Net Gain

A very complicated story

By Michael Hammond, Record staff

When I first spoke to Bob Firman last year, he outlined to me a complicated story about a company named Commonwealth Capital Corp. and its connection to Emmanuel Village, a retirement home in Kitchener. He told me he might like to speak to me for a story since he had invested his money with Commonwealth, but he preferred to remain silent for the time being. Two months ago, Bob contacted me again and so began a long, often frustrating task of trying to tell his story.

This is not to suggest Bob and his wife Linda were difficult people to speak to or interview. The frustration came with the sheer complexity of the story surrounding Commonwealth Capital, Emmanuel Village and the dozens of players involved in the tale. The task of telling this story was further complicated by the fact that there are two cases before the courts, which makes the process much more difficult. A number of people wanted to tell their story but declined to go on the record because of the court process. This is understandable, but it also presents a hurdle for a reporter trying to tell a complete story.

Research for this story involved some interviews that lasted two hours at a time. It also included two trips to Toronto to review the documented history of court cases. I did not expect that the story would take two months to complete, but one piece of information often led to three others.

As you will notice from reading today's story in The Record, there is nothing simple about the story. There are dozens of claims, counterclaims and a number of different versions of the story. At its heart, there is a couple from Waterloo who placed their trust in a number of people with the expectation that their investment would be safe.

If there is anyone else out there who finds themselves involved in the complicated story of Commonwealth Capital and Emmanuel Village, feel free to contact me at the email address below. I would like to hear your story.

mhammond@therecord.com

The fight for Kitchener's downtown: Have your say

By Michael Hammond, Record staff

It seems that this blog as well as that of my colleague, Colin Hunter, has stirred up some fresh debate about downtown Kitchener. Scroll down to my post about the core, or click here, to view some interesting comments from the owner of David's Gourmet.

To read what Colin said in his blog, Within Earshot, click here. There, you will find other comments about the core. Without giving away what was said in this blog, I will mention one interesting  point. The owner of David's Gourmet, David Erhenworth, is at the very least not afraid to talk about the problems in downtown Kitchener. He raises a fair point that the problems facing Kitchener's core can't simply be swept under the rug with well-meaning optimism. For encouraging a debate, he deserves credit.

The city and the Kitchener Downtown Business Association have both trumpeted the fact that some high-end businesses have established a toe-hold on King Street. Some of recent new tenants to come of the core include David's Gourmet, the newly expanded Shoppers Drug Mart next to city hall, the Exhibit Cafe at the Children's Museum, Les Fleurs flower shop and The Maestro cafe. All of this has happened in the last year. I wrote a story about this progress last November. Read that story by clicking here.

However, there are a number of people who feel much more work needs to be done to fix the core. Whether you agree with Erhenworth's approach or not, he's at least stimulating a healthy debate, which could do more for Kitchener's core than one-sided, albeit well-intentioned, boosterism.

Feel free to share your thoughts about the core.

mhammond@therecord.com

The long reach of the oilsands

By Michael Hammond, Record staff

An interesting story in the latest edition of Canadian Geographic outlines the impact the Alberta oilsands projects have on the environment. The conclusions the story presents are certain to raise more than a few eyebrows. To get a sneak peak of the article, click here.

The story reminded me of some of the stories we have done in the last 12 months about the oilsands. Last summer, we wrote a small business profile about Wessex Precision Machining Ltd. of Kitchener. That company has landed work building different components for oilsands projects. More recently, we wrote about how Babcock and Wilcox Canada is looking to land its first contracts for oilsands work. The company wants to use its experience in boilers and steam generators to help oilsands producers coax oil out of the ground in northern Alberta.

I also recall a union official in town telling me about a meeting he had with Prime Minister Stephan Harper. The official told me that the prime minister mused about laid-off manufacturing workers in Waterloo Region finding work in oilsands.

This had me wondering whether people from this region have in fact gone west and found work in the oilsands region near Fort McMurray. This is where you come in. Do you know of anyone from this area that has gone west? Have you gone west? If you have, I'd like to hear from you. You can email me by clicking here or clicking below.

mhammond@therecord.com

Perception is everything, especially for Kitchener's core

By Michael Hammond, Record staff

Mark Garner of the Kitchener Downtown Business Association raised an interesting point as I interviewed him earlier today (Monday) for a story about the economic impact of the Memorial Cup. We were talking about those establishing shots Rogers Sportsnet used during its telecasts of Memorial Cup games. The shots, in case you don't know what I'm referring to, are the images of downtown Kitchener and Victoria Park that the network used as they broke to commercial or were returning from a break.

Garner said many people base their opinions on perception rather than reality. This is certainly a double-edged sword for Kitchener's downtown, which has shown some momentum over the past year but still faces its struggles. Perception can run both ways. Some people simply refuse to come downtown. You'll recall last week that a reader wrote a letter that was quite scathing about Kitchener's core. My colleague Colin Hunter, one of our paper's arts reporters, issued a passionate defence in his blog, Within Earshot.

In the case of the Memorial Cup coverage, the sunny shots of Kitchener City Hall and its fountain were certainly flattering, as were shots of Victoria Park and a few other images of King Street. Garner said people will see those shots and decide to come check out the core. When they get here, he said it's his organization's job to ensure they know about the nearly weekly slate of special events in the downtown over the summer months, including the Blues Festival. He wants to build on the momentum of the Memorial Cup and those establishing shots of the core that were aired on Sportsnet.

As Garner put it simply, You can't buy that type of goodwill.

mhammond@therecord.com

A reporter's quest to learn business-speak

By Chuck Howitt, Record staff

It was a classic fish of out water situation.

A few years ago and just new to covering business, I was sent to cover a meeting called by auto parts giant Linamar for investor analysts in Guelph.

The term OEM was trotted out. No one blinked or looked around in confusion. The analysts kept scribbling notes, Linamar officials carried on with their power point presentation.

Meanwhile, embarrassment followed by panic was taking hold of my brain. Was I the only person in the room who didn’t know what OEM meant? Was I the dumbest person on the planet? It seems I was.

I racked my brain. Did it mean Organization of Engine Manufacturers or Order of Economic Mavens? Tapping someone on the shoulder and quietly asking them was out of the question. That would betray my ignorance and gross incompetence as a business reporter.

I don’t recall exactly how I learned that OEM meant “original equipment manufacturer,” in this case the large auto companies such as GM, Ford and Chrysler which make the original equipment that Linamar supplies parts to.

The point was that the business world, like most other professions and pursuits, had its own generous share of jargon and secret lingo.

Bootstrapping was a word that kept rearing its head, especially at conferences on entrepreneurship. But what did it mean exactly?  Did that come after pulling up your socks? Boots don’t come with straps anymore.

Entrepreneur?  The business world was running amok with this one. There was “serialpreneur, nichepreneur, womenpreneur, seniorpreneur, kidprenuer.” I’d like to put the use of  “preneur” out of business.

Local companies were creating their own jargon. Research In Motion was going after the “prosumer” market. Would the “amateur-sumer” market soon follow? Open Text was promoting its skills in “enterprise content management” which could be accessed by buying its “suite of products.” I was hoping the suite came with room service and an open bar, which might enable me to manage my enterprise content, really a fancy name for sorting my computer files.

Companies talked about their web-based platforms  and push-based architecture, but all this gobbledygook was threatening to push me over the edge. Though their software solutions were scalable, this was a mountain I didn’t want to scale.

For reassurance, I contacted Randy Harris, an English professor at the University of Waterloo who specializes in rhetoric and linguistics.

“There’s nothing unique about it,” he said, glancing over the list of befuddling business terms I had presented to him. This was not reassuring.

Every profession has its jargon, slang or arcane terminology, he told me. It’s all about efficiency on one level and coolness on another, he said.

Much of it is metaphorical, a common way to develop a language, he continued. Thus we have “ramping up” and “rolling out,” two terms in vogue in recent years. You expect things with big wheels like dump trucks or airplanes to roll out the door, when often it’s a cellphone or a microchip. Pretty hard to get traction with a little thing like that.

Military metaphors are common in business stories. In the world of suits and boardrooms, you’ve got to conjur up action somewhere even if its only in words. Thus we have companies establishing a beachhead or entering the meeting with swords drawn. I hope their bootstraps are firmly pulled up.

Acronyms have long had a central place in the world of jargon and busines s is no exception. At the management level alone, we have the CEO, the CFO, the COO and the CTO. If I hear one more of these, it will be C-oh-no!

Thankfully, after a few years of covering business, I think I’m finally begginning to master much of the jargon in the business world. That is until a news release landed on my desk about a company specializing in something called remote deposit capture. Clearly there is still a long way to go.

chowitt@therecord.com

Axle update

By Michael Hammond, Record staff

Several news articles in the United States suggest that American Axle workers are voting in favour of a tentative deal reached between the United Auto Workers and the company. The largest UAW union local will vote on the deal today. The local represents about 2,000 of 3,650 of the company's workers. Initial reports suggest that the company plans to close plants, buy out older workers and reduce wages by as much as $10 an hour. The goal, according to the company, is to put it on an equal footing with other auto parts suppliers with lower wage structures, including Dana and Delphi.

The outcome of the vote is of interest to local auto parts operations since hundreds of workers have been laid off due to the impact of the strike, which has forced 30 General Motors plants to be idled. As we reported earlier this week, local parts plants can be resume production fairly quickly, once the Axle issue is resolved and the GM plants resume production.

mhammond@therecord.com

Arise's plans for Waterloo

By Michael Hammond, Record staff

There are a couple of interesting tidbits of information in today's press release from Arise Technologies. The company said early today (Wednesday) that it has closed its latest share offering, which will add $45.1 million to its coffers. Those who read the business section regularly will recall our initial story, where we pointed out that Arise has raised more than $105 million in share offerings in the last year alone.

In today's release, the company points out that it will devote $9 million of the proceeds to new production equipment needed for a planned pilot silicon refinery in Waterloo. Another $7 million is being devoted to the construction of the facility, which will be located in the University of Waterloo Research and Technology Park. That facility will also act as Arise's new headquarters.

Arise has yet to say when it will begin construction of the new company headquarters and the silicon refinery. It did say it wants to see production to begin in 2009, which suggests construction will begin soon.

To view today's press release, click here.

Industrial grade silicon is what solar panels need to harness sunlight and transform it into electricity. The supply of this material is running low, which has some companies like Arise looking to secure their own supply. The company believes this will secure its future and allow it to become a global supplier over time. The company plans to establish a full-scale silicon refinery somewhere in Canada.

By any stretch, the company's plans are ambitious and they stand to benefit its home base of Waterloo.

mhammond@therecord.com

City Cafe hits big time blogs

By Chuck Howitt, Record staff

The City Cafe has hit the big time blogosphere. Known for its giant wood-fired pizza and bakery ovens and fare-box payment system, the cafe was mentioned in two high-profile blogs originating south of the border, says co-owner John Bergen.

One is written by Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of the best-selling book Freakonomics. The other is on a popular site called Boing Boing, A Directory of Wonderful Things.

To read Dubner's blog entry about City Cafe, click here.

To read the Boing Boing blog entry about City Cafe, click here.

What has caught the attention of these two blog sites is the Cify Cafe's honour payment system. The cafe, which has outlets at Victoria and West Avenue in Kitchener and King Street at the Speed River in the Preston area of Cambridge, uses old bus fare boxes to accept customers' payments. Customers fill their own coffee cups, grab their own bagels, loaves of bread or tarts and drop the money in an old bus fare box.

Bergen says the system was set up to improve speed and efficiency. He didn't like the idea of having to wait in line like customers do at Tim Hortons. The cafes have no cash registers. If customers need change, the staff provide it from a change drawer.

Any losses caused by customers trying to shortchange the cafe are made up by other customers who can't be bothered waiting for change and just throw $5 in the box for a $4 item, he says.

Pay-as-you-wish commerce is growing in popularity. Dubner notes that a bagel shop in Washington, D.C., a coffee shop in Seattle and musical acts such as Radiohead and Jane Siberry are using this system.

In an interesting footnote, some of the respondents to the Boing Boing blog note that pay-as-you-go systems might reduce the opportunity for repartee between customer and staff.

"My local baker is staffed by the most ill-tempered and foul-mouthed old woman in Scotland. I would kinda miss the verbal cut and thrust of our early-morning encounters," writes one respondent.

With the garrulous Bergen in charge, this will never be a problem at the City Cafe.

chowitt@therecord.com

The MaRS mystery solved

By Michael Hammond, Record staff

I had heard what MaRS stood for before, but that piece of trivia had somehow managed to find its way back into my subconscious until this morning at a Communitech breakfast event. Ilse Treurnicht, chief executive officer of the Toronto-based MaRS Discovery District, spoke about her group's mandate.

When she finished her speech, her first question from the audience was an obvious one.

"What does MaRS stand for?" someone asked, with just a hint of derision in his voice.

Turns out, it initially stood for nothing, then stood for something, and once again stands for nothing. The name was given to the organization when its initial founders pooled their money together to buy an aging and crumbling Toronto hospital building to house a new organization much like Communitech, but with a decidedly more biotech focus. There's an interesting story behind how this group managed to acquire the property, which was slated to become a condominium project.

The group which aimed to start this group gave it the nickname the Mars project. At some point, the name took on the meaning of Medical and Related Sciences (which explains the small a in MaRS). At some point, the focus of the organization went beyond just biotech and the full name was dropped.

So, there it is. The mystery solved. That is, until I forget again.

mhammond@therecord.com

Martinrea and moving targets

By Michael Hammond, Record staff

After the market close today (Monday), Martinrea International will release its first quarter results. Early Tuesday morning, its executives will hold a conference call to discuss the results. These conference calls have taken on added importance of late since these calls provide clues as to what will happen to the beleaguered Kitchener Frame plant.

During Martinrea's fourth quarter conference call, the company's executives hinted that they still had faint hopes that something could be found for the plant, which employs 1,200 people. More recently, the company posted a notice at the Homer Watson Boulevard plant informing its employees that it intended to close the facility next spring.

Of course, there is a chance the plant could continue to operate until 2010, since it is under contract to provide frames for GM sport utility vehicles until then. GM has yet to sign off on an extension agreement, since production of SUVs has been suspended by the American Axle strike, which has cut off the axle supply to a number of GM models. That strike has all but idled the Kitchener Frame plant along with several other auto suppliers in the region.

Reports suggest some progress is being made to end the lengthy Axle strike, although there are reports that the company wants to close some of its plants, which has the United Auto Workers digging in its heels.

Like anything else in the North American automotive industry these days, Kitchener Frame's situation is complex and very much a moving target.

For more on Martinrea, read the print edition of The Record.

mhammond@therecord.com