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January 25, 2012
A division of
Vol. 27 No. 7
COMOX VALLEY RECORD Your community. Your newspaper. www.comoxvalleyrecord.com
Spitfire has new name, timeline to soar
LITERACY WEEK
Erin Haluschak Record Staff
An Inuit storyteller is part of local literacy celebrations. ■ 27
VALLEY ON MAP
The Comox Valley featured prominently in the 2011 Get Out There magazine Readers’ Choice Awards. The awards recognize the people, places and organizations that make active living in Canada so great. The awards include categories for Eastern Canada and Western Canada. Readers are invited to vote in over 30 categories, and the winners are published in the January/February issues of Get Out There magazine.
... Complete story on ■ 14
FINDER ■ Weather
2
■ Lottery
6
■ Ferry Schedule
6
■ Arts
8
■ Sports
14
■ Classified
33
■ Editorial
40
■ Opinion
41
With the start of the final stretch of restoration underway, the renamed Roseland Spitfire may just fly for the first time in 2015 since reconstruction began on the classic military plane in Comox. Terry Chester, spokesperson for the Roseland Spitfire Hangar at 19 Wing Comox, confirmed Friday the former Y2K Spitfire restoration is doing well in the hands of Gatineau-based Vintage Wings of Canada. “The initial flight and test flight will be here. She’ll be flying, and we’ll be having an open house and an air show day,” he said. In June 2008, an agreement was reached between the Department of National Defence and Vintage Wings of Canada which specified that the vintage Spitfire aircraft will continue to be built in Comox, that it will retain the Y2K markings and that it will fly in Comox. Jon Ambler, former 19 Wing commander and Comox Air Force
PRESIDENT ROB FLECK of Vintage Wings of Canada makes a presentation at 19 Wing Comox. PHOTO BY ERIN HALUSCHAK
Museum volunteer co-ordinator/ program manager, explained due to overwhelming costs, the volunteer-run project (which began in 2000) was sold to Vintage Wings. “Things don’t make history, people make history,” noted Ambler. The cost of restorations to the vintage plane to make it airworthy is estimated between $2 million and $3 million, but could exceed that range, noted Rob Fleck, president of Vintage Wings, who was at the Spitfire hangar Friday for a presentation on the company, the dedication of planes in the “In His Name” program which honours the memory of military pilots and the types of planes the organization restores. “Aircrafts are nothing but tools. They are cold, inert pieces of metal,” he said. “And what we do, is we use these tools to teach Canadians about their proud history, often times re-teach Canadians about their proud history.” Fleck said the reason for the name change from the Y2K project is to connect everyone with Flight Lieutenant Arnold Walter ... see PLANE ■ 2
Wasn’t that a blow even by Island standards? Scott Stanfield Record Staff
Last week’s cool weather was replaced with milder temperatures and strong winds on the weekend. High winds caused by an intense low-pressure system moving over the province produced a number of power outages in the Comox Valley on Sunday, starting around 4 p.m., BC Hydro said. About 3,500 customers were without power during the peak of the storm between 5 and 6 p.m. “It’s a pretty intense storm,” said Ted Olynyk, manager of community relations. While most storms target an area, this one extended up Island from Oak Bay and Saanich in the southern reaches up to Powell River. “Our crews did a great job of keeping numbers (of outages) down,” Olynyk said, noting about
300 Comox Valley customers were still without power Monday. About 200 of those were on Denman Island, along with some in Cumberland, Comox, Courtenay, Fanny Bay and Black Creek. BC Ferries cancelled 130 sailings over 12 routes on Sunday. All sailings were cancelled at the Little River terminal due to high winds. Sunday winds also affected service at Departure Bay in Nanaimo, where 10 sailings were cancelled to Horseshoe Bay and another eight on the Tsawwassen route. “Normally when we get a storm it will affect one area, but this certainly affected the majority of our northern Gulf Island routes as well as the three major routes between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island,” BC Ferries director of media relations Deborah Marshall said. Courtenay had highs of 7C Monday and 9 Tuesday. Wednes-
ACCUSTOMED TO HAVING people flip on it, this trampoline was blown over a five-foot fence in Cumberland during Sunday’s storm. PHOTO BY TERRY PENNEY day’s high is expected to reach 10. Showers were expected in the early part of the week. Temperatures will cool Thurs-
day and Friday with highs of 7 and 4 respectively. A mix of sun and cloud is expected.
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