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OPINION: B.C. ride-hailing’s relaunch is dead end for passengers and drivers alike

I suppose the next-best thing for governments to do when they can’t please everyone is to ensure they don’t please anyone. Case in point is the regime emerging in British Columbia to launch – actually relaunch, because we forget the province smacked down the first effort – the ride-hailing business.…

School districts grapples with high rates of vaping

Whistler Secondary School removes student-bathroom doors as part of strategy to deal with issue

With youth vaping on the rise, the local school district and health authority is seeking to get an important message out to teens: Don’t vape. “It might be less harmful than combustible cigarettes but it doesn’t mean it’s harmless,” said Dr. Geoff McKee, a medical health officer with Vancouver Coastal Health.…

Man dies after crash at Horseshoe Bay tollbooths

The driver of a pickup truck has died following a crash at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal on Aug. 20. West Vancouver Police media liaison, Const.…

Squamish’s Sea to Sky Gondola asks public to stay away from closed trails

Gondola says climbers accessing area, safety risks present

After headlamps were spotted directly beneath the Sea to Sky Gondola’s lift line late Aug. 20, the gondola is reminding the public the access trails and climbing areas are closed due to ‘perilous’ safety concerns. “It’s extremely unsafe,” said Christy Allan of the Sea to Sky Gondola.…

Sherlock captures first-ever World Cup win

Squamish racer tops junior men’s field in Lenzerheide

Squamish’s Seth Sherlock showed no fear en route to earning his first-ever Mercedes-Benz UCI World Cup downhill in Switzerland earlier this month. Competing in the junior men’s division in Lenzerheide on Aug. 9, Sherlock bested Switzerland’s Janosch Klaus by 0.46 seconds and New Zealand’s Tuhoto-Ariki Pene by 1.25 seconds.…

Trans Mountain announces ‘immediate return to work’ in Burnaby

An “immediate return to work” has been issued by Trans Mountain for two Burnaby sites for the pipeline expansion project. That’s according to a news release sent today (Wednesday), in which the company says “notice to proceed” directives have been given to some of its prime construction contractors, “triggering mobilization of the initial workforce necessary to build the Trans Mountain Expansion Project.”…

Buffy Sainte-Marie reflects on dynamic music career

Musician and activist set to perform in Whistler for the first time on Saturday, Aug. 24

To say Buffy Sainte-Marie has had a remarkable career would be an understatement. Now well into her 70s, the legendary musician and activist has won myriad industry awards-as well as receiving a mindboggling number of honourary degrees; spent five years working on Sesame Street; was blacklisted by American radio, as well as both the Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon administrations for her anti-Vietnam and pro-Indigenous rights efforts; and she even toted around a then-unknown Joni Mitchell’s demo tape in the ’60s, trying to get industry reps to listen to her.…

Potential customer for Squamish’s Woodfibre LNG walks away

Woodfibre says agreement with Guangzhou Gas was only preliminary; activists say it’s a big setback

The dissolution of an agreement between Woodfibre LNG and a potential client has local activists crowing that the controversial project has taken a serious blow. However, a Woodfibre representative is calling those characterizations “wildly misleading.”…

Poll finds support for system to boost number of organ donations

The life expectancy of Canadians continues to climb, particularly when compared with what is transpiring in the United States. A Canadian born in 2009 can expect to live more than 81 years, approximately three years more than his or her American neighbour.…

Weaver ‘enthusiastic’ about Whistler’s Green candidate Dana Taylor

With Liberal MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones’s decision not to run for re-election this fall, the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding won’t have an incumbent, which could “open the door” for the Greens, according to BC Green Party leader Andrew Weaver. “We just have to look in Nanaimo at what happened there with Paul Manly, when Sheila Malcolmson, who was a strong candidate, ran provincially.…

Climber falls in Squamish

Air ambulance rushed to the scene

A climber has fallen at the Smoke Bluffs, a popular climbing area in Squamish. Squamish Search and Rescue president BJ Chute said an air ambulance rushed to the scene.…

Trudeau says falling news revenues and tech giants will be discussed at G7 summit

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the issue of declining news revenues amid domination by tech giants will be discussed at the G7 leaders’ summit in France later this week. The subject resurfaced when Groupe Capitales Medias, a cash-strapped French-language newspaper chain, filed for creditor protection Monday.…

Surrey teacher caught with 45 grams of pot suspended

Substitute instructor claimed pot was for medicinal use

A Surrey teacher who claimed 45 grams of marijuana in his car – along with a scale and baggies – was for medicinal purposes has been suspended for a month. An Aug. 2 B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation decision released Aug. 20 said Eugenio Alfonso Bahamonde was an on-call teacher in November 2012.…

Ride-hailing services to face price restrictions in B.C. but no caps on fleet size

What happened: Passenger Transportation Board has clarified rules for ride-hailing, ranging from pricing to boundaries Why it matters: While a number of operators have announced placed to work in B.C. market, Uber has so far not made such a commitment…

Valley Trail not the place for e-bikes

LETTER: For the week of Aug. 15

I’m writing to support Joel Barde’s [opinion column] “The Valley Trail is for everybody—but not e-bikes,” written a few weeks back (Pique, July, 11). I felt he gave a very balanced opinion.…