Coronavirus (COVID-19) Local News

Sidney and North Saanich have joined other municipalities that are either eliminating or reducing property tax increases this year in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Sidney council voted 6-1 Monday to cut this year’s tax increase to zero from 1.

Tubing has been banned on Cowichan Lake and on the Cowichan River this summer to help combat the pandemic. Thousands of visitors typically show up every year for an adventure on the water.

We have asked local business people to describe how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting them. A commentary by the owner of Trek Bicycle Store Victoria.

Brandon Heyer’s apprentice carpentry students would typically be spending this semester building a tiny home — a pint-sized domicile.

Thomas Homer-Dixon studies the complexity of things. It’s what led the professor to write big-brain books like The Ingenuity Gap: How We Can Solve Problems of the Future and The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity and the Renewal of Civilization.

Alert Bay Mayor Dennis Buchanan struggles to talk about the first COVID-19 death on Cormorant Island under his watch, and a local state of emergency. “It’s tough,” says Buchanan, 72, stopping to compose himself.

Donate online at RapidReliefFund.ca . More options below. The Rapid Relief Fund is giving out another $650,000 to groups in need due to the COVID-19 pandemic — with $305,000 of that earmarked for the Cowichan Valley.

B.C. Housing moved more that 20 people from two homeless encampments at Topaz Park and Pandora Avenue into hotel rooms in Victoria over the weekend, Mayor Lisa Helps said Monday.

A Saanich woman’s flower shop is back in business with the help of her son’s repurposed lemonade stand, but she says an outdated bylaw threatens to take down what has become a community hub.

B.C. food banks are receiving 60,000 pounds of donated farmed salmon to help people in need on Vancouver Island and on the mainland as demand rises during the virus pandemic. Laura Lansink, executive director of Food Banks B.C.