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Kathy O’Rourke prepares to throws skip rock on Wednesday. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

Kathy O’Rourke took sole possession of first place the hard way Wednesday night at the Tournament of Hearts, defeating none other than the two-time defending champion.

O’Rourke, competing in her first Hearts as skip and second overall, led Prince Edward Island to a 9-5 victory over Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones in Draw 14 at the Essar Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

O’Rourke rallied from 5-3 down with six unanswered points — two in each of the last three ends — to jolt Jones and improve her record to 7-2 with three draws remaining.

O’Rourke whipped Quebec’s Eve Belisle 7-3 earlier Thursday.

“After last night’s game against Ontario, we didn’t play very well,” O’Rourke said. “They beat us pretty soundly.

“We got together this morning and just said, ‘Girls, we’ve got to start making shots or people are going to start beating us.’ We came out really strong this morning against Quebec and just tried to carry that through against Team Canada.”

“Obviously, they played very well,” conceded Jones, who curls out of Winnipeg. “We just had the terrible end to the game and that’s not characteristic of us.

“It was a terrible ninth end. I wish we could play it over again but we can’t, so we’ll have to come out sharper tomorrow.”

Jones, who beat Belisle 9-4 in eight ends, is in a three-way tie for second place at 6-3 with fellow Manitoban Jill Thurston and Ontario’s Krista McCarville.

Thurston prevailed 10-5 over McCarville and trimmed Sharon Cormier of the Northwest Territories/Yukon 8-6, but not before Cormier upset McCarville 7-5 in the afternoon draw.

“We’re still in the hunt which is a excellent thing,” McCarville said. “We only have three losses, so it’s still in our control.

“We don’t have to worry about other teams winning or losing for us. It’s still in our hands.”

Ditto for British Columbia’s Kelly Scott and Amber Holland of Saskatchewan, both at 5-4.

Holland, who won a national junior title in 1992, slipped past Scott 5-4 in the morning draw and later stifled Nova Scotia’s Nancy McConnery 5-2.

Scott, a former world champion and two-time Hearts winner, regrouped in the nightcap, scoring two in the 10th end and the winning point in the 11th in an 8-7 victory over McConnery.

Belisle, meantime, is deadlocked at 4-5 with New Brunswick’s Andrea Kelly and Shelley Nichols of Newfoundland and Labrador, followed by Cormier and Alberta’s Valerie Sweeting — both at 3-6 — and McConnery (1-8).

With files from The Canadian Press

Film production in B.C. got a boost Wednesday with news of an increased tax subsidy from the province. (CBC)

The provincial government is offering new tax breaks for video game makers and expanding tax credits for film companies to try to keep work in B.C.

Under the changes, tax credits on the labour costs of foreign movie and TV productions will jump to 33 per cent from 25 per cent, Finance Minister Colin Hansen and Minister for Tourism, Culture and the Arts Kevin Krueger announced Wednesday.

A new tax credit of 17.5 per cent will be offered on the labour costs of video game makers, while the credit for digital animation and visual effects makers will rise to 17.5 per cent from 15 per cent.

The new tax credits — which still need to be approved by the legislature — will help keep B.C. competitive in an industry that contributes more than $1 billion to the provincial economy each year, the ministers said.

“This will serve to help keep B.C. at the forefront of the North American film and television industry, while providing a significant boost for video game production in our province,” Krueger said in a statement.

The video game developer Electronic Arts cut hundreds of jobs at its offices in Burnaby, B.C., in November. The company at the time cited the tough market for game sales as a result of the economic downturn.

With files from The Canadian Press

The Quebec government is changing immigration rules to allow more people to bring in family members from Haiti, in the wake of that country’s devastating earthquake in January.

A new program will allow Quebecers to sponsor their own children over the age of 21 as well as brothers, sisters, those siblings’ spouses and their children, said Quebec Immigration Minister Yolande James.

Previously, Quebecers had only been allowed to sponsor parents, grandparents and children under the age of 21.

Quebec says it will accept a maximum of 3,000 new immigrants under the special measures. But, the province will not take in more immigrants overall than it had plotted for the year, the minister said Wednesday .

“We wanted to be responsible,” she said. “From the moment we open it to more than that, we won’t be able to integrate them [into society] and we don’t help anyone by doing that. Quebec alone isn’t able to help all of Haiti.”

Sponsor eligibility changes

Sponsors have to have permanent resident status or Canadian citizenship and all applications will still have to be approved by Canadian immigration officials.

But until now, an individual or a couple wanting to sponsor a family member had to demonstrate the financial means to support a new immigrant for five years. Now, if additional funds are necessary, the province will allow anyone to act as a co-sponsor.

“Anyone who’s residing in Quebec can now say ‘You know what? I reckon you’re fantastic. I know this is a situation that’s very hard and this is my way to be able to contribute. I will co-sign,’” James said.

The relaxed criteria for sponsorship and the new co-signer option will be in effect from Feb. 17 to Dec. 31, 2010.

James said immigrants won’t be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis. Instead, immigration officials will check the applicant’s level of distress and capacity to integrate into Quebec society.

The province will also help students from Haiti who are attending colleges and universities in Quebec by exempting them from paying tuition fees for the winter session.

Delays feared

Many in Montreal’s large Haitian community welcome the news but worry about how long it will take to get their relatives to Canada.

“If it takes six months, eight months, it will be too long, ” said Marjorie Villefrance, program director of the community organization La Maison D’Haiti.

Quebec’s immigration minister acknowledged that even before the earthquake, 1,500 Haitians were waiting to have their immigration applications processed. James said Canada would not take any shortcuts in ensuring all applicants met the necessary health and security criteria.

“There’s a part of the immigration process that we do want to protect. …Verifications have to be made and you know that at this moment, it’s hard to do this.”