Loggers and environmentalists have buried the hatchet.
Forestry workers and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee have aligned in a campaign to have B.C. forests get the same protection as agricultural land.
"There are things we agree upon and there are things we don`t agree upon," said Brian Butler, second vice-president of United Steelworkers local 1-80.
With affordable housing critically short in Vernon, a new development hopes to ease the crisis.
A ground-breaking ceremony was held Friday to launch construction of a 40-unit housing complex on 19th Avenue, adjacent to Vernon`s sewer treatment plant.
"We need affordable housing for aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. The cost of housing is ridiculous," said Val Chiba, president of the Vernon Native Housing Society, which is pursuing the project.
Mayors stand fast on TransLink - they won`t bring in new taxes
Area mayors say they simply can`t impose higher taxes — including a higher gas tax or a vehicle levy — to bail out TransLink.
And they plan to take that message to Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon.
"There`s no appetite to go back to the residents and raise taxes," said Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts.
She chairs the Mayors` Council on Regional Transportation and said the group has asked her to press Falcon over TransLink`s need for more funding from senior governments.
ONLINE FIRST: Last-ditch effort mounted to save pristine land next to Strathcona Park
In a last-chance appeal to protect a piece of pristine forestry land, representatives from the Comox Valley Regional District are travelling to Victoria next week to make their pitch.
Area C director Barry Minaker is spearheading the most recent string of requests to protect the Pearl Lake basin, at the edge of Strathcona Park.
"My hope is they will see the wisdom of doing this," said Minaker this week about his proposal to the Ministry of Environment.
TimberWest may have picked properties for potential development, but that`s just the first step in a long process.
The Island timber company, which owns around 322,000 hectares of land on Vancouver Island, has announced it is looking at 15,800 hectares for potential real estate endeavours.
"This is the portion that we think has the highest value potential as a result of planning and zoning changes," the company says on its website. "An initial classification of these lands shows that they provide a wide range of sustainable real estate opportunities, including mixed use, residential, commercial and resort development."
Kensington Island Properties is preparing to care for its proposed golf course at the north end of Union Bay.
An ad in the Record this week announces that KIP has applied for a water license to divert, use and store water from two unnamed creeks that flow east and discharge into Hart (Washer Creek).
One will be diverted 300 metres west, the other 600 metres northwest, of the Washer Road/Old Island Highway Intersection.
Triangle Mountain residents are rallying to lift the so-called electrosmog hovering above their homes.
A public meeting hosted by Dr. Keith Martin, MLA for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca and the Citizens Against Unsafe Emissions (CAUSE), was attended by more than 150 people concerned over what cellphone, television and radio waves could be doing to their health.
"We need these towers moved," said Sharon Noble, a Triangle Mountain resident and CAUSE member. "If we work together we can convince Health Canada that these have to be moved."
Land clearing for new golf course intended to start this month
The search for a logging company to clear the site for a new Prince George Golf and Curling Club golf course should begin shortly, club president Kevin Bowman said Sunday.
Bowman said the club hopes to have packages ready to send out by the end of this coming week and to start logging within about two weeks after that. The aim is to have the main course up and running by spring 2010.
"Hopefully we can stay on that track," said Bowman. "This summer and fall will be the most critical; that`ll tell us whether we`ve got enough time to get it all done or not.
Stabbings, drug deals and unsavoury characters cause people to feel scared on SkyTrain, especially at Surrey Central station.
"People feel spooked at Surrey Central late in the day," SkyTrain spokesman Ken Hardie said yesterday. "The surrounding neighbourhood is evidently racked by crime."
Twenty-one per cent of people surveyed in a recent NRG Research Group poll said they were most concerned about their safety at Surrey Central station.
EDMONTON - Just outside of Merritt, B.C., sit thousands of acres of ranch land, complete with rolling hills, neighbouring lakes and endless stretches of grassland.
It is here that the Chutter family decided to set aside a portion of their ranch to build Nicola Valley Ranchland Estates, a development that will include 87 home sites set on 900 acres.
The land has been ranched for more than 100 years, and each site will be a 10-acre parcel, with one acre allotted to the home site and the other nine dedicated to protected community land. For the sake of privacy, none of the property lines will touch.
EDMONTON - Until 2004 a relatively untouched piece of property along British Columbia`s Kootenay Lake was a Forestry Land Reserve, slated for lumber harvesting.
When Imax filmmaker Jon Long and British expat Oliver Berkeley heard from a realtor that the land owned by Darkwoods Lumber, one of the biggest private landowners in B.C. at the time, was for sale they took to the skies for an aerial tour.
"This is probably the most pristine piece of property on the lake," said Long. "As soon as we saw it, we bought the property. We started doing our research and it wasn`t zoned, so we could develop it. We wanted to create a neighbourhood we would want to live in. Our dream community."
UNBC has reached a milestone in attracting research funding by surpassing the $100 million mark to date.
"It`s a significant accomplishment for a young and small university," said Jim Randall, former UNBC provost.
Much of UNBC`s research revolves around natural resources and the environment, rural health and community sustainability in partnership with regional businesses and public organizations like Northern Health, West Fraser Timber, Carrier Sekani Family Services and government ministries.
Catalyst Paper is permanently shutting its pulp mill near Campbell River, putting 440 people out of work.
It is the third major industrial shutdown for the area this year.
The Catalyst decision affects about half the workforce at the company`s Elk Falls complex, which has about 875 workers. Left to carry on are two of the facility`s three paper machines.
It could soon cost more if your car is towed, thanks to rising fuel and land costs, and labour shortages.
"The towing industry is up against the same issues as other industries, like construction," said Dale Finch, executive director of the Automotive Retailers Association, which represents 110 towing companies.
In Victoria, soaring land costs in particular are putting the pinch on operators needing space to store towed vehicles, said Finch. "It`s a very tough business right now ... Members are telling us they have trucks sitting there and no one to drive them. It`s very frustrating."
The first indoor venue for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games is ready for the puck to drop.
Premier Gordon Campbell officially opened the University of British Columbia`s Thunderbird Arena yesterday -- on budget and four months ahead of its scheduled November completion.
"We`ve done here what many people said we couldn`t do -- we came home from Prague and we made a commitment in front of the world that we would get this project on time and on budget, and we would give the athletes the chance to use these venues two seasons before the Games," crowed VANOC boss John Furlong.
PORTLAND -- A $4.2-billion US project designed to relieve the Interstate 5 bridge bottleneck will -- in two decades -- return congestion to about the same level drivers experience today.
Less than 50 km/h traffic at the new Columbia River bridge will thwart trucks and commuters alike for 3.5 hours each morning by 2030, up from about two hours today.
This was among key findings in a federally mandated environmental study of the Columbia River Crossing project, which proposes to replace the six-lane I-5 bridge with a 12-lane toll bridge, light-rail extension to Vancouver, Wash., and bicycle and pedestrian improvements.
Councillors take a nervous look at recreation plans
Back at the dawn of time -- well actually 2004 -- the city of Victoria launched a dynamite plan to spiff up aging recreation facilities including the cash-sucking, dilapidated Crystal Pool.
Called recreation renewal, the logic was that it made more sense to build several larger facilities to replace the Crystal Pool, Royal Athletic Park and seven community and senior centres in Fairfield, Fernwood, James Bay, downtown and Vic West.
The $32-million plan triggered an explosion of outrage in almost all communities worried about losing meeting space, although many of the facilities in question are old and have narrow uses.
Langford rolls out free wireless link to Internet along main street
Access to the Internet is now free in downtown Langford.
The municipality is the first in the capital region to turn its downtown -- specifically Goldstream Avenue between Jacklin Road and Veterans Memorial Parkway -- into a wireless hotspot.
"I`m planning to do the whole town," said Mayor Stew Young, adding the network will next expand to the area around Eagle Ridge arena and City Centre Park, and then to Westhills.
VANCOUVER -- Coastal British Columbia`s leaky condo crisis is far from over, a recent report prepared for the provincial government shows.
The report acknowledges for the first time that thousands more strata-owned apartment units suffered water damage than the government has been estimating.
By 2012, when the leaky condo era enters its fourth decade, as many as one-third of the defective units will remain unrepaired, said the report, prepared for the province`s Homeowner Protection Office by private consultants.
In my May 21 column, I issued several cautionary notes to anybody who might be considering an investment in the proposed ParaYso Hotel project in downtown Vancouver.
"If you want to live dangerously, then the ParaYso Hotel project at 620 Seymour St. might be just the investment for you," I said in my column.
Since then, I have made further inquiries which not only reinforce my initial view, they elevate it to the extreme-risk category.
