The B.C. government increased the minimum wage to $10.45 per hour effect September 15 of this year said Minister for Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training, and Minister Responsible for Labour, Shirley Bond Thursday. At the same time, Bond said the wage for liquor server will get bumped up from $9.00 to $9.20 per hour. “Raising ...

West Kootenay Transit, serving riders from Kaslo to Trail and Nelson, Slocan and Castlegar, is getting a mini-makeover. The local transit service, which expanded to serve the entire West Kootenay in the summer of 2013, is introducing series of improvements including the introduction of Saturday service in Castlegar and on the regional connectors linking Nelson/Castlegar/Trail […]

Kootenay Lake Hospital is set to get some upgrades to its electrical system over the next year or so, as Interior Health has plans to install two new backup power generators and build a new electrical building at the local hospital. The new generators will provide emergency power to the hospital during power outages and […]

The month on the calendar may say March but that hasn’t stopped the Southeast Fire Centre from issuing a public warning to exercise caution with any outdoor burning activities, due to the warmer and dryer winter. “The worry right now is “person caused” fires due to grass burning or the of burning piles,” Jordan Turner, Fire...

Crystal Klym is the new Program Manager for the Columbia region’s Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program (FWCP), replacing Trevor Oussoren who is now managing the FWCP across the province. The FWCP is a partnership of BC Hydro, the Province of B.C., Fisheries and Oceans Canada, First Nations and Public Stakeholders to compensate for the impacts […]

The dry winter has the Southeast Fire Centre asking the public to exercise caution with any outdoor burning activities. The favour is due to an increased wildfire risk in the region. "The Southeast Fire Centre is experiencing unseasonably mild temperatures, spring-like conditions and low relative humidity," Jordan Turner,...

Environment Minister Mary Polak has announced that the West Arm Provincial Park is one of six BC parks to be expanded under Bill 8 which was introduced on March 2. The park will gain 1,219 hectares on the south eastern edge directly behind Ymir peak. The land is owned by the Crown, which  acquired two parcels of land totaling...

Trustees and district staff have been working on the 2015/16 school year budget since January.  On Feb. 23, the first draft of the budget was released.  It is basically a status-quo budget, which means that this draft of the budget maintains everything that we had in the current year’s preliminary budget, with the following...

Good news for backcountry snowsport enthusiasts: Avalanche Canada is receiving $325,000 over two years from Columbia Basin Trust to help it continue its work of increasing public safety for winter backcountry users. Avalanche Canada is a national public avalanche safety organization, with world-leading accident prevention programs and services. Based in Revelstoke, the organization produces daily […]

Ed. Note: To read the answers offered by the Independent Investigations Office regarding many of the questions posed below, click here). On the evening of Jan. 30, 2015, Waylon Jesse Edey, of Yahk, B.C. was shot dead by an RCMP Officer, during an “attempted traffic stop”, which took place on the Kinnaird Bridge, near Castlegar,...