THE FRIDAY
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
TRI-CITY NEWS CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
Much ado about hotel
Mad hatters and dads
SEE FACE TO FACE, PAGE 11
SEE THINGS-TO-DO GUIDE, PAGE 21
JUNE 14, 2013 www.tricitynews.com
INSIDE
Letters/12 Tri-City Spotlight/23 Elaine Golds/25 Sports/50
Weapons seized in local raids
DIXON TAM/SFU
Brad Buchan (right), a Grade 4 Alderson elementary school student, learns math through an understanding of patterns and shapes in a program called Math Catcher: Mathematics through Aboriginal Storytelling with Janelle Dobson-Kocsis, an SFU student with the Math Catcher program. For more on the program, developed by SFU’s Veselin Jungic, see page 24.
Police seized several prohibited firearms and other weapons after executing search warrants on locations in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Maple Ridge on Wednesday morning. One Maple Ridge man was arrested in the raids by the Coquitlam RCMP, along with the Lower Mainland District Emergency Response Team, the National Weapons Enforcement Support Team and the Explosives Disposal Unit, but charges have not yet been laid. Police seized guns as well as a hand grenade, a conducted energy weapon (Taser), thousands of rounds of ammunition, multiple sets of body armour and a small amount of drugs. “Any time we can work with a team like this to get weapons, ammunition and drugs off the streets it has an immediate positive impact on community safety,” said Coquitlam RCMP Supt. Claude Wilcott in a release. Police are not releasing any further details on the active investigation.
Coal controversy? Not here PCT in PoMo has been handling coal since 2011
Fraser Health’s chief medical health officer may have some clout regarding port proposal. See page 20
By Sarah Payne THE TRI-CITY NEWS
What to do with that old wedding dress? Have a street party, of course... Please see story on page 3
As the controversy over a proposed coal terminal in Surrey rages on, Port Moody’s Pacific Coast Terminals continues its coal-handling operations barely noticed. PCT has been shipping coal from Burrard Inlet under a two-year agreement with Teck Resources that is set to expire at the end of 2013. The contract came
after a testing phase in 2011 that didn’t raise any concerns with Port Metro Vancouver, Metro Vancouver or the city. “We wanted to make sure we weren’t going to be generating any dust from the handling of coal and to make sure we
had the ability to clean our systems to go from sulphur to coal and back without causing any cross-contamination,” said Ken Catton, PCT’s vice-president and general manager. Since 2011, PCT has handled more than
750,000 tonnes of coal, with no complaints from the community. “It’s because there is no dust,” Catton said. “I don’t think people even realize we’re handling coal.” The proposed Fraser Surrey Docks coal port project would export an
additional four million tonnes of coal per year, an increase of less than 10% in the port’s overall coal-handling capacity. The coal would come from the northern U.S. via rail and eventually be shipped to Asia. The proposal has generated significant opposition from Lower Mainland residents and environmental groups, which say the proposed port expansion would increase the amount of coal dust throughout the region, posing a variety of health risks for people and the environment. see DIFFERENT COAL, page 8