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TC ARTS/ENT.: A16
Avant dance & the five senses RIVERVIEW LANDS
TRANSPORTATION REFERENDUM
Isn’t it really a non-binding plebiscite? First in a series of referendum Q&As: see page A4 and tricitynews.com
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Poll says 2-to-1 No lead in transit referendum / High court to decide on pot cookies
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2015 Your community. Your stories
TRI-CITY
NEWS SPORTS
LUKASZ JONCA/the tri-City NewS
Norma and Don Gillespie, longtime advocates for preservation of the Riverview Hospital lands, work on the front entrance to Sue’s Garden Patch, a new addition to Finnie’s Garden on the hospital grounds. Riverview Horticultural Centre Society will host its first tree tour of the season on Sunday. For more information, see stories on page A3.
They had plenty of spirit but Terry Fox Ravens of PoCo placed second in the AAAA boys’ hoop provincial tourney, falling 69-63 to the Yale Lions in the final game. See Sports, page A19
CIVIC ELECTION FINANCES
Is limiting election spending enough? MLA Robinson wants contribution limits, too GAry McKennA
The Tri-CiTy News
Two former Coquitlam city councillors who are
now Tri-City MLAs will make up part of a special committee examining regulations limiting how much municipal election candidates can spend on their campaigns. But one of them is concerned the process is not going far enough. Both Coquitlam-
Maillardville NDP MLA Selina Robinson, who is deputy chair, and Port Moody-Coquitlam BC Liberal MLA Linda Reimer are veteran civic campaigners who said they will draw on their local election experience for their committee work. Robinson, who is a
member of the three-person NDP minority on the provincial committee, said the government should also be looking at implementing caps on donations, restricting the amount a donor can contribute to a campaign. This would force candidates to seek out multiple funding sources rather than
contact the tri-city news: newsroom@tricitynews.com
just relying on one or two major donors, Robinson said. “Just expense limits is not going to change a whole lot,” she told The TriCity News. “If your limit is $30,000 but you can get that completely funded from one source… is that really going to help?”
But Reimer said the committee is simply following the recommendations of the Local Government Elections Task Force. That group released a report in 2010 stating that limiting how much a candidate can spend would lead to a reduction in large contributions without
limiting “the democratic discourse and the variety of voices that can be heard in an election.” “We are honouring the recommendations that came forward,” Reimer told The Tri-City News. “They said expense limits.” see SIZE OF, page A7
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