In a rare prime-time address last night, the premier unveiled a multimillion-dollar game plan to backstop the B.C. economy, and keep it out of recession.
In his 10-point action plan, Campbell promised to cut income taxes, putting $300 million back into people`s pockets.
1008BCBC West End apartment owners slammed for evicting tenants
Angry tenants say a wave of "renovation evictions" is changing the face of Vancouver`s West End by forcing out seniors and those on fixed incomes.
Standing outside a Barclay Street apartment yesterday, the West End Tenants Association and a group called Renters at Risk teamed up with NDP Leader Carole James to call for dramatic changes in B.C.`s Residential Tenancy Act.
1008BCBC Number of small businesses in B.C. continues to grow
There may be a strong whiff of recession in the air, but it`s apparently still a good time to start a small business in B.C.
A study released this week concluded that B.C.`s small business sector is not only thriving, but increasingly running the province`s economy -- and paying workers more as well.
The B.C. Small Business Profile 2008, produced in cooperation with the federal and provincial governments, uses data from 2007 -- the most recent year for complete information -- to answer questions about the role of small business in the province.
Highlands council nears compromise on boundary dispute
With an arbitration deadline looming, Highlands council is inching toward a compromise on its boundary dispute with the capital region.
"I`m hopeful," Mayor Mark Cardinal said when asked if his split council might reach a decision on a revised boundary expansion.
Under the five-year-old regional growth strategy, Highlands needs an amendment to its urban containment boundary to supply an expanded Bear Mountain development with Capital Regional District sewer and water.
1008BCBC Campbell`s plan is right for province: economist
Premier Gordon Campbell`s 10-point economic recovery plan unveiled Wednesday won`t set the world on fire or fix the economic crisis gripping the country, but it is probably the right move for the province according to the Royal Bank of Canada`s chief economist.
"Most of the heavy lifting has to be done by the monetary authorities, but for finance ministers and premiers, doing nothing is probably not an option," said Craig Wright. He was meeting with clients in Victoria as part of a regular swing through Western Canada.
1008BCBC Credit crisis will drag down house prices
Prices in B.C.`s housing market will plummet by 18 per cent over the next two years due to the international credit crisis, according to a report released yesterday.
"A poor economic outlook for 2009 and tight credit conditions extending into the next year will keep housing sales on a downward trajectory for several more months," said Helmut Pastrick, chief economist for Central 1 Credit Union.
Construction has temporarily been halted on a major new housing project slated for the Park Royal area in West Vancouver.
Some work has been done on the eight-hectare site at the Evelyn project by Millennium Development Corp., but now pre-sales will begin next spring and construction has been pushed back to spring/fall 2009, a company spokeswoman confirmed yesterday.
Faced with a continuing shortage of office space in Vancouver`s downtown core, the city hopes to increase office-building density, pull residential zoning from areas and push commercial space in Yaletown.
Council will vote Tuesday on sending the plan out for public consultation, which is likely to provoke debate on its proposal to lift height restrictions in some areas and ban new condos in others.
1008BCBC Energy board predicts rosy future for B.C. gas
Natural gas reserves in British Columbia may be large enough to overcome declining gas production in Alberta in the coming decades, according to the National Energy Board.
Canada`s natural gas production has been in slow decline, year over year for most of this decade because conventional gas reserves in the nation`s largest fossil fuel reserve, the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, are slowly running dry.
1008BCBC B.C. politicians hoping 2010 Games will shield them from turbulent economy
VANCOUVER -- As part of his rapidly revised financial outlook this week, B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen produced a series of line graphs to illustrate the progress of key economic determinants. The steep plunges by the jagged dark lines resembled something out of the darkest days of the Depression, or the path of someone falling off a cliff. Down, down, down. No sector of the province`s economy expects to be untouched, and that includes the vibrant, labour-intensive tourism industry that has helped see B.C. through some dark days before.
1008VICT Provincial real estate sliding into recession
Imagine a fence and you`ll find many potential Greater Victoria home buyers and sellers sitting on it, watching the financial global crisis and hearing that B.C.`s once-roaring housing market has fallen into a recession.
The evidence: Slumping sales, rising inventory, tightening credit, stalled housing developments and plain old fear as financial uncertainty sweeps around the world.
1008BCBC Bear Mountain builders hit with marketing fines
Two more Bear Mountain resort projects and their developers have been fined for marketing properties past the deadline allowed under B.C. real estate rules.
A $30,000 fine has been levied against Stonehaven Enterprises Ltd., whose directors are Philip Leseur, Gerald Hartwig and Fraser McColl. The directors are also jointly responsible for a further $10,922 in penalties, imposed by B.C.`s Financial Institutions Commission. Hartwig and McColl are local developers and Leseur is vice-president of legal and corporate affairs for Bear Mountain resort, a $2.4-billion development on Skirt Mountain.
1008BCBC `Phishing` scam uses BBB name to target consumers
The Better Business Bureau has issued a warning about phoney e-mails and blog posts that target consumers and businesses, asking them to register for software using the BBB`s name.
BBB president and CEO Lynda Pasacreta said the messages and posts are part of a "large-scale `phishing` scam leveraging the trusted nature of the BBB name to entice recipients and bloggers to open messages and access attachments or links." She said anyone receiving such e-mails or reading blogs requiring an update of contact information and the registration of software with the BBB shouldn`t click on any part of the link or respond to the message, as it would likely allow viruses or spyware to enter their computer.
What it`s called: The bed bug, or in Latin, Cimex lectularius.
What it looks like: A small wingless oval-shaped insect, no more than half a centimetre long, that looks like something out of the Cretaceous period. Its light tan to deep brown flat body is formed by six distinct horizontal plates that give it the appearance of armour, while its head is vaguely reminiscent of a triceratops.
1008BCBC Real estate slowdown causes jump in B.C. bankruptcies: experts
Dropping real estate values are sending more British Columbians into financial crisis and causing a spike in personal bankruptcies, according to professional debt counsellors.
Federal Industry Ministry data show that B.C. consumer bankruptcy filings for August were up more than 10 per cent over the same period last year. August also saw a 16.3 per cent increase in proposal filings, an alternative to bankruptcy.
- If rent or utilities are unpaid, a landlord can issue a legal eviction notice after 10 days.
- If the tenant is repeatedly late paying rent, or seriously jeopardizes the health or safety or lawful right of another occupant or the landlord, unreasonably disturbs another occupant or the landlord or puts the landlord`s property at significant risk, the landlord may issue a legal eviction notice of one month.
People who unknowingly purchase homes that have been used in the illegal drug trade may put their health and their lives at risk, according to a group of realtors, firefighters and civic politicians.
And there is no certain way of determining whether a home has been used as a drug house, Kelvin Neufeld, president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, said in an interview.
1008BCBC Highway 97 shut indefinitely over slide fears
Highway 97, the major route between Penticton and Kelowna, has been closed indefinitely due to fears of a rock slide from an unstable slope above the highway between Peachland and Summerland.
Geotechnical engineers who examined the slope yesterday noted that fissures in the mountainside had widened since they were examined on Sunday.
