Page 56 - Rob Munro News Today

(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca) April 20, 2021 - 11:35 AM The B.C. Labour Relations Board has squelched an effort by some employees of Kelowna Cabs to decertify the union. This is the latest ruling in the long-standing conflict between the cab company and the union. The dispatchers and call takers have been without a collective agreement since 2019. During bargaining last November, the company issued layoff notices, saying the dispatchers were going to be replaced by an app. The...

April 18, 2021 - 9:00 AM Growing mounds of garbage created by the growing number of people moving into the Okanagan and Thompson regions are prompting cities and regional districts to look at how to better manage organic waster. There are plenty of good examples out there. Salmon Arm is one of the leaders. It started a curbside organic waste collection system in July 2019. Armstrong kicks off its collection system on May 1 and Kamloops is seeking public input before launching ...

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca) April 17, 2021 - 6:30 AM So many B.C. residents are slacking off on their COVID prevention behaviors that the province might be heading for a crisis. “All of us collectively need to reduce our infectious contacts,” Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Thursday, April 15, in a news briefing. “So that’s reducing those indoor contacts where we’re not using masks, where we have poor ventilation, where we’re not keeping our distance...

Image Credit: YOUTUBE/Province of B.C. April 15, 2021 - 2:37 PM The daily count of COVID-19 cases in British Columbia was near record highs in the last 24 hours with another 1,205 new cases recorded. There were 69 new cases in the Interior Health region. Case numbers climbed during and after spring break. “We are starting to see a slight blunting of that in the last week due to the actions we took about 10 days to two weeks ago,” provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry...

April 15, 2021 - 11:00 AM When COVID-19 gets into schools within the Interior Health region, parents get letters from the schools and, if their child may have had contact with the carrier, they will get a call from Interior Health telling them what, if any actions they should take. But don’t bother going to Interior Health’s School Exposures web site to get timely information on what schools are impacted. A parent of a child at Westsyde Elementary School in Kamloops email...

April 15, 2021 - 2:30 PM The Interior Health region has recorded the highest number of new weekly COVID-19 cases this year at 676, up by 215 from the week before. That’s for the week of April 4 to 10, according to new data posted on the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. The region’s largest cities are particularly hard hit. This chart shows the number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in Local Health Areas from April 4 to 10. Image Credit: Submitted/B.C. Centre for Disease Co...

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/BC Government April 15, 2021 - 2:09 PM Studies of COVID-19 cases associated with schools in the Lower Mainland show that children are safer when school is in, says provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. Dr. Henry showed the results of two studies conducted in that area during a news briefing today, April 14. "COVID-19 cases in schools reflects what’s going on in the community around them," she said. "Most of the cases in the school setting were a...

April 15, 2021 - 7:30 AM Two Okanagan cities are on different trajectories to get shared-use e-scooters up and running in their cities. Kelowna and Vernon are two of only six B.C. cities granted the right to launch pilot programs to run the scooters on most city streets over the next three years. “Monday afternoon, we should see at least four operators delivering service,” Matt Worona, Kelowna’s active transportation manager, told iNFOnews.ca April 14. “It’s a tight...

(ROB MUNRO / iNFOnews.ca) April 12, 2021 - 1:10 PM There was a dramatic increase in the number of people travelling around B.C. during spring break this year compared to 2020 when the break fell during the first two weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown. It was the Thompson-Okanagan region that saw the biggest increase with a jump of 79 per cent more visitors this year than in 2020. The province as a whole saw a 56 per cent increase, according to data released by the Thompson Okanaga...

(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca) April 12, 2021 - 7:00 AM After harsh criticism triggered by its past mishandling of sexual assault complaints, Kelownas new top cop is looking to change the culture. In a report going to city council on Monday, April 12, RCMP Supt. Kara Triance, who took command last fall, specifically references a 2020 investigation into the number of sexual assault complaints being ruled as “unfounded.” Even though it turns out that most of those files were l...