Despite both parties’ expressed desire to reach an agreement and contract, CUPE Local 2622 and the City of Castlegar’s dueling press releases yesterday seem to indicate an ongoing lack of consensus. (To read the City’s press release, click here, and to read the union’s, scroll to the bottom of this page). Castlegar Mayor...

Ed Note: The following is a press release issued by the City of Castlegar: After over a year of contract negotiations with its unionized CUPE 2262 employees, including two days of Labour Relations Board mediated talks, CUPE booked out the mediator and refused to take the City of Castlegar’s final offer to a vote of the...

Humans’ natural being, humans being natural My column title is a steal from the book title by Ken Wilber. Wilber is one of those writers I so much admire for their attempt to synthesize vast quantities of history and other data about the human condition, alongside Charles Eisenstein and William Irwin Thompson. This a very...

The race is on for the next federal election and the Conservative Party is happy to begin the campaign after nominating Marshall Neufeld for the new riding of South Okanagan West Kootenay (SOWK) by a margin of 88 percent during a meeting this past weekend in Penticton. "I knew there was strong support, I was confident . . ....

Real Estate Agent Marshall Neufeld received some high praise prior to the South Okanagan West Kootenay Conservative nomination convention when former Member of Parliament Jim Gouk came out to endorse the Penticton resident. “It takes special and unique talent as well as a truly dedicated effort to win what had been in the...

(Ed. Note: This is in response to an earlier letter you can read by clicking here). Dear Editor, It is with much regret I feel compelled to respond to the letter from potential Liberal Party of Canada candidate Connie Denesiuk to your publication. Why reluctantly? From my experience citizens are tired of public office holders...

In a Saturday morning interview on CBC Radio’s The House, Dan Albas, the Conservative MP for South Okanagan-Similkameen continued his government’s attacks on the Canadian judiciary. I feel his remarks betray a scary lack of understanding of the role of the courts in our country. Albas claims that it is “an end run around...

Summer in the Okanagan. Who wouldn't want to be here and enjoy all of what nature has to offer? Lakes, trails, every kind of fruit and vegetable and wine to top it off.  However the heat of summer also brings wildfires. Many of you live in interface areas, beautiful homes backing onto forests and hills, surrounded by nature’s...

The more I reflect upon our troubled times, the more I am convinced that Canada is not acting in a responsible manner on the international stage.  As Robert Murray, Professor and Columnist for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy stated, “The Harper government has come out with its ‘principled foreign policy’.  Exactly what...

It didn’t take long for the Regional District of Central Kootenay to find a person to take control of the ship’s helm. The RDCK board appointed Stuart Horn as its new Chief Administrative Officer, effective August 31. “The decision was unanimous,” said John Kettle, Board Chair said in a prepared statement. “We had a succession […]