FRIDAY MAY 20 2016
$1.25
NEWSSTAND PRICE
PULSE 13
Rite of passage
Coastal City Ballet makes every moment count in Swan Lake LOOK 25
Look Optical
Dress your peepers in fashionable frames TODAY’S DRIVE 35
Toyota Corolla Reliable sedan loosens up in 2016
NORTHSHORENEWS
LOCAL NEWS . LOCAL MATTERS . SINCE 1969
INTERACT WITH THE NEWS AT
nsnews.com
KINDER MORGAN: NEB DECISION
Energy board approves pipeline plan Final decision now rests with federal government JENNIFER MOREAU, BRENT RICHTER AND JEREMY SHEPHERD brichter@nsnews.com
The Kinder Morgan pipeline plan just cleared a major hurdle.
The National Energy Board is recommending the federal government approve the company’s plan to twin the Trans Mountain pipeline as long as 157 conditions are met. The announcement came down Thursday afternoon, after more than two years of hearings and a record number of intervenors participating. “The board is of the view that overall, with the implementation of Trans Mountain’s environmental protection
procedures and mitigation, and the board’s recommended conditions, the project would not likely cause significant environment effects,” said Robert Steedman, the NEB’s chief environment officer in a pre-written statement read to media via teleconference from Calgary. Steedman went on to note the board found “significant effects” in relation to increases in tanker traffic associated with the expansion. Tankers are expected to increase from five per month to 34. However, marine shipping is outside the NEB’s jurisdiction. In the NEB’s 533-page report, the board stated the decision was a “difficult one” and noted that many of the benefits are national or regional, yet the burdens rest with local, regional and Aboriginal communities. The board’s approval means the pipeline’s fate
See Tsleil-Waututh page 7
EVERYTHING IS AWESOME Brick by brick Sungyeon Jae and Angie Liu, both 9, took part in the Lego Blocks, Bricks and Build competition held at the West Vancouver Community Centre Sunday, May 15. PHOTO CINDY GOODMAN
Police chief plays game with would-be scammer JEREMY SHEPHERD jshepherd@nsnews.com
Attention online scam artists: the mark responding to your “great investment offer” may be the chief of police.
Like a fisherman with time on his hands and a bite on the hook, West Vancouver Police Department Chief Len Goerke
played with an online scam artist recently over a series of increasingly preposterous emails. After a would-be fraudster purporting to represent a Russian investor willing to sink $50 million into Goerke’s company recently emailed him, the police chief decided clicking the spam button would be too easy.
“I get lots of these kind of emails,” Goerke said, explaining their abundance is evidence they’re likely working. Writing under the name William T.F. Amor Decosmos, Goerke replied that after years of watching others have all the luck raising money, he was “overjoyed that it is FINALLY my turn.” The second email assured
Goerke – who hadn’t asked – that “we are not involved in terrorist act,” before requesting his name, address and investment plan, along with a “police clearance letter.” By the fourth email Goerke was masquerading as a retiree with a dream to build a combination curling rink/donut shop. “Nobody sells donuts around here and many people love
them,” he wrote. “There’s a certain amount of satisfaction from just wasting a scammer’s time,” he said. “If a person is spending time trying to figure out how to get money out of me, they’re not spending time trying to figure out how to get money out of someone else.” Despite a limited grasp of grammar and spelling on the
part of the scammer, reading the emails was instructive, according to Goerke. The scammer sent “faux, legal documents” in an attempt to appear legitimate. “They’re really just about walking you down the road where eventually … what you give them is enough personal
See Fraudsters page 4
p e r s o na l r e a l e s tat e c o r p o r at i o n
2390 Mathers Ave.
(under construction)
604.338.5652 | behroyan.com
$5,288,000 REMAX MASTERS REALTY 1453 Bellevue Ave MASTERS REALTY West Vancouver, BC V7T 1C3
Team Behroyan