Independent stores have moved out of this section of the 2000 block on West 4th to make way for new development.

Russ Davies, the BIA’s executive director, said this is an important year for owners of business and property on West 4th Ave. between Fir and Balsam. At the AGM held in 2010, members of the BIA voted to nearly triple its budget, to $400,500, in order to draw more retailers and ultimately, shoppers to the area.

The budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the second of a five-year term, is only expected to rise 1-3 percent, according to Peter Vaisbord, coordinator of Vancouver’s BIA program and author of its annual reports. The focus now is figuring out how to best put that money to work.

Kits tries to catch up

For years, the budget of the West 4th BIA had languished behind those of almost all the other 21 in the city.

It was less than half the budgets of Commercial Drive, Strathcona North and Kerrisdale, whose property values are most comparable to the eight-block strip on West 4th, estimated to be worth close to $400 million.

When Davies was hired by the board last year, merchants told him they felt they were falling behind other shopping districts like South Granville and Robson Street. They wanted their events and marketing to reflect the new face of the neighbourhood, not hark back to the old hippie days of Kits.

Davies knows all about what small shopping districts are up against. Before joining the 4th Ave. group, he was BIA director in White Rock (2005-2010) and BIA manager for Point Grey Village (2010). Prior to his tenure with the neighbourhood business associations, he was marketing director for Willowbrook, Lougheed and Park & Tilford malls. Their marketing budgets alone are in the millions, he said.

So last year, Davies wrote up a budget that surged 186 percent.

“The cost increase was controversial among the businesses,” said Vaisbord. In retrospect, he admitted that it may have been better for the BIA to increase its budget gradually over the previous 10 years to avoid the sticker shock.

Start with a party

Hell's Kitchen, a sponsor of last summer's Khatsahlano! street music festival.

Some the funds under the expanded budget have been used to host and promote neighbourhood events.

Grant McDonagh, owner of Zulu Records, a fixture of West 4th for the past 30 years, joined the board in 2010. He wants to give “young, creative entrepreneurs” a reason to set up shop there instead of somewhere else in the city, such as Main Street or Commercial Drive.

To that end, McDonagh helped launch the BIA-funded music and art street festival Khatsahlano! It cost $65,000 and is being proposed as an annual event.

An additional $12,500 promotional budget was allocated to each of four retail categories. The most recent BIA member to join the board, Hell’s Kitchen co-owner Sean Gregory, is working with other restaurateurs on a Kits version of “Dine Out,” a three-day set-price pairing of food and drink. He sees it as a way to re-invigorate the street with more nightlife.

Board member Donna Hohl, the owner of Coco’s Closet boutique, said new initiatives like September’s “Kits Fashion’s First Night,” which featured free valet parking, in-store licensed parties and sales, create community and bring new people to the area. She and other clothing retailers are currently planning a similar event for early December, ahead of the holidays.

Last year’s budget also included an $80,000 advertising budget for radio, print, web, social media and bus campaigns.

“Really,” said board member Donna Hohl, “it’s like an advertising co-op.”

Business partners Josh Michnik and Michael Leung want residents to tell them what type of business to open in their empty retail space on Union Street.

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 restaurant, retail space or other type of venture.

The next poll will determine which type of service. Based on comments and community feedback, people can now select from the options of a grocery store and eatery, bread-focused café and delicatessen or a mixed-use space.

Maya Sciarretta voted in the first poll. “I think it’s really great to get feedback because like any project, collaboration gives you the best results,” she said.

Sciarretta said she is also skeptical of the project and whether it is actually meant to service the community, or simply a clever marketing ploy. A local photographer and designer living in Strathcona, she  questions the creativity of a project relying on a series of polls for inspiration and a business plan. She said she intends to continue voting.

Guided by residents

Behind the polls are partners Michael Leung and Josh Michnik. They hope to have a business plan in place after the second round of voting, which started Oct. 18, including a design for the space, budget and list of resources.

“I had no expectations coming in to be honest,” said Leung, who owns the 600-square-foot storefront called This Space located in Chinatown/Strathcona on the ground level of Solheim Place.

Leung said he knows nothing about how to run a sushi restaurant, if that was what the community decided upon. But he plans to get the advice of residents and experts, hire locally and even consult or contract local businesses to help guide his enterprise along the way.

“Businesses are not just anything,” said Larry Beasley, former director of planning for the city of Vancouver. He said businesses usually being with a model based on ensuring profits before looking for a location and consumer base.

“It takes expertise, knowledge, experience, background to run a successful business whatever it may be: restaurant, retail, deli. That’s even more the case when you move out of that typical format into arts, galleries,” he said.

Michnik, friend and co-owner of Charlie & Lee, a clothing boutique located a few doors down in the V6A building, came up with the idea for the project. He said he wanted some control over what was happening on his street.

“I struggled with what everyone else would want because there are so many dynamics and so many different people in the area,” said Michnik.

The model he came up with is an online and in-store polling process to get residents’ input on every aspect of the enterprise, from what type of business it will be to what colour the walls will be painted. The first poll closed with more than 400 responses collected in less than a month, including 131 comments online.

Community will profit from profits

Leung and Michnik encourage the community to go online and vote.

Whether those votes will translate into customers remains to be seen. “I think it really depends on who you’re engaging in your process while you’re getting votes,” said Joji Kumagai, executive director of the Strathcona Business Improvement Association.

“You need to know who your target population is, if you are getting a lot of local residents and those are the types of people you actually want to drive to your store or business then that’s an effective strategy.”

It’s up to Leung and Michnick to find a way to make the voters’ decisions profitable.

“Consumers can tell you what they want — they can’t tell you whether it’s viable or not to deliver,” said Beasley.

“In a way we want people to think about which business they choose makes the most money,” said Leung. Online he has promised to explore investing a portion of profits back into the community, into a charity or project chosen by residents.

Leung said residents will have to decide “[if] they want a profitable business in there which may not service all parts of the neighbourhood, may have narrower access, may only target for example cyclists commuters or the V6A building but generates enough revenues [that] 10 per cent of the profits [can] go back to [the community]. Or do they want a mixed use model which won’t make much money but it will upfront have more access.”

Leung said he is still more excited than nervous.

“They’re already creating that buzz before and I think that’s really the strength of this process,” said Kumagai.

Chef Edmund Yee of P2B Bistro & Bar (right) serves up his Abalone and Crab Soup.

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” contest in which nine local chefs competed to create alternatives to the Chinese delicacy.

Chan’s restaurant did not participate in the event.  He said until there is a blanket ban he will continue to provide it. He said shark fin soup is something “100 percent of wedding customers want. That’s the tradition.”

“If we don’t serve them, other restaurants in other cities will serve them. We lose our customers and we have to close,” he explained.

But Sun Sui Wah is taking shark fin off its Christmas menu, due to be released at the end of October.

A legacy of prestige

Shark fin soup is one of the “big four” traditional delicacies served at banquets, along with fish maw, abalone and sea cucumber, said Claudia Li. Li is the founder of Shark Truth, the foundation that organized the event.

Traditionally, Chinese emperors served shark fin to display wealth. “It was the emperor’s way of saying, ‘Look at me, I can afford to risk the lives of my workers to serve you this expensive dish,’” said Li.

Today, shark fin remains a prestigious dish at Chinese banquets. The soup expresses honour and generosity towards guests. A Chinese proverb maintains that “a bride marrying into a family without shark fin is marrying into a poor family,” said Li.

A single bowl of shark fin soup can cost between five to $2000, depending on the grade of fin, Li notes. Chan said that high grade dried shark fin costs $400 per pound.

A high cost to oceans

The practice of “finning” sharks involves cutting the fins off sharks and dumping their bodies back into the ocean.

Sun Sui Wah’s Main Street location in Mount Pleasant.

Scientists estimate 75 to 100 million sharks are killed worldwide every year. The Sharkwater documentary’s websitestates that 100 million sharks are killed for their fins annually.

Sharks sit at the top of the ocean ecosystem. They are considered apex predators. The activist group Global Animal argues that the destruction of sharks means the demise of oceans worldwide.

The issue is “extremely urgent,” Li said.

A shark’s fins comprise less than five per cent of its body weight. Shark meat does not bring enough money for most fishermen to want to sell it, so the shark is left in the ocean. Li called this a wasteful practice that is antithetical to the Chinese value of using every part of an animal.

“I can see from the pictures, shark finning is not that good,” said Chan. The latest push to stop serving shark fin has him reconsidering how he uses shark products.

“Personally, I can see right now that we shouldn’t have the shark fin. Even my kids blame me: ‘We don’t want that!’ But it’s an old tradition, I can’t say anything.”

A competitive niche

Sun Sui Wah is experimenting with a Christmas menu to be released next week. They have created a new set menu without shark fin ingredients.

“For Sun Sui Wah to push forward a Christmas menu that doesn’t include shark fin is a really positive step,” said Li. “It shows that restaurants are beginning to recognize that they have a role in this issue.”

Li says restaurants have a niche market opportunity: customers seeking a shark-fin free alternative. “If they can see momentum building against shark fin products, they know that sooner or later, a ban will happen,” she said.

“A really smart restaurant would come out and say ‘We’re going to be the first restaurant to not serve shark fin.’ I mean, get ahead of the curve, right? Businesses that can anticipate how the market is shifting have the competitive edge and make money,” said Li.

A finless future

Sans Fin Soup judges Donald Gyurkovits and Edgar Rahal.

The global fight against shark finning has seen several victories this month. On Oct 7, California Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation banning the possession and sale of shark fins in California, the fourth US state to do so. On Oct 12, Mississauga passed a similar law. Toronto is currently working on legislation to ban shark fins.

At the federal level, this November NDP Oceans and Fisheries critic Fin Donnelly will introduce a private member’s bill to ban the import of shark fins into Canada.

Donnelly, MP for New Westminster-Coquitlam and Port Moody, attended the Sans Fin Soup contest to congratulate the winners.

The group Shark Truth is continuing its campaign. It will hold a contest again next year in hopes that even more chefs will join in.

So far, 65 Vancouver couples have pledged not to serve shark fin soup at their weddings, a number Li hopes will double next year.

“I think within the next five years, we’ll have some good national legislation to protect sharks through shark fin bans,” Li said. “That’s my hope.”

The shipping companies that move 2 million containers a year through Vancouver's ports are taking aim at 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 coming weeks, the Rail Freight Review Panel that Transport Canada convened in 2008 to address shippers’ gripes will release its final findings.

The companies that move iPods from China and send coal to Japan contend that railways often fail to provide the cars they need at the right times.They want the review panel to marshal government force to shore up its recommendations on how to smooth out festering service disputes with Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway.

“We have said we think the panel’s majority recommendation of quietly preparing legislation for 2013 is the way to go,” said Stephen Brown, the president of the Chamber of Shippers of British Columbia, which represents more than 150 shipping interests. “So why would we say that? Because it keeps the hammer on the railways to perform.”

Officials at both of Canada’s major railways disagreed with the notion of regulation, and let the panel know as much.

But after listening to hundreds of companies, trade groups and government bodies, the panel found that rail service has been “less than adequate” and that “most of the issues raised relate to railway behaviour.”

The preliminary review recommended that railways get until 2013 to work out a solution on their own. If the problems are not resolved, another federal assessment could lead to regulation.

A good enough Gateway?

The friction between shippers and railways comes as Canada is touting its ports as the best way to and from Asia.

The rails at Port Metro Vancouver are an essential artery for container shipping

In 2006 and 2007, Stephen Harper’s government committed more than $1 billion to the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative.

The project aims to make the ports in Vancouver and Prince Rupert more attractive for imports destined for eastern Canada and the central United States.

Port Metro Vancouver handles about $75 billion in goods annually.

In a slow year like 2009, it handled more than 67,000 tons of bulk goods – most of which travels by rail – and more than 2 million shipping containers.

The 10 economies that moved the most tons of container freight to and from Vancouver were all in south and east Asia.

“When you look at both the Pacific Gateway and how things are moving today on the waterfront, it’s not the water that’s the problem,” said Jonathan Whitworth, the CEO of Washington Marine Group, which owns the largest tug and barge operation and the largest shipyard in western Canada.

“It’s the shoreside process of logistics.”

Related: Railway execs decry push for regulation

The railways would prefer to keep government at bay. They, and Port Metro Vancouver, went on record after the panel’s preliminary report in October to push for “commercial approaches” to the complaints.

The railways’ position was detailed by Canadian Pacific Railway Vice President for Government Affairs Michael Murphy in a Nov. 8 letter to the panel.

Murphy wrote that CP “vigorously objects” to the panel’s view that “the major cause of railway service problems is railway market power.” In his view, the railways face competition from trucking lines and waterways.

In a similar letter, Canadian National Railway President and CEO Claude Mongeau assured the panel that the company planned what he described as “customer-focused initiatives” that would preclude the need for regulation.

‘Nowhere else to go’

Shipping representatives argue that the country’s two dominant railways amounts to a duopoly, making normal commercial fixes unrealistic.

“We all appreciate that shareholder value is extremely important,” Brown said. “But like the airline industry, you can go full-force into shareholder value, but if your service sucks, [customers are] going to fly with somebody else.

“The problem with the railways, is when you’ve only got two of them, and they’re both sucking at the same time, you’ve got nowhere else to go.”

The Coalition of Rail Shippers, a industrial group that represents companies that account for some 80 percent of the railways’ revenue, shares Brown’s point of view.

Coalition president Bob Ballantyne said Transport Canada should keep the pressure on railways by at least writing regulations while the railways try to right ship.

“The shipper gang is basically saying, Don’t delay for three years in coming up with regulations,” Ballantyne said. “Come up with the regulations now.”

Cost of business

The concerns of shippers and producers go right to the bottom line. Disruptions threaten the prices that Canadian timber or coal or sulfur or grain will earn on the world market. Late goods are worth less.

Likewise, if ships making the 12-day journey from Shanghai can’t get into port and unload their cargo quickly, Vancouver and Prince Rupert risk losing business to ports on the U.S. West Coast.

“The good news about the shipping business is that it’s an extremely mobile business,” Whitworth said. “The bad news about the shipping business is that it’s an extremely mobile business.

“That ship with 2,000 containers on it isn’t on a rail going from China to Vancouver. It can move a few degrees and go to Tacoma easily.”

Snags in the supply chain get expensive fast. Union representative Peter Haines said a delay on a rail line can cost a grain elevator operator full pay for a day crew. Union workers summoned to a job, even one that’s called off, are guaranteed to be paid for an eight-hour workday.

“The rail lines have had their problems,” said Haines, secretary treasurer of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 500, which represents workers in Vancouver. “They’ve always had a rather high-handed attitude, very cavalier.”

Alfred and Angela Chan are the latest business casualty in the Cambie Village

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 year since the completion of the contested “cut-and-cover” construction of Vancouver’s Canada Line, some Cambie merchants are struggling. Others claim they have yet to experience any benefit from the $2-billion transit project.

The Chans’ small family business is only one of a long list of Cambie Street casualties. Many struggled to survive, some closed for good and others took their business elsewhere.

Tough times prevail

Construction on the rapid transit project, which connects downtown Vancouver to Richmond and the Vancouver International Airport, lasted almost four years.

Dust, noise, fences and road closures drove customers elsewhere, according to a Canadian Federation of Independent Business survey.

By 2007, 75 per cent of business owners along the 19-kilometre stretch of the Canada Line reported decreased sales, averaging a 36 per cent drop, according to the report.

Prior to construction, merchants were assured there would be minimal impact on business.  But a last minute decision to use the more intrusive “cut-and-cover” construction method has had a lasting impact.

“There was a fence like you were sitting in a jail.  [It was] hard to move, and no one could stop their cars in front,” Chan said, recalling the tough construction period.

Better business future?

The graffitied storefront near 16th Avenue is one of many empty properties available for lease

The Chans, like many other Cambie merchants, remained hopeful that business would pick up and their patience would pay off.

Some B.C. politicians defending the project presented a message of hope for the Cambie merchants at the time.

“There will be some significant benefits,” Minister Kevin Falcon said in 2007.

But for many, these promises never materialized.

“I don’t think that business can improve much in the next few years,” said Chan, adding that business is even worse now than before construction began in 2005.

Leonard Schein, with the Cambie Village Business Association, said business is back to normal for him, but added “a lot of people lost a lot of money.”

Businesses located near Canada Line stations have benefited, Schein said.

Sixteen blocks separate the King Edward and Broadway-City Hall stations.  Much of the Cambie Village is situated between them.

Merchants are not alone

“Some landlords that are really good in the village lowered their rent during the construction,” Schein said.  “I guess now they’re playing catch up.”

Many businesses have faced steep rent increases in the past months.   The Chans received notice that their rent would be increased by $500 – almost 20 per cent.

“Properties took a hit too because some tenants struggled to pay the rent,” said Peter Lee, who operates Camy Properties. His company, which manages several properties on Cambie, offered a 15 per cent discount to its tenants during construction.

Unlike some management firms, Camy has not increased rent above “market rate” since construction finished, Lee said.

But Georgina Kwei, co-owner of Kube Computers, said Camy raised their rent by an unfair amount.

This month Kwei uprooted and moved her business six blocks east to Main Street.  She said the rent increase was too high, though she admits other factors contributed to the decision.

For the courts to decide

Cambie merchants and property owners are still looking for answers.

A 2009 B.C. Supreme Court ruling awarded former Cambie merchant, Susan Hayes, $600,000 in damages.

The court found TransLink, Canada Line Rapid Transit Inc. and InTransitBC – the builders and operators of the project – liable for causing a nuisance during construction.

In February the courts approved a class-action lawsuit on behalf of another 40 Cambie merchants.

“There was all this talk about how the merchants will benefit, so suck it up.  But I can’t say for sure that that has occurred, even with the Canada Line in place,” Kwei said.

The Chans have had enough and now plan to retire.  They do not expect a payout.

“If they have any answer, they will let us know,” said Chan.  ”But we are not hopeful.”

Steamworks Bar and Restaurant in downtown Vancouver is accessible to transit and taxis

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 table to table, tossing down coasters and passing out drinks.

“We have seen a significant increase in business,” Gershkovitch said.

Many bar and restaurant owners complain that B.C.’s new impaired-driving penalties – billed by the province as the toughest in Canada – are draining their sales. However, establishments with easy access to public transit are thriving.

Steamworks sits directly next to Waterfront Station, which provides transit connections to the North Shore, Richmond, Burnaby and parts of Coquitlam. Taxis line up along the block at all hours of the night.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the laws have changed and business is going up,” Gershkovitch said. “People’s habits are changing.”

While business is down 30 to 60 per cent across the province, some bars have lost as much as 80 per cent, said Kim Haakstad, executive director of the Alliance of Beverage Licensees of B.C.

The bars hit the hardest are in suburban or rural areas that have less reliable public transit and taxi services, she said.

Getting home safely

Under the new penalties, drivers caught with a blood alcohol level of .05 or higher could be immediately slapped with a driving ban ranging from three to 30 days and a fine of between $200 and $500.

During the first month the new rules were in place, police impounded the vehicles of 1,239 impaired drivers across B.C.

Drivers are so afraid to lose their vehicles that they won’t even have a drink with dinner, Haakstad said.

“Imagine if your family car was taken away for even just three days. How would you get to work? How would you get your kids to school?”

Across the harbour in North Vancouver, the Queen’s Cross pub struggles to adapt to the new regulations. Bar staff now offer free non-alcoholic drinks to designated drivers.

But server Mandy Cox said that many patrons still struggle to find a way home.

“Taxis here are impossible to get,” she said. “On Halloween our customers waited almost three hours for a taxi.”

Sunshine Cabs driver Ash Thatl said that it can be busy on holidays, but overall business has not increased in North Vancouver.

Although the Queen’s Cross is located near many bus routes on Lonsdale Street, it lacks rapid-transit services like the SkyTrain. Cox said her clientele tends not to rely on public transit.

“It’s like they put in these laws without doing anything to support them,” Cox said. “If you don’t want people to drink and drive, make it easy for them not to.”

Maya Kramer takes the bus when she drinks in downtown Vancouver

In transit

Back downtown, Maya Kramer always takes the bus home when she goes out to the bar. Her father was killed by a drunk driver, and she said she would never consider driving drunk.

Maya Kramer speaks about her father’s death

“I rarely drive in Vancouver anyway,” she said. “The traffic is so horrible here. I have three buses that go by my house, so I’ve never had a problem.”

Kramer currently lives on West Broadway, but said she is moving to North Vancouver next month. She said she isn’t sure how her habits will change.

“The SeaBus ends so early. Do I drive [downtown] and not drink? Do I just stay home? I know cabs are going to be a bigger expense,” she said.

SeaBus and SkyTrain services end at 1:20 a.m., at least an hour before most bars and nightclubs close. Night buses to the suburbs run every half hour until 3 a.m., although connecting buses may have stopped running.

The early curfew for transit is a drain on sales, said Black Frog manager Matt Lautsch. But the bar’s Gastown location is an ideal spot for patrons who live downtown and simply walk to bars.

Zero tolerance

The laws are already saving lives, police reported at a Nov. 17 Mothers Against Drunk Driving event. In October 2010, four people died due to impaired driving in B.C. In the same month last year, 13 fatal accidents occurred.

Solicitor-General Rich Coleman announced in November that the provincial government is considering amending the legislation due to unintended financial consequences to bars and restaurants.

Later, in a press release, he said the penalties were not under review and he only wished that police would exercise more discretion when impounding vehicles.

Safety advocates approve of the legislation. It has the potential to eliminate drunk driving, said Allan Lamb, executive director of the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation.

“It seems like there’s an attitude that you can have two or three drinks and then drive home,” Lamb said. “But studies have shown that even one drink will make your ability to drive impaired.”

St. Paul's Parish is ready to speak against the proposed bylaw if it goes before the council in December

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 issue against churches,” said Ken Clausen, a member of the Brighouse United Church. “If this doesn’t go against religious rights and freedoms, I don’t know what will.”

City staff proposed the affordable housing condition to ensure that religious institutions continue to provide community benefits after rezoning.

“An assembly shouldn’t be able to do just what it wants,” said Richmond’s policy planning manager Terry Crowe.

Church representatives argue that the bylaw will only shift the burden of building affordable housing from the provincial and federal governments.

The proposed bylaw has been under review for a year.

City officials told TheThunderbird.ca that they plan to put the revised bylaw to a council vote in late December or early January.

The plan to call the vote surprised the nine church representatives involved in the consultation process. The city has not made any concessions, they said.

“We’re frustrated because every time we meet it’s the same. They’re polite. They’re just not listening,” Clausen said.

Richmond officials said they are willing to revise the bylaw, but future consultation may be limited to email exchanges.

Cost of development

The Richmond Gospel Society is one of the religious groups affected. It sits on two acres of centrally located land that no developer wants to buy. The property went up for sale five years ago.

Current bylaws require the land to be kept for religious or educational use. Churches and schools can’t afford to buy it, said Curtis Green, director of the Richmond Gospel Society.

Reverend Margaret Cornish of St. Alban's Anglican Church blesses pets at the St. Francis service (Photo courtesy of Randy Murray)

The new bylaw would open the bidding to all developers, but there is a catch.

Developers would need to build some low-cost homes or make large contributions to Richmond’s affordable housing fund before they can rezone the area. Developers already pay into the fund, but they would need to pay more to build on land that belonged to a church.

“It’s a draconian measure,” said Francis Wong, the head of finance at Vancouver’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese. “It is totally unfair.”

In the city’s view, it is fair to expect that some profits from developing the land would go towards homes for the less well-off.

“Churches give a lot of [community] benefit now, but they will also get substantial financial benefit if they rezone,” Crowe said.

The Gilmore United Church sold its seniors’ residence units at a market price. The revenues were enough to build a new church on the property.

Paying for affordable homes

Religious leaders say that affordable housing should be the responsibility of the provincial and federal governments.

Related: How much governments spend on social housing

“The city needs affordable housing, but it is not the churches’ responsibility to provide,” said Jeff Germo, pastor at the Richmond Baptist Church. “It shouldn’t be imposed.”

The Guardian Angels and St. Mary’s churches in Vancouver voluntarily built social housing on their properties. The Anglican diocese sponsors low-cost houses for seniors and handicapped adults in Metro Vancouver.

The reason that Richmond’s three Anglican churches have not built affordable housing is because they don’t have enough land, said Ian Robertson, volunteer at the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster.

Bureaucratic process

Pastor Gary Roosma of the Emmanuel Christian Community and his wife Jenny were not aware of the city's consultations on the bylaw

The dispute over the bylaw dates back to Nov. 23, 2009. The Anglican diocese received a phone call from its realtor at 4 p.m., saying there would be an important vote in the Richmond City Council in three hours.

The vote, it turned out, was the rezoning bylaw. The proposal came before council despite the lack of public consultation.

The city was trying to clarify an existing policy and “didn’t see the need at the time to consult,” said Richmond’s senior planner June Christy.

She defended the council’s procedures, saying residents could find out about the vote by looking at the agenda posted on the city’s website.

In the end, the council returned the proposal to city staff for review. Richmond’s planning department organized three working group meetings since the vote, but many of the 35 sites that the proposed bylaw would affect didn’t know about them.

Richmond staff and religious institutions need to work together to achieve a solution, Dana Westermark said. As president of Oris Consulting, he is working with Richmond’s united churches on their plans to build affordable housing.

“This bylaw would kill any chance these groups may have had to achieve this,” he said.

“The city must rethink their position from the ground up and the [institutions] need to define their issues and start to work toward a solution rather than merely reacting to the city’s position.”

“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, a member of the Stop the Stink campaign.

Inedible animal parts, such as this load of fish bones and offal, are driven to the rendering plant in deliveries of 12 to 25 tonnes.

The clash between a century-old neighbourhood and a 50-year-old business has pit industrial regulations against community aesthetics. A rule change by Metro Vancouver seems the only solution to the stalemate.

Stop the Stink wants Metro Vancouver to restrict the plant’s operations. Barry Glotman, the president and CEO of West Coast Reduction, said the rendering plant meets air quality regulations and provides an environmental service.

“It’s all about recycling,” he said, noting that someone has to take care of all the animal waste material produced in the Lower Mainland.

Canadians eat a combined average of 60 pounds of chicken, pork and fish every year, according to Statistics Canada. That places more than 125 million pounds of non-ruminant meat on greater Vancouver plates each year, and creates an equal quantity of inedible waste.

Waste not, want not

Towering white silos line the eastern edge of the plant. Squat grey trucks monitored by hungry seagulls dump loads of raw animal parts into below-ground holding tanks.

Inside, scientists and technicians test their equipment and monitor emissions.

Glotman said his company collects an average of 1.6 million pounds of unwanted raw animal products from businesses across the Lower Mainland every day.

The company purchases the majority of the raw material from local animal processing factories.

“We don’t call it garbage,” said Glotman. “We see it as a by-product because there’s value to it.”

Restaurants are prohibited from dumping grease into city sewers. West Coast Reduction picks it up free of charge.

The plant cooks the raw material – feathers, beaks, bones, and other animal parts – at high temperature, then dries and grinds it into various products that may be used in animal feed, plant fertilizer, or other applications.

Glotman said the company also collects the used frying grease of more than 3,500 Lower Mainland restaurants.

He said rendered fats like these might end up in cosmetics and soaps and rubber tires. Better, he said, than the alternative: down the drain.

Glotman said the rendering process is not scent-free, but likened it to cooking a turkey in a kitchen.

“There is some odour. There is potentially some odour,” said Glotman, “but we control all those… everything’s captured and then cleaned and recycled.”

Regulatory action

The offending odour tends to concentrate in a three-kilometre radius south of Hastings Street and east of Clark Drive. Schools, parks and single-family homes dot the ethnically diverse neighbourhood. The area houses roughly 30,000 people.

Stop the Stink is not alone in thinking the odour is just too heady. In 2005, 347 complaints were registered against West Coast Reduction. In 2006, complaints increased to 412.

When complaints reached 627 by the end of 2007, Metro Vancouver turned to its Air Quality Management Bylaw and amended the company’s operating permit. The changes required weekend and holiday work stoppages as well as mandatory odour concentration testing.

Related: How odour testing works

The plant self-monitors everything it emits into the air and water

The B.C. Environmental Appeal Board overturned the regulatory decision in spring 2010.

The board found that Metro Vancouver’s bylaw does not recognize odour as an air contaminant. Metro is now in negotiations with the plant.

“If the company agrees to changes in their permit that we believe will result in acceptable air quality… we will not need to develop any further bylaws or regulations,” wrote Ray Robb, a regulation and enforcement manager with Metro Vancouver.

Dickson has lived near what he calls the “epicentre of the strongest concentration of odour” for approximately a decade.

He said Metro Vancouver is obliged to do more about the smell, and that stronger regulations could lead to improvements in quality of life for local residents.

“We literally have to leave on many occasions during the summer,” he said. “We can’t stay here and have dinner, we have to get out of the neighbourhood.”

The Anglican Diocese of New Westminster sponsors low-cost Abbeyfield houses for seniors."

The city can’t afford to invest in affordable housing anymore because the federal and provincial governments reduced their funding for such projects, said Terry Crowe, Richmond’s policy planning manager.

Provincial funding for independent social housing has grown over the past years, according to the B.C. Housing annual reports. The government contributed:

• 2009-2010: $240.7 million
• 2008-2009: $279.7 million
• 2007-2008: $271.9 million
• 2006-2007: $244 million
• 2005-2006: $218.8 million

But these numbers may be misleading.

British Columbia lost 2,820 social housing units since 2006, according to a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives study from September 2010. The study estimates that the net increase for social housing over the past five years was only 280 units.

Federal funding for social housing plummeted in the late 1980s as the government put more responsibility on the provinces and municipalities, according to the Canadian Policy Research Networks discussion paper. The provinces responded by cutting their own spending on social housing.

A national housing strategy may be put in place if Bill C-304 passes its third reading in Parliament. NDP MP Libby Davies introduced the private member’s bill in February 2009.

The bill, which calls for increased federal funding for affordable housing, passed the second vote with support from the NDP, Liberals and the Bloc. The date for the final vote has not been set.

Related: Richmond churches resist “draconian” property plan

Related: Shippers want legal ‘hammer’ on Canada’s railways

Canadian Pacific ships across southern Canada and the United States and Mexico

Here were the main points the railways’ executives made in the responses they sent to Transport Canada in an effort to sway the panel before the final review.

Michael Murphy, vice president of government affairs, Canadian Pacific:

“At the onset I would like to state that Canadian Pacific supports the Government’s and the Panel’s goal of improving the overall performance of Canada’s rail freight supply chain. …

“I also firmly agree with the Panel’s assertion that commercial approaches are vastly superior to additional regulation in providing market-based incentives for parties to work together. …

“CP does believe that commercial principles coupled with a stable regulatory regime are the best approaches to promote rail freight supply chain coordination and investment. … CP also submits that a key regulatory measure, as presented by the Panel, of mandated service agreements backstopped by final offer arbitration puts an undue focus on the railway component of the rail freight supply chain … It is an impractical recommendation.

“As we have discussed with you on several occasions, the root cause of service ‘failures’ (attributed to the railways) in fact is often the result of issues at ports, such as weather, labour disputes and vessel arrival delays, demand bunching/peaks, inaccurate forecasting or lack of visibility in supply chain demand. Additional government regulation cannot effectively deal with these ongoing real life issues.”

Claude Mongeau, president and CEO, Canadian National:

“A genuine supply chain review by the Panel would have allowed all participants in the logistics chain an opportunity to comment on the role and services of other key participants. The Panel’s focus on railways alone allowed participants to comment only on the rail segment of the chain. This represents a major shortcoming, as it provide a partial and incomplete view of issues and opportunities in Canada’s supply chains. It is clear that supply chain issues simply cannot all be resolved through the single regulated rail component of the chain. …

“The fact is that, in the Panel’s review, the railways were treated differently than other participants in the supply chain. For example, the presence of two railway service providers is considered a situation of ‘dual monopoly’ but that of two non-rail service providers in other segments of the logistics chain is not considered to raise a market structure issue. …

“…[W]e wish to express serious concerns with the Panel’s advanced legislative drafting approach. To proceed with advanced drafting of complex regulation is not only unusual, it would fail to take into account the extensive initiatives already taken and committed by the railways. More critically, it will create a disincentive, not only for the continued meaningful discussions, but also for commercial solutions, undermining the Panel’s own stated preference for such solutions in the first place.”