MONDAY
DECEMBER 14, 2015
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Vol. 64, Issue 236
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TREVOR CRAWLEY PHOTO
Noteable business and community leaders weren’t afraid to strip down on Friday as part of the Miracle on Baker Street fundraiser to benefit the Salvation Army’s homeless shelter. Without wearing, uh, pants, the participants spent four hours in cool temperatures, doing exercises to stay warm and completing challenges—such as a Christmas fruitcake-eating contest—that carried rewards of going inside the Bedroom Furniture Galleries to warm up. In the weeks leading up to event, participants raised money through pledges throughout the community. More than $55,000 was raised. See more this week in the Townsman.
MLA addresses energy CFUW seeks nominations for Woman of the Year at Chamber meeting SUBMIT TED
TRE VO R CR AWL EY
Energy was on the mind of Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett as he addressed the Chamber of Commerce at a monthly luncheon last week. Bennett, who serves as the Minister of Energy and Mines, was the keynote speaker for the event, who spoke about British Columbia’s leadership in energy conservation and climate action. Bennett had two central points to his speech—first noting what the provincial government has done on the energy and climate change while wrapping up with what the future looks like in terms of legislative policy. He began with a history lesson on Liberal policies concerning the carbon tax, greenhouse gas emissions, renewable and innovation technology funding. He punctuated his speech many times by noting that B.C. was one of the most progressive jurisdictions in North America
on the climate action front. However, he tempered that by noting that it is important to remain environmentally conscious while being competitive economically. “We are so far ahead of the rest of this country and the vast majority of North America and the world. If we get too far out in front of what we’re trying to do, we could easily find ourselves being uncompetitive in our major industries,” Bennett said. “Our major industries are energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries. We sell all our stuff off-shore for the most part, whether it’s mining, oil and gas, forestry, agriculture… “We have to be very careful that we don’t get out too far. This is going to be a debate over the next year and a half leading into the next provincial election.” He gave a nod to his namesake—W.A.C. Bennett (no relation)—the former B.C. premier
who was instrumental in building major hydroelectric dams on in the Columbia and Peace River regions. In large part because of those legacy projects, Bennett said 97.9 per cent of B.C.’s electricity is clean. Some of those major hydroelectric dams can generate power for 100 years, he added. “It’s pretty cool for us to be able to say that. You look around the world, places like Ontario that are trying to get off coal and now Alberta, which has said they’d like to reduce their reliance on coal to generate electricity,” Bennett said. “You look in Europe, in Germany—the Germans are working pretty hard to clean up their energy. They want to have 50 per cent of their energy clean by 2050. We’re 97.9 per cent clean electricity in this province already.”
See BENNETT, Page 3
The Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) Cranbrook Club is looking for nominations for Cranbrook’s Woman of the Year, 2016. Woman of the Year for the East Kootenay was created by CFUW Cranbrook Club in 1984 to honour an outstanding woman who gives of herself either in paid work and/or as a volunteer in her East Kootenay community that betters the lives for those around her in her community. This East Kootenay woman can also be one who not only gives of herself in her own community, but also at the provincial, national and international level. Part of the criteria set out 31 years ago asks for nominations of a woman whose efforts create better opportunities for education, opportunities and/or safety for women and girls in her community at all the levels this woman serves in, yet by doing all this extra “work”, the nominated woman did not ignore her family’s needs. Those wishing to nominate a member of a woman for Woman of
the Year 2016 would be wise to get your candidate selected immediately. It is preferred that the woman being nominated is unaware of her name being put forward. The club asks that the nomination committee form your nomination statement as to why you think this woman should be selected as Woman of the year 2016 by the CFUW Cranbrook Club. From there, the nomination committee will work to find friends, family, co-workers, co-volunteers of this woman to write support letters to the nomination of this woman. Then, the chair of the nomination committee will send the nomination with the committee and other letters of support to Cathryn Henley at 805 – 29th Avenue South, Cranbrook, BC V1C 3K5. Deadline for all nominations is Monday, 12 noon, February 15, 2016. It is the hope of the CFUW Cranbrook Club that we are able to honour Woman of the Year 2016 on International Women’s Day, Tuesday, March 8
See CFUW, Page 3