6 ■ REVELSTOKE REVIEW ■ Wednesday, October 7, 2015 The Revelstoke Review is a publication of Black Press at 518 2nd Street West, Revelstoke, B.C. V0E 2S0. Mailing Address: P.O. Box 20, Revelstoke, B.C. V0E 2S0 Publisher: Mavis Cann. www. revelstokereview.com Phone: 250-837-4667 Fax: 250-837-2003.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
We asked: Do you hope the Axis Mundi Festival returns in June for the summer solstice edition? Survey Results:
YES 58% NO 42%
(26 VOTES) (19 VOTES)
New Question: Should council seek more public input before making a decision on the proposed Trans-Canada Highway shopping centre? Vote at: revelstokereview.com
REVELSTOKE
REVIEW Mavis Cann, Publisher
Alex Cooper, Editor
mavis.cann@revelstokereview.com
alex.cooper@revelstokereview.com
Fran Carlson, Office Manager
Rob Stokes, Production
fran.carlson@revelstokereview.com
rob.stokes@revelstokereview.com
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
It is agreed by the advertiser requesting space that the liability of the Revelstoke Review, in the event of an error appearing in the advertisement as published, shall be limited to the amount paid by the advertiser and that there shall be no liability greater than the amount paid for such advertising.
BC Press Council: The Revelstoke Review is a member of the
British Columbia Press Council, a self-regulatory body governing the province’s newspaper industry. The council considers complaints from the public about the conduct of member newspapers. Directors oversee the mediation of complaints, with input from both the newspaper and the complaint holder. If talking with the editor or publisher does not resolve your complaint about coverage or story treatment, you may contact the B.C. Press Council. Your written concern, with documentation, should be sent to B.C. Press Council, PO Box 1356, Ladysmith, B.C. V9G 1A9. For information, phone 888-687-2213 or go to www.bcpresscouncil.org.
LETTERS POLICY Share your views with the community. The Revelstoke Review welcomes letters to the editor intended for publication, but reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, legality, accuracy and topicality. Letters should not be more than 300 words long. Anonymous letter will not be published. To assist in verification, a telephone number must be supplied, but will not be published. Email letters to alex. cooper@revelstokereview.com, drop them off at 518 2nd Street West or mail to PO Box 20, Revelstoke, B.C. V0E 2S0.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES LOCAL: 1 Year $47.61, 2 Years $80.95 + GST NATIONAL: 1 Year $76.19, 2 Years $142.85 + GST
Liberal policy caused Canal Flats mill closure MLA REPORT
Norm Macdonald One of our Kootenay communities recently received a massive blow, affecting not just the Village of Canal Flats, but also workers throughout the area. The closure of the mill, the community’s biggest employer, will be devastating. There has been a mill in Canal Flats for more than 100 years, using wood from the forests that surround Canal Flats. Following the closure announcement, Canal Flats Mayor Ute Juras and I met with the Premier and the Minister of Jobs. I appreciate that meeting with the Premier, and I found the Premier’s commitment to help find a replacement industry for the mill encouraging. Our communities are surrounded by
healthy forests and there are new markets for manufactured wood products. There are new and exciting wood products that could be manufactured, so there are reasons to be optimistic. However, the truth is that this is an effort that will be complicated by the lack of control and influence our government now has to manage the use of our forests for local jobs. In 2003, the BC Liberal government ended the connection between communities and their surrounding forests in many ways. They removed the requirement on corporations to ensure local jobs came from local wood. Corporations with rights to cut in an area can now ship that wood anywhere in the province. Back in the 1990’s, when I was in local government, communities like Revelstoke got control of their surrounding forests and established a community forest corporation to support their local manufacturers. In that same timeframe, Golden was able to save our threatened mill, and that mill still operates to this day. The 2003 changes removed the tools to protect local mills that had promoted
Revelstoke and Golden’s forest industry to provide employment in the community. But as the assurances for local employment were removed by the BC Liberals, we watched as 200 mills across British Columbia were permanently closed. This shift in policy had consequences. Residents of Canal Flats, and the laid off workers from the Canal Flats operation, can still watch truckloads of local wood driven out of their area to other mills. This forestry policy does not serve this community or this area. So while I am thankful that the Premier is willing to work with the Village of Canal Flats to find a replacement industry, the position that Canal Flats finds itself in is a consequences of actions taken by government in 2003. We live in an area that is rich in opportunity with capable and entrepreneurial citizens so there is always reason to be optimistic. But this is a crisis that the Village of Canal Flats should not have been forced to face. Norm Macdonald is the MLA for Columbia River–Revelstoke. He can be reached 1-866-870-4188 or norm.macdonald.mla@leg.bc.ca.
City should have held shopping centre open house ALEX COOPER
alex.cooper@revelstokereview.com During last week's two hour public hearing on the proposed Trans-Canada Highway shopping centre, one point, made by Randy Driediger, jumped out at me — the need for greater public input on the development. The public hearing was pretty remarkable as far as they go. Thirty-three people took the time to send in comments to city hall, though it was many of the same that got up to speak. Still, as Driediger pointed out, we were only hearing from some 30-40 out of 7,000+ residents. For a development that could profoundly change Revelstoke, that's not enough. What was missing was a proper open house, hosted by the city and the developers, where the public could have seen copies of the plan and provided feedback. I'm talking about something like the open house held for David Evans' Mackenzie Village in Arrow Heights that was attended by about 150 people.
The result was Evans was asked to produce seven reports prior to the development moving forward to first reading. An open house for the shopping centre would have given both the developers and the city a better idea of public sentiment and allowed them to craft a proposal more palatable to the vocal opposition. It may have also been able to solicit the views of the general public. As it is, it's mostly the business community that provided feedback for the public hearing. An open house isn't required, but it also wasn't necessary for the Evans development. For the latter, the city asked for an open house because of the scope of the development. The shopping centre might not be as big in scale, but it's just as impactful. At its most basic the highway development is a simple rezoning, but it's really much more than that. Few issues have galvanized public opinion in my time in Revelstoke. As much feedback as possible should be solicited before council makes a decision.