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Foul play suspected in toddler’s death
An RCMP vehicle is parked outside a house in Promontory Saturday where police were investigating the death of a 14-month-old girl Friday evening. The black car parked in the driveway was later towed away by police. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
The man arrested following the suspicious death of a 14-monthold Chilliwack girl in Promontory Heights Friday has been released without charges. Police have called the death suspicious and suspect foul play. At around 10 p.m. Friday, RCMP were called to a house on Mullins Road in Chilliwack for the 14-month-old baby girl who appeared to be in medical distress. The baby was taken to hospital where attempts to revive her were unsuccessful. An autopsy to determine the cause of death is expected to be completed later this week. Due to the suspicious nature of this death, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team was called to assist. Police are releasing few details about the incident, only to say, “IHIT investigators, with the assistance of the LMD Integrated Forensics Identification Section, are continuing to process evidence and determine the events preceding this tragic death.”
CUPE deal could cost school district $700,000 Katie Bartel The Progress Chilliwack school district could face a $700,000 hit to its budget if the CUPE contract is approved. The B.C. education ministry and Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) tentatively reached an agreement last Thursday that would increase wages for educational support workers by 3.5 per cent. The wage increase will be left to
school districts to fund. Gerry Slykhuis, secretary treasurer of Chilliwack school district, said that while the district is pleased a strike was avoided, the expense will be a significant blow to the bottom line, especially when added to the estimated $50,000 unexpected cost to the district for the upcoming byelection. “Any new cost that we have to find in one place has to come from somewhere else,” said Slykhuis. “We’re going to have to make
some adjustments somewhere to pay for that.” Staffing will likely be impacted. For the 2013-14 school year, salaries and benefits are costing the district $97,728,276. That amounts to 88 per cent of the budget. “A big chunk of our budget is payroll related,” said Slykhuis. “It’s going to be hard to find that kind of a savings without having some kind of impact on staffing, either staff not getting hired or reductions.”
Staff layoffs is one of the many concerns Chilliwack CUPE 411 president Rod Isaac expressed with this deal. Despite the positive spin put on the contract by CUPE’s bargaining committee, Isaac, whose local membership voted 94 per cent in favour of striking in April, was not impressed with the agreement. “Even at a 3.5 per cent wage increase over two years, we still continue to fall behind the cost of living; that’s not acceptable to our
members, it really isn’t,” Isaac said. “There is nothing that CUPE does that does not affect students. Every single one of our jobs has an effect on student learning one way or another, and for the government to tell school boards they have to fund it from within, I thought that was just awful… an absolute slap in the face.” CUPE represents more than 27,000 education workers in B.C.’s public school system, including Continued: CUPE/ p25
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