Thursday March 27, 2014 (Vol. 39 No. 25)
V O I C E
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W H I T E
R O C K
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S O U T H
S U R R E Y
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B.C.’s best: The Surrey Falcons saved their best performance for their last game, capping an impressive season with a win to claim a provincial female bantam ‘A’ hockey championship. i see page 27
‘Unacceptable’ that system changes will be off-loaded to consumers, opponents say
Businesses call for recycling rethink Terry Farrell Staff Reporter
Local business associations are weighing in on the debate around impending recyclingsystem changes, as the implementation date draws near. Officials with the Surrey Board of Trade and the South Surrey & White Rock Chamber of Commerce say their primary concern is not where money for the Multi Material
BC program is going, but rather, where it is coming from – consumers. “I think the intent… is admirable, in terms of wanting to reduce waste, I mean, really, that’s what this is,” Anita Huberman, CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade, said Tuesday. “But when you are talking about a program, managed by a separate entity, that is going to add significant costs to business, which will then off-load that cost to con-
sumers, that is not acceptable. I just don’t think that the province has really thought this through. This is just not in the best interest of our economic health.” The NDP is accusing the provincial government of handing over control of B.C.’s blue box recycling system to Toronto-based multinational executives who will be unaccountable while B.C. businesses and households pay higher costs.
Opposition small-business critic Lana Popham raised the issue of MMBC in the legislature Monday, calling on the province to change course before the agency’s new system for recycling packaging and printed paper takes effect May 19. “If government doesn’t take a step back, B.C.’s recycling system is going to end up in a giant dumpster,” the Saanich South i see page 4
Bike squad returns to Surrey
Police put the pedal to crime Alex Browne Staff Reporter
Concerns about spiralling crime in Newton, including the Dec. 29 murder of hockey mom Julie Paskall, has led to the re-emergence of one of Surrey’s most visible police presences. The Surrey RCMP Bike Squad has been patrolling throughout the city for several weeks, and public response to the sixmember, yellow-jacketed team has been positive, according to the squad’s leader, Cpl. ❝The majority of residents are Neil Kennedy. law-abiding, but “The feedback we have received so for those few far has been very who are not, encouraging,” he said. they don’t see us “Residents and business are very coming.❞ pleased to see us out Cpl. Bert Paquet here, and being on Surrey RCMP bikes allows us to provide a much more personalized level of policing.” Surrey’s bike squad was disbanded in the mid-2000s, media relations officer Cpl. Bert Paquet told Peace Arch News. “At that time, priorities shifted, with the emphasis on an adequate number of general duty officers to improve on service delivery for the front line of response,” he said. Since being reinstated three weeks ago, the squad has logged more than 140 street
Surrey RCMP photo
Surrey RCMP has brought back its bike squad, in response to residents’ concerns about escalating crime in the Newton area. checks – resulting in 13 arrests for an assortment of Criminal Code and drug offences, seven Criminal Code charges being recommended and 35 provincial fines and bylaw tickets issued. In addition, the team has been successful in arresting people not abiding by court conditions, and in getting a number of weapons off the streets. Police say the aim of the proactive strategy is to make it “uncomfortable” for those intent on causing harm in the community. In the aftermath of Paskall’s death after
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a vicious beating outside Newton Arena – in what appears to have been a random, unmotivated attack – and statistics that show the greatest number of murders in Surrey last year took place in Newton, the public has been urging a more visible police presence on the streets. The return of bike patrols was one of a number of strategies Chief Supt. Bill Fordy – himself a former member of Surrey RCMP’s Bike Squad in the 1990s – said would be examined, during a Jan. 7 public meeting in Newton.
All of the officers on the current squad come from community policing backgrounds, and have a range of experience from general duty to investigative policing – plus the ability to access areas of the city that vehicle patrols can’t easily reach. “They’re very silent, very covert, which gives us an advantage,” Paquet said, adding he, too, has had bike-patrol experience. “The majority of residents are lawabiding, but for those few who are not, they i see page 4
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