A look at the top stories that resonated in B.C. in 2023

2023 was a busy news cycle many of us soon won’t forget, filled with record-breaking wildfires, as well as housing and toxic drug crises and global conflicts highlighted through protests here in B.C.

Black Press Media journalists looked through top stories read most by you, our readers, and reviewed the key issues that encapsulated all that was this year:

A historic wildfire season

It was a record year for wildfires in B.C.

With 2.84 million hectares burned from 2,245 wildfires, 2023 saw more than double the last record of 1.35 million set in 2018.

It was during a weekend in August that Premier David Eby declared a provincial state of emergency, saying the situation had “evolved and deteriorated quite rapidly.” The state of emergency lasted 28 days.

At one point, there were more than 37,000 British Columbians on evacuation alert and 25,000 on evacuation order.

Some of the hardest-hit areas included Kelowna, the Shuswap and the northeastern part of the province. B.C. also welcomed hospital and long-term care evacuees from the Northwest Territories after wildfires ripped through communities there.

Firefighters die in line of duty

While wildfires topped the news for most of B.C. and Canada, it was also a deadly year for wildland firefighters.

B.C. Wildfire Service’s operations director, Cliff Chapman, said in his 21 years in the industry, he’s “never felt the heaviness that we are feeling this season.”

In B.C., six firefighters were killed in the line of duty while a seventh was killed in Alberta and another died in the Northwest Territories.

Devyn Gale, 19, was killed July 13 while working near Revelstoke. She was a third-year firefighter with B.C. Wildfire Service.

Zak Muise, 25, died on July 28 while working on the Donnie Creek wildfire. He was in a remote area, about 150 kilometres north of Fort St. John, when the UTV he was riding on rolled over a steep drop on a gravel road.

web1_231222-bpd-top23of2023_2 — Six wildland firefighters were killed in the line of duty during the 2023 wildfire season, including (from left) Blain Sonnenberg, Devyn Gale and Zak Muise. (GoFundMe, BC Wildfire Service)

Then in September, four firefighters were killed in a highway crash when heading home after aiding wildfire response efforts in the Vanderhoof area.

Elsewhere in Canada, a firefighter was killed in Alberta and another in the Northwest Territories.

Droughts plague B.C.

B.C. was left parched in 2023. The province entered the year under minor drought conditions, which quickly turned into extreme ones as hot weather triggered an early snowmelt and regular levels of rain refused to fall.

By July, the provincial government said drought conditions had become unprecedented for that time of year. The impacts were far reaching, with wildfires exacerbated, farmers struggling to grow crops and feed livestock and waterways drying up.

The fall season brought some moisture, but not nearly enough to alleviate the issue. British Columbians continued to feel the repercussions into the winter as many ski hills put off their opening for weeks due to a lack of snow.

As 2023 closes out, eight of B.C.’s 34 water basins are still at the two most extreme levels of drought. Only three are experiencing no adverse impacts.

SOGI 123 protests

Despite SOGI 123, or Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, being a part of school curriculum for seven years, it became the centre of protests – and counter-protests – at school board meetings and outside schools in 2023.

Protests led by the 1 Million March 4 Children group saw British Columbians calling for the learning guidelines to be removed from classrooms.

Meanwhile, those in favour argued the program helps keep children of all gender identities safe.

The debate made its way into the B.C. Legislature, with B.C. Conservative Party Leader John Rustad facing criticism for comparing residential schools to gender and sexuality education in public schools.

BC Ferries chaos

It was rocky sailing once again for BC Ferries in 2023. Staffing shortages and mechanical failures caused countless delays and cancellations, the company’s booking system crashed on numerous occasions and the union representing BC Ferries workers alleged unfair labour practices.

Things got so bad, the province announced in October that it would begin penalizing BC Ferries for missed sailings. The details of that are set to be released in spring 2024.

The marine transportation company says it’s also working to remedy its issues internally. It hired a new CEO and president at the start of 2023 – Nicolas Jimenez, formerly of ICBC – and four new vice presidents in October.

SPCA seizures

Hundreds upon hundreds of animals were found living in deplorable conditions throughout B.C. in 2023. The SPCA seized dogs, cats, cows, bunnies, reptiles, birds and everything in between, anytime it discovered the creatures weren’t being properly cared for.

The animal cruelty organization reported a range of harmful living conditions, including homes covered in feces, urine and garbage. Many animals were found undernourished and suffering from various health conditions.

web1_231206-nbu-spca-44-animals-seized-rewrite_1 — Cats and dogs, 44 in total, were seized from a community off the coast of Vancouver Island and transported to Nanaimo for care. (Submitted photo)

In a January incident at a Cawston cattle farm, numerous cows were found dead and several more had to be euthanized.

Throughout the year, owners who were determined to have mistreated their animals were ordered to pay thousands of dollars to the SPCA.

Toxic drug crisis

B.C. began 2023 with the unrolling of its three-year drug decriminalization pilot project. The project, which allows people to carry small amounts of illicit substances on them, is intended to lower their number of interactions with law enforcement and reduce stigma against them.

The efficacy of the project has yet to be measured, but many advocates and experts spent the year pushing for a different type of change: safer supply. A BC Coroners Service death review panel recommended in November that the province introduce non-prescription access to safer supply, so fewer people have to depend on toxic drugs sold on the street. The province immediately rejected the suggestion.

web1_230414-bpd-oppenheimer-drug-death-march_9 — People carry a makeshift coffin , representing the toxic drug deaths, along Powell Street in Vancouver on April 14, 2023 during an event marking the seventh anniversary of the toxic drug supply in B.C. (Photo: Lauren Collins)

While the BC Coroners Service has not yet released death tolls for the final two months of the year, 2,039 people died from the unregulated, toxic drug supply in the first 10 months, amounting to six to seven lives lost a day. It continues to be the leading cause of death for British Columbians aged 10 to 59.

Housing

Whether it was rising rates on a mortgage, unaffordable rentals, the threat of eviction, or outright homelessness, British Columbians had housing on their minds in 2023.

Both rental and housing prices continued to be some of the highest in North America, and a general shortage of each left people clinging on to what they had or desperately trying to find something if they didn’t.

Rates of homelessness jumped and the public regularly heard from people who were struggling to hold onto shelter.

In response, the provincial government took a number of unprecedented steps, each receiving mixed reactions. It set specific housing targets for individual municipalities, relaxed zoning and development regulations to allow for more units on single-home lots, pushed for more development near transit hubs, looked at issuing standardized building designs to expedite the process, limited short term rentals and expanded speculation and vacancy tax to more communities.

The total impacts of these possible solutions likely won’t be seen until 2024 and 2025.

Protests for Palestine

British Columbians are vocal about global events and issues, and this year was no exception.

The historic Israel-Palestine conflict made global headlines in October, after Hamas militant groups staged an attack on south Israel. In the nearly three months since then, the Israeli military’s retaliation has killed more than 21,800 Palestinians.

In B.C., pro-Palestine groups demonstrated on the streets of many cities – including outside a Vancouver restaurant as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ate inside – demanding a ceasefire.

As well, calls to end anti-Semitism and hate have been highlighted by Jewish Canadians, as well as Premier David Eby.

Drug crimes

Drug busts were a hot topic in B.C. in 2023, with search warrants turning up stashes of illicit substances, weapons and cash throughout the province. B.C.’s anti-gang agency, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit was happy to report numerous arrests of alleged drug traffickers, as well as the removal of drugs such as fentanyl from the black market.

The investigations also netted several guilty pleas from gang members, such as full patch Hells Angels member Courtney Lafreniere in September and Brothers Keepers member Amandeep Singh Kang in October.

Federal policing units also played a part in intercepting organized crime in B.C. Last March, they turned up 600 kilograms of a fentanyl precursor, which was valued at $600,000 and estimated to be capable of producing 262 million doses of the drug. They also seized a pill pressing machine capable of producing 60,000 pills per hour.

Reconciliation on a global scale

A homecoming celebration in a northern B.C. village for a memorial totem pole after an absence of almost 100 years highlighted the reckoning of Indigenous artifact ownership and repatriation on a global level.

The House of Ni’isjoohl memorial totem, on display in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh since 1930, was returned to its ancestral Nisga’a Nation village home in the remote Nass Valley.

In an interview with Black Press Media, Indigenous Education and Governance Canada Research Chair Amy Parent highlighted the historical significance of this event at the time.

“It means everything to our family,” Parent said. “It’s like bringing home a dear grandparent that’s almost in their 90s and have never met that’s been imprisoned in a European museum for over 90 years.”

This wasn’t the only important artifact to be returned in 2023: A First Nations house post was returned to its home of the Gitxaala Nation after 138 years, including spending the last two decades in storage at Harvard University.

Plane crashes

There were nearly a dozen small plane and helicopter crashes in B.C. this year, with many of them being fatal – and one being misidentified as a crash by RCMP, while the pilot remains missing four months after a helicopter crash.

Back in August, a helicopter went down in the Shuswap region, killing a pet chihuahua on board. There were four people in total in the helicopter, but one person who is believed to be the pilot, remains missing after leaving the scene prior to police arriving.

In October, three people were killed when a small plane crashed near the Chilliwack Airport. Two of the victims were later identified as Abhay Gadru and Yash Ramugade, both 25 years old and from Mumbai.

Two people were rescued from Harrison Lake in August after crashing in their float plane. The plane ultimately sank into the lake.

web1_231006-cpl-plane-crash-hauck1_2 — Emergency crews were on scene at a plane crash south of the Chilliwack Airport on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. Three people were on board. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)

A small plane crashed into a Surrey field in June, leading to a grass fire. A friend of the pilot said the man was “angry as a hornet” about the crash.

And, finally, a plane wreck at first “confirmed” by RCMP to be a decades-old crash was actually the site of fake crash for training purposes.

Restaurants closures

Restaurants across Canada were dealt another year of post-pandemic hardships with new data released this year showing that half of restaurants are either losing money or breaking even.

Restaurants Canada said in October that 75 per cent of table-service restaurants and 51 per cent of quick-service food options were still in debt due to the pandemic.

In B.C., numerous restaurants closed this year due to rising rent, labour shortages and food costs – many that were staples in local communities.

In an interview with Global News, BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association CEO Ian Tostenson said as many as 2,000 restaurants could be shuttered by spring.

Advocates and premiers have been calling on the federal government to delay loan repayments for the Canada Emergency Business Account program launched at the height of COVID-19. The Trudeau government already delayed payment deadlines from December to mid-January.

An estimated 123,800 businesses relied on this pandemic program, according to the B.C. government.

Policing in B.C.

Once again, Surrey’s policing transition dominated provincial news. The now-five-year saga has led to a back and forth between the City of Surrey and the province, specifically Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth.

In April, Farnworth recommended the city continue with its transition to the Surrey Police Service from the Surrey RCMP. Mayor Brenda Locke then went back and forth with Farnworth over a redacted report, accusing him of misogyny.

In July, Farnworth ordered the city to moved forward with its transition. In October, he introduced legislation, updating the process to “remove uncertainty” when a municipality decides to change their police of jurisdiction, and a month later he temporarily suspended the Surrey Police Board.

The saga is still playing out, with the city filing a B.C. Supreme Court challenge against Farnworth’s July decision.

Through all of that, Farnworth has been asked repeatedly if now is the time for B.C. to move away from the RCMP and switch to a provincial police force.

That discussion stemmed from the 2022 report aimed at transforming B.C.’s Police Act. It provided 11 recommendations, including a move to a provincial police service, that were set to see discussions begin this fall. That has since been delayed to spring 2024.

Sikh attack

What began as a shooting in Surrey in June has led to souring international relationships between Canada and India.

Surrey RCMP was called to the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara on June 18 for a report of a shooting in the temple’s parking lot. The victim was the gurdwara’s president, 45-year-old Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a vocal advocate for an independent Sikh state of Khalistan in India.

web1_20230624160656-649758b248b50138e30fbd7fjpeg — Two protestors try to rip the Indian flag after setting it on fire outside of the Consulate General of India Office during a protest for the recent shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver on Saturday, June 24, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

Three months later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons there was “credible” intelligence linking agents of India’s government to Nijjar’s death. In the weeks after Trudeau’s allegations, India told Canada to bring home dozens of its diplomats, India put a pause on e-visa services for Canadian nationals and hampered business relations.

B.C.’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team continues to investigate the killing, with the most recent update in August. U.S. prosecutors also claim Nijjar’s shooting is tied to a string of other politically motivated killings planned in Canada and the United States.

Highway 5 fatalities

B.C.’s Highway 5 continues to be a deadly strip of road. The thoroughfare, which connects Kamloops to Alberta, sees dozens of crashes every year, many of which were fatal in 2023.

The mayors of Barriere and Clearwater made numerous pleas throughout the year to B.C. officials to address the highway’s lack of safety. They said they need more signage, more variable speed zones, better emergency detours and reflective line painting and more passing lanes.

The ministry of transportation says it is undertaking an engineering review of the highway to determine how safety may be improved.

B.C.’s alert system

Emergency alerts were quite literally a hot topic in 2023, from heat warnings to wildfire evacuations.

When the province tested the alert system back in November, it noted B.C. had issued 24 emergency alerts for wildfire evacuations in 2023. It was in 2022 that B.C. announced the system would be expanded to wildfires and flooding, as well as the launch of the BC Heat Alert and Response System. The heat alert system has three tiers: a special weather statement, a heat warning or an extreme heat emergency.

But the emergency alert system isn’t just for weather-related warnings. Police use the system for Amber Alerts and other public emergencies.

web1_230720-sul-amber-alertpush_1 — A sign on Highway 10, near 144 Street, in Surrey notifies the public of an Amber Alert for two Surrey children who were last seen by their father on June 28 when leaving for a planned vacation with their mother. (Lauren Collins)

This year the Surrey RCMP issued two Amber Alerts: one lasting barely two hours and another stretching more than a week that led to two people being charged with abduction.

Chilliwack-Hope MP Mark Strahl calls for creation of adult Amber Alert

Overpass crashes

Seventeen.

That’s how many commercial trucks hit overpasses in B.C. in 2023.

The most recent hit was a Highway 99 overpass in Delta on Dec. 28, leading to the province suspending the trucking company’s safety certificate. It was Chohan Freight Forwarders Ltd.’s sixth time hitting an overpass in two years.

web1_240104-ndr-overpassandsemi-semi_1 — A vehicle incident at the 112th St overpass in #DeltaBC has the highway CLOSED to all southbound traffic. Traffic on the overpass is also blocked in both directions. Crews on scene. Assessment in progress. Use an alternate route. (Shane MacKichan photo)

The suspension is the first one since Transportation Minister Rob Fleming announced on Dec. 14 that the province will implement escalating penalties for companies and drivers with repeat offences, adding longer suspensions and possible loss of their operating certificate.

Highway 4 challenges

The only highway connecting the east and west coasts of Vancouver Island was dealt a number of blows throughout the year.

Highway 4, connecting Tofino and Ucluelet with the rest of the Island via Port Alberni, has been the subject of delays and concerns for years, but in 2023 a long-lasting fire and numerous closures has led to calls for a secondary route.

A wildfire broke out along the route at Cameron Lake Bluff on June 6, closing a portion of the highway between Port Alberni and Parksville. Piloted convoys had to be brought in to support commercial vehicles travelling along a rural detour route. Highway 4 fully reopened to two-way traffic on Aug. 31.

The ongoing closures through the summer – a busy tourism season for Tofino and Ucluelet – brought about calls for urgent reforms for the disaster assistance programs. The Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce estimated the initial closure cost West Coast businesses $44 million in lost revenue.

But the closures didn’t stop after the summer wildfires. Most recently, the highway was shut down again over Christmas and Boxing Day following a rock slide.

web1_231222-bpd-top23of2023_1 — Highway 4, connecting the east and west coasts of Vancouver Island, faced a number of shut downs this year, first starting with the Cameron Bluff wildfire in June 2023. (Top left, clockwise: Transportation Ministry, BC Wildfire Service, Transportation Ministry)