Coquitlam and Port Moody back NW SkyTrain route for Evergreen By Nikalas Kryzanowski, News Editor Dis path to a decision about the route for the proposed Evergreen Line has been a long and difficult one. And Last Monday night’s special city council meeting in Coquitlam was no exception. The meeting, scheduled for 30 minutes, actually lasted 90 and ended with a 6-3 vote to approve the northwest corridor through Port Moody as the priority route for the new rapid transit system scheduled for the Tri- cities in 2014. Peter Steblin, Coquitlam city councilor called the decision difficult and told council, “There are clearly very divided opinions” before explaining staff’s recommendation to back the northwest route. The option was recommended due to the historical commitment and consistency with local and regional plans, the “slight preference” shown by residents for the route, performance factors and the fear that a southeast route along Lougheed Highway would imperil the future of the Riverview Hospital lands. Out in Port Moody, a similar meeting took place and amid skepticism and criticism for the provincial government and TransLink, Port Moody councillors reluctantly voiced their support for the Evergreen Line’s northwest route. That they were given only 45 days to make a decision on whether to support the northwest corridor or the southeast—and with variables such as cost, tunneling, and station location still up in the air— councilors felt rushed. Councillor Diana Dilworth reasoned that a Port Moody route would be best thanks to the overflowing West Coast Express and 97-B Line. Traffic in the area between Port Moody and downtown is gridlocked because many travelers don’t have realistic public transit options. Although she said she struggled with the decision, Dilworth said existing and future development— much of it to meet the demands of the Livable Region Strategic Plan (LRSP)}—made the northwest route a necessity; the economic development potential would be an added advantage. Councillor Bob Elliott was also torn but said, “We have to get on with it.” And should the province or TransLink shift to an elevated system, Elliott said he would be the first one to lay down in front of the shovel. Who should pay for Translink’s cash shortfall? By Dunacan DeLorenzi A public meeting was held at the Firefighters’ Hall in Burnaby last Monday to hear and assess views on how to best to deal with an $18 million shortfall in the annual Translink budget, created when the Provincial government cancelled a controversial parking tax in 2007. The meeting was relatively small with approximately 50 to 60 people attending, not including board members and the media. The newly-appointed Translink board is in the unenviable position of having to decide how to generate new funds to replace the lost $18 million. The Provincial government has already decided that it will seek to replace this lost revenue with an increase to property taxes. As this is considered a ‘replacement tax’ and not a new tax, the Translink board has been given the mandate of deciding exactly which group or groups of property owners will be hit up for the money. The board’s initial proposal involved the possibility of increasing residential property taxes. Not surprisingly, this has met with fierce resistance from some Metro Vancouver homeowners who feel that they have already faced steady and perpetual increases to their property tax bills, while the services they receive have been in decline. Representatives of the business community; small business owners, the Vancouver Board of Trade, and the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce however, are also all vehemently opposed to footing the bill, at least in its entirety. Currently, in the city of Vancouver, a small business may pay up to five times more in property taxes than a homeowner in the same area will pay. Business representatives feel that they are already taxed unfairly and any more increases to their property tax bills will have the unfortunate result of pushing small business out of the region. Some homeowners feel that users should pay. In any case, Translink reports that should this new residential property tax be implemented the increase will be somewhere in the vicinity of $ 15 per household, per annum, based on an assessed property value of $ 500,000. At the meeting the Translink board listened to any and all who had something to say or suggest and both homeowners and business representatives appeared to have been given equal opportunity to express their thoughts and opinions. The question that still remains, however, is how exactly will this new board decide whose property taxes to increase—and by how much? News Shorts By Nikalas Kryzanowski, News Editor Money does buy happiness — but there’s a catch It seems money does buy happiness, according to a joint study by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School. The catch: you have to spend money on others. A series of experiments showed that people who spent money on others through gifts or charitable donations reported greater levels of happiness than those who spent money on themselves. Lead author of the study, UBC assistant professor Elizabeth Dunn, said she and her team set out to prove how people spend their money has as much impact on their happiness as the amount of money they earn. Morroccan king pardons Faceboook faker Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has pardoned a man who had been imprisoned for creating a fake Facebook profile of a royal prince. Fouad Mourtada, 26, walked free from jail last Tuesday evening after languishing behind bars since early February. Mourtada had been convicted of “modifying and falsifying information technology data and usurping an official’s identity,” for creating a false profile of Moroccan Prince Moulay Rachid on Facebook, a popular social networking site. Prince Moulay Rachid is the younger brother of King Mohammed. On Wednesday, Amina Mourtada thanked the king for pardoning her brother, saying he hada “good heart.” “We always believed he wouldn’t let such a thing happen to an innocent man,” she said. “We’re very thankful for the royal pardon, and would like to thank the royal family.” Study shows smoking in cars hazardous to health What may seem obvious to most people has now been confirmed by the scientific community. A new study is one of the first to show that smoking in a car poses a potentially serious health hazard to occupants, particularly children. The University of Waterloo study also shows that ventilation does not eliminate the hazard. Researchers found that tobacco smoke pollution (TSP), more commonly known as_ second-hand smoke, reaches unhealthy levels in cars—even under realistic ventilation conditions. In the study, TSP levels were measured in 18 different cars. Nova Scotia has a ban on in-car smoking and the British Columbia government promised one in its recent throne speech. Manitoba and New Brunswick are both considering a similar law. TSP is a complex mixture of poisonous gases and chemicals, including hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, arsenic and benzene.