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THURSDAY , APRIL 3, 2014 Thursday, April 3, 2014
VOLVol. . 9 • 9ISSUE 14 14 • Issue
Comedian Lorne Elliott brings acclaimed show to Rossland
See Page 2
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CBT hands out social well being cash to community See Page 6
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Rural MLAs under fire for travel expenditures STAFF Rossland News
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Three months into their new life in Canada, the San-Latt family has experienced the challenges and rewards that would face any of us if we relocated to a country far from home. Read about their story and their life in Rossland up to this date inside on Page 3.
Dig into spring with appropriate technology STAFF Rossland News
West Trail, 2bd 1 bth renovated. $166,900.
The Kootenay Local Agricultural Society (KLAS) is presenting “A Free Field Day with the BCS 853 Walking Tractor,” the first in a series of spring workshops to showcase KLAS’s extensive tool library ONE PERCENT REALTY and to teach people how to use it. 368-1817 | 362-9094 As the snow melts, perhaps nancykaiser.ca nnckaiser@gmail.com your green thumb is itching to sink into that fresh, spring dirt? Your Horoscope For the Week Maybe you want to refresh with Michael O’Connor inside Horoscope raised beds, or build some the some West Kootenay Advertiser For the Week from scratch? Perhaps you’d with Michael O’Connor like to build terraces into your
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slope? Do you have lawn you want to renovate and reseed? Or maybe you want to dig a waterharvesting swale or drainage ditch? A BCS 853 walking tractor— replete with tougher-than-nails tillers, plows, and more that attach to the PTO (power take off) on its 13 horsepower engine and two beefy wheels—can fill all these needs. Best of all, for all the tremendous power of the Italian-made two-wheel tractor, it uses very little gas. This is the tool of choice for market gardeners around the
world, including Quebec’s JeanMartin Fortier who sells $140,000 of vegetables each year, all grown on 1.5 acres using his BCS tractor and only $230 in gasoline. Other well-known users include author Eliot Coleman— ”The Four Season Harvest”— and Kelowna’s own radical bicycle farmer Curtis Stone who earns six-figures on eight small parcels of borrowed land smackdab in the middle of town. Very few local gardeners may recognize how easily they can access this, the tool of their dreams.
• See AGRICULTURE, Page 6
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One of the two regional MLA’s is facing some fire over her travel expenses. Nelson-Creston NDL MLA Michelle Mungall is defending her travel companion expenses after topping a list released by the BC legislature last week. She billed for just over $7,800 on eight trips between April and December 2013 in which either her husband or a staff member accompanied her, the most of any of province’s 85 elected representatives. MLAs are entitled to up to 12 such taxpayer-funded trips per year, and most take advantage of the perk. However, Rossland’s Kootenay West MLA Katrine Conroy was well down the list, having billed $1,486 for two trips. That was compared to $3,333 for five trips in 2012. “This is part of making the work more family friendly and part of the overall MLA compensation package,” Mungall said. “Being from a rural area, our expenses will inevitably be higher than urban MLAs. We incur larger expenses to do our job, going back and forth between our constituencies and Victoria.” Eight of the 10 highest spenders were from rural ridings, including Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson ($7,250 for eight trips) and Columbia River Revelstoke MLA Norm MacDonald ($5,360 for six trips), in second and third place respectively. Mungall said the bulk of what she billed for related to staff attending professional training in Victoria and having to find alternate routes home after their flights were cancelled. As an example of cost breakdowns, a six-day trip by a constituency assistant in October involved accommodation, mileage, meals, transit, car rental, airfare, fuel, and taxi fare for a total of $1,805.
• See TRAVEL, Page 5