The Yukon government says an ice jam on the Klondike River near Dawson City remains stubbornly in place because of a large ice sheet holding it there. The territory has issued a so-called tactical evacuation for 20 properties, which is not considered an order. A flood warning has been posted for the Klondike that runs on the south end of Dawson, while a flood watch has been posted for the Yukon River that also borders Dawson. The government says it expects flood levels will slowly drop as ice melts and if it breaks up and the risk of flooding is considered low.
The BC Sports Hall of Fame is paying tribute to Joe Kapp who died this week at the age of 85. Kapp joined the BC Lions in 1961 as a quarterback, led them into a Grey Cup appearance in 1963 and then helped the team win its first Grey Cup in 1964. A statement from the hall of fame says Kapp was the only man in the modern era to quarterback a Rose Bowl game, a Grey Cup championship and a Super Bowl when he led the Minnesota Vikings to victory in 1969. He was inducted into BC’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1999, and Tom Mayenknecht, the chair of the hall, says Kapp helped grow football to a new level in both BC and Canada.
A non-profit BC housing provider featured in the province’s recent forensic audit report says it will not give up on its leaders, despite Premier David Eby suggesting a change may be needed. Atira Women’s Resource Society says the audit report by Ernst and Young included no allegations of financial improprieties, despite the report finding mismanagement relating to a conflict of interest with Crown corporation BC Housing. Atira CEO Janice Abbott is the wife of former BC Housing CEO Shayne Ramsay. Atira is the largest housing operator at BC Housing, and Eby says the province expects the non-profit provider to take steps to ensure public confidence in its operations.
BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau is calling for the provincial government to revoke the permit for TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink project after construction was halted by the company. TC Energy says it proactively paused work on a 20-kilometre stretch of the project north of Prince George, BC, over erosion concerns. Furstenau says the challenging terrain on which the project is being built and climate-change effects on watersheds are the exact reasons the Greens opposed Coastal GasLink from the start. The pipeline project has encountered recurring issues with erosion and sediment control over the past year, resulting in ongoing compliance and enforcement actions by the BC Environmental Assessment Office.
The provincial government is promising 70-million dollars over two years for United Way programs that support seniors. Health Minister Adrian Dix says the money will be going mostly to the Better at Home program, which offers seniors non-medical support like grocery shopping and home repair. Dix says the program offered 2-hundred-55-thousand services to almost 13-thousand seniors from April 2021 to March 2022. Other programs getting a share of the money include the B-C 211 phone line and the caregiver support program
The University of Victoria is guaranteeing scholarships for every Indigenous student joining its Faculty of Law studies this fall through a 1.4-million-dollar program. The school says it has partnered with national charity Indspire’s Building Brighter Futures program for the funding, which will create 24 new scholarships. The funding comes one year after UVIC graduated the first class from its Indigenous law degree program _ the first of its kind in the world. The school says the average entrance scholarship for Indigenous law students last year was nine-thousand-400-dollars, with some scholarships exceeding 17-thousand-dollars.