Monthly Archives: November 2014

Given the many global issues that are present in over 100 developing countries, the Arc Initiative gives Sauder students a chance to make a change in a community suffering from these problems. However, we are given the question “If the United Nations was fully funded, why would we need the Arc Initiative?”. The answer, I believe, has nothing to do with money.

Even if the UN was fully funded and therefore capable of solving many global issues, the purpose of the Arc Initiative is to educate students for the long term, creating passionate social entrepreneurs who can make a difference in the future. Solving issues with money does not guarantee a permanent solution; there are many other factors such as government corruption that could render money almost useless. The Arc Initiative gives students the skills they need to do a wide variety of things, such as expanding a community and helping it progress. Additionally, Sauder students are shown the true conditions that give the Arc Initiative a purpose; it drives them to become knowledgable social entrepreneurs with the capability to create lasting effects on communities in need.

As the price of oil has been decreasing, Russia has been suffering a great loss in revenue and is facing a potential recession. This article from the Globe and Mail explains that sanctions have been placed on “[the] lifeblood of the Russian economy” (Globe and Mail) at $95 per barrel, and this price is expected to continue to decrease. Due to these sanctions, the Russian economy is not expected to grow at all for the next three years, and inflation rates are currently at 8%. This obviously poses a large threat to Russian consumers, as the economy faces a potential downfall with little solutions. However, should Russia try to counter the high inflation rates by raising interest rates, Russian businesses and consumers would still suffer.

Although this incident will result in a weakening of the Russian economy, I think that it is strong enough to prevent a financial crisis. Russian banks have predicted a halt in growth until 2017, which is “very realistic and suggests Russia is planning for the long haul” (Globe and Mail). I think what plays the a large role in the fate of the Russian economy are the investors who fuel economic activity. Should citizens lose faith in the currency and stop investing, this would trigger a recession. However, if the government plans ahead and takes the right steps to ensure the security of the Russian economy, I believe that a recession in fairly preventable.

In Eleanor Waring’s blogpost, she brings up the much speculated issue of the pricey consequences of being environmentally friendly. Saskatchewan’s attempt at eliminating carbon dioxide emissions costed a whopping $1.4 billion in tax payer’s money to create, and that was only one machine. Ella makes a good point that the likeliness of other provinces adopting this technology is slim to none, as the amount of money it would cost is extremely high. This led me to think about how likely it is for provinces to develop or adopt these types of sustainable technologies in the future if the price is this high with little chance of financial return.

While I believe sustainability is an extremely important concept that governments should be trying to integrate into their provinces, I also think affordability is equally as important. As we can see in Ella’s article she cited, the cost of this new technology was almost unfathomable, and the technology failed to spread to other provinces due to the price. This issue poses the question: how can we be sustainable and economical simultaneously? This is something that I believe governments should be thinking about for the future, because the environment is the basis of our country’s economy and revenue.

Corporate Social Responsibility has become an extremely important aspect of businesses around the world. The CSR that a business possesses provides a huge reflection of the overall success of the company, as well as the satisfaction of its customers and employees. Upon discovering this blog on why CSR is important, I became more interested in the specific benefits that CSR provides within many different aspects of a business. The blog highlights many key factors that I personally believe make up a well-established and well-run company, and gives examples of how companies can either improve or start practicing CSR within their business. 

One of the first benefits mentioned in the blog is a better public image. While I do not think that a company’s public image should be the reason behind the practice of CSR, I do think that it plays a large role in how profitable a business is. The better a company’s image, the more consumers it will attract. According to the blog, “9 out of 10 consumers would refrain from doing business with a corporation if there existed no corporate social responsibility plan” (Double the Donation). Additionally, the blog states that companies with a CSR plan attract much more positive media coverage, which I believe is extremely important because advertisements and media coverage give consumers a first impression of what a certain company is about. With regard to employees, a positive work environment is one of the many beneficial outcomes of CSR. In my opinion, happy and hardworking employees are the most important aspect of a company. With no employees, there is no business. I found this blog interesting because it really delved into the specifics of CSR, and gave solidified reasons on why businesses should adopt this idea. 

Canadian universities are currently struggling to raise their academic standards and rankings while spending as little money as possible. The Canadian government wants to see better results within its schools, and this article suggests that competitive diversity is the answer. By competitive diversity, it means “not only concentrating specializations in existing publicly funded institutions, but enfolding other publicly chartered (but not publicly funded) schools” (Globe and Mail). Robert Joustra, the author of the article, believes that the small, private and specialized aspect of a university education has been ignored by the Canadian government and that Canada should place more focus on building liberal arts colleges that “deliver quality outcomes for lower prices” (Globe and Mail). 

I agree with Joustra’s opinion that Canada’s choice of universities is somewhat limited in the sense that a “good” university education is most often associated with large research universities such as U of T, UBC and McGill. However, if we look at the post-secondary options in the United States, there are many small liberal arts colleges with outstanding academics and prestigious reputations such as Sarah Lawrence, Claremont McKenna and Williams College. However, these colleges are private, well-established, and decades/centuries old. Because all Canadian universities are government funded, we cannot expect that Canada will establish these types of colleges. However, I believe chartered colleges that can operate independently will spark competitive diversity within Canadian schools and will offer more options to students looking for an excellent post-secondary education at a specialized school. As a result, the establishment of these schools will create jobs, generate revenue and attract more international students as the college gains recognition.

Vancouver is infamous for its shockingly expensive real estate market. What could buy you a mansion in Beverly Hills could buy you an old, modest home ready to be torn down in Vancouver. The reason for this ridiculously high-priced market is foreign investment. Calen Falconer-Bayard’s blogpost talks about “the influx of foreign buyers [that] has driven house prices in the 2-5 million range up by 49% since 2009”. He explains that many foreign buyers are illegitimate in the sense that they purchase homes yet fail to ever live in them. I strongly agree with Calen’s opinion that the increasing house prices could be detrimental to citizens, especially as a Vancouverite that plans to live here for the rest of my life. Calen’s post intrigued me and led me to research the implications of these foreign investors.

I feel strongly about this subject because I believe it is a very serious problem that creates hardships for Canadian citizens who actually live and contribute to Vancouver and its economy. This article states that as the number of vacant homes increases, the amount of economic activity in that particular neighbourhood slowly but surely decreases. Additionally, it drives the price of houses up, resulting in an inability for citizens to purchase homes. There are multiple initiatives that the government could take to alleviate this problem, yet nothing has been done to stop foreign investors from purchasing homes that could actually be utilized by people who intend to live in them. Foreign buyers as well as the government “treat houses as commodities, without regard for community livability” (Globe and Mail).