COLUMN: A Bill to improve the Species at Risk Act
Last Friday, I tabled my Private Members Bill, C-363, in the House of Commons. This bill would patch a large loophole in the Species at Risk Act, or SARA, that has allowed previous governments to wilfully ignore scientific advice as to which species need protection in Canada. SARA is designed to be transparent and timely. ...
Trust strengthens child care in Basin
Columbia Basin Trust is launching a new $3.6-million program to help maintain and create new child care spaces in the Basin. “The Child Care Support Program will help sustain and grow quality licensed child care in the Basin,” said Johnny Strilaeff, President and CEO, Columbia Basin Trust. “The child care sector has several...
Slocan's W.E. Graham Community Services awarded funds from FortisBC Community Giving Program
FortisBC announced Monday at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) Convention in Vancouver that W.E. Graham Community Services in Slocan has been awarded funds as part of the 2017 Community Giving Program. Slocan's W.E. Graham Community Services was one of the organizations to receive the $15,000 in funding to help advance ...
COLUMN: The other reasons for rising ICBC rates -- what we weren't told
The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia which was, only a decade ago, a financially sound crown corporation, is on the ropes today. What happened? The information ICBC offers on its “Rate Pressures” web page speaks of “significant external pressures on ICBC’s insurance rates”. From 2014 to 2016 the number of crashes...
Woman from Rossland wins scholarship
Childhood family fishing trips in the Kootenays sparked an early passion for freshwater fisheries and shaped a career path for Rossland’s Erin Fulcher, who graduated from Rossland Secondary School and still has family ties that bring her back to Rossland for visits. Fulcher was one of four students awarded a $1,500 scholarship...
Letters: Discarded bags of dog poop proliferating near trails
We have been increasingly distressed by the many, many bags of dog feces neatly bagged and thrown on the mining school road and on out the trails and presumably all over Rossland. The bears are hungry now and dog feces are rich in nutrients, and ugly as this photo is, people need to know that they are threatening the ...
COLUMN: Finance committee chair Wayne Easter defends the privileged, undermines modest tax reforms
What is it about progressive politicians going to Ottawa only to end up as arrogant and nasty conservatives? My old friend Pam Wallin was one of the kindest people I knew in Regina in the 1970s when she was a member of the Waffle group in the NDP. She turned into one of the nastiest Conservative senators. And the last encounter...
RCMP arrest suspect in Nelson jewelry store robbery
RCMP are advising the public the suspect involved in the fatal collision that claimed the life of a 35-year-old mother of four on Highway 3 near the Hope Slide has been arrested. The suspect is allegedly involved as well in the early-morning jewelry store robbery in Nelson, is now in police custody. “The suspect is now in...
Kootenay, Boundary Credit Unions in merger talks
Credit union customers in the south-east interior might soon have access to more services and more convenient banking if a proposed merger goes ahead. Seven local credit unions in the Columbia Valley, Boundary and Kootenays are in talks to merge into one large regional banking institution. The credit unions announced on...
Site C or No Site C — Public hearing Tuesday in Nelson
British Columbians are facing a crucial test in the coming weeks – reaching an opinion on the planned Site C dam. Currently estimated to cost $8.8 billion, the hydroelectric dam on the Peace River is the single most expensive public infrastructure project ever proposed in B.C. history. Originally put forward along with a...
