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Chilliwack to host the best in mountain bike riding
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Jennifer Feinberg The Progress
jfeinberg@theprogress.com Twitter.com/chwkjourno
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Olivier Arseneau of the Chilliwack Chiefs plays a game of ball hockey with a bunch of kids during UFV’s Winter Classic Outdoor Ball Hockey Tournament at Canada Education Park on Saturday morning. There were nine rinks of hockey going simultaneously, and more than 80 kids and adults took part in the event. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Boards want clarity on admin funding cut Jessica Peters The Progress School district officials say they are looking into how a provincial budget cut will affect Chilliwack schools. On Tuesday, the province announced that boards of education would be required to reduce spending on administration and related services by a total of $29 million next year, and $25 million the following year. The imposed reduction was deemed “unacceptable” by the B.C. School Trustees
Association, a sentiment echoed locally. “It is unacceptable that the dollars saved by school districts will not be retained to address needs in our schools,” said BCSTA president Teresa Rezansoff. “We understand the importance of cost saving measures such as shared services, but they must not be used to take money away from boards of education.” Chilliwack school board’s secretar y treasurer, Gerr y Slykhuis, said the cut in funding would make things even harder
for the cash-strapped district. But it will take some time to figure out how the schools will be affected, he said. “We have very little detail on this at this point, so it is difficult to assess it,” Slykhuis said. “However it is dismaying for districts that have worked so hard to reduce administrative costs and to balance their budgets, to now be asked to cut even further. Our district is already struggling to balance the budget for next year.” The BCSTA will be working on getting clarification from the
government over the next few weeks, Rezansoff stated in a press release. “It is clear the new provincial education budget will mean further cuts in school districts across the province,” said Rezansoff. “The money allocated in the 2015/16 provincial budget for public education simply will not cover our increasing costs, and now we are seeing millions of dollars taken away from school districts for other uses.” jpeters@theprogress.com
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Some of the best mountain bike riders in B.C. are coming to Chilliwack this weekend to check out the local trails. Former racing champion and bike guide Ricky Federau is taking members of the provincial bike team up Vedder Mountain Saturday to showcase all that Chilliwack has to offer. “It’s a big deal because the team is mainly riders from the Squamish and Whistler area,” he told The Progress. Federau, 33, grew up in Abbotsford, but has lived in Chilliwack since 2006. He made the national team, won championships and raced for 10 years professionally before launching his own MTB coaching and guiding business last year. “The mountain biking is just incredible around here,” he said simply. “It really is world class, and there are so many trails on the mountain.” Federau’s new business, Valley Bike Guides, is joining the 1 per cent for trails effort started by Sam Waddington, owner of Mt. Waddington’s Outdoors, to attract more tourism to the area. Regions like Squamish and Whistler are known in the biking community, and many riders come from there and train in those communities as well. Six members of the provincial team will be trying out some of the single track trails on Vedder Mountain. “These guys are as good as it gets and they’re coming here to ride. To me that’s huge.” Last summer, one of the guys on the provincial MTB team, Rhys Verner, who came in second at the nationals, came out for a ride with Federau, and was completely blown away by the extensive trails and terrain he saw on Vedder Mountain. “He went back home and told everyone, and now they are coming back for more. I think it’s a great story for Chilliwack about how good the riding is out here.”