Candace Batycki doesn’t want more flights or more airlines at the Castlegar airport because the increase in traffic would lead to greater carbon emissions.  At the June 11 Nelson City Council meeting, Councillor Batycki spoke against a motion that would support an effort by municipal leaders in the West Kootenay to lobby WestJet to […]

With no other explanation, other than to dismiss the legislation as “unnecessary red tape”, one deeply buried line of Bill C-38, the Conservative government’s 2012 Budget Bill states:  “The Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act is repealed”.  And with these 10 words the Conservatives ‘Trojan Horse’ bill, as it has come to be called, […]

A campaign to decriminalize marijuana in B.C. is putting local politicians on the spot – including Castlegar’s Mayor Lawrence Chernoff. A coalition of eight B.C. mayors, through Stop the Violence BC campaign, sent a letter in April urging provincial leaders to “support the regulation and taxation of marijuana”, citing public heath concerns and crime reduction […]

Four area chambers of commerce have offered regional airport representatives their endorsement in a bid to encourage WestJet to come to the Kootenays – meanwhile the Castlegar chamber is being flooded with letters of support from local businesses. Just last week, WestJet invited members of the West Kootenay Regional Airport Advisory Committee (including Castlegar Mayor […]

Nelson City Council, normally quite an amiable group, descended into a tense stalemate Monday during a long discussion about the legalization and regulation of marijuana. The discussion included some acrimonious exchanges between Mayor John Dooley and Councillor Donna Macdonald.   Council was debating a motion that, if passed, would have had the mayor sign a […]

The vision of a unified transit system covering both the Kootenay Boundary and Central Kootenay regions is a step closer to reality, according to Castlegar mayor Lawrence Chernoff. Chernoff is also chair of the newly-formed West Kootenay Transit Committee, which had its first meeting Wednesday. “We met yesterday with BC Transit, and that’s when it […]

WestJet has asked representatives of the West Kootenay Regional Airport Advisory Committee to meet with airline staff later this month to discuss why WestJet should come to Castlegar (see also: http://castlegarsource.com/news/westjet-clarifies-invitation-19383). Castlegar mayor Lawrence Chernoff, Nelson mayor John Dooley, city manager John Malcolm and former MP (and air traffic controller) Jim Gouk will be among the […]

The words that title my piece are biblical and mean, roughly, “number, number, weight, division.” They are apt to this moment. I believe that numbers, judgment, and a state of feeling divided, are clues to our malaise as Canadians right now. To say that Stephen Harper divides Canadians like no other prime minister before him...

  Andy Shadrack was recently named President of the Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Governments (AKBLG). He is in his third term as the representative of Area D in the Regional District of Central Kootenay. The AKBLG is composed of municipalities and electoral areas of southeastern British Columbia. It is a regional affiliate of the […]

A challenge to step up leadership was given to Grand Forks city council when mayor Brian Taylor asked them to join the campaign to end the prohibition of marijuana in Canada. Taylor wants council to join in with the other B.C. municipalities, now over 13 of a possible 160 and growing, in the Stop the Violence campaign. The ...