FRIDAY
$1.25
inc. H.S.T.
June 22, 2012
A division of
Vol. 27 No. 50
COMOX VALLEY RECORD Your community. Your newspaper. www.comoxvalleyrecord.com
Eco fees starting on July 1
HORNBY SOUNDS
Earlybird tickets are available for the Hornby Festival. ■ B1
OLYMPICS-BOUND
Geoff Kabush is off to merry old England for the 2012 Olympic Games. The Courtenay athlete is one of four mountain bikers nominated to the Canadian Olympic Team. Cycling Canada, in collaboration with the Canadian Olympic Committee, announced the selections of Kabush, Catharine Pendrel, Emily Batty and Max Plaxton on Wednesday. The Olympic nomination for Kabush comes as no surprise, said Cycling Canada in a press release.
... Complete story on ■ B13
FINDER ■ Weather
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■ Lottery
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■ Ferry Schedule
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■ Editorial
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■ Opinion
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■ Arts
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■ Sports
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■ Classified
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Scott Stanfield Record Staff
An expanding provincial recycling program will soon include a greater number of electrical products, from power tools and sewing machines to treadmills and Game Boys. Which means more eco fees at the till. The non-profit ElectroRecycle program is funded by a recycling fee applied to new electrical products brought into B.C. by small appliance manufacturers and retailers. As of July 1, a fee will be applied to the sale of new products, including small appliances and electric fitness equipment. Eco fees are already added to items such as hair dryers ($1), mixers ($2.25) and microwaves ($10). “Now they’ve expanded basically to everything that has an extension cord or a battery,” said Bert Heeringa, owner of Canadian Tire in Courtenay. “So if you buy a treadmill or you buy a fan or you buy a power drill, there’s eco fees on everything. It’s a pretty extensive program.” Purchasers of electronic books, GPS devices and video games with extension cords will also get dinged. The recycling fee was introduced in October to cover collection, transportation and recycling costs. It may be included in a product’s price or displayed as a separate charge at checkout. “For businesses (and consumers) there will be some adjustment with the additional recycling fees and handling of the items by the businesses and charging the fees,” Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce president Dianne Hawkins said. For more information visit www.unpluggedrecycling.ca.
TEACHER MYRA WILSON is ‘awestruck’ by a donation her class made to BC Children’s Hospital.
Aspen students support teacher Caitlin McKinnon Record Staff
A heart-warming tale of charity and goodwill has recently emerged from the profusion of “big, bad front page stories” an ongoing BCTF labour dispute has spawned, says SD71 teacher Myra Wilson. When workplace negotiations prompted B.C. school districts to withdraw from extracurricular activities, Wilson and her Grade 5/6 class at Aspen Park Elementary were forced to abandon plans for a multi-day trip to Victoria’s legislature buildings. What her students have done
reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com
BRIAN
with the money reserved for the cancelled outing has left Wilson awestruck. “My co-workers and I were all so nervous about telling our students that trips had been cancelled,” admits Wilson, “but it’s turned into so many other great things.” Once the cancellation was announced, a portion of the money students had raised towards the excursion was reserved for a day trip to Parksville; the fate of the remaining $500 — accrued through the sale of fun-shaped pasta, coffee and lollipops — was decided by class vote. After talk of donating the
remaining funds to a local charity, Wilson says her class proposed Children’s Hospital “all on their own.” “Somebody shouted out Children’s Hospital,” says student Jade Potts, “and then we all agreed to it because all of our class knows that Ms. Wilson’s daughter goes to Children’s Hospital.” Wilson, her husband, and their daughter Lauren have been in and out of Children’s Hospital since October when the threeyear-old was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. The condition, which affects one in 1,000 children under the ... see MEDICAL ■ A2
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