Fire crews busy in Montrose, Big Sheep Creek
Blaze threatens Montrose homes On April 12, 2020, forty-three firefighters from Montrose, Trail, Fruitvale, Warfield and Rossland all worked to control a wildfire started by backyard burning at a home across highway 22A from the Beaver Creek Provincial Park. The fire burned four and a half acres uphill toward homes in...
Local face shield production expanded
Austin Innovation is scaling the production of medical face shields from their lab in Trail, BC as a stopgap measure to meet the demand for COVID-19-specific personal protective equipment (PPE). The new entity, located in the lower level of Austin Engineering, is part of the collaborative team manufacturing PPE for the medical...
Early prohibition of fires, fireworks throughout BC: UPDATED
In addition to the earlier announcement of an early burning ban across the province to begin on April 16, the province has issued open burning restrictions for all High Smoke Sensitivity Zones across the province until Wednesday, April 15, 2020. These restrictions are directly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the...
Rossland City Council Meeting, April 6, 2020
The meeting was held by ZOOM, to protect us all from each other’s potential virus load. In one regard, the Zoom meeting was easier for an observer than a meeting in the Miners Union Hall, because it was much easier to hear what each Council member said during discussions. Present: Mayor Kathy Moore, and Councillors Chris...
RDKB says: Please don't travel to secondary homes or cabins in the RDKB
Many residents from BC and other provinces own cabins or secondary homes in the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, including at Christina Lake, Big White and other tourist destinations in our region. The regional district has a simple message for anyone contemplating visiting or staying at a secondary home or cabin in ...
COLUMN: From the Hill -- supports for people affected by the pandemic
The COVID-19 crisis continues to dominate the news across the country and around the world. As the news gets grimmer in other regions, there is growing hope from British Columbia analyses that show the daily increases in cases diminishing. Our efforts at physical distancing are working, and we must keep up those efforts. ...
EXPLAINER: 10 things you need to know as a barrel of Alberta oil is valued at less than a bottle of maple syrup
As fears intensify that the benchmark price for Alberta’s oilsands crude could drop below zero, we dig into what’s behind the crash, the phenomenon of ‘homeless crude’ and why new pipelines ultimately won’t solve the problem By Sharon J. Riley for The Narwhal The headlines don’t...
ANALYSIS: What the research shows about wearing face masks in public
By Hector Chapa, for The Conversation With the coronavirus pandemic quickly spreading, U.S. health officials have changed their advice on face masks and now recommend people wear cloth masks in public areas where social distancing can be difficult, such as grocery stores. But can these masks be effective? President Donald...
Letter: Invented money and helping each other
Does anyone without an economist's education understand how vast sums of money are "created" when Western, highly-developed economies are in crisis? In 2008/09, trillions of dollars seemed to be conjured out of nothing, to rescue banks, corporations, and finance capitalists in the USA. Then, Wall St. nearly ruined our world...
Air Canada Extends Temporary Suspension of West Kootenay Regional Airport Flights
Air Canada has extended the suspension of all flights in and out of the West Kootenay Regional Airport until at least April 30, 2020. As a result of COVID-19, Air Canada is facing uncertainty and is making adjustments to its schedule which resulted in the extension. “The extension of flight suspensions has resulted in the […]
