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.
The Transportation Safety Board is calling for improvements after an investigation into a deadly helicopter crash in Nunavut. The helicopter went down in 2021 on a trip to survey polar bear populations on Griffith Island, about 20 kilometres southwest of Resolute Bay, Nvt. Two crew members and a wildlife biologist were killed.
A new report says British Columbia's wine industry is anticipating "catastrophic crop losses" of up to 99 per cent of typical grape production due to January's intense cold snap. A February report from Wine Growers British Columbia and consulting firm Cascadia Partners says preliminary industry estimates are calling for crops to produce only one-to-three per cent of typical yields for wine grapes, mostly coming from relatively mild Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island.
A Vancouver man convicted of fraud has been permanently banned from B-C's investment market. The B-C Securities Commission says a panel has concluded that Jeffrey Shaughnessy's misconduct was "extremely serious," and the man posed "a significant ongoing risk" to the public and the capital markets had the ban not been put in place.
Police in North Vancouver say a car stolen from an underground parking lot Tuesday had a piece of equipment containing radioactive material inside. Mounties say they responded to a theft call at a gym on Marine Drive, and the vehicle contained a "nuclear soil moisture density gauge" used in construction and other industries.
This season will likely be the most challenging cherry growers have ever experienced in British Columbia, a farmer and industry leader says, after a widespread cold snap damaged trees and buds last month. Sukhpaul Bal, president of the BC Cherry Association, said the deep freeze was especially destructive because temperatures were mild in the preceding weeks.
Richmond, B.C., resident Edward Cheung says many community members feel they know exactly what will happen if a supervised safe consumption drug site is established in the city. Cheung, whose parents live close to a supportive housing complex that opened in 2019, said in an interview on Wednesday that the neighbourhood has dealt with a spike in petty crime since then, and he is worried something similar would happen with a safe consumption site.