B.C. to end state of emergency as wildfire risk winds down
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 14 Sep, 2023 05:12 PM
The British Columbia government says it is ending the state of emergency imposed last month when thousands of residents were chased out of their homes by wildfires.
The government says in a statement the wildfire risk is diminishing in much of the province as temperatures cool, allowing most residents to return home.
The British Columbia government is expanding measures to lower the cost of child care by introducing fee reductions for preschool and school-aged children. Premier David Eby says families with children in eligible half-day preschool, as well as before- and after-school programs, could save an additional $145 per month, per child, as the program gets underway in September.
Two of the three fires making up a devastating wildfire complex that destroyed almost 200 homes around Lake Okanagan in the B.C. Interior are now under control. But the BC Wildfire Service says the region's most destructive fire, the McDougall Creek blaze in West Kelowna, continues to defy suppression efforts.
The Canada Revenue Agency says 120 people have been fired for claiming a federal COVID-19 benefit while employed there. The CRA is reviewing approximately 600 cases in which current employees received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit — or CERB — during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The federal government has put a price tag on how much it would like to see Google and Facebook spend under an act requiring the tech giants to compensate media for news articles.
B-C Ferries wants customers to prepare for a busy Labour Day weekend. The company says advanced bookings for the holiday weekend show high passenger and vehicle volumes heading from the mainland to Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands today through Saturday, with high eastbound traffic expected from Sunday to Monday.
The federal government needs to issue another $500 benefit payment for low-income families struggling to keep a roof over their heads, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Thursday. Singh was in Sooke, B.C., on a cross-country summer tour where the national housing crisis and ongoing anxiety about the cost of living is taking centre stage.