Incumbent Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum has made a sizable promise. In a groundbreaking ceremony for the Cloverdale Sport and Ice Complex yesterday McCallum said his Safe Surrey Coalition party would build a multi-use stadium in the city, 60-thousand seats, the biggest in Canada. McCallum told reporters that no location for the possible stadium has been identified yet. BC Place, a similar size stadium that has just over 54,000 seats, had its best attendance in 2015 when just over 21-thousand people went to a BC Lions game. McCallum’s pledge comes as mayoral candidate Gordie Hogg pledged an extra 300 police officers Tuesday, if his Surrey First party wins the race. Surrey-Newton MP Sukh Dhaliwal, Surrey-Panorama MLA Jinny Sims, and City Councillor Brenda Locke are also challenging McCallum for the mayor’s seat. Voters head to the polls on Saturday, Oct. 15.
The B-C Health Ministry and General Practices Services Committee are tossing family doctors a 118-million-dollar lifeline to help hold them over until a new pay model comes out this fall. The president of Doctors of B-C, says the goal is to keep clinics open and help support burnt-out physicians with rising overhead costs. Health Minister Adrian Dix says family doctors who have their own practices or work at walk-in clinics are eligible for an average 25-thousand dollars each. Physicians who are paid direct salaries and don’t pay any overhead won’t qualify.
A new survey shows that there is a significant decrease in the well-being of physicians across Canada as many doctors report poorer mental health than before the pandemic. The Canadian Medical Association’s national physician health survey suggests one-quarter of the more than four-thousand respondents last year were experiencing severe or moderate anxiety and almost half were struggling with depression.
Statistics Canada says job vacancies reached another new high in June, climbing to 3.2 per cent. The job vacancy rate was 5.9 per cent in June, matching the record-high mark reached in September last year. This comes as employers were looking to fill more than one-million positions for a third consecutive month. Statistics Canada says employers in the health care and social
assistance sector were looking to fill nearly 150-thousand vacant jobs in June.
The Retail Cannabis Council of B-C and the B-C Craft Farmers Co-op have released an open letter to Premier John Horgan calling for cannabis delivery to be declared an essential service. The two groups also are asking the government to allow businesses to buy from outside the province while job action between the B-C General Employees’ Union and the government persists. This comes after the 33-thousand-member union announced Tuesday that it would be returning to the bargaining table with the government.
The RCMP is trying to find the owner of a significant amount of cash that was found in Coquitlam. Mounties say a bystander found the cash near Austin Avenue and Lebleu Street and turned it into police. Investigators note specific questions will need to be answered to make sure the right person gets their money back. “The rightful owner of this cash must be able to provide information about the building where the money was found, the amount, specific denominations, what the cash was being carried in, and the date it was lost,” To claim the found cash, you’re asked to contact Coquitlam RCMP.