Photo: Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada

How are the changes in tariffs and trades affecting Canadian businesses owned by women?

That is the question Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada hopes to find an answer to next week when it hosts a virtual community forum called Tariffs, Trade and Canadian Women Entrepreneurs.

The webinar will be held on Wednesday, March 26, from 9-10:15 a.m. It is free to attend, but space is limited.

The virtual forum will be as much about information gathering as solution finding. Leah Gilbert Morris, who is vice-president of public affairs and international relations at Export Development Canada, will facilitate the webinar. The discussion will cover how the tariff uncertainty is impacting female-owned businesses, concerns, strategies and any questions participants have.

One confirmed panelist is Marwa Abdou, who is a senior research director for the business data lab at Canadian Chamber of Commerce. More panelists will be added before the event.

To register for Tariffs, Trade and Canadian Women Entrepreneurs, visit the website here.

Photo: Facebook

The City of Kelowna receives many common applications throughout the course of a week.

Development, rezoning and variance requests hit city planning desks all the time, usually in an effort to construct an apartment building or to require fewer parking spaces.

This week there was a different kind of request: belly dancing.

Olympia Greek Taverna, which reopened in February 2024 following an October 2020 fire, applied for an entertainment endorsement on its liquor licence. That’s because the restaurant wants to make sure it is able to have belly dancers strutting their stuff on the weekends. Belly dancing is a common activity at the restaurant, and it wants to keep it going.

“(It would) last for about 45 minutes on Friday and Saturday nights,” owner Mike Koutsantonis wrote in his application letter, “and our customers enjoy getting up and dancing with the belly dancer.

“Also we are hoping to bring in some live Greek music a few times a year where our customers can get up and dance. We feel that this a great way for people to experience Greek culture and have an enjoyable time out.”

Photo: Luc Rempel

Brad DeMille says there’s still a “long way to go” for plans to relocate iconic Salmon Arm business DeMille’s Farm Market.

After more than 50 years in business providing Shuswap residents and summer visitors with farm fresh produce, DeMille is working on an ambitious plan to relocate to the Northyards Apple Orchard he purchased last year at 3181 11 Ave. NE.

“When we started last year, we had challenges in that we knew that we didn’t have a future in our current location,” DeMille said. “Our 20-year lease was up, and we were having a difficult time negotiating anything longer than even 10 years.”

He said that’s when Northyards came up for sale.

“The opportunity that we’ve had up there has been a remarkable opportunity,” he said.

The City of Salmon Arm agreed to submit an Agricultural Land Commission application for non-farm use on behalf of DeMille’s. If approved, this application would allow for the construction of a new building with 12,000 square feet of commercial retail space, as well as a new 40,000 square foot parking lot located at the top of the property closer to the highway.

The city also agreed to use language “strongly recommending” the application to the ALC based on the importance of DeMille’s as a business in the history and present day of Salmon Arm.

“My hope is the council’s strong recommendation … hopefully that says something,” DeMille said. “We feel that our relationship with the ALC is very solid.”

Despite this optimistic outlook, DeMille said he is also planning for a future where this application could be turned down.

“The ALC is not an automatic and so … we’re confident in it, but we can’t be overconfident,” he said. “Because they could say no.”

He said his goal is to secure a future for the business. He needed to find a piece of land “not only for my future, but my young management team.”

“It’s not just my generation, but the next group of kids and young people that can keep the DeMille’s brand moving,” he said. “Not just for 10 years, but for another 50 years and long beyond me. I have a collection of the coolest people that make that place tick, and they’re probably about as crazy as me.”

If the ALC application is approved, DeMille’s still has a lot of work ahead to construct a new storefront location, which would include a huge cooler to accommodate its growing wholesale produce business.

“We started importing oranges about three, four years ago on my own licence,” he said. “We expanded that licence to include not only B.C. Coast, BC Hot House, Oppenheimer Group, Windset Farms, Village Farms, all coming out like cucumbers, tomatoes, little tomatoes, lettuces from Canada, greenhouse grown, all that stuff we’re doing.”

He added they have also travelled to Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington to bring in trucks of fresh produce.

“We’ve done almost 150 trucks in a year and three months from the United States, bringing us up what we can’t get in Canada,” he said. “That’s important to remember … because we don’t grow celery, we don’t grow oranges.”

Plans for the new building

DeMille’s vision for the new building is unique, involving nearly triple the retail floor space of the existing business. He is looking to create a space where shoppers can pick produce straight off of the pallet it was brought in on.

“You’re going to walk into, like, an arena-style setting,” he said. His plan would be to have the main store area cooled to around four degrees celsius, “like Costco,” he added. “But they blow air on you, and I don’t like that.”

His plan involves adding cold air from vents near the floor allowing for colder air to stay near the floor and up to about four feet.

“You walk around, your head’s above the the cold,” DeMille said. “And then after you leave produce, then you get into the warmer parts of the deli, the meat shop, the candy store, the ice cream parlour, the frozen section and all your local stuff.”

This chilly new concept will allow DeMille’s to stock whole skids of produce on the main floor of the shopping area.

“You’re shopping between skids of blueberries and strawberries and all this stuff, it’s going to be like a kid in a produce candy store,” he said. “And we think that’s very efficient in the use of labour.”

Northyards Cider Company will continue operations on the property as DeMille’s has an agreement to provide it with apples from the orchard.

And fans of the petting zoo at DeMille’s have nothing to worry about, as DeMille said if the relocation plan goes ahead, he will be bringing all of the animals up the hill to the new location.

The property also has two existing walking trails, and DeMille said he would like to add a dog park area to the property as well.

“I think that dogs are neglected or overlooked when it comes to visitors because you don’t want them on your property,” he said. “I think we should be able to designate a small portion of the property to have a dog park … as long as they pick up the feces.”

Despite dreaming big, DeMille said there is still a long way to go if he wants to make those plans a reality.

“I think we have a really good opportunity to do a really cool job up there,” he said. “There’s three big steps: city, ALC, banking. We still have all three of those steps to do yet.

“When I wake up in the morning, some days, I don’t know if I have the energy for this. It’s a long way to go still.”

A zoning bylaw amendment for the relocation is scheduled for a public hearing on April 14.

Photo: The Canadian Press

Clearance signs sat atop racks of clothes at the Kamloops Hudson’s Bay store as shoppers—many carrying items bedecked with historic HBC stripes—browsed the aisles to try and find deals.

Hudson’s Bay has applied for creditor protection, saying it is struggling with financial difficulties amid a decrease in consumer spending. The company announced late last week that unless it finds a viable solution, it will begin liquidating its entire business.

“It’s really sad,” said one Kamloops shopper, who declined to give her name. “And now, what are we left with for department stores? Nothing.”

She said she was surprised at how busy the Aberdeen Mall store was on a Tuesday evening.

“I’ve been here before and you could drop a pin in this store, but now it’s really busy,” she said.

Prices too high?

Leah Turpin, who was shopping with a group of women, told Castanet Kamloops she found good sales on kids’ clothing—just a few dollars for one piece—but her group noted other things still seemed quite pricey, and it didn’t seem like the store was in a rush to get items off the shelves.

Another shopper, Laura, said she stopped by Aberdeen Mall as she was curious to check out The Bay amid news of the company’s struggles.

She, too, was disappointed at how expensive some items had become.

“It didn’t used to be like that,” she said, adding she felt the store offered better value in the 1960s. “I used to shop at The Bay all the time, and then they just went crazy. The prices are way too high.”

Some shoppers said they felt for the employees whose jobs were at risk.

A closure of the entire business would mean job losses for more than 9,300 employees across the company’s 80 Hudson’s Bay stores, as well as three Saks Fifth Avenue and 13 Saks Off 5th locations it owns.

In Kamloops since 1821

If approved by a court, a liquidation plan for the historic company could begin at all of its locations imminently and last for up to 12 weeks.

Hudson’s Bay lawyers have proposed a path forward that would allow the company to remove some stores from liquidation if it finds enough financing as it offloads its inventory. An Ontario Superior Court judge will continue to hear motions related to the company’s finances.

The company has said the situation has become so bad that it has deferred some payments to landlords, service providers and vendors, and was nearly unable to meet payroll obligations.

B.C. is home to 16 Hudson’s Bay locations, including the Kamloops store, which reopened in June 2024 after it was shuttered for nearly half a year due to strike action.

HBC dates back to 1670, making it the oldest company in Canada. It has been operating in Kamloops since 1821, when it merged with the North West Company.

— with files from the Canadian Press

Photo: Colin Dacre

B.C. craft distillers are calling on the provincial government to put their proposed emergency powers to good use by helping get more local products onto BC Liquor Store shelves.

With the provincial government pulling U.S. booze there is a big opportunity for local producers to fill the void, according to Tyler Dyck, CEO of Okanagan Spirits and president of both the Craft Distillers Guild of BC and Canadian Craft Distillers Alliance.

“British Columbians are demanding it right now. B.C. wants value-added, made in B.C. products that power B.C.’s economy,” Dyck said.

The industry is urging the province to support craft distilleries in the same way B.C. does through the VQA program.

Dyck says right now, if he sells a $40 bottle of spirits at the BC Liquor Store he only gets about $13 back, something economically feasible for only the giant multinational brands.

For comparison, a B.C. winery selling a $40 bottle of VQA wine through a BC Liquor Store will get back about $33.

“It allows them to grow their business, to celebrate B.C., and to grow into the amazing economic driver for B.C. that they have become,” Dyck said.

He said B.C. craft distilleries simply cannot afford to put their products in BC Liquor Stores. Those that do are doing so at a loss to build brand awareness.

The vast majority of hard liquor sold in B.C. is sold at government-run stores.

“You really need to be there to be relevant,” Dyck said.

Craft distillers in B.C. use products from B.C. farmers, Dyck says, just like wineries do. “If you have a program in place that’s supposed to celebrate B.C., to reward people for using B.C. agriculture, it should not be restricted to only grapes.”

In addition to lessening the province’s cut from every bottle sold, Dyck would like to see an aisle in all BC Liquor Stores dedicated to craft B.C. spirits that use B.C. agricultural products.

“Right now, you have empty shelves, and they have signs on those shelves saying: Go support Canada,” Dyck said. “Well, here’s the big thing: Canadian Club, Crown Royal … they’re not Canadian.”

Both brands, while bottled in Canada, are owned by multinationals.

And while Canadians are involved in the manufacture of the big brands still on the shelves, a company that pays tax in B.C. and employs British Columbians should be supported over the giants, said Dyck.

Direct-to-consumer sales at his distillery are skyrocketing. “But if you go into a government liquor store, you see zero presence of that,” he said.

Dyck said if the province can take a smaller cut on each bottle of craft B.C. liquor, they will make more down the road.

“Right now you’re making 100% of nothing … because B.C. craft distillers can’t afford to be there,” he said, explaining that if craft distilleries could get the same deal as wineries the craft spirits industry would “dwarf” the wine sector.

“They could be in every part of the province.”

The industry is also calling on the provincial government to overhaul other policies, such as arbitrary production limits that penalize growth and interprovincial trade barriers.

“Up to what, let’s say, two months ago was easier to ship into and deal with the U.S. than the rest of the provinces,” said Mark Spurgeon, owner of Urban Distilleries in Kelowna. “It’s ludicrous.”

Dyck met with solicitor general Garry Begg this week to make the case and is optimistic that things could change.

“I think he’s very pragmatic. He seems no nonsense,” he said. “I’m hoping that we’re going to see this. I’m cautiously optimistic.”

The BC NDP has proposed legislation that will give cabinet sweeping powers to respond to the U.S.-Canada trade war, and Dyck said liquor policy would be a good place to start.

In a news release, the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce said it has also picked up the cause and recently wrote a letter to Begg, asking for a “review the drag on business that current liquor board regulations put on small distilleries in B.C.”

Photo: Mission Hill
Blue Rodeo will perform at Mission Hill on July 7.

Blue Rodeo and Jann Arden highlight the star-studded roster of performers who will take to the outdoor amphitheatre stage at West Kelowna’s Mission Hill Family Estate this summer.

This is the 18th season of the Summer Concert Series, and tickets will go on sale for members on Tuesday, April 1, at 9 a.m., with priority access based on membership tier. General tickets will be available April 15.

Blue Rodeo will get the party started on Monday, July 7, followed by Arden on Thursday, July 17. Multi-award winner Andy Grammer will hit the stage on Thursday, July 31, and Gipsy Kings, featuring Nicolas Reyes, will close out the concert series on Thursday, Aug. 21.

“A concert performance set under the summer sky at our spectacular outdoor Amphitheatre is an extraordinary experience,” Mission Hill owner Anthony von Mandl said in a press release. “There is something truly special about enjoying a concert from this intimate hilltop location; a wonderful outdoor experience reminiscent of the grand performances staged at Europe’s historic open-air amphitheatres.

“We’re thrilled to welcome these exceptional musicians, and our winery guests, to Mission Hill this summer.”

Mission Hill is adding a VIP private balcony suite experience to this year’s series. It is available for groups of up to 10 people, who will receive unobstructed views from a private section of the loggia and the best vantage point in the amphitheatre.

More information about Mission Hill’s Summer Concert Series can be found here.

Photo: Freshslice

The Freshslice grand opening in Oliver attracted lineups and hundreds of first-day visitors in late February.

On Feb. 21, the Canadian pizza chain celebrated expansion into the South Okanagan town with about 300 customers.

“We were supposed to open at 10:30 a.m., but people were waiting from eight o’clock in the morning,” store owner and manager Ajay Sharma said.

Many local high school kids lined up extra early to score some free pizza.

The store was offering prizes to the first 30 customers. The first 10 people won pizza for a year, the second group of 10 won an extra large pizza each, and the final 10 won two slices and a drink.

“They were very excited because, I mean, it was almost about $280 worth of pizzas for a year. So yeah, people were excited. They were cheering, ‘Freshslice!'”

The new business will be doing deliveries within Oliver.

Sharma added Freshslice is offering discounted pizza via leftover options on the Too Good To Go app.

Image: Contributed

Is Kelowna being saturated by rental developments?

As the city has fought to catch up with the construction of rental units over the past decade, the question was asked Monday: When is too much?

The city’s rental vacancy rate sits at 3.7%, with expectations it could soar above 5% this year.

Kelowna has also surpassed the province’s first year housing target in just seven months.

The topic came up as part of a discussion around a 361 unit rental development on Bernard Avenue. The project would encompass 12 properties bordering Bernard as well as Richmond and D’Anjou streets.

Citing an official community plan policy that encourages diverse housing tenures and a range of rental and ownership properties, Coun. Ron Cannan suggested about 1,000 rental units are under construction within a five-block radius of the planned Bernard project.

“I wonder, what policy does the city have to encourage developers to build ownership housing because it seems all we have is rentals?” Cannan said.

“We have been seeing a number of rental products come online because there were major incentives provided by CMHC. That came to an end in November, so the position right now is once the vacancy rate goes above four or five per cent we will look at changing some of these policies and incentives,” development planning manager Nola Kilmartin said.

“What we have heard from the development industry is if we continue to do a yo-yo scenario and remove incentives while the market is down, which it is now, then we will find ourselves in another precarious vacancy situation where our vacancy rates have dropped out again.”

The question prompted a brief back and forth concerning the free market between Cannan and fellow councillor Loyal Wooldridge.

“While we are starting to see fruitful results of a higher vacancy rate, it’s only because of the work that’s been done over the past five or six years to continue to focus on rental housing,” Wooldridge said.

“I fully believe we have to keep our foot on the accelerator when it comes to this because at the end of the day, a free market is going to decide what’s built.”

“I fully support the free market and allowing the market to determine the price but without direct government intervention,” Cannan said, citing both CMHA and city initiatives that incentivize rental housing. “I think we need to stay in our laneway and focus on providing a diverse housing stock and let the market determine appropriately.”

Coun. Luke Stack suggested there may be a time to revisit rental incentives, but this is not it.

“We have been focusing on rental housing for 20 years, and we have been constantly trying to catch up,” Stack said. “I do think it’s too early to pivot at this point. However, when we see next year’s CMHC report, that will give us at least a few years, and I think a more definitive, clear direction for us to reconsider.

“I do take to heart the point that we have seen a tremendous amount of rental, and if the vacancy does spike well beyond five per cent then definitely the market would want to pivot and we would want to be there to assist.”

Council voted 7-1 to support rezoning for the Bernard Avenue project, with only Cannan opposed.

While the vacancy rate has risen, rental rates are not falling. Castanet Classifieds data shows a two-bedroom rental in the Central Okanagan went for $2,263 in February, up slightly from $2,226 in February 2024.

Photo: The Canadian Press

Forests minister Ravi Parmar is in the Okanagan this week meeting with an industry under siege.

Longtime systemic challenges facing the forest sector have been exacerbated by escalating tariffs on softwood lumber by the Trump administration.

Parmar, who took over the forests portfolio in November 2024, has spent the months since travelling the province.

“It was really important for me as a new minister to be able to be on the ground,” he said Monday. “It’s one thing to sit in Victoria in my office, talking about forestry. It’s another thing to be on the ground, meeting people in mills.”

Parmar toured the Gorman Brothers mill in West Kelowna Monday, met with the leadership of the WFN-owned Ntityix Resources and flew over the McDougall Creek and other wildfire sites.

The threat of rising U.S. tariffs is at the front of everyone’s mind, Parmar said.

Earlier this month the U.S. Department of Commerce has announced it’s planning to almost triple the anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber, bringing total levies to almost 27%. And that’s before any additional economy-wide tariffs the White House could layer on.

Shortly after taking over as Minister of Forests, Parmar ordered a review of BC Timber Sales, the government agency that manages 20% of the province’s annual allowable cut.

Mill owners have been critical of BCTS for failing to get timber to market and not meeting its quotas. Parmar said he’s been tasked with getting the province back up to a harvest level of 45 million cubic metres annually. The province harvested 35 million cubic metres in 2023.

“I think we can do that, without a doubt,” he said, acknowledging that permitting is only half the battle. “Market conditions play a role.

“A lot of people think it’s just permits that are holding us back from a strong and vibrant forest sector. And if that was the case, I think we could address the problem fairly quickly, to some extent. But it’s broader than that.”

B.C.’s forestry sector boomed and mills opened during the pine beetle epidemic amid a rush to process pest-infested forests in the early 2000s. More than half of B.C.’s merchantable timber was impacted, and the hangover now hitting mill towns was predicted a decade ago.

Foresters are having to climb higher up mountains and build roads longer than ever to reach harvestable forests as geography—rather than annual allowable cut quotas—becomes the primary factor slowing the flow of logs to mills.

The days of harvesting operations taking place 20 minutes from mills are long gone.

“There are companies, long-standing ones here in British Columbia, that were here during the good times, that took advantage of the opportunities to make a buck, and in some cases, make billions of dollars in profit,” Parmar said.

“And now that the times are tough, they’re not investing those billions of dollars in profits here. They’re investing them down south and elsewhere, instead of investing them here to be able to get to what they often refer to as non-economic fibre. Unfortunately, the people that pay the price are communities and workers.”

In response, Parmar said the province is working to address overall transportation costs in the north and Southern Interior.

“But also, I know of some mills that have been going down because of softwood, lumber duties continuing to go up, and the threat of tariffs as well,” he said. “There’s a combination of things that are impacting this sector. I certainly got my work cut out for me.”

With the wildfire season a few months away, Castanet asked Parmar when the province would start investing more in wildfire mitigation. The province, through the Forest Enhancement Society of BC, has spent just $80 million since 2016 on community wildfire projects. For context, one super scooper firefighter aircraft costs $30 million.

“I’ve tasked my ministry to work to find the solutions, to be able to better understand the resiliency work we have to do across the province,” he said.

Fire-proofing the province, Parmar said, would cost “billions and billions of dollars,” but he says he would “love nothing more” than to be able to pitch the Minister of Finance on increased mitigation measures.

“Instead of costing, to fight fires, over a billion dollars, why don’t we spend a couple hundred million more doing this wildfire mitigation and developing that plan,” he said. “It’s one of the things that now I’ve been tasked with, is implementing that. We’re going to be doing that work.”

Photo: Contributed

Uptown Rutland Business Association has unveiled its trimmed down board of directors that will work with new president Justin Bullock.

This year’s board has five directors, which is down from last year’s seven. There are four returnees, including Jassie Kakoschke of Valley First,  Brad McNaughton of LUX Quality Homes, Domenic Rampone of Kelowna Gospel Mission and Harjit Toora or Manohar Vietnamese Bakery.

Indy Dhial of Pita Pit spent last year as an ex-officio board member but is now a director.

“A top priority is researching and shaping a vision for a true public space in Rutland,” Bullock said in a press release. “We want to create the same kind of excitement that downtown Kelowna offers. Our goal is to create a vibrant urban space where people can live, work and enjoy entertainment, while also drawing visitors from across the city and beyond.

“The board is inspired by the success of the ‘Meet Me On Bernard’ program. We see the potential for something similar in Rutland—perhaps a ‘Meet Me at Roxby,’ where a short walk leads you to any of the 24 murals in the area. We are considering various possibilities and encourage the community to share their input.”

Bullock said he and the board will spend the year evaluating events to see which ones will bring the best return on investment for members. The board also plans to update its governance and operational procedures.

This year’s ex-officio directors are Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas and Birte Decloux of Urban Options Planning Corp.