COUNCIL QUESTIONS CLEANUP RESPONSE
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BTA SEEKS PIPELINE INTERVENOR STATUS
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FINDING A FAMILY PRACTITIONER
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www.burnabynewsleader.com
MP Stewart wins his E-petition vote in House NDP MP’s motion passed by two votes Wanda Chow
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
Paul Cipywnyk, of the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers, measures the temperature of Byrne Creek. He’s worried the closure of federal libraries could mean the loss of data collected by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans over the years that is valuable to environmentalists and naturalists to determine the health of waterways.
Federal library closures raises alarm Warning taxpayer-funded materials are being thrown out
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consolidated as a cost-cutting measure. “I don’t think our current government has a mandate to do that,” he said. Wanda Chow wchow@burnabynewsleader.com Cipywnyk noted the material includes taxpayer-funded research, A Burnaby streamkeeper is documentation and records that raising the alarm over the recent have been conducted and collected and continuing closure of federal for decades. government libraries. “That sort of baseline Paul Cipywnyk, president of information is key to the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers, understanding what’s happening is concerned about news reports in our environment, what’s describing4x1.25_bottle_depot_ad_final.pdf the destruction of happening to habitat. almost 1 12-03-05 1:20 This PM materials as the libraries are appears to be part of a concerted
effort by the present federal government to try to undermine that scientific way of looking at our country and planning for the future.” As for the government’s claims that much of the material is being digitized, Cipywnyk noted that itself is a costly process. And while the government says few people used the libraries, he noted that researchers must apply for access and can’t simply walk in. Libraries being affected include those for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Environment
Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Streamkeepers are “citizen scientists” trained to help assess the health of local creeks and waterways, Cipywnyk said. Without hard data in government records about the environment, “then you can make whatever policies you want, it’s not based on anything scientific.” With a background in history, Cipywnyk called the destruction of documentation “frightening” and “very disquieting.” Please see CORRIGAN, A16
LUNAR FESTIVAL 2014 Saturday, February 1 10:30 am-1:30 pm
BurnabyDouglas NDP MP Kennedy Stewart managed a rare accomplishment Wednesday when his electronicpetitions motion was passed in the House of Commons by two votes. “That was a nail biter for sure!” Stewart tweeted shortly afterwards. It’s rare for private member’s motions to pass, particularly for opposition members. But Stewart managed it by securing the votes of several Conservative backbench MPs, whose own private member’s motions on democratic reform he agreed to support. In the end, MPs voted 142 to 140 in favour of Stewart’s motion, which calls for Parliament’s Procedures and House Affairs Committee to look at his idea for e-petitions and report back within 12 months. Please see PARLIAMENT, A16