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.
Policy watchers are split on the value of British Columbia's upcoming provincial flipping tax targeting those looking to make a quick buck in the real estate market. Brendon Ogmundson, chief economist of the British Columbia Real Estate Association, says the tax could end up reducing the overall number of homes on the market while only applying to a small number of properties.
Officers have found a stolen car used to flee a deadly hit-and-run following a high-speed police chase on the weekend, and they continue to search for a suspect. The Honda Civic was recovered early this morning outside Edmonton.
A 32-year-old man is accused of stabbing another man in a wheelchair in what Vancouver police say was an unprovoked attack. Police say the 34-year-old victim had been outside a shelter in the Downtown Eastside over the weekend when he was stabbed multiple times in the neck, sustaining non-life-threatening injuries.
Minimum-wage workers in British Columbia will get a pay hike of 65 cents an hour to $17.40 starting June 1, a move the government says will help lift more people out of poverty. The Ministry of Labour says in a statement the 3.9-per-cent increase is consistent with the province's average inflation rate last year.
The report makes more than two dozen recommendations, nine of them focused on raising family incomes through paying family-supporting wages or improving income supports. It says B.C.'s child poverty rate of 14.3 per cent was lower than the national average of 15.6 per cent, but the rate on 67 First Nations reserves is about double the national rate, while for single-parent families it's even higher at 40 per cent.
Upon arrival, officers located a 40 year female and a 35 year old male, both suffering from stab wounds. Both individuals were transported to a local area hospital where the female is listed in critical condition, while the male is currently stable.