Top Stories – Sept 23 – Westbank Walmart Reopens

Attention Walmart Shoppers… the store has reopened. The Westbank location closed at the beginning of the month after someone set a fire in the loading bay and smoke contaminated everything in the store which had to be cleaned or replaced. It reopened yesterday.

Kelowna council has given preliminary support to the city’s 2040 Official Community Plan. The strategy will guide how and where growth will happen and how fast. Over the last 10 years, the city has seen transformation and undertaken the Imagine Kelowna visioning exercise to shape a new vision for the city.

Some mail-in ballots were still being counted yesterday, but the voter turnout for Monday’s election in Canada was a lot lower than previous elections. Just over 58 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot that has been counted. That compares to 67 percent 2 years ago and 68.3 percent in 2015.

Windsor, Ontario hospitals have suspended dozens of employees without pay for not getting their COVID vaccines. It’s employee policy. Windsor Regional Hospital says 96 per cent of its employees are fully vaccinated or have complied with the policy of getting at least one dose by yesterday while 172 had not been poked.

Kelowna RCMP are still looking for witnesses to a weekend accident. It happened at Springfield and Benvoulin just before midnight Saturday when it appears a pickup ran a red light and hit a car. One passenger in the car suffered serious injuries while the driver and other passenger were also taken to hospital. The pickup driver was given a breath test on suspicion of being impaired.

The number of new cases of covid 19 in the interior health region was back up above 200 again yesterday with 233. That was part of 759 in all of BC. 87.1% of eligible people 12 and older in the province have received their first dose of vaccine and 79.7% received their second.

Police in Quebec say they are looking for a man who is alleged to have repeatedly punched a nurse in the face because he was angry she had vaccinated his wife against COVID. The nurse had to be treated in hospital for serious injuries to her face. Authorities say the suspect is between 30 and 45 years old.

A development permit was approved by Kelowna council for a project to revamp the existing Husky gas station at the corner of Gordon and Cook. The proposal adds a second floor to the existing building, removes the car wash and reduces the size of the convenience store. A new restaurant will be added as well as electric vehicle charging stations.

Further deliveries of COVID vaccines to Canada are on pause because provinces already have more doses than they can currently use. Canada is sitting on a stockpile of 18.7 million doses and doesn’t need any more to fully vaccinate eligible people over the age of 12. The provinces stopped requesting new doses at the end of August.

In the CFL last night, the best in the East beat the worst in the east. Hamilton improved to 4 & 3 while Ottawa dropped to 1 & 5 thanks to a Tiger Cats 24-7 win in a rainy nation’s Capital.

The NFL Thursday Night game is in Houston where the Texans host Sam Darnold and the Carolina Hurricanes.

A 10 year partnership continues between the Okanagan Sun football club and JDS Energy. The company presented the club with a cheque for $25,000 for its scholarship program.

The Women’s World Hockey Championship will now be held annually, including in Olympic years. In non-Olympic years, the competition will be held in March and April, and it will take place in August during Olympic years. Of course Canada is the defending champ.

On their road trip to Tropicana Field, the Blue Jays were juiced 7-1 by Tampa Bay to drop the second of 3 games. Toronto has the first of 4 games in Minnesota today.

Arizona Coyotes star forward Phil Kessel will miss training camp due to a foot injury sustained during training. Recovery will take two to three weeks, which would have him on track to be ready just in time for the Coyotes’ first regular-season game on Oct. 14.