S TANDARD TERRACE
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VOL. 27 NO. 22
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Rural garbage plan delayed By MARGARET SPEIRS THE KITIMAT-STIKINE regional district has put off the start date for pickup of garbage and recyclable material in the rural areas surrounding Terrace after discovering the environment ministry hadn’t signed off on the planned program. But news of the delay in starting the controversial program only came after residents opposed to it appeared at the Sept. 12 regional district’s board meeting and voiced their misgivings.
The regional district has already been telling residents the service will start as of Oct. 6 and that residents will be charged $200 a year. Directors had given three readings to a bylaw authorizing the program at earlier meetings but, regional district works and services manager Roger Tooms told them at the Sept. 12 meeting, the environment ministry had yet to give its approval in order for the bylaw to be officially adopted. “At 4 p.m. today, I spoke to the deputy minister ... and he told me
the minister had not had time to approve the bylaw so the board is not able to consider adopting it tonight,” Tooms told directors. With that information in hand, directors agreed to delay the start of the program. Leading up to the news from Tooms, residents told regional district directors there had been no adequate discussion of the planned program. One speaker, Les Pawluk, told directors he had a petition of nearly 700 signatures from residents who
believe they don’t need and don’t want the proposed curbside garbage and recycling pickup, particularly because of the $200 a year cost per person. It’s to apply whether people are living at the residence year-round or not. The planned program is to blend in with a larger regional plan to close the City of Terrace’s dump altogether while converting the regional district’s Thornhill dump into a transfer station where material will be sorted for recycling, leaving the waste that’s left to be
hauled to a new super landfill at Forceman Ridge off of Hwy 37 South. Residents in the rural areas of Chimdemash, Usk, Gossen, Kleanza, New Remo, Old Remo, North Terrace, Thornhill, Jackpine Flats and the Lakelse Lake highway accessible areas are to be affected. Right now, they can either hire a private service to pick up their garbage or take it to a dump themselves.
Cont’d Page A28
Churches told to begin paying taxes
ANNA KILLEN PHOTO
■■ Bob for a cause CONTAINED INSIDE that envelope is a ponytail of six-year-old Amber Beck’s locks, which is now on its way to Angel Hair for Kids to be turned into a wig for a child who needs it. Amber decided to donate her waist-length hair at the suggestion of her hairdresser and said she hopes it will make a little girl happy. “I bawled my eyes out,” said her mom, Stacey, of her daughter’s first hair cut. “That was all of her baby hair.” With Amber is Canada Post clerk Doris Vales.
SEVERAL TERRACE churches will be paying property taxes next year after an audit by the provincial government found they've been earning an income by renting out portions of buildings. The audit determined the Terrace Evangelical Free Church at 3302 Sparks was using property valued at $26,000 for commercial purposes, something that will mean paying taxes of $228. The Anglican church on Lakelse Ave. is renting out a portion of a building worth $3,700 for a daycare, something that will cost it $102 a year while the Alliance church on Agar is to pay $31 a year for using $1,000 of property, also for a daycare. Officials working for the BC Assessment Authority, the agency which sets the values of properties and buildings which are then used by governments to set tax rates, conducted the audit earlier this year. Council members heard of the audit and its meaning when they met Sept. 8. They were also told the sale of property belonging to other churches, for example Christ Lutheran Church, means that property will also now be taxed. The audit and sales activity means the city will have to revise its 10-year tax exemption bylaw. By provincial statute in B.C., there's a mandatory tax exemption from property tax for buildings that are places of worship and for the land upon which those buildings sit. Municipalities can further provide exemptions, if they wish, for land that surrounds a building containing a place of worship.
Wilderness fun
Name change
World champs
Terrace scouts have a blast and learn more about themselves on trip \COMMUNITY A9
Former longtime mayor to be honoured with street named after him \NEWS A26
Terrace’s Shogun Dojo has an Olympic-like experience in Richmond \SPORTS A25