Financial Literacy – Let’s continue last month’s discussion: “Feeling Ripped Off?”
From bank tellers pushing unwanted products to financial advisors charging huge hidden fees for their “expertise” in managing your money, the financial business in Canada is broken.
Beer!
Now that we’ve got your attention, SmartBIZ is very excited to announce we will be writing a monthly beer column talking about local trends, pairings, flavours, tips, and suggestions as well as many other topics.
Being that this is a very special issue of SmartBIZ, as we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, we thought this would be a good time to celebrate some fascinating Canadian beer facts along with some strange-but-true facts to discuss with your friends while enjoying a tasty beverage bringing in Canada’s 150.
Stubbies! The “stubby” bottle was iconic in Canada until it was taken out of circulation in the 1980s when Canadian brewers switched over to American-style longnecks. As it turns out, market research showed that women didn’t like the stubby, preferring the lengthy elegance of the longneck.
Beer Pre-Dates Confederation – Canadian beer is actually older than Canada. In fact, beer production in the Great White North pre-dates Confederation by a good 200 years.
Tavern Talk – In the early days of Canadian settlement, beer was an integral part of the community. That’s because the local tavern not only served beer, it was also a meeting place where the community would gather; a place for judges to hear complaints, politicians to seek votes and preachers to preach.
Beer economy – According to the Conference Board of Canada, one out of every 100 jobs in Canada is supported by the sale of beer, with every dollar we spend on beer generating $1.12 for the nation’s economy. This “beer economy,” in fact, supports 163,200 jobs throughout Canada.
Strange-but-true
Ogoki Learning Inc. is the world leader when it comes to language apps
Canada’s Aboriginal languages are many and diverse, and their importance to indigenous people immense. During the past 100 years or more, nearly ten, once flourishing languages have become extinct; at least a dozen more are on the brink of extinction. When these languages vanish, they take with them unique ways of looking at the world.
Ogoki Learning Inc. is trying to preserve indigenous languages one app at a time.
It all started when Darrick Baxter, President of Ogoki Learning, created an Ojibwe language app for smartphones and tablets. Soon after the release, he noticed the app was doing what he hoped it would, teaching kids the Ojibwe language while keeping them engaged through mobile devices.
From that moment Baxter, who grew up in Winnipeg’s North End, knew he had to share the app with everyone, so he released the app for free.
Continue reading Preserving indigenous languages one app at a time
Pedal in the Peg was launched in 2015 as a pilot bike rental program with participating downtown hotels to support and promote cycling in the downtown.
Funded by the City of Winnipeg’s Active Transportation and supported by the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ’s
Transportation Committee, the program was modeled after successful bike rental programs established in cities across North America.
The program proved to be successful and this year will be offered from downtown businesses to guests,
customers, clients and/or employees, as well as to the general public.
The Downtown Winnipeg BIZ provides participating businesses with:
This year, hotels such as The Alt Hotel, Delta Winnipeg and Holiday Inn & Suites will be participating in the program with more businesses yet to be confirmed. Be sure to look out for the Pedal in the Peg launch and visit participating businesses to rent your bike this summer!
For more information about the Pedal in the Peg program, visit www.downtownwinnipegbiz.com.
National skills competition brings the country’s best to Winnipeg.
An expected 18,000 visitors and more than 500 youth are heading to Winnipeg this month for the 2017 Skills/Compétences Canada competition.
The event takes place May 31 to June 3, 2017, at the RBC Convention Centre.
The competition, which is in it’s 23rd year, will see Canada’s top youth and apprentices who are enrolled in trades training programs in colleges and high schools across Canada showcasing their skills. The competitions are represented in six sectors: Construction, Employment, Information Technology, Manufacturing and Engineering, Transportation, and Service.
Skills Canada says the event provides tremendous opportunities for students from not only the province of Manitoba, but the entire country, to develop a stronger appreciation for the importance of skilled trades and technology careers.
In the next 10 years it is expected there is going to be a demand for close to 12,000 jobs for skilled workers in the construction industry alone in Manitoba.
This past April, over 500 students took part in the 20th Annual Skills Manitoba competition at Red River College. Students competed in over 40 different contests with a chance to represent Manitoba at the upcoming Skills Canada event.
Every two years, the winners of the Skills Canada National Competition go on to compete at the WorldSkills Competition, where their skills are put to the test at an international level against the best in the world. Manitobans Ashley Weber and Silas Meeches will be a part of World Skills Team Canada 2017 taking place in Abu Dhabi October 14th to 19th.
