It's a quick video but with important news about Vancouver real estate and recommendations to the city on how to meet the demand for affordable housing...have quicker approval process for construction is one way. 

For Those Not Aware - There is a BC Property Tax Deferment Program

I recently received an email from a client who will soon take possession of his new Burnaby home. 

Would you happen to know whether, or know how I can find out whether I will fall into one of the following categories?   I need to be one of the following if I am to qualify as a “registered owner” under BC’s Property Tax Deferment program.  

Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons made a pitch to the legislature to make all 360 episodes of the classic TV series The Beachcombers available online.

If you grew up in Canada in the 1970's or '80's you very likely watched The Beachcombers, and if you grew up in one of the other 60 countries in the world where the series was broadcast, you may have been watching it there as well.

Everything about this show is West Coast and truly Canadian. It told our story. But only 60 episodes have been aired since 1990, and according the Simons, this needs to change.

The show had a cast of contrasting characters and told original stories about fishing, logging and the ecology. It explored land claims and other First Nations issues. There were even references to our ferry service. It showed the beauty of BC's coastline and in one episode the show centred around a proposed pipeline from Alberta through BC.  

Simons goes on to claim that The Beachcombers continues to draw tourists to the Sunshine Coast, and being able to watch the show is in the national interest.

'Along with Jackson Davies, our favourite Mountie, I'm calling on the CBC, our national broadcaster, to make this classic television series available again for the enjoyment of not just Canadians, but fans around the world.' Simons would like to see CBC offer all 360 episodes through its online player.

Good idea.  I'd watch the series again. You?

The series of 'Car Free Day' events, meant to re-imagine and showcase a city less dependent of cars, takes place from June to August.

Each festival will be held on a single street in each respective neighbourhood, all to be held on different days, allowing festival goers a chance to attend each of them.

This year you can expect even more art, music and activities than before.

The West End Festival will be held on Saturday, June 16 on Denman Street from Robson to Davie, featuring 4 new stages.

The Main Street Festival will take place on Sunday, June 17 on Main Street from Broadway to 30th Ave, featuring more than 10 stages hosted by local communities and businesses.  This year you will find more interactive art installations and children's activities.

The Commercial Drive Festival will be held on Sunday, July 8th on Commercial Drive from Venables to North Grandview, featuring new and returnng stages put on by community groups and individuals, including a live DJ van.

Car Free Day 2018 expects to attract more than 400,000 people out this year.

By now, all of the outdoor pools in Metro Vancouver will be open for the summer, including Kits Pool which has just undergone a nice renovation. 

Get a full body workout swimming lanes or taking an aquafit class, relax after a busy day in a hot tub or make a splash with friends and family.

Swimming lessons and birthday party packages are available at many locations and several lower cost 'discount dip' sessions are available throughout the week.

All the pools are maintained in accordance with established health guidelines and standards in order to maintain a safe and hygienic environment.

Bring on Summer!

Memorial Park will host Ladner Pioneer May Days Fair this weekend which has been going on since 1896. The Fair will feature live bands, free entertainment, carnival rides and a beer garden for the adults. The festivities begin Friday evening with discounted midway rides for kids. On Saturday the day is filled with a broad range of top notch family entertainers and many FREE activities and entertainment for children.

The food fair area will offer a broad range of food and picnic tables with a great view of the baseball tournement.

Sunday's activities kick off with a pancake breakfast followed at noon by the May Days Parade featuring the May Queen float.

The Fair takes place Friday to Sunday, May 27 & 28 from 3pm to 10pm on Friday and 10am to 6pm Saturday and Sunday at Memoral Park - 5010 47th Ave. Ladner.

The biggest technological revolution of our lifetime is just around the corner as we start to get ready for the advent of driverless cars.

Toyota and Tesla will have fully autonomous vehicles on the road by 2022, with all the other auto manufacturers following by 2025.

The shift promises virtually no deaths due to traffic accidents, drastically reduced commute times and emissions as most of these cars will be electric.

Are our governments doing enough about the fact that there are going to be so many of these driverless cars on the road?

Less than half of the people who currently own a car today will own one in 12 years - there won't be any need to.

With driverless cars, commuters will be able to order a ride to their door using a mobile app, and customize their trip with personal music, movies and more.

The costs of owning versus operating will be dramatic. If you own, it will cost more than twice as much than if you just order a vehicle every time you want a ride.

There will be a massive change in the need for public transit, public transportation and interconnectivity with driverless cars.

Municipalities will have to completely rethink the way they do their planning.

Right now cities are dealing with signage, curbs, lanes, signals, traffic interestions and parking. That's all going to change because none of that is going to be necessary.

The car will operate by lidar, radar and cameras... so the cars talk to each other, but they also have to talk to the infrastructure.

With the technology being used there will also be a need for strong IT protections.

What will happen when you have 40,000 cars on the road during rush hour and all of a sudden Surrey's system goes down, or Burnaby's system goes down. We are going to have to deal with ransomware and hacking and freezes and all the stuff that each of us deals with when we are trying to put together a word document.

There won't be any need for gas stations, parkades and there won't be any on-site parking issues.

But as of now, we are totally unprepared.  When are we going to come up with new stategies?  We have to plan ahead. We have to do a 5 year financial plan and each community will have to do their regional growth stategy and Official Community Plan in the next 2 years to deal with what's coming in the next 4 years. Is this going to happen?

With the high price of gas putting a damper on many weekend plans that require a bit of a drive - here is a nice surprise. This summer you can get some great outdoors time in while saving some bucks thanks to afree shuttle bus service that will run between Vancouver and Golden Ears Provincial Park.

Parkbus operated last summer as a pilot program, but this year, with support from MEC and TD you can ride the bus free.

Operated by Vancouver based Environmentall Sound Transportation, Parkbus will run every Saturday and Sunday, starting July 7th until September 2nd with departures from MEC Vancouver Store on West Broadway in the morning, and returning late afternoon.

You will need to pre-book your seat online with a credit card deposit to prevent no-shows, and the reservations will open up in mid June.

Ahead of your reserved trip, riders will get safety information and park details via email. While on board, you can learn about Leave No Trace principles from a ride facilitator.

At 62,540 hectares, Golden Ears is one of the biggest parks in B.C.

Known for its extensive trail systems for hikers and equestrian use, Golden Ears is also home to Alouette Lake, which is a popular spot for swimming, windsurfing, water skiing, canoeing, boating and fishing.

I attended the Canadian Cohousing Conference held in Vancouver late April. A weekend event, it included a presentation about a world issue found in many cities, called "loneliness". It is felt cohousing is a good answer towards addressing this. 

Enjoy reading my newsletter. Click to zoom in and click on the link to cohousing to learn more. Cohousing is NOT co-op housing.

Newsletter of Bill DeMooy

Steveston's 15th annual Maritime Festival will feature the indie soul ban, The Boom Booms on the main stage at Britannia Heritage Shipyards this summer.

The festival will run for 2 days, Saturday, July 28th and Sunday July 29th from 10am to 6pm with many displays.

There will be the row of interesting, historic ships along the docks. The River Queen will operate tours of Steveston Channel and the Shady Isle Pirate Society will be bringing their miniature canon ships to the river.

As always, the festival will feature a variety of local performing artists, including the Boom Booms who will play for you at 2:15pm on Saturday.

Each year, the festival invites local visual artists to submit proposals to design the event poster. Richmond based Ashley Rose Goentoro has been commissioned to design this year's poster.

Ashley will bring her charm to her watercolour paintings that tie in perfectly with the Richmond Martime Festival's focus on arts, culture and history. She will be documenting her creative process on Instagram (Ashley Rose Illustration). The final artwork will be used throughout this year's festival site and marketing materials.

This year's festival will be a scaled back version of last year's special event, which had twice the budget at $200,000 thanks to Canada150 sponsorship money. 

A new community is planned for Vancouver's Heather Lands that will include 2,500 new homes where at least 40% will be for either low or moderate income households.

The 21 acre site, between west 33rd & 37th, between Willow & Ash, with Heather Street running through it, sits in the Cambie Corridor development area.

The land is owned by 3 First Nations - the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh (MST) - and Canada Lands Company, which in 2014 entered into a 50/50 venture for the ownership and redevelopement of the property.

This could see the end of the historic Fairmont Academy building, built in 1914 and is now a class A heritage building which was first a private school and then an RCMP base. It currently stands directly in the way of the site, but could be moved to a new site, but not likely.

The newly released details of the Heather Lands masterplan include:

*  approx 2,500 residential units, in buildings from 3 to 24 storeys;

* a minimum of 20% of units for affordable houses for lower-income households (around 530 units);

*  a further 20% to be attainable home ownership targeted at moderate income households (earning $50,000 - $80,000 for singles and couples and $80,000 - $150,000 for families with children);

*  of the social housing units, 50% to be geared  to families with 2 or 3 bedrooms;

*  up to 60,000 square feet of local serving and service uses;

*  a minimum of 4 acres of secured park and more.