An Opportunity to Shape Our Community
Rossland residents are invited to examine draft versions of Rossland’s Life and Environment Action plans and to provide valuable input. Second-year Selkirk College Integrated Environmental Planning Program students prepared the plans. People can see them at an open house on Monday, March 14 at the Old Fire Hall (2115 Queen Street) in Rossland between 5 […]
FortisBC receives approval to build new Kootenay facility in Castlegar
FortisBC said in a media release the company has received regulatory approval from the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) to build a new Kootenay Operations Centre in Castlegar, B.C. and will begin construction as early as May. Once complete, the new facility will centralize many key operations to better serve electricity customers...
City Crews Repair Leaking Water Pipes, Rusted Valves on Spokane Street
By: Hanne Smith Repairs to the water pipe under Spokane Street were completed on Wednesday Feb 24, one week after the initial break was discovered. On Thursday Feb 18, a break was discovered in the Spokane Street water pipe, located on the steep section of Spokane between 1st and 2nd Avenues. City workers made temporary...
IHA wrings out Nelson laundry service and prepares to cut 29 jobs in the city
The fate of Kootenay Lake Hospital’s laundry services has all come out in the wash. On Tuesday afternoon the Interior Health Authority (IHA) has elected to contract out hospital laundry services for Nelson and four other communities, meaning 29 job losses in the city. Interior Health’s board of directors and the health authority...
Teck Trail Operations Assessed Penalty
Teck Metals Ltd. (Teck) has been assessed a penalty in relation to five charges under the Fisheries and Environmental Management Acts relating to incidents at Teck Trail Operations between November 2013 and February 2015. A portion of the penalty will be designated for local environmental conservation funds. The charges relate...
OPINION: BC Budget Critique; How Does BC Compare?
Petty. One word that springs to mind after last week's B.C. budget. At best, it's a lip service budget. Tweak here, tweak there, but devoid of any real purpose. To be sure, some were tossed a chicken wing. But you can almost hear the minions in the backroom: “just make sure it doesn't cost us anything, the rubes will never ...
Want Lower Property Taxes? So What do You Want to Give Up? The Arena? Get Ready to Speak Up.
Recreation alone eats up 20% of Rossland's annual expenses. The City has options to consider for keeping taxes from rising too fast, but there are residents who won't like them. Some people will be fine with one option, while others will object loudly -- and perhaps move away. How can the City keep taxes to acceptable...
What's good for the B.C. Liberals may not be good for B.C. Hydro
One of the last things anyone would ever imagine the B.C. government doing is adopting an old NDP program, but that's exactly what Energy and Mines minister Bill Bennett did this month when he announced a five-year, $300 million hydro bill deferment plan for 13 mines owned by six companies. There's a price to pay when B.C. ...
ICBC’s Hall of Shame: Cyber Fraud Files of 2015
Some things people just can't make up. The Insurance Corporation of BC (ICBC) has released its Cyber Files Wall of Shame for 2015. It goes from a woman too hurt to go to work yet finds time for roller derby to a man who sets his own truck on fire then tries to make a claim to a man who completes a grueling 12-mile obstacle...
OPINION: TPP -- Forfeiting Our Health and Sovereignty?
Are Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland's officials misleading her about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)? Freeland signed the agreement Thursday in New Zealand, but repeated her assurances that critics shouldn't worry -- the government hasn't committed to ratifying it and consultations and a full debate will precede a vote...
