2020 was quite a year -- with some good things in the works
A surprising thing happened at The Narwhal during the very-bad-not-at-all-good year of 2020: we wrote more good news and solutions-focused stories than ever before By Carol Linnet, for The Narwhal You don’t need me to tell you what the seven years of 2020 have been like. But if the pandemic has revealed anything...
Opinion: From a tough year, a tremendous amount of hope
By Chris Gusen 2020 was tough. But, as we look back on the past year, it also brings us a tremendous amount of hope. Seeing how the world mobilized to fight COVID-19 gave us a glimpse of what might be possible if our elected officials treated the climate emergency just as seriously. As we rest up and prepare to continue our...
Opinion: A business case for Trans Mountain expansion? A close look at the data
By David Huntley; republished with permission from Watershed Sentinel The Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline is being built to transport Alberta’s diluted bitumen to tidewater and then by tanker to overseas markets. In 2011, the National Energy Board gave Trans Mountain priority access for 79,000 barrels of oil per day...
Column: From the Hill -- CERB injustices
In the middle of the pandemic’s second wave and with the holidays fast approaching, many Canadians are still struggling to figure out how they’ll get through these tough times. Last week we saw two examples of how the government’s priorities are hurting many low-income, self-employed Canadians while letting large corporations...
Rossland Council's final set of Zoom meetings for 2020
Chicken coop question resolved! And, Council got through a lot of other business in its final meetings of 2020. Present: Mayor Kathy Moore, and Councillors Terry Miller, Dirk Lewis, Chris Bowman, Janice Nightingale, Stewart Spooner, and Andy Morel. Staff: CAO Bryan Teasdale, DCO Cynthia Año Nuevo, CFO Elma Hamming, Manager...
A glimmer of hope for dwindling Kootenay caribou and biodiversity
After significant public pressure, the B.C. government and its logging agency BC Timber Sales (BCTS) have committed to pause logging and road-building in a remote old growth valley north of Revelstoke, which is critical habitat for the North Columbia caribou herd. A total of 276 hectares of proposed logging and more than 10...
Column: Raise the bar, Canada, and address environmental racism
In Canada, we’re quick to favourably compare ourselves to our southern neighbours. COVID-19 caseloads may be at an all-time high here, but the U.S. situation is even more dire. Canada hasn’t managed to curb carbon emissions, but the U.S. abandoned emission reduction targets when it pulled out of the Paris Agreement. We may ...
Column: From the Hill -- Small Modular Reactors
Earlier this year, Seamus O’Regan, the Minister of Natural Resources said in a speech that “We are placing nuclear energy front and centre… This is nuclear’s moment.” And in discussions around building a new economy after COVID, the government is doubling down on those sentiments. The latest debates are slightly different ...
Terry Miller is Rossland's newest Council member
The unofficial results of the Rossland by-election to fill one vacant Council seat indicate that Terry Miller received 600 votes, and that Fletcher Quince received 213 votes. The unofficial results are subject to determination of official election results by the Chief Election Officer. Now that Rossland City Council has its...
NDP’s Katrine Conroy sworn into Legislature as Kootenay West MLA
Katrine Conroy was sworn into the Legislature virtually Monday as the newly re-elected BC New Democrat MLA for Kootenay West following an historic election. The 57 new BC NDP members were sworn in as part of part of British Columbia’s 42nd Parliament, all focused on supporting people through the COVID-19 pandemic and...
