BIV’s B.C. business newsmakers over the past 20 years

Since our inception in 1989, BIV has put many high-profile business leaders and newsmakers on the front page of BIV’s weekly print edition.

For our first several years in circulation, in fact, BIV set itself apart in the market with eye-catching and amusing cover photos of noteworthy individuals in the Greater Vancouver business community.

Yves Potvin, then the founder and president of Yves Veggie Cuisine Inc., was pictured smoking a plant-based hot dog in 1992, for example.

Large cereal flakes covered the eyes of Nature’s Path co-founder Arran Stephens in another memorable photo the same year.

But it wasn’t until 2004 that BIV endeavoured to select a single individual, issue, story or event for its final issue of the year. In the two decades since, the newsroom has chosen and covered a “newsmaker of the year” (with one exception in 2006 for a “dealmaker” of the year).

As we celebrate 35 years of B.C. business coverage, and now 1,800 issues of BIV, we travel back in time to 20 print editions, and the newsmakers that not only dominated the headlines of the day, but defined a year in local business news.

2004

The RAV

A battle over the $1.7 billion Richmond-Airport-Vancouver line underscored the region’s world-class ambitions—and set Burnaby mayor Derrick Corrigan and Surrey mayor Doug McCallum on a political collision course

2005

Telus and TWU

Big business took on big labour in an interminable five-year battle royale that came to a head in 2005 as Telus and the defiant Telecommunications Workers Union concluded their long-running contract dispute

2006

Ian Telfer

Named BIV’s “dealmaker” of the year, the Goldcorp boss had a Midas touch in 2006, generating headlines and increasing shareholder value with bold moves and audacious acquisitions

2007

Ryan Beedie, Tom Gaglardi and Francesco Aquilini

An acrimonious courtroom battle over Vancouver’s NHL team provided a textbook study in big league partnership gone wrong, with Beedie and Gaglardi on one side of the issue, and Aquilini on the other

2008

The economy

With tens of thousands of jobs lost in Canada, millions lost in the U.S., billions of dollars in asset write-downs and trillions lost on the stock market, the financial crisis made the economy BIV’s newsmaker of the year—for all the wrong reasons

2009

The HST

Before its scheduled implementation July 1, 2010, B.C.’s harmonized sales tax became a flashpoint for a wide range of consumer and business groups that raised criticisms with hair-on-fire alarm

2010

Gordon Campbell

B.C.’s premier faced crises on multiple fronts, from the monumentally mishandled attempt to introduce a harmonized sales tax, to the political corruption trial related to the sale of BC Rail

2011

Comeback city

From the Stanley Cup riot to a Grey Cup victory, 2011 was a big-league year for B.C.’s sports business

2012

Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline

Controversy over the $6 billion oilsands pipeline project dominated headlines in 2012 as joint review panel hearings carried through the year into 2013

2013

Christy Clark

The BC Liberal leader spearheaded an underdog political win for the ages, buoying B.C. business community outlooks in the process

2014

LNG

The province’s road to riches as mapped out by Christy Clark’s Liberals hit numerous marketplace speed bumps in an effort to take B.C. liquefied natural gas global

2015

Justin Trudeau

The current prime minister led an incoming “red tide” that swept the country and took the federal Liberals to a majority win in the 2015 general election

2016

The foreign buyer

Their means, identity and ambitions were the subject of heated debate, but the foreign buyer’s impact on real estate and affordability were in doubt by year’s end

2017

John Horgan

The lacrosse-loving Langfordian was at the helm of 2017’s provincial political sea change that followed 16 years of BC Liberal leadership

2018

Carbon

A major element in every major business resource story in B.C. and in the rest of Canada this year as governments, industries and consumers turned their attention to decarbonization

2019

Meng Wanzhou

The arrest of Huawei’s CFO at the request of the U.S. government set in motion diplomatic drama and trade issues that deeply affected Canada’s relationship with China

2020

Dr. Bonnie Henry

B.C.’s provincial health officer emerged as a leader and household name during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic that ground the province’s economy to a halt

2021

Reconciliation

Accepting responsibility for the immense social, cultural, economic harms done to Indigenous Peoples in Canada emerged as an important theme and call to action in 2021

2022

Tiff Macklem

The Bank of Canada governor’s tangling with rapid inflation in the wake of unprecedented pandemic spending affected consumers and all aspects of the provincial and national economies

2023

Artificial intelligence

The mainstream availability of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT have reframed what’s possible for workplace efficiency, and led to concerns about job security and the changing nature of work