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Liberals take B.C. majority By Walter Strong Black Press
SNIPERS Training
Jackie Lieuwen/Houston Today
Three snipers line up their 308 sniper rifles at a North Coast Emergency Response Team (ERT) practice at the Houston Marksmen Facility. The North Coast ERT met at the Houston shooting range for a three-day training session last Tuesday to Thursday. “We work well together. If you train and work with a group long enough, you kind of get to know what they’re going to do without having to talk about it,” said the North Coast ERT team leader. “It was great training with them. It’s physically and mentally demanding and it was done in a great area,” he said. He says the team, based in Terrace, is similar to the American SWAT team. They have weapons, tactics and training not part of the regular police force, and they take over for police in high-danger situations, he said. Team members get their basic training in Ottawa and then join the ERT in their area and attend monthly training and calls as needed.
According to the preliminary voting results from the initial count, Elections B.C. is showing that on May 14, 2013, B.C. voters re-elected a majority Liberal government. Under the leadership of Christy Clark, the party defied consistently negative pre-election polling results and delivered a 17-seat provincial majority, with 44.4 per cent of the popular vote and 50 seats. The NDP took 33 seats, with 39.49 per cent of the popular vote; the Green Party took one seat at 8.01 per cent of cast ballots; an independent took one seat and the B.C. conservatives took no seats with only 4.78 per cent of the vote. Premier Christy Clark narrowly lost in her riding of Vancouver Point-
Grey. It is anticipated that an elected Liberal member of legislative assembly will step down from his or her seat to allow Clark to run in a by-election. In Nechako-Lakes, incumbent Liberal MLA John Rustad won a strong majority. He took 54.5 per cent of ballots cast. His nearest threat, NDP Sussanne SkidmoreHewlett took only 27 per cent of the vote. Dan Brooks, the Vanderhoof guide outfitter who ran on the B.C. Conservative platform out-performed his party’s province-wide results with 12.6 per cent of the vote in NechakoLakes. Looking at the provincial electoral map, one sees a giant wall of Liberal red connecting the Southern Interior of the province straight through to the Northeast Peace region. See VOTES on Page 2
MP Nathan Cullen in Houston to discuss project evaluations By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
How do you evaluate the major industrial projects proposed in your area? That was the question raised by MP Nathan Cullen at a meeting with Houston residents at the Seniors Centre last Wednesday. As part of a “Renewal Northwest”
initiative, Cullen toured across the northwest and met in ten communities, including Houston, to gather ideas for a citizens guide to help citizens and investors “get to yes.” There are a lot of large-scale industrial projects proposed across the northwest, including Enbridge Northern Gateway,
Blue Jack Mine, Shaft Creek, Forrest Kerr and Galore Creek, said Cullen. “Give or take, as of a month ago, it’s about $60 billion worth of investment,” he said. Cullen says the citizens guide is to help citizens critically evaluate the proposed projects, as well as to help investors form project proposals that
will be supported by communities and gain a social license. Eighteen Houston residents came to discuss ways they evaluate incoming projects. They talked about the importance of environmental sustainability and companies giving back to the environment to sustain a resource. They discussed
economics, the importance of local benefits from a project, including local jobs and investments into local services and infrastructure. They also talked about looking at the integrity of a company, getting honest answers about a project plans, and the ethics behind what a company is bringing to town.
Finally they talked about gauging the social impact of a project on a town and how a project might change town dynamics. Cullen boiled down the discussion ideas into four main concerns: environment, economy, social impact, and ethics and integrity. He wrapped up the event thanking the
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Houston Chamber of Commerce for organizing the event and the citizens for coming and participating. Cullen promised to email the citizens guide, made from the ideas of the ten communities he visited, in a simple format so people can use it to guide them in asking a company the right questions.
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