Times The Langley
Queen for a Day
page 21
F
r
i
d
a
y ,
M
a
y
2
7
,
2
0
1
Lion’s Pride page 46
1
www. l a n g l e y t i m e s . com
‘Weigh HST pros, cons’
Eighty tickets issued in blitz
GOING FOR A DIP
Tax is too valuable to dismiss, says Chamber president
Cellphone use most common driver offence found during midweek crackdown
FRANK BUCHOLTZ Times Reporter
The HST is so important to B.C.’s business community, it is quite willing to accept an increase in corporate tax rates if citizens vote to keep the tax in place next month. “We’re long term thinkers,” says Milt Kruger, president of the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce. “The HST is good for business. It will keep businesses competitive, increase the tax base and allow for more hiring and growth. In the long term, it will lead to reduced taxes.” Kruger says the provincial government’s plan to reduce the HST rate by two per cent, by July 1, 2014, and give one-time payments to families with children under 18 and seniors with incomes less than $40,000 helps to balance things out, and will put more money in people’s pockets. He says that will be good for business, as consumers will spend more. continued, PAGE 6
Call us first!
DAN FERGUSON Times Reporter
Garrett JAMES/Langley Times
Maliya Faulkner, her mother Kristen and baby brother Ian search for frogs at Campbell Valley Regional Park on Saturday. The event, hosted by Metro Vancouver and Langley Environmental Partners Society, invited families to search the pond at Campbell Valley with the help of park interpreters. While there, they discovered how to identify different types of frogs while learning about the process of metamorphosis, listening to stories and making crafts to take home.
FOR OVER 50 YEARS
OUTSTANDING IN THEIR FIELD ...AND 3 GENERATIONS!
Heating, Air Conditioning and Gas Fitting 604-534-5555 • gandyinstallations.net
We Trade or Buy Your Scrap Gold Jewellery 604.539.7720
20202-66th Ave, Langley (across from London Drugs)
Est. 2000
Goldsmith On Site
As he pulled up to the intersection of the Fraser Highway and Langley Bypass Wednesday morning, the driver of the small car with the badly cracked windshield may have wondered why the casually-dressed man standing near the walk sign was talking into his collar. If he did, he had his answer a few seconds later when he was pulled over and ticketed for driving with his vision obscured. He’d been meaning to get the glass fixed, the sheepish driver told the officer, but he never got around to it. It was a busy morning for the spotter, a police officer in civilian clothes with a concealed radio who alerted fellow officers east and west of the intersection to questionable vehicles. Police from the Langley RCMP and Fraser Valley Integrated Road Safety Unit also staked out 208 Street near 82 Avenue that afternoon. More than 80 tickets were issued during the one-day enforcement campaign, part of a provincial crackdown against high-risk driving. Twenty-one people were ticketed for ignoring the ban on using electronic devices like hand-held cell phones while at the wheel. continued, PAGE 12