Column: A Downside of Energy Efficiency?
[Editorial Note: Readers can better understand Suzuki's urgency by first reading a recent article on CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/world-hothouse-report-1.4775649 ] By David Suzuki In the race against the increasingly widespread and devastating consequences of climate change, solutions tend to focus on products and...
Wage subsidies to hire students and apprentices: CBT
A program to support Columbia Basin employers is evolving to better meet their long-term workforce needs and to support Basin high school and post-secondary students and trades apprentices to gain local career-related work experience. Columbia Basin Trust’s School Works program now provides wage subsidies for level 1 and 2 ...
Op/Ed: The marvel of electric lighting is now a global blight to health
By Richard G. Stevens; republished from Aeon magazine Light pollution is often characterized as a soft issue in environmentalism. This perception needs to change. Light at night constitutes a massive assault on the ecology of the planet, including us. It also has indirect impacts because, while 20 per cent of electricity is...
Op/Ed: Buy BC First, says BC Premier
By John Horgan, Premier of British Columbia This B.C. Day long weekend, let's take time to enjoy food, friends and family. Let's also celebrate the farmers, producers, and local businesses who provide quality food and drink grown right here in B.C. B.C. farmers grow fresh, local food delivered to us at farmers’ markets, grocery...
The trouble with Bitcoin -- Blockchain and life on earth
We’ve all read about Bitcoin. Blockchain transactions such as those used by Bitcoin are touted for their security – the term “Blockchain” refers to a chain of “blocks” of data designed to be tamper-proof, partly because each block is identified by a “hash” which is like a digital fingerprint; it’s unique, and if anything...
Editorial: Who opposes proportional representation, and why?
There’s an old saying: follow the money. In the case of the upcoming referendum on whether or not BC should change our voting system from First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) to a form of Proportional Representation (ProRep), those most vocally opposed to a change seem to have one thing in common: they are people who think they would...
Seniors Advocate Report: Better Patient Outcomes, Savings Possible
The Seniors Advocate, Isobel Mackenzie, has issued a report on some of the different patient outcomes between private-contractor care facilities for seniors, and facilities operated by a Health Authority. The findings are compelling. The report explains that there are 293 publicly subsidized care facilities in BC, and that...
Opinion: Reconciling Energy and Indigenous Rights
In 2007, Canada was one of four countries to vote against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (with New Zealand, the United States and Australia). With its single-minded focus on making Canada an “energy superpower,” albeit only with fossil fuels, the Harper government feared the declaration’s concept of ...
Column: From the Hill -- Columbia River Treaty issues
Last week I spent three days in Spokane at the Pacific Northwest Economic Region meetings. Over 600 legislators, business people, and other interested folks from BC, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Yukon and Northwest Territories gathered to talk about issues important to this region....
Teck Announces Closing of Waneta Dam Sale
Teck Resources Limited (“Teck”), (TSX: TECK.A and TECK.B, NYSE: TECK) today announced the closing of the sale of its two-thirds interest in the Waneta Dam in British Columbia, Canada, to BC Hydro for $1.2 billion cash. ...