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KELOWNA Rockets defenceman Riley Stadel leads the team with eight power play goals already this season.
KELOWNA law firm moves to a new office without changing its downtown location along Lawrence Street.
PHOTOGRAPHER from Kelowna generated headlines this week after winning the $50,000 prize in a phtogrpaphy contest by weaving photography and video.
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THURSDAY November 14, 2013 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com
▼ RUTLAND
▼ LOCKOUT
Fortis workers feel the financial pinch Surveys seek Jennifer Smith STAFF REPORTER
It has been 140 days, or five months, since 30-year-old Scott Ross worked. “It’s been difficult. I know people have had to defer their mortgages. I know a few people with kids, powerline technicians with kids, have resorted to diets consisting mostly of hot dogs,” he said. Earning $28-an-hour, his job with FortisBC is supposed to be helping him save money for law school. Ross ran for city council while he was still at UBCO earning his politics, philosophy and economics degree, and is planning on re-entering school one year from September. Sitting through the five-month FortisBC strike was not in the plan. “It’s delaying your life for a year. I’m 30 years old. When you look back at your life and you realize that you’ve spent five months really not contributing to your career, your goals, even to a company, it impacts you,” he said. “I don’t even know how I’m going to put this on a resume.” For families, it has been considerably worse in his view. He’s talking about kids missing out on their hockey season because budgets are so tight. He’s heard of people leaving, accepting work that will take them far
JENNIFER SMITH/CAPITAL NEWS
LOCKED OUT FortisBC employee Scott Ross has been walking the picket line for the past five months. from their family. Powerline technicians and power dispatchers— the people who organize fixing the lines—are
the big, sought-after careers in the electrical side of the company. FortisBC has an electrical side and a gas side.
At $39 per hour, a powerline technician would make $312 per day without venturing into overtime; strike pay is
$100 per day. The strike does not preclude working elsewhere. Workers can take on a part-time job, but they are to report to the picket line daily for a fourhour shift. According to Ross, the submissions FortisBC made to the union indicate powerline technicians are underpaid by 10 per cent. One could earn more working for a contractor, but the work moves constantly and, at least for now, it’s not in Kelowna. For Bruce Reynolds, an electrician with the company for the last 12 years, the loss of income means major projects won’t get done around the house and the singlemother-of-four his family helps with Christmas bills and her childrens’ extra expenses likely won’t see as big a financial contribution. Reynolds worked hard for this job and he has a network of people who depend his income. A former construction worker, he commuted to Trail every week for four years so his family could stay in the Okanagan and he could secure full-time work with the company. “I believe that everybody should be able to own a home and set up some kind of roots so they can help the brothers and sisters and daughters and grandchildren when they come around,” he said.
insight for future growth Barry Gerding EDITOR
The time has come in Kelowna’s evolution for the Rutland community to embrace an updated and more vibrant identity, according local business leaders and residents. But what form that new identity should take and what exactly is it that can revitalize Kelowna’s eastern and highest populated suburb are questions a new public survey is hoping to answer. On Wednesday, The Rutland Unified Stakeholders Team outlined plans for the new survey that will be adminstered by fourth-year marketing students from UBC Okanagan. “The time has come to identify what residents, businesses and UBCO students need to live, work and play in a thriving Rutland community,” said Laurel D’Andrea, executive director of the Uptown Rutland Business Association and member of the TRUST group. “TRUST will explore areas such as shopping, services, health, financial entertainment, facilities, food and beverage.” The 10-question survey will be targeted at post-secondary students, businesses and local residents, with questions for each altered to provide feedback specific to their individual demographic segments. The UBCO students behind the surveys—Colin Gill, Connor Wain, Brett Haney and Rosanna Zhing, under the direction of university professor Ian Stuart— want to reach a wide cross-section of Rutland demographic groups to generate some consensus on how TRUST should move forward. The surveys will be launched online Nov. 15 and can be electronically filled out until 3 p.m. on Nov. 25. The surveys can be accessed at www.uptownrutland. com starting Friday. While there will be no printed version of the survey, those without access to a computer can fill out a printed version at the URBA office at 158 Valleyview Road. The office phone number is 250-451-9861. It is hoped that residents and business owners will circulate the surveys via social media to encourage a large response.
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