THE FRIDAY
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
APRIL 12, 2013
TRI-CITY NEWS
www.tricitynews.com
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
Grading Stephen Harper
Meet PM poet laureate
SEE FACE TO FACE, PAGE A11
SEE PAGE A14
INSIDE
Letters/A12 Things-to-do Guide/A20 Tri-City Spotlight/A21 Sports/A38
School deficit is $8M By Diane Strandberg THE TRI-CITY NEWS
School District 43’s projected deficit has grown dramatically since the board of education first revealed its financial woes in January. B u t b o a rd c h a i r Melissa Hyndes says she has confidence in the elected board and district administrators to bring the situation under control. On Tuesday, SD43 superintendent Tom Grant revealed this year’s school operating deficit would be about $8 million by the end of June — not the $7.5 million originally identified in January and not the $2.5 million that figure had been whittled down to a month later. see MINISTRY, page A3
BOOM
■ SD43 unions are shocked at budget bombshell: page A3 ■ SD43 books must be audited: Opinion, page A10 IN QUOTES
“I understand people are shocked.” Melissa Hyndes, chair of School District 43 board of education
Saturday fuel spill in Moody By Sarah Payne THE TRI-CITY NEWS
AIR TIME
BOAZ JOSEPH/BLACK PRESS
Members of The Dancelab (Coquitlam) perform a group jazz routine (age 16) at the 47th annual Surrey Festival of Dance at the Surrey Arts Centre on April 6. Competitions in other dance styles continue until April 29.
Clean-up is underway at the Suncor Energy terminal on Barnet Highway after about 225 barrels of a biodegradable oil leaked from one of its storage tanks over the weekend. Suncor spokesperson Sneh Seetal said the leak was discovered last Saturday from one of the
approximately 70 aboveground storage tanks at its Burrard Products Terminal. “The product that was leaked is a soybeanbased biodegradable product that’s used as a blending agent for biofuels,” Seetal said yesterday, noting the oil is used to make renewable diesel. see POMO MAYOR, page A9