ALASKA HIGHWAY NEWS
A6 | SPORTS | THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2021
Energizers wheelchair basketball club launching in September Dillon Giancola sports@ahnfsj.ca It’s better late than never for Fort St. John’s new wheelchair basketball club. The FSJ Energizers Wheelchair Basketball Club launches with a drop-in session at Dr. Kearney, September 12. Rob Stiles of Northern Adapted Sports, who’s starting the club, had planned to launch a club soon after the 2020 B.C. Winter Games in Fort St. John, hoping to translate some of the Games momentum into regular wheelchair basketball games and competition in town. Unfortunately, public health restrictions prevented that happening until now. “Obviously we were hoping to get things running sooner than that, but like most sports we weren’t really
NORTHERN ADAPTED SPORTS
Some of the Zone 7 athletes who competed in wheelchair basketball at the Fort St. John 2020 BC Winter Games.
sure when we could start. We have some interested, and we’ll put it out there, see who
comes and will move forward from there,” Stiles said. Stiles said it can take long-
er to drum up regular interest in para sports, but that it’s a case where, “if you build
it they will come. You need to have the equipment there to have any hope of having something in the future.” The Northern Adapted Sports Association received $3,550 in 2020 BC Winter Games legacy funds to start a club in Fort St. John. Fort St. John already had wheelchairs, thanks to Bo Hedges and the wheelchair basketball tournament he and his family usually put on.The tournament last took place in 2019. The funding will go toward storing the chairs and renting facilities. “Especially with para sports in general, your target audience is for those individuals with disabilities, but it’s inclusive and open to all,” said Stiles, noting that players of all ages are welcome and will play in one group together.
Bourgeois signs with Vipers Dillon Giancola sports@ahnfsj.ca Adam Bourgeois will make his junior hockey debut with the Vernon Vipers for the 202122 season. Bourgeois, from Fort St. John, is only 16 but will be 17 by the time the BCHL season starts. “I’m pretty excited , it’s a good opportunity for myself and I can’t wait,” he said. Bourgeois last played in Fort St. John for the U15 Flyers, before moving on to the AAA U16 Kelowna Rockets for the 2019-20 season. He was poised to have a great career
at the AAA U18 level with both the Rockets and the Prince George Cariboo Cougars, but because of Covid-19 he only got to play one official game. “It was hard, I had to push myself and my teammates, but that for sure helped me, definitely improved my work ethic and helped me focus on what I needed to. It’s a mindset, I still needed to come to the rink prepared each day and keep my intensity and cardio up,” said Bourgeois. The defenceman had 19 points in 21 games for the U16 Rockets,
and will make an offensive impact on the Vipers blue line. In last year’s shortened BCHL season, the Vipers were first in their pod with a 10-4-2 record. Bourgeois is currently training in Vernon, getting a head start and familiarizing himself with the city, facilities and team. He’s excited to have a normal season again and play in front of crowds. “I’m really excited for it. It will be a much different environment than the last year, there will be fans back in the rink and it will be lots of fun,” Bourgeois said.
Culling, Watson, Gardner ride high through July Dillon Giancola sports@ahnfsj.ca The Peace Region cowboy trio of Jake Watson, Stephen Culling and Jake Gardner are all coming off a strong and lucrative month of July. Culling, competing on the Finning Pro Tour in the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association has had three strong performances over the last two weekends. He finished second in steer wrestling (4.1 seconds) at the Medicine Hat Stampede July 29 to 31, winning $2,473.85. The same weekend, Culling tied for third at the Strathmore Stampede (4.5 seconds), winning $4,219.43. A week before, at the Lea Park Pro Rodeo in Marwayne, July 23 to 25, Culling was tied for sixth (5.2 seconds), earning $618.64. Clayton Moore of Pouce Coupe competed at Marwayne as well, placing third in steer wrestling (4.7 seconds) for a prize of $1,617.98. Culling, Moore, and a number of Peace Region barrel racers will saddle up at the Dawson Creek Stampede. The rodeo runs Aug. 13 to 15.
JAKE WATSON Watson, who has been competing primarily in the States this year, was at Strathmore as well. He finished tied for third with a score of 86, earning himself $3,462.02. Watson didn’t fare well in the American circuit in July, but he did grab a fourth and fifth place finish at the Calgary Stampede, taking home $4,000. Culling competed at the Calgary Stampede as well, finishing fifth in one of his four rounds for $1,500. JAKE GARDNER Gardner earned five cheques at American rodeos last month. His best performance came at the Peak’s Boom or Bust Rodeo in Colorado Springs bull riding event, July 14 to 17, where he placed second in round one with 84 points for $2,072, and seventh in round two for another $800. Last week, Gardner was fifth at the Garfield County Fair Extreme Bulls event (82 points), and took home $901. He placed sixth and eighth at rodeos earlier in the month to earn $274 and $293 respectively.
COVY MOORE PHOTO
Stephen Culling took down his steer in 4.7 seconds on July 9, the first round of the 2021 Calgary Stampede.
ALASKA HIGHWAY NEWS
THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2021 | OP-ED | A11
To burn or not to burn, that is the question
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nother weekend of rain, hoping it helps our Peace River farmers and that some does get south to help with the fires. There’s nothing like a rainy, cool day to catch up on the news and try understanding the hypocrisy. I’m not sure which is worse, reading all the conflicting info about COVID or the endless articles on how to convert B.C. from a province of wildfire to one of planned fire. Unfortunately, my flat-earth sense says we will be no more successful in getting rid of wildfire than we are in ending COVID. Lots is being written about what is wrong with our firefighting efforts and what the cures are. Common sense and practical solutions are lost on most, as these solutions tend to come from common sense and practical people who live, work, and experience rural B.C. firsthand; something that most of B.C.’s urban population has no understanding of. Take our Global Vancouver broadcaster. They could start by setting the record straight by reporting that not all of B.C. is burning. Not all are under campfire bans. Not all are in drought, and the sun is not scorching us all. And they could take the novel step of reporting on what is happening and not just repeat selected statistics coming from the neophytes masquerading as government experts. I’m not sure what it took to have the media finally take note and begin reporting the stories from the rural residents of Monte Lake and how they have had enough of government bureaucracy and ineptitudes that were willingly signing their community into oblivion. They are 110% correct in making thoughtful decisions about how they can stay put and fight for their community, while our Provincial Ministers in charge berate their efforts and those in charge of wildfire and emergency management run and hide behind evacuation orders. Why wouldn’t you stay and fight if you have the proper equipment, have a boat to escape with if needed, or green fields to walk out into, or the now deserted highways to drive down? Why shouldn’t B.C.’s plethora of loggers be able to take their tractors, hoes, bunchers, skidders, water tankers and firefighting gear and just go do it on their own if government won’t? Easy answer to that one. No professional firefighting organization would want a bunch of volunteers to show up and actually put the fire out.
EVAN SAUGSTAD Then there are the endless reports from “researchers” who have studied their 10 square metres of B.C.’s earth and are now experts on how B.C. can be saved. Tell me why just last month these same people were writing reports about saving all of B.C.’s remaining trees from destruction by loggers, or no more forest management activities so we can save our caribou, or how our tourism spokespersons vigorously oppose the removal of any trees that could be viewed by, or from, our communities, waterways, and highways? Does it now make one feel good to realize that all these “protected” areas burn quite well as they have matured and become heavily loaded with fuel, and that when they do get going no human firefighter will stop them? Surprise, surprise, many of these protected areas are all adjacent to our communities and highways, and when they burn... Are you one to blame the forest industry for leaving all that woody debris behind? Remember the 1960s and 70s when every fall the smell of smoke filled the air? That was before slash burning ended when our public health officials said wood smoke is bad for people, and before our thousands of researchers came to the conclusion that burning woody debris was bad for all of the little forest critters too. And now we wonder why our logging slashes can burn so readily? I used to work weekends lighting slash fires and did spend a big part of my life as a professional wildfire fighter, and today’s forest fires are no better or worse than fires of yesteryear. Can you remember when ranchers, farmers, and other users of the land would routinely burn their ranges to promote new growth, rid the countryside of brush and trees, and, coincidently, reduce future fire hazards? What happened to them? We hear of endless solutions that indigenous people can offer. Well, another news flash, historical and planned fire management only worked in parts of B.C., and when a dry summer hit along with ever-present lightning storms, B.C. burned. But back then no one put
Don’t suffer in silence
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nyone else feeling a March 2020 vibe happening? The one step forward, two steps back approach to Covid-19 is beginning to weigh on my mental health and I know I am not the only one. I feel like my heartbeat is in tune with the provincial Covid numbers – it seems to pound a little harder and faster every day. I am certain my blood pressure is following suit with an attitude of, “Hey heartbeat… wait up… I am coming with you!” What is the end result? Will I find myself curled up in bed one morning, unable to face to the day? It wouldn’t be the first time. In my early 30s that actually happened, where I spent an inordinate of time in bed unable to face the day. There was no Covid-19 at the time, rather it was just life passing me by at the speed of light and me not having the endorphins or dopamine necessary to pull me along for the wild ride. How is everyone else managing? I know there are folks just like me who have a predisposition to depression or anxiety. It is so important to talk about how you are feeling with a friend, spouse, or professional as these anxious moments can catch you when you least expect. I know I cannot control
JUDY KUCHARUK Covid-19. I can only control how I am reacting. It makes it more heartbreaking when your six-year-old grandson says, “Remember last winter when we had the virus? It’s gone now Nana.” I don’t have the heart to tell him that it is still here and that when he starts Grade 1 in September there will probably be the same protocols in place. Do I fear contracting Covid? No, I fear my grandchildren contracting the new Delta variant and me not being able to do a darn thing about it. I cannot control it and it is weighing on me. I am not a medical professional, but if you find yourself feeling apathetic or hopeless, losing interest in things that previously gave you joy, having sleep problems/fatigue, feeling anxious, irritability, anger, have changes in appetite or weight — there is no reason to suffer in silence. Call the BC Mental Health line at 310-6789 (no need to put a 250 or 604 in front). It’s free and available 24 hours a day. Judy Kucharuk lives and writes in Dawson Creek.
BC WILDFIRE SERVICE
Flat Lake wildfire near 100 Mile House.
them out and they burned until the fall rains came. And all the rhetoric around how we have now have record number of evacuation orders. Well, fact is we do as that is what we now prescribe. Somehow, our politicians — local, provincial, federal, and first nations — all sign on to the theory to send everyone to the next town to live in hotels and restaurants and hope that government foots the bill, and that our woefully inadequate wildfire organization will save our communities. There is no magic bullet, but there are solutions. It starts with not using the same old forest professionals writing yet another report. It starts by looking at how we wish to manage our forests, what we leave standing, what we leave behind. It starts by involving all rural people in these decisions on how we manage and respond to fire. There is room for us all: indigenous fire management, industrial forest and fire management, and most importantly, a public education as to why we remove or modify or forests and for what reasons. In all my reading last weekend, one article did get it correct: It has become almost impossible to use
prescribed fire on public Crown lands, and by extension private lands, as we are so fearful of that ever-present threat of a $1 million fine if you should burn so much as one bird nest or scorch that most valuable pine tree. For examples, we need to look no further than northeast B.C. We have individuals masquerading as decision makers who cannot make a single decision that would allow for a single prescribed fire to be used for any purpose, let alone public safety or wildlife management. I remember Skook Davidson, one of B.C.’s iconic guide outfitters who pioneered the business on the Ketchika. Every spring he would loan his horses to the Kaska when they were out beaver trapping and hunting (yes, beaver trapping used to be an honorable occupation). He had one condition: wherever they went, he wished to see smoke as that is what made for good habitats, and no government official dared correct him as he would just tell them where to go. Somehow, it all worked, but today the Ketchika suffers for the need of a few more good burns. Evan Saugstad lives and writes in Fort St. John.
ALASKA HIGHWAY NEWS
A12 | NEWS | THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2021
Site C workforce tops 5,000 in June Matt Preprost editor@ahnfsj.ca Employment on the Site C dam pushed back above 5,000 workers in June, according to the latest figures from BC Hydro. There were 5,046 workers reported, up 178 jobs from May. The last time the workforce topped 5,000 was in October 2020, when a record 5,181 workers were reported. Year-over-year, the dam’s workforce was up more than 700 workers from last June, as construction began to ramp-up after a pandemicinduced slow down. As of Wednesday, Aug. 4, there were 1,580 workers reported at camp, including three in self-isolation at camp, and five workers isolating at home. There is one active case among the workforce, according to BC Hydro, which has reported 99 COVID cases among Site C workers since the start of this year, and 129 since the start of the pandemic last March. Of the total June 2021 workforce, about 1 in 5 workers remained local, with 1,038 Peace region residents employed by construction and non-construction contractors, up 49 month over
month. There were 3,573 B.C. workers, or 71%, working for construction and non-construction contractors, and in engineering and project team jobs. Heavy equipment operators, labourers, engineers, and carpenters and scaffolders accounted for around 2,300 workers and nearly half of the workforce for the month. There were about 660 The Site C dam core trench showing the downstream shell of the dam, June 2021. construction managers, supervisors, and other professionals, technicians, and office staff reported for the month. There were roughly 100 workers in other various trades reported, including biologists and laboratory workers, boilermakers, cement masons, housing staff, and kitchen staff, BC Hydro reported 176 apprentices for the month, up 8 from May, as well as 375 indigenous workers (+3), and 532 women (+32) working on the project. There was one temporary foreign worker employed in a specialized position, BC Hydro said, and another 34 managers and other professionals working under the federal international mobility program.
BC HYDRO PHOTO
BC HYDRO PHOTO
Work at the Site C spillway gate structures and spill basin weirs, June 2021.
Alaska Hwy rest stops planned at Sikanni, Steamboat Matt Preprost editor@ahnfsj.ca The Peace River Regional District is continuing its ‘Gotta Go’ initiative to build new, modern service rest-stops along the Alaska Highway after gaining elector consent on July 30. Two pullouts planned at the Sikanni Brake Check at
km 250 and Steamboat at km 536 will include wheelchair-accessible washrooms, picnic benches, tourist info kiosks, cell phone service, and safety and emergency management signs. In a release, Electoral Director Karen Goodings (Area B) said the rest stops will make the highway safer
and more enjoyable for travelers. “Gotta Go is an important part of developing our transportation and tourism infrastructure. We all need safe and healthy washroom facilities, travelers need to be able to check their phones or call for help during emergencies, and truckers need a place to stop if
they have houred out,” said Goodings. “Those of us who live and travel in our region and on this remote stretch of the Alaska Highway know how vital the addition of these new rest areas will be and we appreciate the cooperation of all involved to make it happen.” The new service allows
the PRRD to partner with the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality, the Ministry of Transportation, Public Services and Procurement Canada, and the Northern BC Tourism Association to build the rest stops, according to the release. The new service comes after a successful pilot site at Trutch in 2018.
U.S. infrastructure bill includes Alaska Highway upgrades Matt Preprost editor@ahnfsj.ca A trillion-dollar U.S. infrastructure bill is identifying much needed upgrades to a section of the Alaska Highway in the Yukon. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act identifies the 323-kilometre stretch between Haines Junction,
Yukon, and Beaver Creek at the Alaska border for “necessary reconstruction” and to recognize the “benefits that will accrue to the State of Alaska and to the United States from the reconstruction of the Alaska Highway.” The legislation also identifies 238 kilometres of highway between Haines Junction in Can-
ada and Haines, Alaska, for reconstruction. “No expenditures shall be made for the construction of the portion of such highways that are in Canada unless an agreement is in place between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United States,” the legislation states. The bill includes caveats
for such an agreement, including that Canada would not be allowed to collect tolls or fees from U.S. travellers using the highways, and that Canada would be would be responsible for maintaining its portion of the highways after any upgrades are completed. Canada would also be responsible for providing the
necessary right-of-ways for the reconstruction, according to the legislation. Last month, Public Services and Procurement Canada announced $39.6 million in spending for two road resurfacing projects near Fort Nelson, from kilometres 325 to 355, and from kilometres 520 to 555.
New federal economic development agency to open Matt Preprost editor@ahnfsj.ca Fort St. John is among eight B.C. communities that will house offices for the federal government’s new Pacific Economic Development Canada agency. PacificCan will take over economic development in B.C. from Western Economic Diversification, but with a different mandate. Economic Development Minister Melanie Joly said one of the priorities established when the government considered economic development was dealing with the “injustice we saw over the years, the fact there was not as much resources and support throughout B.C. compared to other regions ... That had to be changed,” she said. Joly and her staff spent sev-
eral months meeting with representatives in all regions of the province to determine what they would like to see out of the entity that would replace the 34 year-old Western Economic Diversification, launched in 1987. Joly said B.C. is unique and the agency must be tailored to it, and that meant being designed for small- and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs all over the province. The mandate will be to help create and maintain jobs, ensure communities can grow and develop new projects and open up the globe to aspiring companies. In northern B.C., there will be offices in Fort St. John, Prince George, and Prince Rupert to help small businesses find funding and expand their reach by opening the doors to export programs and the like.
“It becomes a tool to navigate the maze of the federal government,” she said. The agency will be headquartered in Surrey, with other offices to open in Victoria, Campbell River, Kelowna, and Cranbrook. With a budget of $550 million over the next five years, and $110 million in ongoing funding, satellite offices and new staff will be established this fall. Joly hopes they will be functioning by the end of the year. Joly said the success of PacificCan would be measured by the satisfaction of the province’s entrepreneurs. “This is not for big business, this is for small business, it’s for start-ups and those growing bit by bit, or are part of the supply chain of big business,” she said. — with files from Times Colonist
Economic Development Minister Melanie Joly