BC Hydro

Company History: BC Hydro is a Crown corporation, owned by the government and people of British Columbia. It's our job to generate, and to purchase, reliable, affordable electricity for our customers. We operate 31 hydroelectric facilities and two thermal generating plants, with the bulk of our generation coming from dams on the Peace and Columbia river systems. We deliver electricity to customers through a network of over 78,000 kilometres of transmission and distribution lines. As a Provincial Crown corporation, the owner and sole shareholder of BC Hydro is the Province of British Columbia. We report through the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

n 1988, BC Hydro sold the railroad to Itel Rail Group who changed the name to Southern Railway of British Columbia. In 1994, Itel sold it to the Washington Group.

Successor/Parent History: Itel Corporation is a diversified transportation and logistics company. Its principal business operations are divided between the following subsidiaries: Anixter Distribution and ANTEC are leading U.S. suppliers of wiring system products for voice, data, and video communications as well as for the transmission of electrical power; Itel Container is the world's largest intermodal container lessor; and Itel Rail Corp. is a leading lessor and manager of railcars in the United States and a manager of several shortline railroads and rail car maintenance facilities. Anticipating growth potential in data networking and cable industry, Itel shifted primary emphasis to its Anixter and ANTEC units in the early 1990s. The company also made minority investments in other enterprises ranging from energy to real estate.

Itel was founded in 1967 by San Francisco businessmen Peter Redfield and Gary Friedman, primarily as a leasing company for computer systems. With $72,000 of their own capital, the partners raised $10 million in equity from Fireman's Fund Insurance Company. They hired a staff of aggressive young businesspersons to develop innovative, intricate, and often risky financial mechanisms. Itel set industry records by achieving $1 billion in revenues in its first 12 years.

Brief History: Canada is a North American country stretching from the U.S. in the south to the Arctic Circle in the north. Major cities include massive Toronto, west coast film centre Vancouver, French-speaking Montréal and Québec City, and capital city Ottawa. Canada's vast swaths of wilderness include lake-filled Banff National Park in the Rocky Mountains. It's also home to Niagara Falls, a famous group of massive waterfalls.