Editor’s Note:  Many people are not yet aware of the proposal to turn about 700 square kilometres of the southern Purcell  Range into a heli-playground, cutting new trails and building lodges, with helicopter flights carrying in skiers in the winter and hikers and mountain bikers in the summer.  The...

There’s never been a better time to head to downtown Castlegar than this weekend (Friday and Saturday), for the Second Annual I Heart Downtown Castlegar event. Organizer Shawna Tarasoff said it’s a two-day event intended to showcase the variety of diverse and dynamic businesses in the downtown core. “It’s to create some...

Another positive sign Grand Forks is getting back to a bit of normalcy after the Great Flood of 2018 happened Wednesday when Interfor Corporation announced that it resumed operations at the Boundary City sawmill. Management had closed the sawmill in Grand Forks for the past two weeks due to following severe flooding in the ...

Kootenay Mountain Culture magazine and veteran journalist Bob Keating have landed in some fine company. Keating’s story, "Dammed & Determined," about the future of the Columbia River Treaty, has been nominated for a National Magazine Award in the Feature Writing category. Other nominees in this category include Maclean's, Chatelaine and Alberta Views. The winner will […]

Volunteers are needed to help the flooded-out residents of Grand Forks. The Trail and District Chamber of Commerce is appealing to local businesses to send some employees to Grand Forks for a few hours to assist. Sandbagging efforts are winding down, but clean-up crews are needed. For people who would like to make a positive...

Following a complaint to the BC Ombudsperson, Jay Chalke, an investigation determined that the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction had failed to follow the law in calculating entitlement to income assistance benefits. The Ministry had improperly imposed a policy of a one-month suspension the earnings exemption,...

New goings-on in the Kootenay music world: a local group is putting a new spin on the resurgence of vinyl with a brand-new project. It’s called The VinylCast, and it aims to deliver music on vinyl to music lovers – right to their doors.  (Or post offices, as the case may be.)  It launches globally this month, and will also ...

ROSSLAND -- The Government of British Columbia is working with the Columbia Basin Trust to build 167 new homes for people struggling to find housing they can afford, in ten Kootenay communities. Rossland will receive funding to develop 24 housing units, planned to be built on the western side of the land known as “the Emcon...

The Canada  Revenue Agency wants us all to file out tax returns on time.  For good reason: even low-income people need to file tax returns in order to benefit from such things as lower Medical Services Plan premiums, and other benefits. And it makes life easier for taxpayers and the bureaucrats too.  Here's a press release ...

The Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline has dominated news in the past few weeks.  The public is divided over whether we should build this pipeline and allow Alberta oil sands output to increase, or whether it presents too much risk to BC’s rivers and coastal environments. Many experts described the original project approval ...