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

Police say high-risk sex offender Randall Hopley has been arrested in Vancouver.A statement from police says Hopley was picked up at about 6 a.m. on the city's Downtown Eastside and he is in custody.The arrest ends a 10-day search for Hopley, who walked away from his Vancouver halfway house on Nov. 4., and cut off his electronic monitoring device a short time later.At the time, police said they believed the 58-year-old was worried about an upcoming court appearance and feared he would be returned to custody.Hopley had completed a six-year prison term for the 2011 abduction of a three-year-old

Inappropriate social media activity has cost Dr. Sanjiv Gandhi his job as deputy leader of the BC Green Party and he's also resigned as a Green candidate in the 2024 provincial election.An online message posted Wednesday by BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau says Gandhi was removed when she learned the details.Furstenau says Gandhi "liked a tweet with an inappropriate comparison" between provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Josef Mengele, an infamous Nazi doctor who experimented on concentration camp victims during the Second World War.Furstenau calls Gandhi's actions "unacceptable" and

A high school bus crashed into a house Thursday morning in Burnaby.11 people were admitted to the hospital after the accident.According to police, the accident happened around 8 a.m. in the area of Canada Way and 16th Avenue.According to police, the school bus first collided with a vehicle and then crashed into a house.At present, it is not known how the school bus collided with the vehicle.According to the BC Emergency Health Service, six ambulances, a supervisor and a referral unit responded to the scene.First responders hospitalized 11 people in stable condition.According to the police, no

The living wage needed to make ends meet for the average worker in Metro Vancouver has reached $25.68 an hour, a six percent increase over last year.Living Wage refers to how much a person needs to earn to cover necessities such as food, rental housing, transportation, and childcare.The Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives and Living Wage for Families has calculated the hourly wage based on the income needed by two parents working full-time to support their family.Metro Vancouver households are spending $4,000 more for the same basket of goods this year than in 2022, the report says, while