Adaptive sports A South Vancouver charity helps athletes get to the Paralympics. P8 Dissection divide Should animal dissection be replaced with technology in Langara's biology labs? P3 Keeping heritage South Vancouver's Punjabi Market locals shares stories to retain history. langaravoice.ca PRODUCED BY LANGARA JOURNALISM STUDENTS | WWW.LANGARAVOICE.CA MARCH 1, 2018 + VOL. 49 NO. 11 > VANCOUVER, B.C. Hopes for fair votes System change could appease voter discontent By LISA STEACY lectoral reform could im- Kee voter dissatisfaction in a South Vancouver riding that consistently has the highest rejected ballot rate in the city, ac- cording to a political science expert. In the past four elections, Van- couver-Fraserview had nearly twice the provincial average of rejected ballots. In the 2017 pro- vincial elections, Vancouver-Fra- serview had the highest rate of rejected ballots in the city. The riding has been known for re- markably close election outcomes. Keith Poore, vice president of the proportional representation advocacy group Fair Vote Van- couver, believes the proposed pro- portional representation system — which allocates seats in the provincial legislature based on the percentage of overall votes each party gets — would reduce pro- test ballots because the composi- tion of government would directly reflect the votes of individuals. “You're still going to have people who feel that their vote doesn't matter or they still don't ... vote for a candidate that they see on their ballot but if we move to a proportional system we're go- ing to see less of that,” Poore said. Poore said the high number of rejected ballots in Vancouver-Fra- serview suggests voters are protest- ing through their ballots by delib- erately marking them incorrectly. In the current first-past-the- post system, seats are filled as candidates are voted into gov- ernment. A majority govern- ment is formed as soon as a party wins over 50 per cent of the seats. Langara political science in- structor Stephen Phillips said with this current system, people often vote strategically if the out- come of the election seems close because smaller parties won't be represented in the final outcome. He said proportional representa- tion could reduce strategic votes. “They can vote for a smaller party knowing that it's actually going to have some effect,” Phillips said. A referendum this year will de- cide if the province will abandon the current electoral system in favor of proportional representation. Vancouverites held a rally last week to protest the justice system after the man who stood trial for the murder of Indigenous youth Tina Fontaine was found not guilty. Activists marched down West Georgia Street, downtown Vancouver. GABRIELLE PLONKA PHOTO Outdated dikes could fail Scientist: no upgrades since 1948 puts development at risk By AMANDA POOLE ignificant improvements need to be made to dikes along the Fraser River as flooding threatens the East Fraser Lands development, accord- ing to an expert. Natural hazard expert John J. EAST Clague said that improvements to these dikes have not been made since 1948, which puts the area at risk of flooding at any time. “Building on floodplains is inher- ently sketchy to begin with. They call them floodplains for a very good reason, they flood,” Clague said. SER LANDS SITE BOUNDARY RD RICHMOND The East Fraser Lands development site is located on the edge of Fraser River. CiTY OF VANCOUVER ILLUSTRATION Although planning for the area has been underway since 2002, a report from the City of Vancouver early to comment on the plans for flood mitigation. “The City of Vancouver is still in last year re- the broader quires build- planning and ings at EFL “They call them consultation to be designed * f phase to de- with a flood | floodplains foravery | termine the construction . best flood level of 4.8 good reason: they management meters, higher flood ” and adapta- than city wide ° tion options requirements for flood con- struction levels. Two buildings and some rail infrastructure on site dont match this standard, put- ting them at risk of potential flood damage. Angela Danyluk, a sustainability specialist with the City of Vancou- ver, said sea levels or a major storm are not expected to raise the waters more than one meter before 2100. “We have time to be careful and thoughtful and have the right in- formation on the table to make the right decisions. The work is occur- ring at the right pace,” Danyluk said. ‘The City of Vancouver's engi- neering department said it was too — JOHN J. CLAGUE, NATURAL HAZARD EXPERT, SFU for the city to withstand ris- ing sea levels in the future,” they said in an email to The Voice. But according to Clague, proac- tively building a proper dike system to withstand climate change would be more cost effective than waiting for loss and damage to occur. “The amount of infrastructure that is at risk on the floodplain is far, far in excess of any investment that you might make in improving our diking system,” Clague said. “We have postponed the problem to where the only improvement is to strength and height the dikes, and it’s very very expensive which is why there has been no rush to do it.”