Double OT Nanaimo Buccaneers raise their game to defeat first-placed team.
www.nanaimobulletin.com
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015
PAGE 27
VOL. 27, NO. 44
Parents pack Rutherford consultation
STORIES BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM
BY KARL YU
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THE NEWS BULLETIN
With Rutherford Elementary School facing closure as part of Nanaimo school district’s facilities plan update, stakeholders packed the gym for consultation Thursday night. One of the topics at the meeting, which was attended by 316 people, was the school’s proximity to students’ homes. If shuttered in 2017, some students would relocate to Frank J. Ney Elementary School. Approximately t h re e k i l o m e t re s separate the two schools. Chris Cake, grandmother of a Frank Ney student, said while walking is good, it’s not safe along Hammond Bay Road, which is situated along the walk between the schools. “Kids gain independence by learning to walk responsibly to school. It’s a [bad] road in the winter. It’s too far and too long for small children ... it’d be just one big traffic jam, more driving kids places, as opposed to doing the healthy thing and walking.” See ‘FORMAT’ /4
PHOTOS BY CHRIS BUSH
Alvin Ginther, owner of Buns Master Bakery, hopes to sell his business to buyers from China through the Provincial Nominee Program, but is still waiting to hear if the application survives the program’s review process.
Immigration backlog delays retirement
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BAKER LOOKS to Chinese money to take over bakery.
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lvin Ginther peers solemnly from flourdusted glasses in an office that looks out at his production bakery, a place he hopes to sell through British Columbia’s Provincial Nominee Program. An angr y man once asked why he’s “selling out” to the Chinese. “I said, well listen, you bring me a Canadian who, No. 1, has the money and, No. 2, wants to work, and I’ll sell it to him without a doubt. Blink my eye and it’s gone.”
Trouble is, for the past 10 years no one’s wanted it. It’s immigrant-hopefuls from China who could give the longtime baker the retirement for which he’s been longing. Foreign entrepreneurs have been buying businesses in the Harbour City or trying to, through the B.C. Provincial Nominee Program. The initiative is aimed at encouraging investment and economic growth while putting entrepreneurs on the fast track to permanent residency and it’s seen increasing uptake. In 2010, the province reported 135 business immigration applications,
Immigration & investment
Today and Thursday (Oct. 15) we publish a series of articles on Chinese investment in Nanaimo. Today we talk to a business owner selling to a Chinese investor and the effort to welcome investment.
which shot up to 746 in 2012 and 1,085 last year. Within those four years, investment by entrepreneur immigrants reached $472 million with 1,449 jobs created in B.C. In Nanaimo, there have been 134 applications for
businesses since 2003-04, with 26 nominated for residency. Sixty-five applications are awaiting a nomination decision. It’s estimated to take as long as three years for the province to review PNP applications, according to a B.C. government website. The government has been faced with an “unprecedented” increase in applications, which the ministry responsible for labour blames on the cancellation of the federal immigrant investor program and overhaul of the temporary foreign worker program. Peter McGee, economic development coordinator with Nanaimo Economic
Development Corporation, said for awhile the program seemed like the golden goose of business acquisition, with any owner interested in selling seeing it as a way out. “It just turned out not to be the lottery ticket that a lot of people thought it was and that’s sort of a good thing because it puts the emphasis now onto proper succession planning,” he said. The problem was, with lag time on applications, some business people would think they’d successfully sold their business only to find out the new owner’s application was denied. See ‘BAKER’ /3
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