The Vancouver Police Board has successfully appealed a City of Vancouver decision that cut millions from the police budget and the timing means the cost won't hit taxpayers until next year. Vancouver police Chief Adam Palmer says a provincial report from the director of police services has ordered the city to restore $5.7 million to the department’s 2021 budget.Palmer says in a statement that the removal of that funding directly affected the number of police officers the department was able to hire to meet the city’s policing needs.City Manager Paul Mochrie says in an email that the ruling

The Integrated Homcide Investigation Team says it has found the car linked to a deadly, targeted shooting in the parking lot of a North Vancouver shopping centre on Friday that killed 34 year old Milad Rahmi. Detective Corporal Sukhi Dhesi says the dark blue Mazda 3 hatchback used by the suspects to flee after the shooting was found burning in North Vancouver's North Lonsdale area at about 7 p.m. Saturday. Dhesi says homicide investigators also have pictures and descriptions of two people seen leaving the car before it burned and she says police want to speak to anyone with information about t

Over a three-day period, B.C. is reporting 689 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 352,728 cases in the province:March 11-12: 280 new casesMarch 12-13: 211 new casesMarch 13-14: 198 new casesThere are 359 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 and 51 are in intensive care.In the past 72 hours, 14 new deaths have been reported, for an overall total of 2,946.There have been no new health-care facility outbreaks. The outbreak at Mission Memorial Hospital (Fraser Health) has been declared over, for a total of 13 facilities with ongoing outbreaks. From March 4-10, people not fully vaccinated acco

The British Columbia government has moved to prevent thefts of catalytic converters, a crime that costs millions every year.The province has changed the regulations for metal dealers and recyclers to require them to report each transaction, including seller information, to police.Catalytic converters control exhaust emissions to reduce pollutants, but they have been a target for thieves because of an increase in the price of metals they contain.The Insurance Corporation of B.C. says converter theft claims have climbed from 89 in 2017 to 1,953 last year, totalling more than $4 million in claim

The British Columbia government is pushing the minimum wage up to $15.65 an hour, which it says is the highest among the provinces. Labour Minister Harry Bains announced today that the hourly wage will jump by 45 cents starting June 1.The increase is the first to be tied to B.C.'s annual inflation rate, which was 2.8 per cent last year.Bains says the decision to use the provincial rate of inflation rather than the national rate was made to better reflect the needs of B.C. workers.He says the increase is expected to attract more workers to the province, while providing certainty of costs for bu

A group of Metro Vancouver truck drivers concerned about high gas prices staged a protest this morning that reduced traffic to a crawl on Highway 1 between Langley and Coquitlam. Spokesman Ryan Hess, who owns a trucking company in Abbotsford, says fuel costs have climbed above two dollars a litre across the region and truckers are suffering. He says the convoy, which took place between 7 am and 9 am, had nothing to do with recent protests against COVID-19 mandates, instead truckers want the public to know the consequences of expensive fuel. Hess says some trucking companies may go out of busi

B.C. is reporting 288 new cases of COVID-19, including two epi-linked cases, for a total of 352,039 cases in the province. There are 368 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 and 46 are in intensive care.In the past 24 hours, three new deaths (Fraser Health) have been reported, for an overall total of 2,935.There have been no new health-care facility outbreaks, for a total of 14 facilities with ongoing outbreaks. From March 3-9, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 18.0% of cases.From Feb. 24 to March 9, they accounted for 28.7% of hospitalizations.Past week cases (March 3-9) - Total 2,0

Plans are in the works in British Columbia for the province to accept thousands of Ukrainians fleeing as Russia's invasion pushes further into their country. Premier John Horgan says he has met with Ukrainian community leaders, refugee settlement agencies and faith groups to make preparations to meet the housing, health and transition needs of those fleeing the war.Horgan says he's not sure about the number of people from Ukraine who might come to B.C., but he told a news conference it could be tens of thousands.He says community leaders indicate housing will be the top issue and discussions a

Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon says job creation in BC in February helped nudge the province's jobless rate down two basis points to 4.9 per cent. Kahlon says the province continues to lead the country in economic recovery with 84,000 more people working than before the pandemic, a number he says is the highest job recovery rate in Canada. Statistics Canada data show jobless figures in Kelowna barely budged last month and are pegged at 7.1 per cent while Victoria's rate climbed three basis points to 4.2 per cent. Unemployment in Abbotsford-Mission saw a steep drop in February, falling more than on