Province extends rental support, but border screenings end

The British Columbia government is extending its temporary rental supplement program to support renters and landlords through the pandemic, while it ends its border screening measures.

The government announced Friday it would also maintain a moratorium on rent increases and evictions for non-payment of rent, but a ban on evictions for other reasons will be lifted before the end of the month.

The rental supplement supports those temporarily laid off during the pandemic, providing $500 per month for eligible households with dependents and $300 per month for renters without dependents.

The province announced seven new cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed on Friday for a total of 2,790, while 2,444 people who tested positive have recovered.

There were no deaths reported Friday. One person died in the last 13 days, for a total of 168 deaths.

None of the cases was in the Island Health region, which has had a total of 130 confirmed cases. Of those, 125 people have recovered and five have died. There are no known active cases in the region.

In another move away from pandemic-related restrictions, B.C. said it would end its border screening measures, designed to help residents facing a 14-day isolation period after returning from international travel.

A statement from the province said federal screening measures will continue and Service B.C. will also conduct wellness checks to ensure travellers are maintaining their self-isolation.

B.C.’s screening measures served as a blueprint for similar federal and provincial programs and the statement says those enhanced federal strategies mean the province can focus on other aspects of infection control.

Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said the hundreds of public servants and B.C. residents who worked at airports and land borders to screen incoming travellers should be proud.

“The evolution of federally led border measures has allowed the B.C. public service to step back from border screenings and redeploy our resources to best limit the spread of COVID-19 in B.C.,” Farnworth said in the statement.

The government said staff processed more than 72,400 people arriving either at the Vancouver airport or 17 land border crossings between April 10 and June 15, with more than 26,100 follow-up calls to ensure people were selfisolating. Of those, 142 travellers didn’t have an adequate selfisolation plan and the province says they were kept in mandatory quarantine for two weeks or until their isolation plan was considered acceptable.