Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 10 Dec, 2024 04:50 PM
Vancouver City Council has approved a property tax increase of 2.9 per cent, with an additional one per cent dedicated to renewing critical infrastructure.
A statement from the city says the overall increase of 3.9 per cent is one of the lowest across the region following a 7.5 per cent increase for 2024.
City Council has approved the 2025 budget, including: 🚒 An operating budget totaling $2.34B 🏗️ A capital budget totaling $880M 🏘️ A 3.9% property tax increase
Mayor Ken Sim had earlier set a cap of 5.5 per cent for the 2025 increase.
Today, Vancouver City Council approved the 2025 budget, delivering a tax increase of just 2.9%, with an additional 1% dedicated to renewing critical infrastructure such as water and sewer lines.
We're investing in a stronger, safer, and more affordable city without cutting… pic.twitter.com/owtQMeSJmC
Police in Squamish have issued a warning against vigilante action over safety concerns they say are circulating on social media. The statement from Sea to Sky RCMP says police want to "reassure" residents of the community about 60 kilometres north of Vancouver that "there is no current threat to public safety."
The City of Vancouver says it is on track to meet provincial targets in housing development in its latest progress report. Vancouver's first annual report on the targets showed that more than four-thousand units were built in the city from October 2023 to September 2024.
Dozens of criminal charges have been laid against three people in an alleged fraudulent bank-draft scheme that targeted vehicle businesses for what police say was about 850-thousand dollars in losses. R-C-M-P in Richmond say their officers began an investigation in January over allegations that forged bank drafts were used to purchase high-end vehicles, including B-M-W's, Mercedes-Benz and others valued at between 33-thousand and 103-thousand dollars.
Mounties in Burnaby say four people have been arrested and large amounts of drugs and cash have been seized following a four-month interprovincial drug trafficking investigation. They say officers executed two search warrants on properties in Coquitlam and Surrey and seized more than 95-hundred Hydromorphone pills believed to be diverted prescription pills, as well as other substances including more than a kilogram of suspected cocaine.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland isn’t showing signs of worry that the U.S. can now launch a trade challenge against the Liberal government's controversial digital services tax. The Liberals are slapping a three-per-cent tax on the Canadian revenues of digital giants, which will affect major U.S. tech companies such as Google and Apple.
Canada's Public Health Agency has confirmed that a British Columbia teenager hospitalized last Friday is the country's first ever human case of domestically acquired avian flu. The agency said in a statement Wednesday that testing at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg confirms the teen did contract the H5N1 avian flu, the same strain related to viruses found in B.C. flocks in an ongoing outbreak at poultry farms.
