Twelfth Night shakes it up
WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 2013 Vol. 104 No. 53 • Established 1908
MIDWEEK EDITION
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THE VOICE OF VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS
OPINION: Campaigning Clark 10/ SPORTS: Our Prospects 23
MetroVanmayors seekfunding magicfortransit ‘ROAD PRICING’ CONSIDERED AS POSSIBLE SOLUTION MIKE HOWELL Staff writer
N photo Rebecca Blissett
PARADE ROOTS: Kate Ho was one of the Thai Dramatic Arts and Cultural Association of B.C. participants in Vancouver’s Canada Day parade July 1. See more photos on page 12 or scan this page with your smartphone or tablet using the Layar app.
GodzillainvadesEastFraserlands SANDRA THOMAS Staff writer
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t wasn’t an oversized lizard keeping residents of the Champlain Heights and River District neighbourhoods awake at night during the last two weeks. Instead a film crew shooting a low-flying helicopter at night for the movie Godzilla had East Fraserlands residents calling the city’s 311 line and 911 to complain. Champlain Heights resident Denis Laplante wants to know why the City of Vancouver and Transport Canada approved permits to allow the film company to carry out late night, low-level flights in a residential neighbourhood.
Laplante contacted the Courier after receiving what he thought was an unsatisfactory response from Transport Canada. “When I complained to Transport Canada they said I’d need to have the aircraft’s registration number,” he said. Transport Canada told him that in order for it to investigate he’d need to provide the “aircraft registration, date, time, location, direction of flight and a description of the aircraft in question, as well as an estimate of its altitude.” Transport Canada also suggested it could be a police helicopter because police are permitted to carry out low-level manoeuvres, but RCMP media spokesperson Sgt. Peter Thiessen told the Courier it was not their helicopter. See LATE NIGHT on page 4
ow what? After making it clear June 27 that it doesn’t want a referendum on transit funding in Metro Vancouver, the mayors’ council on regional transportation is once again caught in a political kind of congestion with the provincial government. But North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton, who doubles as chairperson of the council, said he and his fellow mayors have not simply panned the referendum without first recommending funding mechanisms to pay for desperately needed transit upgrades in the region. The government, however, previously nixed the council’s recommendations to restart the vehicle registration fee, introduce a sales tax or to use revenue from the province’s carbon tax fund, Walton said. “And gas tax doesn’t work anymore, so what’s left?” he said, arguing an increase in tax at the gas pump would lead to fewer drivers and, therefore, less revenue for transit. Premier Christy Clark announced in her recent re-election campaign that a referendum was a democratic way to give Metro Vancouver residents a say on how much money they want to spend on transit. The consensus among mayors, including Mayor Gregor Robertson, was that a referendum would fail and jeopardize transit projects, said Walton, noting the government did not hold a referendum to spend billions on building a new Port Mann Bridge, widen the TransCanada Highway and construct a new highway in Surrey, often referred to as the South Fraser Perimeter Road. Walton said the government must take the same approach to upgrading the region’s transit system that then-transportation minister Kevin Falcon took to building the Port Mann Bridge project. “He came out, said this is what we’re doing, we’re going to go ahead and do it, I’m the minister and it’s going to be done,” Walton recalled. With Vancouver calling for a $2.8 billion subway from Commercial Drive to the University of B.C. and Surrey wanting a $1.8 billion light rail system, Walton said the demand for transit service is growing more rapidly than TransLink is funded to accommodate. See ROAD PRICING on page 4