How fortunate we are to have so much snow so early in the season. Rosslanders, being the avid out doors people that we are, were out in droves, cross-country skiing, touring, and snow shoeing. On Friday  we headed up to Strawberry Pass, to the Rossland Range Recreation Site, for our first turns on Lepsoe...

It seems odd that a major U.S. government climate report released November 3rd didn’t receive more media attention. But then, the main thing newsworthy about the Climate Science Special Report is that it was released at all, apparently without political interference. Although the U.S. government is required by law (enacted ...

When it comes to measures seriously addressing climate change, Canadians have pretty low expectations. They know that oil companies have the ear of both Bay Street political parties. Just last week, for example, the auditor general went public, exposing the Trudeau government’s refusal to provide the information he needs to...

“The West is the best. /  Get here, and we’ll do the rest.”                                                 -- Jim Morrison, the Doors, Blue Bus In the beginning, two words I do not often fare into the waters of moral judgements, but in this column I do. My morals and ethics, or “values” as the modern vocabulary seems to...

The ongoing conflict over open-net fin-fish aquaculture in our coastal waters has not received much local press. After all, it's a coastal issue; we no  longer have salmon runs in our neighbourhood, thanks to a series of dams on the  Columbia River.  But I notice that we eat  salmon from the coast anyway, brought to us by the...

The BC government has announced a key step toward creating a new, more effective climate-change strategy.  The multi-sector Climate Solutions and Clean Growth Advisory Council is charged with advising the B.C. government and delivering its first public report in one year. Karen Tam Wu, acting BC Director of the Pembina...

To The Editor: Accountability. Local city councils in the Kootenays should follow the examples of  Victoria, Saanich and the District of the Highlands, who voted nearly unanimously to send a "Climate Accountability Letter" to 20 of the world's largest fossil fuel companies, asking the companies to pay their share of the...

West High Yield Resources Ltd. and the Record Ridge claims:  Rosslanders have been hearing from representatives of West High Yield  ("WHY") about mineral claims on and around Record Ridge that could be developed into a magnesium mine for some years now.  Some residents have been excited about the...

You have to hand it to the rich in dealing with the tax reforms proposed by the Liberals. They didn’t even have to put pen to paper or pick up the phone to protest the taxman messing with their ill-gotten wealth. They got the poor besotted small businessperson to fight on their behalf. In this newly fact-free world it didn’t...

First, the cannabis news:  as readers of the "Council Matters" column already know, the provincial government is seeking input from municipal governments to help guide provincial policy on the decriminalization of cannabis.  The federal government is preparing to pass Bill C-45 and Bill C-46.  There are questions to be...