Honourable Minister McCallum, The West Kootenay Friends of Refugees agreed to sponsor a Syrian family of four, through the BVOR program, on Jan.6/16.  As you are probably well aware, this is an exciting commitment for dozens of people in any sponsoring community.  We have spent countless hours fundraising and preparing the community of Rossland BC to welcome this […]

Dear Editor, This week, all School District #20 employees received an email from our superintendent delineating another example of our government manipulating funding formulas to extract every possible penny from Boards of Education. Our School District's 2016/2017 projected budget deficit increased from $650,000 to $950,000...

“Your Donation Boomerangs Back To You” – what does that mean? We don’t have a hospital anymore! We did before! This was overheard being said in frustration by a person as they passed the elevator in the Castlegar & District Community Health Centre. I assume that this person was on their way to get bloodwork done, or an ...

“March 8 is International Women’s Day (IWD) and this year we are hopeful that justice for Indigenous Women will move forward with the government’s announcement of the long awaited inquiry on missing and murdered aboriginal women,” said Debbie Bird, President of the West Kootenay Labour Council. “Every year women and men around...

To The Editor: Canada drew upon its compassion during the Paris Climate Summit.  Knowing that if our carbon emissions continue unchanged, some of the earliest and most tangible consequences are to island nations in the southern hemisphere. They will be overwhelmed by the rising sea level, lives and livelihoods lost, and so ...

To The Editor: January 8, 2016   Premier Christy Clark PO Box 9041 Stn Prov Govt Victoria, BC V8W 9E1   Dear Premier Clark: The Province’s upcoming submission to the National Energy Board regarding Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain proposal provides an opportunity for your government to show leadership on B.C.’s economic and...

Dear Editor, In response to Deb McIntosh’s recent letter re: the Community Harvest Food  Bank’s struggles to assist families and individuals living in poverty, we suggest it is high time that our wealthy province makes  some meaningful policy changes so that the families of one in five children in BC don’t have to be dependent...

As Black Friday looms followed by the impending Christmas season, I begin to worry about my days. I am fully in support of various causes and events of awareness but our 24 hour slots are quickly being consumed by ‘special days’. Failing to stem the tide, we risk finding ourselves with a day shortage. Cyber […]

A flurry of letters and Facebook posts demanding we stop the Syrian refugee immigration and take care of our homeless and vets before refugees got us thinking. We have made donations to two school Christmas funds, the Nelson Food Cupboard, the Calgary Food Bank, the Calgary Mustard Seed, the Poppy Fund, the Canadian Red Cross,...

Dear Premier Clarke, Katrine Conroy MLA, Richard Cannings MP, Prime Minister Trudeau, Castlegar Community Harvest Food Bank can no longer meet the needs of the working poor. We can not continue to rob Peter to pay Paul. We do not have the capacity to raise any more funds than we already do. We operate 100-per-cent on volunteers...