Recovery efforts continue in B.C., October inflation rate : In The News for Nov. 17

Staff Sgt. Janelle Shoihet says the total number of people and vehicles unaccounted for has not been confirmed but investigators say two people are missing.

A search for anyone who may have been buried by two slides is also underway in the Highway 7 area near Agassiz after about 300 people spent the night in their vehicles and were helicoptered to safety on Monday.

Multiple roadways have been closed because of flooding, landslides or washed-out bridges, including sections of Highway 1, Highway 3, Highway 5, Highway 11, Highway 91 and Highway 99.

Late Tuesday, the City of Abbotsford issued an urgent plea for people living in a low-lying area called Sumas Prairie to evacuate immediately to avoid a potential catastrophe.

Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said if the Barrowtown Pump Station fails, water will rise very quickly, posing a significant risk to life.

The City of Merritt says it will likely be more than a week before its 7,000 residents can return home after the entire community was evacuated when the water treatment facility was put out of commission by flooding.

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Also this …

Statistics Canada is scheduled to release October’s inflation rate today, in the shadow of economic warnings that the pace of price growth is likely to accelerate.

The annual inflation rate in September hit an 18-year high when the consumer price index registered a year-over-year increase of 4.4 per cent.

Factors for rising inflation include snarls in supply chains, bumps in prices at the pump and comparisons to lows seen one year earlier.

Many of those issues didn’t dissipate through October, and actually worsened in the case of clogged trade corridors, meaning companies selling goods can’t keep up with consumer demand for their products.

It’s why economists expect today’s inflation report to show that price growth grew further between September and October.

BMO chief economist Douglas Porter says he expects to see the annual inflation rate hit 4.7 per cent in October, which would be the fastest pace since 1991.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

BELLINGHAM, Wash. _ As many parts of Western Washington began drying out Tuesday after a storm that dumped rain for days, waters in some areas continued rising, more people were urged to evacuate and crews worked to restore power and reopen roads.

Officials in the small city of Sumas, Washington, near the Canada border called the flood damage there devastating. Officials said on Facebook Tuesday that hundreds of people had been evacuated and estimated that 75 per cent of homes had water damage.

The soaking reminded people of western Washington’s record, severe flooding in November 1990 when two people died and there were more than 2,000 evacuations, officials said.

Crews partially reopened the West Coast’s main north-south highway, Interstate 5, near Bellingham, Washington, Tuesday following its complete closure overnight because of mudslide debris. The northbound lanes reopened Tuesday evening with transportation officials saying they may need to close a lane for further work later this week.

Additionally, six railroad cars that had been sitting on tracks in a BNSF rail yard in Sumas derailed in the flooding Tuesday, according to Lena Kent, BNSF general director of public affairs. She said trains in that location and others in western Washington won’t be running until water recedes and tracks are inspected and repaired if necessary.

The rains were caused by an atmospheric river _ a huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington and Oregon.

It was the second major widespread flood event in the northwest part of Washington state in less than two years, and climate change is fuelling more powerful and frequent severe weather, Whatcom County officials told the Bellingham Herald.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

SANTIAGO, Chile _ The Chilean Senate late Tuesday rejected an opposition-initiated impeachment process to remove President Sebastian Pinera over allegations that he favoured the sale of a family property that hinged on the government not declaring the land a nature reserve.

The lower house approved the impeachment charges, setting up a trial in the 43-member Senate, where senators voted 24 in favour of removal, 18 against and one abstention. The total in favour was five votes short of the two-thirds support of 29 senators needed to oust the president.

On a second charge accusing Pinera of compromising the nation’s honour, the vote was 22 in favour of removal, 20 against and one abstaining.

After the vote, Chile’s presidency minister, Juan Jose Ossa, described Pinera as “very calm.”

“He values the decision that the Senate has taken,” Ossa said.

The vote came less than a week before the first round of Chile’s election to choose a successor for Pinera, whose term ends March 11.

Chile does not allow presidential reelection to consecutive terms.

Right-leaning Sen. Luz Ebensperger was one who voted against ousting the president. She said it was not enough just to accuse Pinera of something, saying she didn’t see anything “to prove it.”

The accusations against the president arose from publication of the so-called Pandora Papers, which revealed offshore financial dealings of prominent figures around the world, including Pinera, one of Chile’s wealthiest people.

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On this day in 1959 …

The Soviet bloc in the United Nations agreed to the Canadian proposal to study the effect of radiation from atomic explosions.

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In entertainment …

Support poured in online from Indigenous creators across the country when news came out in September about a new scripted comedy show loosely based on the life of Anishinaabe comedian Paul Rabliauskas.

Rabliauskas has been a fixture in Canada’s comedy scene for nearly 15 years. He’s performed at multiple festivals, including the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, Just for Laughs and Oddblock Comedy Festival.

This is the comedian’s first time spearheading his own show, and he says it’s surreal the show was picked up.

The 10-part comedy series titled “Acting Good” was ordered by the CTV Comedy Channel and is being produced by Kistikan Pictures Inc. The series was co-created by Rabliauskas, who is also to star in it, and fellow comedians Amber-Sekowan Daniels, Eric Toth and Pat Thornton.

“Acting Good” follows Rabliauskas’s character as he returns home after a failed attempt at living in a big city.

The comedian spent the first four years of his life living in Poplar River. His parents eventually moved him and his siblings to Winnipeg where they could get more education.

Rabliauskas said he wants Indigenous youth to know there is space for shows depicting their people living everyday lives.

“That was important for me. To have people that look like us, talk like us and sound like us on the show.”

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ICYMI …

A day after she challenged his leadership, Erin O’Toole has kicked Sen. Denise Batters out of the Conservative caucus.

“As the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, I will not tolerate an individual discrediting and showing a clear lack of respect towards the efforts of the entire Conservative caucus, who are holding the corrupt and disastrous Trudeau government to account,” O’Toole said in a brief statement released late Tuesday.

“Just eight weeks ago, Canadians elected Conservatives to hold Justin Trudeau accountable for his economic mismanagement, and fight the cost of living crisis, skyrocketing inflation, and supply chain issues that are crippling businesses. That is our focus as a team.”

Batters has been a Conservative stalwart since she was appointed to the Senate in 2013 by former prime minister Stephen Harper.

But on Monday she launched a petition aimed at forcing a referendum on O’Toole’s leadership within six months, rather than wait for a scheduled leadership confidence vote at the party’s national convention in 2023.

She accused O’Toole of abandoning core Conservative principles in a vain attempt to win over centrist voters in the Sept. 20 federal election. And she predicted he’ll never win back Canadians’ trust after reversing himself on issues from conscience rights to carbon taxes.

Batter signalled in a Twitter post that she has no intention of backing off her petition, even though the party’s president has said it’s invalid.

“Tonight, Erin O’Toole tried to silence me for giving our CPC members a voice. I will not be silenced by a leader so weak that he fired me VIA VOICEMAIL. Most importantly, he cannot suppress the will of our Conservative Party members! Sign the petition,” she tweeted.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2021.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Recovery efforts continue in B.C., October inflation rate : In The News for Nov. 17

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