Top Stories – Oct 18 – Fire Burns A Lot

The smoke from a fire in West Kelowna could be seen across the lake yesterday afternoon. WK Fire Rescue says it was on Horizon Drive in a garage filled with tires, electronics and motorcycles. It ignited an adjacent car, torched the sides of two travel trailers and a shed, and melted siding off of two neighbouring homes. The fire is believed to be electrical in nature.

We will find out today how BC fared in relation to covid 19 over the weekend. On Friday there were 101 new cases in Interior Health, but the number of active cases has dipped below 1,000 to 817. There were 39 people in critical care in our hospitals

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will visit the Tk’emlups community near Kamloops today. It comes three weeks after he rebuffed invitations to join members for an event marking the first ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Trudeau will join in an event at the PowWow Arbour at noon and while it’s for members only, it will be live-streamed.

There will be a traffic squeeze on the westside starting today as crews will begin to repair the road at the recently installed roundabout at Carrington and Butt. The pavement was badly damaged during a watermain break. The roundabout will be closed Monday to Friday for the next 2 weeks, but will reopen for the weekend.

The value of BC’s legal cannabis sector has more than quadrupled over the three years since Canada legalized non-medical cannabis. We have the third-highest number of retail stores and second-highest number of federal production licence holders in the country. There are 375 licensed private retail stores, plus 30 public retail stores under the BC Cannabis Stores brand.

As travel resumes outside Canada, travellers should be prepared for lineups and delays for renewing passports. Service Canada issued more than 2.3-million passports the year before the pandemic began, but handed out only 363-thousand last year. The department says people can expect to get their passports about 20 days after they apply, but some report waits of just over a month.

Westside Road, 39K north of West Kelowna is going to have major closures for Whiteman Bridge repairs starting today. The road through the OKIB Reserve will be closed from 830am to 3pm, Monday to Thursday, but open for traffic those days from noon to 12:30. The work is scheduled to continue until Nov. 4th. Highway 97 is the only alternate route.

It’s municipal election day in Alberta, but also on the ballot is something we seem to deal with every year or so in BC. They’ll be voting on whether to ditch Standard Time and stay on Daylight Saving Time year-round. A psychology professor at the University of Calgary says making the change would mean daylight wouldn’t come until 10am in most of the province in winter.

The United States says people who received doses of two different COVID-19 vaccines will qualify as fully vaccinated when it reopens its land borders to non-essential travel next month. The States won’t ask visitors to submit to a COVID test prior to crossing the land border, unlike Canada, which requires travellers to show proof of a recent negative test that runs about $200 a pop.

Sports

The Rockets, Warriors and Chiefs all won their junior hockey games on Friday. On Saturday, the Rockets were off, but West Kelowna lost in Cranbrook in BCHL play, and in the KIJHL, Kelowna was in the Cariboo and beat 100 Mile.

The BC Lions showed very little offense and poor defense in a 39-10 loss to the Stampeders Saturday. BC drops to 4 & 5 and takes on the west-leading Blue Bombers in Winnipeg this weekend.

The Elks have traded quarterback Trevor Harris to the Montreal Alouettes. Harris fills a need after Montreal placed starter Vernon Adams Jr. on the six-game injured list with a shoulder ailment.
Edmonton received defensive end Antonio Simmons in exchange.

Monday Night Football is in Tennessee as the 3 & 2 Titans, host the Bills who are off to a 4 &1 start. Buffalo’s Josh Allen has thrown 12 touchdowns so far this season compared to 6 for the Titan’s Ryan Tannehill.

The Canucks are on two days off on this 6 game road trip. So far they have a shootout loss, a shootout win and a loss. Vancouver plays in Buffalo tomorrow.

The BC Hockey League had the first all-female officiating crew to work a game at the Canadian Junior A level yesterday between Langley and Surrey. The BCHL has female officials, but this was the first time that an entire crew was made up of women. All four have done games at various levels over the years, working their way up through the BC Hockey officiating system.