Merritt

And then my older brother got into plumbing as well, went and did his own – chased his own dreams in Calgary.

My dad went and worked for – he started a little plumbing company in Merritt, B.C., and then left that and went to work for the utilities, for – bc gas at the time it was called which is now fortis and um he had worked there for years and years and then yeah about 1990 it was 1998 we kind of sat around a table and dreamed up this company and in 99 we incorporated it um and ran it out of ran it out of like we lived together at the time in a house and we ran it out of the garage there And, you know, started, we weren't necessarily chucking a truck, but we were two mans in a van kind of thing.

Okay.

Well, so to back up, so your start.

Everything is mine permits.

So getting back to the four assets in Merritt, British Columbia, we have the Merritt Mill, which is the only mill permitted in the province to receive material from anywhere.

throughout the province, including third party, including our own.

We have our own silver mine, which is called Treasure Mountain Silver Mine, which we'll talk in detail, I'm sure, later on.

Okay.

So me and my girlfriend and her husbands, um, were gonna go to Kelowna to do some apple picking, and I thought, "You know what? Beautiful day." So as we're driving, we, um, crossed Merritt.

There's a rest stop on your right-hand side up the hill, and my girlfriend's husband told me a very interesting story.

Um, he used to be a long hauler at one time, and this is just a few years back, maybe more than a few years back.

And there used to be a restaurant, and I know there was an ice cream parlor and of course washrooms.

He, as he was about to go into the washrooms, three, um, young South Asian, uh, specifically Indo-Canadian men in their 18, 19 year olds, he said, um, well-dressed, approached him and said, in Punjabi, "Do you have alcohol?" And he said, "No, I don't.

However, I can drive you guys into town," which is Merritt, "and you guys can grab some from there." And they said, "Fine." He went into the washroom.

Shortly after he came out, they weren't there.

The fall with the body found four to six months later.

The location, off the Coquihalla on the right side heading toward Merritt.

He got one thing wrong.

He thought it was closer to Merritt than Hope.

It was the other way around.

The open door he didn't walk through.

A group of day hikers are walking a trail near the Caroline Mines exit off the Coquihalla Highway, about 19 kilometers north of Hope.

If you have ever driven the Coquihalla Highway between Hope and Merritt, you've driven right past this spot.

There's a pullout, a foot trail that winds down through the bush toward the Coquihalla River, and the remains of an old cabin.

Hikers and hunters use this spot.

His father promised him $15,000.

The next day, his father picked him up in the old Sunbird and Chelsea was already in the car.

They drove out the highway, first to Merritt, then back to a spot off the Coquihalla where they sent up a tent.

On the drive, they were joking around, keeping her happy.

So the MPs, uh, the MLAs, the ministers are all getting an education, 'cause it's not just the Salmon River.

So in the interior we have Salmon River, Bessette Creek, we have the Nicola, which is over towards Merritt.

We have the Coquihalla on Vancouver Island.

They have a whole bunch of streams that are having the same thing.

I'm also a member of the Coldwater Indian Band

of Merritt, British

Columbia, and a devoted lover of printed matter, which means I always have my eyes out for the next books that are coming onto my bookshelf.

So today, I really want to talk through how you came up with the idea for this book.