VancouverIAM Daily Blog Report: Pay equity to split COPE and Vision Vancouver, Taylor Pyatt skates on thin ice

This is a selection of recent popular blog articles from VancouverIAM where you will find the best blogs from Vancouver, British Columbia as well as video uploads, social networking, rumors, and blog authoring.

Pay equity could derail COPE and Vision Vancouver

Things are heating up in the Vancouver civic strike. The latest post from the Oldtown News blog states that mediator Brian Foley’s recommendations have gained support from various members of Vision Vancouver- the opposition group at City Hall. According to the post, “Council will vote in-camera on Wednesday, October, 10 and the position taken by Vision must be raising alarm bells for CUPE leaders.”

The post was adamant that this could have dramatic consequences for Vision Vancouver’s union support, primarily with the library workers from CUPE 391- who continue to oppose Foley’s recommendations. The post declared, “the Vision support of the Foley recommendation around the gender pay equity issue means they don't appear to support pay equity in the workplace and is a slap-in- the-face to Library workers who are primarily female and fighting tooth and nail to achieve this gender fairness right.” In fact, Oldtown News seemed convinced that the pay equity issue could drive a wedge between Vision Vancouver and the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) who are known proponents of pay equity. “How the position taken by Vision will endear them to COPE in negotiations between these two municipal parties as they struggle to come together in an electoral coalition for the 2008 municipal campaign should prove quite interesting.”

New Rules for Condo Pre-Sales

After a significant amount of turmoil surrounding local condo pre-sales, the Vancouver Condo Info blog is reporting that something is finally being done about it. The post stated that “anyone familiar with CB developments Riverbend pre-sale cancellation fiasco won't be surprised by this news.” New guidelines issued by the BC Financial Institutions Commission have “order(ed) that extra warnings be placed on condominium pre-sale agreements,” in an effort to, “fully disclosure provisions in the contract relating to terminating, extending or assigning purchase agreements.” Recently, there have been several well-documented scandals in the Vancouver area where people had purchased homes prior to construction only to have the developers attempt to cancel the contracts upon completion after the overall value of the properties had risen significantly.

The post from Vancouver Condo Info contained some details from the BCFIC’s latest recommendations. One of the new rules states that “pertinent information must also appear in ‘conspicuous type’ on the statement's cover page.” In addition to “pertinent information,” the cover page must also disclose several new details about the developer’s background.  Developers must now reveal “their experience in the development industry,” as well as, “whether they have been bankrupt in the past five years or been discplined in the past 10 years for matters relating to real estate, mortgages of land, securities, theft or fraud.” Failure to comply with these new guidelines will result in a “cease marketing” order and administrative penalties of up to $50,000.

Sedin’s deserve better than Pyatt

Vancouver winger Taylor Pyatt is skating on thin ice with head coach Alain Vigneault, according to a post from the Province Newspaper’s Vancouver Canucks blog the Ice Hole, written by Jason Botchford.  According to Botchford, Pyatt “was close to being benched before he salvaged himself in his coach’s eye with a strong game in Calgary.” Pyatt now finds himself on Vancouver’s #1 line with Daniel and Henrik Sedin. However, the post was quick to emphasize that the Sedin twins deserve the bulk of the credit for keeping Pyatt on the top line. He stated, “Pyatt did it, as he's done just about everything in his short Canucks' career — thanks to the Sedin twins.”

The post was adamant that Pyatt needs to follow up his Calgary heroics with a stellar performance in tonight’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers. In fact, Botchford quoted coach Vigneault saying that “if Taylor plays the way he did last game — he skated well, went to tough areas, he took the body, and made room for both twins — then he's a good fit there.”

While Botchford insists that Daniel and Henrik Sedin are the two reasons why Pyatt has become a first-line player, he openly speculates when Vigneault will get the twins a top-level player as a line-mate. Unconvinced that Pyatt will be able to keep up the pace Botchford stated that the Canucks may have to look elsewhere for a decent compliment for the Sedins. Mason Raymond, Ryan Shannon and even Markus Nasland are all floated as potential Pyatt replacements, but none of those names instilled much confidence in Botchford. He declared that “the Canucks owe it to the Sedins to find them a decent NHL sniper at some point. The rest of the league won't realize just how good Daniel and Henrik are until they do.”

Province requests new bids for Asia Pacific Center

A recent post from Public Eye Online, a blog focused on federal and provincial politics in British Columbia, has revealed the newest development in the Campbell administration’s Asia Pacific Initiative. This latest development led Public Eye Online to declare that “now the provincial government is quietly erecting a monument of sorts to that initiative.” According to the post, “last week, on BC Bid, the government quietly announced it would be soliciting proposals from four firms to plan and design an Asia Pacific Business Centre, located at Robson Square in Vancouver.” The firms currently submitting proposals on the contract are BBA Design Consultants Inc., Group 5 Design Associates, Orca Creative Group Ltd., and Zeidler Partnership Architects Inc.

Uses for the APBC will be varied, but are principally concentrated on supporting an assortment of government initiatives dealing specifically with the Asia Pacific region. Additionally, the facility will house the Ministry’s Asia Pacific Unit and be used to receive foreign delegations. The overall intention of the APBC will be providing a hub for creating new long term trade and investment opportunities for the Province in the Asia Pacific. So far, nobody has mentioned what the expected cost of the business center will be.

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