Top Stories – Apr 17 – Parkinson Payment

Now they have to figure out how to pay for it. The 100 million dollar redevelopment of the Parkinson Recreation Centre will be before Kelowna Council later today. It would include 3 gyms, walking and running tracks, a fitness centre, a 10-lane 25-metre pool, a leisure and therapy area, and a community kitchen.

A 23 year old Kelowna man and known repeat offender, has been charged with one count of Possession of Child Pornography. He is being held in custody until his next court appearance on Thursday. The arrest came after the Kelowna RCMP’s Integrated Child Exploitation Unit executed search warrants at several locations.

The Canadian government has restored funding to Hockey Canada. The announcement came before the Canada-United States gold medal game. Hockey Canada saw its funding shut off by the federal government, and sponsors have pulled dollars since May, when it was revealed a woman alleged she was sexually assaulted by eight players, including members of the 2018 world junior team.

The Climate Resilient Kelowna Strategy will be on display tomorrow at the Parkinson Rec centre. City staff will be there from 3 to 6pm to talk climate change, its impacts, and how our community can be more resilient for the future. In the coming decades Kelowna will experience more extreme heat days, prolonged rainfall, and warmer winters.

Agricultural burning is permitted by Kelowna until April 30 for growers who get an appropriate burn permit from the Fire Department. The department had several calls recently where the applicant has purchased a prunings permit but was doing land clearing. Bylaw offence notice tickets of $345 were issued to the properties and they were banned from burning.

The pandemic had just started and there were no vaccines when Prime Minister Trudeau promised that the National Research Council would start churning out millions of doses by the end of 2021. Between May 2020 and April 2022, Canada promised more than $1.3 billion for 12 new or expanded biomanufacturing plants. Most are still under construction.

Local RCMP detachments are getting calls about the ongoing ‘gift card’ scam. In the latest variation, scammers claim to be with the victim’s bank and say that their accounts have been compromised, and that they now owe an outstanding bill. To settle the debt, they are told to buy a certain amount of gift cards and are then asked for the 10 digit codes on the back of the cards. Hang up and call the local RCMP.

Interior Health says municipalities should hold off on banning the use of illicit drugs in public. The health authority says it’s recommending municipalities first monitor the effects of decriminalization for six months. It comes a few months into BC’s three-year pilot program that decriminalizes small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use.

The construction of a barbed-wired fence along Finland’s border with Russia, primarily meant to curb illegal migration, has broken ground less than two weeks after the Nordic country became the 31st NATO member. The initial stretch is 3 km long. The Border itself stretches for 1,340 km and is the longest of any European Union member.

Sports

Kelowna Rockets players Andrew Cristall and Caden Price will wear the Maple Leaf with Canada’s National Under-18 Team at the 2023 World Championship, starting Thursday in Switzerland.

At the Women’s World Hockey gold medal game, Canada scored first but the U-S scored twice on the power play in the third and went on to win 6 to 3. Czechia took bronze.

As we head into the NHL playoffs, two teams that didn’t make them are without head coaches. Columbus and Washington have parted ways with their bench bosses