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TC THINGS-TO-DO GUIDE: 18
All things Scottish, plus Father’s Day THE 2015 VALEDICTORIANS
TC
Landfill harnesses methane to make electricity / Hospital thieves blended in
FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2015 Your community. Your stories.
TRI-CITY
NEWS
Some of the top students in School District 43 graduating classes, as chosen by their peers, have plenty to say about the last four years and the unknowable future to come. See story on page 3
TRANSLINK
Transit use still down from 2013 fare hike Revenue, spending up slightly: TransLink report JEFF NAGEL BLACK PRESS
JANIS WARREN/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Gathering for the first, and probably the last time, are some of Tri-City public schools’ valedictorians: Top row, from left, Jenny Wang (Pinetree secondary), Kelsi James (Dr. Charles Best) and Leanna Hogarth (Heritage Woods); bottom row, from left, Tyler Ashbury (Centennial), Isaac Mand (Gleneagle) and Yeedo Chun (Heritage Woods).
Transit ridership in Metro Vancouver still hasn’t recovered to 2012 levels after a fare increase in January of 2013 spurred more users to drive instead. TransLink’s annual report shows 234.6 million passengers were carried in 2014, up marginally from 233.9 million in 2013, but still 1.8% below 2012’s 238.8 million, prior to fares going up. “Ongoing analysis into the decline in ridership suggests that the 2013 fare increase had a longer lasting effect on ridership than expected,” the report said. Although ridership was up marginally, fares paid actually dropped $1.2 million in 2014 due to more passengers using discounted passes or prepaid tickets instead of more expensive cash fares. see COST RECOVERY, page 17
TRI-CITY SCHOOLS
Better late than never? A school for Burke Mt. Through the Tri-Cities and across Canada, a cyclist raises money to help far-away students: page 12
‘Why not start earlier?’ parent asks DIANE STRANDBERG Tri-CiTy News
A funding announcement for an $18-million elementary school on Burke Mountain
is expected this fall with the hopes that it will be built in three years or less to relieve enrolment pressures in the growing neighbourhood. Coquitlam-Burke Mountain MLA Douglas Horne made the prediction Tuesday at a special public meeting on land acquisition for five new schools
on four properties on Burke Mountain. “Were in a process that we are all very confident is going to get the results we need,” said Horne. The news should be a relief for parents of young children in the Coquitlam neighbourhood but many left the meeting dis-
appointed Smiling Creek elementary won’t be built sooner and a promised middle school is still eight or nine years away. “Why not start earlier?” Nicole Jones, the mother of a pre-schooler and five-year-old, told The Tri-City News. see SD43 HAD TO, page 9
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