Vancouver rundown for Wednesday, January 21,
2026. Premier David Eby now says B .C. will revise
its Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Act, or DRIPA, to reduce the power of the courts.
Eby has told those attending a Tuesday evening
conference in Prince George, recent court decisions
have caused confusion over the act. He says reconciliation
is the business of government -to -government
negotiations. and not for the courts to take
over. The NDP government has been under pressure
from the BC Conservatives to completely repeal
the act. Other news, West Ham Island's only bridge
to the rest of Delta is closed until further
notice. A boat hit the old wooden bridge early
Tuesday evening. Crews will now have to check
its integrity before the road to Ladner's west
side is reopened. West Ham Island has several
large farms, a bird sanctuary, and about a dozen
homes. Former Mayor Doug McCallum is urging senior
governments to fund a new police helicopter for
Surrey. McCallum says the city's police service
needs its own helicopter to help tackle the ongoing
extortion crisis. The latest extortion -related
shooting happened at a car repair shop on King
George Boulevard in the Newton area early Tuesday
morning. A fire and some machinery at a building
in Burnaby is responsible for a thick plume of
black smoke seen over a wide area Tuesday morning.
Just over two dozen firefighters took less than
an hour to put out the blaze in a heat exchanger
near Lozales Avenue and Winston Street. No one
was hurt. Forecast calling for fog for Wednesday
morning, sunshine by the afternoon, clouds on
Thursday, sunshine for Friday. For all the details
on these local Vancouver area stories, along
with those links, go to VancouverRundown .substack
.com.