The Southeast Fire Centre is prohibiting all open fires in the region effective at noon on Friday (July 13). The decision is to help prevent human-caused wildfires and protect public safety. The prohibition will remain in place until Sept. 19, or until the public is otherwise notified. Specifically, this prohibits: The burning of any waste, […]

A toddler is dead and an elderly women is clinging to life after a pool accident Sunday night in Surrey. At approximately 9 p.m., Surrey RCMP attended a residential apartment complex in the 10500 block of 152nd Street for a report of a possible drowning.   When RCMP arrived at the scene, Emergency Health Services […]

For the second time in a week there’s been a plane crash in the B.C. Interior. RCMP report that shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday, a small twin engine aircraft took off south bound from the Vernon Airport it crashed in the Marshall Field’s sports complex adjacent to the runway shortly after takeoff. It’s been reported […]

Media outlets are reporting that an RCMP officer in B.C. is facing an internal code of conduct inquiry over posing for some sexually explicit bondage photographs that were posted on an adult fetish website. The images of Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Jim Brown depict him posing in a variety of scenarios with a woman. The photographs […]

The BC Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA) Board of Directors is pleased to announce that the province’s public boards of education have ratified the tentative collective agreement reached with the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) on June 26 said Melanie Joy, Chair of the BCPSEA Board. “Representatives of boards of education attended a meeting in Richmond […]

Former Grand Forks native and B.C. MLA Bill Barlee recently died. The news was released on his Facebook page. Barlee, born Neville Langrell (Bill) Barlee in 1932, was elected to the B.C. Legislature in 1988 as a member of the NDP in the ridings of Boundary-Similkameen and Okanagan-Boundary for eight years. He served as Minister […]

Teachers made it official Friday, although the results of the final vote were less than overwhelming. The province’s 40,000-plus members voted to ratify the agreement-in-committee reached on Tuesday, June 26 with the government’s bargaining agent, the BC Public School Employers’ Association. In a province-wide vote conducted Wednesday to Friday (June 27–29), a total of 21,044 […]

Generally in a contract dispute, both sides generally give a little to get a deal. Not so in the dispute between the B.C. Teachers Federation and the British Columbia Public School Employers’ Association said BCTF president Susan Lambert.  “After a long and difficult round of negotiations, we were compelled into this process under threat of […]

To the Editor: The BC Special Committee on Cosmetic Pesticides released its report in May which contained 17 recommendations to the government.  Although these recommendations did not include an outright ban on lawn and garden pesticides, it’s important to note that the BC Government has not made a decision (and the Special...

Beginning in July, FortisBC’s residential electricity customers will see a new residential conservation rate on their bill. Earlier this year, FortisBC received a decision from the BC Utilities Commission to implement this type of rate. The residential conservation rate establishes a two-level rate structure that offers a...