RDCK directors give green light to annual five-year financial plan
During Thursday’s monthly board meeting, Regional District of Central Kootenay directors unanimously adopted its 2015 — 2019 Financial Plan. The plan, requiring municipal government to have a plan that projects financial costs over a five-year period, continues to manage the surplus and reserve balances in each of the RDCK’s 160-plus services. “I think things (in […]
AGLG Report on Rossland, Part 2, Released
The Auditor General for Local Government (AGLG) has just released Part 2 of the City of Rossland’s audit, which focused on Capital Procurement Projects and Asset Management. The report concludes that the City needs to build on the asset management work it has already started and to move forward with creating an Asset Management...
Canada: "A Backwater of Ignorance"
On April 14, provincial and territorial leaders are to meet in Quebec City for a special Council of Federation meeting to talk about climate change. Some prominent Canadians — and many others, less prominent but equally concerned — plan to attend a march there on April 11, in an attempt to get a message to […]
Fire department deals with dramatic increase in demands for service
The Castlegar Fire Department is being kept busy with almost half again as many calls this year-to-date as over the same time frame in 2014, according to an emergency services report presented to city council at its regular meeting Monday night. The report indicated that the CFD responded to 104 calls this year so far, as...
Castlegar squares off against Bill C-51
Castlegar residents took to the street last weekend to protest the Harper government’s proposed Bill C-51, a controversial piece of potential legislation garnering negative reactions across the country, even from life-long Neo-Conservatives such as Conrad Black. In Castlegar, upwards of 125 people gathered in Spirit Square ...
Council approves plan to put $184,000 for NDCC in reserves, Newell says funding is being used as a 'weapon'
Nelson city council has decided to play ball with the RDCK and keep the $184,000 grant for the Nelson and District Community Centre (NDCC) on the table, but with conditions that don’t sit well with RDCK Area F Director Tom Newell. After the city decided to withdraw the $184,000 earlier this year due to concerns about the...
Canada Hedges its Bets on Cluster Bombs
The World Federalist Movement has issued a press release about Canada’s new federal legislation ratifying the implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions — an international treaty intended to ban the use of cluster bombs. Canada signed the treaty in 2008, but has only now ratified it by passing the implementing legislation. There is widespread […]
Letter: Bill C-51 — more than a chill on back of neck
To the Editor: Got that chill running down the back of your neck? It could already be Bill C-51. Bill C-51, the so-called “secret police act” could already be putting a serious chill on public debate and democracy in Canada. Here in Nelson, BC, I went to a protest of the bill on (Saturday) March 14th with over 150 other people....
Council to create connections with kids
City councillors Florio Vassilakakis and Bruno Tassone met with SD 20 school board representatives last Monday during the board’s regular meeting to pitch an idea designed, not to bring youth into civic politics, but rather to bring civic politics to our youth. “I thought Florio’s idea was an excellent one, and I thought it...
Police board calls for independent audit of police services after council rejects funding for additional staffing
The Nelson Police Board and Nelson city council are at odds over funding for policing in the city, after city council recently rejected a request by the police board for $311,000 worth of extra funding for additional staff the Nelson Police Department (NPD) says is needed to do their jobs properly. Council rejected the funding...
