SAANICH NEWS No Tax PaHyIS WEEKEND!
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Obstacle farm
Olympians, chefs run to cook at Madrona. Page A3
COMMUNITY: Run for the Cure Sunday /A4 NEWS: Security tampering at computer stores /A7
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Taxpayers hit twice for 911 service, says CREST Tim Collins News staff
Victoria Flower Count, as well as the tradition of greeting cruise ship visitors with a gift – originally roses, carnations and now pins. These days she still assembles floral arrangements for the Greater Victoria Art Gallery as a volunteer, and often donates arrangements to Our Place, the Victoria Symphony, as well as the Victoria Conservatory of Music. “I just get involved with everything and anybody,” she says. The self-professed people-person remembers getting caught stealing flowers from her neighbour’s yard when she was a little girl.
Taxpayers in Greater Victoria are being double billed for 911 emergency phone service, says the public agency that oversees emergency communication in the region. Telecommunications companies are charging a levy for every 911 call made from a cellphone, but that money isn’t being remitted to support the public 911 system, says Gordie Logan, board chair of Capital Region Emergency Service Telecommunications (CREST). CREST handles the 911 calls in the Capital Region for all police, fire, ambulance and other emergency services. Logan said that cellphone levy is charged by providers (such as Telus, Bell, Rogers and others), but unlike landline calls, the telecommunications companies are keeping the fee. “They charge about $1.25 for every 911 cellphone call, and I would say that their cost related to taking that call is a tiny fraction of that amount,” Logan said. In comparison, landline levies are passed along by the telephone companies to 911 call centres to offset the cost of providing that emergency service. When someone with a landline makes a 911 call, the phone company charges a 66-cent levy to the customer, Logan said. Phone companies turn over about 59 cents of that levy to CREST, which in turn uses those funds to offset operating costs passed on to municipalities. “The benefit goes not to CREST, but to the municipalities, the RCMP, B.C. Ambulance and others who have to pay for the 911 call centre,” said Logan.
PLEASE SEE: Neighbourhood party, Page A9
PLEASE SEE: Levies cover real costs, Page A6
Brittany Lee/News staff
Longtime florist Norma Fitzsimmons, 90, once known as Victoria’s flower lady, is still hosts annual neighbourhood potlucks in her Saanich home, and creates floral arrangements on a volunteer basis for several local organizations.
‘Flower lady’ embodies community spirit At 90, the woman who started Victoria’s famed flower count still beautifying city Brittany Lee News staff
Tucked away in a cul-de-sac by Cadboro Bay beach sits a ranch-style home known to neighbours as the meeting place. For years, Norma Fitzsimmons has welcomed new and longtime neighbours into her Saanich home, allowing them to get to know each other through community potluck dinners.
Turning 90 in August hasn’t slowed down the longtime florist and former owner of Island Florist. Her big annual neigbourhood event and volunteer efforts remain an integral part of her life. Born and raised in Victoria, Fitzsimmons’ love of flowers blossomed at an early age. Becoming a florist was “the most wonderful thing,” she says. “I’m my happiest when I’m working with flowers.” Indeed, the former Saanich councillor – she held one term during the 1970s – was once known as Victoria’s “flower lady.” She worked with the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce and the Victoria AM Association, developing ideas to promote Victoria as a “City of Gardens.” She started the annual and now famed
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