PENINSULA
NEWS REVIEW
On the Flavour Trail
Reaching the stars
District of North Saanich is looking for someone or some group to take over the summer farm tours, page 13
Sidney’s Star Cinema has finally reached its fundraising goal — and now the real work begins, page 14
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Friday, March 22, 2013
Going my way Lobby group hopes Sidney traffic study isn’t shelved Steven Heywood News staff
A Sidney traffic and tourism advocacy group says the town should not shelve ideas in a recent traffic movement study to explore the possible benefits of making Beacon Avenue a two-way street. The Sidney Traffic Improvement Group (STIG) told the News Review this week that they have expanded their mandate to look at tourism research and marketing — with an eye at finding ways of attracting tourists to Sidney and then helping make sure issues such as one-way streets and a lack of sufficient directional signage do not drive them away. STIG and its chairman Denis Paquette formed late last year and had approached town council in January for a $25,000 grant to conduct tourist research and more direct information-gathering on what downtown businesses want (especially in terms Mervyn of making Beacon Avenue Loughera two-way route). Paquette, Goodey owner of the Sidney Waterfront Inn, has long lamented one-way traffic on Beacon as well as what he sees as a lack of signage to direct travellers into Sidney. The town has not granted STIG (made up of mostly local hotel owners) any cash and contracted Urban Systems to review traffic movement in the downtown core. Urban Systems’ report is now public on the town’s website and, in a nutshell, stated Sidney need not do anything significant to its traffic patterns for at least 10 years. PLEASE SEE: Traffic revision not warranted, page 5
Devon MacKenzie/News staff
Owen Bains, 6, snuggles his new friend and autism assistance dog, Vermont at his family home in Central Saanich. Learn more about the duo on page 3.
North Saanich tax rate stays low Cost increases, controversial property assessments could still hit hard Steven Heywood News staff
North Saanich will once again have one of the lowest overall tax rates in the Greater Victoria region. At its March 18 budget committee
meeting, council approved a 1.62 per cent general tax rate hike for 2013. That’s lower than the district’s 2012 tax rate of 1.7 per cent — which was still the lowest among south Island municipalities. District staff had begun this year’s bud-
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get process considering a 3.2 per cent tax rate increase, but had made reductions in municipal expenditures by February 27 to get that rate down to 1.6 per cent. PLEASE SEE: Director of finance warns, page 9