THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015
Volume 41, Issue 29
www.starjournal.net
$1.35 Includes GST
PM0040030872
Local youth wins team penning competition at 2015 Calgary Stampede
2014 CCNA
Royal Inland Hospital tower planning to begin ..... page 2
Fishing closures all a part of drought response
Submitted photos: Nicole Siqouin
..... page 3
New run-of-river project near McBride ..... page 7
July is a Blue Moon month ..... page 10
Thirteen-year-old Kash Siqouin (middle) was the recipient of a big cheque last week after winning the Team Penning Competition Class #7 Championship at the Calgary Stampede. He and lower mainland teammates Trish Esworthy (l) and Brent Shaw (r) competed against 214 teams in their penning division, with Kash’s team taking home a cool $30,195 for the win. Kash also rode on another team in the same class and this team secured the third place award. His mom, Nicole Siqouin, says, “Kash was a little rockstar, and he rode my horse Bald Face all the way to the pay window.” She noted he has only recently started to ride her horse, but by all appearances it looks like this pair have already capitalized the word “TEAM” in their event. Pictured right: (l-r) Kash Siqouin on Bald Face, with teammates Brent Shaw and Trish Esworthy while competing last week at the Calgary Stampede.
B.C. to review bottled water rates By Tom Fletcher Black Press
Yes, it really was more than 50°C in direct sunlight here on July 8, 2015. Most likely it was even hotter, but this thermometer could go no higher.
7
78195 50017
8
Premier Christy Clark has promised a review of rates charged for water used in bottling, after an online petition called on the government to increase the nominal rate the province will collect starting next year. Swiss conglomerate Nestlé will pay the same rate as other industrial water users for its bottled water operation near Hope, but as largest water bottler in B.C. the it has been singled out for protest as drought conditions continue across the province. An online campaign by SumOfUs.org, which calls itself a "global consumer watchdog," has gathered more than 200,000 signatures since February, which the group planned to to deliver to the Langley constituency office of Environment Minister Mary Polak this week. Polak said Tuesday the protest against Nestlé
Waters has produced some misconceptions about how groundwater is regulated in B.C. "People keep saying there's a deal with Nestlé," Polak said. "There isn't. They pay the same as any other industrial user, in fact the highest industrial rate, and it goes for anything from hydraulic fracturing to bottled water, those involved in mining for example, any of those heavy industrial uses." She warned that those demanding an increase in the rate of $2.25 per 1,000 cubic metres of water should understand the risk that B.C. could lose control of the resource. If groundwater is treated as a commodity like oil or minerals, the North American Free Trade Agreement would allow the U.S. to demand equal access. The charge for using groundwater is called a water rental, to avoid any suggestion of transfer of ownership, Polak said. The rate was set in a recent review of provincial water legislation, to raise $11 million a year from industrial water us-
Environment Minister Mary Polak ers to cover the administrative costs of the water licence system. Nestlé Waters says its Hope operation uses one per cent of the available groundwater flowing through Kawkawa Lake, with no impact on the watershed in 15 years of regulated operation.
S E R V I N G T H E N O RT H T H O M P S O N VA L L E Y F R O M H E F F L E Y C R E E K TO B L U E R I V E R