Here and there

Over the years we have booked 763 speakers into Kelowna for luncheons and conferences. In the last twenty years I always had a dream that I could talk Warren Buffett into coming to Canada, at a price of course, for one of his famous luncheons. I realized the tickets would be expensive but then those that want to hear the man would pay. The other day I was reading The Toronto Star and they were writing about the luncheon scheduled for Toronto with Buffett. Two Toronto portfolio mangers bid $1.68 million for the greatest investor of our time to lunch with a few friends in Toronto. They outbid everyone trying for the event by $100. Talk about out of our league...

It really concerns me these days as more and more of our food products are coming from off shore and even though it says on the label "Product Of Canada", that is really just part of the story. It doesn’t matter what you pick up these days there is some question about where it originated.

Here's a quick guide to navigate country of origin labeling in Canada:

Product of Canada: Label can be used if all or virtually all of the major ingredients, processing and labour used to make the product are Canadian. The amount of foreign content must be restricted to a maximum of about 2 per cent of the product's content.

Made in Canada from imported ingredients: Label can be used when the product's ingredients are foreign but the product undergoes "substantial" processing in Canada that changes the original nature of the product. For example, cookies manufactured in Canada using imported ingredients.

Made in Canada from domestic and imported ingredients: Label can be used when the product's ingredients are a mixture of foreign and domestic, but the product is processed in Canada. For example, cookies manufactured in Canada using a combination of foreign and domestic ingredients.

Prepared/processed/refined/roasted and blended/packaged/distilled/canned in Canada: Label can be used on imported products to describe a function performed in Canada as long as the label is not misleading to consumers.

Ask questions and know what you are buying. There have been too many problems with off shore stuff for us to take it too lightly...

It is the twentieth anniversary of the BC Business Magazine’s top 100 list of B.C.’s top public, private and Crown corporations. The Okanagan’s first company listed was Vernon’s Kal Tire who jumped from number 38 last year to thirty-fifth place this year. Another Vernon company made the list at 37th. That is Tolko Industries and that is also a change for them moving down from 36th place last year. The Mark Anthony Group who own Mission Hill Family Estate Winery are number 58th on the list and that is a huge jump for the winery who were in 64th place on last year's list. Fortis BC, the energy company, was in 99th place on the top 100...