Briefly: February 14, 2014

Back home

Two girls, missing overnight Tuesday, February 10, were found on their way to school after police and the community spent a cold and wet night searching.

“This is the best result,” said Powell River RCMP Constable Tim Kenning, after the girls were found Wednesday February 11.

James Thomson Elementary School principal Jasmin Marshman, who had heard about the disappearance of her school’s students through social media the evening before, said she was feeling nauseous thinking about the girls as she drove to work Wednesday morning. Then as she rounded the corner near Gibsons Beach on Highway 101 she saw the two girls walking to school. “I guess they thought missing school would be a bad idea,” she said.

“I pulled over and told them to get in the car and that everyone has been out looking for them and were worried sick,” said Marshman.

One of the girls was reunited with her mother at the school and the principal drove the other girl home in town. Both moms were exhausted and extremely relieved, she said.

The girls, Vanessa Hackett and Mckayla Csurdi, were last seen in Tla’amin (Sliammon) First Nation near the community mailboxes at approximately 4:30 pm Tuesday after stepping off the bus from the mall.

Kenning described the girls’ disappearance as being “out of character for both of them.”

Pictures of the girls were posted on social media and news of their disappearance spread quickly. Police and community searchers began scouring the area.

“A lot of people were out there looking last night,” said Kenning, who added that they were even walking the beaches and looking in the ditches around Tla’amin for the girls. “It was a nasty stormy night to be out,” he said.

The girls spent the night in an abandoned house next door to Vanessa’s house in Tla’amin, said Marshman.

Despite the noise of the neighbourhood search, the girls told their principal that they did not know everyone was looking for them, she said. They decided not to tell their mothers where they were because the girls were angry with them after one of their mothers would not allow her daughter to go over to the other’s home. “I think there’s going to be a lot of family discussions going on,” said Kenning.

With the proposed cuts to ferry service by the BC government, residents are being given a chance to weigh in on refining the service schedule.

BC Ferries is inviting feedback through online and random telephone surveys before February 21.

“It’s important for the communities affected by the schedule adjustments to give us their input on the draft schedule options, and we urge our customers to take a few minutes to complete the online survey,” said Mike Corrigan, BC Ferries’ president and CEO.

Draft schedule refinements can be viewed on the BC Ferries website. BC Ferries is hoping for as much meaningful feedback as possible from communities affected by the service reductions.

The draft schedule is stated as taking into consideration feedback heard through the government engagement process as well as from other sources, and strives to achieve the net savings while still providing for customers’ needs.

Once feedback has been received, BC Ferries will meet with community leaders and Ferry Advisory Committee members to review the feedback before new schedules come into effect on April 28 for 16 minor and northern routes.

As previously reported, the cuts will affect 16 per cent of all round trips servicing Powell River and Texada Island in an attempt to save $18.9 million.

Now that BC’s MLAs have returned to the legislature, IntegrityBC has launched an online consultation on electoral and democratic reform.

It is the first in a series of consultations that the organization plans as part of its Reimagine BC campaign.

Reimagine BC is a chance for Powell River residents to work online with other residents in BC to develop new policy initiatives for the provincial and local governments to consider.

“At a time when more and more people are tuning out of public life, governments—and organizations like IntegrityBC—must do more to show that public opinion does count,” said IntegrityBC executive director Dermod Travis.

His organization is non-partisan, interested only in restoring trust and confidence between citizens and their elected officials.

The online consultation will help IntegrityBC as it pushes for legislative reforms by showing decision makers not just province-wide support for policy initiatives, but regional numbers as well.

In launching its consultations, IntegrityBC is under no illusions as to the challenge of re-engaging citizens in the province’s political life. Last fall’s consultation by the BC government on local government election reform elicited all of 49 responses.

“British Columbians don’t want to sit on the sidelines,” said Travis. “But they also want to know that their opinions count and too often they’re left to feel as though government consultations pay little more than lip service to public input.”

He pointed to recent forums on service reductions at BC Ferries as a classic case of what many felt was consultation just for the sake of appearances.

“The BC government needs to dispel the growing sentiment that public opinion doesn’t matter, especially on those occasions when they actually pay attention to it,” said Travis.

Google Hangouts and Twitter Town Halls will be incorporated into the Reimagine BC campaign in the weeks and months to come. Privacy is protected for people engaging in the consultation. To participate in the consultation, readers go online.