Blog

Cutting through the red tape

I don’t know about you, but I can be driven insane by red tape and the seemingly endless steps one has to go through to do everything from adjusting a bill, to something important like adjusting a will. I recently wanted to change something around my cell service and the steps I had to go through with the online chat portal were never-ending, taking over an hour of my time, and then in the end, the email confirmation showed that the request I had made had been ignored and a secondary request was the only thing honoured.…

Message in a bottle

Reading labels can be the coolest thing you do

Ten or eleven thousand years ago—long before my days at Emily Carr University for Art and Design, and even longer before I talked my way into journalism school—I signed up for a program in commercial art at Victoria Technical School in Edmonton. As eternally pragmatic as most things were in Edmonton then, the program was focused on ensuring we all got jobs, good jobs, once we graduated.…

B.C. introduces new complaint process in bid to increase trust in ICBC

>VANCOUVER — British Columbia’s attorney general says the province will “supercharge” an office that deals with complaints against the Insurance Corp. of B.C. in an effort to increase public trust in the Crown auto insurer. David Eby made the announcement as one of several moves that he says will increase transparency and accountability at ICBC.…

Canada captain Christine Sinclair breaks world scoring record with goal No. 185

EDINBURG, Texas — Canada captain Christine Sinclair broke Abby Wambach’s world-record total of 184 goals on Wednesday, scoring for the second time against St. Kitts and Nevis at the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship. Sinclair’s 185th goal of her career came in the 23rd minute.…

Watch trail runner finish 14-km mountain trek in 2 hours and 22 minutes (VIDEO)

Vancouver videographer Brice Ferre captures Jeanelle Hazlett’s Fastest Known Time on North Shore’s Mount Brunswick

[image-1) Brice Ferre is a Vancouver-based trail runner, adventure photographer and, most importantly, skilled multitasker.…

Air Canada suspends direct flights from YVR, Canadian airports to China

Air Canada will be suspending all direct flights from Vancouver International Airport, as well as Toronto and Montreal, to Beijing and Shanghai for one month. The last of the direct flights will depart Canadian airports Wednesday, with the returning flights leaving Beijing and Shanghai Thursday, Jan. 30, according to the airline’s announcement Wednesday.…

Fairmont Chateau Whistler paying back $85K in tips owed to banquet staff

Hotel withheld 20% of tips to subsidize management’s wages, says UFCW Local 1518

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler has agreed to pay back $85,000 in tips owed to banquet staff following complaints filed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1518, according to a union release. Banquet staff reportedly contacted the UFCW in 2018 after hotel management introduced a new tipping structure in which guest gratuities were withheld and used to subsidize management’s wages, a contravention of the B.C. Employment Standards Act.…

Impaired driver has jeep impounded after swerving into oncoming traffic in Whistler

The Tofino woman was also issued a 90-day driving ban

A Tofino woman’s M/span>Jeep was impounded last week after she was reported swerving into oncoming traffic and failed a roadside sobriety test, police said in a release. At approximately 12:45 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 20, Whistler RCMP received a report of a black Jeep travelling southbound on Highway 99 at Village Gate that was spotted veering into oncoming traffic, almost causing several collisions, police said.…

Whistler’s Sharpes shine at X Games

Snowboarder Darcy takes slopestyle win; skier Cassie third in pipe

The Sharpe family lived up to its name at the Winter X Games, held in Aspen, Colo. from Jan. 22 to 26. For starters, snowboarder Darcy Sharpe took home a pair of medals in his events, winning the Jeep Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle contest for his first-ever X Games gold while taking second in the Jeep Rail Jam.…

Tim Hortons pulls Beyond Meat breakfast sandwiches from B.C., Ont. menus

Tim Hortons has pulled Beyond Meat products off the menus in the last provinces where it still sold the trendy plant-based protein, less than a year after a national roll out. The coffee-and-doughnut chain will no longer sell Beyond Meat breakfast sandwiches in Ontario and B.C., said Sarah McConnell, a spokeswoman for parent company Restaurant Brands International.…

Richmond, Metro Vancouver taxi companies suing Uber, Lyft

Richmond Cabs, operating as Richmond Taxi, is one of nine Metro Vancouver companies trying to quash Uber and Lyft’s licence to operate in B.C. Two legal challenges, filed Monday at BC Supreme Court, state the taxi companies are seeking an injunction to stop Uber and Lyft from operating, while a petition asking the court to rescind the companies’ licences is reviewed.…

Squamish cyclist hopes to go the distance

Quest student Anna Talman to ride three endurance races in 2020

Once the snow melts, you may see Anna Talman and her bike on the Sea to Sky Trail or the Mamquam Forest Service Road — as long as you don’t blink. Until then, she’ll be logging her kilometres on the training bike set up in her dorm room at Quest University, as the 23-year-old looks forward to three endurance cycling races this season.…

Jumbo failure highlights ski resort developers’ uphill fight

Development groups in Valemount and near Squamish tout projects’ economic benefits

Glacier Resorts Ltd.’s decision to end 30 years of working to create a year-round ski resort in B.C.’s Kootenays region offers a cautionary tale for aspiring resort developers in Valemount and near Squamish. Glacier has agreed to an undisclosed payout to sell its ownership and development rights in its Jumbo Glacier Resort project, while clearing the way for resort opponent Ktunaxa Nation to use up to $16 million in federal funds, and about $5 million in other money, to create a protected Indigenous conservation area.…

A familiar face at the helm of new LNG project

Byng Giraud, formerly of Squamish’s Woodfibre LNG, president of new company working to build an export facility near Prince Rupert

Byng Giraud, formerly with Woodfibre LNG, is in the news again as president of a proposed liquefied natural gas project by AlaskaCAN LNG. The new company has proposed constructing a $12-billion liquefied natural gas export terminal in Alaskan waters near Prince Rupert.…

B.C., Canada likely to see economic impact as coronavirus outbreak accelerates in China

The coronavirus outbreak that has killed 81 people in China — mostly in the central city of Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province — is likely already having an effect on Canada and B.C.’s economy, economists say. The outbreak, which Chinese officials said appears to be accelerating this week after first hitting global headlines in mid-January, has already rendered almost 3,000 people ill and resulted in confirmed or suspected cases here in Canada as well as in places such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Southeast Asia.…