British Columbia's top doctor says old-fashioned contact tracing, not an app, is the primary tool that's been helping public health officials find people who could be infected with COVID-19. Dr. Bonnie Henry says officials are accustomed to tracking people who could have come into contact with carriers of other diseases and COVID-19 is no different, except that 600 people have been focused on the task. Henry says an app would be more useful for when people may have spread or contracted the illness in a large crowd of people. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promoted a voluntary app called CO

The federal government will make the case to the Trump administration that Canadian aluminum is no threat to the American market, as the mercurial president reportedly prepares to slap on tariffs anew.Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos says federal officials will push back against any new protectionist effort by the U.S. administration to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum.A report from Bloomberg says the Trump administration is planning to impose a 10 per cent tariff on aluminum imports from Canada.Duclos would not say whether the government is aware of a new round of tariffs, but sa

British Columbia's top doctor is warning people not to let their guard down against COVID-19 as the province prepares to allow more travel this summer. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the premier is expected to announce later this week when the province will move into the third phase of its restart plan, which allows overnight camping and the opening of hotels, resorts and RV parks. She says travellers have to exercise caution, be respectful of the communities they plan to visit and take the same care they do at home to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. Henry says trav

A man has died after rescuing his daughter during a visit to a waterfall near Kelowna, B.C., on Father's Day. The RCMP say emergency crews rushed to the Mill Creek waterfall area after receiving a 911 call reporting a drowning. Cpl. Jocelyn Noseworthy says police learned the victim had been at the waterfall with his family and he went into the water to help his daughter after she slipped in. She says the daughter was able to get to shore. Noseworthy says bystanders tried to save the man with CPR. Paramedics took over when they arrived but despite their efforts, she says the 46-year-old man fr

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is rebutting Chinese officials for calling him "irresponsible" by linking the spying charges against two Canadians to the arrest in Canada of a Chinese high tech executive. He said today Chinese officials were the ones who initially linked the arrests of the Canadians to the arrest in Canada of a Huawei executive at the request of U.S. authorities. Trudeau rejected the notion of a prisoner exchange of sorts to win the release of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. Earlier today, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on China to release two Canadian men that h

Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, and Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, have issued the following joint statement regarding updates on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) response in British Columbia: "Today, we are announcing seven new COVID-19 confirmed positive cases, for a total of 2,790 cases in British Columbia."There are 178 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 2,444 people who tested positive have recovered."Of the total COVID-19 cases, 11 individuals are hospitalized, six of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in

Health Minister Adrian Dix says he was told last night about what he says is an "unacceptable and racist" game played by health care workers in at least one emergency room in B.C. Dix isn't identifying the ER because he says it's still unknown if the alleged game occurred in more than one hospital but he says it involved guessing the blood alcohol level of patients, especially Indigenous patients. Dix says lawyer and B.C.'s former Children and Youth representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond has agreed to investigate and make recommendations. He says the allegations are "beyond disappointing" an

An independent school in B.C.'s Fraser Health region has suspended classes after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the person held a variety of roles at the school, including teaching. Henry says a positive COVID-19 case at a school isn't unexpected, adding that she spoke about such a possibility when schools first reopened. British Columbia announced eight new cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 2,783. Health Minister Adrian Dix announced that staff at all 501 long term care homes in

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says a made-in-Canada mobile app to alert Canadians who may have been exposed to a person infected with COVID-19 is ready for testing in Ontario.Trudeau says the app is completely voluntary and will not share or store any personal information, including a user's geographical location.However he says the app will be more effective the more people download and use it.It will work by asking people to anonymously tell the app if they have tested positive for COVID-19, and then all the phones that have recently been close to that phone for an extended time will alert t