Early Birds, January 13th, 2022

Gentlemen,

Apologies for the late minutes – I got my booster Thursday over the lunch hour and it flattened me today. Finally feeling closer to normal now, but I think it’ll be tomorrow before I’m “back”.

Thursday, January 13^th, seven bacon and egg breakfasts were dished out. No fruits were harmed in the making of this meeting.

In any case, since Inglewood has been gracious enough NOT to charge us so far for our “minimum” 15 breakfast charge, we resolved to continue meeting in person even through the typical January attendance doldrums, and to continue our membership drive as well.

Despite only 7 Birds being present, we still chewed through the scenery for a full hour, then went a bit over time with a 3^rd round question and answer.

Among the items discussed today:

Dwayne Vinck: “Skippy Bucks” (translation for Reid: Trudeau’s greenwashed petro-dollars to pay for everything). A number of companies Dwayne deals with who have taken advantage of various federal pandemic money grows on trees schemes. Some have been asked to justify amounts paid, not paid, etc. For some companies it was simple, for others, not so much.

Paul Boucher noted that the CEBA small business loan deadline has been extended to the end of 2023 for businesses “in good standing”. No one’s quite sure what that means, but as Dwayne noted, the criteria for obtaining the loan was pretty detailed. If you satisfied that, then theoretically, you should be fine. Dwayne hinted that some companies have chosen to wind down or wrap up business with that obligation still on the books. That likely won’t end well.

Another note from Dwayne: he once again recommended Braveheart Resources (which may be in for a name change to reflect its “green” copper creds as part of the EV boom). Currently at a median price of 7 cents a share, he sees considerable upside to the business ahead.

Paul also noted that for small businesses, the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with CDL Labs has made rapid tests available. It’s part of a program to yes “prevent the spread”, but also to facilitate businesses staying open through this wave of the pandemic. My company picked up 50 tests on Monday, with the screening recommendations being to test each employee twice weekly. Since we’re all “in the business” at our house, this worked out well. More information is available on the Chamber site: https://www.calgarychamber.com.

Michael McLennan gave us a bit more detail on his “semi-retired” state. He’s responsible for some business development for the 3D Printing company he’s championed throughout his time working that industry. However the bigger news was about his daughter who has just moved into a senior HR position with retailer Aritzia. If you’re not familiar with the chain, you don’t have a daughter who likes nice things. 😊

They’re a Canadian chain founded by Vancouver retail family scion Brian Hill in 1984. From that single location (within the family’s existing store), they grew to 15 stores in 2005, and are up to 101 locations across Canada and increasingly, in the US per this page: https://www.statista.com/statistics/807022/aritzia-store-numbers-by-country/.

There’s also a great article on the store’s President and COO Jennifer Wong in Forbes magazine here if you’d like to know more about the ship that Michael’s daughter has tied herself to: https://www.forbes.com/sites/karineldor/2021/05/05/how-jennifer-wong-aritzia-president-and-coo-proves-that-impact-and-innovation-lead-to-retail-success/?sh=1212a6b0208e.

Brett Bain recently entertained some company from Ontario. The guest’s eyes grew to saucer size upon listening to the “love fest” around anything “Skippy” related and eastern policies that completely disregard the western financial foundation that some of those things are built on. We all had a good laugh about that.

We had a bit less of a chuckle when Brett told us that his guest’s Land Rover/Jag dealership was *forced* to install electric vehicle charging stations at his dealership at a cost of over a million dollars! No mention of “Skippy” bucks for that little pet federal project. It was borne entirely by the dealership. At least both brands actually *make” EVs, or hybrids.

Andy Lockhart shared that he was getting prepared to have a “conversation” with ATCO over a $600 gas bill that was literally HALF carbon tax. If this is a taste of things to come…..

It was mentioned to Andy that Atco takes 60 to 75 days to actually send you your first bill after signing up with them, so perhaps it turns out to have been a couple of months service. Andy had wisely dispensed advice in October about locking in a fixed price Natural Gas contract (rather than floating). At the time not all companies offered the option, but Atco’s price was the best of the lot at that time. When Paul Boucher called to ask about his $328 first bill from Atco, it was then that the delay in first billing was explained. The customer service rep also noted that they haven’t seen anywhere NEAR the fixed price secured in October since. So, if you followed the advice back then, you’re sitting pretty.

Andy was also curious about what it might take to purchase a new truck in 2022. The fleet rep at the dealership he’s dealt with in the past told him that if the truck was still running on the happy side of the ditches that he should just keep his truck until 2023 at least when prices settle down.

Also, leave it to Andy to discover another fine craftsperson for us. A silversmith and Jewellry designer named Ellinor Stenroos originally from Finland is SO good at what she does that Tiffany’s wanted to essentially “buy” her creative quiet so they didn’t have to compete with her creations. You can see some of the work on her web site. It’s genuinely remarkable: https://evstenroos.com.

Bob Wiggins regaled us with some information on his neighbourhood, Parkland, and the potential electrification of vehicles. The grid in that area supports 1350 homes. If everyone, or even a significant faction of the community were to get electric vehicles, the grid would fail UNLESS it was upgraded with new wiring in and out of the community. He questioned whether any of our climate emergency fairy-tale spinners (my words, not his) have thought of those sorts of ramifications.

Bob also told us that he’d had occasion to visit a funky antique store in Airdrie called “Where On Earth…Did You Get That?” It’s housed in an old Canadian Tire location. Bob explained how it’s like no other antique store he’s ever been into and highly recommends it for two reasons. 

1. If you’ve been hoarding something you think might be o genuine vale (Don Doolan, Bob’s thinking of your Calgary Brewery collection among other things), it might be worth getting it appraised. He actually saw papercups from Calgary Brewery’s past selling for $40. Each.
2. Also, if you’re looking to kill some time looking at beautiful old things, this ain’t your grandma’s garage-sale-as-antique store. It’s clean, bright and geared for exploring. The store works with 50 vendors, and Bob even discovered some Yorkton, Saskatchewan, bounty there from Pall Beverages.

The web site for the store is https://whereonearth.ca, and here’s a look at one section of the store.