Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko says he was dismayed to hear the news that the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) office in Kelowna is slated for closure earlier today. “The Conservatives are dismantling Canada piece by piece,” he said. “This will result in a critical reduction in services related to citizenship and immigration matters for […]

First you shut down an industry then you build it back up with subsidies. Sound like Pierre Trudeau? Think again. This is Conservative MP Dan Albas we’re talking about. Albas is taking the credit for a whopping $240,000 handout from the federal government to a community group who’re setting up a mobile abattoir in the Grand Forks area. […]

“Our airport is better.” “No, OUR airport is better.” “You’re not closing OUR school.” “Well, you’re sure not closing OURS. So there.” Every time I try to imagine how dialogue between Castlegar and Trail must sound to ministry officials at both the provincial and federal levels, I can almost hear the banjos playing in the […]

Did you know that being a tradesperson may make you eligible for certain deductions? Some of these include Deduction for tools. You may be able to deduct the cost of eligible tools you bought in 2011 to earn employment income as a tradesperson (including apprentice mechanics). This cost includes any GST and provincial sales...

Bob Dylan wrote the lyrics; Peter, Paul and Mary recorded it in the early 1960s and I, coming of age as a young civil rights supporter and believer,  always found the song "Blowin' In The Wind" as evocative, emotional and energizing as the fight for equality and social justice took hold in the U.S. and Canada, including the...

Until this year, the purpose of the annual Canadian federal budget was to project government revenues, lay out spending priorities and forecast economic conditions for the upcoming year. Reading Budget 2012, announced last week by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, it soon becomes clear that this government has no intention of ...

There will be lots of soul searching and head scratching going on this week about what happened with the NDP leadership race. The mechanics of the convention, the interesting lack of deal-making, and how the balloting progressed are all fodder for those who enjoy going through the entrails of leadership conventions. Others ...

They should have landed with a thud. But instead last week's financial filings by hundreds of candidates in B.C.'s 2011 municipal elections were met with matter-of-fact reporting or shrugs of indifference. Yet, the tale they told couldn't have been sung better by Liza Minelli and Joel Grey in Cabaret if they had tried: “money...

This weekend, the federal NDP will not only choose a new leader, but determine whether the party descends further as a parochial servant of Quebec or re-establishes itself as a true national party. NDP supporters won’t like it, but the truth is that, in the push for power, former leader Jack Layton and the NDP party sold out […]

MP Alex Atamanenko (BC Southern Interior) said the Conservative’s plan to make changes to the Fisheries Act in an omnibus federal budget bill next week has been exposed and the federal government needs to come clean on its agenda. A former DFO employee Otto Langer leaked documents last week that shone a light on government ...