Drug overdose deaths are down by 24 per cent between April last year and this April, but still B-C’s Coroner says 182 people died.
Fentanyl remains the primary killer, with the drug detected in 82 per cent of test results for those who died so far this year.
The coroner’s service says nearly half of those who overdosed were between the ages of 30 and 49.
The latest figures lift the number of deaths since the public health emergency was declared eight years ago to 14-thousand 582 people.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says voters in the United States will face a choice later this year between optimism for the future or nostalgia for a past that never existed. Trudeau made the comments in Montreal today to a business crowd in reference to Donald Trump's victory Monday in the Iowa Republican caucuses, which gives the former president an early lead for the Republican nomination ahead of the November election.
Vancouver International Airport says traffic forecasts for mid-January show passenger numbers have almost completely recovered to pre-pandemic levels. YVR says it is expecting just over 420-thousand passengers from January 15th to the 21st, just short of the 2019 figure of almost 426-thousand.
More than 100 wildfires are still listed as burning in British Columbia thanks to a combination of a busy wildfire season, extreme drought and generally warmer and drier conditions through December. Forrest Tower of the BC Wildfire Service said that while it's not uncommon for some fires to burn through the winter, that number usually hovers around a couple dozen, not the 106 that were listed as active on New Year's Day.
Police in Langley are investigating after a pedestrian was struck and killed on Monday. Police say the crash happened at around 7 a-m in the 28-hundred-block of 264 Street.
Environment Canada says a snowstorm is expected to hit Metro Vancouver, Greater Victoria and beyond, bringing up to 20 centimetres of accumulation and possible freezing rain to southern British Columbia. The weather agency has issued a snowfall warning in the region with a forecast of "widespread snow" starting tonight and into Wednesday.
Richmond RCMP say officers put a spit hood on the head of an "aggressive" airline passenger who tried to bite officers after allegedly assaulting a travel companion. Mounties say they were called to Vancouver's airport around 12:15 p.m. on Saturday by airline staff who reported that a person posing a "potential safety risk to staff and passengers" had been restrained on a flight.