The mayor of Metro Vancouver's second-most populous city says ride-hailing is operating illegally in his municipality and drivers who are caught will be fined. Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum told a news conference Monday that ride-hailing companies require a municipal business licence and his city has not created a licensing regime. The city earlier warned Uber to stop operations although the company said it had all the necessary provincial licences. McCallum says 18 warnings were issued to drivers over the weekend but the grace period is over and any violators will be ticketed and face a fine of

B-C officials say a wolf that had been spotted roaming near the provincial legislature is on its way back to the wilderness. The wolf was first spotted on Saturday in the James Bay area of Victoria and was captured yesterday after police and residents worked to keep it contained until the B-C Conservation Officer Service arrived. The adult male wolf was tranquilized and safely removed. The conservation service says in a tweet that the wolf was determined to be a suitable candidate for release and was being transferred to an undisclosed wilderness location.

The RCMP say a series of four separate sexual assaults in and around Glen Park in Coquitlam, B.C., are linked. The Mounties say in a news release Monday that the first two incidents happened on Dec. 16 and Dec. 19, and two more cases occurred last Wednesday and on Saturday. The release says in each incident, the suspect targeted an adult woman by touching or slapping her and quickly running away. The alleged attacks all happened between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Cpl. Michael McLaughlin of Coquitlam RCMP says the incidents happened so quickly that no one saw the suspect's face, but he's described as a

Premier John Horgan has appointed Nathan Cullen as a liaison between the Province and the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs. Cullen, a former member of parliament for Skeena-Bulkley Valley, is tasked with acting as an intermediary by providing fact-finding, facilitation and analysis to support a peaceful resolution to the Coastal Gaslink dispute. "I'm pleased all parties have agreed to the appointment of a liaison," Premier Horgan said. "Nathan has agreed to act as an intermediary in the hopes of finding a solution to this challenging dispute." Cullen will work with the Wet'suwet'en Denezeh and

Earthquakes Canada says a magnitude 4.4 earthquake has struck of the coast of Vancouver Island. The seismic event was detected at 1:35 p.m. Pacific time. The United States Geological Survey says the quake occurred 26 kilometres underground about 48 kilometres southeast of Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It pegs the magnitude at 4.8. Some social media users say on Twitter that they felt the shake as far away as Metro Vancouver and on Vancouver Island in Nanaimo and Victoria. Friday's event comes after a sequence of eight earthquakes struck off the coast of Vancouver Island betw

Two men have been charged with first-degree murder after an attack on a man last November in Surrey, B.C.The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says Jordan Bottomley and Jagpal Hothi have appeared in provincial court in Surrey.The two men were arrested Friday and the B.C. Prosecution Service approved the charges related to the attack on 30 year old Andrew Baldwin.Police said at the time that Baldwin was found unresponsive, with critical injuries in a mainly industrial area of northwest Surrey. He was pronounced dead a short time later in hospital. Investigators have not released a possible

A teacher who is living with his pregnant wife and child in a city that is at the epicentre of China's coronavirus outbreak is hoping to get his family out safely.Tom Williams is a British expat who has been living and working for about five years in Wuhan, which is the capital of Hubei province in China. His wife Lauren, who is from Langley, B.C., is about 35 weeks pregnant, he said in a telephone interview from Wuhan. He also has a two-and-a-half-year-old son, James, who was born in White Rock, B.C. “We are quarantined in the city,” he said. While he said things are “pretty calm” an

The mayor of Surrey is not applauding the start of Uber and Lyft services in the Lower Mainland. The ride hailing services began operation today in Vancouver after the Passenger Transportation Board granted them approval to launch in the Lower Mainland and Whistler. Uber says it will also cover North and West Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and parts of Delta. But Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum says he still has concerns about what he says is the unfair advantage created for ride hailing services and will not support the issuing of business licenses for the industr

Police have identified the 45-year-old Vancouver woman attacked in a Gastown suite early Sunday. Constable Tania Visintin says Tonya Hyer was still alive when paramedics reached her at about 1:30 a.m. but died before she could be rushed to hospital. Investigators have not said what caused her death but Visintin says they believe someone has important information about her homicide -- the third in Vancouver this year. No arrests have been made.