SeA TURTle SURVIVING
ARTISTIC SURFBOARDS
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The West Coast’s rescued Green sea turtle is still kicking
A unique art project is making waves in Tofino
Westerly News
TOFINO-UCLUELET
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
WesterlyNews.ca
Tuff talks pay parking
$1.25 (including tax)
Municipal lot and Tonquin could soon be user-pay Andrew bAiley
andrew.bailey@westerlynews.ca
Parking in the gravel lot behind Tofino’s municipal office might soon be a pay-to-play privilege. Tofino’s municipal council is thinking about putting in user-pay parking, effective May-October, at the municipal lot off Main Street as well as the small lot at the end of Tonquin Park Road. The idea was presented to council by district CAO Bob Macpherson during last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting. MacPherson suggested free parking is a myth, as the district must pay to create and maintain parking spaces. He said parking is a significant consumer of land and Tofino should look to manage what it has more effectively rather than create more spaces to address the community’s annual 100-day summertime parking war. “There are a few hours in each of those 100 days where we seem to have a demand that exceeds supply,” he said. “Although there are always empty parking spaces, there seems to be a demand for easy to access public spaces so we end up with drivers circling, pollution created from idling and cars that stay in the same space for a very, very, long period of time in downtown Tofino.” He said the municipal lot is often full by 10 a.m. and gets clogged with long-term parkers, including tourists going on wildlife watching trips and locals who work offshore. “Calling it parking may be generous, it ends up functioning as vehicle storage as much as parking,” he said.
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See PaRKIng page 6
JEREMY KORESKI PhOtO
tRaInIng daY: Local First Nations took part in a marine search and rescue excercise conducted last week around Vargas Island. Over 30 people participated in the training, which was hosted by the Canadian Coast Guard. Read about it on page 8.
CBT says living wage $19.27 an hour Clayoquot Biosphere Trust calculates “bare bones” living wage Andrew bAiley
andrew.bailey@westerlynews.ca
This might be a good time to ask your boss for a raise. The Clayoquot Biosphere Trust (CBT) has calculated a living wage for the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Region and the figure is $19.27 an hour. The wage was calculated based on an average family with two employed parents working 35 hours per week and two children, one 4-year-old and one 7-year-old. The $19.27 hourly
wage represents a roughly $65,000 annual household income for this family. During a presentation to Tofino’s council last week, the CBT’s alternate at-large youth director German Ocampo explained the living wage is the “bare-bones” income a family needs to avoid financial hardship. “The living wage gets families out of severe financial stress by lifting them out of poverty and providing the basic level for economic security…It is also a conservative bare bones budget without the extras many Canadians take for granted,” he said. See LOCaL page 11