Anshu Arora LLM, MSc, PMP

kanagan Indian Band (OKIB) and Okanagan College have put considerable care and attention into ensuring its pre-employment program meets the needs of its members. They know that if individuals succeed, the community as a whole will also benefit.

To help ensure the pre-employment program addresses community needs, OKIB and Okanagan College continually seek input from Band stakeholders, students as well as program alumni. The program was recently expanded to include essential skills training, employability certification and Adult Basic Education through funding from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and the Province of BC. As a result, the course curriculum includes not only typical pre-employment training topics such as skills-assessment and resume writing but also workshops that focus on Aboriginal culture, communication skills, financial management, healthy eating and fitness.

OKIB Social Development Worker Cindy Brewer, Okanagan College Program Coordinator Cindy Meissner and lead facilitator Teresa Proudlove designed the pre-employment program to integrate foundational Aboriginal workshops throughout. "We have Social worker Molly Brewer talking to students on topics such as relationships, addictions and anger management that could be potential barriers to employment. Elder Judy Goodsky comes in to facilitate workshops about Aboriginal history and the medicine wheel helping students learn more about their heritage and how to keep themselves in balance" says Proudlove. "Many employment programs miss these critical cultural elements which reinforce students' honour and pride in their culture."

This is just one of many highlights of living, working and investing in Beautiful BC!

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to understand how the abstract utopia of cryptocurrency becomes more than just a business interest, one needs to revisit a slew of successes that have flown under the radar.

Most recently, groups of financial institutions and enterprises (R3, the Linux-led Hyperledger consortium and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance) have all seen major software milestones.

For example, computing hardware giant Intel last week launched Hyperledger Sawtooth 1.0 to the Hyperledger code repository. Created in partnership with more than 50 coders representing dozens of companies, the software joins the IBM-contributed Hyperledger Fabric and R3’s Corda as the latest blockchain solutions to release a version intended to give developers a sense of confidence.

Building on these solutions, versions of the open-source software platforms that can be monetized have also hit the market.

Last year, IBM launched IBM Blockchain, an enterprise-grade version of the software, and later this quarter, R3 will do the same with its own Corda platform, dubbed Enterprise Corda.

These commercialized versions of open-source software will, in turn, enable a number of industry-specific blockchain applications. Last year, Walmart, Kroger, and Nestle helped launch a food tracking network using IBM Blockchain, and new solutions are expected to be explored this year, according to a representative of the company.

In a similar way, R3’s Corda Enterprise is already in limited use with live applications from both Finastra and HQLAx. Both are expected to be available in the first half of 2018, according to Cooper.

Also, JPMorgan’s Quorum – which has been the most public solution associated with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance – launched into version 2.0 last November, and for the strength of the team behind the software, it’s worth keeping an eye on!

There are amazing opportunities for investment here, and I can provide guidance and/or consultation!

As the economy continues its record-long expansion, the Federal Reserve voted to leave its key benchmark rate unchanged at its meeting Wednesday. Consumers buying a home or car should continue to see lower borrowing costs as a result. Even though the Fed’s key rate isn’t directly tied to mortgage rates, they do often influence them.

This marked the final Fed meeting of the year for the Federal Reserve. Officials suggested no rate changes for 2020 and projected only one increase in 2021 and one in 2022.

The Fed’s interest rates remain low by historical standards at 1.5% to 1.75% (down from 5.25% before the last recession). Fed officials adjust interest rates in helping to speed or slow economy, when necessary.

With interest rates holding steady, “this is the time to pay down debt and boost savings,” Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com, told CNBC.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is substantially lower since the end of last year. Bankrate reports that it is averaging 3.9% this week, down from 4.9% a year ago. Those who purchased their house in the last year will want to consider refinancing into a lower rate, which could save them about $150 a month, McBride says.

“Our economic outlook remains a favorable one,” Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, said on Wednesday following the meeting. Employment and consumer spending remain strong, and recession fears from six months ago have faded. “With a strong household sector and supportive monetary and financial conditions, we expect moderate growth to continue,” Powell said. “Inflation is barely moving up, notwithstanding that unemployment is at 50-year lows and expected to remain there. We have learned that unemployment can remain at quite low levels for an extended period of time without unwanted upward pressure on inflation.”

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In a strictly technical, definitional sense, this is an “era-changing” moment because there’s a new CEO for Alphabet. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of the company, are stepping back from running things and any time the founders change jobs, it means something. Arriving randomly on a Tuesday afternoon, it felt surprising and big.

Alphabet was formed in 2015 as a weird holding company for Google, designed in part to distance Page and Brin’s various pet projects from Google’s core business. That’s when Pichai was put in charge of Google as the CEO. Since then, I think Pichai’s tenure has been marked by a few major stories that are really the same story: he has spent a significant chunk of his time cleaning up the messes that resulted from Google’s culture up to that point.

Pichai’s rise through Google’s ranks was well deserved because he has calmly and consistently delivered good products. From the very first Google Toolbar to Chrome to Google’s online apps to ordering its scattered hardware efforts, he steadily took on more of Google’s user-facing products until, eventually, he took on the job of CEO.

All of the stuff Google made was innovative and smart but also directionless and unpolished. Pichai’s job was to take Google’s products out of permanent beta. At the same time, he’s had to ensure future technologies — especially those based on AI — turned into real products. From a purely product perspective, which of course includes the lucrative ad products that make the whole thing go, Pichai has been very successful.

Things are changing and this is an amazing time to do amazing things!

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#Toronto home sales in November rose 14.2 per cent from a year ago while home prices saw their strongest growth for the year.

The Toronto #Real Estate Board says there were 7,090 home sales in the month as sales rose in all major market segments.

The board says strong population growth and declining mortgage rates helped push up sales and #competition between buyers.

Sales rose as listings continued to drop, with new listings down 17.9 per cent year-over-year and active listings down 27.2 per cent. The higher activity mixed with fewer listings put upward pressure on prices. The average selling price for the month was up 7.1 per cent from last year to $843,637, while the board's composite benchmark price increased by 6.8 per cent. Detached home sales rose 23.8 per cent from a year ago and the average price rose 3.5 per cent to $1.04 million. Condo sales were up one per cent from a year ago and the average price rose 11.1 per cent to $617,658.

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