THE FRIDAY
APRIL 4, 2014
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
www.tricitynews.com
TRI-CITY NEWS Cop nos. don’t tell the full story, say mayors
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
Minimum wage too low?
A local art explosion
SEE FACE TO FACE, PAGE A11
SEE THINGS-TO-DO GUIDE, PAGE A18
INSIDE
Letters/A12 Books Plus/A19 Tri-City Spotlight/A20 Sports/A39
It’s sport, it’s science, it’s art — it’s chess: see page A3
By Gary McKenna THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Tri-City municipalities continue to fall behind the national and provincial average when it comes to ratios of police officers to population, according to Statistics Canada data released last week. The report said that nationally, there are, on average, 197 officers for every 100,000 people. In British Columbia the number is approximately 193:100,000. In the Tri-Cities, however, the numbers are considerably lower. In Coquitlam, the ratio is just 116:100,000 while in Port Coquitlam, the ratio is 110:100,000. Port Moody has the highest police-topopulation ratio of the three, with 155:100,000. see MAYOR, page A14
DIANE STRANDBERG/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
From left, Isaiah Stevens, Adam Pruner and Marko Voskovic study the chess board during teacher Dejan Radic’s Chess 11 class at Terry Fox secondary school in Port Coquitlam.
Another $13M shortfall in SD43 More cuts are in works for ’14/’15
By Diane Strandberg THE TRI-CITY NEWS
School District 43 is expecting another budget shortfall next school year — $13.4 million — and will for the second year in a row have to cut jobs and other spending to stay in the black.
On Tuesday, at a sparsely attended town hall meeting, SD43 officials laid out the problem that will require another round of cost-cutting to balance the 2014/’15 budget. They blamed chronic underfunding by the provincial government and other cost pressures for the problem. Now, teachers, support workers, parents and others are being asked to
help come up with solutions to avoid deep staff cuts, and superintendent Tom Grant said no stone will be unturned to save money. “We are under such severe pressures that everything has to be considered,” Grant said Tuesday. “So, as a district team, we are looking at everything from staffing, to school programming, to the operations in schools to
cafeterias, to school supplies and other school efficiencies such as busing or any of the other operations we look at.” The anticipated shortfall is a daunting amount after two years of budget cutting but board chair Melissa Hyndes said it’s a structural problem that has been in the making for several years. see ‘SAME AS’, page A4
MORE BUDGET MEETINGS
SD43 budget meetings will be held at Winslow Centre, 1100 Winslow Ave., Coquitlam: • April 8, an open house from 6 to 8 p.m., and an opportunity for delegations to speak at 8:30, after the regular board meeting. • April 10, special public board meeting: more delegations at 7 p.m. • April 15, special public meeting: budget recommendations 7 p.m. • April 22, special public meeting: preliminary budget 7 p.m. • April 29: final budget meeting 7:30 p.m.
D. STRANDBERG/TRI-CITY NEWS
SD43 superintendent Tom Grant speaks at a budget meeting Tuesday as trustees John Keryluk of PoCo (left) and Brian Robinson of Coquitlam listen.