Salmon Arm  

Concert tickets for blues guitarist Colin Linden to go on sale next week

Blues legend comes to town

Photo: Salmon Arm Folk Music Society

Legendary slide guitarist Colin Linden will be returning to perform in Salmon Arm after wildfires cancelled his performance at the 2023 Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival.

Over the course of his 45-year career Linden has played alongside roots and blues greats like Greg Allman, Bob Dylan, Bruce Cockburn, Rihannon Giddens, John Prine, Pistol Annies and more.

Linden's musical journey began when his mother took him to meet his favourite musician Howlin’ Wolf when Linden was only 11 years old.

He spent almost two hours with the legendary bluesman. Linden said he still remembers what Howlin’ Wolf told him: “I’m an old man now and I won’t be around much longer, it’s up to you to carry it on.”

Decades later, Linden said he's still carrying on the blues tradition, with roots and blues music more important than ever.

“Much of the healing and release you get from listening to this music, the power and form of expression, has shown itself to be so vital in these times,” he said. “It feels timeless because it’s such a raw nerve.”

The Salmon Arm Folk Music Society (SAFMS) presents Colin Linden live at the Song Sparrow Hall on Saturday, May 24.

The doors will open at 7 p.m., and the show begins at 8. Tickets are $34.50 for youth, seniors and members of the SAFMS, and the regular price is $39.50 for adults.

Tickets will go on sale on the Salmon Arm Folk Music Society website on Monday Jan. 20, at 9 a.m.

Sicamous planning committee sends new floodplain exemption policy back to the drawing board

Floodplain bylaw sent back

Photo: Luc Rempel

The Sicamous Planning and Development Committee raised a number of concerns with the new floodplain exemption policy proposed at its latest meeting.

“it's not us, it's the province, the feds, but we're adding layers and layers and layers and layers of different things that people have to do to build,” said Coun. Ian Baillie. “And then we sit here as council and say, 'Oh my god, we have a housing crisis.'”

At the Jan. 15 District of Sicamous Planning and Development Committee meeting, Nicole Hansen, development services manager, presented a draft floodplain exemption policy.

She said any property near Mara Lake or Shuswap Lake with less than 351 metres of elevation is designated as a floodplain in Sicamous.

Hansen said there are several exemptions laid out in the zoning bylaw that allow for development on a floodplain.

“It's just come to our attention that we don't have a policy in place for floodplain exemptions that don't fall under those bullet points in the zoning bylaw,” Hansen said. “We've been working with a few homeowners around Sicamous to grant floodplain exemptions where necessary.

“And in lieu of having our own formal policy, we've just roughly followed other local government processes to allow exemptions.”

Hansen said under the current draft of a new floodplain exemption policy, if someone doesn't meet the floodplain regulations or one of the exemptions, they can opt to have a professional engineer produce a report saying the land is safe for the intended use.

“If this can be achieved, a 219 covenant under the land title act should be placed on title for the property and impose any kind of terms and conditions that were recommended by the engineer," she said.

Hansen told the committee that a new flood hazard mapping program being done by the provincial and federal governments is expected to result in more parts of Sicamous being designated as a floodplain.

“We might see an increase in floodplain exemption requests resulting from the updated mapping,” she said.

Policy too much of a 'leap'?

Several committee members raised concerns about the new draft policy.

“I think it probably starts with what we're designating as floodplain to begin with,” Baillie said. “I know the provincial government, federal government, are looking at redoing these things but if you take a look at last year, it was an incredibly low water year.”

He said in B.C., there's been several concerns of drought, "not excess water."

“What my big concern here is, is that we're taking a big leap and saying, 'Okay, we need to put these regulations in place in anticipation that we're going to have a lot of future exemption requests.'”

Committee member Deb Heap spoke up to clarify that the new policy would actually make it easier for residents to get floodplain exemptions.

“The updated provincial hazard mapping …will probably make us more like about 70 per cent of Sicamous as floodplain,” she said.

“I'm assuming that this floodplain exemption procedure is designed to allow staff to facilitate having to deal with these hazard requirements as allowing them to almost rubber stamp them if they get certain conditions met.

“The mapping is an issue for sure, but I'm assuming the exemption policy is to make things easier for people to build.”

Possible liability concerns

Most committee members agreed they were concerned about the potential of floodplain mapping growing to include more of Sicamous.

"I really think that our whole OCP and our zoning bylaw really needs a review before we recommend the floodplain bylaw,” said Coun. Gord Bushell.

“I like the exemption idea, but I don't like what comes with it, and what could come down the road later on.”

Hansen said she appreciated the committee's feedback, and suggested looking into expanding some exemptions that already exist in the district's zoning bylaw. She noted while the municipality is not required to use the new mapping once it is completed, there are liability concerns.

“Whether we like it or not, it probably does come down to liability for the district,” she said. “So how comfortable are we allowing construction in a flood plain? And then what does that look like if an event happens? How liable is the district?”

The committee voted to defer a motion to recommend the floodplain exemption policy to council in order to give staff time to look into more ways to improve the policy.

Salmon Arm RCMP name new detachment commander

New top cop named

Photo: Salmon Arm RCMP

Staff Sgt. Simon Scott has been announced the new head of the Salmon Arm RCMP detachment.

Following the retirement of former detachment commander Staff Sgt. Scott West in August, Staff Sgt. Simon Scott has been serving as the acting commander for the Salmon Arm RCMP detachment.

With more than 20 years of RCMP experience that's taken him to detachments across the province, Scott transferred to Salmon Arm in May of 2022.

He said when he moved to Salmon Arm with his wife and two children he quickly fell in love with the beautiful scenery and friendly community.

“Salmon Arm is a hidden gem,” he said. “Beautiful and close-knit enough that we can have a real impact on the well being of the community.”

When operating at full staff, the Salmon Arm RCMP detachment boasts 26 officers and eight administrative staff working together to provide 24-hour policing services. They also have a dedicated general investigation section, with four members focusing solely on serious crime investigations.

“Our team comes from diverse backgrounds across Canada, and we’re committed to tackling the unique issues we see here — from property crimes to enhancing community outreach,” Scott said.

“We recognize the trust the residents of Salmon Arm place in us, and we’ll work every day to uphold that responsibility.”

Young motorist busted driving high in Sicamous receives 24-hour prohibition

Cops catch stoned driver

Photo: KTW file photo

A 21-year-old who was caught driving stoned on the Trans-Canada Highway was issued a 24 hour driving prohibition says Sicamous RCMP.

On Jan. 12 at around 9 p.m. an officer on patrol attempted to stop the driver of a pickup truck travelling on the Trans Canada Highway due to a rear taillight being out.

“The driver of the truck took an unusually long distance to come to a stop, finally doing so in the Tim Hortons parking lot,” said Sgt. Murray McNeil of the Sicamous RCMP.

The officer reported a strong odour of burnt cannabis coming from the interior of the truck and said the driver showed visible signs of impairment.

Police issued a 24-hour driving suspension.

Councillors say differential pricing needs to be introduced at Salmon Arm recreational facilities

City visitors might pay more

Photo: Luc Rempel

Discussions about the annual Salmon Arm recreation facility rate increase led to city councillors calling for a move to differential pricing for out-of-town facility users — a change council hopes to see sooner rather than later.

At its Dec. 13 meeting, city council was presented with a report from Darin Gerow, general manager of the Shuswap Recreation Society.

In his report, Gerow told council the society had decided on a 3 per cent increase in user rates starting on Feb. 1.

“I should note that the drop-in rates are commonly paid in cash,” Gerow said.

“In an effort to keep payments simple, these fees have been rounded to the nearest quarter, 25 cents, and as a result the actual change may vary slightly from 3 per cent."

The 2025 rates would see an adult pay $6.75 to use the pool. Seniors would pay $5.50, and a family rate of $14.50 would also be available.

These changes will also impact the cost of 10 and 30 punch passes, which are based on the single-use price with a 10 per cent discount.

Gerow added that programming fees would be unaffected by the 2025 rate increase as those fees are strictly based on cost recovery.

'Concern around free users'

Councillors in attendance were supportive of the proposed rate increase, but many of them had questions about the potential of moving forward on differential pricing for out-of-town visitors.

“My concern and the message I want to send is that we still have a significant concern around free users — people who don't pay taxes in Salmon Arm but pay the same rates to use the facilities as our taxpayers do, and those are the people in the regional district,” said Coun. Kevin Flynn.

Flynn said he wanted to ensure if council members voted to support the 2025 rate increase, they would still be able to enact differential pricing following receipt of staff’s report on the matter.

Erin Jackson, chief administrative officer, said council has the authority to move forward with differential pricing at any time regardless of any other changes to recreation rates.

“In addition to the report that comes back on where the users are from, we obviously need to understand if it's a difficult thing to charge different rates to different areas, besides staff getting questioned,” Flynn added.

Coun. Debbie Cannon said the City of Vernon was in a similar position when it was getting ready to build a new recreation facility, and asked the regional district to contribute funds.

“They kept on asking the regional district, 'You guys need to give us money for this project, or we're going to do differential pricing for the pool,' deadline after deadline, and then the deadline wasn't met, wasn't discussed, and they put in this differential pricing,” Cannon said.

She said she spoke with someone who recently went to the Vernon pool who said the difference in pricing is a 100 per cent increase for out-of-town users.

“The one kind of bad thing is that when you put in differential pricing, it includes when you have the grandparents coming to visit from Vancouver and they want to go use the pool,” Cannon said.

“But I think when we look at how much the capital infrastructure is going to cost for a new pool, I think that we need to start having differential pricing now so that we have that money to collect and set aside for our pool.”

“I know that this is not a decision for the Shuswap Recreation Society, and it's a decision that needs to be made at this table, but it's something that I really want us to move ahead on,” she added.

Mayor Alan Harrison said the regional district's Area C contributes $60,000 annually to help fund Rogers Rink.

“So this is the kind of thing councillors are talking about in order to eliminate differential pricing from an area," he said. "A donation like that.”

Discussions about surrounding Columbia Shuswap Regional District areas contributing to Salmon Arm's recreation costs have not yet seen much progress at CSRD board meetings.

Staff informed councillors that the report on the number of out-of-town users of Salmon Arm recreation facilities will be brought to council in March after having spent one year collecting postal codes from facility users.

Salmon Arm prepares for hockey fever as BCHL All Star Weekend starts this Friday

BCHL All Star Weekend

Photo: City of Salmon Arm

Salmon Arm is getting ready for BCHL hockey fever to sweep the city as the All Star Weekend kicks off on Friday night.

Rogers Rink will host the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League (VIJHL) top prospect game at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, followed by the BCHL top prospects game at 7:30 p.m.

On Saturday, the BCHL outdoor community festival will be held at the Ross Street Plaza from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. There will be food trucks, ball hockey, yard games, warming stations and beer gardens.

The City of Salmon Arm is advising residents the Ross Street parking lot will be closed for the event.

At Rogers Rink on Saturday, the VIJHL All Star Game starts at 2:30 p.m., followed by a skills competition at 5:30. Alumni and friends game will be held at 6:30 p.m., and the BCHL 3-on-3 All Star Tournament begins at 7:30.

“We are incredibly honoured and excited to bring the All-Star Weekend to Salmon Arm,” said Alexandra Miege, Operations Manager for the Silverbacks.

"We can’t wait to showcase our town and we look forward to welcoming players, fans and visitors for an unforgettable weekend.”

Day passes are $10 for adults and kids 12 and under get in free. Tickets for kids 13 to 17 are $5, or if they are wearing a hockey jersey, they can get in for free.

Tickets are available on the Salmon Arm Silverbacks website.

Semi truck driver ticketed for going wrong way through Sicamous bridge construction zone

Trucker driving wrong way

Photo: Castanet File Photo

Sicamous Mounties say they ticketed a trucker for dangerous driving after he drove the wrong way through the construction zone at the R.W. Bruhn Bridge.

According to police, officers were called at about midnight on Friday by the traffic control crew on the project.

“A westbound semi truck and trailer disregarded the traffic control device restricting the highway to single lane alternating use,” Sicamous RCMP Sgt. Murray McNeil said in a news release.

“The westbound truck began to drive into the eastbound lane, nearly causing a collision with eastbound traffic.”

Sicamous RCMP stopped the truck and gave the driver a $368 ticket for driving without due care and attention.

Salmon Arm council agreed to review bylaw, reimburse residents after trail users ticketed

Snow zone tickets revisited

Photo: Luc Rempel

Salmon Arm council promised to reimburse residents who were ticketed for parking in a snow clearing zone near Foreshore Trail after receiving a letter from a local woman about the matter.

At its Jan. 13 meeting, council received a letter from resident Anne Kirkpatrick who requested changes to the snow and ice removal bylaw. Kirkpatrick explained she had received a ticket for parking in a snow removal zone, even though there wasn't any snow on the ground at the time.

Coun. Sylvia Lindgren said it might be time for a review of the bylaw.

“Ordinarily, this time of year, that makes complete sense there. The snow would either be piled up there, or would be needing to be removed. …But I suspect that we are going to have more winters like this in the future,” Lindgren said.

“It might be time to look at adjusting our expectations for snow clearing when there's clearly no snow.”

Mayor Alan Harrison also agreed with the letter.

“I think Ms. Kirkpatrick's letter is absolutely accurate,” Harrison said. “Most winters in the past, that trail is so slippery you can't walk on it, but not this year, because I walk and run on it all the time along with many other people.

“The problem she's identifying is real."

Harrison asked city staff what kind of solution could be offered for the problem.

Erin Jackson, chief administrative officer, told council that bylaw officers could use more discretion around tickets for parking in snow removal zones when there is no snow on the ground.

The mayor asked about changing the language on the signs to better convey that parking is not allowed when snow clearing needs to take place or when snow is forecast.

Jackson suggested it would make more sense to review the bylaw, since the language currently on the signs accurately reflects the bylaw as it is written.

“Instead of just disregarding the language in the bylaw, I would like to make it align with what council is saying, and then we can communicate differently going forward,” Jackson said.

Some councillors were interested in how many people paid tickets for similar situations, and if it would be possible to reimburse them.

“I'm wondering how many people actually got tickets, and how many paid them, and whether or not there's a way to reimburse people who were ticketed that day,” Lindgren asked.

Jackson replied that she didn't know exactly how easy it would be to find out who paid and sort out reimbursements, and suggested the city send out a message saying it would not be collecting on other tickets issued in the same vein.

“I'm just concerned it could incur a significant amount of staff time to attempt to locate folks and reimburse,” she said.

Harrison suggested simply advising the public that the city would reimburse anyone who paid a ticket for parking in a snow zone at the foreshore trail on Dec. 31.

“It seems to me, if we communicated just out generally said, 'Hey, we made a mistake here,' and when I say we, I'm talking about council, I'm not talking about the staff person. We authorized that bylaw, so we have to take responsibility there,” he said.

“But if we said, 'Hey we're going to use some discretion here. If you paid your $25 fine, you may come back into the city and get reimbursed,' because we should have their ticket.”

The CAO said she liked the idea, but wasn’t sure exactly what kind of records the city has showing who has paid a ticket.

“I want to say, 'Yes, Your Worship, it is possible,'” Jackson said. “I just don't know what kind of records we have kept in terms of the ticketing.”

Jackson said there might be some logistics issues, but she was "completely open to making it happen."

“I just don't have all of the information about how we've kept records," she said.

Another councillor chimed in to reiterate that the issue is council’s fault, and not the fault of the bylaw officer.

“I will chime in and support anything that can be done. One, to fix the bylaw, and two, to reimburse if we can, or at least, not have people pay that come in,” said Coun. Kevin Flynn, adding ultimately, he felt council should look at its bylaw.

“The bylaw person is just doing their job. It's our bylaw. It needs to be revisited. …But I don't think our bylaw person can use discretion. That's not in their job. We need to fix it.”

Flynn's statement caused another councillor to want to clarify the matter.

“I don't want to give the impression that, okay, the bylaw is going to be changed tomorrow, I think that we've got to be clear that we're talking about next winter,” said Coun. Tim Lavery.

“And I do think discretion is always in play, Your Worship, but certainly in the next little while, I think discretion would be important to have.”

Lavery said he does appreciate the value of consistency in a bylaw, and believes council should ensure there is a consistent bylaw by next winter.

In the end, council agreed to review the bylaw in the future, instruct bylaw officers to use discretion when handing out tickets for parking in snow zones, and have staff attempt to reimburse anyone that paid a ticket they received that day.

“I apologize to those people who got tickets on a very nice day when they were walking on the trail, and as councillors, we need to try to correct that,” Harrison said.

Family-owned Shuswap company enters the Dragon's Den with game-changing product

Local company on big stage

Photo: MisMacK Clean Cosmetics

Missy MacKintosh and her 13-year-old son Evan on Dragon's Den in Toronto.

A Shuswap company will be in the national spotlight on CBC's Dragon's Den in an episode airing Jan. 16.

Missy MacKintosh started MisMacK Cosmetics four years ago in Canoe B.C., just outside of Salmon Arm.

"I actually auditioned three times. First one started in my basement in 2021 and then the second time was in my Salmon Arm store," MacKintosh said, explaining she was rejected both times and on the verge of giving up.

"I wasn't going to audition again, but my son, who's 13, and I created the first ever toxic-free eye black for sports."

The mother-son duo had a great time so she asked Evan if he wanted to audition with her her.

"So we applied, and we ended up getting the invite to go and pitch in Toronto last May."

MacKintosh says she can't say how the audition went because she signed a non-disclosure agreement but there are some big things planned for her little company.

"It was the most amazing experience ever, and to do it with my son, was really cool, says MacKintosh.

MisMacK Clean Cosmetics will launch 'The Great Canadian Grit Cup' the same night her episode airs on Dragon's Den.

The competition is a friendly nationwide tournament that encourages communities to pre-order Grit Kits, which includes the non-toxic eye black. The goal is to raise $150,000 to ensure that all kids can play organized sports.

Watch parties for the Dragon's Den episode are being held Thursday in Salmon Arm at Song Sparrow Hall (tickets here), featuring former NHL'er Aaron Volpatti as keynote speaker.

In Kelowna there will also be a watch party at the Delta Grand's Oak+Cru the same night at 6 p.m.

The screenings will be followed by a panel discussion that everyone can take part in.

"We'll be streaming in the panel discussion after we all watch the episode together, in Kelowna they'll be, able to submit questions and stuff to my team, and they'll get them to us on the panel," MacKintosh said.

Being a small B.C. company, MacKintosh says she is ready to scale up if her products take off.

"My plan is still to stay local. I was born and raised in Salmon Arm. My heart is very much here, and we have expansion plans for our headquarters and distribution in Salmon Arm. "

MacKintosh says she works with a Manitoba company to produce her non-toxic, vegan, ethically sourced makeup and they will have no problem keeping up if the company grows.

Sicamous Mounties use Taser warning to subdue agitated drunk man

Taser threat subdues drunk

Photo: Castanet File Photo

Sicamous RCMP say an intoxicated man told officers he wanted them to shoot and kill him — but once police told the man he would be Tased if he didn’t listen to their commands, he was arrested without incident.

Mounties said they responded at about 11 a.m. on Jan. 3 to a call in Malakwa about a disturbance at a home on Cunningham Frontage Road. A woman told police her spouse was extremely intoxicated and agitated.

“Police attended and located the 39-year-old man sleeping in the driver's seat of a van upon their arrival,” RCMP Sgt. Murray McNeil said in a news release.

McNeil said the man became belligerent when he realized police were there, and he demanded they shoot him — allegedly telling officers he wanted them to kill him.

“Officers drew a conducted energy weapon and warned the man the Taser would be used on him if he did not comply with arrest,” he said.

Once the Taser was produced, McNeil said the man obeyed police commands and was arrested without incident.

The man was taken to jail to sober up and was later released.