THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2016
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MURDEROUS PLAY OPENS TONIGHT
Third part of our series looks at the Internet’s role in art sales
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STILWELL ON TUESDAY’S PROVINCIAL BUDGET:
People here will benefit
Region’s other MLA says changes to MSP payments only symbolic AUREN RUVINSKY writer@pqbnews.com
MLA and Minister of Social Development and Social Innovation Michelle Stilwell said there is a lot in Tuesday’s B.C. budget for people in her Parksville Qualicum Beach riding. With a $264 million operating surplus, she highlighted the expansion of a $1,200 one-time registered education savings plan (RESP) grant by a year, to children born in 2006, which she said, “will help more than 40,000 children, including some in our community.” “And when I look at seniors and the ability to have the MSP (medical) premiums support them so they can save up to $480 per year, that will be a good thing for seniors in our community.” She said this budget includes $70 I would also say the million a year for MSP relief “to help property transfer tax and lower income families and seniors and the changes we’ll see there those individuals who require a little will certainly help some of bit of extra assistance.” She gave the exthe families in our ample of reductions for a senior makcommunity ing less than $45,000 a year or a senior MLA MICHELLE STILWELL couple earning less than $51,000. “Locally I would also say the property transfer tax and the changes we’ll see there will certainly help some of the families in our community and will also perhaps help our community in new building, which creates jobs as well,” she said, explaining that people building new homes priced up to $750,000 “will be fully exempt from the property transfer tax.” Stilwell touted “record levels of investment in our classrooms” and a $146 million increase in her ministry’s budget to $2.7 billion, including a “modest increase” in rates for transportation for about 40,000 of their clients with disabilities. And she said there are several positive things in this budget related to housing, including the announcement a few days earlier by Minister of Energy and Mines, Responsible for Housing, Rich Coleman, of an “investment of $350 million over the next five years for affordable housing and subsidized housing in the province, one of the biggest in British Columbia we have seen.” See FRASER, page A7
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J.R. RARDON PHOTO
SPIN CYCLE: Nicholas Teichrib of Oceanside Elementary School takes a break to spin a basketball during the annual Knights of Columbus free-throw shooting contest Saturday at Springwood Elementary in Parksville. Top finishers advanced to the district competition Feb. 27 at Oceanside Elementary.
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