Close X
Sunday, November 24, 2024
ADVT 
National

B.C. rescue team waiting for Turkey quake go-ahead

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 09 Feb, 2023 04:29 PM
  • B.C. rescue team waiting for Turkey quake go-ahead

VANCOUVER - A British Columbia search and rescue team is ready and willing to head to Turkey to help after a devastating earthquake, but it's facing multiple hurdles as it awaits approval from federal authorities.

Justin Mulcahy, spokesman for Vancouver's Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team, says "there has been no official request" from Ottawa to deploy the team.

B.C.'s Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma says the province reached out to Public Safety Canada on Monday morning, just hours after the quake, because such emergency assistance needs to be co-ordinated.

Ma says the province has since been in constant daily contact with Public Safety Canada but has "yet to receive direction."

The minister says she can't presume to know what conversations Global Affairs Canada is having with partners as she waits on a federal response.

Mulcahy says the Vancouver rescue team is also waiting on international accreditation from a UN-affiliated agency that would allow them to deploy on short notice.

"We're working on that through this accreditation process so we can be in a position in the future to be able to immediately deploy our teams internationally," Mulcahy said.

"Our focus has been on having these teams available for use locally, provincially and federally."

The Vancouver Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team operates under the city's fire department.

Taylan Tokmak, Turkey's consul general in Vancouver, said Wednesday that a separate volunteer group, the Burnaby Urban Search and Rescue Team, is already in the Turkish quake zone.

Ma says the Burnaby team "self-deployed" this week.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake, followed by several powerful aftershocks, ravaged parts of southeastern Turkey and northwest Syria, flattening buildings and killing many thousands of people.

MORE National ARTICLES

B.C. sets aside some timber supply for value-added

B.C. sets aside some timber supply for value-added
Forests Minister Bruce Ralston says the goal is to build a stronger, more resilient forest industry with value-added products such as mass timber, plywood, veneer, panelling and flooring. The statement says the program will be restricted to those facilities that have minimal or no forestry tenure and are approved as a value-added manufacturer.

B.C. sets aside some timber supply for value-added

Suspect pushed pedestrian to the ground, victim broke arm in the fall: Burnaby RCMP

Suspect pushed pedestrian to the ground, victim broke arm in the fall: Burnaby RCMP
A 29-year-old woman was walking on the sidewalk westbound along Edmonds Street, just before Griffiths Drive, shortly before noon when a man jogging towards her briefly stopped in front of her. The man did not say anything to the victim, but allegedly pushed her with both hands, causing her to fall to the ground.

Suspect pushed pedestrian to the ground, victim broke arm in the fall: Burnaby RCMP

U.S. sticks with 'unjustified' softwood duties: Ng

U.S. sticks with 'unjustified' softwood duties: Ng
A raft of documents filed today by the U.S. Department of Commerce, just the latest in a series of reviews of the dispute, indicates the anti-dumping and countervailing duties aren't going away. The latest combined duty rates — which are preliminary and won't take effect until after a final review expected this summer — range between 7.29 and 9.38 per cent.

U.S. sticks with 'unjustified' softwood duties: Ng

Surrey RCMP need public's help in identifying suspect in groping incident

Surrey RCMP need public's help in identifying suspect in groping incident
On Monday at 10:53 a.m., Mounties responded to a report of a female who had been groped by an unknown suspect near King George Blvd. and 102 Avenue. The suspect is described as a black man, 5’7”, in his mid to late 20s, with a slim build.

Surrey RCMP need public's help in identifying suspect in groping incident

Passport backlog 'virtually eliminated': minister

Passport backlog 'virtually eliminated': minister
Most new passport applications were being processed on time by October, but thousands of people who applied before then still faced excessive delays. Those delays have finally come to an end, Social Development Minister Karina Gould announced Tuesday.    

Passport backlog 'virtually eliminated': minister

Woman stabbed on Toronto streetcar, arrest made

Woman stabbed on Toronto streetcar, arrest made
Toronto police say a woman was stabbed in the head and face while riding a streetcar in the city today and another woman has been arrested in the case. They say police received a call around 2 p.m. for a stabbing on a streetcar near Spadina Avenue and Sussex Avenue and found a woman in her 20s suffering from multiple stab wounds.

Woman stabbed on Toronto streetcar, arrest made