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BRONCOS BUCK REBELS
The Advocate’s Lana Michelin reviews recent RDSO preformance
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Red Deer Advocate MONDAY, JAN. 18, 2016
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City budget gets thumbs up from Chamber TAX INCREASE SLASHED THROUGH SIX DAYS OF DEBATE BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF City council’s budget was right for our economic times, says the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce. “With the economy how it is, with the low dollar and people paying more for groceries, a big tax increase was the last thing that most people needed,” said Reg Warkentin, chamber policy co-ordinator. “It was really good to see the progress council made in getting that rate lower. “I think they did a great job at finding those savings.” Council spent more than six days crunching budget numbers before settling on a 2.9 per cent increase, whittled down from almost 3.8 per cent at one point. The tax rate increase means the owner of a $325,000 home would pay $1,985.97 in municipal taxes, up $55.97 from last year’s bill. Warkentin said the chamber was encouraged that the city kept tax increases relatively low without sacrificing continuing investment in the city. “We need to continue to invest and make sure Red Deer is a place where people want to live and people want to work and businesses want to set up shop.” Previous city councils have kept the tax rates competitive with other municipalities. Those rates are determined in the spring (when the school tax requisition is known) and the chamber hopes to see that trend continue. “Generally speaking we want to see any increase in government spending closely correlated to population growth and inflation. From what I’m seeing this budget looks like it’s right in line with that target.” Red Deer Public Library felt the impact of some of council’s tough budget decisions. Only three of the library’s six requests were approved. A $108,000 request to help pay for more staff hours at the Timberlands branch, $90,000 for a new information technology specialist and a $50,000 publicity campaign didn’t make the cut. Library CEO Christina Wilson said while she’s disappointed not everything made the cut, what council did approve is important to the library. Council approved a staff wage boost totalling $101,250, and $20,000 for safety training and security to help staff respond safely to some of the disruptive visitors the downtown branch sometimes faces. A small but important request to boost by $10,000 the money the library puts towards online resources was also approved.
Please see BUDGET on Page A2
Photo by Ashli Barrett/Advocate Staff
Faith Marquez takes a peek out of the window of a train built by Hannah LaGrange during the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery’s MAGnificent Saturday programming. Red Deerians are invited to drop in next Saturday, Jan. 23, for another art making session between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. and create textured monotype prints.
Downturn keeping food bank busy BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF January generally means a lull for the Red Deer Food Bank. Not this year. Food Bank executive director Fred Scaife said staff are being run off their feet, storage areas are overflowing and phones are ringing off the hook. “We’ve had to set a limit on how many hampers we can actually do in a day because we don’t have the physical space and the manpower to deal with all of the requests coming in on a daily basis,” said Scaife. “I’ve never seen it like this,” added Scaife, who has been helping feed local residents for almost 20 years and whose food bank is a regional distribution centre for a 22,000-square-km chunk of Central Alberta. “The traffic goes on non-stop. The increases in client demand are incredible,” he said. The last time he had to limit hampers was in 2008, when the world financial crisis peaked. That experience prompted the food bank to change its layout and systems to improve efficiency, moves that have paid off for many years. This time around, the warehouse has already been re-arranged again to provide more space for hampers. But there is not much else that can be im-
proved with the staff and space available. “What concerns me is the busiest month of the year is yet to come, and that’s February.” That is the month when the consequences of Christmas spending and crunch time for unpaid bills hits. Scaife said the oilpatch downturn has a lot to do with the number who are struggling to put food on their tables. While oilpatch job cuts are an obvious sign of slumping oil prices, the financial impact creeps into every sector. Lower-income households are the most vulnerable to economic downturns. They are typically walking an economic tightrope to begin with. On top of that, they hold the kinds of jobs that make them the first staffers to go when budgets are tight and last to be rehired, he said. “We knew it was coming from September on. When November hit, literally, all hell broke loose. We had lineups out the door.” Scaife said it’s obvious by their lack of familiarity with the documentation required such as ID and proof of address, that many of those coming for help have never been to a food bank before. More volunteers would be welcomed to help pack groceries, he said. “If we had a few more bodies that would make the work in the hamper room a little better.” pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
Not first time Canadians faced African al-Qaeda terror BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
BURKINA FASO HOTEL ATTACK
OTTAWA — Even though they are responsible for a string of atrocities and affiliated with the grand daddy of terrorist groups, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has flown largely under the radar in terms of public perception of extremists. But that could change in the aftermath the slaughter of at least 28 people that ended early Saturday at a luxury hotel in the west African nation of Burkina Faso, an outrage that left six Canadians among the dead. All six were from Quebec and were in Burkina Faso doing humanitarian work. It’s not the first time Canadians have been targeted by AQIM. The same faction of the group was responsible for the kidnapping of Canadian diplomats Bob Fowler and Louis Guay in 2009, and its commander — Belmokhtar Mokhtar — is wanted by the RCMP. Speaking in Peterborough, Ont. on Sunday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau led a moment of silence for the victims and condemned the attacks on the Splendid Hotel and nearby Cappuccino Cafe, which left a
estimated total of 28 dead, as a “brutal act of violent terrorism.” He spoke at a restored mosque, which was firebombed in the aftermath of deadly attacks in Paris last November. His government is facing increased political pressure as the Conservative opposition attempted to link the events in the impoverished nation with the Liberal plan to withdraw CF-18s from the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and refocus Canada’s military contribution. Opposition leader Rona Ambrose, in a statement, demanded Trudeau “end the ambiguity” about the country’s role in fighting ISIL and that the latest attack is “proof that decisive action is required to confront this threat.” Defence experts say, other than sharing an overall extremist ideology and a loathing of the west, there is little that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the Islamic State have in common. In fact, they can be considered rivals with some important differences. ISIL controls territory and wants to take the fight
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directly to western countries around the globe. AQIM — other than a brief occupation of northern Mali — is fractured and generally does not appear interested in governing. It is considered more a regional player interested in ousting — or influencing — Islamic governments in west Africa, according to experts at the U.S.-based Rand Corporation. “They’ll attack western interested when it suits them,” said retired colonel George Petrolekas, of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute. France, which considers AQIM a more immediate threat, has been carrying on a quiet, mostly effective campaign to identify and disrupt the group ever since beating back their advance by in northern Mali two years ago. In doing a round of interviews late last year, Harjit Sajjan, the new defence minister, said part of the new government’s consideration in its reshaping of the Iraq mission is overall picture of where extremist tentacles have spread in the region. The example he cited, at the time, was the Islamic State’s foothold in eastern Libya.
Please see HOTEL on Page A2
Triumph or travesty With US-Iran relations warming, three American detainees are returning home.
PLEASE Story on PAGE A7
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