Boundary Sentinel

Canada-wide changes proposed by Canada Post that will see local mail rerouted from rural communities to sorting centres in cities have drawn the ire of local NDP Member of Parliament Alex Atamanenko (BC Southern Interior).

“This completely defies all logic,” said Atamanenko.

“In this riding, the result will be that some letters will travel over 1,200 kilometres, round trip, for processing in Vancouver on the weekends and back again prior to delivery on Monday.”

Our region is about to get 'raided' by extreme sports fans, as a six-day, 500-kilometre adventure race invades the West Kootenay. Raid the North Extreme has hosted intense, non-stop wilderness races through some of Canada's most challenging landscape, from Newfoundland and the Queen Charlotte Islands to Revelstoke and Whitehorse, and chief adventure officer Geoff Langford says the competitors mean business.

Issues like community risk assessment and dispute resolution took centre stage May 3 and 4, at the second meeting of the province's Industrial Taxation Steering Committee in Victoria.

Castlegar mayor Lawrence Chernoff, who serves on the committee, said the meetings are moving forward quickly as a result of tight timelines.

A public hearing this Monday, essentially forced by new provincial legislation, is providing an opportunity for city staff and council to discuss environmental goals and initiatives with residents.

The hearing, which will be held at the Community Forum at 6:30 p.m., is the result of new legislation passed at the provincial level.

My colleague, Nathan Cullen MP – Skeena-Bulkley Valley recently issued the following Op-ed which I would like to share with you.

Days after the Deepwater Horizon offshore oilrig blew up off the coast of Lousiana killing 11 workers, British Petroleum assured the public that they would contain the leak quickly. They were wrong.

The leak has now quintupled to almost one million litres a day. This is an environmental and economic disaster beyond even that of the Exxon Valdez. 

Last week the Telegraph featured a story on the latest in a string of efforts by the Friends of The Rossland Range to protect the backcountry around Rossland with some form of provincial designation. That effort, generations in the making, has yet to achieve a lasting result.

 I was talking at my younger son this morning; he was bemoaning the 'obvious' ending to a book he'd just read for school. Smiling paternally, I proceeded to beguile him with a short but valuable lecture on the nature of 'story'. Should we really expect stories to end unexpectedly on a regular basis? Is it necessarily a good thing when the good guy doesn't get the girl or the bad guy gets away with murder? A big part of the fun of stories is the predictable ritual of fulfilled expectations. Knowing what's going to happen can be part of the fun. Sometimes.

Youth court has, through sentencing five local teens, sent a clear message: “Don't burn stuff.”

This, after the five were arrested in connection with an arson blaze that saw the abandoned Woodland Park School burn to the ground June 13, 2009.

Castlegar RCMP Sgt Laurel Mathew said a tip from a local led to the arrests.
“An alert citizen has noted a group of five youths hanging around the school just prior to the blaze, and called police when he noticed the fire and the youths running from the area,” she said.

How many times have you sent email and never heard a reply? If the person at the other end is ducking you, there's nothing I can do. Sometimes, though, it's just a case of too many emails and yours getting deleted.

There are a few things you can do to reduce the chances of your message getting lost.

Step 1: Is it getting through? Try sending to someone outside of your company to ensure that there aren't technological problems blocking your messages.

Another Monday, and more than a million British Columbians head off to work: to earn a living,  pursue careers, provide services for clients, satisfy their own desire to contribute to society and share the stories and challenges of their lives with their closest co-workers. Lisa Reimer, however, is forced to stay home.