Lightning sparks about 200 new wildfires across B.C. as heat grips Interior

VANCOUVER —

Hundreds of lightning strikes in many parts of British Columbia almost tripled the number of active wildfires in the province over the weekend, with most burning in central and northern B.C. The BC Wildfire Service is reporting more than 300 fires, with 87 spotted in the last 24 hours and almost 200 of the total number ranked as out of control.

The wildfire service is bracing for challenging conditions, with lightning storms still in the forecast for most of the week, as well as heat warnings or above-average temperatures through the central Interior.

Of the 13 blazes listed as “fires of note,” all but two are located in the Prince George and Northwest fire centres, and the wildfire service says 11 have prompted at least one evacuation order, although no major communities are threatened. Some of the fires are threatening rural highways, including Highway 27 south of Fort St. James and Highway 77 north of Fort Nelson, while flames first spotted last Thursday near the Yukon boundary now cover 300 square kilo-

Surrey Council Receives First RCMP Restaffing Update

Surrey, At last night’s Regular Council Meeting, Surrey Council received its first monthly Progress Report on maintaining the RCMP as Police of Jurisdiction (POJ).

The Progress Report updates the status of the restaffing plan, confirming the following:

·15 Surrey Police Service (SPS)

Officers are in the hiring process or already hired

·81 SPS Officers have indicated they will join the RCMP

·

8 RCMP cadets are joining the detachment by August 2023

·2 Experienced Police Officers are transferring to the Surrey RCMP.

“I am pleased to see Surrey RCMP’s restaffing plan is well underway, and I welcome the SPS members who have chosen to continue their policing careers in Surrey with the RCMP,” said Mayor Brenda Locke. “The City is committed to working with the Province and the SPS to meet the Minister’s binding conditions as we return to a single Police of Jurisdiction in Surrey with the RCMP. It is time to move forward and do what’s right for our City, what’s right for taxpayers, and what’s right for future generations.” metres close to Highway 37, but aren’t immediately affecting the link to Watson Lake and Whitehorse.

On June 15, 2023, Mayor Locke announced the decision of Council to maintain the RCMP as POJ in Surrey following consideration of a confidential report prepared by staff. On June 19, 2023, following Council direction, staff’s confidential report was forwarded to the Province for review. Staff are currently working with all parties to prepare a redacted version of the confidential report. The redacted version will be released to the public once completed.

A wildfire in Yukon has roughly tripled in size since Sunday and remains out of control, charring about three square kilometres of bush in the Ibex Valley, about 30 kilometres due west of Whitehorse, south of the Alaska Highway, prompting an evacuation alert for numerous properties along the route. B.C.’s wildfire danger was high to extreme across all but small pock ets of the province on Monday. Source: rdnewsnow.com

By: Amy

Local business leaders applaud Ottawa’s move to intervene in B.C. port strike

will forward them to both sides. They’ll then have until 5 p.m. Thursday to decide whether to ratify the deal. The local business community says while it’s a promising first step, there’s no guarantee of a quick resolution.

VANCOUVER - After nearly two weeks of failed negotiations, Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan is intervening in the B.C. port worker’s strike that’s crippling the country’s economy. The job action has shut down all ports in the province including Vancouver, the busiest port in Canada. The minister has given a federal mediator until 5 p.m. Wednesday to send him recommended terms to end the strike. Once O’Regan has received the terms from the mediator, he

New loan financing marks significant step towards completion of new world-class venue Vancouver, BC – On Tuesday, the new PNE Amphitheatre took another step towards construction, with Vancouver City Council voting to approve an increase in loan financing to the project. “The PNE is home to some of the best and most iconic summer experiences our city has to offer – once completed, the new Amphitheatre will be a world leading performance facility,” said Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim. “We’re incredibly excited to see another step taken towards the construction of the PNE Amphitheatre and renewal of Hastings Park.”

The increase in loan financing reflects updated design plans for the Amphitheatre. The members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada have been on strike since July 1st, halting cargo in and out of 30 ports in B.C. Both sides of B.C. port strike now considering mediator’s recommended deal. ter deciding the sticking point in negotiations wasn’t enough to justify the ongoing strike. B.C. port strike: U.S. worers refusing to touch cargo rerouted from Canada

“As of 10:30 this morning, we estimate that $8.9 billion in trade has been disrupted due to the labor disruption at our ports. It’s fueling inflation and rising costs, it’s hurting our international reputation as a stable and secure trading partner,” said Bridgitte Anderson, president and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. The board launched a live “Port Shutdown Calculator” estimation tool Wednesday morning to illustrate the significant impact of the labour disruption on Canada’s west coast ports. The dispute is impacting various industries nationwide, including manufacturing, retail, agriculture, critical minerals, automotive dealers and energy. Approximately 25 per cent of the nation’s total traded goods flow through the ports in Western Canada.

A federal mediator appointed to help bring an end to the B.C. port strike has delivered their recommendations to both sides of the dispute, meaning the parties are now on deadline to respond on Thursday morning at the latest. A spokesperson for Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan confirmed to CBC News that the mediator had handed over their recommended settlement at 10:30 a.m.

PT. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the B.C. Maritime Employers Association now have 24 hours to decide whether to ratify the deal in principle — that is, until 10:30 a.m. PT Thursday.

VANCOUVER - Maritime employers says the impact of the B.C. port strike is spilling over internationally, as U.S. port workers refuse to handle containers rerouted from Vancouver to Seattle.

7,400

O’Regan appointed the mediator Tuesday af-

The BC Maritime Employers Association says the move further damages the “reliability and competitiveness of West Coast ports up and down” as the work stoppage drags on for a 10th day. International Longshore and Warehouse Union International president Willie Adams told CNBC last week that members of the U.S. West Coast chapter of the union won’t be unloading Canadian-bound cargo in solidarity with the striking workers in B.C. ........Source:bc.ctvnews.ca

Vancouver City Council votes to invest in construction of PNE amphitheatre

additional investment will allow the PNE to repay its loan to the City of Vancouver in a shorter timeframe on account of expected increases in revenue. “This decision is a win for Vancouver taxpayers, a win for Vancouver’s arts and culture sector, and a win for the future of the PNE,” said Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung, PNE Chair. “There is an unmistakable magic and excitement that comes with watching performances at the PNE and this new investment will allow the PNE Amphitheatre to be a truly world-class venue.”

Updated renderings of the new PNE Amphitheatre were released earlier this year to an overwhelming positive response from the public. The renderings showcased the venue’s mass timber roof, which is set to be built entirely from British Columbian wood and once completed, will be one of the longest clear-span roofs in the world. “The PNE is excited to see this project move forward –this new investment will mean technology, features, and sound mitigation will be stateof-the-art from the moment it opens,” said Shelley Frost, PNE CEO. “This new space will be a beautiful, inclusive venue, welcoming talent from across the world and enhancing summertime experiences for residents and visitors alike.”

Today’s action from Council comes on the heels of other announcements related to the renewal of Hastings Park and the PNE including a $10M investment from PacificCan to improve PNE facilities, new multi-colour

Media Contact:, Taylor Verrall Director of Communications, Office of the Mayor

Canada’s far north under heat warnings amid ‘alarming’ rise in record-breaking temperatures

Northern communities in Canada are smashing heat records this July creating concerns about the health of people and wildlife living there not used to such warm weather. Multiple areas in Yukon and the Northwest Territories are facing higher-than-normal temperatures, breaking records that have stood for decades. The warnings stretch as far as Inuvik, N.W.T., which is 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. The heat is reaching parts of Canada with daily tem- peratures usually in the low 20-degree range.

Jesse Wagar, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, told CTVNews.ca four of the five hottest temperatures ever seen in the N.W.T. were recorded in the last eight years.

“This is sort of the poster child for climate change,” Wagar said. “The rate of the warming in the Arctic is just incredible to watch year over year…it is alarming.”

Wagar said over the last 10 years of focusing on northern communities, she’s observed temperatures increasing at an “exponential rate.” Due to temperatures increasing in the Arctic, Wagar said Environment Canada created a new specific heat threshold for Nunavut.“We’ve never had a heat warning program for Nunavut before this year,” she said. “We’ve never seen a requirement for it but we recognized that the trends are there for the heat to increase…it’s just incredible.”

Source: ctvnews.ca/climate

W

OP i N i ON meeting of ruling coalition leaders in Dubai, their focus seemed to be more on who should be in the caretaker government and subsequent power-sharing arrangements between them than the economic problems facing the country. This suggests that the PDM parties still see governance as leveraging the spoils system rather than formulating public policy. their number one concern. In a survey conducted by Ipsos in March, inflation and unemployment were the top public concerns. It would follow from this that many voters will look more closely at which political party can better handle the country’s economic troubles and ease their hardship. Voters are also likely to punish incumbents for their worsening economic plight.

In any case, an IMF programme is necessary but not sufficient for the country to achieve economic recovery and embark on a path of growth. A comprehensive set of home-grown structural reforms are needed for Pakistan to escape from the vicious cycle of high budget and balance-of-payments deficits, slow growth, low savings and investment, excessive borrowing, rising indebtedness and soaring inflation. The cost-of-living crisis fuelled by the unprecedented level of inflation has placed an onerous burden on people. The public’s greatest expectation from their government is that it competently manages the economy to alleviate their plight and provide them with a better economic future.The real test, however, will come once elections are announced, because parties will then have to stake out their positions on economic as well as other issues. Voters will be able to determine whether in fact any party or leader has offered anything like an economic vision and has a strategy to extricate Pakistan from the economic mess it is in. But that doesn’t mean voicing the usual platitudes and clichés that figure so frequently in pronouncements by political leaders. There has been some talk about an ‘economic compact’ among parties, but this amounts to little more than a slogan as no one has cared to spell out what that should entail.

Only a fundamental break from the past can ensure a better economic future for Pakistan.

With the election season around the corner, what are political parties doing to show people they have a serious plan to deal with the country’s economic challenges? So far, very little, if anything. Indeed, if news accounts are correct about a recent

Some would argue that elections in the past have hardly been fought on policy issues and, instead, have been about personalities, traditional loyalties and local, constituency factors. This, of course, is true. But that view overlooks the fact that the ongoing economic crisis has affected people like never before and therefore public expectations may be very different from the past in the intensely fraught economic environment today. Not surprisingly, in successive public opinion surveys, people identify the economy as

Apart from what political parties may have to offer on economic policy, there is also the question of whether the nature of the election outcome will help or hinder efforts at serious economic reform. Present indications are that Pakistan’s era of coalition governments is not about to end. The pattern is likely to persist of a hung parliament with no party able to win an overall majority and form a government on its own. If the past is any guide, a coalition government will find it harder to secure consensus or agreement on tough economic measures, especially as the likely parties in such an arrangement (the two major parties in the present ruling coalition), are status quo parties in the first place, which have demonstrated little commitment to reform. Thus, coalition politics might inhibit the ability of the next government to take decisive actions and launch bold reforms. There are examples of coalition governments elsewhere in the developing world that managed to carry out far-reaching reforms, but it needed strong commitment by key parties to such action — a crucial element missing in our case, as none of the parties can be deemed as reformist.

There is also the strong likelihood of elections producing a regionalised outcome, with different parties forming governments in the four provinces. This reflects the reality of the country being bereft of a truly national party with roots and support in all provinces. Regionalised results in recent general elections also indicate the growing fragmentation of politics. As this trend is also likely to continue, it will magnify the challenge for the federal government to manage such a polity and, more importantly, build inter-provincial consensus on major issues of economic policy and reform.

Of course, before the country goes to the polls, there will be a period of some months when a caretaker government will be in charge. Its main task will be to supervise and preside over the election. But at a time when an ailing economy will need to be carefully managed and delicately handled, leadership on this count will be expected from the interim government. By prior agreement with the major parties, it can also take steps to strengthen and reinforce stabilisation measures to sustain the momentum of economic recovery. There are many unknowns going forward. What is not in doubt is that the government that will emerge from elections, whatever its complexion, will have the responsibility to take the process of economic revival forward. Whether it can live up to that responsibility is an open question. But nothing less than a fundamental break from the past can ensure a better economic future for the country and its citizens.

Courtesy by: Maleeha Lodhi

The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN.

Sweden government condemns ‘islamophobic’ Quran burning

News Coninued from Page 1 can be offensive to Muslims,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday. “We strongly condemn these acts, which in no way reflect the views of the Swedish government,” it added.

The condemnation came in response to a call for collective measures to avoid future Quran destruction from the Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The 57-member body met at its Jeddah headquarters to respond to Wednesday’s incident in which an Iraqi citizen living in Sweden, Salwan Momika, 37, stomped on the holy book and set several pages alight.

‘No place in Sweden’

The OIC urged member states to “take unified and collective measures to prevent the recurrence of incidents of desecration of copies of the Quran”, according to a state-

ment released after the “extraordinary” meeting.s..

“The burning of the Quran, or any other holy text, is an offensive and disrespectful act and a clear provocation. Expressions of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance have no place in Sweden or in Europe,” the Swedish foreign ministry said. At the same time, the ministry added that Sweden has a “constitutionally protected right to freedom of assembly, expression and demonstration”. Countries in- cluding Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco have summoned Swedish ambassadors in protest at the Quran burning incident. Swedish police had granted Momika a permit in line with free speech protections, but authorities later said they had opened an investigation over “agitation against and ethnic group”, noting that Momika had burned pages from the Islamic holy book very close to the mosque.. Source:aljazeera.com

Inalilahe wa Inalilahe rajeon