Photo: Amanda S.
UPDATE 7:10 p.m.
There is nothing new to report on the northbound closure of the Coquihalla Highway.
In its latest update DriveBC continue to say the road remains closed after several commercial vehicles spun out in the snow just south of the Great Bear Snowshed.
DriveBC continues to advise motorists to use highways 1 or 3 as alternate routes.
There’s no indication when the northbound lanes may reopen.
ORIGINAL 5:15 p.m.
Northbound lanes of the Coquihalla Highway are closed after several commercial vehicles are reported to have spun out in very snowy conditions.
The incident occurred about two kilometres south of the Great Bear Snowshed between the Portia exit and Zopkios brake check.
There is no indication how long the route will be closed.
Motorists trying to get to the Okanagan from the Lower Mainland should use alternate routes as no detours are available.
Those caught in the closure are being told to expect delays.
DriveBC will update the situation later this afternoon.
Send pictures, video to [email protected]
Photo: Amanda S.
Photo: Environment Canada
Yellow shows area of winter storm watch.
Environment Canada has issued a winter storm watch for three B.C. Interior mountain passes.
The watch was issued Monday evening for the Coquihalla Highway between Hope and Merritt, Trans Canada between Eagle and Rogers passes and Highway 3 Paulson Summit to Kootenay Pass.
“A strong pacific frontal system will begin to push into the B.C. Interior Tuesday evening. Snowfall will intensify overnight Tuesday and continue throughout Wednesday and into Thursday,” Environment Canada said.
“In addition, gusty southwest winds will develop Wednesday and persist into Thursday. Snowfall amounts will vary along the routes due to elevation but totals near 30 cm can be expected.”
Southwest winds of 30 km/h gusting to 50 km/h are in the forecast.
“The heavy snowfall and gusty winds should begin to taper off later Thursday. However, accumulating snow may continue along Highway 3 into Thursday evening,” Environment Canada continued.
Drivers are asked to take caution and plan ahead before traveling the mountains.
Motorists in the Lower Mainland and Sea to Sky area are also being told to prepare for snow starting Tuesday.
Glen Korstrom / Glacier Media – Feb 26, 2024 / 5:19 pm | Story: 474246
Photo: Handout.
Community Savings Credit Union CEO Mike Schilling oversaw his credit union merging with CCEC Credit Union in 2022
Big banks still treat cannabis-sector entrepreneurs differently than counterparts in other sectors, but the ability to conduct banking is slowly getting better.
Community Savings Credit Union today said that it is launching pre-approved business credit cards for its members who operate cannabis-related businesses.
“This industry-first offer finally gives cannabis businesses in B.C. guaranteed access to credit cards, a long overdue change in the financial services available for the industry,” the credit union said in a news release.
Many business people involved with legal cannabis-related businesses are rejected by credit-card providers because they are active in the industry.
Community Savings Credit Union CEO Mike Schilling told BIV last fall that he sees advocating for changes to cannabis legislation as his duty, which is why he went to Ottawa to speak at an industry summit, and meet with political staff in the prime ministers’ office and the office of the minister of finance.
His Surrey-based, seven-branch credit union, which has about $900 million in assets under management, has more than 17,000 members, including 150 that are cannabis-sector companies, he said at the time.
“Cannabis businesses have been forced to operate without a fully functioning banking system for too long,” he said today. “The industry was legalized five years ago, but big banks have ignored this sector’s needs and credit unions like Community Savings have stepped in.”
Community Savings offers three business credit cards. One is its No Fee Cash Back Visa, which allows customers to earn cash back when purchases are made. Another is its Visa Low Rate Business Card, which charges an annual fee and has a comparatively low interest rate, when monthly balances are not paid in full. It also has the Visa Infinite Business Card, which offers rewards and privileges and comes with an annual fee.
Cannabis sector companies continue to think that big banks are discriminating against them, which is why they launched a potential class-action lawsuit against Desjardins Federation, National Bank, Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal, TD Bank, and CIBC earlier this year.
The choice for many in the early years of cannabis legalization was to go to a small credit union on Commercial Drive known as CCEC Credit Union, which in 2022 merged with Community Savings Credit Union.
Business owners in the cannabis sector have long been exasperated with how they are treated by the big banks.
“It’s very frustrating,” aspiring cannabis-sector entrepreneur and Phytron Technologies Inc. CEO Bob Potter told BIV in 2019. “How can companies attract outside money if they can’t deposit it in a secure financial institution? Do they keep the cash in a shoebox under the bed?”
The Canadian Press – Feb 26, 2024 / 3:41 pm | Story: 474231
Photo: Photo by shen liu on Unsplash
Minimum-wage workers in British Columbia will get a pay hike of 65 cents an hour to $17.40 starting June 1, a move the government says will help lift more people out of poverty.
The Ministry of Labour says in a statement the 3.9-per-cent increase is consistent with the province’s average inflation rate last year.
Labour Minister Harry Bains says the province has gone from having one of the lowest minimum wages in the country to the highest of all provinces, and the change is aimed at preventing more workers from falling behind.
Bains says increases for the lowest wage will be automatic from now on and will be determined by the previous year’s average inflation rate, offering predictability for workers and employers.
The statement says the minimum piece rates for 15 hand-harvested crops will also increase by 3.9 per cent on Dec. 31.
The government says the decision to delay the pay raise for hand-harvested crops is meant to ensure producers will not have to adjust wages in the harvest season.
Graeme Wood / Glacier Media – Feb 26, 2024 / 3:14 pm | Story: 474227
Photo: Graeme Wood.
B.C. Premier David Eby, centre, with Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon at a press conference in Vancouver on Feb. 26, 2024.
B.C. Premier David Eby has poured cold water on the formation of an independent anti-money laundering (AML) commissioner responsible for monitoring risks and the government agencies tasked to combat them.
“We don’t have any imminent plans around establishing a money laundering czar (commissioner) but we are working closely with police, the Ministry of Finance, Revenue Canada and the land title office to make sure that information is as available as possible and effective as possible in fighting crime,” Eby told Glacier Media at a press conference Monday with Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon.
Eby held the conference to provide an overview of his government’s recent housing policies aimed to combat speculation, namely the new house flipping tax proposed in the 2024 budget.
The tax is to be imposed on a sliding scale of up to 20 per cent of capital gains on all residential property sales (and condo assignments) made within two years of an initial purchase. Exemptions are bountiful, including death, divorce, changes to employment and family membership and for renovations/construction that add at least one additional unit.
House flipping was considered a means to launder money in real estate, the Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in B.C. heard from experts between 2020 and 2022.
When asked if the commission informed his decision to implement the tax, Eby said, “There is no question that flipping activity was identified as a serious issue in the money laundering public inquiry as well as some investigative journalism, including issues like shadow flipping.”
But when asked about the status of creating a commissioner Eby said his government has taken alternative paths with other recommendations, such as a new unexplained wealth orders regime via civil forfeiture and more robust mandatory identification measures when buying and selling a home, including a new beneficial ownership registry.
“And,” said Eby, “new agreements with the federal government around tax information has enabled us to better enforce our own tax rules and enabled Ottawa to better enforce their tax rules.”
Establishing the “Anti–Money Laundering (AML) Commissioner” was the first recommendation of Austin Cullen, who headed the inquiry and whose 101 recommendations were outlined in his June 2022 final report.
Among key tasks, the AML commissioner was to be responsible for “monitoring, reviewing, auditing, and reporting on the performance of provincial agencies with an anti-money laundering mandate,” while “undertaking, directing, and supporting research on money laundering issues in order to develop expertise on money laundering issues, including emerging trends and responses, informed by an understanding of the measures taken internationally.”
The AML commissioner was also to analyze data from provincial and federal government agreements for AML purposes.
Cullen also recommended the province implement a universal recordkeeping and reporting requirement for cash transactions of $10,000 or more, meaning all businesses would need to comply. And, the AML commissioner would have access to this data to produce reports for cabinet members.
After learning federal RCMP financial crime units were understaffed, Cullen recommended the AML commissioner “monitor the response to money laundering within the RCMP federal police service by seeking detailed metrics concerning the resources dedicated to money laundering investigations, the number of money laundering investigations undertaken by the RCMP, and the results of those investigations.”
In total, without the AML commissioner, at least 10 recommendations cannot be fulfilled as envisioned by Cullen.
An analysis from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation provided to Cullen’s inquiry showed 28 per cent of all properties sold between 2005 and 2018 were sold within 12 months, and this excludes flipping of strata property pre-sale contracts. Activity was most pronounced in 2006, dropped significantly in 2009 and picked up in 2015. By 2017, seven per cent of properties had been flipped in less than 12 months.
Kahlon said he did not have readily available data on how many homes the tax could target but the Ministry of Finance estimates revenues of $45 million.
Eby said the flipping tax is “not a silver bullet” and the purpose is to eventually not have to require the tax.
The Canadian Press – Feb 26, 2024 / 1:56 pm | Story: 474211
Photo: The Canadian Press
A report says more than 126,000 children in British Columbia lived in poverty in 2021 despite decades of policy changes, with some of the worst situations in single-parent families and on First Nation reserves. Animal puppets are seen in Langley, B.C., on May 29, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
A report says more than 126,000 children in British Columbia lived in poverty in 2021 despite decades of policy changes, with some of the worst situations in single-parent families and on First Nation reserves.
The First Call Child and Youth Advocacy Society has been doing the reports for 27 years and notes a slight rise in the child poverty rate after a sharp decline while families were receiving the Canada Emergency Response Benefit during the pandemic.
The report makes more than two dozen recommendations, nine of them focused on raising family incomes through paying family-supporting wages or improving income supports.
It says B.C.’s child poverty rate of 14.3 per cent was lower than the national average of 15.6 per cent, but the rate on 67 First Nations reserves is about double the national rate, while for single-parent families it’s even higher at 40 per cent.
Adrienne Montani, the society’s executive director, says there’s also a growing disparity, with the highest-income families making 25 times what those in the lowest income bracket make.
Lorraine Copas of the Social Planning and Research Council of B.C. says in a news release that governments should build on the lessons of the dramatic drop in poverty rates when families were getting pandemic support.
“By enhancing policy tools already in place, such as federal and provincial child benefits for families, we can stop the return of higher child poverty rates and work toward eliminating child poverty in Canada as promised so long ago.”
The report says B.C.’s poverty position has improved in recent years, with the third lowest child poverty rate among the 13 provinces and territories, though there is still a need for renewed commitment and urgency to reduce poverty.
It says overall poverty statistics also hide the fact that some children in B.C. are at greater risk of living in poverty.
“According to the 2021 census data, child poverty rates for selected visible minority (racialized) groups were higher than the non-racialized child poverty rate of 9.8 per cent in B.C.,” the report says.
“Arab, Korean, and West Asian children had more than double or triple the risk of poverty compared to non-racialized children, followed by Chinese and Latin American children.”
Immigrant children in B.C. were also at a higher risk of poverty, with more than one in five living in poverty in 2020, it says.
It says the provincial child poverty rate in 2020 stood at 13.3 per cent in B.C. and 13.5 per cent across Canada.
Scott Tibballs / Pique Newsmagazine – Feb 26, 2024 / 1:24 pm | Story: 474202
Photo: Screenshot.
A seven-year-old skier was uninjured after falling from a Whistler Blackcomb chairlift last week.
The seven-year-old ski-school student who fell 40 feet from Whistler Blackcomb’s Crystal Ridge Express last Thursday took a bit of convincing to let go and fall to the safety of a trampoline below, according to the skier who had to hold on to him for more than five minutes.
West Vancouver resident and Whistler regular, Debbi Cottrell, was the skier who saved the day.
She explained the boy did not quite get settled on the chair when getting on, and started to slip, forcing her to grab hold of him and staff to stop the chairlift when they were past the first pylon—and 40 feet in the air.
“He was terrified, especially when he saw the trampoline,” Cottrell said.
“Initially we all thought maybe they’d run the chair backwards and have people disembark … but once we knew that wasn’t happening, that’s when he really started to panic.”
Cottrell was skiing with her husband, and the couple were waiting in line at Crystal Ridge Express when they were asked to make room for two young students they didn’t know.
“They were put with us just at the very end, just as we were going through the gate. We were set to go just the two of us, and then they sent two kids with us, so we shuffled over,” Cottrell said.
“We were a little bit discombobulated getting onto the chair, so we got on, and the child that fell was the one that was against the edge. There was a child between he and I, and we were getting ourselves organized and we looked over and we saw that he wasn’t quite on.”
The chair didn’t get far up the mountain before it all went wrong and the boy slipped, forcing a quick-thinking Cottrell to reach over the other student with her left arm and grab him.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t even get a chance to get the bar down before this started to happen,” she said, adding the awkward angle of having to hold onto the boy without having a safety bar to grasp made it impossible for her to lift him back into his seat, as she had to use her right arm to hold on to the back of the chair.
“The fact that we didn’t have the bar down, both myself reaching the boy and the other child between us, we were both at risk of slipping ourselves, because we just didn’t have anything to hold against,” she explained.
“Once they stopped the lift and [Whistler Blackcomb staff] started running up with the trampoline, he panicked a bit—he said, ‘I’m not jumping, I’m not jumping’—and we talked him into it,” Cottrell said.
“He said OK, I’ll jump—he dropped his poles, dropped his skis, and we counted and I released him.”
Cottrell said the incident would have been about five minutes, but “it felt like forever” while WB staff brought up a trampoline to catch him.
She said it was a harrowing experience for everyone on the chairlift.
“We had just skied with our two-year-old granddaughter two days before on Magic Chair—I’m glad I hadn’t had this experience first, because I don’t think I could have done it,” she said.
The story ended peacefully, though.
“He fell, and before they even started the lift up again we could see that he was OK,” said Cottrell.
“It all turned out great, and we heard he went back up to ski, which I think is amazing.”
A spokesperson for Whistler Blackcomb confirmed to Pique that the young student was uninjured in the incident.
“Resort staff and guests successfully deployed a deceleration device to catch the guest. The guest was evaluated by Patrol at the scene and returned to skiing,” they said.
“Our gratitude goes out to our operators and guests, whose quick reactions allowed for this favourable outcome.”
The Canadian Press – Feb 26, 2024 / 1:18 pm | Story: 474199
Photo: The Canadian Press
The chief economist of the British Columbia Real Estate Association says the incoming tax on flipping houses may not generate as much revenue as the government expects and could only impact a small number of properties. A real estate sign is pictured in Vancouver, B.C., Tuesday, June, 12, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS Jonathan Hayward
The chief economist of the British Columbia Real Estate Association says the incoming tax on flipping houses may not generate as much revenue as the government expects and might only impact a small number of properties.
Brendon Ogmundson says about 10 per cent of real estate transactions in Metro Vancouver take place within two years of a purchase, and many of those sales would be exempt from the new tax for reasons such as divorce or job relocation.
The provincial budget estimates the tax will generate $43 million in its first full fiscal year, but the association predicts B.C. could lose out on $20 million in property transfer taxes as people delay their sale, and it’s creating new administrative costs.
Premier David Eby told a news conference today that the flipping tax is “not a silver bullet” but anything the government can do to reduce the number of people competing for housing in the market is welcome.
The premier announced the idea of a flipping tax last year and Finance Minister Katrine Conroy released details of the pledge in last week’s budget speech.
As of Jan. 1, 2025, homes sold within the first year after being purchased will face a tax rate of 20 per cent of the profit, while that tax rate drops gradually to zero after two years.
Tom Summer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter / Prince George Citizen – Feb 26, 2024 / 12:03 pm | Story: 474184
Photo: Alaska Highway News.
The Fort St. John law courts.
Tyler George Joseph Harroff, 21, was sentenced in Fort St. John Supreme Court on Feb. 22 for recording and sharing videos on Snapchat of a minor being sexually assaulted.
He pleaded guilty last August to making and transmitting child pornography.
Harroff will serve two consecutive eight-month jail sentences, one for each offence, in addition to 18 months of probation to follow, a DNA order, and $400 in victim surcharges. He will not be required to register as a sex offender.
At the sentence hearing, Justice Andrew Majawa said Harroff should have been aware of the consequences of filming the videos and sharing them on social media.
“It is important to recognize that the videos themselves have significantly and permanently harmed [the victim] separate and apart from the harm caused by the sexual assault,” said Majwa. “It is well understood that once a video or image is shared electronically, they exist forever and its dissemination cannot be controlled.”
However, Majawa noted Harroff’s motives differed from the typical pedophilic offender and believes they aren’t likely to re-offend. No letters of support were provided by family, friends, or employers as part of his defence, though Harroff did express remorse for his actions, court heard.
Even if the videos never resurface to re-traumatize the victim, the fact they could is a circumstance the victim will have to live with for the rest of their life, explained Majawa.
“The effect of the uncertainty [they] must live with, and the possibility of experiencing such re-traumatization or humiliation should not be overlooked nor underappreciated,” Majawa said.
The victim was only 13 years old, and Harroff told court they didn’t know the victim’s age before or during a Nov. 7, 2020 house party where the offences took place, with Harroff believing the victim to be 17 or 18. Harroff also denied the videos were recorded for a sexual purpose, court heard, and found out the victim’s real age two or three weeks later.
Harroff was 18 years old at the time of the offences, and sent the videos to a number of friends, recording Anthony Jacob Dean Collins and another 17-year old male having sex with the victim, court heard.
Collins was sentenced to three years in jail for sexual assault on Jul. 20, 2023, and has been registered as a sex offender for 20 years. Collins was 20 at the time of the assault.
Born and raised in Chetwynd, Harroff had met up with Collins and others at a restaurant in Fort St. John, before the group purchased alcohol and left to attend a residence, which turned into a house party, court heard.
The victim had met Collins through Snapchat before travelling to Fort St. John to meet in person, with Collins telling them to lie about their age, asking them to pretend to be 16.
During previous proceedings, Harroff told court he recorded the assault because he saw other people were laughing and believed it was funny at the time, sharing the videos as part of an inside joke.
“The description of those videos in the agreed statement of facts leaves no doubt that they are graphic, and disturbing,” said Majawa.
The victim read an impactment statement during previous proceedings on how the recording and distribution of the videos have affected them, explained Majawa, noting the victim told the court they’ve experienced a great deal of pain, sadness, anger, grief, and humiliation over the incident.
The victim has had difficulty attending school in the years afterwards, Majawa noted, and told court that their life “went to hell” after the incident, largely due to the videos.
During Collins’ sentencing in July 2023, Justice Anita Chan commended the victim for their strength in coming forward.
“Parliament has recognized the seriousness of sexual offences against children, making this a statutory aggravating factor,” wrote Chan. “The recording of the sexual assault and the sharing of the videos on social media perpetuates the harm inflicted.”
Photo: Glacier Media
Most of the significant power outages caused by Sunday’s windstorm in the B.C. Interior have been restored.
BC Hydro says they are now dealing with 16 smaller outages impacting roughly 1,000 residents spread across the Thompson-Shuswap and Okanagan-Kootenay.
At their peak Sunday afternoon and evening, several thousand people were in the dark as high winds brought trees down onto power lines across the region.
The utility says all available crews worked throughout the night to restore power to homes.
BC Hydro’s list of current power outages is here.
Brendan Kergin / Vancouver is Awesome – Feb 26, 2024 / 6:39 am | Story: 474136
Photo: @bartocador/Instagram
Tocador had its liquor license suspended after people were caught dancing on New Years Eve at the restaurant.
A Vancouver bar and restaurant has announced that it will be closed for three days after patrons were caught dancing at their New Year’s Eve celebration on Dec. 21, 2023.
Tocador, a six-year-old establishment at the corner of Main Street and East 10th Avenue, announced it will be closed February 25 through 27 after a ruling by the city.
“Even though this was our only offence In six years of being open the city decided to suspend our liquor license for three days on dates of their choice which means we have to close our doors for three days,” states Tocador on an Instagram post.
“They gave us this decision two days before our 40k COVID loans had to legally be paid back.”
The reason for the suspension is that liquor inspectors witnessed people dancing at Tocador during the bar’s NYE festivities according to the post. Additionally, the venue was about 20 people over capacity at the time.
“When we speak to the general public most people are unaware that’s it’s illegal to dance in restaurants in Vancouver. That is just one of the very many rules restaurants are given,” notes the restauarant in their post.
Tocador has a Restaurant — Class 1 with liquor service business license. According to the city bylaws, such establishments are not allowed to have “customer participation” which includes “karaoke, dancing or open microphone performing.”
In Tocador’s post, the business states at 11:54 p.m. on Dec. 31, two liquor inspectors arrived and wrote up the bar for allowing people to dance and being over capacity.
Earlier this year a hearing was held about the infraction, which did not go favourably for Tocador.
‘Hopefully one day we can get rid of some of these archaic laws’
“We are incredibly disappointed with the government’s decision and lack of empathy for restaurants and small businesses,” states the Instagram post. “It really comes across like they don’t understand how serious the crisis is for restaurants right now.”
The business adds that they are disappointed with the municipal government’s apparent lack of support for struggling businesses.
“There are restaurants out there being given huge fines and even longer suspensions than us all the time,” reads the post. “Vancouver has some of the strictest set of regulations. Hopefully one day we can get rid of some of these archaic laws and have the freedom so many other cities enjoy.”
V.IA. has reached out to the City of Vancouver for comment on the ruling.
Chelsey Mutter
Wet weather is expected this week across the Okanagan.
Meteorologist with Environment Canada Nan Lu says snow or rain is expected throughout the week.
Temperatures are expected to drop Monday and Tuesday across the Okanagan before warming slightly later in the week.
“We do have a frontal system that’s passing through the interior that will bring a chance of flurries or showers to the Okanagan region on Monday,” said Lu. “And now with this system, there’ll be a cooling trend in terms of temperature.”
Monday and Tuesday are expected to be the coldest days this week. Monday’s daytime high will reach 4 C and overnight low will reach -7 C. Tuesday’s daytime high will hit 1 C and overnight low will be -3 C.
A sunny break is expected on Wednesday before more rain or snow.
“Starting Tuesday night through to Thursday, another frontal system moving across the southern interior BC will bring more periods of rain or snow, depending on the temperature,” said Lu.
“Then for the late work week, Thursday to Friday, just a chance of showers or flurries again.
Wednesday through Friday will warm up despite the chance for snow with the daytime highs getting up to 5 C.
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