B-C Auditor General Michael A. Pickup is retiring in November after four years in the role.
He made the announcement today and thanked everyone who has supported and worked with him during his time in the province.
Pickup says he'll be returning to the Maritimes to be closer to his family and will contribute to the public and private sectors in different ways going forward, without giving any specifics.
He's Canada's first and only openly gay auditor general and Indigenous auditor general.
Settlement agencies are preparing for the arrival of tens of thousands of Ukrainians before the end-of-March deadline for those fleeing the Russian invasion to enter Canada on emergency visas. The federal government has issued 936,293 temporary emergency visas since March 2022 for Ukrainians who want to work or study in Canada while they wait out the war. A total of 210,178 people had actually made the journey to Canada as of Nov. 28.
Surrey RCMP say a man who was wanted on outstanding arrest warrants is in custody. Police said last week they were looking for the 24-year-old, who was allegedly seen in September driving dangerously through Surrey's streets at peak traffic hours.
The union representing transit supervisors in British Columbia's Lower Mainland says it will be “withdrawing all services” on Monday if an agreement with Coast Mountain Bus Company isn't made. CUPE Local 4500, representing more than 180 bus workers, says it has been waiting more than four weeks for Coast Mountain to respond to its latest proposal.
Police in Abbotsford say a 31-year-old man is dead after being hit by a snowplow this morning. Officers say the man lost control of his vehicle on Highway 1 and went into the ditch.
Four children under the age of 10 who had streptococcal infections have died since mid-December, in what the BC Centre for Disease Control says is part of a surge in such infections. A bulletin released by the centre, the Provincial Health Services Authority and BC Children's Hospital says data from 2023 show a three-fold increase in invasive group A streptococcal infections in people under 20.
British Columbia's Coroners Service is reporting the outdoor deaths of 36 people during the early days of January when the province was in the grip of a record-breaking cold snap. Coroners Service data for the days from Jan. 1 to 16 show the highest number of people dying on Jan. 12, a day when numerous low temperature records were broken across B.C.