The British Columbia government is making changes to its graduated drivers licensing regime, eliminating the need for a second road test to obtain a full licence. Public Safety Minister Garry Begg says the changes, if approved, will see new drivers get "on-road experience" and be subject to a 12-month restriction rather than be required to take another test to get their Class 5 licence. A statement from the ministry says there will also be a new program to licence motorcycle drivers, who are "overrepresented in fatal crashes in B.C." The ministry statement says the program hasn't been signific

Vancouver International Airport has resumed normal operations after three days of significant flight delays and cancellations. The airport confirmed on Thursday that services are now operating as usual. Since 3 p.m. on Monday, dozens of flights were delayed and several others canceled due to a shortage of resources and staff at Nav Canada, the country's air traffic control authority. Nav Canada had been implementing temporary traffic management measures to handle the disruption. Airport officials confirmed today that the issues have now been resolved. Passengers are advised to check their fli

The British Columbia Prosecution Service has approved charges relating to three alleged sexual assaults on Metro Vancouver's transit system. A statement from the region's Transit Police says the first complaint was made in January last year, when a woman on a crowded Canada Line train called police to say that a man had made inappropriate physical contact with her. Then, in April last year, a man was seen standing suspiciously close to a teenage passenger on the Canada Line, and when he leaned into the girl, a witness called police. On a crowded Expo Line train last May, a woman felt someone p

The British Columbia Highway Patrol says a loaded dump truck is sitting in an impound, while the driver faces allegations of impairment. Officers received a call about the truck being driven dangerously eastbound on Highway 1 through Chilliwack last Wednesday morning. They say two patrol vehicles stopped the truck and officers saw signs the driver was impaired. They say the 64-year-old man faces a 90-day driving suspension and had to be picked up by his wife. His truck will be impounded for 30 days. Police say the Abbotsford-based company that owns the truck will be responsible for towing and

The British Columbia government is calling on the federal government to raise its 2025 allocation under the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), citing urgent workforce needs. The province reports that it met its 2024 target of 8,000 workers and is now requesting an increase to 11,000 nominees for 2025. However, Ottawa has reduced B.C.’s allocation to just 4,000, a move the province says is undermining its ability to meet labour market demands. The B.C. government argues that a higher quota would enable the province to process the majority of pending applications and accept approximately 1,100

Police in Surrey are investigating a hit-and-run collision that killed one child and sent two other children to hospital. Police say the incident happened at about 4:11 p-m on Sunday in the Fraser Heights neighbourhood where three children had been hit by a vehicle. A six-year-old girl died, and a seven-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy were both taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police say the driver of the vehicle was arrested and remains in custody as the investigation continues. Police say the cause of the collision remains unknown, but they believe alcohol may b

British Columbia's main opposition party, the BC Conservatives, has sharply criticized the Eby government over its growing budget deficit and is demanding clearer accounting. The party raised concerns about the size of the deficit and the potential cuts to programs following a loss of nearly $3 billion in carbon tax revenue. John Rustad, leader of the BC Conservatives, called on the government to provide clarity regarding which programs will be affected by the deficit. Rustad pointed out that under Premier David Rustad, the province had a $6 billion surplus, which has now turned into an $11 b

British Columbia is ending a program that sent cancer patients to the United States for treatment, saying provincial wait times have improved enough that they no longer have to rely on clinics south of the border. A statement from the Ministry of Health says as of the end of February, about 93 per cent of patients are waiting less than four weeks to start their radiation treatment, an improvement from spring 2023, when that number was only 69 per cent. It says the national benchmark is 90 per cent. The province began funding as many as 50 radiation patients each week in May 2023 for treatment

There is a window of relief for British Columbia farmers from the devastating waves of avian flu, leaving them to assess the toll of outbreaks spanning more than three years that saw millions of birds culled at hundreds of farms. Farmers and scientists also worry what the next migration of wild birds will bring this year. Some farmers moved their operations outside British Columbia's Fraser Valley or have exited the industry altogether since the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu began circulating, said farmer Ray Nickel. Nickel, who operates a farm in Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley, was forced