Editorial: Sliding into traffic? Please, no.
Just today, a reader sent me a link to a news item about a young person in Indiana, USA, killed while playing in the snow – sliding down a steep, snow-covered street, right into the path of a motorist. And now dead. The reader had seen a youth in Rossland sliding down one of our steep streets, and barely stopping before...
OUT OF LEFT FIELD: One of the most important ways to manage tragedy
It makes me very sad to be having to write this again, and that we once more find ourselves coping with a horrific couple of months in our region – motor vehicle fatalities and injuries, fires, unexpected deaths, community icons lost. I think the knee-jerk reaction of most good people is to want to do something, to help in ...
COLUMN: Consumer society no longer serves our needs
My parents were born in Vancouver — Dad in 1909, Mom in 1911 — and married during the Great Depression. It was a difficult time that shaped their values and outlook, which they drummed into my sisters and me. “Save some for tomorrow,” they often scolded. “Share; don’t be greedy.” “Help others when they need it because one day...
Opinion: BC Hydro asking for a loan? Overheard by a fly on the wall
Loans Officer (LO): So you'd like to borrow $10.7 billion? BC Hydro (BCH): Yes sir. It's for a hydro-electric dam. LO: Well that's a lot of green for green energy. How exactly did you arrive at that cost? BCH: Happy to report we went to the same team that came up with the $1.5 billion estimate for the Port Mann bridge....
Opinion: Good news -- some projects that got it at least partly right
By DeSmog Canada editors Being an environmental journalist at this point in history can be a bit, well, depressing. It often means bringing negative stories to light: stories about government failing to balance development with environmental protection, or about companies getting away with harmful practices, or about Indigenous...
Opinion: The second 'Warning to Humanity' and what we can do
A year ago, we revisited the 1992 “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity.” Signed by a majority of Nobel laureates in sciences at the time and more than 1,700 leading scientists worldwide, the document warned, “Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course.” It called for a new ethic that encompasses our...
Column: From the Hill
Earlier this month I helped out at the Salvation Army Christmas hamper distribution event. It felt good to play a small part in making hundreds of people have a happier Christmas—healthy food, toys for the kids. It was especially nice to see boxes of local fruits and vegetables on their way to homes that have a tough time...
Column: Resolution time for BC politicians
Who could possibly have imagined what 2017 had in store for British Columbia twelve months ago? We were all eye witnesses to a future political science seminar that left 87 MLAs sitting in the B.C. legislature where they didn't quite expect to be sitting 12 months ago. As it is that time of year, here are a few New Year's...
Opinion: NDP Government's Site C Math a Flunk, Say Project Financing Experts
By Sarah Cox, DeSmog Canada The NDP government’s arithmetic on Site C cancellation costs is “deeply flawed,” has “no logic at all,” and is “appalling,” according to three project financing experts. Eoin Finn, a retired partner of KPMG, one of the world’s largest auditing firms, said Premier John Horgan’s claim that terminating...
Op/Ed: Year in Review, by our MLA Katrine Conroy
Despite the many rewarding experiences of recent months, I’m grateful to come home for Christmas to the Kootenays and my family. It has been an eventful year in B.C. politics with the election in May resulting in a new NDP government under Premier John Horgan. We promised to make life more affordable, to improve the services...