THE WEDNESDAY
DEC. 12, 2012
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
TRI-CITY NEWS
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CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
A journey to Narnia
Making memories
SEE ARTS, PAGE A22
SEE SPECIAL B SECTION
INSIDE
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Tom Fletcher/A10 Letters/A11 Christmas Giving/A19 MakSports/A26 ing Tri-City News Wednesday , December 12, 2012,
B1
Holiday Memories
Holiday Photo Cont
est entries shown
inside
TIM FITZGERALD/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Ross Harvey and his two-year-old son Jackson get in the spirit of things at Aunt Leah’s Christmas tree lot in front of the Eagle Ridge United Church in Coquitlam. See story about Aunt Leah’s on page A16.
$95 more in Coquitlam But mayors joust over funding for more Mounties By Janis Warren
STEVE SMITH PHOTO
THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Hundreds turned out on Sunday for the first Snowflake Walk in Port Coquitlam. Photos, page A3
Coquitlam homeowners will see an average $95 jump in their property taxes and utility bills next year. On Monday, city council gave fourth and final reading to the 2013 budget, which sees a $16 increase in the water rate, an $8 rise in the sewer and drainage levy, and a $7 hike in the garbage/recycling rate, as well as an average increase of $64 in property taxes.
STEWART
MOORE
That translates to a total bill of about $2,911 in municipal and Metro Vancouver fees next year for a home with the statistically average assessed value of $565,000. The extra taxes add eight new firefighters to build up staffing levels for a Burke Mountain fire hall, among other things. But council set aside no new cash next year to hire more Mounties — a move that Mayor Richard
Stewart said is intended to allow the city of Port Coquitlam to “catch up” on funding cops. PoCo, which shares the RCMP detachment with Coquitlam, hasn’t added new police officers for two years, a decision that goes against the joint crime-reduction strategy in seeing more cops added annually to meet demands in the two cities (this year, Coquitlam hired two more officers while in 2011 it hired four). “We’re taking a break [in hiring], largely because Port Coquitlam h a s n ’ t c a u g h t u p,” Stewart said Tuesday. see COQ. SAYS, page A7
Police throughout the region are on the lookout for drivers who’ve been drinking during the holiday season. What did they find last weekend? See story, page A4