The general manager of the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch has determined there is again a real and serious threat to public safety that warrants the closure of 13 private and six public liquors stores located in downtown Vancouver tomorrow at 4 p.m.

Solicitor General Shirley Bond issued the following statement today in response to the early closure of liquor stores in downtown Vancouver:

Working together, B.C.'s Civil Forfeiture Office and the BC Securities Commission have reunited 37 Canadians with the full amount of $190,121 they lost to fraud in 2003.

As golf courses prepare for the influx of summer golfers, they will have at least one less thing to worry about. Golf course owners will no longer be required to register, license or insure their golf carts and utility vehicles through ICBC to operate in parking lots or cross public roads.

A review of B.C.'s Coastal Ferry Act will identify improvements to the act which would better allow the commissioner to balance the interests of ferry users with the financial sustainability of the ferry operators, BC Ferries commissioner Gord Macatee announced today.

The Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) Initiative Vote and Referendum Act was introduced today, recognizing that a mail-in vote will be conducted prior to the vote currently required under the Recall and Initiative Act.

The B.C. government announced the process by which British Columbians will cast their ballot in the HST referendum vote this summer.