Talks between striking port workers and their employers’ association have stopped. The BC Maritime Employers Association says it doesn’t believe further negotiations will lead to a new deal. The president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada says the two sides were close to agreeing on one particularly contentious issue when the association decided to change its position. Thousands of workers at more than 30 ports around the province have been on strike since Saturday.
Kelowna city staff are expected to be at Knox Mountain Park today to assess damage done by a weekend wildfire. The Knox Mountain fire forced the evacuation of more than 400 homes on Canada Day. Those orders as well as a local state of emergency have since been lifted, but officials say the park remains closed due to hazards like sink holes caused by burning tree roots. The fire is now considered under control at six and a half hectares.
One man is dead after a shooting in Coquitlam Sunday evening. RCMP officers were called to the Foster Avenue and North Road area shortly before 9:30 pm, where they found a man with gunshot wounds. The man died at the scene. Investigators say they believe the shooting is an isolated incident.
Fire investigators in Victoria are taking a close look at the cause of a blaze that broke out over the weekend and was already burning fiercely by the time the first crews reached the scene. The Victoria firefighters union says in a social media post that flames were already “towering” as the first trucks reached the building in the Burnside neighbourhood around 11 Sunday night. Crews had to work quickly to save surrounding buildings from the intense heat of the inferno, but managed to keep the fire from spreading. No one was hurt, but the fire was just metres from a confirmed arson fire that destroyed a restaurant last month and investigators are working to confirm the cause of the latest blaze.
A BC grandmother celebrated her upcoming 99th birthday by jumping out of an airplane. Lucy Koenig jumped tandem from a plane at about 10-thousand feet at the Skydive Vancouver centre in Abbotsford. She says she promised her great grandson she was going to jump with him this time after previously going skydiving a few years ago. She says her advice to others is to live life to the fullest and do what makes them happy.