A BC Liberal government will immediately eliminate the 2% small business income tax in a move to give more help to businesses, workers, and families at a time when it is needed most, promised BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson today. "Small businesses represent the best of British Columbia and are the backbone of our economy. They need our support now more than ever, which is why a BC Liberal government will immediately eliminate the small business tax," said BC Liberal Andrew Wilkinson. Wilkinson was in Delta Thursday morning for his election campaign. The BC Liberals have also committed to d

BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau has released a plan to help tourism operators and small businesses battered by the COVID-19 pandemic get through the winter. Furstenau says if the Greens win the election later this month, the targeted plan will get help more quickly where it's really needed. It includes a 300-million dollar rent subsidy program that would cover 25 per cent of rental costs for qualifying small businesses. Furstenau is also promising to retool the provincial grant program to focus on supporting small tourism operators and to ensure grant money can start to flow immediately.

Residents of a Vancouver neighbourhood want the city to shut down a homeless encampment at a park where people have been living in about 400 tents since the summer. Kelsey Mulyk says families in Strathcona have lost use of the park in June. Data from police show calls to the area more than tripled between June and September compared with the same period last year. Mayor Kennedy Stewart has called a special council meeting for tomorrow night on the city's homelessness problem. He wants councillors to approve his 30-million-dollar plan to buy or lease hotels and vacant commercial buildings to h

A seven-year-old girl will be honoured for helping rescue her mother after a car crash. Squamish RCMP say Adelaide Prince and her mom were driving on Highway 99 near Squamish early last month when they were both hurt after their car veered down a steep embankment. With her mom trapped, Adelaide managed to get out of the car and crawl back up to the road where she flagged down a driver who called for help. Now that daughter and mother have recovered, Squamish RCMP and the Britannia Beach Volunteer Fire Department plan to recognize the Grade Two student for her bravery and quick thinking in a ce

B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson says his party would expand a program that pairs police officers with mental health workers if the party wins the provincial election. During a campaign event in Vancouver today, Wilkinson said a Liberal government would provide $58 million to hire 100 psychiatric social workers and registered nurses to staff joint teams with police to answer mental health calls. He says the Liberals would also hire 200 more police officers to fill vacancies across British Columbia and 40 new Crown prosecutors. As Wilkinson sought to boost the party's law-and-order brand

A shooting outside a restaurant in a west-side Vancouver neighbourhood has left one man injured. It happened at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in a busy section of the Dunbar area, crowded with shops and restaurants. A statement from police says a family of three was leaving a restaurant when the shots were fired. A woman and child were not hurt but a man with them was taken to hospital suffering from non-life-threatening injuries. Two people were arrested a short time later. Police have not yet said if there is a motive for the shooting or whether it was targeted.

Mayor Kennedy Stewart wants councillors to support a multimillion-dollar proposal to help those who are homeless in Vancouver during the pandemic. Stewart has released a recommendation to council seeking as much as $30 million to buy or lease land in the city and pay for other services to provide emergency relief for people without homes. A statement from the mayor's office says the recommendation builds on the findings of a staff report, which concluded that the lease or purchase of vacant apartment complexes, commercial hotels and other buildings is the only viable way to quickly address

B-C health officials are reporting 102 new cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths. That brings the death toll in the province to 244. Provincial health officer Doctor Bonnie Henry says active cases ticked up to one-thousand-384 with 71 people in hospital, including 16 in intensive care. Henry says the latest modelling data shows individual actions make a difference and B-C is starting to flatten the curve of the pandemic once again as a result of public health measures.

Mayors of BC's largest cities are asking the major provincial political parties to outline their election policies in four key areas. The BC Urban Mayors' Caucus is asking where the parties stand on mental health and addictions, affordable housing, public transit and the fiscal relationship between local governments and the province. It has sent a letter to the leaders of the New Democrats, Liberals, Green party and the Conservatives asking for a response by Monday. The mayors' caucus says it will make the answers public to help voters make an informed choice on October 24th.