Victoria gaming studio Kano Apps has partnered with Vancouver studio East Side Games and Calgary firm BT Productions to produce an only-in-Canada kind of game that launched this week. The game brings Canadian cult movie FUBAR to the mobile game realm with FUBAR: Just Give’r.
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The FUBAR mockumentary movies and TV show are based on the lives of two friends and head-bangers. The game, which features main characters Terry and Deaner, picks up where the movies left off, with the heroes embarking on a quest to beat the world record for longest party streak while warding off antagonists such as police, landlords, and ex-girlfriends, who are desperate to kill their buzz.
The game will let players help Terry and Deaner expand on their money-making schemes through building and upgrading businesses and hiring other characters to run them. Players complete challenges to earn “big bucks” and when they’ve earned enough cash it’s time to party.
It is available for download: fubar.kano.link/4Jj56wRhX2.
Chamber adds new board members
The Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce has added three new faces to its board of directors for 2020. Added to the board are Judith Ethier of the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, Tom Plumb from Kinetic Construction and Rose Arsenault from Agilus Work Solutions.
The three new directors will join chair John Wilson of the Wilson’s Group of Companies, Kris Wirk of Dusanj and Wirk, Dan Dagg of Hothouse Marketing, Christina Clarke from Songhees Development Corp., Moira Hauk from Coastal Community Credit Union, Ian Batey from IPB Consulting, Carmen Charette of the University of Victoria, Pedro Marquez from Royal Roads, Capt. Sam Sader of CFB Esquimalt and Paul van Koll from KPMG. Also sitting on the board are Brianna Green from the Wilson’s Group who is representing the Prodigy Group and Catherine Holt, chief executive of the chamber.
Ayers leads Victoria Real Estate Board
The Victoria Real Estate Board, which has just elected its new board of directors, has named Sandi-Jo Ayers as its president for 2020. The board of directors this year will include David Langlois, Karen Dinnie-Smyth, Cheryl Woolley, Sheila Aujla, Robert Cole, Jackie Ngai, Patrick Novotny and Graden Sol.
Carr honoured
Dr. Rey Carr, chief executive of Peer Resources International, a non-profit corporation based in Victoria, has been awarded a Lifetime Meritorious Service Medallion from the National Association of Peer Program Professionals. The PRI said the award recognizes Carr’s 47 years of peer-helping and an approach that is described as collaborative and innovative.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
