Top Stories – Dec 6 – Canucks Fire GM & HC

The crowd was chanting ‘fire Benning’ at the Canucks game on Saturday. They got their wish as GM Jim Benning was fired and Castlegar-born head coach Travis Green also got let go yesterday. Green has been replaced with veteran bench boss Bruce Boudreau who will coach the club through at least next season. The Canucks currently sit last in the Pacific Division with an 8-15-2 record.

The regional district has a reminder about garbage collection during snow events. If your garbage, yard waste or recycling collection is missed on your regular collection day, leave your carts out until collection happens. To make sure your stuff isn’t missed, don’t your carts back in to your home.

Sales were down, but prices were up for Central Okanagan real estate last month. The benchmark single family home sale price jumped 32 percent to 978-thousand dollars, but the number of sales fell 13 percent from a year ago. When it comes to condos, the benchmark price was 495-grand… up 28 percent, while sales fell slightly to 163 units.

We will get the weekend covid 19 numbers later today. On Friday, there were 97 new cases for Interior Health as part of 405 in BC. 88 percent of those 12 and over have had 2 doses of vaccine, while 10 percent have received a third.

Kelowna Council will receive an overview presentation of the 2022 budget at its regular meeting today. It proposes an overall tax increase of 3.49 percent to keep up with growth in all services and infrastructure. In 2021, the City collected more than $1 billion in building permits and inspections revenues, the most in history, but it was still hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue below what it would expect in a normal year.

Counterattack road checks are under way this month in the Central Okanagan. Since January, Kelowna RCMP officers have removed 800 impaired drivers from the roads. Drivers in Kelowna will see a heavy police presence as RCMP Traffic Services will be conducting several road checks throughout the area all month.

Some clarification this morning on federal plans for testing more people for covid who fly into Canada from anywhere except the States. If you’re coming back from a vacation in Mexico for example, the federal government says fully vaccinated Canadians, who had a PCR test before their flight home won’t automatically be tested. Some people could be randomly selected for a test, but the government would cover that cost.

It was a very successful food drive for the Wilson’s Landing Fire Department last Monday. Going door to door, they collected 860 pounds of food and about 24-hundred dollars. It all goes to the West Kelowna food bank which helps out residents on the west side of the lake.

Some Great Value chicken burgers sold by Walmart across Canada have been recalled due to undeclared egg. Anyone with an egg allergy should not eat them. They were sold in 904 gram boxes of 8 chicken burgers and have best before dates of next May and July. Products can be thrown out or returned.

A kilt-wearing Scotsman and his dog have completed an 8,000-kilometre fundraising walk across Canada. Michael Yellowlees and his Alaskan husky, Luna, started their journey in Tofino nine months ago, and they arrived at Cape Spear, Newfoundland and Labrador yesterday. He raised over 60-thousand dollars for a conservation group that wants to plant trees in the Scottish Highlands.

Sports

The Vancouver Canucks did some front office and bench cleaning yesterday. Gone are GM Jim Benning and his assistant John Weisbrod. Head coach Travis Green was let go and word was that assistant Nolan Baumgartner was also relieved of his duties. Veteran coach Bruce Boudreau has been hired as the new bench boss.

It will be the Tiger Cats and Blue Bombers in the 108th Grey Cup on Sunday in Hamilton. Yesterday, the 3rd and 4th quarters of the East final belonged to Hamilton in a 27-19 win over Toronto. In the West, Winnipeg beat Saskatchewan 21-17.

The Kelowna Chiefs picked up 2 KIJHL wins on the weekend. They beat Princeton and Chase. Summerland visits Rutland arena tomorrow night.

Turner McMillen had the winning goal as the Kelowna Rockets got by the Kamloops Blazers 4-3 on the weekend. It was just the 4th loss for the Blazers this season while Kelowna travels to Seattle for a game tomorrow.

Formula 1’s second-last race of the year was won by Lewis Hamilton which put him into a tie with Max Verstappen for the points lead. The championship will be decided this weekend in Abu Dhabi.