Property taxes remain stable, water parcel taxes rise in new budget
Council approved the city’s 2012 operating and capital budgets on Monday evening, and then put both this year's bylaws on municipal tax rates and on parcel tax rates through their first three readings. Municipal tax rates have been set so that, for the third year running, there will be no increase to the average Rossland...
Council delegates tender power to CAO
Council has delegated authority to CAO Victor Kumar to award tender for the Columbia-Washington project after he completes negotiations and comes to an agreement with the successful bidder. A summary of the negotiations, including the final cost, will be available for the public at the next council meeting. Kumar presented...
National Hospice Palliative Care Week: 'Let’s Work Together'
National Hospice Palliative Care Week (NHPCW) 2012 will be celebrated on May 6-12, 2012. As people approach end-of-life, it is increasingly important for pathways of communication to remain open between family and all professionals and volunteers involved in a patient's continuum of care. The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care...
ICBC employees vote in favour of job action
Union members at the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia have voted 87 per cent in favour of job action, said the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union, Local 378 (COPE 378). The collective agreement expired in 2010 and the union and ICBC have been bargaining since January of 2011. “The strength of this vote...
PANAMA: Poor but not forgotten thanks to online videos
Coco Solo was once a United States Navy submarine base on the Panama Canal Zone, near Colón, Panama. Today, Coco Solo is the home of some of the poorest, most marginalized Panamanians. In 2008, Reuters published a story about the “poverty and decay” in Coco Solo, where John McCain (then Republican presidential...
TAX TIP: Canada Learning Bond
The Canada Learning Bond provides money from the Government to help you start saving early for your child’s education after high school. Your child could get $500 NOW to help you start saving early for your child’s education after high school, and an extra $100 each year up to age 15. That’s up to $2,000 (plus interest) in ...
Canadian swordfish eco-certified despite deaths of endangered sea turtles and sharks
Despite strong opposition from conservation organizations, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has granted eco-certification to Nova Scotia’s swordfish longline fishery which is responsible for killing 35,000 sharks and 200-500 endangered sea turtles each year as ‘bycatch’. According to yesterday’s announcement by the MSC,...
Wildfire prevention fuel treatments to hit high gear this spring around Rossland
Provincial grants under the Strategic Wildfire Prevention Initiative (SWPI) totalling more than $145,000 have been awarded to Rossland for its Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWP Plan), both for prescriptions completed last fall for another 25 hectares of “high hazard interface lands,” and for the actual fuel treatments...
ANALYSIS: Sports versus Arts—where do council's priorities lie? A closer look at CBT's Community Initiatives Program in Rossland.
As council divided the annual Community Initiatives Program (CIP) funding from the Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) among 37 applicants on Monday, one petitioner for an arts organization noted that it is difficult to get arts funding in a sports town like Rossland. But is that the case? Our numbers suggest otherwise. We took the...
SWEDEN: Controversy over 'racist cake' art piece...created by black artist
News website grioo.com reports that on April 15, 2012, Swedish Culture Minister, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, attended a exhibition preview at Museum of Modern Art of Stockholm to celebrate ‘World Art Day'. The highlight of the show seems to have been the tasting of the ‘Painful Cake' representing the body of an African woman, ...