COLUMN: A Ray of Hope from Nature
If you fly over a forest and look down, you’ll see every green tree and plant reaching to the heavens to absorb the ultimate energy source: sunlight. What a contrast when you look down on a city or town with its naked roofs, asphalt roads and concrete sidewalks, all ignoring the sun’s beneficence! Research shows we might...
Gitxsan chiefs add fourth lawsuit opposing Pacific Northwest LNG
Inland B.C. hereditary First Nations chiefs joined coastal ones in announcing a fourth federal lawsuit against Ottawa’s approval of the Pacific Northwest LNG project, at a press conference in Vancouver. They claim that the gas export terminal is an infringement of their Aboriginal fishing rights. Two Gitxsan Nation hereditary...
Government lends helping hand to families with property taxes by increasing home owner grant
The Province is increasing the home owner grant threshold to $1.6 million, helping keep property taxes affordable for families and ensuring most home owners will continue to receive the full grant this year, Finance Minister Michael de Jong announced Monday. “This is a 33% increase over last year,” said de Jong....
Regional airport analysis supported
During Monday’s Nelson City Council meeting, it was discussed that the city will be helping to propel a feasibility report on the region’s main airport with a financial contribution for its analysis. Council agreed to contribute $10,000 from the airport reserve fund to the City of Castlegar towards Jeppesen Aviation’s Registered Navigation Procedure Analysis for […]
Transformative Change in 2017 Starts With Community
As has been pointed out by too many people, 2016 was a devastating year for progressives (a homely term for all those who are want equality, democracy and ecological sanity). There is no need to repeat the list of atrocities, failures and disappointments, as we all have them indelibly marked on our psyches....
Restrictions and Delays at Northport Bridge
The 1500-foot-long bridge at Northport on State Route 25, five miles south of the US-Canada border, is open to single-lane, alternating traffic only, with no over-legal-weight or wide-load vehicles permitted; restrictions are in force 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and are expected to remain in place for up to six...
Editorial: Ignorance as a Survival Tactic
There, a nice picture of a cat. Now for some of the stuff we'd rather ignore, even if that's not a very smart move. In Ruth Ozeki's 1998 novel "My Year of Meats" the main character ponders ignorance and explains, "ignorance is an act of will, a choice that one makes over and over again, especially when information overwhelms...
Column: Unfinished Business
Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but 2017 is an election year in British Columbia. On the presumption they're not the same thing, government and election ads should be over by the Stanley Cup semi-finals. There are bits of unfinished business the B.C. government could attend to in the meantime, though. Just as there are...
COLUMN: What Scientists Said 25 Years Ago
The longer we delay addressing environmental problems, the more difficult it will be to resolve them. Although we’ve known about climate change and its potential impacts for a long time, and we’re seeing those impacts worsen daily, our political representatives are still approving and promoting fossil fuel infrastructure as...