Prince George Free Press, March 28, 2012

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CITY: Finance committee debates IPG’s future A3 Wednesday, March 28, 2012 John Mellencamp to play Prince George June 17 A17

Newsline 250-564-0005

Pay to park

www.pgfreepress.com ENVISIONING CHANGE

DELYNDA PILON newsroom@pgfreepress.com

City residents will need to remember to keep some change on hand after a decision to return to paid parking downtown, once an appropriate option is chosen, was made at Monday’s council meeting. A report from a study on parking in the city completed in 2008 recommended a shift to free on-street parking downtown with maximum parking time limits per block enforced by tire chalking. There were many reasons for the recommendation, including a rash of vandalism and theft from meters from 2006 through 2008 as well as difficulty fixing the meters because it was hard to find replacement parts. Meters got pulled from low use areas and moved to high use areas, however that meant a free parking zone was created where the meters used to be. The result meant a loss of revenue to the city. In 2007, the last year turn to PAGE A4

Te re s a M A LLA M / Fre e Pre s s

UNBC MSc candidate, Community Health Science, Hilary McGregor with pieces from the Envisioning Change Exhibition on display until Friday at Artspace. This compelling photography exhibit investigates the intersecting factors that contribute to women’s experiences of substance use and mental health in Prince George.

Tuition hike OK’d by UNBC board NATALIE CAMERON Free Press

Tuition rates will increase two per cent next fall at the University of Northern British Columbia after the Board of Governors approved an operating budget of $67 million dollars for the 2012-13 academic year on Saturday. Rob van Adrichem, vice-president of external relations, said the increase, which amounts to about an additional $92 per year for a full-time undergraduate student, is due to revenue rates staying the same but higher operating costs. “These two major sources of revenue, student tuition and the government grants, stay flat,” he said. “There’s inflation on everything from salaries, to books in the library, to keeping the lights on so that’s really what it just covers, the operation of the school which gradually grows.” This means UNBC is unable to invest in new or

expanded programming for 2012-13. Although the athletics’ budget has been increased to support the move to Canada West, the cost was covered by a completed portion of the residences mortgage. “There was an aspect of the residence mortgage that was finished this year so that it’s just like when you’re finished paying off your house, then you can pay for other things so it’s the same sort of thing,” Adrichem said. Adrichem said the other reason for the increase in tuition is because the provincial government will be reducing funding in the 2013-14 academic year by one per cent and by another 1.5 per cent the following year. The university is working to be the best it possibly can be despite the cuts, he said. “A lot of time that takes money and so does the mean that the board is turning off the tap? No,” he said. “We’re doing our part to cut cost

and do as much as we can to attract revenue to UNBC and we’re asking students to play a part in that too.” Next year’s president for the Northern Undergraduate Student Society, Kallie Smith, said the student response she’s heard has a lot of “negative backlash.” “I’ve actually talked to a few students about this and I definitely feel that the students are not appreciative of this increase,” Smith said. “Times are tough economically and students already feel that they are grossly overpaying for their education … I think the students would be more willing to swallow the pill of a tuition increase if they felt that they were going to get something directly out of it and they don’t see that.” Smith said tuition costs are a barrier to students entering post secondary and this could turn to PAGE A4


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