Top Stories – May 1 – Open House

Kelowna Fire Department will host its annual open house event on Sunday from 930 – noon in the former Costco parking lot on Highway 97. Other agencies there will include RCMP, paramedics, COSAR and YLW Aircraft Rescue Firefighting. After you check out the vehicles, the Salvation Army will be serving coffee and a pancake breakfast by donation.

The weekend is over but the high avalanche danger continues in the back country. A very high freezing level is destabilizing the snowpack and resulting avalanches could travel to the bottom of valleys. Avalanche Canada says the likelihood of deep persistent slab avalanches will increase with each day of warm weather.

Residents of a couple of communities west of Edmonton have been ordered to evacuate. A grass fire in Parkland County is quickly heading towards the hamlets of Entwistle and Evansburg. Meantime residents in an area of the Bonaparte Plateau, northeast of Pressy Lake and south of North Bonaparte Road are being told to pack essentials and be prepared to leave their homes at any time.

Registration opens this morning at 8 for kids camps that run throughout July and August for children 3-14 at a number of locations across Kelowna. Camps include full, half and partial day options with themes including sport, art, drama, and more. A full listing of camps available is in the 2023 Kids Summer Camps Guide at kelowna.ca/recreation .

The federal government has described its latest contract proposal to the union representing more than 100-thousand striking public servants as its final offer. The Treasury Board said it includes a better wage package and solutions to deal with priorities such as telework and seniority but offered no further details. The union says it made some progress during weekend talks.

The backlog of new and revised employment insurance claims is threatening to top the one-million mark, due to the strike, according to the Canadian Employment and Immigration Union wing of P-SAC. As of April 8, there were roughly 862,000 revised EI claims that were part of a massive backlog which had started building up rapidly over the pandemic.

Kelowna based developers Mission Group and Victor Projects have submitted a proposal for a 34 storey tower downtown. It would be on the northeast corner of Water and Lawrence and would have retail space on the ground floor under 4 levels of parking, 27 storeys of residential units and 2 floors of mechanical operations. The plan has just been submitted so it will be a while before it comes to council.

The first woman to run as a major party candidate for U-S president will be headlining the Liberal Party of Canada’s national convention on Friday. Hillary Clinton will join Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland for a fireside-style chat onstage on the second day of the three-day event in Ottawa. Prime Minister Trudeau will speak on Thursday before heading to London for this weekend’s Coronation.

Defence Minister Anita Anand says Canada has ended flights out of Sudan’s capital Khartoum and is relocating evacuation efforts to the Red Sea as violence escalates. About 400 Canadians and permanent residents were evacuated between Thursday and yesterday.

Sports

Not since 2004 have the Toronto Maple Leafs advanced to the second round in the NHL playoffs but it happened on the weekend when they beat Tampa in overtime. And the Edmonton Oilers also advanced to the next round with a win over the Kings.

The Blue Jays took 2 of 3 games from the Mariners on the weekend at Rogers Centre to improve to 18-10. They begin a series in Boston later this afternoon.

Four CFL teams, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal were fined the amount they went over the salary cap last year. It ranged from 64-thousand dollars for the Bombers, down to just 794 bucks for the Alouettes.