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

Vancouver police say 100 officers were sent to a restaurant where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was dining last night, after it was surrounded by protesters chanting for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.Police say one man was arrested for assaulting an officer, and another for obstruction, while social media videos showed protesters waving Palestinian flags, shouting slogans and jeering Trudeau outside the restaurant in Vancouver's Chinatown.Sgt. Steve Addison says the officers were sent to control the crowd so Trudeau could leave the restaurant just before 10 p.m.Addison says a 27-year-old

The wreckage of a plane that authorities believe is decades old has been found south of Kamloops, B.C.The Transportation Safety Board says in a statement that it was made aware of the wreck and investigators have been in contact with Kamloops RCMP.It says it hasn't identified which aircraft was involved in the crash.A notice on the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System says a hunter reached out to the Kamloops flight information centre after finding the downed aircraft.The notice says RCMP responded and verified the wreckage was at least 20 to 25 years old.It says there was no regis