News Impacting Business In British Columbia
City of Victoria Chooses Veeam Backup & Replication
VICTORIA – Veeam® Software, the leader in backup, recovery and data management solutions that deliver Modern Data Protection, today announced it has been chosen by City of Victoria to build its city’s business resiliency and increase its security posture by providing unmatched modern data protection, backup and disaster recovery. To support the city’s thriving economy and vibrant arts and culture scene, City of Victoria knew business resiliency and cybersecurity had to be main priorities, which meant making sure data is always protected and accessible.
With numerous IT systems supporting city services, ensuring reliability and accessibility for all 94,400 residents is one of the city’s highest priorities. So, when City of Victoria’s legacy backup solutions failed to match the agility and efficiency of Microsoft Azure Stack hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) which is what all systems run on, the IT team knew it had to look for a solution that would dovetail with that simplicity.
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MABC Responds to Major Mines Reclamation Security Policy
BRITISH COLUMBIA – The provincial government’s new interim Major Mines Reclamation Security Policy is one of the most stringent mine reclamation bonding policies in the world, says the Mining Association of British Columbia (MABC).
The interim policy requires major operating mines to provide assurance that taxpayers will not be liable for mine site reclamation and environmental clean-up. The policy encourages proactive reclamation, where mines conduct restoration work throughout the life cycle of the mine on areas where mining activity no longer occurs.
“We are reviewing the interim policy and will consult with our membership, said Michael Goehring, President and CEO of MABC.
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Budget 2022: Small Businesses Need to be Central to Economic Recovery
OTTAWA – Small business owners need the federal government to use Budget 2022 to lay a clear roadmap to small business recovery, says the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). This includes keeping business costs down, reducing red tape, finding solutions to address the labour shortage, laying out a plan to address the deficit, and ensuring that COVID-19 measures address the needs of small businesses.
“Businesses continue to struggle with decreased revenue, staffing shortages and major cost increases. While optimism is returning as restrictions begin to lift, many businesses are hoping to see concrete measure in the federal budget that will help them deal with the cost of doing business, labour shortages and COVID-related debt. This federal budget must not only ensure small businesses survive the challenging months ahead, but help them rebuild and instill confidence in consumers,” said Corinne Pohlmann, CFIB’s senior vice-president of national affairs.
See full report here.
Ottawa Can’t Finance Large Spending Programs
BRITISH COLUMBIA – If the federal government, which plans to table its next budget this week, wants to fund a major expansion of government, it simply can’t raise enough tax revenue solely from Canada’s upper-income families, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“To generate sufficient revenue to significantly increase federal spending, Ottawa must raise taxes on Canadians across a broad income spectrum, not just top earners,” said Ben Eisen, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and author of No Free Lunch for the 99 Per Cent: Estimating Revenue Effects from Taxes on Top Earners.
See full report here
BC’s Housing Supply Keeping Pace With Population Growth
BRITISH COLUMBIA – Almost daily, we’re told that fixing B.C.’S affordable housing crisis is a simple matter of supply and demand, and that local governments aren’t doing enough to approve more housing to be built quickly. A new paper from UBCM, Building BC: Housing Completions & Population Growth 2016-2021, shows resolving the affordable housing shortage is much more complex than just building more homes. Drawing on current data, the report identifies additional factors that must be recognized as playing a large role in our affordable housing problem.
The report incorporates analysis by Andy Yan, Director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University.
See full report here
