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Friday, February 3, 2012 South Delta Leader
Readerpoll Should more ALR farmland be sacrificed to make way for port expansion?
southdeltaleader.com Last week, we asked: Is taking hitting out of house league minor hockey a good thing?
yes 72% no 28% Start
a conversation.
LETTERS Inconsiderate people I am a frequent dike and park user and I would like to forward the following comments in regards to people/dogs. Dog poo—everywhere you go on dikes, parks. You can find little plastic bags with dog poo in it conveniently placed on the
Cleaning up our energy How much longer is B.C. going to rely on imported coal energy from Alberta and Washington to top-up our provincial energy supply? I’m really starting to wonder. Importing dirty coal energy is not something we should be doing when we live in a province that is so exceptionally well suited to producing clean hydroelectricity, from big hydro dams and from
Time for tax fairness Stephen Harper has billions of dollars to spend on more prisons and jet fighters but he wants to cut spending on health care and pensions. He never mentioned this during the election campaign. Cutting health care and pensions leaves seniors vulnerable. Canada is the envy of the world because of its universal health care program. It’s a significant benefit to citizens, employers, and the
behind the scenes
Publisher Mary Kemmis
Editor Philip Raphael
publisher@southdeltaleader.com editor@southdeltaleader.com
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At a special strategy session held in Chilliwack last week, Port Metro Vancouver CEO Robin Silvester told Metro Vancouver politicians that more Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) farmland should be sacrificed to make way for more port expansion and the jobs that will bring.
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walking surface. Do these people actually believe that someone is going to clean up after them? You would be better off leaving the poo without a bag. At least nature would take care of it rather than plastic bags that take years to break down. Gingell Park—why do people visit this park platform on top and toss empty wine, beer bottles and other garbage down into the bushes even though there is s
large garbage can right beside it? Imagine having dumb, naive, inconsiderate and stupid people living among us in our society. No wonder we are doomed. There are hundreds of citizens trying to make our community a better place by being more environmentally friendly and then a handful of these losers ruin it for everybody.
smaller run-of-river projects. Relying on imported coal energy not only places B.C. at the mercy of future energy cost fluctuations, it also gives us the false impression that our provincial energy supply is cleaner than it really is. Just because the pollution and carbon emissions from imported coal energy are generated beyond our provincial borders doesn’t mean we are off the hook for the environmental impacts of burning coal.
Importing dirty coal energy defeats important environmental objectives we have as a society and it goes against the clean hydroelectric tradition of our province. To my mind, if we want our conscience to be clean on the environment, then we should make every effort to ensure that our energy supply is clean too.
country as a whole and it’s efficiently administered compared to the USA. In addition, the CPP, OAS and GIS keep millions of seniors out of dire poverty in this country. Harper may raise the OAS eligibility age from 65 to 67 and make it self-financing. There are a number of problems with this proposal. What is the solution? • Invest in our future by paying families a significant bonus for having babies. • Make adopting children from abroad a lot easier.
• Increase investor, economic and labour immigration. • Give Canadians the option of returning their pension cheques if they don’t need them every month. • Give wealthy Canadians the option of making tax deductible donations to wipe out the debt and deficit. • And make billionaires and the rich pay the same percentage of their income in taxes as someone making $100,000 per year. It's about time for tax fairness.
Advertising Jane Ilott 604.948.3640 ext.127 jane@southdeltaleader.com Jenelle Julien 604.948.3640 ext. 121 jenelle@outhdeltaleader.com Creative Sarah Kelloway ads@southdeltaleader.com
Othmar A. Brunner, Delta
Sandra Robinson, Maple Ridge
Alex Sangha, Delta
Reporter Christine Lyon 604.948.3640 ext.126 reporter@southdeltaleader.com Distribution 604.948.3640 ext 125 circulation2@southdeltaleader.com Classifieds 604.575.5555
Copyright and property rights subsist in all display advertising and other material appearing in the South Delta Leader. If, in the Publisher's opinion, an error is made that materially affects the value of the ad to the advertiser, a corrected advertisement will be inserted upon demand without further charge. Make good insertions are not granted on minor errors which do not lessen the value of the advertisement. Notice of error is required before second insertion. Opinions expressed in columns and letters to the Editor are not necessarily shared by the Publisher. The South Delta Leader is a member of the British Columbia Press Council, a self-regulatory body governing the province’s newspaper industry. The council considers complaints from the public about the conduct of member newspapers. Directors oversee the mediation of complaints, with input from both the newspaper and the complaint holder. If talking with the editor or publisher does not resolve your complaint about coverage or story treatment, you may contact the B.C. Press Council. Your written concern, with documentation, should be sent to B.C. Press Council, 201 Selby St., Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 2R2. For information, phone 888-687-2213 or go to www.bcpresscouncil.org.
EDITORIAL
Time to settle teacher dispute Five months into their job action against the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, teachers seem to be turning the screws tighter in their effort to negotiate a new contract. After essentially working to rule through the first half of the school year, not writing report cards, not attending staff meetings nor performing other administrative duties, teachers are now making more visible displays of their frustration. Burnaby teachers recently held their second “mark-in,” taking tests and papers with them to a mall food court after school was done for the day to show the public how much of their work is done beyond regular school hours. Recently, teachers across the province were urged to wear black, as their way of illustrating a “dark day in education.” The teachers’ choice of date was not insignificant; Jan. 27 was the 10th anniversary of the Liberal government’s enactment of Bills 27 and 28, which stripped their contract of provisions for class sizes and composition. Both sides in the long-running dispute are still at the bargaining table, but there’s little sign of progress. Meanwhile, parents and students are caught in the middle. Without the feedback from proper report cards, parents can’t get a true reading on where their children stand, how they’re progressing, what areas might need remedial help. Students may also be suffering. While it’s hard to dispute the dedication and hard work of the teachers, even in the face of this contract squabble, as the impasse drags on it will be more and more difficult for them to shield their frustration from their classrooms. Both sides say they’re looking out for the future. The teachers say they are fighting for the future of education. The government says it is fighting for the province’s financial future. The time to settle their differences is now. —Burnaby NewsLeader