WEDNESDAY
S I N C E
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APRIL 11, 2012 Vol. 117, Issue 70
110
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Pride fighters ready to rumble Page 9
INCLUDING H.S.T.
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF
ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALM SALMO
A NEW ARRIVAL
Young talent on display at filmfest BY VALERIE ROSSI Times Staff
Trail region, including Castlegar, through three grants: small community, CARIP and net traffic fine revenues. Communities that have signed the Climate Action Charter and report publicly on their progress toward meeting their climate action goals receive a grant equivalent to 100 per cent of the carbon tax they pay directly. And only communities that pay for policing— Trail and Castlegar — received the traffic fine revenue.
Young Greater Trail filmmakers are making their mark this weekend at an under-19 film festival ready to roll at the Royal Theatre. The U19 Film Festival will showcase 26 original short films from an array of categories –sports, drama, documentary, animation and environmental – which will be judged at the gala event held at the Trail theatre from noon until 4 p.m. Saturday. The youth will be vying for $1,300 in cash prizes and the judges’ choice grand prize – a Canon Vixia HV40 camcorder. Rossland’s 13-year-old Mackenzie Flood is among her peers putting work on display. She picked up a camera this fall and has found a passion for visual story telling ever since. “Most movies have a lesson but some movies are harder to see the lesson, kind of like mine, so you really have to dig deep,” she said. Flood has submitted a documentary called “Creatora” that follows the story of a bird that lives in the Kootenay tundra. The bird’s story comes to life with her reenacting the species with help from her friend Madeline GraceWood, 13, filming some of the content. She also has created “Madeline’s Musical,” an entry for the drama category that explores how life would be with a constant melody of musical stalkers trailing behind.
See TRAIL, Page 3
See FESTIVAL, Page 3
VALERIE ROSSI PHOTO
Pacific Coastal employees and airport volunteers welcomed passengers to Trail on the airline’s new afternoon arrival time of 1:15 p.m. Tuesday. To conicide with its six years of service in Trail, Pacific Coastal has revamped its scheduled routes to and from Vancouver with an additional later flight that leaves Vancouver at 4:40 p.m. and departs from Trail at 6:20 p.m., Sunday through Friday. The airline has also added a second flight on Saturdays. Company representatives, local politicians and residents gathered at the Trail Regional Airport Tuesday afternoon to mark the momentous occasion with a small gathering that included a speech from Pacific Coastal vice president Spencer Smith, hot dogs and cake. For more information on the airline’s new schedule, visit pacificcoastal.com
Provincial grants ease local tax burden BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
You won’t notice it as a line item on your municipal tax bill, but if it didn’t exist your taxes would be higher. It’s called the Strategic Community Investment Fund (SCIF), an unconditional grant payment the province makes from its general revenues to municipalities across the province. The money is used for everything from paving to infrastructure work, to offsetting staff wages, but it has the ultimate effect of
reducing the taxes residents have to pay in each of the Greater Trail communities, said Lila Cresswell, chief administrative officer for the Village of Fruitvale. “Without the provincial funds like this the taxes would be substantially higher,” she said. Under the SCIF, Fruitvale receives $242,033 in small community grants with a further $2,803 in Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program (CARIP) money coming for a total of $244,836. That money was used in 2010 for finishing part of the Official
Community Plan, some environmental work on the banks of the Beaver Creek, Fruitvale sewage collection emergency power (infrastructure) project, some paving on two village avenues, and a small amount was used to offset a tax increase, keeping it down to three per cent. For its part, the village has to provide the province with some intended use and performance targets on what the money was used for. Overall, the province is providing $1.8 million to the Greater
Contact the Times: Phone: 250-368-8551 Fax: 250-368-8550 Newsroom: 250-364-1242
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