TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING Listening to 90 minutes of Minions dialogue may not be your cup of tea
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ESKS WIN HOME OPENER — PAGE B1
Red Deer Advocate FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2015
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Your trusted local news authority RED DEER COLLEGE
Grant S R E D A V N I Y H S I F brings goal closer BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF Red Deer College is $1 million closer to its $88-million fundraising goal. Lacombe County council approved the cash to help the college with its project to build a new Health, Wellness and Sport Centre, which is also seen as a key component of a bid to become a polytechnic university. Approved by a 5-2 vote, the grant to be spread over five years falls short of the college’s $1.275-million request, which was based on the $115-per-capita level of support from the City of Red Deer. However, it is double what Red Deer County council approved in April. Lacombe County councillors were united in their desire to help the college out financially. However, there were disagreements over how much to give and how to earmark the money. Coun. Barb Shepherd was among councillors to question the $115-percapita standard. “As far as pegging it to $115 per capita, I’m not sure that’s where we need to go. “I’m very supportive of doing something.” Coun. Dana Kreil urged council to pick a smaller number, pointing out that ratepayers expected their taxes to go towards roads, bridges and other more pressing expenses. Cutting a large cheque for a college outside the county might hurt relations with urban municipalities within the county, which have seen funding requests turned down previously, she added. “I think we should be considering what Red Deer County gave and I don’t think we should give more than them.” Red Deer County was approached for a $5-million donation in March. The request was later reduced by the college to $2.3 million. However, college officials walked away with only a $500,000 commitment after a special county public hearing on the issue.
PROVINCE ALARMED BY NUMBER OF GOLDFISH PEOPLE ARE RELEASING ILLEGALLY INTO THE WILD BY MARY-ANN BARR ADVOCATE STAFF The fact that goldfish can survive in the “wild” and through an Alberta winter shows just how hardy the seemingly harmless, cute little fish are. But that hardiness may actually represent a serious danger to our waterways. Red Deer now appears to be one more Alberta centre where these domesticated relatives of the carp fish have been dumped into a municipal storm water pond. On Thursday, Alberta Environment and Parks technicians were on
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Alberta Environment and Parks fisheries technician Michelle Wells, left, and wildlife technician Samantha Morris install a net across the pond in the Anders on the Lake subdivision in Red Deer in an effort to catch goldfish that have been spotted in the pond. the Anders on the Lake storm water pond trying to net and check out goldfish that have been spotted in the water. The goldfish aren’t escaping from aquariums on their own. People are intentionally letting them loose. That’s illegal — and for good reason. All offences under Alberta’s Fisheries Act are subject to a court appearance, up to a $100,000 fine and/ or a year in prison. For corporation
violations (such as selling or importing prohibited species), the fine can be as high as $500,000. Kate Wilson, aquatic invasive species specialist for Alberta Environment and Parks, said it’s a big concern that people are putting goldfish in these waters, especially if the storm water pond has any connectivity to creeks that then flow into rivers.
Please see GOLDFISH on Page A2
Please see COLLEGE on Page A2
Debut novel set in the Red Deer of a parallel universe BY LANA MICHELIN ADVOCATE STAFF A Chinese rapper stands on the brink of stardom in Red Deer — or at least he does in Jon Chan Simpson’s fictional version of this city. The author of Chinkstar was born and raised in Red Deer, and could easily re-imagine his hometown as the cool, dynamic, culturally diverse setting of his debut novel. “I’ve always thought of Red Deer as a place of possibilities,” said Simpson. Although he’s now based in Toronto, he recalled, “I was off to a great start in Red Deer. I had fantastic English teachers who would bring in these amazing authors to speak to us at schools” — such Dennis Lee of Alliga-
WEATHER Sun and cloud. High 27. Low 15.
FORECAST ON A2
tor Pie fame. The 31-year-old son of a Irish/Scottish father and Chinese mother graduated in 2001 from the French Immersion program at Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School with the idea of becoming a doctor. But literature had a greater pull. And Simpson eventually earned a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Toronto. He now works as an editor at Harlequin Books (the romance publisher) in Canada’s largest city. But all of his spare time was poured into writing what’s being called “the best debut novel ... so far this year.” Chinkstar, published by Coach House Books, is set in Red Deer — but not Red Deer as we know it. It’s as if this Prairie city had evolved
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in a slightly different direction — While Run isn’t a big fan of his “kind of like a parallel-universe,” said brother, he’s forced to try to track him Simpson, in which “chinkdown after their mother is sta rap” culture is huge, and injured by a stray bullet, a Chinese Central Alberta and it looks as if Kwong’s kid is a local hip-hop star, disappearance could be poised for big-time success linked to a turf war bein Van City (Vancouver). tween local gangs. His fictional rapper is Run and his sidekick King Kwong. Ali find themselves batChinkstar opens with a tling on two fronts in this bunch of teenagers, includfast-paced book: They are ing Kwong’s little brother, caught in middle of violent Run, waiting for the local gang action between the legend to perform one last Apes and the Necks; Run show at a bush party, “somemust also try to evade his where between Township Jon Chan Simpson crush’s threatening brother Road 382 and the United who doesn’t want him messStates of MTV.” ing with his little sister. Only Kwong doesn’t show up, and no one knows why. Please see NOVEL on Page A2
Testing the waters on the market There are so many brands of water on the shelves that you could drop from thirst before figuring out which one to buy. Story on PAGE D8
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