About 18,000 people remain stranded by flood waters in Canada’s westernmost province, after mudslides destroyed roads, houses, bridges and other key infrastructure in what may be the country’s costliest natural disaster.
Receding floodwaters on Thursday were helping rescue efforts, but the downpour blocked off entire towns in the province of British Columbia (BC) and cut access to the largest Canadian port in Vancouver, disrupting already strained global supply chains.
The flooding comes just months after massive wildfires ravaged several BC communities after a “heat dome” brought record temperatures to the province this summer.
Those blazes may have left hills devoid of vegetation, contributing to the flooding and mudslides, while experts have warned that the climate crisis is making weather events more extreme and frequent.
Bill Blair, Canada’s minister of emergency preparedness, on Thursday said the federal government would assist BC to rebuild and restore critical infrastructure in communities affected by the floods.
Floodwaters and mudslides destroyed roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure in BC [B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure/Handout via Reuters]
“I know that there remains a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety during this very challenging time,” Blair told reporters on Thursday afternoon.
“But I want to assure all Canadians, and in particular to the people of British Columbia, that we will be there to provide support, relief, and we will work collaboratively with all levels of government to ensure that they receive the support and the essential services that they require.”
Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from Abbotsford, a town about 70km (43 miles) east of Vancouver that was hard-hit by the flooding, said a huge amount of uncertainty persists, however.
“Just because the waters are receding doesn’t mean even the roads and bridges and highways are safe,” Rattansi reported. “Because of the amount of water that fell – a month’s rainfall in about two days on Sunday and Monday – and large swathes are still underwater. The economic activity in this area is severely affected.”
Earlier in the day, BC Premier John Horgan, who declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, said the death toll from the flooding, which currently stands at one, is most likely to rise.
Abbotsford officials had raised concerns that the waters would overwhelm the local pumping station and force the evacuation of all 160,000 residents.
“It’s just the worst flooding that I’ve ever seen,” resident Steve Gosselin told the AFP news agency.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from the Sumas Prairie overnight as a pump station risked being overwhelmed by a surge of water carried north from the Nooksack River in the United States, Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said.
Braun said on Thursday there had been no change in the status of the pumping station and that the water was receding “at a pretty good clip (rate)” in some areas – but cautioned the crisis was far from over.
“We continue to move toward the recovery phase of this emergency,” he said during a briefing, while noting that more heavy rain was forecast for next week.
“We are not out of this by a long shot yet,” said Braun, adding he had been promised help by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and many provincial ministers. “I take them all at their word. But I’ve also prepared them for one big bill at the end of this,” he added, estimating it would cost up to $792m to repair local damage.
This strongly suggests the final costs associated with the BC flooding would far exceed the $285m in insured losses linked to wildfires that hit Alberta’s oil-producing region of Fort McMurray in May 2016.
“Easily the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history. Won’t even be close,” tweeted University of Calgary economics professor Blake Shaffer, a specialist in climate policy.
Washout from a previously flooded area is seen near Whatcom Road in Abbotsford, British Columbia on November 18 [Philip McLachlan/AFP]
The disruption to operations at Vancouver’s port is set to exacerbate existing supply chain issues and could even make Christmas trees harder to find, farmers said.
BC Agriculture Minister Lana Popham also said thousands of farm animals have died and many more were in “difficult situations”, trapped and facing shortages of food and drinking water.
Meanwhile, Canada’s military on Thursday joined the rescue efforts, deploying a Hercules transport aircraft, several search helicopters and hundreds of troops to the region, while putting thousands more on standby.
Their activities “will include providing assistance with evacuations, transport of emergency response personnel and equipment, and area reconnaissance”, said military spokesman Alex Roy.
More than 1,000 travellers had been stranded by mudslides, rocks and debris between Sunday and Monday in the town of Hope, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) east of Vancouver.
A search, meanwhile, continues for more possible victims swept away in a mudslide near Lillooet, 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Vancouver, after a woman’s body was recovered this week. Federal police say at least four people are still missing in that mudslide.
CALGARY – MEG Energy says it earned $167 million in its third quarter, down from $249 million during the same quarter last year.
The company says revenues for the quarter were $1.27 billion, down from $1.44 billion during the third quarter of 2023.
Diluted earnings per share were 62 cents, down from 86 cents a year earlier.
MEG Energy says it successfully completed its debt reduction strategy, reducing its net debt to US$478 million by the end of September, down from US$634 million during the prior quarter.
President and CEO Darlene Gates said moving forward all the company’s free cash flow will be returned to shareholders through expanded share buybacks and a quarterly base dividend.
The company says its capital expenditures for the quarter increased to $141 million from $83 million a year earlier, mainly due to higher planned field development activity, as well as moderate capacity growth projects.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
Premier David Eby is proposing an all-party committee investigate mistakes made during the British Columbia election vote tally, including an uncounted ballot box and unreported votes in three-quarters of the province’s 93 ridings.
The proposal comes after B.C.’s chief electoral officer blamed extreme weather, long working hours and a new voting system for human errors behind the mistakes in last month’s count, though none were large enough to change the initial results.
Anton Boegman says the agency is already investigating the mistakes to “identify key lessons learned” to improve training, change processes or make recommendations for legislative change.
He says the uncounted ballot box containing about 861 votes in Prince George-Mackenzie was never lost, and was always securely in the custody of election officials.
Boegman says a failure in five districts to properly report a small number of out-of-district votes, meanwhile, rippled through to the counts in 69 ridings.
Eby says the NDP will propose that a committee examine the systems used and steps taken by Elections BC, then recommend improvements in future elections.
“I look forward to working with all MLAs to uphold our shared commitment to free and fair elections, the foundation of our democracy,” he said in a statement Tuesday, after a news conference by Boegman.
Boegman said if an independent review does occur, “Elections BC will, of course, fully participate in that process.”
He said the mistakes came to light when a “discrepancy” of 14 votes was noticed in the riding of Surrey-Guildford, spurring a review that increased the number of unreported votes there to 28.
Surrey-Guildford was the closest race in the election and the NDP victory there gave Eby a one-seat majority. The discovery reduced the NDP’s victory margin from 27 to 21, pending the outcome of a judicial review that was previously triggered because the race was so close.
The mistakes in Surrey-Guildford resulted in a provincewide audit that found the other errors, Boegman said.
“These mistakes were a result of human error. Our elections rely on the work of over 17,000 election officials from communities across the province,” he said.
“Election officials were working 14 hours or more on voting days and on final voting day in particular faced extremely challenging weather conditions in many parts of the province.
“These conditions likely contributed to these mistakes,” he said.
B.C.’s “vote anywhere” model also played a role in the errors, said Boegman, who said he had issued an order to correct the results in the affected ridings.
Boegman said the uncounted Prince George-Mackenzie ballot box was used on the first day of advance voting. Election officials later discovered a vote hadn’t been tabulated, so they retabulated the ballots but mistakenly omitted the box of first-day votes, only including ballots from the second day.
Boegman said the issues discovered in the provincewide audit will be “fully documented” in his report to the legislature on the provincial election, the first held using electronic tabulators.
He said he was confident election officials found all “anomalies.”
B.C. Conservative Party Leader John Rustad had said on Monday that the errors were “an unprecedented failure by the very institution responsible for ensuring the fairness and accuracy of our elections.”
Rustad said he was not disputing the outcomes as judicial recounts continue, but said “it’s clear that mistakes like these severely undermine public trust in our electoral process.”
Rustad called for an “independent review” to make sure the errors never happen again.
Boegman, who said the election required fewer than half the number of workers under the old paper-based system, said results for the election would be returned in 90 of the province’s 93 ridings on Tuesday.
Full judicial recounts will be held in Surrey-Guildford and Kelowna-Centre, while a partial recount of the uncounted box will take place in Prince George-Mackenzie.
Boegman said out-of-district voting had been a part of B.C.’s elections for many decades, and explained how thousands of voters utilized the province’s vote-by-phone system, calling it a “very secure model” for people with disabilities.
“I think this is a unique and very important part of our elections, providing accessibility to British Columbians,” he said. “They have unparalleled access to the ballot box that is not found in other jurisdictions in Canada.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
WINNIPEG – A public memorial honouring former judge, senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into residential schools, Murray Sinclair, is set to take place in Winnipeg on Sunday.
The event, which is being organized by the federal and Manitoba governments, will be at Canada Life Centre, home of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets.
Sinclair died Monday in a Winnipeg hospital at the age of 73.
A teepee and a sacred fire were set up outside the Manitoba legislature for people to pay their respects hours after news of his death became public. The province has said it will remain open to the public until Sinclair’s funeral.
Sinclair’s family continues to invite people to visit the sacred fire and offer tobacco.
The family thanked the public for sharing words of love and support as tributes poured in this week.
“The significance of Mazina Giizhik’s (the One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky) impact and reach cannot be overstated,” the family said in a statement on Tuesday, noting Sinclair’s traditional Anishinaabe name.
“He touched many lives and impacted thousands of people.”
They encourage the public to celebrate his life and journey home.
A visitation for extended family, friends and community is also scheduled to take place Wednesday morning.
Leaders from across Canada shared their memories of Sinclair.
Premier Wab Kinew called Sinclair one of the key architects of the era of reconciliation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sinclair was a teacher, a guide and a friend who helped the country navigate tough realities.
Sinclair was the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba — the second in Canada.
He served as co-chair of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba to examine whether the justice system was failing Indigenous people after the murder of Helen Betty Osborne and the police shooting death of First Nations leader J.J. Harper.
In leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he participated in hundreds of hearings across Canada and heard testimony from thousands of residential school survivors.
The commissioners released their widely influential final report in 2015, which described what took place at the institutions as cultural genocide and included 94 calls to action.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
