There are four main incentive programs for first-time home buyers in Canada: Land transfer tax rebates, which rebate some or all of your land transfer tax. Some municipalities have down payment assistance programs (DPAPs) for first-time homebuyers. The Home Buyers’ Plan which allows you to withdraw up to $60,000 (since April 16, 2024) from your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) without…
A recent waterfront home for sale along the Sunshine Coast embodies the saying, luxury living. Located at 5871-5879 Sunshine Coat Highway, this stunning property overlooks breathtaking views of Trail Bay in Sechelt — the only thing more jaw-dropping than its views is its $14,800,000 price tag. According to Zealty, the property’s asking price is almost three times higher than its assessed value, which came to $5,660,000 in 2024. InFrame Real Estate InFrame Real Estate InFrame Real Estate The waterfront estate offers its future owners five bedrooms and eight bathrooms and is described as an “architectural masterpiece.” There are custom-tailored bespoke finishings throughout the home, from custom entry doors to a gorgeous wrap-around staircase. It is constructed with a traditional timber frame, which mirrors the beauty of the surrounding nature inside the property. The real showstopper of the home is its floor-to-ceiling fireplace, which spans an impressive 30 feet. Constructed of ancient Utah ocean floor rock and anchored by a six-ton solid black granite hearth, this fireplace takes the already-luxurious living room to a whole new level. InFrame Real Estate InFrame Real Estate But it’s not just the inside of this property that will leave you speechless. As you step into the exterior of the home, you’ll find multiple outdoor spaces extending the living area while maintaining an unobstructed view of the ocean and sunset. During the summer months, you can enjoy your lunch breaks outside on the vast patio and even take a quick dip in the pool between meetings. InFrame Real Estate InFrame Real Estate InFrame Real Estate It’s not hard to see why this estate has a hefty price tag. So, if you have a cool $15 million to spare, why not pay a visit to this property? To check out the full listing, click here.
British Columbia Bear killed after attacking man walking with dog on Metro Vancouver trail B.C. conservation officers say a man was injured earlier this week when he was attacked by a black bear while he was walking his dog on a Metro Vancouver trail. The bear died in the encounter. Conservation service says people should remain vigilant during cold months, as some bears remain active CBC News · Posted: Nov 23, 2024 8:26 PM EST | Last Updated: 11 hours ago The B.C. Conservation Officer Service says a man was injured earlier this week when he was attacked by a black bear while he was walking his dog on a Metro Vancouver trail. (Robson Fletcher/CBC) A man walking his dog on a Lower Mainland trail was injured earlier this week in a black bear attack, the B.C. Conservation Officer Service says. The incident occurred Wednesday afternoon along an off-leash dog trail near 240th Street in Maple Ridge, according to a Saturday Facebook post by the service. Conservation officer Jordan Ferguson told CBC News the man heard a commotion behind him and turned to see his dog confronting the bear. “He tried to grab his dog and retreat from the area, and the bear then turned his attention on him,” Ferguson said. The man then “fought with the bear,” according to the service’s Facebook post. A group of nearby anglers came to his aid and the incident ended with the man injured and the black bear dead. How exactly the bear was killed is still being determined, but Ferguson said an examination of the scene has shown them that it was done out of self-defence and that there will be no enforcement action against anyone involved. He said the man was treated for minor injuries and has since been released from hospital, while the dog was unscathed. The bear is undergoing a necropsy at an Abbotsford lab to determine if it was dealing with anything that would have affected its behaviour and decision to attack. Ferguson emphasized the importance of safety precautions while exploring the outdoors, pointing out that bears in the Lower Mainland don’t “fully hibernate” due to mild winters and food availability. “When you’re going out into these natural areas, you have to be prepared to run into bears all times a year down here,” he said. “If you’re put in the situation, the best thing you can do is try to leave the area … make yourself look big and back out.” The B.C. Conservation Foundation says people can better prevent encounters with black bears by talking and singing to avoid surprising an animal, managing attractants such as garbage, keeping pets leashed and carrying bear spray. According to the the foundation, black bears account for up to 25,000 calls to provincial conservation officers every year and “can become more assertive or destructive when they have learned to associate humans and their activities with food.” B.C. has among the highest population of black bears in the world, with the foundation estimating up to 150,000 animals live in the province. With files from CBC’s Shaurya Kshatri and The Canadian Press
Local government leaders are speaking out about their hopes for improved relations with the province on housing, infrastructure Published Nov 21, 2024 • Last updated 46 minutes ago • 4 minute read “My initial concern is that, will the premier have the necessary time, while being the premier, to also be the minister of municipal affairs when it comes to co-ordinating with cities?” says Langford Township Mayor Eric Woodward. Photo by Francis Georgian /PNG B.C. mayors will no longer have a single point of contact in the provincial government after the cabinet shuffle split the old Ministry of Municipal Affairs between the Office of the Premier and the new Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs, led by Ravi Kahlon. Several local government leaders said Wednesday they were optimistic the changes signal a restart in municipal-provincial relations after two years of having policies, particularly around housing, dictated to them from Victoria. 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Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Sign In or Create an Account or Article content Others are cautious, wondering whether Premier David Eby will have the time to deal directly with municipal officials and wondering what role Brittny Anderson, the new minister of state for local governments and rural communities, will have. According to the province, the premier’s office will be in charge of “strategic relations and consultations with local governments, local government organizations and others.” Kahlon has been given the rest of the portfolio, including financial and other support to local governments, management of cross-government programs related to local governments, and consultation with ministries, agencies, other governments, First Nations and other interested parties. This means municipalities will have an additional avenue for outreach directly to the premier’s office through Anderson, particularly on rural issues. Money provided to municipalities and across-government work involving local governments will be under Kahlon’s purview. Langley Township Mayor Eric Woodward said it is clear the election demonstrated a desire among voters for change, particularly in the Fraser Valley where the NDP were mostly shut out by John Rustad’s Conservatives. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Article content Article content He sees the shifts to how the province handles municipal affairs as a potentially positive step in the right direction, but warns that there are still few details about how Eby, Kahlon and Anderson will work together. “It remains to be seen what that’s going to look like, until the mandate letters come out, how that’s going to be structured. I mean, my initial concern is that, will the premier have the necessary time, while being the premier, to also be the minister of municipal affairs when it comes to co-ordinating with cities?” said Woodward. As for the new Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs, Woodward was more pessimistic, saying it sends “a clear message that they stand by their approach to housing” and adding he expects the province to continue imposing housing targets on municipalities, even those already feeling stress from population growth. Not all mayors agree with Woodward’s criticism of the province’s housing policies. New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone saying he understands the status quo around housing development was not working. Johnstone also believes that combining municipal affairs with housing makes sense, given it remains one of the key issues for local governments. But he said there is still a long way to go when it comes to other priorities such as schools. Article content “It’s all kind of good to build housing, but schools across B.C. are overcrowded, and unless we see some big, massive investment in those types of infrastructure, we’re just not rebuilding local communities,” he said. “So a municipal affairs minister has to have a strong voice in cabinet for a lot of the other things that cities need as well.” Kahlon said the entire point of his new role is to help municipalities build some of those needed amenities
A shortage of affordable housing has led to a growing crisis, and it’s taken shape with a tent city in downtown Sechelt that sprung up in recent years. Catherine Leach thought she would be pushed out of British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast when her landlord decided to sell her home. “I got super lucky that one of the few apartment buildings opened up and I got a suite in that building,” she says. “I would have had to leave the Coast. It was that close. And it’s not just about people having a home to live in. It’s about an affordable home and having homes so that people can actually work here.” Ms. Leach is executive director of the Sunshine Coast Community Services Society, a large 50-year-old multiservices nonprofit that serves a scattered population of 32,000 people along 100 kilometres of coastline. The Sunshine Coast is about a half-hour ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver, and it’s long been an idyllic draw for residents of Metro Vancouver who want a quieter, less expensive seaside lifestyle. But a shortage of affordable housing has led to a growing crisis in the small community, and it’s taken shape with a tent city in downtown Sechelt that sprung up in recent years. “It’s impacting everybody in every way – that’s how bad it’s become,” she says of B.C.’s housing crisis. Nonprofit workers on the front line know that people aren’t just sleeping in tents or in shelters and living in the rough. There are hidden homeless people living in their cars, in wooded areas, sleeping in boats and on couches, in motel rooms, and even in short-term rentals, because they’ve been squeezed out of the housing market. Low-income groups such as seniors are particularly impacted. Marc White, chair of the Older Persons and Elders Advisory Committee, which advises Vancouver city staff and council, has heard reports of seniors sleeping in the Vancouver airport because it’s safer. “I think it’s all over [the province],” says Dr. White, who is Clinical Assistant Professor with the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia. “Because when you look at 43 per cent of the people on the BC Housing wait list, they are 55 and older, and half of those are experiencing homelessness for the first time as a senior – and that is incredible.” He cites a recent Statistics Canada report that shows B.C.’s hidden homelessness rate was at 17.7 per cent in 2021. People had been asked if they’d ever had to live somewhere temporarily because they had nowhere else to go. Considering the rents B.C. seniors are paying, it’s no wonder. “Right now, based on census data, there are 14,000 [Vancouver] seniors paying more than 30 per cent of their household income on rent in the private market, and 5,100 households spending 50 per cent of their household income on rent,” he says. The Sechelt encampment is located near the Sunshine Coast’s only year-round homeless shelter and a transitional housing project with health and social services. There aren’t enough beds or services, so the community is pulling together. The Sunshine Coast Community Services Society is soon breaking ground on a striking new housing project by lead architect Jesse Garlick of Studio 531 Architecture. Part of the inspiration behind the U-shaped design, says Ms. Leach, was to create an inward sense of safety. The building will include 35 units of housing for single women and women with children, in response to the statistic that 59 per cent of the Coast’s children are living with a single parent who is living below the poverty line. Ms. Leach says the project, in partnership with BC Housing, is six years in the making. As executive director of Kitsilano Neighbourhood House, she was also involved in that redevelopment, and she learned that support for vulnerable people starts in their own communities. “If there was any wish for me – and the government knows this, everybody knows this: fund projects that are more complex that are actually going to affect change. Like, don’t continue to just put very targeted, particularly very vulnerable people all jammed together in one location and walk away. Don’t do that any more.” Their crisis is an extension of the Vancouver crisis, but they don’t have the same resources to address it, says Kelly Foley, Sunshine Coast regional housing co-ordinator for Cover the Coast, a local affordable housing society. She co-authored a 2023 assessment needs report that shows crime, particularly violent crime, increased between 2016 and 2021, with a major spike in violent crime in 2020. “Because we are such a bedroom community to Vancouver, the cost of housing in Vancouver has certainly had an impact here,” says Ms. Foley. “You combine that with older adults moving here and we are in a tough situation, because we have a lack of working-age adults that can’t afford to live in our community, and who could help support those people.” Half the population of the Coast is older than 55, and about one-third are over 65, she says. As well, the average household income is lower than the B.C. average. People are fearful of the sudden changes they are seeing, particularly in downtown Sechelt, says Ms. Foley, who has met with residents of the encampment. “What I’m hearing is that there are people who are living in tents, who are very vulnerable, and also there’s
Posted October 28, 2024 4:44 pm. Last Updated October 28, 2024 5:38 pm. BC Hydro says the massive Site C dam project in northeastern British Columbia has started generating power. The provincial electric utility says in a statement that the first of six generating units on the Site C dam has begun operations after completing testing and commissioning procedures. It’s expected that the site will be in full service by fall 2025, adding about eight per cent more supply to B.C.’s electricity grid. BC Hydro says the reservoir is now reaching more than 90 per cent full, with the water level at the dam rising by about 40 metres since late August when the filling process began. The utility is also warning people to stay away from the area of the reservoir for at least one year after it has been filled, citing possible unstable terrain and floating vegetation debris as potential hazards. BC Hydro says the reservoir filling is anticipated to be completed later this fall. Construction of Site C project was launched in 2015 under Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberal government and it has seen cost estimates spike from up to $6.6 billion in 2007 to $16 billion in 2021. The project continued under former BC NDP Premier John Horgan after he said the dam needed to be finished despite his party not supporting the start of construction in the first place.
The BC government is set to hit a historic milestone in its clean energy infrastructure efforts. It promises that by the end of the month, electric vehicle drivers will be able to travel throughout BC along the “Electric Highway.” This means that fast-charging stations for public electric vehicles will be in place along major routes, making travel from Alaska to Washington possible for BC drivers, something which was impossible before due to the risk of EVs losing power mid-trip, also known as “range anxiety.” “The completion of BC’s Electric Highway by summer 2024 fulfils a key commitment of CleanBC, the Province’s climate action plan. In addition, the Province is working toward an overall target of building 10,000 public charging stations by 2030. As of August 2024, there are more than 5,300 public charging stations in the province, an increase of nearly 350% since 2018,” the Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation said Friday in a release. BC Government The hope is that more drivers will be encouraged to switch to electric vehicles in the years ahead due to the advancement in reliable travel options to lower greenhouse gas emissions and meet energy targets. “In 2023, approximately 23% of light-duty vehicle sales were EVs, an increase from 18% of sales in 2022, and well ahead of the Province’s targets under the Zero-Emissions Vehicle Act,” the government said. “British Columbians are embracing electric vehicles faster than any other jurisdiction in Canada, and that’s why we are continuing to make investments for growth within our current system and building out our fast-charging network across BC,” Chris O’Riley, president and CEO of BC Hydro, added. Completing BC’s Electric Highway was a collaborative effort involving utilities, local governments, Indigenous communities, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, and the private sector. The Province has contributed more than $13 million directly to this initiative through the GoElectric Public Charger Program and additional funding through Natural Resources Canada’s Zero-Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program.