Cellphone use will be restricted in all British Columbia school districts when pupils return next week, as the province becomes the latest to curtail the use of the devices in classrooms. Premier David Eby says all school districts now have policies in place to ban cellphone use "bell to bell," in line with a government directive announced in April. The province is also imposing "access zones" around schools allowing police to arrest or issue tickets to anyone found impeding access, disrupting educational activities, or attempting to intimidate an individual within 20 metres of school property

A 17-year-old from Ontario is dead after climbing over a fence and falling off the edge of a cliff in a popular park in North Vancouver, B.C. Dwayne Derban, assistant fire chief with North Vancouver Fire and Rescue, says the boy was in an off-trail area of Lynn Canyon Park when it happened Sunday afternoon. Derban says there are signs warning people to stay away from dangerous areas, but the boy's friends told firefighters that he had climbed over a fence to get a better look at the river canyon and he "just got too close" to the edge. Derban says the boy fell onto rocks about 50 metres below

BC Hydro says it has begun filling the reservoir created by the massive Site C dam project in northeastern British Columbia. The provincial electric utility says in a statement that the filling of the reservoir is one of the last steps toward starting operations for the controversial dam project, located about 14 kilometres southwest of Fort St. John, B.C. BC Hydro says it will take between two and four months to fill the 83-kilometre-long reservoir, which will cover about 5,550 hectares of land while totalling about 9,330 hectares in surface area. The utility is warning people to stay away fr

Potential disruption to British Columbia's HandyDART transit service this morning was averted after workers suspended job action to vote on a final contract offer, but strike action remains a possibility. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724 says it will give a 72-hour strike notice if the membership votes down the latest offer by Transdev Canada. Local 1724 president Joe McCann called the suspension of all job action "a gesture of goodwill" after what the union described as "months of bargaining and escalating job actions" ranging from uniform refusals to an overtime ban. McCann says the vote

The maximum allowable rent increase in British Columbia next year will be 3 per cent, down from the current 3.5 per cent. The Housing Ministry says the new amount, taking effect on Jan. 1, is tied to inflation, and comes after increases were kept "well below inflation" in 2023 and 2024. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says in a news release that keying rent rises to inflation "saves renters hundreds of dollars" compared to the previous government's policy of allowing increases of inflation plus 2 per cent. He says the inflation-indexed rent cap protects tenants against unfair rent hikes while let

Heavy rain in parts of British Columbia over the weekend has lowered wildfire activity in the southern part of the province, but firefighters say strong winds are creating some tree hazards for crews. The BC Wildfire Service says in its latest update that the number of active blazes in the province has fallen to around 311, continuing a downward trend where about 240 fires were burning entering the weekend. The wildfire service says while much of the southern part of B.C. received rain and some parts had heavy precipitation, it was accompanied by winds gusting up to 102 kilometres per hour. Th

Mounties say that officers investigating a break and enter in Prince George, B.C., stumbled on what turned out to be the biggest haul of illicit drugs in the city's history. RCMP say the officers were responding to the break-and-enter report on Wednesday when they noticed a large number of counterfeit cigarettes on the premises. They say a search warrant was obtained, and investigators seized nearly 40 kilograms of illicit drugs, including suspected fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as about 120,000 counterfeit cigarettes and more than $500,000 in cash. Officers also seized more t

Dozens of new shelter beds are opening for people living on the streets in Victoria, including at an encampment where police escorts have been required for emergency responders. A statement from the Housing Ministry says that up to 72 new beds will be made available for people living on Pandora Avenue and elsewhere. It says BC Housing is funding up to 40 new spaces at shelters run by Our Place Society as well as 32 at a shelter operated by The Salvation Army. Victoria Police last month announced that firefighters and paramedics would only attend the 900 block of Pandora Avenue with a police es

Police in North Vancouver, B.C., say homicide investigators have been called in after two women died from falling off the balcony of an apartment building. RCMP say officers responded to reports that two people who had fallen from the building on Esplanade Avenue in the city's Shipyards area at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. The two women were initially found suffering from injuries and police say they were later pronounced dead despite efforts by emergency personnel to save them. The Mounties say the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has been called and will be working with the serious crime unit at