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HEATERS • HOT WATER TANKS • INSERTS • SERVICE • NATURAL GAS • PARTS
North Pole
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The Lennox SLP98V – the quietest and most efficient natural gas furnace you can buy.
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M FFirst iissue ssue 1971 1971 IRROR
R CAMPBELL RIVEirst
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FRIDAY, FRIDAY, DECEMBER DECEMBER 11, 11, 2015 2015
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Council raises taxes again Kristen Douglas Campbell RiveR miRRoR
AlistAir tAylor/CAmpbell river mirror
A Festival of Trees
Museum at Campbell River programming director Ken Blackburn encourages area residents to check out the Festival of Trees currently on display at the museum. See story on page 69.
‘Which of our children are we going to abandon?’
Trustees vote in favour of closing two elementary schools
MiKe Davies Campbell RiveR miRRoR
Which two elementary schools in School District 72 will shut their
doors at the end of this school year? That’s the question the Board of Trustees will now be tasked with answering after accepting all the recommendations of their 10-year
Facility Plan at this week’s public meeting – after amending a few of them based on public feedback. The Facility Plan was presented
Tyee Chev 7x2.5 PROCESS
ON UNTIL
Continued on Pg. 5
SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 13
Taxes are going up again next year for Campbell River taxpayers. On Wednesday afternoon, the final day of budget deliberations, city council approved a 2.45 per cent residential tax increase for 2016. There will be no increase to all other tax classes. The residential increase translates to an extra $37 in property taxes for the average assessed Campbell River home. Just prior to arriving at that figure, council was sitting at a 2.95 per cent increase following three days of budget planning. Just as budget planning was about to wrap up, however, Coun. Larry Samson convinced council to dip into the city’s reserve account to reduce the budget by 0.5 per cent. “This is higher than I’d like to see,” Samson said of the 2.95 increase. “We put $1.8 million last year in the Financial Stabilization account, that was extra money taken in. By bringing it down to 2.4, I think that’s sellable to our citizens. It’s much more palatable.” It’s a similar move to what happened during 2015 budget planning when council decided to take
Continued on Pg. 3
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