B.C. Auditor General Carol Bellringer says the government is under reporting the budget surplus by $5.7 billion. (Auditor General of British Columbia)
B.C.’s auditor general say the province is understating the budget surplus presented Thursday by $5.7 billion.
In an opinion paper released Friday, Carol Bellringer says the true surplus should have been recorded as $7.2 billion rather than $1.5 billion reported by Finance Minister Carole James.
“What we’re saying is that the financial health of the province is actually better than reported and that the accumulation of [the surplus] is quite significant,” said Bellringer.
Bellringer said the discrepancy is a result of the government choosing not to adhere to generally accepted accounting principles, specifically in the way it accounts for “restrictive contributions,” including funds received from the federal government for capital projects.
“… government records the revenues over a much longer period than the standards allow, meaning these revenues have been under-reported and cloud the province’s true financial position,” wrote Bellringer.
In an emailed statement, the Ministry of Finance said other jurisdictions do the same thing.
B.C. Finance Minister Carole James. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
“This disagreement in accounting application does not mean there is additional surplus available for spending. Those transfers are already being used to invest in the services and infrastructure that British Columbians count on.”
The ministry sent an example.
“If the federal government provided contributions to build a school, the expectation would be that the B.C. government would build the school and use it as a school, it said.
Accounting requires us to amortize the school over 40 years, reporting an expense in each of those 40 years as the school is used to deliver education. From a fiscal perspective, it makes sense to recognize the federal contributions as revenue on that same basis, not as a one-time lump sum of revenue.”
But Bellringer said the majority of provinces and territories in Canada — with a few exceptions — adhere to the public sector accounting standard her office is promoting.
She said it’s important to stick to that standard to create consistency in reporting and allow for B.C.’s financial statements to be more easily compared with other Canadian jurisdictions.
In 2010 the government changed the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act, allowing for modifications to how restrictive contributions were accounted for.
You know what? A 5 to 10 percent tax on these guys’ earnings, and all of those who make over, let’s say $200,000 per year, would not affect them much but it would divert some money to those at the bottom living under $20,000 per year. This obscene wealth inequality has to come to an end.
Powerex, UBC and BC Hydro bosses lead top-tier earners for 2018-2019
UBC president Santa Ono ranked 2nd on the list of B.C’s top earners, drawing $601,772 in salary, benefits and other compensation. (UBC)
The B.C. government has released its annual list of the province’s highest-paid public-sector employees, with executives from Powerex, UBC and BC Hydro holding the top three spots.
The Ministry of Finance said it discloses executive compensation to give the public “a clear, concise description of the link between pay and performance for senior management and executive employees in key decision-making positions across the provincial public sector.”
The disclosure requirements apply to more than 120 of B.C.’s public sector employers, including the public service, Crown corporations, post-secondary institutions, research universities and health authorities.
School districts disclose by the end of the year.
The highest paid executives in B.C.’s public sector in 2018-19:
1. Thomas Bechard, president and CEO, Powerex
Total compensation: $938,499
Salary: $358,800
Holdback/bonus: $540,000
Benefits: $19,348
Pension: $17,512
All other compensation: $2,839
2. Santa J. Ono, president and vice-chancellor, University of British Columbia
Total compensation: $601,772
Salary: $470,000
Holdback/bonus: $0
Benefits: $11,931
Pension: $46,050
All other compensation: $73,791
3. Chris O’Riley, president and COO, BC Hydro
Total compensation: $554,900
Salary: $365,190
Holdback/bonus: $34,223
Benefits: $29,273
Pension: $78,516
All other compensation: $47,698
4. Brenda Leong, chair, B.C. Securities Commission
Total compensation: $502,848
Salary: $439,764
Holdback/bonus: $0
Benefits: $12,754
Pension: $43,317
All other compensation: $7,013
5. Ken Cretney, president and CEO, B.C. Pavilion Corporation
Total compensation: $472,951
Salary: $247,797
Holdback/bonus: $173,872
Benefits: $13,254
Pension: $24,408
All other compensation: $13,620
6. Nicolas Jimenez, president and CEO, ICBC
Total compensation: $468,783
Salary: $381,601
Holdback/bonus: $0
Benefits: $17,443
Pension: $67,257
All other compensation: $2,482
7. Andrew Szeri, vice-president academic and provost, University of British Columbia
Total compensation: $444,415
Salary: $395,698
Holdback/bonus: $0
Benefits: $8,312
Pension: $38,620
All other compensation: $1,785
8. Andrew Petter, president, Simon Fraser University
Total compensation: $439,910
Salary: $328,870
Holdback/bonus: $33,000
Benefits: $9,986
Pension: $32,468
All other compensation: $35,586
9. James Cassels, president and vice chancellor, University of Victoria
Total compensation: $432,979
Salary: $378,388
Holdback/bonus: $0
Benefits: $7,318
Pension: $47,138
All other compensation: $135
10. Mark Poweska, executive vice-president, operations, BC Hydro
Total compensation: $422,746
Salary: $285,667
Holdback/bonus: $54,303
Benefits: $20,484
Pension: $61,418
All other compensation: $874
The Public Sector Employers Act requires disclosure of an organization’s CEO/president and the next four highest ranking or highest paid executives with decision-making authority, earning an annualized base salary of $125,000 or more during a fiscal year.
Minimum-wage workers in Vancouver and Toronto would need to clock about a 100-hour workweek just to pay the rent on a two-bedroom apartment, the CCPA has calculated. (Paul Sakuma/Associated Press)
The odds of a minimum wage worker being able to afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment in just about every city in Canada are next to nil, a new report from an Ottawa-based think-tank says.
Looking at Statistics Canada data on wages from last October, and rental information from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) that same month, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) crunched the numbers on the almost 800 neighbourhoods across Canada’s three dozen largest cities to see how easy it is to find a place to live on the minimum wage.
The results were bleak.
By the CCPA’s math, a minimum wage earner could afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment in just 24 neighbourhoods across the country, out of 795 analyzed. If the standard drops to a one-bedroom, the picture looks marginally better, as the report found 70 neighbourhoods affordable for minimum wage workers , but that’s still less than one out of every 10 — and most are far from downtown cores where jobs are more plentiful and generally higher paying.
Concern over Canada’s housing market tends to focus on homeowners, CCPA economist David MacDonald said, but almost five million Canadians — about a third of all households — are renters, and they face affordability issues that are just as pressing.
“Many of these renters, particularly those working at or near minimum wage, on fixed incomes or single-income households, are at risk of being priced out of modest apartments no matter where they look,” he said.
In its analysis, the CCPA calculated the income that a minimum-wage worker would earn over a standard 40-hour workweek, and then cross-referenced it against rental data from the CMHC. The report also assumes the rule of thumb that a person should spend no more than 30 per cent of income on housing to avoid having other financial issues. Theoretically, a minimum-wage worker could simply work more hours, or drastically cut back on other expenses somehow, but that isn’t quite the same thing as making an apartment affordable.
Add it all up and the standards of affordability are looking increasingly out of reach.
Leading the way is Vancouver, where a theoretical minimum-wage worker would have to work 84 hours a week to afford the average-priced one-bedroom apartment, or 112 hours a week for a two-bedroom apartment.
Toronto was not far behind, where that same worker would have to work a 79-hour week for a one-bedroom, and a 96-hour week for a two-bedroom apartment.
“A sole income earner working full time should be able to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment for their family in a country as rich as Canada,” MacDonald said. “But in most Canadian cities, including Canada’s largest metropolitan areas of Toronto and Vancouver, there are no neighbourhoods where it is possible to afford a one- or two-bedroom unit on a single minimum wage.”
Victoria, Calgary and Ottawa round out the top five. In all three places, that same worker would have to clock a 70-hour workweek at least just to pay the rent on a two-bedroom. In all three, you’d need to earn at least $26 an hour working 40 hours a week to afford a standard two-bedroom apartment.
‘It becomes a struggle’
Norma Jean Quibell lives in Ottawa with her partner and their two children, aged four and 10. As a stay-at-home mother, she says she’s well aware how hard it is to make ends meet on a modest income.
“It becomes a struggle where you have to kind of pick and choose which area is going to have to be left behind for a month because our rent is so high,” she said.
‘In a country as Canada everyone deserves a reasonable place to live,’ CCPA economist David Macdonald says. (www.policyalternatives.ca)
About 50 per cent of the couple’s income goes toward the almost $1,500 rent on their two-bedroom apartment. While she knows that is on the high side, they are reluctant to move because their daughter has a disability that they get help for through a local program. If they move, they would lose access to that program.
“It makes it extremely difficult for us some months to be able to afford certain bills,” she said.
The CCPA only found three cities where the local minimum wage would be enough to comfortably afford a one-bedroom apartment and have enough left over, if working 40 hours a week. All are in Quebec: Sherbrooke, Saguenay and Trois-Rivières.
Ten more cities — Kingston, London, Windsor, St. Catharines and Sudbury (Ontario), Moncton and Saint John (N.B.), and Quebec City, Montreal and Gatineau (Quebec) — were found to be unaffordable on average, but had some neighbourhoods where a minimum wage worker could afford a one-bedroom. A two-bedroom is still out of reach in all of them, however, except for once again some neighbourhoods in St. Catharines and Sudbury.
Soaring rents in places like Toronto and Vancouver have been well documented, but the CCPA report suggests they aren’t just a big-city problem. Indeed, even places that don’t qualify as cities are impacted.
Meghan Mutrie, who lives in Canmore, Alta, says that town has the same rental problems as anywhere else. She said she’s had to put up with all manner of poor housing options before landing her current suite, a garage unit in a new subdivision that suits her well.
She has managed to make ends meet by working more than one job at times, but she worries about those who have less than her. “Many people are being outpriced,” she said. “I have friends who live in a trailer while they rent out their own place to make it work, and they own their own businesses.”
“You can’t have a town without all of the levels of jobs,” she says.
Across the country, the CCPA tabulates that a worker putting in 40 hours a week would have to earn $22.40 an hour to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment. It drops to $20.20 an hour for a one-bedroom unit.
The highest minimum wage in the country is $15 an hour in Alberta, a highwater mark that is still well short of both of those levels. In some provinces, the minimum wage is barely $11 an hour — less than half what it takes for a two-bedroom, according to the CCPA. And roughly a quarter of Canadian workers within $3 of the local minimum wage, the CCPA says.
“Until those wages are pushing $20 an hour, and more of the available jobs are full time, rental costs will remain a significant burden on many workers,” MacDonald said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces joint funding for new BC Transit buses.
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During a stop in Victoria on Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $79 million in joint funding for 118 new buses in Victoria and other communities across the province.
Trudeau made the announcement alongside Premier John Hogan and BC Transit President and CEO Erinn Pinkerton at the BC Transit corporate office on Gorge Road East.
According to the federal government, the new buses will replace others at the end of their life cycle or increase capacity in communities where ridership is going up.
The funding, which includes contributions from municipalities, will also be used for 10 long-range electric buses in Greater Victoria. Those buses will support BC Transit’s new NextRide technology, which allows passengers to see the location of their bus, and closed-circuit television cameras.
“By investing in public transit, we fight climate change, reduce commute times, strengthen the middle class and build more sustainable communities,” Trudeau’s Liberals said in a statement.
Trudeau is attending a Liberal Party fundraising event at Victoria’s Delta Ocean Pointe Resort later this evening. The event, called In Conversation with the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau” is a ticketed event, costing $300 for regular attendees and $100 for members of the Liberal Party’s Laurier Club.
Finance Minister Carole James says she isn’t concerned about the impact of a $315 million reduction in property transfer tax revenue as the real estate market softens. (Chad Hipolito/Canadian Press)
The British Columbia government ended its fiscal year with an operating surplus of $1.5 billion with the collection of more revenue from taxation and less money from a softening real estate market.
The 2018-19 public accounts released today by Finance Minister Carole James show that the province has eliminated its operating debt for the first time in 40 years.
The higher-than-expected surplus is primarily due to $2.9 billion in increased revenue, largely driven by higher personal and corporate income tax and new taxes, including a speculation tax and employer health tax.
James says she isn’t concerned about a $315-million reduction in property transfer tax revenue, saying the previous Liberal government relied on a speculative real estate market to grow resources while her NDP government has a long-term economic plan.
She says her budget in 2018 put B.C. on a different path with a record $1-billion investment in child care and $7 billion for affordable housing, and the surplus puts B.C. in a stable position amid signs of global economic insecurity.
James also says her government has chosen to confront financial challenges at the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia and BC Hydro, and both Crown corporations are now on a more sustainable path.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in a meeting with Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, Ont. on July 15, 2019.
SEAN KILPATRICK/CANADIAN PRESS. COURTESY OF CBC
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be in Victoria on Thursday for a campaign event and a public transit announcement with Premier John Horgan.
Trudeau is then scheduled to attend a Liberal Party fundraising event at Victoria’s Delta Ocean Pointe Resort. The event, called In Conversation with the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau” is a ticketed event, costing $300 for regular attendees and $100 for members of the Liberal Party’s Laurier Club.
The tugboat Nathan E. Stewart in the waters of the Seaforth Channel near Bella Bella, B.C.
KYLE ARTELLE/HEILTSUK NATION
The company responsible for a fuel spill that contaminated the fishing territory of a First Nation on British Columbia’s central coast has been fined $2.9 million but the chief of the Heiltsuk says the sentence is a long way from justice.
Texas-based Kirby Corp. pleaded guilty in May to three separate counts after the tug Nathan E. Stewart ran aground and sank, spilling 110,000 litres of diesel and heavy oils in October 2016.
The guilty pleas were under the Fisheries Act, the Migratory Birds Convention Act and the Pilotage Act for the spill that damaged both fish and birds, and for failing to have a pilot aboard the vessel.
The Transportation Safety Board ruled last May that a crew member missed a planned course change because he fell asleep while alone on watch.
Chief Marilyn Slett said Tuesday the Heiltsuk Nation wanted the company to be banned from its territorial waters until there is proper restitution in accordance with the nation’s traditional laws to respect the land and people who depend on the sea for sustenance and jobs.
Slett, along with elders and youth as well as representatives for Kirby, participated in a sentencing circle during provincial court proceedings held in a gymnasium in Bella Bella before Judge Brent Hoy announced the sentence.
“The effects of the spill have rippled throughout our community,” Slett said in her victim-impact statement. “Our community was traumatized by the actions of visitors in our territory, and we have collectively grieved and mourned our losses.”
“It was emotional,” she said afterwards. “We’re still feeling the effects of this spill and we’re continuing to try and resume life to see what we can do moving forward to ensure that this doesn’t happen to us again.”
The community still does not have adequate resources to respond to any future incidents, Slett said.
Families can’t fish in Gale Creek and the nation is trying to gain justice through a civil lawsuit against Kirby, Slett said, adding the company has chosen not to do an environmental impact assessment.
“We have a principle that if we take care of the land the land will take care of us,” she said.
Paul Welsh, spokesman for Kirby, declined to comment but issued a statement from the company.
“We sincerely regret this incident and we have amended our operating procedures, training, auditing, promotion protocols and equipment to help reduce the potential for future accidents,” it said.
An agreed statement of facts presented in court says a crewman who fell asleep was awoken when the tug boat ran aground and that Kirby has since installed an alarm system on all of its vessels in case a navigator fails to acknowledge a visual warning.
“Since reporting began in 1924, the federal government reports a total of 25 people in six provinces have died of rabies in Canada. There have been three human deaths from exposure to rabid bats in this country since 2000.”
An eastern pipistrelle bat, a species that is linked with human rabies cases. (Merlin D. Tuttle/Bat Conservation International/Associated Press)
Public health officials and scientists stress that rabies rarely infects humans in Canada, but the death of a man in British Columbia who came into contact with a bat is a reminder to take precautions with wildlife.
B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, said Tuesday that the 21-year-old man was exposed during the day outdoors when a bat essentially ran into his hand. The man was exposed in mid-May on Vancouver Island.
Six weeks later, he began showing symptoms. He died in Vancouver on Saturday.
Rabies is transmitted through the bite or scratch of an infected animal. It is usually passed from animal to animal and rarely affects humans.
Since reporting began in 1924, the federal government reports a total of 25 people in six provinces have died of rabies in Canada. There have been three human deaths from exposure to rabid bats in this country since 2000.
“This is an extremely rare event,” said Paul Faure, who studies bat echolocation and hearing at McMaster University’s psychology department in Hamilton, Ont.
Other mammals known to transmit the disease in Canada include raccoons, foxes, skunks and arctic foxes.
Health officials say the best way to avoid rabies is to stay away from wildlife.
Identifying human cases
People are encouraged to go to a doctor or medical officer of health if they’ve been bitten to start treatment, but there is no need to panic because death isn’t imminent, Faure said.
People who’ve been exposed in remote locations have received treatment and recovered. Post-exposure treatment is a shot containing antibodies to destroy the virus at the wound site and four shots of rabies vaccine.
Contact can include a bite, scratch or brushing against an animal, Faure said. Just as people often don’t notice a small sliver; it is also possible not to realize you’ve been exposed to a bat, which can sometimes be hidden.
Handling a bat likely warrants seeking medical attention to be assessed.
In the B.C. death, Henry said the man’s symptoms progressed quickly.
Animal behaviour
When an animal is infected with rabies and develops signs, its behaviour changes. Symptoms can include walking abnormally, difficulty swallowing, drooling or foaming at the mouth.
And as in the B.C. case, a bat that is normally active at night could venture out in the day when rabid.
The signs and behaviours can vary and be confused with other diseases, according to the federal government.
Faure said that in Canada, healthy bats in the wild aren’t randomly sampled to test for rabies. The bats that are tested at provincial labs are those sent in after suspicious interactions or that seem sick.
There are no reliable tests to detect rabies in people or animals before signs and symptoms occur.
A captured raccoon peers through the bars of a trap in Grand Isle, Vt., in 2007. Raccoons are one of the mammals that can be infected with rabies. (Toby Talbot/AP/The Canadian Press)
Animals need to be killed to test for rabies.
Some animals that people may think spread rabies – like opossums and squirrels – rarely do.
What to do if you think you’ve been exposed
People who’ve been bitten, scratched or licked by an animal you think has rabies should go to the hospital right away.
To reduce the risk of developing rabies, public health officials advise:
Remove any clothing contaminated with an infected animals saliva, brain and nervous system tissue or fluids.
Thoroughly clean the wound.
Do not cover the wound.
If for instance a bat is flying in your home while someone is asleep, the sleeping individual is also encouraged to seek medical attention.
How rabies transmits
Henry said rabies virus is transmitted through direct contact (such as through broken skin or mucous membranes in the eyes, nose or mouth).
People usually get rabies from the bite of a rabid animal.
“It is also possible, but rare, for people to get rabies from non-bite exposures, which can include scratches, abrasions, or open wounds that are exposed to saliva or other potentially infectious material from a rabid animal,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s website.
Even rarer modes of transmission include inhaling aerosolized rabies virus when working with it in a laboratory and from corneal or solid organ transplants.
How exposures are treated
Health-care providers will determine if you need preventive treatment depending on factors such as the animal involved, type of exposure and whether rabies circulates where you are.
Henry said rabies has an incubation period from when someone is exposed to the virus to when an infection and symptoms start.
“That is one of the tricky things about this disease because people may not associate the early symptoms with the exposure that they might have had months and weeks ago.”
There is a rabies vaccine to prevent infection and injections of immunoglobulins (antibodies) to help your immune system to fight the virus. This is called postexposure prophylaxis (PEP).
Current vaccines are relatively painless and are given in your arm like a flu shot. Rabies vaccines are not given in the stomach, the CDC said.
There’s no specific treatment for rabies once symptoms appear. Once symptoms are present, death usually occurs within seven to 14 days.
Usually, Henry said, early symptoms are pain and tingling around where the contact was made, which spreads through the nerves and can cause weakness and symptoms such as fever and headache.
Dogs
Dogs are carriers of rabies in some countries, but vaccination programs have eliminated the pets as a source in Canada.
To keep it that way, dogs imported into the country need to have their documents inspected by the Canadian Border Services Agency to ensure rabies vaccination is up to date.
A commentary on behalf of Together Victoria’s board of directors.
As a group of people who worked tirelessly to help Sarah Potts, Sharmarke Dubow and Laurel Collins get elected to Victoria council, Together Victoria would like to respond to the July 10 editorial titled “Municipal council needs to be reined in,” which falsely suggests that council members are not doing the job they were elected to do.
The Grumpy Taxpayer$ claim that people are angry. We agree that people are angry. They are angry that this ongoing narrative against council is undermining the democratic process and standing in the way of the vision council was elected on.
The editorial suggests that people are disengaged because they don’t hear a voice at the table that represents their views. It claims that council needs to be “reined in” because they are chasing their own agendas.
The irony of these statements, if they were not so harmful to our democracy, is that council better represents the diversity of our city than ever before. And in the first nine months they have already achieved many of the things they campaigned on.
Together Victoria has seen a marked increase in civic engagement from groups of people who are less likely to be engaged in the political process, including younger people, lower-income earners and renters.
We know these groups were compelled to vote in the municipal election — some for the first time ever — because they saw their perspectives well-represented by Potts, Dubow and Collins, who are all under 40 years old and renters themselves.
This may have been why the 2018 election had the highest voter turnout in decades.
We know that incumbency is one of the strongest factors in a municipal election, which makes their success as first-time candidates an even more amazing feat. Victoria did not vote for the same old status quo. Victoria voted for a strong platform that focused on affordability, inclusion, climate leadership and more.
This platform set a path for the next four years, with many of the items making their way into the 2019-2022 Strategic Plan. In the first nine months, council has already followed through with many platform promises.
Since being elected, council has made several important changes to the housing strategy to deal with the housing crisis, including incentivizing the creation of family-appropriate units and developing a strategy to acquire land for non-market housing.
Council members successfully passed an inclusionary housing policy that incentivizes the building of affordable rental units and have moved to adopt a more appropriate definition of “affordability” to ensure they are truly meeting the housing needs of residents.
Victoria is following the lead of Vancouver with the launch of the capital region’s first online council meeting dashboard, said Mayor Lisa Helps.
Photograph By BRUCE STOTESBURY, TIMES COLONIST
It should be no surprise to Victoria council watchers that Coun. Geoff Young is more at odds with the council majority than any other councillor.
What is new, however, is how easy it is to see and track councillor voting records now that the city has launched a new online council meeting “dashboard.”
According to the just-launched dashboard, Young was in opposition in 71 council votes, voted in favour 361 times, absented himself due to possible conflict five times and was absent for 41 votes.
That contrasted with Coun. Sarah Potts, who voted in favour of motions more than any other councillor: 481 times. She was opposed three times and absented herself due to possible conflict twice.
A B.C. man has died of rabies at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver after coming into contact with a bat. (Tina Lovgreen)
A 21-year-old B.C. man has died of rabies after coming into contact with a bat on Vancouver Island, according to provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
Henry said the man came into contact with the bat in mid-May and began showing symptoms six weeks later. He died at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. His identity has not been released.
It is extremely rare for humans to die of rabies, said Henry.
Only 25 people have died from the disease in Canada since reporting began in 1924, according to Health Canada. Most deaths were in Ontario and Quebec. The most recent cases in Canada were in Ontario in 2012 and Alberta in 2007.
The man in B.C. is only the second person known to have died from rabies in that province. The previous case was in 2003.
Rabies is a virus that infects the nervous system, and symptoms include pain, weakness, and nerve pain that extends into the central nervous system and the brain. An aversion to water and an increase in saliva production are also common.
“It’s a terrible disease,” said Henry.
Henry said that while there is no recorded history of rabies being transferred between humans, the man’s family members and health-care workers who treated him have been offered the vaccine “to err on the side of caution.”
A big brown bat flies with a beetle in its mouth in this undated photo. Bats are the only animals that carry rabies in B.C. (Merlin D. Tuttle/Bat Conservation International/AP)
Contact with bats ‘risky’
Henry said the man’s symptoms progressed “very quickly.” It was only after he mentioned that he had come into contact with a bat that he was tested for rabies.
Henry said that though skin must be punctured for rabies to be passed from an animal to a human, it can be difficult to tell with a bat scratch.
“With a bat, you may not even recognize that a scratch has happened … that can happen very quickly so any sort of direct contact with a bat is a risky thing,” said Henry.
“Bats generally don’t want to be around humans so that’s one of the things that is worrisome. If you are in contact with a bat then you really need to be assessed so we can give you the vaccine to make sure we can prevent you from getting this terrible disease.”
In B.C., bats are the only known carrier for rabies. Around 13 percent of bats that are submitted test positive for the disease.
In other provinces, foxes, coyotes, and raccoons can also be carriers. In some countries, dogs are carriers of rabies, but that has been eliminated in Canada thanks to vaccination programs. However, pet owners are advised to consult a veterinarian if they believe their pet has come into contact with a bat.
Michelle Ghoussoub is a journalist with CBC News in Vancouver. She has previously reported in Lebanon and Chile. Reach her at michelle.ghoussoub@cbc.ca or on Twitter @MichelleGhsoub.
Renters seeking a two-bedroom apartment can expect to shell out almost $1,800 a month for a place to live in Victoria, according to the latest data from Rentals.ca.
In its monthly Canadian rental report, the house-hunting website says the average asking price for a two-bedroom suite in Victoria in June was $1,774, up 1.6 per cent from the comparable figure in May.
The average going rate for a one-bedroom apartment in Victoria was $1,406, up 2.8 per cent from May.
That made Victoria the 16th-most- expensive rental market in the country last month.
The website says the average asking price for a two-bedroom suite in Vancouver in June was $2,833, the highest in the country. The average asking price for a one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver was $1,990, the second-highest in the country behind Toronto ($2,266).
Other B.C. centres listed on Rental.ca’s national rent rankings, are: Burnaby at No. 11 ($1,556 for one bedroom, $2,326 for two bedrooms); New Westminster at No. 13 ($1,512, $1,944); and Kelowna at No. 15 ($1,430, $1,818).
Rentals.ca reports that nine of the 10 most expensive rental markets in Canada are in the Greater Toronto Area.
On a provincial level, Ontario had the highest rental rates in June, with landlords seeking $2,279 per month on average (all property types), an increase of 1.6 per cent from May ($2,244).
In B.C., the average asking rent was $1,852 per month, an increase of 3.1 per cent month-over-month.
The lowest provincial average was recorded in new Brunswick: $769.
A supermarket in Canada has gone to hilarious and innovative lengths to encourage shoppers to bring reusable bags to its store.
Credit: Credit: East West Market
(TMU) — In many grocery stores, customers who forget to bring reusable bags have to pay between .5 and .25 cents per single-use bag. This doesn’t really deter the average customer from relying on plastic, however, which is why a supermarket in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, has gone to hilarious and innovative lengths to encourage shoppers to care more about the environment.
If customers forget to bring reusable bags to East West Market, their only option will be to carry their goods out in single-use plastic bags with embarrassing slogans printed on the sides. The designs vary but include “Into the Weird Adult Video Emporium” and “The Colon Care Co-op.”
As Unilad reports, the tactic is simply meant to “nudge” shoppers in a more sustainable direction.
Credit: East West Market
East West Market’s goal is simple: encourage more customers to care more about plastic dependance and reduce their carbon footprint. David Lee Kwen, the owner of the independent grocery store, explained the reasoning behind the blush-worthy bags:
“The message is, we should make a conscious effort to save our planet one step at a time. [Plastic bags] are a big problem, and every step helps.”
Credit: East West Market
East West Market doesn’t just embarrass shoppers with silly slogans, it also charges 5 cents per bag. This means customers have to pay for the privilege of walking around with a bag which reads, ‘Wart Ointment Wholesale’.
Credit: East West Market
But in some ways, the plan has worked too well. Some shoppers have purchased the bags as a fun novelty item to share with friends. At least it’s getting the word out!
Though Vancouver has not yet passed a ban on single-use plastic like Canadian city Victoria, it is making sustainable strides. The city’s Single-Use Item Reduction Strategy, for instance, requires business to invent ways to clamp down on plastic use.
“Mr. Fletcher is obviously not the most astute crayon in the BC box of crayons, as he does not understand that sometimes you must break the law in order to eliminate archaic and inefficient laws. Or, he has a political agenda. Is he planning a run for the BC Liberals? When laws are disobeyed by the general population it is time to change them. People rule Mr. Fletcher, not the laws.
After calling Victoria council “famously inept” Mr. Fletcher loses all his objective credibility, but I’ll still post his words in order to keep the debate balanced.
“Here in Victoria, retail stores started opening up years ago, usually with some token nod to “medical” customers, and our famously inept city council started issuing business licenses well in advance of federal legalization.”
I wonder if he even lives in Victoria. Does he even understand the complexities of cannabis or was he writing this under the influence of a cold brewed one?
B.C.’s first government cannabis store opens in Kamloops, October 2018. The city is getting two more government stores this year. (Black Press files)
Government monopoly sounds great, if you work there
Licensed private marijuana stores are finally starting to flower in B.C., with StarBud launching in the Okanagan and Clarity Cannabis aiming for a September opening in Prince Rupert, among others.
Meanwhile, the (cough) informal marijuana market seems to be rolling along as B.C. wanders toward the first anniversary of cannabis legalization. Here in Victoria, retail stores started opening up years ago, usually with some token nod to “medical” customers, and our famously inept city council started issuing business licences well in advance of federal legalization.
Why? Well, Vancouver was doing it, and in both of these Left Coast social laboratories, federal laws may be viewed more as suggestions. (For example, just declare yourself a “sanctuary city” and instruct your police not to inquire into anyone’s citizenship status. Poof, no more Canadian immigration law.)
In the weed business, illegal operators seem to be doing better than federal and provincial wholesale monopolies. In some cities, consumers have no ready way to tell if a pot store is provincially approved, or has even bothered with a business licence.
Government competition has caused the black market to sharpen its pencils. Statistics Canada estimates that as legal weed prices rise above $10 a gram, illegal producers are cutting consumer costs down towards $5.
The B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch is doing a great job on its slick-looking retail chain – in Kamloops, anyway. The home of the first B.C. Cannabis Store is about to get two more, and people are lining up to apply for the intensive training offered for unionized “budtenders.”
Anticipating the price problem, the LDB was restrained to a mere 15 per cent wholesale markup. Its monopoly on federally-licensed suppliers is an extension of its liquor wholesale monopoly, which marks up a bottle of hard liquor by 124 per cent, whether it’s sold in a public or private retail store. Then you pay taxes on top of that.
Teale Phelps Bondaroff donates a book to the Little Free Library in Saanich’s Rutledge Park. It was the 10,000th book to be donated to Little Free Libraries in Greater Victoria. (Photo courtesy of Teale Phelps Bondaroff)
There are now 243 Little Free Libraries in the Capital Regional District
You may have spotted one on your daily walk or while driving through your neighbourhood — little boxes and homes for books located in parks, businesses or at the ends of front yards.
These Little Free Libraries are dotted around Greater Victoria and have just received their 10,000th book donation earlier this month. They operate on the “leave a book, take a book” principle and are run by volunteers and businesses who maintain the little libraries and top them up when needed.
“It’s an amazing network of people who have built their own libraries around town,” said Teale Phelps Bondaroff, a volunteer and board member of the Greater Victoria Placemaking Network.
Phelps Bondaroff personally made the 10,000th donation to the Little Free Library located in Saanich’s Rutledge Park. He became involved with the Greater Victoria Placemaking Network — a local organization that maintains these libraries — after hearing about their 2015 project to map out the locations of the libraries.
Using crowd-sourcing and social media, Phelps Bondaroff was able to map out 111 libraries in 2017. That number rose to 150 in time for Canada’s sesquicentennial.
The Greater Victoria Placemaking Network that has set up several Little Free Libraries through the Pocket Places Project. The project received a grant from the City of Victoria, which helped raise awareness about the libraries and allowed people to top them up with books as well as learn to make their own.
Phelps Bondaroff said many people recycle old newspaper boxes into the Little Free Libraries, making it easy for anyone to build one. The Greater Victoria Placemaking Network has thousands of books in storage that they pull out to top up libraries when needed. Phelps Bondaroff said he tries to top some up when he is running errands or out on his bike.
The 10,000th book donation was the aptly-titled science-fiction book, Meditations at 10,000 Feet by James Trefil. Getting to the 10,000th book involved 587 visits to individual libraries and over 630 volunteer hours.
For Phelps Bondaroff, the project is a way to build community.
“I meet and speak with the most interesting people whenever I visit the Little Free Libraries around town,” Phelps Bondaroff said. “Community and connections need space to flourish, and that’s what placemaking is all about.”
Some of the Little Free Libraries also have their own Twitter accounts and connect with other international ones online.
B.C.’s first government cannabis store opens in Kamloops, October 2018. The city is getting two more government stores this year. (Black Press files)
Teale Phelps Bondaroff donates a book to the Little Free Library in Saanich’s Rutledge Park. It was the 10,000th book to be donated to Little Free Libraries in Greater Victoria. (Photo courtesy of Teale Phelps Bondaroff)
Inside Victoria 