Festival 150 celebrates BC’s 150th birthday in the Capital!
April 21, 2008 -- To mark BC’s 150th anniversary, the Provincial Capital Commission is launching Festival 150, a major public event on the BC Day weekend in August 2008.

Festival 150 will offer four days of free family-oriented activities, taking place all around the Capital’s beautiful Inner Harbour from Friday, Aug. 1 through BC Day Monday, Aug. 4. It will showcase our rich history, vibrant culture, entrepreneurism and innovation.

Alongside some wonderful community events already scheduled for the long weekend – annual favourites like Symphony Splash and special BC150 events like Fire Bells & Fanfare – Festival 150 will add a variety of other sights, sounds and activities to the Capital’s BC Day long weekend. These include a multi-day Best of BC Stage, a children’s activity zone, a showcase of the Province’s food producers, and a mainstage concert finale on the holiday Monday featuring internationally-acclaimed BC performers. Program details will be announced in late May and posted on the event website at www.bcfestival150.ca.

Festival 150 will offer our community and visitors an unforgettable opportunity to celebrate British Columbia as the “Best Place on Earth”. What better place to celebrate the province’s birthday than in the province’s Capital! Plan to visit Victoria Aug. 1-4 and enjoy a weekend to remember!

Additional funding for distant schools
April 17, 2008 - Additional per student funding for schools in distant communities and a streamlined online Field Trip Guide are the latest improvements to the Provincial Capital Commission’s Student Travel Subsidy program.

Additional funding has been allocated to significantly increase per student subsidies for communities located farther away from Victoria. New zones were created and a new funding formula applied. Schools in the furthest zone, as an example, can now apply for $400 per student for a trip of four or more nights, up from the previous $170 per student. For details of the new funding grid, access the application form available online at www.bcpcc.com.

Funding rates remain unchanged for the Lower Mainland and southern Vancouver Island areas.

The change comes as a result of feedback received as to how the Provincial Capital Commission could provide greater help to those groups having to travel the greatest distance to visit their Capital.

Aimed at assisting school groups visiting the Capital on educational trips, the PCC-sponsored program is offered twice yearly. For travel during the fall and winter of 2008, applications must be received by May 8, 2008.

Since the inception of the PCC program in the spring of 2006, travel subsidies have been approved for more than 7,500 students from 178 schools throughout BC.

Applications forms, a new Field Trip Guide and additional information about the Student Travel Subsidy program and other PCC Outreach programs can be found on our website at www.bcpcc.com

PCC partners with Free Spirit
April 10, 2008 -- The Provincial Capital Commission has agreed to become a marketing partner of the Royal BC Museum’s “Free Spirit: Stories of You, Me and BC,” a new exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the creation of the Crown Colony of British Columbia.

PCC support for Free Spirit comes in three packages. First, the PCC will fund a promotional Free Spirit icon on the street corner in front of the Museum, facing the Parliament Buildings, intended to draw Capital visitors into the exhibition. The icon is based on a central feature in Free Spirit called “The Party,” which depicts 150 notable British Columbians.

PCC support will also help the Museum to distribute free vouchers to all 683,000 school-age students in British Columbia. Each voucher is good for a single student admission between June 28 and Sept. 1, 2008.

PCC support will also help promote a traveling exhibit called “Free Spirit on the Road”. BC Hydro is a major sponsor of this initiative, which will be designed to promote energy conservation as well as pride in the province’s history. The tour will visit about six communities this fall, with possible extensions into 2009 and 2010.

This is a truly unique and exciting initiative,” says Pauline Rafferty, Chief Executive Officer for the Museum. “We are very pleased to be collaborating with BC Hydro on this joint venture and are thankful for added support from the Provincial Capital Commission."

PCC to sponsor major baseball event
at North American Indigenous Games 2008
April 2, 2008 -- The Provincial Capital Commission is proud to be named sponsor of baseball - one of four major team sport events at the North American Indigenous Games in Duncan Aug. 2-10.

More than 4,000 athletes will stay in the Cowichan Valley competing in 16 sporting events. Thousands more are expected to enjoy the week-long cultural village and live performances.

National Historica Fair launched
March 6, 2008 -- Stan Hagen, Minister of Tourism, Sport and the Arts, joined École Willows students Adrienne Henderson and Owen Erickson today to officially launch the 2008 National Historica Fair.

“It is a special time to be visiting BC’s Capital, when we as a province will be joining these students in a celebration of shared history, community strength and achievement,” he said.

This marks Victoria’s first time in hosting the fair, which will run from July 7 to 14. About 165 students in Grades 4 through 9, selected from 275,000 students in 1,000 communities across Canada, will take part in the week-long history camp culminating in a one-day public exhibition Saturday, July 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Cedar Hill Recreation Centre in Saanich.

The Provincial Capital Commission is a major sponsor of the Historica Foundation’s event as is the Heritage Branch and the BC150 Secretariat.

Victoria to host Canadian Capital Cities Conference
March 1, 2008 - Representatives from across Canada will meet in Victoria June 25-28 to explore common goals, share experiences and devise ways of benefiting from as well as overcoming challenges unique to capital cities.

“Capital cities play a unique role,” says Ray Parks, CEO for the BC Provincial Capital Commission. “A Capital reflects the history, aspirations and democratic traditions of all the citizens of its constituency. It is a place for celebration and ceremony. It is also a place to enact rituals that reinforce our way of government and our way of life.

“Because it belongs to all its citizens, a Capital must provide a sense of ownership and be welcoming and inclusive,” Parks said. It is also a place to showcase important symbols of our collective past through museums, historic sites, heritage buildings and stories. It is a place to celebrate the present and to envision and pursue the future. It should be the center of achievement in all areas of its citizens’ endeavours, including the arts, learning, justice, technology and athletics.”

Formed in 1996, the Canadian Capital Cities Organization is a professional liaison group for the national, 10 provincial and three territorial capital cities plus five capital commissions across the country.

The June conference in Victoria will be hosted by B.C.’s Provincial Capital Commission. The four-day event will feature keynote speakers John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and Annabelle Pegrum, CEO of Australia’s National Capital Authority.

This year’s conference theme, “Connecting and Celebrating,” is especially appropriate and meaningful for Victoria, said Parks. “Not only is British Columbia celebrating its 150th anniversary of the founding of the Crown Colony of BC, but the Provincial Capital Commission also has a great deal of experience and success to share with other capital cities, particularly with its varied outreach programs designed to connect all British Columbians with their capital.” PCC initiatives include student travel subsidies to help fund travel costs for educational field trips to Victoria, online Social Studies units about the capital city, and historical vignettes available at www.bcpcc.com.

As a special treat for delegates, the CCCO conference has been scheduled to coincide with the Tall Ship Festival in Victoria.

Workshops and seminars have also been slated for a variety of venues that showcase B.C.’s capital city, including a dinner at the Royal BC Museum, a tour of the Legislative Buildings and a reception at Government House.

For a CCCO delegate registration package choose: English Français

Magical elevator wins
Audience Choice Award
March, 2008 - The elevator stopped at the perfect moment, its doors opening slowly. In the distance, an elderly woman stretched out her arm to shake hands with a face-painted mime. The camera was rolling.

“That shot seemed perfect to me,” said Nicola Stewart, winner of the My Victoria Audience Choice Award, sponsored by the Provincial Capital Commission.

The audience thought it was perfect, too, casting their ballots for the young filmmaker at the Victoria Film Festival in February.

Born in Duncan and calling Victoria home for the better part of 20 years, Stewart studied film at Concordia University in Montreal. “But I didn’t do much in that field since graduating,” she said. “I hadn’t picked up a camera for a long time."

Trained as a make-up artist but working part-time at Island Blueprint, Stewart’s creative outlet was picking up brush and easel and seeing life through a painter’s eye.

Then she spotted a My Victoria Film Contest poster. “It was inspiring. The guidelines and subject matter motivated me."

She borrowed a friend’s camera and started shooting. “I took lots and lots of footage of everything I found interesting around town,” she said, adding that it was heartbreaking to leave most of it behind on the editing room floor.

“I wanted to include some of the tourist aspects of Victoria as well as general everyday life and the changes that are happening in the city."

Her idea of a visual collage gained focus when she looked at the footage taken of the mime. “I then came up with the idea of being in a magical elevator, moving and experiencing different perspectives of Victoria on every floor.”

Looking through the lens of a camera was exciting. “It invoked a whole kind of energy you forget you have until you participate in a creative process,” Stewart said. “Once you participate in it, you realize how valuable it is.”

To see the Audience Choice Award winner, click here.

Rattenbury scandal provides fodder
for Capital History Award winner
March 2008 - Not only did Francis Rattenbury design Victoria’s signature buildings, including the Parliament Buildings, the Empress Hotel, the Crystal Garden and the CP Steamship terminal, but the renowned architect was a key character in the raciest scandal of the 1920s and 30s.

The steamier side of Rattenbury -- from leaving his wife for a younger woman to his murder in England by his chauffer who was having an affair with his second wife, through to her stabbing death -- provided a smorgasbord of tantalizing historical tidbits and fascinating imagery for Victoria filmmaker Scott Amos.

Combining archival photographs and new video footage, Amos pieced together Rattenbury’s sordid final years for his short film “Victim of an Evil Seductress” to win the Provincial Capital Commission’s Capital History Award at this year’s Victoria Film Festival.

Thanks to the internet, Scott was able to conduct much of his research on the renowned architect, accessing historical information and archived photographs. Using a 1952 16-mm Bolex camera, he began filming. Working out of his basement, Scott processed the film in buckets of chemicals, deliberately scratching the black and white film to make it look old.

Originally from Ontario, Amos hitchhiked to Victoria 10 years ago, with a guitar on his back and $20 in his pocket. It’s the story films are made of and was the topic of his second film entered in this year’s festival entitled “Waiting."

Earning some money busking in Bastion Square, he eventually earned a writing degree from the University of Victoria, where one of his professors handed him a video camera for a film project. It was a pivotal moment in Scott’s life. “I got myself into huge debt buying equipment,” he laughed. He also started making short films.

Now a Teacher’s Assistant in UVic’s Fine Arts Department and working at Medianet, a video co-op business, Amos is a five-year veteran of the Victoria Film Festival. The My Victoria category suits his style, he says, providing an avenue to show off his work. “I make a lot of Island-centric movies."

“The festival is a great way to be exposed to artistic work that you wouldn’t normally see,” he said. “There’s a lot of local and Canadian content and it’s great to see what’s happening in my field."

The My Victoria competition is an opportunity for local artists to have their work shown on the Big Screen and to expose people to the unique voices of the local independent film community, he added. It also provides an incentive to film a changing world, he noted. Amos is the first to admit the world, as most people see it, isn’t his cup of tea. “The real world doesn’t interest me,” he said. “I live it every day so I don’t need to film it. I’d rather film a world that doesn’t exist or to see the existing world in a way I’ve never seen it before."

But add an experimental twist and it’s award time for Amos.

To watch “Victim of an Evil Seductress” click here.

New historical vignettes airing
November, 2007. The PCC’s second series of historical television vignettes began airing in early November.

Themed on BC150 Years, the 12 new episodes will be added to the PCC website for viewing or downloading as they are aired. Follow the BC150 Years videos link under PCC Outreach.

Outreach to the North Coast & Bulkley Valley
Oct. 9-13, 2007.
Several PCC Board members and staff traveled to Prince Rupert, Terrace and Hazelton this fall as part of the commission’s Outreach program and mandate to celebrate and connect the Capital with all British Columbians.

Click here for more information.

Growing Together
Sept. 29, 2007. The 4th Annual BC Communities in Bloom awards ceremony was held in Qualicum Beach Sept. 28-29 and the PCC was there to present the City of Hope with this year’s Natural & Architectural Heritage Conservation award.

For more information on Communities in Bloom, visit their website at www.bccommunitiesinbloom.ca

New online Social Studies unit
September, 2007. A new online Social Studies unit for Grade 4/5 students was launched featuring home-grown curricula about British Columbia’s capital. Educational and a whole lot of fun, this project partnered the PCC with Open School BC as well as help from Songhees First Nation.

Use the link on our home page under PCC Outreach to access.

Prince Rupert Youth Wins
Aboriginal Storytelling Contest

July, 2007. Conquering fears, overcoming obstacles and gathering courage and strength through learning about one’s heritage and cultural traditions are the themes running through the first-prize winning entry of the Aboriginal Storytelling Contest.

Devon Clifton, a Tsimshian youth from Hartley Bay now living with his family in Prince Rupert, was awarded top honours in the province-wide contest held last spring. He and his family enjoyed a trip to Victoria as the prize.

The contest, sponsored by the Healthy Aboriginal Network and the Provincial Capital Commission, garnered 93 entries from around B.C.

The criteria in awarding the prize included the story’s potential to be further developed into a comic book aimed at Aboriginal youth.

Click here to read Devon’s winning story.
Click here to read a news article about Devon and plans for the upcoming comic book.

PCC partners in heritage walking tours
May 22, 2007 - Take a stroll through Victoria streets and discover the Capital’s secrets and hidden history through four new heritage walking tours.

Click here for more information.

City Confirmed as New Tenant of Crystal Garden
April 10, 2007. The assignment of the lease from the Trustee of the former BC Experience to the City of Victoria was formally approved in court. The City plans to use the refurbished space at the Crystal Garden as an extension of the Victoria Conference Centre. The assigned lease is covered by a modification agreement with updated terms as required to align with the City's planned use of the building. This will allow for public activities including exhibitions, trade shows and other events the City may wish to sponsor in the future. The retail shops along Douglas Street are covered by a separate lease, and plans to re-occupy them are in progress. The Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant continues to operate at the south end of building, and is popular with visitors and local residents alike.

Click here for the City's press release.