John Thomson's I Didn't Know That!

Ranked by the total number of employees on the biggest insurance brokers in B.C. list, with 300 on staff Capri Insurance of Kelowna was rated sixth in the province. The company has ten offices in B.C.

The ranking was done by Business in Vancouver.

The very professional staff that Capri is so proud to have made the growth of the company very positive. This is a company where the employees voted their company as one of the best places to work for in Canada - they placed 23rd  in the country.

This is the third time Great Place to Work Institute has interviewed the staff at Capri. The agency has placed in the top 100 and has been steadily rising in the rankings every year.

The company was started by a group of insurance men who basically wanted to be on their own, and in 1975 that was the time. The four successful insurance men were Ev Rea, Gordon Baughan, Doug Fraser and Trevor Tupman. They started the company in the Capri Centre mall with a small office, and the growth of the company was quite dramatic and the offices was eventually moved to the professional tower at Orchard Plaza and then back to the Capri Centre where they took all the second floor space for the ever expanding business.

Capri Insurance started in 1975 with six people and a handful of clients. Today the company and its affiliates serve well over 100,000 clients.

The organization has offices in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut, Yukon and North West Territories.  It has an affiliated office in Aurora, which is licensed in Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI.

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As I began this story I had to think back when I first started to write about Stan Tower and his dreams for a special golf course on his Tower Ranch. He met Thomas McBroom the golf course designer at a presentation in Calgary. Thomas liked what he was hearing and worked with Stan for many years putting the dream on paper.

After Stan passed away, McBroom was the designer picked by the new owners to design the new facility. I am sure Stan liked what he was seeing. This is the fourth year the Tower Ranch golf course has been open, and according to those I have talked to about golf this season, they are reporting that the golf course is in the best shape ever.

I talked with golf pro Neil Schmidt; he is also director of operations for the new owners from Alberta The Carrington Group. He said, “The overall package is better. We have made some small changes, it is more player friendly and the greens are excellent.”

The views from the course are incredible.

Sidebar: They have a special deal at this time, Sunday thru Thursday from 3 to 5 pm. $55 for green fees and cart, and a $25 certificate for the Carrington Restaurant.

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This seems to be the year for Landmark Cinemas in this valley as they plan to build and open new multiplex cinemas here.

The opening of the Xtreme Theatre on the Westside is one of eight new theatres in Landmark’s latest project in West Kelowna. The Xtreme theatre is one of magnificent sound, and a screen three stories high. The Landmark people saw a similar theatre in California at the beginning of the year and decided that the new complex on the Westside would be the ideal place to develop this presentation.

I understand it’s an experience not unlike the IMAX theatres. Everything in these new theatres is the latest, from the chairs to the presentation of the film, new confections and good popcorn.  Five of the eight theatres can do 3D.

Their next project in the valley is a new theatre complex for Penticton in what they call Iron City Square.  This is the location was the Canadian Tire store and then Liquidation World: seven screens featuring full stadium seating.

The current Capital Theatre in West Kelowna will turn into an encore theatre with movies that have already completed their first run. It will operate at discounted prices.

With Grand 10 and Paramount in Kelowna, that makes the total number of screens 28 for Landmark.

The movie business must be all right.

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I was driving up Richter St. the other day and noticed “The Cake Man” had left the building. PJ’s Cakes and Ice Cream Parlour has been in that location for many years. Couldn’t believe it.

Then I got an email from Daren Williams “the Cake Man” that he had sold the building and moved to another location, a heritage type of house at 651 Grandview Rd in North Glenmore.

July 1 was his 36th year in the business of making decorative cakes for the occasion and wedding cakes. Not making ice cream cakes anymore.

He really does make some great birthday cakes. Did one we’ll never forget for my grandson.

His phone number is the same, 250-763-1144, and his web site is pjcakes.com

His ice cream store was the only place I could buy a Butter Pecan cone. Now what?

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I get lots of emails and phone calls on the price of gas in the valley. Everyone seems to be fed up with way it it’s priced at the pumps here when it is lower in cities around us who get their gas delivered from Kamloops the same as we do.

Gas prices in the U.S. went down nine cents last week, made from Alberta crude. One of my readers just sent me the wholesale gas price sheets for Petro Canada and Shell -still trying to figure out what they all mean.

I also get these kinds of emails from my readers and I liked this one because it is really what we are all thinking:

You are right about the gas prices and it is extremely frustrating. Near the end of March oil was at least $105 per barrel, possibly a bit higher. Gas here at that time was 129.9. Today oil is under $80 per barrel and gas is currently 132.9.

What is going on? There is a website called gasgouge.ca. It says that today we’re being gouged 30 cents/litre on the price of gas. How can this happen and where will it stop? The same thing happened last summer although the gouge wasn’t quite as big .... as much as 25 cents.

Prices in this area never went down until August. During this time last year gas in the Kamloops area and even on the Island was 15 to 20 cents per litre less. Again.....why? Groceries and everything else just keep going up and up.  I am getting really sick of being gouged and honestly if I were a tourist I wouldn’t come here. Does the government really not understand why people cross-border shop?

Thanks for letting me vent!!!!!
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It’s cherry time in some parts of the valley where they are harvesting the early season varieties. The crop across the valley is looking good. Heard there was some hail in the southern part of the valley last weekend.

The climate here allows growers to be picking late into August and still ship to their world markets.

Okanagan cherries are the latest to be picked in the world, thanks to the work being done at the Summerland Research Station.

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Penny Lane Bargain Outlet in Summerland is having a huge sale from now to July 7.  The special events are Saturday with lunch being served between 11am and 2pm, and the store is going to drop Penny Lane dollars on the crowd.

It’s their tenth anniversary of operating this store as a non-profit business, with all the profits being invested in youth. So far the society has invested $1.7 million dollars back into the community for youth opportunities.

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