B-C is reporting 82 new cases of COVID-19 after a record number of tests were performed over the past 24 hours. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says just under 10-thousand-900 tests were performed as part of the efforts to ramp up testing. She says there has been one new death in the Fraser Health Region — bringing the total to 235. The province has one-thousand-261 active cases including 69 in hospital.
N-D-P Leader John Horgan says a re-elected New Democrat government will make elder care a priority. Horgan made the pledge during a campaign stop yesterday in Surrey where he announced a 10-year, 1.4-billion dollar plan to improve long-term care — including private rooms for all residents. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson met with voters in Port Moody to discuss his party’s plan to eliminate the P-S-T if elected and hold the tax to three per cent in the following year. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau was on the Island to make a candidate announcement in Oak Bay — the riding held by former Green leader Andrew Weaver, who has retired from politics.
Elections B-C says it’s received 454-thousand requests for vote-by-mail packages as of Tuesday night — more than double the number of mail-in ballots used in the last provincial election in 2017. But the ballots currently being sent out don’t provide voters with a list of candidates because official nominations have yet to close, so they’ll need to write down the name of their chosen local candidate. Votes will still count if spellings aren’t entirely correct as long as the “intent is clear.” If a voter doesn’t know how to spell their preferred candidate’s name, they may simply write down the name of that party and their vote will still count.
Surrey RCMP have released a photograph and composite sketch of a man sought in connection with the sexual assault of a woman in Newton this summer. According to a news release issued Thursday (Oct. 1) afternoon, the assault occurred on the morning of July 14. The suspect is described as a 25-year-old South Asian man, with a round face and no facial hair. He was wearing black jeans, a black windbreaker, navy blue socks and a black helmet, and was riding a white bicycle with neon tape at the base of the seat. Anyone with information that could help police is asked to contact Surrey RCMP
Surrey FC will join the BC Soccer Premier League (BCSPL) starting in September 2021, bringing high-level games and training to the club’s home turf at Newton Athletic Park.
The 37-year-old club is the lone B.C. recipient of five new National Youth Club licences announced by Canada Soccer on Wednesday (Sept. 30), paving the way for entry into the BCSPL.
In the fall of 2021, Surrey FC will field two B.C. Premier League teams involving 2009-born boys and girls, at the U13 level.
The R-C-M-P says bearded officers who were put on desk duty during the COVID-19 pandemic will be allowed to return to front-line policing — in some cases. There have been issues with masks not fitting properly over facial fair, prompting the World Sikh Organization of Canada to press the government to come up with a solution. The Mounties say bearded members will be sent out to calls only if the risk of exposure is low or multiple responding officers will be present. The national police force adds they continue to work on finding longer-term solutions that fully accommodate all bearded members.
A Washington state man is on the hook for $2,000 after sailing into Surrey to meet up with his Canadian girlfriend in violation of COVID-19 border restrictions. RCMP officers spotted the Bellingham-registered bost off Blackie Spit near Crescent Beach in south Surrey on Sunday. They stopped the vessel, went aboard and found a 49-year-old Bellingham man and a 50-year-old Surrey woman.
There will be a ceremony tonight to mark the third anniversary of a mass shooting that killed 58 people and injured more than 850 others in Las Vegas. Four Canadians were among those killed when a gunman opened fire from a window in the Mandalay Bay hotel above the Route 91 country music festival. Police still don’t know why the 64-year-old retired accountant carried out the attack.
As the calendar flips to the spookiest month of the year, we are set to see a gorgeous moon to mark the occasion. The first full moon of the month will happen tonight, and it’s called a Harvest Moon. The month of October has two full moons this year: the full Harvest Moon and the full Hunter’s Moon on Halloween.