Kitsilano merchants seek creative ways to boost business

Members of Kitsilano’s West 4th Avenue Business Improvement Association (BIA) will convene for their annual general meeting on Nov. 1st, when they will finalize a proposed budget for the 2012-13 year and fill three positions on the board of directors. Russ Davies, the BIA’s executive director, said this is an important year for owners of [...]

Vancouver entrepreneurs place trust in people power

It’s a business experiment in real people power. Vancouver residents are on their second round of voting to decide what kind of service will go into a downtown social housing building. More than 400 people voted in the first round and decided that the community around 243 Union St. needed a local service over a [...]

Top Chinese eatery shuns shark fin for Christmas

An owner with one of Vancouver’s premier seafood restaurants, Sun Sui Wah, says it is time to stop selling shark fin soup. “I’d like to have the whole of Canada [ban shark fin], not just a province or Toronto or Vancouver,” said Simon Chan. Chan made the comments following the Oct. 13 “Sans Fin Soup” [...]

Shippers want legal ‘hammer’ on Canada’s railways

Canadians will see more trucks on the road, will earn less abroad for their products and will lose import business to American ports, shippers say, if Canada doesn’t improve the way it runs its railways. Groups representing shippers are lobbying Transport Canada to introduce new rules to compel railroads to offer better service. In the [...]

Merchants still reeling after Canada Line construction

For almost 20 years, Alfred and Angela Chan fashioned floral arrangements and sold them to a loyal community of customers in the Cambie Village. But next week the Chans will close the doors of Arts Flowers and Gifts for good. “It’s too hard to do business on Cambie Street,” said Alfred Chan. More than a [...]

BC impaired-driving penalties boost bars near transit

B.C.’s tough impaired-driving penalties aren’t worrying at least one Vancouver bar owner. Eli Gershkovitch, owner of Steamworks Bar and Restaurant, said sales are up compared to last year and he has even had to hire additional staff. Inside Steamworks, a hockey game blares on widescreen TVs and patrons sip foamy house-brewed pints. Servers rush from [...]

Richmond churches resist ‘draconian’ property plan

Richmond is going ahead with a bylaw that the local clergy call a human rights violation. Under the proposed measure, religious institutions in West Richmond that want to sell or rezone their land for residential use would have to hand over a large portion of their revenues for affordable housing. “This is a human rights [...]

Vancouver’s air pollution bylaw bypasses odour

Some East Vancouver residents have turned up their noses at a local animal rendering plant that they say produces odours that are far too foul. “It in part smells like burning flesh… It smells like rotten fish sometimes. It smells like pet food. But all these descriptors don’t do justice to it,” said Don Dickson, [...]

How much governments spend on social housing

The Beth Tikvah Congregation sold half of its property to Richmond about 10 years ago. The city spent close to $1 million to build affordable housing on the property, with the B.C. government reimbursing three-quarters of the cost. The city can’t afford to invest in affordable housing anymore because the federal and provincial governments reduced [...]

Railway execs decry push for regulations

The reactions from Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway to the preliminary findings of the Rail Freight Service Review were respectful yet firm: Neither of Canada’s two major railways wants to see the government impose any new regulations. Related: Shippers want legal ‘hammer’ on Canada’s railways Here were the main points the railways’ executives [...]

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