With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1512670
8 B C B U S I N E S S . C A J A N U A R Y 2 0 24 YONGE TALENT As I write this, I'm in a Toronto coffee shop, taking refuge from a November cold that is proving, despite two years spent in Ottawa in my 20s, that I'm still very much a soft Vancouverite. But I'm just one of the BCers with a photo in this magazine who made the trip to Hogtown this week. The Vancouver-based League of Innovators held its first annual Youth Entrepreneurs of the Year awards here, and we have profiled the B.C. winners, starting on page 33. It was our honour to support these incred- ible innovators and entrepreneurs (all under the age of 30), and we hope to continue featuring the YEY winners in BCBusiness for years to come. Each one of them—whether they're developing an app to help restaurants integrate AI into their systems, a new type of bra or a social investing platform for younger generations to do finance differently—gives us great hope for the future. Okay, that was some good news to lead off with. But when it comes to this issue's cover feature—our annual attempt to predict what might be coming for the province's economy ("This Game Isn't Fun Anymore," p.22)—that hope gets a little more elusive, at least in the near term. According to veteran business writer Michael McCullough, BCers shouldn't be expecting the economy to get any better this year as our natural resource projects wrap up and inflation and high interest rates continue to drag households into debt. The bright spot, if there is one? There are likely better times ahead in 2025. Get ready to white-knuckle it out for a year and we'll see you on the other side. Meanwhile, maybe outside sources can help. On pages 11 and 13, we profile how two different European countries—Iceland ("Viking Ventures") and Lithuania ("Eyes on the Baltic")—are trying to increase their business links with B.C. and Canada. I'll admit that, when Lithuania's ambassa- dor to Canada, Darius Skusevičius, met me in the lobby of a Vancouver hotel with a 2012 copy of BCBusiness, I was at once impressed and taken aback. It's the same feeling I get whenever Frances Bula files one of her Land Values columns for the magazine. The topics Bula has covered over the last couple of issues (corner stores, building shadows) became big subjects of conversation at city hall shortly after the issues hit the stands. I'm convinced it's not random. This month's subject—the hurdles developers have to clear to get buildings approved ("Citizen Crane," p.18)—isn't exactly a novel theme, but the detail with which Bula combs through the rubble is unlike most Vancouver real estate coverage you'll read. And finally, you might notice that the pages in the magazine look a little different this month. We recently underwent a redesign by ace senior art director Jenny Reed. I'd love to know what you think about it and anything else you find as you flip through. My soft skin promises to take any constructive criticism in stride. DESK DITOR'S e NATHAN CADDELL Editor-in-Chief bcb@canadawide.com | @bcbusiness | Follow BCBusiness on Our annual Most Resilient Cities issue ranks the best places in the province to work right now—and crowns a new champ NEXT P o r t r ai t : A l ai n a M i c h e ll e