Beginning Jan. 1, 2024, asbestos abatement employers must be licensed to operate in B.C. This means homeowners, business owners, and contractors must ensure their asbestos abatement contractor holds a valid licence before allowing them to carry out work. To enable British Columbians to verify that a contractor is licensed, WorkSafeBC has developed an Asbestos Abatement License (AAL) Registry. In B.C., asbestos is prevalent in residential and commercial buildings, posing serious health and safety risks when disturbed. Asbestos is a mineral that was used in more than 3,000 building materials f

The leader of the BC Conservatives is rejecting accusations that he's stoking hateful politics with his opposition to school programs about sexual orientation and gender identity, known as SOGI. John Rustad was responding to comments Monday by Attorney General Niki Sharma about a highway chase on the weekend that ended when a tractor flying an anti-SOGI protest flag crashed with a police car and flipped over. Sharma said it was a concerning incident and Rustad's party is to blame for ``dangerous protests'' about the issue. Rustad says parents are right to raise concerns about SOGI, saying t

BC's attorney general says the province is taking the next step in its plan to tackle online sextortion. Niki Sharma says the province intends to launch an online platform in January that will allow people to report if their intimate images are being distributed without their consent, and provide an order telling the perpetrator to stop distributing images and for online platforms to take it down. Her comments come after Mounties in Prince George, BC, said a 12-year-old boy had died by suicide after being targeted in an online sextortion scheme. Sharma called the boy's death ``terrible'' an

The British Columbia government goes up against dozens of health care and pharmaceutical companies in court today in a bid to get certification for a class-action lawsuit over the costs of the opioid crisis. It comes even after the Supreme Court of Canada agreed this month to hear a constitutional challenge by four of the companies who say a law allowing B.C. to recover costs on behalf of other governments is an overreach. Those companies then went back to the Supreme Court of B.C. to seek a delay of the certification hearing while the high court rules, but the judge said an adjournment wasn't

A high-risk sex offender arrested by Vancouver police after a 10-day manhunt earlier this month remains in custody awaiting his next court date. Randall Hopley was to appear in court on Friday, but his case was put off until Dec 8 in British Columbia provincial court. Police say Hopley cut off his electronic monitoring device after he walked away from a halfway house in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside on Nov 4. Hopley had been on a 10-year supervision order after serving a six-year prison term for abducting a three-year-old boy in southeastern B.C., but he was charged last January for allegedly

The Public Health Agency of Canada says Malichita brand cantaloupes have likely caused a salmonella outbreak acrossfive provinces.It says as of Wednesday, there have been 26 confirmed cases in B.C., Ontario, Quebec, P.E.I. and Newfoundland and Labrador.Six people have been hospitalized.The agency says if people aren't sure what brand of cantaloupe they have, they should throw it out.The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued food recalls earlier this month, includingfor whole cantaloupes, pre-cut cantaloupes and fruit trays that used the Malichita brand.It has also recalled some pre-cut pineap

One of British Columbia's first measures to combat the housing crisis is being expanded to include 13 more communities. Finance Minister Katrine Conroy says the New Democrat government's speculation and vacancy tax will now apply to 59 B.C. cities and towns. Vernon, Penticton, Courtenay and Kamloops are among the 13 communities that have been added, and starting in 2025 residential property owners will have to declare how they used the home in 2024. The levy aims to get more people into empty homes and has collected $313 million since it was first introduced in 2018. Conroy says independent d

Poultry farmers in British Columbia's Fraser Valley are reporting ``extremely high'' levels of stress as the latest avian flu outbreak puts millions of commercial birds at risk. Amanda Brittain with the BC Poultry Association says farmers are taking extra precautions, including disinfecting any vehicles travelling to and from their properties and wearing personal protective gear. She says farmers are isolating themselves from each other to avoid spreading the virus and resorting to online platforms to discuss how to handle the outbreak. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says there have bee

British Columbia Premier David Eby says it's "hard to understand'' why other politicians still believe in relying on the private sector to deliver affordable housing and instead it's time for governments to step up. Eby says there are proposals at the federal level to sell public land and buildings to help solve the crisis, but B.C. is doing the opposite by taking inventory of provincially and municipally owned land in order to build more homes. He told the BC Non-profit Housing Association's annual conference his government is the right one to tackle the housing crisis as the province fac