Castanet

1 day ago | castanetkamloops.net | Kristen Holliday

City of Kamloops transportation staff say Thompson Rivers University students make up half of the city’s transit users — and an expected decline in international enrolment could mean less revenue to support the bus system. During Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting, Kamloops council members approved a gradual increase in transit fees after hearing fares hadn’t increased in 14 years — and low fares made it more difficult to cover operational expenses.

1 day ago | castanetkamloops.net | Kristen Holliday

The Lillooet Hospital and Health Centre emergency room will be closed for a 13-hour period on Wednesday. It’s the latest in a series of closures for the ER, which has now seen five temporary closures over the past week. The emergency room was most recently closed over Sunday night. In a news release, Interior Health said emergency services will be unavailable from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14.

2 days ago | castanetkamloops.net | Kristen Holliday

City of Kamloops staff say a FireSmart program offering incentives for residents to remove hazardous vegetation like junipers and cedars had such a large and immediate uptake, the initiative had to be paused to allow staff to catch up. The community fuel reduction incentive program was launched on April 22, offering local homeowners up to $800 if they signed up for a free FireSmart assessment and agreed to remove hazardous cedar and juniper vegetation near their homes.

2 days ago | castanetkamloops.net | Kristen Holliday

A Kamloops non-profit is among a group of nearly two dozen low-barrier housing providers calling for an immediate weapons ban in supportive housing and a new legislative framework to help manage facilities and protect residents. The B.C. Coalition for Safe and Sustainable Supportive Housing is urging the province to remove supportive housing from the Residential Tenancy Act to create custom legislation factoring in the realities of low-barrier housing facilities.

2 days ago | castanetkamloops.net | Paul Wiseman |Lindsay Whitehurst

President Donald Trump is waging a trade war without getting approval from Congress: He declared a national emergency to slap import taxes — tariffs — on almost every country on earth. The president is now facing at least seven lawsuits that argue he’s gone too far and asserted power he does not have.