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◆ FIREFIGHTER RECRUITS - PG 2 ◆ ELECTION CANDIDATES - PG 3 & 5
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WEDNESDAY, September 23, 2015
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VOL. 38 NO. 30 $1.30 inc. GST
NEWS BRIEFS Nechako Valley Festival
The 38th annual Nechako Valley Festival of Performing Arts will be held March 9-20, 2016. The Festival welcomes participants of all ages, who perform in speech, piano, strings, and vocal disciplines. Please visit the website at www. musicfestivalweb.com/ nechako for more details. The committee is always looking for volunteers to help plan this event, so if you are interested call Swan at (250) 567-9501.
Minimum wage rises
B.C.’s minimum wage has risen 20 cents to $10.45 an hour, the first annual increase since the provincial government tied it to the B.C. consumer price index. It’s the first increase since 2012, when the wage was increased to $10.25. For restaurant and pub servers, the minimum wage rises from $9 to $9.20. Jobs Minister Shirley Bond has said the discount from the general minimum wage will remain at $1.25 to account for income earned in tips. NDP labour critic Shane Simpson called the increase “dismal” and “paltry”. B.C. Federation of Labour president Irene Lanzinger said by the end of 2015, B.C. will have the second lowest minimum wage in Canada.
Students from David Hoy Elementary who had planted vegetables at the Community Garden in the spring were at the garden during the first week of school to harvest their crop. Photo by Barbara Roden
Student gardeners harvest their crops When students from David Hoy Elementary headed back to school after the summer break, one of their first tasks was to harvest their produce from the Fort St. James Community Garden before the frost hit. Under the supervision of grade 6/7 teacher Carmen Boehnke and grade 1/2 teacher Lynne George, the eager young gardeners were able to see how their vegetables had done over the summer. Twenty students helped to sift soil and get the beds filled at the start of the season, but wanted to do more than that. Kirsten Rudolph at Sif’s Grove
Greenhouse donated plants that would otherwise have been composted and the students put them under grow lights in a spare classroom until they were ready to be planted. “The kids loved it!” says Boehnke. The work and the planting entailed several trips to the garden before school ended in June, and Boehnke says she would ask the students to vote on whether or not they wanted to go. “It was always unanimous: go to the garden!” Among the vegetables planted were tomatoes, zucchini, squash, and lots of lettuce. Volunteers
made sure the plants were watered over the summer, and anyone who wanted to could help themselves to the lettuce as it grew. Now comes the task of deciding what to do with their harvest. One plan is to share it between the classrooms, while another would see the students making soup and sharing it with the rest of the school. “The kids had a lot of fun,” says George. Hopefully next spring will see a new crop of eager gardeners from the school hard at work at the Community Garden, ready to start growing all over again.
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