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The owner of a diner that’s been serving breakfast to Kitsilano with a smile for 30 years says a sudden increase in rent is now forcing him to close.
“Things happen beyond our control and people bigger than us can crush dreams. Come say goodbye and we will try not to cry.” — Nelson Ma
The owner of a diner that’s been serving breakfast to Kitsilano with a smile for 30 years says a sudden increase in rent is now forcing him to close.
Business representatives for the community say they are witnessing a similar trend happening along the West 4th Avenue strip. Other mom-and-pop shops are folding under the growing weight of commercial market costs.
“Things happen beyond our control and people bigger than us can crush dreams,” Nelson Ma, 68, said to his customers in a Facebook post, announcing his plans to close the diner at the end of July.
“Come say goodbye and we will try not to cry.”
Located east of Arbutus Street, Nelly’s Grill is a popular spot among locals, known for combining two brunch favourites in a fried chicken eggs Benedict.
After its building was bought last September, restaurant manager Joyce Yee, said the new landlord — Novena Land Property — told them their plans to increase the rent once Ma’s lease ended in 18 months.
“He’s been paying close to $9,000 a month in rent and property taxes but to renew he’d have to pay more than double that,” said Yee, who has worked at the diner for 17 years.
“All of us employees have been grieving. We’ve watched customers’ families grow up and get bigger throughout the years,” Yee said.
Though Ma has tried finding other leasing options, inflated rent costs across the city are keeping him from being able to relocate the diner, Yee said. Trying to sell the business also proved tricky.
“The new owner said ‘no’ to the one offer we got. He has the final say and has even started renovations upstairs during food service. We feel we have no choice but to leave.”
Lauren Angelucci, a Kitsilano resident of 20 years, said she’s saddened to hear news of the restaurant’s closing.
“I’m so sad to see the place go. Our baby’s first meal was there when he was just a week old.”
The restaurant wasn’t the first along the strip to feel pushed out by rising rent costs proposed after a change in ownership. In December, a realtor who came into Bishop’s restaurant told the owner the building had been sold and a rent hike was coming.
“The realtor told us that rent alone would be costing $100 per square foot,” said John Bishop, who opened the fine-dining establishment in 1986 when the cost of rent and property taxes were around $2,000 per month.
By the start of 2022, costs had risen to 10 times that much.
“We simply couldn’t afford to stay open,” Bishop said. “After 37 years in business, paying rent and taxes, I thought being a good tenant may have mattered but we weren’t offered any chance of negotiating rent.”
A business that used to operate two doors down from Nelly’s, Peak Golf, told Postmedia it made the move to a less-costly West 4th storefront once new landlords took over in September.
When contacted by phone, Novena Land’s managing director told Postmedia he did not wish to comment on Nelly’s Grill decision to shutter.
Jane McFadden, executive director of the Kitsilano Business Association, said she’s seen various shops and eateries along the thoroughfare go out of business because they are priced out of the commercial market.
“It’s unfortunate to see long-standing businesses like Nelly’s, ones that contain a lot of memories, go out of business. However, these new landlords are often just rising rental prices, many that have stayed the same for years under the old landlord, up to current market value.”
McFadden said the West 4th business district continues to thrive.
“In the past six months, 11 new small businesses have opened up brick-and-mortar business locations along the strip.”
While commercial rents dropped in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Statistics Canada’s commercial rent prices index, they began to climb back up and by early 2022, had rebounded to pre-pandemic levels even though sales had not bounced back to the same degree.
In Vancouver, the average asking net commercial rent was up 27 per cent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2022, according to Canadian real estate giant Colliers.
Telus Corp. says it is avoiding offering “unprofitable” discounts as fierce competition in the Canadian telecommunications sector shows no sign of slowing down.
The company said Friday it had fewer net new customers during its third quarter compared with the same time last year, as it copes with increasingly “aggressive marketing and promotional pricing” that is prompting more customers to switch providers.
Telus said it added 347,000 net new customers, down around 14.5 per cent compared with last year. The figure includes 130,000 mobile phone subscribers and 34,000 internet customers, down 30,000 and 3,000, respectively, year-over-year.
The company reported its mobile phone churn rate — a metric measuring subscribers who cancelled their services — was 1.09 per cent in the third quarter, up from 1.03 per cent in the third quarter of 2023. That included a postpaid mobile phone churn rate of 0.90 per cent in its latest quarter.
Telus said its focus is on customer retention through its “industry-leading service and network quality, along with successful promotions and bundled offerings.”
“The customers we have are the most important customers we can get,” said chief financial officer Doug French in an interview.
“We’ve, again, just continued to focus on what matters most to our customers, from a product and customer service perspective, while not loading unprofitable customers.”
Meanwhile, Telus reported its net income attributable to common shares more than doubled during its third quarter.
The telecommunications company said it earned $280 million, up 105.9 per cent from the same three-month period in 2023. Earnings per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was 19 cents compared with nine cents a year earlier.
It reported adjusted net income was $413 million, up 10.7 per cent year-over-year from $373 million in the same quarter last year. Operating revenue and other income for the quarter was $5.1 billion, up 1.8 per cent from the previous year.
Mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.85 in the third quarter, a decrease of $2.09 or 3.4 per cent from a year ago. Telus said the drop was attributable to customers signing up for base rate plans with lower prices, along with a decline in overage and roaming revenues.
It said customers are increasingly adopting unlimited data and Canada-U.S. plans which provide higher and more stable ARPU on a monthly basis.
“In a tough operating environment and relative to peers, we view Q3 results that were in line to slightly better than forecast as the best of the bunch,” said RBC analyst Drew McReynolds in a note.
Scotiabank analyst Maher Yaghi added that “the telecom industry in Canada remains very challenging for all players, however, Telus has been able to face these pressures” and still deliver growth.
The Big 3 telecom providers — which also include Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. — have frequently stressed that the market has grown more competitive in recent years, especially after the closing of Quebecor Inc.’s purchase of Freedom Mobile in April 2023.
Hailed as a fourth national carrier, Quebecor has invested in enhancements to Freedom’s network while offering more affordable plans as part of a set of commitments it was mandated by Ottawa to agree to.
The cost of telephone services in September was down eight per cent compared with a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent inflation report last month.
“I think competition has been and continues to be, I’d say, quite intense in Canada, and we’ve obviously had to just manage our business the way we see fit,” said French.
Asked how long that environment could last, he said that’s out of Telus’ hands.
“What I can control, though, is how we go to market and how we lead with our products,” he said.
“I think the conditions within the market will have to adjust accordingly over time. We’ve continued to focus on digitization, continued to bring our cost structure down to compete, irrespective of the price and the current market conditions.”
Still, Canada’s telecom regulator continues to warn providers about customers facing more charges on their cellphone and internet bills.
On Tuesday, CRTC vice-president of consumer, analytics and strategy Scott Hutton called on providers to ensure they clearly inform their customers of charges such as early cancellation fees.
That followed statements from the regulator in recent weeks cautioning against rising international roaming fees and “surprise” price increases being found on their bills.
Hutton said the CRTC plans to launch public consultations in the coming weeks that will focus “on ensuring that information is clear and consistent, making it easier to compare offers and switch services or providers.”
“The CRTC is concerned with recent trends, which suggest that Canadians may not be benefiting from the full protections of our codes,” he said.
“We will continue to monitor developments and will take further action if our codes are not being followed.”
French said any initiative to boost transparency is a step in the right direction.
“I can’t say we are perfect across the board, but what I can say is we are absolutely taking it under consideration and trying to be the best at communicating with our customers,” he said.
“I think everyone looking in the mirror would say there’s room for improvement.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:T)
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:TRP)
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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