Top Stories – Dec 23 – More Cancellations

It may be warming up, but more snow is not going to help the flight situation at Kelowna International Airport. Heading into one of the busiest days of the year, airlines are still recovering from the snow earlier this week and frigid temperatures. At least a dozen flights from YLW to Vancouver and Victoria today, were cancelled yesterday, due to the forecast of snow and freezing rain for the south coast. Check with your airline before hitting the road.

A prolific offender connected to crimes throughout the Okanagan has been arrested in Kelowna. Trevor Parkstrom is linked to 12 police files this month and 22 over the past 90 days. He was arrested in possession of a stolen truck on Sunday. Charges have been approved against Parkstrom, who’ll spend Christmas and New Years in jail until his next court date.

About 22,000 health science professionals working as medical technologists, radiation technologists and physiotherapists have agreed to a 3 year contract with the government. Like other employees before them it contains wage increases totalling about 13 percent and runs until March 31, 2025.

If you’re planning on some outdoor skating over the holidays, the Stuart Park rink is open for casual, drop-in use from 6am – 11pm daily, except on Mondays, when it is closed from 6 – 8am for maintenance. Rentals are available from 11-8 except Christmas Day and remember it’s for skating only, so leave the hockey sticks at home.

Stores in Canada are gearing up for Boxing Day sales, with some rolling out deals early in hope of enticing budget-conscious shoppers. Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales fell short of expectations, leaving some stores with inventory to clear before the end of the season. Much like Black Friday, Boxing Day has become a week-long event, with fewer in-person doorcrasher sales that once epitomized the sales day.

As Canada faces an ongoing shortage of children’s medications, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he doesn’t know if ramping up domestic production is the right approach to addressing the problem. He’s not sure if starting producing those particular pills is the way, or whether it’s just a question of getting more reliable supply chains. He compared it to having a shortage of oranges and building more greenhouses to grow them.

The arctic air mass sitting over the Okanagan set a daily-record low temperature for Kelowna yesterday. The Environment Canada website showed the temperature dipping to -31.6 at 7am Thursday, beating out the previous December 22nd record of -25 from 1983. The extreme cold warning has ended.

Big White raised a mountain-size load of cash for the Central Okanagan Food Bank. Between donations from locals and a matching one from the resort, a cheque for just over $32,000 was presented to the organization, just in time for Christmas. Some of the resort donation came from the sale of old gondola chairs.

Canada’s competition tribunal says it hasn’t reached a decision regarding the $20 billion merger between Rogers Communications and Shaw. It intends to provide 24-48 hours notice on its website of the time and date of the decision. The companies had proposed selling Shaw’s Freedom Mobile to Quebecor, but the bureau rejected that saying Quebecor was not a viable competitor with the merged entity.

Sports

At Rogers Arena last night, The Canucks and Kraken went to overtime tied at 5 where nothing was settled. In the shootout, Elias Pettersson, who had 5 points in the game, got the winning goal. Vancouver plays in Edmonton tonight at 6.

Team Canada plays its final exhibition game this afternoon at the World Junior Hockey Championships. We take on Finland at 3:30 in Halifax. The first game that counts is on Monday against Czechia.

The Toronto Raptors are on the road tonight playing the Cavaliers in Cleveland.

Thursday Night Football was in New Jersey where Jacksonville beat the Jets 19-3.