An earthquake early detection system has been activated in British Columbia to provide the public and infrastructure managers with up to 10 seconds of warning ahead of a potentially harmful tremor. Federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says when a strong earthquake is detected, alerts will be transmitted automatically to British Columbians via cellphones, radio and televisions. He says the system, jointly announced by the federal and B.C. government, will also allow critical infrastructure to take immediate action, such as halting traffic from driving onto bridges or

A former correctional officer is facing nine charges including obstruction of justice as part of a criminal organization and accepting a bribe, after a smuggling investigation in British Columbia. Mounties say the arrest is the result of a collaboration between Chilliwack RCMP and the Correctional Service of Canada following the discovery of evidence consistent with a correctional officer smuggling drugs, weapons, and cellphones to inmates within an institution in the Fraser Valley. Police say search warrants were executed almost a year ago at several locations in Chilliwack resulting in the s

The number of out-of-control wildfires continues to drop in British Columbia on the heels of a cold front bringing rain and fall-like temperatures to many areas. About 280 blazes remain active across the province with 15 per cent or just over 40 of those fires classified as burning out of control. That's down from more than 100 out-of-control fires last week. None of the current blazes are considered "wildfires of note," a designation issued when a fire is highly visible or poses a threat to people or infrastructure. B.C. government officials are set to provide an update on the wildfire and dr

A 29-year-old man has been arrested after what police say was a violent carjacking outside the Prince George Airport. Prince George RCMP say the elderly driver suffered serious injuries when the vehicle crashed and he was thrown from the scene. They say the incident happened just before 1 p.m. on Saturday when the suspect approached the parked car and pushed an elderly female passenger out of the vehicle. The suspect then tried unsuccessfully to shove the driver out of their open door before the vehicle accelerated away and crashed after a short distance. Police say after the driver was hurled

Workers at British Columbia's HandyDART transit service have rejected a final contract offer, and their union says it is now considering its next move. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724 has said it would give a 72-hour strike notice if membership voted down the latest offer by Transdev, the contracted operator of HandyDART. A potential disruption of the door-to-door service was averted Monday, after workers suspended job action to vote on the contract offer. Local 1724 president Joe McCann called the suspension of job action "a gesture of goodwill" after what the union described as "months

Cellphone use will be restricted in all British Columbia school districts when pupils return next week, as the province becomes the latest to curtail the use of the devices in classrooms. Premier David Eby says all school districts now have policies in place to ban cellphone use "bell to bell," in line with a government directive announced in April. The province is also imposing "access zones" around schools allowing police to arrest or issue tickets to anyone found impeding access, disrupting educational activities, or attempting to intimidate an individual within 20 metres of school property

A 17-year-old from Ontario is dead after climbing over a fence and falling off the edge of a cliff in a popular park in North Vancouver, B.C. Dwayne Derban, assistant fire chief with North Vancouver Fire and Rescue, says the boy was in an off-trail area of Lynn Canyon Park when it happened Sunday afternoon. Derban says there are signs warning people to stay away from dangerous areas, but the boy's friends told firefighters that he had climbed over a fence to get a better look at the river canyon and he "just got too close" to the edge. Derban says the boy fell onto rocks about 50 metres below

BC Hydro says it has begun filling the reservoir created by the massive Site C dam project in northeastern British Columbia. The provincial electric utility says in a statement that the filling of the reservoir is one of the last steps toward starting operations for the controversial dam project, located about 14 kilometres southwest of Fort St. John, B.C. BC Hydro says it will take between two and four months to fill the 83-kilometre-long reservoir, which will cover about 5,550 hectares of land while totalling about 9,330 hectares in surface area. The utility is warning people to stay away fr

Potential disruption to British Columbia's HandyDART transit service this morning was averted after workers suspended job action to vote on a final contract offer, but strike action remains a possibility. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724 says it will give a 72-hour strike notice if the membership votes down the latest offer by Transdev Canada. Local 1724 president Joe McCann called the suspension of all job action "a gesture of goodwill" after what the union described as "months of bargaining and escalating job actions" ranging from uniform refusals to an overtime ban. McCann says the vote