Turkey’s consul general in Vancouver says the Turkish community in BC is proud that a crew from Burnaby is so far the only Canadian search and rescue team to land in that country since Monday’s devastating earthquake. Taylan Tokmak says the Burnaby Urban Search and Rescue Team is expected to start work soon. He says the team is bringing rescue equipment, tents and other supplies.
An Earth Sciences expert says there are many lessons to learn for BC in the earthquake that has devastated parts of Turkey and Syria. John Clague says planning for such rare events is difficult. He says it’s understandable that governments fall into short-term thinking about earthquakes that might only happen every five hundred years, although the Vancouver area has modern building codes that are regularly updated. While he wants people to be prepared, Clague says Metro Vancouver is far away from a likely epicentre of the next major quake.
The BC government has fined Teck Coal more than 16-million dollars for exceeding pollution thresholds as well as failing to build an active water treatment facility on time at one of its operations in Elk Valley. The province’s natural resources compliance and enforcement database shows three fines were issued at the end of January. They include one penalty of nearly 15.5 million dollars a result of the company’s failure to get its Fording River south water treatment facility operational by the December 2018 deadline in its permit. A statement from Teck says that facility is now operating and “achieving near-complete removal of selenium from treated water,” and it’s committed to improving water quality in the region near BC’s boundary with Alberta. The other two fines totalling nearly 1.1 million dollars were issued in response to exceedances of selenium and nitrate at Teck operations near Sparwood between 2019 and 2021.
BC’s police watchdog says it’s investigating after an off-duty member of the Surrey Police Service died from an injury that appears to have been self-inflicted. The Independent Investigations Office says RCMP officers were searching for the man inside a business in Langley. The Surrey Police Service says it is working to support the officer’s family and friends.
Police in Burnaby say they’re investigating a crash that killed a 33 year old motorcyclist. RCMP say officers responded to the call just before 6:30 yesterday morning and found an eastbound hatchback and southbound motorcycle had collided at the intersection of Laurel Street and Douglas Road. They say the driver of the hatchback remained at the scene and impairment does not appear to be a factor.
A spike in unwanted puppies has the BC SPCA calling for help. The animal rescue non-profit says 21 golden retrievers, including 17 puppies, were recently surrendered by a breeder near Quesnel the latest in an influx of dogs during the past few months. Senior protection officer Eileen Drever says the SPCA is struggling and doesn’t have the resources to take care of all the animals. Drever says she noticed puppies being sold for up to four-thousand dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic, and she believes the influx is due to an increase in so-called backyard breeders looking to make an extra buck.