BANKING CARDINALS ON MILK CRUSHED Human milk banks saving lives, dollars B1
Giants advanced to World Series against Tigers B4
Details inside
CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
TUESDAY, OCT. 23, 2012
Budget talks aim to slay deficit HIRING FREEZE, BUS FEES UNDER CONSIDERATION BY LAURA TESTER ADVOCATE STAFF A staff hiring freeze, introducing bus transportation fees and changing busing service may be considered as part of Red Deer Public School District’s effort to balance its budget over the next couple of years. The school board will begin discussions on Wednesday as to how it can reduce its $1.4-million deficit. Superintendent Piet Langstraat said the school district has been living on reserves to support schools and educational programs. The revenue flow from the provincial government is dropping, so the board may see a reduction in this grant of $1.8 million, Langstraat added. The board has a $110-million budget and as part of that, $5 million is in reserves.
RED DEER PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD Langstraat will suggest to the board that the deficit be cut by $500,000 a year, so that by 2014, a balanced budget will be achieved. He believes the district will do well with having two per cent of the budget in reserves. He will suggest that one way of reducing the overall deficit is to eliminate the transportation deficit of $216,000. This could involve introducing transportation fees, reducing service levels and double shifting of buses. Langstraat said the double shifting would see buses used for one school with an earlier opening and then used to deliver students to another school with a later opening time. The school district contracts with Prairie Bus Lines so there is a savings
in terms of bus drivers needed. “The idea is to stagger school times so we can use fewer buses to pick up our students,” said Langstraat. Langstraat said this could have an impact on parents who have children at different schools. “If one school started earlier for an older child and another started later for a younger child, it could potentially cause child care issues for families,” said Langstraat. “We are certainly aware of this.” Transportation fees could be introduced to those who have children beyond 1.6 km of an elementary school, or 2.4 km beyond a middle or senior high school. Right now, busing is free. Reducing service levels in other ways may be considered.
Ganger guilty of sex assault
Langstraat said another deficit-reducing strategy may be to freeze staff levels, despite increases in enrolment. “We wouldn’t have to lay anybody off,” he added. “But it would involve bigger class sizes.” Student enrolment this fall rose to 10,300 from 9,990 in the previous school year. There’s one more deficit-reducing strategy involving how the provincial dollars are distributed to schools on a per pupil basis. “We could freeze the per pupil allocation and say it’s going to remain the same,” said Langstraat. “And then when we get additional grants from Alberta Education, we’ll use that to offset our deficit.” Langstraat said that decisions will not be made until February, when the budget cycle begins and announcements come from the province. ltester@reddeeradvocate.com
LET THERE BE SNOW
BY BRENDA KOSSOWAN ADVOCATE STAFF A Red Deer man previously convicted of sexually assaulting teenaged job applicants was pronounced guilty on Monday on a new charge of sexual assault. Thomas Paul Ganger, 64, was tried before Judge John Holmes in Red Deer provincial court on Sept. 26 in relation to an incident that occurred at a Red Deer hotel in the early hours of Jan. 21, 2011. Holmes reserved his decision on the trial until Monday, when he pronounced Ganger guilty. The victim, a 30-year-old salesman whose name is protected under a court-imposed publication ban, had testified during the trial that he had befriended the elder man at a trade show and that they were drinking with others after the show closed for the evening. Repeating elements of the man’s testimony, Holmes said the complainant was concerned that Ganger should not drive and offered him the spare bed in his hotel room. The younger man said he awoke to find Ganger in bed with him, fondling his buttocks and his genitals. He bolted from the room, wearing only his underwear, and ran to the room of a friend. Police were called about 15 minutes later.
Please see SEX ASSAULT on Page A2
Photo by RANDY FIEDLER/Advocate staff
Murray Knight checks the operation of a snowmaking machine on Canyon Ski Resort’s Sundeck run Monday. Plummeting temperatures forecats to remain below zero all week and the prospect of natural snow prompted snowmaking to start earlier than it has in many years. The resort hopes to open Nov. 17 — earlier if weather permits — and will unveil improvements such as a new terrain park, new beginner’s lift and a new tube park for tobogganing.
Foreign worker facing cancer fight without health care BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF A Mexican worker who has been employed steadily for five years in the Red Deer area is facing cancer without health care coverage due to federal government cuts. Gabriel Yanez-Zuniga, 33, is supporting three young children and his wife in Red Deer. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer on Thursday. Drastic changes made in June to health coverage for rejected refugees means that Yanez-Zuniga, his wife Leticia Uriostegui-Soto, and eight-yearold daughter, can only get diagnosis and treatment for diseases that put the public safety at risk. Their two-year-old twins do have Alberta health coverage since they were born in province. “My problem is they just changed the rules. We have no more coverage,” Yanez-Zuniga said on Monday. “I want coverage for now, for this case. After, we can probably apply to an insurance company. But right now nobody is going to give me coverage because I’m sick.” He said a letter from the federal government alerting him to changes in the coverage never arrived. Yanez-Zuniga came to Canada as a refugee claimant with an open work
PLEASE RECYCLE
permit with his wife and daughter. Their application for refugee status has since been denied, making them no longer eligible for health care assistance under the Interim Federal Health Program. An application for humanitarian and compassionate consideration for permanent residence status from Citizenship and Immigration was also refused in July. Permanent status provides health care coverage. Yanez-Zuniga said he can appeal to Citizenship and Immigration, but that takes time that he doesn’t have with his medical emergency. Staff for Red Deer MP Earl Dreeshen told Yanez-Zuniga that Dreeshen couldn’t help. Yanez-Zuniga’s only chance is to get an “approval in principal” letter from Citizenship and Immigration for permanent resident status. Yanez-Zuniga is still working at the dairy farm where he has worked for three years, although he feels sore and tired. The cancer diagnosis came as a surprise. He visited his family doctor on Oct. 10 after experiencing pain earlier in the week. Yanez-Zuniga has an appointment with a specialist on Thursday to find out about surgery, which he may be able to access for free. But he still faces the cost of radiation and chemother-
WEATHER
INDEX
Periods of snow. High -4.
Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3,C4 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5,A6 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D4 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D5 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-B5
FORECAST ON A2
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Foreign worker Gabriel Yanez and his wife, Leticia, with their twin boys, Alajandro and Edurdo, and their daughter, Nadia, in their Red Deer home. apy after surgery. Yanez-Zuniga’s boss, Tom Wyntjes of WM Wyntjes and Sons Farm Ltd. near Red Deer, asked why his employee is paying taxes but can’t get health
care. “Under the Canada Health Act, you’re not suppose to be denied treatment,” Wyntjes said. szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
CANADA
WORLD
PIPELINE OPPONENTS RALLY AT LEGISLATURE
WIFE AMONG VICTIMS IN SPA SHOOTING
Thousands of protesters who packed the front lawn of the B.C. legislature yelled a thunderous ‘Yes’ when asked if they were willing to lay down in front of pipeline bulldozers if the Northern Gateway project is approved. A5
A U.S. woman whose husband killed her and two others at the spa where she worked said he threatened to throw acid in her face and jealously terrorized her ‘every waking moment,’ according to court documents. D6