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.
Police say a portion of the Coquihalla Connecter outside West Kelowna, B.C., is closed after a commercial truck carrying chemicals caught fire. West Kelowna RCMP say the eastbound lanes of Highway 97C were shut down Friday as fire crews doused the flames.
A confrontation inside a Surrey shopping mall has ended with one person seriously hurt and two others in custody. R-C-M-P say the were called late yesterday afternoon to reports of a fight inside the Guildford Town Centre mall.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau embraced a more intimate form of Pacific Rim diplomacy Thursday as he sat down with several world leaders on the margins of a sprawling international summit in California. Even before all 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group could gather for their traditional family photo, Trudeau had already hosted meetings with Japan, Thailand and Australia, with plans to meet Mexico and Vietnam in the afternoon.
The Canadian government says that as of Wednesday afternoon, it was in touch with 386 people still in the besieged territory. Global Affairs Canada says, so far, 367 Canadians, permanent residents and their relatives have been able to escape via the Rafah border crossing, most recently including two people on Wednesday and 10 on Monday.
Mounties in Burnaby say they're investigating after a pedestrian was hit and killed by a vehicle in the city Thursday morning. Burnaby R-C-M-P say officers attended the scene at 11 in the morning after reports that a female pedestrian was hit in the 43-hundred block of Hastings Street.
New data suggest that COVID-19 activity in British Columbia is trending downward, while influenza and RSV are on the rise. A weekly update provided Thursday by the BC Centre for Disease Control says COVID-19 cases, new hospitalizations and deaths are all declining from a peak in the first week of October.