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JANUARY 17, 2018 | Volume 31 No. 5
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WEATHER Cloudy and warm High 6 C Low 5 C SUN PEAKS SNOW REPORT Mid-mountain: 115 cm Alpine: 146 cm Snow phone: 250-578-7232
Saturday is ABC Family Literacy Day in Kamloops
FLEXING THEIR MUSCLES City gyms adapting to cut-rate competition
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All schools to get lead-filtration units CHRISTOPHER FOULDS EDITOR editor@kamloopsthisweek.com
DAVE EAGLES/KTW Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training Melanie Mark was in Kamloops on Tuesday to announce that a full engineering degree program will be coming to Thompson Rivers University.
FULL ENGINEERING DEGREE COMING TO TRU The provincial NDP government is making good on a preelection pledge by the then-governing B.C. Liberals. Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training Melanie Mark was in town on Tuesday to announce a full engineering degree program at Thompson Rivers University. TRU will receive $400,000 in start-up funding from the B.C. government, which will allow the university to increase the number of student spaces and
offer a full software-engineering degree program beginning in the fall of 2019. Currently, TRU’s engineering program requires students to transfer to another institution to complete their degrees. The university is expected to ramp up to a total of 140 spaces in undergraduate software engineering by 2022-2023, which will produce 35 additional graduates per year by 2023. “More homegrown tech talent is critical to supporting
the growing tech economy in regions such as Kamloops,” said Dan De Palma, vice-president of sales and marketing at Streamline Transportation Technologies. “Much of the tech talent in the Kamloops area are alumni from the various tech programs at TRU, so I’m thrilled to see that they’re expanding. “By training more of B.C.’s bright minds in relevant programs, the tech sector will continue to flourish and grow.”
The Kamloops-Thompson school district has decided to install leadfiltered water stations in every school in the district — but the daily flushing of pipes will continue. Trustees approved the capital plan during an in-camera session prior to Monday night’s public board meeting. The project will see one or two filtered drinking stations (the number of stations is dependent on the size of the school) installed in every school in the district. There are 44 schools in the district, which stretches from Savona in the west, southeast to Westwold and north to Blue River. The district expects the installation to be finished by the start of the 20182019 school year in September. While the project has to go to tender, based on what it has cost various parent advisory councils (PAC) to install such units in their schools, the projected cost for the district-wide initiative is in the tens of thousands of dollars. A lead-filtered water station typically costs $1,800. The decision comes after concerns about lead levels were raised by some parents in city schools. Last month, a parent of a student at Marion Schilling elementary in Valleyview wrote a letter to Premier John Horgan and Minister of Education Rob Fleming, arguing the school needs two filtration stations — one for pri-
mary students and one for intermediate students. The reason, Eddy Davis said in his letter, is because an analysis of the water coming from the existing taps have shown the lead content “grossly exceeds the allowable limits for safe consumption.” At the time, School District 73 superintendent Alison Sidow said some PACs in the region have been opting to buy filtration systems for their schools. She said it would cost the district about $200,000 to provide filtration systems for all schools that need them. Among all schools in the district, only Pacific Way, built in 2000, does not have a lead problem in its water. Last June, all schools in the Kamloops-Thompson school district except Pacific Way elementary were told to flush hallway fountains and classroom taps daily to eliminate elevated levels of lead. Sidow said the recommendation to install the units followed continued concern on the part of parents. “It’s clear that parents want this option for their children. More than 17 parent advisory committees had already found money to have these units installed in their schools and other PACs continue to fundraise to explore the option,” Sidow said. “This will ensure that all students in every one of our schools have equitable access to the safest possible drinking water.” See PACs, A4
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