THURSDAYFEBRUARY 27, 2014
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PAINTING STORIES
POVERTY IN PARADISE
Part two of a series examines child poverty in our region
Symbolism and humour found in artists’s acrylic creations
A5
B1
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SHELLFISH IN DANGER
Dragons to the rescue? CBC panel to consider biz
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pitching heartier oyster JOHN HARDING editor@pqbnews.com
A local man who will face the Dragons may have the answer to a beast of a problem facing local shellfish producers. An industry that’s worth $32 million to the B.C. economy and employs 1,000 people — half of them in Baynes Sound — is in jeopardy due to high acidity levels in the ocean. “We’ve been pushing this alarm for years about ocean acidity,” said B.C. Shelfish Growers Association (BCSGA) executive director Roberta Stevenson. “It’s well documented and it’s a huge threat to the ability of shellfish to reproduce.” In Tuesday’s edition of The NEWS, Island Scallops CEO Rob Saunders said his company has lost 10 million animals — all of the seeded scallops it put into the ocean in 2012, 2011 and 2010 (see story at pqbnews.com). Saunders said the company has lost $10 million and has had to lay off 30 per cent of its workforce. Enter Mike Thurber. The Parksville man has been accepted in his bid to pitch a product to the panel of the popular CBC Television program, The Dragon’s Den. His product? An oyster that he says can handle the increased acidity levels of the Georgia Strait. Actually, Thurber’s plan has a back-to-the-future theme. Thurber would like to farm the Olympia oyster, a native species. Shellfish producers on the Island almost exclusively produce the Japanese oyster. The CBC’s Hannah James confirmed Thurber has been invited to Toronto for the filming of Dragon’s Den season nine in April. James said the season will begin airing in October. The BCSGA’s Stevenson said there are good reasons the producers have been focussing on Japanese oysters, and she said it’s not like they are new to the area. See FEDS, page A9
JOHN HARDING PHOTO
Denise Whitson with one of the file dividers she bought for 10 cents at the Parksville SOS Thrift Store. Printed on some of the dividers’ white tabs were the names, dates of birth, addresses and provincial health numbers of local people. The tab’s plastic covering and the camera’s flash have made the text on the tab above unreadable.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
VIHA investigates privacy breach JOHN HARDING
editor@pqbnews.com
One never knows what one will find for sale in the SOS Thrift Store. The personal information of someone who has sought medical help isn’t something one would expect to be for sale, however. Denise Whitson was
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in the Parksville SOS Thrift Store last weekend, looking for some office supplies. The Qualicum Beach resident is a volunteer with the 4-H Club and she also does some tax returns. She found a box on the floor that offered file folders — the dividers that hang in
file cabinets — for 10 cents apiece. She grabbed a few and was shocked when she read the tabs on the dividers. Printed on the tabs were the names, dates of birth, phone numbers, addresses, medical record numbers and provincial health numbers of local people. See TABS, page A9