British Columbia will permanently allow restaurants, bars and tourism operators to buy liquor at wholesale prices, a move that industry hopes will help revive the struggling sector. The provincial government made temporary changes last June to allow the hospitality industry to buy alcohol at the same cost as liquor stores and it has now made that decision permanent. Previously, restaurants, pubs and tourism businesses with liquor licences paid full retail price, the wholesale price, plus a markup set by the government on most alcohol purchases. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth says in a news

Victoria police say they seized drugs and weapons following a traffic stop. They say the officers conducted a traffic stop late Sunday in the 400 block of Gorge Road East. Police say officers found drugs, cash, three firearms, an SKS style rifle and two replica handguns, as well as knives and an extendable baton. They say they are investigating the case and no other details were given. Victoria police on twitter: Yesterday Patrol officers conducted a traffic stop in the 400-block of Gorge Road East & discovered drugs, cash & weapons-including multiple knives, a collapsible baton, 2 re

Oak Bay police say a driver who offered an officer a chance to appear on TikTok ended up being investigated for impaired driving. They say the offer was made after by a 20 year old man Saturday around 10 pm after he was pulled over for failing to halt at a stop sign. Police say the officer "reluctantly declined" the offer to be on TikTok, an online social networking service for sharing videos. They say the driver's vehicle was towed, his licence was suspended for 24 hours and he received a 230 dollars ticket for operating a motor vehicle with cannabis in it. They say he was also issued a 167

Public health officials in British Columbia are reporting 1,428 new COVID-19 cases over the past three days, for a total of 77,263 since the pandemic began in the province.There have also been eight more deaths, bringing the number of fatalities linked to the new coronavirus to 1,335 in B.C. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix say in a joint statement that 218,726 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, of which 55,057 are second doses.Henry and Dix also reported two new health-care facility outbreaks at Vancouver General Hospital and Kelowna Gen

A group of people caught gambling at a local business in Surrey, B.C., face fines for not following COVID-19 regulations. RCMP say they saw several people leave through the back of a business as officers knocked on the front door late Thursday during a compliance check on the business. Police say in a statement that officers saw people without masks playing cards inside the business, which was closed to the public at that time. Officers handed out tickets to 14 people, totalling just over $5000 in fines. Spokeswoman Sgt. Elenore Sturko called the business a ``full house'' of non-compliant peo

A mild earthquake occurred early this morning in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Vancouver Island. The US Geological Survey says the quake measured 4.5 and occurred 10 kilometres below the earth's crust, roughly 250 kilometres southwest of Tofino. Officials say there are no reports of damage or injury and none would be expected. The shaker occurred near the eastern edge of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where the Juan de Fuca plate is sliding under the North America plate, causing as many as one-thousand small temblors every year. And it's raising the potential for a much larger quake as the tw

A man has died while riding his all-terrain vehicle in British Columbia's Fraser Valley. Kent Harrison Search and Rescue says in a social media post that its members responded late Saturday to reports about the missing 21 year old. He had been seen several hours earlier but had not returned from a trip along a forest service road on the east side of Harrison Lake, about 160 kilometres east of Vancouver. Sixteen searchers scoured roughly 30 kilometres of logging roads through the night and rescue efforts resumed Sunday, with assistance from neighbouring Mission Search and Rescue. The man was f

Five patients and two staff members in one unit at Vancouver General Hospital have tested positive for COVID-19, prompting health officials to declare an outbreak in that section of the hospital. Vancouver Coastal Health says inpatient unit T10C in the hospital's Jim Pattison Pavilion is now closed to new admissions and transfers. Visits to the unit, on the tenth floor of the hospital's highrise tower, have been suspended except for end-of-life compassionate visits. The health authority says strict infection prevention and control protocols have been implemented. Those include enhanced cleani

Just three hotels in Vancouver have been authorized so far to accept quarantine visitors flying in from outside Canada. The three-night forced stay at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport, the Radisson Vancouver Airport or the Westin Wall Centre, Vancouver Airport will cost two thousand dollars. For that, you'll get the room, food, security, transportation and COVID-19 infection prevention and control. The new federal quarantine measures for travels start today and limit air travel arrivals from outside Canada to just four cities. Flights from outside Canada will be arriving in Vancouver, Calgary,