British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix says provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry will be making an announcement on new rules for the province’s health-care facilities. Dix says the province has previously stated it would expect “enhanced masking” in health-care settings for the respiratory illnesses in the fall. Dix did not provide any specifics on the anticipated announcement, but says it is important to ensure people who are already sick in hospital have the maximum protection possible. The province ended its universal mask mandate in health-care settings in April.
Finance Minister Katrine Conroy says she is hoping record-breaking spending on fighting wildfires does not become the norm as climate change sets in. Conroy’s response comes after BC’s latest quarterly fiscal update revealed that the province is forecast to spend close to one-billion-dollars on wildfire response this year. That expense combined with the drop in expected natural gas royalties revenue from two-billion-dollars to 837-million helped push BC’s expected deficit this year to 6.7-billion-dollars. Conroy says she hopes mitigation efforts being put in place will help “bring those numbers down” in future years.
A senior investigator at Vancouver City Savings Credit Union says there were three purchases made in Burnaby from Ibrahim Ali’s bank account on the same day a 13-year-old was killed in a city park. Rick Mihic told Ali’s first-degree murder trial in BC Supreme Court that those transactions on July 18th, 2017, were made from a Freshslice Pizza and two others from a Chevron _ but the records did not specify the business addresses or time of transaction. Ali has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of the teen, whose body was found in Burnaby’s Central Park early on July 19th, 2017, just hours after her mother reported her missing. Crown attorney Isobel Keeley said in her opening statement in April that the court would hear evidence showing the killing was random, but cellphone and bank records prove Ali was in Burnaby that day, while DNA results would prove he sexually assaulted the girl.
Delta police say a property valued at more than two-million-dollars has been seized in relation to a large-scale drug investigation. Police say the residence in Delta was transferred to the Province of BC after the Supreme Court deemed the home as “offence-related property.” The residence was originally seized as proceeds of crime by police. Law enforcement officials say the investigation started in November 2020 and has resulted in criminal charges being recommended against multiple people.
Evacuation alerts and restrictions continue to be lifted in B-C as rainy weather moves into the province this week. The Cariboo Regional District has rescinded a trio of alerts for the Hell Raving Creek, Horn Lake and Twist Creek areas. Meanwhile, Penticton says the city is lifting its campfire ban at noon today for fire pits at Three Mile Beach, Okanagan Lake and Skaha Lake. Water usage restrictions aimed at protecting fish have also been rescinded in the Koksilah and Tsolum rivers on Vancouver Island.
BC has announced a 20-million-dollar funding boost to help cancer patients in rural and remote communities with travel support linked to seeking treatment. Health Minister Adrian Dix says the funding will go to both the Canadian Cancer Society and charity Hope Air to expand cancer patients’ access to travel and accommodation services. The funding will also create a four-thousand-dollar travel grant program for bone marrow transplant recipients to get to treatment facilities in Vancouver. Premier David Eby first announced the cancer travel funding last week at the Union of BC Municipalities Conference.