THE ASHER FAMILY BUSINESSES Ali saw the family's business interests as having six components: (1) construction projects for private clients; (2) a parcel of undeveloped land in Kamloops, British Columbia; (3) residential income properties in Vernon, British Columbia; (4) a commercial income property based in a retail strip mall in Langley, British Columbia; (5) an income property in Port Moody, British Columbia, with a house of worship under a long-term lease; and (6) the property of the Asher family residence in Richmond, which included a significant amount of undeveloped land with development potential. Each of these components needed to be considered individually as they all had different cash-flow generating abilities, different levels of debt, different capital gains potential, and different ownership structures. The Vernon Properties The Asher family held two properties in Vernon. Vernon was a quiet town in the Okanagan region of British Columbia known for farming and wine production. Vernon was considered a retirement community and was a popular destination for investors seeking leisure properties. These investors typically came from Alberta, which had experienced an economic boom between 2004 and 2012 that was driven by high oil prices. However, with the fall of oil prices from over $105 per barrel to recent levels of around $50 per barrel, the real estate market in Vernon had become soft. The Vernon properties were not currently listed on the open market, and their market values were fairly close to the original purchase prices. While Aziz wanted to sell these properties, Ali knew that his father was not desperate and that he would not accept a loss. As with the Kamloops property, Ali believed that the Vernon properties were a long-term hold. The Vernon properties were not completely vacant land. Collectively, they had three small houses that were tenanted and generated a combined rent of around $2,500 per month. This was not enough to cover the mortgages of the two properties, so family members used the annual loss on these properties as a tax writeoff. Servicing the debt on the Vernon properties was not posing a problem for the family, at present. 3. What are the relevant criteria for evaluating the different alternatives? The criteria specifically considered are short-term effectiveness, long-term effectiveness, permanence, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Each alternative should address how each source of contamination is to be eliminated, reduced or controlled, and how site risk is to be reduced. In this case we have 6 components regarding The Asher Estate and we have to look at each one to determine their short and long effectiveness (etc.)