Check out this new cartoon from Gerry Hummel highlighting the push to open up BC and Alberta's fossil fuel resources to emerging Asian markets like China. In recent months both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Resources Minister Joe Oliver have told Canadians and leaders on the world's stage that the Enbridge Northern ...

A three-day strike to begin next Monday may cost BC teachers the support of some local parents, as residents scramble to find childcare with less than 48-hours notice (not counting the weekend). Jeanette Cook is a Castlegar mom with three kids, ages four, 12 and 13, who was supposed to start post-secondary school on Monday. […]

You can say one thing for the powers that be in the banking industry. They’ve got a lot of nerve. This past week our own finance minister Jim Flaherty, along with Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, came out strongly in opposition to a modest proposal to regulate the US banking system. Their interventions followed...

By Justin Elliot in ProPublica. Earlier this month, a group of three young Bahrainis arrived in Washington to talk about reform in the small Persian Gulf nation, which has been rocked by Arab Spring protests for the last year. The delegation, including an NGO worker and a tech entrepreneur, both Western-educated, represented...

I was encouraged, I really was, when Interior Health Authority (IHA) representative Linda Basran came to Castlegar to offer city council, and residents, an unqualified apology for the closure of Castlegar’s emergency ward for eight hours on Feb. 4. She acknowledged that communication around the closure was totally unacceptable,...

IntegrityBC has awarded seven broomsticks in the first of its annual Broomstick awards signifying the most egregious examples of ineptitude on B.C.’s political landscape from the past year. “Our choice of a broomstick is meant to symbolize that it’s time to clean up a mess,” said IntegrityBC executive director Dermod Travis. “Yet it’s easy to […]

Across our country, no other public social service is cherished as much as our healthcare system and its underlying principles set in the Canada Health Act. Canadians appreciate knowing that whatever health problem they have, help is available to them, regardless of their ability to pay. But our system is not perfect. There are still […]

It is hard to credit the latest statements and actions by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. On both Iran and Israel Baird seems to almost deliberately seek to humiliate both himself and the country he is supposed to represent on the international stage. Taking an ultra-orthodox rabbi (whose organization opposes any Palestinian...

BC Nurses’ Union members continue to be concerned about the closure of the Castlegar Emergency services on February 4. We want the community of Castlegar to know that our priority is to provide quality and safe patient care. The nurses at Castlegar Hospital will continue to advocate for improvements so that high quality care will […]

It’s budget season again and the Regional District Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) directors want public input on how to spend your tax dollars. RDKB directors are hosting Town Hall meetings in each electoral area beginning next week. During the meetings, directors will be discussing how the district operates, the 2012 budget and the 2012-2016 Five-Year Financial […]