Top Stories – March 21 – Grass Fire Handled

The Kelowna fire department responded to a grass fire near Highway 97 and Dry Valley Road, north of the airport yesterday, just before noon. Strong winds pushed it to a size of 100 feet by 200 feet before it was extinguished. KFD says it was most likely caused by discarded smoking material. There were no injuries.

Canadian real estate prices might be in for a bit of a dip if one of the world’s leading forecasters is right. Oxford Economics’ latest forecast shows home prices falling 24% by mid-2024. From 2025 to 2030, they see supply outpacing demand and keeping annual growth under 1 percent.

It has been more than 3 weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine and as the bombing continues there is no sign that so-called peace talks are going anywhere. On the weekend, a police officer in Mariupol said the city had been wiped off the face of the earth.

Wilson’s Landing Fire Department is on a spring recruiting drive for anyone living in communities along Westside Road between Traders Cove and Shelter Cove. They’re having a Recruitment Open House and Barbeque, Saturday, April 2 between 4 and 6:30pm at the Station 42 fire hall on Westside Road North.

We will get the weekend covid 19 numbers later today. On Friday there were 199 total new cases in BC with interior health having the most of any authority at 72.

More than 3,000 CP Rail conductors, engineers, train and yard workers represented by Teamsters are off the job. The two sides failed to reach a deal before a midnight deadline set by the union and the company for either a strike or a lockout. The House of Commons resumes today following a two-week break so legislation could come to end it if the government wanted.

Kelowna has moved up in the country when it comes to rentals… but that’s NOT a good thing. In February the average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment was 18-hundred dollars, behind only Vancouver and Toronto. Kelowna jumped ahead of Victoria which had been in third place for a while. The cost was 21.6 percent more than just a year ago.

New funding will allow the BC Wildfire Service to provide more fire and flood prevention activities. The province is budgeting 145 million dollars to hire more full time staff to make it a year-round operation. The service already has about 400 full time staff, and normally hires around one-thousand part-time for the spring and summer.

Two more Conservative MPs have joined the party’s leadership roster, with Ontario’s Scott Aitchison and BC’s Mark Dalton launching their campaigns. Dalton, who represents Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge, launched his on Twitter, saying that one of his first actions as leader will be to initiate a public inquiry into how the federal Liberals handled the pandemic.

Sports

The Canucks lost to Calgary on Saturday, then last night, they wrapped up the 7 game home stand with Buffalo scoring 48 seconds into overtime to take a 3-2 win. Vancouver hits the road now for 4 games beginning Wednesday in Colorado.

The International Ice Hockey Federation has rescheduled the 2022 world junior championship for mid-August in Edmonton. Canada will play in Group B with Finland, Czechia, Slovakia and Latvia. Results from the 4 days of games played at the end of last year will not count.

The West Kelowna Warriors picked up a road win Friday night in Merritt, then yesterday at home, a 4 goal second period helped the locals to a 6-1 win… their eighth in a row. Both teams will meet in the 1st round of the BCHL playoffs. The Warriors will wrap up the regular season this weekend with games against Penticton and Merritt.

The first Formula 1 race of the season in Bahrain was won by Ferrari driver Charles LeClerc , with his teammate Carlos Sainz, second. The teams move on to Saudi Arabia for the next race this coming weekend.

Another 2 losses to the Kamloops Blazers on the weekend for the Kelowna Rockets. They’ll play 2 more games this weekend, but first the Rockets will have games in Victoria tomorrow and Wednesday.

The PGA’s Valspar Championship went to a playoff after Sam Burns and Davis Riley finished at 17 under. Burns won on the second playoff hole. Adam Hadwin was top Canadian at 12 under par.