BC-Hydro says recent record-breaking temperatures drove electricity demand to an all-time high for the month of May.
The record for the highest May peak hourly demand was set last night, as temperatures soared across much of the province.
BC-Hydro says preliminary analysis found consumption reached almost 76-hundred megawatts as residents turned to air conditioners and fans in an attempt to cool off.
Demand for power is expected to remain higher-than-average this week
Crews are making progress on several wildfires in the province, including a blaze near Lytton that broke out nearly a month ago and destroyed several properties. But BC Wildfire Service information officer Mikhail Elsay told a news conference Wednesday that crews are still having a difficult fight with the 68-square-kilometre fire southwest of Penticton in the Okanagan.
Plan International Canada says it has seen a worrying increase in the number of teenage girls in the developing world being forced into marriage because their families cannot afford to feed them. The agency says 12 million girls under the age of 18 become child brides each year, forcing them to abandon school while putting their health at risk through early pregnancies.
A report from the service on deaths says the fatalities happened between July 26 and Aug. 3, although the numbers are considered preliminary until investigations into each case conclude. The report shows all but two of the deaths happened in the Interior or Fraser health regions and involved victims aged 40 to over 90, with six in their 70s.
The job cuts, expected to take place over the fourth quarter, come as the company permanently cuts about 170 million board feet of combined production at its Fraser Lake and Williams Lake sawmills and about 85 million square feet of plywood production at its Quesnel operation.
Environment Minister George Heyman says the province is a North American leader in plastic recycling and the government's CleanBC Plastic Action Fund is looking for more innovations to cut plastic pollution.
The BC Wildfire Service says the the wildfire covers 68 square kilometres southwest of Penticton, with most of the recent growth due to planned ignitions needed to create the control lines. An update from the wildfire service says newly created control lines are "holding well."