Internal documents released via Freedom of Information laws show that, while the B.C. government was publicly apologizing to the Fort Nelson First Nation for exempting natural gas plants from environmental assessments without consultation, the province quietly used a loophole to allow the exemptions to continue — a...

Last night was the first of three meetings intended to change the paradigm of how mayor, council and city staff present, not just the budget, but the budget process to the Castlegar public. I'll admit, when I first picked up the 19-page budget packet provided so attendees could follow along – page after page of lists, charts,...

Introduction: last year of our Second twenty-first-century Decade (!) Year-end and year-start reviews can be an occasion for melancholy or celebration, and yet I personally feel neither. Mostly I feel astounded to find myself 19 years into the twenty-first century, and the third millennium, when it seems not so long ago that the pregnant year […]

We’ve heard a lot in the news lately about the challenges facing the oil sector, but much less about the serious problems confronting another natural resource industry—forestry. Two years ago, the United States placed significant import tariffs on softwood lumber.  Those illegal tariffs are still in place, yet we hear almost...

In this coldest time of the year, we often think of the people in our area who are homeless.  Some have ended up on the streets and in rough camps because of mental health issues, addictions, or a combination of the two.  Some are children fleeing abusive parents or women fleeing abusive spouses; others have become disabled. ...

If Castlegar city council is serious about transparency and better communications, I would suggest Job One for them should be to leave a pile of rubber bands on the media table before every meeting so we can ping any member of senior staff or council who forgets to use their microphone. While that is obviously a tongue-in-cheek...

To The Editor: In light of the Greyhound bus lines reducing service in British Columbia, the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) wanted to take the opportunity to reach out to any people living with cancer who may be impacted by this withdrawal of service. No matter where you live, CCS is here to ensure that no Canadian has to face...

As I get older, I find there are fewer and fewer things I’m willing to get upset about – hence the lack of editorial rants of late. There is, however, one issue that has me so incensed, so appalled, so disgusted, so flat-out ashamed, that it’s taken me weeks to write about it without using some of the more colourful (and less...

So far, most of the discussion about Proportional Representation (PR) has focused on fairness. Without a proportional voting system, there’s no way to make every vote count equally. But there are other reasons to adopt it, arguably as valid: it would bring social and financial stability and cut waste. In elections using...

This week the House of Commons passed Bill C-76, the Elections Modernization Act, the federal government’s answer to the so-called “Fair Elections Act” that the Conservatives enacted in 2014.  And although I and the rest of the NDP caucus voted in favour of the bill, I would say this bill is “a day late and a dollar short.”...