20-20 vision┬áAurizon Mines is celebrating its 20th birthday in style. President and CEO David Hall describes to Gay Sutton how the company is progressing toward its aim of becoming an intermediate mining company. GoldÔÇöa precious metal that does not tarnish or corrupt. You only have to see the stunning 3,300-year-old face masks unearthed from the Egyptian desert to understand the power of its integrity and longevity.

A sense of place┬áArmour Group has grown steadily for more than 36 years with a business model that was way ahead of its time. Now it has brought environmental performance to a large office project with a first for Atlantic Canada, as Stuart McCrea explains to John OÔÇÖHanlon. Halifax, Nova Scotia, goes back 260 years, having been only recently established when Captain James Cook wintered there and carried out his first surveys. Accordingly, its history is as important to its residents as its future development.

The Ameristar Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado, is revamping its strategy to offer guests more amenities and new lodging options for more of a resort-like experience, Linda Seid Frembes reports Located 40 miles west of Denver, the town of Black Hawk, Colorado, is a former mining town that is now the stateÔÇÖs largest gambling destination. The small town is home to nearly a dozen casinos, all within an hourÔÇÖs drive of Denver International Airport.

Power play┬áAlstom Canada is taking on major projects in two essential global business sectors, maintaining AlstomÔÇÖs status as a worldwide specialist in energy and transport infrastructure. Jaclyn Beck reports. By 2015, the number of cities with over one million inhabitants will likely have climbed from 300 to 550. An estimated 350 million people will live in huge urban areas, each home to over ten million people.

Looking forward to recovery┬áIn an economic downturn, forward-looking executives introduce strategies for survival, but also prepare the business to lead during the recovery, says Rick Burris, Principal, Oliver Wight Americas. Stressful times create an environment of great risk but also of great opportunity. Economic downturns have always produced a winnowing out of weak businesses and ineffective executive teamsÔÇöbut they donÔÇÖt last forever.

Six sigma master black belt David Lengacher warns about a common oversight in change management programs. Managers must address beliefs and behavior, he says, not culture. Browse the business management section at your local bookstore and you will find many top selling management books proclaiming that all measures of performance should be directly traceable to the objectives of the organization. It is hard to argue with this, but it is often overemphasized to the degree that it can cause significant organizational side effects.

The Florida Department of Transportation is getting a rare glimpse into the world of vertical construction, thanks to its lynchpin role in the Miami Intermodal Center. Keith Regan details the lessons learned and how theyÔÇÖll pay off down the road. By any measure, the Miami Intermodal Center (MIC) is an ambitious project. It has been in the planning stages in some form since the late 1980s, when county officials recognized that creating a smoother transition into and out of Miami International Airport could have enormous economic benefits.

Tens of thousands of anxious workers in Ontario's auto industry will be off the job during the next few months as the once-mighty auto-giant General Motors today announced plans to shut down virtually all of its North American plants for January.   Company and union officials confirmed yesterday additional production cuts for December and the first few months of next year that will hit every assembly plant in Ontario.  Plunging sales in the US continue to hammer production in Canada.

Despite the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passing a similar bill on Wednesday night, the Senate on Thursday night failed to rally the 60 votes needed to bail-out General Motors and Chrysler, devastating world markets and threatening to bring more trouble to the global economy.   "I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the Senate floor in Washington last night.

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan with a group of US private-equity firms had agreed to buy BCE in June 2007 for $34.8 billion in Canadian dollars, but last night accounting firm KPMG said the company had too much debt, causing the biggest takeover in CanadaÔÇÖs history to collapse on the day it was supposed to have been completed.┬á The acquisition was terminated by the purchasing group, which also includes Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, and Merrill Lynch & Co., after auditor KPMG said it would leave CanadaÔÇÖs largest phone company insolvent.