It's Make a Will week across BC as the provincial government encourages residents to write a will or bring an existing one up-to-date. BC responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with legislation in August that makes it easier to create wills which can be signed electronically and stored online. A spokeswoman for a Toronto-based online estate planning platform says almost two-thirds of B-C residents are thinking more about emergency preparedness because of the pandemic. But data shows only 38 per cent of B-C residents have an up-to-date will and 90 per cent of millennials don't have a will at all.

The hospital in Delta., B.C., is not admitting new inpatients due to an outbreak of COVID-19, though the emergency department remains open and all scheduled surgeries will continue. The Fraser Health Authority, which operates Delta Hospital, says patients requiring care outside those units will not be admitted ``for the time being'' in order to protect them from the risk of transmission. Dr. Elizabeth Brodkin, chief medical health officer at Fraser Health, says 18 patients and 17 staff have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the outbreak first identified on Sept. 16. She says seven patients have

The B.C. Liberals are promising to resurrect their previous plan when in government to build a 10-lane bridge over the Fraser River to replace the aging Massey Tunnel in Metro Vancouver. Leader Andrew Wilkinson says the Liberals, if elected on Oct. 24, will dump the NDP's long-delayed eight-lane tunnel proposal and start immediate on construction of the 10-lane bridge to replace the current tunnel. Wilkinson says the bridge project will relieve the largest traffic bottleneck in Western Canada. Wilkinson says the 10-lane bridge proposed by the Liberals when they were in government back in 2013

A popular immigration program that allows people to sponsor their parents or grandparents to come to Canada is reverting to a lottery system.Federal Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino announced the relaunch of the parent and grandparent program today, saying it will open for applications on Oct. 13. It ordinarily opens in January but was delayed this year as officials sought to revamp the system after a first-come, first-served approach buckled under excessive demand last year. A lottery system had been used before that but it led to widespread frustration that people's efforts to bring the

The lawyer for a man accused in a shooting that left four people dead in Penticton, B.C., says his client plans to plead guilty next week. John Brittain was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder after the shooting in April last year. Rudi Winter, Barry and Susan Wonch and Darlene Knippelberg were all killed. Defence lawyer Paul McMurray told a B.C. Supreme Court judge hearing the case in Kelowna that he's expecting Brittain to plead guilty to all four indictments in court on Oct. 14. Brittain was a former city employee whom Penticton Mayor John

Former Green leader Elizabeth May slammed the New Democrats this morning for refusing stand down their candidate in a coming byelection so the first Black woman elected to lead a federal party in Canada can win a seat. Annamie Paul is the new leader of the Green party after winning on the eighth ballot of the contest Saturday. Paul says she is not surprised none of the other parties will offer what's sometimes called "leader's courtesy" in the upcoming byelection in Toronto Centre but that she is used to overcoming obstacles. But May says in 2019, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said it was "classy"

Elections BC has wrapped up an investigation into allegations of corrupt voting by a Liberal candidate, saying it found no evidence to shore up the claims.A probe was launched earlier this week after a complaint from the NDP saying the campaign for Liberal candidate Garry Thind was gathering personal information to illegally request vote-by-mail packages.It's illegal to obtain a ballot on behalf of another voter.A statement from Elections BC says it found no evidence of improper vote-by-mail package requests.It says the complaint against Thind, the candidate in district of Surrey-Fleetwood, h

An election promise by British Columbia Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson to intervene in the city of Surrey's transition away from the RCMP is drawing fire. Wilkinson has promised an elected Liberal government would freeze the transition to the independent police force and hold a referendum to put the final choice in the hands of Surrey residents. Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum was elected on the promise of changing the police force and says in a statement he's appalled the Liberal leader would stoop to this level of desperation to garner votes. McCallum says the B.C. Liberals decision to interfer

British Columbia announced 161 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday and three additional deaths related to the virus. In a statement, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and deputy health minister Stephen Brown say there are 1,302 active cases in the province. 63 people were being treated in hospital, with 16 of them in intensive care. The province has had a total of 9,381 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began and the number of people who have died stood at 238. The statement says there were 3,114 people being monitored because they have been exposed to a known case. On Thursday, Henry