The province says it’s hoping for a “significant federal contribution” to help cover the 4.15-billion-dollar cost of building a new eight-lane tunnel under the Fraser River. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming says it will replace the aging George Massey Tunnel that connects Richmond and Delta — with construction set to start in 2025 for completion by 2030. The former Liberal government had planned a 10-lane bridge replacement scheduled to open next year, but the N-D-P quashed the project when it took power. Fleming says the new tunnel will significantly reduce travel time while reserving two lanes for rapid transit buses alongside separate pathways for cyclists and pedestrians.
Residents of more than 400 properties east of Kamloops can breathe easier after the Thompson-Nicola Regional District lifted several evacuation alerts near the northern flank of the White Rock Lake wildfire. The B-C Wildfire Service says recent weather conditions have caused a slowdown in fire activity, as crews work to suppress the 810-square kilometre blaze. Environment Canada is calling for cooler temperatures and possible thundershowers over parts of the southern Interior today. But the wildfire service says a long period of drenching rain is needed to subdue the most aggressive of some 260 wildfires burning across B-C.
Three girls were groped on Vancouver’s seawall Tuesday afternoon. Police say the incidents may be linked, and suspect there were other victims who have not yet come forward. At around 4:30 p.m. two 11-year-old girls were walking near Granville Island when “when an unknown man passed them on a bike and groped one girl from behind,” according to the Vancouver Police Department. The man then followed the pair to West 6th Avenue and Borch Street where he “groped” the second girl. Fifteen minutes later, a 15-year-old jogging near Science World was also assaulted by a man on a bike. “Investigators don’t yet know whether the incidents near Granville Island and Science World are linked, but think there may be other victims who have not yet come forward.”
In both cases, the suspect was riding a red and white bike, and wearing a baseball hat. The descriptions of what the man was wearing are slightly different. Anyone with information is asked to call VPD’s Sex Crimes Unit Sexual assault, in general, is an underreported crime. In the majority of cases, the perpetrator is not a stranger. However, the VPD has noted an increase in stranger sexual assaults in the city, and issued a warning last week.
It’s been 656 days since their last home game, and now, the BC Lions are returning to live action in Vancouver. The Lions are set to kickoff against the Edmonton Elks at BC Place at 7 p.m. PT. It will mark the first professional sports game to be played in Vancouver in more than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic put leagues on hold. All professional sports leagues have made changes, such as only playing in the U.S. or creating country-specific divisions, in order to resume play over the last several months. The return of live sports to Vancouver will no doubt be a boost to revenue for many businesses across the region, particularly in the downtown core. The Canucks’ faceoff against the New York Islanders in March 2020 was the last time people got to take in professional sports live in Vancouver. Conversations around requiring vaccines for certain events, such as concerts or live sports, have been ongoing. B.C.’s top doctor said last week venues will have her full support if they choose to deny access to people who are not fully vaccinated. So far, no such requirements have been announced by any venues in B.C.
And Justin Trudeau made his way into the Fraser Valley on a campaign stop at the Hawthorne pub in Cloverdale to support John Aldag’s bid to retake the riding of Cloverdale-Langley City after losing to Tamara Jansen in the 2019 federal election. Trudeau and Aldag hopped behind the bar to pour a few glasses of beer, and of course took some time to talk to the crowd that swarmed in on him.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth and members of the B-C Wildfire Service, Emergency Management B-C and R-C-M-P will update the wildfire situation across the province during a briefing this afternoon. Nearly 300 wildfires are currently burning and about 85-hundred square kilometres of land has been lost since that start of the wildfire season in April. Cooler weather and calmer winds are helping nearly four-thousand firefighters and other personnel battle the flames — and the weather office shows most areas of the southern Interior have a chance of showers through the weekend — although there is also a risk of lightning. The wildfire risk that dropped to low for much of southern B-C after rain last week, has now climbed to moderate in the Kamloops Fire Centre, while conditions are ranked at high or extreme on most of Vancouver Island and through the Cariboo.
Five more properties on the northwest shore of Okanagan Lake are now confirmed to have been badly damaged when the White Rock Lake wildfire swept through the area late Sunday and early Monday. The Central Okanagan Regional District says the additional damaged properties were discovered yesterday as crews entered the Ewings Landing and Killiney areas north of West Kelowna. A statement from the regional district says area residents and several support agencies entered the charred neighbourhoods, rescuing pets and mapping damage — while some people were able to return home as a number of evacuation orders were downgraded to alerts. The White Rock Lake Fire remains out of control and has burned about 811-square kilometres and destroyed homes and businesses in parts of Westwold and Monte Lake since flaring up earlier this Month
The Conservation Officer Service is urging people to use extreme caution — or avoid Stanley Park entirely for now — after yet another case involving an aggressive coyote. A 69-year-old man was nipped on the shin as he walked on a path near the park’s southwest side at about 9:30 Tuesday night. Conservation officers say coyotes are most active at around dusk and dawn — and the confrontation happened in the same general area where two people were bitten early Monday morning as they were sitting in the park and eating. The man did not immediately report the latest incident, so officers say they weren’t able to track the animal involved, but four coyotes have been euthanized after aggressive interactions with humans in the Vancouver park earlier this summer.
BC health officials announced 689 new test-positive COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 158,256. In a written statement, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said that there are 5,982 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Of the active cases, 121 individuals are currently hospitalized, 56 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. New and total active cases, broken down by health region, are as follows:
- Fraser Health: 219 new cases, 1,112 total active cases
- Vancouver Coastal Health: 123 new cases, 908 total active cases
- Interior Health: 278 new cases, 3,368 total active cases
- Northern Health: 27 new cases, 239 total active cases
- Island Health: 42 new cases, 346 total active cases
- Outside of Canada: No new cases, nine total active cases
There have been two new COVID-19-related deaths over the past 24 hours. One was in Interior Health and the other was in Northern Health, for a total of 1,781 deaths in British Columbia. To date, 82.9% of all eligible people 12 and over have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In total, 7,273,405 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in BC. 150,377 people who tested positive have now recovered.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole is promising to boost federal funding for provincially run health-care systems by six per cent a year if his party forms government after next month’s election. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau campaigned in Victoria today, where he outlined plans to improve wages and conditions in long-term care facilities. He didn’t get into specifics, but said a Liberal government would increase provincial transfers. N-D-P Leader Jagmeet Singh took his campaign to Edmonton today and unveiled a plan to pump 250-million-dollars into a fund that would help train and hire two-thousand nurses.