CASTLEGAR NEWS Your Horoscope For the Week with Michael O’Connor inside the West Kootenay Advertiser
Thursday, March • Rauni Naud
Advisor, Member of the Million Dollar Round Table
Promising signing for Saints Castlegarian in Istanbul
Mutual funds offered by Sun Life Financial Investment Services (Canada) Inc.
•RRSP’s, RRIF’s, GIC’s •Life Insurance •Health Insurance •Annuities •Tax Free Savings Accounts •Income for Life
Vol. • Issue
Breaking news at castlegarnews.com
See Page 21 See Page 14
Walton bags a winner - knots series vs BV
Tel: 250-365-0484 rauni.naud@sunlife.com
Jo-Ann Bursey Mountainview Realty Ltd.
304.8681
jo-ann@century21castlegar.com
Stuart Walton (#7) fires the game-ender Tuesday at the Castlegar Complex. Game seven goes tonight in Fruitvale. Story on page 20 Craig Lindsay photo (see photo gallery at www.casltegarnews.com)
Two
MADE FRESH
10” 2 Topping Pizza’s your choice
17.95
$
+tax
Del
Available ivery
Castlegar
1004 Columbia Ave
250-365-3244
RENEE READ MORTGAGE BROKER
DOMINION MACKLEM MORTGAGES PH: 250-365-7808 FAX: 250-365-6577 RREAD@DOMINIONLENDING.CA WWW.RREAD.CA SPECIALIZING IN: • REFINANCING • NEW MORTGAGES/PRE APPROVAL • HOME EQUITY LOANS • 2ND & 3RD MORTGAGES • MORTGAGE RENEWALS
Curriculum to undergo shrinkage at Selkirk College CRAIG LINDSAY Castlegar News Reporter
Selkirk College in Castlegar will no longer be offering second year university sciences as the school prepares to meet a million dollar budget shortfall. “We need to have approval in principle by our board by the end of this month,” said Barry Auliffe, Selkirk College director of communications. “It gets final approval by our board and then by the government in May.”
The amount of funding received from the provincial government for college operations at Selkirk has remained the same for the coming year and will be reduced over the next two years. “Right away, with the cost of doing business going up with inflation, we’re in a $500,000 shortfall situation just at the get-go,” said Auliffe. “We will be again next year. The operating grant will be decreased next year. This year the
government came to us and asked us to make additional savings. So that put it up to $1 million.” In order to balance the budget the college must find ways to save money. Selkirk receives the lion’s share of their total operating budget of $36 from the government ($26 million). The remainder comes from projections such as tuition fees. “We find everything we can in the administrative area, anything that we can cut that doesn’t im-
mediately impact students, particularly the cutting of programs,” said Auliffe. “The size, $1 million, is just too much. The vast majority of our budget is in the programs. What we do is look at those programs that have been trending down in terms of enrolment numbers. One area that has trended down over the last few years is second year sciences, courses like biology, chemistry. The numbers there were just not sufficient to continue run-
ning those courses.” Auliffe noted that in 1966 when Selkirk College opened, there were only three degree granting universities in B.C. “We now have 12 degree granting universities throughout the province and they’re all very competitive,” he said. “What’s happening a lot more is that students will take their first year at a community college because you have great instruction, much cheaper tuition, you’re closer to home, and you get
SAVE SOME
GREEN
Great discounts all over the store!
a sense of whether you really want to follow that through. “In second year if you do, there is more of a tendency - there are so many options closer to home - you can go to UBC-O (in Kelowna) or TRU (Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops). So that’s really cut into our second year numbers. That was a natural place to look.” Cutting the second year university sciences will also Continued on P.12
A family business serving Kootenay families since 1950 Located Halfway Between Trail & Castlegar
HOME
GOODS
FURNITURE
www.homegoodsfurniture.com Tel: 693-2227 Genelle 1-877-693-2227 Monday to Saturday 9:30 am to 5:30 pm Sunday 11:00 am to 4:00 pm