City: New tree bylaw tries to limit cutting. 4
Fitness: Survey out on our state of health 3
Karina calls it quits: 25 Fr i d ay, J u n e 5 , 2 0 1 5 · mapleridgenews.com · est. 1978 · (office) 604-467-1122 · (del iver y) 60 4 - 4 6 6 - 6 3 9 7
Lid put on homeless barbecue Camp residents tell Social Housing group to cancel By Phil M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
Social Housing Alliance BC has scratched its plans for a Saturday barbecue at the homeless camp on Cliff Avenue. “It’s been cancelled,” said Ivan Drury with the alliance. People living in the camp decided they didn’t want the barbecue and told the alliance Wednesday they didn’t want to proceed. The Social Housing Alliance had planned the event to show support for the residents of camp and to draw attention to the issue of homelessness. “The whole project was to try to support them in what was a pretty hostile environment in Maple Ridge.” Drury said when residents read the hostile comments made on Facebook towards those in the camp, they didn’t want to have the barbecue. See Camp p,5
Tim Fitzgerald/THE NEWS
Outdoor art Jason Craft works on painting on side of 224th Street building for Maple Ridge Business Improvement Area’s Back Alley Mural Program.
New school boundaries in plan Elementary in Silver Valley years away By Neil Corbett ncorbett@mapleridgenews.com
The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school district is looking at redrawing school boundaries and adding choice programs such as French immersion in order to even out the enrolment in its schools. That’s part of the homework re-
quired by the education ministry before it approves any money for a new school. The community – including Mayor Nicole Read – has been calling for new schools in the growing Albion and Silver Valley areas. Once the ministry agrees to fund a new school – and it has already refused in the past – it would still be years away. “If we get ministry approval today, that doesn’t mean there’s a school there next year,” said dis-
trict spokesperson Irena Pochop. The planning process for a new school still takes 37-49 months. Elementary school enrolment has been declining in the district. That is now leveling off, but the 20 schools still have an excess capacity of 494 student spaces, and that Murray excess capacity will exist until at least 2020. The ministry points to this capac-
ity when refusing funding for schools in Albion and Silver Valley. “The issue is we have people travelling farther distances to get to schools,” noted board chairman Mike Murray. These and other issues will be explained at an open house at Thomas Haney secondary on this Wednesday at 7 p.m. Those attending are asked to register by e-
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mail at register@sd42.ca. Items on the agenda at that meeting include: • A catchment review for Samuel Robertson Technical and Garibaldi secondary • A review of elementary school catchments to address overpopulation in some Pitt Meadows schools • French immersion program catchment review • Early French immersion at Maple Ridge elementary See Schools, 8
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