Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, and Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, have issued a joint statement regarding updates on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) response in British Columbia. "Today, we are announcing 100 new cases, and no new epi-linked cases, for a total of 6,691 cases in British Columbia. "There are 1,378 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 3,101 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and 5,086 people who tested positive have recovered. "Currently, 37 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19

WE Charity says it is closing its Canadian operations, as the organization is in dire financial straits. Co-founders Craig and Marc Kielburger will also step down once the transition to a new board of governors is complete. WE has lost many of its corporate sponsors since the controversy over the Liberal government's plans to have the youth organization run a multi million dollar student-volunteer program. WE plans to lay off its Canadian staff in the coming months and sell all of its property in Canada. It will create an endowment fund that will pay for the completion of several projects in

A British Columbia First Nation has issued a state of emergency after confirmation that four members have COVID-19 and several others are reporting symptoms of the virus.A notice on the Tla'amin Nation website says residents have been ordered to shelter in place to slow the spread of the virus while health officials complete contact tracing.The order affecting the community, which is in the area of Powell River, took effect late Tuesday afternoon and advised members they should stay where the are for the next 72 hours.Access to the First Nation, about 170 kilometres northwest of Vancouver, ha

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has ordered all night clubs and banquet halls to close effective immediately. Dr. Henry also says alcohol can no longer be served at bars and restaurants after 10 pm and they must close by 11 pm unless serving meals. She says the additional restrictions are being put in place because the venues are a significant source of risk of spreading COVID-19. Dr. Henry also says people need to cut down on their social interactions to stay safe now that they're heading back to work and schools are reopening. She made the comment after reporting BC had 429 new c

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole is naming his shadow cabinet, including his predecessor Andrew Scheer as the party's infrastructure critic.O'Toole is keeping Ontario's Pierre Poilievre as finance critic and promoting Alberta's Michelle Rempel Garner to health critic and New Brunswick's Rob Moore to justice critic.Critics are government ministers' main questioners in the House of Commons and are supposed to be ready to move into their offices if the Opposition took over governing.Ontario MP Michael Chong is taking a big step up to become the Conservatives' critic for foreign affairs.Alain Ray

Canada's chief public health doctor says a slow but steady increase in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 is a cause for concern. Dr. Theresa Tam says today the average daily number of people testing positive over the last week is 545 — a 25 per cent increase over the previous week which saw a daily average of 435, and 390 a week before that.That number increased every day over the last week prompting Tam to remind Canadians not to get complacent about their risk of contracting the novel coronavirus. Overall, in the last week, 3,955 people tested positive across Canada, and

British Columbia has recorded another 121 cases of COVID-19 and one death related to the virus. In a joint statement on Friday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix say there has been a total of 6,162 cases since the pandemic began. COVID-19 has claimed 211 lives in the province. Almost 2,800 people in the province are under active health monitoring after being identified as being exposed to someone who has tested positive, and 4,706 people have recovered. KinVillage long-term care home in Delta is the latest facility with an outbreak after a worker tested

Statistics Canada says the economy added 246,000 in August as the pace of job gains slowed compared with July, when 419,000 jobs were added. The figure marked the fourth consecutive month of gains from COVID-19 related lockdowns this spring, bringing the number to within 1.1 million of pre-pandemic levels. Gains in August were largely concentrated in full-time work, which had been lagging behind gains in part-time employment. Employment also rose at a faster pace for women than men for the third straight month as Statistics Canada reported women gained about 150,000 positions in August comp

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says British Columbia is at a precipice when it comes to a potential surge of COVID-19 infections. But Henry says reducing the number of cases is still within reach as long as people work together and follow public health protocols. She urged people to avoid activities that are considered high-risk, such as spending time with groups of people that they may not know. B.C. announced 89 new cases of COVID-19 as well as one additional death today, bringing the province's total number of COVID-19 cases to 6,041 and 210 deaths. Dr. Henry's warning comes af