CLOCK TICKING FOR REFERENDUM PUSH
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A TOWER OF COST AND CONFUSION
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DOUGLAS SHOWS OFF ITS OWN TALENT
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Dustin Bentall and Kendel Carson are bringing some summer heat to Concerts at the Quay. See Page A14
FRIDAY
JULY 27 2012 www.newwestnewsleader.com
Meter decision coming in fall Council to have three choices including smart meters Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
Participants in the annual New Westminster Police Department soccer camp learn a variety of skills from 70 volunteers and coaches, including target practice. See Photos A3
Puchmayr questions need for China trip Councillor suggests city ‘piggyback’ on senior government junkets Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
A delegation of seven from New Westminster will be heading to China in the fall, but there’s one councillor who thinks the city should be cutting back on exchange trips. Earlier this year, council approved plans for Mayor Wayne Wright (or an acting mayor), two councillors,
a city staff member and three members of New West’s sister city committee to go to China for two weeks in late October. A report to council said the cost would be about $2,500 per person with the money coming from a fund for such trips established in 2003. Almost all of the accommodation costs will be absorbed by the host cities. The report also said its sister/ friendship city agreements call for at least one visit to or from the sister city every three years, and 2009 was the last time a New Westminster
delegation visited China. Coun. Chuck Puchmayr voted against the trip, saying the city should be doing them in conjunction with senior government international forays in search of business for B.C. Going that route would be more efficient for the city, said Puchmayr. “If we’re going to do things like that, the federal government or the provincial government engage in those types of trips with business leaders, and it would be very prudent to tie into those and piggy-
back on those,” said Puchmayr. “It’s really difficult for a city of 60,000 to do that type of thing.” He argued by creating a good, clean, livable city a lot of economic development will take care of itself instead of going overseas to try to attract the business. “How do you make that call? How do you make sure you’re using tax dollars that could affect business already in the city,” said Puchmayr, who suggest limits should be put on how many make the trip.
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New Westminster will replace its electricity meters but whether it’s with the smart meters BC Hydro is distributing to the rest of the province is up to city council. New West has its own electric utility and its general manager, Rod Carle, said eventually its 32,000 aging meters will have to be replaced. He has told council the city is looking at three options and will come back to them in the fall with a cost analysis and recommend a preference. “We’ll take some time and zero in on what the costs are and the benefits of each option are,” said Carle. The first would be to replace the current mechanical ones with digital meters. He said that would cost about $3.6 million, but that would also require meter readers to continue to physically collect data from each meter on a regular basis. Please see CITY, A4