Tuesday August 5 2014
The
Leader
▲ Leaping to a bronze in Scotland 12
▲ Points for prescriptions back on 10
PARENTS PROMISED CHILD CARE CASH ▶ $40 PER DAY PER CHILD IF TEACHERS’ STRIKE DRAGS ON UNTIL SEPTEMBER TOM FLETCHER
▶ FEATHERED PATIENT RELEASED – AGAIN Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (OWL) Executive Director Bev Day watches as summer staff member Nigel Marimuthu releases a bald eagle during OWL’s open house on July 27. The female eagle, which was recovered with an injury at the Greater Vancouver Landfill in April, was identified through its tag as having been treated by OWL 12 years ago. BOAZ JOSEPH
TREE CUTS HAVE STABILIZED ▶ BUT
ONE COMMUNITY LEADER SAYS TREES ARE STILL BEING AXED UNNECESSARILY
KEVIN DIAKIW
The number of trees being cut down in Surrey dropped a few years ago and has remained stable since then. However, a community leader is pointing to a planning flaw that he says is costing the city countless trees unnecessarily. In the first six months of this year, the city granted permits to cut down 3,000 trees. It’s about on par with the rate of tree lost in all of last
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year, which was 5,796. Both figures are down substantially from the yearly average between 2001 and 2008, when an average of 9,100 trees were cut down annually. Planners have attributed the drop to a downturn in the economy, while Mayor Dianne Watts has said it’s a sign of an effective Tree Preservation Bylaw.
continued on page 3
If the teacher strike isn’t settled by September, the B.C. government will use the payroll savings to pay $40 per missed school day to parents of children under 13, Finance Minister Mike de Jong said Thursday. Negotiations with the B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) remain stalled after a two-week strike in June that cost the province’s 40,000 public school teachers $12 million a day in salary. That’s the estimated cost of the support program aimed to go toward tutoring or daycare for younger children if they can’t go to school. De Jong said older children don’t require as much supervision and have online options to maintain their studies if the labour dispute takes more instructional time away. continued on page 3
▶ This is “a blatant and divisive attempt to prolong disruption in B.C. schools.” BCTF PRESIDENT JIM IKER
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