Look out Fernie / Sparwood / Blairmore…you’re next. Kootenays take economic hit. Teck laying off 500….and it’s yet to be reported exactly where the blue chip miner is going to apply its cuts. Their steel producing coal isn’t quite as appealing to the markets. Could it be time to start promoting golf courses and casinos with the forestry industry also in the doldrums? The sleepy towns of Cranbrook and Kimberley get by (barely) with the closing of Cominco years ago. This corner of B.C. is still holding on to some semblance of conservative values in the face of a rising industrial backlash but it could all be about tourism once the next movie star catches a glimpse of the Teck open pits fuelling rhetoric for light weight politicians.