Voters in Victoria might need to hold on a little longer to have a say in who will fill the vacant seat on city council. Citing the challenges of going to the polls during a pandemic, city staff are saying they don’t have enough time or capacity to ensure a safe by-election this fall.
 
“At this point, timelines are challenging to predict,” says the staff report, which goes to council tomorrow. “It is possible that a by-election may not be able to be safely planned and delivered until Q1 of 2021.”
 
The Chamber will monitor the situation as it is vital that the democratic process carry on, especially as other BC municipalities have found a way to schedule their own by-elections for this fall.

The Greater Victoria School District (SD61) has a Return to School Plan ready to go as students head back into classrooms.
 
The school district is following the BC Ministry of Education’s restart plan, which focuses on the safety of students and staff while trying to give kids as much in-class instruction as possible. To help with the extra level of planning needed this year, the federal government is providing BC with $242.4 million to implement COVID-19 protocols for child care, transportation, health and safety and learning supports.
 
There’s no question anxiety levels have been heightened during the pandemic, and the provincial government is spending an additional $2 million on school-based wellness programs. If it means fewer people suffering from mental health issues in the years ahead, it will have been an invaluable investment.
 
To help families manage back to school stress and anxiety, The Chamber is also happy to give a shout out to Telus for hosting two seminars by clinical counselor Lindsay Killam. You can get more details and register for the Sept. 10 or Sept. 14 event here.
 
It’s a critical time for families in British Columbia as we learn to live with COVID-19, and continue to work on restarting our economy. The Chamber encourages everyone to follow the most current advice of BC Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. There is less uncertainty around COVID-19 than there was in the spring, and efforts to slow transmission are much more focused — as detailed in today’s announcement of a $1.6 billion plan for the fall and winter.

Businesses have been given a reprieve as the provincial government announced last week that it is delaying implementation or increases to several taxes.
 
Quarterly installments for the Employer Health Tax have been pushed back as follows:

• Dec. 31, 2020 (original installment date was June 15, 2020)
• Jan. 31, 2021 (original installment date was Sept. 15, 2020)
• Feb. 28, 2021 (original installment date was Dec. 15, 2020)

 
As well, the scheduled elimination of a Provincial Sales Tax exemption for sweetened carbonated beverages, and the requirement for e-commerce businesses outside BC to collect PST have been delayed until next April. And annual increases to the provincial carbon tax, postponed back in April, also won’t begin until next year.
 
The Ministry of Finance is also reminding businesses that the due dates for the following sales taxes, extended in the spring, are coming up Sept. 30:

• PST
• hotel tax, also known as municipal and regional district tax
• tobacco tax
• motor fuel tax
• carbon tax

 
“These administrative deferrals are not being extended further,” says a statement from the ministry. “Businesses were never able to spend taxes collected from customers such as PST, but delaying tax remittances removed an administrative burden from potentially short-staffed businesses during the beginning of the pandemic.”

BC’s economic restart continued in August, with the unemployment rate in Greater Victoria dropping to 10.3% from 11.1% the month before.
 
“This is the fourth month we’ve seen a bit of a rise in the number of people working, which is good,” Chamber CEO Bruce Williams told CHEK news. “It’s a sign that we’re slowly on the road to recovery, but still reflects the great big hole in the economy with tourism and hospitality not really returning to anything near normal levels right now.”
 
The province says it has now recovered 94% of jobs lost during the initial economic restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19.