Castlegar mayor calls on small business to "step up"
Castlegar mayor Lawrence Chernoff threw down the gauntlet for the city’s small business community at the Chamber of Commerce’s annual general meeting at the Fireside Inn last night. “There’s a change coming that will effect absolutely everyone, not just in Castlegar, but throughout the entire province,” he said. “Small business in B.C. employs one million people, […]
Castlegar chosen for regional climate change initiative
Columbia Basin Trust’s (CBT) leading-edge initiative, Communities Adapting to Climate Change, is wrapping up Phase 1 with two communities in the Columbia Basin now equipped with action plans on how to adapt to impacts of climate change at a local level…and three more ready to get started on new work, including Castlegar. “After months of […]
Castlegar Airport no more
Photo by Phil Markin: City council members unveil the new name, sign and logo what was once the Castlegar Airport. Monday night’s regular council meeting saw the final report for the Castlegar Airport – from now on, reports will speak to the progress and traffic levels of the West Kootenay Regional Airport, instead. This meeting’s […]
Our home, not Native land
I’m sure to receive at least a couple of accusations of being racist after writing this column, to which I would respond that I am not; However I am frustrated by what I believe are undeserved special rights the government is willing to grant Canadian native groups. What brought me to pen this was an […]
Celgar responds to court decision; confirms grant money
Celgar manager Al Hitzroth confirmed today that the mill he manages here in Castlegar has gotten the green light for $57.8 million in federal grant money through a program intended to help level the playing field after the U.S. announced $8 billion in black liquor subsidies for American pulp mills. Unlike the U.S. program, which […]
MP says new EI legislation good news
MP Alex Atamanenko (BC Southern Interior) said he is pleased with federal Human Resources Minister Diane Finley’s statement Thursday that the government will finally agree to the amendments to Bill C-50 that the NDP has been calling for; namely, to ensure long-tenured workers who applied for EI benefits as of January 4th, ...
B.C. Chamber speaks to locals on HST
Photo: Castlegar Chamber of Commerce executive director Pam McLeod. More than a dozen local business interests were on hand Oct. 6 at the CBT Forum (across from city hall) to hear from Jon Garson, vice president of public policy development for the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, regarding the new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST). Representatives were […]
Summer-long investigation leads to pot seizure valued at tens of millions
A massive police crack-down on outdoor marijuana grow-ops this summer saw RCMP seize 14,130 pot plants from 88 sites throughout the region.Inspector Nick Romanchuk said the investigative team even included an RCMP helicopter from Kelowna.“Based on a conservative estimate, it is believed that these seizures prevented approximately...
New prison near Surrey
The following is a press release issued by the provincial government:The province will build a new secure, state-of- the-art corrections facility adjacent to the existing Surrey Pretrial Services Centre and connected by tunnel to both the courthouse and police station, Solicitor General Kash Heed announced today.Surrey was...
She said: "Religious freedom" no justification for sexually assaulting children
The first half of this he-said/she-said debate can be found in Rob Leggett’s Right to the Point column, in the Op/Ed page of the Castlegar Source. Rob and I have had some difficulty, lately, in finding an issue on which we passionately disagree. He solved that problem, however, with his most recent column on Winston […]
