Police in Port Moody say they’ve seized hundreds of pieces of identification, stolen mail, stolen licence plates and devices used to make fake IDs. The department says they are recommending numerous fraud-related charges against a man they arrested last week. It started back in July when police were called to a report of a mail theft, and officers pulled over a stolen vehicle linked to the theft about a month later. Police say they obtained a warrant to search the suspect’s home last week and he’s since been released from custody while the B-C Prosecution Service mulls the recommended charges.
Surrey is reducing red tape for its development application process in a bid to align with new provincial housing regulations. A statement from the City of Surrey says council passed a motion during a meeting this week to streamline the application process. Council has directed city staff to have the recommended bylaw and policy changes ready before the end of 2023. Meanwhile, the City of Vancouver says it is also accelerating housing action on several fronts with the aim to increase the supply of townhouses, multiplexes and mixed-use low-rises between three and six storeys in height.
The last physical newspaper in the City of Kamloops is ceasing operations later this month. Kamloops This Week editor Chris Foulds says talks to save the newspaper, including possibly moving to a type of non-profit model, had been going on behind the scenes for the past two months. But he says solutions including possible concessions from the union could not be resolved before a looming deadline. The final edition of Kamloops This Week, which has been in circulation since 1988, will be published next Wednesday, October 25th – putting an estimated 30 people out of a job, not including carriers.
The provincial government says it’s bought a 48-unit building in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that was damaged by a fire last year. The Housing Ministry says the Keefer Rooms building at 222 Keefer Street has been vacant since September 2022 after a blaze damaged the building. The province says the building will be open to residents once renovations are done, expected in the spring of 2025. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says the move will preserve low-income housing, and the ministry says the building will be operated by the Downtown Eastside Community Land Trust association.
The Yukon government has identified its preferred proponent for building a new convention centre in Whitehorse. The government of Yukon and the Yukon Convention Bureau say they have chosen the Chu Niikwan Development Corporation for a building along the Whitehorse waterfront. The choice was made based on a combination of factors including venue size, capacity, cost, First Nation involvement and long-term viability. The Yukon government says it will now begin work with the proponent on detailed project specifications for a convention centre capable of accommodating up to a thousand attendees.
The Yukon government is launching a public survey on its cannabis legislation, five years after the drug became legal in the territory. The survey includes questions about where Yukoners buy their pot and what they think of the current retail model. The territorial Cannabis Control and Regulation Act mandates a review every five years. The government says just over two-million dollars in legal cannabis was sold during the first five months of legalization and that has grown to nearly eight-million dollars during the last fiscal year.