The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says home sales dropped by 39.4 per cent in April from a year earlier to hit an almost four-decade low. The number of homes sold also fell to an almost 40 year low, with just 11-hundred and nine changing hands last month. But the average price for a home has climbed 2.5 per cent since April 2019 to 1.04 million dollars.

Transit users in Metro Vancouver will have to start paying bus fares again starting June 1. TransLink, the authority responsible for regional transportation, says fare collection and front-door boarding on buses will resume next month, although physical distancing measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 remain in place. TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond says in a statement that Plexiglas or vinyl barriers will be installed on buses to ensure the safety of drivers. Fare collection was halted in mid-March and passengers were required to board buses by rear doors and use only designated seats as the

British Columbia's egg producers are joining the effort to keep Canadians fed during the COVID-19 pandemic. BC Egg, the organization representing all registered egg farmers in the province, says it will donate 25,000 dozen eggs to Food Banks BC every week. The organization says all egg farmers in B.C. will share the cost of the donation. Food Banks BC executive director Laura Lansink says protein is one of the most sought-after food bank items and more than 100,000 individuals, families and children who depend on food assistance every month will appreciate the donation.

Air Canada's CEO is using the word cataclysmic to describe the damage the COVID-19 pandemic has done to the airline industry. The company lost more than one-billion-dollars in the first quarter. Calin Rovinescu is predicting it will take Air Canada at least three years to return to the flight capacity and earnings heights of last year, calling this the darkest period ever in the history of commercial aviation.

The Abbotsford International Airshow has been cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Airshow society president Jim Reith says they had hoped the spread of virus would be minimized in time for the event in August. He says the primary goal of the airshow society is to put on an event that is safe for all spectators and participants, and the decision to cancel was necessary for health and safety reasons. The event attracts thousands of people to watch flight demonstrations from Canadian, American and international participants.

Ontario is reporting 370 new cases of COVID-19 today, and 84 more deaths. That brings the provincial total to nearly 18,000 cases, including 1,300 deaths and more than 12,500 resolved cases. The new provincial total is 2.1 per cent higher than the previous day, which is part of a downward trend.

Quebec is pushing back the reopening of retail stores in the greater Montreal area by one week, to May 18. Premier Francois Legault said today there are too many COVID-19 patients in Montreal's hospitals to safely open retail stores by the originally scheduled date. Legault says the construction and manufacturing sectors across Quebec will reopen, as scheduled, on May 11. Meanwhile, Quebec recorded another 75 COVID-19 deaths, for a total of 2,280, and the province announced 32,623 confirmed cases of the virus, an increase of 758 over the previous day.

World leaders are pledging billions of dollars for research into a vaccine against the new coronavirus.During a video conference of leaders this morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged $850 million to bolster international efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and treatment, as well as to aid developing countries.UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says the funding target of $11.5 billion to help find a vaccine, new treatments and better tests for the disease would be merely a downpayment on the tools that will be needed to fight the virus.

A much anticipated new phase in the COVID-19 pandemic starts today with several provinces beginning the process of slowly loosening some of their lockdown restrictions.Quebec, which accounts for more than half of Canada's coronavirus cases, including deaths from the illness, is reopening retail stores outside Montreal while those in the greater Montreal area are to reopen on May 11.Ontario, the other epicentre for the virus, is allowing a small list of mostly seasonal businesses to reopen, including garden centres with curbside pick-ups, lawn care and landscaping companies, and automatic car w