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FORMER MEMBER of the Barenaked Ladies, Steven Page, is forging ahead in new musical directions since leaving the popular Canadian band.
THE UBCO HEAT men’s basketball team is looking for a new coach after Darren Semeniuk stepped down after seven years as head coach.
ATTEMPT BY Peachland resident to set a Guinness World Record for continuous powered paraglider flight over 12,000 km of terrain in Australia run into foul weather.
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THURSDAY March 8, 2012 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com
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Councillors agree to 3% pay raise
Taking on child poverty
Wade Paterson STAFF REPORTER
Kathy Michaels
Three per cent seems to be the magic number for West Kelowna council this year. In January, council stated that three per cent would likely be the targeted 2012 tax increase for its residents. On Tuesday, council decided that three per cent would also be an appropriate wage increase for the mayor and councillors in 2012. The wage hike was a modest one considering council’s policy at the time suggested a 9.71 per cent increase for the mayor and 13.5 per cent for councillors. That policy was a median formula that based the mayor and councillors’ compensation on the median of IN THE OVERALL what is paid to mayors SCHEME OF and councillors in a comparative group of municiTHINGS, THIS IS palities. ANOTHER $22,000, That comparative WHICH IS NOT group included Langley, A SIGNIFICANT Port Moody, North Cowichan, Campbell River, IMPACT ON THE Penticton and Vernon. BUDGET, BUT IT’S The reason the policy HIGHLY SYMBOLIC. produced a hefty 2012 Mayor Doug salary raise suggestion Findlater was because DWK council opted for a zero per cent wage increase in 2011. If council was to follow that policy this year, their wages would have had to catch up with the wages of councils from other municipalities. Mayor Doug Findlater said that the topic of council wages is a “difficult subject.” He said he didn’t think double-digit salary increases were appropriate. “In the overall scheme of things, this is another $22,000, which is not a significant impact on the budget, but it’s highly symbolic,” said Findlater.
STAFF REPORTER
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DOUG FARROW/CONTRIBUTOR
HAMMER HIT…Jessie Enns contributed $10 dollars to the UBC engineering department for the privilege of taking a swing with a sledge hammer at this mini-van Wednesday at the Kelowna campus. The car smash was one of several events taking place this week as the UBCO engineering students celebrate Engineering Week from March 3 to 9.
Kelowna isn’t unique in its growing economic and social struggles, but this week area organizations embarked on an unconventional path forward to get the issues under control. Responding to a call from the Community Action Toward Children’s Health Foundation, members of local business, faith and service groups met with Paul Born, president of the Tamarack Institute, to hatch a plan that would allow them to start working across organizational lines and deal with barriers to healthy child development. Born, an expert on community building whose work has been recognized by the United Nations among others, told the crowd he’s learned patching up social problems through insular organizations, is more of a destructive influence than one might think. In some ways it creates an unsustainable culture of dependency as those in need bounce from ser-
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