Vancouver is opening more indoor spaces to ensure people without homes have shelter as the first snowy, cold snap of the season looms. The city says warming centres will be open at three locations, the Powell Street Getaway, Vancouver Aquatic Centre and Creekside Community Centre, starting today and continuing until next Wednesday. The statement says the centres are activated as a life-saving measure for people sleeping outside during the winter months. Vancouver also says it has more than 100 vehicles, three-thousand tonnes of salt and hundreds of staff ready for deployment to keep city stre

RCMP are investigating a possible mobile drug lab. It was found this week in a motel parking lot in Cache Creek. Corporal Jesse O'Donaghey says a rented moving van was found abandoned at the motel.Although he did not give an exact location. He says the van was impounded on Tuesday, and police found items inside that were likely used to produce illicit drugs. O'Donaghey says federal drug-lab teams have been called in from Surrey, and says HAZMAT teams are investigating the van as well.

Police say a search is underway for a man who is believed to be a risk to the public and allegedly cut off his ankle monitoring bracelet while in Richmond, B.C. A statement from Richmond RCMP says the monitoring bracelet worn by 57 year old Woon Chan went off-line Thursday. He was being monitored by BC Corrections staff who contacted Mounties when the signal was lost. Police say officers "flooded" an area near Minoru Park and located the ankle bracelet but no trace of Chan. The RCMP statement does not say why the 5-foot-6, 130 pound man is considered a risk. It says Chan was last seen wearing

BC reported 564 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday, bringing the province's total since the pandemic started to 62,976. There are 4,450 actives cases and 15 new deaths. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix say in a joint statement that despite the number of COVID-19 cases trending downward, the province is continuing to see new community outbreaks and clusters. They say residents need to work to break the chains of transmission. To date, 104,901 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C., 1,663 of which are second doses. COVID-19 community cluste

St. Paul's Hospital in downtown Vancouver is reporting a new outbreak of COVID-19, this time in the renal unit on the sixth floor. Providence Health Care, which operates St. Paul's, says the outbreak was announced yesterday and is in addition to outbreaks earlier this month in two units of the hospital's Heart Centre and in the cardiac surgery intensive care unit. Services of the renal unit are being maintained in other areas while new admissions and transfers are halted. The rest of the busy hospital, including its emergency room, remains open. Providence Health Care is also dealing with a C

A BC man convicted of two counts of criminal negligence causing death has lost an appeal of the indeterminate sentence he received after being declared a dangerous offender. Martin Tremblay was convicted for the March 2010 deaths of two teenagers who were plied with alcohol and drugs before being sexually assaulted in Tremblay's Richmond home. His trial heard he invited 16 year old Kayla Lalonde and 17 year old Martha Jackson to his home, gave them drugs and alcohol until they passed out, sexually assaulted them and then failed to get help when their conditions deteriorated.The BC Court of Ap

Health officials have called off the regular COVID-19 briefing in British Columbia as they prepare to update the province's strategy for immunization against the virus. An advisory from the premier's office says the briefing by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix is cancelled. Instead they will join a news conference Friday with Premier John Horgan and Dr. Penny Ballem, who is leading B.C.'s COVID-19 immunization rollout. The four are expected to comment on the next steps in the immunization program that has been complicated by a hiccup in vaccine supply f

A former British Columbia finance minister and a current member of the legislature are part of a seven-member committee overseeing the upcoming Liberal leadership campaign to replace former leader Andrew Wilkinson. Colin Hansen, a former Liberal cabinet minister, has been appointed co-chair of the party's Leadership Election Organizing Committee, sharing the job with Victoria lawyer Roxanne Helme. Wilkinson resigned after the Liberals not only lost the election last fall, but seats that were once considered safe for the party. Prince George Liberal Shirley Bond is currently serving as interim

BC's public safety minister says those who continue to break COVID-19 public health orders may face more than a fine. It comes as recent numbers show more than half of the total fines handed out were over the last month. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says recent incidents, such as a Vancouver couple pretending to cough on people at a gym, are reprehensible and repugnant. But Farnworth adds that many people appear to be following the rules. 119 tickets have been issued in past 2 weeks. Since Aug. 21st last year, a total of 693 tickets have been issued. Among the tickets issued during p