aggregated from: Paying attention

How much environmental damage is justified as a trade-off for the jobs and revenue from a big new open-pit mine?The proposed Prosperity gold and copper mine about 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake would mean about 375 jobs and $20 million a y...

topics: environment, environmental, federal-government, mining, pine-beetle

aggregated from: Paying attention

There is much encouraging in this report on an effort in Victoria to reduce the number of people with addictions and mental illness caught in a perpetual, stupid relationship with the criminal justice system.Perhaps most usefully, the integrated cour...

aggregated from: Paying attention

The legal attack on the HST petition by business groups is terrible for the Liberals.In fact, when the release announcing the court action showed up in my inbox, I wondered if it was a hoax. It wasn't.The groups - the Council of Forest Industries; Mi...

topics: attorney-general, business, election, federal-government, liberal

aggregated from: Paying attention

Now that you're paying the harmonized sales tax, I suggested heading over here for Sacha Peter's spin-free discussion on HST. It's an excellent primer on the tax and its impact....

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Why did the province's criminal justice branch decide against charges in Robert Dziekanski's death without gathering the needed facts?In the aftermath of the Braidwood inquiry, the government appointed Richard Peck as a special prosecutor to review t...

topics: attorney-general, investigation

aggregated from: Paying attention

This is such a bad idea I wondered at first if it was a hoax e-mail. The province's big business organizations have gone to court to argue that the anti-HST initiative petition should be declared invalid and tossed. People who signed the petition wer...

topics: attorney-general, business, economy, election, federal-government

aggregated from: Paying attention

The big G8/G20 summits in Ontario look like a ripoff. The three days of meetings cost Canada $1.1 billion. That's about $32 for every one of us; $128 for a family of four. In return we got mostly bad publicity, thuggery, mass arrests, a sneak violati...

topics: economy, federal-government, investment, oil-and-gas, taxes

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Les Leyne reviews the special prosecutor's report on John Les and Chilliwack bureaucrat Grant Sanborn in today's column.Sanborn faces criminal charges for not doing his duty in processing development applications, including a project led by Les, the...

topics: mayor, political

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With a few days left before the HST kicks in, it's hard to see any way out of the muck-filled hole the Liberals have dug for themselves.No other MLAs have followed Blair Lekstrom's lead and resigned. Businesses are getting ready to charge the new tax...

topics: business, election, federal-government, health-care, liberal

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Don't be too quick to think the RCMP has really learned from the death of Robert Dziekanski.Former justice Thomas Braidwood's inquiry report, even with its narrow scope, was devastating. The four officers who responded to a call about a man behaving ...

topics: investigation, provincial-government