Category: Government Works


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broken sign no contract…. Photo KDG

Good Value:

The Trans Mountain pipeline company ( now the Canadian government )have noted the policy. Gas prices in Merritt have been at $140.9 a liter for weeks here gone are the swings of the price of the last few years.  Ecology preservation is always worth the price in a free market as demand is usually blind and tensions over competing ones bring balance.

Monitoring of Vessel noise:

The policy is new and is to help the situation of the Southern resident killer whales. The species that was the center of the court challenge to the companies expansion.

According to the Vancouver Sun ,  the “Echo” program will monitor sounds and will lead to possible threat protection.

Earlier this week, the federal government announced new measures to monitor underwater ship and mammal noise in British Columbia’s Salish Sea to help develop measures to support the recovery of endangered southern resident killer whales

Anyway, consumers can enjoy stable but higher gas prices for a while perhaps it will end back in wage and price controls like PET’s time.

On this Day: October 26th, 1921

 

47% change in leadership…

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Polling station Merritt BC file photo: KDG

New mayors, councilors:

The provinces 162 municipalities had a healthy change of elected public servants for the 2018 election.  There are 73 new mayors and 395 newly elected councilors a 47 and 48.8 percent change factor overall. Vancouver bucked the trend electing 16 of 21 new mayors to its municipalities.

The high level of turnover on Councils and Boards with each election was one of the motivating factors for the creation of the Local Government Leadership Academy in 2007. The academy’s mission is to provide local government and First Nations elected officials and senior administrators with comprehensive, timely and dedicated leadership development opportunities throughout their terms of office or employment in the interest of improving governance. The LGLA’s 2019 elected official seminars have been announced and once again will be made available in regions throughout BC.

For the full details on the 2018 local government general election, please visit CivicInfo.

Source UBCM

Regional directors:

There was a similar turnover for regional directors.  Fifty-Seven Electorial area directors were new a 37.7% change.

Merritt BC changed 5 of  6 councilors and elected an incumbent councilor mayor.

On this Day: October 24th, 2003

The last commercial flight of the Concorde supersonic airliner.

TGIF- small business week in Merritt…

 

Another nursery business

Some people getting ready to sell..     File Photo KDG

Small Business week:

The banners are out the programs in place Small Business week is on in Merritt BC. Community Futures , Work BC, The Merritt Herald, Q101 FM are all into the theme.

Enjoy…

 

 

On this Day: October 19th 1935

The league of nations sanctions Italy for the invasion of Ethiopia.

TGIF- Appeal

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Canoe quest to north west coast of BC file Photo KDG

The Federal Appeals Court of Canada was created in July of 2003. It has three notable decisions”

In April 2014, the court ruled in favour of the Métis people in a case involving extending protections to Aboriginal peoples in Canada who lived off-reserve.[3]
In September 2015, the court dismissed an appeal by the Government of Canada over a ruling by the Federal Court that found a rule banning the Niqāb at citizenship ceremonies to be unconstitutional.[4]
In August 2018, the court rejected the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline on the basis that the National Energy Board’s (NEB) process and findings were “so flawed that the Governor in Council could not reasonably rely on the Board’s report”[5] and that “the Government of Canada failed to fulfill the legal duty to consult Indigenous peoples”[5 Source Wikipedia

Kudos to the people that organized the 16 lawsuits that were heard over the indigenous rights concern. Organization is a huge thing  and very effective just look at all the times that nations have tried to dominate the world and the organization it took to set those efforts aside. However lets not lose in the wash a concept and reality that we enjoy or have the right to enjoy, free and with out fetered  access to the sea, rivers and the land between the high water mark and lots public access As well the right and ability to chose a moderate lifestyle over a competitive, controlling, dominating one. This in an idealistic sense  viewed as equality of the person.

Even plastics in the sea may seem a simplistic issue to deal with however if it comes to a change that limits and gives over rights to the rich and dominate it would be a horrific loss.

When push comes to shove the money and unction that saw the appeals brought by the first nations groups come from government with the hammer of the Indian Acts shadow pushing.

In a funny irony you may wish to save your plastic straws for a day when the process to give jurisdiction to beach’s and river banks makes an authority that will take access to the sea coast from you. If we all dumped our straws in the river  at once then we could all go to jail at once; that you could say is organization.

 Legal experts say the First Nations cases have real implications that should not be overlooked or forgotten. Vancouver Sun

So did fast ferries have implications when wakes affected beaches  of the rich. Perhaps zoning is the answer to these questions. Have areas for the enjoyment of moderate living people and nice places for the connected and elite. The boundaries could be defined by plastic straws.

How could the NEB have a report that ” could not be relied on”. What is up? Are we  getting ready to eat our children?

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Think leaf when using plastic straws. straws move as easily into the water environment as a dry leaf.                    File Photo KDG

On this Day: September 7th 1923

Interpol is formed.

PS: I think this had to be said, here’s a shove though, who wants their name linked to an environmental calamity. Even if its just that Vancouver bear reasonable risk ,who wants to sign off on that risk, maybe an emaciated 3rd world economic refuge! Will he run. Or a nameless elite organization that will take his right to drown on a beach in Peace.

On thing  sure, everyone will want to sign when the Canadian dollar is 50 cents US and the price of modern tankers are out of reach. PP

PPS:

Contrary to some claims, NAFTA does not commit Canada to exporting a certain share of its energy supply to the United States regardless of Canadian needs.  Canadian producers sell without restriction on the open market.

The only significant limitation NAFTA places on Canada is that it prevents the Canadian government from implementing policies that interfere with the normal functioning of energy markets in North America.  Provided they have the demand and can pay the price, Canadian consumers could conceivably buy 100% of all energy produced in the country without violating NAFTA. Source Parliament of Canada. Michael Holden economics division 2006

 

 

Pipeline Services take over…

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Know as the trans-mountain apartments  the 60 year old apartment building  keeps it s vigil over Voght park in Merritt BC ….                   File Photo KDG

The lower Nicola Indian band and Aron Sam ( Sumaexheletza )the band has an economic development arm Lower Nicola Site Services. The 1200 members of the band are expected to benefit in employment with the 51 percent acquirement of the existing Hope BC based service company in a joint venture with Vancouver’s Infracon.
Chief Sam Sumaexheletza is a UBC graduate .

The Metis association of Alberta has voted to support the pipeline expansion on Sunday according to the CBC.

The Trans Mountain project is also expected to cost an additional 1.9 billion dollars from the estimates used when the government purchased the line from the Texas based Kinder Morgan. Some reports say that the sale of the project after it was cancelled by Kinder Morgan brought  them a 600 percent return on investment . It is also speculated that it will bring the federal deficit up by 36 percent.

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EV reserved parking, city crews in Merritt install a EV spot in Merritt BC File Photo KDG

 

On this Day: August 15th 1965

Stadium rock comes into vogue with the Beatles performing before 60,000 at Shea stadium.

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Clean gas clean gas pump, and some of the tax comes back to your local government File Photo KDG

There is a transfer payment from the gas tax collected by the federal government the Feds just made another instalment of 53 million to be divided amongst the municipal governments in BC.

Merritt BC  has been getting something over 300 thousand dollars per year for the last 3 years and is projected to get the same this year. Money is used for local projects including disaster relief. The  fund is touted as being predictable and is set to run from 2014- 2024.

Like the saying just because red wine is good for you that’s no reason to start drinking so the gas transfer tax is no reason to start burning more gas …

On this Day: July 26th 1891
France annex’s Tahiti.

VOTE VICTOR YORK

Victor York for Chief File Photo KKG

 

There are resources available to help any civic minded person wishing to run for office for the elections coming November. resources

The Election BC and UBCM says : What every candidate needs to know, is available through website, or videos,available through them. Good luck to those that try they will always be able to say I ran for office….

Vote from Merit

November will be here soon….

On this Day in History: July 19th 1871

The eve of British Columbia  joining the confederation of Canada.

Construction Schedule

 

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A fuel truck delivers gasoline to a service station File Photo KDG

The Trans Mountain pipeline compony has filed its schedule for work for the next six months. Work has been announced as starting in August from Alberta according to the CBC. The pipeline company it self synopsizes the schedule as:

Trans Mountain has filed a six month outlook summary schedule for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project with the National Energy Board (NEB) outlining construction activities planned for 2018. A copy of the filing can be found here. Work will begin in Alberta in August and the North Thompson region of BC in late September. Additional construction is planned in the Lower Mainland of BC and the work at Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, that has been underway since September 2017, will continue.  Source Trans Mountain.

Now nationalized promises have been made not to increase the amount of oil produced but to make the infrastructure more efficient , safer and pay a better value to the owners. Expanding a market beyond the American is anticipated to bring better profitability.

We hope the press will keep them to the promises they made.

On this Day: July 5th 1687

Issac Newton has his work  Philosophie Naturalis Principai  Mathematica published.

Trans Mountain promise:

 

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Rip Rap installed at Central park File Photo KDG

The Trans Mountain project is promising 15,000 jobs and 73 billion in new revenues, with 46 billion of that in taxes to government.

 

        • British Columbia receives $5.7 billion
        • Alberta receives $19.4 billion
        • The rest of Canada shares $21.6 billion
      • More than $400 million committed to Indigenous groups under mutual benefit and capacity agreements
      • $64.7 million to fund an Indigenous pipeline environment committee to ensure ongoing monitoring of the Project
      • Trans Mountain is facilitating the largest-ever expansion of spill response personnel and equipment on the BC coast, a $150-million, 20-year investment by Western Canada Marine Response Corporation that doubles response capacity and cuts mandated response times by half in South Coast waters. Source Trans Mountain

Good luck on this to all my friends and readers. Try to be good to your neighbour and ask him to pass it on.

On this Day: June 14th 1789

The loyal crew of the mutiny on the bounty reach Timor Island.

 

 

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Garbage

The federal government in 2017 said that the low carbon programs would be being implemented. They are looking for partnerships with local governments

In December 2017, the Government of Canada announced it is providing Low Carbon Economy Funding to the Province of BC in support of projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The BC Government has identified matching funds to support a number of initiatives including organic waste processing infrastructure to increase municipal organics diversion and management of agricultural waste. Local governments are the eligible recipient for this funding program and will need to provide one-third matching funding. Local governments may choose to partner with First Nations or private companies.

The government will be presenting a webinar on June 26th and 27th and then looking for expressions of interest or input.

 

On this Day: June 13th 1994

An Anchorage Alaska jury finds negligence in the Exon Valdez oil tanker disaster.

New Lt. Governor of BC

 

Judy Guichon’s term of being BCs Lt. Governor for BC is over this week according to Bruno her husband ” I got my cook back”.
Janet Austin is the new crown rep in BC. Jane has a background in YWCA and is a Vancouver or city girl giving a balance from rancher Guichon.
Janet is BC’s 30th Lt. Governor

On this Day: April 18th 1909

Joan of Arc is made a saint of the RCC.

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A move to the right shows level of water tables, .File Photo KDG

Geoff Strong is coming to do a reading from his novel ” Convenient Mistruths” on April 10th at the Merritt Public Library at 11:AM. promising the inside scoop on Global Warming, he will read from a selection of the intrigue, danger and providing discussion on his next book. Free admission 1691Garcia Street Merritt BC.

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broken sign no contract….
File Photo KDG

On this Day: March 20th 1985

Rick Hansen begins his world wide wheelchair trip for spinal cord research.