In celebration of the recent opening of its first Canadian office, global animation giant Pixar has released a video outlining its goals for the facility, and showing some of Pixar’s most popular animated characters exploring their new city.

Recent report shows Vancouver first among global cities in low business costs KPMG released the 2010 edition of its Competitive Alternatives report, which ranks world cities in terms of business costs, and shows Vancouver at the top of cost-competitive global cities.

That was some party. But now that the first phase of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games is over, with the Paralympic Games on deck, it's time to reconsider the impact of hosting the event.

The Province of British Columbia today announced that it is boosting tax credits for film production and digital media. VEDC strongly applauds this positive step, which strengthens the economy of BC and the Vancouver region.

The 2010 Olympics will pump $800 million in travel-related spending into the Metro Vancouver economy next year -- helping the regional economy grow by 3.9 per cent after shrinking by 2.1 per cent this year, according to a Central 1 Credit Union forecast.

This is a great write-up about the Vancouver location for Prime Focus who is now officially locating all their Canadian investment in Vancouver. They are no small studio and call Vancouver the Powerhouse, behind their North American VFX division.

Digital Domain, the visual effects company behind Academy Award-winning films Titanic and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, will open a 20,000-square-foot studio in Vancouver in early 2010.  [Press Release]

Disney Cruise lines announced that it will use Vancouver as a home port for 18 Alaska cruises in 2011, and expects to bring 100,000 passengers to the city.

Orbis Investment Management Services, a global financial management firm with over $17 Billion under management, recently established its first Canadian office in Vancouver.

Amtrak has begun a second daily route-trip train from Vancouver to Portland, which is expected to boost tourism within Cascadia, especially Vancouver and Seattle. [Read more]

Nexterra Systems Corp., a Vancouver - based supplier of biomass gasification solutions, and ANDRITZ, an Austrian market leader for customized plants, have formed a strategic alliance to market renewable energy solutions for waste water treatment. [Read more]

CEO of Vancouver-based Kryton International was delighted that the company's technology for making waterproof concrete was praised last week by U.S. President Barack Obama.

LifeSciences British Columbia today announced that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the GyeongGi Bio-Center, a non-profit organization responsible for supporting the biotech and pharmaceutical industries in Korea’s GyeongGi Province, in order to facilitate partnership and collaboration between the two province’s biotech and life sciences industries.

The host of the 2010 Winter Games is going for green, using its big moment as a chance to catalyze change.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has once again named Vancouver as the world’s most liveable city. The organization’s Global Liveability Rankings survey reviewed 140 cities around the world on over 30 indicators grouped in to five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

Vancouver is the world's easiest city to live in while Harare is the toughest, a survey said Monday putting Europe and north America at the top while many African and Asian cities struggle behind.

The International Congress and Convention Association has ranked Vancouver as North America's top destination for international meetings.

The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) has once again ranked Vancouver as North America’s top destination for international meetings.

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) subsidiary Mitsubishi Motors Sales of Canada (MMSCAN) yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of British Colombia, the City of Vancouver, power company BC Hydro, and Mitsubishi Canada Limited for feasibility testing of the zero-emissions i MiEV*1 electric vehicle.

Vancouver has long cherished the urban myths that many of the thousands of condos built in its downtown neighbourhoods since Expo 86 are owned by offshore investors and sit empty while those speculators wait for the market to rise. Neither of those beliefs is true, according to comprehensive research done by an architecture foundation that looked at electricity use, home-ownership grants, and condominium council records.

Pixar Animation, one of the world’s leading computer animators and a multi-Academy Award winning studio, will build a 20,000-square-foot facility in Vancouver to produce its popular short features.

New policy reverses trend to move residents into business district

So why did the iconic brand choose Vancouver ahead of Toronto and Calgary? The 2010 Olympics, of course.

The commercialization of agricultural technology competition is part of the council's $1.4 million agriculture, food and bioproducts innovation initiative that's supported by the Ministry of Small Business, Technology and Development and the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands.

British Columbia's transportation gateway to the Asia Pacific region, currently a weak spot in the economy, will be one of the keys to the province's economic recovery, a prominent economist said Thursday.

Canadian firm hopes to plug into nuclear fusion's potential at a mere fraction of the cost Americans have invested

British Columbia saw a surprising 86-per-cent surge in the value of building permits issued in February, a month when the indicator of construction activity was heading rapidly down for Canada as a whole.

Vancouver video game developers are the most innovative in Canada, according to a new report from the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC).

Premier Gordon Campbell and Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway Stockwell Day joined convention centre workers to officially open the new Vancouver Convention Centre today - one of the world’s "greenest" convention centres and the largest waterfront convention centre anywhere in Canada.

A Digital City provides a way for the public, city government, construction and business communities to combine mapping, building, civil engineering, and utility information into an accurate city model that can be used to simulate the future impact of decisions at a city-wide scale.

The global recession isn’t waylaying the expansion plans of aggressive technology developers in B.C. Indeed, accessing the United States and other markets outside North America is, for many companies, intrinsic to growth and necessary to offset the high costs associated with the research and development of technology.

Today, Alice Wong, Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism and Member of Parliament for Richmond, on behalf of the Honourable Lynne Yelich, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, announced a $140,000 federal government investment to the City of Vancouver to move forward with projects to strengthen the economic and business capabilities of Vancouver's Chinatown and Strathcona communities.

A tough economic environment is changing some plans for Vancouver's Olympics, but not a commitment to the environment itself, the organizing committee said Thursday.

The Honourable Lynne Yelich, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, and Honourable Ida Chong, B.C. Minister of Technology, Trade and Economic Development, today signed a new Canada-British Columbia Western Economic Partnership Agreement (WEPA) that will support long-term economic growth and competitiveness in British Columbia.

A pair of Vancouver gold mining companies posted strong gold production in 2008 and expect a productive year in 2009, despite the global economic downturn.

Vancouver's office and industrial vacancy rate is expected to rise slightly in 2009, according to the forecast from Avison Young.

Vancouver-based Sierra Wireless Inc. [SW-T] announced the biggest deal in its history Tuesday, a $345-million bid for Wavecom SA [WVCM-Q], a French provider of computer-to-computer wireless communication equipment.

BC's high tech sector recorded above average performance in 2007.

Vancouver climbed to 30th place in the latest Global Financial Centres Index 4 (GFCI 4), published in September 2008. This is three places higher than its March 2008 ranking of 33rd. Competitiveness).

A weaker Canadian dollar and continued demand for energy are expected to push growth of exports from British Columbia into positive territory...

Port Metro Vancouver plans spending of just under C$1 billion to improve and expand operations between 2008 and 2018.

Trade through Port Metro Vancouver generates 132,700 total jobs across Canada, according to a new study prepared for the Port by InterVISTAS Consulting Inc., a leading transportation consulting firm.

BC Transmission Corporation (BCTC) has filed its Ten Year Capital Plan with the BC Utilities Commission, outlining $5.3 billion in expenditures to ensure British Columbians continue to benefit from reliable, clean and efficient electricity.

Spectacle may provide an economic cushion against tough times.

"British Columbia is doing remarkably well," provincial Finance Minister Colin Hansen said yesterday. "That's not to say that we're not being buffeted by the international economic challenges that the world is facing ... but B.C., according to all the leading economists, can still anticipate positive economic growth through this very difficult economic time."

The contest was to design the best new feature for Google Website Optimizer's online experimentation tool. It was sponsored by Google and judged at the WOAC (Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant) Summit at Google's Mountain View headquarters on November 11, 2008.

In just two short years, Canada has jumped from the world’s 12th most respected country brand to No. 2.

A Chinese firm is making an initial $13 million investment in Vancouver's Buffalo Gold Ltd. (TSX-V:BUF) to help finance the mining junior's Mount Kare project in Papua, New Guinea.

Hector MacKay-Dunn, Q.C., Chair, British Columbia Innovation Council (BCIC), is pleased to announce the appointment of R. Dean Rockwell as Chief Executive Officer.

The updated fiscal plan for B.C. shows an improvement that will allow government the flexibility to address priority items, Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced Friday in a news release on the First Quarterly Report for 2008/09.

Microsoft Corp. held the official opening of its first Canadian development centre in a Vancouver suburb Wednesday, adding 300 jobs and more clout to the region's growing technology sector.

The British Columbia Innovation Council (BCIC) is pleased to announce the 2008 British Columbia Innovation Council Award Winners-innovation champions who are setting the path for B.C.'s bright future, announced Hector MacKay-Dunn, QC, Chair of BCIC.