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JUNE 27, 2018 | Volume 31 No. 51
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Serge Lajoie joins the WHL club after winning the national university title with Alberta
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After 13 years on council, Lange won’t seek re-election DALE BASS STAFF REPORTER dale@kamloopsthisweek.com
Calling it the toughest decision she’s ever made, Tina Lange said she will not seek re-election in October. The veteran Kamloops councillor — she was first elected in 2005 — said two factors dominated the internal struggle she had deciding if she would run one more time. First was the death of fellow councillor Marg Spina last year from breast cancer. “That was huge for me,” Lange said. “And I thought that there are so many other things I want to do.” The second was the fact she turns 65 next January. Lange wants to spend more time watching her eight grand-
children play soccer, hockey and other sports. She wants to be with her daughters more often. And, she said, there are places in the world she still wants to visit. Lange won’t miss election day. She said campaigning for office “makes me depressed” and, on past election days, she retreated to her house, waiting for it all to end. Looking back on her 13 years on city council, Lange said she is most pleased that “with my own performance, I didn’t waver.” She points to the pesticidecontrol bylaw in 2015 as a highlight, noting it was obvious some city staff didn’t want to adopt it. “They said it didn’t fit under the urban agriculture plan,” she said. It was a close vote — 5-4 in
favour of enacting the bylaw— after two-and-a-half hours of debate. “I remember thinking this shouldn’t be a big deal, but it was the biggest issue ever,” Lange said. She lost friends over her position on the proposed Ajax mine. “Ajax was a huge one for me. I was one of the first to say no,” she said, attributing the work she did on the city’s airshedmanagement plan as one of the driving forces behind her objection to the project. “I knew the air downtown is often borderline and I had made a commitment with that plan that we wouldn’t let the air get worse — and, hopefully, we would make it better,” Lange said. See LANGE, A4
Delays in affordable housing openings JESSICA WALLACE
STAFF REPORTER
jessica@kamloopsthisweek.com
BC Housing said engineering and site conditions are to blame for delays in constructing more than 100 affordable-housing units in Kamloops.
Tina Lange wants to travel and spend more time with family, which is why she is not running in the Oct. 20 civic election. DAVE EAGLES/KTW
The province announced in January funding for modular housing at two properties purchased by the city — 259 West Victoria St. downtown and 317 Tranquille Rd. on the North Shore — as part of a $291-million investment to build 2,000 units
across the province over two years. While construction was due to begin this summer, with applications for occupancy available this fall, a development permit for Tranquille was only secured on Tuesday. BC Housing regional
director Ann Howard told KTW the projects were due for completion by December, but January and February, respectively, are now more likely, Howard said the delays are “not significant.” See BC HOUSING, A7
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