Vancouver is opening more indoor spaces to ensure people without homes have shelter as the first snowy, cold snap of the season looms. The city says warming centres will be open at three locations, the Powell Street Getaway, Vancouver Aquatic Centre and Creekside Community Centre, starting today and continuing until next Wednesday. The statement says the centres are activated as a life-saving measure for people sleeping outside during the winter months. Vancouver also says it has more than 100 vehicles, three-thousand tonnes of salt and hundreds of staff ready for deployment to keep city stre

RCMP are investigating a possible mobile drug lab. It was found this week in a motel parking lot in Cache Creek. Corporal Jesse O'Donaghey says a rented moving van was found abandoned at the motel.Although he did not give an exact location. He says the van was impounded on Tuesday, and police found items inside that were likely used to produce illicit drugs. O'Donaghey says federal drug-lab teams have been called in from Surrey, and says HAZMAT teams are investigating the van as well.

Police say a search is underway for a man who is believed to be a risk to the public and allegedly cut off his ankle monitoring bracelet while in Richmond, B.C. A statement from Richmond RCMP says the monitoring bracelet worn by 57 year old Woon Chan went off-line Thursday. He was being monitored by BC Corrections staff who contacted Mounties when the signal was lost. Police say officers "flooded" an area near Minoru Park and located the ankle bracelet but no trace of Chan. The RCMP statement does not say why the 5-foot-6, 130 pound man is considered a risk. It says Chan was last seen wearing

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc concedes Julie Payette's resignation as governor general shows a need to strengthen the process for vetting vice-regal appointments.Payette resigned Thursday, about a week after the government received the damning findings of an independent investigation into allegations that she presided over a toxic work environment at Rideau Hall.LeBlanc says the report, commissioned by the Privy Council Office which he oversees, came to ``compelling'' and ``stark'' conclusions.He says the debacle of Payette's tenure shows that the vetting system for such

BC reported 564 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday, bringing the province's total since the pandemic started to 62,976. There are 4,450 actives cases and 15 new deaths. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix say in a joint statement that despite the number of COVID-19 cases trending downward, the province is continuing to see new community outbreaks and clusters. They say residents need to work to break the chains of transmission. To date, 104,901 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C., 1,663 of which are second doses. COVID-19 community cluste

Julie Payette has resigned as Governor General following an investigation into allegations of a toxic workplace at Rideau Hall. She issued a statement apologizing for tensions in her office but did not take direct responsibility for creating such an atmosphere. Says Payette, "We all experience things differently, but we should always strive to do better, and be attentive to one another's perceptions." She also suggests the move was made for personal reasons, citing her father's declining health. The allegations against Payette include that she belittled and publicly humiliated employees, redu

St. Paul's Hospital in downtown Vancouver is reporting a new outbreak of COVID-19, this time in the renal unit on the sixth floor. Providence Health Care, which operates St. Paul's, says the outbreak was announced yesterday and is in addition to outbreaks earlier this month in two units of the hospital's Heart Centre and in the cardiac surgery intensive care unit. Services of the renal unit are being maintained in other areas while new admissions and transfers are halted. The rest of the busy hospital, including its emergency room, remains open. Providence Health Care is also dealing with a C

A BC man convicted of two counts of criminal negligence causing death has lost an appeal of the indeterminate sentence he received after being declared a dangerous offender. Martin Tremblay was convicted for the March 2010 deaths of two teenagers who were plied with alcohol and drugs before being sexually assaulted in Tremblay's Richmond home. His trial heard he invited 16 year old Kayla Lalonde and 17 year old Martha Jackson to his home, gave them drugs and alcohol until they passed out, sexually assaulted them and then failed to get help when their conditions deteriorated.The BC Court of Ap

Someone hit it very big in a hard-luck Appalachian coal-mining community, where a jackpot-winning Powerball ticket worth $731 million was sold this week. The Maryland Lottery says the fifth-largest lottery prize in U.S. history was won by someone who bought a ticket at Coney Market in Lonaconing. That's in a remote corner of Maryland where jobs are few and poverty runs deep. Maryland is a state that allows lottery winners to remain anonymous. Shop owner Richard Ravenscroft told The Associated Press he hopes whoever won it will use it wisely and enable others to benefit as well.