30 YEARS AGO (1990): 100 Mile House’s downtown was set to undergo a mini-construction boom in the months ahead. A new mini-mall and jewelry store were in the works for Birch Avenue, according to John Moorlag of Canmar Engineering. Swiss Ski resort owner Thedy Brandli, a jeweller by trade and landed immigrant to Canada since the fall, purchased the property between Shields and Cariboo Travel for an undisclosed sum. He was looking to open a jewelry store withing the next two months, said Moorlag.
23 YEARS AGO (1997): BCGEU highways maintenance workers ended their work-to-rule campaign an ban on overtime, following a tentative settlement with Argo Road maintenance. “We had two days of intense mediation with Argo,” said Gary Wrek, BCGEU negotiator. “We were finally able to reach agreement at midnight Friday.” The settlement followed the established pattern of 4.5 per cent in wages and benefits over three years, and included auxiliary members in the pension plan, according to Wrek.
19 YEARS AGO (2001): Southern Interior RCMP members from three detachments teamed up for a week to crack down on various driving offences. Ashcroft, 100 Mile and Williams Lake Highway patrols, with help from Agriculture Canada and ICBC Motor vehicles inspectors stopped 3,073 vehicles. “This is the second one this year,” said Highway Patrol Const. Brenda Leslie. They inspected 293 private and commercial vehicles throughout the area and found 153 offences, ranging from seat belt violations to mechanical problems.
14 YEARS AGO (2006): Education Minister Shirley Bond announced that the average per pupil operating grant would rise for the sixth year in a row the following year as funding for B.C. public schools continued to increase while enrollment declined. “We are increasing funding for school districts next year by $20 million while at the same time districts forecast they will have 7,000 fewer students,” said Bond. “As a result, the average per pupil grant will increase by $114 to an estimated $7,207 – the highest ever.”
9 YEARS AGO (2011): Canadians would return to the polls, following Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s meeting with Gov. Gen. David Johnston to ask him to dissolve Parliament. The Harper government was defeated by a no-confidence motion. The motion also declared the government in contempt of Parliament. It was the first time in Canada’s and the British Commonwealth’s histories that a government had been toppled by a contempt-of-Parliament non-confidence vote.
