Seniors Advocate reports on elder-care facilities, finds need for change
A Billion Reasons to Care is the first provincial review of the $1.4 billion-dollar contracted long-term care sector in British Columbia. The review examined industry contracts, annual audited financial statements and detailed reporting on revenue and expenditures for the years 2016/17 and 2017/18. The BC Seniors Advocate ...
FedEx buys city airport land for distribution centre/warehouse
The City of Castlegar will see a major development near the West Kootenay Regional Airport early in 2020. FedEx has purchased land near the West Kootenay Regional Airport and plans to construct a warehouse building that will serve as a distribution centre and office space. The company chose Castlegar for a variety of reasons,...
Column: From the Hill -- The new NAFTA -- CUSMA
This week in the House of Commons we are debating the new NAFTA agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico, known by the acronym CUSMA. The original NAFTA was negotiated by Conservatives and signed by Liberals in 1994 with promises of more jobs and secure access to the largest market in the world. Supporters of ...
Former BC Gov was warned about criminal activity in casinos
An explosive Global News investigative report today says that the RCMP warned the former BC Liberal government about serious criminal activity infecting the province’s gaming sector. Former Crown prosecutor Sandy Garossino said the RCMP report “shreds the credibility” of former Solicitor General Rich Coleman’s explanation for...
Op/Ed: What’s next on corporate crime and remediation agreements?
By Jennifer Quaid; originally published in The Conversation About a year ago, the SNC-Lavalin controversy introduced Canadians to a new way of settling criminal charges — remediation agreements. Added to Canadian law via a budget bill in June 2018, the system was put to the test almost immediately when SNC-Lavalin sought a ...
COLUMN: From the Hill -- Canada's new Parliament, so far
It’s a new year, a new decade, and a time to look forward. The new parliament sat for two weeks in early December, time enough to get an indication how the government intends to move forward. Most Canadians want the government to work collaboratively with other parties to tackle the issues of our time, and the NDP is very ...
2020 Property Tax Assessments are in the mail
In the next few days, owners of more than 147,500 properties throughout the Kootenay Columbia region can expect to receive their 2020 assessment notices, which reflect market value as of July 1, 2019. "The majority of Kootenay Columbia home-owners can expect an increase when compared to last year’s assessments," says Deputy...
Editorial: An object lesson from Uzbekistan
A Kootenay man, environmental consultant Michael Keefer who lives in Rossland and Cranbrook, was invited to go to Uzbekistan for a conference on solutions to the Aralkum Desert problem. While there, he toured the area and took many hundreds of pictures. When I sat down with Keefer, who told me fascinating tales ...
Thoughtexchange surges ahead
Rossland-based crowdsourcing intelligence platform, Thoughtexchange, announced on December 5, 2019, that it has secured a $20M Series B financing in an oversubscribed round led by Information Venture Partners (Toronto) with participation from existing investor Yaletown Partners (Vancouver) and new investor Voyager Capital...
Bill 41 passes unanimously in BC Legislature
Scott Fraser, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation; Regional Chief Terry Teegee, BC Assembly of First Nations; Cheryl Casimer, First Nations Summit; Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Union of BC Indian Chiefs; and Adam Olsen, MLA for Saanich North and the Islands and member of Tsartlip First Nation, have issued the...
