The BC government is launching a new Community Safety and Targeted Enforcement program. It aims to increase police capacity to tackle street crimes that affect businesses and communities, such as robberies, shoplifting and property damage. The province is providing up to $5 million in funding for the initiative, which will help police increase their resources. The government says it has seen the Vancouver Police Department see its biggest two-year reduction in violent and property crime in Hastings Crossing in January 2025, thanks to a special investigation and targeted enforcement program.

Alberta's government says it's extending the deadline for a former judge to investigate allegations of high-level conflict of interest and arm-twisting in health care contracts. Former Manitoba provincial court chief judge Raymond Wyant was expected to submit an interim report to the government today, followed by a full report next month. The government employee facilitating the investigation says the number of documents provided and interviews requested by the former judge means that initial time frame is no longer feasible. Deputy minister of jobs Chris McPherson says Wyant wil

A 20-year-old University of British Columbia student, Matthew Hutchings, was found dead in Vancouver. The body found near the tracks of the Commercial-Broadway Skytrain station yesterday has been confirmed to be of Hutchings. Police have ruled out any foul play in his death. Hutchings had been missing for about a week. He was last seen leaving the University area on a B-Line bus at around 2 a.m. on Saturday, May 24. Surveillance footage showed him near the Safeway on Commercial Drive and Broadway about an hour after leaving the university. A search of the area was unsuccessful. Metro Vancouv

Experts have described Premier David Eby's 10-day Asia tour starting June 1 as very important. Kristen Hopewell, professor and director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of BC, said that due to our geographical location, it has been much easier for our BC and Canadian companies to trade with the US compared to the Asian market, and about 50 per cent of our trade has been going to the US, which is our biggest weakness at the moment. She said that with Eby's Asia trade mission, we hope to get access to other markets, which will allow the province to reduce its dependenc

A wildfire in northeastern British Columbia that prompted an evacuation order on Thursday has quadrupled in size. The BC Wildfire Service is reporting that the blaze in the Peace River Regional District near the community of Kelly Lake is now about 46 square kilometres in size, up from 11 square kilometres Thursday afternoon. The out-of-control fire was burning close to the Pembina Steeprock gas processing facility and Highway 52 E, also known as the Heritage Highway. The Peace River Regional District issued the evacuation order for homes around Kelly Lake and areas north of Campbell Lake, wes

Statistics Canada says the economy outperformed expectations in the first quarter of the year as businesses raced to get ahead of looming tariffs from the United States. The agency says real gross domestic product grew at an annualized pace of 2.2 per cent in the first quarter, a tenth of a point higher than the previous quarter.That topped StatCan's own early estimate of 1.5 per cent growth and a Reuters poll of economists calling for a gain of 1.7 per cent. The agency says goods exporters were propelling the Canadian economy forward in the first quarter. Statistics Canada points to businesse

Durham Regional Police say a 14-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder after an elderly woman was fatally stabbed outside her home in Pickering, Ont., yesterday afternoon. Police say it happened just after 3 p.m. on Lynn Heights Drive, where the suspect allegedly stabbed the woman in what they call a ``sadistic and cowardly unprovoked attack.'' Police initially said the suspect was 13 when they announced his arrest.They have not released the name of the victim, but organizers of a vigil set to take place in the neighbourhood tonight have named her as Elenor in soc

Sikh organizations are calling on Ottawa to break with a five-year tradition by not inviting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 summit. Canada is hosting the G7 leaders' summit next month in Kananaskis, Alta. with the leaders from those nations expected to attend — France, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, along with the president of the European Commission. But Ottawa has been tight-lipped on which leaders it has invited outside that core group of like-minded liberal democracies. The South African high commission told The Canadian Press Canada invited Pres

An Alberta woman who Crown prosecutors say was wrongfully released from an Edmonton area jail with allegedly fake release papers has been arrested in B.C. RCMP say Mackenzie Dawn Hardy was taken into custody this week by officers in Revelstoke, along with a 27-year-old man accused of being an accomplice in her release. David Joseph Wood has been charged with assisting in the escape of a prisoner, identity fraud and uttering a forged document. Both Hardy and Wood will be brought back to Alberta, where they are to appear in court at later dates. Crown prosecutors have said Hardy wa