“Group argues flooding valley would impair their rights to fish, hunt and use the area for ceremonial purposes”

First Nations are aboriginal people who have lived in Canada for a long time, but they are considered minority in Canada. They also have they own rights and land in Canada, and there is Indian Act to protect the native population and their rights as well. B.C. government wants to make good cooperation with First Nations, but First Nations are ambitious and they want more land and more rights in Canada. They also even declared that B.C. was Indian land.

The news is about that the B.C. government plans to work on Hydro’s $8-billion Site C hydroelectric megaproject, but B.C. First Nations rejected Harper government to do this. The First Nations wanted to negotiate with federal government and reject the project, because B.C. hydro project will bring many negative impacts on First Nations.

“The Panel disagrees with BC Hydro and concludes that the project is likely to cause a significant adverse effect on fishing opportunities and practices for the First Nations represented by Treaty 8 Tribal Association, Saulteau First Nations, and Blueberry River First Nations, and that these effects cannot be mitigated.”

This is a news article on First Nation partner issues, and it is mainly on the political, social, economic aspects. Political instability has been one of the external factors that influence the development between the B.C. government and First Nations. In this case, whatever B.C. and federal government decide to do, they should consider about the aboriginal people’s rights. If the B.C. government starts that hydro project, they could get a lot of benefits, but First Nations will get less fishing opportunities and their rights will be violated. Based on the Indian Act, aboriginal people’s rights should be protected as Canadian people. From the economic aspect, if B.C. government is going to do that, it will hurt the economic growth of First Nations. First Nations allow some small projects, but they reject the megaproject like this one to impair their rights to fish, hunt and use the area for ceremonial purposes.

Reference:

O’Neil, Peter.  First Nations chiefs to stage Site C showdown.  Vancouver Sun.  September 18, 2014.  Newspaper Article.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/First+Nation+chiefs+stage+Site+showdown/10215965/story.html

Montpetit, Isabelle.  Background of the Indian Act.  CBC New Canada.  July 14, 2011.  Newspaper Article.

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-5/fulltext.html

Staples closes 15 Canadian stores

“Office supplies retailer struggles to improve results in face of online competition”

In North America, such as U.S. and Canada, as many as 225 Staples stores are closed. 15 of its 331 stores were closed at the end of September in Canada in order to improve their results. Staples shut the underperforming location stores and moved online for bigger business. In modern society, as the technology becomes more and more advanced, online shopping becomes increasingly convenient and popular, and it has become a good substitute for people to go shopping. More and more people choose to shop online, which has reduced the profits of the stores. A latest financial report of Staples shows that the profit declined a lot from  $108 million  to $82 million in the second quarter of 2013.

Today, many other retail stores are also closed, such as Grand & Toy and Office Depot, and they moved all of their business online. Online shopping is a channel for suppliers to deliver products. As this channel becomes more convenient, more companies choose to use this distribution channel. Because selling products and doing business online cannot only reduce their costs of renting a store, but also increase customers and profits. But as more companies develop online stores, these companies will confront a lot of online competition as well, such as the competition with Amazon.com. Whatever the way they choose as a channel, they should consider about the way in which they can get the most profit. They should think about their own strategy to enlarge their company and seek for greater profits, such as making differentiation of the products or lowering the price. “CEO Ron Sargent said Staples had accelerated growth in its delivery business and introduced innovations such as in-store pickup windows for online orders to increase retail traffic.” From this, we can see that Staples is trying to make the online shopping different. Staples changes its distribution channel and its operation strategy to make its company more responsive to customers’ needs.

Reference:

Staples closes 15 Canadian stores. CBC news. Oct. 01, 2014. Web.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/staples-closes-15-canadian-stores-1.2783780

Mary Barra bets GM’s future on new models, sales in China

Stock up 2% after CEO outlines plan to boost profits

“CEO Mary Barra is relying on growing the Cadillac brand and building in China to help GM achieve better results”

“General Motors CEO Mary Barra told investors Wednesday that GM will rely on new models and a big push to sell more cars in China to boost profits in coming years, as the company tries to shift the spotlight from a mishandled recall of older small cars.”

General Motors had made a mistake on the ignition switches and caused at least 23 deaths worldwide. GM was blamed about that and they tried to recall all the faulty cars back and fix all of the ignition switches. This is a really serious problem, and the stock of GM has dropped a lot. GM tried to recall all of the small cars that have such problems all over the world, but the reputation of GM has already ruined. Because of that, GM wanted to make new models of the vehicles and enter Chinese car market to boost its profits. The Cadillac luxury brands in China have very high reputation, and GM wanted to take this opportunity and enter Chinese car market to sell more cars and get its reputation back. GM will introduce nine new models in China, and they assume that China will be the largest luxury car market in the world over the next decade.

From my perspective, General Motors changed its operation and management strategies and tried to enter Chinese car market for financial reasons. I think they got managerial accounting information from analysis about their company, and  tried to make a good plan and a right decision that are the best for them to continue to developing in the car industry. From the managerial information, they knew what they did could get more profits and what they should not have done since they had bad reputation in Europe, and even in the world. According to the concept of the managerial accounting, managerial accounting information is based on the internal specification for data accumulation and presentation. Good decision making should be made based on the information that managerial accounting provides. GM knew that the Cadillac luxury brands in China had very high repututaion, and the company sold around three million vehicles in China in 2013. Also, GM also knew that people would not trust the old vehicle models that they produced anymore. In this case, they made a plan to produce new models and sale in China to try to achieve better results.

I think when a company makes a mistake, the first thing that they should do is to fix the mistake and analyze the reasons why they make this mistake. After the analysis, they would know what they should do to improve their company and make more profits. Then they should adjust their operation and management strategies, and make a plan for their future development.

Reference:

Mary Barra bets GM’s future on new models, sales in China. CBC News. Oct. 01, 2014. Web.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/mary-barra-bets-gm-s-future-on-new-models-sales-in-china-1.2784291

Read more information about managerial accounting here:

http://www.principlesofaccounting.com/chapter17/chapter17.html