Fire risk reduced in local watersheds
Tree-thinning is underway to reduce the risk of wildfire in four major Central and North Okanagan watersheds.
The projects, worth almost $700,000, were funded by the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C.
Wildfires in watersheds pose particular risks because of their potential to damage crucial infrastructure and contaminate drinking water supplies.
Tree-thinning and brush clean-up is taking place near Beaver Lake in Lake Country, Postill Lake east of Kelowna, near Blue Nose trail in the North Okanagan, and around
Schram Creek in the Black Mountain area.
“These four significant watersheds provide both drinking water and irrigation water for local communities,” Dave Conly of FESBC said in a release. “We deployed funding to do our best to protect the watersheds from extensive damage which could potentially result from wlldfires.”
VICTORIA — The CEO of the Royal B.C. Museum announced to staff Tuesday he is resigning, two months after a consultant deemed the institution a “dysfunctional and toxic workplace, characterized by a culture of fear and distrust.”
Jack Lohman, hired in 2012, wrote in an email to staff that the museum needs “new energy and fresh leadership.” He said his resignation is a joint decision with the museum’s board.
In a statement, the museum said the board of directors and Lohman discussed how to address “current internal issues” and agreed his departure would be in the best interests of the organization.
“It will be hard walking out the door as I care so very deeply about the museum and about making it forever better,” Lohman wrote in his email.
The museum is the subject of a months-long investigation after the former head of the Indigenous collections and repatriation department resigned in July, citing a culture of racism and discrimination.
In a July 24 farewell speech, Lucy Bell, a member of the Haida Nation, called out colleagues and executives, listing examples of racist comments directed at her during her time at the museum.
“It’s also outright discrimination, white privilege, bullying and micro-aggressions happening here, that happen every day,” she wrote in her speech. Bell said Lohman’s resignation is bittersweet. “I am sad that it had to come to this. I watched the RBCM board being cautious and thoughtful, and I know they have taken my concerns seriously and that their recent decisions must have been hard to make. I hope to see more positive changes in the museum and heritage field,” she said in an email.
The museum responded to the concerns Bell raised in July by initiating a B.C. Public Service Agency investigation and hiring diversity and inclusion consultant Alden Habacon, who conducted a survey of staff and volunteers in September focused on “inclusion and psychological health and safety.”
An analysis of 221 responses, representing about 73 per cent of staff and 14 per cent of volunteers, was presented to staff in early December.
In slides shown to staff, two themes were identified: poor leadership and management, and “individual and structural discrimination” and tokenism.
Sixty-four comments indicated staff had experienced bullying and abuse from management, and 18 responses called Lohman “an ineffective, indifferent, and elitist leader.”
Thirty-six people also indicated they did not trust management or human resources.
In the survey, 65 people said they see the museum as a ”racist, anti-Indigenous and colonial space,” and 28 people called it a sexist space for women.
Stephanie Smith, president of the British Columbia Government and Service Employees’ Union, said the union stands behind its members in fighting for a workplace free of discrimination. “We’re really hoping that these senior leadership changes lead to the changes that our members have been calling for, which is a safe, healthy, inclusive worksite,” she said.
TORONTO — The soaring rate of new COVID19 infections has moderated substantially across the country in recent weeks because of anti-pandemic restrictions, health authorities said, as they warned against complacency.
Lockdowns and other measures appear to have had a significant effect in curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus, and they need to stay in place, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in its latest summary.
“We are observing a steady decline in COVID19 activity,” the agency said. “With still-elevated daily case counts, the risk remains that trends could reverse quickly.”
To date, Canada has seen more than 810,000 cases, with deaths approaching 21,000. The agency also noted the emergence of new variants of concern, with eight provinces having found new strains.
Despite the slower rise in case numbers, the financial costs of the pandemic remain steep.
Ontario, which has seen an almost 70 per cent plunge in new daily cases in the past month, also said it’s one-time pandemic spending had reached $13.3 billion.
The money, from Ottawa, is going to support small business, hospitals and nursing homes, the province said in its third-quarter fiscal update, which also projected a $38.5-billion deficit this year.
“These deficits are not sustainable,” Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said.
The province also said it had now set aside $3.9 billion for further pandemic-related spending.
The severity of the pandemic was brought into sharp relief by a new study reported on Wednesday that COVID-19 is 3.5 times more deadly than influenza. The study, which looked at hospitalizations for the flu between November 2019 and June 2020 in seven large Canadian hospitals, also found COVID patients needed more intensive care treatment and stayed in hospital longer than those with influenza.
“We can now say definitively that COVID-19 is much more severe than seasonal influenza,” said Dr. Amol Verma, of St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto.
With so many hopes riding on vaccinating our way out of the pandemic, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that India would try to help Canada get doses.
“Assured him that India would do its best to facilitate supplies of COVID vaccines sought by Canada,” Modi tweeted.
Trudeau has only said the two countries were
working together against COVID-19.
The pandemic has caused more angst in Newfoundland and Labrador, where an outbreak in the St. John’s region erupted in the middle of an election campaign. In the past two days, health officials reported 41 new cases of COVID-19 in the eastern health region, which includes the capital.
The provincial opposition has attacked incumbent Liberal Premier Andrew Furey for calling the vote amidst the pandemic. In response, Furey said on Wednesday that other, harder-hit provinces had voted safely during the health crisis.
“We’ve seen it in other jurisdictions with a higher burden of the disease,” Furey said.
The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District said it was suspending in-class instruction for all kindergarten to Grade 12 schools in the St. John’s metro area until Feb. 26.
Despite the overall declines, Ontario still reported 1,072 new infections and 41 more deaths on Wednesday, while Quebec recorded 989 new infections and 34 deaths.
The slower growth of infections prompted Ontario to end a state of emergency and lift restrictions in three regions on Wednesday. The change ended stay-at-home orders and allowed restaurants and non-essential businesses to open their doors.
Remaining Ontario regions — with the exception of the Greater Toronto Area — were similarly set to ease lockdown measures next week. Toronto, Peel Region and York Region could follow suit on Feb. 22 depending on their situations at the time.
“Canadians are urged to remain vigilant and to continue following local public health advice as well as consistently maintaining individual practices that keep us and our families safer,” Canada’s public health agency said.
WASHINGTON — The searing images once again claimed centre stage: a mob storming the U.S. Capitol, Trump flags held aloft as violent rioters fought with police and targeted lawmakers.
But as the traumatic video footage from Jan. 6 grips viewers of the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, there is one place where, publicly, the trial is being studiously ignored: the White House.
President Joe Biden stressed to reporters in advance that he would not be watching the proceedings and his team’s message is clear: Their focus is on the business of governing and not the historic events unfolding at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki has dodged question after question about the trial, declining to offer Biden’s opinion on the proceedings. And Biden’s calendar this week is meant as counterprogramming to the trial: events focused on getting aid to those suffering amid the COVID-19 pandemic and bolstering vaccine distribution to control the virus.
The message discipline reflects both the political and practical realities of the moment for the president.
Privately, White House aides note that the president would gain little politically from weighing in on the trial and that any comment he makes would draw the focus away from his predecessor’s misconduct and onto Biden’s own views.
And they say that, on a practical level, staying above the fray allows Biden to focus on his COVID-19 relief package and remain on cordial terms with Republicans as he tries to steer the $1.9 trillion bill through Congress.
“Presidents have their peak political capital immediately after they’re elected, and they need to decide what to spend it on. Containing COVID is President Biden’s No. 1 priority, so I don’t think it’s a surprise that that’s where the focus has been and will remain until that package has passed,” said former Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt.
LaBolt also noted that if Democrats’ ultimate goal is to win GOP support for indicting the president, it’s unlikely that “having President Biden out there continuing to make statements about impeachment would serve that effort.”
Among some Biden aides, there is a sense that the president will need to weigh in at the end of the trial, particularly if an expected acquittal prompts Trump to break his silence and further inflame a deeply divided nation.
For now, however, the White House’s public approach to the proceedings has been: Impeachment? What impeachment?
“I am not,” Biden said when asked if he would be watching the trial. “Look, I told you before: I tell people that I have a job . ... The Senate has their job and they are about to begin it, and I am sure they are going to conduct themselves well. And that’s all I am going to have to say about impeachment.”
Psaki at times has all but twisted herself in knots at the White House podium to dodge saying much of anything about the trial, simply referring to Biden’s previous condemnations of the Jan. 6 riot and past criticisms of Trump.
“Joe Biden is the president. He’s not a pundit. He’s not going to opine on back-and-forth arguments, nor is he watching them,” she said Tuesday.
On Wednesday, she insisted that Biden would “not be a commentator” and would instead focus on jump-starting the vaccination program and getting his COVID-19 relief bill through Congress.
Biden’s schedule this week echoes that message.
He met with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and business leaders on Tuesday to push for his economic recovery package. On Wednesday, he announced sanctions on Myanmar’s military regime in the wake of the coup there and then visited the Pentagon.
Today, he planned a trip to the National Institutes of Health to discuss the nation’s vaccination program.