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Independent numbers on the rise in legislature BY
SANDOR GYARMATI
sgyarmati@delta-optimist.com
would have to go back as far as 1920 to compare to this year, and that year may not have been this bad. There was no grain harvested after August 31st this year, nothing.” Delta Farmers’ Institute president John Savage said many farmers are now in major financial dire straights and the government needs to help. “I just hope they can get an interest-free loan or something. Government has to step up to the plate and help out, even if it’s just helping them out until next year’s harvest,” said Savage. “There’s a ton of outlay when you put your crop in — fertilizers, seed and the fuel use and equipment — but they’re getting nothing out. They need help to
Vicki Huntington is no longer the only MLA on her own in the legislature. However, that doesn’t mean there’s going to be a new political alliance or party made up of what are now three independents. Huntington made history in last year’s provincial election when she became the first independent elected in over 50 years, narrowly beating out Liberal cabinet minister Wally Oppal in Delta South. The Liberals had coveted and courted Huntington but the former Delta councillor, unhappy with the current party system of government, declined the overture. It turned out to be a prudent decision as the government’s popularity has plummeted due to the HST debacle. In June, Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom, MLA for the riding of Peace River South, stunned the Liberal party by resigning from caucus, citing concerns about the highly controversial harmonized sales tax. His move made him the second independent MLA. He plans to continue to represent his riding as an independent into the next election if things remain unchanged with the Liberals, he told the Optimist this week. And while he’s already spoken to Huntington and was offered assistance from her after he resigned from caucus, it’s too early to suggest there could be any formal alliance between the two, he said. “We haven’t really gotten together to try and formulate any kind of plan as we sit as independents, certainly not yet,” he said. “As far as forming a new way of looking at things, I don’t think I’m going to alter my representation. I’ve always put the constituents of Peace River South first before the party I sit with and I’m going to continue to do that. Now rather than with a party, I’m going to sit as an independent. As it
See DISASTER page 3
See MLAs page 3
PHOTO BY
CHUNG CHOW
Fourth generation farmer Peter Guichon, holding rotting potatoes from one of his Ladner fields, says you might have to go all the way back to 1920 to find a year as bad as 2010 for local farmers, and even then this year could be worse.
Fields are disaster zone
Heavy rain throughout September has left potatoes and other crops rotting in the ground BY
SANDOR GYARMATI
sgyarmati@delta-optimist.com
It’s an utter disaster for Delta farmers. Longtime farmer Peter Guichon says that’s the most fitting description about massive crop losses that have occurred due to the torrential rainfall in the past couple of months, a wipeout he says could very well force some right out of business. “The towel has been thrown in. Right now they’re in a case where most of them won’t make it until next year,” said Guichon, a fourth generation Delta potato and grain farmer. Guichon said there was about 9.5 inches of rainfall in September when the norm is 1.6 inches, and in the last couple of months there has been 12 inches,
30 per cent of the yearly total. Until September, he said, it had been a good growing year. “Usually we’re done harvesting by Thanksgiving weekend, but
tion shortly after he won the Delta council by-election last month. Since then, the Fraser Valley has continued to experience more heavy rain, resulting in harvesting
“Usually we’re done harvesting by Thanksgiving weekend, but all we’ve been able to do is pick away here and there. There’s very little product in the barns and you can’t even get in and pick by hand because it’s so far gone now.”
Peter Guichon
all we’ve been able to do is pick away here and there. There’s very little product in the barns and you can’t even get in and pick by hand because it’s so far gone now,” Guichon said. Ladner farmer Ian Paton first brought the grim scenario for local farmers to the public’s atten-
machinery unable to go into saturated fields and vegetable crops rotting in the ground. Noting 80 per cent of the potatoes from the Fraser Valley are grown in Delta, Guichon said, “My dad said he was told in 1920 there was no grain harvested in the delta, so that would tell me we