COLUMN: From the Hill -- the new trade agreement
After months of negotiations and a seemingly endless series of false deadlines, negotiators have hammered out a new trade agreement between Canada, the USA and Mexico. The new agreement (called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA for short) will create winners and losers, of course, and the general consensus...
Have your say this fall!
Have you moved or changed your name since the last election? Are you a registered voter for BC? The BC government wants to make sure that everyone who is eligible can vote in the October – November referendum on electoral reform, and urges everyone to either register, or make sure their voter information is up-to-date. Chief...
Column: From the Hill -- Court Ruling on KM Pipeline; an Emergency Meeting
Last Tuesday I was in Ottawa for an emergency meeting of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources in the wake of the Federal Court of Appeal decision that quashed the federal government’s approval of the Trans Mountain Expansion project. The court quashed the approval based on two errors—the lack of consideration of marine...
Opponents fail to stifle referendum
According to a tweet today (Tuesday, August 28) by Keith Fraser of the Vancouver Sun, a bid to stop this fall's referendum on electoral reform has failed. The Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) sought an injunction to stop the vote, but in order to obtain an injunction to stop a thing from happening,...
Community Leadership! What’s important on City Council.
We all have ideas about how City Councillors should conduct themselves and all the things our council ought to do, but Monday evening’s session in Castlegar was presented by two well-informed experts on the topic whose ideas have withstood the test of reality. If you have served on Council and think you’re...
From the Hill - MP speaks to wildfires
It’s now official — 2018 has just become British Columbia’s second worst forest fire season in history, second only to last year. Residents have endured weeks of heavy smoke, some have been evacuated from their communities, and some have unfortunately lost their homes. Businesses have suffered as tourists leave or stay away,...
Op/Ed: Wildsight comments on Columbia River Treaty negotiations
By Wildsight Representatives of the Canadian and American federal governments met on August 15th and 16th for the second round of negotiations to update the 54-year old Columbia River Treaty. The meetings were held, not in Ottawa or Washington, but in Nelson, in the Canadian Columbia River Basin. The treaty between the two ...
MP Dick Cannings to 'Ride the Riding' for third year in a row
Richard Cannings, MP (South Okanagan-West Kootenay) is happy to announce that he will “Ride the Riding” for the third year in a row. Each of the last two years he decided to complete a bicycle trip through the riding, which gave him a unique chance to meet the people, businesses and industries that make up the riding. The...
OP/ED: National lobby group calls for Victoria to give BC Interior a tax break
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on the provincial government to give interior residents a break by cutting fuel taxes, fixing ICBC and axing the Employer Health Tax (EHT). With many interior businesses depending on long haul trucking, tourism and shipping, the high cost of fuel and fuel taxes are punishing...
Opinion: Reconciling Energy and Indigenous Rights
In 2007, Canada was one of four countries to vote against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (with New Zealand, the United States and Australia). With its single-minded focus on making Canada an “energy superpower,” albeit only with fossil fuels, the Harper government feared the declaration’s concept of ...
