Wednesday March 27, 2013 www.saobserver.net $1.25 GST INCLUDED
Reprieve for literacy programs? Province: MLA says restored funding should reverse cut to LASS.
By Barb Brouwer OBSERVER STAFF
Shuswap MLA George Abbott is quite sure Education Minister Don McRae’s March 25 announcement means co-ordinator funding will be restored to the Literacy Alliance of the Shuswap (LASS). The alliance was one of 55 community organizations whose co-ordinator funding was withdrawn by Decoda Literacy Solutions, the agency that receives funding from the Ministry of Education and distributes it to literacy groups across the province. Decoda made the cuts March 1 after the ministry reduced funding by $1 million for the second year in a row. Using its own reserve funds last year, Decoda kept its funding at the same level but said it was unable to do so this year. The irony of the $30,000 loss in funding to LASS was that two weeks before the mid-February announcement, the organization was singled out by the premier with a Council of the Federation Literacy Award for outstanding achievement, innovative practice and excellence in literacy. Abbott, who had praised the alliance for its work and accomplishments, went to bat for LASS, directing his appeals directly to McRae. The minister met with Decoda reps early in March, promising he would “do his best to find some savings and efficiencies.” McRae’s announcement, made Monday at a Decoda conference in Vancouver, confirmed $1 million in funding will be restored to the organization. “The funds will be used to further support 102 community literacy task groups in B.C.,” says a Ministry of Education press release. “These community organizations make an important contribution to the development of individual and family literacy skills through the delivery and co-ordination of literacy programs.” Ministry officials referred specific information on where funding would be restored to Decoda,
JAmEs murrAy/OBSERVER
Change of procedure: Local businessman Gary Osborne sorts letters destined for out-of-town delivery from those to be taken inside the government post office to be sorted and mailed locally.
Postal union fears closure Expansion: Canada Post looking at new downtown outlet.
By Lachlan Labere OBSERVER STAFF
Changes to how Canada Post serves Salmon Arm, and the province, are creating uncertainty as to how long the city will be served by a government postal outlet. Canada Post says the Salmon Arm government post office on Hudson Street is doing very well, but its hours do not cater to those who need to use the service after hours and on weekends. So the Crown corporation has begun a process, in consultation with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), of looking at setting up another private outlet in the vicinity of the downtown postal outlet.
“Because it’s doing well, we see there’s possibly a need…, “ says Canada Post spokesperson Anick Losier. “We’re considering possibly adding a dealership, and the starting point of about 0.5 kilometres away, because there’s more like a retail area, there’s a Rexall there… so there’s a few possible businesses which we could potentially look at.” Losier says a private outlet will allow Canada Post to provide improved access and convenience, and is more cost-effective than expanding hours at the corporate post office. But post office employee and CUPW local 823 (Salmon Arm) president Dale Wereschuk is not entirely comforted by
the information he’s received to date from Canada Post. “All we know is that Canada Post has applied to put a sub-post office on the corner of Sixth Street and Hudson Avenue NE, which puts it on that corner, but they’re not actually saying which facility it’s going in,” says Wereschuk, adding union officials suspect the longterm goal for Canada Post is to do away with Salmon Arm’s corporate office. “Traditionally, that’s what happens. They open the franchise close to a corporate outlet and then they shut down the corporate outlet.” But Losier stresses this is “just a See Local on page A2
See Announcement on page A2
This week Salmon Arm slipped in MoneySense Magazine’s ‘Best Places to Live’ ranking. See A4. Shuswap Theatre’s actors don’t only need costumes, they need hair to match. See A22.
Index Opinion ....................... A6 View Point .................. A7 Life & Times ............... A8 Sports............... A17-A21 Arts & Events ... A22-A25 Time Out................... A26 Vol. 106, No. 13, 44 pages