Mayor’s Report

June 27, 2018   Contrary to the ideology promoted by special interest groups I could name, it’s not about money. Certainly not now (maybe it never was). Certainly not on this side of the divide! Of course I know that money keeps the wheels turning but only if the money keeps circulating. Even members of…

A quick update from some of the happenings around town. Quite some time ago, the District of Chetwynd and the Recycling Depot met and decided on implementing the Blue Bag Recycling program.  The pilot went well and has expanded to the rest of town.  There have been little to no complaints from anyone involved and…

June 13, 2018   Last week I mentioned the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) but gave you little information about the nature of the thing. Canada is a big country and we have a big government in Ottawa that can become preoccupied with its own agendas and forget that we, out here in the hinterland,…

June 6, 2018   I’m writing to you from Halifax (you know, Pier 21, the gateway to Canada from Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean), where the annual convention of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) is currently in session. I have encountered elected officials from across Canada, including several from Tumbler Ridge, Taylor, Fort…

May 30, 2018 We are still talking caribou. Why, you might wonder? The answer is simple but the solution is bafflingly complex with multiple interest groups pumping their polarized perspectives – real or imagined. From the office of the Mayor I can look directly into the northern extremity of the land base of the Quintette…

May 9, 2018   Gas prices! Can’t seem to live without them. Hard to live with them. Eyes averted, I pulled up to the pump today dreading to learn that which I didn’t want to know after recent experiences with 131.9+ per litre in central Alberta, where prices have traditionally been much lower than in…

May 2, 2018   Remarkable as is our planet, infused with enormous powers of regeneration as is our earth, still it is finite. Our trees can be counted; our birds enumerated; fish – well they’re more elusive (example: the coelacanth, discovered in the fossil record and thought to have died out in prehistoric times, but…

April 25, 2018   Chetwynd, our sanctuary in a big, blue, sometimes hostile world? Are we actually in the same world with Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin and Mr. Assad and the other pugilists in the ring of life? About a week and a few days ago on a late Friday afternoon my attention was…

April 18, 2018   The Council of Forest Industries (COFI) has always been a highlight of the year for me. This year in Prince George Mayors and Councillors from across British Columbia were provided the 2018 version of the usual agenda. We got to hear from industry CEOs and Government Ministers, including the First Minister,…

April 11, 2018   Remembering Councillor Brenda Maisey. When we lose people to the end of life we are suddenly and irrevocably faced with the knowledge of an enormous hole in our lives. This is not only so for the families of those who have left us behind; it is also so for the community…