Archive for February, 2007

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Burnaby: birthplace of gadgets

Saturday, February 24th, 2007

Kensington Computer Group opens a research and development lab that’s state-of-the-art

Peter Wilson
Sun

Dave Dobson with some of the computer accessories that Kensington builds. Photograph by : Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun

From in-car FM transmitters for your iPod to mice and keyboards and laptop locks, Kensington Computer Group makes them all.

The 60 to 70 new electronic products that Kensington sells around world each year are created and perfected in Burnaby where the California-based company opened its new state-of-the-art $1 million research and development centre Friday.

“We’re one of the very few companies in Canada that’s actually doing consumer electronic products,” said Dave Dobson, Kensington’s director of product development, who heads the centre. “And there are very few companies that are growing in the field because it’s very competitive. You can’t just put a me-too product into the market these days and be successful.”

At the moment, the lab — part of a $220-million-a-year business with headquarters near San Francisco — has a staff of 25 and is looking for three more engineers.

“We built our labs to accommodate up to 55 staff and so over the next two or three years we’re going to, hopefully, hit that number,” said Dobson. “We’re on a growth spurt right now, so we are ramping up, although Kensington has been around for 25 years. So it’s not a start-up business. It’s a very stable technology business.”

The lab takes Kensington products from the brainstorming stage right through to final development before they’re manufactured in factories around the world. The exception is some of the earliest design work done in California because it’s closer to computer manufacturers such as Apple.

“We have the mechanical design people who take the designs and the innovative side to it and also make them manufacturable,” said Dobson. “And then we have the electrical engineers who work on the technology that goes into the different types of tracking mechanisms . . . . And we have RF [radio frequency] specialists. And we have a quality engineering group that develop full specifications and make sure they work with Apple products and Microsoft products.”

The whole effort is a collaborative venture, Dobson added.

“We have regular brainstorming sessions here and in California, but equally here, where we talk about what we want to do for the next two or three years in different categories.”

For example, a new set of mice and keyboards from Kensington is just about to hit the market, along with new locks for laptops.

“And there are always new iPod accessories we’re working on,” said Dobson.

He said it’s no longer a big cost saving for companies like Kensington — owned by giant ACCO Brands with $2 billion in revenues a year — to do their research and development in Vancouver.

“It’s more about the fact that there’s a good body of people here.”

While the Lower Mainland is not a major technology hub, said Dobson, it’s a good size and has people working in the disciplines that Kensington needs.

“There’s the Sierra Wirelesses and the Broadcoms and there are others in the area. There’s a core of highly educated people. There are a couple of good universities graduating some kids that we can bring into our business and train. And we’re close to Asia, which is important.”

And then there’s the lifestyle, said Dobson. “We can get engineers to come and live here and stay here, so [Vancouver] provides a lot of the right ingredients for an engineer to thrive in a career and also have a decent personal life.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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Vancouver firm Sxip Identity software solves Google’s problem accessing the new Google Apps Premiere Edition

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

Vancouver firm’s solution to Google’s problem make for a mutually satisfactory high-tech marriage

Peter Wilson
Sun

Sxip Identity vice-president of operations Mike DeSandoli demonstrates security the company is providing for Google Apps Premier Edition. Photograph by : Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun

Vancouver’s Sxip Identity found itself in the worldwide high-tech spotlight Thursday following an announcement by Google of a Microsoft-challenging suite of online corporate software.

Partnered with Google and featured on its site, Sxip offers companies a secure way of internally accessing the new and highly-touted Google Apps Premier Edition — which provides word processing, spreadsheet, e-mail, instant messaging, calendar and talk programs via the Internet.

Google’s head of enterprise partnerships, Kevin Smith, said in an interview Thursday that Google can’t offer everything that a company might need for smooth integration of its Apps suite.

Where Sxip comes in, said Smith, is that its product — Sxip Access for Google Apps — allows corporate users to call up Google Apps on their browser without having to use a separate sign-in.

“One of the reasons it was very attractive to work with Sxip on this was that it was a very nice solution to allow you to do that single sign-on,” said Smith.

He added that while there had been earlier conversations between the two companies, Google eventually approached Sxip because “we decided that it was a good fit.”

Sxip is one of 10 companies — and the only Canadian firm — to have partnerships with Google for Google Apps. While Google will charge corporations $50 US per user annually for the service, Sxip will get $5 per user.

Sxip already has a similar solution in place at the online contact management site Salesforce.com, but the company regards the Google partnership as a big win.

“Google is the new gorilla in the market that has agreed with us that, yeah, organizations need this kind of service,” said Sxip operations vice-president Mike DeSandoli. “It feels very good that we’re going in the right direction and that this will be major.

“Google will be very successful, and I think we’ll be right there with them.”

The fact that Sxip’s application permits users to go straight into Google Apps after having signed on to the corporate network makes their activity seamless, said DeSandoli.

“Companies are worried about their users actually using the applications, and having them face a second log-in page is a barrier to that,” said DeSandoli.

“And they’re concerned about employees putting user names and passwords on the Net because that could pose a risk. With our solution, there’s no exposure of the password, ever.”

Gerry Gebels, an analyst in identity management with Salt Lake City’s Burton Group, said that the recent upsurge in use of online software adds to the challenge for corporate management to safely handle access and credentials for a workforce.

“So you’ve got the demand for these kinds of applications and you have these application providers out there, and that means you need something in the middle to make it work a little more smoothly,” said Gebels.

“It’s a business opportunity for Sxip to jump on.”

Gebels said that Sxip is not alone in offering its solutions for corporations that use Internet-based services, but that having competitors tends to validate the field as a whole.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

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LG’s ‘super player’ handles Blu-ray, HD

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

Consumers will avoid Beta-VHS battle with machine playing all formats

Marke Andrews
Sun

Frank Lee of LG Electronics shows off the company’ new Super Multi Blue Player, which is debuting in Canada exclusively for a month at Future Shop outlets beginning on March 2. Its list price will be $1,499. Photograph by : Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun

A truce could be at hand in the war between digital formats when a DVD player that handles both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD hits Canadian stores March 2.

The dispute between the two formats harkens back to the great 1980s tilt between VHS and Beta video, which left Beta buyers with useless products.

The Super Multi Blue Player from LG Electronics, a global company with head offices in South Korea, will debut on March 2 in Canada and the U.S. — and nowhere else until at least the summer. The machine, which plays both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs, will be available in Canada only at Future Shop stores for the first month. Other retail outlets will get the machine, which has a list price of $1,499, in April.

“We don’t want to dictate to consumers one technology over the other,” said Frank Lee, public relations manager for LG Electronics Canada, during a Vancouver demonstration of the DVD player with LG’s 47-inch LCD high-definition television and an LG surround-sound system. “This machine will play every format.”

The Super Multi Blue Player reads DVD, CD and HD-DVD-ROM formats. It will also write to a CD.

Using 1080p plasma technology, the picture quality is stunning. Lee and Andrew Barrett, vice-president of marketing for LG Electronics Canada, played discs in both formats — a Blue-ray DVD of the animated movie Ice Age and a HD DVD of Batman Begins — and then popped in an Ice Age disc with 1080i technology, considered state-of-the-art until 1080p came along. The difference was like night and day. The 1080i disc appeared dark, and features on the animals’ fur and feathers were indistinct compared to the clear images of the the 1080p.

Because of the clash between Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, consumers have been reluctant to buy hi-def DVD players and DVD movies for them, afraid of investing in a big-ticket purchase of what may end up being an obsolete technology.

Up until now, Blu-ray appeared to have the edge in the war. Seven of the eight biggest Hollywood studios committed to making their movies in the Blu-ray format, and five of those seven committed exclusively to Blu-ray. These seven studios account for 82 per cent of the movie titles available.

According to figures supplied by cduniverse.com, 134 titles are currently available in Blu-ray form, 114 in HD DVD, and 58 are available in both formats.

That’s all moot with a machine like the Super Multi Blue Player.

The creation of a dual-play system may be a relief to the studios, who were facing the same quandary as the consumer over choosing a possibly redundant format, only with a lot more at stake.

Warner Home Video president Ron Sanders has called the machine “a great first step towards resolving consumer confusion and uncertainty.”

Lee expects other manufacturers to come up with dual-format machines like the Super Multi Blue Player, which was in development for more than two years.

 

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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Wireless preparing to throw the switch

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

On March 14, phone-number portability comes to Canada

Jim Jamieson
Province

Wireless Wave’s Alfred Wan expects a lot of customers to consider their options. Photograph by : Nick Procaylo, The Province

Alfred Wan expects to see a brisk up-tick in his business on March 14.

The manager of the Wireless Wave outlet at Pacific Centre Mall in Vancouver knows that’s the first day mobile-phone customers can take their numbers with them when they ditch their carriers.

That means not having to tell your customers — or buddies — what your new number is.

“People want the best deal and the best coverage, but they want to keep their number,” Wan said.

“A lot of consumers out there are waiting for this.”

So-called wireless-number portability, or WNP, allows consumers to change service providers within the same local-calling area and keep their existing phone number.

WNP also lets consumers move a number from a wireline phone to a wireless phone, and vice versa.

Canada will be the second country in the world, after the U.S., which made the move in 2003, to offer complete wireless-to-wireless, wireless-to-wireline and wireline-to-wireless portability.

While there are a number of hurdles for those who might wish to change carriers — contract cancellation penalties and the need to buy a new handset are obvious ones — having to give a new phone number to friends and business contacts is one of the most daunting.

“Consumers are going to win in a lot of ways because carriers are going to have to work harder to earn their trust,” said Andrew Black, CEO of Virgin Mobile Canada. “People have always been held back from switching by the fact they couldn’t keep their numbers with them.” As a small but aggressive player in the prepaid market — which does not require contracts — Virgin Mobile feels it is in a position to gain a surge of new customers, Black said.

Chris Langdon, Telus vice-president of network services, said his company is well-positioned to hold onto customers.

Telus’s wireless division had the industry’s lowest customer churn rate — the number of customers who leave a supplier in a given period — of 1.33 per cent last year, Langdon said.

A new wave of marketing campaigns by the carriers — especially Telus, Bell Canada and Rogers Communications — is expected nearer WNP Day but all are coy about their strategies.

Analysts don’t expect a tidal wave of change on March 14. Movement is expected to be gradual, as contracts expire, led by business users who spend more than $100 monthly — a small part of the market.

Tony Olvet, a vice-president at IDC Canada, said the impact of WNP will likely be more significant on the business side, where a phone number is linked to potential sales or support.

The Canadian wireless industry association has a comprehensive website at www.wirelessnumberportability.ca.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

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Les Amis du Fromage – A tasty way to avoid cooking

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Stop in for a specialty cheese or frozen main dishes for yourself or the whole family

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Two of Les Amis’ best-selling dishes: Campa’s Chorizo Corn Chowder (foreground) and macaroni with secret cheese sauce. Photograph by : Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun

Last time I went to Les Amis du Fromage, succumbing to my weakness for Brillat-Savarin triple cream cheese, I made a detour to the freezer case. And there, in solid block state, are umpteen ways to avoid cooking dinner — particularly on those nights you’re on your own. There are two branches of Les Amis — one in Kitsilano and the other at Park Royal South.

Mom-and-daughter owners Alice and Allison Spurrell were caterers before establishing themselves as the go-to place for cheese. Once they got the cheese shop running smoothly, they started carrying home replacement meals which come in small (for one person) and large (for two or three).

They have 13 soups on offer as well as chicken, pork, lamb, beef, veal, seafood and vegetarian dishes. And though they’re mostly comfort dishes, they don’t suffer the cruel fate of many — they’re not at all stodgy or heavy. In fact, they’re light and lively.

Soups include cauliflower Stilton, chorizo corn chowder, portobello and balsamic onion and sell for $4 for a small and $9.95 for a large.

Main dishes range from $7 to $14 (for the crab cannelloni) for singles and $14 to $27 for multi portions. Their best-seller is the macaroni dishes: either a four-cheese blend or the Jura macaroni made with Comte and gruyere cheeses, roasted ham and peas. Chicken shepherd’s pie features flavourful chicken topped with a parmesan potato crust. Crab cannelloni is gently constructed with an equally gently flavoured tomato cream sauce.

Other choices include beef stroganoff, Swedish meatballs, Thai chicken curry, eggplant roulade and chicken with mustard sauce.

Of course, while you’re there, you’d have to be on a very focused mission not to notice the cheeses. And if you are a fromage freak, you might ask about their cheese-wine pairing events, like the one coming up at Park Royal on April 16 and 17. The theme will be French cheeses (25) and they’ll be paired with French wines. The cost for the tastings is $65. Sounds like a slice of heaven to me.

– – –

LES AMIS DU FROMAGE

1752 West Second Ave., 604-732-4218 and 518 Park Royal South, 604-925-4218. www.buycheese.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

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Si, si everyone’s a friend at Ole Ole in New Westminster

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Every diner is greeted as an amigo by the owner of the popular restaurant that specializes in ‘homestyle Mexican food’

Alfie Lau
Sun

Paul Senties, owner of Ole Ole Restaurant, displays a few Mexican dishes. Photograph by : Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun

Raul Senties may be the friendliest restaurateur in the Royal City. Senties, who operates Ole Ole Mexican Restaurant in New Westminster, greets all customers by calling them friends or amigos.

On a quiet Sunday night, myself and two friends, along with their three-year-old daughter, decided to try the offerings of Senties and his chef Lui.

“Hello my friends,” he greeted us as we entered. “Please sit, make yourself comfortable and I’ll serve you some of my homestyle Mexican food.”

The simple two-page menu includes old standbys such as nachos, tacos, burritos, quesadillas and chimichangas. But it’s not the stuff you’d find in fast food Mexican restaurants.

For example, Senties prides himself on serving traditional Mexican cuisine prepared with the freshest ingredients. That means when you order guacamole, the avocados are sliced almost before your eyes and the resulting dish is a natural green, not the nuclear colour you’ll find in a store-bought dip.

For our appetizers, we decided to start with the nachos with beans and cheese and a cocktail de camarones, the shrimp cocktail.

“What does the little girl want?” Senties asked politely. When we said she’d have a bit of each appetizer, that wasn’t enough for our newfound friend.

“Let me get her something for herself,” he said. “Kids always like to have their own plates.”

And before we knew it, Lui had put together a kid’s-size quesadilla with melted cheese for our smallest diner.

For our mains, we decided on the steak ranchero, steak served in an enchilada with rice, beans and guacamole; the pollo a la Mexicana, the chicken cooked in tomato salsa with rice and beans; and the carnitas, the barbecued Mexican pork served with a soft tortilla, rice, beans and guacamole.

The portion sizes were generous without being too large and the meat was cooked to its proper tenderness for all three mains. The chicken, a huge thigh and drumstick, was done so well that the meat came off in strips, perfect for both mom and daughter to eat without making too much of a mess.

Dad was loving his steak, which was cooked medium rare and had that beautiful shade of pink when slicing into the meat. And I loved my pork, which was leaner than I expected — it must have been a tenderloin cut — but no less flavourful than some of the fatty pork meals I can’t resist.

All items on the menu cost less than $10 and the four of us ate for less than $48 before tip.

“I really hope you had a great meal, my friends,” Senties told me later in a telephone interview, explaining that he grew up in a small town near Mexico City.

His dishes are traditional recipes borrowed from his mother.

“Come again, my friend,” he adds, at the end of the phone interview.

“Almost everybody who’s come here becomes a friend.”

Alfie Lau is a freelance writer.

– – –

AT A GLANCE

Ole Ole Mexican restaurant

831 12th St., New Westminster

Open every day from 12 noon to 9 p.m., except Sundays, when it closes at 7 p.m. 604-540-7435.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

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Jules Bistro a perfectly charming slice of France

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Chef Emanuel Joinville’s food would make the French proud — it’s straight-ahead bistro fare, cooked to perfection

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Stephan Gagnon, co-owner of Jules Bistro in Gastown holds an order of Moules Frites, steamed mussels in white wine with garlic and parsley, with french fries. Photograph by : Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun

At Jules Bistro, I ate like a Labrador retriever (noted for lacking a stop-eating switch) and consumed way too many perfectly cooked frites. After a couple of dinners there I developed France fever.

Too many meals at Jules and I could find myself horribly fat, in France.

It was serendipitous in that I just did not expect Jules to be quite so perfectly charming. It’s in the historic Dominion Hotel and a light reno has transformed the room into a convincing slice of Paris. Mosaic tiles, black lacquer contrast, crystal chandeliers to lighten the black, a brick feature wall, white marble-topped bar and wait staff in black with heavy French accents. They hadn’t been open long before it got busier than they’d hoped while getting to their feet.

The other surprise is who’s in the kitchen. French chef/co-owner Emanuel Joinville is no stranger to this city. After running a couple of restaurants, one in Paris and another in Dijon, he came to Vancouver and opened up Soupspoons, which soon grew to five.

He sold and opened Jules with friend Stephan Gagnon, a contractor who recently worked on Gastropod and Fuel in Kitsilano. Gagnon is charged with front-of-the-house good will. (Although it’s more a sideways situation, with the open kitchen situated at the entryway beside the dining area.)

Joinville’s food would make the French proud. It’s straight-ahead bistro fare that the French have refined to perfect pitch over generations, like jambon persille (ham and parsley mould), steak frites, cassoulet, and beef Bourguignon. It feels as authentic as La Regalade but the fare isn’t quite as rustic or massively portioned.

Prices intend to seduce you senseless. Appetizers are $5 to $14; entrees are $12 to $21.

I do not die and go to heaven over foie gras, nor do I like the way the birds are force-fed to produce overblown livers, but I succumbed to the temptation of duck foie gras in ice wine with a beet chutney. I thought I’d eat a little but ate a lot! I love the poached quail eggs in red wine sauce with mushrooms, bacon and pearl onions.

If you love steak frites, you can order a three-course deal at $21 (salad, steak frites, creme caramel) or order a la carte at $15 or $21, depending on whether you want the 8-ounce or 12-ounce steak. It’s lovely, juicy, tender triple-A rib-eye meat and comes with those perfect frites that demand your undivided attention.

The cassoulet with duck confit, Toulouse sausage and double-smoked back bacon was a strapping meal, which, okay, I couldn’t finish. Salmon, slow-cooked, was succulently moist and more fine dining than bistro. The beef Bourguignon really disappointed me. I usually love it for its intensity and depth but Joinville serves it with linguine and in effect, becomes a sauce for the pasta.

For dessert, I’d urge you to try the creme brulee, velvety and rich; the “melting chocolate cake” was exactly that, a warm, moist, melt-in-mouth cake. The profiteroles didn’t make the cut … the pastry should yield to a fork but neither the choux pastry nor ice cream inside gave in easily and the chocolate sauce was like milk chocolate.

The small wine list features budget wines appropriate for a bistro and include B.C. and French; most are available by the glass.

The other serendipity in all this is Joinville’s sous chef Sean (whose last name Joinville didn’t know). He has worked at the three-Michelin star Michel Bras hotel restaurant in France.

“He knocked at the door just when we opened and now we are both so excited talking about food,” says Joinville.

– – –

JULES BISTRO

Overall: 4

Food: 4

Ambience: 4

Service 3 1/2

Price: $$

216 Abbott St., 604-669-0033. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. www.julesbistro.ca.

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

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Premier envisions ‘Asia-Pacific century’

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

But the coast forest industry wants tax reforms

Michael Kane, with a file from Gordon Hamilton
Sun

Tuesday’s budget commitments were built on the foundation of a strong economy that the provincial government will continue to encourage, Premier Gordon Campbell said Wednesday.

At the same time he called on British Columbians to apply their imaginations to finding new solutions to challenges ahead in areas such as health care, the environment and education.

“Imagine the goals and objectives that you would set for our province and that is how you will help British Columbians to lead Canada into a healthier, brighter future,” Campbell told the Vancouver Board of Trade.

“Together we can lead Canada into the Asia-Pacific century, where British Columbia is recognized as a centre of opportunity and hope and entrepreneurial drive and excitement and learning and opportunity.”

Campbell said the government’s investments in education, health care and opening up the province to the rest of the world are only possible because the economy is strong.

That’s why the budget offered support to the resource sector and small business while applying “long-term thinking” to issues such as housing through the housing endowment fund, the post-secondary education fund for today’s newborns, and the clean energy fund, he said.

“New solutions are the key to success in the province. We can’t continue to do the same old things in the same old way and expect to get something different out of that process,” he said.

Challenged for touting the budget as “a $2 billion housing plan” that was mostly $1.5 billion in income tax cuts, Campbell praised Finance Minister Carole Taylor for pointing out that tax cuts are important for people who want housing.

“When we are keeping people in their homes, when we are providing more affordability for housing, and leaving more money in their pockets, that gives them a chance to make their own decisions.”

In response Wednesday, the coastal forest industry said the budget did not address industrial tax reforms forest companies say they need.

The government’s housing strategy is going to require a strong forest industry, said the Coast Forest Products Association. “We need to ensure that budget 2007 builds a housing legacy out of B.C. wood,” said Rick Jeffery, president of the 22-member Coast Forest Products Association. The association’s membership includes companies such as Interfor and TimberWest, who have traditionally supported the B.C. Liberals.

Coastal producers have been lobbying for tax reforms to improve productivity and encourage investment, saying they face the highest marginal tax rates in North America.

He said the association will continue working with the government on tax issues, specifically the impact of provincial sales tax on investment and the burden of property tax on heavy industry.

But Campbell said Tuesday’s income tax cuts will be a boon to business suffering from skills shortages.

“I think it is not a bad thing to be able to say to people, whether they are from Alberta or Saskatchewan or New Brunswick, ‘You are going to pay the lowest level of personal income tax of any jurisdiction in Canada as long as you are making $108,000 or less.’ “

The former mayor of Vancouver chided residents who say they don’t want special facilities for addicts in their neighbourhoods because they don’t want any of ‘those people’ here.

” ‘Those people,’ they have forgotten, are actually us. We have to build some community literacy about this.”

He also repeated his call for 25-foot building lots in Vancouver, saying they would dramatically reduce the cost of housing.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

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Slumping U.S. housing market hurts B.C. mills

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Less work for dependent Western Canadian sawmills

Gordon Hamilton
Sun

According to the National Association of Realtors in the U.S., American housing starts in January fell to their lowest level since 1997 – not good news for B.C.’s lumber producers. Photograph by : Vancouver Sun

Top American homebuilders are walking away from deposits on land options, a clear signal that the slumping U.S. housing market has yet to bottom out, according to a research report by the International Wood Markets Group.

And that means Western Canadian sawmills dependent on the U.S. housing market will have less work this year, report author Peter Butzelaar said Wednesday.

“When I look at the data, I don’t believe the builders think the worst is over,” Butzelaar said, referring to $1.4 billion the top 10 builders collectively wrote off their balance sheets for the last three months of 2006. “To me, you don’t write off future opportunity unless you don’t believe there is an economic opportunity there.”

Butzelaar said other homebuilding data he examined shows that the downward trend is expected to continue for the first half of this year — the prime construction season.

He said the top builders will have 20 per cent fewer home completions for the first two quarters of 2007 than in 2006, which explains their strategy in walking away from unprofitable land options and writing down their remaining land holdings.

Butzelaar’s views were reinforced Wednesday when Tolko Industries announced downtime at two oriented strand board mills and Canfor Corp. announced it is curtailing lumber production by a further 20 million board feet because of the strike at CN Rail. Last week it cut production by 80 million board feet.

And in the U.S, Commerce Department statistics show housing starts down 14.3 per cent over last month and 38 per cent lower than last year.

However, the U.S. National Association of Home Builders is expecting the bottom to be reached by the end of this quarter. Builders are positioning themselves for the coming construction season, the association said in a news release.

“Home sales apparently stabilized late last year, but the overhang of unsold housing inventory still is quite heavy,” said NAHB chief economist David Seiders. “Builders have been cutting back on starts of new units to bring supply and demand back into balance.

“We expect housing starts to bottom out in the first quarter of this year before embarking on a gradual recovery path,” Seiders said.

Butzelaar said shrinking lumber demand in the U.S. has already resulted in European sawmillers focusing on their own market and Asia. There has been a slight drop — only three per cent — in Canadian shipments to the U.S. Hardest hit was the U.S., where its domestic shipments were off nine per cent.

The North American market is still struggling to bring supply in line with shrinking demand, he said. In other parts of the world, however, there are signs of a long-awaited turnaround for the global forest industry.

From sky-high log prices in China to shrinking supplies in Canada and soaring demand in Europe, timber supplies are tightening, the International Wood Markets report states. The Vancouver-based consulting group monitors wood markets around the world.

“For the first time since the 1990s a period of tighter global timber and log supply, leading to higher log and lumber prices, could be looming,” the report states.

A tax on log exports imposed by Russia on Jan. 1, rising demand for lumber in Europe, price increases for Japanese log importers, and higher log prices in China are all signals of a tightening supply, the report states. Further, recent studies show B.C.’s timber harvest will peak earlier than expected due to the shorter shelf-life of mountain pine beetle-killed timber while Quebec’s timber harvest is to be reduced later this year.

“It appears that the world’s demand for saw, veneer, and even pulp logs could be increasing at a time when the supply base is undergoing a number of structural changes,” the report states.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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Baiting the belly’s hook

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Terrific fish and chips, delicious crab cakes but ‘slaw needs work

Mark Laba
Province

It’s definitely fresh. Finest at Sea’s Ian Angus (left) with a rougheye and Bruno Born with a halibut. Photograph by : Nick Procaylo, The Province

FINEST AT SEA SEAFOOD BOUTIQUE & BISTRO

Where: 4675 Arbutus St., Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-266-1904

Drinks: Soft drinks, juice, coffee and tea

Hours: Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-8pm, Sun. & Mon. until 6 p.m.

– – –

There was nothing I loved more as a kid than tuning into the Red Fisher Show on Saturday afternoon. Something about Red and his buddies pulling smallmouth bass out of Lake Nipigon and then sitting around Scuttlebutt Lodge and watching grainy footage of the event struck a chord in my daydreaming brain.

So imagine my surprise when I stumbled into this place and saw the large flat-screen TV broadcasting fishing.

“Look,” I pointed out to my son, Small Fry Eli. “Those men are catching huge ocean fish.”

“When do they turn them into sticks?” he asked, eyes glazing at the sight of a huge flopping halibut.

“Good point. I don’t know. Let’s watch and see.”

The Law went to the counter to order for us while we zoned out on big-sea adventure. This is really a fish shop with a small dine-in area and sizable kitchen off to the side with tables of hewn timber that look like Paul Bunyon was the decorator. The display case is brimming with wild sea life caught by one of the eight boats owned by FAS (Frozen at Sea), a company started by Victoria fisherman Bob Fraumeni and now partnered with experienced restaurateur Bruno Born, who runs this bistro/fish shop. FAS prides itself on the finest and freshest of fish, ethically caught and delivered to the doorstep of some of Vancouver and Victoria’s best restaurants, and now yours to experience at this landlocked strip-mall location.

“Ahoy there, matey,” I cried to the battered ling cod The Law delivered to the table. Small Fry Eli, even though only three and change, was embarrassed in public by my dumbass exclamations and quickly scooted into his grandmother’s lap to put some distance between me and him. The Japanese couple at the next table looked at me sadly.

The fish was very tasty, the batter a perfect texture and thickness, crispy and adding a nice deep-fryer barrier without burying the fish in breading. The Law thought the fish was a bit overcooked in spots but I disagreed, though I wouldn’t voice that to her.

The tartar sauce was excellent and Small Fry Eli was pleased with the crunchy fries but the coleslaw, like in every other place in this city, was no great shakes. I don’t know why Vancouver restaurants can’t stop this shredded cabbage madness and create a tangy version with vinegar the way ‘slaw was meant to be. Nevertheless, the fish and chips are very good and available with cod, salmon, halibut or sablefish ($7-$14 depending on size ordered).

Also sampled the great Dungeness crab cakes ($11), moist, tender and ready to crumble at the touch of the fork tines with actual chunks of crustacean meat rather than the pulverized versions I’ve tried in other places. With a sweet chili mayo this was a standout.

Between bites I ladled spoonfuls of creamy Westcoast Chowder ($5) into my mouth. There’s also a tempting house-smoked steamed sablefish with homemade relish, a polenta-crusted halibut filet (both $14) and a white spring-salmon Caesar salad calling to me like sirens of the sea for a return journey. It ain’t no Scuttlebutt Lodge but, then again, Red Fisher didn’t have a big-screen TV like this.

THE BOTTOM LINE: An aquatic centre of edible pleasure.

Grade: Food: B+; Service: B; Atmosphere: B

© The Vancouver Province 2007

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