It's a flamin' hot summer. The recent FireSmart course for Black Bear residents happened shortly before so much of BC's Cariboo region sprouted wildfires, many of them "fires of note" -- that is, fires that are highly visible, or which threaten people or structures. Communities are being evacuated, looters have been busy...

Houston, we have a consensus. Well, almost. All three parties in the B.C. legislature now support a ban on corporate and union donations, as well as setting a cap on personal contributions. It's that last one that gets tricky. What's the right cap? Perhaps B.C.'s new government should rip a page out of Alberta's NDP playbook....

The trouble with demonizing the leader of an unpopular government is that it gives the next leader way too much slack. I remember writing a column years ago comparing the hated Brian Mulroney with Paul Martin (who more or less ran Jean Chretien's government). Who was more destructive to the public interest and progressive...

Rossland's outdoor pool is open, and will celebrate its 85th birthday this August.  This community amenity was built by volunteers and first opened on August 7, 1932. To see a short video made five years aqo for its 80th birthday, with interesting details about the pool's history, click this link.  To see the pool's schedule,...

By Carol Linnett.  This article is from DeSmog Canada. While news of Saskatchewan’s plan for a small geothermal power plant was met with excitement by renewable energy advocates,  experts say British Columbia is far better situated to capitalize on the technology yet has failed to do so. “It should be a little bit of a shock...

Council began with a Committee-of-the-Whole  (CoW) meeting at 5:00 pm on Monday, June 12, 2017,  for presentation and discussion of  the basic principles guiding Council in building its asset management plan and related policies.  John Weninger, Financial Sustainability Strategist partner in Urban Systems, presented information,...

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of taking in Trail Silver City Days festivities: the pageant, the parade, and more.  The people of Trail proudly celebrated their history that weekend, and that history has a distinctly Italian flavour, with a spaghetti-eating contest, grape stomp, and bocce tournament.

The notion that we must conquer or dominate nature has governed human behaviour for a relatively short period of our 150,000-year history on this 4.5-billion-year-old planet. It’s an understandable impulse. Our intelligence and foresight allowed us to develop complex societies, and gave us a sense of control over our existence...

It's official:  The Green Party of BC and the BC NDP have reached an agreement on managing a minority government for the next four years. For the full wording of the agreement, click this link; it covers the parties' intention with regard to several issues.

By Judith Lavoie.  This article is from DeSmog Canada. A plan to form a new, independent wildlife management agency in B.C., which would relieve the provincial government from managing contentious wildlife issues such as grizzly, wolf and caribou populations, is generating anxiety among some conservation groups who fear the...