Time to chill-out in Lillooet municipal politics?
The political climate in Lillooet is beginning to resemble a Quentin Tarantino movie and if it continues down the same path it’s not – from a cinematic perspective – going to end much differently than most of his films. In May, IntegrityBC called on the provincial government to appoint a conciliator in Lillooet, since then ...
Major celebrities add their support to Defend Our Coast mass sit-in
Well known entertainers from Canada and the United States, including Mark Ruffalo, Daryl Hannah, Michael Moore, Ellen Page, Pamela Anderson, Peter Keleghan and Tantoo Cardinal have added their names to the growing number of supporters of the Defend Our Coast mass sit-in on October 22nd in Victoria, B.C. to oppose tar sands ...
COMMENT: B.C. Election Act--time to start from scratch
When the B.C. Court of Appeal struck down the government's not-so-subtle attempt to stifle citizens with its ill-advised “gag” law this month, it was only a partial victory. Regrettably, the Court never had the chance to consider the multitude of contradictions and loopholes that exist in the B.C. Election Act, most of which...
OPINION: Rural B.C. Reality vs. Urban Carbon Tax Mythology
By: Jordan Bateman, British Columbia Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation It seems the further you get away from Vancouver, the more hated the carbon tax becomes. The B.C. government has sent its Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services around the province to hear submissions on what should be included...
OP/ED: One of the most important graphs and the two most important posts, you will ever read about BC’s coming debt load
Our good friends over at Blog Borg Collective has a very important post up this morning that clearly show the amount of debt the province is carrying – without including crown corps etc. The chart above is from one he has embedded in his post today….. and all I can say is a big thank you to the BC Liberals for accumulating...
'Canada's Carbon Corridor' Part 1: Connecting the dots across Northern BC
I recently returned from a whirlwind tour across northern BC, one of many legs of filming for a documentary and multi-media project I've been co-directing for the past year and a half, called Fractured Land. The people we spoke to along the way, the sights we witnessed and documented finally brought into focus the real ...
BC mayors met at the annual local government gathering in Victoria
Mayors from across BC met in Victoria today to examine the challenges of BC’s communities and to share best practices in moving forward. On the topic of infrastructure the 140 member strong BC Mayors’ Caucus endorsed the following statement: “We agree that our communities require immediate action to provide stable, predictable,...
OP/ED: Déjà vu at the Union of B.C. Municipalities conference
Over 1,000 delegates from 189 municipalities and districts across B.C. are gathering this week in Victoria for the annual conference of the Union of B.C. Municipalities. And for many of them the recent appointment of Bill Bennett as Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development may very well seem like déjà vu. Bennett...
COMMENT: It's time for MLAs to take their seats in Victoria
IntegrityBC launched an online petition on Sunday calling on the B.C. government to reconsider its decision not to recall the legislature next month. IntegrityBC noted that Ontario's MPPs are already back in session. In October, they'll be joined by MLAs in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In November, MLAs in Newfoundland and...
COMMENT: Tar sands? No tanks!
I live on a sailboat. My “backyard” is Georgia and Johnstone Straits. And, yes, I am a NIMBY. To anyone who wants to transport Alberta’s tar sands oil through BC’s pristine wilderness to load onto tankers, I say: Not In My Backyard. We all know what the dire environmental consequences will be if several hundred oil tankers ...
