The Vancouver Business Thread

[Hed Kandi]

Microsoft opens first-party studio in Canada
Microsoft has recently created Microsoft Game Studios Vancouver , located in Canada then.

We learn via the official website that the studio will aim to develop titles for the public "core gamer" . Moreover, as the CV of one employee ( http://www.shawnwoods.com/blog/resume/ ) studio newborn, MS Vancouver already working on a shooter KINECTS stamped triple A.

"AMS Vancouver IS building a world-class development team in Vancouver, BC, Canada Dedicated to making games for" core "gamers. Our Mission Is To Push The Limits of origin and unexplored game development and Show the world what's possible on Microsoft's game consoles. And yes, we're aussi year awesome place to work! "
http://www.mgsvancouver.com/

[EastVanMark]

BHP Billiton moving Vancouver office to Saskatoon

BY CASSANDRA KYLE, The Star Phoenix


BHP Billiton Ltd. plans to close its Vancouver office and move its operations and staff to Saskatoon.


The company’s Diamonds and Specialty Products division, which includes the firm’s Saskatchewan potash projects, is being relocated to “reflect the company’s commitment to establish a premier potash business managed from Saskatchewan,” BHP Billiton wrote in a news release.

The move will see 30 additional jobs added to the downtown Saskatoon office, where 69 people currently work. The figure from Vancouver includes the division’s leadership team.

BHP Billiton said the closure of the Vancouver office will be phased-in over several months, with the doors permanently locked in 2012.


The new division president said in an interview with The StarPhoenix that BHP Billiton has been clear about its intent to move the Vancouver office to Saskatoon

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall welcomed the announcement.

“It's just great news for the province. This is obviously the world's largest mining company and it sends a couple of very positive signals, I think, to the country and to the world about Saskatchewan,” Wall said Monday morning at the Legislature.


http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainmen...uver+office+Saskatoon/4758174/story.html

[whatnext]

20,000 cruise ship pax expected in port this Saturday, good luck getting a cab!
http://www.portmetrovancouver.com/en/abo...assenger_Volumes_Expected_on_May_14.aspx

[SpongeG]

Target will be setting up a Distribution centre in Vancouver - 3 in total for Canada - Vancouver, Calgary and toronto

http://www.ctv.ca/generic/generated/static/business/article2017436.html

they will also be announcing apparently at the end of the month which zellers stores will become Target stores - the article states the process is taking longer than they anticipated to firm up leases and stuff - in the states they own 85% of their stores and don't have to deal with leases like they are here in Canada

[SpongeG]

Higher cruise passenger volumes expected on a busy Saturday

By Brian Morton, Vancouver Sun May 12, 2011 9:02 PM

An estimated 19,000 people will embark and disembark from four ships over a congested 10-hour period

Unless there’s a pressing need to be in downtown Vancouver on Saturday, it might be best to simply avoid the area.

Port Metro Vancouver has issued a transportation alert for excessively large cruise passenger volumes at Canada Place and Ballantyne cruise terminals, with 19,000 people expected to embark and disembark between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday.

Four cruise ships will be in Vancouver — three at Canada Place and one at Ballantyne — as they reposition for the Alaska cruise market.

The ships are the Norwegian Star, with at least 2,240 passengers; the Golden Princess, with at least 2,600 passengers; the Zuiderdam, with at least 1,848 passengers; and the Sapphire Princess, with at least 2,670 passengers.

“There tends to be a lot more congestion because it’s the first busy day of the [cruise] season,” Carmen Ortega, the port’s manager, cruises, said in an interview.

“We work together with the City of Vancouver and taxi companies and there’s a lot of warning. But we’re telling the general public that it will be really congested.”

Because of the one-day high-volume event, high traffic volumes are anticipated in the downtown core, along with increased demand on taxis and public transportation.

The port said that in order to accommodate the high numbers, it is also working closely with the cruise lines and other transportation service providers to raise awareness about the increased demand.

In order to minimize congestion, the port is advising those going to the terminals to make transportation arrangements in advance, or to consider alternative transportation.

...

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Higher+...aturday/4775589/story.html#ixzz1MCoXkrVK

[whatnext]

There was a rare visitor to Canada Place today, P&O's Arcadia. Brought back memories of seeing her original namesake at Pier BC in the early 70's: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37908073@N04/3754023284/

Another rare visitor in port was Oceania's Regatta.

[whatnext]

The Gaglardi family's Northland Properties (Sandman) has bought the Sutton Place hotels here and in Edmonton:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on...nts-to-reviving-industry/article2068222/

[SpikePhanta]

Wow I never knew hotels went for that much.

Learned something new today

[Built Form]

Foran moves head office to Vancouver from Saskatchewan
Tuesday, 21 June 2011 09:10

Saskatchewan-based Foran Mining Corp.’s June 20 announcement that it will move its headquarters to Vancouver June 23 inevitably reminds Vancouverites that the city has had trouble landing large companies’ head offices.

Foran (TSX-V:FOM) is a five-employee company that mines copper, zinc and silver that will take about 2,900-square-feet in the United Kingdom building at the corner of Granville and Hastings streets.

The main reason for the move is that most members of the management team live in Vancouver.

Vancouver, however, has long punched below its weight when it comes to attracting corporate head offices of large companies.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP data last year revealed that B.C. lost more head-office jobs than any of Canada’s other four biggest provinces during the past decade. (See “Wanted: Corporate culture that champions growth” – issue 1098; November 9-15, 2010.)

Only 84 of Canada’s largest 500 companies called Vancouver home in 2009, according to the FP500 database. The FP500 is a list of the largest 500 companies in Canada.

The good news is that this is 23.5% more than the 68 FP500 companies, which had head offices in Vancouver in 2000.

Other cities, such as Edmonton (64.7%) and Calgary (46.2%), had much higher growth rates for large corporate head offices during the same period.

Toronto (-13.4%) and Montreal (-19.4%) had the steepest losses in the percentage of FP500 corporate head offices between 2000 and 2009.


Toronto led the country with 266 head offices in 2009. Calgary was next with 114, followed by Montreal with 108.

All other major Canadian cities had fewer head offices than did Vancouver in 2009.

Glen Korstrom
[email protected]
Twitter: GlenKorstrom

from Business in Vancouver

[logan5]

Maybe with Canada's ever increasing trade with China, Vancouver might see more significant head offices setting up here. Or maybe not, I don't know.

[Vancity]

I'm always curious why head offices refuse to relocate and settle here in Vancouver.

Maybe some major chinese companies will have their head offices here in van.

[Prometheus]

With the BC government promising to raise the corporate tax rate, it will make even less sense than before for corporations to come to Vancouver.

[golog]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

With the BC government promising to raise the corporate tax rate, it will make even less sense than before for corporations to come to Vancouver.

The rate is staying at 17%, there had been a planned cut to 15%. There's also more detailed stuff for the small business income tax rate.

The key is business investment, and increasing profit margins from declining tax rates does not lead to more investment. There's mountains of economic papers studying this fact. Anytime you see a story on the newswires about Canadian productivity, it involves this lack of business investment.

The lack of business investment has several contributing factors.
Lack of HQs, or HQs that are hollowed out with no decision making authority.
Other jurisdictions that offer up front funding for new investment.
Loose capital and taxation controls that allow profits to be shifted off-shore to escape taxation.

(one of many possible examples: Brazilian company borrows money from a Canadian bank or pension fund, to buy a Canadian mining company, then puts a debt payable to the Brazilian company on the Canadian mining company's balance sheet. The Canadian mining company's HQ gets hollowed out and stops sparking new local businesses [see Voyageur, Desmarais, and Power Corp of Canada], or contributing to charitable causes. Furthermore, because the loan repayments are deductible from corporate income taxes, the Canadian mining company pays virtually no taxes any more while all the profits head straight to Brazil. Once the money is in Brazil, controlled by Brazilians, they will probably either spend R&D money in Brazil because that's where they live and are attached to, or they will spend it wherever the highest bidding government is)

Whatever the cause, your views, or the ultimate solution -- lack of business investment in Canada is the most important problem for the country. There is a stark difference between pre-1980 and post-1980 in this regard, probably because of tax loopholes created when capital controls were loosened.

[SpikePhanta]

Alberta has a law where any company mining or extracting resources must have an HQ in the province, i believe.
Would that be feasible here?

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Vancity

I'm always curious why head offices refuse to relocate and settle here in Vancouver.

Maybe some major chinese companies will have their head offices here in van.

Housing prices will have an effect now. Anybody relocating a head office from anywhere else in Canada (heck, North America) is going to have to up salaries for their employees, or have a huge relocation allowance, if they want them to move to Vancouver.

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by Vancity

I'm always curious why head offices refuse to relocate and settle here in Vancouver.

time zones

Business/Finance is done in NYC,Tor

[SpikePhanta]

^^ Time zones doesn't effect SanFran, Seattle.

[Coldrsx]

^to a certain extent they do...

But Vancouver has also been more of a regional office anyways.

That said, given the lifestyle I am surprised we have not seen a few more move there or grow there.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by SpikePhanta

^^ Time zones doesn't effect SanFran, Seattle.

yah but the kind of companies in those cities are big enough and not tied to other places to worry - microsoft or apple can open anywhere the hell they want

[s211]

In a Canadian context, Vancouver's in the wrong time zone.

In the US context, the West Coast cities have large enough business bases to exert sufficient resistence to the eastern time zone centre of the universe.