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Some on council think wood stoves should go By Andrea Klassen STAFF REPORTER andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
It likely won’t happen in this decade, but city councillors have indicated they would like to see wood-burning stoves snuffed out in Kamloops homes. The city’s new airshed-management plan, a draft of which came to council this week for a policy workshop, doesn’t set out to ban wood
stoves, but targets problem burners — people using improper fuel or those with older, high-emitting appliances. “The idea is to properly manage those wood-burning appliances,” sustainability and environmental services manager Jen Fretz told council. “So if a neighbour is complaining that they’re getting smoked out, we would have some teeth in educating this person on proper burning practices.”
problems with burning green Speak up wood or garShould wood-burning stoves be You can comment on any story you read @ bage. eventually phased out in Kamloops? kamloopsthisweek.com While newer Let is know at wood stoves don’t edidititor ed itoror@k @kam @k amlloloop am looppststhihihisw swee sw eekk.k.co ee k.co comm produce the same Instead of a ban, kinds of emisthe airshed plan suggests starting sions as older models, Fretz said the a wood stove exchange program design makes no difference if somesimilar to those in Merritt and one uses the appliance to set fire to other communities, and doing their trash. more to educate people about the Several councillors, however, said
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S OOK SC H OO L Clockwise from left: NorKam secondary students Kassie Atkins, Andrew Galbraith, Kassy Ward, Courtney Madill, Becca Gray and Amanda Larocque prepare to scare visitors at the second annual Halloween Haunted House, hosted by Brocklehurst middle school and NorKam. The haunted house at NorKam will be open to all from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 26, and Saturday, Oct. 27. Admission is by donation, with all proceeds going to fund school programs. For more ideas on where to go to find Halloween haunts in Kamloops, turn to unlucky page B13 of today’s paper for a spooktacular summary of scary sights. Dave Eagles/KTW
it might be time for the city to look at slowly phasing out the appliances. “At least you would put people on notice that, 15 years from now, you’re not going to be able to burn wood in the city,” said Coun. Ken Christian, who suggested the city eventually make it a requirement that homeowners remove wood-burning stoves and fireplaces from their residences before selling them. X See MAYOR A7
WHAT IS YOUR MOTHER TONGUE? English remains the predominant mother tongue in Kamloops-area homes, according to language data released this week by Statistics Canada. Based on the 2011 census, the numbers show 89.3 per cent (86.980) of residents in the Kamloops census area — which includes the city, the Tk’emlups Indian Band, Chase, Logan Lake, Sun Peaks and parts of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District — reported English as their mother tongue. French was next, at 1.2 per cent (1,185), while non-official languages accounted for 8.6 per cent (8,410) of the Greater Kamloops population. A remaining one per cent of respondents cited multiple languages as their mother tongue. The three mostcommon mother tongues, other than English or French, in the Kamloops region are German (1.4 per cent; 1,385), Punjabi (1.3 per cent; 1,255)
and Italian (1.1 per cent; 1,045). The percentage of the Kamloops-area population that knows how to speak English and French is 5.2 per cent (5,095). The 2011 census numbers on language in the Kamloops area are very similar to data collected in the 2006 census, to within percentage point across the board. Nationally, the census found more than 200 languages were reported as a home language or mother tongue. The number of people who reported speaking Tagalog, a Philippinebased language, most often at home increased the most (64 per cent) between 2006 and 2011. Nearly 279,000 people reported speaking the language at home, compared with 170,000 in 2006. In 2011, 17.5 per cent (5.8 million) of the Canadian population reported speaking at least two languages at home. In 2006, 14.2 per cent (4.5 million) did so.