BC Economic Fundamentals 2008-08

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Bikes jostle for transit space

Cyclists are demanding TransLink do more to accommodate bike riders on public transit as more commuters switch to two wheels to beat high gas prices.

The number of people seeking to take bicycles on buses and SkyTrain has been building.

And TransLink reports more riders are breaking the rule that bans taking bikes on SkyTrain in the peak direction during the morning and afternoon rushes.

"There`s been a lot more pressure on SkyTrain with people trying to sneak onto the peak direction trains with bikes," spokesman Ken Hardie said.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/lan...s/27034054.html

 

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Helping Langley business embrace the 2010 Olympics

Shirley Stewart, the executive director of the Langley Spirit of B.C. Community Committee, wants to help Langley businesses learn about and benefit from the opportunities arising from the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as other major sporting events held in the Lower Mainland.

Stewart said a key part of that goal is letting businesses know that they don`t have to be located in Vancouver to bid for Olympic contracts.

"The Spirit of B.C. movement is here to help businesses and communities feel that these aren`t just Vancouver`s Games or Whistler`s Games, they`re B.C.`s Games," she said.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/lan...s/27034154.html

 

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City loses land control dispute

If there is one commonality in the response to Justice Catherine Bruce`s decision on the Simpson Covenants, it`s that both sides of this dispute believe the other is perpetuating misinformation.

On Thursday morning, Save the Heritage Simpson Covenant Society`s frontwoman Sharron Simpson, and her lawyer Tom Smithwick, held a press conference at the Kelowna Yacht Club where they accused the City of Kelowna of slipping a "red herring" before the press when the court decision was released Wednesday.

The city and the Simpson family have been locked in a battle over the lakefront lots where City Hall, Memorial Arena, the Kelowna Museum, the Yacht Club, Stuart and Kerry Park sit—land Kelowna pioneer Stanley Simpson sold to the city under an agreement whereby it would be for civic use purposes only and not for commercial development.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/okanagan_similk...s/27008764.html

 

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Be as careful on the Internet as you would anywhere else

I must be a veritable magnet for Internet scams as they find their way into my mailbox quite frequently.

I received an e-mail this week from a female with a strange looking e-mail address.

It is puzzling how this e-mail, addressed to [email protected], which is not my address, got into my inbox.

The content of the e-mail was "My dating antioch, Illinois. I am a 16-year-old woman. Sign-up is fast and free."

One was to click on the last sentence, which I didn`t do. It isn`t paranoia but common sense to stay away from anything suspicious.

If this "woman" really is only 16, then I feel sad for her. But what some people still don`t realize is that any age given on the Internet is suspect.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/okanagan_similk...s/27063929.html

 

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London Drugs opens new store in Westside

London Drugs on the Westside is opening on Tuesday, Aug. 26.

The new store manager is Peter Walton, who has relocated from the Lower Mainland. There are a lot of "new firsts" for this Westbank store: It`s the first London Drugs to have a Canada Post outlet, it`s the first London Drugs built on First Nations land, and it will be the first in the valley to offer a home nursing dispensary. Carrie Grant, who previously worked at the Kelowna store for many years and then transferred to Vernon, is also the new cosmetic manager at the Westbank location. You can access the new store off Highway 97 at Butt Road. Call 250-768-8504.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/okanagan_similk...s/26900784.html

 

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Number of building permits down at end of July

Building permits in Kamloops were down for the month of July, dropping to numbers not seen since before the recent boom in construction.

Single-family dwelling permits saw the largest drop, with a total of 15 permits issued in July, compared to 35 the same time last year.

Overall, residential building permits, which also include multi-family units, fell to 63 from 79 the year before.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_thompson_nic...s/26882464.html

 

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No answers yet for Union Bay sewage treatment

The road to sewage treatment plans will be one walked alone by Kensington Island Properties, until a regional study is complete and plan developed.

During a Comox Valley Regional District committee of the whole meeting this week, KIP vice-president Brian McMahon raised the issue of sewage treatment that`s been in limbo in the area for years.

"We need some input from the regional district now in order to handle the waste-water treatment plant," said McMahon to the board. "We`re trying to make a decision as to where we`re going with the wastewater treatment and we don`t want to exclude these folks."

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_islan...s/26983529.html

 

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City turning it on for tourists

Public-relations specialist Laura Ballance, who will be stickhandling the journalist hordes at the 2010 media centre in Vancouver, has just returned from Beijing where she checked out the 2008 Olympic sights and sounds.

I have to admit I approached my five-day trip to Beijing with the buoyant confidence of a lottery ticket buyer.

Billed as one of the most fast paced and dynamic cities in the world, Beijing would be alive with the Olympic Games when I arrived, and I was going to take in the majesty and pageantry of an ancient, albeit overpopulated, city. So suffice to say I had drunk the Kool-Aid before I even set foot in China.

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/sto...7a-4f7fc2d2aef1

 

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How to quiz your financial adviser

In most initial meetings with financial advisers, it is usually the advisers who ask a bunch of questions to see where they can be of service. Often they are armed with well-rehearsed questions to try to uncover problems so they can provide solutions. As important as this is, you also should arm yourself with some questions so you can interview the adviser.

A relationship with a good financial adviser is probably one of the most important professional relationships you can have. Make sure you take the time to ask key questions. Although there are a myriad of questions you should ask, here are three questions that I think are important.

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/mon...e0-1fc336dfb626

 

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Highlands gets $400,000 for new municipal hall

Highlands is $400,000 closer to getting a new community hall.

The municipality has received $400,000 in funding through the provincial Towns for Tomorrow program toward construction of the new facility planned on municipally owned land near the Caleb Pike Heritage Park.

The proposal is to build a combination community hall with new municipal offices at a cost of about $1 million, Mayor Mark Cardinal said.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonis...ff-2dcef97ec3b6

 

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Games open doors for B.C. company

BEIJING -- Most people would be intimidated by trying to start a new business in a place like China: Despite its astonishing double-digit economic growth, it can be a bewildering place for a foreign start-up to establish and survive.

But that`s what attracted Debra Lykkemark to Beijing, where she`s starting a high-end catering company.

"It`s exciting and terrifying at the same time," said the well-known owner of Vancouver`s Culinary Capers Catering.

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/sto...24-51ca90fa36f0

 

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Vanoc determined to fill every seat for 2010 Games

When International Olympic Committee members go to the gold-medal hockey game in Vancouver in 2010, they`ll be sitting in the upper bowl of GM Place, a long way away from the front rows that will be sold to John Q. Public.

And when the media go to write about the Games, they`ll find far fewer desks in the prime spots of the venues, replaced with more seats for the paying public.

That`s because the Vancouver Organizing Committee is determined to find more seats to sell in order to solve an historic illness that has afflicted the Games -- Empty Seat Syndrome.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/st...e2-da3db8912efb

 

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Russian tax could boost B.C. forestry

A looming Russian tax on log exports could push markets for North American wood products into the most dramatic supply-side shock since the northern spotted owl crisis of the 1990s, a report by Vancouver consultant Russ Taylor forecasts.

And that has some coastal loggers saying it could open up new opportunities for the beleaguered sector.

"Russia is a huge exporter of logs. A restriction in the amount of logs coming out of Russia will create demand elsewhere, so it could be an extremely positive thing," said Dave Lewis, executive director of the B.C. Truck Loggers Association. "But we still have to be able to access [potential markets]," he said, referring to restrictions on B.C. log exports.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/bu...f7-e6662ccabac4

 

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Security hurting cross-border trade, industry minister warns U.S.

OTTAWA - Industry Minister Jim Prentice played the Canadian oil card to an American audience Monday in a bid to lubricate the flow of cross-border trade, which he warned is being gummed up by post-9/11 security measures.

And he trumped his message at the Americas Competitive Forum in Atlanta with a promise of tougher environmental regulations on Canadian oilsands development, addressing concerns that have been expressed in the U.S. about the environmental damage of such development.

"Since 1990, industry has reduced the CO2 [carbon dioxide] intensity of oilsands production by 45 per cent," Prentice said in the speech, copies of which were released in Ottawa. "We will also be introducing tough new environmental regulations that will require even more dramatic cuts."

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/bu...c5-b6ad075e6ae7

 

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Mackenzie mill sold for $20M

An agreement has been reached to sell the Mackenzie pulp mill to a numbered B.C. company for a price of up to $20 million.
If the sale of the former Pope and Talbot pulp mill goes through, it could see at least one of Mackenzie`s six shuttered forest manufacturing operations back up and running. Mackenzie, a community 175 kilometres north of Prince George, has been hit hard by an unprecedented Canada-wide forestry downturn.
More than 1,200 people have been off the job as the pulp mill, several sawmills and a newsprint mill have been shut down in the community of 4,700.

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/2008081...-$20m.html

 

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Langford wants crackdown on illegal campsites

Faced with mountains of garbage piling up in the woods and evidence linking illegal campsites to drug use and thefts, Langford wants to make its community safety officers special constables with the authority to go onto private property to detain and ticket trespassers as well as order them off the property.

"What we`re finding is that there`s a lot of drug activity and there`s a lot of theft activity," said Mayor Stew Young.

"They set up in the forested area and we`ll go in and see a lot of copper wire and bikes stolen and just a lot of localized theft. So we`re going to start to go in there and charge them."

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonis...fe-824c23f6d1b1

 

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Langford to zone against cell towers

Langford is changing its zoning to make it illegal for transmission towers to be erected in residential neighbourhoods.

In the face of residents` complaints about a 29-metre cell tower proposed for 709 Latoria Road, the municipality is changing its zoning bylaw allowing towers to be constructed only in commercial areas.

It has also has formed a consultation committee of staff and residents to quickly draft a municipal policy on tower siting.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonis...9a-55d9a5f4f82a

 

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Controversial Tsawwassen power poles now in place

VANCOUVER -- Call them the unfriendly giants -- the 19 massive power poles that Tsawwassen residents fought to keep out.

On Sunday, the last of the towers went up at one of the more controversial sites -- South Delta Secondary School.

At 36.5 metres high "they`re gigantic," said Duncan Holmes, a member of the board of the Tsawwassen Residents Against Higher Voltage Overhead Lines.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonis...ca-9d6ef20d516d

 

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Realtors see cycle on downswing

If he had to do it all over again, Kyle Lake would never buy another pre-sale home. But, if some real estate experts are right, buyers are not likely to see the trend again for another seven to 10 years.

Lake and his partner, Ashley Hughes, are among the tens of thousands of British Columbia families and individuals caught in a hot real estate market in the last few years. To get into the market, they chose to buy a condo that had not yet been built, commonly referred to as a pre-sale.

A pre-sale is a contract for the purchase of a home, usually a unit in a condominium, made prior to its completion. In some projects, sales have been made before construction has even started.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonis...47-613793f23308

 

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Port Mann twinning to start this year

METRO VANCOUVER - Construction on the controversial twinning of the Port Mann Bridge will start later this year, the B.C. transportation ministry said Tuesday as it identified a group of companies selected to negotiate a contract to build the project.

The group, called BC Connect, includes Australia`s Macquarie Group; U.S.-based Transtoll Inc., Flatiron Constructors Canada Ltd., a subsidiary of a U.S. company; and Metro Vancouver`s Peter Kiewit Sons Co.

Kiewit is already upgrading and will operate the Sea to Sky Highway.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/we...70-589ef8f9477f