Beginning Jan. 1, 2024, asbestos abatement employers must be licensed to operate in B.C. This means homeowners, business owners, and contractors must ensure their asbestos abatement contractor holds a valid licence before allowing them to carry out work. To enable British Columbians to verify that a contractor is licensed, WorkSafeBC has developed an Asbestos Abatement License (AAL) Registry. In B.C., asbestos is prevalent in residential and commercial buildings, posing serious health and safety risks when disturbed. Asbestos is a mineral that was used in more than 3,000 building materials f

The leader of the BC Conservatives is rejecting accusations that he's stoking hateful politics with his opposition to school programs about sexual orientation and gender identity, known as SOGI. John Rustad was responding to comments Monday by Attorney General Niki Sharma about a highway chase on the weekend that ended when a tractor flying an anti-SOGI protest flag crashed with a police car and flipped over. Sharma said it was a concerning incident and Rustad's party is to blame for ``dangerous protests'' about the issue. Rustad says parents are right to raise concerns about SOGI, saying t

BC's attorney general says the province is taking the next step in its plan to tackle online sextortion. Niki Sharma says the province intends to launch an online platform in January that will allow people to report if their intimate images are being distributed without their consent, and provide an order telling the perpetrator to stop distributing images and for online platforms to take it down. Her comments come after Mounties in Prince George, BC, said a 12-year-old boy had died by suicide after being targeted in an online sextortion scheme. Sharma called the boy's death ``terrible'' an

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wants MPs to order the "unelected" Senate to pass a Tory bill that would take the carbon price off natural gas and propane used on farms. Poilievre introduced a motion in the House of Commons this morning looking to send a message to senators to pass Bill C-234. The House already passed the private member's bill, and all but three Liberal MPs voted against it. It would remove carbon pricing from natural gas and propane used to heat farm buildings and grain dryers for eight years.

Four large Quebec public sector unions say they will strike for a week in December in an effort to accelerate contract negotiations with the provincial government. The four unions, who are negotiating together as a common front, say their 420,000 members will walk off the job from Dec 8 to Dec 14. 14 if a deal isn't reached before then. The unions represent the majority of Quebec's elementary and high school teachers, as well as education support staff and a range of workers in the health-care system, including patient care aides and laboratory technicians. Workers represented by the four u

A new report from Statistics Canada says life expectancy for the average Canadian at birth has fallen for three straight years, from 82.3 years in 2019 to 81.3 in 2022. The report on deaths shows New Brunswick saw the biggest decline in life expectancy in 2022, dropping to 79.8 years from 80.9 in 2021. Saskatchewan's life expectancy has fallen the most over the past three years combined, dropping a full two years to 78.5 in 2022 from 80.5 in 2019. Cancer and heart disease were the leading causes of death, accounting for 41.8 per cent of all deaths in 2022, while COVID-19 caused about six per

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre have congratulated the Sikh community living in the country and abroad on the occasion of Guru Nanak Dev Ji's Prakash Purab. Trudeau said that today the Sikhs of Canada and all over the world are celebrating the birth anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. "On this auspicious occasion, on behalf of all Canadians, I wish everyone a Happy Prakash Purab", said Trudeau.He added that Canada has a large number of Sikhs who have contributed greatly to Canada's culture, community and economy. Premiers of different states including A

The British Columbia government goes up against dozens of health care and pharmaceutical companies in court today in a bid to get certification for a class-action lawsuit over the costs of the opioid crisis. It comes even after the Supreme Court of Canada agreed this month to hear a constitutional challenge by four of the companies who say a law allowing B.C. to recover costs on behalf of other governments is an overreach. Those companies then went back to the Supreme Court of B.C. to seek a delay of the certification hearing while the high court rules, but the judge said an adjournment wasn't

The union representing 2,100 flight attendants at Air Transat says workers have voted to approve a strike if they cannot reach a new contract with the airline. The Canadian Union of Public Employees says the flight attendants voted 99.8 per cent in favour of backing the mandate. Dominic Levasseur, president of the Air Transat component of CUPE, says the next few weeks of negotiations will be critical. Levasseur says it's still possible to reach a new contract without resorting to a strike, but the union's members have high expectations and are extremely motivated.The collective agreement for t