Vancouver Rundown

Dozens of firefighters from B.C. and Alberta are heading to Los Angeles. The federal government is working with the provinces in deploying more resources as LA continues to deal with uncontained, deadly wildfires. More than two dozen people are now confirmed dead in fires that have consumed homes, businesses and land around Los Angeles County.

Crews from B.C. have now arrived in Southern California to help battle the deadly wildfires around Los Angeles. Helicopters from Port Alberni-based Coulson Aviation have been working the frontlines. Wind gusts of over 100 kilometres an hour continue to challenge firefighters working on massive wildfires in Palisades and Pasadena as well as smaller ones around the county. A new fire erupted in the Calabasas area Thursday afternoon, forcing hundreds more to evacuate.

‘The skies [are] black and you can see the fires from everywhere’ - that’s just one description from one of the many people who have returned to Vancouver from Los Angeles. Passengers arriving at YVR describe horrific scenes of smoke, flame and carnage as crews continue to fight to control the wildfires burning in several areas around LA. At least five people have died, hundreds are injured and thousands of homes have been destroyed as strong Santa Ana winds continue to blow embers across properties.

Breaking News: Massive wildfires, fueled by hurricane force Santa Ana winds, continue to grow in suburbs around Los Angeles. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed by the Palisades Fire that started late Tuesday morning. Several people have been injured and crews have had a difficult time trying to get water to control the spread. Meanwhile, the Eaton Fire to the south - which broke out early Tuesday evening - has forced a new round of evacuations including close to a hundred people from a care home. Winds of over 100 kilometres an hour grounded fire fighting aircraft Tuesday evening. Extra ground crews have been called in from across Southern California.

Justin Trudeau calls it quits after nine years as Prime Minister. Trudeau made the announcement Monday morning saying he intends to stay on as PM until the Liberals choose a new party leader. Parliament will not be recalled until March 24. Opposition leaders have responded by demanding an immediate election while a Dairy Queen in Langley is offering $2 ‘Trudeau Resignation Burgers.’

Police have been looking for the driver of a Maserati after a Saturday night hit-and-run in Surrey. Two pedestrians are injured after the high-end sportscar hit several vehicles near 75th Avenue and 124 Street at around 10:00 p.m. One of the injured, a 29-year-old man who was freed after being pinned under a car, was in critical but stable condition on Sunday.

A woman has been charged with double counts of attempted murder after a car with two children was driven toward the Fraser River. Delta Police say there was an attempt to drive into the Fraser on the morning of Nov. 29. Police found the car stuck in the mud. There’s a publication ban to protect the identities of the kids.

B.C.’s deficit has jumped to $9.3 billion. That revelation comes in the provincial government’s fiscal update. The debt is expected to rise to $130 billion by the end of the government fiscal year. Provincial Finance Minister Brenda Bailey says she expects modest economic growth of 0.9 per cent but also warns there’s looming uncertainty including Donald Trump’s threatened 25 per cent tariff on Canadian imports.

Breaking: Conservative Tamara Jansen has flipped Cloverdale-Langley City Conservative. Jansen soundly defeated all her opponents in Monday’s federal byelection - getting more than three times as many votes as Liberal Candidate Madison Fleischer. The loss for the Liberals comes as another blow to the Justin Trudeau government…on the same day Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland quit cabinet. Voter turnout in this byelection was extremely low.

Breaking News: A body has now been recovered in a weekend landslide that hit a home before closing the Sea to Sky Highway near Lions Bay for hours. That confirmation came early Sunday evening. Searchers are continuing to look for a second victim. The slide happened on Saturday, blocking the highway between Squamish and West Vancouver. Canada Task Force 1, along with at least one dog, has been involved in the search and recovery effort.

A stretch of the Sea to Sky Highway was closed for hours near Lions Bay this weekend after a mudslide knocked a home off its foundation and spread mud and debris over the road. Drones have been used to see if there are any possible victims. Canada Task Force 1, along with a search dog, has also been searching through the debris.

B.C. is once again offering huge tax breaks to film and TV production companies in an effort to keep studios shooting in the province. Premier David Eby has announced the BC Film Incentive tax credit will increase slightly from 35 to 36 percent. The production services tax credit will go up from the current 28 per cent to 36 per cent starting in January. Bonuses are also being offered for big budget productions. The Surrey Board of Trade calls the announcement a win for both film production and businesses across the province.

Seven Vancouver police officers will soon face a public disciplinary hearing centred on their parts in the beating death of a 33-year-old man during a mental health crisis. Myles Gray died outside an East Vancouver home in 2015 after police were called to reports of a man behaving erratically. The Independent Investigations Office found three of the seven officers should face charges of manslaughter, aggravated assault and assault causing bodily harm. However, charges were never laid even though a Coroners Inquest also found the death was a homicide. The new Police Complaints Commissioner has now ordered a public hearing so a retired judge can reassess the case.

Vancouverites will indeed pay a 3.9 per cent increase in their residential property taxes. That’s the smallest increase since Ken Sim became mayor, two years ago. City council approved its operating budget Tuesday afternoon but some point out it lacks detail. The Vancouver Police Department will get an extra $2.6M over what had been approved in a previous draft budget.

Many blame the Taylor Swift concerts for extra long lines at the Blaine border crossings for drivers heading into the U.S. Some had to wait for hours at the Peace Arch and Pacific Highway crossings on Monday. Long northbound lines were also reported on Saturday and Sunday as the concerts combined with a low Canadian dollar, making shopping in Canada cheaper for some Americans.

The BC Conservatives have turned on one of their own - 13 MLA’s are asking fellow Conservative Elenore Sturko to apologize to an ex-Vancouver Police Board member. They’ve sent a letter to Leader John Rustad saying Comfort Sakoma-Fadugba was a victim of ‘cancel culture.’ The Surrey-Cloverdale MLA says she thought it was appropriate for the Board to accept its vice-chair’s resignation following comments about gender transition and erasing Christian values from the lives of children.

Expect traffic chaos in and around downtown Vancouver - that’s the warning as the Taylor Swift concerts combine with a Friday night Canucks game, six weekend Cirque du Soleil shows and the Vancouver Christmas Market at Jack Poole Plaza this weekend. People are being encouraged to walk, bike or take public transit to avoid jammed streets. A number of downtown road closures and passenger zones will be in effect.

A Taiwanese company has pulled the plug on plans to build a $1B battery plant in Maple Ridge. Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby attended last year’s announcement, promising a combined $285 million in government funding to help kickstart construction of the lithium-ion battery cell plant. Now the plant’s parent company, Taiwan Cement, says Canadian plans have been put on hold to concentrate on Taiwanese production. Experts continue to predict a lower demand for EV batteries heading into 2025 and beyond.

A young man from North Vancouver is one of two people charged in a failed murder plot in California. The 25-year-old, along with a co-accused from Ontario, are in custody after three people were stabbed at a home in Monterey County - all are expected to survive despite suffering serious to critical injuries. Charges include attempted murder and conspiracy to commit attempted murder. The two suspects are being held on bail of more than $2M each.

Blame the fog. Drivers around the Lower Mainland have been trying to navigate through thick fog since early Monday morning. One driver missed the curve on 8th Ave in Langley Monday evening, landing a car in the middle of a concrete barrier. Environment Canada’s continued its Weather Advisory saying the fog could continue through all of Tuesday morning.

Tragic news in the search for a Surrey teen who has been missing since Oct. 22. The body of 18-year-old Joseph Maku has been found in Delta. In a Facebook post, Maku’s sister says the discovery was made on Friday but it may be a long time before the cause of death is known. Neither Delta Police nor Surrey Police are commenting on the death. Investigators believe Maku boarded several buses between King George Blvd and Scott Road before he disappeared.

Expect to pay a lot more to use BC Ferries. Despite several government cash bailouts, BC Ferries says demand continues to grow and the fleet is being pushed to the limit. A 30 per cent increase in fares is possible. The cost of replacing ferries has increased 40 per cent since 2020. The provincial government imposed a temporary cap on fare increases last year after giving BC Ferries and additional 500 million dollars.

A Metis society is questioning the status claims of the Liberal candidate in the Cloverdale-Langley City federal byelection. The Waceya Metis Society says it wants to distance itself from Madison Fleischer’s claims of Metis identity. The Waceya says it met with Fleischer over the weekend and is disappointed she could not provide any evidence to support her heritage. Fleischer now says she’s collecting the necessary documentation for application through the BC Metis Nation.

A missing hiker has been found alive in a provincial park north of Fort St. John, close to five weeks after he went missing. CBC News reports 20-year-old Sam Benastick was reported missing after he failed to return home from a 10-day camping trip back on Oct. 17. He was found by workers attending natural gas wells in the area. The RCMP have not yet commented on the case.

B.C. business leaders, including those with the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, warn U.S. President-elect Donald Trumps promise to impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian imports will have a serious impact on the province’s economy. Trump said he would slap the tariffs on Canada and Mexico on his first day in office. The reason - Trump says both countries have failed to stem the flow of illegal aliens and drugs like fentanyl coming into the U.S. B.C. is a major supplier of resources for American housing and manufacturing.

Some Chinese nationals blame the strike at Canada Post for a situation that’s left them stuck in Vancouver, waiting for critical documents. Stella Xing, a Chinese national who has been working in the U.S., tells CBC News her passport and work visa were approved last week but are now caught up in the mail. She says she travelled to Vancouver earlier this month to renew her documents. She’s one of several in the same situation who say they are losing hundreds of dollars each day because of the delay.

Two more South Coast ski hills are opening this weekend - Grouse and Seymour. It follows this week’s fresh snow dumps on the North Shore Mountains. On Thursday, Whistler-Blackcomb re-opened. All mountains are operating with a few of their runs set to go…full-openings usually start during the winter break.

We now know some of the strongest gusts reached up to 170 km/h in that windstorm that hit Vancouver Island and parts of the Lower Mainland Tuesday evening. BC Hydro also says close to 300,000 customers were without power at the peak of the ‘cyclone bomb.’ Vancouver’s Langara College had to cancel classes Wednesday morning over concerns about fallen trees on power lines. Meanwhile, many parts of the Fraser Valley experienced very few problems during the storm.

Parts of Vancouver Island have been hardest hit by a ‘bomb cyclone’ of high winds and heavy downpours that hit the South Coast Tuesday evening. BC Ferries cancelled many of its sailings, half a dozen highways and roads were closed and more than 200,000 BC Hydro customers were hit by outages. There are remaining concerns about flooding in some areas of the South Coast as heavy rain continues for much of Wednesday.

Breaking news: Snow (or snow mixed with rain) has fallen in many parts of the Lower Mainland. Those driving through higher elevations or eastern sections of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley started reporting some snow late Monday night. Wind advisories are posted for Tuesday afternoon.Other news…Adrian Dix is no longer B.C.’s Health Minister. That’s the most notable of many moves in a huge cabinet shuffle by Premier David Eby. Dix is now the Minister of Energy and Climate. Former Tofino Mayor Josie Osborne has been appointed the new Health Minister. The new cabinet includes 23 ministers and four so-called junior ministers.

The Toronto Argonauts beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 41-24 to win this year’s CFL Grey Cup in Vancouver. That’s the third year in a row the Blue Bombers lost the big game. Nick Arbuckle picked up MVP honours after throwing two touchdown passes. The Grey Cup game also included a surprise BC Place appearance by Prince Harry.

Canada Lands Company, a federal crown corporation, will sell its stake in a high-profile Vancouver housing project to an Indigenous led developer. Daily Hive reports CLC will sell-off its share of the Heather Lands, just west of Queen Elizabeth Park, to co-owner MST Development - owned by the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Close to 2,600 homes will be built in several phases on the 21-acre former RCMP headquarters land. The project will include a mix of leasehold strata units, social housing and so-called market housing.

Wednesday was a recovery day as yet another November storm swept across the Lower Mainland. Close to 20-thousand homes and businesses were without power due to high winds. Those conditions also prompted up to five-sailing waits for BC Ferries on the Mainland-Vancouver Island runs. Some commuters also had to contend with pooling water, slowing down traffic in many areas.

John Horgan has died. The former B.C. NDP Premier turned Canadian Ambassador to Germany has passed away following a third battle with cancer. Horgan was considered one of Canada’s most popular premiers - managing to bridge political divides. Some of his accomplishments included removing tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges and eliminating MSP premiums, He died Tuesday at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital, surrounded by friends and loved ones. John Horgan was 65.

Those living in the federal riding of Cloverdale-Langley will go to the polls on Dec. 16. That byelection date was announced over the weekend, squaring a vacancy left by Liberal MP John Aldag’s failed attempt to win a seat as an NDP MLA. Indigenous communications specialist and law school graduate Madison Fleischer will run for the Liberals while former MP Tamara Jansen expects to turn back the seat for the Conservatives once again.

One of Vancouver’s longest standing and best-known homeless camps is gone…for now. Rangers moved in Thursday afternoon and started dismantling tents in CRAB Park. Those with the City say they have been working to make sure everyone has a place to go - but CRAB Park will be treated like all other Vancouver parks with no overnight camping allowed.

Homicide investigators are only now confirming the death of a woman from Surrey who was reported missing Feb. 23, 2024. The body of 28-year-old Navdeep Kaur was found this past summer near the Massey Tunnel. RCMP say Kaur’s death may have been the result of criminality. No more details are being released even though the remains were found at the foot of Williams Road in Richmond back on July 23. Still, police want the public’s help in trying to figure out the story behind Kaur’s death.

Breaking news…Donald Trump has been elected the next President of the United States. While final results were not confirmed Tuesday night, Trump received enough of the electoral college votes to beat Democrat Kamala Harris. He also won the popular vote. The States will also have a majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives, making any of Trump’s judicial appointments and cabinet confirmations all but certain.

The wind came late and stayed a little too long. More than 150 thousand homes and businesses were hit by blackouts as strong winds hit the Lower Mainland Monday. Some of the strongest winds on the south coast were almost 110 km/h keeping BC Hydro crews and contractors busy. Meanwhile, home and business owners have been asked to keep storm drains clear of leaves so water from the heavy rain can clear.

Weather warnings remain posted as heavy rain and strong winds continue to hit the B.C. south coast. Wind and snow warnings are also up for mountain passes heading in and out of the Lower Mainland. Extra BC Hydro crews and contractors have been called-in in anticipation of power outages. The storm conditions are expected to end by Monday afternoon.

Golden Ears Park north of Maple Ridge is closed until further notice thanks to damage from the recent heavy rain. The stormy weather has cut into river banks and park roads and left lots of debris. The campgrounds are closed. There will be no vehicle access to Golden Ears until further notice.

Three people died in an intense house fire north of Duncan on Monday. All bodies were found at the scene. The updated details from the RCMP come more than two days after firefighters from North Cowichan, Maple Bay, Crofton and Chemainus were called to put out the fire. That house is now rubble. There’s still no word on how the fire started.

Premier David Eby is reaching out to opposition members following word the NDP will form a thin, majority government. Eby says his party has its work cut-out noting British Columbians want more from their government. He’s not ruling out asking a BC Conservative to serve as Speaker of the House. The comments come in his first official news conference following the confirmation of results from the B.C. election.

The BC NDP have managed to scrape out a slim, majority government after several recounts. Barring any unexpected change due to a judicial recount, David Eby’s New Democrats return to power with 47 seats. That means they won’t need the support of B.C.’s two newly elected Green MLAs to pass legislation. The BC Conservatives won 44 seats.

David Eby and the BC NDP appear all-but-certain to form that minority government - election night results from a week ago are holding after weekend recounts. The NDP has increased its lead in some close races but no seats have flipped. Only a small number of absentee ballots are left to be counted before Elections BC confirms its final result.

British Columbians will have to wait until next week - at the earliest - to learn the official results of the provincial election. Elections BC says a final count will be finished on Monday. If election night results hold, David Eby will most likely remain as premier in a minority government. The BC Greens will hold the balance of power and are not entertaining any notions of partnering with the BC Conservatives to remove the NDP from power.

ICBC is now dealing with 266 claims relating to damage from the weekend rainstorms. In some cases, cars floated away due to flooding. Many of the vehicles suffered repairable electrical damage - others are write-offs. ICBC has warned all drivers with partially submerged vehicles to not start the ignition until all the water is gone.

The BC Greens are not ready to formally enter into any agreement with the presumptive governing NDP. That’s the word from New Democrat leader David Eby who also says he’s preparing for every possibility as he awaits the still-to-be confirmed outcome of the provincial election. Meanwhile, Sonia Furstenau has confirmed she will stay on as leader of the BC Greens despite losing her seat.

A fight broke out inside a New Westminster courtroom shortly after two men pleaded guilty to second degree murder in the killing of a prime suspect in the 1985 Air India bombing. One of the two rushed over to punch his co-accused after they both pleaded guilty to killing Surrey businessman Rupidaman Singh Malik. On July 14, 2022, Jose Lopez and Tanner Fox waited in a car outside Malik’s Surrey business before the 75-year-old was shot multiple times. Malik was acquitted of charges in the 1985 Air India bombing the claimed 329 lives as well as the lives of two baggage handlers in a second explosion in Japan. Malik was once a supporter of a separate Sikh state but had changed his views in recent years.

While David Eby appears poised to keep his job as premier, it may be a couple weeks before we officially know if B.C.’s NDP will hold on to power and whether the province will be governed by a majority or minority government. Eby’s New Democrats hold or are leading with 46 seats while the B.C. Conservatives have 45 seats and the Greens - two rookies were elected. Green leader Sonia Furstenau did not get re-elected on Saturday. Some mail-in ballots remains to be counted and there will be at least two recounts over the next several days.