February 2011 BC Economic Fundamentals

[Ally]

Enbridge pipeline project faces more opposition





Enbridge Inc.'s proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline hit renewed waves of opposition this week.




Another group of first nations communities has publicly vowed to reject the financial benefits package Enbridge devised to encourage their participation in the project and the introduction of another privatemembers is making its way through Parliament seeking to ban oil tanker traffic off British Columbia's north coast.




On Tuesday night, a group of communities under the name Yinka Dene Alliance told Enbridge officials at a community meeting in Prince George that they "categorically reject" a financial benefits package offered by the company over their environmental concerns about the project.




"There is no amount of money that would get us involved," Geraldine Thomas-Flurer, coordinator of the alliance, which represents five firstnation communities along the pipeline's route in the central interior of B.C.




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[Ally]

Opinion: HST's impact on consumers less than most predictions





VANCOUVER - For every $165 an "average" B.C. family spends, the HST is adding $1.




Of course, almost nobody behaves in a precisely "average" way, so individual experiences will vary. But the point is that, according to a detailed study based on StatsCan price and spending data and adjusted for inflation, "the HST resulted in a 0.6 of one per cent increase in overall consumer prices in B.C."




That's at the low end of what a range of economists -everybody from the right-leaning Fraser Institute to the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives -forecast before the tax was introduced, though it's not far enough off the estimates to be a real surprise. And it's no surprise at all if you're familiar with a study on the HST impact in Ontario, which found it to be 0.6 per cent, precisely the same.




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[Ally]

Vancouver remains world's most livable city: Survey




Vancouver topped the list of the world's most livable cities for the fifth straight year, while Melbourne claimed second place from Vienna and Australian and Canadian cities dominated the list's top 10 spots.




In the annual survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit, the Canadian West Coast city and 2010 Winter Olympics host scored 98 per cent on a combination of stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure -a score unchanged from last year.




It has topped the list from 2007. Although Melbourne since the Austrian capital for a silver medal, there was no other major change near the top of the list of 140 cities worldwide. Auckland, N.Z., came in 10th.





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[Ally]

Consumer Impacts of BC's Harmonized Sales Tax



Even before its implementation, British Columbia`s HST has been fraught with controversy and misconceptions`and these concerns continue to today. The public has been particularly troubled that the HST is a `tax grab,` with a large shift in tax burdens from businesses to consumers. Fuelled by vocal opponents and the highly visible nature of the tax, the public has perceived that the HST bites deeply into their pocketbooks.





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[Ally]

Lumber sales to China set new standard in 2010




VICTORIA ` For the first time ever, China is the number-one overseas destination for B.C. lumber in terms of value as well as volume, Minister of Forests, Mines and Lands Pat Bell announced following a record-breaking month and year for exports to China.





B.C. lumber exports to China for 2010 are valued at about $687 million, more than double the value of shipments in 2009 and, for the first time ever, exceed the value of softwood products shipped to Japan.





`We are seeing huge jumps in the value of softwood products going to China as they continue to place larger orders for higher quality and better grades of lumber,` said Bell. `December shipments alone worth nearly $107 million capped a sales year that goes in the ledger as the best ever for B.C. lumber exports to China. It`s the fifth year in a row that we have set new annual highs for both volume and value.`





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[Ally]

BC Hydro applies for $860M upgrade of Ruskin Dam and Powerhouse in Mission





VANCOUVER - BC Hydro is including an $860-million upgrade of its Ruskin Dam power facility near Mission in its ambitious three-year $6-billion capital plan to refurbish and expand the province's electrical infrastructure, the utility said Tuesday.







BC Hydro said it plans to submit an application to the British Columbia Utilities Commission for the project, which will see the 80-year-old Ruskin facility rebuilt between 2012 and 2018 and will end up producing enough electricity to power 33,000 homes.







`The upgrades at Ruskin Dam are just one example of the real need to keep our heritage assets working hard for British Columbians,` B.C. Energy Minister Steve Thomson said in a news release.




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