South Delta Leader, March 14 2014

southdeltaleader.com A1Friday, March 14, 2014

❙ Driving a hard bargain Deltaport container truck drivers say they are striking for better wages and lower wait times, but shipping companies are crying foul A10

A controversial compromise proposal to develop up to 950 homes on historic Tsawwassen farmland got enough support from Metro Vancouver direc-tors to advance to a full public hearing on the re-quired changes to the regional growth strategy.

A key concern at Metro is whether the develop-ment – if approved – will encourage more developers to craft projects that o� er to preserve some farmland in order to lucratively convert the rest to urban use.

� e Ladner Leisure Centre will need expensive repairs that go well beyond replacing the eastern façade that collapsed unexpectedly last month.

� e stucco exterior fell away from the wall on the morning of Feb. 20, and the area has since been cor-doned o� with fencing and sca� olding has been erected.

Southlands heads to public hearing

Treasure trove ❙ A4Junk company uncovers lost riches

A Cause for Connor ❙ A12Community rallies around toddler with cancer

� e Delta Ice Hawks are now the lone Junior B hock-ey franchise in town after their crosstown rivals, the North Delta Devils, announced last week they are moving to Langley.

Ice Hawks’ rival on the move

Face to face ❙ A5Kids going green in the garden

❙ See story, A3

Arena repairs to take until fall

❙ See story, A12

❙ See story, A3

- Ad

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FRIDAY ∙ MARCH 14 ∙ 2014 ❙ southdeltaleader.com

Kids going green in the garden

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Friday, March 14, 2014A2 southdeltaleader.com

southdeltaleader.com A3Friday, March 14, 2014 southdeltaleader.com A3Friday, March 14, 2014

A controversial compromise proposal to develop up to 950 homes on historic Tsawwas-sen farmland got enough sup-port from Metro Vancouver directors to advance to a full public hearing on the required changes to the regional growth strategy.

Richmond Coun. Harold Steves was the only member of the regional planning and ag-riculture committee who was opposed.

“It’s definitely a precedent,” Steves said, who added he re-mains hopeful the full regional board will torpedo the idea. “If this goes ahead it will be tried everywhere.”

Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer and other directors said the proposal, which Delta council has passed, should at least get a full hearing.

It would develop 20 per cent of the former 217-hectare Spetifore farm, while retaining 80 per cent for agri-culture, conservation and park space.

A key concern at Metro is whether the development – if ap-proved – will encour-age more developers to craft projects that

offer to preserve some farm-land in order to lucratively con-vert the rest to urban use.

That’s what a final decision will likely hinge on and not lo-cal concerns about traffic, dust or other potential impacts on Tsawwassen.

“It’s actually not Metro’s job to do what’s right for Delta or Delta residents,” Reimer said. “Our job

is to decide whether or not this proposal maintains the integ-rity of the growth strategy we agreed to unanimously.”

The proposal would redraw part of the urban containment boundary and change the re-gional land use designation from agricultural to either gen-eral urban or conservation and recreation.

The Southlands property is not in the Agricultural Land Reserve but Delta says it will ask for preserved farmland to

be added to the ALR.Opponents of the plan who

spoke Friday said Metro should reject the proposal and keep all of the farmland for agriculture.

Steves said the developer should not be rewarded after the land and a good drainage system was allowed to deteri-orate over the years, degrading the agriculture potential.

Century Group has pledged $9 million to fund irrigation and drainage work.

Port Metro Vancouver is look-ing to create new tidal marsh habitat for fish and birds on the south shore of Westham Island near Canoe Pass.

The project is part of the port’s Habitat Enhancement Program which develops fish and wildlife habitat to offset environmental damage that may be involved in

future development projects.The proposed site is on an

existing four-hectare sand flat which will be converted to an intertidal marsh that will be-come habitat for rearing juve-nile Pacific salmon. Engineers will construct a 770-metre long by four-metre wide rock con-tainment berm which will circle the southern end of the existing marsh and extend northwards.

The port will use local silt cur-

rently being collected from sec-ondary channel dredging as fill to bring the containment berm to the same elevation as the ex-isting marshes.

Project manager Gord Ruffo said most of the tidal marsh habitat in the Fraser River Estu-ary has been lost due to diking, filling and other human devel-opment activities.

“Numbers are that at least 70 per cent, I’ve heard numbers as

high as 80 per cent, since the early 1900s when we started constructed dikes and creating farmland,” he said. “Well, we’re losing our tidal marshes.”

Ruffo oversaw the salt marsh restoration project at Boundary Bay in 2013, which removed cre-osote-contaminated logs that washed up on shore from log-ging operations over the past several decades.

Port eyes fish and bird habitat at Canoe Pass❙ Adrian MacNair reporter [email protected]

❙ Continued on A4

Metro Vancouver sends Southlands to public hearing

Arena repairs to take until fall

The Ladner Leisure Centre will need expensive repairs that go well beyond replacing the eastern façade that fell down unexpectedly last month.

The stucco exterior fell away from the wall on the morning of Feb. 20, and the area has since been cordoned off with fencing and scaffolding has been erected.

Delta’s director of community planning and development Jeff Day said on Monday that staff have been working with a structural engineer and a contractor to make sure the building is safe. The façade will soon be removed and crews are reviewing the remaining walls.

“In those investigations it became clear the fastening system in the walls was the same as the one that collapsed,” he said. “Through time, vibration, wind-loading and the fastening systems of the day, all those things came together and were the prime reason for the failure of the east wall.”

An engineer has since designed a restraining system to keep the remaining walls in place so they can all be removed and replaced safely.

Day said while looking at the interior walls it was discovered the cladding behind the stucco is covered in lead paint, so it will also need to be replaced.

Delta’s chief administrative officer George Harvie said the problem wasn’t picked up during annual building inspections because the fasteners are located in a concealed wall system built almost 40 years ago.

Harvie said they expect to release a full public report, complete with photographs, by April 7 or 14.

Work will be conducted over the summer and Delta hopes to reopen the entire building by the fall.

“It will be a new building by the time we’re finished,” said Harvie.

He also noted that as there is money set aside in insurance reserves, no money will be borrowed to pay for the repairs.

The part of the Ladner Leisure Centre where the wall fell down was built in 1976 to house an ice hockey arena. The centre was expanded in 1992 to include a swimming pool and in 2004 for a fitness facility.

-Adrian MacNair

❙ Jeff Nagel reporter [email protected]

❙ Map of proposed changes to Metro Vancouver’s Regional Growth Strategy for the proposed South-lands development in Delta. Contributed by Metro Vancouver

Andrea Reimer❙ Continued on A5

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A Tsawwassen-based junk re-moval company recently found out that not all buried treasure is located on a desert isle.

Barry Hartman, co-owner of 505-JUNK, said he and his em-ployees recently found missing cash, cheques, and even a family heirloom that their clients didn’t even know existed while clean-ing out homes.

In late February the 505-JUNK crew was removing items from the first floor of an East Vancou-ver home when employee Derek Mann found $300 in cash. Sur-prised, they put the money aside and kept working.

A few hours later, co-owner Scott Foran found $1,000 in cash and $16,000 in government-is-sued cheques in the bedroom.

The hunt for buried treasure didn’t end there. The next day the

crew was working in the base-ment when Hartman found the client’s mother’s 14-karat gold wedding ring.

He put everything the crew had found in a box and took it to the client’s office in Vancouver.

“I handed everything over to her and she was pretty excited,” says Hartman.

The client was so grateful that she offered a reward to the com-pany, but 505-JUNK refused. Eventually, they accepted $100 as a gift to Mann, who was return-ing to Europe to play soccer.

“At first I said we can’t accept this, but she really wanted to us to give it to him,” said Hartman.

In the two and a half years since Hartman and Foran start-ed 505-JUNK, they had never found any large amounts of cash or jewellery before. But lightning was poised to strike twice.

A week later the crew was in Tsawwassen cleaning an apart-

ment and had just finished tell-ing the client the story from Vancouver when they found $8,000 in cash in a ziplock bag. Hartman said the coincidence was shocking and exciting at the same time.

“The other find was more fun because the client wasn’t on site and we were put in a po-sition where we could do the right thing,” he said, praising his employees for returning the money and cheques to its right-ful owner.

“Every company has values and we chose honesty before we even started it. Because we’re going into the client’s homes and there has to be a high level of trust with everyone. So, we try to build that into our company.”

Foran and Hartman were re-cipients of the 2013 Rising Star Award in the Delta Chamber of Commerce Hats of to Excellence gala in November.

❙ Scott Foran (left) and Alex Elsey of 505-JUNK recently found that one person’s junk can also be a treasure trove. Adrian MacNair photo

Junk removal company finds missing treasure❙ Adrian MacNair reporter [email protected]

While this project is similar in terms of environmental en-hancement, Ruffo said there are key differences for wildlife.

“This would be a brackish marsh because you do get some salt but a lot of fresh water com-ing through there, too,” he said.

The Port is also looking at im-proving diversity in bird popula-

tions by creating nesting boxes and standing logs, called snags. As trees are rare on the intertid-al flats of Westham Island, this project is expected to lure rap-tors and other nesting birds.

Raptors are of particular in-terest and the port is consider-ing the installment of webcams with live streaming on one of the proposed osprey nesting

platforms to allow viewers to watch the hatching and feeding of nestlings before they fledge.

Public consultation on the project continues until Friday, March 14. After that time the Port will review public com-ments and feedback to see if any ideas can be incorporated in the project. The results will be shared online at porttalk.ca.

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Westham Island Canoe Pass Tidal Marsh Project

Port Metro Vancouver invites you to participate in a public engagement regarding the proposed Westham Island Canoe Pass Tidal Marsh Project between March 3 and March 14, 2014.

The proposed Westham Island Canoe Pass Tidal Marsh Project involves the creation of intertidal marsh habitat for fish and wildlife. The proposed project is located on the south-east shore of Westham Island, in Canoe Passage, in the Corporation of Delta. Port Metro Vancouver is proposing the project:

• to improve fish and wildlife habitat by expanding the existing marsh area and converting un-vegetated area into ecologically productive brackish marsh;

• to increase the productivity of Canoe Passage and provide high quality habitat at a prime location for juvenile salmon and other fish, birds and wildlife.

As part of this public engagement, Port Metro Vancouver will present information regarding the tidal marsh project, and will seek input regarding opportunities for educational and interpretive project features.

How to participate:

View the discussion paper and complete an online feedback form, available on March 3 at www.porttalk.ca/habitatenhancement.

Email [email protected] or phone 604.665.9071 to schedule an engagement interview.

PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR COMPLETED FEEDBACK FORM BY MARCH 14, 2014.

All input received during the engagement period will be compiled in an Engagement Summary Report. Port Metro Vancouver will also prepare a Consideration Memo, demonstrating how feedback was considered. Both of these documents will be made available online at www.porttalk.ca/habitatenhancement.

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In the minds of many chil-dren, the

food that ends up on their din-ner plate comes not from a farm,

but from a grocery store. But without a proper understanding

of where our food comes from and how it is produced, future generations may be less inclined to protect agricultural lands and the environment.

Krystal Brennan is the new outreach coordinator for Tsawwassen’s Earthwise Society and she is hoping to reconnect kids with the food on their plates with a spring break program at the local or-ganic farm.

Children ages seven to 12 are invited to sign up for Earthwise Society’s Junior Master Gardener Program, which runs March 24 to 28.

The spring break program will let kids

get down and dirty as they learn hands-on about gardening, something Brennan hopes will give them an appreciation for agriculture and the environment.

“We want them to have that connec-tion to the outdoors,” she says. “The ear-lier that happens, they’ll be more willing to protect that because they’ll have an appreciation for the environment.”

Brennan grew up in South Delta and studied at BCIT, where she graduated from the renewable resources program. Before starting at Earthwise Society this month, she was the education coordi-nator for the Wildlife Rescue Associa-tion of B.C.

But Brennan and Earthwise have a long history together.

“I was a summer student here seven years ago when they were just getting started,” she says. “It’s great to see how it’s grown in that time.”

One of the key goals of the Junior Mas-ter Gardener Program is to get kids to

unplug from video games like Farmville, and do some actual farming.

Day-campers will discover why worms are good in a garden, how to feed the bees, and will even build a bug man-sion. Experts will be on hand to show the children how important plants are, and where our food comes from.

Each day, participants will take home something they’ve created or helped grow such as a bee-friendly plant, or plant-based crafts.

“We want them to know that it’s okay to get outside and get muddy and con-nect with the environment,” says Bren-nan.

The camp runs from 9 a.m. to noon, March 24 to 28, with a cost of $100 for the week.

• Call Earthwise Society at 604-946-9828 or email [email protected] for more information about the Junior Master Gardener Program or to register.

Kids getting green in the garden❙ Face to Face

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❙ Krystal Brennan is the new outreach coordinator for Earthwise Society in Tsawwassen. Robert Mangelsdorf

Delta Coun. Ian Paton, who is also a farmer, predicted the Southlands proposal is the only way needed money will ever be found for those improvements to put the bulk of the property into full farm production.

Metro regional planning division manager Heather McNell said 54 per cent of the land would be re-

tained as agricultural and be pub-licly held, giving greater assurance it will be farmed.

The downside, she said, is the loss of the other 46 per cent, and that approval could be seen as a sign that similar deals might unlock more farmland for development, increasing speculation on agricul-tural property.

Some Metro directors questioned whether a perpetual covenant could be put on the preserved land so a future Delta council doesn’t someday approve development of parts of the property earmarked for farming, conservation and public use. Regional planning commit-tee chairman Derek Corrigan said doing so would give Delta a better

chance of approval when the proj-ect comes back to the Metro board for a final vote, likely in May.

“Your case strengthens the more protections are put in for the prom-ises being made,” Corrigan said.

The committee heard several del-egations, mostly opponents of the project.

Susan Jones of the Boundary

Bay Conservation Committee said it would destroy a significant amount of bird habitat that’s part of the Pacific Flyway.

“There’s no certainty here on any protection of the environment,” Jones said. “You have a project here that doesn’t meet any of your goals. It will open the community to fur-ther development.”

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In my report-ing on the c o n t a i n e r

truck strike this week I decided not to focus on one aspect that has re-ceived a certain amount of negative attention on social media.

Some of the opinions expressed toward these striking workers be-cause of the colour of their skin and their country has origin has been nothing short of disgusting.

In the Facebook comments of one news story printed about beer shipments being held up due to the strike, one reader wrote, “we don’t need beer and we don’t need brown people.”

Another wrote, “didn’t see a white person in there they come to our country under cut everyone to get the job now there [sic] crying.”

Many of the other comments ar-en’t worthy of reprinting, variously referring to the drivers as “Hindus” and derogatory terms. For the re-cord, the fact is the majority are eth-nically from Islamic Pakistan, or the Punjab region of India and hence are Sikhs.

Regardless of where they’re from,

the fact is they are legally allowed to work in Canada. � ey live here, pay taxes, and many are Canadian citizens.

I asked one of the drivers, Paki-stani-born driver Tanweer Ahmed, what he thought of some of the comments made about foreigners stealing Canadian jobs. A 10-year container truck driver himself, Ahmed said Canada’s success de-pends on all di� erent ethnic com-munities working together.

“I don’t mind somebody saying to me I am a South Asian, but I feel proud if somebody calls me a Ca-nadian � rst,” he said. “If we are not driving trucks here all the products of white people are not being deliv-ered.”

He said many white Canadians are involved in the trucking industry, whether on the business ownership side, or working for the ports.

“� is is not one community’s problem,” he said.

On the topic of undercutting, it’s easy and convenient to blame im-migrants for driving down the cost of labour. But this isn’t a problem limited to the trucking industry.

Employers in every sector across the spectrum of the economy try to gain a competitive advantage by minimizing labour costs, and work-ers are often willing to take less than a fair wage to put food on the table.

It’s telling that even the unionized truckers whose collective bargain-ing agreements protect drivers from being exploited are standing shoul-der to shoulder with non-union truckers. � ese issues go well be-yond the scapegoating that “immi-grants stole our jobs.”

� ese issues are complex and rooted in labour tensions which stretch back decades into the past. � is story is not black and white, and nor should we paint the partici-pants that way.

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the country and it costs

Canadians an estimated $1.8 billion per year. It is a crime that keeps our Eco-nomic and Technical Crime Unit busy; out of approx-imately 300 calls to Delta Police regarding frauds and scams in 2013, nearly half of those were about identi-ty theft. Stolen credit cards, social insurance numbers, birth certificates and driv-er’s licenses are extreme-ly valuable property for thieves.

If your car is broken into and your wallet, GPS and expensive sunglasses are stolen, it is frustrating. You end up late for work, spend-ing time on the phone with police and ICBC, you feel privileged to pay a deduct-ible on your insurance and your car ends up in the shop for a couple of days.

The reality is the theft from, and damage to your vehicle, is nothing com-pared to the information in your wallet. Gone are the days when we were upset about our missing cash, in-stead we worry now about who has our identity.

Here is a scenario: I have stolen your wallet from your car and I find your social insurance number. I use it to fill out credit card applications in your name along with other online of-fers. The numbers actually have meaning so I use them to find out more about you online. I’m a really eager criminal so I find out where you live and take your trash for a couple weeks, build-ing a really good profile of you. I then open up ac-

counts all over the place and earn a decent living in your name or, if I want some quick cash, I sell your profile to someone in a dif-ferent province or country for $500.

And it all started with a theft from auto.

Crime rates have fallen consistently over the past 30 years across British Co-lumbia and Canada, but the reality is that identity theft is a huge problem. Because identity theft, and its link to other forms of cybercrime, can occur out-side of Canadian borders, it often becomes an interna-tional issue and can be vir-tually impossible to bring offenders to justice.

On the positive side, there are some very simple ways you can protect yourself:

Purchase a shredder and shred all identity docu-ments prior to putting them in the garbage.

Don’t leave your purse or wallet in your vehicle or unattended in public

Carry minimal identifica-tion in your wallet – you don’t need to carry your birth certificate, passport and SIN card with you

Don’t open any unknown emails or respond to unso-licited requests for person-al information

Check your mailbox daily Review your credit report

and bank statements to en-sure there is no suspicious activity

It can take years for a vic-tim to clean up his or her credit history once victim-ized. Thieves are opportu-nistic so don’t give them a chance to steal your iden-tity.

Take care to protect against identity theives

Container truck drivers are Canadians too

Letters to the editorIf the city can do this they can do anything

Many people we know and many we don’t, have contacted us to ex-press their empathy, anger, and disappointment at our plight of waking up one day to a party barn in our backyard.

Our thanks and appreciation to all those who have told us not to give up.

The opinions expressed - all come down to this:

It is a terrible thing when a mu-nicipal government not only op-erates by a separate set of laws that it imposes on everyone else but believes they have a right to. Such actions destroy confidence in honesty and integrity of all lev-

els of government who allow it to continue.

The Harris Barn has become an unbearable nuisance!

Stadium style lighting still stays on every night at this party barn and lights up our master bedroom; the parking lot is still an eye sore - two acres of paved farmland with two single little evergreens and short deciduous shrubs serving as the city’s idea of a visual and sound buffer.

And then there is the music. All of this developed in the middle of a residential neighborhood with no due process followed by the City.

And all of it on ALR land. We are off to court. Yes, the city

has unlimited use of our tax dol-

lars to throw at this issue in spite of how wrong their position is in the first place.

Imagine if the closest barn to your house could be a party barn tomorrow without your knowl-edge or opportunity to express opposition. And in fact, in all fair-ness, farmers should now have ev-ery right to use their empty barns for this purpose, or in any other revenue producing way. And why not? The precedent has been set by the city.

If the city is allowed to continue to blatantly disregard their own laws and bylaws then Delta and every city can do anything.

Rick and Tara SudburyLadner

❙ Chief Chats ❙ Uncommon Sense

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On Catch new episodes of Adri-

an MacNair’s TV show On Topic, which air Sundays at 6:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Delta Cable.

Editorial [email protected] ext.122Reporter Adrian MacNair [email protected] ext.126Creative Sarah Kelloway [email protected] (Glacier Media Group) 604-942-3081 [email protected]

Advertising Jenelle Julien604-948-3640 [email protected]

Copyright and property rights subsist in all display advertising and other material appearing in the South Delta Leader. If, in the Publisher's opinion, an error is made that materially affects the value of the ad to the advertiser, a corrected advertisement will be inserted upon demand without further charge. Make good insertions are not granted on minor errors which do not lessen the value of the advertisement. Notice of error is required before second insertion. Opinions expressed in columns and letters to the Editor are not necessarily shared by the Publisher. The South Delta Leader is a member of the British Columbia Press Council, a self-regulatory body governing the province’s newspaper industry. The council considers complaints from the public about the conduct of member newspapers. Directors oversee the mediation of complaints, with input from both the newspaper and the complaint holder. If talking with the editor or publisher does not resolve your complaint about coverage or story treatment, you may contact the B.C. Press Council. Your written concern, with documentation, should be sent to B.C. Press Council, 201 Selby St., Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 2R2. For information, phone 888-687-2213 or go to www.bcpresscouncil.org.

❙ Editor Robert Mangelsdorf [email protected]

❙ VIEWPOINTWE WELCOME your feedback. To submit a letter to the editor (200 words or less) please contact us via:FAX 604-943-8619 MAIL 7- 1363 56th St., Delta, V4L 2P7 EMAIL [email protected] PUBLISHER Alvin Brouwer EDITOR Robert Mangelsdorf

❙ General manager Dave Hamilton [email protected]

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❙ Midnight Overture members Marshall Forsythe (left) and Josh Somers played a blistering set of country rock tunes for an enthusiastic Reach for the Stars audience. Brook Lotzkar photo

More than $60,000 was raised for Ladner-based Reach Child and Youth Development Foun-dation at their second annual Reach for the Stars fundraising gala at the Harris Barn in Lad-ner on March 1.

Reach provides services, pro-grams, and resources for chil-dren and youth with disabilities and their families, but is cur-rently operating out of a centre that is di� cult to access and not designed to meet the high level of needs in the community.

Proceeds from the event will go towards the $4 million need-ed to build a new centre in Lad-ner for children and youth with special needs.

� e need for services for chil-dren and youth with disabilities has been growing at a steady rate says Tom Gies, Acting Com-munications Director for Reach. � e incidence of autism alone is growing 17 per cent annually, and is currently a� ects one in

every 88 children. Experts say the best outcome

for children with a disability is to get services early and when the need arises throughout their childhood.

� e new Reach centre will be located in the heart of Ladner on 47th Avenue, replacing the current Kin House, and will be situated along bus and walking routes enabling accessibility and independence for families.

� e land for the new centre, valued in excess of $1 million, has been given by the Corpora-tions of Delta. � e Reach Foun-dation has already raised more than $1.3 million of the new building project’s $4 million goal.

� e Reach for � e Stars gala was co-hosted by Tim Brumby, President of the South Delta Rams Football Club, and radio personality Crystal Darche of QMFM. Presenting sponsors were Port Metro Vancouver and Agnes Douglas, who is Portfolio Manager with Odlum Brown, and a member of the Reach

Foundation board.Two young South Delta men

with special needs were also recognized at the event for their remarkable stories.

Josh Somers and his moth-er Shelley discussed the many challenges Josh has risen above since his birth, while Sheelagh Forsythe told the audience about her amazing son, Mar-shall, who lives with disabilities.

Josh and Marshall and their bandmates in Midnight Over-ture then took the stage to en-tertain the audience with a set of country rock tunes.

Other highlights included the singing of O Canada by Kurtis Reid, who has Down Syndrome, a moving song and drum pre-sentation by Tsawwasssen First Nation Chief Bryce Williams, square dancing by the Delta Sundancers, welcome music from bluegrass band Tishomin-go, and a live auction featuring Delta Councillor Ian Paton.

• For more information about Reach, visit reachdevelopment.org

Reach for the Stars raises $60K❙ Staff writer

[email protected]

Reader poll Vote online southdeltaleader.comDo you agree with recent changes to B.C.’s liquor laws to allow grocery stores to sell alcohol?

Last week’s results Do you agree with Delta Council’s decision to ban the production of medicinal marijuana?

yes 33% no 67%

� e Sidekick Players Club presents John Mur-rell’s Waiting for the Parade at the Tsawwassen Arts Centre, returning for an encore presentation this month, having � rst appeared on the local stage in 1998.

Waiting for the Parade o� ers a quiet, re� ective look at war, not from the male point of view, but from that of the women left behind. In the play � ve Calgary women respond very di� erently to ci-

vilian life during the Second World War, providing a portrait of Canadian society in the ‘40s.

Waiting for the Parade opens March 27 and runs to April 12 (� ursday, Friday, and Saturday) at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, April 6 at 2 p.m. All perfor-mances are at the Tsawwassen Arts Centre.

Reservations are recommended by calling 604-288-2415. Tickets are $18 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.

Waiting for the Parade returns to Tsaw. Arts Centre

34981 Lougheed Hwy, Mission29622 Fraser Hwy, Abbotsford

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Friday, March 14, 2014A8 southdeltaleader.com southdeltaleader.com A9 Friday, March 14, 2014

projectbloomProject Bloom 2014

Sponsors

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Project Bloom focuses on the dedication and talent of women in our community in support of International Women’s Day. This year’s event raised close to $10,000 for the Delta Hospital Foundation’s Women’s Health Fund, which funds the purchase of equipment to ensure the best possible care, treatment, and education of patients.

Pictured: Kathie Madden, Veronica Carroll (Delta Hospital Foundation Executive Director), Chrissie Bowker, and Jenelle Julien (South Delta Leader).

1. Deanna Buckley, Lindsey Eldridge, Kasey Prescott, Donelle Clark (Nurse Next Door).2. Melissa Thibodeau (Picmic Farms), Danielle Guichon (Felix Farms), Christine Terpsma (Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust), Katie Leek (Emma Lea Farms), Rachel Ryall (Cropthorne Farm). 3. Chrissy Wyne, Grace Bukowsky (Cove Links Golf Course). 4. Kathie Madden, Teresa Cooper (MK Delta Lands), Chrissie Bowker, Ali Milner, Tracey Bell. 5. Keri Adams (CTV anchor).6. Ali Milner (singer).7. Kathie Madden, Chrissie Bowker (Project Bloom hosts).8. Tracey Bell (celebrity impersonator).The sixth annual Project Bloom fundraiser took place March 7 at the Harris Barn in

Ladner. More than 140 local women in business attended the event in support of the Delta Hospital Foundation’s Women’s Health Fund.

Above: (from left to right) Keri Adams (CTV News anchor), Kathie Madden (Project Bloom host), Ali Milner (singer), Chrissie Bowker (Project Bloom host), and Tracey Bell (celebrity impersonator).

Top right: Robert Lowe (Stir Coffee House), serving coffee and teas for guests.

Middle right: Wilson Leung (Coast Tsawwassen Inn).

Bottom right: Guests enjoying the delicious food catered by Coast Tsawwassen Inn.

Chrissie Bowker

Kathie madden

Jenelle Julien

Sarah Kelloway

Sonia macNair

Jane Ilott

Katie Engelland

Thank you

Thank you

3

21

4

5 6

7 8

Photos: Rob Newell, photographer


A white van pulls to the side of the road on Deltaport Way and 100 sullen faces be-gin to glow with warmth despite the chill winds.

A hot lunch is being served to the pre-dominantly Pakistani-Canadian group of striking container truck drivers, who have been off the job since the last week of Feb-ruary. For a few moments they’ll put down their placards, gather curried rice in Styro-foam containers, and huddle around the fires burning in hollow steel drums.

Tanweer Ahmed, who works for United Coastal Logistics in Delta, has spent 10 years driving containers to and from Del-taport.

He had hoped the 47-day-long strike in 2005 was the last one he’d see. Following that job action, mediator Vince Ready came to an arrangement that would set standardized rates for trucking companies to pay drivers. But nearly a decade later, Ahmed says the system isn’t working.

“So we got the rates but somehow we screwed up on the negotiation table,” he says.

A year after the new agreement was struck between the ports and the truckers, illegal undercutting by competing contain-er trucking companies began driving down wages.

Meeka Sanghera has spent 22 years as a container truck driver and is now entering his third labour stoppage. Although many drivers will be hit hard financially by the la-bour stoppage, Sanghera says drivers were already losing too much money before the strike.

“The undercutting by a few companies is a big issue for us,” he says. “That’s what we want from Vince Ready to fix the problem.”

But the biggest issue for Ahmed are the long hours spent away from his family, waiting in port lineups.

“If we are spending 14, 15 hours in the truck, you are totally exhausted. And our behaviour, especially when we are going back home, if you are not treated well in the ports then your aggression goes to your family.”

Sanghera doesn’t believe that Port Metro Vancouver wants to improve the long wait times. He says they met with the port six months ago but “nobody took us seriously.”

Things are certainly serious now. Accord-ing to the Port, container operations are down to 10 per cent of capacity, and the economic impact of truckers walking off the job is an estimated $885 million per week.

As a unionized strike notice deadline from the Unifor-Vancouver Container Truckers Association (VCTA) loomed last Friday, federal Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced Ready was once again stepping in to help. After what appeared to be suc-cessful talks, Unifor-VCTA announced they were pleased with the negotiations and would take the proposal back to its mem-bership for a vote.

But to the great surprise of many, not

only did the non-unionized members of the United Truckers Association continue to walk the picket line, the unionized mem-bers voted to reject mediation.

In many respects the 2014 strike is simi-lar to the one in 2005, particularly because of undercutting rates among non-union-ized truckers. Following Ready’s mediation in the last strike, the federal government mandated the port authority implement a Truck License System (TLS) and enforce the “Vince Ready” rates for non-union, owner-operators. Today, there are over 2,000 trucks owned by companies or inde-pendent operators registered in the TLS.

There are times that this system has caught trucking companies undercutting or exploiting its employees. In a decision handed down by Port Metro Vancouver on March 18, 2013, the owner of trucking com-panies Euro Asia Transload and Skywest Trucking, Tanjit Kalhar, was ordered to re-pay $700,000 in restitution to his drivers.

Kalhar had devised a system whereby he offset the rates he had to pay his drivers by forcing them to pay “loading fees” or buy non-voting shares in his companies. Fol-lowing a complaint and a full investigation, Port Metro Vancouver found the practice was in violation of the TLS and suspended both companies for 21 days.

When Louise Yako, president of the BC Trucking Association representing truck-ing companies, is asked about undercut-ting there is a pregnant silence before she responds.

“There’s certainly an opportunity for com-panies to cheat and not get caught,” she says.

Since the BCTA doesn’t have audited re-ports from its membership they can’t iden-tify which companies are not in compli-ance with the Vince Ready rates.

“I’m sure that many of their concerns are valid,” she says. “Our members have ex-pressed the same kinds of concerns relat-ed to wait times, turn times, and efficiency generally.”

Yako says everybody wants a quick reso-lution to the problems but that it’s a com-plex issue involving many different players. Some people believed Ready would walk into the negotiating room and fix the prob-lems right away. But that didn’t happen.

“I think that’s in part because the UTA is a very new organization,” says Yako, before another long pause. “I probably shouldn’t say any more.”

John Bourbonniere, executive vice-presi-dent at Harbour Link Container Services in Tilbury, says he’s frustrated that non-union-ized members of the UTA are outside his gates picketing. He doesn’t understand why his 90 unionized drivers are grounded over an issue that doesn’t involve his company.

“Our drivers do want to be at work,” he says. “They’re facing intimidation, however, and certainly are afraid.”

Bourbonniere says the issue is with non-union companies not paying drivers the proper rates and suggests unionization could solve that problem. He says the driv-ers who accept non-standard rates are also at fault.

Although Harbour Link is a large compa-

ny, Bourbonniere says companies big and small alike will be hurt from a prolonged strike and once the revenue stream dries up it won’t be long before layoffs and other cost-cutting moves take place. Some own-er-operators will lose their trucks to the bank and smaller container trucking com-panies will go out of business permanently.

He’s calling for truckers to allow Ready to continue his work and to stop strike action because the point has already been made.

“I don’t think anybody has any type of magic wand–I know that we certainly don’t–that can just say tomorrow this is fixed.”

Driving a hard bargainDeltaport container truck drivers say they are striking for better wages and lower wait times, but shipping companies are crying foul

❙ John Bourbonniere, executive vice president of Harbour Link Container Services, says the company’s 90 drivers are off the job due to the work stoppage. Adrian MacNair photo

❙ Adrian MacNair reporter [email protected]

❙ Tanweer Ahmed (in vest) of United Coastal Logistics pickets on Deltaport Way with his fellow truckers. Adrian MacNair photo

"There’s certainly an opportunity for companies to cheat and not get caught."

-Louise Yako, B.C. Trucking Assn.



Last Saturday three-year-old Connor Green of Ladner spent a day doing what most chil-dren dream about.

Delta firefighters cooked him his favourite lunch, gave him a child-sized firefighting jacket, and drove him around in a bright red firetruck. He also received an honou-rary firefighters plaque with his name on it, a Dalmatian stuffie, and a book full of stickers.While it was a dream for little Connor, his parents Krista and Justin Green are living something of a nightmare. The toddler was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer with no possi-bility of survival.

Symptoms began a few weeks ago when Connor began feeling dizzy and vomiting and exhibited signs of having trouble keeping his balance. Krista thought that may-be he had the flu or ver-tigo so she took him to B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. After a CT scan and an MRI doc-tors revealed not only does he have cancer, the cells have spread to Con-nor’s frontal lobes via his cerebrospinal fluid.

Krista said if it were only a brain tumour it may be operable or treatable with chemo-therapy. But rather than subject him to painful operations and treat-ments that would only prolong his suffering, the Green family are looking at palliative care.

“For me as a parent, I don’t want to see my kid suffer,” said Krista. “We’re only delaying the inevitable here for us and putting him through the grinder to make our-selves feel like we have more time with him.”

Although the odds of developing this form of cancer is only one in three million, Krista said she’s slowly coming to terms with the tragic news.

“Somebody has to be the one. It can’t always be someone else.”

Connor has headaches right now, for which he takes medicine, but he has no idea he’s even sick. And mom aims to keep it that way.

“He’s too young to know what dying is,” she said.

His big sister Robyn, who is turning seven next week, said she doesn’t want other chil-dren at school asking if her brother is going to die. She and her parents are taking time off school and work, respectively, to spend every precious moment with Connor.

“I’m not going to leave his side obviously,” said Krista. “I’m going to do what I can to stay with him.”

Adding to the strain is a separation with her ex-husband and a scheduled move into a new Tsawwassen home in mid-April.

“Thinking about mort-gage payments as a single mom and then this came about. It’s not something you can ex-pect or ever think it will happen to you.”

But a former high school friend, Kerri Hall-man, recently set up a fundraising campaign on YouCaring.com that has raised over $36,000 from people around the world in just a few days. Krista said she’s been overwhelmed with the generosity and support of people who have do-nated online, many of whom have left com-ments offering their sup-port.

Krista said even her neighbours have dropped food off at the door with an anony-mous note which reads, “we’re thinking of you.” She’s called this Lad-ner neighbourhood her home ever since moving from Ontario in 2009.

“It’s a safe community,” she said. “There’s not a lot of communities that have that wholesome quality anymore.”

Her neighbours also insisted she cancel the moving company in April and are personally

arranging to move her home to Tsawwassen.

On Wednesday Con-

nor is scheduled to go to Vancouver’s Stanley Park, where city work-ers arranged to have the train opened for his private use. Then the Vancouver Aquarium will take him on a pri-vate tour, followed by a half hour ride by horse and carriage through the park.

To support the family you can visit the A Cause for Connor Facebook page or go to YouCaring.com.

Community rallies around Ladner toddler with cancer

❙ Connor with his sister Robyn and mom Krista visited with the Delta fire department in Ladner to take him on a ride in a fire truck.

❙ Adrian MacNair [email protected]

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❙ SportS❙ Ladner Chelsea (in green) took on the Tsawwassen Possessors in the U-13 Delta Cup final in the driving rain on Saturday afternoon in Holly Park. Harris Ayadie of the Posses-sors fights for posses-sion of the ball with a member of Chelsea. Jim Kinnear photo

The Delta Ice Hawks are now the lone Junior B hockey fran-chise in town after their cross-town rivals, the North Delta Dev-ils, announced last week they are moving to Langley.

The move was approved by the Pacific Junior Hockey League, with the team to play out of the George Preston Recreation Cen-

tre next season under a new management group.

The new Langley team will be called the Knights, and play on Tuesday or Thursday evenings to avoid competing for the en-tertainment dollar with Junior A hockey. The Devils missed the PJHL playoffs this past season for the first time in its history, posting a franchise-worst 10-31-1-2 (won-loss-overtime loss-tied) record.

The Junior B team had played on Saturday nights in the Sungod Arena for the past 12 seasons, after the Queen’s Park Pirates moved from New Westminster to become the North Delta Flyers for the 2002-03 season.

The team was renamed the North Delta Devils prior to the 2005-06 season, and were one of two teams in the municipality. The Delta Ice Hawks are based in Ladner.

Ice Hawks’ rival on the move❙ Staff writer [email protected]

Delta Solar Ice win synchro goldThe Delta Skating Club’s Solar Ice synchro-

nized skating team took home gold at the West Coast Challenge Synchronized Skating Compe-tition in Coquitlam this month.

The beginner team of 12 girls aged eight to 12 will be performing their Broadway on Ice show this Friday, March 14, at the Tsawwassen Ice Rink at 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets at the door.

The team is made up of Julia Hirata, Isabel-la Granger, Kerrianne Kozack, Lauren Frasca, Taylor Granger, Yasmin Zadunaisky, Saffron Burberry, Darcy Brett, Sara Morrow, Madeleine Keenleyside, Anna Jeffs, and Daphne Brett.

The Delta Skating Club will be starting anoth-er beginners’ synchro team in September and is offering synchro skate classes this spring.

For more information, visit www.deltaskating-club.com

604-946-1839 6000 Admiral Blvd, Delta

covelinks.com

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South Delta Leader, March 14 2014