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PLAYOFF RUN for the Okanagan Rockets midget hockey squad continues after winning the Pacific regional west final in Alberta last weekend.
OKANAGAN COLLEGE business program is the recipient of a $100,000 grant from Scotiabank for business students to realize the importance of supporting the non-profit sector.
COLUMNIST Marjorie Horne says facing the reality of losing a loved one is only made more difficult by not talking about your feelings of loss.
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TUESDAY April 8, 2014 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com
Airport foot traffic growth still climbing
Foerster faces more charges
Alistair Waters
Kathy Michaels
ASSISTANT EDITOR
STAFF REPORTER
Success, it would seem, is coming early for Kelowna International Airport. The airport’s drive to 1.6 million passengers per year is a full 12 months ahead of schedule thanks to 15 straight months of record-breaking growth. As was the case every month in 2013, YLW has set records for growth in the first three months of this year, including a surprising six per cent jump in January followed by an even more surprising eight per cent increase in February. Last month, YLW was 8,000 passengers ahead of the number it handled in March 2013. “We were really surprised,” said airport marketing and media relations co-ordinator Jenelle Hynes. “When I saw the numbers for January, I said we should go back and check again.” She said she was even more surprised when February’s numbers came in even stronger. “That is huge growth.” She said January saw an increase over the same month last year of 7,600 passengers while February saw an jump of 10,655 passengers. Its overall 4.11 per cent growth in 2013 was amongst the highest for any Canadian airport handling more than one million passengers and well ahead of much larger airports, such as Vancouver International and Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International (both at 2.1 per cent), Toronto’s Pearson International (3.4 per cent), Ottawa (-2.3 per cent), Halifax (-0.6 per cent) and Winnipeg (-1.5 per cent). Both Calgary International and Edmonton International had stronger growth last year at five per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively. YLW, which set up a phased, multi-million dollar plan to increase and improve its infrastructure over four years starting in 2011 in anticipation of reaching 1.6 million passengers per year in 2015, is now a year ahead of schedule in terms of passenger numbers. Hynes said because of the planning, design and construction required for the work, it cannot be speeded up despite the stronger than expected growth.
Matthew Foerster will spend the next 25 years behind bars for murdering Taylor Van Diest, but this community has yet to see the last of the Cherryville man. Lingering allegations will bring Foerster back to Kelowna next month. Crown counsel Iain Currie said two outstanding files remain. On May 5, Foerster will be back in court to schedule a trial. The first charge is in connection with an alleged home invasion in Cherryville on Oct. 19, 2004, and involves a 19-year-old woman. The second relates to an alleged attack at Kelowna’s Garden of Eden escort agency April 12, 2005. As a result of that incident, Foerster is facing one count of sexual assault and unlawful confinement. If “hypothetically” he were convicted of those crimes, Currie said his sentence would be served concurrent to the 25 years he’s now facing. A guilty verdict would not even alter his parole eligibility.
▼ KELOWNA
UKRAINE SUPPORT…
Local residents attended a rally Saturday in Kelowna, staged by the Dolyna Ukrainian Cultural Society, to protest the Russian invasion of the country’s Crimea region. See story on A5. BARRY GERDING/ CAPITAL NEWS
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