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Friday September 19, 2014
Volume 20, No. 75
Coulson calls for ‘change and certainty’ in handling development permits By Michael Briones Echo Staff
Jake Hughson fishing for salmon.
BC Hydro moving to ‘extreme conservation’ for Puntledge River There hasn’t been a major rain storm event since October 2013 By Drew A. Penner Echo Staff It’s time to shift into extreme conservation mode. That’s the word from BC Hydro as water levels in their reservoir and the Puntledge River keep dropping. “At the current rate of discharge we would essentially be at the bottom of the reservoir and basically running out of water by early October,” said BC Hydro spokesperson Stephen Watson, of the decision to drop water flows from the 12 m3/s rate Wednesday. “We took action to go down to 8.5 cubic meters of water per second. So that will last us to about Oct. 21 or so. Basically we need a rain event in about the next month or so, otherwise it’s going to get quite severe.” It looked like the Comox Valley might see rain for a bit. “That storm system shifted north to miss this area completely and a high pressure system is going to come back in,” he said. “Obviously we’re hoping for a storm event and we’re good to go, but if it remains dry through October we could be in a situation where what is naturally coming into the reservoir is what is released downstream, which is about 2 m3/s,” he said. “We have not had a storm of any significance since October 2013. Considering on Vancouver Island and the West Coast we think of rain, to go through an entire year without a storm event, that’s pretty remarkable - yet that’s what’s happened.” Jake Hughson, 28, a civic planner from Fort St. John who works alongside environmental consultants saw salmon swimming up the Puntledge River Wednesday morning and decided to grab his rod and head down to Condensory Bridge. “Most people are enjoying the sun,” he said. “But the rivers, the salmon and the environment need the rain.” As he cast his rod about he noted the Puntledge River seemed in much better shape than many of the others in the area, such as the Oyster, Trent, Sable and Little Qualicum rivers. “I think the biggest thing is the temperature of the water,” noting lower water levels mean warmer waves. (Continued on page 2)
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Ron Coulson wants to see “change and certainty” in the development permit application process before he continues to develop projects in Courtenay. Last week, the CEO of Silverado Group of Companies after failing to get approval from the City of Courtenay’s engineering department in time for the spring real estate market, withdrew the development of its 31-lot subdivision project north of Ryan Road. It is Phase One of a 15 to 20 year plan that Coulson said would have created a minimum of $15 million in economic development for the city. Coulson said the project was initiated last year. He had indicated to city’s Chief Administrative Officer David Allen their desire to see construction start n April this year. But despite several meetings with city engineers and planners, the development permit met with unnecessary delays, which Coulson said was frustrating. “The culture with the bureaucrats as specifically engineering in the City of Courtenay is a culture of putting hurdles in front of developers and not declaring that we’re open for business,” said Coulson. “We have invested tens of millions into our project. We’re only 30 per cent into our overall development and for them to stonewall us is just not acceptable and we will not put up with it.” (Continued on page 2)
Teachers have mixed feelings over deal By Michael Briones Echo Staff
Consultants were dispatched to the Puntledge River by BC Hydro to save any fish trapped by dropping water levels.
Feelings are mixed over the tentative deal reached by the teachers with the provincial government. At press time, Comox Valley teachers, and also those from across the province, were going to vote on whether to ratify the agreement that would end the strike and open the schools on Monday. “Teachers are happy but it’s not an extreme happiness,” said Comox Valley District Teachers Association president Nick Moore. “We’re still concerned there’s still a big underfunding of education and that there’s going to be some students, despite all our hard work and efforts, that are still going to be falling in the cracks because there’s no adults in the building to take care of them. If teachers agree to ratify this, then we do so with a heavy heart.” After months of embittered dispute, the BC Teachers Federation and the BC Public Schools Employers Association reached a tentative deal that was brokered by well-respected mediator Vince Ready just before 4 a.m. on Tuesday. It’s a six-year deal that contains a 7.25-per-cent raise, a $108 million grievance fund to address the government’s illegal stripping of class-size limits from the teachers’ contract back in 2002, and $480 million throughout the course of the deal to hire new teachers. The contentious E80 clause, which outlined the government’s class-size and composition language was also taken off the bargaining table. The BCTF objected to the clause, fearing the language would take away class size and composition rights the union had won through two court rulings. While there’s money set aside to help deal with some of the issues concerning class size and composition, Moore said, “it’s not enough in our opinion but it’s the best we could get from government right now.” Some of the other highlights of the deal are the moderate improvements to their extended health package, which Moore said they’re happy about. As well, there’s increased prep time for elementary teachers which will allow them enough time to get things ready in their classes.
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