December 23, 2015 Wednesday
News updates: westerlynews.ca
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gord Johns fighting for Coast guard ANDREW BAILEY
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Westerly news West coast MP gord Johns is hoping the federal government’s recent decision to reopen Kitsilano’s coast guard station is a sign of things to come. the Kitsilano station was one of three in Bc that Stephen Harper’s conservative government decided to close in a 2012 move to consolidate canada’s 22 Marine communication and traffic Services (MctS) centres into 12. ucluelet’s MctS centre closed earlier this year and the centre in comox is slated to shut down in March 2016. Johns, the ndP MP for courtenay-comox, told the Westerly news that convincing canada’s liberal government to halt the comox station’s closure is his top priority. “Even though comox is officially outside the riding, it greatly affects the residents of our riding and coastal British columbians,” he said. He chastised Harper’s conservatives for not putting in the due diligence needed to know what to hold and what to fold in regards to marine safety. “they didn’t look at safety risks,” he said. “they went on an ideologically driven process that was about saving money and not
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“They didn’t look at safety risks.”
‘TIS THE SEASON:
MP gord Johns about saving lives.” He acknowledged the liberals consolidated Bc’s 10 coast guard stations into five during the 1990’s but said consultations were done back then. “they went through a proper consultation process where they identified the risks associated with consolidation and when they did that process they identified they could go down to five stations,” he said. “When the conservatives did it, they didn’t do a consultation process and it was inadequate.” He suggested if today’s liberal government goes through the proper consultations, the closures would be reversed. “if this government puts a halt to the closure of the comox station and applies the adequate consultation and research that wasn’t done in the first place, this station won’t be closed and hopefully they will reopen the station in ucluelet, which is essential to the West coast of Vancouver island and very important in our relationship with americans in marine safety,” he said.
See MCTS pg. 14.
tofino’s St. columba church has filled its pews with christmas Spirit. PAgE 6
CREATIVE COAST: this week’s Westerly life is all about books and those who love them. IAN RIDDICK PHOTO
PAgES 7-10
ORCAS IN THE HARBOUR: Ukee local Ian Riddick snapped this breathtaking shot while a pod of orcas made a splash off Ucluelet’s coast on Sunday.
New paramedics coming to Coast ANDREW BAILEY
Westerly news
island Health has partnered with Bc Emergency Health Services to roll out an innovative new program that will bring more paramedics to local communities and give local paramedics more oppor-
tunities to provide patient care. the program will be piloted in tofino, ucluelet, cortes island and Port Hardy early next year and is expected to be launched Bc-wide in the spring of 2016.
See PARAMEDICINE pg. 14.
DEAR SANTA: ucluelet mayor dianne St. Jacques shares her letter to Santa with the Westerly. PAgE 15