BC Premier David Eby says the budget the government tables tomorrow will continue investing in health care, housing and affordability. He says the budget will be introduced tomorrow by Finance Minister Katrine Conroy and will put people first. Eby says BC’s New Democrat government has been tackling some of the province’s fundamental deficits in recent months by spending billions in surplus dollars. Since taking office, Eby has introduced initiatives amounting to two-billion dollars in affordability measures, one-billion dollars towards municipal infrastructure projects and 500 million dollars towards protecting rental housing.
A weather system has coated much of British Columbia in snow this weekend. Metro Vancouver residents woke up yesterday to between 10 and 25 centimetres of snow. Vancouver International Airport cancelled or postponed about 12 per cent of flights yesterday and warned there is potential for more adjustments depending on the weather. Environment Canada meteorologist Bobby Sekhon says data on temperature and snow accumulations and how this compares to past snowstorms will be available today.
A rare winter storm covered much of British Columbia in snow this weekend, leaving thousands without power. BC Hydro says crews began working to restore power to customers on the Lower Mainland yesterday. Spokesperson Susie Rieder says roughly 80-thousand customers across the province were in the dark yesterday morning in the wake of the snowstorm. She says power had been restored to roughly 90 per cent of those affected by yesterday afternoon, but warned that more outages are still possible in the coming days.
BC Emergency Health Services says four people were taken to hospital after a residential fire in Abbotsford. It says the fire was reported at around 1:45 p.m. yesterday and six ambulances were dispatched to respond. No information was available about the patients’ conditions. Abbotsford Police spokesperson Sergeant Paul Walker says police do not believe the fire was suspicious.