Bulkley Valley-Stikine ticket holder has share of 50 million dollar jackpot

Somewhere, perhaps along the Highway 16 corridor is someone with a multi-million dollar smile and a multi-million dollar secret!

Friday Night's Lotto Max Jackpot has been split between a ticket purchaser  in the Northwest and a ticket holder in either Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba.

The 25 million dollar winfall was the main prize of the weekly Lotto Max draw, a drawing for which ticket sales had mushroomed as the jackpot grew larger and larger over the last few weeks.

It marks the second time in the last year that a major Lotto Max prize will have been claimed by someone in the Bulkley Valley-Stikine region, with an Atlin resident winning the lottery back in February.

In addition to the giant jackpot there are a number of subsidiary prizes to be claimed, one of which will bring a 1 million dollar winfall to a Kitimat resident.

Should you have held a ticket on Friday's draw and of course, providing you aren't the big jackpot winner already making your travel plans, the remainder of the numbers can be found here.

Vancouver Province-- Bulkley Valley-Stikine ticket shares $50 million Lotto Max Jackpot
Terrace Standard-- Kitimat residents strike it rich with lottery

More rumbling on Haida Gwaii

After a day or so of relative calm on Haida Gwaii, the earth returned to an occasional rumble or two through the early hours of Friday.

Almost one week after the major 7.7 magnitude earthquake of Saturday night, the Islands felt three tremors of the 4.0 range through Friday

Earthquake reports were made of a 4.0,  4.2 and 4.5 temblors through the early morning period, all of the rumblings came from the same general area that has been affected by aftershocks over the last six days.

The USGS website updates seismic occurrences on 24/7 basis, the latest events can be found here.

Mother Nature turns off the hot water tank!

We will most likely have to wait for the eventual documentaries on Discovery Channel or the National Geographic Channel for the full explanation as to how and why of it all, but for now a mystery is unfolding in the aftermath of the 7.7 earthquake of last Saturday on Haida Gwaii.

As Islanders continue to suffer the occasional jolt of an aftershock, they now are trying to figure out why a popular spot on the Islands has gone cold and dry.

Hot Spring Island, a popular destination for locals and visitors alike isn't featuring a very hot spring these days, with water no longer flowing into the springs and the rocks around the pools cool to the touch.

Some of the reviews of the unexpected after affect of the week of temblors can be found below.


QCI Observer-- Bigger quake did not dry hot springs
CBC Daybreak North-- Can Haida Gwaii's hot spring return? (audio)
CBC Daybreak North-- Earthquake dries up Haida Gwaii's Hot Spring Island (audio)
CBC Daybreak North-- Seismologist answers questions about Haida Gwaii aftershocks (audio)
The Northern View-- Pools at Gwaii Haanas' Hot Spring Island dry up following earthquake
National Post-- "It's just dried up": B. C. earthquake pulls plug on centuries old Haida Gwaii hot springs
Vancouver Sun-- Earthquake empties famed Haida Gwaii hot springs

Labour Relations Board issues Decision on Maintenance issues at PRRH

With a lengthy schedule of hearings complete and the Vice Chair having contemplated all of the presentations provided since January, the Labour Board of British Columbia has issued its decision on a long running labour dispute at the Prince Rupert Regional Hospital.

The decision, No. B233/2012 has found in favour of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local No. 882 in their filing against the Northern Healthy Authority and Prince Rupert Regional Hospital.

The Nature of the Union's application to the Labour Board was that the Employer was motivated by anti-Union animus when it decided to decommission the high pressure steam boiler at Prince Rupert Regional Hospital and replace it with an electric system

In making the decision, the Labour Relations Board concluded that The Union's complaints under Sections 6 (1), 6 (3) (a), 6 (3)(d) and 54 of the Code succeed.

Further advising that the Board will be in touch regarding a process for the appropriate remedies.

The hearings into the dispute took place from January 16-20, June 1st and 6th, August 1st and September 5, 12, and 20th.

Issued on October 31st, the LRB Panel's Vice-Chair Ritu Mahil provided a nineteen page report/decision covering the scope of the dispute in the maintenance department from the start of the process, to the decision released at the end of October.

It offers up some fascinating background into the dispute in question and the process involved in reviewing it. Providing a glimpse into the various negotiations and behind the scenes back and forth that most of us have no knowledge of in these heated labour relations matters.

The Analysis and Decision section (pages 13-19) of the report offers up a helpful review of the sections of the Labour Code that were in dispute, with the report issuing some strongly worded admonitions to the Employer over the handling of the issue at hand.

With 30 plus grievances in play in this one department before and during the scope of the issue under review, the impression of a less than harmonious relationship between union and management during the time of the issue seems to jump out at us from the reading of the report.

It will be with interest to hear further details of the review and what those appropriate remedies may be to bring to an end the nature of the dispute, one that seems to have occupied a lot of time for Northern Health management over the last year.

You can review the entire document from the Labour Relations Board website.

We also have an archive of other Labour related items of note in our North Coast Review Backgrounders section

Update:  Local media items on the ruling

The Northern View offered up this review of events, posted to their website on November 5, 2012.

There's Gold on them thar Islands!!

Mining activity in the Northwest continues to increase, as mineral companies travel around the region seeking out deposits of a variety of types.

One such project is set for development on an Island south of Prince Rupert. As Banks Island Gold of Vancouver makes plans to develop a work camp to tap a potential gold deposit found on Banks Island, approximately 120 kilometres south of Prince Rupert.

Banks Island Gold has purchased two floating camp accommodation barges for the project which will serve crews working at the Yellow Giant gold project on Banks Island.

The company has also purchased a partly refurbished media separation plant which will be moved to Banks island after its refurbishment in Ontario.

The Banks Island project is the second operation in the area, the company also operates a project near Stewart called the Red Mountain Gold Property.

Canadian Mining Journal-- Camp secured for Yellow Giant project on Banks Island

US Coast Guard places new vessel at Ketchikan base

There's a new vessel set to patrol the Alaskan side of the North Pacifc, as the crew of the USCGS Chandeleur take up their posts at the Ketchikan Coast Guard base.

The Chandeleur will offer up a rather dramatic change of postings for the crew, having previously been based in Miami, Florida the vessel arrived in its new homeport in early October, after a transit through the Panama Canal.

The 110 foot cutter with its crew of eighteen, part of the U. S. Coast Guards Island Class Cutter fleet, will join the USCGS Rhode Island at the Ketchikan base.

The vessel makes its appearance along the Alaska panhandle, having just completed a nine month modernization retro fit at the Baltimore Coast Guard yard,  which provided the 110 foot vessel with the latest in advanced electrical and navigational systems.

The main focus for the tasking of the Chandeleur while in Alaska will be search and rescue operations and enforcement of fishing regulations and other assigned duties.

The stay of the Chandeleur may be short lived in Ketchikan however, there are plans reportedly in the works to upgrade the vessel allocation of the Ketchikan base to two 145 foot cutters for 2015.

North coast residents may get a glimpse of the current vessels, should the US Coast Guard send one of them south on their occasional good will tours of Prince Rupert.

Ketchikan's public radio station KRBD had this report on the arrival of the vessel to the Ketchkian base.

Introducing the New Publisher

The local weekly newspaper has a new publisher in the office, the introductions being made to the readership on Thursday, through the Northern View's website.

In an item posted to the online portal for the paper, Black Press introduced Todd Hamilton, who most recently worked in Manitoba and returns to the company and the Northwest for that matter, having been publisher and editor of the Smithers based Interior News three years ago.

He took over his Prince Rupert duties earlier in October, and has provided a bit of a preview as to  where he believes the Northern View will be positioned in the community going forward, from the introductory piece we learn that The Prince Rupert Northern view will "not only be a mirror of this community, but also to serve as its loudspeaker"

And if some casual reading of the recent efforts of the Northern View are any indication, it seems that both editorial and news stories have reinforced that positioning point.

In two separate  items regarding the recent Haida Gwaii earthquake, the Northern View has tended to reinforce its thoughts on the publication's importance to the community.

Both in editorial form:

What would have happened?

"We here at the Prince Rupert Northern View are happy to be the place people can go for the latest news and information, and thousands of people turned to our site during the earthquake for information and updates."

And in the body of the story covering the earthquakes aftermath

Lack of warning worries Prince Rupert

The Northern View was among the first online to alert Prince Rupert to not only the confirmation of the earthquake but also the tsunami warning. Nearly 10,000 unique visitors logged into www.thenorthernview.com for its coverage and alerts.

One imagines that the focus of the news delivery will continue to be more on their online presence, which serves the public well for quicker responses to breaking news and items of concern.

The more traditional newspaper option trending towards being more of a historic document for folks that like to clip out pictures and items about their friends and family.

Since the demise of the Daily News a few years ago, there have been gaps in the coverage and background of important stories in the community, with local residents having to seek a variety of options for their information requirements.

There is however, still a fair amount of competition for the Northern View in their quest to be the "Go To" news service in the community

With radio both public and private, television and the wide range of social media options available as well, the cause of serving the community will surely be spread out among all the media and non media possibilities in the region.

The key to the Northern View's success will be its ability to keep the focus on the local aspect of the community, while many of its competitors are more regionally based and reflective of that larger landscape.

One final interesting note from the introduction was perhaps the reassurance to the staff and readership of the paper, that "all current Prince Rupert Northern View staff are being retained."

Leaving us to wonder to the status of Alan Hale, the now apparently former journalist with the Northern View, who seemingly offered up his last contribution to the paper on September 22nd.

Like many journalists and broadcasters in the community before him, (CFTK's former news journalist Grace Sullivan likewise vanished from the local TV news gathering business over the summer) Hale seems to have wandered into the news fog with nary a farewell column, nor indication as to what future endeavours he may be set to pursue.

Just another case of the here today, gone tomorrow cycle, that seems to mark much of the Northwest media scene