Rumours and things

Last month I wrote a note on fish in BC's retail market. It was proved that some of the best and busiest fish and chip outlets in the Vancouver area were telling people it was Cod and Haddock and it wasn’t. It was cheap fish the restaurants were substituting for the real thing. Now the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says they have only conducted 42 tests on the retail fish sales in B.C. in the last three years.

It makes you wonder what you have been eating doesn’t it?...

For the most part the rumours are true on whatever you hear about two of the largest homes that have every been built in the Okanagan. As the story goes the home on Clifton Road is estimated to be worth $60 million. Things like the window frames from Colorado cost $2 million and the limestone around the windows another $1 million. The 30,000 square foot home on the west side at Caesars Landing is something to behold. On the property there is a 4,000 square foot millwork shop for the builders to use, which will become the owners workshop after the home is completed. I understand we have an oilman building this one...

Grocery chain Safeway Inc. will begin using nitrogen instead of compressed air to inflate the tires on its truck and trailer fleet.

According to a report in Transport Topics, a newsletter published by the American Trucking Associations Inc., the Phoenix-based food retailer plans to use nitrogen tire inflation in about 80 tractors and 320 trailers.

Frank Ruscitti, owner of NitrogenMan, told Tire Business his company has installed a Parker Nitrogen System at Safeway’s Tempe, Ariz., distribution center and is training the chain’s staff “on the proper procedure for purging and filling tires with nitrogen. They plan to have the fleet converted by August.”

Safeway is one of North America’s largest food and drug retailers. The company operates stores in western Canada. I have always wondered about this procedure. Is this something we should be doing to the tires on our cars?...

The pinch of the global economy is again being felt here at home.

Scona Trailer Manufacturing's parent company, McCoy Corporation, is shutting down the local division and moving all of its operations to a facility in Penticton.

McCoy Corp. is consolidating its custom trailer manufacturing business at the company’s facility in Penticton, and will halt production at its Edmonton plant indefinitely, CEO Jim Rakievich said.

"The Edmonton plant is an indication of how the global economic slowdown has affected the trailer manufacturing segment of McCoy," Rakievich said.

"Demand for trailer products not only in Western Canada, but across North America, has been reduced substantially," he said.

Layoffs due to declining demand had already dramatically reduced employment levels at both plants, which design and manufacture custom heavy duty trailers for the oil and gas industry, Rakievich said.

The Edmonton closure will cost 10 workers their jobs, while four others are being moved to other company operations. Two of them will be transferred to Penticton, which currently employees about 25 people.

"Hopefully over time, as the market comes back we can hire more," Rakievich said in a telephone interview, noting that sales last year were about $23 million, down from a peak of $60 million in 2006...

Google has sensed a window of opportunity: The company is taking aim at Microsoft's Windows operating system by releasing an operating system of its own. "The system, based on Google's Chrome Web browser, is designed for all classes of PCs, 'from small netbooks to full-sized desktop systems', and will be available in machines from 'multiple' PC makers in the second half of next year," according to the Financial Times. Google promised its OS would resolve many of the frustrations of Windows users, from slow start-up times to viruses. The Chrome OS will first appear on notebooks in the second half of 2010...

Every hockey fan knows singer Richard Loney who sings the anthems at GM Place. He suffered a stroke a couple of weeks ago. He's getting better and is taking long walks with his wife now. His speech and communication skills are returning daily. He is a member of the Vancouver Opera and has been singing the American and Canadian anthems at the NHL Canuck games since 1970...

The Chinese National Speed Skating Association and the City of Kamloops have signed another development and training agreement. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will guide the process to enable one of the world's top ranked short track speed skating teams to begin training in Kamloops, from July 19, 2009 to August 23, 2009.

The MOU specifies facilities and costs for which the Chinese athletes and coaches will be using during the five (5) weeks, including the McArthur Island Skating Oval, the Tournament Capital Centre fitness facilities, strength gymnasium, fields and aquatic centre. The Chinese team will be comprised of at least 30 persons including male and female athletes and coaches.

"We are thrilled to have Team China train in our facilities for the second year in a row,” said Jeff Putnam, City of Kamloops Sport Development & Business Operations Manager. “It is an honour to have one of the world’s best short track speed skating team training in our facilities for the upcoming 2010 Winter Games.”

The total value of the training agreement is $19,200 for facility fees plus the economic spin-off for accommodation, transportation and hospitality providers in Kamloops estimated to be an additional $60,000...

I can remember when the Summerland’s Agriculture Agri-Research Centre was in the old buildings before they built this new centre in the 80s. They have been doing good work there for 95 years. The Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research facility at Summerland was established in 1914. Originally called the Dominion Experimental Farm at Summerland, the name was changed to the Summerland Research Station in 1959, the Summerland Research Centre in 1994 and to the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre Summerland in 1996. The tree fruit breeding program was established in 1924 to provide new varieties for the tree fruit industry of British Columbia, and the world.

They have continually brought new cherry varieties to the marketplace by designing fruit that would grow later in the season with bigger and better colour and taste. The international market was delighted with the later cherries, and responded with better dollars. It is a very scientific business today and the growers have spent much time and money on increasing their output with a new way of farming and their successes are writing the new book on cherry marketing. The growers are more competitive and what was once a $1 million business has become a $21 million enterprise and climbing in fifteen years. Producing what the market wants to buy...

We reported that Starbucks was going to put a shop in the new Airport Business Centre but that has been cancelled. It looks like the space was all ready for them. Starbucks say they couldn’t make a deal with the landlord but they do have a new one scheduled for the UBC campus. It will be operated by a licensee.