Vancouver Courier April 24 2015 by Vancouver Courier

PACIFIC SPIRIT 12

FRIDAY

April 24 2015

Genocides remembered

Vol. 106 No. 32

FEATURE 14

Restaurants and red tape SPORTS 29

Close call on the Chief There’s more online at

vancourier.com WEEKEND EDITION

THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908

Students rally for literacy

VSB ponders program closure Cheryl Rossi

crossi@vancourier.com

FOOD TALK UBC grad and podcaster Lillian Yang hopes to meet an audience appetite for information about food with the new podcast Food NonFiction, which she produces weekly with her co-host Fakhri Shafai. See story page 19. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Pot stores face new city rules Established dispensaries willing to work with city Megan Stewart & Naoibh O’Connor mstewart@vancourier.com noconnor@vancourier.com

City hall is putting a halt to the rapid expansion of Vancouver’s unregulated marijuana dispensaries by becoming the ﬁrst jurisdiction in Canada to “normalize” pot shops and treat them as legitimate businesses. Under proposed new rules, dispensaries would be able to operate on main thoroughfares away from schools, community centres and other dispensaries but would also face higher fees and more strident licensing compared to other businesses. On Tuesday, council will consider the regulations, which include a $30,000 an-

nual business licence, and which would weed out many of the estimated 80 to 90 pot shops in Vancouver. But the city will have to find them all first. On the 600 block of East Hastings at one of five locations of the Eden Medicinal Society, no one would go on the record — but one young blond man wearing a latex glove said, “Outside of this store, it’s still an illegal business.” And inside the store? His answer: “Oh, you’re tricky.” An office manager put the number of Vancouver dispensaries at more than 130. “Good luck getting to them all in one day,” she said. Two blocks east at the Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary, which has operated since 2008 and would be forced to move under the new regulations because it is less than 300 metres from the RayCam Community Centre, a staffer in dark glasses estimated

there is at least one dispensary on every block from Clark to downtown — but not all of them are visible from the street. According to city information, there are more than 80 dispensaries in Vancouver, 20 of which have opened in the last four months. In October 2012, the Courier counted 29 dispensaries in Vancouver. The growth followed changes to the federal medical marijuana laws, which the Conservative government is appealing in court, leaving advocates, health practitioners and retailers to operate in uncertainty. The city’s plan to regulate the industry — without addressing the legality of the plant itself — was welcomed by a number of dispensaries and marijuana advocates, including Dana Larsen of the Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary, and Clint, the manager of the Healing Tree, who withheld his last name. Continued on page 7

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Jin Ru Wu may be improving her English through the Vancouver School Board, but she has trouble being heard. Wu wanted to speak at the April 14 public consultation about the VSB’s preliminary budget after she learned the board proposes to close the literacy outreach program she attends at Nightingale elementary school. But the 73-year-old immigrant from China didn’t know not to put spaces in email addresses, so her messages bounced back. She attended the meeting, saw 22 speakers were registered and felt too intimidated to try to add her name. “No one speak about the ESL,” she said. “I can’t speak. Even [if] I speak and no one understand what I say. My English is so poor. We very need to continue to study English.” “The literacy load was too great,” said adult education literacy outreach instructor Rick Georg of Wu’s failed efforts. Instead, his Nightingale class penned a letter to the Courier that said: “Studying basic literacy is necessary for us to become part of the community… Cutting our class puts a barrier in front of us.” The VSB faces a budget shortfall of $8.52 million for 2015-2016 and expects another multimillion dollar shortfall for 2016-2017. The board proposes discontinuing the seven classes in its literacy outreach program that the district offers under adult education at six elementary schools to save $55,248 in 2015-2015 and $108,232 each year thereafter. Adult education falls outside the VSB’s core mandate of offering kindergarten to Grade 12 education, the budget reports state. Continued on page 3 $

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F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News

Adult learners face language barriers

Continued from page 1 Rob Schindel, VSB director of instruction, says administrative oversight is required for each location, and the board has seen a steady decline of enrolling students, from the equivalent of 45 full-time students three years ago to 18. (One full-time equivalent student can equal eight learners.) If this program is eliminated, students could take literacy foundation courses at the Main Street adult education centre at Gladstone secondary, or at the South Hill learning centre. Wu doesn’t believe studying at South Hill would work for her, noting her advanced age compared to the younger students there. She previously studied English at a library, but that program was eliminated, too. “Hopefully you can tell the public [to] continue this program for our poor people and old people,” she said, adding, “If I improve my English I don’t need people to help me.” Min Jun Hao immigrated to Canada from China

20 years ago. She initially worked a labour job and then cared for her grandchildren. Now the 79-yearold has time to study. “Now my grandchildren all speak English,” Hao said, noting they complain about her use of simple words and slower speech. She wants to improve. “I like my grandchildren,” she said. Hao found classes at a community centre with an untrained volunteer teacher ineffective, but said her English improved over the past two years at Nightingale, which she says is conveniently situated to her home. “Don’t close this class!” she said three times, shaking her ﬁst. Kent Leung said his boss cited his poor English skills when he laid him off from his job in a garment factory. Leung paid $400 for a three-month Englishas-a-second-language night course at VCC when he worked. Now the 57-yearold is learning English at Nightingale, which is near his home, for a registration

Adult education students in the literacy outreach program at Florence Nightingale elementary want to improve their English skills so they can find jobs and better communicate with their Canadianborn kin, as well as doctors, cashiers and government officials. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

fee of $20, in the hopes that he’ll secure another job in a factory. Georg, a certiﬁed teacher, has taught adult education through the VSB for nearly 20 years, 19 of them in the basement-level parents’

room at Nightingale. He also teaches at Renfrew, Laurier and Britannia. Many of his students at Nightingale are retirees, while most of his students at Renfrew and Laurier live nearby and have children in

those schools. Many of the parents at Renfrew work outside the home. Nightingale outreach class student Lan Huang said talking to her children’s teachers at parentteacher night was some-

thing she wasn’t previously able to manage. Her lack of skill in English makes communicating with her Canadian-born child difﬁcult, she said with tears. Now that her children are older, she’d like to ﬁnd a part-time job. “But my English very poor,” she said. Georg echoes Wu’s concern that studying at a learning centre might not work well for students who’ve been out of school for years. He’s seen incredible support among his class of 24 registrants at Nightingale. But Georg doesn’t fault the VSB for cutting costs where it can. “The VSB are in the same situation as the students at Nightingale,” Georg said. “They’re just victim of chronic underfunding of the public education system.” The public can provide input on the VSB’s revised budget April 27, starting at 7 p.m. at 1580 West Broadway. The board will approve a provisional budget April 30.

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News

Kiwassa Youth Program saved from cuts CLASS NOTES

of educational options. “We have room in our alternative programs and also have some semestered options,” Ciarniello said. The VSB also heard a need to maintain more sites with self-paced learning centre hours, so instead of only offering self-paced programs at Gathering Place downtown as proposed in its preliminary budget, the board proposes continuing self-paced programs at the Main Street at Gladstone secondary and the South Hill Centres on alternate days, as well as every day at Gathering Place. The revised budget projects the same cost savings for Adult Education as the preliminary budget, an estimated $526,000 in 2015-2016, and $1.59 million per year thereafter. Savings are to be found in setting class size minimums at 26, designating Gathering Place as a self-paced learning centre only, closing the Hastings and Downtown Eastside Centres, discontinuing the

Cheryl Rossi

crossi@vancourier.com

Adult Education students in the Kiwassa Youth Program received good news Tuesday night when the Vancouver School Board released its revised budget for 20152016. As the result of feedback received last week, the board proposes discontinuing the youth program at South Hill on Fraser Street at East 45th Avenue, but retaining the youth program at Kiwassa, which runs near the PNE grounds. The VSB plans to shrink its youth programs from four to two locations, also eliminating the youth program at Collingwood Neighbourhood House. “Kiwassa is a wellsupported program at the moment with a fairly consistent enrolment and it’s in an area without a lot of other service of this sort,”

Adult Education student Terry Hill says he’s benefited from structured and self-paced courses at the Downtown Eastside Education Centre, which is proposed to be closed in the Vancouver School Board’s budget for 2015-2016. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

said associate superintendent Maureen Ciarniello. She said well under 100 students are enrolled across four youth program locations and are only onsite part of the day, so they could be accommodated at two sites.

Classes would need to consist of 32 students for revenue to meet expenditures and class sizes currently average 20 students or fewer. Ciarniello said the proposed closures and changes to the Adult Education program are

projected to increase class sizes to 29. Ciarniello noted youth can enroll in self-paced studies in the general Adult Education program. She said the VSB works to provide students aged 19 and younger with a variety

Collingwood Youth Program and discontinuing a literacy outreach program that operates at seven elementary schools. With these changes, the board anticipates it could sustain Adult Education, which falls outside of the district’s core mandate of educating students in kindergarten to Grade 12. The program’s deﬁcit was $2.92 million in 20132014. With these changes, the VSB believes it could eliminate this deﬁcit within two years. Most of the other savings proposed in the preliminary budget remain unchanged. The VSB faces a budget shortfall of $8.52 million for 2015-2016 and expects another multimillion dollar shortfall for 2016-2017. The public can provide input on the revised budget April 27, starting at 7 p.m. at 1580 West Broadway. The board will approve a provisional budget April 30. twitter.com/Cheryl_Rossi

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F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News Truckers win court battle Jen St. Denis

jstdenis@biv.com

Canada’s federal court has ruled in favour of Vancouverarea trucking companies who said they lost out because of an unfair licensing process conducted by the Vancouver port authority. In the ruling, judge Robert Barnes found that Port Metro Vancouver’s (PMV) method of processing applications from companies in batches, and applying a higher threshold to applications that were submitted later, made for an “evaluation model that was procedurally deficient and profoundly unfair.” For instance, companies that applied earlier had to get a score of four points in order to get licences when the port authority rated their application. But applications filed later had to get five points, and the final batch had to achieve a score of six points. Barnes described situations where filing one day later meant the different between being awarded or denied a license. “I am satisfied that PMV

owed a duty of fairness to the applicants at common law … that duty of fairness was breached when PMV applied an increasingly onerous approval benchmark to the applicant’s perfected applications without informing them of that approach,” the ruling states. The court has ordered Port Metro Vancouver to issue licenses to any qualiﬁed applicant who meet the initial benchmark the authority used to approve the ﬁrst batch of companies. In a statement, the port said it was reviewing the decision and had not yet decided how to respond. The roots of the dispute go back to the container truckers strike in March 2014, which hobbled Vancouver’s port for a month. In mediation following the strike, Port Metro Vancouver and the provincial and federal governments agreed on a plan which included raising trucking rates, cutting back on the number of truck licenses to access the port and putting in place a trucking commissioner. It was generally agreed

that there were too many trucks in the system competing for not enough work, leading to wage undercutting. Port Metro Vancouver announced the new trucking licensing system in October 2014. But many trucking companies were caught off guard when they learned they had received no licences. Those companies said that meant they would go out of business, and 600 drivers, dispatchers and administrators would lose their jobs. The decision is unusual because the court went so far as to order Port Metro Vancouver to approve the applicants who had met the ﬁrst application threshold, and not just re-do the application process, said Lisa Martz, a lawyer with Gundmundseth Mickelson who represented several trucking companies in the case. The licences are awarded on an annual basis, and the decision points out that the process can be changed in a year’s time if there are still too many trucks in the system.

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

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News

St. Paul’s move could be costly delay: MLA

Bob Mackin

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Natural and Artificial Turf Soccer Fields You are invited to attend an Open House on Tuesday, April 28 to view and comment on three new UBC/Whitecaps soccer fields to be located next to the proposed National Soccer Development Centre within Thunderbird Park. Plans will be displayed for two natural grass and one artificial turf fields.

Date: Tuesday,April28, 2015 Time: 4:30 - 6:00PM Place: Tennis Centre - Multipurpose Room, 6160 Thunderbird Boulevard Representatives from the project team and Campus + Community Planning will be available to provide information and respond to inquiries about this project. For further information: Please direct questions to Karen Russell, Manager Development Services karen.russell@ubc.ca 604-822-1586

For more information or to comment on this project, please visit: planning.ubc.ca/vancouver/projects-consultations This event is wheelchair accessible.

The proposed move of St. Paul’s Hospital to False Creek Flats by 2022 puts patients and taxpayers at risk, says Vancouver-West End NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert. On April 13, Providence Health Care made an about-face and announced a plan to build a $1.2 billion campus on 18.4 acres of Station Street land rather than upgrade the earthquake-prone 1081 Burrard St. complex. “We could’ve made this hospital seismically safe and state-of-the-art years ago if the government had actually acted,” Chandra Herbert, who is also the NDP environment critic, told the Courier. “You’re rolling the dice here and hoping a major quake doesn’t happen. That, to me, is not good public policy.” As for the project cost, Chandra Herbert said: “once you actually get into detailed work, that can go up.” Providence had contemplated an $850 million, 10-year plan in 2013 after Premier Christy Clark’s June 2012 promise to renew the 1912-opened hospital at its

current site. Providence proposed an 11-storey ambulatory care building to replace the Comox Building by 2018 and renovations to the rest of the 6.7 acre campus in phases from 2018 to 2023. “There is signiﬁcant concern over the structural/seismic integrity of the buildings,” Providence’s 2013 concept plan warned. “The Providence building meets approximately 60-70 per cent of the current post-disaster standard but the Burrard building, which houses the Emergency Department, has little ability to withstand even a moderate earthquake.” Consultant Ausenco Sandwell’s September 2012 report, obtained from Providence under Freedom of Information, pegged the cost of Burrard building seismic upgrades at $29.9 million to $31.2 million, not including costs for project ﬁnancing, off-site utility upgrade or removal or remediation of hazardous materials. A December 2012 report by SSA Quantity Surveyors estimated the Providence towers seismic upgrade would cost $51.15 million to $64.4 million. A September 2012 presentation by Ausenco

Sandwell engineer John Sherstobitoff said the Burrard building plan would retain emergency on ground floor and maintain functionality during an upgrade, with local temporary relocation to minimize disruption. The long-term plan called for conversion of non-emergency space to office space. The Providence towers would have continued as a 24hour fully functional facility. The renewal plan called for significant renovation to most floors, with renovations likely phased on a floor by floor basis. The less-expensive base isolation option was recommended for the seismic upgrades because work would have occurred at basement or parking levels and been less disruptive to continuing operations. Since that 2013 report, however, real estate values have skyrocketed. In just two years, the assessed value of the land under St. Paul’s rose by $130 million to $465 million. David Taylor of Colliers International speculated on the VancouverMarket.ca blog that “current zoning would appear to support a residential/mixed use development up to 1.75 million square feet.” twitter.com/bobmackin

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F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News

Public worried about proximity to schools

Continued from page 1 “It’s the cost of wanting to stay in the business,” said Clint. “If they’re going to implement it, then we’re just going to have to accept it. But that’s not really that unfair if they’re ready to work with us.” Speaking on East Hastings Street outside one of two Healing Tree locations, he said stores that meet the requirements will be granted licences while less compliant dispensaries will be shuttered, meaning increased legitimacy for those still operating. “We will conform to what we need to stay around to for 20 years,” he said. “We don’t want the thugs and the criminals here anymore.” Vision Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang told the Courier Wednesday afternoon that complaints from the public to city hall have picked up greatly over the past year. The biggest concerned was the placement of dispensaries close to schools. “That was the number

The annual 420 Rally celebrating the growing tolerance for open marijuana use in Vancouver came days before the city unveiled proposed new regulations for the dozens of new pot dispensaries. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

one concern we’d heard from the general public,” Jang said. “This is to help address that problem.” The ﬁrst marijuanarelated business — the B.C. Compassion Club — opened in Vancouver in 1997. A person or investor, not

a company, must apply for a development permit that includes a community notiﬁcation process. A police information check is required for the applicant and all employees. A marijuana-related business would be permitted in an commercial-retail district

as long as it was not within 300 metres of a school or community centre, within 300 metres of another marijuana-related use, located in the Downtown Eastside other than sites on Hastings or Main Streets, and not in the Granville Entertainment District or on a minor street.

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They can’t display wares and must refuse entry to minors. Jang said the proposed new rules are based on examples taken from Washington and Colorado states, adding that marijuana-related businesses in Vancouver knowingly took a chance by

setting up shop in the ﬁrst place. “We’re just trying to normalize the business practice here. We aren’t trying to regulate the product. That’s up to the federal government to do, but we’re trying to regulate the businesses like any other city would whether it’s hats or books or whatever,” he said. While the proposed $30,000 business license fee is high, Jang said it’s meant to recover the cost of creating the regulations and enforcing them. “We’re not proﬁting off marijuana. Let’s make that very clear,” he said. The annual fee for a liquor store is $372. Restaurants and bars face maximum annual fee of $20,375, depending on their size. If council approves the report, Vision’s Jang said it will be referred to public hearing where residents and business owners will have the opportunity to provide feedback. twitter.com/MHStewart twitter.com/Naoibh

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

News

Cheap gas could undermine green goal

Vancouver has cluster of clean-energy companies Nelson Bennett

nbennett@biv.com

When Vancouver launched its Greenest City 2020 Action Plan in 2011, city ofﬁcials had good

reason to think they had a decent head start. After all, roughly 96 per cent of the electricity produced in B.C. already comes from renewable hydro and wind power. But now cities like San

Francisco, San Diego and San Jose are breathing down Vancouver’s neck with their own aggressive plans to become the ﬁrst city in North America to meet 100 per cent of its en-

ergy needs with renewables. Several European cities are in a similar race. City council voted to accelerate Vancouver’s own plans and asked staff to report back in the fall with new targets for getting Vancouver to the 100 per cent fossil-fuel-free point. Only 32 per cent of Vancouver’s energy needs are being met through renewable energy. Getting to 100 per cent by 2020 would be virtually impossible, as long as natural gas remains so cheap. The cost of heating a home with natural gas in B.C. is now about a third of what it costs to heat a home with electricity, according to FortisBC, so the city might have a hard time convincing homeowners to make the switch to zero-carbon energy. “A lot of it is outside of our jurisdiction,” conceded deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston. “We don’t manage or regulate fuel standards; we don’t regulate vehicles; we don’t regulate heating fuel.” So what if some other city beats Vancouver to the punch to become the world’s greenest city? Win or lose, the push by cities to move off of fossil fuels is a global race, and B.C.’s clean-energy sector stands to beneﬁt just by participating, said Jonathan Rhone, chairman of the B.C. Cleantech CEO Alliance. “Cities are huge markets for clean technologies and solutions,” Rhone said.

“British Columbia has one of the most productive clean-tech clusters in the world. What the City of Vancouver has done is they’ve put themselves at the forefront of this massive disruption we’re seeing in global energy markets.” The most powerful tool cities have is planning and zoning, and one way to gradually shift buildings off of natural gas is through localized district energy systems. Several have already been developed in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. These systems can use a variety of renewable energy technologies, including solar power, ground-source heat (geoexchange), waste-water heat recovery and biogas. “I think that what you are going to see is that in the new builds and the new development, district energy is going to be taking on a bigger role in Vancouver,” said Shauna Sylvester, director for the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. “I think you are also going to see many more residences moving to forms of solar and other innovative forms.” One signiﬁcant advantage that Vancouver has in the renewable-energy race is that it punches well above its weight when it comes to the number of companies here involved in the cleanenergy space. Vancouver-based Corix, for example, builds district energy, geoexchange and hybrid energy systems, and

has operations throughout North America. Fenix Energy specializes in retrofitting existing buildings with geoexchange systems that use groundsource heat for cooling and heating buildings. International Wastewater Systems has developed a system that extracts waste heat from a building’s water before it is flushed into the sewer system, and which can provide roughly 75 per cent of a building’s heating and cooling needs. Nexterra Systems Corp. specializes in building waste-to-energy plants, like the one at the University of British Columbia that generates heat and electricity. And MSR Innovations builds solar roofs using roofing tiles that function as photovoltaic panels. Rhone said he would like to see the city working more closely with the local cleanenergy sector to develop a “full suite” of clean-energy production. Systems developed here could find markets in other cities that are also striving to reach their 100 per cent-renewable-energy goals, he said. “Some of those technologies exist today, and some of them need to be developed,” Rhone said. “If we can work with the city and other cities to develop these technologies to fit this demand, this will create jobs and will attract investment right here at home.”

The SHARC system built by International Wastewater Systems uses heat exchange to extract heat from waste water to reduce a building’s energy consumption.

F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Opinion

Objections grow to providing vote data

Les Leyne Columnist lleyne@timescolonist.com

The politicians who ride the political machines are shortly going to have to consult with the mechanics who keep them running, if objections to a change in election law start to gain ground. Representatives from four parties — B.C. Liberals, NDP, Green Party of B.C. and B.C. Conservatives — were all quite enthusiastic last year about getting exact records hand-delivered to them during and after elections. The records would show who voted and who didn’t. Parties now use volunteer observers to track voter turnout and it’s an enormous amount of work. Volunteers have to staff every polling place to get an accurate picture of whether their team’s get-out-the-vote effort is working. The concept of having all that data just handed over on request by Elections B.C. was roundly endorsed when party officials had their regular meeting with chief electoral officer Keith Archer last fall. Archer reported after the last one that parties are having trouble finding volunteers to track the turnout. His cautious recommendation to the government was that it amend the law to authorize Elections B.C. to provide a record of voter sequence numbers during elections. (Those numbers don’t identify people by name or address.) He noted that the parties were also keen to get access to voter-turnout records after elections, but said it wasn’t an operational requirement and he took no position on the idea. The minutes from the

actual advisory panel show the party ofﬁcials were quite keen to get the information. The premise was that it would generally improve the dismal turnout rate. All that is the back story to Bill 20, an amendment to the Election Act introduced last month that gives them everything they wanted and more. Upon payment of reasonable reproduction costs, Elections B.C. must provide to an MLA or party a list of who voted in general or byelections. The idea of votersequence numbers seems to have dropped off the table, replaced by actual names and addresses. And despite Archer’s neutral position on handing the records over between elections, the government threw that provision in as well.

deeply concerned the amendments expand parties’ already-broad ability to collect data on participation, and exceed what voters anticipate when they give their names to Elections B.C. She urged Anton to yank the section allowing the information to be handed over after elections. Failing that, some clear limits should be set on what parties can do with the information, she said. “Personal information compiled for efﬁciently administering elections should not, from a privacy point of view, be provided to political parties for broader use,” she said. Green MLA Andrew Weaver says he’s voting against it. The NDP isn’t saying yet how its MLAs will vote. But the politicians are likely all consulting with the party ofﬁcials — the mechanics

“Personal information complied for efficiently administering elections should not, from a privacy point of view, be provided to political parties for broader use.” — Elizabeth Denham That caught the eye of information and privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham. She wrote Justice Minister Suzanne Anton last week raising some objections. The changes go beyond the objective of increasing turnout and amount to handing over personal and confidential information in a comprehensive and accessible format after voting day, “to perform analytics and other uses.” Those other uses would likely include mining the huge trove of data for every possible shred of useful information. Denham said that could include “voter profiles, targeting voters, fundraising, sharing data for secondary purposes, collecting non-consensual information, inappropriate communication and other intrusive uses.” She told Anton she was

who love the idea — on what to do next. Premier Christy Clark said Wednesday there are no plans to change it. Just So You Know: The ongoing mystery about the Election Act is why the government devoted so much time to this change while ignoring an obvious idea that’s been sitting in front of them for years. There have been several recommendations that Elections B.C. be allowed to pre-register teenagers on the voters’ list while they’re still in high school. It’s the last time they’re all corralled in one place and would be an easy way to round up more than 100,000 potential new voters in Grades 11 and 12 and introduce them to the idea of voting. It would boost turnout as much or more than Bill 20 would. twitter.com/leyneles

PLANT SALE Saturday April 25th and Sunday April 26th

Geraniums

Tumbling Tomato Hanging Basket

4-inch Pot

12-inch Pot

2.99 each

Assorted Peppers and Tomatoes 2-inch Cells

.59 each

Assorted Flowering Annuals

18.99 each

Fuchsia Hanging Basket 12-inch Pot

29.99 each

Assorted Vegetables 4-inch Fibre Pots

606 Pack

2.49 each

1.69 each Keefer's Westcoast Soil Energizer 28 Litre

3/21.00 7.99 single Sea Soil Original 32 Litre

3/21.00 7.99 single Choices Markets Full Circle Top Soil 20 Litre

4/16.00 4.99 single

Keefer's Westcoast Mushroom Manure 20 Litre

3.49 Single

100% BC Owned and Operated 5% of weekend plant sales will be donated to a local school.

www.choicesmarkets.com

/ChoicesMarkets

@ChoicesMarkets

Sale prices only effective on April 25 and 26, 2015. While quantities last. Weather permitting for all bedding plants. Not all products may be available at all store locations. Plus applicable taxes.

Kitsilano

South Surrey

2627 W. 16th Ave., Vancouver • 604.736.0009

3248 King George Blvd., Surrey • 604.541.3902

Kerrisdale 1888 W. 57th Ave., Vancouver • 604.263.4600

Yaletown 1202 Richards St., Vancouver • 604.633.2392

Choices Burnaby 8683 10th Ave., Burnaby • 604.522.0936

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

Opinion VAG’s broken promises Drought strategies are anger city hall California dreaming Allen Garr Columnist agarr@vancourier.com It is a train wreck waiting to happen, the Titanic heading for that iceberg. Pick your metaphor to describe the current state of plans to build a new Vancouver Art Gallery. With the deadline in the agreement with the city just a few days away, the probability of the VAG project succeeding is slim to none. Two years ago, the gallery and its director, Kathleen Bartels, cut the deal with city council. The city would give the VAG a prime location, two of the three acres of the property known as Larwill Park adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Among other things, the VAG committed to raising $150 million dollars from federal and provincial funding. This was on top of the $50 million already committed by the province. (Actually, former Heritage Minister James Moore said almost immediately that there was no way the federal government would put up any money, let alone $100 million. The province has since said its $50 million is all there is.) Last month in a story about the impending deadline by the Vancouver Sun’s Jeff Lee, Bartels said that the VAG never intended to meet that deadline. Her blunt declaration hit city hall with all the force of a sucker punch. That’s chutzpah: squeeze everything you want out of a deal, then say that you never intended to keep your end of the bargain. And then ask for more time. It wasn’t that the VAG had simply fallen a bit short in its efforts to raise the $150 million; it hadn’t even raised a nickel. City hall politicos weren’t simply disappointed, they were pissed off. When the deal was originally struck there was the intention, as Coun. Geoff Meggs told me this week, to extend the deadline. But that was with the expectation that the VAG would be well on its way to meeting the terms of the agreement. Now both Meggs and Coun. Raymond Louie say — on the record — what they are hearing is “disturbing.” Incidentally, VAG chair Bruce Wright is apparently telling city hall privately that Bartels was misquoted. She didn’t say that at all.

My view: That is not to be believed or the VAG would have made the point publicly. But as Meggs says, the inability to find funding is only part of the VAG’s failure to meet its promise to council. In a March 10 letter from the mayor’s office to Wright and Bartels, Gregor Robertson lists a series of commitments the VAG made to get the deal. They were all still outstanding. That included agreement “to acknowledge and work with the city’s land use policies”; provide development plans that fit within the two acres; change the VAG board structure to make a non-voting place for the mayor or his delegate, given the city’s multi-million dollar land gift and the fact the city is the biggest funder of the VAG operations to a level unheard of in any other municipality in Canada. The VAG also has to agree that the art collection is in fact the property of the City of Vancouver and always has been. And the VAG has to provide a plan for public consultation as this project goes ahead. So as Meggs says, money aside, it is most amazing that almost two years into this deal and with a looming deadline, that none of this has been done and would require a letter from Robertson to lay that out. To make matters worse, longtime VAG board member Michael Audain — frustrated with the slow process — quit the board last summer and, in spite of being made honorary chair for life, he took his very deep pockets and his exquisite collection of First Nations art with him. He appears to be pursuing an alternative approach to art gallery venues — an approach supported by VAG project critic Bob Rennie — ones that are smaller and dispersed and that spend more on the art and less on the building. Audain put money into the Gordon Smith gallery in West Vancouver and Presentation House in North Van. And he is about to open his own $40 million gallery in Whistler. Council may indeed hold its nose and extend the deadline for the VAG, not because it thinks it will do any good, but because, with a federal election on the horizon, it doesn’t want to be accused of blocking an outside chance of federal money being promised. twitter.com/allengarr

Geoff Olson Columnist mwiseguise@yahoo.com In the 1974 film Chinatown, a private investigator played by Jack Nicholson unravels an intricate scandal involving the fresh water supply of Greater Los Angeles. Towards the end of the film Jake Gittes confronts Noah Cross, a villainous land baron played by John Huston. “How much are you worth?” asks Gittes. “I’ve no idea. How much do you want?” responds Cross. The gumshoe doesn’t understand why Cross needs to game the L.A. water supply system when he’s already filthy rich. “Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What can you buy that you can’t already afford?” “The future, Mr. Gittes — the future!” exclaims the Stetson-wearing senior. Lately I’ve been tracking the severe drought in California, grokking the satellite shots of the Sierra Nevada mountain range with its dandruff-like dusting of snow. The state’s two main reservoirs are at less than 40 per cent capacity and aquifer levels are in decline. Some scientists believe the state is facing a “mega-drought” lasting decades. Doesn’t sound like a future that many Californians can afford. Some call it the breadbasket of North America. You certainly can call it a fruitbasket and nut bar. In 2012, California’s GDP beat out Canada’s GDP, so more than your grocery bill is effected by the state’s economy. Earlier this week my partner sent me a link to an AP news story headlined, “Thirsty almonds roasted in droughtstricken California water debate.” The story claims that each tiny almond requires 3.8 litres of water to grow. California supplies 80 per cent of the world’s almonds, and the crop consumes 4.06 trillion litres annually: “one-fifth more than California families use indoors.” In December 2014 Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of drought emergency, and this April ordered cities and towns to reduce their water consumption by 25 per cent. Agribiz in the state faces no such restrictions. Noah Cross would have smiled in approval. I forwarded the almond story to others on my contact list. One responded, “Notice how they bury the fact that the biggest user (by far) of fresh water is livestock — this is an almond-crusted red herring!”

Another responded with a link to a headline from Mother Jones magazine: “You thought California’s drought couldn’t get any worse? Enter fracking.” State documents reveal that almost three billion gallons of oil industry wastewater have been illegally dumped into central California aquifers that supply drinking water and farming irrigation. “The wastewater entered the aquifers through at least nine injection disposal wells used by the oil industry to dispose of waste contaminated with fracking ﬂuids and other pollutants,” according to the Centre for Biological Diversity. The fracking chemicals reportedly include arsenic and thallium, a toxin found in rat poison. There’s more. Another contact responded with a link on how corn syrupfed honeybees are trucked into the state to pollinate the almond trees. Feeling like Jake Gittes thumbing through a damning bouquet of receipts, I came across an April 2013 story at phys.org. A team of entomologists from the University of Illinois found a possible link between “the practice of feeding commercial honeybees high-fructose corn syrup and the collapse of honeybee colonies around the world.” Most corn syrup is made from GMO corn, but the team’s report in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences did not address this angle. All this info brought to mind a term coined by Canadian political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon: “panarchy.” This refers to the effects of negative social and environmental trends acting in tandem, signiﬁcantly worse than any or all acting separately. Nothing is certain in this Hollyweird trailer for the Anthropocene, though I expect the big players won’t feel much pain. Commodity speculators will leverage any food production problems in their favour, and the shale gas industry will move on to poison aquifers elsewhere. Perhaps some young Silicon Valley wunderkind will give a Ted Talk about manufacturing robo-bees for pollination tasks. Hopefully sanity — and solar-powered desalination —- will prevail over the usual suspects doing a Noah Cross with California’s H2O. In any case, the state’s condition is an object lesson why it’s madness for B.C. to give away its fresh water to Nestle and other corporate players, at $2.25 per 1 million litres. “The future, Mr. Gittes! The future!” geoffolson.com

The week in num6ers...

In thousands of dollars, the new allowable contribution limit to tax-free savings account in the new federal budget, up from the previous limit of $5,500.

25 30 1.4 190 8.5

Out of a possible 263, the number of times teams down 3-1 in a Stanley Cup best-ofseven series have gone on to win it.

In thousands of dollars, the new annual cost of a business license to operate a marijuana dispensary being proposed by the City of Vancouver.

The current rental vacancy rate in Metro Vancouver, according to a survey by Colliers International.

In metres, the length of a proposed temporary zipline to operate from the top of Little Mountain in Queen Elizabeth Park.

In millions of dollars, the budget shortfall the Vancouver School Board is facing for the 2015-16 fiscal year.

F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Inbox LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Lack of detail on what voting Yes will greenlight is troubling

CO U R I E R A R C H I V E S T H I S W E E K I N H I S T O R Y

Mayor reads protesters the Riot Act

April 23, 1935: In a rare example of people actually being read the riot act, Mayor Gerry McGeer read the Riot Act to disperse a huge crowd of protestors at Victory Square, most of them unemployed “relief camp strikers” who had come to the city to protest conditions in the work camps and to press the government to do something about chronic unemployment during the Depression. An estimated 2,000 protesters marched through the city, and an earlier scuffle with police at The Bay resulted in 19 arrests. Many of the men protesting the lack of work (unemployment in B.C . was 19 per cent) later joined the infamous “On To Ottawa” trek by freight train to meet with Prime Minster R.B. Bennett that was violently stopped by RCMP in Regina.

Spartacus Books burns down

April 24, 2004: Spartacus Books, a leftwing bookstore in the 300 block of West Hastings that first opened in 1973, burns down in a three-alarm fire. Due to a recent rent increase that left the store, run by a collective, unable to afford insurance, Spartacus received nothing back for the reported $120,000 in losses of stock, furniture and equipment in the fire. Although they soon reopened down the street, the store has announced on its website that another rent increase means they will soon be moving to a new location at 3378 Findlay Street, off Commercial Drive. ADVERTISING

604.738.1412 CLASSIFIED

604.630.3300 DELIVERY

604.398.2901 EDITORIAL NEWSROOM

604.738.1411

Re: “Passionate millennials just won’t vote,” April 8. After returning from a refreshing holiday in a city where demolitions are uncommon and people actually renovate older homes rather than destroying them (Tucson, AZ), I caught up on my Courier reading. April 8th’s front page caught my eye as a deviation from the unbiased news coverage I expect from the Courier outside its editorial pages. Jessica Barrett takes mild umbrage against her own peer group for not voting in civic elections but goes off the rails in defining the current plebiscite issue as “a stark generational divide” in which the virtuous young are losing their future due to selfish boomers. (She seems quite unaware of how many seniors rely on public transit.) She writes as if the plebiscite were a black/white issue rather than a complex one that needs the careful, informed analysis it is far from getting. Her advice to her age-mates to just jump on the bandwagon and vote with the mayor represents the least responsible attitude toward civic participation. A large part of the wariness of seasoned voters towards the plebiscite is the lack of any detail regarding what “Yes” will really entail. The vote in Vancouver is about a mega-project subway, though the ballot mildly refers to “rapid transit along Broadway.” Moreover, citizens cannot even vote for better transit for Surrey without simultaneously okaying whatever “Vision” chooses to do in Vancouver. Towers à la South Cambie strewn through Kitsilano are one scenario, with existing neighbourhood shops and lowrise apartment buildings bulldozed into landfill rubble. City hall is mum on details, but developers are buying up land. And what about the safety of tunnelling through glacial fill in an earthquake zone, with rising sea levels? How good is the plan, really? Then there’s UBC: with online lectures and online research and group discussions expanding apace, are daily trips to campus really going to be needed in a decade? Is the vote really just a golden opportunity for the mayor and his allies to declare victory and let the developers proceed with redesigning Vancouver? And is the enhanced value of the Jericho lands and housing north of Broadway (out of the shadow of towers) silently a part of the issue? Neighbourhood planning in Kits is not scheduled until after the vote. I hope young and old will read up on the many articles available on these and related issues, and only then vote. Joan Bunn, Vancouver

Barry Link

ddhaliwal@vancourier.com

blink@vancourier.com

PUBLISHER

EDITOR

Tara Lalanne

DIRECTOR SALES & MARKETING

tlalanne@vancourier.com

TheVancouverCourierisadivisionofLMPPublicationLimitedPartnership. Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40025215. All material in the Vancouver Courier is copyrighted and cannot be reproduced without permission of the publisher. This newspaper reserves the right to reject any advertising which it considers to contain false or misleading information or involves unfair or unethical practices. The advertiser agrees the publisher shall not be liable for damages arising out of error in any advertisement beyond the amount paid for such advertisement. We collect, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Statement which is available at vancourier.com.

Re: “NDP keen to put Amrik Virk on the hot seat,” online only. Your columnist does journalism no favors when he minimizes the revelations brought forward by the NDP in the Legislature April 20. As he notes, the NDP sought information from multiple sources within government, notably from a gentleman named Nick Facey who worked for Amrik Virk during the height of the scandal around Kwantlen College executive compensation. I dryly note Virk was forced to admit he had “forgotten” that he was involved in efforts to skirt the compensation rules when he was a board member at Kwantlen. So the NDP asked for emails from Facey during that time. “No records” was the response. But the emails did turn up, largely blacked out as cabinet advice, from the ministre’s ﬁles. The Freedom of Information and Privacy Act protects our democratic institutions by forcing governments to inform us of what they are up to. It’s a damn shame Leyne doesn’t ﬁnd a government routinely evading the act more appalling. Merv Adey, Saltspring Island

ONLINE COMMENTS Sun Run a fun way to train for zombie apocalypse

Re: Kudos & Kvetches, “Slowpokes hamstring Sun Run,” April 22. If you run a 10K in 1:15 you’re not very fast. At that speed you should worry more about keeping pace, working on your stride etc and not about the three or four minutes you lost having to dodge and weave around people. Besides the weaving is fun. The only other time you’ll get to run shoulder to shoulder down the street with thousands of people is an epic catastrophe. I like to pretend the zombie apocalypse has broken out and I’m jockeying for position to survive. justsoberthings, via Reddit

•••

I’ve walked/jogged in the Sun Run before. I know I can walk 10 km in about an hour and 40 minutes, so that’s the time slot I always signed up for. Yet even I was a little frustrated at how many slower people were always seemed to be in front of me. But good for them for at least getting out there. I stopped doing the Sun Run because of all of the strollers in the crowd. I didn’t want to be the guy that tripped over a stroller and landed on some kid. If I want to walk, jog, run or whatever, I’ll do it on my own time when there aren’t tens of thousands of people trying to do the same thing. habaquila, via Reddit

have your say online...

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Dee Dhaliwal

Hold Liberals accountable for bogus ‘no records’ responses

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters may be edited by the Courier for reasons of legality, taste, brevity and clarity. Send to: 303 West Fifth Ave., Vancouver V5Y-1J6 or email letters@vancourier.com

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

Community

Survivors liberated from a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War. Six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.

Remember to avoid future horror Denying historical genocides a disservice PACIFIC SPIRIT Pat Johnson

paciﬁcspiritpj@gmail.com

Last week at the Jewish Community Centre, about two dozen Vancouver residents who survived the Holocaust carried candles into an auditorium ﬁlled with their children, grandchildren and others who came to mark Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. There were many powerful moments — the haunting, plaintive singing of the Jewish prayer for the souls of the departed and the entire room of hundreds, led by an aging survivor, reciting the Mourner’s Kaddish, a prayer of sanctiﬁcation. But the most moving moments may have been when a chorus of young people — some of them grandchildren of Holocaust survivors — led the audience in the Yiddish anthem called the Partisan Song. The lyrics were written in the Vilna Ghetto in 1943 and spread

throughout the surviving Jewish communities of Europe as a hymn of determination. The pounding ﬁnal words — “The hour that we longed for may be near / Our step beats out a message: We are here!” — are fraught with multiple meanings. Those who sang them in the ghettoes and camps of Europe mostly did not survive. Of the nine million Jews who lived in Europe in 1939, six million were murdered. Despite this, the very presence of survivors and their descendants is considered a triumph, since it was Hitler’s goal to entirely eradicate the Jews as a people. “Mir zaynen do!” the children sang. We are here! There are just 13 million Jewish people in the world today, and as the six million killed in the Holocaust are mourned, the generations that were never to be are also lamented. The Jewish people have done an extraordinary job of commemorating and documenting the events of that time. In fact, Yom HaSho-

ah is on the Jewish calendar alongside the holy days, in keeping with a view I once heard from an academic who said that, in the Jewish narrative, the Holocaust represents something of biblical proportions. There are things that are unique to the Holocaust and we do humanity a disservice by ignoring them. But to think that there was something unique in the German society or psyche that led to the Holocaust lets all of us off the hook for something that was, ultimately, perpetrated by humans very much like us. German particularity is also denied by the fact of successive horrors, like those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Congo, Darfur, the Balkans and, sadly, elsewhere. And while there seems to be a human trait that allows us to perpetrate the most horrendous crimes against those we identify as different, there is a seemingly even more common characteristic that leads to denial or diminishment of that history.

Now, a century to the day after it began, on April 24, 1915, the mere acknowledgment that the Ottoman Empire launched a genocide against the Armenian people —murdering as many as 1.5 million — is a matter of (preposterous) debate and controversy that even the Pope recently stepped into. Similarly, many Ukrainians feel that their history in the Holodomor — the deliberate starvation of ethnic Ukrainians by Stalin’s Soviet Union — has not received the extent of attention that it deserves. Estimates of those killed range wildly, from 2.5 to 7.5 million and even higher. In our own lifetimes, most of us have watched dumbly while millions have died in ethnic atrocities in Africa, Asia and Europe. But the Jewish people’s commitment to remembering, and the promise that such atrocities must “never again” happen — to anyone — sometimes evokes a backlash. Do the barest Google search or peruse

the public comments after a news story on the subject to ﬁnd people who think there is too much attention given to the Holocaust. A poll in Europe a couple of years ago discovered that the highest proportions of people who felt there was too much talk of the Holocaust were in the countries where the same poll indicated that ignorance of the Holocaust was highest. The Jewish people are not the only ones who have suffered, an obvious truth spoken too often in the sorts of forums I mentioned above, but they may be the only ones being told to shut up about it. I believe we have barely even begun to discuss this issue, barely started to understand the coalescence of factors that led to such inhumanity. I can understand why people do not want to dwell on these facts. It is a grisly occupation. But it is not as grisly as letting ignorance lead us to repeat such acts. The evening before Yom HaShoah, my friend

Haya Newman screened her new documentary about a visit to her father’s hometown in Poland to discover what had happened to the 5,000 or so Jews that once lived there. The reactions of today’s townsfolk were interesting. Most people were open and welcoming to discover a Jewish Canadian making a documentary about their town’s history in that dark period. At the same time, she did receive some odd comments. “Take it easy,” one person told her. “It’s all in the past.” “There is nothing to look for,” said another man, “You can’t turn back time.” But the point of studying history is not to turn back time. It is to understand and learn from it to make the future better. As mournful as the process might be, remembering the worst human atrocities of the past is an act of hope that future generations might transcend our basest human instincts. twitter.com/Pat604Johnson

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Opinion

Natural Gardener’s demise a troubling sign SOAPBOX

Don Alexander

don.alexander@viu.ca

Vancouver is graced with many unique retail stores that help give a neighbourhood — be it GrandviewWoodlands, Main Street, or Point Grey — a distinctive flavour. But they are facing threat, and an alarming number have closed down in recent years. One of the latest casualties is the Natural Gardener at 4376 West 10th. Run by Bob Tuckey, the Natural Gardener operated for 12 years from 2003 to last month. Prior to opening the store, Bob had been involved in the hospitality industry. He was making good money but reached a point where it was no longer fulfilling. He had always been passionate about plants and had taken a management course at BCIT, so he plunged ahead and opened the business. The first couple of years were tougher than expected, but soon he had a

loyal client base, many of whom subscribed to his enewsletter ﬁlled with helpful gardening tips. By the end, he was on a ﬁrst-name basis with hundreds of people. Early on, he got a lot of publicity in garden-related publications, and this was supplemented by word-ofmouth. His shop developed a reputation for service, and his native, rare and unusual plants. Sometimes people would stop in because the store was such an oasis of calm, with its greenery, water wall, and soothing colours. While the recession years of 2008-2009 were his best years, they had a delayed effect as people became more cautious with their spending. Baby boomers, often avid gardeners, were having hip replacements, and could no longer do the work. They were also downsizing, in some cases to help their children get into the housing market. Loyal clients were moving away. Moreover, the same enthusiasm for gardening had not caught on with the younger generation. Eventually, he found himself operating at a loss.

The Natural Gardener on West 10th was a victim of changing economic and demographic changes undermining individual retailers in Vancouver, says Soapbox contributor Don Alexander.

While the garden sector has not been hit as much by the shift to social media, and the online buying and rental trend — which Tuckey sees as an economic “seismic shift” — there are other factors threatening its survival. Many of the wholesale growers are retiring. The value of commercial space has gone up dramatically since he ﬁrst started his business, and that translates into escalat-

ing property taxes which are passed on to tenants by landlords. The cost of his space went from $27per square foot when he started to $41, and his landlord told him he probably got out at a good time because the lease rates was about to jump 25 per cent. Other impediments to ongoing viability? Despite its commitment to becoming the “greenest city” by 2020, city hall has not

been connecting the dots. The city forced Tuckey to sacriﬁce valuable greenhouse space to provide extra parking spaces. In addition, he had to get a special permit to display plants on the sidewalk in front of his store. Moreover, he suspects the escalating business licence fees are being used as a revenue stream for the city. With all these challenges it is becoming more and more difﬁcult for small

retail businesses to hold their own, and it doesn’t seem that the city — in contrast with some other jurisdictions — really cares. Most of the investment in retail these days is coming from offshore, as Tuckey notes. Investors are not interested in businesses requiring a lot of expertise. They want simple formula businesses, such as coffee shops and nail salons, which are minimal risk. When informed of the store’s imminent closure, some of Bob’s customers were in tears. The loss of the Natural Gardener is a loss for Vancouver, and is one more example of a decline in character retail that is affecting the face of our urban landscape. The author is indebted to Christine K. who ﬁrst came up with the idea for this article. Don Alexander is a university-college professor in and chair of the Geography Department at Vancouver Island University, while living part-time in Vancouver. He has a special interest in retail issues.

Spring into Tapestry

A joint open house showcasing unique retirement living Sunday, April 26, 12:00pm – 3:00pm Spring has sprung and at Tapestry Retirement Communities, we’re taking this season as our cue to try something new. Join us as our two unique retirement communities come together to showcase the very best in retirement living. This unique event will feature both Tapestry at Arbutus Walk in the heart of Kitsilano and Tapestry at Wesbrook Village on the edge of Pacific Spirit Park at UBC. A shuttle service will provide quick and easy transportation between the two. From a rooftop putting green to a 22 course golf simulator, PrimeFit programs to health and wellness services, you’ll be introduced to the unique features that put Tapestry Retirement Communities in a class all their own. All while enjoying musical performances and tasty treats from our demonstration kitchen and rooftop BBQ! If experiencing the Art of Seniors Living is something you’re curious about, why not join us?

DiscoverTapestry.com

Tapestry at Wesbrook Village 3338 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

604.225.5000

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

Feature

Red tape for two: rules erode r

John Bishop says city parking regulations placing time limits on parking are disruptive to his restaurant’s customers. PHOTO ROB KRUYT

Hospitality sector insiders fear sector is being strangled by accumulated costs of government regulation

Glen Korstrom

gkorstrom@biv.com

Red tape, taxes and fees are making the business of running a restaurant increasingly unviable, say many B.C. restaurateurs. While restaurant owners accept the need for strictly enforced food safety regulations, many believe governments don’t consider the cumulative impact of other policies, such as civic restrictions on parking or a small hike to the minimum wage, which can drive a borderline restaurant into the red. With B.C. restaurants having the second-lowest pre-tax proﬁt margin in the country, industry insiders say things need to change or the province will see a swath of for-lease signs hang in the windows of once marginally proﬁtable restaurants. “When it comes to new rules and regulations that cost money, it’s like

a death by 1,000 cuts,” said Mark von Schellwitz, vice-president for Western Canada of the federal lobby and research group Restaurants Canada. Several years ago the provincial government and the B.C. Restaurant & Foodservices Association (BCRFA) collaborated to produce a manual that outlines all the steps that prospective restaurateurs must take when opening a restaurant. B.C. Minister of Small Business Naomi Yamamoto hails the project as a success because it makes it clearer how to comply with government regulations. BCRFA CEO Ian Tostenson has a different take. “The manual does take restaurant regulations and rewrites them in English. The conclusion, though, has to be, ‘Who would want to open a restaurant in this province?’ There is so much regulation.”

Grease traps

One of the newest regulations might be one of the most onerous. Metro Vancouver — which is made up of 21 municipalities, one First Nation and one electoral area — restricts how much grease restaurants can ﬂush into sewers. Inspectors have started visiting restaurants and are telling owners to make plumbing changes within a few months or risk ﬁnancial penalties. Plumbing costs could exceed $10,000. Restaurateurs say that they have been caught off guard because Metro Vancouver never prepared them for how the regional bylaw, which passed in 2012 but did not come into effect until Jan. 1, was going to affect them. Now they’re learning that they have to connect dishwasher piping to

grease traps, which they say is misguided. Grease traps are boxes that vary in size but are often around 15 cubic feet. They connect to pipes from sinks and collect grease that is generated when kitchen staff wash pots and pans. Companies such as Redux visit restaurants every month or so, empty the grease traps and recycle the congealed grease. Requiring high-temperature dishwasher water to ﬂow through grease traps is controversial because plumbers believe it will have little effect, if any, on the problem of grease buildup in sewers. “When you add an additional grease trap for a dishwasher only, the water that goes into the grease trap and then ﬂows out of it will not let the grease solidify in the trap,” said Mark Mason, a principal at Wheatley Plumbing. “So

the effectiveness of doing that would be negligible.” Ray Robb, Metro Vancouver’s division manager for regulation and enforcement, said he and his staff weighed these objections but determined that there is more to be gained by requiring that all dishwashers be connected to grease traps than allowing dishwasher water to ﬂow directly into sewers. That decision is provoking resentment among the restaurant owners who have to shell out thousands of dollars to reconﬁgure pipes, buy bigger grease traps and sometimes get new sinks to make room for the new larger grease traps. “To comply with what Metro Vancouver wants, we would have to increase the size of our grease trap three to four times,” said Tapenade Bistro owner Vince Morlet.

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Feature

restaurant viability Paesano’s restaurant owner Satinder Jaswal, who has until May to have his dishwasher and mop sink connected to his grease trap, said the new rules are onerous and ineffective. “I have to do this even though my plumber says dishwasher water should not go to the grease trap,” Jaswal said. Metro Vancouver, however, is determined to have restaurant owners comply with the new rules because, Robb said, the problem of grease buildup in the region’s sewers is worsening. Grease-clogged pipes have caused sewage to back up into people’s basements, he said. Further, grease buildup is forcing municipalities to dig up clogged sewers and clean them. He said that Metro Vancouver did consult restaurant owners before its Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District board passed the bylaw.

Food scraps

Restaurant owners are more accepting of rules that require them to remove most food from the garbage or face fines of about $50 per infraction. Metro Vancouver instituted new rules on Jan. 1 that prohibit trash from containing more than 25 per cent food waste, but the region does not intend to inspect and enforce the new rules until July 1. The rationale is clear. Food waste makes up more than 40 per cent of the region’s trash, and disposing of food with non-recyclable waste creates more greenhouse gases, leaves less room in landfills and signifies a missed opportunity to create compost. Most restaurant owners interviewed said they don’t object to the change because the regional authority gave them detailed information about the new rules and, by broaching the subject more than a year ago, provided adequate advance notice. They also see an opportunity to save money. That’s because separating food out of the trash means less trash they have to pay to have hauled away. And private contractors, such as Northwest Waste Solutions, charge less to take

Tapenade Bistro owner Vince Morlet in Steveston faces thousands of dollars in costs and loss business to upgrade his kitchen to meet new regional restaurant codes. PHOTO ROB KRUYT

away separated food waste than to haul garbage because they can use that organic material to make compost. Mark O’Hara, Northwest’s director of sales, estimates that savings for restaurateurs from separating organic material could be as much as 10 per cent. The penalty for not separating that material and having trash that contains more than 25 per cent food waste is 50 per cent of the cost of a tipping fee, with those fees tending to be about $100 for a large restaurant. Joey Restaurant Group has made a specialty of saving money on waste disposal. “We enjoyed a 37 per cent saving on our waste disposal costs in 2014 compared with 2013,” said Joey’s director of procurement and supply chain, Caroline Smart.

Other regulations

But even rules that have been around for a while can cause problems for restaurant owners. Especially onerous can be the penalty for serving underage drinkers. The B.C. Liquor Control and

Licensing Branch (LCLB) employs minors to attempt to order alcohol in restaurants. The fine if a waiter fails to ask for identification and instead serves a drink is $7,500. That amount would be equivalent to about oneand-a-half months’ profit for a small restaurant, said Earls Restaurants owner Stan Fuller. The LCLB has committed to review this policy and the amount of the fines as part of the government’s liquor review, but after years of pushback from restaurateurs, no action has been taken. In 2014, there were 30 instances in which minors were able to order alcohol, and in 11 of those situations, the $7,500 fine was levied. A 10-day closure of the restaurant or hospitality venue was ordered in place of that fine in 13 cases, whereas the penalty is pending in six cases. Smaller fees and regulations can add up too. For example, restaurant owners have to pay fees when they collect tax for the provincial and federal governments, von Schellwitz of Restaurants Canada said.

He explained that credit card companies charge businesses ﬂat percentage fees on each dollar that patrons put on their credit cards. Restaurant customers’ bills, however, include the federal goods and services tax and often also include a 10 per cent provincial tax on alcohol. Von Schellwitz is lobbying for governments to reimburse restaurant owners the portion of those fees based on taxes — although one of his association’s longtime members, Bishop’s restaurant owner John Bishop, said he will not hold his breath for that to happen. Bishop’s skepticism stems from years of watching governments enact policies he says hurt small business. For example, he said his ﬁne-dining business continues to suffer from the two-hour parking limit that the City of Vancouver imposes on drivers up until 10 p.m. seven days a week. If drivers pay for parking with coins, instead of smartphones, they must physically move their vehicle after two hours or risk a ticket. City of Vancouver

spokesman Jag Sandhu said the parking time limits “free up on-street parking in busy areas of Vancouver and help create spaces for shoppers and people doing business.” The increase in the minimum wage is another cut. While Glowbal Group coowner Emad Yacoub said he agrees with the provincial government’s decision to raise the minimum wage by $0.20 on Sept. 15 for staff such as dishwashers, he doesn’t think it should apply to servers who make tips. “This higher minimum wage is going to ﬁnedining waiters who make great money — $60,000, $70,000 or $80,000 per year,” Yacoub said. “These people can make more than my general manager, and I have to give them a raise.”

Government vow

While the government cuts red tape for small businesses the restaurant industry keeps facing new rules. Ian Tostenson, CEO of the B.C. Restaurant & Foodservices Association, accepts that food businesses should

be more regulated than others because of public safety concerns. But he thinks the government should create a fast-track program that would be run like the federal Nexus program for entry to and from the U.S. In this system, good business owners who smoothly navigate the initial labyrinth of regulations — from patio licensing to health and liquor inspections to ensuring that staff all have Serving It Right training — could pay a registration fee and be rewarded by being given an easier time when it comes to inspections and permit renewals. “If a restaurant owner can go through all the hoops, you could put a symbolic happy face on that business with the happy face signalling that they are a really good operator,” Tostenson said. Tostenson also suggests having a specific person in the provincial government responsible for overseeing small-business regulations with the aim of reducing and simplifying them. “That’s my job,” said Naomi Yamamoto, B.C.’s minister of small business. And when it comes to businesses in general she has done that, she said. Yamamoto identified an e-filing system for paying taxes as an initiative to make things simpler for small-business owners. Another is a program to make it easier for a small business to sell to government. “In the past, even this past year, if you wanted to buy from government, we sometimes made you fill out a 50- to 60-page request for proposal. We’ve now said that for any contract worth less than $250,000, the form is two pages.” Federal Small Business Minister Maxime Bernier stressed that he, too, is committed to clipping red tape. The Conservative government last year introduced a bill that stipulated that whenever a new regulation is instituted, a comparable regulatory burden must be eliminated. The legislation is awaiting Senate approval. twitter.com/GlenKorstrom For more business news, go to our sister publication Business in Vancouver at biv.com.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

Finance

Federal budget helps seniors and savers Timothy Renshaw

trenshaw@biv.com

Promoting savings and helping seniors. Those are two key personal ﬁnance targets of federal Minister of Finance Joe Oliver’s 201516 budget unveiled today, according to analysts. Economic Action Plan 2015 also delivers on the Conservatives’ promise to return the federal government to a balanced budget for the ﬁrst time since 2007-08. Oliver also touted the budget’s focus on rewarding savers, who have been hard hit by persistent lowinterest rates, and helping seniors shelter more of their income longer. As telegraphed well before the budget was unveiled, the annual allowable contribution limit to Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSAs) has been increased to $10,000 from the current $5,500. The TSFA program has

come under fire from some quarters as benefiting primarily wealthier Canadians. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan said the majority of benefits from the TSFA contribution increase go to those who need it least. But Leith Wheeler senior vice-president and portfolio manager Jon Palfrey said the TSFA program “benefits savers across the board; forget the age; forget the wealthy or not wealthy.” He said TFSAs provide benefits across all income asset levels and are far more flexible than other government initiatives like the firsttime buyer’s program. “[The TSFA program] enables people to save on a tax-free basis; so it has applicability to all ages and all income levels.” Palfrey added that lowering the mandatory withdrawals from the Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF) is the other key

The federal budget focuses on rewarding savers, who have been hard hit by persistent low-interest rates, and helping seniors shelter more of their income longer.

personal ﬁnance change in Oliver’s budget. Currently Registered

Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) must be converted to RRIFs by the end of the

year in which the RRSP holder reaches 71. Income, taxed at regular employment income rates, must then start to be drawn out by the RRIF-holder. The minimum first withdrawal must be 7.38 per cent. So $7,380 would have to be withdrawn from a $100,000 RRIF. Under the new rules, that first minimum withdrawal will be 5.28 per cent or $5,280 from a $100,000 RRIF. Palfrey said the change is long overdue. He said the investment marketplace and demographics have changed significantly since the RRIF withdrawal schedule was set up in 1992, when bond yields that are now 2 per cent were 8 per cent and life expectancy was shorter. “So this needed some attention. Forget politics, forget everything else, this needed to be aligned with [economic and demographic] realities today.” He said leaving more money in the pockets of

seniors longer beneﬁts more areas of society than those in retirement because “seniors reduce the risk of outliving their money; they have money for health care later on and can self-fund their retirement, which are all positive things for society.” But University of British Columbia economics professor Kevin Milligan questioned the budget’s focus on seniors. “When I think about where the biggest challenges are in our society, the seniors, and especially the coming generation of seniors, look like they have a lot of the tools already. And I’m not sure if that’s true of people just starting off in life.” Palfrey said the budget also raises the threshold for reporting foreign assets. Currently, increased reporting requirements apply to foreign assets over $100,000; that has been changed to apply to foreign assets over $250,000. With ﬁles from Jen St. Denis

Small business see benefits in federal budget Jen St. Denis

jstdenis@biv.com

The Conservative government tabled a balanced budget this week that included some key measures aimed at small business and manufacturing. Small businesses will see their tax rate fall from 11 per cent to 9 per cent by 2019, and manufacturers will beneﬁt from an Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance (ACCA) that will allow businesses to write off new equipment faster. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business,

who had lobbied for the tax cut as well as several other measures included in the 2015 budget, gave the preelection budget an A grade. Other benefits for small business include increasing the lifetime capital gains exemption for farmers and fishermen to $1 million; legislating a plan to cut a regulation for every new rule introduced; and relaxing rules around the frequency new employers are required to remit payments to Canada Revenue Agency. The Vancouver Board of Trade’s (VBOT) business and finance committee

also liked what it saw in the budget, said Iain Black, president and CEO of the business advocacy group. Black said VBOT is pleased with the small business tax cut and also with measures designed to boost women in business, such as a program to help women entrepreneurs succeed and changing the Corporations Act to include comply and explain rules, which were adopted this year by the Ontario Securities Commission, for corporate boards. Comply and explain requires public companies to report their efforts

to increase the number of women on boards and explain if they have fallen short of targets. The tax changes show that the federal government is taking manufacturing seriously as a driver of the Canadian economy, said Marcus Ewert-Johns, vice-president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters B.C. Economists expect provinces with strong manufacturing sectors to perform better this year than those that have depended heavily on oil production. “When you look at today’s budget, it’s a sign that

they’re supportive of the sector. We’d love to see the province [of British Columbia] do the same thing,” Ewert-Johns said. The ACCA is especially beneﬁcial for businesses in this province because B.C. manufacturers tend to trail other provinces in productivity, Ewert-Johns said. “People weren’t investing in machinery during the recession and now, with the [low] dollar, this will help people.” Aside from the capital cost allowance, Ewert-Johns pointed to other items in the budget, such as $65 million

over four years to develop educational initiatives with post-secondary institutions to align training with employers’ needs. “We hear from employers that they want to add a third shift, but they can’t wait four years for a student to come out of college.” Other items that will beneﬁt manufacturers include $50 million for small and medium-sized businesses to develop export markets and $100 million over ﬁve years for aerospace and automotive manufacturing development, Ewert-Johns said. twitter.com/jenstden

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by Cheryl Rossi, inspired by Brandon Stanton’s Humans Of New York

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trust in humans before… It’s a horrible thing when your dog dies and I don’t even want to think about it with this one, but there won’t be any more, just because of my age. I’m 63.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

Pet of the Week POWER LINE TREE PRUNING AND HAZARD TREE REMOVALS VANCOUVER When: April 20, 2015 to June 30, 2015 Time: 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Trees are a signiﬁcant cause of power interruptions. Contact between trees and power lines can also create a severe danger. Over the next few months we will be pruning and removing trees in the Vancouver Area. Boundaries: North: East 1st Avenue

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The Courier wants to include your animal companion in Pet of the Week. Please send a clear photo of your pet — humans are welcome to be in photos as well — their breed, name, age, how long you’ve been together and any special attributes or idiosyncrasies they might have to sthomas@ vancourier.com and we’ll publish as many as possible in print and online.

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F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Community

Food podcast feeds curious appetite Shannon Lynch

Shannon_17_2@hotmail.com

If you like food, you might want to listen to recent UBC grads Lillian Yang and Fakhri Shafai. A lot of people already are. Their Food Non-Fiction podcast hit the top of iTunes New & Noteworthy’s food and arts section on April 18 and recently beat podcasts by both Jamie Oliver and Martha Stewart. Neuroscience graduates Yang, 27, and her co-host Shafai, 33, started their podcast last month. When Yang heard they reached top numbers, she realized people beyond her friends and family were listening. “It was just really validating when we were hitting the top of all these different charts,” she said. “Knowing that the content is stuff that people are talking about.” Food Non-Fiction, which has just four shows aired so far, goes into detail about the history, current issues, and fun facts about food that people might not have heard of before. The ﬁrst two

episodes were about edible insects, their third about the Michelin guide, and their most recent explored Benjamin Franklin’s vegetarianism. Yang said they try to “weave it all into a story that ﬂows.” One of their upcoming episodes looks behind the scenes at dark restaurants — where diners eat in pitch black conditions. “You wonder what the food even looks like,” Yang mused. “Do they bother with presentation?” Most of the topics are born out of curiosity — questions that might pop up when chatting with friends but with answers hard to ﬁnd online. Yang said one idea was inspired by her dog while recording the Benjamin Franklin episode. “My dog woke up from his nap and started eating, and we couldn’t have [the sound] in the recording. So we waited — we sat and watched him and laughed. And I was like, oh, we need to do one on pet food as well.” Yang and Shafai, who took a class together at

UBC grad and podcaster Lillian Yang gives listeners facts about all things food-related on her new podcast Food Non-Fiction along with her co-host, Fakhri Shafai. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

UBC, started Food NonFiction from scratch and produce it completely on their own, even though Yang works full-time as a web-marketer and Shafai is a full-time PhD student. Managing time is their biggest challenge, said Yang. Yang, whose background

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includes some journalism, decided to produce a podcast in part because she had uncertainty about life after ﬁnishing her master’s degree — plus, she believed she could do it. After Shafai helped Yang through a difﬁcult time, Yang thought that along with her organizational

skills Shafai would make a good co-host. It’s worked out well, said Yang, and Shafai’s voice is “radio perfect.” The podcast focuses on food because of Yang’s general interest in the topic. And she loves eating. “In high school, I was always the girl who chal-

lenged all the boys to eating contests — I’ll eat anything,” she said. Yang and Shafai do extensive research on each topic before interviewing their guests, and Yang said their educational background helps them ask hard-hitting, in-depth questions. “We trust our referencing skills,” she said. Food Non-Fiction airs every Thursday, but Yang said they’re hoping to move it to Tuesdays, because it would mean less competition and downloaders could get it earlier in the week. Eventually they hope to hit the top eight per cent of podcasts, said Yang, where 5,000 downloads per episode per month can get podcasters sponsored. She said though it might be several years down the road, she wants to do it full-time. “My dream would be do it for a living,” said Yang. “That would be awesome if I could spend my days researching and not have to worry about anything else.” twitter.com/shannon1726

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

Travel

Portland is ‘weird,’ even by rail Michelle Hopkins

michelle.hopkins@telus.net

1. Riding the Amtrak Cascades train from Vancouver to Portland is one of the most relaxing, scenic ways to travel. 2. Hotel Monaco’s plush bold fuschia lobby is a great place to meet other travellers during its nightly get-together complete with live music, complimentary wine, beer and appies.

Some of my most memorable travel experiences have taken place on trains — that brilliantly sunny day when my beloved father and I took a memorable ride to Whistler months before he passed away, or the years we’d hop on the train from Nova Scotia back home to Quebec after spending the summer at the beach. So, when I was invited for a weekend getaway to one of America’s hippest, most eclectic, food crazed cities — oh and let’s not forget a top 10 best local microbrew destination according to Travel + Leisure — I didn’t hesitate. Whether you call it PTown, Stump Town, the City of Roses or Bridge City, Portland boasts some of the most lauded food trucks (600 and counting) and eateries, a multicultural blend of residents and a booming art scene. Even the buildings exude a mix of heritage

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and avant garde aesthetic any hipster would love. Meanwhile, there’s something fundamentally “old world” about travelling by rail. We began our journey at the Pacific Central Station in Vancouver where we boarded an early morning Amtrak Cascades train for our eight-hour trip. Within less than an hour, as we snaked towards Bellingham, the landscape changed from cityscape to rural. There’s nothing quite like watching the countryside roll by from the comfort of your seat — sipping a glass of wine, smiling at the thought of those stressed out car commuters stuck in traffic jams. We soon befriended fellow rail rider Shannon Sweeney who was looking forward to a girls’ getaway and opted for the train for the same reason as us — to avoid traffic congestion and relax and enjoy the views along the route that one can only see by railway.

We also met Charles, a transplanted Portlandite who was more than happy to talk about the city’s best attributes: “There is a common saying about Portland, ‘Keep Portland Weird’ and the city lives up to this in so many ways. We have one bronze sculpture of a naked lady in the centre of town that drew lots of negative comments when it ﬁrst went in over 30 years ago. It’s now a very popular photo opportunity.” Charles added, “Portland is a walkable, clean and well laid out city, and if one doesn’t prefer to walk, there are ample options for public transportation that are easy to use. I love architecture and good design, and Portland has done a ﬁne job of re-developing its old warehouses and factories into a district of great restaurants, cool bars, farmer-style markets and many places to shop that emphasize the artisan culture that Portlandites embrace.” As we bid adieu to our new friends, the arrival

into Union Station was a wonderful ﬁrst impression for any traveller who appreciates history and architecture.

When in Rome, or in this case Portland

You know those one-ofa-kind eateries that are so authentic, those beloved hangouts you just have to pry the names out of from the locals? Portland is ﬁlled with favourite local haunts and my partner Brent and I were given front row seats to several. Here’s just a small sampling: A self-professed carnivore, Brent reluctantly agreed to dine at Natural Selections in the Alberta Arts district. This part of town is still being gentriﬁed and it’s a diverse mix of little shops and small intimate restaurants. As Brent perused the menu with a resigned look on his face, he checked out entrees such as the kale and Asian pear salad, winter squash tartar and roasted sunchoke with fennel and apple jus.

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F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Travel Food truck haven After cajoling him to try, Brent dug in forgetting we were supposed to be sharing. Chef Aaron Woo came over and Brent had to admit that his creative team of cooks changed his outlook about vegan dining. Another night, we went to one of the most touted hotspots in the city — Andina. This upscale authentic Peruvian restaurant assaults all of your senses in the most delicious way. The dishes and ﬂavours carry stories all their own, as does the music and art work. Words such as adventurous, modern, inventive, and tickle your taste buds can be used to describe the cuisine. You know those eateries where you just don’t want the culinary journey to end? That’s Andina. Nestled in the Pearl District, Nuvrei Patisserie & Cafe’s croissants, macaroons and other Parisian confections could stand proud in France. We arrived mid-morning and the lineup snaked out the door but we didn’t have to wait long. Brent looked to be in Nirvana as he bit into a buttery warm croissant, then into a bright red macaroon. I was equally impressed by the avocado turkey and house-made sage sausage bagel sandwiches. (I didn’t eat both, although I could have). What do Arnold

Palmer, Memphis Maﬁa and Maple Bacon have in common? They are names of some of the fried holy cakes at Voodoo Donuts. They are nearly a religion here. If there was ever a business that captured the quirky spirit of Portland, it’s Voodoo. P.S. The food-trucks are an attraction all their own and deﬁnitely worthy of a visit. Then, head to one of the many green spaces throughout the city for a picnic, including its famous Japanese Garden or Lan Su Chinese Garden.

Where to Stay in Portland

Portland is one of those cities with a strong sense of self. With its funky, whimsical and exciting art and design scene, many hotels here are nothing short of unique. We were invited to stay at the Hotel Monaco in the heart of downtown, close to the Pearl District, the famous Powell’s Books (you can lose yourself for hours in this landmark literature institution) and Pioneer Square. The plush bold fuschia lobby is a great place to be for its complimentary wine and beer socials offered in the lobby. (Fabulous appies too and some nights feature a local pianist). As we boarded our train heading back home, we both agreed that Portland is worth another visit.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

News

The proposed zipline would soar over Queen Elizabeth’s Park’s manicured gardens.

Zipline proposed for Little Mountain

The Vancouver Park Board has a line on bringing a new attraction in Queen Elizabeth Park this summer to mark the park’s 75th anniversary. City staff have recommend the temporary installation of a zipline, which would allow riders to travel along a cable while hanging from a harness, from the west side of Bloedel Conservatory on top of 152-metre Little Mountain. It would carry people 190 metres over the park’s manicured gardens.

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The high-ﬂying proposal was pitched by Greenheart, a Vancouver-based company whose previous projects include building the canopy walk at UBC Botanical Gardens, the Ripple Rock suspension bridge in Campbell River and the Cougar Mountain zipline facility in Whistler. The report suggests tickets would cost $15-20 for the pilot project which would operate during the daytime from May to September. The report is scheduled to be discussed at the park board’s next meeting April 27. — Andrew Fleming

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F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Arts&Entertainment

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GOT ARTS? 604.738.1411 or events@vancourier.com

April 24 to 28, 2015 1. Actress Isabella Rossellini’s career has taken an interesting turn with her popular web series Green Porno, in which she discusses and acts out the reproductive habits of marine animals and insects. Presented by the PuSh Festival and the Italian Cultural Centre, Rossellini performs her entertaining and scientiﬁcally accurate Green Porno live in the ﬂesh, April 25, 8 p.m. at the Vancouver Playhouse. Tickets at ticketstonight.ca. Details at italianculturalcentre.ca and pushfestival.ca.

2. Mexican-American songstress Lila Downs brings her vibrant fusion of Mexican folk, rock, R&B, blues and jazz to UBC’s Chan Centre April 26, 7 p.m. The Grammy Award-winner performs in support of her most recent album Balas Y Chocolate (Bullets and Chocolate). Details at chancentre.com. 3. Former Vancouverite Mac DeMarco brings his love of cigarettes, pinball and sweet yacht-rock guitar wizardry to town for two sold out shows. DeMarco and his equally unwashed band play the Vogue Theatre April 24 and the Biltmore April 25. 4. Comedian Charlie Demers hosts Neworld Theatre’s ongoing Bite of the Underground featuring selections of bitesized performances from schoolteacher and comedian Paul Bae, artist and illustrator Julian Lawrence, improv troupe the Sunday Service, Zak Youssef, feminist punk trio Lié and the always uplifting Shawn Mrazek Lives! It all goes down April 25, 7 p.m. at Progress Lab (1422 William St.) Tickets at Highlife Records, brownpapertickets.com or at the door.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

Arts&Entertainment KUDOS & KVETCHES Canucks playoff haiku, part three

Depending on the outcome of Thursday’s game, which took place after the Courier’s press deadline, K&K continues or concludes its Basho-inspired Haiku Night in Canada poetry series in honour of the arrival of spring and the Canucks’ Stanley Cup playoff run. ••• Blue and green grease paint Coats my beast of a belly Really should have shaved. ••• Who is this Ferland? Lumbering limbs full of plums Graze Bieksa’s cheek. ••• Smell of whale blubber The sour, burnt stench of defeat How I hate the Flames. ••• Bloated with nachos Still drunk and missing my gaunch It is a new day.

Going to pot

Just when we were starting to get the hang of

Due to the Courier’s press deadline, we weren’t sure what emotional tone to strike for the latest and possibly last edition of our Haiku Night in Canada Canucks playoff poetry series. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Vancouver’s Wild West approach to pot dispensaries, The Man has suddenly decided to propose some “ofﬁcial rules” for shops to follow. Talk about a harsh toke. These rules, which

city council will vote on next week, include a new business licence category as well as zoning requirements that all retail marijuana-related businesses most follow. We could go into speciﬁcs of

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the proposal, but frankly, that’s not the way we roll. However, we would like to put forth our own rules to be added to the proposal: • Dispensaries can cut their licensing fees in half if they adopt a clever mari-

juana pun in their name. For example: Grassiﬁed Information, Weed at Last, Pot Without My Daughter, Dank You for Being a Friend, Herb Tarlek or Billy Bong Thornton to name a few.

• Any store owner who still touts the stonerfriendly qualities of Pink Floyd should be forced to listen to at least three of the band’s albums while straight and then reassess their opinion of them… if they’ve managed to stay awake. • Stores can play as much reggae and hip hop on the stereo as they want, but heavy metal is capped at half an hour for each fourhour block. It just wrecks the vibe, man. • Pot dispensaries and their customers must limit the number of times they can use the word “dude” in a single conversation. We’re proposing four. For example: “Dude, check out this sweet three-chamber bong in the shape of a hot dog we just got in.” “Duuudddddde, that is so sick.” “Totally, dude. Totally. But just wait until you see the $800 solar-powered vaporizer that’s on order. It plays Eddie Grant’s ‘Electric Avenue’ for as long as you’re inhaling and can read your mind.” “Duuuuuuuuude.” twitter.com/KudosKvetches

F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Arts&Entertainment

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Want totokeep Want keepup upwith with the Courieronline? online? the Courier Toronto filmmaker Jessica Edwards’ Stay Awhile documents the overlooked Canadian band the Bells, which included her parents and aunt.

Doc examines overlooked piece of Canadiana MOVIES Julie Crawford

jcrawfordﬁlm@gmail.com

There tends to be a gap in the Canadian music industry timeline after the arrival of teen idol (and Ottawa native) Paul Anka and before the mainstream success of the likes of Joni Mitchell and Neil Young at the tail end of the 1960s. But back when the Junos were the Gold Leaf Awards, and before the introduction of CanCon regulations, the Bells were touring from one end of the country to the other, and were the first Canadian band to play the Copacabana in New York City, one of the top clubs in the world at the time. Toronto filmmaker Jessica Edwards doesn’t just want to remind audiences about an overlooked piece of Canadiana — in her documentary Stay Awhile, she also wants you to get to know her musician parents, Cliff and Ann Edwards. Cliff “had a little grit to him,” according to band manager Kevin Hunter, while Ann, who originally performed in the South African-born sister act Ann and Jacki, had an innocence onstage that was beguiling. Hunter saw a winning formula and put them together, in a band that started out as the Five Bells. The group, including sister Jacki, Gordie McLeod and Doug Gravelle, toured and played Bermuda for six months, Florida for three. They found success south of the border, but couldn’t crack a vast Canada. A promo film for the band commissioned by the record company, “Follow the Fun,” showed the Bells

touring across the U.S., having a blast in New York City. It was a charmed time. The film shifts focus at about the 50-55 minute mark, approximates Edwards. “Up until then it’s the band’s story,” the director says via phone from Toronto. “[Then] we reveal things to each other... Marriages fail, bands get together and break apart… Every person has their own version.” At first Clint had an eye for Jacki. But it’s Ann he married, in Christchurch Cathedral in Montreal, 1967. And so the Bells’ tight family unit went the way of Fleetwood Mac and ABBA, with a husbandand-wife team throwing things off balance. Peace song “Fly Little White Dove Fly” became a top 10 hit in Canada and then “Stay Awhile,” a pillow-talk duet between Cliff and a breathy Jacki, hit number one in Canada and number seven in the U.S. on the Billboard Top 100. The group found true fame right around the time that Ann became a stay-athome mom, watching from the sidelines as the Bells performed on Merv Griffin and The Tonight Show, two times each. Jacki became the sole female in the group. The new record cover made brotherand sister-in-law look like lovers, which didn’t sit well with Ann, now tending two kids — soon to be three — alone at home on their Ontario farm. Ultimately, Cliff left the band. He rejoined his family but was on the road a lot as a struggling solo artist. A TV show hosted by Cliff and Ann (and occasionally featuring the three kids) tided

them over. “Every Christmas we’d have to go up on stage,” laughs Edwards. “We were like the Christmas von Trapp family.” One film clip shows the Edwards family singing the Kenny Rogers favourite “The Gambler,” with a toothy Jessica right in front. “I had totally blocked that out,” she laughs. “Who’s the idiot who put the mic in front of the youngest?” But it couldn’t last, and the couple separated after 19 years of marriage. Ann left, moved out west to Vancouver, “more like a distant relative” to her children than a mother. Edwards isn’t concerned that her mother, father and aunt may not have “fessed up” to the whole story, instead providing an “approximation of the truth,” as her brother Chris says in the film. “I don’t think hard-hitting questions would’ve achieved the same tone, and I don’t think the Bells would’ve gone there.” A wealth of news and archival footage sets time and place perfectly (right down to the Bells’ performance on The Tommy Hunter Show); musician Ron Sexsmith weighs in on the band’s influence while Bells members reminisce. When the film screened at the Whistler Film Festival last year, reality sank in. “They were all feeling, ‘Holy s***, everyone is going to see this!’ But they understand that to make a compelling film you have to go places, and they feel like I made a balanced film, and that I did it with love.” Stay Awhile screens April 27, 7:30 p.m. at April 27, 7:30, at Scotiabank Theatre, and will be available on iTunes April 28.

It’s easy.Follow Followus us on on Twitter Twitter It’s easy. at @VanCourierNews at @VanCourierNews

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

Arts&Entertainment

East Van’s Ballantynes have got soul

Christine Lyon

clyon@nsnews.com

Playing in front of a new audience always comes with an element of uncertainty, but the Ballantynes can usually gauge the success of a show, particularly when they’re on the road away from their hometown fans, with a simple test they call “the three song rule.” On a good night, the crowd will listen to the ﬁrst song, interested, engaged, some light head bopping When the second song starts, friends will turn to each other with a “Hey, these guys aren’t bad” nod of approval. “And then by the third song people are up at the front, they’re dancing, they’re really enjoying themselves,” says Corey Poluk, vocalist and guitarist for the East Van garage-soul ensemble. Poluk is hopeful he’ll see some toe-tapping and hipshaking by the time the band breaks into the third song of their set at Hindenburg tonight (April 24)). For one, they will be playing music off their forthcoming LP — their ﬁrst full-length — set for release under La-Ti-Da Records later this year. The gig will also showcase the band’s relatively new six-member lineup band. Until recently, the group has been composed of seven members, including two drummers who play simultaneously to achieve a modern Motown sound. As it goes, drummer Trevor Racz decided

The Ballantynes leave the garage and perform at the Hindenburg tonight (April 24) along with Isaac Rother and the Phantoms and Sh-Shakes .

to amicably step away from the Ballantynes and focus on his other bands, while the remaining six members have elected to drop the twodrum system. In addition to Poluk (who also plays in the Valuables), the current lineup includes Jarrod O’Dell (organ, guitar, vocals) Vanessa Dandurand (vocals) Jennifer Wilks (organ, vocals) Max Sample (bass, vocals) and Michael McDiarmid (drums, vibraphone).

The group recorded the new album with Felix Fung at Little Red Sounds. “We wrote four of the songs on that record in the studio, which I’ve never done before and it was a really interesting process because we always come in with everything ready to go and we just bang it out,” Poluk says. Their discography to date includes three seven-inch singles and the 2013 EP Liquor Store Gun

Store Pawn Shop Church — all engineered and produced at Little Red Sounds. Writing in-studio was a new, and very collaborative process that resulted in a more cohesive sound, Poluk says. “There’s all sorts of different stuff that just kind of came up organically,” he says, explaining the album has hints of Muscle Shoals, Brit pop and ’70s music all wrapped in a northern soul context. “We’re exploring

some uncharted territory.” The Ballantynes can’t be bound by genre, but, if he had to label their sound, Poluk would describe it as he always has — ’60sinspired soul and garage. “I think that still stands for us, I think you still hear that in there.” Originally from California, Poluk moved to Vancouver seven years ago to attend Emily Carr University of Art and Design. The

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Ballantynes got together a little more than three years ago, the members all either patrons of or afﬁliated with the monthly East Van Soul Club dance night at the Biltmore Cabaret. “We’ve all known each other since before the band,” Poluk says, explaining that their foundation as friends helps the musical group write, rehearse and tour together. “It’s kind of like a big dumb family.”

F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Community

LAST NITE: Conceived in her Richmond home 17 years ago, Judi Miller Knapp’s Nite of Hope breast cancer fundraiser concluded last week. With an incredible run that saw the event spawn similar Nites of Hopes in South Surrey and the North Shore, collectively raising more than $4 million for breast cancer research, Knapp and her committee, many of whom have been involved for the full 17 years, called time on the event. More than 400 guests gathered at the River Rock Theatre for the final curtain call. Knapp, along with gala chairs Peggy O’Brien and Shelley Leonhardt, welcomed longtime friends and supporters to the emotion-filled evening. Chronicling her personal battle with breast cancer, CTV news anchor Mi-Jung Lee was the night’s keynote, musician Melanie Dekker entertained, while yours truly emceed. Always a pretty-in-pink affair, make no mistake the dominant hue in the room was green as guests shelled out more than $200,000 for mammography equipment at Richmond Hospital and breast cancer research. ORANGE CRUSH: The B.C. Lions brass presented their annual Orange Helmet Awards, the franchise’s marquee event supporting amateur football. Seven hundred fans converged at the Vancouver Convention Centre to recognize the provincial champions for all levels of amateur football plus pioneers, coaches and lifetime achievers to the game from across the province. Founded by the late Lions president and CEO Bob Ackles, the fundraising dinner, now in its twelfth year, has raised more than $750,000 for grassroots football programs. This year’s gridiron gala, fronted by Jamie Taras and Wally Buono, honoured pioneer award winners Brian Prentice, Bill Cole and Paul Short, coach of the year recipients Kendall Gross and Mark Townsend, and Joe Gluska, Lifetime Achievement Award honouree. Former Grey Cup-winning quarterback and NFL pivot Jeff Garcia was the evening’s keynote speaker. WATERMARK: Acclaimed author Wade Davis was the featured speaker at the inaugural Waterkeeper Gala, a fundraising initiative for Fraser Riverkeeper. Waterkeeper Galas are the foremost fundraising events for clean water in Canada. A national series of gala benefits, which originated in Toronto, this past Saturday, leaders from the worlds of art, business, sport and entertainment came together at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia in support of the province and country’s swimmable, drinkable, and fishable future. Hosted by Jon Curleigh and Denise Donlon, attendees — shelling out $500-a-ticket — enjoyed an exquisite evening of fine food, wine and live entertainment before emptying their pockets of $100,000 for local and national water efforts.

email yvrflee@hotmail.com twitter @FredAboutTown

CTV news anchor and senior reporter Mi-Jung Lee chronicled her own battle with breast cancer at Judi Miller Knapp’s final Nite of Hope breast cancer benefit.

Shelley Leonhardt and Peggy O’Brien co-chaired the final Nite of Hope fundraiser. Since its inception 17 years ago, more than $4 million was generated for breast cancer research from three other events across Metro Vancouver.

From left, Hidekazu Tojo, along with former staffers Nobu Ochi of Zen and Kazuhiro Hiyashi from Miku, fronted Sakura Night, a stand-up soiree that generated $20,000 for the Cherry Blossom festival.

B.C. Lions team owner David Braley and Leos president and CEO Dennis Skulsky saluted amateur football at their annual Orange Helmut awards dinner.

B.C. Lions general manager Wally Buono greeted a capacity crowd to the club’s marquee fundraiser, now in its 12th year, raising more than $750,000 for grassroots football programs across the province.

Celebrating its ninth season, Eco Fashion Week founder Myriam Laroche welcomed Fashion Magazine editor Joy Pecknold and stylist Mana Mansour to the opening festivities at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel.

Cherry Blossom Festival founder Linda Poole and taiko drummer Shinobu Homma celebrated the festival’s recent accolade. The annual month-long, multi-event celebration was named Canada’s Garden Festival of the Year.

Mark Mattson, founder of the national series of Waterkeeper Galas, and the Edmonton Oilers’ Kevin Lowe, a water ambassador, attended the inaugural fundraiser in Vancouver.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

START NOTHING: 7:12 a.m. to 6:07 p.m. Monday, 5:23 a.m. to 7:03 a.m. Thursday, and 7:03 a.m. to 6:47 p.m. Saturday.

Who helps the helpers? It is estimated that up to 30 per cent of first responders — firefighters, police and paramedics — suffer from PTSD and yet few resources are available to help them. The real tragedy is there is a cure. The #ptsdfireride is raising money for an innovative online therapy program through Vancouver Coastal Health. You can donate or start your own campaign at ptsdfireride.ca.

PREAMBLE: Query from a Scorpio home-maker. I keep telling Scorpio this is a great, career year (until August) but what about a homemaker, who has no career or outside job? Well, the influence still works, but it applies in other ways. It’s laziness on my part to keep using the word “career” — this fortune boosts Scorpio’s profile generally,in the community. You guys could become an officer of your hiking club or be put in charge of your exercise class or run for local politics and be surprised by your win! In matters dealing with authorities, you will tend to win (or have your sins forgiven). You might notice sales clerks and waiters treating you with a new respect. Somehow, you radiate a confidence and an “upward attitude.” Your reputation, your prestige, rises buoyantly. This is a good time for anything dealing with status, including “moving up” to a tonier neighborhood, ordering more classy stationery or being invited to upscale parties or dinners, mixing with the tuxedo set, helping your spouse impress his/her boss, etc. Now you can impress that sceptical mother or father in law. Chase money, buy/sell, seek new clients. You might have to make a choice, in the weeks ahead, between making/ keeping money and romance or a creative project or a risky venture. (The last three are, ultimately, luckier than chasing money.) Sunday/Monday are romantic, creative, speculative. Pursue beauty, dive into the pleasure of the moment. Surrender to the cosmos, to Lady Luck — she won’t desert you! (Sunday’s better.)

You and Virgo share something in common this April into May: physical desire. (I don’t mean for each other, though that’s not impossible.) And for both of you, at least until May 11, that desire can lead you into a subtle dead end. For example, you could engage in a lust-oriented affair, but ignore the fact that the other person’s married; or you could let lust lead you into a partnership that, a year or two down the road, displays qualities of disloyalty.

You might not see much new romantic activity before late August 2015. Your energy and natural charisma attract others in May, and if you’re unattached a sweet, friendly romance might begin. Your sensual side awakens around mid-month, and remains “alert” to late June — however, a purely sensual relationship could turn burdensome as the year progresses, and you might soon wish you were out of it.

Through August, you might be too busy with an expanding career, work,or civic role to pay much attention to love. (Well, that’s not quite true. You’re the most sentimental sign of the zodiac, and you think of love — or sex — almost every day. But until late August, it doesn’t command quite the same intensity.) Still, even as you read this, April has brought some strong relationship feelings (whether pro or con) and May continues this.

This is an easy week. Continue to rest, lie low, contemplate. Let no one rush you. If an apparent opportunity passes you by, well, then it does. But in truth it was hardly more than talk anyway, and if seized would have increased the busyness of your life and your consequent weariness,without adding anything appreciable to your cupboards, reputation or bank account.

Tackle chores. If you need it, this is a good time to seek employment, especially Tuesday to Thursday. Protect your health; eat, dress and sleep sensibly. Take care of children’s needs — e.g., buy summer clothes, apply to summer camps. If pregnant, eat nutritiously. In all this, don’t go overboard; don’t overexert physically and don’t get too creative with tasks.

Life ﬁlls with optimism; your future shines bright. New and old friends perk up when they see you, you’re popular, and life’s freshness pleases your heart. Make wishes now and the next few weeks; they have a good chance of coming true. (Be reasonable, of course. And a clue: a slight, mild, almost casual wish has a greater chance of coming true than something you shut your eyes and concentrate on.)

It could be love, could be nature’s beauty, or art or pleasure, but for some reason your heart sings this week and the next few. If you have a family, this is a perfect vacation time. If you’re an artist, writer, musician, etc., your creativity shines. Take a risk — not a calculated one, but when your heart prompts you (even in money). You’ll be glad you did. However, don’t take a risk on real estate, furniture, food, or with family.

The main emphasis lies on ambition, prestige relations, reputation and community status and dealings with authorities. There’s pressure, and reward. The present week is a smooth, productive, good one. You start it, Sunday/Monday, with high energy and charisma, clout and effectiveness — everything an ambitious climber needs. So grab the ladder and climb a rung, but do it Sunday before 5 p.m.

Now and until late May the emphasis lies on your foundations: home, family, nature, garden, nutrition, security, retirement plans and, in business, sales territory. Let yourself slow down; this is your natural hibernation month. Relax, nap, replenish emotional and physical reserves. Your home, though, will be unusually active, guests coming and going, perhaps yard sales or landscape projects, etc.

Your compassionate intellectual and understanding side blossoms through the few weeks ahead — especially during this easy, fortunate end of April. It’s a splendid time to apply for or enter school, to travel afar or buy tickets, to start a love affair or propose, to start an advertising campaign, to seek your cultural roots or investigate other cultures, to reinforce your religious or philosophical beliefs, to buy/sell insurance, to handle legal affairs, etc.

The emphasis remains on errands, paperwork, details, travel, visits, calls, emails, letters, daily business and casual acquaintances. If curiosity, domestic issues, or making contact is your motive in all these, the results will please. If money is the motive, all will look promising in the beginning, but might disappoint in the end. Your family and neighbors are affectionate. It’s a good time to paint and decorate until May 7.

Monday: Ace Frehley (64). Tuesday: Ann Margaret (74). Wednesday: Willie Nelson (82). Thursday: Cloris Leachman (89). Friday: Wes Anderson (46). Saturday: Engelbert Humperdinck (79). Sunday: Frankie Valli (81).

F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Sports&Recreation

GOT SPORTS? 604.630.3549 or mstewart@vancourier.com

Vancouver climber Tomas Sedlak, left, and friends Jan Fultner and Ladislav Placek survived the massive rockfall on the Stawamus Chief April 19. They were transported down the cliff by Squamish Search and Rescue.

Climbers survive massive Squamish slide Trio on rock face as 1,000 cubic metres of granite hurtled down Stawamus Chief

Jennifer Thuncher

jthuncher@squamishchief

Tomáš Sedlák was metres away, hanging on a rock face when the equivalent of 5,000 pickup trucks full of granite came crashing down the north face of the Stawamus Chief on Sunday, April 19. “It was like a big huge bomb exploded,” said Sedlák, a Vancouver climber who was with two other climbers 10 metres from the slab of granite that broke loose just before noon. “It was a whole big rock and it also got some trees, so it was all falling to us.” Sedlák had started the

13-part route on the actual plate that fell and was on the third part when the slide happened. “On the ﬁrst route we already heard some rocks falling,” he said, adding because he hadn’t climbed at that spot before, he assumed it was a normal event and was nothing to worry about. “We got to the third route and big rocks started falling,” he said. “I saw that all that f**king thing was falling around on us — right on us — and I just started screaming to them to cover ourselves.” He said there was so much dust at ﬁrst, he

couldn’t see his climbing partners. As the dust started to dissipate, the friends called to each other to see if everyone was OK — they were. “We started just laughing because we survived it and it was really crazy,” he said. He worried for the four climbers he had seen coming up behind him when the rock fell, so he called 911. He found out late Sunday that everyone survived. The trio decided it was safest to ﬁnish the remaining 10 parts of the route rather than to go down. “We saw helicopters ﬂying around us but we didn’t pay any attention, we just

wanted to ﬁnish and go for a beer,” he said, with a laugh. “It was really crazy.” They ﬁnished at 6 p.m. and were met by Search and Rescue, who gave them a helicopter ride back down. The slide occurred at 11:46 a.m. April 19 and involved 1,000 cubic metres of granite hurtling to the ground below, according to RCMP Insp. Davis Wendell. The area was too unstable for emergency personnel to go in on the ground so Squamish Search and Rescue (SAR) and RCMP personnel surveyed the scene from the air, Wendell said.

SAR and the RCMP remained on site throughout the day to assess geotechnical hazards within the rockslide area, according to Wendell. No one is believed to have been injured in the slide. The mountain was closed to all hikers and climbers for several hours but was reopened in all but the directly impacted areas by Monday. In terms of rockfall and landslides in the area, the event on Sunday was quite small, according to Steve Quane, a geologist at Quest University. Researchers have identiﬁed landslide deposits from Mount Garibaldi that are

estimated to be up to three million cubic metres, he said. “The largest event happened between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago. Albeit from a different location, that event was thought to be 3,000 times larger than the one that happened on Sunday,” he said. As for Sedlák, he says he isn’t deterred from climbing in Squamish in the future. “I will deﬁnitely climb something else in Squamish,” he said. All hiking trails on the Stawamus Chief have opened, but the climbing access trail to Angel’s Crest is closed until further notice. twitter.com/thuncher

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

Sports&Recreation

Riders deliver meals on two wheels Seniors enjoy hot lunches and company

WHEEL WORLD Kay Cahill

kay@sidecut.ca

You’ve heard of meals being delivered on wheels before. But usually it’s done with four— wheels that is. I recently learned about a really wonderful program run by the Health and Home Care Society of B.C., Meals on Bikes. Home-delivery food programs that bring hot lunches to the homes of individuals at risk of isolation have been around for a long time, but in this case there’s a difference — there’s only two wheels and they’re attached to bikes. For the past ﬁve years, Meals on Bikes volunteers deliver meals by bicycle in Vancouver and Richmond, and Care B.C.’s Chantal Bazinet said the program

has a number of benefits. “Every bike reduces our carbon footprint and helps keep Vancouver green,” she said. “It’s also difficult to find parking in many areas of town, and often our clients live in close proximity in apartment buildings. In these cases, it’s easy for a volunteer to deliver six to eight meals via bike. As an added bonus, our volunteers love that they can be active while they make a difference to seniors in their communities.” Anyone who would benefit from a hot meal delivery is eligible for the program, which provides approximately 400 meals per day with both Western and Chinese menu options that change on a four-week rotating schedule. On Monday this week, for example, people were delivered a hot lunch with cream of cauliflower soup, beef stew with roasted potatoes and vegetables plus a lemon square for dessert. Clients could also choose from a Chinese menu that, on Tuesday for example,

Using just two wheels, Meals on Bike volunteer Jason Lescak delivers hot lunches to seniors all over Vancouver.

included red kidney bean and pork shank soup, plus baked chicken with ginger and green onion sauce.

A daily hot meal costs $6.25. Meals from the Chinese menu are $6.50. Many seniors receive

meals but so do people who need short-term assistance such as anyone who lives alone and is recovering from surgery. Meals on Bikes not only provides a hot, healthy meal, but a friendly visit from the delivery rider. The riders are a diverse group of people with ﬂexible schedules that allow them to deliver meals between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Volunteer Jason Lescak said a typical shift can take him all over Vancouver. “It depends on the route, but riding anywhere from eight to 15 kilometres is probably average. The last shift that I had started at Hemlock and 12th, went down to Granville Island, up to 16th and Main and then ended around 1st and Main.” For Lescak, riding was part of what drew him to Meals on Bikes but his involvement has brought other rewards. “I enjoy hearing about people’s stories from when they were younger. Most of the clients that use the

program have interesting experiences that they love to talk about. So to hear people’s stories about hitchhiking across Canada in the Sixties, or those who started a new life here after leaving their home country is really interesting to me. I also just enjoy the humour and view of the world that some of the clients have,” he said. Care B.C., which was founded by nurses on a Klondike expedition more than a century ago under a different name, is a charitable organization with a focus on supporting seniors to live independently. The Meals on Wheels program launched in 1967. Meals on Bikes was introduced in 2009 and provides a bike basket to hold food containers. The program also provides bikes for riders who would like to participate in the program but don’t have their own bicycle. Visit carebc.ca for more information. Kay Cahill is a cyclist and librarian who believes bikes are for life, not just for commuting.

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F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Today’shomes

Vancouver landlords sitting pretty Cheap mortgages, high rents, low vacancies and soaring property values combine for blue-chip real estate investment

Frank O’Brien

wieditor@biv.com

a tight 1.4 per cent and the average rental rate, at $1,166, is the highest in the country, conﬁrms a survey by Colliers International, which notes that soaring home prices may push the number of Vancouver renter households above the current 50 per cent level. Despite protests from tenant advocates, “renovictions” — where tenants are evicted as landlords improve aging apartments to achieve higher rents — are rare in Vancouver, the panel was told, with most landlords opting for incremental improvements. “In reality, the motivation [for renovictions] is not there,” said panelist Hanni Lammam, executive vice-president of Cressey Development Corp. “Notwithstanding the state of the building or the state of repair, we still get top market rent. I don’t think there is a lot of renovictions. It makes a good sound bite, but it doesn’t really happen that often.”

The rental vacancy rate in Metro Vancouver is a tight 1.4 per cent and the average rental rate is $1,166. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

O N LY

RE M AI N

Metro Vancouver multifamily landlords are basking in a conﬂuence of factors that make owning old apartment buildings perhaps the best real estate play in Canada, a Vancouver real estate meeting was told April 9. Most buildings are full, few new rentals are being built, landlords pay the lowest mortgage rates and the value of their properties have skyrocketed. “We should all get up and do the watusi,” quipped Ward Jones, president of WIP Investment Corp., which specializes in buying, improving and renting some of the half-centuryold wood frame apartment buildings that make up 85 per cent of Metro Vancouver’s rental universe. There are 105,000 multifamily rentals in the region, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) and that number hasn’t changed in nearly

20 years, added Jones, part of a ﬁve-member landlord panel at the Vancouver Real Estate Forum. CMHC mortgage insurance on rental buildings, meanwhile, allows landlords to secure 10-year bank ﬁnancing at rates as low as 1.9 per cent, which is lower than the annual rent increases allowed under B.C. rental legislation. It is also a lower lending rate than that charged to investors in condominiums, which represent the only real rental competition. At the same time, demand for land has driven the price of old apartment buildings to record highs. A day before the Vancouver Real Estate forum opened, a 60-year old, eight-suite apartment building on West 10th in Vancouver sold for $500,000 per suite and “per-door” prices average more than $230,000 across the Metro region, up 12 per cent in the past year. The rental vacancy rate in Metro Vancouver is

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

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F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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today’sdrive 20 Kia 15

F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Your journey starts here.

Optima

A practical family sedan that doesn't look like one BY DAVID CHAO

Kia tends to be often ignored in the marketplace, simply because people don’t talk about this brand often. However, every model in its lineup is worth consideration in its respective market segment thanks to the fact that their products have been updated continuously. On that note, if you need a practical family sedan that has amazing styling, the Kia

Optima deserves a thorough examination. The Kia Optima has the styling that turns heads, but it has more than just good looks. It boasts a lineup of efﬁcient and powerful engines, a comfortable and premium-looking interior — all for a non-premium price. To be fair, there are many worthy competitors in the midsize sedan segment. To highlight a few, rivals include the Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.

Signiﬁcantly refreshed last year, the 2015 Optima receives subtle interior updates and upgraded tech.

Design

The Kia Optima shares its architecture with the Hyundai Sonata, though the Optima has unique styling inside and out. The exterior lines of the Optima are cleaner and more crisp compared to the Sonata. The Optima’s crosshatch front grille and long

sweptback headlights give it the impression of a moving vehicle even when parked. A strong shoulder line ﬂows smoothly into the wraparound tail lamps and tie the look of the whole vehicle together. The blacked out roof works well with all colour combinations and hides the available panoramic sunroof. A similar approach was taken inside the cabin as it is very driver-focused and cleanly laid out. While

some of the materials in the base model are not up to the same quality as its rivals, it does come with some premium standard features like heated side mirrors and Bluetooth phone connectivity.

Performance

Most Optima models will have a 2.4-litre four-cylinder under the hood. This motor is rated at a respectable 192 hp and 181 lb-ft of torque. Those seeking more

THE 2015 CLA 250 4MATICTM

THE 2015 B 250

performance can opt for a 2.0-litre twin-scroll turbocharged four-cylinder. Producing 274 hp and 269 lb-ft of torque, this engine is capable of delivering a thrilling 0-100km run yet still return admirable fuel economy. Aiding the turbo’s surprising economy is the fact that Kia only recommends regular unleaded gasoline, saving the cost of high octane fuel. Continued on page 38

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

today’sdrive Continued from page 37 One drawback is that there is some noticeable turbo lag under hard acceleration. A separate Optima Hybrid is also available. This uses a 2.4-litre Atkinsoncycle four-cylinder creating 159 hp. That is boosted 46 hp by an electric motor to improve both efﬁciency and off-the-line acceleration. Mated to both the base and hybrid motors is a six-speed automatic with Sportmatic clutchless manual shifting. The turbo still uses a six-speed auto, but the gear ratios are closer and it adds steering wheel mounted paddle shifters. Regardless of which powerplant you choose, the Optima provides smooth and quiet driving. The suspension is calibrated more for comfort and highway cruising than hard cornering. The steering is light and doesn’t give enough feedback for a spirited drive. In general, the driving character is uninspiring but it feels predicable and sensible nevertheless. Unlike some of its rivals, the Optima is only available in front-wheel drive. However, those concerned about winter driving can purchase

The 2015 Kia Optima offers all the practical elements needed in a family sedan, while still providing classy looks and premium features.

the LX AT Winter Edition, which includes a set of winter tires.

Environment

The cabin of the Optima is quite welcoming — especially in the upper-end trim levels — and would not look out of place in a premium automobile. Some upscale features include heated and cooled

front seats, a massive dualpanel moonroof, and a voice activated navigation and infotainment system. The front seats are very comfortable and are well bolstered. All but the base model come with leather seats, which can be ﬁnished in a classy quilted look. In the rear seats, passengers will ﬁnd plenty of legroom. However, due

to the Optima’s sharply raked rooﬂine, taller people will ﬁnd headroom to be lacking, There is also plenty of cargo capacity for all your luggage or sporting equipment. All 437 litres of trunk space is also easy to access with three ways to open the trunk lid — a button on the key fob, a button on the drivers

door, and a release above the licence plate. Most models run the next-generation UVO eServices infotainment system. This system has features to keep the owner informed about the vehicle, whether they are behind the wheel or remotely via a smartphone. Also, new parental controls are included such as Geo Fencing, Driving Score, Speed Alerts and Curfew Alerts.

fully automatic dual zone climate control, auto dimming rearview mirror, LED daytime running lights, rain sensing windshield, and a rearview camera. Fuel efﬁciency numbers (L/100km) for the 2.4-litre engine are 10.2 city and 6.9 highway, and the Turbo returns 11.7 city and 7.7 highway. The Optima Hybrid LX is rated at 6.6 city and 5.9 highway, while the EX model is 6.7 city and 6.1 highway.

Features

Thumbs Up

Starting prices range from $24,795 to $35,895 as the Optima is available in ﬁve trim levels. The Optima Hybrid comes with two trim choices and starts at either $30,095 or $33,695. Standard equipment includes heated front seats, power driver seat, power windows and locks, steering wheel mounted controls, automatic headlights, cooling glove box, and keyless entry. Additional features, available as options or on higher trims, include aircooled front seats, heated rear seats, heated steering wheel, smart key, remote start, push button ignition,

Despite the exterior styling being a few years old, the Kia Optima still looks fresh and new. All three engine choices are powerful and efﬁcient.

Thumbs Down

If you want the added security of all-wheel drive, you will need to look elsewhere. Also, if you are looking for something that has a great driving character, this car may not be the answer.

The Bottom Line

The 2015 Kia Optima offers all the practical elements needed in a family sedan, while still providing classy looks and premium features.

HAPPINESS IS UNLOCKING YOUR HONDA 2015 CIVIC LX Financing up to 60 months

0.99%

Lease up to 48 months

$123 bi-weekly

$0 Down Payment

Or $1,500 Cash Savings @ $19,788 Features

STK# FB022357 Model shown: CR-V Touring RM4H9FKNX

• 1.8-Liter, 4-Cylinder Engine • Automatic • Air Conditioning • Rearview Camera • Bluetooth • And much more £

2015 CR-V SPECIAL EDITION

Financing up to 36 months

0.99%

ATTN: HONDA OWNERS

Lease up to 48 months

$188 bi-weekly

$2,000 Down Payment

SPRING SERVICE SPECIAL • ONLY AT KINGSWAY HONDA Includes a Multi-Point Inspection with a Genuine Honda Oil & Filter change! Our Factory-trained technicians will inspect your Honda from top to bottom and give you a full report on its condition! This is a great way to get your Honda ready for the Spring.

• Engine Oil & Filter Change • Tire Inspection With A Tire Rotation and Adjust Pressure • Comprehensive Multi-Point Vehicle Inspection • Battery Performance Test • Brake Inspection, A/C Performance Test, Cooling System Check • Complete Suspension Inspection

Plus tax and recycling charge. Expires May 15th, 2015.

8888

Oil & Filter Change and Multi-Point Inspection Regular Price: $108.88 (5W20 Synthetic Motor Oil) $47.88 Without Oil & Filter Change.

FREE Service Shuttle (Downtown Core) and Courtesy Car Wash for all Service Guests.

Or $1,500 Cash Savings @ $29,985 Features Stock# RM155908 Model shown: CR-V Touring

• 2.4L 4-Cylinder Engine • Proximity Key Entry System with Pushbutton Start • 17" Aluminum-Alloy Wheels • Rearview Camera • Led Daytime Running Lights • And much more!

KingswayHonda.ca DEALER #8508. All payments exclude taxes. 2015 CR-V SE: total paid at maturity $20,048 + taxes. 2015 Civic LX: total paid at maturity $12,792 + taxes. Offer ends April 30th, 2015. Limited time weekly lease offer and all other offers are from Honda Canada Finance Inc., on approved credit. Prices and/or payments shown do not include a PPSA lien registration fee of $30.31 and lien registering agent’s fee of $5.25, which are both due at time of delivery and covered by the dealer on behalf of the customer on Specified Models only. Offers valid from until April 30th, 2015. Dealer may sell/lease for less. Dealer trade may be necessary on certain vehicles. Offers valid only for British Columbia residents at BC Honda Dealers locations. Offers subject to change or cancellation without notice. Terms and conditions apply. See

All offers are effective until May 15, 2015. Not applicable to tire sales. Taxes not included. Environment levies extra. Not to be combined with other offers. Please consult Kingsway Honda for more details. Valid at Kingsway Honda only. Limit one per person. Coupon does not apply to prior purchase.

Kingsway Honda retailer for full details.

Dealer #D8508

12th and Kingsway, Vancouver KingswayHonda.ca

Sales: 604.873.3676 Service: 604.874.6632

F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A39

Automotive De Niro set to bring Ferrari and his feuds to the big screen Brendan McAleer

brendanmcaleer@gmail.com

Speaking to Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, actor Robert De Niro recently announced that he’s signing on to play Enzo Ferrari in a biopic about the founder of perhaps the most famous car company in the world. While things are still very early in the process — the script is still being written — other rumours are ﬂying; De Niro’s star power may be enough to draw Clint Eastwood into the chair, and the former’s production company is already signed up. Born at the turn of the century in Modena, Enzo’s story is a fascinating one. Starting out as a racing driver, he founded his own racing team — Scuderia Ferrari — and would go on to roar through history. The details of his life are endless and fascinating: the feud with Ferruccio Lamborghini; the feud with Henry Ford II; the feud with his racing drivers; hang on, sensing a pattern here. Imagine the Godfather with V-12 racing cars — I can’t wait.

Dino Reborn? Ferrari to release V-6 model

In slightly related news, Motor Trend reported quite the scoop from the ﬂoor of this year’s New York International Auto Show (NYIAS). According to well-placed sources, the company is in plans to release a new entrylevel model, one powered by a twin-turbo V-6. With the LaFerrari’s performance already transcending its idiotic name, Ferrari has the halo it needs to move downmarket. Well, sorta downmarket: this new car is reportedly a $180,000 competitor for the Porsche 911 Turbo S. Further, even though the Chinese market is a little rocky these days, a smallerdisplacement V-6 of below 3.0 litres would dodge some punitive taxation laws. And it’s worth noting that Ferrari already developed the turbocharged V-6 used in the Maserati Ghibli. To crown it all off, there’s the historical precedent set by the Dino. Not actually labelled a Ferrari, the gorgeous Dino was named for Enzo’s son and values are insanely high for collectible examples at present. The swoopy pre-1973 V-6 version is the best, although there’s a certain unlikely charm found in the ‘73-’80 V8powered wedge. With

much of its range going turbocharged to get past emissions testing, a smaller Ferrari makes all kind of sense. To do it right though, it’ll have to be jawdroppingly beautiful.

Honda kills off Crosstour

Speaking of jaw-droppingly beautiful, here’s some news about a car that is most emphatically not that. The odd-looking Honda Crosstour has ﬁnally reached the end of its run, with production ceasing for 2016. Well good riddance, I say. The Crosstour was neither attractive nor particularly practical, managing to be uglier than a Subaru Outback without the goanywhere appeal. Sure it was as functional as a regular Honda Accord, but with the Pilot and CR-V in the lineup (and the HR-V on the way; and two Acura crossovers if you wanted to go upscale), the Crosstour remained unloved. Sales were initially disappointing four years ago and declined from there. Why didn’t they make it more like a Honda Accord wagon? Or a copy of the Volvo XC70 with better Honda reliability? Crosstour, we hardly knew ye. But get lost.

suck down the fuel in the real world. Here’s hoping Honda ﬁgures it out.

Mercedes-Benz pickup truck on the way

You tend to forget that in most parts of the world Mercedes-Benz isn’t a premium brand; they just happen to make premium cars. For example, the Sprinter van might seem a little more upscale than a Ram Promaster, but overseas it’s just another delivery vehicle. That’s

why the announcement of an upcoming MercedesRenault collaboration on a pickup truck shouldn’t seem so ridiculous. It kind of does though — will there be an AMG version with portal axles for one million billion dollars? I kinda hope so. Don’t expect to see this German cowboy any time soon. It’ll be built in Spain and Argentina, and kept mostly in Europe and South America with exports to Australia. However, the Nissan NP300 platform

% PURCHASE

S END IL APRTH 30

FINANCING

†

Audi to release RS3 in North America

Gimme ﬁve! The 362 h.p. turbocharged ﬁve-cylinder Audi RS3 is coming to America. And Canada! (Maybe.) Already available as a hatchback in Europe, we’ll likely get this little turbocharged tyke as a sedan. Why? Because Ameri-

GET UP TO A

1,000

ON SELECT MAZDA MODELS

SIGNING BONUS♦

UNRIVALLED SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY CANADA’S MOST-AWARDED CAR. EVER.‡ 2015 M{zd{3 GX BI-WEEKLY LEASE OFFER FROM

89 2.49

THAT’S LIKE

APR

for 60 months. Taxes extra.

GT model shown

A DAY!

0 DOWN / INCLUDES $500 SIGNING BONUS♦

Honda fans rejoice! Civic Type-R is coming!

Okay, so never mind the bulbous discontinued crossover — here’s some really juicy news. In a surprise unveiling at the NYIAS, Honda took the wraps off a bright-green Civic Concept and announced that turbocharged Civics were coming soon. Honda’s concept vehicles are almost always thinly disguised production models (apart from that humanoid robot thing they have), and the lime-green model shown was pure Fast and Furious. The further announcement that a version of the Euro-spec, 306 h.p. Civic Type-R was coming in a few years sent Honda hearts racing into VTEC. For the more practicalminded Honda lover, the Civic Hatchback is returning (ﬁnally!), in the same form as the European versions, and the new sedans will have a punchy 1.5-litre turbo to hopefully produce better torque and slightly improved mileage. I’m less super-enthused about this last bit as turbocharged engines often give decent mileage on paper and then

cans like sedans and Canadians always get lumped in with ‘em, even though we are a totally separate and distinct market with a fondness for plaid and hats with ear ﬂaps. There’ll be all-wheel drive, of course, and a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, and it’ll likely be really rather expensive. A stick shift version is not to be expected, and once again you can lay the blame at the feet of those hosers below the 49th parallel.

it’s based on will likely be our replacement for the Frontier. So you just know somebody’s going to rebadge one.

2016 CX-5 GX BI-WEEKLY LEASE OFFER FROM

138 3.49

APR

for 60 months. Taxes extra.

DOWN / INCLUDES $

THAT’S LIKE

750

10 A DAY!

SIGNING BONUS♦

GT model shown

2015 M{zd{6 GX

147 1.99

$ GT model shown

BI-WEEKLY LEASE OFFER FROM

THAT’S LIKE

for 60 months. Taxes extra.

APR

500

DOWN / INCLUDES $

10 A DAY!

SIGNING BONUS♦

MAZDA’S UNLIMITED MILEAGE WARRANTY. STANDARD ON ALL 2015 AND 2016 MODELS. 3-YEAR

NEW VEHICLE UNLIMITED MILEAGE WARRANTY

3-YEAR

ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE UNLIMITED MILEAGE

Visit NEWMAZDA.CA today to browse our NEW & USED inventory.

5-YEAR

POWERTRAIN UNLIMITED MILEAGE WARRANTY

7-YEAR

ANTI-PERFORATION UNLIMITED MILEAGE WARRANTY

OFFERS END APRIL 30TH

ZOO}-ZOO}

‡Based on total Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) Category wins (various) up to the 2014 model year. *To learn more about the Mazda Unlimited Warranty, go to mazdaunlimited.ca. ÐSigning Bonuses are available on retail cash purchase/finance/lease of select new, in-stock 2014/2015/2016 Mazda models from April 1 – 30, 2015. Bonus amounts vary by model. $500 Signing Bonus applies to all 2014 Mazda2, all 2014/2015 Mazda3, all 2014/2015 Mazda5, and all 2015/2016 Mazda6 models. $750 Signing Bonus applies to all 2015/2016 CX-5 models. Maximum $1,000 Signing Bonus only available on all 2015 CX-9 and all 2014/2015 MX-5 models. Signing Bonus will be deducted from the negotiated price before taxes. See dealer for complete details. †0% APR purchase financing is available on all new 2015 Mazda vehicles. Other terms available and vary by model. Based on a representative agreement using offered pricing of $24,990 for the 2015 CX-5 GX (NVXK65AA00) with a financed amount of $25,000, the cost of borrowing for a 48-month term is $0, monthly payment is $521, total finance obligation is $25,000. **Lease offers available on approved credit for new 2015 Mazda3 GX (D4XK65AA00)/2015 Mazda6 GX (G4XL65AA00)/2016 CX-5 GX (NVXK66AA00) with a lease APR of 2.49%/1.99%/3.49% and bi-weekly payments of $89/$147/$138 for 60 months, the total lease obligation is $11,528/$19,046/$17,938 including down payment of $0. Lease offers include $500/$500/$750 Signing Bonuses. PPSA and first monthly payment due at lease inception. 20,000 km lease allowance per year, if exceeded, additional 8¢/km applies. 24,000 km leases available. Offered leasing available to retail customers only. Taxes extra. As shown, price for 2015 Mazda3 GT (D4TL65AA00)/2016 CX-5 GT (NXTL86AA00)/2015 Mazda6 GT (G4TL65AA00) is $27,790/$36,880/$34,090. All prices include freight & PDI of $1,695/$1,895 for Mazda3, Mazda6/CX-5. PPSA, licence, insurance, taxes, down payment and other dealer charges are extra and may be required at the time of purchase. Dealer may sell/lease for less. Dealer order/trade may be necessary on certain vehicles. Lease and Finance on approved credit for qualified customers only. Offers valid April 1 – 30, 2015, while supplies last. Prices and rates subject to change without notice. Visit mazda.ca or see your dealer for complete details.

Vancouver’s Only Mazda Dealer

1595 Boundary Road, Vancouver CALL 604-294-4299 | Service 604-291-9666 www.newmazda.ca /DestinationMazdaVancouver

Your journey begins here.

@Destinationmzd

Dealer #31160

A40

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

SUSTAINABLE LIVING Prices Effective April 23 to April 29, 2015.

100% BC Owned and Operated PRODUCE

MEAT

Organic California Strawberries from JW Martinex 454g/1lb product of USA

Product of Canada

6.98lb/ 15.39kg

3.98

2.98 each

1.00 off

regular retail price

Organic Pork Back Ribs previously frozen

15.99lb/ 35.25kg

.78lb/ 1.72kg

5.99lb/ 13.21kg

DELI

Dairyland Milk assorted varieties

assorted varieties

2L jug or carton

500g • product of BC

3.49

30%

4.49

SAVE

600g product of Canada

Tasty Bite Entrées and Noodles

Que Pasa Tortilla Chips

assorted varieties

425-454g • product of Canada

SAVE

33%

Island Farms Ice Cream

SAVE FROM

28%

vanilla or neopolitan

Danone Activia Yogurt or Danino Go Drink

4L • product of Canada

assorted varieties

Thirsty Buddha Coconut Water assorted varieties 250ml – 1L • +dep +eco fee

SAVE FROM

package of 4

4.99

assorted varieties and sizes

assorted varieties 227-595g - 8 pack

SAVE FROM

FROM

34%

3.29-4.99

Lotus Aroma Natural Body Care Products Bodywash and Facial Care

25% off

regular retail price

Manitoba Harvest Hemp Products Hemp Hearts, Hemp Protein and Hemp Oil Assorted Varieties and Sizes

30% off

regular retail price

www.choicesmarkets.com

BAKERY xxx

xxx • product of xxx

SAVE

WELLNESS

regular retail price

1.29-4.49

Castor & Pollux Dog Treats

Tofutti Products

3.99

Try s eart pH Hem led on k sprin lad or a yours al! cere

Blueberry or Date Walnut Muffins

24%

23%

Ascenta NutraSea Fish Oils

GLUTEN FREE

product of USA

2/6.00

SAVE

Select Varieties and Sizes

5.99

2/5.00

25%

8 pack • product of Canada

6.99

650ml

SAVE

assorted varieties

3/6.00

assorted varieties

398ml

31% 4.49

250-285g

Happy Planet Soup

assorted varieties

made with organic ingredients assorted varieties

225ml • product of France

2.99/ 100g

9.49

SAVE

Eden Organic Canned Beans

Pearl’s Frozen Perogies

assorted varieties

29%

750g • product of BC

27%

St. Dalfour Spreads

SAVE

gourmet or hazelnut hemp

3.99

SAVE

Choices’ Own Grilled Wild Salmon

The Granola King Granola

Olympic Organic Krema Yogurt

product of Canada

While quantities last. Not all items available at all stores. We reserve the right to correct printing errors.

700ml

Fresh Halibut Steaks

GROCERY

25% off

assorted varieties

3.49lb/ 7.69kg

Fair Trade Organic Red Whole Seedless Watermelon from Heaven’s Best, Mexico

Fair Trade Organic Whole Cantaloupe from Heaven’s Best, Mexico

Liquids and Solids Soup

Whole Specialty Frying Chickens

Organic Hot House Red, Yellow and Orange Peppers from Origin Organics, Delta,BC.

28% 3.996.49

Organic Multigrain Bread 530g

4.79

One Easy Step Toward Sustainability Adjust your diet: Changing food choices to be more Earth-friendly isn’t as difficult as it may seem. Buying local helps, as does going for organically grown or produced foods. Another big factor is eating a mainly plant-baseddiet. For more information on plant-based diets, contact our Nutrition Team at nutrition@choicesmarkets.com. Also pick up a copy of one or both of these Wellness Guides: Beyond Broccoli: Plant Based Nutrition AND Becoming a Sustainabilist.

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@ChoicesMarkets