Period 1974 – 2000

Period 1974 – 2000 for South-western Canada

• 1974
  Cranbrook, BC: Terminal completed at East Kootenay Airport nearby.
• 1974
  Federal political: Office of Native Claims established to arbistrate land disputes, etc.
• 1974
  Lethbridge, AB: New library completed.
• 1974 Jan. 1
  B.C.: Town of Castlegar absorbs the Village of Kinnaird.
• 1974 Jan. 1
  Federal political: Maurice Jean Nadon appointed 17th Commissioner of the RCMP (to August 31, 1977).
• 1974 Jan. 26
  Blairmore, AB: Senior Centre at old hospital opened.
• 1974 Mar. 1
  Castlegar, BC: Incorporated as a City.
• 1974
  Lethbridge, AB: City sells power plant to Calgary Power.
• 1974 June
  Fernie, BC: New hospital opens.
• 1974 July 1
  Princeton, BC: Frank Lees opens first stage of his Princeton Castle project.
• 1974 July 2
  AB political: Ralph Gavin Steinhauer appointed lieutenant-governor (to October 18th, 1979).
• 1974 July 4
  Labatt Breweries of British Columbia Limited acquired control of Interior Breweries Company.
• 1974 July 8
  Federal election: Trudeau leads Liberals to re-election. Majority.
• 1975
  Fernie, BC: Memorial Hospital demolished.
• 1975
  Coleman, AB: Norcen Energy completes modernization of Coleman Collieries’ Vicary mine.
• 1975
  Lethbridge, AB: Parrish & Heimbecker buy out Ellison Milling Co.
• 1975
  Lethbridge, AB: Lethbridge Centre opens.
• 1975
  Kimberley, BC: The “Platzl,” the downtown pedestrian mall, completed.
• 1975 Jan. 9
  Princeton, BC: CPR closes station.
• 1975 Feb. 5
  Crowsnest Pass, AB: alarming earth tremor.
• 1975 Feb. 7
  Lethbridge, AB: New 6th Avenue (Whoop-Up Drive) bridge dedicated.
• 1975 Mar. 26
  AB election: E. Peter Lougheed and PCs returned.
• 1975 June 20
  CP condemns the remainder of its Fairbanks-Morse fleet of locomotives.
• 1975 Aug. 24
  MT: Libby Dam on upper Kootenay River dedicated. Corps of Army Engineers. Lake Koocanusa forming.
• 1975 September
  Lower Kootenay River, BC: B.C. Hydro brings first generators at Kootenay Canal on line.
• 1975 Nov. 10
  ON: The iron ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in Lake Superior.
• 1975 Dec. 22
  B.C. political: William Richards Bennett leads Social Credit to power.
• 1976
  Castlegar, BC: B.C. Hydro completes Kootenay Canal project nearby.
• 1976
  Bellevue, AB: sewerage system installed and water system extended to the suburb of Maple Leaf.
• 1976
  Lethbridge, AB: Old Carngie Library building re-opened as civic art gallery, now Southern Alberta Art Gallery (SAAG).
• 1976
  Lethbridge, AB: Old Galt Hospital designated a Provincial Historic Resource.
• 1976 Jan. 1
  AB: Lethbridge Collieries, Ltd., disolved.
• 1976 Mar. 1
  Lethbridge, AB: County of Lethbridge No. 26 Building opened.
• 1976 Oct. 2
  B.C.: Crowsnest Highway’s Bonnington cut-off—Castlegar to 3B—officially opened.
• 1977
  B.C.: the Michel-Natal site levelled and abandoned.
• 1977
  Blairmore, AB,: first stores in the Crowsnest Mall opened.
• 1977
  Bellevue, AB: new fire hall completed.
• 1977
  Galloway, BC: Galloway Lumber modernizes its operations.
• 1977 Feb. 28
  Federal political: VIA Rail created.
• 1977 July
  Oliver, BC: Last train passes; the British Columbia Provincial Museum’s “Museum Train.”
• 1977 Sep. 1
  Federal political: Robert Henry Simmonds appointed 18th Commissioner of the RCMP (to August 31, 1987).
• 1977 Oct. 7
  Morrissey, Fernie and Michel Railway Company dissolved.
• 1977 Dec. 16
  Kootenay Lake, BC: CP cancels Kootenay Water Transport Company tug contract and the Melinda Jane retires from barge service.
• 1978
  B.C.: Weyerhaeuser buys Okanagan Falls lumber mill.
• 1978
  Middleton, BC: Michel Valley school demolished.
• 1978
  AB: Historic Sites of Alberta assumes responsibility for the site of Lille.
• 1978
  AB: CPR abandons Cardston–Glenwood, and Kimball–Whiskey Gap lines.
• 1978
  Coleman, AB: Norcen Energy closes Coleman Collieries’ strip mine at Racehorse Creek nearby.
• 1978
  Trail, BC: Kootenay Hotel formerly Fritz Sick’s Kootenay Malting, Brewing and Distilling Company building, burned.
• 1978
  Phœnix Mountain, BC: Granby Mining Company ceases its crushing concentration operation.
• 1978
  B.C.: Shell Canada, Limited, buys remains of Crow’s Nest Industries.
• 1978
  Nelson, BC: Heritage Conservation Branch of the provincial Ministry of Recreation and Conservation begins to evaluate the heritage value of City’s core.
• 1978
  Sparwood, BC: The Titan 33-19, finished by GM Canada in 1974, arrives at Kaiser’s Harmer Ridge mine.
• 1978 Feb. 11
  B.C.: Pacific Western Airlines’ Flight 314 crash-lands at East Kootenay Airport near Cranbrook.
• 1978 Apr. 29
  Frank, AB. Frank Slide recognized as a National Historic Site.
• 1978 Jun. 2
  Regina, SK: Edith Winifred Wilson (née Pope) dies. Thirty-six years a wife, nearly 30 years a mother. “A truly loving person.”
• 1978 Jun. 21
  AB political: Vote on amalgamation held in the communities in Crowsnest Pass area.
• 1978 July 20
  Okanagan Falls, BC: CP given permission to abandon Osoyoos Subdivision nearby. Rails removed the following summer.
• 1978 Sep. 27
  Princeton, BC: Weyerhaeuser takes over Northwood Mills’ operation.
• 1978 Oct. 1
  Crow’s Nest Industries Limited amalgamated into Shell Canada Limited as Crowsnest Forest Products, Limited.
• 1978 Oct. 4
  Princeton, BC: Incorporated as a Town. David Brown, mayor.
• 1978 Oct. 14
  Sparwood, BC: Hospital opened.
• 1978 Dec. 1
  Lethbridge, AB: City annexes Hardieville.
• 1978 Dec. 28
  Crows Nest Industries, Limited, and Crow’s Nest Pass Oil and Gas Company, Limited, amalgamate.
• 1978 Dec. 29
  Friday.
• 1978 Dec. 29
  Michel, BC: Hospital demolished by burning.
• 1979
  Castlegar, BC: B.C. Timber, part of B.C. Resources Investment Corporation, buys the Celanese Corporation’s pulp mill.
• 1979
  Crowsnest, AB: Norcen Energy closes Coleman Collieries’ Vicary mine.
• 1979 Jan. 1
  The Town of Coleman, of Blairmore, the Village of Bellevue and of Frank, and Improvement District No. 5 were collected into the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass.
• 1979 Jan. 1
  Coalhurst, AB: The Hamlet once again incorporated as a Village.
• 1979 Jan. 26
  B.C.: CP given permission to abandon Carmi Subdivision between Midway and Penticton. Rails removed that summer.
• 1979 Mar. 14
  AB political: Peter Lougheed and PCs returned to power.
• 1979 May 10
  B.C. political: Bill Bennett and Social Credit returned to office in B.C.
• 1979 May 22
  Federal election: Charles Joseph Clark leads Progressive Conservatives to minority power in Ottawa.
• 1979 Aug. 8
  Kimberley, BC: A conflagration on North Star Hill manaces the City.
• 1979 Oct. 18
  AB political: Francis Charles Lynch-Staunton appointed lieutenant-governor (to January 22nd 1985).
• 1979 Oct. 19
  Lethbridge, AB: New terminal building at Kenyon Field dedicated.
• 1979 Dec. 13
  Federal political: Joe Clark’s minority federal government loses non-confidence vote.
• 1980
  B.C.: Osoyoos Oxbow Fish and Wildlife Reserve established.
• 1980
  Elko, BC: B.C. Forestry Branch closes 1940s ranger station and concentrates staff in Cranbrook.
• 1980
  Tent Mountain, AB: Norcen Energy suspends operations at Coleman Collieries, Limited’s strip mine.
• 1980
  B.C. Hydro completes Seven Mile Dam on the Pend d’Oreille River.
• 1980 Feb. 18
  Federal election: Trudeau leads Liberals to federal power in Ottawa.
• 1980 Spring
  Mountain Pine beetles arrive on southern Alberta’s “eastern slopes.”
• 1980 July 12
  B.C.: Kaiser Resources Limited opened its new headquarters building on the Natal townsite.
• 1980 September
  B.C. Resources Investment Corporation buys Kaiser Resources.
• 1980 Dec. 9
  Princeton, BC: Princeton Secondary School opens.
• 1981
  Keremeos, BC: Growers’ Association closed its packing plant.
• 1981
  Castlegar, BC: The Town buys Zuckerberg Island as a civic park.
• 1981
  Kipp, AB: Construction of new CP rail yards commenced.
• 1981
  Blairmore, AB: Western Canada Coal’s manager’s amnsion, “Charbonnier House,” and the foreman’s cottage, “Green House,” are demolished to allow construction of the Provincial Building.
• 1981
  Rosebery, BC: CP retracts Nakusp and Slocan trackage from Denver Canyon station.
• 1981
  Yahk, BC: Private museum closes and most of the artefacts transferrd to Creston, BC.
• 1981
  AB: UNESCO designates Head-Smashed-In buffalo jump a World Heritage Site.
• 1981
  Cowley, AB: Johnson Brothers’ lumber mill shuts down.
• 1981
  Kimberley, BC: New library/museum building completed on the Platzl.
• 1981 March
  Fort Macleod, AB: Town Council requests that Alberta’s Ministry of Culture declare Main Street an Historic Area.
• 1981 Sep. 26
  Saturday.
• 1981 Sep. 26
  B.C.: The McPhee Bridge over the St. Mary’s River near Wycliffe on highway 95A, is opened.
• 1981 November
  Creston, BC: Crestbrook Forest Industries halts operations at the old Rodger’s saw mill. Only the veneer plant survives.
• 1982
  Sparwood, BC: Line Creek and Greenhills open-cast mines begun north of town.
• 1982
  Creston, BC: The CPR closes its station.
• 1982
  Creston, BC: The Creston Historical Society buys “the Stone House,” eventually converting it into a museum, archives repository.
• 1982
  Yahk, BC: Great Northern demolishes its station.
• 1982
  Assembly of First Nations supercedes the National Indian Brotherhood.
• 1982 March
  Kimberley, BC: Gerry Sorensen Way christened.
• 1982 June 26
  AB: CPR train wreck near Lundbreck Falls.
• 1982 Nov. 2
  AB election: Lougheed and PCs returned to power.
• 1982 Nov. 18
  Nelson, BC: Westar Timber closes the last saw mill on the waterfront.
• 1982 Dec. 28
  (See July 27th, 1983) B.C.: Crows Nest Industries Limited (formerly Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company) dissolved.
• 1983
  Cranbrook, BC, builds replica of its demolished Post Office tower.
• 1983
  Crestbrook Forest Industries buys Crow’s Nest Industries from Shell Resources.
• 1983
  Blairmore, AB: The Crowsnest Pass Provincial Building completed.
• 1983
  Jaffray, BC: Jehovah’s Witnesses build new Kingdom Hall.
• 1983
  Lethbridge, AB: New YWCA completed.
• 1983
  Elko, BC: Regional District of East Kootenay drilled a community drinking-water well and laid a distribution system.
• 1983
  Cranbrook, BC: Central School decommissioned and sold to Crestbrook Forest Industries.
• 1983 Apr. 30
  Coalhurst, AB: Former CP rail station burned as an emergency exercise.
• 1983 May 5
  B.C. political: Bill Bennett and SoCreds returned to office.
• 1983 June 30
  Osoyoos, BC: Incorporated as a Town.
• 1983 July 14
  Blairmore, AB: Last session in the old Courthouse.
• 1983 July 27
  (See Dec. 28th, 1982) B.C.: Crow’s Nest Industries Limited dissolved.
• 1983 July 29
  B.C.: British Columbia Historical Association becomes British Columbia Historical Federation.
• 1983 Sep. 10
  Passburg, AB: Dedication of the Leitch Collieries Interpretive Centre.
• 1983 Sep. 16
  Kipp, AB: Rail yards completed.
• 1983 Oct. 28
  Coleman, AB: Coleman Collieries Limited shuts down the last of its operations: the coal cleaning plant.
• 1984
  Castlegar, BC: 44th Field Engineer Squadron completes pedestrian suspension bridge to Zuckerberg Island.
• 1984
  Bellevue, AB: Wayside Chapel moved in from the abandoned site of Passburg.
• 1984
  Kimberley, BC: Narrow-gauged tourist railway completed.
• 1984
  Lethbridge, AB: Addition to Galt Museum complete.
• 1984 Jan. 1
  Federal political: “Crow Rate” abolished by the federal government.
• 1984 May 14
  AB: Alberta Ministry of Culture declared Fort Macleod’s core a Provincial Historic Area.
• 1984 June 30
  Federal political: John Napier Turner succeeds Trudeau as Liberal prime minister of Canada.
• 1984 July 26
  Lethbridge, AB: First train around the new rail re-alignment downtown.
• 1984 Sep. 4
  Federal election: Martin Brian Mulroney leads Progressive Conservatives to power in Ottawa.
• 1984 Oct. 19
  Walter Grant Notley, the sole NDP representative in the Alberta Legislature, dies in an air carash.
• 1985
  Castlegar, BC: Two original dormitories at the Doukhobor Museum torched.
• 1985
  Coleman, AB: The Crowsnest Historical Society acquired Coleman High School building for use as a museum.
• 1985
  Cowley, AB: Cowley Forest Products commences operations.
• 1985
  Lethbridge, AB: Replica of Fort Whoop-up opened in Indian Battle Park.
• 1985 Jan. 22
  AB political: Wilma Helen Hunley appointed lieutenant-governor. (to March 11th, 1991).
• 1985 Apr. 28
  Frank, AB: Frank Slide Interpretive Centre opened.
• 1985 May 11
  Cranbrook, BC: Crestbrook Forest Industries moves its headquarters into the renovated Central School building, a Heritage site.
• 1985 May 21
  Savanna, AB: Phillips Cable Company ceases operations in its plant.
• 1985 June 28
  Federal political: Bill C-31, An Act to amend the Indian Act becomes law.
• 1985 Summer
  B.C.: Wild fires ravage the Rocky Mountain Trench.
• 1985 Aug. 8
  B.C.: Kootenay and Elk Railway Company struck from B.C.’s Register of Companies.
• 1985 Sep. 23
  Lethbridge, AB: Indian Battle Park rededicated.
• 1985 Nov. 1
  AB political: Donald Ross Getty replaces Lougheed as PC premier.
• 1986
  Cominco sells its share of the Line Creek operation in the Elk River valley to its parent, the CPR.
• 1986
  Blairmore, AB: Sleepee Teepee Motel demolished.
• 1986
  Blairmore, AB: Two year-long clean up of the Greenhill mine slack piles begins.
• 1986
  Blairmore, AB: CPR salvages its station building.
• 1986 Feb. 28
  Westar Mining Limited (formerly the B.C. Coal Division of the B.C. Resources Investment Corporation) closes the Balmer North mine at Michel.
• 1986 May 8
  Alberta Election: Don Getty and PCs returned to power.
• 1986 June
  Cominco offers West Kootenay Power for sale.
• 1986 Aug. 6
  B.C. political: W.R. Bennett resigns as premier and replaced by Wilhelmus Nicholaas Theodore Maria Vander Zalm, Jr.
• 1986 Sep. 2
  CP divests itself of its 52.5% holding in Cominco. Teck Corp., the buyer, sells 14.25 million shares to public for $13.50 ea.
• 1986 Oct. 22
  B.C. political: Bill Vander Zalm leads Social Credit to re-election.
• 1987
  Cranbrook, BC: CP moves its regional headquarters from Nelson.
• 1987
  Castlegar, BC: City purchases CP station building for a museum.
• 1987
  Jaffray, BC: New Mormon chapel completed.
• 1987
  Fernie, BC: City acquired CP station and converts it to the “Arts Station.”
• 1987
  Kimberley, BC: Cominco closes the fertilizer plant.
• 1987
  Lethbridge, AB: Chinook Health Region administration occupies old CPR station.
• 1987
  Elko, BC: School closed. Students bussed to Jaffray since.
• 1987 July
  B.C.: Utilities Commission condones Cominco’s sale of West Kootenay Power to Kansas City-based UtiliCorp (UtiliCorp Networks Canada) for $80 million.
• 1987 July 10
  Cranbrook, BC: Elko’s train station settled onto new foundations at the Museum of Rail Travel.
• 1987 Summer
  AB: Head-Smashed-In interpretative centre opened.
• 1987 July 31
  Edmonton, AB: Tornadoes kill 27.
• 1987 Aug. 17
  Hedley, BC: Premier Vander Zalm officates at the opening of the Mascot Gold Mining Company’s Nickel Plate open pit mine.
• 1987 Aug. 28
  Blairmore, AB: Health Care Centre inaugurated.
• 1987 Sep. 1
  Federal political: Normand David Inkster appointed 19th Commissioner of the RCMP (to June 24, 1994).
• 1987 Oct. 19
  Black Monday on Stock Markets.
• 1987 Nov. 1
  Winnipeg, MB: At its inaugural convention, the Reform Party of Canada elects E. Preston Manning as its first leader.
• 1988
  Castlegar, BC: Traffic ferry discontinued.
• 1988
  Kaslo, BC: Moyie museum declared an National Historic Site.
• 1988
  B.C.: CP service between Grand Forks and Midway suspended.
• 1988
  B.C.: CP revenue service between Grand Forks and Castlegar suspended. Only mill switchers sent to Grand Forks thereafter.
• 1988
  Trail, BC: Teck Corporation heightened and modernized the smelter’s stacks, installing new scrubbers, filters.
• 1988
  Lethbridge, AB: Lethbridge Regional Hospital opens. Lethbridge Municipal soon demolished.
• 1988 Jan. 2
  Federal political: Canada-United States Free Trade Implementaion Act passed by the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.
• 1988 June 17
  Friday.
• 1988 June 17
  Princeton, BC: Cassiar Mines’ Similco division purchased Newmont Mining Corporation of Canada, Limited, for $15 million.
• 1988 July
  Castlgar, BC: Airport terminal and tower opened, refurbished.
• 1988 Nov. 4
  Yahk, BC: Transport Canada declares airstrip “surplus.”
• 1988 Dec. 21
  B.C.: CP releases Interior Lake Services’ tug Iris G and service on Slocan Lake ends.
• 1989
  Nelson, BC: Burlington Northern ceases service, making Salmo the end of Nelson and Fort Sheppard line.
• 1989 Mar. 20
  Alberta election: Don Getty and PCs returned to power.
• 1989 May 12
  Friday
• 1989 May 12
  Princeton, BC: Last train out of town; a work train westbound.
• 1989 December
  B.C.: South Okanagan Lands Irrigation District (SOLID) dissolved.
• 1990
  Creston, BC: CP tears out yards.
• 1990
  Bellevue, AB: Bellevue School demolished.
• 1990
  Lethbridge, AB: Molson’s sells Sick’s old brewery to developers.
• 1990 June 21
  Federal political: National Transportation Agency grants CP permission to abandon the Kettle Valley Railway from Penticton to Spences Bridge.
• 1990 July
  Nelson, BC: Larry Johnson et al buy the old brewery buildings.
• 1990 December
  B.C.: Last CP train from Grand Forks to Castlegar.
• 1990 Dec. 9
  Midway, BC: Last train leaves.
• 1991
  B.C.: CP pulls rails from Midway–Castlegar reach of the Columbia & Western R/W.
• 1991
  B.C.: CP pulls rails from Penticton–Spences Bridge reach of the Kettle Valley Railway.
• 1991
  Shell Resources sells Line Creek Mine in upper Elk to Manalta Coal Limited.
• 1991
  Hazell, AB: Hazell family sells its Summit Lime Works to Continental Lime Limited.
• 1991
  AB: Oldman River Dam completed and Reservoir begins to fill.
• 1991
  Kimberley, BC: Cominco begins explaining the process of decommissioning the Sullivan Mine.
• 1991
  Elko, BC: Army destroys the old Elk River Canyon bridge.
• 1991
  Lethbridge, AB: Derelict “House of Lethbridge” brewery razed.
• 1991 Jan. 1
  Oliver, BC: Incorporated as a Town.
• 1991 Jan. 12
  Elko, BC: Post office closes. Marg Fitzpatrick, post master.
• 1991 Mar. 11
  AB political: Thomas Gordon Towers appointed lieutenant-governor (to April 17th, 1996).
• 1991 July
  Fort Macleod, AB: Crestbrook Forest Industries closed its Fort Plywood & Lumber operation.
• 1991 July 12
  Creston, BC: Crestbrook Forest Industries shuts down the last operation on the old Rodger’s mill site. Salvaged immeditely.
• 1991 Aug. 26
  B.C.: CPR crews work their way into Princeton pulling Kettle Valley Railway hardware.
• 1991 Sep. 6
  Grand Forks, BC: Pope & Talbot and CanPar incorporate a numbered company to operate a shortline railway. Named the Grand Forks Railway in August of 1992.
• 1991 Oct. 17
  BC election: Michael Harcourt leads New Democratic Party to power.
• 1991 Oct. 29
  Grand Forks, BC: Yale Hotel burns.
• 1991 November
  Princeton, BC: New World Mine Development Limited begins mining and marketing zeolite—fertilizer, deodorant, insulator.
• 1992
  Hedley, BC: Homestake Canada Inc. assumes control of all properties on Nickel Plate Mountain.
• 1992
  Pincher Creek, AB: Oldman River Dam dedicated and reservoir begins to fill.
• 1992
  Galloway, BC: Canada Cedar Pole Preservers built new plant.
• 1992 May 1
  Michel Valley, BC: Westar Mining Limited suspends operations on Harmer Ridge open pit.
• 1992 Summer
  B.C.: CPR pull the steel from the Nicola, Kamloops and Similkameen Coal and Railway Company right-of-way from Merritt to Spences Bridge.
• 1992 August
  B.C.: Grand Forks Railway comes into being.
• 1992 Aug 31
  B.C.: Westar Mining Limited granted protection under the Company Creditors Arrangement Act.
• 1992 Dec. 1
  Manning Provincial Park, BC: Eastgate Lodge destroyed by fire.
• 1992 Dec. 7
  Hope, BC: Town declared a District Municipality.
• 1992 Dec. 12
  AB political: Ralph Philip Klein replaces Getty as PC premier.
• 1992 Dec. 17
  Ottawa: North American Free Trade Agreement Implementaion Act passed by the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien.
• 1993
  AB: Kenotech Limited of San Francisco emplaces the first 25 wind turbines on Cowley Ridge.
• 1993 June 15
  AB election: Klein and PCs returned.
• 1993 June 25
  Federal political: Avril Phaedra Douglas (Kim) Campbell sworn in as prime minister replacing a retired Mulroney.
• 1993 June 30
  B.C.: Lighthouse at Pilot Bay decommissioned by Federal government and trasferred to province.
• 1993 July 6
  Blairmore, AB: Former Provincial Courthouse declared a Provincial Historic Site.
• 1993 Sep. 10
  Castlegar, BC: Politic declaration of the reclamation of downtown.
• 1993 Sep. 14
  Last train on CPR’s Slocan Branch line. Branch formally closed.
• 1993 Oct. 25
  Federal election: Liberals win federal power under Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien.
• 1993 November
  Princeton, BC: Similco shut down again.
• 1994
  B.C. Political: Province creates the Columbia Power Corporation to administer hydro-generating assets in the Columbia basin.
• 1994
  AB: The Chinook Project and the Peigan Nation emplace a further 27 wind turbines on Cowley Ridge.
• 1994
  Elko, BC: Domestic natural gas service offered.
• 1994 June 25
  Federal political: Joseph Philip Robert Murray appointed 20th Commissioner of the RCMP (to September 1, 2000).
• 1994 July 23
  Castlegar, BC: Robson-Castlegar Bridge dedicated. Abutment stamped 2987-93.
• 1994 October
  Esso Resources Canada, Limited, sells Coal Mountain operation to Fording Coal Limited.
• 1995
  Blairmore, AB: School Foundation of Nippon buys the old Courthouse.
• 1995 Mar. 27
  Osoyoos, BC: Rialto Hotel burns. Built 1938.
• 1995 Apr. 21
  BC political: Garde B. Gardom appointed lieutenant-governor.
• 1995 June
  Floods in the Elk River and Oldman River basins on both sides of the Divide in south-western Canada.
• 1995 June
  Fort Macleod, AB: C&E bridge over the Oldman wrecked.
• 1995 June
  Lethbridge, AB. Bridgeview Campground washed away.
• 1995 June 6
  B.C.: Highmark of floods in the Michel Valley.
• 1995 Summer
  Trail, BC: “Old Bridge” redecked with lignum vitae.
• 1995 July 1
  Coalhurst, AB: Incorporated as a Town.
• 1995 July 6
  B.C.: Columbia Basin Trust created.
• 1995 Sep. 17
  Summerland, BC: Kettle Valley Steam Railway Heritage Society reopens Trout Creek Canyon Bridge near Summerland.
• 1995 Sep. 22
  U.S.A.: Burlington Northern, and the Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe merged to become the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation.
• 1995 December
  Lethbridge, AB: St. Michael’s Hospital closed and soon demolished.
• 1996
  B.C.: Columbia Power Corporation bought the Brilliant Dam on the Lower Kootenay River from UtiliCorp for $43 million.
• 1996
  Sparwood, BC: Town buys the “World’s Largest Dumptruck” for $1.00.
• 1996 Feb. 22
  B.C. Political: Glen Clark replaces Harcourt as NDP premier.
• 1996 Mar. 31
  Regina, SK: The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool completes its transition to a publicly-traded corporation.
• 1996 Apr. 1
  The Softwood Lumber Agreement between the U.S. and Canada comes into effect (for five years).
• 1996 Apr. 17
  AB political: Horace Andrew “Bud” Olson appointed lieutenant-governor (to February 10th, 2000).
• 1996 May 28
  BC election: Glen Clark leads New Democratic Party to re-election.
• 1996 July
  Hedley, BC: Homestake Canada suspends mining in the Nickel Plate open pit mine.
• 1996 Autumn
  Princeton, BC: Similco suspends operations.
• 1996 Oct. 9
  Hedley, BC: Concentration mill at the Nickel Plate mine ceases production.
• 1996 Oct. 14
  Hedley, BC: Homestake Canada pours its last bar of Nickel Plate gold.
• 1997
  Federal political: Canadian National Railways privatized and name modified to “Canadian National Railway.”
• 1997
  B.C.: Olson overpass completed on Crowsnest Highway north of Hosmer.
• 1997
  Burmis, AB: Rinke and Sons Lumber Company ceases operations.
• 1997 Mar. 11
  AB election: Ralph Klein and PCs returned to power.
• 1997 Mar. 13
  Cranbrook, BC: City buys East Kootenay Airport.
• 1997 June 1
  Kootenay Valley Railway created within CP by management and Employees of the line. Term to end Dec. 31, 2001.
• 1997 June 2
  Federal election: Liberals again to power under Jean Chrétien.
• 1997 September
  Sparwood, BC: Municipality levels the last of the old Michel Crow’s Nest Pass Coal buildings.
• 1997 Sep. 1
  Coleman, AB: Cameron Block burns. Built 1904.
• 1998
  B.C.: Stone Consolidated allowed the Castlegar pulp mill to slip into receivership.
• 1998
  Luscar Coal buys Manalta Coal.
• 1998
  Cranbrook, B.C.: Crestbrook saw mill ceases operation. Planer mill and kilns still working.
• 1998
  Frank, AB: Turtle Mountain Playground/Motor Inn demolished.
• 1998
  Kimberley, BC: Charlie Locke’s Resorts of the Canadian Rockies buys the Kimberley ski hill.
• 1998 Feb.
  B.C.: International Reload Systems buys BNSF ex-Nelson and Fort Sheppard from Columbia Gardens to end of steel at Salmo. Headquarters at Fruitvale. One locomotive, a GP9.
• 1998 May 13
  Princeton, BC: The Great Princeton Bank Robbery. A Cat 950F front-end loader used at 4:15 a.m. to remove the night-deposit box from the wall of the CIBC.
• 1998 July 15
  B.C.: Nisga’a Land Agreement reached. First land rights negotiations begun by Tribe in 1887. With 1,930 square kilometres of the Naas River valley, 62 additional square kilometres of detached tribal lands, and $190 million in compensation, the Nisga’a will, if they ratify the Agreement, govern and police themselves.
• 1998 July 31
  Manitoba Pool Elevators and the Alberta Wheat Pool merge to form Agricore Co-operative.
• 1998 Oct. 8
  AB: Dead since the late 1970s, the “Burmis Tree” falls over.
• 1998 Nov. 22
  B.C.: Omnitrax begins operation of the Okanagan Valley Railway. Uses ex-CN Vernon-Kelowna-Lumby trackage and CP’s Vernon-Sicamous.
• 1998 Nov. 25
  AB: The “Burmis Tree” resurrected.
• 1999
  Kimberley, B.C.: Former CPR station condemned and pushed down. (? 2000)
• 1999 Apr. 1
  Federal political: Nunavut Territory created in the N-WT.
• 1999 Apr. 2
  Cranbrook, BC: Tembec Inc. acquired Crestbrook Forest Industries.
• 1999 Apr. 27
  Crowsnest, AB: St. Cyrll’s RC Church in Bellevue and the Holy Spirit Church in Coleman closed.
• 1999 May
  Coleman, AB.: Calgary real estate speculators buy Cameron School building.
• 1999 May
  Bellevue, AB: Bellevue Arena demolished.
• 1999 June 19
  Brocket, AB: St. Cyprian’s Anglican deconsecrated.
• 1999 Aug. 4
  New Aiyansh, BC: Nisga’a chief Joseph Gosnell, premier Glen Clark, and Canadian Minister of Indian Affairs Jane Stewart initial the Nisga’a Land Agreement of 1998.
• 1999 Aug. 5
  Interlake Agro joins Agricore.
• 1999 November
  Grand Forks, B.C.: Roxul, Incorporated, a division of Rockwool International, begins production of insulation materials.
• 1999 Nov. 1
  Weyerhaeuser buys MacMillan-Bloedel Corporation.