Daybreak South
with Chris Walker

Major Employment Insurance reforms are underway in Canada and many of those changes could effect people who have seasonal and part time jobs.

Some of the changes started taking place this week, including one measure that has captured national attention.

Investigators are being given targets on how much E-I fraud they are to capture on an annual basis.

Many of the changes are aimed at people who say they are looking for work, but are not.

Seasonal workers include ski hill employees, summer tourism workers and tree planters.

To look at what's happening with that last group, Chris Walker spoke to John Betts, the director of the Western Silviculture Contractors Association.

In Kelowna 20 percent of people are over the age of 65 and in Penticton even more people are seniors; something like 27 percent.

In Sudbury, local authorities have set up a police tip line where drivers can report seniors who are driving erratically. In that city, just 16 percent of the population is over the age of 65.

So what kind of oversight should be given to seniors who drive in the Okanagan?  Chris Walker speaks with Tania Meyer, the executive director of the Kelowna and District Safety Council about that issue.

The Okanagan Nation Alliance has added its voice to the call for a national park in the south Okanagan.

The Alliance says it now supports the idea of the park, after the Province ended talks with Parks Canada because of lack of support.

The First Nations organization wants talks to resume.

So what is the political response to that idea considering it was the province that withdrew from the talks.

Rob Fleming is the New Democratic environment critic and Terry Lake is B.C.'s minister of the environment.

Studying DNA is one of the major tools being used these days to solve mysteries around disease and a host of other medical issues.

One of the people who does this work and leads some of the research is Jennifer Gardy, who leads the Genome Research Lab at the BC Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver.     

She's like a CSI agent when it comes to viral or bacterial disease outbreaks.

She has hosted CBC's The Nature Of Things and given Ted Talks and next week she giving two talks, one in Cranbrook, another in Vernon -- all about how to solve mysteries using DNA sequencing.

She will be speaking in Cranbrook, Monday March 4th and in Vernon Tuesday March 5th for the Science in Society Series.

This free event is being sponsored by Genome B.C. If you want to register, you can do so online at www.genomebc.ca/okanagan. Registration at the door will be available on a first come, first serve basis.

Next week, the Manteo Resort in Kelowna will hold a public meeting into its plan to expand skyward.

The resort along the Okanagan Lake waterfront wants to redevelop its site with 18 townhouses and two highrises.

One of those towers will be twelve storeys high, the other ten storeys, despite the fact that Kelowna's official community plan only allows for six storeys.

City councillor Robert Hobson explains why city councillors have voted to
send the matter to public hearing.

Bruce Taiji believes innovative techniques and creative business sense have helped him stay afloat in our modern economy, which many artists have found difficult.

This tough economy has many who work in the arts asking themselves the question; Should they make art that fuels their soul or feeds their pocketbook?

Bruce has been working to do both and in a subjective field like art, it is as much about business sense as it is natural talent.

Daybreak's Gillianne Richards tells us it can be about the need to break the mold and show your work in a new light.

It was a gang shooting that shocked people in Kelowna, but after an 18-month investigation three men linked to the death of Jonathan Bacon have been arrested. Daybreak host Chris Walker spoke to Vancouver Sun reporter Kim Bolan about who these men are.

The Kootenay-Columbia has made the difficult decision to convert Rossland Secondary School into a kindergarten to grade nine school. Aerin Guy is a Rossland parent. She's also the co-ordinator of the Neighbourhood of Learning Committee. Darrel Ganzert is chair of the Kootenay-Columbia School District. Daybreak host Chris Walker spoke to them both.

People in Salmon Arm really like pie. The R.J. Haney Heritage Society held an auction over the weekend and sold about 15 pies. One of those pies got a pretty 'sweet' price! Gordon Erickson bid on that pie. Daybreak host Chris Walker reached him by phone.

BC boaters are being told to pay attention to their passengers because it turns out some tiny sea sojourners have been hitch-hiking on boats from lake to lake.

And once they check into their new wet digs, Zebra mussels never leave.

They can be devastating to aquatic ecosystems.

In December last year, BC passed a law making it illegal to transport invasive mussels dead or alive and the fines can range up to 100-thousand dollars.
   
Heather Larratt, an aquatic biologist from West Kelowna is now working to prevent the voracious creatures from invading Okanagan Lake.