The Vancouver Sun, a broadsheet daily paper first published in 1912, has the largest circulation in the province of British Columbia.
Call 2011 a tale of two economies, which proved a boon to British Columbia on one hand, but still prompted wary concern on the other. Asia, particularly China, fairly rocketed forward in the post-recession recovery, carrying B.C.’s resource industries with it. Coal miners cashed in on record high prices, lumber producers continued to make record sales to China and resource developers rushed to push projects along, from new mines to pipelines and natural gas liquefaction plants.
B.C.’s real estate markets carried on from 2010’s strong rebound thanks in large part to an influx of investment from Asian investors and immigrants that helped push home prices in select markets up to levels that confounded observers and skewed average prices nationally. Yet provincial unemployment, while trending down, remained uncomfortably high and concerns remained about exposure to the markets that struggled.
The United States remained in the doldrums, Europe struggled through a sovereign debt crisis and the resulting fears of both regions sliding back into recession side-swiped expectations for stronger global growth.
The result was a muting of B.C.’s expectations for 2012, though the province is expected to show better performance than its eastern counterparts.
The year kicks off with what could be a bonanza for British Columbia’s coal miners as extreme rain and flooding closes much of Australia’s coal industry, the biggest centre of global coal supply. Prices spike to $250 US per tonne from $225 on supply shortages from the Australian closures, which began in December.
British Columbia, however, is beset by its own interruptions, such as high avalanche risk in the Rockies that forces Canadian Pacific Rail to restrict shipments, and an equipment failure at Westshore Terminals’ Roberts Bank coal terminal in Delta that closes one of two shipping berths for two weeks. Teck Resources Ltd. says the problems will crimp its first-quarter sales.
B.C. homeowners open their property assessments to discover their houses appreciated in value over the previous year, for the most part, though that depends on where homeowners live. Owners in Vancouver’s South Granville neighbourhood saw assessments increase 25 per cent, while those in the city’s east side saw property values rise 9.2 per cent. However, the downturn in real estate markets is definitely over in January.
B.C. starts the month already looking to recover from a bump in unemployment at the end of 2010. December unemployment ticked up to 7.6 per cent from 6.9 per cent in the previous month, and expectations that job growth would remain modest through 2011.
Howe Street lawyer Robert Palkowski, a self-described “icon” in the legal community, retires from the business ahead of a disciplinary proceeding, which would have seen him answer to allegations of misconduct related to the bail arrangements for stock offender Fred Gilliland. The terms were later deemed to be “a sham.”The receiver for the Olympic Village condominium development agrees to slash prices by as much as 30 per cent to help marketer Bob Rennie resurrect sales in the troubled project and help the city recover the $743 million it has tied up in loan guarantees to the failed developer, Millennium Southeast False Creek Properties. The plan is for Rennie to sell 230 units right away, then hold 244 — 127 of which will be rented out — while waiting out a better market recovery.
Canadian natural gas giant Encana Corp. and PetroChina strike a $5.4-billion deal that would see the Chinese state-owned firm buy a half interest in EnCana’s Cutbank Ridge shale gas deposit in northeast B.C. PetroChina says it is making the investment to gain exposure to the North American gas business, but Canadian interests look upon the deal as a positive sign for plans to push liquefied natural gas exports to Asia and support for the $5-billion Kitimat LNG development on the province’s north coast.
Vancouver’s Beedie family, proprietors of industrial real estate development firm the Beedie Group, bestow a $22-million endowment on the Simon Fraser University faculty of business, alma mater of Beedie scion Ryan Beedie, 42, who graduated from there in 1991. It is the largest donation ever to a B.C. university.
Enbridge Inc. launches an aboriginal benefits package for its proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline that would give participating communities a chance to buy up to a 10-per-cent stake in the project and earn up to $1 billion over the life of the project. However, first nations opposed to the pipeline are quick to reject the proposal. “We’re just looking at the whole package as a buyoff and a little bit of desperation,” says Terry Teegee, vice-chief of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council.
For the rest of this article, please go to the Vancouver Sun website: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Year+Review+Resource+sector+booms+concerns+linger/5930569/story.html