Afternoon News Update for April 20, 2020

📷 Aboriginal Health Physician Advisor, Dr. Danièle Behn Smith / Photo via Province of British Columbia (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

NANAIMO —Indigenous and remote and rural communities in BC will get extra resources to help them deliver timely care to those affected by COVID-19. One of the challenges in treating remote residents is quickly getting them to health facilities outside of their communities. To improve travel time, the province will provide 55 new ambulances and five additional air resources for remote communities in BC. It will also provide self-isolation sites near hospitals, along with culturally sensitive delivery of care and increased resources to help indigenous women, facing domestic violence.

The Village of Alert Bay has declared a state of emergency, in reaction to a COVID-19 outbreak. The order includes a 9:30 pm to 6 am curfew and restricts travel to and from Cormorant Island. Last week, Alert Bay's mayor revealed he has COVID-19. Dennis Buchanan suspects he caught it from a traveller. Now, travellers have to prove their travel is necessary. The emergency declaration gives local officials the power to take any steps necessary to ensure compliance.

We will bring you the latest COVID-19 numbers on our 6 pm news update.

Charges are being recommended against a Nanaimo RCMP officer, involved in an incident a year and a half ago. BC's Independent Investigations Office examined actions taken during an arrest and detention on December 2nd, 2018. The woman who was arrested suffered serious injuries. The IIO has found the unidentified officer may have committed offences in the application of force. The IIO has forwarded its report to the BC Prosecution Service, which will decide whether to lay charges. It will decide whether there is a likelihood of conviction and whether a prosecution is in the public interest.

Nanaimo council is meeting at this hour, to re-examine this year's 5.2 per cent property tax increase. A new report says the tax increase could be reduced to 4.5 per cent by lowering costs related to local and regional recreation services and delaying the hiring of RCMP officers. Other scenarios for tax increases of 3.8 per cent or even as low as one per cent propose dipping into the city's reserves. The province has given municipalities the ability to use capital reserves to pay for operating expenses. But, the documents point out if the reserves are used, future tax increases will be higher than estimated.

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Lisa Cordasco

Senior Reporter and News Director — Lisa is responsible for creating the station's first morning news current affairs show on CHLY. She is also deeply involved in training and mentoring student and citizen journalists who volunteer their time at the station. Before joining CHLY, Lisa spent 35 years in various roles at CBC Radio, from host to reporter. Her passion for journalism and radio has led her to Nanaimo, where she intends to provide CHLY listeners with news they can use, in an alternative radio environment. Her other not-so-secret passion is costuming for any occasion.

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