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Minister says proposed ferry fares are too high Jane Seyd
jseyd@nsnews.com
LOCAL ferry commuters are hoping the provincial government will find a way to keep ferry fares affordable after B.C. Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom said Thursday he thinks proposed increases are too high. “It’s a positive sign he thinks the fares are getting too high,” said Alison Morse, a Bowen Island municipal councillor and representative of ferry users there. But she said the key question is whether the province will increase its ferry subsidy to bring fares down — without cutting service. Ferry travellers could see annual fare hikes ranging from four per cent on major routes — like the ones between West Vancouver and Nanaimo and the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale — and more than eight per cent on minor routes such as the sailing to Bowen Island. Those increases would work out to total increases of almost 18 per cent and more than 37 per cent over the next four years, after they are compounded. Ferry commissioner Martin Crilly released the numbers Thursday in a preliminary decision that sets the maximum ferry fare increases over the next four years. See NDP page 5
Met by moonlight
NEWS photo Cindy Goodman
TATE Gibson (left), Michael Quattrin, Ali Vanderkruyk, Augustus Oicle and Aileen Moroney star in the Handsworth secondary production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Centennial Theatre on April 7, 8 and 9 at 7 p.m. Ticket reservations at 604-984-4484.
NV police volunteers protest closures
James Weldon
jweldon@nsnews.com
VOLUNTEERS with the North Vancouver RCMP’s community policing program say a recent decision to close two of their offices will compromise public safety. In a letter sent to the North Shore News by about 30 members of the organization, the group claimed that the closure of the community policing centre at Edgemont Village in January and the more recent shuttering of the office in Lynn Valley last month have hamstrung many of their programs, which aim to reduce crime, curb
Edgemont, Lynn Valley offices close for move to district hall
speeding, improve child safety and address other issues. The district has consolidated the two neighbourhood outlets into a single space at district hall on West Queens Road. That simply isn’t good enough, according to the group. “A lot of the people are very upset,” said George Wilkinson, a community policing volunteer who heads a committee formed by the organization to protest the change. “They were asked to return the keys to the policing centres, and that’s where it stands. . . . “How do you do your duties from a cubicle?”
The centres performed a variety of valuable functions, said Wilkinson. Last year, volunteers in the City and District of North Vancouver entered 10,000 children in their Child ID Program database, plastered 40,000 vehicles with notices aimed at curbing smash and grabs, urged more than 100,000 motorists to reduce their speed through the group’s Speed Watch program, helped clean up 600 incidents of graffiti and performed other functions, he said. The volunteers co-ordinated their efforts at those offices and used them to store equipment, said Wilkinson. Meanwhile, the centres also served as a contact point between law enforcement and the community at large, he added. People who
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See RCMP page 5