FALCONS Brinc Home 1) are ; Langara Falcons men’s basketball team brings home PacWest provincial championship title heey) og en oy VES, OF By JES CUNNINGHAM ancouver-Langara — Liberal MLA Dr. Moira Stilwell, is confident that her party is the best contender in the upcom- ing provincial election. Stilwell, who has been in politics since 2009, was appointed Minister of Social Development in September 2012. Stilwell sat down with The Voice last week. [Langara] is expected to have a $1 million cut to funding. One would think that if you’re doing a good job in turning out grads, [that this deci- sion]Jseems contradictory [to the budget.] The message from our government is that the purpose of this budget was SASCHA PORTEOUS photo Vancouver-Langara MLA and Minister of Social Develop- ment Moira Stilwell, talks about the newest Liberal budget plan. Stilwell says having skills and training is crucial for the B.C. economy. She is confident the Liberals will make history by winning the election. Liberals court youth vote Liberal MLA says million dollar cut is necessary for balanced budget to balance the budget that we failed. That it’s important to demonstrate fis- cal prudence. There’s no denying that everyone was asked to tighten their belt and bal- ance the budget ... you have to take more than a one year view. On whole, this government has been very good to post-secondary education. Billions of dollars of capital. In the short term, this year is a tough year. There has been a lot of stories done on well-educated grads that are the best baristas that you can afford, how do you see [the Liberals]ad- dressing that problem? The government developed a labour market prediction tool that they launched a couple of years ago now that’s up on their website... that shows the kinds of jobs and skills that are go- ing to be required in the different re- gions of the provinces and where the most jobs will be. Because we are a resource sector, ap- plied science and technology, applied engineering, and those kinds of jobs, whether it’s semi-skilled to PhD, are re- ally what’s required ... We are not en- couraging enough students to get com- petent in science, math technology in high school. The Liberals three year plan is cut- ting 70 million dollars to skills and training programs. How are you planning on maintaining a high level of education when the cuts are going to damage it? See LIBERALS page 3 Uti HE Reduction in student spaces at colleges and universities HM Cuts to student assistance programs Hl No new investment in industry training 66 In the short term this year is a tough year Moira Stilwell GST redux won't burn business South Vancouver businesses are not worried about go- ing back to GST/PST tax system. By KRISTEN HARPULA PST system will replace the contro- versial, publicly unpopular HST. While consumers agree this is good news, the transition will cause a lot of extra paperwork and restructuring for south Vancouver business owners, in- cluding reprogramming of systems and sometimes re-pricing of items. “T think it’s better for us because our prices already include the five per cent GST,so now we don’t have to charge an- other seven per cent for the PST on our food,” said LSU Café owner Evon Yoo. She thinks the conversion will be an easy one because when students and in- S™: April 1st, the old GST and structors buy food from the LSU Café, “what they see is what they pay.” Roots Café owners Simran and Hard- eep Virk expect to stay late reprogram- ming their cash register on March 31st. “We were lucky when they changed to HST because we had just bought a new register and they programmed it for us,” said Hardeep Virk. There was a small decrease in cus- tomer volume when the HST first hit, but said eventually it went back to nor- mal, he said. The couple doesn’t expect a major spike in business now that tax is going back down. “Maybe now itll be easier for people to swallow their purchases,” said Sim- ran Virk. “Maybe they won’t be so gut- ted because they won’t have to fork out as much.” Dockers Family Restaurant owner Yannis Koulouris remembers customers being unhappy when the HST took ef- fect, but it’s not the first time he’s dealt with tax changes. “Tve been 40 years in the business, so when the GST showed up in 1991, people just went crazy,” he said. He said he isn’t bothered by the extra work of reprogramming and hopes the decrease in tax will bring more people in. “T have to program the cash register again, but I don’t think it’s really a has- sle. ’m here anyways,” Koulouris said. Marpole matters Revitalization plan tackles housing and homlessness By NIALL SHANNON eople in the Marpole com- Pie are debating about the best way to revitalize the area and at the same time tackle housing and homelessness issues. The initiative aims to im- prove buildings and services. The Marpole Community Plan works with government depart- ments like the Strategic Transpor- tation Branch and responses from residents of Marpole, to improve the community with buildings, in- frastructure and provide relief to the busy traffic along the area’s five main arterials: Oak, Gran- ville, Cambie, Marine Drive and 70th Avenue. The development is much need- ed, according to Claudia Laroye, the Executive Director of the Mar- pole Business Improvement Asso- ciation. “We have to build for our fu- ture, because in the past few de- cades, very very little...has oc- curred. Very little building of any kind, very little new residences. It was stagnating,” said Laroye. “You can only have so much stagnation before you get deterio- ration,” she said. Statistics from the Marpole Community Plan show that Mar- pole has increased in population 35 per cent since the 1970s. In 2011, almost 1,500 residential units have been approved for construction. Chief among the improvements slated for the new Marpole is af- fordable housing. According to the Marpole Community Plan, 47 per cent of families who rent spends more than 30 per cent of their income on housing, which is higher than the city-wide average of 39 per cent. Marpole’s official borders are Angus Drive to the west, 57th Av- enue to the north, Main Street to the east and the Fraser River to the south. At a packed open house at the George Pearson Centre, commu- nity members discussed the needs of the community with city em- ployees. “We also need to combat home- lessness, something that is a prob- lem across city but also in the Marpole area,” said Dan Garrison, a city worker talking at the open house. The City of Vancouver will host an Open Spaces Workshop on March 18 at the Marpole Oakridge Community Centre.