Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke says city officials are reviewing new legislation that would force it to continue with its transition to a municipal police force. But Locke declined to comment specifically about the amendments and their effects on a petition the City of Surrey filed in B-C Supreme Court last week. The city asked the court for a judicial review to assess whether Solicitor General Mike Farnworth had the authority to force a municipality to move to an independent police force, without offering enough funding to support such a move.Locke says the city isn’t backing down on its stance that continuing the transition to an independent police force instead of retaining the RCMP would present a significant cost burden for Surrey taxpayers.
Airbnb is pushing back at new BC legislation that aims to increase badly needed rental housing by curtailing a growing number of short-term accommodations. The changes would require short-term rental hosts to live on the property they’re renting in communities with more than 10-thousand residents across the province. A statement from Airbnb Canada says the housing crisis is an issue of building more homes and not restricting short-term rentals. The statement says the changes would take money away from B-C residents, make travel more unaffordable and reduce tourism spending.
Environment Canada has issued several wind and rainfall warnings as a potent” fall storm bears down along BC’s coast. The weather office says strong winds with gusts up to 110 kilometres per hour are expected over parts of northern Vancouver Island, the central coast and Haida Gwaii. Heavy rain is meanwhile in the forecast for Howe Sound and parts of Vancouver Island with downpours expected to ease sometime tomorrow. Environment Canada says the storm could cause localized power outages.
BC will soon require flush toilets on construction sites with more than 25 workers. The move comes less than a week after the BC Building Trades, a union representing more than 40-thousand workers, called for such a mandate. Premier David Eby told the union’s convention that a clean flush toilet is a basic requirement for a decent job site and one way to support workers in the trades. Details of the plan have yet to be announced, but the union welcomed the change, saying it had been advocating for better facilities since the COVID-19 pandemic revealed health and safety concerns on job sites.
A BC and an Alberta First Nation have signed an agreement over reciprocal hunting privileges within their respective territories in what’s now Jasper National Park. A joint statement from the Simpcw (Simp-qwuh) Nation in BC’s Interior and the Stoney Nation in Alberta says the resource-sharing agreement is based on a historic deal between the two communities dating back to 1895. Simpcw Chief George Lampreau says reconnecting those ties reaffirms the communities’ connection to their territories while lifting each other up. The statement says conservation is a priority for both nations and sustainable harvest levels have been agreed upon to respect the balance between ecological integrity and Indigenous rights to harvest.
A 16-kilogram sulcata tortoise is looking for a new home after being found wandering alone through farmland in Metro Vancouver. When Richmond resident Shelley Smith first saw the tortoise dubbed Frank the Tank two weeks ago, she says she thought the shape was a rock — until it moved. Smith says she needed the help of a nearby construction worker to move Frank — who is about the size of a large Thanksgiving turkey platter. Kahlee Demers with the Maple Ridge Community Animal Centre says Frank is the first tortoise the shelter has taken in and they are looking for experienced reptile owners to adopt him.