The people of Tsilhqot’in have voiced their opinions concerning the development of the New Prosperity Mine at Fish Lake. The issue brought up by the natives revolves around Taseko Mines Ltd.’s Fish Lake property, which has been recognized by the courts to be outside the title area of the Native’s.  This statement, however, is not supported by the Tsilhqot’in people. They claim that the mine would be trespassing the tribal park boundary.

Large-scale industrial mining and clear-cut logging is not allowed in the tribal park, but smaller-scale resource activities would be suitable in order to provide employment for the natives, says Dave Williams, president of Friends of the Nemiah Valley. But will the Natives agree to this negotiation?

There are strengths and weaknesses to both sides of the argument. The Natives do not have the government backing them up for their proclamation of Taseko’s Fish Lake property lying within the tribal park boundary. For Taseko, their project has been rejected TWICE by the federal government. So why can’t both parties settle down and agree to disagree? It would be more beneficial to not up-scale the situation by instigating their projects without proper communication.

There is no definite answer stating that there can’t be an equilibrium point where both the Tsilhqot’in people and Taseko Mines Ltds.’ can agree on a decision. If they were to sit down and talk it out properly, realizing that both parties have pros and cons to their projects, then a suitable negotiation can be made that would benefit all.

Sources:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Unilateral+park+declared+Tsilhqot+includes+Prosperity+mine/10192766/story.html

http://www.canadians.org/blog/tsilhqotin-declare-proposed-mine-site-tribal-park

The big controversial issue that has people talking from Europe to Canada has been surrounding the issue of Uber, a new taxi service in town that has all other taxi companies raging over their policies and safety of users. 

Uber differs from other taxi companies because they don’t follow as many rules and regulations; They hire anyone over the age of 21, passes a background check, and has an insured car, less than 10 years old and in good working condition.

You can see why taxi drivers are furious with Uber, as this creates a lot more room for human error. No other tests need to be taken in order to be employed by Uber, including extra safety tests, knowing routes, and typical policies that Taxi drivers should all be aware of. This would also up the risk of safety to users and to the employees at Uber.

However, instead of focusing on their business ethics, why not focus on their business strategies. Uber has chosen to make use of technology in the best way possibly – they created an app for smart phones that allows customers to find a cab with the touch of a button that is the closest to their location. Other taxi companies should also take advantage of technology and create custom apps for their own business too. The use of smartphone apps to get a taxi is much easier than calling for one, especially late at night when sometimes it can be difficult to get a hold of a service representative, and let alone memorize the phone number of a specific taxi company.

Sources

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29475059

http://business.financialpost.com/2014/09/08/uber-technologies-inc-toronto-launch/?__lsa=c5c6-108e

A new and upcoming social network called Ello, has declared that they shall remain ad free and not mine its user’s data. The proposition is very similar to that of Mr. Facebook, Mark Zuckerburg, who started out Facebook with the same declaration. That of which has now taken a turn for the worst.

Will Paul Budsnitz, one of the co-founders of Ello stick to his word? I believe that for Ello to truly succeed over the oh-so-popular Facebook, they must truly base their business on this declaration and remain consistent with their promises. It would gain and earn the trust of users and perhaps even cause a game changing turn of tables for social media.

Facebook has also been rumoured to begin charging users soon, which Ello can use to their advantage. Keep their freemium business model and offer cheaper alternatives with more privileges in comparison to Facebook, which they are doing well with so far by making Ello quite exclusive as it is for invite only users. If Ello is able to market greatly in their policy of remaining ad free and not mining user data, they should be able to gain positive recognition as the next best alternative to Facebook, and in the future, perhaps even exceed Facebook.

As long as their market campaign will allow them to gain interest, trust, and preference of user’s over Facebook, they will be able to climb to the top, while taking advantage of Facebook’s soon-to-be downfall.

Sources:

http://www.theprovince.com/business/Ello+founder+wants+change+money+made+online/10260085/story.html

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/05/ello-and-goodbye-facebook-competitor-social-networking

HMV has made the announcement that many people have been waiting for; they will be relaunching their flagship store on Robson in Vancouver for the holiday season.

The reason they gave for leaving in the first place was that the lease was too expensive. A three-storey building and 55,000 square feet was not necessary and had caused financial issues for HMV, causing them to close down three years ago.

But with music being so readily available online, and a majority of people using products such as iPods, will starting up a smaller retail store help HMV with their sales?

Big companies such as Blockbuster and Rogers who offered DVD, CD and hardcopy game rentals have suffered severely with everything now all being online. So what makes HMV think that they will be able to make a big comeback based solely on a smaller store?

Our society is slowly but surely moving more and more into and ONLY into in the cloud technology. There aren’t very many people using CD’s anymore to play their music or popping in DVD’s to watch movies. HMV leasing a smaller store may help slightly in terms of reducing costs, but their profits will not be flowing in at massive amounts. So is it even worth it to start up a new store in Vancouver only to find themselves making little to no money?

Sources:

http://www.biv.com/article/2014/10/hmv-set-return-vancouvers-robson-street/

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2013/09/hmv-robson-street-vancouver-is-back/