PENINSULA Seniors in Focus
Ben returns to Sidney
A look at the music therapy program at Sidney’s Resthaven Lodge, page 6
Singer Ben Heppner performs for the second time in two years at Mary Winspear Centre, page 9 Black Press C O M M U N I T Y
N E W S
M E D I A
NEWS REVIEW
Watch for breaking news at www.vicnews.com
Friday, March 14, 2014
Businesses to battle new recycling fees Groups urge province to pause plan for containers, paper
Jeff Nagel Black Press
most, if not all, of it will vanish — is bringing back a lot of her memories from when she worked as a trainer, breeder and tester of horses at the racetrack. The News Review met Jewell as she looked over scrapbook pages detailing some of the history and news clippings on Sandown during one of the developer’s open houses. She agreed to walk the grounds at the track and tell us about her life as a young woman, proving herself to the owners and jockeys at Sandown.
An alliance of business groups opposed to the new Multi Material BC recycling system are demanding the province halt the planned May 19 launch and go back to the drawing board. MMBC, an industry stewardship group, is poised to take responsibility for curbside blue box collection – with more containers and material types collected than before – while charging businesses for the recycling of the packaging and paper they generate. But it’s been in a bitter fight with small business groups that complain they are set to pay punishingly high fees, which will then be passed on to consumers. The battle took a new turn Monday, when the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and eight other associations launched a campaign in B.C. newspapers and online at rethinkitbc.ca to amplify the pressure on Victoria. CFIB provincial affairs director Mike Klassen predicted job losses and some business closures as a result of the MMBC regulations and fees. “This is public policy run amok,” he said. “We are asking British Columbians to talk to the B.C. government to push the pause button on its reckless and red tape-laden program.” B.C. Agriculture Council vice-chair Stan Vander Waal said farmers can’t readily stop packaging strawberries and blueberries in plastic clamshells, because retailers insist that’s what consumers want. “We have to wear the cost,” he said, adding MMBC fees will cost his Chilliwack farm $60,000 to $100,000 a year. “It goes directly against growing agriculture.”
Please see: Sandown is full of stories, page 3
Please see: New system catastrophic, page 4
Steven Heywood/News staff
Colleen Jewell smiles as she looks over the tack room and horse stall where she once worked when the Sandown race track was still in operation.
A life on track Steven Heywood News staff
C
olleen Jewell says she’s not very interested in what happens on the proposed commercial land being broken off from the Sandown horse racing track in North Saanich. What she is interested in, is what will happen to the rest of the property now that its horse racing past will be torn down to make way for agricultural use. “I’m sure they’ll do what they need to do (in the proposed Sandown Commons shopping centre), but North Saanich is
Colleen Jewell spent 25 years training horses and outriding at Sandown
going to need knowledgable people to take care of the ALR land.” North Saanich municipal council recently approved plans for a $40 million commercial development on 12 acres of the Sandown property. And in a plan that has been two years in the works, the grandstand and other buildings will be removed, the land cleaned up and left to the residents to decide what to do with it. For Jewell, 83, the end of horse racing at Sandown in 2008-’09 was the end of an era — where she spent 25 years and met her husband Roy Jewell. This next phase in the life of Sandown — and the fact that
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