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18 BCBusiness SEPtEMBEr 2015 Billiton, for instance, was selling coal over the summer for $89 per ton; it costs BHP $71 to produce a ton of coal, whereas it costs Teck $83. Nor does it help that, as of April, Australia benefits from a free trade treaty with China that eliminates that country's three per cent tariff on coal; Canada, without a Chinese trade deal, offers Teck no such advantage. At a mining conference in April, Teck CEO Don Lindsay said that between four million and nine million tons needed to be taken off the market—before announcing Teck's own effort to that end. While the company has made $366 million in cuts since 2012—both to its global workforce and planned equip- ment spending—it may not be enough to stem the bleeding. As he noted in a call with analysts a few weeks after that conference: "If the market continues to soften, we're headed to more shutdowns or layoffs." The layoffs were the opening salvo in bargaining between Teck and its powerful unions, the United Steelworkers. All of Teck's five-year agreements with its unions are either expired or set to expire this year, and union leaders worry that Teck will try to leverage their current situation to squeeze concessions from workers. As Alex Hanson, president of USW 9346, which represents workers at Elkview, puts it: "If Teck is signalling to the market that Henny Penny, the sky is falling, then workers will be more easily convinced that they should do the job for less money." Contracts for the 1,200 workers at Elkview, the company's largest facility, go up on October 31—and while Hanson's local has yet to formalize its bargaining position, at Line Creek, Teck management is currently offering an increase of 1.5 per cent (below inflation), D o dragons give second chances? Depends on the TV show. If it's Game of Thrones, unlikely. But as Paul Davidescu discovered, going down in flames is not neces- sarily fatal on Dragons' Den. Last November, viewers of the CBC show watched as the local entrepreneur failed to score an investment deal for his restau- rant search app, Tangoo. But off camera, restaurateur Vikram Vij (then one of the dragons) expressed interest and eventu- ally decided to buy in as a minor- ity shareholder. Now Davidescu and Vij are ready for Tangoo to catch fire with Canadian diners. Tangoo began as a sort of dining tour service, organizing groups that would visit several local bars and eateries for a set price. But in the summer of 2013, Davidescu and his original partners came to the difficult realization that the approach was a dead end. Following input by Vij and others, Tangoo re-emerged as something else entirely—what Davidescu calls "a pocket concierge." The app allows users to identify the elements they are seeking—a romantic setting, live music, a patio with a view—and get a list of nearby options rec- ommended by local tastemak- ers/food bloggers. "Common questions asked before deciding on a place are very personal and situational," Davidescu says. "Is it good for a first date? Is it a fun atmosphere for my birthday? Do they have a great cocktail selec- After the Dragon For entrepreneur Paul Davidescu, getting rejected on Dragons' Den was the beginning, not the end by Steve Burgess T e c h n o l o g y the ability to ignore seniority in choosing who gets to work in its coveted control rooms and a two-tiered system of benefits that would require new recruits to pay for their own. According to other union leaders BCBusiness spoke to, Teck management has created this situation where it now needs to raise the spectre of layoffs. One example that's offered: even as coal prices dipped in 2013, the company kept expanding pro- duction—posting a record year in 2014—in order to steal market share from mines near Tumbler Ridge owned by competitor Walter Energy. But now that Teck has the market share—a monopoly on Canadian coal exports—it can't sustain the costs. "They were overproducing last year to knock off some of their competition—and now they're showing empty pockets to workers," complains Troy Cook, chairman of the USW 9346's grievance committee. While it remains unclear how long the pain will last—whether prices will rebound this year and permanent layoffs can be avoided—there are signs of hope in the Elk Valley, the heart of B.C.'s $3.5-billion coal industry. Currently there are permits for development or expansion for up to a dozen future sites, while an estimated $1 billion metric tons of coal sits just under- ground. In Sparwood, the largest town in the valley, business leaders are cautiously optimistic that the good times will return— and soon—for the region of some 14,000 people. "We're all hopeful that the price of coal will turn around in the next six months," says Norma McDougall, manager of the Sparwood & District Chamber of Commerce. "A lot of us have been here for a lot of years and been through shutdowns, mine closures and layoffs—but the town keeps bouncing back." • like a rock SOurcE: tEcK rESOurcES LIMItED teck's annual production capacity (in millions of tons) teck's quarterly production (in millions of tons) Q3 '13...........6.7 Q4 '13...........6.7 Q1 '14...........6.2 Q2 '14...........6.4 Q3 '14...........6.8 Q4 '14...........6.8 Q1 '15...........6.8 Coal mountain elkview fording river Green hills line Creek 2.7 7.0 8.5 5.2 3.5

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