A4 TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2011 THE TIMES
Anti-HST group warns of “bad tax” CAM TUCKER camtuckertimes@gmail.com
T
– JEAN KONDA-WITTE/TIMES
Local dignitaries unveil a plaque, left, and later students from Dr. Thomas A. Swift Elementary charge down the new trail with Mayor George Peary among them.
Kids kick off new $1.88M Discovery Trail
JEAN KONDA-WITTE JKonda-Witte@abbotsfordtimes.com
A
new 5.5-kilometre section of the Discovery Trail was officially opened at the Community Champions Plaza in East Abbotsford on Friday. Students from Dr. Thomas A. Swift Elementary were part of the festivities that included leading the official run – and Mayor George Peary – down
Sleeping senior attacker sentenced An Abbotsford man who broke into the apartment of a sleeping 89-year-old woman in March has been
the paved trail. Section 3 connecting Hazelwood Cemetery to Lower Sumas Mountain Park is part of the 35km trail network connecting east and west Abbotsford. “We have the single best trail network in all of British Columbia,” said Minister of Health Mike de Jong. Abbotsford South MLA John van Dongen said the trail was a great community asset.
Briefly sentenced to two years behind bars. Clarke David Doherty, 26, was sentenced on Wednesday to two years
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At a cost of $1.88 million, Section 3 of the trail is paid for by the City of Abbotsford (half) and the other half is shared between the federal and provincial governments. “It’s great for the livability of our city,” van Dongen said of the trail system. After speeches wrapped up and the plaques were unveiled, Mayor George Peary and Swift students set off for a quick run down the trail.
in prison, two years probation and a mandatory 10-year prohibition on firearms after he pled guilty to charges of break and enter with intent to commit an offence. Doherty broke into the senior’s apartment, located
in the 2000 block of Gladwin Road, around 1:45 a.m. on March 13 and demanded money. Doherty and a 28year-old male were arrested not far from the scene after witnesses described the getaway vehicle.
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he Harmonized Sales Tax will continue to hurt small businesses, according to a group of politicians and local business owners who held a small press conference in Abbotsford last week. Armin Basra, who operates AGS Landscape, said his business has struggled since beginning in March, and he’s convinced most of that has to do with the HST. “Residential lawns, there is money in there to maintain them, but people just don’t want to do that,” he said. “Everybody is spending more money everywhere. . . that’s taking away from the disposable income they want to spend on us.” A referendum is currently underway in British Columbia on whether abolish the HST altogether, or to legislate the new proposal that would see the current 12 per cent rate reduced down to 10 per cent over a two-year span. The HST became official on July 1, 2010, and has fallen under criticism as not only a tax that hurts small businesses and families, but one that was implemented unfairly. Speaking at an anti-HST gathering at the Everbloom
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Garden Centre on Thursday, New Democrat finance critic Bruce Ralston and SurreyNewton MLA Harry Bains said people should vote ‘Yes’ to scrap the HST. “The HST is a bad tax,” said Ralston, who called the Liberals approach to implementing the tax and then reducing it to 10 per cent in two years “misleading.” “It transfers $1.9 billion [in taxes] from big business to families and small businesses.” Ralston also criticized the B.C. Liberal party, which he said used $5 million in public money to fund a “persuasion campaign.” “It’s just straight out government advertising for the Liberal party and they’re using that to try and persuade people,” he said. “Beginning before the last election, the Liberals said in writing that they would not introduce the tax, and the very next day after the election, then-premier Gordon Campbell was discussing with the Deputy Minister of Finance about brining in the tax.”
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