Rumours and things

The RCMP have started a probe into the failed Bear Mountain resort in Victoria. It was rumoured last week that this would be happening and the RCMP confirmed such was happening on Friday. This is all about the bankruptcy of the Bear Mountain Resort and real estate development in Victoria.

HSBC put the company controlling the resort into the courts in March as the largest secured creditor with $250 million owing. The total owed to secured creditors is a least $300 million.

Thirteen former and current NHL players have invested $13 million in the project and have been on board since the beginning. According to all who have seen the site and played the Jack Nicklaus golf course there, they say it is well done and a challenge for the average golfer.

This is going to be quite a court battle as the investors try to get some of their money back. It doesn’t look very promising. One player former NHL goaltender, Mike Vernon for instance, had invested $2 million in the project and signed a note for over $7 million with the bank.

This RCMP investigation and the bankruptcy itself are going to take some time to finalize.

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We watch the CBC’s “Dragon’s Den” every Wednesday night during the TV season and last week we watched a very determined presenter from Vancouver show the Dragon’s and the viewers his idea about reusable boxes for moving stuff.
These were for rent and were delivered and picked up.

Doug Burgoyne invented the “Frogbox” and presented the idea, which was launched in Vancouver a number of month’s ago. He didn’t get on the “Den” in the normal way by trying out his idea at the local level. He seized on the idea of producing a video and sending it into CBC headquarters in Toronto. The producers of the show were excited about the presentation and told the Vancouver promoter that if he could be in Toronto the following week he would be on the show. That was eight months ago.

Last week we found out that Jim Treliving, owner of Boston Pizza and many other enterprises, and Brett Wilson, the Calgary financier who now makes these deals his business, partnered for $200,000 and received 25 per cent of the company.

The company was stared in 2007 and plans to break $1 million in sales this year. It has opened locations in Seattle and Toronto.

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We must have written about this ten times over the years, maybe more. The warning is: don’t sign a contract at your front door with some sales person
trying to sell you natural gas for your home.

It is not a good deal and the fact that the government started this stupid Customer Choice program in 2007 is beyond reason.

The first thing this sales person, man or woman, will ask you is to see your last Terasen Gas bill. The reason they will give is that and they want to show you a bill they are carrying, but not up close. It looks like something more is printed on the bill than what you have seen before. They will say this will help them save you money because Terasen is probably over-charging you.

Don’t do it. At least take some time and do some research on the contract. Ask some questions and get some facts. Don’t sign anything at the front door - your cost could actually double.

About 22 per cent of B.C.’s natural gas market has switched over and those people are paying a fixed rate for their gas use while the price of the product dips. It is a costly mistake to make. Sometimes as much as fifty per cent.

These so called marketers are having a field day in this province as they go door to door scaring the retired people who answer with tales of how the costs are going to rise again and they will be caught with larger bills unless they sign right now. The contracts they are trying to have you sign can be from three to five years in length.

This is bad and because of the government ruling on 2007 it is legal.

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U.S. retailers are looking to Canada to try out international expansion without the risks of heading to very different markets in Europe or Asia, according to international retailing instructor Brent Barr of the Ted Rogers School of Retail Management at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Many of the stores weren’t large enough to start international expansion 20 years ago, and are beginning to do so now because there is no more room to grow in the U.S. There are no new malls and spending is at an all time low.

The new chains and established Canadian malls are gambling that improved consumer confidence will fuel sales and giving them a return on investment.

Many recent signs have indicated Canadians are feeling better about the economy. The Conference Board of Canada said Tuesday that consumer confidence rose 7.1 per cent this month to 88.1 points, the highest it has hit since the initial optimism coming out of the recession in the latter half of 2009 and early 2010.

However, warnings from the Bank of Canada and the federal government say that Canadians are borrowing too much money. We’re a bit out of control here and we don’t want to be caught in the same squeeze as they are south of the border.