Underwater drones and taking a virtual crap: New company & society registrations

Barkoink Limited
6210 Quinpool Road, Halifax
President: Joachim Stroink
Stroink, the MLA for Halifax Chebucto, is also the owner of The Trail Shop on Quinpool Road. This week, Stroink has amalgamated a numbered company with Barkoink, which had presumably been two different ownership wings of The Trail Shop.

And yesterday, Stroink announced he is selling The Trail Shop.

Playing and Learning Together: Structured recreation, leisure, social club and learning opportunities for individuals with autism/ASD
Dartmouth
Directors: Megan Weatherston, Stephanie Stron, Tom Fahie, Jo-Lynn M. Fenton, -Erin E. Dooley
PALTSRLSCALOFIWAA wins the Longest Society Name award.

Halifax Hybrid Geothermal Services
Halifax
Partner: James Bardsley
Bardsley was president of the now-defunct High Performance Energy Systems. As reporter Chris Lambie explained in 2013:

[Justice Gerald] Moir paints a picture of High Performance, incorporated in 2006, as a company with poor accounting practices, where shareholder agreements were homemade.

“After a couple years, the principals found themselves embroiled in hopeless financial disputes,” Moir said.

“They engaged in dubious tactics, never facing the essential problems of the company’s flimsy legal and accounting foundation.

“Their major customers became exasperated with the results.”

High Performance was behind a high-tech geothermal energy storage facility that was 90 per cent complete at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth when Halifax Regional Municipality terminated its contract in May 2009.

The courts were involved because High Performance VPs David Stewart and Peter Beaini filed suit against Bardsley over $105,000 he took from the company. Moir agreed with the pair, and ordered Bardsley to repay the money.

Update: There’s more to this story… a supplementary court decision basically reversed the earlier decision, absolving Bardsley of any financial responsibility and leaving ownership of the drill bit with him. See more here.

Habit Studio
Dartmouth
Nature of business: “Residential design.”
Partner: Lorrie Rand
Rand designs “passive houses.” She’s also involved with the Park Avenue Community Oven.

Valley Vixen Books & Toys
3 Elm Ave, Wolfville (right behind the Library Pub)
Nature of business: “A retail store that sells feminist and LGBTQ+ themed books, gender-presentation materials, sex toys, sex peripherals (condoms, lubricants, etc.).”
Partners: Maxie Janes and Tessa Janes.
Tessa Janes is a trans woman who was profiled in the Grapevine in 2015. She is a student at Acadia University and active with the university’s Women’s Centre. She is married to Max Janes.

Tuck and Roll Events
Halifax
Partner: Meghan Scott
Scott has been promoting bands and events for some time, most recently trying to promote something she called the Canada 150 Celebration Train:

In 2015, I came up with the idea to put a music festival on a train and take it across the country to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday. I created a non-profit organization, amassed an enthusiastic Board of Directors, secured a train from VIA Rail, partnered with Universal Music Canada, confirmed countless details and logistics, and submitted an excellent proposal to the Canada 150 Fund. I spent nine months traveling the country, meeting with municipalities, provincial cultural departments, provincial music associations and other national cultural organizations, all of who supported the initiative and proclaimed their participation. Unfortunately, due to high demand within the program, the Canada 150 Fund recently decided not to fund the project, however I learned a great deal from planning this event.

Before that, Scott worked with the Evolve Fesitival.

Vibeat Dance Studio
Dartmouth
Partner: Darshini Shah
Shah explains that:

Vibeat Dance Studio is a place to learn Indian Dances, such as Indian Classical (Bharatnatyam), Folk (Garba, Raas, Ghoomar, Bhangra and Giddha) and Bollywood.

Bharatnatyam is one of the oldest form of Indian dance. It is a systematic structural classical dance which stands on the concrete foundation of history. It is distinguished with the colourful costumes, gorgeous jewellery and hair decoration. The main components of this dance are rhythm, posture and Mudras(hand symbols). It is believed that many other classical Indian dances originate from this form of dance.

Bollywood dance is the heart of Indian Bollywood films.It is a fusion of traditional and classical indian dances with the influence of some jazz, hip-hop and modern dance. Timing , rhythm, energy and sharp controled expressive movements are important elements of Bollywood dancing!

Indian folk dances are fun work outs that are essential elliments of every celibration. Different folk dances represent different regions and rituals.

Vibeat offers dance tutorials, and choreography for performances, competitions and celebrations. We also provide costumes, accessories and props required for performances.
I started learning dance at the age of 8 and it became by passion since then. I have 15 years of experience of teaching dance, choreography and performance. I want to preserve the goodness of the culture that I carry while also spreading positive messages and happiness to others.

Pups Mobile Cuts
Halifax
Nature of business: “hair cuts.”
Partner: Jaleel States
I don’t have anything to say about this, just wanted to list it.

South Shore Coffee Company 
Lower Wedgepoint
Partner: Justin Leblanc
Leblanc left “an Office Coffee Supply (OCS) company in Toronto” to return to Nova Scotia to start South Shore Coffee. Here’s hoping the coffee is better than that office coffee. Next step: figure out where Wedgepoint is.

Buchanans House of Music
Mahone Bay
Nature of business: “Music performance, education and promotion, recording services and equipment rentals.”
Partner: Paul Buchanan
You can tell Buchanan is a true Nova Scotian because he doesn’t know how to use an apostrophe for the possessive. Buchanan was the subject of a 2015 Lightnouse Now article which, among other things, described how the Lunenburg Folk Festival is just one big singles bar, how he and his wife Eilidh started a band, and how they turned an old barn into the House of Music.

The Foggy Coil Vape Shop
644 Portland Street, Dartmouth
This is that crappy little strip mall with Cora’s, the UPS store, and the payday loan place. No info on who’s going to run the vape store.

Kraken Sonar, Inc.
Nature of business: “development of handling systems for the sensors and vehicles development by Kraken.”
Kraken is a Vancouver-based firm established in 2015 that is moving into Nova Scotia. Its sonar division “is a marine technology company engaged in the design, development and marketing of advanced sonar and acoustic velocity sensors for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles used in military and commercial applications.” That is, it builds sonar for underwater drones. They used one on the Franklin expedition, but the real money is in deep sea oil and gas production.

QuirkVR
2903 Gottingen Street, Halifax
Partners: Thor Henrikson and Edward Mowbray
“QuirkVR is Atlantic Canada’s only production facilities dedicated to 360 video,” says its Facebook page, which also has a picture of a guy sitting on a box that a toilet came in, taking a virtual crap. More here.

Peggy’s Cove Cozy Cat Hotel
8597 Peggys Cove Road
Partner: David Smith
For all the crazy cat people on the shore.

ACOA awards

Natural Ocean Products Inc

Natural Ocean Products Inc. has received a $50,000 ACOA grant to “hire a manager to develop and implement a marketing plan.” National Ocean Products, explains the Discovery Centre:

is an export-oriented marine bioscience company whose President, and co-founder, Tim Cranston, has invested over a decade of research & development, time and money to realize the company’s current success.  The company’s commercialized product is a 100% natural seaweed-based organic bio-fertilizer designed to provide both water retention and growth stimulation for seed germination and plant and crop nutrition.  These product characteristics are unique to the marketplace and will not only help drought-stricken lands combat the increasingly negative effects of global warming but also help prevent water contamination from overuse of chemical fertilizers.  The company was incubated at the National Research Council’s Institute for Marine Bioscience in Halifax, where Cranston spent years studying the bioactive compounds in organic biomass such as sea plants and developing novel ways to efficiently break down plants’ cell walls to extract maximum yields of bioactive compounds such as carbohydrates, proteins and antioxidants – this resulted in the company’s innovative chemical-free “cell burst” technology.  The company has been recognized with many awards – from Innovacorp to the NRC and the Canadian Manufacturer’s & Exporters Association. As a socially- and environmentally-conscious enterprise, the business will focus on a “Triple P” bottom line, benefitting People, Plant, and Profit equally. In the process it will use locally sourced and underutilized seaweed species for manufacturing the product, creating critical skilled jobs in rural Nova Scotia.

Of course, that third P is a hell of a lot easier when you’ve got the government giving you 50K. Just sayin’.

The business is registered in East Pennant, but the ACOA project site is Cape Breton.

Island Malt House

Island Malt House, in Hunter River, PEI, has received a $273,750 ACOA loan to install malting equipment. I have no idea if this is a good or bad “investment” (damn I hate that word in government funding announcements), but it’s curious that I can’t google “Island Malt House” and get any results that are very informing.

This is a recurring problem with both ACOA and NSBI funding announcements. What good is a funding announcement if the referenced company is an enigma? The announcements should reference a company name that is registered with the Registry of Joint Stock Companies or with the federal government. Otherwise, it comes off looking like something that is trying to be hidden.

Seaview Golf and Country Club

Seaview Golf and Country Club, in North Sydney, has received a $50,500 grant to upgrade the course for the Canada 150 celebration, because we really, really, really like golf. I wonder what Meghan Scott thinks about that, given she lost out on her Celebration 150 Train idea.