By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily After years of moratorium on acquiring regional water systems, the regional district will be entering the water service game in six new areas. The results of the alternative approval process Sept. 11 passed in favour of establishing water service in Balfour, Burton, Edgewood, Ridgewood, ...

By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson DailyLess frequent crashes have contributed to around $80 million being given back to residents in BC after the province's auto insurance company elected to cut its rates in response.ICBC announced it will take an average of three per cent off of its optional auto insurance premiums, in addition...

Last spring I wrote a column called “Is this what a police state looks like” in response to the dangerous police actions surrounding the G20 Summit in Toronto.  I argued–as many have–that police states don’t pop up full blown over night. They develop slowly in direct proportion to people’s willingness to accept new definitions...

The Nelson Daily staff The Nelson Municipal Library just added a new book to its collection. Facebook is now part of the city’s library system, with the city-owned service creating a new page in celebration of International Literacy Month. Throughout the month of September, people of all ages are invited to join the Nelson ...

By Timothy SchaferThe Nelson DailyInspiration is close at hand as one of the most influential Canadians of our time is coming to the West Kootenay this Wednesday.Geneticist and environmentalist David Suzuki will be speaking at Castlegar's Mir Centre for Peace (7:30 p.m.) in another installment of the lecture series on his...

NDP leader Carole James was so quiet for so long, many of her own supporters wondered where she was all summer.  With the HST and the Liberals imploding, it would have been a great time for the wanna-be Premier to show her stuff, to take the lead, to convince British Columbians she’s no wasteful socialist extremist. Then she...

By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson DailyNearly 400 jobs and $200 million in wages will be pouring into the Kootenay region as the Waneta expansion project for Pond d'Oreille River was officially announced recently.An agreement in principle was reached between the Columbia Power Corporation and the Columbia Basin Trust with Fortis...

By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson DailyThe company with plans to put an independent power project on Glacier/Howser creeks has submitted a fish and fish habitat report on one of the two creeks to the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO).AXOR's Purcell Green Power has submitted additional information required by the EAO for...

I confess that I did not, as promised, spend the summer thinking about the new paradigm of local, national and global politics. It was the perfect summer at my log cabin in Saskatchewan and I spent most of it swimming to the end of the lake and back, picking blueberries and swinging in my Mexican hammock.  But I did spend...

I love BC politics.  It’s often more dramatic than some of the prime time offerings offered up for our entertainment on the big screen or the tube. And, whether you see him as the hero or the villain, Premier Gordon Campbell deserves an Oscar and an Emmy.He was on the canvas, bruised and beaten down; his enemies could smell his...