The program, which is financed entirely through premiums paid by workers and employers, accumulated $25.9 billion of debt by the end of 2021, according to the Office of the Chief Actuary. The rise in debt comes after a staggering number of Canadians were unemployed during the pandemic and eligibility rules for the program were relaxed to ease access to jobless benefits.
British Columbia is enduring a record-breaking dry spell, but farmer Amir Mann says the drought is far preferable to other recent weather extremes. Mann and others involved in agriculture say the downside of the drought, which has required some crops to be irrigated, is offset by benefits such as a longer harvesting period and little rot.
West Vancouver Fire Rescue duty chief Matt Furlot says crews responded at around 7 a.m. He said they were trying to pinpoint the exact location of the fire and the best way to access to the flames.
At 7:30 p.m. on July 6, a 24-year-old woman reported she had been sexually assaulted while on the escalator at the Granville SkyTrain Station by a suspect who ran away. The investigation was completed by Metro Vancouver Transit Police. A second incident occurred the following day on West Broadway at Ash Street. Just before 2 p.m. a 38-year-old woman was sexually assaulted.
The victim – a neighbourhood resident for 30 years – was walking to a bakery near Main Street and East Pender when he was pushed over by a stranger around 3:15 Tuesday afternoon. Several witnesses stopped to help the senior, who was taken to hospital.
Emergency Management BC says when rain falls after long dry spells, the parched soil can increase runoff and river flow. It says the transition to the rainy season doesn't typically cause extensive flooding and the devastation wreaked by last year's atmospheric rivers was rare.
