Report on Small Business Newsletter: How disputes with employees go public

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Ugly workplace disputes can harm employers when they spill into public view on career website Glassdoor

At ScribbleLive, a Toronto-based marketing platform for digital content, employees were left angry after getting hit with tax bills last fall for company-supplied lunches from years ago. In the past, disputes like this between an employer and employees would have been kept largely quiet. However, this tax issue and other internal disputes at ScribbleLive have spilled into public view through fiery posts from current and former employees on the career website Glassdoor. Story

Coastal Contacts founder Roger Hardy back in eyewear business with Toronto acquisition

Vancouver entrepreneur and financier Roger Hardy is getting back into the online eyewear business, five years after selling his publicly traded Coastal Contacts Inc. for $430-million. Mr. Hardy’s investment firm Hardy Capital announced Wednesday that it has purchased privately held LD Vision Group, a 17-year-old Richmond, B.C.-based company that it described as North America’s second largest independent direct retailer in eye care, with sales of about $50-million last year. Story

Ontario businesses concerned about government review of R&D tax credits

Ontario small businesses that rely on research and development tax incentives to help grow their companies are concerned that a review launched by the province’s Progressive Conservative government could mean a rollback of the popular credits. The Ontario budget tabled earlier this month says the province will examine the Ontario Innovation Tax Credit (OITC) “as well as other R&D tax incentives.” Story

Independent dealers bet that e-sports will be the next big thing

Independent investment dealers such as Eight Capital Corp. and Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. are beginning to place bets on the nascent e-sports industry, amid signs that other hot sectors on which they relied for business are starting to cool. Story

CIBC accelerates push into startup financing, spurring competitors to follow

When Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce acquired Wellington Financial early in 2018, the bank signalled its desire to tap into the expanding ecosystem of high-tech startups that many a banker had shunned as too risky. Story

Montreal analytics startup uses AI to play a big role in NHL playoffs

How did the Columbus Blue Jackets sweep the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round, pulling off one of the biggest upsets in NHL playoff history? Artificial intelligence may be partly responsible. Story

WHAT WE’RE READING ELSEWHERE

Workers recruited from Ukraine to help forest industry fight labour shortage

Svitlana Protsenko’s new job represents a new start for her family and an important new hope for the industry that sustains the New Brunswick town the Protsenkos now call home. Protsenko, her husband and their three children came to Saint-Quentin from Kharkiv, Ukraine, 32 kilometres from the border with Russia. CBC

Northwest eatery looks for community’s help to find suspects in dine-and-dash

A restaurant in northwest Calgary turned to social media on Saturday night for tips to identify and locate a group of six men, whom they say ran out on a bill for over $200. Khushboo Ghosh, co-owner of JP’s Indian Bistro, was working on Saturday evening with one of her servers when the six men walked in and sat down at one of the tables at about 7:00 p.m. CTV

‘Reverse migration’ sees Calgary businesses moving back downtown from the suburbs

Colliers International says a rising trend of “reverse migration” is starting to bring office tenants back into Calgary’s core, resulting in a decline in the downtown vacancy rate during the first three months of the year. CBC

North Van businesses risk being ‘taxed out’ following 27% assessment spike

The highest is too high and the best isn’t good enough. That’s the message the City of North Vancouver will send to Victoria in a bid to convince the provincial government to review the practise of basing property values on “highest and best use.” Business in Vancouver