ARCHIVES

COURTENAY - A plan to
build a new Rexall drug store
on the site of the former Caprice
Theatre at 17th and Cliffe
Avenue may be derailed by the
ministry of highways.
The provincial government
wants to close the 17th Street access
to the property, and C&H
Properties, which is developing
the Recall project, says they
won’t proceed if the access is
closed.


COMOX VALLEY - Former
Kingfi sher Oceanside Resort &
Spa owner Lucas Stiefvater is
wanting to rezone property he
owns next door to the resort.
Neighbors are opposing the
application to change the zoning
to tourist commercial, with
Stiefvater indicating he will create
a buffer to protext Copeman
Creek, which runs through it.
Stiefvater sold the Kingfi sher to
the Brandes family in February,
and has an agreement to sell the
other waterfront property to
them as well.

European reps explore Comox
Valley opportunities

COMOX VALLEY - First
it was China. Then came the
United Kingdom, Denmark and
Germany. The United States
came next.
Each country made stops
in the Comox Valley in July to
explore business opportunities,
hosted by the Comox Valley
Economic Development Society.
U.S. Consul General Lewis
Lukens and Cheryl Schell,
Commercial Specialist for the
U.S. Commercial Service and
U.S. Department of Commerce
visited with the intent of increasing
business links between
the region and the U.S.
Representatives from Germany,
Denmark and the U.K.
are International In-market
representatives actually hired
by the B.C. government to meet
with companies doing international
business, or looking to
expand into international markets.
“Most Canadian Provinces
have representatives in major
European and Asian-Pacifi c
markets,” says John Watson,
the Economic Development Of-
fi cer for CVEDS, “These British
Columbia reps will match overseas
opportunities with British
Columbia businesses in order
to increase trade and investments
in high-growth, high-opportunities
sectors.”
The visiting representatives
include Rolf Fyne, based in the
U.K., who has a comprehensive
understanding of European and
North American international
business, industry, fi nance,
sales, and in-bound investment
in both directions.
Bjarne Brynk Jensen is
based in Denmark and has 14
years of international sales and
business development experience
in the Business to Consumer
and Business to Government
industries.
John Morgan is based in
Germany and has held a fulltime
commercial presence in the
European Union for the past 20
years. He has developed a large
network of commercial contacts
in relevant markets, foreign
government and Canadian representatives
in the region.
Rainer Giersch, also based
in Germany, provides advice
to many blue chip companies,
governments institutions and
associations on industry sector
focused strategies, mergers and
acquisitions preparations, and
activities in attracting foreign
direct investment in various
countries.
CVEDS continues to work
towards creating a strong community
presence at the 10th
Annual China International
Fair for Investment and Trade
September 8-11 in China. The
world’s largest international
investment promotion event
has three major components,
including an investment and
trade exhibition, International
Investment Forum and a series
on investment issues and project
matchmaking.
“After establishing the
Comox CanadAsia Business
Society in 1999, CVEDS and
the Comox Valley have created
tremendous relationships with
Chinese lower mainland and
overseas investment partners.
This Fair will allow us to continue
to develop these relationships
and bring international
attention to our region,” says
Watson.
Each of these visits tie directly
into CVEDS’ new fi ve-year
Strategic Plan for the Comox
Valley.
“The Valley enjoys a very
unique position relative to
foreign trade and investment
opportunities. Businesses like
Natural Glacial Waters and
SCG Forest Products are already
doing great international
level business,” says Watson.

B.C. Aquaculture in Right Direction:
Expert

COMOX VALLEY - Aquaculture
expert John Holder,
who recently spoke in Campbell
River to the special committe on
sustainable aquaculture, says
that salmon farming in B.C. is
headed in the right direction.
“Everybody admits, salmon
farming in the late eighties,
early nineties, it was a cowboy
show, no question about it,”
says Holder. “But today, 180
degree turn from what it used
to be.”
Some of the improvements
cited by Holder include improved
feeding systems that
use less biomass from other fi sh,
improved siting of farms which
reduces their environmental
impact, reduction of antibiotic
usage and improved nets.
“Things have just improved
so much,” says Holder. “The
twining, the material they use
for nets, is basically indestructible
now. We basically have zero
escapes now in B.C.”
Holder specializes in recirculation
systems used in
closed-containment aquaculture
systems. Some closed-containment
systems use fl ow-through
technology and so are not truly
closed because the water is returned
to the environment. The
systems Holder designs re-use
90 to 99 per cent of the water in
the system.
But Holder is not a proponent
of closed-containment
systems for salmon farming in
British Columbia. He says that
such systems are not only economically
unviable but are also
environmentally unsustainable
for an industry like the salmonfarming
industry which in B.C.
produces 75,000 metric tonnes
of fi sh per year.
“To do 75,000 metric tonnes
would require the energy to run
a small city of 100,000 people if
it was all recirc,” says Holder.
“Global warming, that’s
what is destroying a lot of our
salmon,” says Holder. “We have
Humboldt squid up here now,
we have Spanish mackerel up
here now, which are all predators
of smolts.”
He says that the warmer temperatures
from global warming
makes the colder water from
the bottom of the ocean well up
to the top, and that colder water
has less nutrients.
“A lot of the young fry coming
out can’t fi nd food,” says
Holder. “So I think that salmon
farming is great because they
add some nutrients to the water
that provide the zooplankton
and the phytoplankton and so
on for the salmon to eat.”
Now that the Campbell River
presentation is over Holder
is off to somewhere completely
different: Iran to help modernize
trout and shrimp farms.

Comox  Valley Chamber

Comox Valley Chamber
of Commerce members and
interested members of the
public were a captive audience
at a recent business mixer
and presentation hosted by
Creative Employment Access
Society (CEAS).
Brook Pearce, the Comox
Valley Labour Futures Project
Coordinator, presented an informative
and engaging look at
what the future of the Comox
Valley might very well look
like. These forecasts were exciting
and thought provoking.
Brook describes the objective
of the project this way:
“A major aim of the Comox
Valley Labour Futures project
is to seek and identify the mismatches
in the skills in demand
by employers and the skills
available in our community’s
workforce and fi nd ways for
both jobseekers and employers
to address these issues.
“Only in this way can we
ensure that the local economy
and local people will benefi t,
rather than lose out, in the
future. Only in this way can
we be sure our community will
continue to thrive.”
“The Comox Valley labour
force report projections are
based on public and private
sector demographic and
economic growth forecasts. It
adds new local survey results
about anticipated retirement
trends to project, as accurately
as possible, what the Comox
Valley’s labour market requirements
might be in both 2010
and 2015.”
This report also sets out to
identify where there might be
signifi cant knowledge and skill
gaps that may present serious
problems for local businesses
looking to recruit – and which,
equally, will present opportunities
for jobseekers willing and
able to train, re-train, or choose
a new career direction.
Although unemployment
rates in the Comox Valley have
traditionally been higher than
the average for Vancouver
Island, the number of people
in work has increased signifi -
cantly since 2001.
In part, new work opportunities
will be the result of an
expanding economy serving a
fast-growing local population.
But they will also occur because
extremely large numbers
of people currently working
are in their 50’s and many plan
to retire over the next 10 years.
A combination of economic
growth and retirements will
alter the Comox Valley labour
market dramatically, and it is
quite possible that there could
be an astonishing change of
over 50% in the local labour
force over the next 10 years.
Of this fi gure, 29% of the
turnover is projected to be from
vacancies created by retirements
and a further 24% as a
result of economic growth.
Barring major external
upsets – like a global economic
turndown – these projections,
taken together, could mean
almost 12,000 job opportunities
opening up in the Comox Valley
between now and 2015.
The report identifi es the 15
major employment sectors and
the evidence suggests that the
local employment outlook is
‘good’ in two-thirds of them
(10 out of 15), ‘fair’ in 3 and
‘poor’ in 2. The fi nal report
and executive summary will
soon be available at www.
labourfutures.ca.
- Dianne Hawkins is Executive
Director of the Comox Valley
Chamber of Commerce.