Elevate your local knowledge
Sign up for the iNFOnews newsletter today!
North Okanagan
Man in critical condition after North Okanagan shooting
ENDERBY - Police are investigating a shooting in the North Okanagan that left a man in critical condition. RCMP Const. Jocelyn Noseworthy says police were called to a rural property in the Enderby area about 5:15 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19. Officers located a 55-year-old man suffering from gunshot wounds, Noseworthy says. He was transported to...
ELECTION 2015: Conservative win in North Okanagan-Shuswap
VERNON - Conservative candidate Mel Arnold is the North Okanagan-Shuswap’s new Member of Parliament. Arnold had a healthy lead right off the bat Monday evening, and while Liberal candidate Cindy Derkaz was on his tail, he was declared elected as of 8:30 p.m. with about 40 per cent of the vote. Derkaz stood about 10...
Cattle poaching problem continues in the North Okanagan
VERNON - Another cow was found killed and left to rot over the weekend. It was found Saturday, Oct. 10, on the Aberdeen Forest Service Road in Lavington. The cow appeared to have been shot, but no meat was taken. It’s the fourth cow to be found dead on range land leased by the Coldstream...
Construction sign heist hits North Okanagan highway
LUMBY - Police are scratching their heads after numerous traffic signs went missing from a highway construction project in the North Okanagan. RCMP Const. Jocelyn Noseworthy says Controlling Traffic Limited has reported roughly 30 signs stolen from an area on Highway 6 between Lumby and Lavington where paving work is being done. The signs, which...
ELECTION 2015: Local poll will help strategic voters in the North Okanagan decide their candidate
NORTH OKANAGAN - People in the North Okanagan-Shuswap riding are doing what they can to make sure their strategic votes count in the upcoming federal election. A non-partisan group has decided to fund a poll to help people in the riding choose who best to vote for if they want to out the Conservatives. One...
Ranch offers reward for information about cow poaching in the North Okanagan
VERNON - Poachers are shooting cattle in the North Okanagan and either taking the meat, or leaving the animals for dead. Pete Wise, a wildlife control specialist in Vernon, says at least three cows have been shot since September on range land leased by the Coldstream Ranch. “Somebody is intentionally targeting them,” Wise says. In...
ELECTION 2015: This probably isn’t the attention vandals intended when they hit Conservative election signs in Vernon
'IF YOU WANT TO SCRIBBLE SOMETHING, GO TO THE BALLOT BOX ON VOTING DAY.' VERNON - A damaged federal election sign making its rounds on social media is just the tip of the iceberg for one North Okanagan-Shuswap party. Vernon resident Chris Van der Molen walked out of his house Sunday morning to find vandals...
Watch this North Okanagan apple grow; incredible one minute time lapse
VERNON - A Vernon orchard has captured the magic of an apple’s growth from blossom to fruit in a one minute video. Davison Orchards put a camera on a single Honeycrisp apple in March and watched it grow. You can see the incredible transformation in the time-lapse below. The video has already been shared 1,878...
Why drivers will want to be on their best behaviour this week on North Okanagan highways
NORTH OKANAGAN - Consider this your first warning to follow the rules of the road. Ignore it, and you might get into some trouble with the police over the next week in the North Okanagan. The RCMP is deploying officers from Vernon, West Kelowna, Sicamous, Revelstoke, Golden and the South Okanagan to patrol areas in...
Thousands of Thompson-Okanagan renters mired in affordable housing crisis, new index says
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - About a quarter of all renters in the Thompson-Okanagan are facing an affordable housing crisis, according to a new study. The new Canadian Rental Housing Index is an interactive map which offers a snapshot of rental housing conditions across the country. You can search by city or electoral area riding, and find the...
Here’s your first look at the Hopkins movie shot around the Okanagan
VERNON - Enderby debuts on the cinematic world stage this week at the Venice Film Festival, but for those of us without a plane ticket, at least there’s a sneak peak video to be seen. A teaser from Go With Me, produced by Enderby Entertainment and filmed locally, is now available. It offers up a...
Damage at popular North Okanagan camping area puts province in action
VERNON - Those who frequent Grizzly Lake on the Aberdeen Plateau above Vernon during the summer camping season might notice some changes over the next couple years. Recreation Sites and Trails B.C., a branch of the Ministry of Forests, is proposing an approximately 30-unit campground at the north end of Grizzly Lake. Okanagan District recreation...
VIDEO: A bird’s eye view of the Shuswap
SHUSWAP - If you thought the Shuswap was beautiful from the ground, you won’t believe how it looks from the air. A video by Deep Rooted Media called called Soarin’ Over the Shuswap offers sweeping views of the region’s lakes, mountains and farms, all in gloriously vivid colours. Captured with a drone, the video gives viewers...
Taxman phone scam heating up this summer
VERNON – Scammers are calling into the southern Interior again pretending to be with the Canada Revenue Agency and separating people from their hard-earned money. RCMP are warning people not to give any personal or banking information over the phone after reports of people being targetted in the North Okanagan recently. “In this scam, a person...
Mixed views on proposed Shuswap River boating restrictions
VERNON - There’s been plenty of interest in proposed boating regulations on the Shuswap River, though it's still to early to tell which side of the debate the majority lands on. The North Okanagan Regional District has so far received 1,065 electronic surveys, plus 118 paper copies submitted in response to the proposed changes, which...
One homeless man’s long road to finding affordable housing in Vernon
“I HAD TO ASK FOR HELP. IT WAS EITHER THAT, OR I’D STILL BE HOMELESS” VERNON - For the last 10 years, Roy You has lived on and off the streets. He travelled far from the Splatsin First Nation reserve where he grew up, searching for work in different places, never staying long. Many nights...
SAR teams look for closure in cold case
LYTTON - It was nine months since a Lytton man was last seen and on Sunday local search and rescue crews hoped to finally solve the mystery of his disappearance and bring closure to his family. Gordon Davis, 87, was last seen riding his ATV on Aug. 30, 2014. Two days later his ATV was...
Feral cats of the North Okanagan: “Somebody has to help them”
VERNON - There’s Blackie, and Boots, Tigger One and Tigger Two, and of course Mr. White, a Siamese whose ears are wrinkled by frostbite. They, and the other dozen or so cats make up the band of misfits, just some of the tens of thousands of feral cats in the North Okanagan. They have it...
FULL HOUSE: Need for foster homes increases in Okanagan
VERNON - A shortage of foster homes is impacting the quality of care provided to children during what can be one of the most traumatic experiences of their lives, says a spokesperson for a foster parents association. Noelle Typusiak with the North Okanagan branch of the Okanagan Foster Parents Association says the number of homes...
HELSTON: Hundreds of bears die every year for this stupid reason
This goes out to anyone who’s left their garbage out and had a bear get into it; you might as well have put a bullet through its head. It sounds harsh, I know, but hundreds of bears across B.C. are killed by conservation officers every year because they’ve grown habituated to garbage. Sorry to break...
HELSTON: Welcoming worldwide celebrities the Okanagan way
We’ve all seen photos of mob-like crowds pooling around celebrities, smartphones thrust above the horde, paparazzi elbowing their way to the front, stars diving into vehicles while body guards hold back the gawkers. The famous people at the centre of it all just wanted to enjoy an ice cream cone at the park, or something...
Housing sales continue to rise
KELOWNA – The housing market in the Kelowna and Vernon areas shows no signs of slowing down with sales up fifteen per cent in October compared to the same month in 2013. Numbers released by the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board show a jump of fourteen per cent in the Central Okanagan and twelve per...
Check out the neat surprise these North Okanagan residents found on their game camera
ENDERBY - Some North Okanagan residents found a warm and fuzzy surprise on their game camera this past summer: two baby bears. The cubs were caught wrestling, attacking the camera and playing around in a clearing. The camera was located about 100 meters from the photographers’ home on a forested property just outside Enderby. The...
Consumer confidence, low mortgage rates mean increase in home sales
KELOWNA – The home sales numbers are out for the Central and North Okanagan from last month, and according to the people selling the properties, it was the strongest September since 2005. Sales activity statistics from the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board show the Central Okanagan lead the way with a 32 per cent increase...