CASTLEGAR NEWS Your Horoscope For the Week with Michael O’Connor inside the West Kootenay Advertiser
Thursday, August •
Vol. • Issue
Breaking news at castlegarnews.com
Major revelation for soccer Solid connection made by players with ambition Selkirk College See Page 17 See Page A3 Rauni Naud
FortisBC makes multimillion dollar proposal
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CRAIG LINDSAY Castlegar News Reporter
At Castlegar’s City Council meeting on Monday, Mayor Lawrence Chernoff announced that a major corporation was looking at building a large operations centre in Castlegar. FortisBC has proposed building a $16 million West Kootenay Operations Centre in Ootischenia. As per BCUC (BC Utilities Commission) regulations, a public open house will be held in Castlegar on August 29. Chernoff announced the public meeting and said council was pleased that Fortis is proposing the new operations centre be built in Castlegar.
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“They stepped forward saying they were going to have this public meeting,” said Chernoff. “We’re still negotiating with them. This is a regulatory thing they have to follow. Fortis has to get permission from BCUC first to even look at a building. We’ve been negotiating for a long time. We continue to negotiate with them.” The new centre is expected to bring in approximately 160 to 180 jobs and continue to diversify and grow the City’s economic base. The $16 million project will also add to the City’s tax base. “You look at the spinoffs here,” said Chernoff. “You’re going to get a building that generates taxes. You’ll get all these
new people coming into Castlegar and spending money here. Fortis as a corporation is investing in the community. To me that may lead to other things because Fortis is a leader in utilities.” The property FortisBC is looking at for the operations centre is in Ootischenia and was originally acquired as a site for the proposed future West Kootenay Regional Hospital. “We’ve had this land for long time,” said Chernoff. “They were looking at pieces of property all over. It came out that this was the best place suited for their operations. We’ve studied other locations so we can build a regional hospital when the time comes.”
New vision pitch Traci Goertzen and Dan Sahlstrom make a presentation to Castlegar City Council on Monday about the New Vision Housing Society.
Message bears repeating A black bear (pictured above) goes to work recently on a non-bear proof garbage bin near Kamloops. The Thompson River city, however, has no lock on bear activity, as encounters increase in areas including Castlegar. See story on page A7. Joanne Siderius
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