THE FRIDAY
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
TRI-CITY NEWS CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
Thank the Academy?
Grease is the word
SEE FACE TO FACE, PAGE 11
SEE THINGS-TO-DO GUIDE, PAGE 19
FEB. 8, 2013 www.tricitynews.com
INSIDE
Spirit Week fun/16 Tri-City Spotlight/21 Elaine Golds/22 Sports/41
JASON HYLTON PHOTO
Enjoying the sun last weekend on Port Moody’s Inlet Trail is Christy Warkentin. And the weather forecast for B.C.’s first ever Family Day long weekend also calls for sun, mixed with cloud, over the next three days.
Polak undecided on proposed tax By Jeff Nagel BLACK PRESS
Transportation Minister Mary Polak isn’t ruling out agreeing to the request of Metro Vancouver mayors to enable a regional sales tax to fund TransLink, saying more work would have to be done. Area mayors on Tuesday suggested adding an additional sales MARY POLAK tax charged in the Metro region of 0.1% to 0.5%, with each tenth of a point adding $50 million a year to the transit system. “We’re nowhere near a decision that says whether it’s on or it’s off,” Polak said Wednesday. see ‘WHAT COMES’, page 15 • also: COST-CUTTING, page 14
SD43 deficit likely $2.5M No staff cuts this year, deficit to be carried forward By Diane Strandberg THE TRI-CITY NEWS
School District 43 will run a $2.5-million deficit at the end of the year if it has to rather than cut staff or slash programs mid-year, says the chair of the board of education. Melissa Hyndes said the district is required to
submit an amended balanced budget on Feb. 26 for the current year but the district is facing a $7.5-million deficit and is making $5 million in nonstaff cuts to trim it. The remaining shortfall, possibly as much as $2.5 million, will be carried over in future years as other cash-strapped school districts have done, Hyndes said. “We feel it’s important not to make salary and benefit cuts in mid-year,” said the Port Moody
IN QUOTES
“I would rather continue to provide what we said we would provide for the education of students this year.” Melissa Hyndes, board of education chair trustee. “I would rather continue to provide what we said we would provide for the education of students this year.” She said the board was assured when it
took its financial woes to the Ministry of Finance in January that it will be able to carry a deficit because of its record of fiscal responsibility over the years.
“Because we’ve been proactive, knowing we are possibly going to end up in a deficit position, they’ve indicated there is a payment plan to pay that over time,”she said. In the meantime, she said, the district is well on its way to achieving its $5 million cost-cutting targets by slashing supply budgets, release time for substitute teachers, discretionary spending and savings through attrition. see FEW SPECIFICS, page 3