Marie-Claude Bibeau, federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, and Lana Popham, British Columbia’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries held a virtual roundtable with B.C.’s agricultural sector yesterday to listen to their concerns following the devastating floods and landslides and to discuss both immediate and long-term support for the B.C. agriculture and agri-food industry.Extreme weather events in B.C. have caused many agricultural producers and their families to struggle in extremely challenging circumstances as they deal with the loss of businesses, homes, livestock, cro

Statistics Canada says BC added 4,600 jobs in the province last month, although Job Minister Ravi Kahlon says his ministry waiting to see what impact the extreme flooding may have on the economy. Kahlon says the province has endured one challenge after another, including COVID-19, the summer's heat dome, wildfires and recent flooding and mudslides, but the resilience of people, businesses and communities has shone through at every turn. The minister says in a statement BC's unemployment rate remains one of the lowest in the country, and it leads the nation with a job recovery rate of 102 per

The RCMP say there have been several dangerous incidents recently where rocks have been thrown from an overpass on Highway 99 in south Surrey, B.C. The Mounties say the rocks were thrown from a pedestrian overpass between the 32nd Avenue and King George Boulevard exits and have struck vehicles, but no one has been injured. Vehicles that have been damaged include a bus, and police say in one incident, a rock the size of a baseball was found. The first of the three incidents happened on the evening of Nov. 26 when a semi-truck and the bus were damaged. The next one happened at night three days

There's new advice on who should be getting COVID-19 vaccine booster shots and when. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is now strongly recommending boosters for all Canadians over the age of 50. It's also strongly suggesting boosters for anyone who got two shots of the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Janssen vaccines, First Nations, Inuit and Metis people and front-line health care workers. With the emergence of the Omicron variant, NACI is also suggesting booster shots may be offered to 18 to 49 year olds, but not until at least six months has passed since their second dose.

The City of Merritt has announced the final phases of its Return Home Plan. On Thursday, the city said recent hard work reinforcing and rebuilding dikes to withstand rising river levels had been successful, and that no further flooding had occurred. The city says residents can now expect to return home on Sunday, if water sampling returns back needed results. The city was evacuated on November 15th due to sudden flooding from the Coldwater River, with surging waters also damaging the community's water treatment facility.

B-C's public safety minister says the worst of the storms that brought historic flooding and landslides may be over, but a long rebuild lies ahead. Mike Farnworth says the work will involve repairing vital transportation routes while also restoring damaged farms and helping thousands of people return to their homes. He says more than 14-thousand people have been evacuated since the first storm hit in mid-November. Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Lana Popham says hundreds of thousands of livestock animals have perished in the flooding.

B.C. is reporting 368 new cases of COVID-19, including one new epi-linked case, for a total of 219,180 cases in the province.There are currently 3,020 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 213,694 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 284 individuals are in hospital and 97 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.In the past 24 hours, five new deaths have been reported, for an overall total of 2,345.The new deaths include:Fraser Health: threeNorthern Health: twoFrom Nov. 24-30, people not fully vaccinated accounted fo

BC's public safety minister says the province is through the worst of the storms that brought historic flooding and damage to southern parts of the province. But Mike Farnworth says officials and residents are only beginning to start the long-term cleanup. He says both the provincial and federal governments are committed to help affected residents. Environment Canada lifted all weather alerts for BC as storm conditions eased and floodwater receded, allowing for the reopening of Highway 1 between Abbotsford and Hope. Highway 5, a main connector between BC's Interior and the Lower Mainland, was

Agriculture Minister Lana Popham says 628,000 poultry, about 12,000 hogs and 420 dairy cattle died in the widespread flooding last month. In an update today, Popham says 110 beehives were also been submerged and recovery efforts to clean out barns continues to be ``extremely heartbreaking.'' More than 800 farms remain under evacuation orders and official believe the number of livestock killed in the floods will likely rise as residents and operators return. Popham says she's working with the BC Agriculture Council to ensure farmers are supported and has also met with her federal counterpart t