Scotch draws today's headlines / Aug. 31, 2016


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Who's in charge of The Forum's editorial page these days? Whomever, rarely have I seen you so wrong, clueless, or just plain partisan as your editorial on Sunday, August 28, "ND first in voting standards".
It's hard to know where to begin listing what's wrong with that editorial.
So, let's just address the most obvious.
The editorial states the election victory of now-U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp over then-U.S. Representative Rick Berg in 2012 is attributable in part to the "...turnout in Native counties", and therefore, "...It's hard to make a case for voter disenfranchisement (as a result of the 2013 changes) in light of that result".
Well, here's the problem: that 2012 election was held under the very rules Secretary of State Al Jaeger wrote Judge Daniel Hovland ordered him to re-implement in his preliminary injunction. Judge Hovland saw through the bald-faced attempt by the Al Carlson-led Republican supermajority during the 2013 legislative session AFTER the 2012 election to make it more difficult for students, native Americans and older Americans who might not be inclined to vote Republican to participate.
Without proof voter fraud is a problem in this state, without as much as a legally defensible argument from Attorney General Wayne Stenejhem, Carlson and his fun bunch lost their bid, at least temporarily, to warp the electoral process in this state to their advantage.
You can't blame Al for trying; suppressing the vote is part of the grand plan drawn up at one of their A.L.E.C meetings sponsored by big business donors like the Koch brothers and Harold Hamm to keep their hold on state legislatures that is playing out around the country.
Carlson got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and Judge Hovland slapped him on the wrist for it, as is happening all around the country.
Since the editorial makes it clear there's little degree of separation between the main stream media and the NDGOP in this state, it's good we still have an independent judiciary that is paying attention.
Hodur, a former N.D. Democratic-NPL Party chairman, lives in Fargo.

Letter: Voting standards editorial couldn't have been more wrong


Trygve Olson cartoon: Farmer's Almanac predicts ...


Some say lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. But that may not be the case for a Reynolds, North Dakota rancher. Paul Lenz raises SimAngus cattle, and according to livestock specialists what happened on his farm is out of this world.

Rare second set of triplets a surprise for ND rancher


Galvin Eeg of Roseau County grooms a chicken, held by mother Sara Eeg, at the Minnesota State Fair on Aug. 25, 2016. He said he is glad poultry can be exhibited again this year after last year's bird flu epidemic canceled bird shows. (Forum News Service photo by Don Davis)
Galvin Eeg of Roseau County grooms a chicken, held by mother Sara Eeg, at the Minnesota State Fair on Aug. 25, 2016. He said he is glad poultry can be exhibited again this year after last year's bird flu epidemic canceled bird shows. (Forum News Service photo by Don Davis)
Galvin Eeg of Roseau County grooms a chicken, held by mother Sara Eeg, at the Minnesota State Fair on Aug. 25, 2016. He said he is glad poultry can be exhibited again this year after last year's bird flu epidemic canceled bird shows. (Forum News Service photo by Don Davis)
Galvin Eeg of Roseau County grooms a chicken, held by mother Sara Eeg, at the Minnesota State Fair on Aug. 25, 2016. He said he is glad poultry can be exhibited again this year after last year's bird flu epidemic canceled bird shows. (Forum News Service photo by Don Davis)
"It is good," she said in the middle of the Minnesota State Fair poultry exhibit. "It feels like home again."
The clucking, crowing, quacking, honking and peeping heard in the barn when the fair opened Thursday was music to poultry producers' ears.
"It is a sign that things are back to normal, about as normal as they can be," said Steve Olson, executive director of Minnesota chicken and turkey producer organizations.
A year ago, the same room was pretty quiet, save for people talking. A 2015 bird flu epidemic that eventually lead to more than 9 million chicken and turkey deaths in the state forced the cancelation of all poultry shows at fairs to help slow the disease's spread.
The state appears disease-free this year, so the shows resumed.
Gavin Eeg, 12, of Roseau County, was grooming his black Australorp chicken before showing his pen, for which he received a blue ribbon, and remembered last year, when he made a quilt with chickens on when showing the actual animal was banned.
He was not happy shows were canceled last year, suggesting his solution would have been better: "If there are sick ones, just don't bring them." Experts say birds can carry the flu even when they do not show symptoms.
Fleming, 16, whose chickens receive a red ribbon, also missed not being able to show last year, but planning to be veterinarian she said she understood. But she was happy to be back.
"My birds are a little bit weak this year, I know that," the Crow Wing County 4-H'er said. "But that's OK, I am down here and that is all that matters."
Showing poultry helped Fleming, she said, because it forced her out of her comfort zone as she had to talk to judges.
"I enjoy it because when I first started, I was not comfortable with public speaking or talking to people I didn't know," she said. "It has really brought me out of my shell. I have really learned to be more comfortable with situations like that."
Judges ask a lot of questions, and exhibitors need to be there with good answers about the animal and how it was raised.
"You are going to have to talk to him," Fleming said.
For Eeg, who calls his "business" Eeg's Eggs, said he likes to show chickens better than cows, which his sisters show.
"If a cow steps on you, it can break your foot," he said. "If a chicken steps on you, it is not going to hurt at all. If a cow hits you, you could fall over and break your rib or something. If a chicken hits you ... it is not going to be as bad as a cow ramming into you."
Chickens also are cheaper to raise, he said, and fewer people have them.
Eeg, who wants to be a farmer, said he does not eat many eggs and no poultry.
Overall, however, poultry consumption remains strong.
Olson said that most export markets that closed during the flu outbreak have reopened, although China still will not accept American poultry. Typically 15 percent of chickens and a higher percentage of turkeys are exported.
Minnesota flock numbers are at pre-flu levels, with a country-leading 46 million turkeys, 55 million broiler chickens and 10.5 million egg-laying chickens. Broilers were not affected by the 2015 flu, but turkeys and layers were.
Minnesota poultry producers now are in better shape to resist the flu, if it spreads again, Olson said.
For one thing, he said, producers and governments have learned to respond quicker to stop the disease's spread. Also, he added, "we have more biosecurity" to keep diseases out of the flocks.
While adding biosecurity takes money, poultry producers have not needed convincing to increase protection.
"It certainly has got every producer's attention..." Olson said. "If they did not get hit, they understood it was by the grace of God."
In the coming days, a meeting will look at federal biosecurity standards that soon will be required on all poultry operations.
The bird flu did not drive any Minnesota poultry producers out of business, Olson said. "If we had a second year in a row, I think we would have had some."
Scientists still are looking into why the 2015 flu outbreak was more severe than typically hits flocks.

Poultry back home at Minnesota State Fair


Steve Stark cartoon: Teddy Roosevelt National Park, 100 years later


BC Ferries sailings have been busier this year, thanks in part to strong tourist traffic and no net fare increase.
BC Ferries plans to continue its campaign of price promotions this fall and next spring in an effort to maintain increased passenger and vehicle traffic.
First-quarter results for the Crown corporation show passenger traffic up 2.5 per cent and vehicle loads up 5.1 per cent for the three months ended June 30, compared with the same period in 2015.
Buoyed by a strong tourist year for B.C. and no net fare increase, BC Ferries carried 5.3 million passengers and 2.1 million vehicles in April, May and June. The 1.9 per cent average fare hike was erased by a reduced fuel surcharge due to long-term contracts for cheaper diesel fuel.
Helped by reduced operating costs and higher retail sales from terminals and on-board gift shops, net earnings were $27 million for the quarter, up from $18.8 million in the same period last year. Revenues were up 4.9 per cent to $219 million, while costs for the quarter went up 1.5 per cent to $178.6 million.
BC Ferries CEO Mike Corrigan released the first-quarter results at the corporation's annual meeting in Victoria, where he also announced that unspecified pricing promotions will be offered this fall and next spring. This year BC Ferries has been offering discounts on over-length vehicles pulling boats or travel trailers.
Corrigan also announced he will be stepping down as CEO at the end of the fiscal year next March. He was promoted in 2012 to replace former CEO David Hahn, and presided over a controversial service review that saw sailings reduced on money-losing routes.
Transportation Minister Todd Stone praised Corrigan for reducing operating costs and embracing new technology, including three new medium-sized ferries using liquefied natural gas fuel that have been built in Poland.
LNG retrofits are also scheduled for the Spirit of B.C. and the Spirit of Vancouver Island, the workhorses of the main Tswassen-to-Vancouver Island route.
Corrigan's term also saw the first cable ferry in the BC Ferries fleet, the Baynes Sound Connector to Denman Island. Stone said the cable ferry cut fuel costs by half.

More discounts coming as BC Ferries traffic rises


Vehicle traffic up 5% with no net fare increase and discounts offered for vehicles pulling boats and travel trailers


Daycare spaces are in short supply in some areas of B.C. and costs are high.
More than 1,800 new child care spaces should be under construction by this fall, with the latest round of financing from the B.C. government.
New or expanded facilities in 30 communities have been selected from funding applications received in January, said Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux. The $11.3 million budget for this year is the third phase of a child care expansion project funded by the ministry.
The province's goal is to have construction underway by September.
"It will vary somewhat from provider to provider, depending on whether they are building a facility from the ground up with this money, or whether they are adding to an existing facility," Cadieux said.
Projects in the Lower Mainland include six sites in Surrey, two each in Abbotsford, Langley and Coquitlam and one each in Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Burnaby, Delta and Squamish.
On Vancouver Island, funding goes to three projects in Duncan and one each in Nanaimo, Victoria, Comox, Port Hardy and Tofino.
In the B.C. Interior, three projects are approved for Kelowna, two in Penticton, and one each in Naramata, Castlegar, Cranbrook, Enderby, Princeton, Houston, Kamloops, Merritt, Vanderhoof and Dawson Creek.
For a full list of facilities and number of spaces, see backgrounder here.
The ministry has posted a new child care map on its website to help parents locate facilities here.
The province provides child care subsidies to qualified low-income parents, and covers about 15 per cent of daycare operating costs. But the cost of land and operations drives the price of child care up to $1,400 per month or more in urban areas. Cadieux said the province is working with municipalities to review regulations.
"We're looking at the restrictions we put on child care providers in terms of outdoor space, in terms of sun access," she said. "We want to make sure that child care is safe and that we have quality, but we also want to make sure that we're not creating a situation that is unreasonable."

Child care spaces funded for 30 BC communities


1,800 new spaces in 30 communities to start construction this fall, minister Stephanie Cadieux says


KAMLOOPS, B.C. – British Columbia's Fish and Wildlife Branch says all the fish in two lakes in the Upper Nicola watershed will have to be killed in order to get rid of an unwanted perch.
Biologist Steve Maricle says perch were spotted earlier this year in Windy Lake and Little Windy Lake, both about 50 kilometres northwest of West Kelowna.
Perch are not native to the lakes or the Nicola watershed and biologists say the rapidly breeding species competes for food with native fish and has the potential to wipe them out.
Maricle says barriers will be set up on waterways leading in and out of the lakes to contain the perch this year.
Rotenone, a poison lethal to fish but with limited effect on other animals such as frogs or waterfowl, will then be used to kill all fish in both lakes.
The lakes will be restocked once the perch have been removed, but Maricle says it will be next year at the earliest before any action is taken.
"It's just the logistics of all the permitting that's required to get the product, the rotenone, that we use to treat the lake. To get all the permitting in place to get (the rotenone) in, there's no way we could jump on it this year."
The Fish and Wildlife Branch believes visitors to Windy Lake and Little Windy Lake intentionally introduced the perch into the water. (CHNL)
The Canadian Press

Poison to be used in two B.C. lakes west of Kelowna after non-native fish species spotted


Windy Lake and Little Windy Lake to be poisoned to remove unwanted non-native perch


TORONTO – Few Canadian television events qualify as a momentous occasion for the nation, but Saturday's Tragically Hip concert promises to be special.
It seems like much of the country will be tuned into CBC's live broadcast of "The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration" from Kingston, Ont., when factoring in home screenings and community viewing parties.
Yet how many people will watch is anybody's guess at this point.
"This is an unprecedented event for us," said Jennifer Dettman, CBC's executive director of unscripted content.
The sentiment is true on many levels, she adds.
The last stop on the Hip's "Man Machine Poem" tour is widely expected to be their final performance, as lead singer Gord Downie is facing terminal brain cancer. After tickets to the tour sold out within minutes, fans launched a campaign urging the CBC to carry the band's Kingston show as a live TV event.
Dettman wouldn't speak to the contract negotiations that led to the Hip agreeing to the broadcast.
"CBC made both a competitive and financially responsible offer to acquire the broadcast rights, and we're thrilled to be able to offer this national celebration to as many Canadians as possible," she said.
The concert won't just be on the main CBC network, it will also be broadcast through various other platforms such as CBC Radio One, the CBC website and its YouTube and Facebook channels.
With so many viewing options, that will make it tough to capture how many eyes and ears are focused on the Hip this Saturday.
That's where ratings agency Numeris comes in. The Toronto-based company tracks viewership figures by using meters and viewing diaries prepared by a panel of Canadians representative of the population.
Their data shows that most huge audience draws are typically live programming, led by major sporting events.
The Super Bowl is the biggest TV event nearly every year â€” drawing about six million to eight million viewers in recent years â€” while a handful of other annual celebrations like the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes and Grammys are perennial favourites too.
The gold medal game of the men's hockey tournament at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics is considered to be the most-watched broadcast ever in Canada. It drew 16.6 million viewers, according to data from Numeris, about double the number of people who tune into most Super Bowls.
Those kinds of numbers will be hard to beat, even for a rock band with as much Canadian clout as the Hip.
Numeris spokesman Tom Jenks wouldn't guess how many viewers will tune into the CBC broadcast, but acknowledges it'll probably be a pretty big number.
The agency said it will be counting every public screening â€” from restaurants to movie theatres to community viewing parties â€” and each person streaming the concert on their phone. Viewers who playback the show on their DVRs within seven days will also be included in the final numbers.
"Our system captures all viewing," Jenks said.
Potentially driving those numbers higher is the decision make the Hip's concert a one-time broadcast, with no encore presentation and no availability on on-demand platforms.
"Our goal was to bring the experience of this live concert to Canadians in that moment," Dettman said.
"I'm sure the band will figure out what they will want to do with the concert afterwards."
She said the goal is to give all Canadians the same "crescendo" feeling that will ripple through the arena in Kingston.
"Our goal is to bring the experience ... to as many Canadians as we can," she said.
"The idea that we're all together experiencing this moment at the same time is really special."
Follow @dfriend on Twitter.
David Friend, The Canadian Press

Televised Tragically Hip show an 'unprecedented event:' CBC


Whether it's home screenings or community viewing parties, much of Canada will be tuning in for iconic rock band's final bow


Cameras were the focus as 70 photographers from across B.C., including Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Kelowna and Nelson, competed in the fourth annual Next Generation BC Amateur Photographer of the Year Contest at the recent Abbotsford International Airshow.
Sponsored by London Drugs and Black Press Media, the contest took place Aug. 12-14, as participants captured their best air, crowd, static, and wildcard shots.
Photographers experienced close-up action at the airshow including Friday's twilight show, and earned the "hot-side" tour at the airshow where they shot exclusive aircraft including the F-35, CF-18, FA-18, Breitling Jet Team, the Snowbirds and more for a chance to win the title of B.C.'s next Amateur Photographer title.
Awarding categories also include The Best in-air photograph ($750 grand prize), The Best ground/static scene photograph ($500 prize),The Best crowd scene photograph ($250 prize ), The Best video submission ($500 prize) all courtesy of London Drugs and honorary acknowledgement for Best Wildcard entry.
For the People's Choice Award Winner, the time has arrived for the public to vote on their favourite photo and be entered for a chance to win BC Lions game tickets.
For voting and contest information, click here.

Voting open for People's Choice Amateur Photography Competition


Photographers from across the province competed in amateur competition


An Okanagan College professor will be walking through Kelowna this week as part of an ambitious three-day trek to raise money for Gary Baker, an Okanagan father of four who suffered a massive brain aneurysm early in August.
Tim Walters, an English professor at the Salmon Arm campus and president of the college’s Faculty Association, aims to walk 160 kilometres, making stops at Penticton, Kelowna, Vernon, and Salmon Arm campuses starting Tuesday Aug.30 and arriving at his destination Sept. 1.
“I’ve known Gary for several years, and I was keen to do something to try to help him and his family,” said Walters. Baker was a student at Okanagan College last year, having returned to school to pursue a career in engineering after years of working as a timber framer.
His wife Erica is also an OC student, and commutes a few times a week to Kelowna where she attends classes to get her biochemistry degree.
All their educational efforts were cast aside when Baker suffered a severe brain aneurism Aug. 1 while playing soccer.
He's undergone two surgeries and is currently recovering in Vancouver, which is a process that may take many months or even year Baker is currently out of an induced coma, and responds differently depending on the day, said soccer teammate Ron Krause.
They plan for a two-year recovery period, which is taxing the family.
“They’ve been stretching every dollar. They have the extra burden of student loans” said Erica's sister, Katherine Goertz “Someone offered to pick their veggies. People have been mailing cheques to the house."
Despite all the help, the family has a long road ahead of them and people all across the valley have been chipping in to help.
The Kelowna Cantinas, who were playing the Camels when Baker collapsed, raised $320 earlier this week.
There are also two GoFundMe campaigns.
The first is “Help Support the Bakers” or gofundme.com/2hvh3jg, which has raised $32,000 as of Aug. 30.
The next is for Walters's walk. It's at www.gofundme.com/campustocampus with files from Salmon Arm.

Okanagan College professor to walk through valley to raise money


Valley residents chip in to help Okanagan father of four recover from aneurysm


Solitude in the wilderness is still available in B.C., between holiday weekends when demand peaks at B.C.'s most popular parks.
Foreign visitors and those on package tours are a small fraction of the demand for B.C. Parks campgrounds around the province, but B.C. resident campers are still using a few tricks to get spaces for high-demand parks.
Some have protested the use of online reservations by motorhome tour operators who sell them as part of a package for tourists.
"Our provincial campsites are not products to be sold, they belong to the people of B.C.," Green Party leader Andrew Weaver said this week.
Environment Minister Mary Polak told Black Press numbers are being tracked for the current year, and the proportions haven't changed much. In 2015, fewer than one per cent of reservable B.C. Parks spaces were booked by tour operators, who also use private camping facilities.
Three quarters of reservations are from within B.C. The second highest share is from Alberta at 14 per cent, the U.S. accounts for 3.6 per cent, the rest of Canada 2.8 per cent, and all European countries combined are 6.6 per cent of the total.
The BC Parks system has 10,700 camping spaces in total, and 5,600 are reservable, to manage demand for the most popular spots.
First-come, first-served sites are kept out of the reservation system in some popular locations to accommodate travellers who drop in along the road. For high-demand periods like the recent Canada Day weekend, savvy campers work the reservation system.
At Golden Ears Provincial Park, one group booked for two weeks as soon as the 90-day eligibility window opened, then dropped the first week, giving them the coveted Canada Day weekend dates before they were generally available.
"Every year we look to change things to keep people from cheating, and every year they find new ways," Polak said. "Really the only answer is going to be finding a way to expand the number of sites that we have available."
It's shaping up as a record year for the Discover Camping reservation service, with 92,000 bookings so far this year.
B.C. Parks has added four new sites for this summer. Reservations can be made for Garibaldi Provincial Park in the Whistler area, Ruckle Provincial Park on Saltspring Island, Okanagan Falls Provincial Park, Inland Lake Provincial Park near Powell River and Dry Gulch Provincial Park near Radium Hot Springs.

Provincial campsite rush mostly B.C. residents


Few BC Parks bookings going to commercial operators, solution is more campsite spaces, Environment Minister Mary Polak says


Students return to public school next week, with changes to curriculum and some provincial exams.
Students are returning to class next week in most of B.C.'s public schools, with enrolment expected to be up province-wide for the second year running.
Education Minister Mike Bernier says early forecasts show about 529,000 students, an increase of 2,900 from last year. But that increase is centred on fast-growing school districts, while many rural areas continue to struggle with declining student numbers.
Among changes that parents and students will see this year is a new curriculum in place up to Grade 9, with a test year for changes in the senior grades. Bernier said the new emphasis on collaboration and communication skills does not mean a watering down of the basic skills, and is designed to improve students' ability to work at modern jobs.
Report cards are to continue this school year, but the ministry is reviewing its system with an eye to providing more frequent updates. Parents are being consulted on the changes, Bernier said.
Foundation Skills Assessment tests in grades four and seven are also continuing after years of protests from teacher unions, but that program is also being examined for possible changes. FSA tests will be "enhanced" but not eliminated, Bernier said.
Provincial exams continue for graduates in math and English, but science and social studies will now be assessed at a classroom level rather than school-wide tests, Bernier said.
The ministry provided a series of top-ups to education funding this year, for bus service and to keep selected rural schools from closing. Applications are still being taken for a transportation fund until Sept. 30, requiring districts to drop across-the-board school bus fees to qualify.
Districts may still charge transportation fees for international students or those from outside a school catchment area.
NDP leader John Horgan highlighted the crowding in Surrey school district, where 7,000 students remain in portables despite an expansion program. The NDP says the B.C. government's claim of record per-student funding ignores a reduction of education funding as a share of the provincial economy.
"Since 2001, the B.C. Liberals have dragged public education funding in this province from the second best in Canada to the second worst," Horgan said.

B.C. school enrolment up for second year


Some urban districts struggle with overcrowding, special funds for declining rural schools, bus service to take effect


Modified versions of the 1969 Camaro SS and other popular vehicles will soon be eligible for B.C. collector plates, allowing occasional use for parades and car shows.
The B.C. government is expanding its collector vehicle licence system to include eligible modified cars made between 1958 and 1974, to capture the popular "muscle car" era of the 1960s.
The ICBC collector plate program gives car enthusiasts a lower-cost licence plate that allows occasional use for parades and classic car shows. ICBC plans to take applications starting in 2017 for eligible modified vehicles up to 1974, and replica cars resembling North American production cars from 1942 and earlier.
With strict rules that the cars must be in "collectible condition," changes will take in modified popular cars from the Dodge Duster to the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang, as well as replicas of the popular Ford "deuce coupe" from the 1930s.
Premier Christy Clark announced a break for older cars this spring, allowing vehicles from 1940 or earlier and their replicas to run without fenders or mud flaps when the highway is dry and paved.
Transportation Minister Todd Stone said the collector car industry is significant for B.C., with registered collector vehicles having doubled to 26,000 in the past 10 years.
"We want to see this specialty vehicle program remain viable, preserve vehicle history and evolve with the times," Stone said. "That's why we are opening up the opportunity to owners of specialty cars within the 'muscle car' era."
Currently, the standard collector plate is available to cars 25 years or older, as well as discontinued or limited production vehicles 15 years or older. It requires a stock engine with no performance enhancements, no rust, dents or "significant wear and tear" of the interior.
Modified vehicles from 1958 or older are currently eligible for collector plates, if they retain the shell of the original body but have parts replaced or modified in the chassis, engine, suspension, steering or brakes.
Owners have to apply for a collector or modified collector plate, with purchase and parts bills, photos and inspection reports.
Applications for collector and modified collector programs are available on ICBC's website, www.icbc.com, and can be dropped off at Autoplan brokers.

Collector program expanding to 'muscle cars'


Collector plates will be available next year for modified as well as stock cars made between 1958 and 1974


Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have reached tentative agreements, averting the prospect of a labour dispute that has loomed over the talks for months.
In a statement, Labour Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk says the agreements were reached "voluntarily," but provides no other details about the deals themselves.
The issue of differences in paycheques for rural mail carriers — most of whom are women — and urban letter carriers had been at the forefront of protracted contract talks between the two sides.
The negotiations were extended twice since the weekend, when a deadline expired on a 72-hour job action notice issued last Thursday by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
The two sides were in talks nearly around the clock at the request of a special mediator appointed Friday by Mihychuk.
Canada Post described the tentative agreements as short-term. It said they are for two years and that four-year contracts were typically negotiated in the past.
"The agreements will avert a work disruption, bringing much-needed certainty in the postal system for our employees and customers," said Canada Post in a statement. "Canadians can now use the postal system with confidence."
The tentative agreements, however, still must be ratified by the members.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is Canada Post's largest union, representing more than 50,000 postal workers
The Canadian Press

Canada Post, postal union reach tentative deals


Two sides avert job action that has loomed for months


OTTAWA – Contract talks continue between Canada Post and its largest union, but neither side is hinting as to whether any progress has been made.
A federally appointed mediator has been meeting with the two sides since Friday to try to reach a deal.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says if there is no deal by midnight, it would begin job action on Monday by having its members refusing to work overtime on a rotating basis, starting in Alberta and the Northwest Territories.
CUPW served 72 hour strike notice Thursday night, accusing Canada Post of forcing a labour disruption by refusing to bargain in good faith.
The two sides have been deadlocked for months on the issues of pay scales for rural letter carriers and proposed changes to pensions for future employees.
A CUPW news release says the initial job action will cause little disruption to Canada Post customers and that its members will still be delivering mail every day.
The Canadian Press

Postal workers union give details of job action if no deal is reached Sunday


Talks continue, with rotating overtime ban set to begin Monday if no agreement by midnight Sunday


Almost a year after B.C. farm weddings were banned due to a crackdown on agricultural land use rules, the B.C. government has clarified what commercial activities are allowed on farmland.
Farmers can host up to 10 commercial weddings, concerts or non-agricultural events per year without a permit from the Agricultural Land Commission. Farmers can take payment to host a wedding or other event as long as no more than 150 guests attend and a list of conditions are met, according to regulations that took effect Tuesday.
To qualify, event hosts must provide all parking on the farm rather than along roads, with no permanent parking lots or structures, and the event must end in less than 24 hours. For more than 10 events a year or exceeding 150 guests, properties with farm tax status must apply to the ALC for a permit.
The new regulation also clarifies ALC policies to allow, with no permit, farm tours and demonstrations, hayrides, corn mazes, pumpkin patch tours, harvest and Christmas fairs and special occasion events to promote farm products.
Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick said the regulation requiring farms to generate at least 50 per cent of its revenue from farm products is also scrapped, after consultation in the past year suggested the new rules instead.
The crackdown on farm weddings came last fall, when the ALC issued stop-work orders to B.C. farms including the Fraser Valley, Kelowna and Vancouver Island.
The restriction came after the province expanded farm uses to allow breweries and distilleries to operate on protected farmland with the same rules used to permit wineries. The rules allowed for processing of farm crops into products such as juice or jam for commercial sale.


No permit required for weddings, festivals on farms if fewer than 150 people attend, says Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick


B.C. Day, on Monday, Aug. 1, is an opportunity to celebrate this spectacular province. See how well you know British Columbia.

B.C. DAY TRIVIA QUIZ: How much do you know about British Columbia?


Wood products exports from Canada to Asia were down 18 per cent in the first six months of 2016, with the biggest decline being softwood lumber from B.C. to China, according to the Seattle-based Wood Resources International.
Lumber sales to China are on pace to drop by 50 per cent this year compared to 2014, as B.C. lumber producers direct their sales to a healthy U.S. lumber market, according to customs data tracked for the Wood Resources Quarterly (www.woodprices.com).
The latest edition notes that by value, 75 per cent of B.C.'s exports to Asia in 2015 and 2016 are in the form of lumber, while 77 per cent of exports from Washington and Oregon are logs.
Asian demand reached a record high in 2013, with China passing Japan as the largest importer of North American wood products in 2011. The B.C. and federal governments promote wood construction in China and Japan, and B.C.'s forest minister is required to conduct an annual trade mission to China, Japan and other Asian countries.
The shift in demand provides extra urgency for talks to renew the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber agreement that expired last year. B.C. sales are booming without the export cap that both Ottawa and Washington have agreed will be required.

Lumber exports shift to U.S. as China sales slump


Asian demand for B.C. wood products peaked in 2013, analyst says China sales on pace for 50 per cent drop


ICBC wants to increase basic auto insurance rates by 4.9 per cent – the fifth straight annual increase – as it continues to grapple with rising numbers of crashes, claims and dramatically increasing costs.
The typical driver will pay $3.50 a month or $42 a year more for basic insurance if the hike is approved.
But the corporation is also raising optional rates by 2.8 per cent so the average customer who buys both basic and optional insurance with ICBC will see their insurance bill rise $5 a month, or $60 a year.
ICBC CEO Mark Blucher said the basic rate hike would have been much worse – 15.5 per cent translating into a $130 annual premium increase – had the province not approved another major transfer of $472 million from the optional to the basic side of operations.
A compounding factor has been the long decline of interest rates, which result in less investment income revenue to ICBC.
"These external pressures have really created a perfect storm and it's a really significant challenge for the organization," Blucher said in an interview Thursday.
ICBC had raised rates 5.5 per cent a year ago, and the province's rate smoothing policy requires the annual change be within 1.5 per cent of the previous year's increase.
The number of crashes has climbed 15 per cent in two years and damage claims are up 11 per cent.
Vehicles are increasingly reliant on technology and expensive materials that have become more costly in recent years as the loonie sagged against the U.S. dollar.
Despite much safer vehicles, injury claims have soared to $2.4 billion, up 60 per cent from $1.5 billion in 2008.
"We've seen no evidence that these strong trends are abating," Blucher said. "In fact, if anything, they're continuing to escalate going forward."
Blucher also noted there are more cars on the road in B.C. today – 3.1 million up from 2.8 million in 2011 – and people are driving more because of cheaper gas, contributing to more accidents, particularly in densifying urban areas.
And he pointed to personal injury lawyers as an aggravating cause of ICBC's spiralling claims costs.
"B.C. is the only province in Canada where you can sue another motorist for even a minor traffic accident," Blucher said, noting an increase in lawyer-represented claims and advertising by injury law firms.
Internal operating costs have been cut by $186 million a year, and ICBC is counting on more savings ahead, through its modernization program, by more aggressively combatting insurance fraud and from a hoped-for drop in distracted driving as motorists respond to stiffer penalties.
But transfers from the optional side to bolster the basic side will likely be needed for the foreseeable future, Blucher said, because basic premiums can't keep up with rising costs.
In a surprise move, the B.C. government will this year forgo extracting its usual $160-million annual dividend from ICBC's optional side into general revenue.
"Forgoing the dividend this particular year is one strategy amongst a litany of others we're employing to get that basic trate increase down," Transportation Minister Todd Stone said.
Stone said the $514 million the province has transferred out of ICBC in dividends since 2012 is small compared to the $1.4 billion over the same period that has been shifted from the competitive optional side to basic to apply downward pressure on basic rates.
The minister would not say if the government would permanently give up the ICBC dividend.
Adrian DIx, the NDP critic for ICBC, said the dividends to government have exceeded $1.2 billion since 2010 and predicted they'll resume after next year's election because the BC Liberals are "addicted" to using ICBC as a "profit centre."
Dix said the reliance on shifting huge amounts of capital from optional to basic raises troubling questions.
"Next year they've got to find that $472 million," Dix said. "What they've done is create a disaster at ICBC and their only hope is to deceive the voters until after the election."
He said ICBC's new move to hire more claims staff underscores problems with completing the computer modernization that was supposed to make operations more efficient.
"The transformation project has taken longer than World War 2 and is not close to finished."
ICBC's basic rates rose 11.2 per cent in 2012 and at least five per cent every year since.
The new rate hike is subject to B.C. Utilities Commission approval.
ICBC Rate Pressure Charts

ICBC seeks 4.9 per cent basic rate hike as crashes, costs climb


$60 a year increase for most drivers once optional auto insurance increase is included


Revelstoke dam on the Columbia River is due to have a sixth water turbine added, but Site C is BC Hydro's priority today.
BC Hydro is going ahead with its planned four per cent rate increase this year and deferring more debt to future years as it revises its electricity demand forecast downward.
The provincially-owned utility has not asked for an increase in its government-imposed rate plan despite a revised demand forecast with $3.5 billion less revenue over the next 10 years. BC Hydro has filed a three-year plan with the B.C. Utilities Commission that would increase rates four, 3.5 and three per cent in the next three years. The four per cent increase is already showing up on customer bills as an interim increase.
With the Site C dam on the Peace River and other upgrades amounting to $2 billion a year, the plan includes additional deferred debt until 2023, when Site C is due to be completed. BC Hydro CEO Jessica McDonald said the long-term nature of capital projects means its capital cost savings don't start until the next decade.
BC Hydro has also cut some of its familiar Power Smart activities, such as the fridge buy-back plan and incentives for energy efficient light bulbs.
McDonald said BC Hydro is seeing lower revenues due to two warm winters and downturns in mining and forest products. It still projects growing overall demand as population and economic growth continue.
NDP energy critic Adrian Dix said the new deferred debt represents roughly $500 for each of BC Hydro's two million customers, and it is a political move to get the B.C. Liberal government past next year's election.
The 10-year rates plan imposed by Energy Minister Bill Bennett in 2013 overstated demand to justify the construction of Site C, and translates to a 28 per cent rate increase. It allows the utilities commission to regain control over approving customer rates by 2020, after five years of political direction.
Dix said with the new demand forecast and commodity prices expected to remain low, BC Hydro should have added a sixth turbine to its Revelstoke dam for $450 million before embarking on the $9 billion Site C project.


Four per cent rate hike already in effect, more to come as BC Hydro looks for savings to offset slow industrial demand


Doug Kelly, chair of the B.C. First Nations Health Council
With patients in urban areas having difficulty finding a family doctor, the situation in rural B.C. is going from bad to worse, MLAs on the province's health committee were told Monday.
Ed Staples, a member of the B.C. Health Coalition, described his efforts to improve the situation in Princeton, a community of about 5,000 people that four years ago was down to one doctor providing on-call service.
Princeton now has four full-time doctors and two nurse practitioners, but there are still people who can't find a doctor in the region, including Penticton an hour and a half away. A recent search of the College of Physicians and Surgeons website turned up the nearest doctor accepting patients in Courtney on Vancouver Island, Staples said.
Health Match BC, the province's web portal for recruiting doctors, nurses and other health professionals, currently has more than 400 general practitioner vacancies, with 37 communities seeking 85 doctors. The result is "bidding wars" between communities to offer incentives to relocating doctors, and foreign doctors using a rural community as an entry point before relocating to the Lower Mainland, he said.
The B.C. government has announced its latest videoconferencing service for health care, linking psychiatrists with young people in Cranbrook. The service is available twice a month at the local Children and Family Development office, supplementing visits by specialists in communities such as Cranbrook and Princeton. Health Minister Terry Lake says video conferencing and electronic health records are a key part of the solution for reaching patients across B.C.
Doug Kelly, chair of the B.C. First Nations Health Council, told the committee of an Abbotsford doctor who travels to Carrier Sekani territory around Prince George for part of his practice, in a pilot project with Northern Health.
Kelly said video links and nurse practitioners are part of the solution to delivering rural and remote care, but the main obstacle is the business model for doctors that has them cycling through as many as 20 patients an hour to bill enough to cover their office overhead.
Committee members were also reminded that graduating doctors are increasingly reluctant to take on the demands of family practice, especially in smaller communities where they may find themselves on call around the clock.

Video links grow as rural health care shrinks


Small communities have more than 400 doctor vacancies, with 'telehealth' and visiting specialists filling gaps


Water bombers soar over Okanagan Lake as they tackle a fire near Predator Ridge Saturday.
Progress is being made on a fire burning near Predator Ridge.
As of 8 p.m. Saturday, the fire is about seven to nine hectares in size and is relatively contained at its perimeter.
"It's showing as a rank one and two ground fire with some flames," said Rachel Witt, a fire information officer with the B.C. Wildfire Service.
"Ground crews are still working on the perimeter."
Air support has been grounded for the evening because of darkness but they have been able to place retardant around much of the fire.
"Ground crew will be fighting the fire through the night and provincial wildfire crews will have more ground crew arriving in the morning," said Tanya Laing Gahr, communications officer with the City of Vernon.
The evacuation alert continues for 45 residences in the Sunset Properties subdivision off of Okanagan Landing road.


The evacuation alert continues for 45 residences in the Sunset Properties area


The B.C. government has approved a master development plan for a new year-round ski resort in the Cariboo Mountains west of Valemount.
Valemount Glacier Destination Resort is a $175 million project led by Oberto Oberti, who designed the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort near Golden and the controversial Jumbo Glacier Resort proposal west of Invermere.
The Valemount plan includes lifts and gondolas that would carry skiers and sight-seers to the summits of Mount Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Mount Arthur Meighen. Its vertical drop of 2,050 metres would be higher than Whistler-Blackcomb and the largest in North America.
"There are very few places in the world, and none in North America, where you go and ride a lift to the very top and the glacier is below you," said Jill Bodkin, a director of the company.
Valemount is a remote community of about 1,000 residents near the Alberta border east of Prince George. The region is west of Jasper National Park, which attracts visitors from around the world.
On the project's website, Oberti says people will travel to Switzerland for this kind of mountain resort experience, so a three-hour drive from Prince George isn't an obstacle to success.
Valemount Mayor Jeanette Townsend called the master plan approval "exciting news." She said the community attracts visitors who stay there to avoid the expensive accommodation in Jasper and the resort will take it to the next level.
Chief Nathan Matthew of the Simpcw First Nation said his community has been involved since the beginning, and he sees the project as an important economic development for the northern part of Simpcw's traditional territory.

B.C. approves Valemount glacier resort plan


Designer of Kicking Horse and Jumbo resorts gets approval to proceed with $175 million project east of Prince George


The B.C. government's plan B for income assistance cheques and other time-sensitive documents could be re-activated as the long-running Canada Post labour dispute reaches another deadline.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is in a legal position to strike as of Monday, but postponed threatened rotating strike action after weekend talks with a federal mediator. Its initial action would be an overtime ban rather than a full-scale walkout that would disrupt mail delivery.
Canada Post served lockout notice in July, with the two sides far apart on issues including pension changes for future employees and pay for rural carriers.
Income assistance, rent subsidy and other B.C. government payments are not affected if they are direct deposit. For mailed cheques and information, updates on possible postal strike effects to the Ministry of Social Development will be available as necessary at this website or at 1-866-866-0800.
Phone and online contacts are set up for questions about affected provincial departments:
• Ministry of Advanced Education and StudentAidBC online here.
• Ministry of Children and Family Development 1-877-387-7027
• Medical Services Plan payments online here or 1-877-405-4909
• ICBC inquiries 1-800-663-3051
• Family Maintenance and Enforcement program 604-660-2528
• Public Guardian and Trustee online here or 604-660-4444
• Vital Statistics 1-888-876-1633
• WorkSafe BC online here or 1-888-967-5377

B.C. prepares for possible postal disruption


Province has alternatives if Canada Post employees begin strike action


B.C. has spent $103 million fighting wildfires across the province since the fire season began April 1.
Information officer Claire Allen of the BC Wildfire Service says that is less than half the amount spent in B.C. over the same period last year.
She says $232 million was spent battling 1,772 fires between April and the end of August in 2015, while just 936 blazes have scorched about 990 square kilometres of B.C. woodland this year.
That compares to the nearly 3,000 square kilometres of bush burned across B.C. in 2015.
This year's fire season began early and aggressively with several huge wildfires in northeastern B.C.
But Allen says cooler weather in late June and throughout July dampened the fire danger, and a recent heat wave is also expected to be checked by lower temperatures this weekend.
"That's going to bring showers beginning in the northern portions of B.C. and coming into the southern half by the end of the weekend," she says.
"That's going to bring variable amounts of precipitation, cloudier skies, cooler temperatures, higher levels of humidity and all those things work together to reduce the fire danger rating across the province."
Sixty wildfires are currently burning in B.C., with eight new fires in the last 24 hours, most of those in the Coastal Fire Centre, where the fire danger rating is ranked high to extreme.
(CHNL)
The Canadian Press

B.C. wildfire costs top $100M, but still less than in 2015


Forest fires tore through northeastern B.C., but then cooler weather took over June into July.


Guns seized from visitors entering Canada at the Huntington-Abbotsford border crossing, 2014.
Canadian Border Services Agency has seen a 116 per cent increase in the number of firearms seized in the Pacific Region in the first half of 2016.
With a 10 per cent increase also recorded in the Prairie region, the CBSA is working with U.S. officials on a firearms awareness campaign to remind Americans about restrictions on bringing guns into Canada.
"Attempting to smuggle firearms across the border can result in immediate forfeiture, hefty fines and even significant jail time," said Kim Scoville, CBSA's regional director general for the Prairie region.
Visitors entering the border inspection line should declare any firearms at their first opportunity. Border services officers will take possession of the weapon if it is declared, but the visitor has the option of shipping it back under CBSA supervision or surrendering it without prosecution.
The RCMP has procedures for visitors bringing firearms into Canada


Guns intercepted at Pacific region border crossings up 116 per cent compared to this time last year


Rob Thomas hopes one day people will not be recognized for being allies to the LGBTQ community, it will be the norm.
In April the Matchbox Twenty front man and solo pop star was the recipient of an Ally Award from the Trevor Project, a nonprofit suicide hotline specifically made for LGBTQ youth.
“It seemed to me like the most absurd thing to be in a world where someone has to point out that there is something special about recognizing other people’s civil liberties and other people’s right to be exactly who they were born to be,” Thomas said.
With many friends in the community, Thomas would play shows and attend events in support, but that’s not where he starts as an ally.
“It probably starts with common sense, and recognizing that you have it,” Thomas said, calling the support being on the “right side of history.”
“Eventually that’s what’s going to happen is everybody that has that backwards ass way of thinking is dying off and people are becoming — I don’t want to call it tolerant. I tolerate my neighbours loud stereo. To say you tolerate something is saying ‘well, I’ll allow it. It’s not right, but I tolerate it.’ I think acceptance is more what we’re talking about.”
While pointing to individual instances of discrimination or bullying can create the illusion of lack of progress, Thomas notes that strides are being made.
“It’s easy to fall back and say we haven’t made any changes,” Thomas said. “But if you also realize that the law of the land now is gay marriage is allowed and it’s legal — which I probably could never have imagined a decade ago — you see this progress being made.”
He likened the fight for LGBTQ rights to racism, the fact that it is still a complex issue with many incidents of cultural relapse can overshadow progress.
“Having a black president does mean we have made a stride in one direction that we are moving towards the right side of history, something better, even if it takes way longer than it should,” Thomas said.
Thomas’ music is not political, focusing more intimately on the ins and outs of relationships between people, but he professes that he is a “news junkie,” likewise with politics. He has made multiple appearances on HBO’s political roundtable Real Time with Bill Maher as a panelist.
“Me in my personal life (I’m) much more outspoken. I don’t usually use my music as a platform to do that, unless somebody asks, it’s not something I shy away from, but also I’m not U2, I’m singing 3AM not Sunday Bloody Sunday,” Thomas said.
The future of Matchbox Twenty
In April, Matchbox Twenty guitarist Kyle Cook announced via his Instagram account that he was leaving the band, focusing on his duo Rivers and Rust.
However, Thomas hopes that there is still a future for Matchbox Twenty, who last put out an album, North, in 2012.
“I heard about it probably a couple hours before everyone else did. Listen, I think what’s happened, I’m hoping, it’s just kind of a knee-jerk reaction to how my schedule has made it where if they wanted to work this summer, they can’t because I’m working,” Thomas said. “I don’t mean to say in any way that they can’t live without me, but they can’t go out and tour Matchbox without me and I think that’s really a bummer.”
Thomas is a man with little downtime. He said he hasn’t had time off in 20 years. Recording, promoting and touring his solo efforts while trying to record and promote albums with Matchbox Twenty simultaneously.
“I think he got to a certain point where (Cook) said ‘I’m just not going to wait around anymore.’ What I’m hoping is next year we get all our ducks back in a row and make a decision to do something together. I just can’t imagine Matchbox without Kyle,” Thomas said.
For him, it was the first time the two worlds have overlapped to this degree.
“This is the first time that it has really kind of conflicted with what everyone wanted to do,” Thomas said.
Matchbox Twenty is always going to be a part of Thomas’ life.
“I don’t feel like I need it, but I hope that I don’t step out from it because it’s still a giant part of my identity. I put all of my youth into that. I wrote and wrote and wrote and some of the best songs I’ve ever written are kind of during that world. So it’s not something I’m ever trying to run away from,” Thomas said. “No matter how long I go solo, or if I stay solo for the rest of my life, if people say ‘Rob from Matchbox Twenty,’ that’s always going to be true.”
Rob Thomas plays the South Okanagan Events Centre on Aug. 31. Tickets are available at the SOEC box office or online at www.valleyfirsttix.com.

Rob Thomas on the right side of history and the future of Matchbox Twenty


The pop star and Matchbox Twenty front man talks being recognized as an LGBTQ ally and the future of the band.


Courses offer loaner equipment and training in casting and proper fish handling.
Children aged five to 15 can take advantage of fishing instruction sessions being held around the province by the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. this summer.
The Learn to Fish program has been running since 2006. It provides loaned fishing gear as well as instruction on how to cast and retrieve, identify different fish species, handle fish properly and fish ethically within the regulations.
Locations and registration information for Learn to Fish courses is available here.
The Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. is financed by revenue from B.C. fishing licence sales.
A sample of the instruction videos available on the society website:

Free fishing lessons for kids [with video]


Learn to Fish program offers instruction and loaner equipment to help children aged 5 to 15 catch a trout


B.C. has 300 seniors' care facilities, and residents and their loved ones are to be surveyed on conditions.
More than 250 volunteers have signed up to compile a survey of seniors in residential care, and B.C.'s Seniors Advocate is looking for more.
The 27,000 seniors living in 300 residential care facilities around the province are being asked about their experience with care home staff, the quality of food, privacy, medications and other conditions.
It's the first comprehensive survey done in B.C., to measure resident satisfaction and provide a "roadmap" for improvements, said Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie.
Interviews will be conducted in person by trained volunteers, and a matching mail-out survey will be sent to each resident's most frequent visitor.
The project is seeking volunteers with a range of professional backgrounds, ages and ethnicities. To apply as a volunteer, visit www.surveybcseniors.org or call the Office of the Seniors Advocate at 1-877-952-3181.


Volunteers to ask seniors about staff, food, privacy, medications and other conditions in residential care


The union representing most workers at Canada Post has issued a 72-hour notice of job action as it tries to bargain a collective agreement with the Crown corporation.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says the notice spells out what actions it is planning, but stops short of a full-blown walkout.
CUPW national president Mike Palecek says Canada Post forced the labour disruption by refusing to accept a request from the federal labour minister to continue negotiations with the help of a special mediator.
But a spokesman for the agency says that's not the case.
The union's strike mandate was set to expire at midnight.
The two sides have been in negotiations for more than nine months but are far apart on key issues including pay equity for rural carriers and proposed changes to the Canada Post pension plan.
The Canadian Press

Postal union issues strike notice after it says Canada Post refused special mediator


Notice means delivery could be cancelled as early as Monday


Premier Christy Clark and Environment Minister Mary Polak plug in an electric car at an announcement of the government's latest climate change plan in Richmond Aug. 19.
A B.C. Liberal operative was out with the online spin hours before Premier Christy Clark confirmed the much-leaked news in a Friday afternoon announcement at an obscure location in Richmond.
The, er, freeze is continuing for B.C.’s ground-breaking, world-saving carbon tax, which hasn’t changed since before Clark was elected in 2013.
The spin was Olympic-themed, with a picture labeled to show B.C. as a swimmer far out in the lead in the pool, to symbolize that it’s the other provinces that need to catch up in the race to save the planet.
Clark has been saying that for years, and there is merit to it. Even without a tax on “process emissions” such as from cement kilns, B.C.’s carbon tax encourages imports of non-taxed cement from the U.S. and China.
Alberta business professor Andrew Leach, who advised the Stephen Harper and then Rachel Notley governments on greenhouse gas policies, summed up the problem this way.
“Until the rest of the world has policies that impose similar cost, you’re not actually reducing emissions to the extent you think,” Leach said. “You’re just displacing the emissions and the economic activity to other jurisdictions.”
Alberta is moving to join B.C. with a modest carbon tax, but the NDP government plans to spend the proceeds rather than return them in income tax as B.C. has done. And Washington state and most of the rest of the world have no carbon tax as such, so their businesses benefit from B.C.’s “climate leadership.”
B.C.’s foreign-funded eco-radical community was, needless to say, appalled. The Pembina Institute’s Matt Horne and career protesters Tzeporah Berman and Merran Smith were named to the premier’s advisory committee last year, along with business, academic and aboriginal representatives.
They concluded that increases to B.C.’s broad-based tax on carbon fuels should resume its upward march in 2018.
Other committee members, including the mayors of Surrey, Comox and Burns Lake, were not heard from. Public discussion on this issue is now reduced to a staged conflict between those who demand a holy war on deadly carbon dioxide “pollution,” and those who don’t care if their grandchildren perish in a hell-fire of fossil fuel use.
We’ve just come off another El Nino year, like the hot year of 1998. Regular readers will recall the last time I discussed this topic was this spring, where I questioned the premier’s dire warnings of another horrendous forest fire season.
What followed has been one of the slowest forest fire seasons in the last decade, although dry conditions have finally emerged this month. Climate predictions, like next week’s weather forecast, are less than consistent.
I am regularly sent messages calling me a “climate change denier,” the nonsense term that continues to be used by federal Environment Minister Catharine McKenna among many others. I know of no one who denies that climate is always changing, at times dramatically.
If you wish to believe that paying an extra seven cents a litre for gasoline in B.C. is helping to slow the very gradual increase in temperatures we’re seeing in the northern hemisphere, you are free to do so.
You may even be persuaded to take a government subsidy and buy an expensive, short-range electric car. Me, I’m off to Prince Rupert and Revelstoke pretty soon, so I’ll stick with my little four-cylinder gas sipper for now.
Hydro-powered B.C. represents a small fraction of the less than two per cent Canada contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. We’re not the problem, and no, the world is not looking to us for guidance.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca Twitter: @tomfletcherbc


Premier Christy Clark isn't going into next year's election with a promise to jack up Canada's only significant carbon tax


Known infections of chronic wasting disease in deer and other wildlife as of 2014.
Provincial wildlife officials are concerned that a disease killing deer and elk on the prairies could soon spread into B.C.
Chronic wasting disease, a degenerative nervous system condition similar to so-called mad cow disease, has been discovered in an animal 30 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.
That's the furthest west – by about 100 kilometres – that biologists have detected the deadly disease and the discovery intensifies concerns that infected deer may make their way to B.C.
No infected animals have been found yet in B.C. but wildlife health staff are stepping up monitoring efforts in the Peace and Kootenay regions, where deer are most at-risk.
Hunters are being asked to help by donating deer, elk and moose heads for analysis. Drop-off locations are listed at www.stopchronicwastingdisease.ca.
Anyone who encounters a sick or dead deer is urged to report it to B.C.'s wildlife health program by emailing wildlifehealth@gov.bc.ca.
Although chronic wasting disease is similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Alberta's agriculture and forestry ministry says there's no evidence it can infect humans, but notes the World Health Organization advises against allowing any meat source possibly infected by prions into the human food system.
It's thought to be unlikely that the disease could spread to domestic cattle or bison.
Outbreaks on game farms typically result in quarantines and culls.
Transmission is through saliva, urine and feces and is thought to be more likely to occur where elk and deer are crowded or congregate at man-made feed and water stations, according to the Alberta ministry.
Most of the Canadian cases have been in Saskatchewan.

B.C. wary of deadly deer disease in Alberta


Chronic wasting disease is similar to mad cow disease but infects and kills deer, elk and moose


Two men and a mining company in receivership have been charged with 18 pollution infractions related to their shut-down gold mine on an island near Prince Rupert.
Benjamin Mossman and Dirk Meckert are scheduled to appear in Prince Rupert provincial court Sept. 7. Also charged is Banks Island Gold Ltd., which went into receivership after being shut down last year for provincial permit violations.
The Yellow Giant mine was ordered shut down by the Ministry of Environment in July 2015 after a tailings spill was reported on a tip. There is one charge of failing to report a spill of a polluting substance, and the other 17 charges are for failing to comply with permits.
North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice raised the issue in the legislature this spring, after receiving a letter from the Gitxaala First Nation referring to two separate tailings spills. Rice said the ministry did not inspect the operation for 15 months, until receiving a complaint.
NDP mining critic Norm Macdonald told the legislature a worker at the mine "became fed up, put his job on the line, sent the ministry and me a tip and pictures that documented what was going on there."
Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett said the mine was shut down when the situation was brought to its attention. The mine's 90 employees lost their jobs.
The province has a $420,000 security bond from the mining company, to provide ongoing monitoring. In March the mines ministry and Banks Island Gold removed explosives from the mine site and in May ministry technical staff assessed the hazardous materials on site.
The B.C. Conservation Officer Service, which recommended the charges, would not comment on the current condition of the Banks Island site, because it is evidence for the prosecution.

Banks Island miners face 18 pollution charges


Gold mine near Prince Rupert shut down last summer for permit violations, owners charged for failing to report spill


Jordan Bateman, Canadian Taxpayers' Federation
The B.C. government is hearing objections from businesses and individuals faced with increasing Canada Pension Plan contributions in the coming years, and is the last province needed to ratify the increase.
Instead of joining other provinces in meeting the federal government's July deadline to adopt the change, the B.C. government launched a consultation phase expected to run through August. And they are getting push-back on a plan that would increase payroll deductions and employer contributions starting in 2019.
Jordan Bateman, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation, said he's receiving hundreds of responses to his call to supporters to make their views known to the B.C. government. Most concerned are employers who would pay higher contributions for each of their employees.
Employer and employee contributions are to go up from the current 4.95 per cent of earnings to 5.95 per cent by 2023. For each employee earning $54,900, the employer contribution goes up $7 to $8 per month in each of the first five years of the phase-in.
"Obviously, lots of people are concerned about having to pay more," Bateman said. "But the interesting ones are the small business owners who talk about just how close to the edge they are financially."
B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong joined other provinces in agreeing in principle to the expansion in June. Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau said he is concerned about the decline in workplace pension plans and wants the CPP to move from replacing one quarter of employment income to one third by 2025.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business surveyed its members nation-wide when the CPP plan was announced, and more than 80 per cent wanted consultation and a delay of implementation. Morneau has indicated he plans to table legislation this fall.
B.C.'s refusal to sign on could derail the federal plan, but it shows little intention of doing so.
"British Columbia is committed to engaging with stakeholders in advance of ratifying the agreement in principle," said the statement from de Jong's office announcing the consultation.
The province's consultation website and feedback address can be found here.


B.C. stands in the way of Justin Trudeau government's plan to hike Canada Pension Plan contributions, but likely not for long


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HUGHESTOWN — Police are searching for a man who robbed a Hughestown bank on Tuesday.
The robbery happened at about 2:40 p.m. at M&T Bank on Rachel Lane, according to Hughestown police.
A man walked into the bank, approached a teller and demanded money from a cash drawer, police said in a news release. The man did not show a weapon, police said.
The man took an undetermined amount of cash and ran out of the bank, through the rear of a parking lot and crossed Laurel Street, according to police. He was last seen running into the woods directly across from the bank, in the vicinity of Chestnut, Fanning and Drake streets, police said.
Police from Hughestown, Duryea, Avoca, Pittston and Pittston Township, as well as state police, Luzerne County detectives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation responded. They searched the area around the bank but did not manage to locate the suspected robber, police said.
The suspect is described as a male in his early-to-mid 20s, about 5 feet 5 inches tall with a slender build, clean-shaven with a dark complexion. He wore a dark hooded sweatshirt and dark framed sunglasses, according to police.
Anyone who witnessed the robbery or has information about the suspect, or who witnessed “unusual persons or vehicles in the area” of the bank on Tuesday is asked to call Hughestown police at 570-654-2082 or the Scranton office of the FBI at 570-344-2404.

Police searching for suspect in Hughestown bank robbery


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ELIZABETH SKRAPITS / THE CITIZENS’ VOICE The headstone for the baby boy found in the former West Side Landfill on Aug. 6, 1980. He is buried in the former St. Anthony of Padua church’s cemetery in Courtdale.
WILKES-BARRE — Investigators on Friday got the go-ahead to exhume three more bodies of people who died under suspicious circumstances, bringing to four the number of corpses to be disinterred next month.
Court orders Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough signed Friday morning clear county prosecutors and state police to exhume the remains of “I-81 Jane Doe,” “Bear Creek John Doe” and “Baby Boy Doe” — all cold cases more than three decades old.
The purpose of the exhumations is to gather DNA and other identifying information from the bodies in an attempt to identify them and determine their cause of deaths.
According to the petitions, the body of “I-81 Jane Doe” was discovered in a wooded area to the west of the southbound lanes of Interstate 81 in Rice Township on Sept. 28, 1970. An autopsy determined the woman’s body had been at the site for two or three days, but the cause and manner of death were undetermined.
But the location of the body, which was naked, led investigators to call the death “highly suspicious.” State police nevertheless closed the case after less than eight months, and the woman’s description was never entered into the National Crime Information Center database, according to the petitions filed by District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis and Assistant District Attorney Dan Zola.
“At the time of her death, investigators failed to fulfill their duties and responsibilities to fully and accurately establish her identity, as well as the cause and manner of her death,” they wrote. “It is in the public interest to identify her and determine how she died.”
In contrast to the woman’s death, the case of “Bear Creek John Doe” was clearly a homicide, according to prosecutors.
His partially decomposed body was found May 28, 1979, in a wooded area off state Route 2041 in Bear Creek Township. An autopsy determined the man had been shot in the chest between 10 days and two weeks earlier, according to the petitions.
The death of “Baby Boy Doe” was also ruled a homicide. The infant, who was found about three days after being born, was found in the West Side Landfill in Larksville on Aug. 6, 1980.
Employee John Hettes had been spreading garbage at the landfill when he spotted a box with what looked like a baby doll in it. He got out of his bulldozer to take a closer look and realized it wasn’t a doll.
An autopsy determined the child was born healthy and lived for a few hours after birth, according to the petition. Investigators determined the boy “died from lack of care and was subsequently discarded amongst the trash that was ultimately dumped in the West Side Landfill,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors note that the cases cannot be solved until the bodies are first identified, a process that will require modern methods not available at the time they were discovered, such as DNA testing and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database.
State police Cpl. Thomas McAndrew, of the Criminal Investigation Assessment Unit in Hazleton, and Trooper Stephen Polishan, of the Criminal Investigation Assessment Unit in Wyoming, are working with county prosecutors on the now-re-opened cases.
The exhumations, which will be done under the direction of University of South Florida forensic anthropologist Dr. Erin Kimmerle, are being funded by federal grants that fund DNA testing to identify missing people.
After exhumation, the bodies will be taken to Lehigh County Forensic Center for examination. If needed, they will be shipped to Florida for a full examination, including an autopsy, skeletal examination, isotope testing, facial reconstruction, X-rays, MRI scans and collection of DNA.
The exhumations are set to take place Sept. 26. Per the judge’s order, the baby will be re-buried at St. Anthony’s Cemetery in Courtdale, while the others will be reinterred at Maple Hill Cemetery in Hanover Township.
The orders signed Friday are similar to another investigators received earlier this month to exhume the body of “I-80 Jane Doe.”
That body, which was wrapped in a blanket and covered in sulfuric acid, was found along the west travel lanes of I-80 in Black Creek Township on Aug. 9, 1973. The death was “extremely suspicious,” but the investigation was closed after only three months, according to prosecutors.
The cause and manner of death in that case also remained undetermined.
Her body is set to be exhumed from the Maple Hill Cemetery the same day as the others.
570-821-2058, @cvjimhalpin

Investigators to exhume three bodies in cold cases


Investigators to exhume3 bodies in cold cases


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Beyonce on Sunday dominated the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards as she enjoyed acclaim for her intertwined movie and album “Lemonade.”
Here are winners in key categories at the awards gala, which was or will be broadcast to more than 120 countries from New York’s Madison Square Garden:
– VIDEO OF THE YEAR: Beyonce, “Formation”
– BEST FEMALE VIDEO: Beyonce, “Hold Up”
– BEST MALE VIDEO: Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna, “This Is What You Came For”
– BEST HIP-HOP VIDEO: Drake, “Hotline Bling”
– BEST NEW ARTIST: DNCE
– BEST DIRECTION: Melina Matsoukas, for Beyonce’s “Formation”
– BEST COLLABORATION VIDEO: Fifth Harmony featuring Ty Dolla Sign, “Work From Home”
– BREAKTHROUGH LONG-FORM VIDEO: Beyonce, “Lemonade”
– BEST ART DIRECTION: Jan Houllevigue, for David Bowie’s “Blackstar”
– MICHAEL JACKSON VIDEO VANGUARD AWARD (FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT): Rihanna


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Nation won its first ever medal in Brazil
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(CNN) There are homecomings -- and then there's the welcome afforded Fiji's all-conquering Olympic heroes.
"We knew it was going to be crazy but not this crazy," Fiji's rugby sevens captain Captain Osea Kolinisau told journalists as the country's heroes returned home from Rio Sunday with a Bank Holiday having been declared in their honor for the following day.
JUST WATCHED The secrets of Fiji's 'mystical' rugby Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH The secrets of Fiji's 'mystical' rugby 04:02
Fiji's men's team was one of the stories of Rio 2016, living up to its tag as favorite while producing a brand of thrilling rugby which entertained a whole new audience.
As the team coach negotiated roads filled with well wishers in Nadi and then capital city Suva, the enormity of the team's achievement became clear.

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(CNN) A homecoming for any athlete who has appeared at an Olympics is special -- but for five who competed at the Rio Olympics, the place they formerly called home was the vast refugee camp at Kakuma in Kenya.
They returned to a heroes' welcome at the camp Monday, with one sign reading: "You are gold medal winners in our eyes." It followed an equally rapturous reception at Nairobi airport.
The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, said the athletes will stay among family friends in the camp for a week before returning to their training camp in the Nairobi suburbs.
The camp holds more than 180,000 people, refugees who have fled fighting in places like South Sudan.
Beacon of hope
Sport appears to be one of the few things that gives hope to those living in such harsh conditions, something noted by the International Olympic Committee. The IOC created a £2 million training fund to help take refugee athletes to Rio -- the first to appear at an Olympic Games.
#TeamRefugees receive a heroes welcome in #Kakuma today with a big celebration to honour their achievements. pic.twitter.com/WHzoLXOQmQ — FilmAid Kenya (@filmaidkenya) August 29, 2016
The 10-strong team that competed under the Olympic flag at Rio certainly touched the hearts of many across the world.
A giant mural dedicated to the stateless refugee team -- originally from South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Syria -- appeared on the streets of Rio.
And who could forget the smile of 18-year-old Yusra Mardini after winning her 100-meter butterfly heat? She swam for Syria in the short-course world championships in 2012 but was forced to swim for her life while trying to flee the conflict there. Her boat capsized off the Greek coast.
'Highlight was meeting champions'
Five of her team mates grew up in Kakuma before joining a track and field project set up by former Kenyan Olympic marathon runner Tegla Loroupe.
Five members of #TeamRefugees arrive back in Kakuma camp to a huge reception by close relatives & Kakuma residents. pic.twitter.com/OxAr0E5dXR — UNHCR KENYA (@UNHCR_Kenya) August 29, 2016
Yiech Pur Biel, a 21-year-old refugee from South Sudan, was chosen by Loroupe's foundation, and, despite having no shoes at the camp, ran in the 800 meters in Rio.
The athletes were greeted at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta airport by friends, family and a troupe of drummers from Burundi, and it's where Biel told of his joy at mixing with the world's best athletes.
"The highlight was meeting champions -- and competing with champions," he said on the U.N. refugee agency website (UNHCR)
"But we have also shown the world refugees doing something very good, so that people know refugees for who we are," he said.
Flight from war
Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, who ran in the 1,500 meters, fled South Sudan more than 15 years ago and has not seen her family since, the UNHCR reports.
But she said the Rio experience has made her realize that she can achieve any objective.
"Meeting people from around the world was the best thing about Rio for me. Now I am focused only on finding a way to see my family again," she said on the website.
Ahead of the games, 800-meter runner Rose Nathike Lokonyen told of her flight from the brutal civil war in South Sudan, first on foot and then squashed in the back of a truck. She made it out alive, grew up in Kakuma and then joined the training camp.
"Life was so much hard compared to training in this place. The life in Kakuma camp was so hard," she said.
Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Every competitor at the 2016 Olympics will have undergone a personal journey to reach Rio. But for some athletes, notably a number of refugee competitors, the path has been truly life changing ... Hide Caption 1 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Paul Amotun Lokoro: South Sudan, 100m – Paul Amotun Lokoro fled war in his home country of South Sudan. Years later, the 24-year-old is aiming to not just compete, but thrive at the Olympic Games."I want to win a gold," he says. "If I win the race, I will be famous!" Hide Caption 2 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Rose Nathike Lokonyen: South Sudan, 800m – Fourteen years after leaving South Sudan for the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, Rose Nathike Lokonyen is set to line up alongside some of the world's finest middle distance runners at Rio 2016. Hide Caption 3 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Yiech Pur Biel: South Sudan, 800m – Pur Biel also fled the Sudanese civil war, arriving at the Kakuma camp in 2005. The 21-year-old cites the prospect of Rio 2016 as "a great moment in my life and a story to my children and grandchildren." Hide Caption 4 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Rami Anis: Syria, Swimming – Six years ago, Rami Anis was swimming for Syria at the Asian Games in China. But in 2011, he fled his home of Aleppo to escape bombing. Hide Caption 5 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Leaving Syria, reaching Rio – His new coach in Belgium believes Anis' place in the Rio 2016 Olympic refugee team is a form of "justice".
Hide Caption 6 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Yusra Mardini: Swimming, Syria – Joining Rami on the team is 18-year-old Yusra Mardini, another refugee from Syria who now trains in Germany. Hide Caption 7 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Youngest refugee athlete – Mardini's coach, Sven Spannekrebs (pictured left here), will be one of the backroom staff joining the refugee team for Rio.
Hide Caption 8 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Popole Misenga: Democratic Republic of Congo, Judo – Congolese judo athlete Popole Misenga sought asylum in Brazil after the 2013 world championships in Rio. He will be on the official Olympic Refugee Team for the 2016 Games in the same city. Hide Caption 9 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team New life in Rio – Misenga, 24, has married a Brazilian and has a young son since being granted asylum. He says Rio is a "magical place" to live. Hide Caption 10 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Anjelina Nadai Lohalith: South Sudan, 1500m – Anjelina Lohalith, 21, left her home country when she was just eight years old. While her family remain in South Sudan, she will now compete in Rio in the 1500m for the Refugee Olympic Team. Hide Caption 11 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Yonas Kinde: Ethiopia, Marathon – 36-year-old Yonas Kinde left Ethiopia for Luxembourg in 2012 and immediately pursued his love for running. He soon becoming the best long distance runner in the tiny European country. Hide Caption 12 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team James Nyang Chiengjiek: South Sudan, 400m – Just 13-years-old when he left his home, Chiengjiek managed to avoid the fate of South Sudan's child soldiers. He reached Kenya's Kakuma camp in 2002, quickly capitalizing on his athletic talents despite a lack of top class facilities. Hide Caption 13 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Beyond the team – Raheleh Asemani, formerly a taekwondo athlete for Iran, was on the shortlist for the Olympic Refugee Team -- but will now compete for Belgium in Rio having been granted citizenship. Hide Caption 14 of 15 Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team Woman behind the team – For many years, Kenyan marathon runner Tegla Loroupe has been using athletics to work toward peace in Africa. Five of the Olympic Refugee Team are South Sudanese refugees from her foundation's training center, and she will be the team's chef de mission.
Hide Caption 15 of 15
The UNHCR says the athletes will now return to the training camp in a town north of the Kenyan capital Nairobi and all wanted to continue competing.
In an interview with the UNHCR, Yiech Pur Biel speaks of his hopes for the future and of his love of running. "I can continue to achieve or leave a legacy, to leave a legacy for other people," he said.
Anjelina Nadai Lohalith added: "I will continue with sport and at least I have to make my future bright when I work hard because right now I am looking forward to support my family and my siblings.
The African athletes will continue to train at the Tegla Loroupe camp and, according to the UNHCR, prepare for possible participation in the World Championships in 2017.
UNHCR spokesman in Kenya, Marco Lembo, who is working on making the athlete program permanent, told CNN: "We believe this is just the beginning of a long process which will allow for refugee athletes to participate in the Olympics.
"They represent more than 60 million people. It's the symbolism of this that is so important. We hope to expand this program to work with more refugees and in more disciplines. We need to ensure long term sustainability."

Rio refugee team to get heroes' welcome at Kakuma camp


Five of the Olympic Refugee Team have returned to a heroes' welcome at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya where they grew up.


Story highlights 323 wild reindeer killed after being hit by a single lightning strike
The carcasses were scattered across Norway's mountain plateau, Hardangervidda
(CNN) More than 300 reindeer have been killed by a single lightning strike at a Norwegian national park.
Pictures released by the Norwegian Environment Agency on Sunday show 323 carcasses scattered across a small, isolated area in Hardangervidda National Park. The plateau-like park in south-central Norway is home to Europe's largest herds of wild reindeer, according to its website.
One of the agency's inspectors discovered the dead animals over the weekend after a storm passed through.
Wild animals are occasionally struck by lightning, but the agency has never seen so many killed at once, spokesperson Kjartan Knutsen told CNN.
"We have never experienced such numbers before. This is very large," Knutsen said. He said the wild reindeer were huddled together because of heavy weather on Friday, when the strike occurred.
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Story highlights Miners are protesting for a right to work directly with private companies
Rodolfo Illanes, the deputy minister of interior, was killed Thursday
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Rodolfo Illanes, the deputy minister of interior, was killed Thursday in Panduro, where he was meeting with miners who had been striking and blockading roads since August 10, according to the attorney general's office.
Three miners have died since the beginning of the protests, state-run ABI reported. The miners are protesting for their right to work directly with private companies.
Bolivian President Evo Morales described the deputy minister as "a hero of natural resources" and declared three days of national mourning.
"It was a cowardly act -- he was kidnapped, tortured and killed," Morales said. "It's unforgivable, and I don't understand how our brothers can hurt us in such a way."
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