SUMMERLAND REVIEW THE VOICE OF OUR COMMUNITY SINCE 1908
VOLUME 66 - ISSUE
WWW.SUMMERLANDREVIEW.COM
NO. 51 • S U M M E R L A N D, B.C. • T H U R S D AY,
DECEMBER
19,
2013
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20
PA G E S
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$1.15
INCLUDING
GST
WHAT’S INSIDE:
Winter concert
Music students at Summerland Middle School performed at their annual winter concert last week.
Page 6
Longer hours
S u m m e r l a n d ’s downtown merchants have offered extended shopping hours on Friday evenings.
Page 8
Scam attempts
Scammers targeting Summerlanders have been less successful than in previous years.
Page 10
Providing help
The Summerland Resource Centre has been providing assistance to those in need since May.
Page 15
An icy swim
The Summerland Kinsmen Club will hold the annual Polar Bear Dip to welcome in the new year.
Page 19
YOUR SMILE A song told me to Deck the Halls, so I did. Mr. and Mrs. Hall were not happy.
Packing gifts
John Arendt Summerland Review
Keith Quesnelle, manager of McBain Insurance and Amanda Lusted of McBain Insurance pack some of the gifts which were donated through the Summerland Review’s annual Operation Santa Claus gift drive. See related story on Page 11.
$300,000 funding given New technology used to extract phytochemicals by John Arendt A Summerland agricultural research company has received $300,000 in federal funding to study
a method of extracting phytochemicals from plants. Phytochemicals, such as antioxidants, are chemical compounds which occur naturally in plants. The funding announcement was made on Monday morning at Mazza
Innovation Ltd. on Highway 97. Dan Albas, MP for Okanagan Coquihalla, speaking on behalf of agriculture minister Gerry Ritz, said the funding will help agriculture in the region. “We’re helping to cre-
ate new opportunities for Okanagan farmers and spin-off industries,” he said. “This Canadian-made pioneering technology will increase the demand for a wide variety of Canadian agriculture crops and help proces-
sors boost their profits while fulfilling the growing demand for healthenhancing foods.” The funding comes through the AgriInnovation Program, a five-year initiative with up to $698 million available.
See TECHNOLOGY Page 10
Commission must approve changes by John Arendt
The provincial Agricultural Land Commission must give its approval before any Summerland farm lands can be removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve. The commission came into effect in April of 1973, to protect farm land in the province. Removing lands from the land reserve requires an application process and approval from the commission. Mayor Janice Perrino said the commission would not approve
the removal of lands near the core of the community unless other lands within Summerland could be added to the land reserve. She added that municipal council also wanted to support agricultural land and would not have put forward a plan which would have reduced the amount of farm land in Summerland. “We would never agree to taking land out without putting land back in,” Perrino said. The proposed Urban Growth Plan requires the removal of 87 hectares of land from the Agri-
cultural Land Reserve. The land to be removed is near the core of the community and in some cases, it has not been farmed for many years. While some supporters of the land reserve have spoken out against this removal, municipal planner Ian McIntosh said other lands in the community, including some in the Prairie Valley area, will be put into the land reserve. As a result, he said there is no net loss of land within the Agricultural Land Reserve in Summerland. Perrino said two agri-busi-
nesses have asked to have land added to the land reserve. At present, some agricultural land is located in highly populated areas near the municipality’s core, resulting in some conflicts between farmers and urban neighbours. One farmer near the core has 114 urban neighbours, McIntosh said. Changes to the designation of agricultural land must go through an application process through the Agricultural Land Commission. See MEETINGS Page 3