🚑 Breaking & Incidents
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Ezra Creek wildfire mapped at 116 hectares as of 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. The fire north of Castlegar was discovered Tuesday and was briefly overestimated at 250 hectares before correction; B.C. Wildfire Service used helicopters and airtankers while rappel crews were dispatched Wednesday, and fire behaviour rose to rank three. Officials say the blaze is believed to have been sparked by lightning.
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Questions mount over B.C.'s prescribed-burns approach after Summerland-area devastation. A planned prescribed burn near Faulder was part of an 87-hectare risk-reduction plan, but the BC Wildfire Service has not confirmed if it occurred; the nearby Bald Range wildfire later devastated that area. Experts quoted call for fuel-reduction at "thousand-plus hectares" scale and say approvals and agency capacity are slowing action.
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Woman's body found in burned field on River Road in Delta; police treating death as suspicious. Officers discovered a fire and a woman's body in the 6400 block of River Road early Wednesday; investigators are working to confirm identity and cause. Delta Police ask anyone who travelled the 6400 block in the early morning or who has dashcam footage to call 604-946-4444.
🏛️ Government & Politics
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All remaining tenants of the Luugat SRO on Granville have been relocated, ending the site's tenancy. The Ministry of Housing confirmed the final resident was moved last week and belongings are being moved; the province bought the Howard Johnson property for $55 million in 2020 and billed taxpayers $101,000 to keep the building open in July. Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim publicly demanded answers about total costs and timing.
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Teresa Wat quits BC Conservatives to sit as an Independent, the fourth recent defection. Wat, MLA for Richmond–Bridgeport, said on social media she left after alleged remarks by party leader Kerry-Lynn Findlay during the leadership campaign called her allegiance to Canada into question; Wat says she received no apology and will now sit as an Independent.
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New hatcheries will raise and release up to 1 million more salmon annually into the Fraser and Skeena Rivers. Provincial plans call for increased hatchery production that aims to add as many as 1,000,000 juvenile salmon released each year into those two river systems.
📰 Also Today
- FOI shows Sandman Hotels operator fined over $620,000 for asbestos violations.
- Metro Vancouver unionized workers to continue some job action amid agreement for binding arbitration.
- Rosalyn Bird is latest MLA to leave Kerry-Lynne Findlay's B.C. Conservatives.
- After Summerland fire, calls grow to cut red tape for prescribed burns.
- B.C. premier urges Ottawa to reconsider fighter jet purchase and coal shipments amid U.S. trade war.
- Advocate warns toxic-drug deaths ticked up in June, calls for renewed focus.
- (Duplicate ID) New hatcheries to add up to 1 million salmon to Fraser, Skeena.
- (Duplicate ID) Luugat SRO final tenant moved out; province had kept building open past June.
- Loblaw reverses plan to drop country-of-origin produce labels after customer backlash.
- Dolly Parton's ‘Jolene’ may be named after a B.C. nurse, per new claim.
- Enchanted Forest faces Barkerville in semifinal 2 of BC roadside-attraction contest.
- CBSA changes at one B.C. border crossing have increased hurdles for some businesses.
- What’s at stake in the North Vancouver federal byelection explained.
- B.C. climber reported stung about 100 times and rescued by helicopter.
- MLA Teresa Wat leaves B.C. Conservatives; her exit is the fourth this month.
- Unhoused Richmond residents appeal for compassion from political candidates.
- (Duplicate ID) Sandman Hotel operator fined over $620K for asbestos violations.
- (Duplicate ID) B.C. premier urges federal reconsideration on jets and coal amid trade tensions.
- (Duplicate ID) Wat says alleged leader's remarks damaged her reputation; no apology issued.
