By-Election coming up for Rossland
Voters and potential candidates – this is for everyone. Candidates who were nominated for the by-election that was scheduled for earlier in the year, which was cancelled by the Provincial government with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, will need to be nominated again to stand for election in the upcoming by-election. ...
OP/ED: Landmark decision by BC Supreme Court protects public health care
In today’s landmark ruling in the Cambie Surgery Centre case, Justice Steeves dealt a strong blow to the efforts of Dr. Brian Day and others to undermine Canada’s publicly-funded health care system. The decade-long legal attack launched by one of the largest for-profit surgical centres in Canada sought to invalidate key...
Ministry of Education will apologize and provide compensation
As a result of a BC Ombudsperson investigation, the Ministry of Education will apologize to students and compensate any students who were financially harmed by the issuance of incorrect provincial exam results in 2019. In a report released today, Course Correction: The Ministry of Education 2019 Provincial Exam Errors, the ...
City of Castlegar Council meeting highlights
Effective August 31, 2020, City Council meeting times will change to: 2 p.m. - Committee of the Whole meetings 7 p.m. - Regular Council meetings Kent Smith was randomly selected as the Snow Buster award winner for 2019/20 from 15 nominees. This annual award program allows residents to nominate others who show great community...
Column: From the Hill -- a summer tour
I recently spent a week touring through the South Okanagan-West Kootenay, meeting elected officials and constituents as well as enjoying the lakes, rivers and mountains that make this such a wonderful place to live. Now that COVID restrictions have been lifted somewhat, I was able to chat with people over coffee at picnic ...
COLUMN: From the Hill -- Greener Hydrogen?
My role as Natural Resources critic for the NDP covers forestry, mining and energy—and the big issue these days in that trio is energy. The pandemic has intensified calls for a national energy strategy that will direct federal investments to help us recover from the economic impacts of the crisis and put us on a good footing...
Column: From the Hill -- Parliamentary problem-solving
There has been a lot of misinformation and hyperbole lately about how the House of Commons will be conducting business over the next few weeks. Regular sittings of Parliament were suspended in mid-March because of the COVID-19 crisis. Since then, the House of Commons has been working, and in many ways working harder and ...
RDCK board meeting highlights
Joint Resource Recovery Committee Approves RFP for Satellite Depots The Board will move ahead with requests for proposal (RFP) for satellite depot hauling and industrial, commercial and institutional recycling services in the West Resource Recovery Sub Region, Central Resource Recovery Sub Region, and the East Resource Recovery...
Op/Ed: Laying the groundwork for tourism to come back strongly
The tourism industry is a major economic engine and job creator for people in British Columbia. Despite the deep and sudden impacts of COVID-19 on the sector, B.C.’s tourism leaders were quick to put the greater good of our communities above anything else. To assist in the pandemic response, many hotels throughout the province swiftly […]
MP Cannings: It’s time to take a serious look at basic income in Canada.
COVID-19 has obviously changed our lives in the short term, and now there is a growing consensus that the pandemic will also bring more long-lasting changes to our society—how we value workers, how we treat our seniors, how we house the homeless, how we protect the environment, and more. One topic that is surfacing more and...