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MAY 16, 2012 Vol. 117, Issue 95
110
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Another crown for Royals Page 9
INCLUDING H.S.T.
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF
Funding the need to feed
City adopts financial plan
Donations help food banks meet growing demand BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER
Trail taxes inch up 2.16 per cent
Times Staff
A man stepped slowly through the doorway of the Trail United Church food bank and looked around. He was older, with thick, workmanlike hands, and stood straight and tall despite his age. A food bank volunteer approached him and asked him how he was doing and he grunted his reply. Pulling out a plastic shopping bag he pointed to the shelving lined with tin cans of food, bags of coffee, sugar and boxes of pasta, as the woman began to take items off the shelf to fill his outstretched bag. He didn’t seem like the stereotypical food bank client: his appearance portraying a clean shaven, well groomed, capable man who had worked all of his life, made his own way, paid his own way. But there is no such thing as a stereotypical recipient, said St. Andrew Anglican Church priest Neil Elliot, whose church also runs a food bank. “People have this idea of what food bank recipients are and it is so not true,” he said. “People, for a whole range of different reasons, use a food bank … and they are generally the working poor.” They are the people who are working minimum wage jobs and have families, some people are retired and their pensions don’t make ends meet, while others have health problems that limit their abilTIMOTHY SCHAFER PHOTO ity to work full time. Sometimes people just need a helping Lavona Gordon pulls canned goods off of the shelves for a client at the Trail United hand, not a handout, during tough times Church’s food bank on Tuesday. The food bank recently received a cash infusion to get them through, Elliot said. from Teck Metals Ltd. Many people in Trail are caught in those tough times, victims of a shrinking Teck Metals Ltd. stepped up with a with canned goods, toiletries, and other economic base and rising costs, unable to sizable cash donation of $20,000, giving sundry items one might need to flesh out keep ends together that once joined. $3,000 to each of the city’s food banks, a household. Over 110 people a week visit one of and $11,000 to the La Nina Extreme Teck made the donation last November the city’s three food banks, Weather Emergency Shelter when the company was looking to help up from around 55 people now housed in the basement the shelter, said Carol Vanelli Worosz, “People, for a less than three years ago. of the United Church. Teck’s communications manager. whole range of Two years ago a dramatic With the two church At the time they became aware of the rise in food bank usage at the different reasons, banks spending up to food bank’s need to feed the shelter’s Anglican Church, the United use a food bank.” $2,000 per month in addi- clients — many of the same people utilChurch and the Salvation tion to donations to keep ize both services — and figured out how NEIL ELLIOT Army led to a pronounced the larders full, the cash the $20,000 donation could benefit the food shortage. was a welcome find to ease shelter and the three food banks at the Although the pace of donations is now the burden, said United Church diaconal same time. catching up, the need for feed is still minister Keith Simmonds. “We found there was an enhanced increasing at the city’s three food banks, “The funding from Teck here allows need to support the food banks as well,” and recently one of the city’s largest bene- us keep a little bit ahead,” he said, point- she said. See DONATION, Page 3 factors brought home the bacon. ing towards a back room partly stocked
BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
The bill is now complete. With the city budget finally signed off on after nearly five months of deliberation, taxpayers in Trail will be paying 2.16 per cent more this year for their services, or around $43 more on the average home. City council voted Monday night to adopt its five-year financial plan, thereby increasing the cost to own property in the Silver City. The average taxpayer will now be on the hook for around $1,244.99 in property taxes based on an average 2012 home assessment of $184,540, and including the $770 homeowners grant “That’s pretty marginal and in keeping with what we have been seeing around the province,” councillor Kevin Jolly told council in his general government financial report. In breaking down the municipal tax bill, flat and parcel taxes — any designated area of land that does not include a highway — did not increase in 2012, while general municipal taxes rose by 3.18 per cent ($20.48) to an average of $944.29. Of the $8.53 million the city will be keeping for its general capital fund, the largest chunk will be used for parks and recreation ($3.585 million), with $3.25 million going to transportation. General government ($823,200) and land purchases ($625,000), as well as protective services ($147,000) and public health and welfare ($105,000) round out the general expenditure line items. Utility capital funds total $2.03 million for 2012, with $1.67 million being relegated to water system improvements, and $565,000 doing the same duty for the sewer system. The revenue sources rely largely on property value taxes — 52.62 per cent — with user fees and charges (16.78 per cent), other sources (16.48 per cent), proceeds from borrowing for capital projects (11.47 per cent) and parcel taxes (2.65 per cent) filling out the remainder. Further afield On the regional district side of the ledger, the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary will be asking for 2.67 per cent more, or $494.53, for the six functions, sewer service and other aspects it provides to the city. That brings total local taxes in Trail to $1,438.82. Requisitions from school and other government taxes — Municipal Finance Authority, the B.C. Assessment Authority and regional
See GRANT, Page 3
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