FRIDAY
$1.25
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July 27, 2012
A division of
Vol. 27 No. 60
COMOX VALLEY RECORD Your community. Your newspaper. www.comoxvalleyrecord.com
Dix, NDP here for ‘outreach’
PARA NORMAL
Renée Andor
Local para-cyclist trying to spread the word. ■ B12
Record Staff
QUENEESH LEGACY
Long ago, rain fell from the sky and filled what is now called the Comox Valley. An old man had warned people living in the longhouses rimming the bay to prepare canoes and lengths of cedar rope. When the village was swept away in the flood, some people tied their canoes to a white whale, Queneesh. The white whale came to rest high on a mountain. Today, most people refer to Queneesh as the Comox Glacier. ... Complete story on ■ B1
FINDER ■ Weather
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■ Lottery
A6
■ Ferry Schedule
A6
■ Editorial
A24
■ Opinion
A25
■ Arts
B1
■ Sports
B12
■ Classified
B23
THE QUEEN OF VANCOUVER sits in Fanny Bay while being prepared to make the journey down to a graving dock in Ensenada, Mexico, where it will be dismantled for scrap metal. The ferry ran the route between Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen before BC Ferries sold it a few years ago. PHOTO BY HAL SCHULZ
Ferry floating at Fanny Bay Renée Andor Record Staff
Fanny Bay has a rather large visitor sitting in its waters these days. That visitor is the Queen of Vancouver, which served on the BC Ferries route between Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen for about 45 years until it was retired and sold a few years ago. Now, it’s being fixed up in Fanny Bay before being towed to a graving dock in Ensenada, Mexico, where it will be cut up for scrap metal, according to Doug Lotoski, who is overseeing the upgrades. “We’re just finishing up the
There is so much more to see in the Comox Valley y when y you ATV Saless ATV Rentalss Parts P ts Service e Ac ccessoriess
car deck,” said Lotoski, adding the work will ensure the vessel can make it through rough seas if need be. “It’ll hold anything in a hurricane.” Although he noted an aggravation in the work when the ferry was broken into by vandals shortly after it arrived late last week, he said the upgrades are going well. “Two weeks, it should be out of here, but in the meantime, I’ve got a lot of employees here that are working on it and making good money.” Lotoski noted his client Roberto Curiel, who owns the graving dock in Ensenada, bought the vessel after it was repossessed from the person
who originally bought it from BC Ferries. “The ferry originally was sold to a person over in Vancouver for an undisclosed amount of money,” said Lotoski, adding the person had borrowed the money to buy the boat and then it sat in Howe Sound for about three years. “He had these grandeur plans to do something with it and sell it, but like a lot of things this big, people have great plans but when it comes down to actually doing it, it’s a lot of work and it’s a big expense. “And then the person that actually put up the money to buy it demanded his payment ... see FANNY BAY ■ A2
The Comox Valley is an important riding to the BC NDP, and leader Adrian Dix and fellow MLAs were busy hearing what’s important to the community this week. “This is obviously a key area, a key constituency in any election campaign,” Dix told media Thursday morning. “I think it’s almost always, maybe always in recent years, on the winning side, whether that winning side is NDP or Liberal as it has been, and so it’s an important race for us because we’ve got an outstanding candidate (Kassandra Dycke), but it’s also a community that I think is fairly active on democracy, on democratic issues.” Dix and NDP MLAs from around the province were here Wednesday and Thursday for a caucus meeting and community outreach. MLAs spent Wednesday afternoon meeting with various businesses, community groups, organizations and other agencies. An outside fundraising dinner, including a speech by Dix, followed at the Filberg Heritage Lodge and Park that evening. Then, Thursday morning the group held its caucus meeting before heading out to do more community outreach in the afternoon. “We’re having our caucus meeting here this morning dealing with some of the issues facing the entire province, but also focusing in on issues facing Vancouver Island,” said Dix. Then, “again meeting with community groups, with Lana Popham meeting with farmers and visiting farms, to Mike Farnworth dealing with people in health care, and on and on it goes, to Spencer Chandra Herbert meeting with people in the tourism industry. “It’s a really positive oppor... see VISITING ■ A3
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