The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it has detected the presence of avian influenza at a non-poultry, non-commercial location in the central Okanagan. It is now the 52nd place in B-C where the contagious viral infection has been detected at commercial or backyard bird operations since October. This comes after the C-F-I-A confirmed the presence of the flu at a commercial poultry farm in Abbotsford on Saturday. Commonly known as bird flu, avian influenza can affect several species of food producing birds as well as pet birds and wild birds.

British Columbia has announced a new three-year action plan that includes building more housing for those fleeing violence, adding 75 new sexual assault support programs, establishing new free virtual counselling as well as new 24/7 crisis lines and new policing standards. Amy FitzGerald, executive director of the BC Society of Transition Houses, says the organization welcomes the investments, but it is still not enough. She says the society's research shows that only four per cent of the 80-thousand women and children who access their services move on to long-term, safe and affordable housi

Time is running out for the Liberal government to table pharmacare legislation before the end of the year, but the NDP's health critic says almost-daily phone calls are still giving him hope. Still, if the Liberals need more time, New Democrat MP Don Davies says his party is prepared to give it. The Liberals and NDP signed a supply-and-confidence deal last year that sees the opposition party support the minority government on key votes in exchange for progress on New Democrat priorities. The deal states that pharmacare legislation must be passed by the end of the year. That hope is now dashe

About 80,000 unionized Quebec nurses and other health-care workers will be joining fellow public sector workers already on strike since last week. The health workers are members of the FIQ, who will begin a four-day strike today, joining workers from four unions representing 420,000 Quebec public sector workers who began a weeklong strike on Friday. Those workers include teachers, education support staff and lab technicians and are members of a group of four unions that calls itself the "common front." The unions rejected the government's most recent contract offer, which includes a salary

Ottawa announced today that seniors over the age of 87 will be the first cohort that can apply to join a new federal dental-benefits plan, which will be phased in slowly over the next year. Health Minister Mark Holland announced the rollout of the program this morning, and it is budgeted to cost 13 billion dollars over the next five years.The program is for people with an annual household income under 90-thousand dollars who don't have access to private insurance. Eligibility will be slowly expanded over the course of 2024 to include all qualifying seniors, children under the age of 18 and peo

House Speaker Greg Fergus apologized to a committee of MPs this morning for a video he made that was shown at a recent Ontario Liberal Party convention. Fergus was called to speak to the committee on procedure and House affairs, which is examining whether the non-partisan Speaker should be punished for appearing in the video in his ceremonial robes. The committee has scheduled five hours of hearings on this today, with witnesses that also include House clerks and John Fraser, the Ontario member of the provincial parliament who was the subject of Fergus's video. Fergus says a member of Frase

The federal government says it has recovered $40 million from the now-defunct Quebec-based vaccine developer Medicago, and the intellectual property will remain in Canada under a new firm. The government provided Medicago a $173-million advance in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to develop and produce a plant-based vaccine in Quebec City. The company's Japanese parent company, Mitsubishi Chemical Group, shut down Medicago's operations in February as global demand for vaccinations plummeted. Though Medicago's vaccine was approved for use in Canada, it was not approved by the World Healt

Statistics Canada says about one in nine Canadian adults have had long-term symptoms from COVID-19 infection.The report released today says that amounts to 3.5 million Canadians. Symptoms are defined as long-term if they persist for three months or longer after a COVID-19 infection and they can't be explained by anything else. Almost 80 per cent of people with long-term symptoms have them for six months or more. StatCan says more than half of those who ever had long-term symptoms still had them as of June 2023. Two-thirds of Canadian adults who have tried to get health-care services for their

More than 200 crashes have occurred from last night to this morning due to Thursday night's snow fall in Calgary. Due to the storm, the drivers had to face a lot of trouble. According to the police, people have been injured in 13 out of 200 crashes.They said that 6 crashes took place this morning, out of which injuries were reported during one of the accidents. Due to slippery roads, control over vehicles is reduced. According to city officials, they have ordered more crews and 60 trucks to remove snow from the roads. Snow removal is being done with the help of roller coaster.People are warned