COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the US and India but the numbers for BC are being tackled. BC Health Minister Adrian Dix worried about the jump in cases in certain US states. Worldwide there have been 7.1 million cases of the new coronvirus.
Parliament's budget watchdog says that it's likely the federal deficit for the year will hit $252.1 billion as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and could go even higher if emergency measures remain in place longer than planned. The figure is an estimate based on the almost $146 billion in spending measures the government has announced to help cushion the economic blow from the pandemic, estimated declines in the country's gross domestic product, and the price of oil remaining well below previous expectations.
Canadian support for the principle of equal rights for women and men is among the highest in the world — but in practice, archaic attitudes towards gender roles are still alive and well both at home and around the globe, a new survey suggests. Respondents to the international Pew Research Center poll released Thursday expressed overwhelming support for the concept of gender equality — 93 per cent of Canadians surveyed ranked it as "very important," second only to Sweden at 96 per cent.
The federal government is poised to ban a variety of assault-style rifles, including the type used in the 1989 Montreal Massacre. During the fall election campaign, the Liberals said guns designed to inflict mass human casualties have no place in Canada.
Premier John Horgan says in a news release the government will defer stumpage fees for the next three months to help forest companies with their financial liquidity during the crisis. Stumpage is the fee forest operators pay the province to harvest, buy or sell trees from Crown land.
A traffic stop by Vancouver police led to a device being detonated by the bomb squad on Tuesday. The incident began when a suspect was pulled over in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and officers noticed what appeared to be fentanyl in his car.
The Canadian Armed Forces is deploying its famed Snowbirds aerobatics team on a cross-country tour aimed at boosting morale as Canadians continue to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic.
