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.
One person is dead and another was taken to hospital after a house fire in the Blackpool area, about 115 kilometres north of Kamloops. A statement from the Thompson-Nicola Regional District says the home was fully engulfed when firefighters responded to the blaze yesterday.
Police in Port Moody say two 12-year-old boys have been arrested and released with conditions after they allegedly assaulted a girl at a SkyTrain station. Police say they were notified on Tuesday of a video circulating in the community depicting an assault at the Moody Centre station the day before.
British Columbia is forming a specialized gang-related homicide investigation team, saying gangland murders now make up almost 50 per cent of the killings in the province. Data from the Ministry of Public Safety says gang-related homicides have climbed from 21 per cent of all killings in the province in 2003 to 46 per cent last year.
Prominent business groups are backtracking their claim that one in five Canadians would be affected by the federal government's proposed changes to capital gains taxation.
The president of London Drugs doesn't know why the company was targeted in a cyber attack that forced it to close its stores for more than week, but Clint Mahlman says hackers with sophisticated methods are "constantly probing for weaknesses" of online systems.
The start to wildfire season has been far less dramatic than it was last year but the risk of hot, dry weather and severe fires remains high, officials warned Thursday.