Residents of the BC village decimated by a wildfire will be allowed back in to the area later today as part of a bus tour. The Thompson Nicola Regional District organized the tour of Lytton to allow residents to view the destruction and get a sense of what remains. The fire swept through the area last week, with residents only having minutes to flee. Premier John Horgan says he will lobby the prime minister to deploy Canada’s military to help clear fire danger zones, in an effort to prevent future wildfires.
Regular visits will be allowed to resume at long-term care homes on July 19th, as B-C continues its reopening plan. Provincial health officer Doctor Bonnie Henry says high vaccination rates have made the return possible, but staff will be required to report whether they have been immunized. Visitor restrictions in long-term care homes were first introduced in March 2020 after a resident at a North Vancouver facility died of COVID-19. BC reported 59 cases of COVID-19 yesterday.
Surrey RCMP are investigating after a man was dropped off at a hospital with a bullet wound to his leg. Mounties say the 23-year-old man arrived at the hospital yesterday afternoon. Police say the shooting is believed to be gang-related, and the victim is known to them. Anyone with more information about the shooting is asked to contact police.
BC is the first province to reach a deal with Ottawa towards building a national daycare system, as laid out in April’s federal budget. The agreement aims to create 30-thousand new spaces in B-C in the next five years, with average fees for regulated spaces cut in half to 21-dollars per day by the end of 2022 and hitting 10-dollars per day for children under six by 2027. Funding is also being targeted at low-income, Indigenous, Black and newcomer families. Child-care advocates are viewing it as the benchmark for others, and are hoping for another deal in Atlantic Canada in the coming weeks.
Unemployment dipped across the country and In B-C last month as pandemic restrictions eased. Statistics Canada says Canada’s jobless rate fell to 7.8 per cent in June compared with 8.2 per cent in May. Economists say the improvement was driven by the return of nearly 264-thousand part-time jobs — most of them in the hard-hit retail and food services sectors. BC’s jobless rate also nudged down to 6.6 per cent last month from May’s setting of seven per cent.
Vancouver City Council has voted unanimously to rename a west side street named after Joseph Trutch — B-C’s first lieutenant governor — who enacted racist programs and policies against Indigenous people. The street in the city’s Kitsilano neighbourhood lies on the unceded territories of the Musqueam First Nation and Mayor Kennedy Stewart says the city is responding to the band’s request to change the name. Members of the First Nation will select a new name. Stewart’s motion also says council will consider similar renaming requests submitted by the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
The B-C government has released a list of recommendations from the B-C Hydro review aimed at building a cleaner economy and meeting the province’s climate goals. They include developing a 100 per cent clean standard for electricity generation — up from the current average of 98 per cent. Other recommendations include making electricity costs more predictable and providing a discounted rate to new clean industries and industrial customers who switch operations from fossil fuels. The province says it will act on the recommendations to boost electricity use, which still represents less than 20 per cent of B-C’s total energy demand.
BC is reporting 45 new cases of COVID-19 and no additional deaths. There are currently 661 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Seventy-three people are being treated in hospital, including 19 in intensive care. The vaccination rate for B-C residents aged 12 and up has climbed to 78.6 per cent for first doses and 41.3 per cent for second shots.
Residents of Lytton, B-C were allowed back into the village for the first time since a wildfire swept through the area. Debbie Sell, an information officer with the Thompson Nicola Regional District, says some buildings in the town appear normal while others have been destroyed. The cause of the blaze has not yet been determined, but the Transportation Safety Board is investigating reports of a freight train possibly being linked to it.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is eager to work with RoseAnne Archibald, who is the newly elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Trudeau spoke about Archibald’s election victory today as he made a stop in B-C. For her part, Archibald is pledging to hold governments’ feet to the fire and to help make the A-F-N more inclusive and transparent.
The federal government is providing up to 1.3-billion dollars to extend Metro Vancouver’s SkyTrain line through Surrey and Langley. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement in Surrey today with the SkyTrain line in the background. Trudeau says the project will create thousands of jobs while also being eco-friendly.