If a picture is worth a thousand words, there’s a good bet that three days of colourful cultural overload may have gone a long way to initiating dialogue and building bridges between B.C.’s First Nation communities and the rest of the province.

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark is talking up the province’s technology sector while on a business trip in Japan. According to the Government of British Columbia, they are working to form new partnerships with Japanese investors and technology companies.

National efforts to put a price on carbon in the United States largely petered out years ago, but the climate policy is gaining traction in a handful of states out west. The governors of California, Washington, and Oregon, along with the premier of British Columbia in Canada, signed an agreement Monday to coordinate efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the region. Washington and Oregon will aim to implement their own pricing structures to mimic those already in place in California and British Columbia.