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Local business story of the year: Kamloops’ North Shore sees development boom – Kamloops News

Castanet is revisiting the top stories of an eventful 2023. Today, for our Kamloops business story of the year, we look at a trend of increased development activity taking place north of the river.

A drive along the Tranquille corridor past a number of construction sites confirms a trend seen in City of Kamloops data — the North Shore is alive with development, even on track to outpace other parts of the city.

Joshua Knaak of ARPA Investments, the development firm behind several projects on the North Shore, said he’s seen the area change since the company’s first neighbourhood build got underway about seven years ago.

“One of the things that’s funny is now we’re starting to hear questions about parking, where are people going to park. I think that’s a terrific issue to have here on the North Shore, because if we have parking issues, it means we actually have attractions,” Knaak said.

“Obviously it’s something that needs to get resolved, but I think that it’s a great problem to have.”

The City of Kamloops’ development, engineering and sustainability division reports that in 2021, it received 13 development permit applications for the North Shore and 39 for the rest of the city.

In 2022, the city received 18 North Shore development permit applications and 42 for the rest of the city.

As of last month, the city said it has received 21 development permit applications for the North Shore so far this year, compared to 19 for the rest of the city.

Jeremy Heighton, executive director of the North Shore Business Improvement Association, said he expects about seven buildings to go up in the area in the next couple of years — potentially as many as 11. He noted developments take some time to rise, and the process behind those specific builds started years ago.

“We’re seeing a draw to the North Shore for a number of reasons. Number one, when you’re putting [tens of millions] into a project, I think you need to know the community is going to embrace that project,” Heighton said.

“Here on the North Shore, I think we’re very open to the next steps.”

That observation is shared by Knaak, who moved his family to the North Shore in 2016, where they “fell in love with the neighbourhood and with the potential that we saw.”

Knaak said he noticed underused land on the North

The Business of MMA in 2023: UFC produced over $1 billion in revenue, PFL buys Bellator, fighters turn to OnlyFans

The global pandemic crushed a lot of businesses across the globe, but it’s safe to say the UFC is one of the biggest success stories to emerge from that disastrous time.

While the pandemic prompted down years for just about everybody, the UFC still exploded in popularity over the past three years, securing bigger sponsorship deals, higher viewership, and strangely enough an invulnerability to losing fan interest in events that didn’t always have great name value attached. Case in point: Conor McGregor hasn’t fought since 2021 yet the past two years have still been the best ever for the UFC financially.

Now that the UFC operates as a publicly traded company — first under Endeavor and now as part of TKO Group Holdings — financial disclosures are regularly reported. What that shows is that the UFC has become a juggernaut of profitability, with revenue increases quarter after quarter, transforming the promotion into a company valued at over triple the-more-than $4 billion price tag Ari Emanuel and his investors at Endeavor paid for it in 2016.

UFC went on a ridiculous streak of sellouts at arenas, and while that momentum eventually stopped, the organization has still broken several live gate records over the past year.

A deep dive into the numbers in 2023 proves that the UFC isn’t slowing down, and if anything, the organization may be gaining steam heading into 2024 and beyond — 2025 will almost assuredly become the UFC’s biggest financial year because the company will ink a new broadcast rights deal worth billions. Multi-billions actually.

But for now, we’re going to take a look at the biggest business stories related to the MMA world in 2023 — and just for transparency’s sake, there’s one issue we won’t be tackling with this article, which is the effect of the ongoing class-action lawsuit against the UFC. That’s not to say information revealed from the lawsuit won’t be referenced, but its full financial impact won’t be felt until there’s either a settlement or the case goes to trial, and that’s not happening in 2023.

So with that said, let’s get started with a look at the UFC’s financials based on disclosures through the first nine months of the year (the final quarter won’t be reported until early 2024 so those aren’t available just yet).

UFC Produced More Than $1 Billion in Revenue in Just 9 Months

That’s probably the most

Employees call Scarborough Chapters closure union busting, Indigo says it’s a business decision

Employees of a Chapters bookstore in Scarborough are accusing Indigo of union busting after the company told employees it’d be closing the store in January, which was one of three unionized locations in Toronto.

Victoria Popov, a part-time employee and union steward at the store, says about 30-40 people will lose their jobs due to the closure on Jan. 27. The store has been open at Kennedy Commons mall for 24 years. In a statement, Indigo told CBC Toronto the store was closed after a standard business review that factored in profitability and says the company is working to support employees.

But Popov says staff feel unsupported by the Canada-wide chain. She says employees have been transferred to other locations after previous store closures, but a transfer was denied for everyone at the Scarborough store.

“We think we’re being made an example of for being unionized and for demanding better wages,” she said. “I think they want to show other stores: ‘This is what will happen to you if you dare step out of line.'”

Victoria Popov, a part-time employee and union steward at the store, says about 30-40 people will lose their jobs due to the closure on Jan. 27. (Jason Trout/CBC)

Indigo’s operations have been in the headlines over the past year, last fall there was a shakeup in the executive ranks that saw president Peter Ruis promoted to CEO, while founder Heather Reisman was bumped up to executive chair. Then the company was hit by a cyberattack in February and Reisman retired completely in the aftermath. In September, Ruis resigned after less than a year as CEO and Reisman returned as chief executive.

Prior to the cyberattack, the store said it was on track for a profitable 2022-2023 — but it ended up losing $50 million on the fiscal year as a result.

Evidence needed to prove union busting: lawyer

Michael Lynk, professor emeritus of law at the University of Western Ontario, says he’d need to see more evidence to definitively call the store’s closure an act of union busting. He says employers can close a unionized store if it is a pure economic decision.

He says the union could file a complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board to accuse Indigo of committing an unfair labour practice.

“When a union accuses an employer of committing an unfair labour practice, the onus actually reverses, the onus is

The Globe’s most-read business and investing stories of 2023: Livable cities, Alberta’s pension plan, mortgage costs and more

High inflation. A complicated interest rate cycle. Alberta’s controversial pension plans. Netflix’s password sharing crackdown. Canada’s most livable cities. Rising mortgages payments. Recession fears. It’s safe to say that there has been no shortage of news this year.

In the final weekly digest of 2023, we’re taking a look back at The Globe’s most-read business and investing stories of the entire year. Get caught up on the biggest stories that resonated with readers on a variety of topics from housing, debt, critical minerals and more.

‘We’re barely making it’: Eight Canadian stories reveal the pain of soaring mortgage costs

Colin Tran wants to purchase a home, but can’t afford high mortgage costs. Instead he’s saving using the new First Home Savings Account.JASON FRANSON/The Globe and Mail

In a year of high inflation and housing unaffordability, Canadian homeowners were especially feeling the squeeze of interest rates. Irene Galea spoke to Canadians facing difficult decisions in order to continue paying off their loans. They’re deferring retirement, cutting back expenses and worrying about how they will cover their next mortgage payment. Some are even lengthening their mortgage amortization, stretching out the duration of their payments from 15 or 25 years to 30 years or beyond to keep their payments down. These are their stories.

Opinion: Netflix’s desperate crackdown on password sharing shows it might fail like Blockbuster

This photo shows a logo for Netflix on a remote control in Portland, Ore.Jenny Kane/The Associated Press

When Netflix announced in February that it would crack down on password sharing, Canadians users were left questioning whether it was still worth paying the subscription fee. In a column for The Globe and Mail, Ken Birch, director of the Institute for Technoscience and Society at York University, raises the question of whether the move – and Netflix’s business model and monetization strategy – is viable in the long-run. He writes: “Netflix is facing a self-defeating cycle with its subscription changes.” Fast forward to the end of the year, Netflix has reported strong third-quarter results and increased its subscriber base – sending shares surging.

The 100 most livable cities in Canada

One of The Globe’s popular stories of the year in general was the inaugural ranking of Canada’s 100 most livable cities. The data-driven list places an emphasis

Business of fashion: Here are 10 things shaping the industry

Climate change and AI could have the biggest impact on the fashion sector.

The 2024 outlook for the fashion industry can be described with one word: “uncertain”. This is the word most often used by industry executives, who are completely divided over the prospects of their fields of expertise, according to the latest State of Fashion report by The Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company.

There might not be a clear pathway as to what lies ahead, but the report lined up the ten most important things that are going to shape the next 12 months of the industry, based on global surveys of fashion executives and consumers.

Industry growth is projected to slow to 2 to 4%, helped by a rebound in global tourism and the opportunities presented by generative artificial intelligence.

Taking a closer look at the market

However, the global industry seemed resilient in recent years, in Europe and in the US, as consumers’ appetite to shop for fashion was diminishing in the second half of 2023, the industry had to face slowing sales and uneven performance.

Mainly due to fragile consumer confidence in key markets of the US, Europe and China, the report forecasts slower growth for the next year, with year-on-year retail sales between 2-4%. The luxury segment is expected to see the fastest growth, between 3% and 5%.

“The fashion industry once again demonstrated remarkable resilience in 2022. The luxury segment in particular propelled growth through price increases, partially offsetting the weaknesses of other segments,” said Senior Partner at McKinsey Achim Berg.

Meanwhile, foreign travel is expected to give a boost to fashion sales. Global travel is expected to jump 10% above pre-pandemic levels, and 80% of surveyed shoppers from the US, UK and China plan to shop for fashion while on holiday, so plenty of opportunities for brands to re-engage international shoppers in 2024.

More than half of the industry expects to raise prices while cost pressures are predicted to abate.

Influencer marketing — an industry currently worth more than $21 billion — is likely to shift, insights indicate that people increasingly prefer influencers with less polished but more authentic content, interest in celebrity status could be wiped away by relatable and authentic influencers who are fun.

Climate crisis’ $65 billion risk to the industry

After numerous extreme weather events in 2023, climate change presents the biggest short-term threat to the