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Why Chip Wilson’s neighbours aren’t very happy with him

By Trevor Melanson /

Chip Wilson | BCBusiness
Former Lululemon CEO Chip Wilson.

THE#BCBIZDAILY
Where B.C. is trailing all of Canada, plus UBC gets a record-breaking donation

Chip off the old dock
Lululemon founder Chip Wilson’s latest home improvement project, a massive dock requiring provincial approval, isn’t popular among his Sunshine Coast neighbours. Wilson is requesting the go-ahead to build a 2,500-sq.-ft. dock and two 3,100-sq.-ft. breakwaters on the shore of his seasonal mansion. Neighbours, the Sunshine Coast Regional District and a local planning council oppose the proposal, arguing it would be detrimental to swimmers and the endangered marbled murrelet. “Our concern is looking after the environment,” Barbara Cappeli, president of Pender Harbour & District Wildlife Society, told The Vancouver Sun, “and a dock that size is just unheard of in this area. All the neighbours are up in arms against it.” (via The Vancouver Sun)

B.C. = Bottom Canadians?
If home prices weren’t high enough, surely this is salt in the wound: Ottawa think-tank Broadbent Institute says B.C. suffered the worst income growth in Canada between 2006 and 2012. In fact, we experienced a decline (along with Ontario), falling 2.4 per cent; the median income for B.C. tax filers fell from $29,917 to $29,200 (accounting for inflation). Possible reasons? Our struggling forestry industry, along with missing out on the oil boom—which, to be fair, isn’t booming so much these days. (via The Vancouver Sun)

The price of justice
Local businessperson and philanthropist Peter A. Allard just set a new, if somewhat specific, record: donating the most money ever to a Canadian law school, $30 million. Allard previously donated $12 million to UBC’s Faculty of Law—which will be renamed to the Allard School of Law, obviously—where he earned his law degree in 1971.