THURSDAY, november 30, 2017 Vol. 74, No. 48
Serving Fort St. John, B.C. and Surrounding Communities
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a century well lived
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All good things must come to an end, and November made sure to bury the memory of an otherwise pleasantly balmy fall. More than 86 centimetres of snow has fallen on the city so far this month, according to the airport weather station, keeping crews busy ‘round the clock trying to keep up, as seen here near C.M. Finch.
Peace Region fire dispatch moved to Vancouver Island
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Pressure mounts on NDP to finish Site C
Horgan invites experts to brief cabinet on Site C Premier John Horgan has invited six energy experts to brief his cabinet Nov. 30 ahead of its decision on the future of Site C. The experts include David Austin of the Clean Energy Association of B.C., David Craig of Consolidated Management Consultants, Colleen GirouxSchmidt of Innergex Renewable Energy, Mark Jaccard of Simon Fraser University’s school of resource and environmental management, Robert McCullough, an energy economist who has been working for the Peace Valley Landowner Association, and Karen Tam Wu of the Pembina Institute. Both Austin and McCullough are expected to tell the government to cancel the project, according to a Globe and Mail report. Giroux-Schmidt and Jaccard are not expected to advocate one position over the other, according to the Globe. “Irrespective of what they decide on Site C, we are going to need a lot more electricity in the province and the country if we are going to meet the commitments that were made at Paris,” Giroux-Schmidt told the Globe. See EXPERTS on A16
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Fort St. John Mayor Lori Ackerman at the city’s fire dispatch centre Nov. 23 before the switch of services to North Island 9-1-1.
matt preprost editor@ahnfsj,ca
The City of Fort St. John is urging residents to be vigilant with their addresses after fire dispatch operations were outsourced and transferred to Campbell River on Vancouver Island Nov. 23. The controversial move was formally approved by the Peace River Regional District in March after months of closed-door meetings, and the North Island 9-11 Corporation now handles fire dispatch services for the region’s 11 fire departments. In March, the regional district also voted to sign a contract that moved primary 9-1-1 answering services from North District RCMP in Prince George to E-Comm, a company based in Vancouver.
In a statement, the city said residents should provide very specific details about exact addresses when calling 9-11. General directions may not be enough for operators unfamiliar with the region, the city said. “In the past, the calls were managed by our staff so if a caller said they were located 10 minutes past the red barn on ABC Road, we knew where to go,” Fire Chief Fred Burrows said in a statement. “It is very important that our citizens know exactly how to report their emergency from now on.” The regional district says the service transition was overseen by the district and local fire departments, along with Telus, E-Comm, and BC Ambulance. See DISPATCH on A4
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Whether Site C dam is finished or cancelled, British Columbians will be stuck with a bill for it. A big bill. The question the BC NDP government must decide by year’s end is whether to absorb $4 billion for a cancelled project that will generate no additional power or finish a project that could cost $2 billion more than budgeted but could provide power for a century. If Site C is cancelled, the bill would likely show up over the next few years, in the form of either a rate hike or a tax increase. If amortized over 10 years, the increase in BC Hydro rates has been calculated at 10%. If it’s completed, the cost of building the dam – now estimated to be $10 billion – would be spread over 70 years, so future generations will share the burden of paying for the project. American energy expert Robert McCullough, hired by the Peace Valley Landowner Association, says there is no reason the $4 billion cost of cancelling Site C can’t be amortized over 30 years, which would still require a 6% increase. See SITE C on A7
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