Top Stories – Jan 17 – Health Care Deal

Thousands of health-care support workers in BC have a tentative contract agreement after a year of talks. The deal covers over 21-thousand members of several unions who work in private homes, group homes, mental-health centres and other programs. The three year deal features general wage hikes each year and will next be the subject of ratification votes.

A crash on Highway 97 in Lake Country yesterday afternoon messed up traffic for a while. It happened at Beaver Lake road and one of the two vehicles involved ended on its side. It took about an hour to clear before traffic started moving through the site.

The ninth atmospheric river in a three-week series of major winter storms was churning through California yesterday, leaving mountain driving dangerous and the flooding risk high near swollen rivers even as the sun came out in some areas. Heavy snow fell across the Sierra Nevada and the National Weather Service discouraged travel. The University of California Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab tweeted that it had recorded 126 cm of new snow since Friday.

Canada is making progress towards creating a national Grocery Code of Conduct. It comes amid continued calls for more transparency and fairness when it comes to prices at grocery stores. Late last week, the country’s agriculture ministers, along with industry leaders, met to discuss details of the plan to create the Code.

There’s nothing like a hot chocolate on a cool winters evening. Kelowna10 says a festival featuring a multitude of flavours is back at over 20 locations in the valley from Summerland to Vernon. Check it out at okanaganhotchocolatefest.ca.

The group that regulates doctors in Ontario says it is limiting public access to its buildings due to safety concerns. The College of Physicians and Surgeons says it has been receiving up to 200 emails a month consisting of serious threats against staff and council members. Some messages indirectly threaten the group’s members stating they should “settle their affairs.”

School support workers in the Central Okanagan have delivered a powerful vote in favour of job action. They have voted 99 per cent in favour of backing contract demands with action up to and including a walkout. CUPE, which represents the more than 14-hundred support staff says a strike deadline has not been set and it is committed to reaching a negotiated deal, but it also says the school district is pushing concessions.

Interior Health and the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions are preparing to open the first complex care centres in Kelowna and Kamloops in the months ahead. IH says it has committed to opening 20 centres in each city. They will be smaller spaces with five to eight suites. Each centre will have 24/7 staff, including nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, cultural workers and peer support workers.

The BC government is creating a single hub for developers to get provincial approval for their projects in another step to tackle the housing shortage. Premier David Eby says the new strategy will streamline the process by creating a single, co-ordinated approach with the goal of cutting down the approval process to a few months. He says 42 new full-time staff will be hired.

Sports

Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said he’s “disappointed” in the job he’s done assembling a team. He says they have to do major surgery. Vancouver has 39 points in 43 games.

Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner and his wife have filed for bankruptcy in Nevada, citing up to $50 million in debts to dozens of creditors. The 31 year old signed a five-year, $25 million contract with the Knights in 2020.

In the last NFL wildcard game last night, Dallas beat Tampa Bay 31-14 and will go on to play San Francisco in one of the NFC matches on Sunday.