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Aldergrove Your Hometown Community Newspaper for over 57 Years
| Thursday, March 10, 2016
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Page 6: Selling Aldergrove History by the Brick
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‘Chips’ Off the Old Ice Block
ALC raises fees By TOM FLETCHER Aldergrove Star
KURT LANGMANN PHOTO
The “Chipettes” of the old cartoon series Alvin and the Chipmunks were among the delights at the annual pop concert, “Let’s Get Animated” hosted by Aldergrove Skating Club on Friday evening at Aldergrove Arena. The Chipettes were portrayed by club members Chiemela Anumba, Ava Bush and Katie Wiebe. More photos inside this issue of The Aldergrove Star.
Big families make Syrians hard to house By JEFF NAGEL Aldergrove Star
Surrey is the top destination where government-assisted Syrian refugees are finding permanent homes in B.C. Nearly 300 or close to half of the just over 600 government-assisted Syrians that have found permanent accommodation are in Surrey, said Chris Friesen, settlement services director of the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. Coquitlam accounted for about 20
per cent of permanent refugee homes, followed by Burnaby, Vancouver and Delta. But more than 900 governmentassisted Syrians were still in hotels waiting to move into permanent homes, including more than 160 in Abbotsford, as of Feb. 29. Friesen said some of them have begun to be transferred to cities outside the Lower Mainland, including Victoria and Nanaimo, with more destined for centres like Prince George,
Kelowna, Vernon and Kamloops starting this week. The hope is permanent housing will be easier to find in those centres than the high-priced Metro Vancouver area. “As we predicted, we’re dealing with larger size families – larger even than we thought,” Friesen said, adding that means large suites or homes are needed. “The ongoing challenge for us remains permanent housing,” he said,
adding language training and jobs are the next top priorities. The government assistance in place for one year provides a family of six with a maximum of $885 a month for accommodation – much less than the typical rent for a large home. Families of three or more also get $649 a month for food and clothing under the federal Resettlement Assistance Program and a one-time start-up allowance of $1,709.
The Agricultural Land Commission is imposing a steep increase in application fees, with a “money back guarantee” if applications aren’t processed within 90 business days. Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick and ALC chair Frank Leonard announced the new policy at the B.C. legislature Thursday, to take effect April 1. For zone one, the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and the Okanagan, the application fee goes from $600 to $1,500. In zone two, the remainder of the province, the fee goes from $600 to $900. Letnick said the majority of farm income is generated in zone one, so farmers can afford to pay more. The increase still doesn’t cover the estimated $3,000 cost of processing an application, most of which are for non-farm use or an exclusion or subdivision of agricultural land. Letnick said the province is adding an additional $1.1 million to the ALC budget to make up the difference. Leonard, appointed last year after Letnick terminated the contract of long-time chair Richard Bullock, said he found almost no decisions were being made within the 60 working days that is his new benchmark. Most were taking a year or more. “I met people in their 80s who had been waiting two years for a decision,” he said.
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