Following an attempt last year to achieve a mediated solution to the ongoing sewer dispute between Rossland, Trail, and Warfield, the chair of the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB), Larry Gray, wrote Minister Ida Chong on Feb. 8 to ask that  the issue be declared a "prescribed matter suitable for binding arbitration."...

Council will soon debate a series of bylaws to revoke both the Development Cost Charge (DCC) and the regional Sewer Cost Recovery Charge (SCRC), and to replace these with a single Service Capacity Connection Charge (CCC) for water, sewer, and drainage. Council's decision to support CCCs over DCCs and SCRCs was unanimous. They...

Council voted to release the tender documents for the Columbia Ave. project after an in camera discussion and a "special" meeting on Monday night, but when the public were admitted for the following committee-of-the-whole meeting, Mayor Greg Granstrom moved to modify the tendered design "to have angle parking be the design ...

In our community, people with disabilities are still uncertain about whether they are eligible for an important tax credit with a significant refund. I remain committed to raising awareness about their legitimate entitlement under the Income Tax Act. For your information, every eligible person should be aware of his/her rights...

Day one of the B.C. Teachers Federation three-day job action came and went in the Kootenay Lake School District No. 8 without much controversy on the picket lines said Kootenay Lake Superintendent of Schools/CEO Jeff Jones. “I had the opportunity to see some teachers on the (picket) lines around some of the sites in our […]

In the first of a two-part interview, Rafe Mair grills BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix on private power, Site C Dam and BC's flawed environmental assessment process. What will the NDP do with existing and future private river power projects (a.k.a. IPPs) if they form the next government - and where do they stand on Site C Dam? Watch...

Dear Parents and Guardians, Today the British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) announced their intention to perform a full-scale withdrawal of the services on Monday, March 5 through Wednesday, March 7. This strike action is legal, given a recent Labour Relations Board ruling allowing teachers to walk out for up to three days after giving two […]

A three-day strike to begin next Monday may cost BC teachers the support of some local parents, as residents scramble to find childcare with less than 48-hours notice (not counting the weekend). Jeanette Cook is a Castlegar mom with three kids, ages four, 12 and 13, who was supposed to start post-secondary school on Monday. […]

The following is a press release issued just after 1 p.m. today by the BC Teachers’ Federation: Next Monday, March 5, teachers across B.C. will begin a legal three-da,y full-scale withdrawal of services, as permitted under the Labour Relations Board interim essential services order. At 6 a.m. today, the BCTF issued notice of the escalation […]

As council continued to trudge through the draft 2012 five year financial plan (FP) on Monday evening, four of seven on council decided they did not want the $5 million four-season pool project in the FP, even though a contentious grant application for this project was submitted in December. The debate boiled down to two...