In the news: Commons winter break coming, evacuations in rain-soaked southern B.C.

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed …

MPs set to break for six-week winter break

The House of Commons could rise as early as Thursday for the winter break — without the Liberals passing their lengthy budget implementation bill.

The House calendar officially has MPs in their seats until Friday but they could agree to break for Christmas before the end of the day. They are scheduled to return to the House on January 26.

House Leader Steven MacKinnon said Wednesday his government has “accomplished an incredible amount” during the fall sitting, pointing to budget and crime bills which have yet to become law.

It’s the first full sitting since Prime Minister Mark Carney took office in the spring, after which MPs passed legislation that aims to make it easier to get major projects built in the country and remove interprovincial trade barriers.

Rains sever B.C.’s Lower Mainland from Interior

Flooding and rock slides have cut off British Columbia’s Lower Mainland from the Interior as a series of atmospheric river weather systems drench the province, with emergency officials saying cross-border water flows rival those that triggered catastrophic floods in 2021.

B.C. Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene told a news conference late Wednesday that the City of Abbotsford has put about 1,000 properties under evacuation alert, while several properties in neighbouring Chilliwack were under evacuation order.

She told people to avoid all unnecessary travel to the Fraser Valley, where regional officials earlier declared a state of local emergency.

“We need people to stay off the roads for safety and to ensure roads are clear for people who need to evacuate,” Green said.

As of 9:30 p.m. local time, officials in Abbotsford upgraded the evacuation alert to an order for 371 properties in Sumas Prairie West due to flooding risk. They say residents in the affected area must leave immediately. Evacuation Alerts have also been issued for Sumas Prairie East and remain in place for the rest of Sumas Prairie West and Clayburn Village. Emergency responders are in the area to assist with the evacuation.

B.C. real estate deals upended by Cowichan ruling

An Ontario company that put down a deposit to buy a luxury hotel in Richmond, B.C., pulled out of the deal worth tens of millions of dollars weeks later because of “uncertainty” caused by the landmark Cowichan Tribes Aboriginal title ruling, according to the marketers of the property.

Court documents show that the 14-storey Versante Hotel, close to Vancouver International Airport, was instead bought by a Hong Kong purchaser in October for the lower price of $51.5 million.

The exact value of the withdrawn offer isn’t disclosed in documents related to the court-ordered sale, which was compelled by lenders to the project who said they were owed $113 million as of August.

LeBlanc believes U.S. will keep CUSMA pact

The minister in charge of Canada-U.S. trade says he has no reason to believe the Trump administration is preparing to tear up the free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, even though the U.S. president and some of his associates have suggested they may consider withdrawing from the pact.

“We believe, based on our conversations with the Americans, that for the moment that’s not the objective the Americans have in mind,” said Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. relations, in a year-end interview conducted in French this week with The Canadian Press.

The free trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada is up for renewal next year.

LeBlanc, the MP for the New Brunswick riding of Beauséjour, said the Mexicans have a similar read of the situation that the United States will review the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement — known as CUSMA — rather than rip it up.

More charges in Saskatchewan quadruple homicide

RCMP have charged a third person with murder in the deaths of four people on a Saskatchewan First Nation.

Two men and two women were killed in February on Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation, east of Regina.

Mounties say a 17-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree murder.

They say the boy has also been charged with one count of attempted murder over an altercation with a fifth person.

A 15-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man were arrested in February and were also charged with four counts of first-degree murder.

Canadian women shrug off Olympic arena kerfuffle

Recent NHL drama over Milan’s main hockey arena for the Winter Olympics in Italy had the Canadian women’s hockey team shrugging its collective shoulder.

Players who cleared COVID-19 hurdles in Beijing to win gold in 2022, and won a women’s world championship later that year on even stranger ice dimensions than Milan’s, see the 2026 Winter Olympics as just another exercise in adaptation.

NHL players return to the Olympic Games for the first time since 2014. The men are scheduled to play up to three games a day at the new 16,000-seat Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, which was still a construction site and won’t host a test event until Jan. 9-11.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman used “disappointment” on Wednesday to describe the arena preparation pace. His deputy commissioner, Bill Daly added in Winnipeg, “if the ice isn’t ready and it’s not safe, then we’re not going.”

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2025