On tonight’s “Top Story”, Squire Barnes discussed the murder of a young mother with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, and Vancouver’s low placement in a new livability survey with two regional politicians.
Yesterday, the body of Rachel Pernosky, an 18-year-old mother from Mission, was found, tossed down a steep embankment in Chilliwack. Jennifer Pound of IHIT told Barnes the murder appears to be targeted, but there is a likely a long road before any charges are laid.
“When we look at our investigations, we can say probably about 95% of our investigations we know who did it,” she says.
“The problem is the evidence that we need to obtain to get charge approval is a very high threshold. Particularly in B.C., there needs to be likelihood of conviction in order for us to get charge approval.”
Meanwhile, Vancouver’s collective ego was bruised today when Money Sense, a Canadian business magazine, ranked the city as just the 52nd best to live in — for Canada.
Unlike other livability rankings, Money Sense places a premium on affordability. Vancouver city councillor George Affleck argued that a fresh approach is needed for the issue.
“That’s one of our biggest challenges, not only as a city, but as a region. We have to deal with how people can afford these places by looking at income…as government, we need to start analyzing that, and not housing, by asking ‘how can we make more money so we can afford these houses?'”
Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard was pleased his city was seen as the most livable in B.C. at #7, but said part of the city’s appeal was its limit on new development.
“We’re different than Vancouver, because we have farm and forest lands, and we have urban containment boundaries,” he said.
“We aren’t inventing anything new here, but we are putting density where we already have services, we’re trying to contain any growth within those areas.”
Top Story airs every weekday at 7 pm on BC-1. Hosted by a rotating cast of Global BC personalities, the show will dive deeper into the day’s most buzzed-about topics.
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