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Years est. 1954
Volume 60 No. 11
Sentinel
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Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Plebiscite not dead Cameron Orr Despite an effort by councillor Phil Germuth, Kitimat will continue sailing ahead on a plebiscite for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines proposal. April 12 is set for the general voting day for people to offer their opinion in an election-like setting. However the question remains unchanged, which is a problem for Germuth and part of the reason he set to have the process cancelled. District of Kitimat administration has estimated the bill to the town on holding the plebiscite to be approximately $13,500. Corinne Scott voted with Germuth in cancelling the plebiscite, while the remainder were in favour. Rob Goffinet is out of town and so was not in attendance for the meeting on March 3. Germuth didn’t mince words in describing his opinion of the question at hand for April. “The community came out and told us the questions stink and yet we completely ignored it,” he said to applause in the gallery of people watching the meeting. “So how you can say you care about the feel of the community? Not one person came up to the mic and said ‘oh I think it’s a great question, I think you’re doing a good job.’” Germuth was reacting to the majority of council saying they want to proceed on the plebiscite to know how the community feels about the project. “I’m quite interested in determining to what extent our community is divided...hopefully we’ll get a strong turn-out at the plebiscite,” he said. He adds that he wants the results to be forwarded to senior levels of government. Mary Murphy feels that the process is worthwhile, also noting that the price tag for the plebiscite works out to $1.50 a person. She said holding the plebiscite is giving residents their right to voice their opinion. Edwin Empinado said that while he had initially wanted the cheaper mail-out option, he later came to realize cost wasn’t what is important, and says council should push through on a plebiscite, as it will be important knowledge for council. But for Corinne Scott meanwhile isn’t convinced the plebiscite will benefit anyway. “At this point, as much as we wanted to know what the feeling of the community is, all that we know so far is that we’re split,” she said, adding that if just 50 per cent of eligible voters turn out they still won’t have a good idea of the community opinion.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
1.30 INCLUDES TAX
$
Erik Neandross leads a demonstration on liquefied natural gas at Mount Elizabeth Theatre on March 13. Demonstrations were held three times throughout the day, including at the Haisla Community School, and Neandross, despite what this image may make you think, was showing how safe liquefied natural gas actually is. Cameron Orr
Kitimat Housing crunch continues Cameron Orr There were hardly enough chairs for everyone who wanted to sit for a presentation which pitted the community’s residents against property managers. It’s another battle in the town’s ongoing war on managing affordable housing for residents who are otherwise affected by the effects of what some dub the ‘boom town.’ With apartment blocks in town being rapidly renovated, many people are being displaced and evicted, only to face drastically more expensive units elsewhere. While the official agenda for the March 3 council meeting had Kitimat pastor Don Read, a vocal opponent of ‘renovictions’, and Eli Abergel, owner of Kiticorp, a property management company responsible for the renovations of a number of apartment buildings, councillors also heard from a number of resi-
dents, those who have faced evictions before or those who may have to move out in the near future. Yet despite the back-and-forth, sometimes hostile conversations — people in the gallery could be heard groaning or remarking to comments made by those at the presenters’ table — there was a middle ground, one that seeks an intervention from the provincial government before the problem locally gets any worse. Abergel said that the B.C. government needs to step up and address the problems of housing, noting it will only get worse with more people. He said Kiticorp would be glad to be involved in developing affordable housing but it’s not a task the company can take on by itself. But Abergel and his company were under fire from people and councillors
concerned over potentially illegal eviction notices. Namely in January people in the Viewpoint apartments were offered to either have rent bumped by about $200 a month, or the company would petition the government to allow an increase straight to market value. Phil Germuth challenged the letter’s legitimacy, as did Read during his presentation. Read also points out that the offered increases to residents are illegal, as the residential tenancy act only allows an increase of 2.2 per cent in 2014. However Kiticorp may have been using other sections of the act. An application to the Residential Tenancy Branch can be made for additional increases if rent is “significantly lower than rent for similar units in the [same area].” Continued on page 2
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