Frankly Speaking

Construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project will continue, but under federal ownership. The federal government is taking over Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline and obligation to twin the pipeline, for $4.5 billion. The federal government announced today (early this morning, in fact) that it will spend $4.5 billion to buy the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, and continue construction of the twinned pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby. This wasn't too surprising, given Kinder Morgan's deadline of May 31 for a final decision on whether to proceed with the project, given the protests, court challenges and intractable opposition of the B.C. government. Black Press has done an excellent series on this project, giving extensive background to explain its many ramifications. The intent is to help readers get a more detailed understanding of the controversial Kinder Morgan pipeline twinning project. The project has prompted plenty of p...

The Prince George Free Press closed in April, 2015, but there is a future for most community newspapers, which have a much better chance of survival than do small dailies. My former Black Press colleague Bill Phillips writes a perceptive and interesting blog from his home base of Prince George. Bill was editor of the Williams Lake Tribune (David Black's first newspaper) for many years and editorial director of what was once known as the Cariboo Press division of Black Press. He transferred to the Prince George Free Press in 2006 and edited that newspaper, which was sold to Bob Doull's Aberdeen Press about six years ago, until its closure in April, 2015. He wrote a great column about its closure, which can be found here . A native of Fernie (one of my favourite places in B.C.), he has been in the community newspaper business for 30 years. He started at the Fernie Free Press, which his father Lloyd once edited. In the light of all the negative journalism news over the past...