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THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2014
VOL. 26, NO. 31
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Deadline nears for deal with province, teachers
I
NANAIMO DISTRICT waiting on progress at bargaining table. BY KARL YU THE NEWS BULLETIN
CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Crash crunch
Emergency crews clean up a collision between a Honda Civic and a delivery truck at the Island HighwayMorden Road intersection Wednesday morning. An elderly woman driving the Honda was checked over by paramedics at the scene. The cause is under investigation.
Nanaimo hospital locked down after threat BY CHRIS BUSH
THE NEWS BULLETIN
Police and Nanaimo Regional General Hospital staff locked down the hospital shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday after receiving a weapons threat. Erring on the side of caution, police blocked off all hospital entrances, although ambulance crews were able to access the emergency ward. Mounties tracked down and arrested the suspect several kilometres from the hospital shortly before 6 p.m. Sgt. Sheryl Armstrong, Nanaimo RCMP spokeswoman, said she did not know what kind of weapon
the 39-year-old Nanaimo man allegedly threatened the hospital with, but he did not have a weapon with him at the time of his arrest. “Our first consideration is always public safety,” Armstrong said. “We’re not going to lock down something like that unless we believe a weapon could be utilized.” Police are not commenting on the suspect’s relationship to the hospital, but Armstrong confirmed he is not an employee of NRGH. Police were able to locate the suspect quickly because his identity was given to them. “Police are still in the early stages of their investigation and there’s more work to be done,” Armstrong said.
“We’re still in the process of determining whether charges will be forwarded to Crown counsel.” Valerie Wilson, Island Health spokeswoman, said the next steps include debriefing sessions to review the incident, determine lessons that can be learned and any recommendations regarding violence prevention protocols. A bomb threat also had the hospital on lockdown for a short time on Wednesday. Wilson said NRGH received a bomb threat in the early afternoon and that police gave the all clear at about 1 p.m. The investigation into that incident continues. photos@nanaimobulletin.com
The possibility of the B.C. teachers’ strike spilling into September is throwing a wrench into the Nanaimo school district’s preparations for the start of the school year. Donna Reimer, school district spokeswoman, said school is scheduled to start Sept. 3 but whether classes commence is absolutely dependent on what takes place at the bargaining table. The school district is ultimately hoping for a resolution but the uncertainty is making it difficult to make contingency plans and get ready for 2014-15, she said. “The biggest problem that we foresee is [this] week is the week that we take new registrations and the week that parents let us know if they aren’t coming back to their school ... so for schools to know exactly which kids they have, which ones are coming, what the new ones are, how much space they have, if schools are behind picket lines next week, then our start-up will be a bit more difficult,” Reimer said. Rather than having parents heading to schools to register, crossing picket lines in the process, Reimer said the school district is recommending they call the school and talk to the principal. She said the school district
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board office has been behind picket lines since July 20 and as a result, maintenance work on district schools has not been completed, as related staff don’t wish to cross lines. “We have stopped watering our fields and they haven’t been maintained, so the fields might not be in the shape we’d like them to be, schools may not have all the updating projects that we would’ve liked to have done in the summer,” she said. Mike Ball, Nanaimo teachers’ union president, confirmed that Jim Iker, provincial president, met with Education Minister Peter Fassbender and Peter Cameron, the province’s chief negotiator, for discussions yesterday. “I don’t know what [they’ll discuss]. We’re not sure yet how much they have to offer, but it sounded like they wanted to run something by him to try and see if they could get a deal done,” Ball said yesterday. “How successful it will be, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” According to Ball, mediator Vince Ready has also been involved in discussions with both sides. He estimated a soft deadline of Friday (Aug. 29) as a timeframe a deal would have to be reached by in order to avoid a delay to the start of the school year. For a story on some of the childcare options for parents, please see page 3. reporter@nanaimobulletin.com
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