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The federal government’s new low-interest loan program to help companies hit hardest by the pandemic is being hailed as both a positive step and a bit of a burden by a tourism industry that has been crying out for significant relief for months.

Government offices and private companies, having put expansion plans, moves and changes on hold through much of the pandemic, are starting to wake from hibernation, according to an expert on Victoria’s commercial real estate market.

Shares in Victoria-based Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. jumped 26.7 per cent Monday, the first day of trading since the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. approved the company’s drug treatment for lupus nephritis last week.

Moe’s Home Collection is taking over the former Ocean River Sports location on Store Street at the foot of Fisgard in Chinatown.

The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority is preparing for a 2021 Alaska cruise ship season even as vessel visits are being cancelled due to the pandemic.

VANCOUVER — The largest salmon farm operator in the Discovery Islands is going to court in an effort to overturn a fiat issued by federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan that ordered all open-net salmon farms shut down in the region by June 2022

A six-storey building with 407 rental units and close to 20,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space is being proposed for the southwest corner of McKenzie Avenue and Shelbourne Street in Saanich.

In 1970, when Greg Sager and Bob Coltart first opened their furniture store, the area around upper Government Street north of Chinatown was a bit of no-man’s land of empty lots, vacant buildings, a butcher and automotive garages.

The federal government will soon roll out a new relief program for tourism businesses hit hardest by the COVID-19 ­pandemic.