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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2010
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Baking a very sweet building
F
abio Cornale has once again created a masterpiece for charity. Bella Cakes and Pastries is holding its third annual gingerbread house raffle, but this year’s creation is a bit different than past years. Cornale has built a gingerbread fire hall. “I wanted something old looking, an antique fire hall,” he said. ON MY BEAT “I kind of Theresa McManus based it on the one at Disneyland.” Baking, building and decorating the gingerbread house is a treat for Bella’s baker. He owns the bakery with wife Gina. “This one was six hours of decorating and an hour of assembly. There is about 20 pounds of royal icing and Larry Wright/THE RECORD probably 60 pounds of ginSweet masterpiece: New Westminster Fire Chief Tim Armstrong, left, checks out the gingerbread fire hall put together by Fabio Cornale of gerbread,” he said. “I went to Bella Cakes and Pastries. The Sapperton bakery is holding its third annual gingerbread house raffle, with proceeds to help the New West- town and started creating. It
minster Firefighters’ Charitable Society.
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City ‘best of a bad lot’ in spending study Cities are spending more than justified by growth BY ALFIE LAU REPORTER alau@royalcityrecord.com
While almost all cities in the province spend taxpayers’ money at higher than the rate of population growth and inflation during the period from 2000 to 2008, New Westminster can boast that it is the least wasteful.
According to a Canadian Federation of Independent Business report, Municipal Spending Watch, released on Thursday, New Westminster ranked best amongst B.C. cities that had a population greater than 25,000. In the survey, New Westminster saw an operating expenditure growth of 34.9 per cent between 2000 and 2008, and a population and inflation growth of 30.3 per cent during the same time. That meant New Westminster only had a fiscal sustainability gap of 1.15 per cent, well below
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the top mark registered by Prince George, at 3.87, and substantially below that of North Vancouver District’s 3.41 gap and Coquitlam’s 2.26 gap. In comparison, Burnaby was fourth lowest, with a gap of only 1.67 and Vancouver was ninth from the bottom, with a gap of 1.92, for cities with a population greater than 25,000. According to the CFIB report, 90 per cent of municipalities in the province outspent their inflation-population growth. Adding all the cities’ gaps together and
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getting an average, the CFIB report notes that cities had an overall average 2.01 fiscal sustainability gap, with Burnaby and New Westminster falling below the average, along with Vancouver, Surrey, Richmond and Port Moody. In terms of actual numbers, New Westminster had excess spending of $3.4 million in 2008, which works out to $214 in savings for a family of four if that excess spending had been eliminated. Mayor Wayne Wright told The Record
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