CUPE's Kim Manton with members of the Greater Victoria Water Watch CoalitionVICTORIA—Elected councillors have voted to leave the door open for fully public sewage treatment and resource recovery in the Capital Regional District (CRD).

On March 24 the Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee (CALWMC) voted on a business case to present to the B.C.

Tappie winners left to right: Derek Corrigan, Lori Watt and Bob Ages

VANCOUVER—World Water Day celebrations kicked off a day early Sunday with a tap water toast, local roots band Headwater and MC Charlie Demers presenting the first annual Tappie and Crappy awards.

View video.

CUPE BC president Barry O’Neill set the stage for the awards at Grandview Park in East Vancouver – reflecting on the successful campaign to keep the Se

BURNABY—This Sunday (March 21) is the United Nations Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, an occasion for people around the world to focus their attention on racism and to help promote racial harmony.

This year’s Anti-Racism Day marks the 50th anniversary of the date it was chosen to commemorate: the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa, when police opened fire on hundreds of South Africans protesting against Apartheid's passbook laws, killing 67 and wounding 186.

“CUPE BC encourages its members to commemorate this day with their families, friends, and co-w

VICTORIA - A new report by B.C.’s most respected forensic accountant, Ron Parks, finds in favour of public operation of sewage treatment in the Capital Regional District (CRD).

Parks’ review of the business case in support of provincial funding for sewage treatment finds that the assumed cost of public operation is inflated in a number of ways, including double-counting risk, unjustified assumption of higher public costs, and using a discount rate that is too high.

The business case uses an assumed discount rate of 7.5 per cent, while Parks suggests a more appropriate rate w

Sunday, March 21, 2-4pm

Grandview Park, Commercial at Charles

Vancouver

VANCOUVER —Join the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Council of Canadians in a Toast to Public Water leading up to World Water Day on March 22. This free, outdoor all-ages event will take place in East Vancouver’s Grandview Park at Commercial and Charles. On tap will be live music by local folk/roots favourites Headwater.

VICTORIA—At meetings on February 25 and March 10, the house was full as Capital Regional District residents shared their views on sewage treatment procurement. Members of the Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee heard passionate and reasoned arguments about why privatization is wrong for Greater Victoria’s new sewage treatment from a broad cross section of people in the region.

Victoria’s independent TV was there to record.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES— After meeting with staff, the PSI activist (third from left) posed with CUPE National staff rep Bill Pegler, CUPE BC president Barry O’Neill, CUPE BC regional vice president (and International Solidarity committee chair) Doug Sprenger, Community Organizer Susan Zander, CUPE BC executive assistant Sharon Prescott, and International Solidarity committee staff advisor Paul Tetrault.

BURNABY—Indah Budiarti, the organizing and communications coordinator for the Southeast Asian region for Pu

VANCOUVER – Service providers and women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside marked International Women’s Day on Monday this week at a lunch sponsored by CUPE Metro Vancouver District Council.

VICTORIA-The house was full at the second public meeting for citizens in the Capital Regional District to share their views on sewage treatment procurement.

VICTORIA – Health Services Minister Kevin Falcon was quick to reject union efforts to secure a contract for the province’s 3,500 ambulance paramedics. Falcon did admit that the ambulance service is broken and needs fixing, which the union has been saying for the past four years.

In a bid for a new contract after more than a year of on-again off-again talks, the Ambulance Paramedics of BC leadership had suggested rolling over the current collective agreement until April 1, 2012.