Image: Okanagan Edge
Okanagan Edge This Week is our look back at everything that happened in business in the region over the last seven days.
Local business news
Delay, more jobs at Lavington
Photo: Contributed
The recent merger of two construction-industry companies will mean a delayed opening for the former glass plant in Lavington, but much bigger things when it is finally up and running.
Strike officially avoided
One thousand workers at the Highland Valley Copper mine in Spences Bridge will not be walking off the job.
A strike was officially avoided at the mine, after 873 members of the United Steelworkers Local 7619 cast ballots to decide whether to accept the terms of a newly negotiated contract.
Minister wants ALR overhaul
Image: Trevor Nichols
The provincial government’s new Minister of Agriculture visited Kelowna this week, and said she believes the Agricultural Land Reserve should be overhauled.
Her desired fixes would include undoing changes brought in by the Liberal government in 2014 that relaxed restrictions on development of protected farmland.
Undoing those changes would eliminate the regional panels, and re-tighten restrictions around the use of protected farmland across about 90 per cent of the province.
Construction crews ‘flat out’
New home starts in Penticton are up nearly 160 per cent in the first six months of 2017, when compared to the same time last year. Two-hundred and forty-four new homes broke ground in the Penticton area, up from 94 during the same period in 2016, according to CHMC.
Local designer off to Paris
Image: Peter Jensen
Local designer Jill Setah has been invited to Paris by Tiffany Saunders of Oxford Fashion Studios.
Setah grew up in the Chilcotin Nation and now lives on the Westbank First Nation reserve.
the designer first got into fashion design when she made traditional aboriginal regalia by hand for her children.
Local business of the week
Kelowna’s net-zero champions
Image: Contributed
The guys at Kelowna’s Nido Design Inc. are honestly flabbergasted by the way most people design and build homes these days, so they use a combination of smart design and quality materials to create ultra-energy-efficient homes right here in the Okanagan.
BC business news
Province to fight pipeline project
Image: CTV
B.C.’s minority NDP government has unveiled its plan for opposing the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion through the province.
US bashes BC wine rules
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer says there is “no justification” for how tough it is to get US wine into British Columbia.
With an aggressive trade challenge of B.C.’s decision to allow VQA wine in grocery store already in front of the World Trade Organization, Lighthizer suggested this week the issue will also come up during NAFTA negotiations.
Ranches promised help
B.C. ranchers have been promised help from the federal and provincial governments in response to the wildfires burning their way through grasslands. Ranchers keep an estimated 30,000 animals within the boundaries of wildfire-affected areas.
Longer look
Okanagan housing market ‘too good’
Image: The Canadian Press
The housing market in the Okanagan Valley is good right now, but it may actually be “too good,” and that’s causing headaches for buyers, sellers and realtors alike.
Business person of the week
Accelerate Okanagan’s new EiR
Image: Contributed
Salmaan Ahmed, Accelerate Okanagan’s new Executive in Residence, says “actually building a product and putting it in the hands of people other than yourself and your friends” is the key to startup success.
Got the Edge profile of the week
Peter Teschner
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