I don’t feel like I lost the election.”

And that statement says it all, both for those who think it tells you everything you need to know about the the current state of politics in the city and those who think it tells you everything you need to know about Jim Green.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Smith Munro
Sun

I have a suggestion for those who attempt to draw comparisons between the expansion of the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre and British Columbia‘s infamous fast ferries.

Please venture down to the Vancouver waterfront and stand by the construction site where there are nearly 400 construction workers today and where there will be 700 shortly.

Then consider that, with a year and a half left to go before the expansion is open, there are already more than two dozen international organizations booked to use the facility. Then cast your eyes to the North Shore where the fast ferries have been sitting idle for years because there is no demand for them.

Unlike the convention centre expansion, they were not built with the customer in mind. It is mischievous in the extreme to make spurious comparisons, and we in the tourism industry cannot stand by and see the perception of this great expansion project damaged by false comparisons.

The decision to expand the VCEC was based on a well-thought-out plan assembled by business people with strong professional advisers. Market studies were done and international convention organizers — the customers — were consulted on what type of building would appeal most to them.

This was not a case of “build it and they will come,” but rather one of doing our homework on what will draw the business and then designing and building to meet those demands.

While the costs have escalated, as with all construction projects today, the business case remains solid — and the demonstrated benefits will be province wide.

David Podmore, as the new chair responsible for the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre, successfully established a fixed-price contract with PCL to complete the expansion, and to do so by March 15, 2009. That is news that I welcome as not only the operator of a Vancouver hotel, but as chair of Tourism Vancouver, a $90-million investment partner in the project.

Over the coming years, the expanded convention centre will attract hundreds of conventions and hundreds of thousands of convention delegates. They are the cornerstone to a multibillion-dollar tourism industry.

Everyone benefits from conventions — whether they work in retail stores or hotels; drive taxis or work in public transportation; run tour companies; are employed by attractions; or are part of our bustling restaurant scene and our wine industry, or just residents who like to see foreigners topping up our provincial and federal tax coffers.

The incremental tax revenues that the federal and provincial governments will receive related to the expansion project are significant. In fact, this is one “infrastructure project” that actually has a financial return on investment for government: They (actually we, as taxpayers) get our money back, plus the dividends of job creation and economic growth.

While dozens of large international organizations have already committed to use the expanded VCEC, aggressive sales and marketing activities will ensure that dozens more are added to the booking calendar shortly. The world wants to meet in Vancouver, and with expansion we can now accommodate more of their needs.

2010 will see world media attention focused on the VCEC and its spectacular location and structure, ensuring even greater business profile. The International Congress and Convention Association recognized Vancouver as North America‘s No. 1 city for holding international meetings in 2006.

Tourism Vancouver’s sales offices in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, both headquarters for many international convention decision-makers, are abuzz with new inquires, leads and prospects — and we are constantly submitting highly competitive “bids” on behalf of Vancouver’s tourism industry, the VCEC and our hotel community. Several major convention “wins” will be announced shortly, and added to our confirmed list of VCEC bookings.

To those who would misconstrue the convention centre expansion by comparing it with the fast ferry fiasco, I can only say this: The expansion of the VCEC will be worth every penny invested in it, and every British Columbian will point to the beautiful facility with great pride — for decades.

Tourism Vancouver is proud to have initiated the convention centre expansion committee in 1999, and we are proud to be a partner in what promises to be an icon for B.C. and an economic engine that will benefit the entire province.

Smith Munro is the chairman of Tourism Vancouver.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

Province

Cost overruns on projects happen, but I wonder if the new convention centre in Vancouver will ever show a profit.

Tourism Minister Stan Hagen, in his haste to make this project look good to us taxpayers, is throwing figures around that, at best, are a wish and a prayer.

He claims 54 conventions are confirmed through to 2011, worth $1 billion in economic benefits.

What does that mean?

How did he come up with that spin? There may be 54 conventions confirmed, but how many are booked and have left a deposit?

Conventions are notorious for being cancelled or changed to different locations. Come on, Stan, show me on paper how you came up with that figure.

I’m sure a business plan was approved long before this project was started. Does that plan still work, with $400 million in cost overruns? How will that money be recovered? What’s the new business plan? Is there a new business plan?

Will bookings be subsidized by the government? Will the City of Vancouver be on the hook, and for how much?

Oh, and as an owner, I’d really be worried about the rising Canadian dollar — because I don’t think we will be filling our convention centre with Americans who find their dollar no longer gives them a 30-per-cent discount on conventions held in Canada.

I would like to let Hagen off the hook. But I remember similar questions when his party was in opposition during the fast-ferry overruns.

The minister needs to answer these questions.

Al Williams, Port Coquitlam

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Sheri Levine
Province

Ah, summer. A time of hot weather, late sunsets and chilling out at the beach or by the pool.

It’s also a time for frizzy hair, sunburnt, peeling skin and blisters from breaking in those new sandals. If you suffer from any of these summer afflictions, there is help.

Flare magazine has a list of quick fixes for some common summer beauty woes:

1. Dry, faded hair: For bottle blonds and reds, the hardest hair colours to keep from fading, the sun is not your friend. As for chlorine, forget about it. Sun and chlorine do a brilliant job fading your hair colour and drying hair out, too. If you’re swimming in a chlorine-filled pool, a bathing cap is your best option to protect your hair.

But there is another option. Before taking a dip, wet your hair and add a deep conditioning treatment. As for the sun protection, nothing works better than a hat or umbrella.

2. Blisters: They’re annoying and can sometimes be pretty painful. Regardless of how good you feel in those sexy, strappy sandals, it’s not worth the blisters they’re giving you. Heat, and especially humidity, cause your feet to swell, so it’s imperative your shoes fit properly. Tana New Gel Strappy Strips stick to the straps of sandals and slingbacks for invisible protection from blister-causing rubbing and ensure a secure fit. The best time to shop for shoes is at the end of the day when your feet are more swollen. If you do have a blister or two causing you grief, Epsom salts are your friend. Add some to warm water and soak your feet. This will not only help to dry out blisters; it will also soothe tired, sore feet.

3. Frizzy hair: In Flare magazine, Daniel of Toronto’s Salon Daniel suggests making the best of your curls. As a member of the frizzy hair-club myself, I must agree. Making peace with what you’ve been given naturally is the best way to deal with this because when the humidity hits, there’s not a product in the world that’s going to tame your frizzy mane. Daniel also suggests shampooing only twice a week and conditioning daily. Careful not to massage your hair too much as you’ll encourage more frizz. If you blow-dry your hair, use a curl enhancer and a comb — not a brush — comb through before blow-drying. If you prefer to go with straight locks, comb a smoothing cream through your damp hair. The best advice, however, is to simply let your waves or curls air-dry.

4. Ingrown hairs: The best way to deal with this is to simply leave it alone. Trying to remove ingrown hairs will only aggravate the problem, possibly leading to an infection. Make Vitamin E or tea-tree oil staples in your bathroom and apply them to the bikini area after waxing or shaving. To prevent ingrown hairs, exfoliate the skin with a mitt (available at The Body Shop and most drug stores) or a body scrub.

5. Sunburned skin: Try not to get burned by the sun to begin with by using a good sunblock with a minimum SPF 30 and be sure to reapply throughout the day, especially after swimming or perspiring. If you do end up with a sunburn, anti-inflammatory drugs — such as ibuprofen — will help. Applying ice-packs to the areas that burn the most works well, too. Skin lotions will help soothe the burn. Just make sure they’re fragrance-free. Aloe-vera as a lotion or directly from the plant itself is great for easing sunburnt skin, as well as being good for your skin in general.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

The dream that crashed

David Spaner
Province

It was supposed to be a museum for the ages.

Besides chronicling B.C. history, Storyeum would become a Vancouver landmark — a major tourist destination and the key to Gastown’s revitalization.

Instead, Storyeum was fated for the dustbin of history, its door closed after a scant two years, owing more than $5 million to the taxpayers of Vancouver.

How did Storyeum honcho Danny Guillaume’s big dream turn so sour so quickly?

The plan was to mix the corporate world with the art world to create the first link in an international chain of museums focused on local histories. The Gastown museum was the template, bringing B.C.’s history to life with live performances, multimedia, high-end effects — all in close proximity to the city’s major hotels.

These days, Storyeum’s Barkerville Street looks like a ghost town inside a ghost, the museum itself as ghostly as the one in the Ben Stiller movie Night at the Museum.

But the activity was frenetic at this massive former parkade at 160 Water St. in the months leading up to Storyeum’s opening in June 2004.

Filmmaker Tony Pantages recalls finishing his 10-minute Storyeum film while theatre actors rehearsed their show and construction continued relentlessly. There was so much excitement about the project that employees such as Guillaume’s executive assistant, Riki Lewald, were eager to invest.

For Lewald, and many others, it was difficult not to believe in Guillaume. He was a man on a mission and the cast of contributors he assembled was impressive. Beside Pantages, Storyeum’s designer was esteemed architect Al Waisman. Its First Nations consultant was native leader Leonard George. Its theatrical production was created by the acclaimed Electric Company.

Spread over 104,000 square feet, it included elaborate underground sets where actors depicted B.C. history, from Barkerville to rain forests to a Native Indian longhouse.

But as opening day approached, it was becoming clear to many that something was amiss. Too much seemed to be too last-minute. Pantages was hired in March to have an ambitious film project ready for the June opening. The Electric Company was hired in late fall 2003 to research, write and produce a sprawling, complicated theatre production for the following spring.

“That’s not enough time to create that show,” says the Electric Company’s producing manager, Cindy Reid. “I don’t know that they understood that.”

For others, including Waisman and his assistant Leonie Harvey, the lack of promotional money and differences within management had them doubting it would work — “long before it opened,” says Harvey.

Says Guillaume: “We were eating more money than budgeted because of a tight timeline — construction costs were going crazy.”

Guillaume had been vocal about his goal of 5,000 visitors a day.

“When we learned this was the vision, it seemed impossible,” says Reid. “To promise that from the get-go, it just seems like too much.”

As Storyeum’s marketing head, Graeme Drew was worried that construction delays had caused Storyeum to miss its planned March opening, which would have left time to attract schools. “We missed the window, plus we had a half-assed experience. It didn’t have the wow factor,” he says.

When the crowds didn’t show, says Guillaume: “We knew we had to improve the product. In hindsight, you could say maybe we should have left the product and spent the money on marketing.”

Many Gastown shopkeepers had figured this would be the project to trigger the bonanza that had been hoped for since developers turned to the historic district in the 1960s.

“When the hype started, I bought into it and thought it would help business,” says Sheena McLaren, proprietor of House of McLaren, a kilt specialty shop across from the street from Storyeum. “They just didn’t get the crowds they thought they’d get. That was the word around the neighbourhood.”

Tim Strang, marketing manager at Hill’s Native Art store, says: “The first show I saw really needed tweaking, but when I saw it later, I liked it. It’s an attraction we don’t have the like of in Gastown.” He blames the city, saying that it was the only creditor not prepared to give Storyeum more time.

Finally, last year, with Storyeum owing the city more than $5 million for building improvements and back rent, the city took action. Some were angered by the decision, including Ed Henderson, who composed the music at Storyeum. “It could have been an important icon to recognize Vancouver, not unlike the Tussaud in London,” he says. “You need support from the city. What does the VSO pay to use the Orpheum?”

Elizabeth Ball, city councillor responsible for cultural affairs, says: “The VSO is a nonprofit organization. No one is personally profiting. I don’t think it’s the city’s responsibility to keep a private operator alive that long. You don’t expect the taxpayers to underwrite that.”

Ball says the city was “extraordinarily supportive of Storyeum.” It provided Guillaume with a rental rate of some $3 a square foot per year, while the going rate in the area was $15-$20.

“Unfortunately, the owners, who were commercial, not nonprofit, were unable to meet their rent obligations — over and over and over,” says Ball. “The marketing simply wasn’t there to meet the guarantees that were made. Lots of promises were made but unfortunately were not met. I think the city gave them as long as they responsibly could. It’s sad the plan wasn’t thought through totally.”

While Guillaume disagreed with the city’s decision, he adds: “I don’t think they were unfair.”

Waisman, who was also an investor, is hard-pressed to blame the city. “I’d like to say that, but I’m not sure that it’s accurate,” he says. “There was a lack of money as well.”

Adds his assistant, Harvey: “There was nothing to attract a family to spend time there.” Waisman says original plans included a restaurant but the two people “fighting for the restaurant” dropped away after a glimpse at the small crowds.

The story of Storyeum raises the questions of what kind of city Vancouver is and who the tourists are who visit. Unlike New York or Paris, it may be that Vancouver doesn’t attract the sort of tourists who put museums high on their list of activities. After a morning of outdoorsy activities such as Stanley Park or a suspension bridge, do many visitors want to spend a summer afternoon inside and underground?

Danny Guillaume grew up the youngest of eight children on a Saskatchewan farm. On a visit to Vancouver, he fell for the city, and stayed to open West Coast Video on Main Street, which he sold to Blockbuster, utilizing the profits to open a pet store. For Guillaume, a small pet shop wasn’t enough. He wanted the big box of pet shops, and the result was Petcetera.

Similarly, Storyeum would be the big-box museum, the first in a chain — think Moscow Storyeum, Seattle Storyeum — a kind of museum equivalent of Starbucks.

Storyeum had its roots just 20 miles from where Guillaume grew up. Started up in 2000, The Tunnels of Moose Jaw was an instant success. (He’s still a partner in the Tunnels. Says co-owner Jeff Gajczyk. “We’re doing great here.”)

In Vancouver, Guillaume put together a management team, worked out a sweetheart rental from the city, and promised to build a landmark. Some say Guillaume was a smooth talker who could sell anything, and in Vancouver he raised $23 million in private funding, quickly enlisting individual investors, the contributions ranging from small-time savings to more than $3 million.

“That was Danny. He’s a sales guy,” says Lewald. “You had to listen to him talk — you’d believe. He just had that charisma. He was really good at selling you on an idea.”

Not everyone bought in. Guillaume met with Premier Gordon Campbell who, politely, turned him down. He was rebuffed by the feds, too.

Drew, who came up with the name Storyeum as a play on Orpheum, had been close to Guillaume, the MC at his wedding.

“We got quite excited about being the Disney of history,” Drew says. But he had considerable concerns about how Storyeum was presented, noting scheduling problems and high ticket prices. “Frankly, Danny was the one who made the [pricing] decision and I think it was the wrong one. Danny made all the final decisions. In some areas, he was brilliant. Unfortunately, one of them was not consensus.”

Drew, who was fired in the fall of 2004, says Guillaume was deeply affected by the failure. “I think he was completely crushed. There was a complete collapse in self-confidence. He was numb.”

Leward says Guillaume would disappear for days on end. “He was not a big administrator. He was more of a visionary. And that may have been part of the problem. Was he the right guy to launch this thing? Probably not. Danny didn’t listen — didn’t listen to the finance guy, didn’t listen to the operations guy, didn’t listen to Waisman, who had created several flourishing businesses. Graham and Danny were really good friends. Their friendship fell apart. It was nasty.”

Adds Waisman: “In the end, Danny was the only one left. The board of directors had left.”

Guillaume acknowledges that he made the final decisions but disagrees there was debate over pricing. “I don’t recall a lot of bickering over anything operational,” he says.

Pantages says the Storyeum experience was often intense and frustrating, but he admires Guillaume. “Danny is a great believer. He has the child inside him, and I appreciate that in people.”

But in retrospect, says Reid: “They didn’t get it right. They tried to be connected to the community, but I don’t think they were successful. Maybe because it was business-centric and the business community is much different than the First Nation community or the artistic community.”

These days, a Request For Proposals regarding the property is open at city hall until Aug. 3. Once the proposals are in, staff will issue a report on its future. “There’s arts-related, tourism-related, social-related, all kinds of ideas,” says Ball.

Guillaume says Storyeum needed more time and money. “We had to keep investing in it.” As for his future, he’ll only say: “I’m looking at other opportunities.”

Meanwhile, Leonard George and others can only reflect on what might have been.

“Vancouverites are very funny,” he says.

“When something new comes along, everyone takes it for granted — ‘We’ll have to come down there and see it.’ But it went away and they never did come down and see it.”

© The Vancouver Province 2007