BC Economic Fundamentals 2008-09

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0908VICT
$800,000 bus study begins

B.C. Transit is preparing to roll out the year-long, $800,000 first stage of the Victoria Rapid Transit Working Plan later this month.

Before the end of September, the project`s steering committee, made up of representatives from Transit, the Capital Regional District and the Ministry of Transportation will meet to set out the project`s goals and requirements. A stakeholder liaison committee will also be established from the general public, businesses and other stakeholders.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonis...31-47d88b8a7ef8

 

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0908BCBC
Campbell will hear from towns about gas tax

Premier Gordon Campbell will get an earful from municipal politicians about the gas tax at their annual meeting next week.

The Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Penticton will hear 12 resolutions, mostly from northern communities, asking for relief from the gas tax.

The province instituted the 2.4-cents-a-litre gas tax in July, which it says will be revenue neutral -- the tax will be returned to the public in a different form.

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/sto...ca-95c904f9671d

 

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0908BCBC
BC Ferries looking to lower fuel surcharges by end of year

VICTORIA - BC Ferries says it hopes to reduce a fuel surcharge on its tickets by the end of this year.

BC Ferries CEO David Hahn said Thursday a drop in world fuel prices has made it possible to contemplate the change, and that his staff was looking into how much the fee can come down.

"We were pretty aggressive in trying to get [the fuel surcharge imposed] when the price was $140 a barrel," Hahn said Thursday. "I think we should be just as aggressive in seeing how fast we can roll it back," he added. "Even if it`s only a partial knock-down, every little bit helps."

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/we...10-524fb9d69565

 

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0908VANC
Building started without proper permit

VANCOUVER - The owner of a building lot who wants to build a four-storey retail-residential building at 2745 East Hastings Street has started construction on the site without a proper building permit.

According to a report from city hall staff, work on excavation and foundation footings has been carried out on the site.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/we...38-b0a81cd58675

 

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0908BCBC
Loggers urge `deep` changes for forestry

Coastal loggers say Victoria needs to craft new policies for the bleeding forest sector with the same zeal it has embraced climate change.

It`s going to take "significant and deep" changes -- from timber pricing to log-export policies and major reforms of the forest tenure system -- if loggers are to survive the cratering of the wood products market, executive members of the B.C. Truck Loggers Association told The Vancouver Sun editorial board Thursday.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/bu...e7-f8f3bb4498d7

 

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0908BCBC
Tax me now, and we`ll talk later

VANCOUVER -- The rest of Canada might be a tad fuzzy on the details of the Liberal Green Shift plan, but pity poor British Columbia. Not only do we already have a carbon tax - it`s a mystery how it might (or might not) work with a federal equivalent.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion did nothing to clear up the confusion a week ago, in a brief campaign stop at the University of Victoria. Reporters and students attending his town hall session pressed him on how he would enact the general promise to harmonize B.C.`s three-month-old tax and a new federal carbon levy.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...PStory/Business

 

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0908BCBC
LNG plant would tap Asian market

The Calgary developer of an oft-postponed liquid natural gas import terminal at Kitimat, B.C., has reversed course and now plans to build a $3-billion LNG export facility to take advantage of high demand in Asia.

The terminal would give natural gas producers in Western Canada a market outside of North America for the first time and fulfil a dream touted by politicians and developers alike for decades.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/c...93-025c798bdae0

 

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0908VICT
Planting seeds for growth

A Victoria-based income fund that is North America`s largest producer of container-grown forest seedlings is finding new ways to broaden its markets in the wake of the sharp drop in demand for lumber.

The transition, prompted by the housing crisis unfolding in the United States, comes as the publicly traded PRT Forest Regeneration Income Fund marks its 20-year anniversary and celebrates the production of its two billionth seedling.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonis...dd-3acc7718ee86

 

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0908BCBC
Home builders` report says sector leading the charge in greenhouse-gas reduction

"I`ve got something you might be interested in, mate."

Only one guy I know of calls me mate and that`s John Kenward, chief operating officer of the Canadian Home Builders` Association, who at this moment is on the other end of the line from his office.

I had just finished reading an article about the severe air pollution problem in Beijing -- and what kind of impact it might have on the health and performance of athletes at the Summer Olympics -- when my phone rang. Coincidentally, Kenward was calling to give me some information on the release of a CHBA report entitled The Energy and Greenhouse Gas Performance of Canada`s Residential Sector, 1990 to 2005.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonis...26-e557b9797ae0

 

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BC Small Town Updates: 2008-09-21

 

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0908VANC
Spirit Train spreads Games excitement

PORT MOODY - As Cree musician Dallas Arcand sang and beat a drum on a train-car stage in Port Moody on Sunday, a crowd protesting the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver drowned out his music by screaming and banging on pots.

The event was held to celebrate the kickoff of the Canada Pacific Spirit Train`s 10-day trek across the country, meant to spread excitement about the Games.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/we...49-763de3508b68

 

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0908BCBC
Island businesses face harder time borrowing money

The financial crisis in the U.S. is going to have a significant impact beyond that country, according to financial and industry experts in this country.

The Canadian economy, inextricably linked to its largest trading partner, is bracing for the fallout from the turmoil in the U.S. and its attempts to stabilize markets.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonis...fa-233cc5e61a01

 

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0908BCBC
B.C. plans to clean up logging

VANCOUVER -- The provincial government launched a new plan yesterday to reduce the millions of cubic metres of wood being left to rot after logging by changing the way it values timber.

Forests Minister Pat Bell announced the changes -- to be introduced in small pilot projects around the province this fall -- during a conference call with news media.

He said he is "very concerned" about the volume of wood being left behind in the province`s forests.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonis...99-8aacf06a2b5c

 

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0908BCBC
Incentives designed to lure condo buyers

Property developers are looking to incentives and even price cuts in some cases to tempt buyers into a market that has seen sales slow.

The enticements include decorating allowances, cash back, mortgage buy-downs or upgrades in materials.

Price corrections are happening in specific locations and among specific property types as the market adjusts to one in which homeowners are the dominant buyers and investor buyers exit the scene, according to Jennifer Podmore-Russell, managing partner of the development research firm MPC Intelligence.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/bu...63-551bda6a552b

 

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0908VICT
Squeezed Tenants dump pets to find housing, officials say

Desperate pet owners are dumping cats and kittens on the streets of Greater Victoria because, in a squeaky tight rental market, they too often have to choose between their pet and a home, say animal rescue organizations.

Clutters of feral cats, many of them ill or diseased, are appearing all over the capital region and the handful of small, volunteer organizations trying to deal with them are at their wit`s end, said Pamela Saddler, Greater Victoria Animal Crusaders president.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonis...a2-3846a8aebc7f

 

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0908BCBC
Emissions cap to hit B.C. business, industry

About 100 British Columbia businesses and industries will be affected by a new program aimed at capping greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global climate change, B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner said Tuesday.

The program involves 11 Canadian provincial and U.S. state jurisdictions that have banded together as the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) in a bid to curtail emissions through the development of a cap-and-trade system that proposes to put a price on each tonne of carbon dioxide-equivalent gases coming out of smokestacks.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/bu...92-bced4267c99d

 

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0908BCBC
Campbell budges on the carbon tax

Premier Gordon Campbell announced Wednesday he will reimburse local governments for millions of dollars in carbon tax costs just hours after municipal leaders passed a resolution asking him to rethink the levy.

In a surprise announcement at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, Campbell unveiled a "Climate Action Revenue Incentive" grant that will give municipalities back the carbon tax they pay.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/st...a2-55b9123b9895

 

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0908BCBC
New B.C. medical school pondered

Preliminary discussions have started about a second B.C. medical school to be located either at Simon Fraser University or a new satellite campus of the University of B.C.

"I need to move forward with plans to secure health professionals for this region," said Fraser Health Authority chief executive Dr. Nigel Murray, who was hired a year ago to lead the sprawling health region.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/st...fa-7a006984ed57

 

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0908BCBC
Small businesses in B.C. say they`re losing confidence

B.C.`s small businesses are increasingly pessimistic about the future.

That`s the finding of a survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which concluded that small and medium-sized businesses in B.C. have experienced four consecutive quarters of sharp decline in the index of business-owners` expectations on how their firms would perform over the next 12 months.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/bu...70-1cfa608e95f8

 

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0908BCBC
B.C. wood called solution to Mongolian housing shortage

B.C. wood and technology are being showcased in two demonstration homes in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, Forests Minister Pat Bell said Tuesday.

The slumping U.S. housing industry may not want any more Canadian lumber, but Mongolia, according to Bell, could be one way of diversifying outside North America.

Bell, who has been trying to put a cheery face on the fallout from the collapse of North American lumber prices and its impact on the B.C. forest industry, has been pushing the need for off-shore markets as an alternative.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/bu...38-0d767b4d8a2b