B-C's minimum hourly wage is increasing to 17 dollars and 40 cents, up from 16.75.
The Labour Ministry says the 3.9 per cent increase kicks in on Saturday.
It says in a statement that the increase will help about 240-thousand workers in the province who currently earn less than 17.40 an hour.
The B-C government amended the Employment Standards Act in February so future increases to minimum wages happen automatically, based on the previous year's average inflation rate for the province.
A 54-year-old man is dead after a building fire in Surrey that also killed two pets. Surrey R-C-M-P say they got a report of a fire in the upper residential suites of a commercial building a little before 3:30 this morning.
Both sides blamed each other, with the CEO of regional transit authority TransLink saying the union's wage demands are unreasonable, while a union spokesman accused Coast Mountain of trying to bully them. The province's labour minister, meanwhile, considered appointing a special mediator with additional powers to help break the deadlock.
The federal government has announced a 36-million-dollar funding plan to fast-track the construction of about one thousand housing units in Richmond. The funding will go toward the city's efforts to speed up development applications while also supporting zoning reforms and permitting optimization.
New Westminster police are asking for the public's help in finding the driver involved in a hit-and-run crash. Police say two vehicles crashed on Sunday around noon at the intersection of 6th Avenue and McBride Boulevard.
One of the federal government's top priorities for the year ahead involves attracting new international grocers to Canada to expand competition and drive down prices, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Sunday as a cabinet retreat was about to begin in Montreal. The entire federal cabinet is in the city for a three-day retreat ahead of the return of Parliament on Jan. 29 and the next federal budget expected later this winter.
It said an incident at Burnaby's Parkland fuel refinery caused the "strong chemical odour" around the region and enforcement officers were sent to the site to make sure Parkland was complying with it's emissions permit. Metro Vancouver is responsible for issuing air emissions permits and environmental regulation.