1. JEFF NAGEL
Blueberry fields in
the Fraser Valley are
already beginning to
bloom thanks to a
warm winter but farm-
ers are worried the
early start could spell
trouble for the crop.
Jason Smith, a blue-
berry farmer and chair
of the B.C. Blueberry
Council, said buds on
many blueberry plants
have begun to open,
putting the season
about two to three
weeks ahead of nor-
mal, depending on the
species and location.
“I haven’t seen it this
early for quite a num-
ber of years,” Smith
said, adding plants are
now at a stage that
typically wouldn’t be
expected until mid-
March.
Cold weather could
still return to the
Lower Mainland and
damage the tender
buds while they’re
vulnerable, so farm-
ers have their fingers
crossed for continued
mild weather and a
healthy, early crop.
“We certainly
wouldn’t want to see a
cold snap with moder-
ate to strong winds at
this point,” Smith said.
“We can have snow
into March. So there’s
STEPH TROUGHTON
Both the Surrey and Delta school districts are stunned by the recent pro-
vincial budget announcement that requires school districts provincewide to
reduce spending on administration and related services by $29 million in the
upcoming school year and a further $25 million in 2016-2017.
Longtime Surrey school Trustee Laurae McNally called the government di-
rective “completely unfair,” saying the province is “penalizing” Surrey with the
funding reduction as the district already has the lowest administrative costs of
any of the 60 school districts in the province.
“And it has been that way for years,” McNally said. “You can’t get any lower
than number one.”
Though Surrey, the biggest district in the province, already has an efficient
administrative budgeting record – and is forced to spend more than $4 million
in funding on portable classrooms annually due to a lack of school space –
trustees are concerned the province will divide the mandated cuts equally
among the B.C. districts.
“Our fear is they will do this on a formula-basis which is totally unfair,” said
McNally.
Surrey presently has more than 300 portables and must not only pay for the
buildings, but for their depreciation, upkeep, utilities servicing and cleaning.
Because the city is growing far more quickly than schools are being built or
expanded, temporary portable classrooms cost Surrey more than any other
SCHOOL DISTRICTS WRESTLING WITH
‘UNFAIR’ MANDATED BUDGET CUTS
▶ PROVINCE SAYS $29 MILLION MUST BE SHAVED FROM
ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS IN THE UPCOMING SCHOOL YEAR,
AND ANOTHER $25 MILLION THE FOLLOWING YEAR
EARLY BLUEBERRY
BLOOMS RUN RISK
OF CRASH CROP
▲ Garceau wins gold at Canada Games 13
M&M Pacific Coast Farms supervisor Santokh Nandha checks out ripe blueberries during the 2012 harvest season. FILE PHOTO
continued on page 4
continued on page 4
Tuesday March 3 2015
Leader
The
▶ WARM WINTER HAS FLOWERS
OPENING WEEKS SOONER THAN USUAL
Laurae McNally

2. 4 The Surrey-North Delta Leader Tuesday March 3 2015
B.C. school district.
The Surrey School District
wrote Education Minister Peter
Fassbender about the concerns
but has yet to receive a response.
Fassbender, however, did issue
a public statement Thursday
about the province’s funding
decision.
“We have to do this (challenge
school boards to find administra-
tive savings) because, while we’re
putting more into the system, in
spite of declining student enrol-
ment, school districts are spend-
ing more money on administra-
tion than ever before,” he wrote.
“Without school districts finding
efficiencies administrative costs
would rise to almost seven per
cent of their budgets by 2019.
“These costs can come down
and should come down,” he
added “All we’re asking school
districts to do is to find adminis-
trative savings to reflect the per-
centage they were spending 10
years ago – about six per cent.”
Delta school district chairper-
son Laura Dixon also said the
announcement was
disappointing and
came as a complete
surprise.
“We are at a bit of a
loss where we would
go to find these
efficiencies,” Dixon
said.
Dixon noted Delta
is second only to
Surrey in having the
leanest adminis-
trative costs in the
province because of
reductions made in
the past that included cutting
student bus services and closing
two schools due to declining
enrolment.
“It’s not that we don’t under-
stand fiscal responsibility. We
live it every day,” said Dixon.
The British Columbia School
Trustees Association (BCSTA) re-
ported that although the provin-
cial education budget overall will
be increased over the next three
years, the majority
of the additional
funds have been
allocated to the cost
of new teacher and
support staff collec-
tive agreements.
District boards are
attending meetings
over the next couple
of weeks to discuss
how the spending
reduction will be
divided among
districts.
The province
requires all B.C. school districts
to submit balanced budgets by
June 30. Districts are supposed
to receive their budget allo-
cations from government for
the upcoming school year this
month.
▶ ‘COSTS CAN COME DOWN’: FASSBENDER
definitely a risk.”
Chilliwack-area blueberry farms appear to be
a bit ahead of Abbotsford ones, he said, while
plants in the Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge
area appear furthest behind.
Another question mark is whether bees will
be active enough to pollinate the crop during
the critical three to four days when blueberry
flowers are open.
“Those bees don’t fly unless it’s 15 or 16
degrees out,” Smith said. “And if there’s strong
winds they’re not going to want to fly too far
from the hive either.”
Many growers rent honeybee hives because
blueberries require insect pollination.
He noted a lot can change through the season.
Last year a mild spring had growers prepar-
ing to harvest two weeks early but then cooler
weather in May and June pushed it back to
normal.
The Lower Mainland blueberry industry
produced 68 million kilograms of fruit last year
from 800 farms covering 11,000 hectares.
▶ “It’s not
that we don’t
understand
fiscal
responsibility.
We live it
every day.”
LAURA DIXON
▶ CONCERNS ABOUT BEES POLLINATING
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