 We are ready. Good afternoon. I'm Mike Farnworth, British Columbia's Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General. I want to thank you for joining me here today. And I'd like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Laconguit-speaking peoples, the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations. This last month has been unsettling for British Columbians. We've witnessed gun violence in public spaces and broad daylight in different parts of the province. This morning, a gunman killed two people and injured two more in multiple shootings in the city of Langley and the township of Langley. This senseless act of violence is extremely disturbing and completely unacceptable. My thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones, and the communities impacted by this despicable act. These people are members of our community, and I understand that British Columbians are worried and fearful when events like this happen in our neighborhoods. We don't know the motive behind the shootings. We don't know the motive behind the shootings. However, with today's tragic events, I want British Columbians to feel assured as more info becomes available, we will make that known to the public. I want to thank the Langley R-C-M-P, the Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team, and all other first responders for their quick response. This remains an active police investigation, and it's important that the public continue to assist them in this work. Now, despite these tragic incidents, I want to reassure everyone that the police work hard every day to make British Columbia a safe place to live and to work and play. Every single member of the BCR CMP and all our independent municipal departments put themselves in the face of danger. They work hard 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep us safe. And their passion and commitment to public service is redoubled in the face of the types of events that we have witnessed in the last couple of years. I want to thank you for joining me today, and now able to take questions. Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to reporters on the line, please press star 1 to enter the queue for the opportunity to ask a question and a follow-up. Our first question today comes from the room. We go first to Richard Zussman, Global News. The emergency alert was used. Will you be reviewing it all the way in which it was used in this situation? But only the second alert without a mention of Langley that led to some confusion and the fact that the alert only ended 3.30 this afternoon, sort of lingering after hours and hours. Will there be a review and what do you make of those circumstances? Whenever there is a situation such as this, there is always investigation and there are always reviews. The police were dealing with a very fluid and dynamic situation. This is only the second time in the province that an active shooter alert has been used. And so of course they will review how things were done and the way they were done. But the bottom line is this, they made decisions based on the information that they had on the critical ensuring of public safety. The area where the shootings took place is a very high traffic area. The area where the shootings took place is a very high traffic area, very densely populated. Communities use it going all the way from Chilliwack, Abbotsford, coming through the valley and likewise coming from Richmond, Vancouver, going out that way. So there would be a wide-ranging alert in place. But as I said, reviews are always undertaken in situations such as this. Follow-up, Richard? Considering, and I know RCAP has clarified some of this, I'm saying that it mentioned transient populations. Some advocates are concerned that these alerts won't get to transient populations because they often don't have smart phones or data on their phones. So in circumstances like this, will there be a consideration of changing the way that alerts are done? And feeling the heat that we're feeling now, what consideration is being given to potential alerts later this week for the heat levels that we're seeing across the country? And I'm not sure exactly because while they're related, they are different. In terms of the alert, the police have protocols in place in terms of when they issue an active shooter alert. As I said, after every situation, there's always a review done to look at how you can do things better, what lessons can be learned. At the same time, these alerts are one tool. The police have many different methods to use other methods to notify people and they're aware when they become aware, for example, on transient populations, that there are other ways to also ensure that they are alerting people. When it comes to the heat, the considerations about using the alert for heat situations, as you know, we have put in place recommendations from the coroner's report in terms of when heat warnings and then heat emergencies are communicated. They are put in place by experts and they're based on both the daytime temperature and the nighttime temperature and they vary around different regions of the province. For example, in the case of Vancouver Island and the lower mainland, they're based on a temperature of 29 degrees for a high and 16 degrees for a nighttime high. In terms of the warning, it's over two days and over the emergency, it becomes three days. In the interior, it is a higher temperature, it's over two days for an extended daytime high and the nighttime low, I believe, is 19 degrees. So those things are in place and those decisions are what guide the experts in terms of when it is time to issue an alert. For the next question, we'll go to the phones. We are from Matthew Claxton, Langley Advanced Times. Matthew, please go ahead. Hello. I wanted to ask our local sources say that at least one of the incidents took place directly outside or on the grounds of a supportive housing institution. The homeless are uniquely vulnerable to this kind of violence because they're so exposed. What can and is the government doing to help prevent these kinds of attacks on the homeless? First off, this is an ongoing police investigation and the police will be continuing this, no doubt looking at every aspect of the tragic events that unfolded in the last night and early this morning and then we'll be coming out going, you know, with exactly what happened. At the same time, whenever there's a situation such as this, there's always one, there's the police investigation, but there's always reviews done in terms of ensuring what lessons can be learned. The use of alerts is one way of ensuring that the population, that people know what is going on. At the same time, there are ways of communicating and contacting people and in this case determined that it is, that it may well be targeted at the homeless population. So there's a variety of ways in which the police will respond, but as I said, we always look to learn what lessons we can from tragic situations such as this. Matthew, do you have a follow-up? The police have not yet released what type of weapon the shooter was using. What type of weapon the shooter was using? What's the rationale for not releasing that when the situation is over? The gunman is dead and certainly we should know if it's a long gun or a pistol or whether it was a legal or illegally acquired weapon. This is an investigation that is still underway while a shooter is deceased. The police will be doing a full-scale investigation to determine was there a single weapon, were there multiple weapons, what exactly did the police do and did they have in their possession? I expect in due course that information will come out, but right now the focus of the police is on the investigation and getting as much information as they can to understand exactly what took place. Our next question comes from the phones as well. Lisa Eustace, City News 1130, please go ahead. The first alert came out 30 minutes after what police have said was the last shooting. Why was there such a delay? This is a dynamic and ongoing situation where the police are dealing, they don't know whether they are dealing with a single individual or is there another individual as well? It's an active investigation. They make decisions based on what is happening on the ground and the best information that they have. After the investigation is completed, obviously there is reviews to understand how and why the alerts were issued the way that they were done. But the one thing that is pretty clear, the police are obviously going to err on the side of caution in terms of ensuring public safety. Lisa, do you have a follow-up? Yes, with the information that was included, especially on that first alert, the second as well, there was many people who said they didn't know what to do. There wasn't enough information there to say should I stay away from what they should do. Do you think that there was correct and specific enough information to let people know how they should react to the information they were receiving? The alerts went out, the police made a decision on what goes into the alerts. They assessed what is happening on the situation. I think most people would understand that if they see an alert and the alerts are saying stay away from a particular area, they will stay away from the place, recognizing that where the shootings took place was a very high traffic area with a significant commuting population taking place at that time, from all the way from Chilawak and Abitseford, going west to people going east in that direction. So they put out the alerts and then they made the decisions on what needed to be an alert. As I said, there is always reviews after. We come back to the room for the last session of the session. I will now turn it over to Keith Baldery, Global News. Regarding yet another matter, the escape from the prison by those two bogus contractors, why isn't the correctional facility in efforts to identify these people, at least a video still of their faces of these two individuals or do they not have to do that? This is a major criminal investigation involving a high-profile escape from a correctional facility. The police are very much involved in that investigation and there may well be legitimate reasons why they have not released videotape at this point and it's probably best to direct that question specifically to them. That being said, I have said that I expect answers to those questions because the public have those same questions as I do. But right now is a major investigation and the police are handling that investigation. Follow-up, Keith? Further to that, you said on the weekend you were investigating the police and there was an investigation. Do you have any sense when some of those answers might be forthcoming? Not at this point. Other than I can tell you, this is a major investigation involving the police on a high-profile alleged killer and the police are putting all kinds of resources into one, locating the whereabouts of this individual, but also finding out exactly how it happened. Thank you, everyone. That concludes today's