THURSDAYMARCH 5, 2015
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SPRING FORWARD THIS SUNDAY
KSS grad wins $35K after making a pitch at film festival
Don’t forget to change your clocks and check out some sleep tips for families
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RAVEN COAL MINE
Proposal withdrawn But company says it is not giving up on its plan JOHN HARDING editor@pqbnews.com
The plan for a coal mine less than 50 kilometres from downtown Qualicum Beach is dead. Maybe. Compliance Coal Corporation president and CEO Stephen Ellis confirmed this week the company has withdrawn its application to start the screening process for its Raven mine project, citing “misinformation that is circulating in some communities.” Ellis told The NEWS on Wednesday the company “still wants to continue with the Raven project.” He said Compliance and its partners have invested $20 million into the plan and “you’re not just going to throw that away.” Ellis would not go into specifics on what “misinformation” caused the company to withdrawn its application from the provincial Environment Assessment Office (EAO). “We believe it (the misinformation) was influencing our application,” Ellis said from his office in Courtenay. “Our company believed it was in our best interest to withdraw.” Ellis did not put any timeline on when the company may revisit the application process. Compliance’s initial application was rejected by the EAO on May 16, 2013 and this latest application was intended to address the deficiencies in the initial application. Monday marked the end of the 30-day screening period to determine whether the new application was fit to enter final review. “This latest move just reaffirms our view that the company is unprepared and unreliable,” Torrance Coste, Vancouver Island campaigner with the Wilderness Committee, said in a news release. See YOUR EFFORTS, page A9
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TONY MARKLE PHOTO
SNACK TIME: The herring are here for their annual spawn and that means the many fish, fowl and mammals who feed on the herring are here too, like this sea lion pictured above in the waters off Parksville Qualicum Beach during a recent spawn.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA PRODUCTION
Wildflower abandons Nanoose Bay plan CANDACE WU
news@pqbnews.com
As it turns out, the grass is greener on the other side of the border. Wildflower Marijuana CEO William MacLean confirmed Tuesday
afternoon his company has moved its first application to set up a medical pot operation from Rivers’ Edge in Nanoose Bay to the City of Parksville. “We are very excited to work with
a progressive community like Parksville, one that sees the value of what we’re bringing to the community,” MacLean told The NEWS. See MACLEAN OPTIMISTIC, page A7
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