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VANCOUVER - Survivor of B.C. plane crash remembers event

A man who astonished his family and doctors by surviving a plane crash in British Columbia has given investigators valuable information about what happened before the aircraft smashed into a hillside on a remote island. Tom Wilson, 36, was the only person to walk away from last Sunday's crash, which killed the pilot and six other passengers when the Grumman Goose float plane went down on Thormanby Island off the Sunshine Coast. The rescuers that found him said Wilson told them he had been dozing before the plane went down, but investigators said Wednesday the Alberta man remembers what happened. Wilson is recovering from burns at a Vancouver-area hospital, where investigators interviewed him Tuesday.

Fisheries

New minister supports seal hunt

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Canada's new fisheries minister says she supports the commercial sealing industry and doesn't expect any major changes for next year's commercial hunt, despite a European Union proposal that threatens to ban seal products as early as 2009. In an interview with The Canadian Press, Gail Shea said she's frustrated that the EU proposed legislation earlier this year that could prohibit the import of Canadian seal pelts and other products throughout much of the Continent. The future of the sealing industry was cast into doubt in July after the European Commission proposed a ban on importing seal products from countries that "practise cruel hunting methods."

Crime

Four bodies found inside Toronto home

TORONTO - A suburban home decorated for the holidays became the scene of a homicide investigation Wednesday after four bodies were discovered inside with a handwritten note on the front door reading "call police." A man was taken into custody and interviewed by police, but no charges had been laid as of Wednesday evening. Toronto police Sgt. Pauline Gray called the incident "a case of familial violence" and said no names nor causes of death would be released until next of kin are notified. Neighbours said the home is owned by a retired couple, Keith and Wanda Delong, who lived there with their son, Richard, who is in his 30s. They also said the couple had a daughter, Elizabeth, who was married and visited often. A sign reading "do not enter, call police" could be seen on the front door of the house.

Environment

Alberta to improve water transfer rules

EDMONTON - Alberta is making plans to head off what critics fear will be a land-rush on blue gold. The province, in its revised water strategy released Wednesday, announced plans to improve how its dwindling water supply is bought, sold and transferred to ensure that such sales don't dissolve into free-for-all free-market bidding. Cara Van Marck, a spokeswoman for Alberta Environment, said the department needs to develop the best possible management system to protect the water supplies in the South Saskatchewan River basin.

Research

Scientists map mammoth genome

TORONTO - Scientists have sequenced much of the genome of the woolly mammoth, raising the tantalizing but remote possibility that one day the long-extinct mammal could be resurrected to again trudge through the Arctic snow. The researchers at Penn State University extracted DNA from mammoth hair found frozen in the permafrost of Siberia, where the massive beasts once roamed up until about 10,000 years ago, before their species disappeared for good. The ground-breaking work, published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, is the first time an extinct animal's genome has been decoded, and the first time DNA from an extinct animal was obtained solely from its hair.

Agriculture

Cattle producers facing crisis

SASKATOON - A report by the National Farmers Union is painting a bleak picture for Canadian cattle producers. The report says that, adjusted for inflation, Canadian farmers and independent feeders are receiving half as much for their cattle as they did from the 1940s through the 1980s. It says these half-price cattle are bankrupting family farms across Canada and creating the most severe crisis in the sector since the Depression.

Health

Lead contamination in blood plummets

TORONTO - The level of lead contamination in the bloodstreams of Canadians has plummeted over the past 30 years, a likely result of the phasing out of lead in gasoline, paints and the solder used to seal food cans, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday. Where 25 per cent of Canadians had blood lead concentrations above the unsafe threshold in 1978, a survey conducted in 2007-2008 showed that figure had dropped to under one per cent.

Economy

B.C. to report reduced surplus

VICTORIA - Finance Minister Colin Hansen says the B.C. government will release a financial report next week that reduces the province's budget surplus forecast, but still beats back a deficit in spite of the world economic crisis. He says he expects to deliver the province's second quarterly financial report on Monday. The first quarterly report in September forecast a budget surplus of about $975 million and included an extra forecast allowance of $750 million, but Hansen says those numbers have been eaten away by falling revenues.

Hansen says he'll forecast a surplus above $50 million on Monday, but the exact numbers aren't ready yet. It's a significant drop but Hansen says it remains above the conservative $50 million surplus the Liberals included in the provincial budget last February.