COMMENT: The tyrant's poison pill
The West’s hypocrisy and oil-greed are coming home to roost with a vengeance in Libya as the Arab spring in that country turns into a nightmarish winter characterized by armed gangs, economic collapse, a decline in services by an incompetent government and increasing political domination by radical Islamists. Whether or not...
COMMENT: At $18.2 million, election campaigns don't come cheap in B.C.
They're off. The start to B.C.'s official pre-campaign period for the 2013 election campaign is well underway. Day one of the pre-campaign would have been an easy miss, coming as it did on the same day a meteor crashed to earth and the Canucks fell to the Dallas Stars. Heck, Elections BC didn't even post a news release...
Gerrymandering Feds: electoral boundaries cross the thin blue line
As the once-per-decade review process for federal riding's comes to a close, including a hotly contested redistribution of the Southern Interior riding in which Rossland sits, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission submitted their proposal to the House of Commons without any significant changes."The final configuration...
Council Miscellany—Trash, Time Capsules, Cook-with-an-e, and Norwegian Sisters
Rossland council's regular meeting on Feb. 13 covered a lot of ground, from planning for the inevitable spring dog doo thaw, to the federal government's decision to change our electoral riding apparently, opponents say, to dye our orange with some blue. The lid's wide open for Pitch-In 2013 For several years, Coun. Jill Spearn...
Council Miscellany—Budgets, Grants, and Columbia Ave. Negotiations
Council's Feb. 13 meeting was marked by the 70-odd people who turned up to advocate for the continued funding of the Kootenay Columbia Trails Society, which triggered an idea by Coun. Cary Fisher that grabbed the rest of council. In other news, the city is now preparing for imminent 2013 budget discussions, a grant for...
Cougar killed in Rossland after attacking dog
Conservation Officer Ben Beetlestone arrived in Rossland at 8 a.m. last Saturday morning to meet with the owner of a dog that had been attacked the night before in Lower Rossland. Minutes later, another resident phoned in a sighting and, at 8:45, Beetlestone found and shot a cougar. "It was thin and had some sort of illness,"...
OP/ED: Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum, Part 2
In my Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF) column (Part I) I gave a general description of this Inter-Parliamentary Forum held in Vladivostok, Russian. During the meeting, resolutions were adopted that will be presented to each of the countries represented at the APPF and it is possible that these statements will wind up...
WHO REALLY OWNS CITY HALL 1: Look in the mirror
The last section in the Municipal Act calls on the Minister to “establish a process for the review of this Act” within 10 years after its adoption. The Act was adopted in 1998, and by the time the Minister complied with section 371, that deadline had long ago expired. However, the review process is now underway and although...
Trails Society rolls into City Hall with a horde
It was standing room only in council chambers yesterday evening—crammed on all sides of council and spilling out the hallways—as the Kootenay Columbia Trail Society (KCTS) presented to council about the value they bring to Rossland.A draft financial document used in an exercise by council to consider future tax implications...
Taxes and the potential for a Rossland-SD20 partnership
Staff have calculated the tax implications for four scenarios in which Rossland funds School District No. 20 (SD20) as part of a larger deal to secure K-12 schooling in Rossland. The SD20 board recently voted against K-12 schooling in Rossland, and will likely give third reading to a resolution for K-9 at RSS with the closure...
