A former Tim Hortons employee from North Vancouver is suffering from kidney failure, and her former coworkers are scrambling to raise funds for her surgery. Her boss has started a fundraiser at his Tim Hortons shop, her former place of employment, and at the other shops that he owns. Camba, the former employee, got her visa revoked when she got sick because she was no longer in good health, and is being forced to return to the Philippines. Her surgery, which she hopes to have done in the Philippines, will cost $24,000, and with the help of Tim Hortons staff and customers, she has already raised $10,000.

Camba is seen here fundraising in the drive-thru window of her store

I think that this is very good publicity for Tim Hortons. It shows that they value each of their employees and that it is a great place of employment. Tim Hortons has also been known to be involved in many fundraisers in the past, and even have their own charity, the Tim Hortons Childrens Foundation (more information on that can be found here). I believe that this is an incredible point of difference that puts Tim Hortons about other businesses in their industry.

In the past three years, biking has increased 26%, bus trips 17%, and car use only 4% with a population increase of 6%. At first glance these numbers seem like they would be good news to TransLink, Vancouver’s public transportation company. However, this is quite the opposite. Oddly enough, the increase in public transportation users is creating a problem for TransLink. They are funded by fuel taxes, so a decline in car use means a decline in revenue from fuel tax for TransLink. As the demand for public transportation rises, the reveue from fuel tax drops.

It seems a little ironic that when more people stop driving and start taking public transportation, TransLink has a decline in revenue. TransLink has been having financial trouble recently and it looks like they are going to have to start looking for other ways to raise funds besides from the fuel tax. Some of their options include an incremental carbon tax or vehicle levy. More information on that can be found here. A vehicle levy was proposed in the 1990s but it did not go over very well with drivers then, so I don’t know how it will go over now, but if I was a Vancouver driver I don’t think I would want to pay more money to support the public transportation.

An interesting article from CBC on this topic can be found here.

Nokia is coming out with a new cell phone, the Lumia 920, but before the product even comes out they have run into issues with their ad campaign. This new phone was to be released to bring Nokia back up there with Apple and Android, specifically using the camera which uses OIS, Optical Image Stabilization technology. However, in the commercial, the video, which was meant to look like it was being taken with the phone, was actually not. Nokia was given a lot of criticism, and made a public apology, which can be read in a full article here http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/09/nokia-conducting-ethics-review-of-misleading-lumia-920-ad/. Many companies do this in their commercials, however they include a disclaimer in very fine print that nobody notices. I think that misrepresenting a product to the market is unethical, and just because you include a disclaimer, does not make it okay.

Nokia’s Lumia 920, the smartphone featured in the commercial

Here is a link to Nokia’s commercial if you would like to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lYMlJP77FQ

Welcome to UBC Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!