Police on Vancouver Island say they have arrested a suspect after a suspicious fire at a home in Sidney.
R-C-M-P say officers responded just before 2 p-m yesterday. They say the blaze required a response from the North Saanich, Sidney and Central Saanich Fire Departments.
One suspect was arrested at the scene along Lochside Drive and the Mounties are asking anyone with information to contact them.
The numbers seem ever increasing for British Columbia wildfire statistics, including more than 400 fires, tens of thousands of lightning strikes and at least six homes lost. The homes were in the Venables Valley, and Colton Davies with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District says they were among 20 buildings destroyed by the Shetland Creek wildfire.
The Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate for a second consecutive time on Wednesday, but warned the path back to two per cent inflation may be uneven and would ultimately determine the pace of future rate cuts. The central bank says its decision to lower its policy rate by a quarter percentage point was motivated by easing price pressures and weakening economic conditions.
The British Columbia gold rush town of Barkerville is drenched, both from overnight rains and sprinklers dousing its timber buildings, some more than 150 years old. It's part of an effort to save the historic park that is one of the Cariboo region's premier tourist attractions from the flames of the Antler Creek wildfire that is burning out of control about three kilometres away, said Stewart Cawood, Barkerville's public programming and media manager.
One person is in custody after three stabbings in Vancouver, while the deaths of two women in the city are also being investigated. Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is calling the events "deeply unsettling."
British Columbia's child welfare system is either in a state of crisis or close to it with understaffing and unmanageable workloads, the province's representative for children said. A report released by Jennifer Charlesworth Tuesday said the environment for social workers at the Ministry of Children and Family Development is unhealthy for staff, characterized by undue stress, burnout and fear, and there's no time for the government to wait to address the "critical circumstances."
Federal immigration officials warned the government it risked undermining the temporary immigration system with the design of the emergency visa program for war-displaced Ukrainians, newly released court documents show. Immigration Department staff raised the concern in a memo to Sean Fraser, immigration minister at the time, shortly after the program was announced.