B.C. jobs bounce back

B.C. is correcting course following months of job losses stretching back to the summer. The province added 15,300 jobs to the economy in October, according to data released Friday from Statistics Canada. The gains helped push the unemployment rate down 0.1 per cent to 4.7 per cent—taking back the country’s lowest unemployment rate from Quebec. Losses […]

Transit job action intensifies

VANCOUVER — Bus service reductions or cancellations hit 25 of Metro Vancouver’s busiest bus routes Friday as job action by Unifor maintenance workers and drivers entered a second week. Translink says a majority of the reductions affected “high-frequency routes,” including several servicing the University of British Columbia. “Coast Mountain Bus Company is making every effort […]

Hootsuite CEO leaves nest

The man who is perhaps Vancouver’s highest-profile tech CEO is stepping down from the top job at the company he founded. Hootsuite Inc.’s Ryan Holmes says he’s departing to spend more time with family, but will continue to serve as executive chairman, according to a report from the Financial Post. Hootsuite did not immediately respond to an […]

Transit strike hits Vancouver

VANCOUVER — The first day of job action by transit workers in Metro Vancouver caused SeaBus cancellations on a busy commuter route across the Burrard Inlet. TransLink said seven SeaBus round trips, totalling 14 sailings, were cancelled starting Friday afternoon and into the evening. The transit authority warned commuters to expect delays and to consider […]

Fortis meets expectations

Canadian utility company Fortis Inc. says it earned $278 million in the third quarter to stay roughly in line with a year earlier. Fortis says the earnings for the quarter ending Sept. 30 work out to 64 cents per share, compared with earnings of $276 million or 65 cents per share last year. Adjusted net […]

Business impacts DST call

VICTORIA — British Columbia is pushing ahead with a plan to eliminate seasonal time changes, but when it would happen remains a matter of timing. Attorney General David Eby says legislation is being introduced Thursday that would allow B.C. to stop moving between daylight and standard time every spring and fall. But before any changes […]

New mill for Fort St. James

VICTORIA — The B.C. government has approved the transfer of a forest licence to Fort St. James Forests Products on the condition the company will build a new mill in the town that recently declared a financial crisis. Forests Minister Doug Donaldson says he approved the transfer of the forest licence and associated road permits […]

Less money left over

The economic situations for half of British Columbians have not been this dire since MNP started tracking its consumer debt index in 2016. Canada’s largest insolvency practice found in September that nearly half of B.C. residents—48 per cent—are more concerned about their ability to repay their debts than they used to be. That figure is […]

E-bikes all the rage

SQUAMISH, B.C. — On a sunny September weekend in Squamish, about half a dozen tourism and rental companies say they’re out of electric-assist mountain bike rentals. The rugged and varied terrain of British Columbia’s Sea-to-Sky region north of Vancouver has long made it an international mountain biking destination, but now the trail systems are increasingly […]

Small Business Week is here

It’s Small Business Week in Canada, and B.C. will be celebrating all the contributions the smaller companies make to their local communities as well as the provincial economy. There are more than half a million small businesses in B.C. that employ nearly 1.1 million people, and the government gives plenty of the credit for the […]