The BC Wildfire Service has announced open fire bans that will prohibit most burning activities in most coastal areas of the province, with exceptions for Haida Gwaii. The ban on Category 2 and Category 3 open fires in the Coastal Fire Centre comes into effect at noon Friday, and the service says it's being imposed to reduce the risk of wildfires. The service says the ban will remain in place until Oct. 31 or until it is rescinded. Category 1 campfires that are no more than half a metre high by half a metre wide will still be allowed, as well as cooking stoves. The bans cover west of the Coast

The Edmonton Oilers are just one victory away from clinching the N-H-L's Western Conference playoff series and moving on to a second straight appearance in the Stanley Cup Final. After dropping the series opener to the Dallas Stars, the Oilers have won the last three games, including last night's 4-1 victory before hometown fans at Rogers Place. Edmonton could send the Stars packing with a Game-5 win tomorrow night in Texas.Tonight, the defending champion Florida Panthers will try to wrap up the Eastern final tonight as they take a 3-1 lead into Game 5 against the host Carolina Hurricanes.

Defence Minister David McGuinty says that Canada still doesn't know what it would cost to join U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed "Golden Dome" missile defence program. On Tuesday, in a social media post, Trump said it would cost Canada $61 billion to join as a sovereign country but nothing at all if it became a U.S. state. Trump claimed that Canada is "considering the offer." When asked about Trump's comments, Prime Minister Mark Carney said he won't negotiate in public. Trump announced plans for a complex missile defence system modelled after Israel's "Iron Dome" earlier this month and c

British Columbia's Labour Ministry says the province's lowest paid workers are getting a pay bump as of Sunday. It says the minimum wage will increase from $17.40 to $17.85 an hour. The ministry says the 2.6 per cent increase also applies to pay rates for resident caretakers, live-in home-support workers, live-in camp leaders and app-based delivery and ride-hail services workers. The government says it has made regular, gradual increases to the minimum wage to provide certainty for workers and predictability for businesses. It says this is the fourth year of the government's ongoin

Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, one of the stalwart leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal, has passed away. He was 89 years old. According to the information received, he had been ill for some time and was undergoing treatment in a hospital in Mohali, where he breathed his last today. He was honored with the Padma Bhushan award in 2019. Dhindsa has had a long political journey with the late Parkash Singh Badal. He entered the Punjab Vidhan Sabha after winning the election as an independent candidate in 1972, after which he joined the Shiromani Akali Dal under the leadership of Harchand Singh Longowal. H

Two men are to be sentenced today for their role in a human smuggling operation that saw a family of four freeze to death on the Canada-U.S. border south of Winnipeg. Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand were convicted last fall on four charges related to bringing people illegally into the United States and transporting them. Court was told during one operation in January of 2022, a couple from India and their two children were left to walk across the border in an overnight blizzard on the bald prairie, as temperatures dropped below -20 C. Prosecutors say Patel organized the logistics while Shand

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says Canada has invited her to attend the G7 leaders' summit next month in Alberta but she hasn't decided yet if she'll attend. At her press briefing this morning, Sheinbaum said she has not confirmed her attendance at the upcoming summit in Kananaskis, Alta. U.S. President Donald Trump is set to attend the summit, along with other leaders from the group of advanced, democratic economies, such as France and Japan. Ottawa also has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the summit, which runs from June 15 to June 17. Canada was supposed to host the

Parliament gets back to work Wednesday with a new Speaker, a new prime minister and plenty of new faces in the House of Commons. Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia will preside over the House of Commons for the first time today, while his office has confirmed that all 343 members of Parliament have now been sworn in. Roughly a third of those MPs, including Prime Minister Mark Carney, were elected for the first time in April and will face their first question period today. King Charles formally opened Parliament on Tuesday with the speech from the throne and the minority Liberal government says it

The Carney government has fulfilled its promise of GST relief. Now first-time buyers buying new homes worth up to a million dollars will save $50,000. In addition, the GST on new homes priced between $1 million and $1.5 million has also been reduced for first-time homebuyers. In this regard, Finance Minister Francois Philippe Champagne tabled legislative proposals for changes to the Excise Tax Act today. According to government figures, this rebate will save Canadians $3.9 billion in taxes over the next five years. People who are buying a new home from a builder will qualify for this rebate. T