Top Stories – Nov 22 – ‘We Lost Everything’

Many residents of Princeton (above) say they have lost everything to flooding as the town remains on evacuation alert. One man says his house is full of mud and water, and he’s had little sleep over the past four days while piling his ruined belongings outside on the street. Volunteers have been going from home to home offering to assist with clean-up efforts.

Highway 3 has reopened to essential traffic only between Princeton and Hope. It allows trucks and other providers access to supplies on the lower mainland connecting on Highway 7. Anyone who has been cut off from their principle residence can also use it. The province says there will be checkpoints along the route.

Four people are now confirmed dead in that mudslide on Highway 99 at Duffy Lake. The chief coroner says efforts continued to locate a fifth person reported as missing, but unfortunately those attempts have been unsuccessful. A team of forensic coroners has worked alongside law enforcement and search and rescue professionals in extremely challenging conditions.

Due to the flooding and resulting road closures throughout BC, collection of glass and styrofoam packaging, both white and coloured is temporarily on hold at most recycling depots in the Central Okanagan. Residents can still take paper, cardboard, plastic and metal containers, plastic bags and overwrap, and other flexible plastic packaging to depots.

The Kelowna RCMP is once again partnering with the Salvation Army for the “Stuff the Cruiser Toy Drive” to ensure that every child has a present this holiday season. It’s happening on Saturday from 10-3 in the north parking lot of the RCMP Detachment on Richter as well as the Toys-R-Us on Harvey to collect new, unwrapped toys for newborns to 12 year olds. Last year, 710 toys were collected as well as $1,227 was raised for Salvation Army Christmas programs.

The number of new cases of covid 19 in the interior jumped back into triple digits on Friday with 146, the most of any region, and 657 active cases. There were 497 in BC. As for vaccinations, 90.8% of those 12 and over have had their first shot, while 87% have had their second.

Canada’s new minister of mental health and addictions, says she is “very interested” in proposals from British Columbia on how to proceed with a plan for addressing the opioid crisis in the country. Carolyn Bennett is meeting with the BC Centre on Substance Use Thursday, and with her BC counterpart, Sheila Malcolmson, on Friday.

A new session of Parliament is set to open today, more than two months after the federal election. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has noted early priorities, including reintroducing legislation to ban conversion therapy and guaranteeing 10 days of paid sick leave to federally regulated workers. The Liberal agenda will be detailed in the throne speech tomorrow.

Due to its improved financial position, Air Canada says it’s withdrawing from further funding provided by the Canadian government. It came in the form of an April 2021 support package that gave Air Canada interest-bearing loans of almost 5.4 billion dollars. The airline says it has used some of the funding to refunding customers’ non-refundable tickets, while almost 4 billion has not been used.

Sports

The Kelowna Rockets left Portland with 1 of a possible 4 points. The point came in a shootout loss on Friday and they lost on Saturday. The American road trip resumes Wednesday in Spokane.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault is set to meet with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to discuss the possibility of bringing the defunct Nordiques back to Quebec City. The Quebec Nordiques were an NHL team from 1979-1995 before relocating to Colorado and becoming the Avalanche.

The Vancouver Canucks winning streak ended at one after a 1-0 loss to the Blackhawks yesterday. The Canucks outshot Chicago 40 to 24. Vancouver’s next game is in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

The Formula 1 race in Qatar was won by Lewis Hamilton, but Max Verstappen still leads the points race. The teams have a week off before two back to back races in the middle east to wrap up the year.

A weekend 2 game trip to Salmon Arm for the BCHL’s West Kelowna Warriors saw each team take a win. The Warriors top the league standings with 24 points.

The Kelowna Chiefs lost 6-3 in Armstrong on Friday and at Rutland Arena on Saturday, took a 1-0 shootout win against Osoyoos. They make the return trip to the south Okanagan on Wednesday.