Nearly 700 teachers from across B.C. gathered in Vancouver for the 109th annual general meeting of the BC Teachers’ Federation. Lauren Stallone has more.

Nearly 700 teachers from across British Columbia are gathering in Vancouver for the 109th BC Teachers’ Federation annual general meeting.

“I think it says alot about teachers, that they’re willing on their spring break to come down and spend four days in a windowless room discussing and debating how to improve education,” BCTF president Clint Johnston told CityNews.

It comes at a time when issues for B.C.’s educational system are in the spotlight, with school districts across the Lower Mainland sounding the alarm on rampant overcrowding and underfunding.

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The AGM makes decisions and guides the union’s direction on behalf of B.C.’s 51,00 public school teachers. It’s taking place as the federation prepares for collective bargaining amidst a severe teacher shortage and economic uncertainties flowing from south of the border

“What it really comes down to is money. It needs to be funded and there needs to be more funding in education, because if you ask me, that’s the second biggest problem right now and it’s directly linked to the teacher shortage,” Johnston said.

The BCTF president emphasized the impact on students during these difficult times

“You see students in schools who are having a rotation of teachers because they can’t get a certified teacher to fill [the vacancy],” Johnston explained.

“We have a disappointingly high number of students being taught by uncertified teachers, people are doing their best but don’t have the training to get kids where they need to be.”

An example of this is in the Surrey School District, where trustees say the lack of funding is forcing them to move even more high schools to extended days as a result of overcrowding

Delegates heard from guest speaker Niigaan Sinclair, son of the late Murray Sinclair, on Sunday.

The AGM runs through Tuesday, when representatives will vote on issues ranging from education policy and finance to health, welfare, and safety for teachers.

A global Guinness shortage may put a damper on Monday’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities.

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“There is a shortage in British Columbia,” confirmed Seán Heather, owner of the Irish Heather in Gastown. “It’s a disaster.”

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There will be plenty of Guinness at the Irish Heather, but if you’re hoping to get a pint at his pub on Monday, you are out of luck. Tables are fully booked. “We’ll be full to the gunwales,” said Heather.

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“This has happened before, so weeks before I’m always checking with my distributor to get a sense of availability,” said Heather.

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Two weeks ago, when he learned there were only 300 kegs left in B.C. for distribution, he ordered enough to get him through. He alerted other pub owners. But, for some, it was too late.

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“I told everyone I know,” said Heather, adding that there are pubs that do not have enough on tap to serve revellers on Monday.

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Brian Gobeil, manager of the Blarney Stone, disputed the notion of a shortage. In an email, Gobeil said that a shipment came in late, but still in time to keep taps flowing at Vancouver’s Irish Pubs.

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“We have more than enough,” said Gobeil.

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Heather said he expects to sell at least 1,000 pints of Guinness on Monday, along with other traditional fare, like Irish stew and soda bread.

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There are 90 pints in a keg, which means Heather will go through somewhere between 11-12 kegs on Monday.

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READ MORE: 6 places to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Vancouver

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Diageo, the North American distributor of Guinness, reported that Guinness sales in the latter half of 2024 had jumped 13 per cent, and had already surpassed the usual St. Patrick’s Day sales.

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Diageo credits the rise in popularity to a successful social media marketing campaign that attracted new Gen Z fans. In the U.K., Diageo started rationing weekly orders, and even raided its reserve stockpile to meet the demand.

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A new factory in Kildare, Ireland, is expected to ease the shortage — but not in time for this St. Patrick’s Day.

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While some pubs may sell alternatives, such as Murphy’s Irish Stout, for some, it’s not the same.

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“Guinness is tied to our identity,” said Heather.

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Heather has weathered more than one storm as a pub owner in Vancouver, including the infamous St. Patrick’s Day order from health authorities in 2020 when COVID first appeared. Pubs were ordered to close at 8 p.m., with little advance notice, leaving him with plenty of Guinness and 30 litres of Irish stew.

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“My kids were eating Irish stew for months,” he said.

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St. Patrick’s Day is not celebrated with green beer in Ireland, but is a national holiday more like Thanksgiving, said Heather.

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“For us abroad, for people that are melancholy and missing home, they go to where they can be with other Irish people.”

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The Lower Mainland has about 20,000 Irish people, thanks to a popular working holiday visa program. “You can’t go anywhere in this city without hearing an Irish accent,” said Heather.

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As for how he’ll celebrate, Heather plans to enjoy himself on Tuesday, when the whole party is over. On Monday, he’ll be busy serving the Guinness.

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Former student Robert Murray says he has a good excuse for returning a book to the University of B.C. Library 64 years late — the 83-year-old reckons it might have saved his and his son’s life.

In January, librarian Susan Parker received a package from Murray in the mail with the book, a $100 cheque for late fees and an explanation.

Murray’s letter says the book, a 1931 edition of “Camping and Woodcraft: Handbook for vacation campers and for travellers in the wilderness,” by Horace Kephart, is a “treasure.”

He borrowed the handbook as a second-year electrical engineering student in 1961 and reread it multiple times over the years. He said the book “could easily serve as a text or excellent reference” for North American wilderness living.

In an interview, Murray, who now lives in Edgewood in the B.C. Interior, said he was feeling “close to the end of his life” and the book came to mind.

“I suspect you haven’t given much thought to dying — there are probably some things you have that you value a lot, and you wouldn’t want to see them lost or misplaced or forgotten or destroyed,” said Murray.

“Camping and Woodcraft” was one of those things.

“I wasn’t going camping anymore, so I thought, well, why don’t I return it now instead of leaving it for somebody else to do,” said Murray.

He said that when he was in his 50s, he and his younger son went on a hike to Mount Young, about 100 kilometres east of Kelowna, B.C.

A faulty compass and a soaking from an intense rainstorm put them in a life-threatening situation.

But with knowledge gained from the book, they built a lean-to shelter that saved them from hypothermia. They constructed the shelter according to Kephart’s design, using a tarp for a roof that reflected life-saving heat from their fire.

Murray said he valued the book “a great deal,” having grown up outside an isolated community where he spent his days hunting, fishing, camping and hiking.

Murray said he knew a fair bit about living in the wilderness and he considered most books on the outdoors at the time to be “utter garbage”.

Then, as a student, he came across Kephart’s book.

“It’s just a fluke. Really. I was in the UBC Library and I came across it at random,” said Murray, adding that “I recognized gold when I saw it.”

He said he never felt guilty about hanging onto it — it had only been borrowed once in the 10 years before he signed it out — but he believed it was time for the book to be returned.

The library said in a statement that the book was returned in good condition and will soon be going back into circulation despite its “many adventures.”

“Although he returned it six decades late, he was an ideal library book caretaker,” Parker said. “I’ve seen books deteriorated more that were loaned out for much shorter periods of time, and even found a book where they had clearly used a piece of bacon as a bookmark.”

The university’s library eliminated most overdue fines in 2020, so Murray’s cheque will be put toward other backlogged fees.

This report by Nono Shen, The Canadian Press, was first published Mar. 17, 2025.

Spring is just around the corner and the weather forecast for B.C. is out. But what will the skies look like for Vancouver over the next few months?

Daily Hive spoke with Lisa Erven, warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), who shared that we could see a warming trend and temperatures above seasonal over the next few months across the province.

But each day can bring a different weather adventure as the province transitions out of a La Niña winter into what is known as an “ENSO-neutral” favoured forecast.

“ENSO-neutral or El Niño-Southern Oscillation-neutral has a probable forecast to persist through the spring and into summer, June, July, and August,” said Erven. We’re currently in La Niña, which means weighted towards a cooler and wetter winter that lingers into spring. However, this past winter, we didn’t get typical La Niña conditions. It was very weak, barely crossing the threshold.

“Because neutral conditions are not statically robust enough to tell us expected temperatures and precipitation trends, we rely on analyzing seasonal climate models to gain guidance on what spring forecast may hold.”

El Niño affects North America via changes in the jet stream, and an ENSO-neutral season means that the weather pattern will be both El Niño and La Niña, with neither dominating.

Erven shared that there is a probability of above-normal temperatures for B.C. in March, April, and May, as well as Metro Vancouver. There is also a probability of above-average precipitation throughout spring in sections of the province.

“Springtime is one of our most dynamic seasons,” said the meteorologist. “You often hear people say, ‘The weather was really wild’ or ‘We got all the seasons all in one day.’ Because we’re moving from the coldest month of the year to the hottest month, we can get any type of weather, especially in March and April.

“We could get snow or thunderstorms. April and May can even start to see heat events. If you’re having outdoor activities, you can check out with ECCC and find our alerts online and through our app.”

The last week of winter calls for rain for much of the week, with highs of up to 11ºC on Saturday and a low of -1ºC on Monday night.

The daily average temperature in Vancouver jumps from 6.7ºC in March to 15.8ºC in June. And keep your umbrellas nearby as the monthly average rainfall ranges from 104.1 mm in March to 51.1 mm in June.

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The union representing workers at the Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport Hotel says staff have ratified a new collective agreement, ending a nearly four-year-long strike.

Unite Here Local 40 says the 1,411-day strike was the longest in Canadian history and the agreement provides a pathway back to work for 143 workers terminated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the hotel was called Pacific Gateway.

The union says in a statement the deal also provides job security protections and higher wages.

Local president Zailda Chan says in the statement that 70 per cent of the hotel's workers were let go during the pandemic, when the hotel was used as a quarantine site.

But instead of giving up, Chan says co-workers walked off the job, demanding their colleagues be reinstated.

"They were family to them. They were best friends and they couldn't stomach that level of injustice," she told CBC News.

The strike surpasses the Vale Inco mine strike in Ontario that lasted almost two years and ended in July 2010.

"I remember when we first walked out, I had a six-month-old son. And now he's four and a half," Chan said, reflecting on the duration of the labour dispute. "The workers have shown that if you fight and if you don't give up, that you will win."

Sussanne Skidmore, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, says the strike's length was highly unusual for Canada.

She noted that the uncertainty of the hospitality industry during the pandemic contributed to the prolonged fight.

"The workers were very brave to stay out on the line this long during very difficult times through all the different seasons."

Quarantine hotel

In May 2021, the union says the 400-room hotel in Richmond, B.C., was "fully booked" by the federal government as a quarantine site for international travellers.

Unite Here says in a joint statement with Radisson Blu that the collective agreement gives terminated workers the right to return based on seniority, with the recall period extending for 36 months, and workers will now earn the highest wages in the Vancouver airport and Richmond hotel market.

The statement says the contract includes improved medical benefits, with lower eligibility requirements, as well as industry-leading cleaning standards.

Jillian Louie, a longtime server and striker, says she was among those let go and has been waiting for years to return.

"I was devastated," she told CBC News. "I was lost for words because I didn't know what to do next," she said.

Louie, who started at the hotel in 1991, says she took on part-time work to get by over the past four years but is eager to return to her old job.

"I haven't really worked with these people for a long time, and I'm actually very excited," she said.