5
UP FRONT 3
Uncovering the city’s history ARTS 13
PuSh Festival comes to city
THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND
SPORTS 24
New coach for Junior ’Bellies
THURSDAY JANUARY 11, 2018
NewWestRecord.ca
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
Y O U R
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H O M E T O W N
N E W S P A P E R
THE CHANGING CITY
Fireplaces have to go? Proposed fireplace restrictions rile NewWest residents By Theresa McManus
tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
Could the days of sitting around a cozy fire on a chilly winter’s night in the Royal City become a thing of the past? Metro Vancouver has been seeking input on a proposed phased-in approach to regulating residential wood smoke emissions from indoor fireplaces in the region. It states that indoor residential wood burning is responsible for more than one-quarter of the fine particle emissions in the region – more than any other source. “Obviously, we have the numbers, we have the data,” said Julie Saxton, an air quality planner with Metro Vancouver. “It’s been hard to convince people to believe the data.” Kathleen Langstroth, president of the Queen’s Park Residents’ Association, said her family uses their home’s fireplace seven or eight times a year. “I think the majority of people with wood-burning fireplaces use them on the odd occasion,” she recently told city council. “I don’t think there is many, if any, who use them for the sole purpose for heating their houses in the winter. It’s for the odd Sunday night dinner or family gathering
ALL FIRED UP: Steve Norman and his granddaughter Broughan Jansz beside one of the four open-hearth fireplaces in his Queen’s Park heritage home. Some New Westminster residents have voiced concerns about Metro Vancouver’s proposal to phase in fireplace restrictions. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
where the fireplaces are used.” Langstroth believes the proposed regulations could be an issue for New Westminster residents because of the large number of heritage homes in the city. Steve Norman’s Queen’s Park house has four wood-burning fireplaces, but they’re
only used a handful of times a year for special events. He said studies show New Westminster is already below the air quality proposals that Metro Vancouver is aiming to achieve by 2023. “They are looking at $700 for an insert for each fireplace. It’s ridiculous,” he said.
“I think the idea of cutting down the atmospheric pollution is fine, but what are you going to do about all the other atmospheric causes? Fireplaces, I think, are a minor portion of it.The major portion is things Continued on page 10
City residents will pay new levy in 2018
The one per cent additional charge will go to maintain capital assets and to invest in new infrastructure in NewWestminster By Theresa McManus
tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
Royal City residents will be paying a new one per cent tax levy starting this year to help finance capital projects.
Colleen Ponzini, the city’s acting chief financial officer, said it’s becoming apparent the city’s capital reserves need to be augmented as a result of the need to increase funds to replace and maintain capital assets and to invest in new
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infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing community. “Staff are proposing a one per cent annual levy, with it bringing in approximately $755,000 in 2018 to be used for capital. If implemented, it could grow to ap-
proximately $4 million annually by 2022,” she said. “Such a levy would increase the annual taxes for an average single-family residence by approximately $29 in 2018.” On Monday night, council ap-
proved the implementation of the annual levy for capital projects. For the first couple of years, the levy would go towards the Canada Games Pool/Centennial Community Centre replacement project, Continued on page 6
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