The Vancouver Canucks fired general manager, Jim Benning, head coach Travis Green and their assistants in the most sweeping night of changes in Canucks franchise history. The news broke last night around 7 o clock….The decision comes after the Canucks lost 10 of the last 13 games, dropping to last in the Pacific Division. Bruce Boudreau will replace Green in the head coach spot the 66 year old has coached the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks and, most recently, the Minnesota Wild. The Canucks are set to play Los Angeles tonight at 7 pm.
More than 10 vehicles collided in a chain reaction yesterday morning on King George Boulevard at the Colebrook Road overpass at 8 a.m. A witness, who noted that the road conditions were “icy,” said more than 10 vehicles and a transit bus collided on the bridge deck. 3 people were sent to hospital. The southbound lane of King George Boulevard was closed while crews responded to the incident. Shortly after the collision, the City of Surrey salted the bridge deck.
The Trans Mountain pipeline has restarted following a three-week precautionary shutdown during a series of storms that battered B-C. The federal Crown corporation says the pipeline was safely restarted yesterday after all necessary assessments and repairs were completed. It says some of that work included the construction of “protective earthworks” after flooding exposed sections of the pipeline that carries 300-thousand barrels per day of petroleum products from Alberta to B.C. Trans Mountain says it’s monitoring the pipeline on the ground, by air and through its control centre after the restart.
B-C has expanded emergency financial assistance for people affected by extensive flooding and landslides over the last three weeks. The Ministry of Public Safety says the disaster financial assistance program is available to help eligible people recover from the impacts of a series of destructive storms between November 14th and December 2nd. It says eligibility has been expanded to affected residents in the northwest, southwest, central and southeast regions as well as Vancouver Island. Applications will be accepted until March 3rd.
B-C has issued a warning about the risk of contamination in private drinking-water wells in flooded areas of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. A provincial order explains that storage systems for liquid manure may have been overloaded after livestock were transported to different farms and milk was disposed of in the systems in response to severe flooding last month. The government says the Environment Ministry is working with agriculture operators to reduce the risk of overflow, while the Health Ministry is advising residents to assess their private wells in flood-affected areas.
The R-C-M-P say a man sustained non-life-threatening injuries in what they believe may have been a targeted shooting in Coquitlam on Saturday. The Mounties say the man’s nine-year-old son, who was in the back seat of the vehicle at the time of the shooting, was unharmed. Police don’t believe it was a completely random act. A silver sedan was seen leaving the area after the shooting and police are asking anyone who was around Westwood Plateau between 4:20 and 5:20 in the afternoon to provide any information that could help.
Snowfall warnings covered Vancouver Island and parts of B-C’s south coast overnight, with the potential for wet flurries lasting into this afternoon. Environment Canada says much of the island could see between five and 10 centimetres of snow near the water and up to 20 at higher elevations inland. Between two and 10 centimetres of snow was expected to fall over the Greater Victoria area, Sunshine Coast and the southern Gulf Islands. The same amount was expected across the Lower Mainland, including Howe Sound, Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
Travellers will be able to give their travel information at the border if they’ve forgotten or haven’t been able to use the government’s ArriveCan app. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says he has instructed border agents to give travellers the opportunity to give their information in person instead of through the app. Conservative public safety critic Raquel Dancho says M-Ps have received hundreds of complaints about the policy that required travellers to use the ArriveCan app, including that the app is inaccessible and unreliable.
British Columbia health officials announced on Monday that there have been 946 new test-positive COVID-19 cases since Friday, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 220,530. There were 351 cases discovered between Friday and Saturday, 311 between Saturday and Sunday, and 284 between Sunday and Monday. In a written statement, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said that there are 2,876 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Of the active cases, 241 individuals are currently hospitalized and 89 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
New cases and total active cases are broken down by health region as follows:
- Fraser Health: 285 new cases, 927 total active cases
- Vancouver Coastal Health: 138 new cases, 424 total active cases
- Interior Health: 211 new cases, 559 total active cases
- Northern Health: 115 new cases, 342 total active cases
- Island Health: 197 new cases, 624 total active cases
- Outside of Canada: No new cases, zero total active cases
There have been 11 new COVID-19-related deaths, for a total of 2,362 deaths in British Columbia. Of the new deaths, five were in Fraser Health, two were in Interior Health, and four were in Northern Health. To date, 85.5% (4,261,317) of eligible people five and older in BC have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 82% (4,085,935) have received their second dose. From November 26 to December 2, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 58.3% of cases, and from November 19 to December 2, they accounted for 66.1% of hospitalizations