Show season
PACE brings wonder of Christmas this winter Page A11
NEWS: Regional mayors play 911 blame game A5 COMMUNITY: Metchosin fire maintains parade A8 ARTS: Magic of The Nutcracker visits to Victoria A12
GOLDSTREAM
NEWS GAZETTE
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
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MEET
Belmont’S ‘clever’ magician Grade 10 Belmont secondary student and magician Jason Verners will unveil a new bag of tricks at a show in Victoria tomorrow. See story page A10. Kyle Wells/News staff
Steel shortage, design flaws hamper bridge Kyle Slavin News staff
Dec. 1, 2013 is a day Kim Reynhoudt looked forward to all year. He imagined hosting a Craigflower Bridge reopening sale at his Canadian Tire store – just in time for Christmas – to welcome back customers who avoided the area during the project’s eight months of construction. But the expected opening date changed from Dec. 1 to late May 2014, and now Reynhoudt and nearby business owners are bracing for what they say could be a
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dismal Christmas shopping season. “Being that this bridge is closed right by my doorsteps, it’s had a huge impact on my sales. It’s been extremely disastrous for business,” he said. “We certainly planned for the closure for the eight months. The town talked to me and we agreed to shut the whole bridge down and get it done quick and get it back ready before Christmas season. Normally December is my busiest month, but I’m expecting it to be a much quieter month.” He expects to lose more than $1 million in sales by the time the bridge is complete. Lori Lelonde, owner of Your Pet Pals in
nearby Nelson Square, says her sales are down 30 per cent compared to last year. “It’s brutal. We are just hanging on by our fingernails,” she said. After her business felt the impact of the Admirals Bridge (June to September 2009) and Island Highway (July 2010 to June 2011) projects in recent years, Lelonde says she anticipated a downturn with the Craigflower Bridge replacement. Lelonde took a second job with the Department of National Defence and stopped taking a salary from her pet store, in order to keep her three employees on staff.
In July 2012, Saanich and View Royal, which share responsibility of the bridge, even delayed starting construction nearly a year to avoid this issue. Jim Hemstock, Saanich’s manager of capital projects, said last year: The loss of access between Saanich and View Royal during the Christmas shopping season “would be devastating” to businesses. View Royal Mayor Graham Hill says he feels bad that area businesses will suffer as a result of construction delays. PlEASE SEE: Businesses feel the pinch, Page A3
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