Of all the plastic products we use and take for granted, plastic drinking straws are among the most unnecessary. Designed to be used once and discarded, their only real purpose is to keep your mouth from touching a glass or ice. It made more sense in the days when contaminated vessels were more of an issue. Now, there’s a...

While four of six Tsilhqot’in communities are evacuated due to raging wildfires surrounding  their communities,  Christy Clark’s outgoing Liberal government has granted permits to Taseko Mines to conduct extensive pre-construction exploration and drilling for the New Prosperity  mine proposal in a place precious to the Tsilhqot’in Nation.  Never mind that the federal government has twice […]

The headline above notwithstanding, people who suffer sexual assault in our region have many resources and many enlightened people available to help with all aspects of the ordeal and its aftermath.  Trail FAIR is there to help, and Victims’ Assistance.  And I have  no reason to believe that this region’s RCMP  personnel are anything but […]

It’s summertime.  We’re all on holiday, right?  Who wants to think about stuff like governance at this time of year? On the other hand, can we afford to stop thinking about it, given how things are at the highest levels of Canadian politics?    I say we need a fundamental change in the dynamics of […]

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,...