BC Finance Minister Carole James is forecasting the province will run up a 12.5 billion dollar deficit this fiscal year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That's a sharp reversal from the balanced budget James predicted before COVID-19 hit. She says the province has lost more than 230,000 jobs and seen a staggering decline in economic growth since February. That includes a 15.9 per cent drop in retail sales due to lockdowns ordered in March to flatten the curve of the pandemic that are now being gradually lifted.

A 30 year old man has been identified as the victim of Vancouver's latest homicide. Police say the body of Amin Shahin Shakur was found after 11 last night as officers responded to a call behind several small shops in south Vancouver (at Main Street and 48th Avenue.) A statement from police says Shakur does not have an extensive police history and there is no risk to the public. It's Vancouver's eighth slaying this year, with four of the homicides occurring in July, including a stabbing on Canada Day and a double murder in east Vancouver, although arrests have been made in those cases.

The national Conservative party says it has 269,469 members eligible to vote in the current leadership race.About 100,000 of those memberships were purchased since the start of the year, when the contest to replace current leader Andrew Scheer officially began.The party released the figures today and says it is the largest membership in party history.Tories say the largest growth in membership has come in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador and Alberta.Conservatives use a points system to elect a leader — each riding gets 100 points, and how many points a candidate receives depend

The Senate's finance committee says the Trudeau Liberals need to tell people very soon what they will do for those who max out a key federal COVID-19 benefit in the fall without jobs to go back to.The $500-a-week Canada Emergency Response Benefit is set to run out in September for millions of workers who have seen their incomes shrink or dry up entirely.The committee's report recommends the government provide declining CERB payments as incomes rise, rather than applying the current strict cut-off.Senators are also calling on the Liberals to consider a guaranteed income program to make sure all

Sources say Canada and the United States are likely to agree to extend their mutual ban on non-essential travel between the two countries for another 30 days. The Canada-U.S. border has been closed to so-called "discretionary" travel like vacations and shopping trips since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the continent in mid-March, an agreement that's set to expire July 21. Officials familiar with the ongoing talks, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters not yet public, say another extension until Aug. 21 is all but inevitable. News of the likely extension, initially reported

Federal opposition parties are demanding to know why the Liberal government created a $900-million program to help students find volunteer positions rather than putting the money into an existing summer jobs program.The government says the new Canada Student Services Grant is intended to reward tens of thousands of students who are having a hard time finding work and want to help with the COVID-19 pandemic.Opposition parties say the Liberals could have accomplished the same task by putting the money into the existing Canada Summer Jobs program, through which thousands of jobs for students are

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that he will be starting a video series for "those interested in the truth" from July 14 with the intent to "make our current affairs, history and crisis clear and accessible".He also claimed that a large part of the Indian media had now been "captured by fascist interests" and asserted that the "narrative of lies" is tearing India apart.In a series of tweets, the Wayanad MP said, "Today a large part of the Indian news media has been captured by fascist interests. A hate-filled narrative is being spread by television channels, Whatsapp forwards, and

There are 108,155 confirmed cases in Canada. Quebec: 56,621 confirmed (including 5,628 deaths, 25,911 resolved) Ontario: 36,839 confirmed (including 2,722 deaths, 32,663 resolved) Alberta: 8,826 confirmed (including 161 deaths, 7,989 resolved) British Columbia: 3,115 confirmed (including 189 deaths, 2,718 resolved) Nova Scotia: 1,066 confirmed (including 63 deaths, 1,000 resolved) Saskatchewan: 871 confirmed (including 15 deaths, 766 resolved) Manitoba: 314 confirmed (including 7 deaths, 317 resolved), 11 presumptive Newfoundland and Labrador: 262 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 258 resolved)

Passengers on board an Air Canada flight from Kelowna to Vancouver last week are being warned they may have been exposed to COVID-19. The BC Centre for Disease Control is asking passengers on board flight AC 8421 on July 6th to self-isolate for 14 days from the date of travel. They are also being asked to self-monitor for symptoms of the coronavirus. The flight is the latest on a listed posted on the Centre's website of those beginning or ending in BC where it has learned there was a case of COVID-19 on board.