Top Stories – Aug 25 – 400 New Rentals

400 more rental apartment units are coming to Kelowna. The complex will have five buildings up to six storeys high. There will be units ranging from studio to 3-bedroom. It is tentatively called Mission Heights and will be built just south of Orchard Park Mall around Springfield and Benvoulin Court.

The Ministry of Health, and Doctors of BC program, are providing $118 million in stabilization funding to family doctors to help them ensure their patients have continued access to primary care services. It will be for four months and will support doctors and medical clinics with their operational costs. About 35-hundred family doctors who have their own practices and 11-hundred working in walk-in clinics are expected to receive funding.

The last Boeing 747 will soon roll off the company’s production line in Everett, Washington. It will be delivered to Atlas Air, the cargo carrier’s final delivery of the aircraft type and marking the end of an iconic half-century-long-era in the aviation industry. Almost 16-hundred ‘Queen of the Sky’ jumbos have been produced since 1969.

Those interested in running for council in Kelowna can begin filing nomination papers with the Chief Election Officer starting Tuesday. They must be filed in person at city hall before September 9th and there is a $100 deposit required. Prospective candidates are advised to make an appointment with the city clerk to review documents and the email is cityclerk@kelowna.ca .

Canada marked Ukraine’s Independence Day yesterday with the launch of an exhibition in Toronto created during the most violent phases of the war with Russia. Ukraine is celebrating its independence from the Soviet Union 31 years ago, but also marking six months of war. The country’s ambassador to Canada hosted a charity auction in Toronto to raise money for ambulances and evacuation vehicles.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says his department is going on a hiring spree to bring 1,250 new employees on board by the end of the fall to tackle massive backlogs in processing applications. As of the end of July, just over half of the 2.4 million pending immigration apps have taken longer to process than the government’s service standards dictate they should.

Kelowna council has approved a wildlife rehabilitation centre for small mammals and birds in East Kelowna. The group behind the O’Reilly Road facility will be called Wild Things Rehabilitation Society and will treat orphans like marmots, squirrels and local songbirds and then return them to the wild. Some interventions may be done off-site and dropping off injured creatures will not be encouraged or allowed.

West Kelowna Council deferred the Transit Service Review report to a future meeting to allow for more time to discuss it. The BC Transit-led review will update transit service and infrastructure through consultation with the public. There will also be recommendations from local governments across the region.

U-S securities regulators are questioning Twitter about how it calculates the number of fake accounts. The company says it makes estimates of false accounts with an internal review of sample accounts and the number of fake accounts represent the average false or spam accounts every month. It adds fewer than 5% of Twitter’s ‘ Monetizable Daily Active Usage or Users’, were fake.

Sports

The Women’s World Hockey Championships get underway today in Denmark. The defending champion Canadian team, which has won 11 times, takes on Finland at 10.

And Team Canada star Sarah Nurse has made history as the first women’s hockey player to appear on the cover of EA SPORTS NHL 23, joining Anaheim Ducks centre Trevor Zegras. Nurse led all players with an Olympic-record 18 points as Canada won gold at the 2022 winter games.

The first game in week 12 of the CFL is a western matchup. The Calgary Stampeders are in Winnipeg to take on the Blue Bombers at 530. The BC Lions, without quarterback Nathan Rourke have the second of a home and home set with Saskatchewan tomorrow night.

The PGA Tour Championship gets underway today at the East Lake golf course in Atlanta. Aaron Wise will play the first round alone after Will Zalatoris pulled out with a pulled back.

The Blue Jays wrap up their 3 game series with the Red Sox in Boston later this afternoon. So far, they have won 2 of them including a 1-run 10th inning last night to walk off with a 3-2 win.

The PGA Tour says four yet-to-be-determined events will be added to the schedule next year and will feature purses of at least $20 million. And everyone on tour is guaranteed half-a-million dollars for the season.