B.C. to end state of emergency as wildfire risk winds down
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 14 Sep, 2023 05:12 PM
The British Columbia government says it is ending the state of emergency imposed last month when thousands of residents were chased out of their homes by wildfires.
The government says in a statement the wildfire risk is diminishing in much of the province as temperatures cool, allowing most residents to return home.
The government highlighted the future-ready plan in its budget earlier this year, saying it is a response to one of the biggest challenges facing B.C. businesses, which is access to more skilled workers. A 10-year labour market outlook for B.C. has forecasted there will be more than a million job openings in the province.
Families minister Karina Gould says the job action did not create a significant backlog, as the federal government received only about 20 per cent of the typical volume of passport applications during the strike.
The B.C. board says sales for the month totalled 2,741, almost 16 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average. The composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver hit $1,170,700 last month, down 7.4 per cent from a year ago but up 2.4 per cent from March.
The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria says it sent the Canadian Coast Guard to the area to join the search for the missing men Sunday morning. It says they were found and recovered about six hours later, around 1 p-m.
The collision, which involved equipment loaded on a truck striking the Peardonville Road overpass in Abbotsford yesterday, was captured on video. Highway Patrol says though there were no injuries, a car was struck by some debris from the overpass.
Eby says he's spoken twice with Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke since Friday when the government recommended the city proceed with its transition to the Surrey Police Service rather than return to the RCMP.