Provo counting jobs and profits, not three-pointers
Nevell Provo’s gone from running the offence (at Saint Mary’s and Loyola) to running the business at his ready-to-heat take away food start-up Smooth Meal Prep. His mom still rules the kitchen, though, as head chef and he counts a brother and sister on the 15-member team.
E.I., E.I. Oh-oh
Fisheries and Oceans says it has its own reasons for new rules making fishing boat captains keep a log of who’s on board for every trip, but Employment Insurance is mum of whether those logs could be used to keep the captain’s wife and kids from getting EI if they weren’t on the boat. Stay tuned.
Clean power, tidy profit at Emera
Emera boss Scott Balfour tucked a couple of feathers in his cap this week, announcing net earnings just shy of a billion and a green plan that sees Muskrat Falls power flowing on the grid this year, an 80-per cent cut in coal use in two years and a 55-per cent reduction in carbon emission in four. Hooking up a shared regional grid to carry Muskrat’s output west and Hydro Quebec’s east would accelerate Emera’s plan to get off coal entirely by a decade.
Oil and water
The problem used to be keeping nasty sea water from getting in the diesel and mucking up boat engines. The fix was a pump and special filter. James MacDonald’s GreenOil Solutions figured why not use the same tool to do the opposite—filter out oil before pumping bilge water into the ocean. A new line of business is born and yes, you can apparently drink the water.
Flora and Fauna
Lots going on in Hali retail. Frenchy’s is in, Phil’s Seafoods is out and Tomavo is sprouting a third metro fruit and veggie location. Almost forgot. There’s a new place to get your body hair sugared off. Think I’ll buy a turnip instead.
Lockdown II: The scary St. John’s sequel
Retailers in Newfoundland’s harbour capitol saw it coming this time and they’ve had nearly a year to get ready. So when COVID spiked this month triggering another lockdown, many were quick to ramp up online sales, curbside pickup and creative customer outreach to make the sequel less frightening and perhaps less painful.
A $25-million mystery
Halifax is splashing out some serious coin for the former RCMP HQ property on Oxford. The feds owned the empty lot the size of three or four football fields and there have been at least three proposals for what to do with it. (Here’s one.) The city’s not saying what it’s planning. If you know, pop me an email. I’ll be Tim Hortons grateful.
Booze news
Pre-mixed drinks, cheaper weed and craft beer led the way for sales at Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. in the fourth quarter. Sales were up between 10 and 30 per cent depending on category. Which town was thirstiest? Click here to find out. By the bye, while lots of businesses tapped out after wrestling with pandemic lockdowns, craft brewers (at least in Newfoundland) seem to be doing just fine.
New age of sail?
Speaking of booze, Hennesey has signed on, along with Michelin and Renault, with a new French cargo operator that plans to serve Halifax with sail-powered container ships starting in 2023. The service is more expensive, but prices should be stable as they’re not subject to spikes in fuel costs.
PERSPECTIVES
ON WARREN BUFFETT: Patient words for impatient times
I took the Canadian Securities Course in the mid-1980s. My mentor was an old-school gentleman of finance, Russ Demont (father of colleague John, an old-school gentleman of journalism.) He suggested I buy a share in Berkshire Hathaway and urged me, gently, to be like Buffett. In the end, I was less Warren and more Jimmy, with an affinity for rising tides and rum rather than the slow ebb and flow of value investing. So, I'll toast Russ, long since passed, and share these words for our crazy times from the billionaire and not the guy with a white rum and tequila named after him. “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.”
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That’s the Wrap! Back next week. Until then, go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see. (Ya. That’s the other Buffett.)
