Safety: Desire shown for higherr distracted driving fines. 18
Homes: Formal gardens H of the world. 12
Community: Katzie working against quarry. 3 Fr i d ay, J u l y 3 , 2 0 1 5 ¡ mapleridgenews.com ¡ est. 1978 ¡ (office) 604-467-1122 ¡ (del iver y) 60 4- 4 66 - 63 97
Warm water delays chinook Recreational fishermen await fishery opening By Neil Corbett ncorbett@mapleridgenews.com
Tim Fitzgerald/THE NEWS
Cooling off Kerrie Naples of Maple Ridge cools off, thanks to the Pitt Meadows fire department, as she makes her way along Harris Road during the Athletes in Kind eightkilometre charity run as part of Canada Day celebrations on Wednesday. See more Canada Day images, page 8. See race results, page 20.
The Fraser River is warm, and the chinook salmon run is weeks behind, as the fish wait to spawn. Temperatures have soared to 40 C and beyond in the B.C. Interior, breaking records. That, combined with no rainfall, has water levels dropping in rivers around the province. Warm water is potentially life threatening to the ocean-going fish, stresses them as they spawn, and they will wait to enter fresh water until it cools. Once they start spawning, they can’t return to the ocean. See Fishery, 10
Maple Ridge tops No vote 77 per cent opposed sales tax increase By Phil M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
Maple Ridge led the way in stuffing TransLink’s mail-in referendum on transit expansion into the trash can. Seventy-seven per cent of those who voted in Maple Ridge said no to raising the provincial sales tax by half a per cent to pay for
better transportation in Metro Vancouver. Pitt Meadows followed closely with a 72-percent no vote. “I’m disappointed, but not surprised,� said Pitt Meadows Mayor John Becker. He thinks people voted no because of their anger Becker with TransLink and not because of the Mayors’ Council Transportation and Transit Plan. “It does not appear to be a re-
jection or condemnation of the plan itself.� The mayors rolled out the plan for the provincially ordered referendum. The plan called for a SkyTrain extension in Vancouver, light rail in Surrey, express bus lines in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, as well as more West Coast Express service. Becker said polling and opinions showed that people were op-
posed to the tax and TransLink, not the plan. “We, as a mayor’s council, need to be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath [water]. He wants to keep this plan and deal with antipathy to any kind of additional taxes. “Mainly, it’s people’s mistrust, misunderstanding of TransLink.� After the results Thursday, the Mayors’ Council demanded progress on reforming TransLink. See Plebiscite, 5
THE NEWS/files
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