CKPG News: August 21, 2024-FireJohnRustad.ca & microchip conspiracies: BC Conservatives face turmoil

[Music] tonight there are calls from the BC conservative party's Old Guard questioning John Rad's leadership plus officials in the Barkerville and whales area are calling for better Forest fuel management after Wildfire scares and a national survey says small businesses are on the upswing compared to last year we speak to local businesses to see how things are [Music] going good evening I'm Eddie H Band and welcome to ckpg news our top story tonight two months out from the provincial election and things are heating up in the race of who will become BC's next government a website has popped up calling for the leader of the conservative party John rustad to be fed and the BC United party is continuing its offensive on Prince George McKenzie Conservative candidate Rachel Weber Adam burls has tonight's top story fire joh rustad doca that is the website that has appeared from quote members of the BC conservative party who are severely concerned by the abandonment of conservative values of the party according to the website it says that rustad will choose whoever it takes to get into Power while abandoning the core principles of the party using former BC United MLA Teresa watt as an example this is uh one of those political activities that I think you see but the real issue here is it appears to have used uh confidential information confidential lists that uh is illegal to do uh so we are compiling all the information that we have and we will be sending it to the appropriate authorities for followup political science instructor Chris Beach says that with the change in leadership the party's Old Guard may be trying to take back some of its power you often do see these kinds of things when there's such a huge movement in terms of support and power and influence uh that uh kind of the old guards of those parties will often uh uh try to take back some power if you will but it's not just internal Party politics that is dominating the conversation social media posts from BC Conservative candidate for Prince George McKenzie Rachel Weber were released to the Press by BC United and that has attracted the attention of Premier David eie I think it would be helpful for him to come out and explain why his candidates uh believe that cell phone towers cause covid-19 and are genocidal weapons and just today another press release from BC United bringing up another social media post from Rachel Weber suggesting that microchips and credit cards are signs of the antichrist's arrival and the impending Rapture as of Wednesday August 21st Rachel Weber is still a candidate with the conservative party of BC Chris Beach says that despite BC United's efforts to hamper Weber's campaign the conservatives have said they they won't bow to cancel culture nothing seems to be stopping this uh rise of the BC conservative party and their support so uh you can't blame BC United for trying they've really got nothing to lose at this point um so uh we'll just have to wait and see just how deep and how how widespread this goes ckpg news has reached out to Rachel Weber for comment but did not receive a response Adam burls CK PG news the Fire season is far from over according to the ministry of Emergency Management Who provided a weekly update today while the cooler weather has helped there are still drought conditions and storms on the horizon and for the northern region of the province weather has been helpful but it's not the end of the story in general I would say we are in a much different place than we were last season going into the fall we have a lot of fire on the landscape however a lot of those fires are much smaller compared to what they were last year and so as we get into what we're now seeing on a of our fires into that mop up phase there may still be a fire that is being held or under control which would have some alerts associated with it potentially but the size of the fires um being much smaller this year really diminishes how much work and effort is needed to bring those fires into full containment and then into an out status and while the BC Wildfire service says the region is not out of the woods on the Wildfire front there are already concerns being raised about ways the season could have incurred in particular the head of Barkerville has some specifics Cheryl Jan has more about concerns regarding Forest fuel management the atler creek fire that forced the evacuations of both Barkerville and Wells was first spotted Southwest of Barkerville on July 20th it was noted early on from local government officials that the conditions with dead wood and tricky terrain made it a challenge to get a handle on that fire a fire at the head of Barkerville called a monster fire it was also Al Richmond who noted that the fuel sources became problematic and that whole Corridor along the highway from Corell to Wells and into bar is lying with dead P it's it's a bomb waiting to go up uh and unfortunately um fuel mitigation wild fire fire smarting the one that work because we can't fire proof anything is an ongoing task and so we have to find a balance as to how we can get money to do more of that He suggests that had there been proper fuel management in the first place the atler Creek Fire would not have taken off to the degree it did that these hundreds of millions of dollars aren't spent on a on a monster fire that was threatening both the commity both Wells and the community Wells and barille and so those are all things that we need to do and prioritizing there's little point in in improving other things in Barkerville if we can't protect the basic infrastructure but the minister of forests says the mountain pine beetle epidemic did a lot of damage to BC forests and efforts were made to address it over the last 20 years the uh harvesting of uh the results of the mountain pine beetle where the trees are rendered Dead uh has been the cut was elevated raised to uh to uh incent and low stumpage to incent The Cutting of a lot of that wood but Richmond says the federal government was quote totally absent unquote also I can tell you right now I'll be very blunt the federal government is completely absent you know they telling that we're a federal government site there is no federal money so maybe it's gone to the feds and saying Mr Prime Minister uh you need to come up with some money so we can do fire mitigation in here and now we need to have a hard look I think Jasper's pointed out to the parks branch and other ones about this this reluctance and how we manage fiber he says he will be knocking on doors in both Victoria and Ottawa in the near future once the Wildfire season is done Cheryl Jan ckpg news Prince George RCMP are asking for the Public's help in finding a wanted man Isaiah Alexander James Hayden is wanted on breach of parole beyond the tattoos you see on his face he also has tattoos on his fingers standing at 5' 11 in weighing 205 pounds RCMP say he is considered dangerous and should not be approached if you do have information please contact Prince George RCMP or crimes Stoppers if you want to remain anonymous Canada's two main Railway companies are just hours away from an unprecedented labor stoppage that will set off a damaging domino effect on the Canadian economy if a deal isn't reached they will be off the job as of 121 a.m. eastern time on Thursday the prime minister is urging both sides to avoid that worst case scenario and has rejected calls from multiple business groups to intervene Freight across the country could be just hours away from a standstill there has been I would say uh some movement but both parties remain uh apart on uh the key issues the union representing over 9,000 employees from both CN and CP Railways still can't agree on scheduling issues safety concerns and a forced relocation plan proposed by CN making it increasingly likely Canada could be headed for a major economic shutdown at 12:01 Thursday morning it is totally unacceptable for us as a country to sabotage ourselves right now sabotage that the federal government could stop the railroads have asked the R to force all parties into binding arbitration some of the labor Minister has rejected Back To Work legislation also an option but the Prime Minister seems reluctant to use either Choice it is in the best interest of both sides to continue doing the hard work at the table to find a negotiated resolution that scenario seems unlikely at this point we have proposed to increase the predictability and scheduling for employees but the union hasn't wanted to engage with us on any of those points that is a lie uh that is indicative of the type of attitude this company has had since the very beginning if a last second deal can't be reached over a billion dollars worth of goods a day would be stuck including food jet fuel Auto Parts and potentially the most concerning shortage chlorine used to disinfect drinking water and moved almost exclusively by rail if this disruption were to last for more than a few weeks um it could lead to things like you know like um water restrictions well rail stoppages have happened before Donna CN and CP have never both shut down at the same time making Thursday's potential stoppage the first of its kind in over a hundred years and uh we bringing Adam burs now to discuss this looming strike which could have some very very bad implications for the economy um Adam we'll start here let's let's look at the local sort of angle what's the local reaction to the strike right so um first thing I want to mention is the Prince George Chamber of Commerce has released a letter um urging um rapid action on the looming rail strike part particularly writing to the federal government they signed a joint letter to the Prime Minister from a bunch of various business groups across the province to uh really find find a solution um because as we just saw in those two previous stories this strike could have potential impacts on a whole number of Industries too many that I can't even name right now um this this chamber also wrote wrote a letter to the Canada industrial Relations Board back in May explaining essentially how key of our terminal our Intermodal CN terminal here in Prince George is to moving Goods across BC but also across the north so to have the chamber come out and say yeah we need action we need action now and we need action fast is a pretty significant step and in the letter you know they're they're not taking sides per se but they are saying you know they respect the right to collective bargaining but it's not about siding with the party but it's about coming to a solution and standing up for the welfare of Prince George in particular and the people who work here very troubling um how much of an in of an impact excuse me he going to have on our forestry industry right so we look at the forestry industry I mean a lot of stuff gets shipped out through the port of Vancouver and also the port of Prince rert so when when we saw yesterday a story that Cheryl Jan did talking a bit about you know shipping companies not deciding to come to Vancouver not coming to Prince rubert until the strike is resolved that could have billions of dollars of impacts into the local economy in 2023 alone BC forest product exports were worth 11 billion big money um that's going to hurt if that if if if the strike even takes place and services are interrupted even for a day two days that ripple effect is going to be felt right across the entire economy particularly the forestry industry which is already hard hit in BC enough with Mill closures and you know curtailments now we're not going to be able to get our product to Market that's going to be an even bigger hit to companies and to the people working in those jobs getting the trees down and physically driving them to Market it's going to be a tough one if this goes through yeah absolutely it will uh we will continue to follow this uh developing story as it continues to develop um hopefully they can get something done but we will see 24 hours Adam Bros yeah thank you very much for that in other news a new survey says close to 60% of small business owners across the country are doing better this year compared to the first half of 2023 and several Prince George businesses have certainly enjoyed the Boost Tommy Osborne spoke to a couple small business owners around town and brings us more business has been booming for small businesses across Canada according to a survey run by insurance.com with 1,000 small business owners 58.5% of small businesses say 2024 has been better compared to the first half of 2023 and many in Prince George are certainly feeling the Boost our revenue is up anywhere between 28 to 33% depending on the month so we are seeing a definit increase Kenny says the slowing rate of inflation alongside dropping interest rates means people have more disposable income to spend which is key for businesses specializing in luxury Services wellness and personal care that tends to be the first thing that uh gets neglected so to speak I'm finding gift cards sizes are going up we're finding people are um not just giving smaller amounts but larger amounts creating gift card packages for loved ones Beyond wellness and health services like saspa more disposable income has also meant other sectors like restaurants have seen great business too we're not even a year old yet we're we're still about a month out from that um but I mean we we've been in a steady kind of growth pattern uh yeah so I mean would is 24 doing great for us absolutely even though Wall of Fame hasn't even hit its one-year anniversary yet RIT says business this year has been so strong that he's planning to expand already the support's been amazing I mean um I do think this type of business or or restaurant mind you is is a little bit underserviced in our downtown core so I mean we we fill a bit of a gap in the market that uh it's gone great for us when local businesses flourish the entire Community follows suit beyond the creation of new jobs when a new business like Wall of Fame expands Kenny added s La Spa has been able to hire more people as well we were able to actually give a wage increase to our staff which I'm quite proud of this summer with the increase in revenue for us we've just been able to turn that around and and give raises uh and make the living wage in Prince George and go beyond that the Insurance's survey also revealed onethird of small businesses are planning on hiring thanks to continued strong support Tommy Osborne ckpg news the noox performance center will be hosting a unique show this coming Tuesday the show was called lesbi onist and it's being touted as a hilarious and sentimental show about a young woman's Journey coming out Laura pichini hails from Toronto and reached out to the Knox performance folks about the Western tour a KN the Knox performance center is located in the same building as the Trinity United Church which has undergone a change in ideology a few years ago we took the um somewhat atypical step of becoming an official affirming Ministry uh within the United Church of Canada so that was a year-long program of self-study and education and discernment around whether or not we wanted to formally become a space where we said that folks of different orientations expressions and identities were all welcome and all considered part of of God's wonderful creation we said yes to that and then it kind of led us to a further step of saying that we wanted to officially be an anti-racist uh Community not just non-racist but anti- uh racist and so the two kind of work together for us the lowest gas price in Prince George as of this morning was sitting at $1 63.9 cents per liter at Costco the lowest price in the province is in Mission at $155 .9 per liter Manitoba has the lowest fuel prices on average in Canada at $1 144.350 per [Music] liter ckpg Sports is delivered by dominoes join the Domino's lunch club with 25% off all regular pric pizzas every day visit dominoes.com just days away from the start of a new season the UNBC Timberwolves men's soccer team is adding a new local player to the roster kayen young a graduate of the Prince George Youth Soccer Academy has committed to the tea wolves for the season and Beyond he believes his pace and vision is one of his best strengths and is excited to add to his skill set to a young UNBC Corp looking to utilize its speed and youth to its Advantage young adds that as a local product he's looking forward to playing for the team he grew up watching and he can't wait to hit the pitch this has always been a dream mine I grew up watching the timber wolves I grew up training with some of them like Fran used to coach me all the time a whole bunch of like the legends playing against them in men's league is always this has always been a dream the reason I chose UNBC is cuz I love Steve the guys that grown up playing with most of them already so just kind of felt nice to be back with them we already have a connection and Steve's been great with me he's always been welcoming I love the facilities here and it's I Liv close to home just so I get stay home with my family it's cheap it's nice everything I've kind of dreamed for as a kid good evening again we are looking at fog developing overnight but as we take you back from earlier today on our satellite and all the way uh back to about 11:00 a.m. and yeah it was uh pretty cloudy out there for the most part and of course looking at the chances of showers kind of plaguing most of the region on and off we are looking at a better trend for the next couple of days we do have some fog coming in tonight though so tomorrow morning we will wake up with some foggy patches or we could be waking up in most areas with fog patches dissipating though as the morning goes on and some nice Sunshine returning so future cast looks pretty good until about Friday night maybe Saturday where we could see another system coming through but we'll keep an eye on that so A nice bright one for us tomorrow 23 are high it'll be a better temperature range tomorrow as well was a bit cool across the region today 25 in Fort St Jame mainly Sun Sunshine Fort St John Rather mainly Sunshine 29 down through cam loops mix of sun and Cloud there and looking at a warmer trend for the next few days ahead South Coast at least the southern half of Vancouver Island Victoria 17 degrees so still dealing with some rain falling for tomorrow but otherwise we should be brightening up pretty much everywhere so our broadcast region looks pretty good 23 Burns Lake Vander hoof Fort St James and yes lots of sunshine everywhere you go warmer down through quinel and McBride 23 in Edmonton Sunshine there lots of Sunny sky and Regina and a break from any of the showers and risks of thunderstorm as that's now moved a little bit more East and you can see into Winnipeg that's where we have some of that instability now 18 Montreal warmer down through Toronto Halifax looking good as well with sunshine and 23 jumping ahead to the weekend we are looking at a system that may be moving in on Saturday so we'll keep an eye on the timing of that but otherwise it looks to be a pretty Pleasant one for the most part four overnight tonight though Burns Lake very chilly tonight up to 23 tomorrow you've got lots of sunshine for the next few days maybe a bit more cloud cover on Friday Friday and then yes for the weekend at least part of it looks pretty nice out there 6 tonight in McKenzie 23 tomorrow partly sunny skies really nice out there for uh the next several days ahead we can see a bit of a drop in temperatures gradually and then a re jump down though come Sunday at 16 Dees so we are going to be moving into a cooler Trend as we get into the later half of the weekend and early next week in some areas and that will be for many places right across most of our region six overnight tonight patchy clouds in McBride you're up to 26 though tomorrow really nice and warm tomorrow sunshine on Friday we'll see a little more cloud cover here and there on Saturday with some rain that we're tracking so that's that system that may be impacting certain areas of our region on Saturday and a jump down in temperatures or a drop down 18 Dees 22 degrees on Sunday though and again we're kind of as you can see the temperatures going down after the weekend and into early next week where it could be a cooler Trend 8 overnight tonight uh in quell you're up to 255 for the next couple of days though some sunshine anticipated for the most part and for us as well a pretty good looking forecast after uh tonight 23 for our high tomorrow we're up to 24 on on Friday and then a gradual drop in temperatures as the days go on Saturday Sunday but yes we will uh look at mostly Sunshine for the weekend although tracking a system that may be impacting some parts of the region on Saturday as we mentioned earlier the TSX is up 84 points to close at 23,123 the Dow Jones is up 56 points to close at 4,890 and CN rail went up 18 cents to close at $1 15528 ckpg Sports is delivered by dominoes join the Domino's lunch club with 25% off all regular pric pizzas every day visit dominoes.com tonight's ckp 3 is showcasing the best of yesterday's MLB action which saw the prolific Yankees Duo continue to impress and the fastest fast ball of the [Music] season starting off with back-to-back home runs driven to right field going back Noel on the track he leaps see you a short porch job it's one nothing Ys highfly ball great Center Field San back he's on the track he's at the wall see you backto back Soo and judge ju Soto and Aaron judge continu to be mustat TV for Baseball fans arguably the best one-w hitting duel in the league Soto and judge continue their hot streak as judge as to his League leading home runs with his 45th on the season next up blazing pitches swing and a miss strike three say good night to the Royal Ben Joyce goes with straight power Ben Joyce takes down Bobby wh Jr with an insane sequence throwing three straight fast balls that eclipsed 104 mph those were the fastest pitches of the Season as Joyce opts to go purely for power and win the game with ridiculous speed finally the most confusing home run of the day 62 a drive to right center field robl on the Run he's at the track he Lees it is still up against the wall they're saying home run the ball is on the warning track I think everybody's confused seems like no one knew what was happening here and who can blame them while it did clear the fence somehow the ball actually snuck back out onto the field certainly a bizarre home run that Gavin Lux won't be forgetting soon in tonight's ckp 3 all right folks that's all for tonight thanks so much for joining us as always and we will see you tomorrow have a wonderful evening [Music] [Applause] [Music]