The latest numbers from Statistics Canada show BC is holding its own as overall unemployment in the province dipped in January to 4.5 per cent from 4.8 the month earlier. Jobs Minister Michelle Mungall says in a statement that B-C continues to have the lowest unemployment of any province or territory and the data confirms the NDP government's approach toward building a stable economy. The jobless rate across Canada was also down slightly to 5.5 per cent, one-tenth of a point lower than its December setting. Number crunchers say strong performances from the manufacturing, construction and agri

The cost to Canadian taxpayers to build the Trans Mountain pipeline has ballooned to 12.6-billion dollars from its initial estimate of 7.4-billion dollars. The president and C-E-O of the federally owned company provided an update on the pipeline upgrade which will triple the amount of Alberta bitumen moving from the Edmonton-area to port in Burnaby and on to overseas markets by freighter. Ian Anderson says when spending committed so far is subtracted from the total budget, just over eight-billion dollars will be needed to complete the project plus nearly two-billion dollars in financial carry

A judge has ordered the Metro Vancouver city of Surrey to immediately stop ticketing and fining Uber drivers. The city had been issuing $500 tickets to drivers, arguing that they were operating without a business licence. However, Uber claimed in court that drivers held the appropriate provincial permits and Surrey had not created a municipal licence that its drivers could apply for. Uber filed for an injunction against Surrey and a British Columbia Supreme Court judge ruled in favour of the ride-hailing company. Justice Veronica Jackson also ordered that the city pay Uber's court costs. Surre

RCMP say they have a man in custody who was wanted in relation to a shooting that injured an innocent bystander in 2017.A 62 year old woman visiting Surrey from Ontario was injured in the incident that summer.Three men faced 15 charges after an RCMP investigation into the shooting led them to a significant seizure of evidence including almost $200,000 in cash and significant amounts of drugs and firearms.The Mounties say the first two men were arrested in December and January and they now also have 21-year-old Noah Didhra in custody.

A plane carrying Canadians from Wuhan, China, has landed at a military base in Ontario where they will spend 14 days under quarantine. The evacuation flight was arranged by the Canadian government. All of Canada's evacuees will stay at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Trenton, Ontario, where they will be monitored for the virus that has caused hundreds of deaths in Wuhan. Several governments have arranged similar flights including the U.S. and are requiring quarantines for the maximum incubation period of the virus to prevent local outbreaks.

The Chinese doctor who first broke out the information about a "SARS-like" disease in December last year died of the coronavirus. Li Wenliang died of the deadly disease in the early hour of Friday (local time) at the Wuhan Central Hospital. "Our hospital's ophthalmologist Li Wenliang was unfortunately infected with coronavirus during his work in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic," the hospital statement read on Friday, as quoted by CNN. Soon after the news of Li's death broke out, Chinese people started pouring tribute to the doctor. In December last year, Li informed his medical sch

The British Columbia government is moving to curtail lawyers and legal costs in the public auto insurance system by severely limiting injured people's ability to sue at-fault drivers or the auto insurer after a crash. The government says legislation will be introduced in the coming weeks that will lower premiums at the Insurance Corporation of B.C. by about 20 per cent, an average of $400 in savings per driver. At the same time, maximum care and treatment benefits for anyone injured in a crash would increase to at least $7.5 million, and those benefits will be available to every B.C. driver w

Victoria police say a woman is in custody after a break-and-enter call set off the evacuation of an apartment building and a four-hour standoff. Police say they were called to a business when an alarm was set off early this morning and officers spotted a woman leaving the scene over a rooftop. They say the woman then broke into a nearby apartment building, pulled the fire alarm, discharged an extinguisher and then barricaded herself inside a suite. When negotiations failed, police say officers used a loud distraction device to make the arrest and she now faces the possibility of multiple char

Two more presumptive cases of the novel coronavirus have been diagnosed in British Columbia. Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, says a man and woman, both visitors from China's Hubei province, have been confirmed to have the illness. Henry says the visitors are linked to a woman who was diagnosed earlier this week in the Vancouver area. She says officials are confident one of the newly diagnosed people is the source of the novel coronavirus in that household. Henry says that source is a young, healthy man who had a very mild illness and didn't seek medical attention. B.C. wi