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Bob Mackin

One-hundred years ago today, the South Coast of British Columbia experienced the kind of weather that would not happen again until June 2021.

An unusual heat wave during the long days just after the summer solstice, with little relief during the short, hot nights.

“Whole Coast is Gasping For Air” screamed the Vancouver Province front page headline on June 25, 1925.

Fire in Rapid Creek area. Photo taken from downtown Vancouver in 1925 (L. Frank photo; courtesy Vancouver Public Library, cat. No. 5997).

The hottest day of that year, 29.4 degrees Celsius by noon. Vancouver beaches “began to resemble the sacred watering places of India, so great was the crowd seeking relief.”

Ishmael Aeli, a 40-year-old, collapsed in front of his home on East Hastings near Abbott. He was in serious condition.

“Hot weather passed the joke stage today,” the Province reported.

Vancouver was not alone. Medford, Ore. reached 42.6 degrees Celsius. Aberdeen, Wash. 37.7 degrees. A day earlier, Portland was 37.2.

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Even B.C.’s capital Victoria was sweltering. The Daily Colonist newspaper reported that it experienced bright sunshine on average 15 hours per day for three days and the thermometer hit 31 degrees at the Gonzales Observatory on June 24, 1925.

“The warmest day in June since the records were kept here, covering the long period of 51 years, was reported here yesterday,” according to the Colonist.

Conditions were ripe for wildfires.

On the June 26, 1925 front page, “Fire Wipes Out West Coast Indian Village of Clayoquot.”

Twenty-three houses and the Roman Catholic Mission Church burned. No mention of lives lost or injuries in the telegram.

A bigger, more consequential fire on Vancouver’s North Shore, near what is today Capilano Lake.

“Two bridges, one donkey engine, more than 1,000 acres of logged off lands and about 300,000 feet of merchandisable timber on the outskirts of timberlands went up in flames [June 25] when fire starting this afternoon, three miles above the Capilano intake spread rapidly to the surrounding country.”

Officials of the Capilano Logging Company said they brought it under control. But that was only temporary.

The Rapid Creek Fire, as it came to be known, burned through the summer. Protecting the watershed became a primary focus of the 1924-formed Greater Vancouver Water District and its 1926-hired Commissioner Ernest Cleveland.

Fast forward to 2021, when 619 people died of heat-related illness between June 25-July 1, according to the B.C. Coroners Service. The deadliest natural disaster in Canadian history.

It reached 38 Celsius with humidex in Abbotsford on the first day, 40 Celsius in Victoria on June 28 and an all-time Canadian record 49.6 Celsius in Lytton on June 29, 2021.

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Bob Mackin One-hundred years ago today, the South

Bob Mackin

The cost of hosting FIFA World Cup 26 in Vancouver has increased again — up to 140% higher than the original 2022 estimate.

In April 2024, the B.C. NDP government estimated it would cost $483 million to $581 million to stage seven matches at B.C. Place Stadium and a Fan Festival at the PNE in June and July of 2026. Vancouver will also host the 76th FIFA Congress in April 2026.

FIFA World Cup 26 countdown clock unveiling in Vancouver on June 11, 2025 (Mackin)

In a background report linked to a June 24 tourism ministry news release, the NDP government said the new estimate is $532 million to $624 million. That includes direct costs of $261 million to $281 million to City of Vancouver, but not the $135 million to build the Freedom Mobile Arch amphitheatre at the PNE.

Further increases are possible, according to the five-page, cost update background report.

“Updates to hosting requirements, confirmation of which teams will play here, finalizing the FIFA Fan Festival and updating safety and security plans will help to further refine the gross core cost estimate range,” said the report, which does not contain an author’s name. “Gross core cost estimates have assumed a general inflation rate of 3% per year for operating costs and 6% per year for capital costs. In addition, the gross core cost estimate includes contingency allocations of up to 25% for operating and capital costs to account for normal risks.”

The province says there are $145 million in contingencies built-in and it assumes raising $250 million to $260 million in a 2.5% City of Vancouver hotel room tax through 2030.

When Vancouver was named one of 16 FIFA host cities in 2022, the province estimated the cost total $240 million to $260 million.

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Now, the province estimates that, after revenues and recoveries, the net cost could be $85 million to $145 million. But that is also subject to change, due to inflation, supply chains and less-than-expected revenue from the host city commercial program, which offers local sponsorship packages beginning at $195,000.

There is another, big question mark.

The province and City of Vancouver need more from the federal government than the $116 million already promised. Public Safety Canada has refused to disclose to theBreaker.news its budget for World Cup safety and security and other federal services in Vancouver and Toronto.

“The province and its partners anticipate that the federal government will be a full partner in helping to manage and fund extraordinary risks that materialize for the FIFA World Cup 26 event, such as potential global economic downturns, natural disasters like fires and floods and increasing threat levels from rising geopolitical tensions,” the backgrounder says.

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Bob Mackin The cost of hosting FIFA World

Bob Mackin

An embarrassing situation for the Surrey Police Service (SPS).

A photograph circulating online appears to show one of the force’s marked sport utility vehicles in a ditch — displaying the “safer, stronger, together” slogan — with a Surrey Fire Service truck in the background.

Surrey Police Service SUV in a Newton ditch.

Sgt. Tige Pollock, the force’s public information officer, confirmed it is legitimate. No officers or citizens were injured when the SUV wound up in a Newton ditch on June 23.

“The incident occurred yesterday at approximately 11:25 a.m. near King George Boulevard and Hall Road,” Pollock said by email. “Officers were responding to assist RCMP Surrey Provincial Operations Support Unit members with an investigation.”

Damage to the vehicle is unknown at this time, Pollock said.

The incident happened, coincidentally, while the SPS is in the market for 11 Chevrolet Police Tahoes, two Chevrolet Police Silverados and “supplier(s) to provide a variety of SUVs and vans for its fleet.”

Deadline for bids is July 10.

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Bob Mackin An embarrassing situation for the Surrey

Bob Mackin

In a new B.C. Supreme Court filing, Elections BC admits its vote-by-mail team erred in the Surrey-Guildford riding, where NDP candidate Garry Begg won by 22 votes on a judicial recount.

But it says the Conservative Party of B.C. runner-up, Honveer Singh Randhawa, filed a petition to invalidate the result more than a month after the deadline.

Premier David Eby named Begg solicitor general after the recount gave the NDP a slim 47-seat majority in the 93-seat Legislature. Randhawa held a 103-vote edge on election night, but wants the result invalidated and a by-election ordered due to irregularities.

John Rustad (left) and Honveer Singh Randhawa (IG)

In a June 19 response, Elections BC chief Anton Boegman and returning officer Rana Malhi said mail-in voting packages for 22 voters were requested Oct. 4 and 7, 2024, with a common email address and phone number. Each requested package used the last six digits of a social insurance number as the voter’s unique identifier.

Elections BC had decided before the election to permit an individual to assist more than one voter with a mail-in package, provided the individual was appointed as an election official under the Election Act.

“Upon receiving these requests, the [three-member] vote by mail team noticed the pattern of multiple requests originating from a single source and session; however, the team also noted that the requests came from a care facility with resident individuals,” said the court filing.

“The vote by mail team decided to fulfill the requests from (censored) to ensure the voters received their mail-in voting packages on time. However, the team failed to follow-up with the district electoral officer, Ms. Malhi, to confirm that an individual at (censored) was appointed as an election official.”

Elections BC said all 22 certification envelopes were signed, but three were not counted as they did not meet certain requirements for counting. It also said no individual was identified as assisting a voter on any of the 22 packages.

Elections BC said that Randhawa should have filed his petition no later than Dec. 12, a month after the writ for the riding was returned and the result declared official.

“This admission sharply contrasts Elections BC’s public narrative,” said Randhawa’s lawyer, Sunny Uppal. “In their 2024 provincial election report, Elections BC repeatedly praised the security of mail-in ballots and their successful administration of B.C.’s 2024 provincial election, while also accusing Mr. Randhawa and the Conservative Party of spreading misinformation. At no point in their 2024 provincial election report, did Elections BC disclose their now admitted error.”.

In a June 18 decision, ahead of a hearing to decide Randhawa’s petition, Justice Barbara Norell ruled that identities of voters be redacted from the court documents and replaced with an agreed number, such as Voter 1, and that any names be banned from publication.

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Bob Mackin In a new B.C. Supreme Court

Bob Mackin

Construction of the 10,000-seat Freedom Mobile Arch at the PNE has surpassed the halfway mark with less than a year until its scheduled opening.

PNE President Shelley Frost said on June 20 that the $135 million-budgeted concert venue is on track for completion in May 2026, in time to be the centrepiece of Vancouver’s FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE.

The original price tag was supposed to be $65 million.

“Like you are hearing everywhere, this is a challenging construction cost time, but we are still looking to be on track, and on track with time,” Frost told theBreaker.news. “We do still have some pieces that need to be tendered and so we’ll know the final cost once those final pieces are tendered.”

Frost’s name appeared in the B.C. Registry of Lobbyists in April, targeting the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport — the ministry leading provincial preparations for FIFA World Cup 26 — in search of general program and project funding.

“We’re just putting a more formalized structure in place where we can have some conversations about how to bring all three levels of government to the table to help support an incredible venue,” Frost said.

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Frost said she is seeking both capital funding and support for major events and festivals, at a time when U.S. tariffs are affecting construction material prices.

“Those are the kinds of things that are always on our mind. But anything that we can do to reduce the load on the PNE, in terms of the amount that needs to be paid back [to city hall], is just helpful for us, to be able to start investing into other parts of the site,” Frost said.

The vast, wooden roof of the Freedom Mobile Arch will be longer than the 2008-opened Richmond Olympic Oval. The latter used lumber from pine beetle-killed B.C. interior forests. Meanwhile, for the Arch, Frost said “a lot of it is coming from Quebec, but it is all-Canadian wood.”

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Bob Mackin Construction of the 10,000-seat Freedom Mobile

For the week of June 22, 2025: For two days last week, legal experts from across Canada, U.S., U.K. and Ireland discussed ways and means of taking away ill-gotten gains from criminals. 

Kim Campbell, Canada’s first female attorney general and defence minister, chaired the Vancouver Anti-Corruption Institute’s 2025 conference on asset forfeiture. She became the country’s first and only female Prime Minister in 1993. 

In the closing address of the two-day conference, Campbell sounded the alarm about the rule of law and privacy under Donald Trump’s second presidency. On this edition of thePodcast, hear Campbell’s full speech. 

As usual, Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and the Virtual Nanaimo Bar.

CLICK BELOW to listen or watch. Or go to TuneIn, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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For the week of June 22, 2025:

Bob Mackin

Vancouver city hall rubber-stamped the renaming of Trutch Street on June 17 after keeping the program secret for years.

In September 2022, the Musqueam Indian Band proposed a new name for the street, from the surname of B.C.’s controversial first lieutenant-governor to “šxʷməθkʷəy ̓ əmasəm,” or Musqueamview Street. It held a ceremony with then-Mayor Kennedy Stewart.

Design for the new signs replacing Trutch Street in Vancouver (Pete Fry/City of Vancouver)

When theBreaker.news sought an update almost a year later, and with Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC party in power, bureaucrats at 12th and Cambie demanded payment of $270 for briefing notes and reports about the feasibility, logistics and cost/benefit analysis for renaming. theBreaker.news wanted to know about changing the signs, changing the name on maps and in databases for Canada Post, ICBC and BC Hydro.

Kevin Tuerlings in the information and privacy office claimed it would take 12 hours to search, compile and process the records. He suggested in a Sept. 16, 2023 letter to narrow the request to feasibility, logistics and cost/benefit analysis,” because records held by Engineering Strategy and Standards could be found within three hours.

theBreaker.news agreed. But, on Dec. 5, 2023, city hall opted to withhold all responsive records.

A letter said the city feared disclosure could harm intergovernmental relations or Indigenous self-governance or treaty negotiations. It also feared release of the information could cause “damage to or interfere with the conservation of fossil sites, natural sites, valuable anthropological or heritage sites, or endangered, threatened, vulnerable or rare living resources.”

The renaming of Trutch Street was communicated to the public as an act of reconciliation and the signs are created by the city’s sign shop of synthetic material.

After City of Victoria decided to rename its Trutch Street as “Su’it Street,” Victoria city hall disclosed records, showing $3,124 in costs to change the name, including $900 in payments to three local First Nations members for attending the 2022 renaming ceremony.

Vancouver’s sign shop was already printing signs the weekend before the council vote and an unveiling ceremony was already scheduled for June 20, the day before National Indigenous Peoples Day.

Prior to Sir Joseph William Trutch representing Queen Victoria in B.C. from 1871 1876, he was the B.C. land commissioner who reduced the size of Indian reserves.

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Bob Mackin Vancouver city hall rubber-stamped the renaming

Bob Mackin

The People’s Republic of China, which is “intently focused on ensuring the survival of the Chinese Communist Party,” is Canada’s biggest counter-intelligence threat, according to a June 18-published report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

Vladimir Putin (left) and Xi Jinping during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics (PRC)

It says China has targeted all levels of government, Canadian citizens and Chinese communities, via the United Front Work Department, its primary foreign interference arm. CSIS said China is involved in recruiting people to spy on Canadians, while employing “deceptive and clandestine means” to influence policy-making, non-governmental organizations, media and academia. Its goal is to further China’s interests, hide the CCP’s intentions and weaken Canada’s democracy and institutions.

“The PRC largely targets those it sees as posing a threat to CCP rule, such as human rights activists, political dissidents, journalists, and members of religious and ethnic minority groups,” said the report. “These malign activities compromise the safety, security and rights of Canadians.”

Despite the national security threat, B.C. NDP Premier David Eby said he will not reverse BC Ferries’ June 10-announced decision to build four vessels at a Chinese state-owned shipyard. Four days later, on June 14, interim federal NDP leader Don Davies was the guest of honour at a Vancouver Chinese consulate celebration of 55 years of diplomatic ties with Canada.

Russia, Iran, India also pose threats

In the report, CSIS also named China, Russia and Iran as major cyber threats, via espionage and hacking.

On Iran, Canada declared its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist entity last June. It has sanctioned 250 entities and 205 individuals for “systematic and gross violations of human rights.”

CSIS also mentioned the U.S. Department of Justice prosecution in 2024 of Canadians Damion Ryan and Adam Pearson for a murder-for-hire plot allegedly directed by Iranian drug lord Naji Sharifi Zindashti to target dissidents in Maryland.

“Iranian threat-related activities directed at Canada and its allies are likely to continue in 2025, and may increase depending on developments in the Middle East and the Iranian regime’s own threat perceptions,” the report said.

Also in 2024, Canada listed Vancouver-based anti-Israel group Samidoun as a terrorist entity. Samidoun is associated with a 2003-designated terrorist entity, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

On India, CSIS said “real and perceived Khalistani [Punjabi separatist] extremism emerging from Canada continues to drive Indian foreign interference activities in Canada.”

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Bob Mackin The People’s Republic of China, which

Bob Mackin

It’s official. Not only is the NDP government replacing the 1937-built, four-lane Pattullo Bridge with a new four-lane bridge, but it is also replacing the name.

Minister of Transportation and Transit Mike Farnworth said in a June 16 memo obtained by theBreaker.news that the new bridge is slated to open later this year “and the new bridge will receive a new name” in the down river Halkomelem dialect of the Musqueam Indian Band and Kwantlen First Nation.

Old, 1937-built Pattullo Bridge (left) and new to-be-named bridge. (TI Corp/YouTube)

The memo said the site overlaps former Musqueam reserve #1 and Kwantlen reserve #8, “once located in the village of qiqeyt [kee-KATE].” Both bands will bestow a name for the new bridge, “as a gift to the people of British Columbia,” Farnworth said.

Farnworth said the announcement is anticipated this summer.

The current bridge was named for Thomas “Duff” Pattullo, the 22nd premier of B.C. from 1933 to 1941. Liberal Pattullo represented the Prince Rupert riding from 1916 to 1945.

The new bridge was budgeted at $1.4 billion for a 2023 opening, but was delayed to 2025 with a higher $1.637 billion price tag. Builders are Aecon and Acciona, the Spanish company Metro Vancouver fired from the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant project.

Farnworth’s memo said there is also a First Nations art program that began on the Old Yale Road overpass in Surrey and will expand to the lower piers, upper tower and crossbeam of the new bridge. The NDP government is planning an “exclusive feature” with the CBC about bridge construction, bridge naming and the art program, Farnworth’s memo said.

Farnworth’s memo comes the day before Vancouver city council is expected to rubber-stamp renaming Trutch Street to šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmasəm Street, which translates in English to “Musqueam View.”

The new street signs are already in production and an unveiling is scheduled for June 20, the eve of National Indigenous Peoples Day, at St. James Community Square.

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Bob Mackin It’s official. Not only is the

For the week of June 15, 2025:

Welcome to the 400th edition of theBreaker.news Podcast.

Instead of looking back, this edition is looking ahead.

Looking ahead to the FIFA World Cup 26, coming to Vancouver and 15 other North American cities.

Will it be worth the nearly $600 million bill for B.C. taxpayers?

On this edition, hear from: FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani, Vancouver host city secretariat leader Jessie Adcock, Destination Vancouver CEO Royce Chwin, Mayor Ken Sim, NDP Minister responsible Spencer Chandra Herbert, B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition campaign manager Chantelle Spicer and sports economist Victor Matheson. 

As usual, Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and the Virtual Nanaimo Bar.

CLICK BELOW to listen or watch. Or go to TuneIn, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Have you missed an edition of theBreaker.news Podcast? Go to the archive.

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For the week of June 15, 2025: