Evacuation orders and alerts are now posted for three wildfires in the Lillooet, Kamloops and Fort St. John areas, as the wildfire season takes hold. Orders and alerts were issued last night as a fire near Pavilion, just north of Lillooet, flared to 50 square kilometres, while residents of 18 addresses around Sparks Lake, north of Kamloops, have also been ordered out. More than 100 other properties in the same area are under an evacuation alert because of a 23-square kilometre fire there. An alert was also posted by the Peace River Regional District in response to a 30-square kilometre blaze

Metro Vancouver residents are being urged to conserve water as daily consumption across the region reached near-record levels over the weekend. A statement from Metro Vancouver says daily water consumption hit 1.79 billion litres on Sunday, just shy of the all-time high set in 2009, when almost two billion litres were used on a single summer day. Metro Vancouver says that, as of yesterday, drinking water reservoirs are within normal levels, but the continued hot, dry weather, along with unchecked demand for wate, will quickly deplete the region's storage reserves. Lawn watering restrictions a

Bill Cosby has been freed from prison after Pennsylvania's highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned comedian Bill Cosby's conviction for sexually assaulting Canadian Andrea Constand. It is a stunning reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as ``America's Dad.'' The state Supreme Court said Wednesday that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor's agreement not to charge Cosby. The 83-year-old Cosby served nearly three years of a three- to 10-year sentence.

Vancouver's fire department says resources are being stretched to the breaking point as crews respond to calls related to the heat wave and the overdose crisis, just as the pandemic is winding down. Captain Jonathan Gormick of Vancouver Fire Rescue Services says three times the number of calls are coming in compared with earlier this year, and extra crews are being brought in for critical response roles. He says that in addition to cardiac, heat and overdose emergencies, crews also responded to a fire at Wreck Beach yesterday involving the BC Wildfire Service. Gormick says response times are

The Lower Kootenay Band in British Columbia says a search using ground-penetrating radar has found 182 human remains in unmarked graves at a site close to a former residential school. In a news release, the band says the community of aqam began using the technology last year to search a site near Cranbrook that is close to the former St. Eugene's Mission School, which was operated by the Catholic Church from 1912 until the early 1970s. It says the search found the remains in unmarked graves, some as shallow as 90 centimetres to 1.2 metres. The release says it's believed the remains are those o

The B.C. Wildfire Service is dealing with two out-of-control blazes in the Interior that have prompted evacuation alerts.The McKay Creek fire was discovered Tuesday burning about 23 kilometres north of Lillooet, and has grown to approximately 50 square kilometres as a result of the hot and dry conditions.The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District has issued an evacuation alert for a large area of West Pavilion Road.The Sparks Lake fire covers 23 square kilometres in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District about 15 kilometres north of Kamloops Lake. An evacuation order has been listed for nine prope

Statistics Canada says the economy contracted in April as real gross domestic product posted its first decline since April 2020 during the first wave of the pandemic.The agency says real gross domestic product fell 0.3 per cent in April.The result compared with an initial estimate for April for a drop of 0.8 per cent.Statistics Canada says its preliminary estimate for May shows a drop of 0.3 per cent as many restrictions were still in place through the month as the country grappled with the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.The decline in April, as well as the early estimate for May, put ov

On the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the Digital India campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with the beneficiaries of its various schemes on July 1 via video conferencing, informed Ministry of Electronics and IT on Wednesday."Digital India has been one of the biggest success stories of New India -- enabling services, bringing Government closer to citizens, promoting citizen engagement and empowering people," the official release reads.Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will also be present on the occasion and will deliver the opening remarks.The interactive

Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, have issued a joint statement regarding updates on the COVID-19 response in British Columbia. BC had 29 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 147,578 cases in British Columbia.There are currently 876 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and a further 144,931 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 110 individuals are currently hospitalized, 34 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.There have been no new COVID-19 related de