Nelson City Council, normally quite an amiable group, descended into a tense stalemate Monday during a long discussion about the legalization and regulation of marijuana. The discussion included some acrimonious exchanges between Mayor John Dooley and Councillor Donna Macdonald.   Council was debating a motion that, if passed, would have had the mayor sign a […]

The City of Castlegar will be spending just under $50,000 to review their development cost charges, after an unanimous vote at Monday night's regular council meeting. Councillor and chair of council's planning and development committee, Kevin Chernoff, said the fee structure is more important than many realize. "They are...

The vision of a unified transit system covering both the Kootenay Boundary and Central Kootenay regions is a step closer to reality, according to Castlegar mayor Lawrence Chernoff. Chernoff is also chair of the newly-formed West Kootenay Transit Committee, which had its first meeting Wednesday. “We met yesterday with BC Transit, and that’s when it […]

A delegation (including Castlegar mayor Lawrence Chernoff) invited to present to WestJet near the end of this month will be one of fewer than 50 from across the entire country, according to WestJet media relations advisor Jennifer Sanford. She said the first step in a very complicated process began back in January, when WestJet...

WestJet has asked representatives of the West Kootenay Regional Airport Advisory Committee to meet with airline staff later this month to discuss why WestJet should come to Castlegar (see also: http://castlegarsource.com/news/westjet-clarifies-invitation-19383). Castlegar mayor Lawrence Chernoff, Nelson mayor John Dooley, city manager John Malcolm and former MP (and air traffic controller) Jim Gouk will be among the […]

The words that title my piece are biblical and mean, roughly, “number, number, weight, division.” They are apt to this moment. I believe that numbers, judgment, and a state of feeling divided, are clues to our malaise as Canadians right now. To say that Stephen Harper divides Canadians like no other prime minister before him...

  Andy Shadrack was recently named President of the Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Governments (AKBLG). He is in his third term as the representative of Area D in the Regional District of Central Kootenay. The AKBLG is composed of municipalities and electoral areas of southeastern British Columbia. It is a regional affiliate of the […]

For more than two terms (six years), it's been rare if not outright unheard-of to see a council vote split exactly down the middle, but tonight saw two such votes as well as an issue that prompted a 4-2 split. The division began over the issue of the Cobra Climb stairs in Kinnaird near 10th Avenue - councillor Deb McIntosh ...

A challenge to step up leadership was given to Grand Forks city council when mayor Brian Taylor asked them to join the campaign to end the prohibition of marijuana in Canada. Taylor wants council to join in with the other B.C. municipalities, now over 13 of a possible 160 and growing, in the Stop the Violence campaign. The ...

There was a time when we talked about the “two solitudes” in Canada, referring to a divide between French and English Canada.  Although differences still exist between our two founding cultures, they are now more often celebrated than not.   Over the past few years, however, I have seen “two new solitudes” emerge.  Let’s call...