THE WRAP: Parking fees, super-trees and games where you backstab your buddy

Other Ocean banks on traitorous good fun

Ryan Hale and Other Ocean’s game design crew in St. John’s and Charlottetown can now say they’re big in Japan. Not Anne of Green Gables big, but they’ve got buyers, fans and gaming magazine cred. Not bad for their first foray into launching an original title after doing contract work for the big studios for years. The twist in this co-operative game? At least one of your team mates can win by secretly sabotaging everyone else.

East Coast iffy on electric cars

Elon Musk’s had it easy selling Teslaquila at US$250 a bottle. Seems it’s harder to convince Atlantic Canadians that the answer’s electric when it comes to their everyday ride. A Narrative Research poll shows only 13 per cent of Newfoundlanders are considering a plug-in vehicle. Nearly half of Nova Scotians are thinking about it, but that pales compared to BC and Ontario, land of charging stations and government e-bates.

RBC Awards: The pandemic made us better

COVID, lockdowns and social distancing made things tough but these four Newfoundland enterprises rose to the challenge: Grocer Colemans grabbed the top RBC award for resiliency after rolling out a plan five days into the emergency with Plexiglas shields, seniors hours and contactless pickup. Also collecting awards at the annual St. John’s Board of Trade event were the International Women’s Film Festival, which went completely online; Clear Risk for its exposure reporting software and PAL Airlines, which added routes when others were axing them.

At Farnell, plastic’s not a dirty word

Joel Rudolph’s been pushing sustainability at Farnell Packaging for years. The family company’s done well during the pandemic because it makes food packaging and people have been hitting the grocery stores hard. Most of the packaging is plastic, but Rudolph feels good about it because 99 per cent is easily recyclable.

Truro’s super-tree ready to clean up Christmas

Tree farmer Andrew Crouse calls it a game-changer — a sweet-smelling balsam fir that can hold its needles for months after being cut down. The Atlantic Christmas Tree Research Centre creation is being tested and could soon land in living rooms across North America. When it does, you can put away the broom. 

Micco, Westwood building a mystery

Mickey and Colin MacDonald say they’re building history, an iconic structure on the old Mills Brothers site at Queen and Spring Garden Road. No plans to show yet, but if they come even close to matching the Halifax Central Library, a book’s throw away, they’ll have done well. The brothers are pairing up with developer Danny Chedrawe and partner Mounir Haddad on the project.

Parking White Rose at $1.5 million a week

Husky Energy and the Newfoundland government are splitting the cost of parking the West White Rose Energy Project for a year rather than scrapping it entirely. Each will spend about $40 million to keep 331 workers employed doing what’s necessary for a quick restart if oil prices and markets co-operate.

Earthli’s hemp protein pitch bags award

Warren Dietrich had just 90 seconds to convince judges at a recent Startup Canada event that his Earthli Plant-Powered Super Foods was worth supporting. He succeeded, winning the Climate Action category and the $500 prize. If you’re curious, that works out to $20,000 an hour.

PERSPECTIVES

CARMICHAEL: Brother can you spare the dollar

Bitcoin’s boiling hot and Litecoin, Ethereum and Ripple are making waves but The Financial Post’s Kevin Carmichael finds there’s a lot of resistance to ditching cash, from retailers on up to the Bank of Canada.

MORGAN: Canada’s unnatural fear of gas

Yes, he’s a petroleum company founder and foe of the Kyoto accord and environmentalists probably think he eats baby deer for breakfast. But Gwyn Morgan’s got a point—replacing coal with natural gas is a win for the global environment and for Canada’s economy.

BARBARA SCHECTER: Airbnb, Netflix and the taxman

Hotel owners are happy Ottawa said this week it will force foreign cash vacuums like Netflix and Airbnb to stop sucking profits out of the country without charging and paying sales tax. It’s unclear whether that will help operators hit by the pandemic but as Barbra Schecter notes, one thing that is certain is that prices for consumers will rise.

That’s the wrap!

Back next week. Until then, I’ll be listening in on Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s chat with the Halifax Chamber of Commerce Friday and hoping we can all avoid a Christmas lockdown.

~ Brian Ward

Brian Ward is SaltWire Network's managing editor for business.  

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