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

Statistics Canada says inflation fell in B-C last month as gasoline prices nudged downward countrywide. The latest data shows that BC recorded an inflation rate of 2.7 per cent in October, down from 3.3 per cent the month earlier. Vancouver and Victoria both saw their rates drop, with Vancouver's falling from 4 per cent to 3.4 per cent and Victoria's dipping half a point to 2.3 per cent. Nationally, October's cost of living slowed to 3.1 per cent on a year-over-year basis, down from 3.8 per cent in September as the price of gasoline was nearly eight per cent cheaper than it was one year ear

The mayor of Surrey, B.C., says the city will mount a constitutional challenge to the province's appointment of an administrator to take over the police board and oversee the transition to a municipal police force.Brenda Locke, who opposes the transition, says an amended court petition will be filed today, after the city already requested a judicial review of the province's directive to proceed with the switch away from the RCMP.Locke says the city will not approve any transition if it is unaffordable to taxpayers and the province has no right to run "roughshod" over any municipal government "

Plane wreckage that made headlines this week when officials announced a hunter had stumbled on what police thought was a decades-old crash site in the B.C. Interior was actually placed there deliberately for training purposes.A notice posted Tuesday on the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System says the RCMP inspected the site north of Kamloops and "verified" the wreckage was at least 20 to 25 years old, and it carried no registration or identifying marks.But Fred Carey, executive director with volunteer air safety group PEP-Air, says their group planted the fuselage there two years

New data suggest that COVID-19 activity in British Columbia is trending downward, while influenza and RSV are on the rise. A weekly update provided Thursday by the BC Centre for Disease Control says COVID-19 cases, new hospitalizations and deaths are all declining from a peak in the first week of October.It says there were 25 deaths of patients with COVID last week, down from 70 three weeks earlier. But the number of people in hospital with COVID-19, including new and previous admissions, has risen to 263 as of Thursday.The CDC says Influenza A is behind a rise in flu activity, accounting for

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke says the provincial government has orchestrated a policing takeover in the city by suspending the current police board.Solicitor General Mike Farnworth suspended the board Thursday and installed former Abbotsford police chief Mike Serr as temporary administrator to lead the transition.Locke says the move was done without any consultation with the city and removes civilian oversight of policing in Surrey as the plan to replace the RCMP with a municipal force moves forward.Locke says the province is forcing the city to go ahead with the costly transition, while taking o

The Government of Canada has announced spending $319.5 million to develop 843 rental homes in Surrey.With the help of the Rental Construction Financing Initiative, the government will increase the supply of new rental developments to address the housing crisis.The announcement was made by Diversity Minister Kamal Khera, Housing Minister Sean Fraser, Surrey MP Randeep Sarai, Housing Minister and Chief Financial Officer at 9656 King George Avenue in Surrey.The building will have 392 units and will feature a 6-storey podium in front of the Surrey Medical Building.The residential building will be