At a press conference held at Surrey City Hall today to announce rewards for extortion cases, it was reported that a total of 44 files related to extortion are being investigated in the area. Meanwhile, it was also clarified that 27 of these cases were such, where shooting also took place. Connect FM asked SPS Chief, Chief Constable Norm Lipinski during a one-on-one conversation, “how many arrests have been made so far in these 44 cases?” The police chief said, “some warrants have been executed and some persons of interest have been identified but there have been no arrests related to th

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government is adding proof of citizenship markers to driver's licences and other forms of identification to streamline services and prevent election fraud. She says this will make it easier for students and the disabled to get funding given they have to prove their citizenship to do so. She says the goal is also to protect democracy to make sure that only citizens vote. Smith says non-citizens like permanent residents who can get a driver's licences will not have any notation on their IDs. Alberta Health Care numbers will also be added to driver'

Vancouver Police are investigating a single-vehicle collision that resulted in the death of a 58-year-old driver. VPD officers responded at 10:50 p.m. on Sunday, after a blue 2020 Kia Rio collided with a concrete barrier at the south end of Main Street, near East Kent Avenue. The lone occupant suffered grave injuries and later died. The cause of the collision is under investigation. Witnesses, or anyone with dash-cam video from the area around the time of the collision, are asked to contact the VPD Collision Investigation Unit at 604-717-3012.

British Columbia's forecasted deficit has hit a record high of almost $11.6 billion for the first quarter of the 2025-2026 fiscal year, largely due to the elimination of the carbon tax and amid ``global trade uncertainty.'' Finance Minister Brenda Bailey is also projecting higher deficits than she previously forecasted through to 2028 as growth slides, while the province's debt is predicted to spike by almost $60 billion over the next two fiscal years. Bailey's fiscal update revises gross domestic product growth down to 1.5 per cent from 1.8 per cent in 2025, and to 1.3 per cent fro

Today, Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and Chief Constable Norm Lipinski (Surrey Police Service chief) announced a reward of up to $250,000 for tips on the increasing number of extortion incidents in Surrey. Mayor Brenda Locke said the money will be given to those whose information is useful and leads to arrests, prosecutions and convictions in cases. The money will only be given after and in accordance to the value of the information (based on assessing the value of information). A separate Surrey Extortion tip line has been set up to provide tips. Chief Constable Norm Lipinski said, “the tip li

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney is painting a bleak picture of what will happen if Albertans are forced to vote on a referendum on separation, calling it a deeply divisive, non-violent version of a civil war. Kenney, Alberta's premier from 2019 to 2022, says a small minority of angry people should not be able to push a separatist agenda that impacts everyone in the province. He says it's deeply divisive and would divide families, friends and communities if it goes forward. Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservative government is officially lowering the required threshold for

British Columbia's Finance Minister Brenda Bailey says the first quarterly update for the 2025/26 fiscal year will update B.C.'s economic landscape and her government's three-year-fiscal plan. Bailey, who will present her update this morning at the provincial legislature in Victoria, says the update will also include reporting on revenue and spending in the first quarter of the fiscal year. The final update for the last fiscal year pegged B.C.'s deficit at $7.3 billion, $564 million lower than original projected number in budget 2024, and $1.8 billion lower than the third-quarter forecast. Bai

Canada's Camryn Rogers defended her women's hammer throw world title in dominant fashion. Rogers, from Richmond, B.C., broke her own Canadian record with a throw of 80.51 metres on Monday to take the gold medal at the world athletics championships. Silver medallist Zhao Jie of China was well back of Rogers with a throw of 77.60 metres. Another Chinese thrower, Zhang Jaile, was third at 77.10 metres. The 26-year-old Rogers now has two world championship gold medals to go with her Olympic title at the 2024 Paris Games. It was Canada's second gold at the world championships after E

Premier Danielle Smith's Alberta Next panel is in Airdrie tonight, as she marches through a final stretch of town halls surveying the public on the province's relationship with the federal government. It's the eighth of 10 in-person town halls scheduled for the panel, which has been travelling across Alberta since mid-July to address grievances Smith says are fostering separatist sentiment. The event in the Calgary bedroom community comes hot on the heels of a town hall in Lethbridge, where Smith met a mostly friendly crowd that cheered mentions of separation and widely supported th