The day I picked up a copy of Stéphane Hessel’s Time for Outrage! at my local bookstore was the day the Royal Bank of Canada’s hiring practices made headlines. There was confusion about what RBC was being accused of. Was it outsourcing? Was it off-shoring? Was it an abuse of the temporary foreign workers’ program? Whatever ...

Nelson City Council passed this year’s budget, along with its projected five year financial plan, at its Monday meeting, hoping it can achieve wage increases of less than 2% in its negotiations with four unions in the coming year.  A 2% tax increase and some new money from other sources made it easier to balance the budget ...

As we move towards the end of another session of Parliament I always like to reflect on the events of the past year.  Locally my office has continued to assist constituents who run into difficulties with the federal government bureaucracy.  We have been able to help people in obtaining justice from Revenue Canada and Citizenship...

Poets finally get access to the halls of power Nelson is participating in the second Mayor’s Poetry Challenge, which follows the UNESCO declaration of March 21 as World Poetry Day. This project requires that poems be read at the start of either the March or April Council meeting. At the April 8 meeting, poets Jane Byers and...

So how much is too much? It's a question worth asking after B.C.'s political parties reported their 2012 fundraising hauls last week. And quite the haul it was. Between them, the B.C. Liberals and NDP brought in more than $17 million. The Liberals alone raised $10.15 million, nearly $4 million dollars more than their Ontario...

The Nelson Police Board has decided that Nelson police officers can start using tasers again. The weapons were discontinued in 2007 after the high-profile death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver Airport. The incident led to a judicial inquiry into taser use in B.C. Most of the recommendations made by Justice Thomas...

One of the many things that Hugo Chavez, the charismatic and revolutionary president of Venezuela, contributed to the world was his demonstration for people everywhere the difference between democracy and liberal democracy. Chavez’s hyperbolic style, his tweaking the tail of the Imperial tiger and his willingness to be just...

In my last column we examined the referendum and its role in a democratic local government. When talking about referendum we cannot afford to ignore the importance of the rules that govern the referendum’s application. As with elections, the rules determine the efficacy of the referendum. Efficacy for the purpose of this...

Nelson Landing has returned with a new owner and a fresh concept. The housing project plan for the old Kootenay Forest Products site extending to Red Sands Beach has been dormant for a couple of years. Allard Ockeloen’s company, Storm Mountain Developments, recently acquired the project from Sorenson Fine Homes. At Monday’s...

Nelson City Council designates every second meeting as a Committee of the Whole meeting, in which community groups, organizations, and city departments can present information to Council or make requests. Council does not make decisions at these meetings, but if anything needs to be decided they will bring it back to a regular...