Each week at Global BC, we highlight our stories to bring a bright spot to your Friday and into the weekend.
Here are the five stories we want to share:
‘Impressive for this momma’: New killer whale calf spotted off Victoria coast
Whale watchers are celebrating the birth of a new Bigg’s killer whale, recently spotted with a well-known adult female orca off the coast of Victoria.
Eagle Wing Tours captured the little Bigg’s swimming with T046B2A, also known as Akela, in the Juan de Fuca Strait on Nov. 26.
The Pacific Whale Watch Association is still working to confirm whether the two are related. If so, director Erin Gless said the calf will be called T046B2B.
Unhoused man spreading ‘positive energy’ while cleaning Vancouver Island highways
A homeless Vancouver Island man is earning plenty of recognition for his work to clean up local highways.
Jayson Perry lost his business, then his home during the COVID-19 pandemic. With time on his hands, the former woodworker began cleaning up trash along the highways near Parksville and Qualicum Beach.
Perry has stepped those efforts up over the past four months, and has been logging eight-hour days several times a week to clean up the roads.
Voluntary decals to alert B.C. first responders to presence of people who are neurodivergent
Families will soon have access to a new set of stickers for their vehicles or homes, alerting first responders to the presence of a loved one with autism or another type of neurodivergence.
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The BC Association of Chiefs of Police will make the voluntary decals available for pickup at police stations next year. The intent of the new resource is to alert first responders attending a scene so they can adjust their response appropriately, association president Fiona Wilson told Global News.
“That would just let the officer know that they should rely on their training and make sure that they’re communicating in a way that resonates with an individual who is autistic or neurodiverse,” the Vancouver police deputy chief constable explained.
B.C. to ban waitlist fees for most daycares starting in April
The B.C. government is moving to ban waitlist fees for the province’s daycares.
Starting in April, the ban will apply to licensed child-care facilities that are a part of the province’s fee-reduction initiative.
Parents looking for daycare spots have reported fees ranging from $25 to more than $500 to secure a spot on a waitlist, amid hot competition for access to child care.
“One thing we want to make sure of is that parents aren’t facing additional fees,” Minister of State for Childcare Grace Lore told Global News. “We know that is costing parents in some cases hundreds and maybe thousands of dollars … that’s the expectation we are setting with providers.”
‘Walk down memory lane’: Long lost film gives B.C. actor a flashback
The year was 1980 and a young aspiring filmmaker was cutting his teeth with a project at his high school, Burnaby South.
“I wanted to be Spielberg. I wanted to be a film director,” said Ian James Corlett. “I went to my guidance counsellor and said, “You know what this school needs? You need a promotional video.’”
Corlett recently went into the archives and released that vintage production — a flashback to his introductory years in the entertainment world that morphed into something completely different.
“What I really wanted to do was be an animation voice actor,” Corlett said in a recent interview with This is BC.
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