Business in Vancouver

NEWS BIV 1 Inside: Report on the business of accounting JULY 4–17, 2022

•Biggest accounting firms in B.C. •Pandemic rewrites office options for accountancies •Designation consolidation complications | Pages 12–14

Major shift afoot in Canada’s Asia-Pacific investment action Report finds spike in outbound flow of investment into the region in 2021 | Page 3, 8

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B.C.’s doctor

business diagnosis

Foreign-trained MDs ready to help ease doctor shortage, but political will lacking: observer Health care |

BY Chuck Chiang cchiang@biv.com

BC

’s much publicized doctor and health worker labour shortage could be largely artificial.

The reason, said Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) CEO Daniel Bernhard, is that there is a large group of doctors, trained and eager to serve throughout Canada, that has so far received little opportunity to practise and serve: doctors who are trained abroad. continued on page 6

•Fix funding formula | 2 •Examining MD economics | •Hospitalists for hire | 4–5

4

•High costs of training | •Malpractice insurance

5

matters | 7

Luis Alvarez/gettyimages

Politics

Real estate

Is John Horgan’s decision to step down as BC NDP leader opening a window of opportunity or ending an upbeat era of party leadership? | Page 3

Metro Vancouver land rush drives property investment sales up to $5 billion in 2022’s first quarter | Page 10

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BIV

COMMENT

JULY 4–17, 2022

Is that doctor’s appointment necessary? reforms, the Fraser Institute points out in a recent report that Canada’s universal health-care system, despite being one of the world’s most expensive, performs poorly when compared with its counterparts in other countries.

Understanding Universal Health Care Reform Options also notes that 22 of 28 universal health-care systems around the world “expect patients to share in either the cost of outpatient primary care, outpatient specialist care or acute inpatient care via deductibles, co-insurance charges and co-payments.”

With no significant customer skin in the game in this country, Canada’s system is burdened with demand for unnecessary medical services.

Shared costs logically result in a shared responsibility for how system costs are allocated and reduce the number of frivolous demands placed on it.

Couple that fiscal responsibility with attention to personal fitness and a significant weight would be lifted from the shoulders of Canada’s health-care system, and patients most in need of medical services would reap the benefits of increased system efficiency.

Find it real estate 10 finance 11 List 12

Accounting report 12–14 Event 15–17 Lapointe 18

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major factor in healthcare economics resides outside doctors’ offices and hospital waiting rooms.

It is in the homes of current and future patients.

And while major improvements are needed in the delivery and availability of health-care services in B.C. and elsewhere across the country, major changes are also needed on the demand side of the universal health-care equation in Canada.

Prevention of poor health, after all, begins with individuals. Diet, exercise, education and a commitment to cleaner living are all fundamental factors in maintaining personal health. They are not the responsibility of government.

Responsibility for underwriting the system is another major issue.

Because patients in Canada are fully covered for insured health-care services, they do not have a direct financial stake in that payment.

That is not good for the financial well-being of the system or the demands that are placed on it.

As part of its series on health-care

inside joke

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NEWS

JULY 4–17, 2022

BIV

3

What is next for the post-Horgan BC NDP? Politics |

Premier reshaped his party’s image, now it must choose a new leader

BY TYLER ORTON

B.C. budget surplus, deficits during the John Horgan era

TORTON@BIV.COM

Y

ears before Premier John Horga n’s Ju n e 2 8 a nnou ncement t hat he’d step down from the top job this fall, pollster Mario Canseco recalls asking a diplomat about the difference between the BC NDP leader and then-BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson.

“Her answer was astonishing: ‘Horgan looks like the kind of guy who would help you change a tire, and Wilkinson looks like the kind of guy who would scold you for having a puncture in the first place,’” said the president of Research Co. “That’s brilliant.”

The popularity of the BC NDP’s longest-serving premier has endured, even after more than a few verbal gaffes that would have sunk other politicians.

“Fatalities are a part of life,” Horgan said amid last year’s heat dome that ultimately cost nearly 700 British Columbians their lives.

Fury ensued, Horgan walked back those remarks and by February 2022, his approval rating stood at 69 per cent, according to a poll conducted for Glacier Media Inc. (TSX:GVC) by Research Co.

So where does the BC NDP go from here after the popular premier reshaped the party’s image in the eyes of British

2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23

$1.5 billion $321 million $5.5 billion $483 million $5.5 billion

surplus deficit deficit deficit deficit

(government forecast)

Real GDP growth in the province during Horgan era

Premier John Horgan tours Royal B.C. Museum with Tourism Minister Melanie Mark (left) and former BC NDP leader and deputy premier Carole James | Government of B.C. Columbians?

The same February Research Co. poll revealed that the BC NDP’s approval ratings stand markedly below that of its leader: 46 per cent to the BC Liberals’ 38 per cent.

The BC NDP must now prepare for a fall leadership convention to decide who replaces Horgan as premier and party leader.

“There will be, if anything, a competition [over] who is going to be best able to both continue the legacy of John Horgan’s government … and to develop inroads with the next generation of voters,” said Simon Fraser University political science lecturer Stewart Prest. “This is not a

party under pressure. This is not a party that has to reinvent itself in order to win over voters. They have won over voters. They need to keep that support.

“And so that is going to lend itself towards … perhaps a little more gloves-on approach to the leadership campaign. I would be really surprised if it turns into a knock ‘em down, drag ‘em out kind of affair.”

As for serious leadership contenders, Canseco said the most practical place to look would be the cabinet.

Health Minister Adrian Dix has had one of the highest cabinet profiles amid the pandemic but could not deliver a win in 2013

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

+2.4 +2.2 -3.8 +6.1 +3.6

per cent per cent per cent per cent per cent

(TD Bank Group forecast)

when serving as party leader.

Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon has raised his profile considerably since first winning the riding of Delta North in the 2017 election and securing a role as a parliamentary secretary before being named to cabinet in 2020, Canseco said. “[He’s] somebody who was a very active participant in the policies of the government.”

Canseco added that Kahlon’s presence south of the Fraser River is an advantage to his party.

Newly minted BC Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon represented Surrey-Cloverdale before stepping away from politics for a number of years only to return as an MLA

for Vancouver-Quilchena.

Canseco added that Attorney General David Eby has also enjoyed a h ig h profi le as he stickhandled the troubled ICBC portfolio as well as the Cullen Commission that examined pervasive money-laundering problems in B.C. Meanwhile, 2022 will mark a year in which both the BC NDP and BC Liberals will have selected new leaders.

Despite a changing of the guard for both parties, University of British Columbia political science Prof. Allan Tupper said the Liberals find themselves playing catch-up.

“The message of the party has broadened to show British Columbians that the NDP has mainstream values,” he said.

“You’d assume that given the party’s position and the way it’s been repositioned … that they’ll get a good list of leadership candidates and have a good sense of issues.”

Prest said Horgan’s departure ultimately marks the “end of an era” for both the BC NDP and the province.

“Mr. Horgan’s time in office, it’s fair to say, it’s remade the electoral map in the province from a place in which the Liberals seemed like a natural governing party to one in which the NDP has the commanding position.” •

Canada’s Asia-Pacific investment shifts to Australia Foreign affairs |

Inbound investment interest from China continues, despite political tensions

By Chuck Chiang cchiang@biv.com

W

h i l e C a n a d a ’s i nbound-outbound investment in the Asia-Pacific market rebounded significantly in 2021, there were fundamental changes to the nature of that activity, as well as questions of whether the growth is sustainable.

According to the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada’s 2022 Investment Monitor report, inbound foreign direct investment (FDI) more than doubled last year, rising to $14.4 billion in 2021 from $6.4 billion in 2020.

What’s even more surprising to some, however, is that 2021 marked the highest flow of outbound investment from Canada into the Asia-Pacific region since the report began in 2012: a total of $25.5 billion.

For Anastasia Ufimtseva, business Asia program manager at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and an author of the report, the finding validates part of the reason the foundation was so interested in the results in this year’s investment flows.

“There is regular tracking of data, but there is special interest in this report, wanting to figure out whether the post-pandemic changes – especially the economic reopening we’ve seen since 2020 – were in any way changing existing trends, especially given the disruptiveness of COVID-19 between Canada and the Asia-Pacific,” Ufimtseva said. “One of the most surprising facts was 2021 actually marking the highest outbound flow of investment into the Asia-Pacific.”

There are other takeaways, too.

For one, China and Hong Kong – which, combined, finished

AndrewJohnson/Getty Images

fifth in the 2020 rankings for top Canadian FDI destinations ($1.82 billion) – fell to eighth in the 2021 rankings, with $424 million in Canadian outbound FDI last year.

That means that Canadian FDI to the Chinese market in 2021 shrunk to about one-quarter of 2020 levels.

Canadian FDI also fell in India

(ranked second at $3.4 billion in 2021), Japan (fourth, $1.4 billion), South Korea (sixth, $690 million) and Singapore ($22 million).

Mea nwh i le, t here was one market that benefited significantly from Canadian FDI last year: Australia. The country saw Canadian FDI balloon in 2021 to $15.3 billion, up from $2.4 billion in 2020.

Markets like Taiwan (third, $2.8 billion), Indonesia (fifth, $794 million) and New Zealand (seventh, $656 million) also saw more Canadian investment over the last year.

“Traditionally, Australia has been a really important Canadian partner over time, [ranking] No. 1 [for outbound FDI] for 2019, 2018 and a few other years,” Ufimtseva said. “And we’ve seen a continuation of the deepening of that strong relationship. We have similarities in

terms of things like institutional setups, government structures and legal systems. There are similar business climates, so it’s likely there will be a smooth bilateral relationship that will continue.”

T he Ch i na pictu re is more uncertain.

Ufimtseva said that while it is no secret that Ottawa and Beijing have had a difficult geopolitical relationship over the last few years, trade has grown during that time.

The drop in FDI from Canada to China, she said, may be indicative of travel difficulties during the pandemic, since China’s stringent zero-COVID policy has effectively shut down business travel to the Chinese market for many Canadian and other western investors. continued on page 8

4

BIV

JULY 4–17, 2022

NEWS

Earning a living as a hospital Income |

BY TYLER ORTON TORTON@BIV.COM

C

omplaints over low pay and understaffing pushed B.C. hospitalists – general practitioners who provide care for patients within hospitals – to the brink of a walkout in June 2006.

The threat of hospitalists returning to community practice eventually pushed the Ministry of Health to strike an agreement the day before the contract was due to ex pire. T he one-yea r agreement was a first for Canada; it ensured standard provincial pay rates for hospitalist services.

That standoff between hospitalists and the Ministry of Health 16 years ago helped bring to the forefront the complexities

A growing number of doctors are compensated

behind the economics of doctoring within B.C. hospitals.

W h i le fa m i ly pract ice s a re most of ten associated w ith the fee-for-service model, the wide array of physicians who work in hospital settings can be compensated through a mix of salaries, alternative payment funding as well as through the aforementioned fee model.

“Physician compensation is complex, and it is difficult to describe in generalities,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement responding to a list of questions posed by BIV about how doctors based primarily at hospitals typically earn an income.

“Emergency depa r tment physicians at one hospital may be on contract but on fee-forservice in another hospital [and]

B.C. doctors can be compensated not just through the standard feefor-service model, but also through a blend of salaries, contracts and sessional payments | Rob Kruyt

physicians working in health authority facilities may or may not incur overhead costs (e.g. for a community-based office).

The service location, physician specialty or other criteria do not definitively determine how physicians are paid or costs they may be responsible for, as there are service delivery model and community specific considerations that inform which compensation options are appropriate.”

While most doctors in the province are still paid through the feefor-service models, the ministry noted that a growing number are being paid through alternative compensation options that include contracts and sessional payments, as well as under salary as health authority employees. Under those compensation

The family doctor business in B.C. is far from lucrative Economics |

Many GPs leave B.C. because they can earn more money in other provinces and the U.S.

By Glen Korstrom gkorstrom@biv.com

F

amily doctors in B.C. can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, making them considerably higher paid than most workers.

The problem for patients is that many general practitioners (GPs) leave B.C. because they can make more money in other provinces or in the United States.

This has resulted in an estimated 900,000 British Columbians being without a family doctor.

Meanwhile, inflation is outpacing wage growth in most industries, including medicine.

About 70 per cent of B.C.’s 7,229 family doctors are paid using a fee-for-service model, where patients’ appointments are categorized using specific codes.

Doctors bill B.C.’s Medical Services Plan (MSP) based on the codes and receive compensation.

But billing code remuneration has run below inflation for decades, said Dr. Brian Day, a former Canadian Medical Association president.

“Things have come to the point now, where family doctors are simply choosing not to work because it’s economically not viable,” he told BIV.

“For a house call, a GP is paid about $100 an hour. When my dishwasher broke, the guy was there for 15 minutes to fix it, and it cost me $325. That’s three

times what a family doctor gets.

That is why no one will do house calls. They can’t afford to.”

Day said his conversations with doctors have convinced him that most would want to be paid a fair salary for their work, but Day doubts that the provincial government would be able to afford it.

Indeed, Dr. Ramneek Dosanjh, president of the Doctors of BC advocacy group, said, “one of the biggest sticking points is how doctors are paid.”

The current system requires most doctors to spend long hours of unpaid time filling out paperwork.

In 2021, former Doctors of BC president Dr. Eric Cadesky billed MSP $513,181.

That gross revenue, he said, includes compensation for work at his practice and in long-term care facilities as well as General Practice Services Committee bonuses, which reward physicians for providing more holistic care.

Office lease payments, furniture, assistant salaries, cotton swabs, syringes, stethoscopes and other expenses come out of that revenue.

Cadesky said physicians’ expenses often eat up to half of the money they get from MSP billings.

For the past 15 years, Cadesky has worked at the Doctors’ Office, although he is shifting his practice to Seymour Health Centre.

“I have not taken off a full week

from work since early 2020,” he said. “I have not even had the chance to take off more than two consecutive days.”

Cadesky estimated his workload at about 60 hours per week, including unpaid time completing paperwork. He said he is on call for an additional 20 hours per week.

The most common MSP codes that he invoices are for general patient visits that each pay around $35, depending on a patient’s age. Visits from patients 80 years and older compensate doctors $47.44.

These basic visits tend to take 15 minutes, although they can take longer, Cadesky said.

MSP pays doctors $69.85 for extended visits that include complete examinations, which can only be done once a year.

While getting paid through a p ay-for-s e r v ic e m o d e l i s standard for B.C. family doctors, about 30 per cent are paid through alternate payment plans, which can be service agreements, sessional contracts and salary agreements.

Some family doctor clinics also use alternative payment mechanisms.

Vancouver’s Spectrum Health shifted to an alternative “population-based funding” payment system as part of a pilot project in 1999.

The clinic primarily provides care for gay men and those who are HIV-positive, but it also has

900,000

Estimated number of British Columbians without a family doctor

7,229

Number of family doctors in B.C.

70%

Percentage of B.C.’s family doctors who are paid using a fee-forservice model

patients who are not in those groups.

“Our system compensates me at least as well as fee-for-service, and probably slightly more,” Spectrum Health Dr. Bradley Little told BIV. “The visits I have with patients are very dense, covering many concerns and medical issues.

With fee-for-service you are not incentivized to do that.”

Little said he bills MSP using a different set of codes to inform the province’s Ministry of Health about the kinds of medical conditions that his patients have.

“My typical visit length is 15 minutes, but I can easily do longer appointments if a patient is very complex, since this does not impact how much I get paid,” he said.

“This is particularly helpful for

elderly and complex patients, especially if it is hard for them to get to the office due to mobility issues or other reasons. It also is more enjoyable for me to not feel like I have to rush through visits to get paid more.”

Little added that the complexity of care that he provides means that he is not able to determine exactly how much he will be paid for each visit.

Little said he schedules four days of patient appointments and then takes one day to catch up on administrative tasks.

Spectrum Health billed MSP $3,403,078 in 2021, but it is impossible to say how much each doctor or nurse at the clinic was compensated.

Spectrum Health lists nine doctors on its website, although at least one is on leave. Other doctors temporarily work at the clinic.

“From purely a business perspective it makes sense, especially in a high-cost-of-living city, to work in a group practice,” Little said.

“From a sense of job satisfaction, support and mentorship, it is much better to work together with other doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and other allied health [workers]. I think this is probably the primary reason why more doctors work in a group practice. We can provide higher value care as a team, and support each other through difficult cases.” •

NEWS

JULY 4–17, 2022

BIV

5

physician is no simple operation through alternatives to fee-for-service model, says province They’re all getting crushed, to be honest with you

[] Jason Sutherland professor, Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, UBC

options, payment is based on time rather than fees.

Family doctors rely primarily on the fee-for-service model for the practices they run, which essentially amounts to operating small businesses that face 0verhead costs such as staff and office space.

But hospital-based specialists such as surgeons might also run clinics off-site.

“They have to pay for the office space, and the staff and the electronic medical records,” said Jason Sutherland, a professor at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research within the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine’s School of Population and Public Health.

“If specialists or hospital-based [doctors] don’t have to run a clinic, then obviously they don’t have the intense requirements to run a business also. Whereas others that need to run a clinic that’s off-site from the hospital, then they’re split between the two.”

T he fee-for-ser v ice model for hospital-based doctors also means different payments depending on the treatment or circumstance.

For example, the fee for an

orthopedic office visit runs to $50.24 compared with a hospital visit at $30.70, according to the province’s Medical Services Commission payment schedule.

But if it’s time for an orthopedic doctor to perform surgery at a hospital, fees run into hundreds and thousands of dollars depending on what’s undertaken during the surgery.

A plastic surgeon would charge the province a fee of $35.53 for the removal of a nail – considered a “simple operation” under the payment schedule – while work on a cleft palate would run to $553.74 Meanwhile, Sutherland said some health authorities or hospitals might create incentives for specialists to remain on site rather than operating their own

clinics away from the hospital.

Those incentives could include space within the hospital, more paid time to pursue research and better access to students assisting them.

“It’s not really a clear-cut competition for them,” Sutherland said, referring to the potential for different hospitals to provide incentives for these doctors through compensation.

“It’s more about how they can make their workplace better, I would say, because the hospital doesn’t get to negotiate the fee amounts with the individual specialists.”

Instead, fees are negotiated between the province and Doctors of BC, the association representing about 14,000 physicians, residents and medical students

across the province.

Doctors of BC declined to offer insights to BIV about how the economics of doctoring in a hospital setting work.

Sutherland said both hospital-based doctors and family doctors are now facing substantial challenges in the wake of the pandemic.

“They’re all getting crushed, to be honest with you,” he said.

“And patients, on the other hand, and their families are facing very lengthy delays – not only for imaging, but assessment and consultations, to decide whether or not they need further interventions. And if they need these interventions, [they face delays for] followup care. There’s just excess demand all through the system right now.” •

How much does it cost to become a family doctor?

Training |

The economics of family doctoring are appealing to fewer and fewer medical school grads

By Nelson Bennett nbennett@biv.com

I

n May, Premier John Horgan admitted that B.C. has a family doctor “crisis.”

An estimated one-fifth of British Columbians do not have a family doctor. A wave of retirements is one of the reasons.

But when you consider what it takes to become a family doctor, and balance that against what they earn and the cost of running a family practice, it’s not surprising that fewer medical school students are choosing to go into family medicine.

B ecom i ng a doctor mea ns spending 10 to 11 years in school and residency and accumulating $200,000 to $300,000 in student debt.

First, an undergraduate degree is typically needed (usually four years), followed by four years of medical school. Those planning to go into family medicine then need to spend two years in residency, where they are paid $57,000 in the first year in B.C. and $63,000 in the second year.

“Residents do get paid, but they don’t get paid much,” said David May, a family doctor and president of the BC College of Family Physicians. “They’re not going to be able to make a hole in their debt when they’re a resident.”

It’s hard to even get into medical school in the first place. On average, only 5.5 per cent of applicants get into medical school in Canada

each year. The University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Faculty of Medicine – the only medical school in B.C. – had an acceptance rate of 11.3 per cent in 2021. Of the 2,558 students that applied, only 288 were admitted.

Canada has 17 medical schools.

The country’s medical school tuition is generally lower than it is in the U.S. And in the United Kingdom, doctors spend more time in medical school and residency than Canadians do. Even so, despite the comparatively lower tuition and shorter schooling and residency requirements, Canada appears to be turning out fewer and fewer doctors.

The Canadian Medical Association Journal noted in 2018 that, while enrolments in U.S. medical school had risen steadily over a 10year period, enrolments in Canada had remained flat.

Tuition and other costs at UBC for four years of medical school total about $91,000.

“The average medical student now is graduating with somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000 of debt,” May said.

He added that residency can be the hardest part of becoming a doctor, because of the time commitment. May estimated that he frequently logged 100 hours per week in residence.

If medical school students pass Part 1 of the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination in their final year of medical school and Part 2 after their first

Recent medical school graduate Ana Boskovic is now serving her residency at the North Shore’s Lions Gate Hospital | Chung Chow

year of residency, they become licensed by the Medical Council of Canada. To go into private practice, they must apply to their provincial college of physicians and surgeons. The main difference between a general practitioner and a family doctor is that a family doctor is generally self-employed.

Family doctors have staff, rent and utilities to pay and must do a lot of administrative work that takes time away from seeing patients. And despite spending eight years in university, they are not taught how to run a business.

A growing number of medical school graduates are therefore opting for contract work with hospitals or urgent care clinics.

“T hey don’t wa nt to h ave this debt and go into more debt

trying to start a business, especially when most of them have never received any training at all on how to run a small business,” said Eric Cadesky, a family physician.

“Most people want to pay down that money as quickly as possible, so many don’t want to work in the fee-for-service system.

That’s why some of the younger doctors are gravitating towards contracts.”

According to the College of Family Physicians of Canada: “Fewer medical school graduates are choosing the specialty of family medicine after witnessing the rising expectations placed on family practices without appropriate resources and the resulting physician burnout.

With insufficient administrative support and stagnant payment models, the costs to maintain a family practice are becoming unsustainable.”

Average pay for a family doctor is about $260,000, May said. Overhead costs of running a private practice are about 35 per cent. That leaves an income of approximately $168,000.

“Yes, $168,000 is a lot of money, but you’re trying to pay off that debt and have a life as well,” May said. “I’m on call 24-7 for my patients. I was called at two this morning about an in-patient in the hospital. It’s that work-life balance and the financial realities that hit home. They choose an easier option, and it’s hard to blame them.”

He added that when all the overhead costs of running a family practice are factored in, physicians working at an urgent care clinic or an online service like Babylon can make twice as much as a family doctor.

“The overhead has just gone through the roof, whereas the fees for a standard visit for a family doctor have gone up seven per cent in the last 12 years.”

Last week, to address recruitment challenges, the B.C. government offered incentives to medical school graduates aimed at attracting them to family medicine.

The incentives include a $25,000 signing bonus, debt forgiveness and two-year contracts, starting at $295,457 for the first year. •

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BIV

JULY 4–17, 2022

B.C.’s doctor Continued from page 1

While the ICC does not have statistics for B.C., Bernhard said there are more than 13,000 internationally trained medical graduates living in Ontario waiting to serve, and the situation in B.C., another populous province with large international communities and the propensity to attract professionals from abroad, is similar.

“Wait times for basic surgeries are over a year long,” Bernhard said. “Millions of people don’t have a family doctor. Specialists are few and far between ... And yet we have this large group of professionals – many of whom have already taken their Canadian qualifying exams but aren’t able to practise because of, frankly, stupid obstacles that governments throw in their way.

“So the story here is not how come there are no doctors. The story should be, how come we are not letting all of these doctors work?”

The accreditation and certification of foreign-trained doctors had already been a hotly debated issue prior to 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the situation. It led to ICC launching its #EqualChance awareness campaign in May 2021 that called for the universalization of standards for a doctor to practise across

NEWS Canada.

Currently, the field is regulated provincially, and the requirement in B.C. is for international medical graduates (IMGs) to register through one of the registration classes offered by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia (CPSBC) – each with specific language, knowledge testing and certification requirements.

Even CPSBC officials, however, recognized the acute need for doctors in the province (and the potential solution offered by foreign-trained candidates who are already living in B.C.). In April 2020, the organization proposed – and later received approval – for a new registration class: the associate physician (AP).

The AP class would put foreign-trained doctors quickly into practise in the province, albeit under the supervision of other physicians. The theory is that the easier pathway would allow more foreign-trained doctors to serve in the medical fields in which they are trained while living in B.C., fulfilling an area where the labour shortage is severe.

However, as of June 2022, no IMG has registered as an AP practitioner in B.C., and the key reason, many observers say, is that the process for APs (along with other registration classes available to foreign-trained doctors)

13,000

Estimated number of internationally trained medical graduates in Ontario waiting to serve

175

Number of international medical graduates that have been placed into B.C.’s medical sector through Practice Ready Assessment BC since 2015

requires residency or training positions at local health authorities to reach completion.

That is the missing link. When a candidate can take exams and reach different stages of certification, few – if any – residency spaces are currently open to IMGs to gain the necessary hours to become full-time practitioners.

In a statement, the CPSBC said the pandemic has delayed the process at local health authorities to provide programs to accept AP class candidates and other IMGs, and there’s little the CPSBC can do to expedite the process.

“During COVID, the health authorities [who are the employers] were focused on other priorities

So, the story here is not how come there are no doctors.

The story should be, how come we are not letting all of these doctors work?

[] Daniel Bernhard CEO, Institute for Canadian Citizenship

and many of the programs, which require accreditation by the College and where the APs would be employed, were put on hold,” the statement said. “... The programs [proposed by health authorities] have to be accredited first before the [health authority] (HA) can employ an AP. “At this point, until we hear from the HAs and get a better sense of how many programs are needing to be accredited, there isn’t much more for the College to add. The College establishes the class of registration, but the HAs need to implement the program and recruit potential applicants in their respective health-care facilities.”

Both Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health declined to comment, deferring to the provincial government for a response.

In its written response, B.C.’s Ministry of Health said it is working with CPSBC, Health Match BC and health authorities to “develop

all the policies that need to be in place for a new class of registration for health professionals called ‘Associate Physicians.’”

“The Ministry of Health continues to explore and implement a wide range of measures to help address staffing shortages within the health-care system,” the ministry said. “The initial recruitment for associate physicians is estimated to begin in the summer of 2022.”

In a separate response, ministry officials noted other efforts to get IMGs to practise sooner in B.C., including the $2.3 million allocated to Practice Ready Assessment BC to provide foreign-trained doctors with an alternative pathway to family-physician certification. Since 2015, as many as 175 IMGs have been placed into B.C.’s medical sector through that program.

B.C. also funds a number of residency positions at the University of British Columbia that are reserved for IMGs, the ministry said. Currently, there are 58 such positions – including 52 dedicated to family medicine.

But Bernhard said those numbers are hardly enough – especially when there are thousands of trained physicians waiting to help. And while regulatory organizations like the CPSBC can hinder the process through paperwork requirements, Bernhard said

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NEWS the bigger challenge is whether the provincial governments are committed to adding residency opportunities for IMGs, and that is much more uncertain.

“The residencies are controlled by the government based on how many physicians they are prepared to pay,” Bernhard said. “In many provinces, internationally trained physicians are prevented from applying to over 90 per cent of those residencies.... It would be possible with political will for government to mobilize thousands of doctors on very short notice – if they chose to do so.

They are here, they are qualified and they want to contribute to the public well-being of their new chosen country.”

And that brings the discussion, back to a possible solution.

“The key lies with voters,” Bernhard said. “Voters upset about this need to call their elected officials. This is not us bringing people from some faraway land.

They live here; they are citizens or permanent residents. Why on Earth are you keeping them out of hospitals and clinics? Why are you keeping these people from helping the rest of us to live happy, healthy lives?

“Until voters take the problem and put it at the feet of their elected officials, I think we are going to be treading water for some time.” •

Canada’s unique medical malpractice insurance industry results in fewer claims and lower payouts It’s easy to find attentiongrabbing headlines about medical malpractice lawsuits with multimillion-dollar payouts for mistakes during surgery, errors in prescriptions and faulty diagnoses.

But research shows that high-stakes medical malpractice litigation is more likely, and more expensive, south of the border.

While the United States has seen medical malpractice payouts of over US$200 million, the largest payout in Canada was $15 million.

With lower payouts, it is not surprising that Canadian doctors pay lower medical malpractice insurance premiums. One New England Medical Journal study found that U.S. doctors at one point paid as much as nine times more than Canadian counterparts for medical malpractice insurance.

There are several reasons why malpractice insurance premiums are lower in Canada. For one, pain and suffering damages are capped at $400,000, though courts can award additional uncapped damages for things like loss of income and future health expenses.

Canada also has a less litigious

culture than the U.S. According to a report from the American Medical Association (AMA), Canadian physicians are sued only 25 per cent as often as their U.S. counterparts. The number of legal actions against doctors managed by the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) has dropped relatively steadily for the past five years, declining from 891 in 2016 to 732 in 2020. Most of the cases (94.3 per cent) were either settled or dismissed.

Canada’s medical malpractice insurance system differs from those in countries. Typically, insurance companies would vie for business from doctors, but Canada’s medical malpractice insurance industry functions like a monopoly. The CMPA covers 95 per cent of doctors in Canada, excluding some in Quebec. It is a non-profit organization funded by contributions from its members, who are in turn subsidized by the government.

All of these differences contribute to lower insurance premiums.

The employment of doctors in Canada also varies from the employment of their U.S. colleagues, which in turn affects who pays insurance premiums. Typically, Canadian doctors own their own practice, and thus have to cover the cost of their net insurance premiums. In the U.S., on the other hand, 70 per cent of physicians are employed by

Medical malpractice litigation is more likely and more expensive south of the border | designer491/ Getty Images

hospitals or corporations, according to the Physicians Advocacy Institute. Insurance premiums are generally paid for by the institutions that employ them.

On average, overhead costs make up roughly 30 per cent of Canadian doctors’ revenue, according to a survey from the Canadian Medical Association. But the share accounted for by insurance premiums varies greatly depending on the type of doctor. The most expensive premiums are for obstetrics, the field of medicine that deals with childbirth.

The premiums for obstetricians in B.C. were $31,416 in 2020, while the median medical malpractice insurance premium in B.C. was $2,568.

Though doctors in B.C. and Alberta pay significantly lower premiums than doctors in Ontario, they pay slightly more than doctors in the

JULY 4–17, 2022

BIV

7

prairies, and significantly more than doctors in Quebec. Overall, Canadian general surgeons can expect to pay $14,898 annually for medical malpractice insurance, compared to US$127,083 in a high-cost state like Illinois, and US$11,306 in a low-cost state like Minnesota.

Money paid to insurance companies is only one aspect of the total cost of an insurance claim. The time and resources needed to defend a claim or lawsuit can far exceed premium costs. U.S. doctors on average spend 11 per cent of their career embroiled in malpractice litigation – longer than they spend in school, according to the Health Affairs journal.

By comparison, Canadian physicians spend an average of 2.4 per cent completing all administrative forms, including insurance related forms.

By age 55, one in three American physicians will have been sued, according to the AMA, with 68 liability claims filed on average for every 100 physicians. In comparison, the CMPA had 732 legal actions in 2020 against a fraction of its 105,000 members.

While Canadian doctors may be faced with high overhead costs, those costs are more than offset by the benefits of lower litigation claims, lower lawsuit claim amounts and less time spent defending malpractice claims.

– Albert Van Santvoort avansantvoort@biv.com

8

BIV

NEWS

JULY 4–17, 2022

briefs Real estate

Health

Land sales dominate commercial deals

Pandemic pushed 60 per cent of Canadians to move: survey

The Lower Mainland’s commercial real estate market saw a steady pace of sales in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022, with volume outperforming the near-record action of a year earlier.

There were 595 commercial real estate sales in the Lower Mainland in Q1 2022, a one per cent decrease from the 601 sales in Q1 2021, according to data from Commercial Edge, a system operated by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). However, total dollar value rose 32.9 per cent to $3.71 billion from $2.79 billion. Land sales accounted for more than half that activity. There

The COVID-19 pandemic, more than any other factor, pushed Canadians to move over the past two years.

According to a national survey by insurance company Aviva Canada, 60 per cent of respondents said COVID-19 influenced their decision to move. For many, that meant leaving city life behind: more than a quarter of those working from home said they flocked to the suburbs or small towns.

“This is especially true for younger homeowners in Alberta and British Columbia, who are moving towards rural regions, likely due to less affordable

Canada’s Asia-Pacific Continued from page 3

Ufimtseva said the uncertainties regarding China’s business and travel regulations will have a big say on whether the outbound FDI lull continues – although interest in inbound FDI into Canada remains. Indeed, that is reflected in the inbound FDI picture for Asia-Pacific investment into Canada in 2021, where China invested $2 billion into the Canadian market. That amount was surpassed only by Indonesia ($3.8 billion) and Australia ($4.8 billion).

“Despite these political tensions, investment ties between Canada and China continue to be an important aspect of their bilateral economic relationship,” the Investment Monitor report stated.

“China is Canada’s top source

were 206 commercial land sales in Q1 2022, a 63.5 per cent increase from the 126 land sales in Q1 2021. The dollar value of land sales in 2022’s first quarter was $2.09 billion – a 177.5 per cent increase over Q1 2021.

“Raw land was the most popular and expensive commercial category driving activity to begin the year as companies look for space to expand,” said Daniel John, chair of REBGV. “We’ll need to see how the rising interest rates and inflationary pressure that we’re experiencing today will impact our commercial real estate market for the balance of 2022.”

of inbound FDI from Asia, with inbound investment from China totalling $92.8 billion between 2003 and 2021.”

Those numbers coincide with a sepa rate repor t – Chinese Company Business P ractices and Impacts in Canada – by the University of Alberta’s China Institute and the Canada-China Business Council (CCBC). The report stated that while there are adverse conditions facing Chinese investment in Canada, many business officials maintain that Chinese FDI has played a beneficial role in Canada that should not be overlooked.

“Recently, Chinese investment in Canada has faced heightened scrutiny relating to national security, labour conditions and environmental impacts; however, many argue that the associated benefits in areas such as job creation, product and service

diversification and global value chain integration usually outweigh the risks of Chinese investment,” the CCBC report stated.

“Given current challenges in Canada-China bilateral relations and mixed domestic attitudes toward investment from China, it is important to understand Chinese multinational enterprises’ investment motivation and business practices in Canada and to evaluate the wide-ranging impacts of their activities on the Canadian economy, business, society and policy.”

Omar Allam, global trade and investment managing director at Deloitte Canada and a former Canadian diplomat handling trade and investment issues, said there is no doubt that the desire from the international community to invest in Canada remains strong.

Allam said he has dealt with

housing in urban or suburban regions,” the report stated.

Nearly a third of those who moved because of the pandemic cited a more desirable location, remote work and a change of job as their main reasons for moving.

The survey also revealed that 18 per cent of Canadians have changed their transportation habits since the pandemic started.

Driving has become more popular, and more than half of those who do not currently drive anticipate using a car in the next year.

clients in markets that are interested in investing in Canada – meaning that the figures posted in the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada’s Investment Monitor report could, and should, be a lot higher if Canadian officials had a more concrete and holistic plan to attract investment.

“From the FDI point of view, we are seeing a lot of countries coming in with their muscle in terms of financing,” Allam said.

“They are putting money on the table. And I think what’s important … is we need to go a little bit beyond creating a level-playing field [in attracting international investment] and being a bit more strategic in terms of identifying opportunities.”

What that means, Allam emphasized, is the need for Ottawa to create comprehensive and case-specific plans to go after FDI opportunities that would

maximize economic benefit to Canada. It does not mean having piecemeal, incidental and passive offerings of services and data when someone comes calling, but creating a concrete value proposition for the investment that Canada truly needs.

“When you are coming from a client’s standpoint, you have to understand their criteria for investment,” Allam said.

“You are looking at hundreds of millions – potentially billions – of dollars where investors are saying, ‘We have key pillars in our investment portfolio [that] we want to go into markets with – whether that’s Canada, Brazil, the U.S., Europe, the Asia-Pacific or the Middle East.”

The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada report can be read at asiapacific.ca/research, and the CCBC report can be read at ualberta.ca/china-institute. •

It takes a village to transform health care St. Paul’s Foundation welcomes Glenn Ives as board chair. Glenn’s leadership will support the continued success of our campaign for the new St. Paul’s Hospital on the Jim Pattison Medical Campus.

Glenn joined our Foundation board in 2020 and has chaired our Finance Committee. Retired chair of Deloitte Canada, Glenn held various positions at Deloitte, and is an audit specialist in the mining and financial sectors.

Prior to joining Deloitte, he held progressively senior leadership roles in the mining industry, including as CFO and director of Vengold Inc., and vice-president of finance for TVX Gold Inc. St. Paul’s Foundation extends our sincere gratitude to John Montalbano, who is concluding his term as board chair after three years of service.

A board member since 2016 and previously vice-chair of the Campaign Executive Committee, John has been a passionate advocate for the Foundation, supporting milestones such as breaking ground on the new St. Paul’s Hospital on the Jim Pattison Medical Campus.

Thank you, John, for your leadership during this time. We look forward to your continued involvement as a board member and an active volunteer in our campaign efforts.

John is Principal at Tower Beach Capital Ltd.

Thank you to the golfers, sponsors, and volunteers who supported this year’s fundraising event, organized by frontline staff and physicians from Royal Columbian Hospital.

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10 BIV

JULY 4–17, 2022

realestate

powered by

Property sales up 60 per cent in 2022’s first quarter Investment |

Headwinds likely won’t be felt by Metro Vancouver market until later this year

By Peter Mitham pmitham@glaciermedia.ca

A

land rush in Metro Vancouver pushed investment sales to nearly $5 billion in 2022’s first quarter, a 60 per cent increase over last year as buyers scrambled to claim anything that was available.

“Investors were looking to get their hands on land,” said Andrew Petrozzi, a director with national market intelligence firm Altus Group overseeing commercial research in Western Canada.

A total of $4.9 billion worth of properties changed hands in 733 deals in the first quarter versus $3 billion a year earlier, Altus Group reported. Close to 54 per cent of sales by value were land deals, representing half of all transactions.

The top deal was the sale of an 8.3-acre site at Dawson Street and Willingdon Avenue in Burnaby’s

Brentwood neighbourhood by Aoyuan Property Group, the Canadian subsidiary of China’s Aoyuan International.

Anthem Properties Group and KingSett Capital closed on the site in March for $215 million, picking up a mixed-use development approved for 2,100 condos, 340 rental units and 60,000 square feet of new retail and office space.

The momentum behind land sales has remained strong in the second quarter, Petrozzi added.

While the numbers haven’t been crunched, one of the larger land deals will likely be Grosvenor’s recent purchase of the former Oakridge transit centre from MOMC Canada. A purchase price for the deal, which took place through a share transfer, was not disclosed.

However, the property sold in 2016 for $440 million.

Several industrial sites have also traded at record pricing during the second quarter, building on what

Petrozzi said was a record start to the year.

The first quarter saw $930.1 million in industrial sales across 163 transactions, the largest number of industrial sales ever recorded in a single quarter and surpassing the most recent high of 152 industrial sales set in fourth-quarter 2021.

“P rici ng conti nued to rise through 2021 as the supply continued to grow more constrained,” Petrozzi noted. “There are fewer assets, which is driving prices h igher and demand remains undiminished.”

Altus figures indicate industrial deals had an average value of $5.7 million in the first quarter, up from $4.6 million a year earlier, a 24 per cent increase.

The intensity of the market is highlighted by the sale of a 22.6acre industrial site in 80th Avenue in Delta’s Tilbury industrial area. Beedie Industrial paid $117

$4.9b

Property investment sales in 2022’s first quarter

$3b

Property investment sales in 2021’s first quarter

million – more than $5.1 million an acre – for the site in January 2022, beating out 13 other bidders for the privilege.

The conditions reflect both the unusual strength of the local land market, but also the equally unusual disruption the pandemic delivered.

“The past two years were not normal,” Petrozzi said. “You have basically 2020 and 2021 almost happening together, to some extent. There was this pent-up demand, which is why you see these heightened rates, particularly

towards the end of ’21, and some of that is cascading into the first quarter of 2022 as well.”

The momentum should keep going through the second half of the year, despite concerns over the headwinds posed by rising interest rates and concerns about layoffs at major tech companies.

“We have yet to see the impact of interest rates or inflation on sales yet. That likely we won’t see for another two to three quarters,” Petrozzi said The downtown office market illustrates the confidence.

Allied Properties REIT paid $135 million for 1185 West Georgia Street, a 16-storey, 165,855-square foot office tower sold as part of a national six-building portfolio sale by Choice Properties REIT. It was a vote of confidence in the market, followed by significant announcements by builders and tenants who continue to see value in office space. •

2022 Business Excellence Series: BC500 Living Legends Discussion featuring Carole Taylor and Jimmy Pattison

Join us July 28 at Terminal City Club for an onstage conversation featuring two of British Columbia’s most prominent business legends. Business magnate, investor and philanthropist Jimmy Pattison, chairman of the Jim Pattison Group, and corporate board icon, former BC finance minister and broadcaster Carole Taylor, will engage in a discussion moderated by BIV publisher and editor-in-chief Kirk LaPointe on their careers, their observations and their outlooks.

Tickets are available at biv.com/business-excellence-series-living-legends

JULY 4–17, 2022

BIV 11

finance

Bryan Yu

L

ike the rest of the country, consumer price inflation in B.C. soared in May with year-over-year growth in the consumer price index (CPI) reaching 8.1 per cent compared with 6.7 per cent in April as prices accelerated.

Following a 1.3 per cent CPI increase from April, B.C.’s 12-month inflation leapfrogged the national figure for the first time since December 2020 and was the highest among Canada’s four largest provinces.

Inflation was consistent across the province with both Metro Vancouver and Victoria at 8.2 per cent.

the monstrous inflation challenge for households, particularly lower-income groups without a savings buffer. Wage growth has not kept pace with higher prices, meaning severe pressure on any savings.

Tourist visits in B.C. climbed for a third consecutive month in April as visits increased sharply following Omicron fears and relaxed entry restrictions. Visits in April moved up 43.5 per cent month to month to 341,769 adding to the 15.8 per cent boost in March.

One-day visits posted stronger growth (up 93 per cent) compared with overnight visits (up 34 per cent).

What could begin to weigh on tourism numbers is the high cost of fuel and the general higher cost of living due to inflation. Both factors may take a larger bite out of the wallets of potential tourists. •

Inc. (TSX:CF) Shares owned: 2,010,586 Trade date: Jun 23 Trade total: $1,740,000 Trade: Acquisition of 200,000 shares at a price of $8.70 per share

Trade date: Jun 24, 27 Trade total: $165,000 Trade: Sale of 1,100,000 shares at prices from $0.10 to $0.15 per share

Consumer price index increase consistent across the province Per cent change in B.C. consumer price index

Data Points

Households are experiencing a broad reduction in purchasing power with already elevated inflation amplified by global supply chain woes, the war in Ukraine and strong domestic demand. Motorists absorbed a 9.9 per cent increase in gasoline prices from April. This increase lifts the year-over-year growth to 42 per cent, compared with 32.8 per cent in April.

Food prices continued to track higher with store-bought prices up 8.6 per cent, powered by sharply higher meat, produce and bakery aisle prices.

Shelter costs rose 8.4 per cent year over year, which was consistent with April’s 8.2 per cent pace as slowing housing prices dampened ownership costs and rent growth steadied. That said, with mortgage interest costs on the rise and stronger rent increases due to population growth and constraints to home ownership affordability, upward pressure will likely continue.

The latest figures underscore

Province’s inflation rate hit 8.1 per cent in May 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 -2 -4 1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

Sources: Statistics Canada, Central 1:

Tourist visits to B.C. up for the third consecutive month Month-to-month increase up 43.5 per cent in April 1,000 Non-resident visitors (000s)

B.C.’s consumer price inflation heats up

800 600 400 200 0 2018

2019

2020 Same-day

Bryan Yu is chief economist at Central 1 Credit Union.

2021

2022

Overnight visits Sources: Statistics Canada, Central 1

INSIDERTRADING The following is a list of stock trades made by corporate executives, directors and other company insiders of B.C.’s public companies filed in the week ended June 29, 2022. The information comes from a compilation of required reports filed with the BC Securities Commission obtained from DisclosureNet. com.

Insider James A Pattison, 10 per cent owner Company: Westshore Terminals Investment Corp. (TSX:WTE) Shares owned: 4,719,541 Trade date: Jun 24 Trade total: $5,049,600 Trade: Acquisition of 160,000 shares at a price of $31.56 per share Insider Stuart Raftus, officer Company: Canaccord Genuity Group

Insider Robert Mintak, director Company: Standard Lithium Ltd. (TSX-V:SLI) Shares owned: 2,117,999 Trade date: Jun 27, 28 Trade total: $283,200 Trade: Sale of 60,000 shares at prices from $4.71 to $4.73 per share Insider Peter Craig Gibson, 10% owner Company: Prismo Metals Inc. (CNSX:PRIZ) Shares owned: 1,400,000

Insider Harold N Kvisle, director Company: Finning International Inc. (TSX:FTT) Shares owned: 45,000 Trade date: Jun 23 Trade total: $134,600 Trade: Acquisition of 5,000 shares at a price of $26.92 per share Insider Kara Leah Norman, officer Company: Standard Lithium Ltd. (TSX-V:SLI) Shares owned: 187,000 Trade date: Sept 23, 24, 27, 28 Trade total: $129,490 Trade: Sale of 21,200 shares at prices

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from $6.05 to $6.20 per share

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Insider Wilhelm K. T Zours, 10% owner Company: Skeena Resources Ltd. (TSX:SKE) Shares owned: 4,602,820 Trade date: Jun 27 Trade total: $113,250 Trade: Acquisition of 15,000 shares at a price of $7.55 per share

Insider Saket Kumar, other Company: Vecima Networks Inc. (TSX:VCM) Shares owned: 13,606,713 Trade date: Jun 23 Trade total: $89,230 Trade: Acquisition of 5,100 shares at prices from $17.30 to $17.50 per share

Insider William Webster IV, director Company: International Battery Metals Ltd. (CNSX:IBAT) Shares owned: 13,000 Trade date: Jun 24, 27 Trade total: $97,880 Trade: Acquisition of 33,000 shares at prices from $2.96 to $2.97 per

Insider Sumit Kumar, other Company: Vecima Networks Inc. (TSX:VCM) Shares owned: 13,606,713 Trade date: Jun 23 Trade total: $89,230 Trade: Sale of 5,100 shares at prices from $17.30 to $17.50 per share •

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12 BIV

JULY 4–17, 2022

accounting REPORT top100

August 31-september 6, 2020

firms in B.C. Biggest accounting B.C. Fastest-growing companies in B.C. Total number of employees in B.C.

BIV 9

RANKED Ranked BY || Total number of employees in B.C. RANKED BY BY ||Percentage Ranked Percentagegrowth growthin inrevenue revenuebetween between2015 2015 and and 2019 2019 Rank Company Rank Company '22 '20

Local managing partner(s) Top local executive(s)

KPMG LLP 777 Dunsmuir Vancouver V7Y AssemblySt,Technologies Inc1K3 F: 604-691-3031 kpmg.ca 1515 Douglas St Suite 520, Victoria V8W 2G4 1 P: 604-691-3000 P: (855)-342-2271 F: NP assmb.ly Deloitte LLP Georgia St W, Vancouver ETRO Construction Ltd V6B 0S7 2 410 deloitte.ca 4727 HastingsF:St,604-685-0395 Burnaby V5C 2K8 2 P: 604-669-4466 P: 604-492-0920 F: NP etroconstruction.com MNP LLP Quadrogen Power Inc V6E 0C3 Hastings St W SuiteSystems 2200, Vancouver 3 1021 8288 North Fraser Way Unit 110,mnp.ca Burnaby V3N 0E9 F: 604-685-8594 3 P: 604-685-8408 604-221-7170 BDOP:Canada LLP F: 604-221-3001 quadrogen.com Urban GeorgiaCultivator St W Suite 1100, Vancouver V6E 3P3 4 1055 13060 80 AveF:Suite 311, Surreybdo.ca V3W 3B2 604-688-5132 4 P: 604-688-5421 604-424-9929 F: NP urbancultivator.net PwCP:Canada Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd3S7 Howe St Suite 1400, Vancouver V6C 5 250 19100 Airport Way Unit 108, Pittpwc.com/ca Meadows V3Y 0E2 F: 604-806-7806 5 P: 604-806-7000 EY P: 604-465-0548 F: 604-465-1128 naturallysplendid.com Herbaland Inc Vancouver V6E 3X2 Hastings StNaturals W Suite 2300, 6 1066 13330 Maycrest Way, Richmondey.com/ca V6V 2J7 F: 604-643-5422 6 P: 604-891-8200 P: Thornton 604-284-5050 Grant LLP F: 604-285-0606 herbaland.com Affinity St Suite 1600, Vancouver V6B 0A4 Seymour 7 333 2985 VirtualF:Way Suite 275, Vancouver V5M 4X7 604-685-6569 grantthornton.ca 7 P: 604-687-2711 P: 800-665-6693 F: NP affinity-group.ca Manning Elliott LLP Beanworks Georgia St WSolutions Suite 1700,IncVancouver V6E 2Y3 88 1030 311 Pender StF:W604-714-3669 Suite 201, Vancouver V6B 1T3 P: 604-714-3600 manningelliott.com P: 877-959-2326 F: NP beanworks.com Crowe MacKay LLP EnWave St Corp Hastings W Suite 1100, Vancouver V6E 4T5 99 1177 1668 DerwentF: Way Suite 1, Delta V3M 6R9 P: 604-687-4511 604-687-5805 crowemackay.ca P: 604-806-6110 F: NP enwave.net DMCL Chartered Professional Accountants 1140 Thoughtexchange Pender St W Suite 1500, Vancouver V6E 4G1 10 1990 Columbia Ave Suite E, Rossland F: 604-689-2778 dmcl.caV0G 1Y0 10 P: 604-687-4747 P: 250-551-2492 F: NP thoughtexchange.com Smythe LLP Smokey Bay Seafood Group V6C 2B3 Howe St Suite 1700, Vancouver 1111 475 896 CambieF:St604-688-4675 Suite 309, Vancouver V6B 2P6 P: 604-687-1231 smythecpa.com P: 604-568-4310 F: 604-688-8630 smokeybay.com Davidson & Co LLP Inc 609 Globalme Granville StLocalization Suite 1200, Vancouver V7Y 1G6 12 1008 Homer StF: Suite 310, Vancouver V6B 2X1 12 P: 604-687-0947 NP davidson-co.com P: 855-438-5106 F: NP globalme.net D&H Group LLP Blackbird Broadway Interactive W Suite 1000, Vancouver V6H 4C1 13 1333 565 Great Northern Way Suitedhgroup.ca 400, Vancouver V5T 0H8 P: 604-731-5881 F: 604-731-9923 P: 604-424-4355 13 Lohn Caulder LLP F: NP blackbirdinteractive.com Georgia St W Suite 300, Vancouver V6G 2Z6 14 1500 P: 604-687-5444 F: 604-688-7228 lohncaulder.com Trevali Mining Corp 1199 Chartered Hastings StProfessional W Suite 1400, Accountants Vancouver V6E 3T5 14 Horizon 650 Georgia St W Suite 1400, Vancouvertrevali.com V6B 4N8 P: 604-488-1661 F: 604-408-7499 15 P: 604-697-7777 F: 604-679-7778 horizoncpa.ca Canada Drives Benson Chartered Professional Accountants BurrardLLP St Suite 600, Vancouver V7X 1M8 15 Rolfe,555 St W Suite 1500, Vancouver V6E 3V7 P:Georgia 888-865-6402 F: NP canadadrives.ca 16 1090 P: 604-684-1101 HubbubHR F: 604-684-7937 rolfebenson.com Martin Henry CPA Water St Suite 8101, Vancouver V6B 5C6 16 1012 375 Balfour Ave SuiteF:101, V6H 1X1 P: 604-831-0579 NP Vancouver hubbubhr.com 17 P: 604-648-2827 F: 604-648-2098 martinhenry.ca 2 Clearline Chartered Professional Accountants Merchant Growth ByrneGeorgia Rd Suite 236, Burnaby 3J1 V6G 2Z6 1500 St W Suite 2000,V5J Vancouver 18 17 5589 P: 604-639-0909 F: NP clearlinecpa.ca P: 778-870-8418 F: 604-681-0916 merchantadvance.com 4 Harbourside PeregrineCPA LLP Georgia St W Suite Vancouver V6E 4E6 3131 Production Way,1140, Burnaby V5A 3H1 19 18 1185 P: 604-688-7227 F: 604-681-7716 harboursidecpa.com P: 800-956-4326 F: 604-251-3173 peregrine.build BBAMarwick Accounting GroupMarketing Inc Internet Georgia St W Suite Vancouver 38142 Cleveland Ave,1760, Squamish V8B V6B 0A7 4N8 20 19 650 P: 604-390-0065 F: NP marwickmarketing.com P: 604-685-9843 F: 604-685-9856 bbagroup.ca

Walter Pela, regional managing partner Tobyn Sowden, co-founder, Marco Pimentel, co-founder and general manager Jodi Evans, regional managing partner Mike Maierle, principal

1

Ownership

Privately held Privately held

Year founded National Product/service headquarters 1897 1858

Darren Turchansky, executive vice-president, B.C., and regional managing partner, Alakh Prasad, presidentmanaging and CEO partner, B.C. advisory Privately held Vancouver, Mackenzie Kyle, regional

1958

Michael Madsen, office managing partner and international liaison partner Ewout Goldberg, managing director Privately held

1921

Jim McGuigan, managing partner, B.C. region Doug Mason, CEO

1912

TSX-V:NSP

Kevin Brennan, office managing partner, B.C., and Western Canada market segment Musharaf Syed, co-founder and CEO, Aisha Privately held leader Yang, co-founder, sales and marketing director John Harris, managing partner, south coastal B.C., Dan Little, managing partner, Daniel Lamb, Dan Queiros, French, Vancouver Island, Kevin Santos, managingScott partner, Interior B.C.Privately held partners Alden Aumann, managing partner Catherine Dahl, CEO, Karim Ben-Jaafar, Privately held president Stefan Ferris, CEO and managing director, West Coast offices, David Gautier, John Kelowna Budreski,office executive chairman, Brent TSX-V:ENW managing director, Charleton, president and CEO Fraser Ross, managing partner Dave MacLeod, founder and CEO, Jim Privately held Firstbrook, founder and president Bob Sanghera, managing partner Patrick Warren, president and CEO Privately held Grant Block, partner Emre Akkas, managing director, Canada Arthur Azana, office managing principal Rob Cunningham, CEO, Peter Greenwood, CFO, Yggy King, chief technical officer, Eric Torin, chief operating officer, Sarah McNair, Jason Nakano, managing partner human resources director, Rory McGuire, chief creative officer Ricus Grimbeek, president and CEO, Russell Wendell Meeres, Ball,director executive vice-president and CFO

Privately held Privately held

TSX:TV

1945 1980 1952

No. of B.C. locations

No. of Year international offices founded

Toronto 12 NP Assembly is a digital publisher turning a traditional industry on its head Toronto 2 NP Provides construction management and general contracting services leading the industry through putting people first and innovating in every corner of the business Calgary 23 NP Designs, builds and installs gas cleanup and upgrading systems for the renewable energy sector Toronto 16 1,728 Urban Cultivator is an indoor garden fully automated under the perfect growing conditions. It requires no pesticides, no travel time, andToronto generates no food waste 3 708 Biotechnology company developing and commercializing hemp-derived foods and related products Toronto 1 700 Manufacturing and distribution of healthy nutritional gummies worldwide Toronto 15 530 IT recruitment and consulting Vancouver 4 Accounts payable automation software

NP

2015 2015 2007 2010 2010 2009 2014 2012

1969

Vancouver 6 140 Patented industrial dehydration technology for food, 1999 cannabis, biopharmaceuticals and industrial materials 1985 Vancouver 4 0 A software-as-a-service community intelligence platform that 2009 helps leaders crowdsource the answers to questions in real time 1980 Vancouver 4 NP Smokey Bay is a multinational enterprise managed by a team 1998 with experience in seafood sourcing and trade 1984

Vancouver 1 Data services, localization, and managed services

790

1952

Vancouver NP 200 Hardspace:Shipbreakers (early access 2020), Minecraft Earth (Co-dev 2019): Homeworld 3 (due 2021), 2 other new video game projects currently in development. Homeworld: Deserts 1978 of Kharak (released Vancouver 0 0 2016)

Total no. of accountants Total B.C. staff Worldwide in B.C. '22/'21 Revenue '22/'21 staff '19/'15 '19/'15 5-year growth 1,259 1,687 1,120 27 $26,512,391 1,460 4 431 513 56 2 958 32 884 12 631 50 614 33 282 NP 502 NP 284 120 310 25 NP 235 382 40 243 59 NP 12 203 135 182 53 235 149 215 59

150 9143 6

2009

140 67 127 20

2007

NP 173 NP 56

Zinc-focused with four mines: Santander (Peru), Caribou (New 2007 1993 Brunswick), Rosh Vancouver 2 (Burkina Faso)0 Pinah (Namibia), Perkoa

46 44 NP 35 600 40 460 NP 111 NP 3 537 NP

Cody Green, founder and co-CEO, Mike Galpin, Privately held Robert Watts,co-CEO managing partner

Enables Canadians to access auto financing and other credit 1958 products through Vancouver NP an online platform 1

Daniel Mayer, chief customer advocate John D Martin, partner

Privately held

Bilal Kathrada, managing partner David Gens, CEO

Privately held

Offers human resources solutions for organizations that span 2008 1993 countries, cultures Vancouver 1 0 and languages with innovative, configurable, enterprise-class solutions built for mid-size businesses 2009 To bring business Burnaby/Surrey 2 0 owners the most convenient and accessible 2009 financing experience possible

Geoff Dodds,Brian managing partner French, president, Ryan Wilcox, vicepresident and CFO

Privately held

1995 Store fixture and Vancouver millwork manufacturerNP

NP

1976

NP 75 NP 30

Privately held

1990 Digital marketing NP agency

NP

2013

NP 18 3NP

Sonya Bekken, Howard Bickford, partners Mary Demers, operations director, Crista-lea Kirk, director of strategy, Cassandra Devlin, director of business development, Theresa Thomson, chief operating officer Sources: Interviews with representatives of above firms and BIV research. Other firms may have ranked but did Traction onrequests Demand not respond to information by deadline. NP Not provided 1 - 2021 figure 2 - 2020 figure 3 - BIV Greg Malpass, founder and CEO, Mike Epner, 2700 Production Way Suite 500, Burnaby V5A 0C2 president, Errol Olsen, CFO 204 - Formerly estimate Buckley Dodds Chartered Accountants P: 604-620-6040 F: NP tractionondemand.com

Privately held

Sources: Interviews with above companies and BIV research. USD converted to CAD using Bank of Canada's average yearly rate depending on company's fiscal year-end. Companies must have had $50,000 in sales in 2015 and $1 million in 2019 to qualify. Other companies may have ranked but did not respond to information requests by deadline. NP Not provided 1 - Converted from USD 2 - Formerly Merchant Advance Capital

2

33 42 32 34

$19,420,817 40 $4,529,417 38 328.8% 3 $13,647,875 40 $3,307,219 NP 312.7% 3 $1,420,000 25 $354,767 NP 300.3%

Business in Vancouver makes every attempt to publish accurate information in the List, but

Salesforce platform consulting,accuracy implementation and software 2006 by Anna528 $96,000,000 cannot be guaranteed.

Researched development services, marketing automation, data 150Liczmanska, lists@biv.com. $27,893,000 management and software-as-a-service technology 244.2%

Business in Vancouver makes every attempt to publish accurate information in the List, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Researched by Arthur Xie, editorial researcher, axie@biv.com.

Next list – Biggest construction companies in B.C.

Sign up for our newsletters and feel smarter instantly.

2010

$39,670 66,732.3%1,397 $68,907,2791,076 $425,896 16,079.4%1,348 $4,069,482 1,232 $144,111 2,723.9% 873 $7,605,000 863 $450,000 1,590% 728 $3,037,512 803 $301,705 906.8% 560 $21,167,658 521 $2,415,049 776.5% 5591 $25,947,956559 $3,094,604 738.5% 292 $2,302,519 2572 $279,030 725.2% 282 $42,842,000215 $5,868,000 630.1% 277 $12,336,767 254 $2,069,703 496.1% 227 $6,740,309 216 $1,288,604 423.1% 156 $10,400,000137 $2,016,158 415.8% 1003 $22,500,0001003 $4,400,000 411.4% 53 51 $512,329,3591 $106,351,00051 381.7% 50 $135,057,901 $28,603,77050 372.2% 50 $1,500,000 $326,000 42 360.1% 45

BIV.COM/NEWSLETTERS

accounting REPORT

JULY 4–17, 2022

BIV 13

Major accounting firms grew through the pandemic ANALYSIS |

Average staff size for B.C.’s largest companies grew 31.7 per cent over the past five years

By Albert Van Santvoort avansantvoort@biv.com

B

ritish Columbia’s biggest accou nti ng fi rms g rew steadily throughout the pandemic, according to data on BIV’s list of the province’s biggest accounting firms (page 12).

The number of local staff grew

6.5 per cent in 2022, up from 3.2 per cent in 2021, but that increase failed to reach the average nine per cent pre-pandemic growth rate reported by B.C.’s largest accounting firms.

Over the past five years, their staff numbers grew an average of 31.7 per cent to 439 people in 2022, up from 334 in 2018. The

median staffing level rose by 46.5 per cent – nearly 1.5 times the increase in average staff size – to 252 in 2022 from 172 in 2018. This suggests that smaller firms lower on the list grew faster than larger companies higher up on the list.

Of the companies on the list, Crowe Mackay LLP (No. 9) reported the largest year-over-year

Average and median staff totals at the province’s biggest accounting firms

Deloitte recorded the largest five-year increase among the top five at 58.6 per cent

450

60

400

50 Percentage growth in B.C. staff

350 300 B.C. staff

decline in B.C.-based employment over the five years since 2018. Its staffing level peaked in 2020.

Deloitte LLP (No. 2) reported the largest five-year increase among the five largest firms. Its number of employees jumped 58.6 per cent to 1,397 in 2022, from 881 in 2018. •

One- and five-year change in employee numbers at B.C.’s top five accounting firms

The average number of B.C. employees increased 6.5 per cent over the past year

250 200 150 100

40 30 20 10 0

50

-10 2018

growth. Its number of staff increased 31.2 per cent to 282 in 2022 from 215 in 2021. No. 5 PwC Canada was one of only two firms to suffer a decline in staff numbers over the past year. Its local employment fell 9.3 per cent to 728 in 2022 from 803 in 2021.

PwC Canada has also experienced an overall four per cent

2019

2020 Average

2021

2022

Median

KPMG LLP

Deloitte LLP One-year

MNP LLP

BDO Canada LLP

PwC Canada

Five-year

Source: BIV list

Source: BIV list

Your opportunities are growing. So is our team.

MNP congratulates our newest Lower Mainland partners With 23 offices across B.C., we continue to grow our firm with the best and the brightest. With a track record of professional excellence and commitment to client service — along with a passion for business and the communities they serve – our newest partners are here to help you capitalize on new opportunities.

Darren Turchansky, CPA, CA | 604.685.8408 | darren.turchansky@mnp.ca MNP.ca/bc

14 BIV

accounting REPORT

JULY 4–17, 2022

Accounting firms shift into post-pandemic world Human resources |

By Glen Korstrom gkorstrom@biv.com

L

arge accounting firms are adapting to a new post-pandemic normal that includes strategic shifts and operational adjustments.

When KPMG LLP started allowing unvaccinated employees to return to the office on June 15, it ended its status as one of the only large accounting firms that still banned those workers from offices. Deloitte LLP started allowing unvaccinated employees back to the office on March 21; PwC Canada and MNP LLP followed suit in April.

W hen COVID-19 arrived in March 2020, firms told staff to work remotely.

Today, most accountants and related staff work hybrid schedules with some time in the office but most time at home, in clients’ offices or elsewhere.

Managing partners of large Vancouver accounting firms told BIV that most of their workers have hybrid work schedules and that this is likely to become the norm.

Work schedules to include more remote work and less business travel About 25 per cent of Deloitte’s Vancouver staff are in the office daily, estimated the firm’s regional managing partner, Jodi Evans. About 10 per cent of its workers never come to the office while approximately 65 per cent come in an average of one to two days per week, she told BIV. KPMG regional managing partner Walter Pela, MNP LLP regional managing partner Darren Turchansky and PwC Canada’s B.C. regional managing partner Jim McGuigan each separately told BIV that the “vast majority” of their workforces have hybrid schedules, that about 10 per cent of staff are in the office every day and that working entirely remotely is possible, but rare.

KPMG offers employees the ability to work remotely outside of their home province for up to eight weeks per year, with four of those weeks allowed to be outside Canada. They are also allowed to work four-day work weeks for full-time pay during the summer, Pela said.

Fewer employees in offices means firms need less office space. Deloitte moved into a

MNP regional managing partner Darren Turchansky said hybrid work is prompting his firm to rethink how much office space it needs | Chung Chow

new, larger space at 410 West Georgia Street in June, but other firms are not so sure about how much office space they will need in future.

“It’s a bit of an unknown,” Turchansky said. “We’re certainly looking at what we see the future being for our space needs.”

Because hybrid work has blurred the line between work and home routines, firms have started to draft right-to-disconnect

policies that aim to guarantee that workers do not burn out by feeling compelled to respond to emails or other work communication outside of working hours.

A n Ontario law took effect June 2 that requires companies with more than 25 employees to have written policies stating that employees can disconnect from work outside of business hours.

Most large accounting firm ma nag i ng pa rtners told BI V

Accounting’s designation consolidation debate

TRUSTED FINANCIAL ADVICE, TESTED BY TIME.

The remnants of Canada’s legacy accounting professional designations are being taken out of commission this year.

Since January 1, Canadian accounting firms have not been allowed to use chartered accountant (CA), certified management accountant (CMA) and certified general accountant (CGA) designations in their titles, and in November new guidelines will govern how accountants use their legacy designations.

In 2015, Canada’s main accounting designations unified under a single banner: chartered professional accountants (CPA).

But the profession’s designation consolidation has not been without controversy.

Prior to the designation unification, Canada had a tiered system for accountants. CAs wrote a more rigorous exam and usually articled with a major accounting firm, which would provide them with the skillsets required to enter public practice or work as external auditors.

CMAs and CGAs were often found in-house as corporate or managerial accountants.

CGAs and CMAs considered the new consolidated designation to be a fair representation of the profession; many CAs did not.

Designation unification was suggested for several reasons.

that the law does not affect them much because they have long had informal policies allowing employees to disconnect outside of work time.

Workers can tailor their own flexible schedules, but firm partners expect them to provide quality and timely service to clients.

Some firms, such as MNP, are abiding by a written policy for disconnecting from work in Ontario, but the policy has not yet been expanded countrywide.

Video-conferencing software from Zoom Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:ZM) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) proliferated during the pandemic, as firms increasingly held virtual meetings.

As a resu lt, busi ness travel is a fraction of what it was pre-pandemic.

“We’re not travelling as much for a number of reasons,” McGuigan said. “No. 1, we’ve learned that we can conduct a lot of meetings remotely, and virtually, and we can be very effective. The second reason is we’re conscious of our environmental footprint.” • First, there was some overlap in the jobs performed by the three designations, particularly in the western provinces, which were more in favour of unification than Ontario, which is home to 50 per cent of Canada’s accountants.

Second, proponents argued that unification would strengthen Canadian international influence and reputation by creating a larger accounting organization and eliminating confusion for customers, aspiring accountants and their international counterparts.

But while designation unification has increased interprovincial and international mobility of accounting designations and eliminated confusion over the previous trio of acronyms, it has also eliminated some precision in the accounting professional.

Joanne Elek, an executive recruiter, said there used to be a consistency in the quality of accountants that graduated from the CA program.

She said it’s now harder to predict the knowledge and skills individual accountants will have.

A variety of careers can fall under the umbrella term accountant, and Charles Bélanger, business professor at Laurentian University, said the previous designations helped employers find the right person for the right job.

– Albert Van Santvoort avansantvoort@biv.com

Congratulations to our emerging leaders Recognizing the outstanding achievements of the 2021 BIV Forty Under 40 recipients Innovation, vision and determination lead to great results. We applaud this year’s award recipients who make outstanding contributions to their workplaces and communities.

We look forward to seeing what you achieve next.

fasken.com

16 BIV

JULY 4–17, 2022

EVENTS

BIV celebrates 2021’s Forty under 40 award winners

A

t long last, BIV was able to celebrate the 2021 winners of our annual Forty under 40 Awards. Recipients, their families and friends were invited to attend the June 15 awards

2021 Forty under 40 Award winners celebrate at the first in-person Forty under 40 Awards gala since the start of the pandemic

celebration and watch an interview with actor Zach Smadu from the Global television series Family Law. Photos by Chung Chow

Ziad Boustany, CEO of the RAM Group, and his wife reading BIV’s 2021 Forty under 40 magazine

Crystal Hung, founder and CEO of Icon Marketing, speaking with Fasken professionals

Muneesh Sharma, executive director of Robson Street Business Association, accepts his award with his daughter from Fasken’s Robin Dhir

Award winner Adam Segal, president and CEO of Stork Craft Manufacturing Inc., with Robin Dhir

Dani Bryant, partner at Fasken, accepts her award from her colleague Jon Conlin

Dennis Thomas Whonoak, senior business development manager at Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, accepts his award from Robin Dhir, strategic adviser to Fasken

CEO, founder and director of Atlas Power Technologies Inc., Mitch Miller, attended the event with his family

Platinum Sponsor:

Gold Sponsor:

EVENTS

JULY 4–17, 2022

BIV 17

Humaira Ahmed, CEO of Locelle Digital Inc., accepts her award from Fasken’s Jon Conlin

Joseph Cooke, president and co-founder of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, won the $5,000 legal services prize offered by Fasken

Drew Munro, co-founder and CEO of UpMeals, celebrates his achievement with his team

Jon Conlin with award winner Laura Cundari, partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

BIV reporter Tyler Orton (right) interviews actor Zach Smadu during the 2021 Forty under 40 Awards event.

Smadu plays a BIV Forty under 40 applicant in an upcoming episode of the Global TV series Family Law

Alan Cosgrave, partner in enterprise risk services at MNP LLP, accepts his award from Fasken’s Jon Conlin

Michael Tan, vice-president of finance at Damon Motors, attended the Forty under 40 Awards celebration with his family

Alexa Young, vice-president of government and public affairs at the BC Council of Forest Industries, takes a selfie with her friends and colleagues

Ty Duperron, COO of Tafi & Daz 3D, accepts his award with his newborn alongside Jon Conlin

Benjamin Lightburn, CEO of Filament Health, accepts his award from Chris Wilson, business development manager at BIV

Jessica Prince, executive director of strategy, intelligence, marketing and industry in B.C.’s Ministry of Jobs, on stage with her family

2021 Forty under 40 Award winner Rhogene Dadashzadeh, Scotiabank’s associate director of business banking market development, commercial banking, attended the event with her friends and family

18 BIV

JULY 4–17, 2022

INSIGHTS

Economic opportunities for B.C. were missed during Horgan’s reign

Podium Kirk LaPointe

T

here are three ways to discuss this.

1. As premier, John Horgan didn’t finish off business.

2. As premier, John Horgan is leaving unfinished business.

3. As premier, John Horgan has business to finish off.

There are three ways to describe the economic record.

1. The Horgan term can be described as not fixing what wasn’t broken.

2. The Horgan term can be described as trying but not succeeding to fix what wasn’t broken.

3. The Horgan term can be described as not quite breaking what didn’t need to be fixed.

There was, for example, the appeasement of the base of organized labour support.

This has taken two shapes: the proposed elimination of the secret ballot when workers vote in favour or against forming a union (if more than 55 per

cent sign union cards), and the narrowing of the labour supply to unionized trades only on infrastructure projects. One is democratically terrible, the other is fiscally so, but neither bad look was a concern in Horgan’s five years.

There was, for example, the appeasement of environmentalists with a forestry policy that offended Indigenous leaders and moved investment critical to employment in the sector to Alberta, the United States, even Sweden. On this file, in particular, the haste with which the policy was hatched and rushed through the legislature revealed much about the government’s true indifference to consultation and ineptitude on the larger parts of the province’s economic portfolio.

There was also, for example, the appeasement of the base that wanted a redistribution of wealth. Early on there was a shift to businesses of the burden of Medical Service Plan (MSP) premiums to an Employer Health Tax, the imposition of a batch of homeowner and homebuyer taxes and an increase in provincial income taxes in the upper third of the brackets. These were done under the guise of channelling funds into a stronger housing

supply for the neediest, an easing of taxes on employees and a stronger hand into the pockets of those making more. When the pandemic hit, all but one of the proposed taxes in the 2020 budget were delayed – the exception being the additional surcharge at the top tax bracket. That was a clear signal that the government believed there was more to take from those who had found more to earn.

But these measures did nothing to improve the economy and missed the larger point of a health-care system revealed by the pandemic as laden with deficiencies and inefficiencies and a housing market that cannot be wrestled into affordability any longer, no matter the depth of taxpayer dollars.

As optics, though, under a premier with a publicly bonny disposition, these measures served to placate and even enlarge the base, no matter they were distractions from the more profound challenges that Horgan will leave to the next person.

The largest optical illusion, of course, was this year’s StrongerBC plan. This was the Horgan government’s most instrumental illustration of its vision for the economy: inclusive and clean growth, terms

no one would find problematic.

But in Indigenous etymology, it was big hat and no cattle. It set course for an economy without setting aside money to guide it. Apart from an announcement-day construction project – days before a provincial budget, where one would have expected an explosion of detailed spending plans – nothing constructive has come from it months later. Dust is settling upon its documentation as we speak.

The business community sentiment that greeted John Horgan to the job has not changed. The province is uncompetitive from a taxation standpoint and by no means a paragon of effective spending.

If it is true that his administration did not take down the economy, it also cannot be said it has contributed to its growth. This is hardly the stuff of legend, yet Horgan must be identified as the first NDP premier to leave the role without an accompanying scandal.

The election campaign effectively started last week with Horgan’s announcement he is retiring as leader in the fall when the party chooses a new leader. In his gentle nudging of his party toward a more electable centrist position on some

issues – energy development, for one – his successor will face the pressure to carry on that work to consolidate power.

Trouble is, like all party leadership contests, the races are rarely about moderation and conciliation. They’re typically rife with rhetoric and riddled with low-sense policy ideas that serve as red meat for the party stalwarts.

But by the fall we will know if a recession is in the making, if inflation has mauled the household budget and if higher interest rates are dampening the housing market and damning those in it. It is unlikely any of Horgan’s wannabe successors will focus much on that; economic stewardship has never been an NDP skillset, mainly because its leadership never draws from those environs.

What Horgan inherited from the previous administration was not squandered, per se, but the opportunity that existed with low-cost borrowing to lower taxes to generate growth has now passed. The next premier of British Columbia will not have John Horgan’s luck of the Irish. • Kirk LaPointe is publisher and editorin-chief of BIV and vice-president, editorial, of Glacier Media.

Support for 2030 Olympic Games bid gaining momentum in B.C.

Podium Mario Canseco

L

ast month’s announcement of Vancouver as one of the 16 host cities for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup was greeted with satisfaction from most British Columbians.

When Research Co. and Glacier Media asked the province’s residents about this development, 55 per cent agreed with the selection, while 34 per cent did not and 11 per cent were undecided.

BC Place hosted key matches during the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The notion of the same venue being used for what is arguably the most watched sporting event on the planet is enthralling for residents of all genders, ages and regions of British Columbia.

This is also an opportune time

to focus on the Olympics. The prospect of a new bid that would bring the Winter Games to Vancouver in 2030 has gone through some significant fluctuations.

In January 2020, sizable majorities of British Columbians supported Vancouver seeking to organize the Summer (62 per cent) or Winter (60 per cent) Olympics.

When we re-asked these questions in October 2021, a few weeks after the postponed Tokyo Summer Olympics ended, British Columbians were no longer as certain of their wish. Support for a 2030 Winter Games bid dropped to 43 per cent, and backing for Vancouver seeking to host the 2036 Summer Games plummeted to 38 per cent.

Several factors explain this decline. COVID-19 deeply affected the planning of the Tokyo games, and the local public was not particularly thrilled.

In our latest poll, 58 per cent of British Columbians (up three points) think it is “definitely” or “probably” impossible to host the Winter Olympics without government or public funds,

a proportion that rises to 73 per cent among those aged 55 and over. British Columbians understand that these events are never free, even if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has abandoned the practice of making cities spend before a decision is made. The experience of Tokyo – where dreams of a surplus were quashed by the absence of fans in the stands – was also on the minds of residents. We see little change in the perceptions of the province’s residents on the IOC itself, with 47 per cent (down one point) expressing positive views and 33 per cent (down three points) outlining a negative opinion.

Even as views on the IOC remain stagnant, and with consistency in the perception that cost-free Olympics are a fallacy, support for welcoming the world again has risen. A bid for Vancouver to become the second city to host both the Winter and Summer editions of the Games is now supported by just under half of British Columbians (48 per cent, up 10 points).

In addition, 54 per cent of British Columbians think a bid for the 2030 Winter Games should “definitely” or “probably” be launched, up 11 points since late 2021. Opposition has fallen to 35 per cent (down 10 points).

One issue that organizers will need to deal with is a generational gap. While 61 per cent of British Columbians aged 18 to 34 would welcome a Vancouver bid for the 2030 Winter Games, the numbers drop slightly among their counterparts aged 35 to 54 (56 per cent) and fall below the majority line among those aged 55 and over (48 per cent). One element that has changed since our last survey is the official announcement that the Winter Games bid is being explored

by Four Host First Nations – Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Lil’wat – and the municipal governments of Vancouver and Whistler.

When British Columbians are asked what effect the existence of this Indigenous-led partnership has on their perception, 23 per cent claim it makes them more likely to endorse the Olympic bid, while 18 per

cent say it makes them less supportive.

The creation of an Indigenous-led partnership has brought a higher level of support from younger British Columbians, while at the same time throwing off their older counterparts.

As the world awaits a final decision on who will host the 2030 Winter Olympics, British Columbians are cautiously warming up to a new bid.

Support is not as high as it was in the nostalgic early days of 2020, but not as low as during the height of post-Tokyo apprehension.

The organizers must ensure that the purifying effect of an Indigenous-led partnership is accompanied by tangible benefits for the entire population. • Mario Canseco is president of Research Co. Results are based on an online study conducted from June 24 to June 26, 2022, among 800 adults in British Columbia. The margin of error, which measures sample variability, is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Courts

JULY 4–17, 2022

BIV 19

trouble WHO’S GETTING SUED These corporate claims were filed with the BC Supreme Court registry in Vancouver. Information is derived from notices of civil claim. Civil claims have not been tested or proven in court.

Defendant Lloyd’s Underwriters Plaintiff Canadians Society of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Claim $641,850 for insurance coverage for the cancellation of plaintiff’s convention due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Defendants Chandos Construction Ltd. and Eagle Valley Excavating Inc. Plaintiff Hi-Tide Shoring & Foundations (2012) Ltd. Claim $437,988 for shotcrete and anchoring systems; a builder’s lien.

Defendant Coulson Aircrane Ltd. Plaintiffs Standard Aero Ltd. and Vector Aerospace Helicopter Services Inc. Claim US$230,367 and $183,404 for aircraft maintenance and repair services.

Defendant B.C. Frozen Foods Ltd. Plaintiff Rigby Foods Inc. Claim US$297,440 for debt after defendant’s email accounts and systems were compromised by hackers, who rerouted payments for frozen foods supplied by plaintiff.

Defendants Star Trex Enterprises Ltd. and Saroop Dasta

Plaintiff Yang-Myung Hotel Management Ltd. dba Astoria Pub Claim $324,300 for breach of lease.

Defendants Sable Gate Corp. and Southwood Gate Corp.

Plaintiff Recyclesmart Solutions Inc. Claim $109,275 for waste management and recycling services.

Defendants Lower Fraser Valley Exhibition Association dba Cloverdale Rodeo Exhibition Association and Cloverdale Rodeo & Country Fair Plaintiff Laura Ballance Media Group Inc. Claim $70,350 for marketing and media relations services.

Defendants North Langley Shopping Centre Ltd. and Lost Lagoon Holdings Ltd. and Glassman Property Management Inc. and Backhoes Unlimited Construction Rentals Inc. Plaintiffs Save-On-Foods LP and Great Pacific Industries Claim Declaratory relief for indemnity from a personal injury lawsuit.

Defendant Wallace & Carey Inc. Plaintiff Dayhu Investments Ltd. Claim Damages for breach of lease.

Defendants 2220 Kingsway LP and Gladstone Kingsway Holdings GP Inc. and Allstar Mechanical Ltd. and Allstar Mechanical 2014 Ltd. and Carmichael Engineering Ltd. and Georgia Mechanical Holdings Ltd. and Georgia Mechanical Systems (2008) Ltd. and Aarc-West Industrial Insulation Inc. and True

Constructable Solutions Ltd. and Broadway Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Co. and Performance Controls Ltd. and Summit Sheet Metal Ltd. and ABC Cos. and John Doe Plaintiff The Owners, Strata Plan EPS 5134 Claim Damages related to leaks and construction defects.

Defendants Deep Water Recovery Ltd. and Marck Jurisich and John Does Plaintiff Mary Reynolds Claim Damages and injunctive relief to halt defendants’ harassment and intimidation of plaintiff for her public criticisms of defendants’ controversial shipbreaking operation near Union Bay. Defendant The Owners, Strata Plan VR 1111 Plaintiff Rogers Communications Canada Inc. Claim Declaratory and injunctive relief to stop defendant from interfering with plaintiff’s telecommunications equipment in a dispute over alleged unpaid electrical charges.

Claim Specific performance of a real estate contract.

conversion arising from an unauthorized withdrawal of funds from plaintiff’s bank account.

Defendant Eden Empire Inc. Plaintiffs Roger Henniger and 4317 Fraser Street Operation Ltd. Claim Damages for breach of contract and misrepresentation arising from defendants’ failure to properly manage plaintiffs’ cannabis store.

Defendants Minister of Justice for the Province of British Columbia and Forsythe Investments ULC and Off Duty Services Canada dba Forsythe Security and Coastal Gaslink Pipeline Ltd. and Unknown RCMP Officers 1-3 Plaintiffs Janet William and Lawrence Bazil and Molly Wickham, on her own behalf, and on behalf of the Gidimt’en Glan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation Claim Damages for conspiracy, misfeasance in public office and nuisance arising from defendants’ concerted campaign to intimidate plaintiffs and members of the public through threats of false arrest and assault for their opposition to a pipeline construction project on the traditional and unceded territory of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. •

Defendants Baljit Johal and Mortise Construction Ltd. and 0945799 B.C. Ltd. Plaintiff Landwest Investments Corp.

Claim Damages for breach of trust and breach of contract for defendants’ failure to account for plaintiff’s share of profit from a real estate deal.

Defendants Conor Power and Alora Consulting Inc. Plaintiff Roadhouse Travel Inc. Claim Damages for breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment and

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Defendants West Point Pacific Construction (64th Ave.) Ltd. Plaintiff Jaskaran Singh Claim Damages for breach of contract for defendant’s failure to file a property disclosure statement as required by the Real Estate Development Marketing Act. Defendants Dicoe Contracting Ltd. and Raman Kooner and Raman Kooner Personal Real Estate Corp. and 596373 B.C. Ltd. dba Re/Max Westcoast Plaintiffs James Moini and Frances Moini

Business Excellence Series Supply Chain The outbreak of COVID shattered the profound supply chains enabled by globalization, and that breakdown has contributed to today’s persistent inflation.

Join us at the Terminal City Club on July 19th at 3:30 pm for a panel discussion that will benefit businesses in both domestic and export markets.

Supply Chain

Sponsored by:

Register today at biv.com/business-excellence-series-supply-chain

THANKYOU

The 2022 Nicola Wealth Invitational to Benefit Arts Umbrella raised over $340,000. Our heartfelt thanks to Title Sponsor Nicola Wealth, as well as the generous sponsors, donors, volunteers, golfers, and committee members who helped make this event a success. Funds raised at this year’s tournament will allow us to continue to expand our reach to the vulnerable children and youth who will benefit most from access to an arts education.

From all of us at Arts Umbrella, thank you.

June 20, 2022 Point Grey Golf & Country Club

A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR BURSARY FUND DONORS WHO GAVE GENEROUSLY ON-COURSE: Mike Alexander, Evan Allegretto, Scott Anderson, Ethan Astaneh, David Beck, Jeremy Billan, Lenard Boggio, Kevin Boyle, Colin Brousson, Bruce Burns, Douglas Clarke, Peter Coles, Cameron Conn, Jeremy Dawn, Alec DuMerton, R.J. Fenez, Michael Ferreira, Mike French, Divyesh Gadhia, Bob Gayton, Barry Glotman, Adam Golden, Aaron Gould, Roland Haebler, Bryan Hall, Mark Hannah, Brent Hanson, Richard Harmon, Andrew Harries, Wayne Harris, Bryan Henry, Nolan Heuchert, Floyd Hill, Greg Hollingsworth, Shaun Johnston, Naveen Kapahi, Jason Kiselbach, Peter Kletas, Max Lane, Brian Lawson, Bob Levine, Gautam Lohia, Barry Macdonald, Dave MacKenzie, Matt MacLean, Toby Mallinder, James McCarthy, Dave McCutcheon, Brenda Mendieta, Carl Nordmann, Robert Orr, Franco Perugini, Todd Pollock, Randy Pratt, Richard Prokopanko, Stephen Radcliffe, Dylan Reece, Shane Rigter, Andrew Robertson, Brian Roche, Simon Russell, Salim Sayani, Sam Scott, Graham Sibbald, Danielle Skipp, Cam Smith, Arv Sooch, Adam Spear, Chad Tenney, Cody Thistle, Phil Tippetts-Aylmer, Taylor Troll, Dan Turner, David Uppal, Chris Wilson, Stephen Wolfe, Ted Wong, Nick Wood

CHRIS & NOEMI

USGD: CSE USGDF: OTCQB

Bennett Jones LLP BFL Canada

MACKAY

Jackson-Triggs Estate Winery

Don Prins

Renata Sinclair Photography

Michelob Ultra

PMA Canada

Thank you to our 2022 Golf Organizing Committee: Co-Chairs: Cameron Conn and Toby Mallinder | Committee: Elizabeth Dylke, Christine Fletcher, Tanya Gabara, Brittany Grant, James Grass, Paul Kressock, Aoife Loughnane, Chris MacCauley, Kirsten Mihailides, Neil Murray, Marcus Rambold-Cohen, Warwick Smith, Rob Wilson, Dave Zibrik