BC Premier David Eby is expected to meet with federal ministers today to discuss a bilateral agreement over health-care funding as the province looks for support in areas such as long-term care, home care, and mental health and addictions care. That’s after Canada’s premiers agreed to accept billions in new health-care funding from Ottawa after meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week. The offer included a two-billion-dollar boost to health transfers to the provinces and territories right away and annual increases of five per cent over the next five years. Eby says the agreement will support stability in the health-care system, and he was looking forward to discussing a separate bilateral deal.
The BC search and rescue team that self-deployed to the earthquake zone in Turkey a week ago is set to return home. The Turkish Consulate in Vancouver says the Burnaby Urban Search and Rescue Team will arrive at the Vancouver airport late this afternoon. The team shared an update from the city of Adiyaman last Friday, saying its members had taken part in the successful rescue of a woman buried beneath rubble, more than four days after the devastating quake. Team director Scott Murchison told Global News he heard the woman suffered some injury to her kidneys due to the lack of water while she was trapped, but other than that, she was doing OK.
BC’s police watchdog says it’s investigating an incident in Vancouver that left one woman seriously injured over the weekend. The Independent Investigations Office says Vancouver police have indicated that an off-duty officer driving downtown stopped to investigate when he saw a woman he believed may be committing a property crime. The IIO says police reported that an “interaction” occurred between the officer and the woman when she was taken into custody, and she was taken to VPD cells for treatment by the jail nurse before being transported to hospital for further care. The office is asking anyone with information or dashcam footage of the incident near the intersection of Seymour and Nelson streets shortly before 11 a-m on Sunday to contact them.
Conservation organization Ducks Unlimited Canada says it’s starting work this week on a pilot project aimed at building the resilience of the estuary and marsh at the mouth of the Fraser River and supporting coastal flood protection in Richmond. The non-profit says the Sturgeon Bank Sediment Enhancement project will involve replacing sediment on the tidal flats and key areas along the banks of the estuary to enhance natural processes that have been altered by human activities. It says the sediment should help restore habitats used by many species, including millions of juvenile Pacific wild salmon migrating to the ocean. The project is being led by Ducks Unlimited Canada in partnership with Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Tsawwassen First Nation, and the Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance.
Commercial truckers in BC will be required to use electronic devices to log their driving times starting this summer, a move officials say is aimed at reducing the risk of driver fatigue and the number of incidents involving such vehicles. Starting August 1st, commercial vehicle operators under provincial regulation will need to have electronic logging devices or ELDs installed. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming says the devices will ensure commercial drivers aren’t on the road longer than they should be. Dave Earle, president of the B-C Trucking Association welcomed the change, saying it would improve road safety for everyone.