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Sentinel
Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Volume 58 No. 12
Nechako kids dip toes in world of entrepreneurship Cameron Orr The supply and demand lesson was very real for 90 Nechako elementary students last week. Three classes, composed of grades 5 and 6, participated in a program from Envision Financial called Power Play Young Entrepreneurs. Through the program, which ran six weeks, students learned about financial literacy and entrepreneurship by learning how to plan a business. From a business plan, the students then made products and sold them at a trade fair held at their school last Tuesday and Wednesday. The experience was invaluable to the students, who pitched products from decked out duo-tangs to bird houses. Trey Allen was one of the would-be captains of industry, who prepared lavendar bath salts for sale. The products were made at home with the help of his parents, and Allen said they proved more challenging to make than they expected. And more expensive. For 40 bags they had to spend $70, he said. The individual packages he sold cost $6. It was certainly a humbling lesson in the world of manufacturing and retail. But the experience did inspire him to consider business ownership in his own future, but he said he’ll definitely not be in the bath salt business. (A shame, because his business name, Trey Bien, was nothing short of genius.) Just across the way from the bath salt table was an assortment of handmade snow globes, being marketed by Malachai Slanina. Like Allen, he found benefit from working together with his family to bring the snow globe idea to fruition. At $3 a globe, made from glass jars, he found the product took a bit more time to make than he anticipated, even with an assembly line family by his side. But it wasn’t too challenging a hurdle to overcome. “I think I could do it,” said Slanina about being in the self-employment gig, even if that’s not where his passion lies. He said he has more interest in being a paleontologist and letting others worry about product creation. This is the first year the program has run in Kitimat, and Nechako was the only participating school this year. As sponsors, Envision staff spent time in the classrooms teaching students the fundamentals of business planning. With hardly enough leg room to even step to the next student businessperson’s table, it was clearly a successful event that got the entrepreneurial spirit going.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
1.34 INCLUDES TAX
$
Above, Malachai Slanina shows his homemade snowglobes, sold for $3 a unit at Nechako’s business fair last week. At right, Trey Allen demonstrates the lavender bath bombs he and his family manufactured for his contribution to the business fair. Cameron Orr
Emotion underlines escort meeting
Cameron Orr Around 70 people took up chairs in the Riverlodge to hear first hand from the District of Kitimat what is happening so far regarding a potential business licence application for an escort service. An inquiry has been made but not official application has been made to the District. Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Warren Waycheshen and the District’s business licence inspector Lyle McNish got the ball rolling explaining the limitations of the local government when it comes to these sorts of businesses. As previously reported, an escort service is considered a lawful business in the eyes of the Canadian Criminal Code, which binds the town’s hands on whether to allow the business or not. They can’t unreasonably refuse a business licence, and since the business is legal, they won’t have a leg to stand on if they deny the application and it gets challenged in the courts. In their efforts to apply “reasonable restrictions” to the potential business, the District staff is considering bylaws to deal with escorts. Those restrictions include keeping a registry of any escort service contractors, and limiting the hours of business to not allow business between 4 a.m. and 5 p.m. McNish said those hours would dissuade the business operating during daytime hours. Also, the town suggests for the future bylaw that the escort agency and escorts themselves have their own licences. Annual fees suggested for the agency is $1,000 and the escorts themselves would need to pay a $250 fee for their licence.
While the town likely couldn’t ask for things such as medical tests for escorts, as that would be considered invasive, they may be able to direct escorts to operate in a “safe manner”, which would give the town leverage investigating any potential complaints about the business. McNish did note that the propsective escort operator for Kitimat is doing so “above board”, while pointing out that there are at least two escort services which already advertise as servicing Kitimat, despite no business licence having been granted for either. One speaker, Jim Johnstone, said from his experience dealing with all corners of society that an escort service “legalize the abuse to women, and legalize gender discrimination.” Tracey Hittel, who operates a lodge in Kitimat, said that he’s heard from hotel operators in Terrace that escort businesses cause a huge drain on hotels in clean-up and other issues. “What she [a hotel owner] told me was that escorts were using hotels as a toilet,” he said. “All the escorts were known to police.” Haisla member Dolores Pollard also gave an emotional argument against the proposed business, suggesting the business would enable the growth of the local drug trade. “We can’t use our blinders,” she said of local drug trafficking. She said that increasing rental prices may push people with no options into the escort business. “Yes we’re becoming a big, booming town,” she said. “But we don’t want to be known like this.”
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