Crews are investigating why a train derailed yesterday in Kamloops, BC. Canadian Pacific Railway says in a statement no one was injured. It says the train cars were carrying grain and there weren’t any hazardous materials on board. Social media posts show at least half a dozen cars went off the tracks in the Mission Flats neighbourhood that runs along the Thompson River.
Police in Langley are investigating after a mall was evacuated yesterday after a fight involving bear spray. RCMP say in a statement officers were called yesterday to Willowbrook Mall, where two young people were bear-sprayed by a third after an argument outside a Footlocker store. They say numerous patrons felt the effects of the powerful spray and the victims were treated on scene by paramedics. The investigation is ongoing but officers say the female youth suspect fled the scene and the parties involved were known to one another.
The BC government says a new tax credit will make energy retrofits for multi-unit residential and commercial buildings more affordable. It says building owners can save up to five per cent on retrofits to help reduce their energy use through the Clean Building Tax Credit. To be eligible, owners must work with a certified professional to determine the energy use intensity of their building has been reduced and is meeting provincial targets through a qualifying retrofit. The government says that has to happen before applying for certification with the Finance Ministry.
A group of BC researchers say they’ve made a breakthrough in quantum computing by shining a light on imperfections in silicon chips. A study published in the journal Nature by researchers at Simon Fraser University says they are using intense beams of light to transmit information by illuminating defects in the chips. Principal investigator Stephanie Simmons says scientists have worked with the defects in the chips and the use of light but nobody has brought them together the way SFU researchers did. Some physicists predict quantum computers will become mainstream in about two decades, although Simmons said she thinks it will be much sooner.
Interior Health says a recent series of closures at the hospital emergency room in Clearwater, B-C, have been made with patient safety in mind. Carl Meadows, executive director of clinical operations for the Thompson-Cariboo, says the hospital only has four of the eight staff members needed. He says nurse managers are spending every moment of the day trying to fill those gaps. It’s among several temporary hospital closures in B-C and come the same week Canada’s premiers issued a unanimous call for higher federal health transfers to help fix the overburdened system.