WEDNESDAY JUNE 22 2016
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Buddha-Full
West First Street outlet specializes in fresh, organic and raw fare FEATURE 25
Car Care
Learning to ride plus Dundarave Porsche Show SPORTS 33
Football reunion
Event celebrates teams that have been defunct for decades NORTHSHORENEWS
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BRITISH PROPERTIES
Bear breaks in, destroys Lexus in search of food BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com
West Vancouver police and bear advocates are warning the public after a bear peeled open a luxury auto in the British Properties and tore apart the interior.
The bear had apparently been drawn to the Lexus parked on the 700 block of Westcot Place in the British Properties because of a stash of sandwiches left in the car overnight on Saturday, according to police. The food was destined for a potluck gathering on Sunday but the bear made short work of the door and availed itself of the picnic inside. “This person had come out thinking initially that they had been broken into but as they looked closer, it was clear it was a bear that had gone into it and really made a mess of it – extensive damage, door panels pulled, quite a bit of the upholstery ripped and pulled apart,” said Const. Jeff Palmer, West Vancouver police spokesman. Damage from the bear’s late-night appetite is estimated at $10,000. Bears have been known to rip open car doors even for the faintest of smells. Another vehicle in the same area was
See Fewer page 7
BLANKET STATEMENT Kindergarten student Vela Morisett embraces retiring librarian Sandy Brun at Brockton School’s National Aboriginal Day celebration Monday. The event featured a blanketing ceremony to honour Brun and the 2016 graduating class, including Brockton’s first First Nations grad Reeva Billy of the Squamish Nation. Visit nsnews.com/photo-galleries to see more photos from the celebration. PHOTO MIKE WAKEFIELD
REAL ESTATE: AFFORDABILITY CRISIS
Council calls to restrict foreign investors
BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com
West Vancouver’s mayor and council have formally called on the province and federal government to rein in real estate speculation – and they’re asking other municipalities to get on board. Council unanimously passed a motion Monday night, recognizing the Lower Mainland’s affordability crisis and the role real estate speculation, “particularly by foreign investors,” is having on it. The motion goes on to call for “immediate action to discourage speculation” and to “ensure foreign real estate investors pay a fair share of
WV aims measure at taming real estate speculation provincial and federal taxes.” The motion is scheduled to be considered later this year for formal adoption by the Union of B.C. Municipalities and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the groups that formally lobby senior levels of government on behalf of city councils. The motion came from Couns. Mary-Ann Booth and Craig Cameron, who stressed the unprecedented rise in local land
costs is doing more harm than good. Bidding wars and rabid flipping has chased middle- and even high-income residents out of the market, caused assessments to spike and exacerbating traffic woes as workers are displaced into the Fraser Valley, the two argued. “Back when I bought my first house, the price-to-income ratio was around 3:1 and that’s affordable. ... The affordability ratio right now is about 13: 1. ‘Seriously unaffordable’ is 5:1 so this is a crisis,” Booth said, noting that even doctors and lawyers find themselves shut out. “This isn’t right. This isn’t fair and it isn’t the kind of community that we
See Motion page 11