2 THE DAILY VOICE, THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 2014 EDITOR ANDREA ANTHONY Vancouverites tipping poorly Some Lower Mainland waitresses feeling gypped by local customers By GRAHAM MCFIE as lousy tippers by Square, the leading mobile payment company. In the data that Square released, Vancouver diners tipped 62 per cent of the time. Tips averaged 13.4 per cent. Ottawa is said to tip 76.7 per cent of the time with the average tip being 15.6 per cent - making them Canada’s most generous city. Travel websites and blogs recom- mend tipping between 15 and 20 per cent at a restaurant. In bars, the recommended tip is low- ered to 10 to 15 per cent. A trick for determining a sufficient tip for travel- lers, by TripAdvisor, is to look at the five per cent GST and then multiply by three. Tere Toews, a waitress at the The Red Wagon on the 2200 block of Hast- ings, said the average table tips 10 to 15 per cent. From that, she is expected to Yosicrsto have been called out tip kitchen staff. “We make less than minimum wage an hour. So, that’s $9 an hour,” Toews said. “And when they don’t tip you and you have to tip out on top of that, a lot of the time you have to pay for a table. “Yowre paying $1, $2, every time they’re doing this . . . that'll bring you down to $8 at that stage.” Toews says that take-out orders gen- erate tips only half of the time. Shelby Glenn, a waitress at the Cat & Fiddle in Port Coquitlam, said, “At the Cat & Fiddle there is a kid section. If 1 am serving kids, about 80 per cent there is no tip, and if there is, it is about five per cent.” However, Erin Jardine, manager of the Black Bear Neighbourhood Pub and a bartender at Liberty Distillery, said she didn’t think Vancouver was too bad when it comes to tipping. “Generally, Vancouver, it’s either they’re very, very good tippers or just kind of standard,” she said. £ NICK EAGLAND photo Restaurant-goers in Vancouver tip less than average, according to data gathered by Square. Doctors of BC discourage unnecessary tests A new Canadian health initiative aims to decrease the amount of costly procedures done when not really needed By MEGAN BOBETSIS ome medical tests and proce- dures may do more harm than good, according to a new initia- tive strongly supported by the Doctors of BC. Choosing Wisely Canada is a cam- paign intended to encourage doctors and patients to discuss whether certain tests or procedures are actually neces- sary. The campaign “is about changing the culture that more is always better when it comes to medical tests and pro- cedures,” said founder Dr. Wendy Levinson in a press release. Choosing Wisely Canada works in partnership with the Canadian Medical Association and was initially modeled after a similar campaign in the United States. Instead of a patient requesting a par- ticular procedure right away, he or she will first have a conversation with their doctor about whether the procedure is necessary. This initiative is intended to reduce costs produced by unnecessary medi- cal actions. It is also an attempt to break down the belief that any sign of illness needs 66 Nothing about an initiative like this shouls lim- it access to important testing or procedures TOM PERRY treatment. Doctors of BC president Dr. William Cunningham said the initiative will save money because higher-quality health care is being provided more ef- ficiently. One procedure the campaign has deemed unnecessary is image testing for lower-back pain. Cunningham said in most x-rays done on lower backs “there’s no indica- tion for them at all, and the only thing the patient gets out of them is radia- tion.” Tom Perry, a clinical assistant pro- fessor at UBC, said the initiative is “smart and long overdue.” “T think what this initiative is en- couraging is ... doctors standing up both to themselves and to their pa- tients and saying, ‘No, we’re not going to order something that is potentially costly to society and potentially harm- ful to you, without a purpose,” Perry said. Perry said often people who would actually benefit from a procedure are not able to get it because the system is cluttered with people being unneces- sarily tested. “Nothing about an initiative like this should limit access to important test- ing or procedures that are really useful to people, it should actually make it easier,” he said. Cunningham said this initiative will change the culture and perception of ordering tests. “Tt’s a very healthy culture shift,” he added. BCCLA vs. CSEC,continued from page 1 over the last 13 years. Paul Prosperi, Langara po- litical science chair, said the case sends a signal to the gov- ernment that transparency and oversight is not a luxury. “This case will help alert Should the initial case suc- ceed in declaring the laws un- constitutional, it could pave the way for the BCCLA’s proposed class action suit to pay compen- sation to Canadians spied on Canadians to the extent of gov- ernment intrusion in the areas of privacy and free expression, and provide an effective reme- dy by striking down [unconsti- tutional] aspects of the govern- ment’s surveillance law.” FLICKR.COM/JULOCHKA photo Kittens like this are some of the many animals staff and volunteers at the BC SPCA help daily. BC SPCA thanks volunteers for continued services and their dedication to animals Animal shelter relies on more than staff to get work done By HANNAH MYRBERG than 4,000 volunteers who help out at SPCA branches each day during Volunteer Week, which runs April 6-12. Volunteers are the backbone of the BC SPCA, where they outnumber staff 10 to 1, and donate their time in all lev- els of the organization. “The volunteers are our lifeblood,” said SPCA Maple Ridge manager Jen- nifer York. “We would be lost without them.” Most volunteers lend a hand by working on-site at SPCA shelters and offices alongside regular staff. The non-profit organization even T:: BC SPCA is celebrating more has branches that are completely vol- unteer-run and operated. “They are no different from our staff,” said York. Anne Seaward has been volunteer- ing with the Vancouver SPCA for two years and sees the work as beneficial to the animals as well as to herself and her community. “Volunteering in your community, it helps people live longer and happier lives.” she said. “T feel kind of helpless unless I’m do- ing something to make a change,” Sea- ward said. “Tf I can make a difference then I don’t feel like [’'m just sitting on my hands doing nothing.”