OTTAWA - The federal government expects to spend about $7 million this fiscal year to store and maintain four custom-made, portable hospitals that cost taxpayers more than $200 million to buy - facilities meant to bolster overwhelmed hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic that were barely used. Early on in the pandemic...

VICTORIA - British Columbia's ombudsperson says the provincial government unfairly required some workers to repay $1,000 they received after losing their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The BC Emergency Benefit for Workers was introduced in 2020 and, in an effort to work quickly, the B.C. government initially requir...

ST. JOHN'S - The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association is intervening in a Supreme Court of Canada case this week examining the constitutionality of Newfoundland and Labrador's COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions. In a news release today, the association says it will argue the Canadian Charter of Rights and Fr...

Todd Rutter calls himself the "most non-tech person you've ever met" but he's turning to technology and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to help weather the dizzying tariff policies of U.S. President Donald Trump. The Edmonton-based co-owner of A Cappella Catering Co. said inflated food costs as p...

British Columbia's top doctor says respiratory illness season has come to an end, but the province will soon launch a spring COVID-19 immunization campaign and encourage everyone to ensure they're fully protected against measles. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says COVID-19 hospitalizations have hit the low...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A jury found the alleged ringleader of a massive pandemic fraud case in Minnesota guilty on all counts Wednesday for her role in a scheme that federal prosecutors say stole $250 million from a program meant to feed children in need. Aimee Bock - the founder of Feeding our Future, the group that prose...

Five years ago, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic of the novel coronavirus, setting off a series of policies that transformed Canadians' lives for years. The WHO's declaration followed months of warning signs about the dangers of COVID-19, including mass lockdowns in China and Italy, and served a...

TORONTO - Doctors who were thrust into national fame when COVID-19 hit five years ago say they try to focus on positive feedback from the public rather than the angry backlash and threats of violence they faced. British Columbia public health chief Dr. Bonnie Henry still has a security detail to this day because of thr...

TORONTO - There had been warning signs for months. There were the reports of dangerous flu-like symptoms in Asia. News of the lockdown that kept tens of millions of people inside their homes in China. Here at home, the growing ubiquity of blue surgical masks. The advice to sing "Happy Birthday" while washing ...

MONTREAL - Michael Hale still recalls the moment COVID-19 upended his world. "I can feel this pit in my stomach even as I recount that day," said the CEO of Northern Vision Development, which owns seven hotels and eight restaurants and bars in the Yukon. Hale and a half-dozen colleagues were gathered around a...

VANCOUVER - British Columbia is seeing "peaking influenza activity" even as other respiratory illnesses such as RSV and COVID-19 are in decline, and health officials are reminding people to get vaccinated. The BC Centre for Disease Control says influenza A infections remain high and continue to increase, with...

TORONTO - Alcohol-related deaths rose about 18 per cent during the pandemic, according to a study that points to the harm of making liquor more available at a time of increased vulnerability. Researchers with the Public Health Agency of Canada compared alcohol-related deaths and hospitalizations before and after the pa...

VANCOUVER - Premier David Eby says protecting British Columbians from the potential impact of U.S. tariffs will be taken as seriously as the relief response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He says every decision being taken by his ministers, including plans for next month's budget, will be made through the lens of a "po...

VANCOUVER - Premier David Eby says protecting British Columbians from the potential impact of U.S. tariffs will be taken as seriously as the relief response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He says every decision being taken by his ministers, including plans for next month's budget, will be made through the lens of a "po...

EDMONTON - The organization representing Alberta physicians is calling out a government panel's COVID-19 report as "anti-science." Dr. Shelley Duggan, head of the Alberta Medical Association, says the report sows distrust by going against proven preventive health measures while promoting fringe methods. She s...

VANCOUVER - In early 2020, Lili Wu was already "armed to the teeth" whenever she ventured to public places near her home in Port Coquitlam, B.C. - face mask, sanitizer, protective eyewear and gloves. It was more than a month before the World Health Organization's March declaration of a global pandemic that in...

VANCOUVER - A Federal Court judge has dismissed an appeal by a "deeply religious" British Columbia health executive who said he was wrongfully denied employment insurance after being fired three years ago for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Darold Sturgeon was fired as executive director of medical affa...

VANCOUVER - A Federal Court judge has dismissed an appeal by a "deeply religious" British Columbia health executive who said he was wrongfully denied employment insurance after being fired three years ago for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Darold Sturgeon was fired as executive director of medical affa...

A new report says average asking rents declined nationally on a year-over-year basis for the first time in more than three years in October. The report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation finds average asking rents across Canada sat at $2,152 in October, down 1.2 per cent from the same month in 2023 - the first national dec...

Record numbers of people in British Columbia are being vaccinated against COVID-19 and flu, as the province ramps up its immunization campaign for respiratory illness season. The health ministry says in a news release invitations for priority populations started going out on Oct. 8, and on the first day of delivery on ...

QUÉBEC - Quebec's anti-corruption unit released its annual report today, saying the past 12 months were busy. The unit, know as UPAC, says 19 people were charged in criminal cases and 18 people were convicted during the 12 months ending March 31, 2024, while 265 individuals or companies were fined. The number of...

TORONTO - An expert panel of doctors and researchers say Canada needs to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and take action before the next health emergency strikes. One of the six experts, Dr. Fahad Razak, says most scientists believe it's "only a matter of time" before another global health crisis hits. The p...