Assessed property values: a few dramatic changes
Assessed property value changes from 2017 to 2018 Revelstoke residents will see an average increase in property values of just over 21% -- the largest increase in the Kootenay-Columbia region. The next largest increase in average assessed values is 17.2%, in Fruitvale. Midway takes third place, with an average increase of...
Opinion: NDP Government's Site C Math a Flunk, Say Project Financing Experts
By Sarah Cox, DeSmog Canada The NDP government’s arithmetic on Site C cancellation costs is “deeply flawed,” has “no logic at all,” and is “appalling,” according to three project financing experts. Eoin Finn, a retired partner of KPMG, one of the world’s largest auditing firms, said Premier John Horgan’s claim that terminating...
A report on seniors, with notes on child poverty, housing, and finally, some music to contemplate it all by.
In the wake of news about an elderly New Brunswick couple in care, married for 69 years, who were separated just before Christmas this year to accommodate the husband in a facility about 45 minutes away from the wife’s facility because of his need for a higher level of care for dementia, our thoughts can turn to the increasing...
Opinion: Is Site C really a done deal? Is it over?
A summary, by Carol Linnet of DeSmog Canada Site C is a go. Premier John Horgan announced the decision Monday morning. It was met instantly with threats of legal action, requests for an injunction, and condemnation from Amnesty International. Let's start with the legal stuff. Within minutes of the...
Opinion: Site C's bill of goods carries a hefty price tag
Difficult to imagine them getting caught dead in the same room a few weeks ago, but to paraphrase William Shakespeare, “Site C acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” The list of supporters includes the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, B.C. Building Trades, Christian Labour Association and the Progressive Contractors Association....
BC Supreme Court overturns decision of BC Oil and Gas Commission
The BC Supreme Court has ruled against the BC Oil and Gas Commission (OGC), and overturned the approval of a natural gas pipeline north of Fort Nelson. In an oral decision on December 15, 2017, Madam Justice Gerow found that the OGC’s conduct was “unreasonable” and described the Commission as being “intransigent” (or...
Column: From the Hill -- the wine case at the Supreme Court of Canada
One of the many happy tasks of a Member of Parliament is meeting up with constituents when they visit Ottawa. Last Thursday I had the pleasure of inviting representatives of the Okanagan wine industry to lunch. They and their legal team had just had a memorable morning intervening in an important Supreme Court action, known...
COLUMN: Stop blaming God and 'nature' for what we've done
Traditionally, we’ve labelled events over which we have no influence or control “acts of God” or “natural disasters.” But what’s “natural” about climate-induced disasters today? Scientists call the interval since the Industrial Revolution the “Anthropocene,” a period when our species hasbecome the major factor altering the ...
Column: We must begin to curb the power of corporations
The revelations of the Paradise Papers, the earlier Panama Papers and numerous articles in the western mainstream and alternative media demonstrate just one dimension, tax evasion, of an increasingly obvious truth: global corporations have become the greatest threat to the planet. The deliberate starvation of government,...
Celebrating the new Trail Airport terminal building
There were crowds of guests filling the new, 4200-square-foot terminal building on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 29, including a large selection of local dignitaries; people were eating cupcakes with sky-blue icing; there were several heart-felt speeches of thanks; people were encouraged to enter a draw for free flights;...
