The Chilliwack 3
News
Lights!
Progress Tuesday
15
19
Life
Sports
Envirothon
On location in Chilliwack
Education beyond the classroom
Soccer Soccer scholarship for
120 YEARS YOUR COMMUNITY
NEWSPAPER
1891-2011
Chilliwack star
Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • T U E S D AY, J U N E 1 4 , 2 0 1 1
Flooded farmers count losses
■ H ONOURING T HE F ALLEN
Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Property owners and farmers hit by freshet flooding were hoping for reassurance at the town hall meeting hosted by City of Chilliwack last week. But blueberry farmer Amarjit Gill said there wasn’t much on offer. Their entire blueberry field they’ve been nurturing for six years is under water. They stand to lose about 20 acres of berries that would have ripened next month, and probably the plants as well. “This is a depressing situation for us. It’s not a one-man job to fix this,” Gill said. “Our whole life’s work is gone.” Since they pay the same tax as everyone else, she said they should get the same service as those behind the city diking infrastructure. “No one seems responsible for this,” she said. “I understand the water is too high but they shouldn’t leave us hanging like this. We would have liked to have heard that once the water goes down, they will repair the berm.” She hastened to add they are very “appreciative” of the emergency sandbagging efforts taken on their behalf, which likely saved the family home. City officials made it clear that property owners living behind the orphaned “berm” built by the province in 1997, are responsible for any flood and erosion impacts themselves. But in spite of this, the city nonetheless undertook an emergency program of flood work,
Members of B.C.’s silver cross families, along with members of the 3rd Canadian Army Veterans (CAV), watch as soldiers from Area Support Unit Chilliwack and 39 Canadian Brigade Group fire one of nine 12-gun salutes in honour of each of the fallen soldiers from B.C. who were killed in Afghanistan. The ceremony at Sappers’ Memorial Park, followed the second annual Memorial Ride for the Fallen where hundreds of motorcyclists took part in a ride from Vancouver to Chilliwack to attend the service at the cenotaph in Vedder on Saturday. For video from the event, go online to www.theprogress.com. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Continued: STEPS/ p4
Continued: BYLAW/ p5
O’Mahony settles dust-up over HST signs - for now Robert Freeman The Progress Local Fight HST organizer Glen Thompson is protesting the city’s decision to remove the group’s signs, saying the removal violates freedom of speech provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz defended the city’s action, saying the bylaw does not prohibit signs on city property, but sets out
a permit process aimed at ensuring taxpayers don’t have to foot the bill of removing signs after election and referendum campaigns are over. On Friday, NDP federal election candidate Gwen O’Mahony stepped into the fray with the $500 needed to obtain the permit, saying there’s not time to mount a court challenge to the bylaw before the June 24 HST referendum. But Thompson vowed he’ll fight the city’s sign bylaw in court after the HST vote.
Meanwhile, former B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm is coming to Chilliwack on June 16 to speak at the Coast Hotel as he winds up a tour of the province promoting opposition to the HST. Vander Zalm said he wasn’t surprised by the B.C. Liberal government’s promise last month to reduce the HST rate from 12 per cent to 10 per cent by July, 2014, but the final cut is three years away and “people don’t really trust them now.” “The B.C. Liberals could be out
of government by then, or some disastrous thing happens and the province needs more money,” he told The Progress. “If they can reduce it so easily, they could similarly increase it,” he warned. But Attorney-General Barry Penner, Chilliwack-Hope MLA, said the reduction is now enshrined in law, and can only be changed by the federal government.
$1.25 5-11T JA17