British Columbia's top doctor and health minister say the overdose crisis is as important as the COVID-19 pandemic the province has been dealing with for over a year. Dr. Bonnie Henry and Adrian Dix say there's no vaccine to help end the deaths associated with toxic opioids that contributed to a record 1,713 fatalities in 2020. They say in a joint statement that another 1,278 people have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began last year. Nine more deaths have been recorded in the province and 449 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 72,305 cases. Dr. Henry and Dix say nearly 160,000 dose

RCMP say a south Okanagan man in his 40s and his dog died in yesterday's crash on the Coquihalla Highway just outside Hope that closed the route for 12 hours. Corporal Mike Halskov says the chain-reaction collision began when a semi-trailer stopped in the northbound lanes of Highway 5 in the S-curves and was hit from behind as the unnamed victim lost control of his pickup truck on the icy road. Halskov says about 50 people in at least two dozen vehicles, one of them a bus, were involved in the pileup and five people suffered significant injuries but only one person with broken bones remains i

Bombardier Inc. said Thursday it will reduce its overall workforce by about 1,600 jobs as it moves to cut costs.The company said it is making the cuts as it consolidates its Global aircraft completion work in Montreal and reviews options for underutilized hangar and industrial space at its Quebec facilities.``Workforce reductions are always very difficult, and we regret seeing talented and dedicated employees leave the company for any reason,'' Bombardier chief executive Eric Martel said in a statement.``But these reductions are absolutely necessary for us to rebuild our company while we cont

There's another 469 new cases of COVID-19 in BC. A joint statement from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix says 230 people are hospital, 66 of those are in intensive care. There have been six more deaths for a total of 1,269 fatalities since the pandemic began. Dix and Dr. Henry are asking people to stay home this Family Day long weekend in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. To date, 157,797 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C., 14,316 of which are second doses. There are 4,305 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. One new

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says his country "will do its best" to help Canada get COVID-19 vaccines but stopped short of making any specific guarantee that India would ship doses to Canada.Canada is also not among 25 countries cleared by the Indian government to receive exported doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine this month, though federal officials indicated last week Canada's shipments weren't expected to start arriving until at least April.The Serum Institute of India has a contract with AstraZeneca to make at least one billion vaccine doses, and Health Canada is currently reviewing th

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government will provide nearly $15 billion for public-transit projects across the country — though most of the money won't arrive until later in the decade.Trudeau says the promised $14.9 billion in new public-transit funding will be spread over eight years, though most of the money won't start flowing until 2026.The government says the new funds will provide cities with predictable funding to plan for their long-term needs while helping Canadians move around easier and fight climate change.Trudeau announced the new funding during a teleconfere

British Columbia health officials say progress is being made in the efforts to push back the COVID-19 virus and get to the days of fewer restrictions in the province. Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry say in a joint statement Tuesday that there are 435 new cases of the virus, for a total of 4,393 active cases. Some 241 people are in hospital, of whom 68 are in intensive care, and the remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation. There have been four new COVID-19-related deaths, for a total of 1,263 fatalities linked to the viru

Canadians who show up at the land border without a COVID-19 test result in hand will still be allowed in the country. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada can't stop its citizens or permanent residents from coming into the country via car. But he says the negative tests required at the land border as of next Monday will be mandatory. He says fines of up to $3,000 could be put in place for those who don't have the test. Most non-essential travellers coming back to Canada do have to quarantine for 14 days. Relaxed approach to pay interest on 2020 tax debt until next yearOttawa is tweaking

Health Canada regulators agree with Pfizer and BioNTech that you can regularly get six doses out of each vial of their COVID-19 vaccine.Health Canada's chief medical adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma says Canada is amending the label on the vials in Canada, which previously indicated the vials contained five doses.Now it will say there are six.The change won't affect how many doses Canada gets as Pfizer already began allocating vials for Canada's shipments based on each containing six rather than five.Canada's contract with Pfizer and BioNTech is to buy 40 million doses this year, with four million