British Columbia innovators have a date booked with some of the province’s best tech-heads, food producers and venture capitalists in a challenge to develop new agri-technology and enhance the competitiveness and resiliency of B.C.’s agri-food sector.

Students from the growing francophone Tri-Cities and Maple Ridge communities are one step closer to having a new state-of-the-art school with construction underway on the jointly-funded $32.7-million École des Pionniers-de-Maillardville seismic replacement project.

The governments of Canada and British Columbia are providing up to $1.6 million over two years to support B.C.’s agrifood producers’ efforts to enhance on-farm food safety practices and meet emerging national and international food-safety traceability requirements.

Officials with the governments of British Columbia and Alaska signed an agreement establishing a bilateral working group that will build on and enhance water quality monitoring, environmental assessments and permitting relating to trans-boundary mines and development in both jurisdictions.

The start of construction on the much-anticipated Highway 1 Admirals Road/ McKenzie interchange on the Trans-Canada Highway west of Victoria has begun. This, just over a year after it was first announced.