Big numbers are being reported for B-C's cruise industry. The Port of Vancouver says its final cruise ship of the 2023 season is setting sail today.
It says the 2023 cruise season in Vancouver has been the port's biggest season on record, with an estimated 1.25-million passengers this year.
It says that marked a 54 per cent increase in the number of visitors in 2022.
The port says 332 ships docked between April and October this year.
Academics, commerical banks and policy thinkers have all been warning the federal government that the pace of population growth, facilitated by immigration, is making the housing crisis worse. Canada is also experiencing a boom in the number of temporary residents who are coming to the country, which includes international students and temporary foreign workers.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reports the annual pace of urban starts was down 11 per cent, the rate of multi-unit urban starts fell 12 per cent and the pace of single-detached urban starts dropped four per cent.
A new survey says an alarming number of kids age 12 and older have been treated for drug overdoses in Canada. The Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program says stimulants are the most commonly reported cause of severe or life-threatening overdoses, followed by sedatives and opioids.
Mounties in Chilliwack say they have found the body of a Surrey man who was thought to have drowned in Cultus Lake last month. R-C-M-P say the discovery was made by its Underwater Recovery Team after about a month of searching.
Treasury Board President Anita Anand is tasking federal cabinet ministers with finding $15.4 billion in government spending cuts by a deadline of Oct. 2. A spokesperson for Anand says the government wants to refocus underutilized funds on critical services such as health care — and it doesn't expect to cut any public-service jobs.
R-C-M-P in Kelowna are looking for four suspects after a city statue was damaged. The Mounties say it happened downtown early Saturday morning when "The Working Man" statue was knocked over.