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‘Tis the season for Turducken
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Spend less, give more
The Christmas spirit:
City resident launches website to help families in need
L
ast winter, Burnaby resident Augustine Wong was driving to work and listening to the radio, when he heard a story of a family in need that had only $100 for Christmas. How do you have Christmas with $100, the radio host asked. Wong took that rhetorical question as a challenge and came up with a charity drive to encourage people ON MY BEAT Jennifer Moreau to spend less money on themselves and donate to charity instead. “The point is to get people to think about what they are spending, and, if it’s necessary, to get donors to better identify with those in need,” he told the NOW. A couple of weeks ago, Wong launched a new website called Spend Less, Give More, where people can upload a photo of an item they are giving up, while donating its value to charity. Wong also uses Facebook and Instagram to publish the photos of forgone items to create an online gallery of generosity. Wong put the word out to various organizations, because he needed a cause to donate to, and the Burnaby Christmas Bureau was the first to respond. “Also, I live in Burnaby, so it makes
To visit the website, scan with Layar
sense to try to support my local community,” he said. Burnaby Community Services facilitates the Christmas Bureau, which provides toys for children from low-income families and hampers for seniors during the holidays. So far, there hasn’t been a lot of people signing up to donate on Wong’s web-
site – mostly his friends – but that’s not dampening his enthusiasm. He’s focusing on getting the word out through social media. Behind the idea of sacrifice is a deeper ethos of empathy. Wong wants people to go with less to better understand what it’s like for families that don’t have a choice. “That’s why I don’t just want a charity
Burnaby resident Augustine Wong with Stephen D’Souza at the Burnaby Christmas Bureau. Wong has started a campaign called Spend Less, Give More, designed to get people thinking about holiday giving in a new light. Jennifer Gauthier/ burnaby now
drive where people give money. I want them to think about the people they are trying to help and their situation and ask them to give something up for themselves. I hope they are mentally putting themselves in the position of what families in need have to go through,” he said. Giving Page 8
Final cost: $1.6 million for school staff raises Jennifer Moreau staff reporter
The final numbers are in, and wage increases for school support staff will cost the Burnaby school district a whopping $1.6 million. The provincial government has instructed school districts across B.C. to find the money within existing budgets, as no new
government funding is coming forward to cover the wage increases. “Wage increases for support staff will be about $1.6 million a year once the increases are fully implemented,” said the district’s secretary-treasurer Greg Frank. “There’s a phase in of increases, so when the full amount is totally implemented next fiscal year, the annual cost will be $1.6 million.”
In September, the support workers (represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees) seemed on the verge of a strike, but a deal was struck, and the provincial government agreed to a 3.5 per cent wage increase over two years. The wage increases caused some controversy because the money is coming out of existing school district budgets – from districts that often complain of chronic government
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under-funding. All B.C. school districts submitted savings plans to the government this month, and the Ministry of Education will look them over to make sure they fall within the cooperative gains mandate, which means the money must be found within their existing budgets to cover the wage increase Budget Page 8
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