The B.C. government says it will cull 25 deer in the Kootenay region to test for chronic wasting disease. The Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship says two deer in the region tested positive for the disease earlier this year. The ministry says the animals will be collected in a 10-kilometre area around where the two diseased animals were found. It says wildlife experts will use the samples to determine if more animals have the condition, which impairs brain function. The province says it has recently begun mandatory testing for chronic wasting disease of any deer, moose, elk and ca

A strike by more than 5,000 Edmonton civic workers expected to begin this morning has been delayed by 24 hours. A spokeswoman for the Civic Service Union confirmed the strike is now slated to begin Friday at 11 a.m. It's not clear how the delay will affect city facilities such as libraries, which had planned to close this morning. Workers expected to walk off the job tomorrow include library staff as well as administrative workers for the Edmonton Police Service and the municipal government. Others include emergency 9-1-1 operators, help-line operators, recreation centre staff, acco

Penalties for commercial truck crashes into overpasses or other infrastructure in British Columbia are set to soar, including fines of up to $100,000 and jail sentences up to 18 months. The New Democrat government says it's proposing changes to the Commercial Transport Act that currently prescribes fines for over-height vehicles of $500 to $598, levels that are unchanged for decades. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming says the proposed changes are in response to 35 crashes involving over-height commercial vehicles since late 2021. The province last month cancelled the operating licence of B.C

Extreme cold near the start of this year in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan has led to a damage bill that the Insurance Bureau of Canada says is more than $180 million. The bureau says about 70 per cent of the insurance claims related to the extreme cold were for personal property and damage caused by frozen and burst water pipes. The cold moved in Jan. 12, breaking dozens of daily minimum records, including in Edmonton where there were four straight days of cold ranging from minus 40 to minus 45 degrees. Rob de Pruis, the national director, consumer and industry relations with the

Whistler Blackcomb ski resort says a Vancouver woman has died in a "serious incident" over the weekend. The resort says in a statement that the 32-year-old woman died Saturday after becoming separated from her partner while visiting at the resort. It says the partner alerted the ski patrol, who found the woman unresponsive on the Renegade trail, described as an advanced trail. No other details have been released by the resort, and the RCMP in Whistler, B.C., did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Whistler Blackcomb COO Belinda Trembath says in the statement that the resort is off

Premier David Eby says the B.C. government has plans underway to build a new critical care tower at Surrey Memorial Hospital, adding capacity for surgical, pediatric, perinatal, women's health, mental health and stroke care. Eby says Surrey's health-care services need to grow along with its population. The premier says the province is at stage where it will soon start asking for feedback from health professionals who work at the hospital. The announcement comes after the B.C. government outlined 30 actions to improve access to health care for people in Surrey last June, a list that included re

Police in British Columbia say they've seized more than 27 tonnes of contraband cigarettes worth more than $24 million in a pair of investigations over the past year. Assistant RCMP Commissioner David Teboul says the investigations involved collaboration with tax fraud investigators from the B.C. Ministry of Finance, calling the seizures of 133,000 cartons of cigarettes a " major blow to numerous organized crime groups." Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says the most recent raids in Mission and Maple Ridge on Feb. 28, involving 67,500 cartons, represent the largest one-time seizure of con

Former British Columbia cabinet minister Selina Robinson has quit the NDP, citing antisemitism in the ruling party's caucus. Robinson, who is Jewish, says she can no longer remain in the party because it is not properly addressing antisemitism in the province or among her former colleagues. Robinson told an impromptu news conference in a hallway of the B.C. legislature that she will now sit as an Independent. She resigned her cabinet post as minister of post-secondary education last month after saying modern Israel was founded on "a crappy piece of land." The Jan. 30 remarks sparked an outcry

British Columbia's government says it is setting 10-year targets to substantially reduce poverty in the province, with a focus on lifting children and seniors above the poverty line. Sheila Malcolmson, social development and poverty reduction minister, says legislation introduced today changes three laws to set higher targets to cut poverty, ease employment requirements for people on income and disability assistance and provide more supports. She says the legislation commits B.C. to cut overall poverty by 60 per cent over the next decade, including reducing child poverty by 75 per cent, and fo