Cranbrook Daily Townsman, January 14, 2013

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JANUARY 14, 2013

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Vol. 61, Issue 09

Omnibus fuss

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The Ktunaxa Nation will host an omnibus bill information session on February 2 in Cranbrook ANNALEE GR ANT Townsman Staff

The Ktunaxa Nation is holding an information session for members to learn about the federal government’s omnibus Bill C-45 on February 2. The session will be led by Ktunaxa Nation member Rob Louie, a former member of the B.C. Law Association and a consultant on legal issues for the nation. He will be joined by Anna Natanik, a fellow Ktunaxa Nation member and law professor. Louie said it’s important for Ktunaxa Nation members to understand what the omnibus bill includes, because not all of it is negative. “The omnibus bill covers a number of legal areas,” Louie said. “There’s

different interests for different parties.” The session will cover six specific pieces of the large bill that will affect Ktunaxa Nation members directly. They are the Criminal Code amendment to address elder abuse, the First Nations Financial Transparency Act, land surrenders and referendums, the Family Homes on Reserves and Matrimonial Interests or Rights Act, First Nations Elections Act and safe drinking water. “They’re all important,” Louie, explained, but he said the amendments to safe drinking water will have a huge impact on the Ktunaxa Nation.

See LAWYER, Page 3

Endangered fish face further hurdle An experiment downstream of Koocanusa has failed to coax Kootenay white sturgeon, reduced to just 1,000 fish, to spawn where their eggs can survive SALLY MACDONALD Townsman Staff

Scientists are still holding out hope for the endangered Kootenay white sturgeon after a three-year U.S. experiment failed to draw the fish upstream to where they could successfully spawn. The largest freshwater fish in North America, white sturgeon can grow to 12 feet in length and weigh up to 1,000 pounds in their 100-year life span. With an estimated 1,000 wild adult fish remaining, the Kootenay white sturgeon was listed as endangered in Canada in 2003, after nine years on the U.S. endangered list. Wild sturgeon are found in Mon-

tana, Idaho and B.C. and they spawn downstream of Montana’s Kootenai Falls and the Libby, Montana dam on Koocanusa reservoir. The fish, which don’t begin reproducing until about age 30, have been in decline since the 1950s. “Although they were potentially declining in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, they were still reproducing, they just weren’t producing as large a year class. The last year class produced naturally was in 1974,” said Jason Flory, fish and wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Spokane, Washington.

WOW!! HIGH END FINISHING & WORKMANSHIP IN THIS TOTALLY RENOVATED 3-BEDROOM

See B.C., IDAHO, Page 4

BARRY COULTER PHOTO

A Nelson-based rink headed by Cranbrook Skip Tom Shypitka is headed to the Seniors Provincial Curling Championships, after coming undefeated out of the Zone qualifying tournament held this weekend past at the Cranbrook Curling Club. Two men’s team and one women’s team are off to the provincial tournament in February, to be held in Trail. See more in Sports, page 8. Left to right: Bill King, Don Freschi, Fred Thomson and Tom Shypitka.

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