Love YOUR NEIGHBOUR MAKES TT: nr, - Langara club serves sandwiches to hungry people in the Downtown Eastside Lost in transit LSU still sitting on the fence regarding the transit referendum By KELVIN GAWLEY hile campaigns for the upcom- Wi: transit referendum are in full swing at some post-second- ary institutions in Metro Vancouver, it remains unclear what kind of advocacy Langara College students will see on campus. The Langara Students’ Union coun- cil will be running a “get out the vote” campaign to encourage students to vote in the referendum. Whether or not the campaign will include a “yes” or “no” stance has yet to be decided, said Benjamin Friesen, LSU spokesperson. Friesen said the council will vote to decide if they will take a stance at their next meeting but did not specify its date. “Council is thoroughly exploring both sides of the issue before taking an official stance,” Friesen said, in an email. Friesen said the LSU council has formed an internal committee, which is working with other groups on campus “to ensure a timely and effective roll out of this project.” Bahareh Jokar, UBC student leader and a co-chair of the Better Transit and Transportation Coalition, made “an in- formal presentation” to the LSU coun- cil on Feb. 18. and “highlighted all the benefits” for LSU council members. Jokar’s group has hosted a number of “Coffee for Commuters” events where they provided free coffee, hand- ed out promotional materials and an- swered students’ questions about the referendum. Joshua Cairns, transit team coordi- nator for Sustainable SFU, said his group, in partnership with other stu- dent groups, has taken a “big wide ap- proach with a bunch of different initia- tives,” at Simon Fraser University. These initiatives include social media, speaking in classrooms, publishing opinion pieces in the school newspaper and tabling sessions. Cairns said the events are similar to the “Cof- fee for Commuters” events at UBC. Langara’s International Socialists club voted to take an official “yes” stance within its membership but will not be campaigning on campus, said club member Rosi Hunter. The Langara Earth Stompers envi- ronmental club is ideologically in fa- vour of the “yes” side but will not be campaigning for it because they have oth- er projects consuming their time, ac- cording to leader Adam Kelliher. JOURNALISM Langara daycare hikes DAYCARE at Langara 1 The centre has been part of the college since 1970 2 The centre is also apracticum site for early childhood education students 3 Curriculum at daycare is based on play and learning Source: Langara daycare website By SARA RABEY Ihe Langara Child Development Centre will increase fees by 29 per cent between now and 2016 because Langara College is no longer being able to subsidize the day- care, according to a letter to parents by Mark Adams, director of ancillary ser- vices. The daycare has been raising its fees each May by $50 since 2018, but the re- cent letter to parents said the college would no longer subsidize rent, main- tenance and utilities, so the daycare must raise its fees even more over the next two years. By May 2016, the daycare will raise =) 4 ine Chapanwith her son ~ a and nieces Saijah. ¢/ Letter to parents announces a significant increase in cost of daycare its full-time fees from the current $1075 to $1885 a month for children age 1.5 to 3 years old. For children aged 3 to 5years, it will be raised from $775 to $970 a month. “Fees for Langara’s Child Develop- ment Centre are being increased over the next two years to ensure that the daycare can cover its operating costs while maintaining the high quality of our program,” Adams said in an email. “We appreciate that any increase to fees may be challenging for some fami- lies. That is why we have spread the increase over two years, and provided parents with as much notice as possi- ble ahead of the first increase taking effect in May of this year,’ Adams wrote. Scott McLean, Langara’s department chair of economics has two children in the daycare. “There is over a 40 per cent increase in fees in four years for both your tod- dlers as well as your three-to-five-year- olds,” he said. “You would struggle to find anything that would be increasing that rapidly,” said McLean. “In terms of costs of living ... this is a significant budget item for anyone involved, re- gardless of your income.” McLean said he finds it strange that the daycare should be paying rent fora building that the government provided for child care, and that is on land that is used as a public institution. Golf course hazards more than they appear BRYAN Mc GOVERN photo The pond on hole 13 of the Langara Golf Course is con- nected to an underground aquifer used in emergencies Aquifers under the Langa- ra Golf Course hold emer- gency water supplies By BRYAN Mc GOVERN aren’t just hazards for the players. They’re part of a newly presented emergency plan for response and evac- uation in downtown Vancouver. The plan was shown to city council on Feb. 17 by deputy city manager Sad- hu Johnston. The ponds on the fourth and thir- teenth holes of the golf course are con- nected to underground water sources known as aquifers, which are accessi- ble through wells. Peter Judd, Vancouver's city engi- neer, said the wells at the course are a resource for Vancouver in combating fires caused by natural disasters like earthquakes. They are used when the main water source is unavailable fol- lowing a natural disaster. “In a major earthquake pipes will break and we will probably need an al- ternate source of water,” Judd said. T:: ponds at Langara Golf Course He said once an emergency happens and the wells are needed, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services will have to pump the water using a hose connected to their truck. The wells don’t come into play un- less Vancouver’s Dedicated Fire Pro- tection System (DFPS) network of welded pipes downtown and on the Fairview Slopes fail. Joe Foster, VFRS assistant chief of emergency management, said the wells at Langara Golf Course have never been used for an emergency. According to Judd, the wells haven’t been repaired or improved since their installation, 10 to 15 years ago. Ron Corneau, superintendent at Langara Golf Course, said the aquifers were discovered a little over a year be- fore the construction of the golf course began, during the digging stage. He said maintenance uses the water for ir- rigation purposes only. Corneau said the wells at the course are part of a network of alternative wa- ter sources for the city, including the McCleery Golf Course, the Fraser Riv- er, Trout Lake and some swimming pools from which water can be drawn.