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THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 2012
CANADA DAY CELEBRATIONS AT FRHP The park will be filled with white and red on Monday
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FVRD hears from angry residents
Crying out
ROBERT FREEMAN
Mission’s Tyler Cunningham and Piper MacLeod will be regular sights around the community this summer as town criers. The pair will debut at Fraser River Heritage Park Monday during Canada Day celebrations, and will be wandering through the crowd, talking about events happening in Mission, and passing out flyers. This is an initiative of the cultural resources commission.
Black Press
JASON ROESSLE PHOTO
Teachers, gov’t reach tentative deal Deal must still be ratified by teachers and school board of education The possibility of renewed battles between the province’s public school teachers and the provincial government this fall appears to have ended with a tentative settlement reached late Tuesday night. The deal, which still must be ratified by teachers and school boards, is for two years, effective July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012. “After almost 80 bargaining sessions and 16 sessions with mediator Dr. Charles Jago, public school employers have reached a tentative
collective agreement with the BC Teachers’ Federation,” announced Melanie Joy, Chair of the BC Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA). Among the provisions, the tentative collective agreement standardizes provincial language for a number of leaves, establishes a process for the local/provincial bargaining process, and renews a number of existing letters of understanding. There’s no immediate word on what kind of wage component has been negotiated. One of the major sticking points between teachers and the province was the latter’s insistence that there be no wage increases.
Education minister George Abbott, in a statement, said the tentative deal “is consistent with government’s net zero mandate.” Teachers began the school year just ended by refusing a number of duties, including the preparation of report cards and supervising students on school grounds. That escalated into a three-day strike this spring and the passage of back to work legislation by the provincial government. “We will be communicating the details of the proposed agreement to our members — the province’s public boards of education — and engaging in the necessary discussion with them prior to the ratifica-
tion vote,” said Joy. “Further information about the agreement will be available after both parties have held their ratification votes, which we anticipate will be completed by Wednesday, July 4, 2012.” “This has been a difficult year for all those involved with the public school system,” Joy said. “We hope that boards and teachers will ratify this agreement and that we can all look forward to the new school year in September with a focus on what’s really important — delivering the best possible educational experience for our students.” BCPSEA is the accredited bargaining agent for the province’s 60 public boards of education.
A long, often raucous public meeting that threatened to fall apart at one point, was held Tuesday night in Chilliwack on a proposed gravel mining plan for the Fraser Valley region. Fraser Valley Regional District directors faced pointed questions about the plan to locate gravel mines according to a proposed three-colour mapping scheme, as well as the “secret” negotiations that led up to the Aggregate Pilot Project. Most of the 200-plus audience came from the Lake Errock area in Electoral Area C where complaints about existing gravel mines and the proposed APP have been festering for years. One positive note heard during the three-hour meeting — a call for a “fresh start” to the planning process that would see the B.C. government using its purchasing power to control gravel mine locations — was almost lost in the bitterness over the lack of public involvement in developing the APP. Walter Neufeld, a vocal critic of the APP, said if FVRD directors were supposed to represent the public during the negotiations, how many meetings did they hold with constituents to hear their views. “Our understanding is there were no meetings,” he said. FVRD directors will now consider what they heard at the meeting and decide whether to approve a memorandum of understanding to begin implementation of the APP. If approved, a regional soil removal bylaw will be developed and submitted to the FVRD board for approval. Further public consultations would be required to make zoning changes and amendments to official community plans.
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