THE WEDNESDAY
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
TRI-CITY NEWS CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
Centennial goes Blonde
A brother act on the ice
SEE ARTS, PAGE 16
SEE SPORTS, PAGE 18
FEB. 5, 2014 www.tricitynews.com
INSIDE
Tom Fletcher/10 Letters/11 Smart Money/14 A Good Read/15
Pushing for $10a-day daycare By Janis Warren THE TRI-CITY NEWS
An initiative to charge parents and caregivers $10 a day — or less — for childcare is gaining steam in B.C. This week, supporters of the campaign appeared before Coquitlam’s council-in-committee to pitch the idea, which last month was backed by Port Coquitlam’s finance committee. Endorsements have also come in from Burnaby and Surrey city councils as well as childcare groups, businesses, service organizations, the New Westminster and District Labour Council and the Coquitlam Teachers’ Association. School District 43 is also supporting the cause, as is New West-Coquitlam NDP MP Fin Donnelly. see SAFE, page 6
CLASS SIZES The province will appeal a B.C. Supreme Curt ruling ordering a return to 2002 classroom rules, the education minister announced Tuesday. See story, page 8
DAN EBENAL/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Reaching for the sky, times two: Left, six-year-old Becca Mitchell competes on the balance beam at the Omega Invitational gymnastics competition Sunday in Coquitlam. Right, on the same day, five-year-old Jordan Gallasch goes for a spin at the Town Centre Park playground in Coquitlam. For more sports, please see page 18.
Keep eye on council spending PoCo will post its council members’ expenses online every month By Diane Strandberg THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Port Coquitlam taxpayers will be able to review councillors’ expenses online every month following a unanimous decision at the
city’s finance and intergovernmental committee meeting Monday. Currently, councillors’ pay and expenses are reported in the statement of financial information (SOFI), which is released once a year, usually in the spring. But after reviewing a similar initiative in Vancouver, PoCo has decided to put tallies of conference expenditures and other councillors’
spending on its website. “You have the potential to have concerns when you don’t have the information,” said Mayor Greg Moore, who also posts information about people he meets with online. “It’s going to city business and so why not share it with everyone?” Moore pointed to the city of Vancouver’s monthly online expense reporting as an example
ON THE MONEY IN POCO ■ Check out 2013 expenses: pg. 9 ■ SOFI, so good: editorial, pg. 10 of what PoCo is trying to do, noting that people’s concerns and freedom of information requests dropped in that city when the information was posted regularly online.
The PoCo information will include a summary, similar to what is included in the SOFI reports, as well as more detailed information for each councillor (see sidebar, page 9).
“Now, people can judge whether it’s a good way of spending money or not,”Moore said. Coun. Michael Wright, one of the city’s longestserving politicians, said the motion drew very little debate and the time is right to get the data online. “I think it’s a reasonable thing to do,” Wright said. see OPENNESS, page 9