Two major tech players announced this week they are taking up significant office space in Vancouver, as global financial data cruncher KPMG announced the host of the 2010 Winter Games now offers the best business tax climate of 41 cities measured around the world.
That news comes amid a flurry of first quarter reports from Vancouver-based companies showing significant improvements over their performances during the depths of the recession one year ago, some even reporting complete turnarounds from red ink to black. And a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers shows B.C.’s vital mining industry rode out the recession with a collective profit of over $2 billion, positioning it well for an anticipated increase in commodities demand.
That came just days after the head of Canada’s forest industry said the U.S. housing market recovery is steadily improving.
The United States is the biggest customer of B.C. lumber.
“The recession is over and we’re in the relatively early stages of what looks to be a fairly decent recovery,” Jock Finlayson, executive vice-president of the Business Council of B.C., said in an interview after the Conference Board of Canada on Monday predicted 3.8-per-cent growth for the provincial economy this year.
“Much of this has to do with what’s happening in the wider world, in other words it’s not a B.C.-only story. The U.S. economy is growing and many forecasters are upgrading their projections for 2010.”
Provincial Finance Minister Colin Hansen said he found the signs that some of the recovery will come from the relocation of technology firms particularly encouraging.
“This is not sort of a one-industry driven recovery, which is, again, healthy for the future of the British Columbia economy,” Hansen said.
Canon Canada said it will open in downtown Vancouver a new headquarters for its B.C. operations after its B.C. Business Solutions Division team doubled over the past year.
Canon made a splashy show of its Vancouver commitment, staging a gala luncheon featuring 2010 Olympic gold medallist Maelle Ricker and a performance by Grammy- and Juno Award-winning artist Sarah McLachlan. As well, it had Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson on hand to accept a $60,000 donation to Vancouver’s Community Urban Agriculture Fund. The new office at 999 West Hastings St. will open June 1.
Mason Olds, senior vice-president and general manager, Imaging Systems Group, Canon Canada Inc., said in a statement that Vancouver’s status as a world-class business centre has helped his company grow. He said the new office will support Canon’s business product line, including networked multi-function devices, digital copiers, printers, scanners, image filing systems and facsimile machines.
The mayor’s office also announced Wednesday that Plug and Play, a Silicon Valley company and business incubator that has helped start hundreds of technology and life science companies, will open its first Canadian office in Vancouver.
“Plug and Play is a major player in Silicon Valley, accelerating startups and creating thousands of jobs in the process,” Robertson said in an interview. “We expect to see the creation of hundreds of new jobs through Plug and Play activity in Vancouver.”
Plug and Play plans to create a pilot project tech-support centre in 2010, with the goal of eventually establishing a permanent centre that will work with other partners to support up to 30 new business startups every year.
Plug and Play CEO Saeed Amidi said in an interview that Plug and Play is still searching out office space, but expects to lock up 40,000 to 50,000 square feet. According to a special report on taxation released Wednesday by KPMG, Vancouver ranks first among 41 major international cities for tax competitiveness.
The report assesses the general tax competitiveness of 95 cities in 10 countries, focusing on 41 major cities with populations greater than two million, and compares the total tax burden faced by companies, including income tax, capital tax, sales tax, property tax, miscellaneous local business taxes and statutory labour costs.
A lower score is better since it means lower tax costs for businesses.
The report places Vancouver first, Montreal fourth and Toronto fifth.
Vancouver, with a score of 50.5, compared favourably with Seattle, which scored at 92.1.
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