The Exploration Place’s assistant director Lisa Connor rides a mechanical horse purchased by the museum, which arrived last Friday. The horse is the same model as Champion, which was located in Northern Hardware for decades before the 100-year-old store closed in February.
ARTHUR WILLIAMS
Citizen staff
There’s a new Champion in town.
Champion, the popular mechanical horse ride, was one of the artifacts The Exploration Place acquired when Northern Hardware closed in February after 100 years of business in Prince George. But when museum checked the mechanical condition of the original Champion, it was clear it was time to put him out to pasture, The Exploration Place CEO Tracey Calogheros said.
“He was not going to be able to toler-
ate the level of ridership he’d get here,” Calogheros said.
With an artifact like Champion, which many people remember riding, it didn’t seem right to put it behind glass where people can’t touch it, she said. After some searching, museum staff were able to find a matching horse in usable condition for sale in Florida.
“So we bought it. We had him painted to match the original Champion,” Calogheros.
“When The Exploration Place opens in 2021, this one will be on the floor.”
The museum still intends to preserve
and display the original Champion, along with some of the other artifacts from Northern Hardware, she added. While the original Champion was only $0.10 to ride, the new Champion is a quarter horse.
“Twenty-five cents was the cheapest we could find,” Calogheros said. “I guess it’s been a long time since anything was 10 cents.”
Finding the parts to convert the pay box to take dimes proved impossible, she said. But the museum will look at the possibility of getting slugs made, so riders only have to pony up 10 cents per ride.
Six people were arrested last Friday morning after a lengthy standoff with police at a home in the 2600-block of Oak Street. Police were called to the scene around 4 a.m. Frontline officers secured the area, and North District RCMP’s Emergency Response Team was called in to assist. Residents in the area were warned about what was happening.
At approximately 11 a.m., the occupants of the home were arrested without further incident. Five men and one woman in the home were arrested, and police seized an AK-47-type firearm.
“These events take time because we’re patient. It’s public safety, public safety, public safety,” RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Craig Douglass said. “Somebody brought a firearm into that residence. Part of it is we don’t know if it’s a hostage situation, if it’s a home invasion.”
No shots were fired, and the early evidence suggests that it wasn’t a hostage situation, Douglass said. However, the investigation is still in the early stages, and that could change as new information comes to light, he said.
“They could have come out at any time, they knew we were there,” he said. “They chose not to.”
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300. Tips can also be made anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS(8477), or online at www.pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca.
WHAT:
City Council consideration of application regarding:
•Amendment to “City of Prince George Zoning BylawNo. 7850, 2007”
Public Hearing regarding:
•Amendments to “City of Prince George Official Community Plan BylawNo. 8383, 2011” AND “City of Prince George Zoning BylawNo. 7850, 2007”
WHEN:
Monday, August 31, 2020
WHERE: Council Chamber sofCity Hall, 2nd Floor,1100 Patricia Boulevard, Prince George, BC
PROPOSALS:
1. “City of Prince George Zoning BylawNo. 7850, 2007, Amendment BylawNo. 9127, 2020”
Applicant: Lorinda Lunn
Subject Proper ty: 280 Bellos Street
Time: 6:00 p.m. for Council consideration
BylawNo. 9127, 2020 proposes to rezone the subject proper ty from RS2: Single Residential to RM1: Multiple Residential. The pur pose of this application is to facilitate afull-daydaycare and infant toddler care program with more than 13 per sons under the ‘Community Care Facility,Major’ principal use on the subject proper ty,or other uses, pur suant to the proposed RM1: Multiple Residential zoning designation(s).
The proposed bylawapplies to the proper ty legally described as Lot 82, District Lot 2608, Cariboo District, Plan 19520, as shown outlined in bold black on Location Map #1 below
Location Map #1 280 Bellos Street
2. “City of Prince George Official Community Plan BylawNo. 8383, 2011, Amendment BylawNo. 9063, 2019” and “City of Prince George Zoning BylawNo. 7850, 2007, Amendment BylawNo. 9064, 2019”
Applicant: Dylan Gustafson for Gustafson’sAutomobile Co. Ltd.
Subject Proper ties: 1880 Bowser Avenue, 1912, 1924, 1936, 1942, 1948 Willow Street and 1947 Vine Street
Time: 7:00 p.m. for Public Hearing
The pur pose of these applications is to amend the Official Community Plan and Zoning Bylawtofacilitate an expansion of the Gustafson’sKia site on the subject proper ties located at 1880 Bowser Avenue, 1912, 1924, 1936, 1942, 1948 Willow Street and 1947 Vine Street, that will suppor tcustomer par king ,vehicle sales and acompound area for excess vehicle stock.
2.1 Official Community Plan (OCP) Amendment BylawNo. 9063, 2019
BylawNo. 9063, 2019 proposes to amend “City of Prince George Official Community Plan BylawNo. 8383, 2011” as follows:
a. that “Schedule B-6: Future Land Use” be amended by re-designating the subject proper ties from Neighbourhood Centre Cor ridor and Neighbourhood Centre Residential to Business District, Ser vice Commercial.
2.2 City of Prince George Zoning Amendment BylawNo. 9064, 2019
BylawNo. 9064, 2019 proposes to rezone the subject proper ties from RS4: Suburban Residential to C6: Highway Commercial.
The subject bylaws apply to the proper ties legally described as:
Lot A(54552M), Block 329, District Lot 343, Cariboo District, Plan 1268; Lots 3, 4, 17, 18, 19 and 20, Block 329, District Lot 343, Cariboo District, Plan 1268; and Lot 8, District Lot 343, Cariboo District, Plan 18815.
all outlined in bold black in Location Map #2 below
Location Map #2
1880 Bowser Avenue. 1912, 1924, 1936, 1942, 1948 Willow Street and 1947 Vine Street
Residents are invited to provide comments to Council by the methods noted below
Submissions in writing
Written comments on all applications, should be forwarded to the Cor porate Officer by 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, August 25, 2020, to be included in Council’sagenda package.
Submissions received after this time will be provided to Council on the dayofthe Council meeting for their consideration during deliberations on the application or proposed bylaw. Submissions maybesent by email to citycler k@princegeorge.ca, faxed to (250) 561-0183, mailed or delivered to the address noted below
Residents wishing to provide comments to Council on the following bylaws, maydoso, by submitting written cor respondence:
•Proposed Zoning Amendment BylawNo. 9127, 2020 (Subject Proper ty: 280 Bellos Street); and
•Official Community Plan Amendment BylawNo. 9063, 2019 and Zoning Amendment BylawNo. 9064, 2019 (Subject Proper ties: 1880 Bowser Avenue, 1912, 1924, 1936, 1942, 1948 Willow Street and 1947 Vine Street).
Pur suant to section 464(2) of the Local Government Act,City Council has waived the requirements for aPublic Hearing to be held respecting proposed Zoning Amendment BylawNo. 9127, 2020 during the regular Council Meeting held on Monday, July 27, 2020.
Please note that written submissions for all applications will form par t of the Council agenda, become public record and are posted on the City’s website. By making a written submission you are consenting to the disclosure of any per sonal infor mation that you provide.
Submissions by telephone
In an effor t to provide the public with options to speak to Council on a Public Hearing application(s) and in accordance with Ministerial Order No. M192, the City now offer s par ticipation remotely via telephone during Public Hearings.
Telephone submissions may only be received during for mal Public Hearings. Residents are invited to par ticipate by telephone for the following application(s):
• Official Community Plan Amendment Bylaw No. 9063, 2019 and Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 9064, 2019 (Subject Proper ties: 1880 Bowser Avenue, 1912, 1924, 1936, 1942, 1948 Willow Street and 1947 Vine Street).
Residents can pre-register to speak to the proposed bylaws noted above, live via telephone. Pre-registration will be open from 8:30 a.m., Thur sday, August 27, 2020 to Monday, August 31, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. To pre-register to speak to Council via phone, visit our website www.princegeorge.ca/publichearings to complete an online registration for m or call 311. If you miss pre-registering , please watch the online live meeting broadcast as there will be an oppor tunity for you to call in for a limited period of time.
Pur suant to Section 464(1) of the Local Government Act, a Public Hearing is required for Bylaw No. 9063, 2019 and 9064, 2019 and member s of the public are invited to provide comments to Council in per son at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, August 31, 2020 in Council Chamber s on the 2nd Floor of City Hall.
The City of Prince George follows the order s of the Provincial Health Officer and guidelines regarding the size of gatherings and physical distancing Where Public Hearings are required to be held, measures have been put in place to ensure the safety of member s of the public attending the Public Hearings to provide comments.
City of Prince George open Council meetings are public and may be televised, streamed live by webcast, recorded and archived on the City’s website for viewing by the public. By attending an open Council meeting or making a submission at a public hearing you are consenting to the disclosure of any per sonal infor mation that you provide.
For more detailed infor mation on providing submissions to Council, please visit www.princegeorge.ca/publichearings.
Authority
Personal infor mation is collected under the authority of section 26(g) and disclosed under the authority of section 33.1(1) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). For infor mation or questions, contact the City’s FIPPA Coordinator at 250-561-7600 or 1100 Patricia Boulevard, Prince George, BC, V2L 3V9.
NEED MORE INFORMATION?
A copy of the proposed bylaws, applications and any related documents will be available for review by the public on the City’s website www.princegeorge.ca under ‘News and Notices’ beginning August 19, 2020 These documents may also be reviewed at Development Ser vices on the 2nd Floor of City Hall on August 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 31, 2020, between the hour s of 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m
WHO CAN I SPEAK TO?
For more infor mation, please contact Development Ser vices in per son, by telephone at (250)561-7611 or by email to devser v@princegeorge.ca.
For questions related to Public Hearing par ticipation and procedures, please contact Legislative Ser vices Division by telephone (250)561-7793 or by email to citycler k@princegeorge.ca
City of Prince George 2019 Annual Repor t
Notice is hereby given pur suant to Section 99(3) of the Community Charter that Prince George City Council will consider the 2019 Annual Repor t at its August 31, 2020 regular meeting to be held at 6:00 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chamber s located on the 2nd Floor, 1100 Patricia Boulevard, Prince George, B.C.
The Annual Repor t will be available for review by the public beginning August 14, 2020, on the City’s website: princegeorge.ca/annualrepor t. Paper copies will be available for review Monday to Friday between the hour s of 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. at the Ser vice Centre (1st Floor, City Hall) and the Legislative Ser vices Division (5th Floor, City Hall).
Written submissions, regarding the 2019 Annual Repor t, should be forwarded to the Cor porate Officer by 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, August 25, 2020, to be included in Council’s agenda package. Submissions received after this time will be provided to Council on the day of the Council meeting for their consideration.
Member s of the public are welcome to attend the regular meeting on August 31st and are invited to present submissions or ask questions with respect to the Annual Repor t.
The City of Prince George follows the order s of the Provincial Health Officer and guidelines regarding the size of gatherings and physical distancing Measures have been put in place to ensure the safety of member s of the public attending to provide comments.
Submissions may be sent by email to citycler k@princegeorge.ca, faxed to (250) 561-0183 or mailed to the address noted below
Attention: Cor porate Officer Legislative Ser vices Division City of Prince George 5th Floor, 1100 Patricia Boulevard Prince George, BC V2L 3V9
For fur ther infor mation, please contact the Legislative Ser vices Division at (250) 561-7600 or citycler k@princegeorge.ca.
COVID-19 Resources
The City of Prince George has been in regular conver sation with Nor ther n Health about the most reliable sources of infor mation on novel coronavir us (COVID-19), and any assistance the City can provide residents and visitor s with reliable infor mation about measures that can be taken to prevent the spread and stay healthy.
People are advised to take all necessar y precautions to prevent exposure such as staying home when sick, disinfecting surfaces, washing their hands, and coughing and sneezing into the crook of their ar ms.
For more infor mation:
• Visit the BC Centre for Disease Control website
• Visit the BC Transit COVID-19 website
• Visit the BC Ministr y of Health webpage on Pandemic Preparedness
• Visit the Gover nment of Canada’s website on COVID-19
• Visit the HealthlinkBC website
• Visit the World Health Organization website
• Download the BC Ministr y of Health’s Advice on Recreational Facilities - March 13, 2020 [PDF]
Nor ther n Health COVID-19 Update
Nor ther n Health has launched a COVID-19 Online Clinic and Infor mation Line to help answer questions and concer ns from Nor ther n B.C. residents. The NH COVID-19 Online Clinic and Infor mation Line can be reached at 1-844-645-7811.
TED CLARKE
Citizen staff
It’s been 17 years since Prince George has been the location of a major movie production.
Local filmmaker Norm Coyne is doing what he can to try to end that dry spell. The city was the backdrop for three movies - Double Jeopardy (1998), Reindeer Games (1999) and, most recently, the Stephen King science fiction Dreamcatcher (2003) and Prince George businesses reaped the millions of dollars of investment that came with each production.
In an effort to make Prince George more attractive to filmmakers and entice them to set up for weeks of shooting and the money that brings local hotels, restaurants and stores, Coyne and his Barker Street Cinema film production company is creating a web-based series which asks professional directors, producers and actors for their advice. The responses the guest celebrities offered will be released as a five-episode series - Northern Lights, Camera, Action. Coyne is the founding director of Northern FanCon, an annual convention/ entertainment expo which brings movie,
TV and cosplay stars to Prince George for a weekend gathering. Normally held in May at CN Centre, the seventh annual event was postponed to 2021 due to COVID. During last year’s Northern FanCon Coyne and his Barker Street Cinema production company interviewed the celebrity guests who provide the content for Northern Lights, Camera, Action.
At the end of the interview each guest was asked two questions – firstly, what advice would you give for an actor or filmmaker in a distance location like Prince George trying to break into the industry? And, what advice would you have for a distance location like Prince George trying to attract productions to the city?
“There were enough differences and at least one nugget in their answers that we could theme them into five episodes,” Coyne said. “We will be looking at the advice given to us, building that into an action plan and have some kind of deliverable at the end of every episode as a result of executing the action plan.”
The first episode focuses on Emmy-award-winning, Oscar-nominated actor Edward James Olmos (Miami Vice,
Battlestar Gallactica) and the commitment needed to attract major players willing to fund projects. Episode 2 features director Rachel Talalay (Tank Girl, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, Doctor Who) and her advice on lining up skilled local talent to work on film crews. Coyne is in the process of building a web-based registry which identifies those people and the equipment they have. The registry also catalogs local locations and what they have to offer.
Michale Uslan, executive producer of Batman movies, is the interview subject for Episode 3. In it he talks about cost-cutting incentives such as tax credits and discounts from local businesses to entice film producers to come to Prince George.
The fourth episode features Writer’s Guild award-winning screenwriter Marc Bernardin (Castle Rock, Carnival Row), who highlights the need to connect with powerful industry players in Vancouver, Toronto and Los Angeles to make things happen in northern B.C.
Documentarian Skye Borgman, who produced the Netflix true crime hit Abducted in Plain Sight, about a girl kidnapped twice by the same culprit, wraps up the North-
One person was injured after a driver fled police and crashed into another vehicle last Friday afternoon.
Just after noon on Friday, members of the Prince George RCMP Street Crew Unit attempted to stop a vehicle near the corner of Victoria Street and 15th Avenue/ Patricia Boulevard. The vehicle was associ-
ated with a person wanted on an outstanding arrest warrant, a statement issued by the RCMP said.
“The driver of the vehicle immediately fled north down Victoria Street. In the interest of public safety, officers did not pursue,” the RCMP statement said. “Moments later, RCMP began receiving reports of a two-vehicle collision at the intersection
of (Eighth) Avenue and Vancouver Street. Frontline officers attended and found the suspect vehicle had collided with another vehicle.”
The driver of the vehicle that was hit by the fleeing suspect was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The male suspect fled the scene on foot and got into another vehicle driven by a different man.
ern Lights, Camera, Action with her advice on how to promote projects independently to a wide audience.
In May, Coyne was one of 100 Canadian filmmakers selected for the Netflix-Banff Diversity of Voices fellowship. The professional development program is set up to help aspiring directors and producers connect with high-level executives working for such media platforms such as Vice Canada, Bell Media and History Channel and find out what they are looking for in new content .
“The prize for the fellowship is the connections you make,” said Coyne. “You get private meetings but none of that is happening this year because of COVID, so they’ve gone virtual.
“I’ve been doing all these meetings on Zoom and I’ve learned more in the last two months than I’ve learned in the last three years. You learn about the inner workings of the industry and how to prepare for a pitch and how to be a better filmmaker all around. Just being in those conversations, you pick up things you never thought of and it has my creative juices working overload.”
Police located the second vehicle near the intersection of Third Avenue and Victoria Street and stopped it. The two men, aged 42 and 31, were taken into custody. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300. Tips can also be made anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS(8477).
Patricia Winch of Vanderhoof won $50,000 on a scratch and win ticket.
Citizen staff
A Vanderhoof woman is $50,000 richer after winning the prize on a Bingo Blast scratch and win ticket.
Patricia Winch bought the ticket at 7-Eleven in Vanderhoof and scratched the winning ticket when she got home.
Winch collected her prize using B.C. Lottery Corp.’s alternative prize-claim process. Since travelling isn’t an option because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Winch said she planned to buy some new furniture. Area woman wins $50K
“I noticed that I only needed one more number to win the prize,” Winch said in a press release “When I scratched the next
number, my numbers came up! It took a moment to sink in. I think my daughters were more excited than I was when I told them.”
ARTHUR WILLIAMS Citizen staff
The city needs to install 17 new crosswalks and upgrade 26 existing crosswalks to meet new national safety guidelines, according to a report.
To get the work done over the next 10 years will require more than tripling what the city currently spends each year on crosswalk improvements, city transportation supervisor Chris Vliegenthart wrote in his report. “The city’s current Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Improvements Program is budgeted at $150,000 annually,” the report says. “Funding under the existing program is not sufficient to meet, within a reasonable timeline, the current demand for new crosswalks and to upgrade deficiencies at existing crossings to satisfy the new (Transportation Association of Canada) Guide.”
At the current spending level, it would take the city more than 35 years to install and upgrade the crosswalks to meet the
new standards, Vliegenthart wrote. To get the work done in 10 years would require increasing the funding to $500,000 per year, he wrote.
Stretching the work out to 15 years would reduce the funding requirements to $368,500 per year, Vliegenthart added.
The cost of a single marked crosswalk can range from $5,000 for some signs and painted pavement markings, up to $300,000 for crosswalks with pedestrian-activated traffic signals. Funding for crosswalk improvements is part of the city’s capital spending, not its operational budget.
Prince George currently has 169 marked crosswalks, excluding those at intersections with traffic lights and those on provincial highways, Vliegenthart wrote.
Staff conducted a review of the city’s marked crosswalks based on the new guidelines released in 2018, as well as looking at 33 locations where members of the public have requested the installation of a new marked crosswalk. The number
of requests received from the public has steadily increased, from less than 10 in 2015 to 54 in 2019.
“Staff consider many factors when completing crosswalk assessments, including public requests, collision history, land-use and pedestrian patterns,” Vliegenthart wrote. “Priority is given where a pedestrian crossing has a collision history involving pedestrians.”
The locations rated as high priority were Ospika Boulevard at Davis Road, First Avenue, Exhibition Park and Pinewood Avenue; Fifth Avenue at Stuart Drive, Watrous Street and Alward Street; 15th Avenue at Alward Street, Irwin Street and Ewert Street; Tyner Boulevard at the intersection with Baker Road and Gannett Road; Queensway at Connaught Drive; Massey Drive at Griffiths Avenue; and Domano Boulevard at the west end of Moriarty Crescent. In addition to the 14 high-priority locations, the city has 15 medium-priority and 14 low-priority locations in need of upgrades.
Upgrades at Ospika Boulevard at Davis Road and First Avenue are considered especially high-priority, and upgrades at those two sites is planned this year, Vliegenthart wrote. In June a petition was launched calling for upgrades to the intersection of Ospika Boulevard and First Avenue after an 18-year-old man was struck by a vehicle and seriously injured at the location.
The city’s current crosswalk infrastructure were designed based on provincial guidelines from 1994 and TAC guidelines released in 1998. The new guidelines put more emphasis on pedestrian safety, the report says.
“The methodology of the 2018 TAC Guide focuses more on safe pedestrian movements and less on motor vehicle delays,” Vliegenthart wrote. “In general, the 2018 TAC Guide puts less emphasis on the number of pedestrians using a crosswalk, and more importance on the crossing conditions pedestrians will need to navigate.”
Citizen staff
There’s some good news for 21 agencies chosen by the United Way of Northern BC to receive the final round of allocations for Canada’s Emergency Community Support Fund.
They will receive a share of a $349,000 allotment from the federal government program, set up for COVID-19 relief, which will support 25 programs that help vulnerable people in communities throughout the region
The funded agencies are:
- Autumn Services Society for Senior Support, Fraser Lake (food share program)
- BC Cancer Foundation, Regional (treatment accommodations program)
- Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Quesnel, Quesnel (food, activities for families program
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern BC, Regional (Zoom account support)
- Carney Hill Neighbourhood Centre Society, Prince George (food hampers)
- Child Development Centre Society of Fort St. John & District, (Zoom accounts, IT support)
- Connexus Community Resources (food hampers, hygiene supplies)
- Dze L K’ant Friendship Centre Society, Smithers/Houston/Dease Lake (food hampers and hygiene supplies)
- Fort Nelson Aboriginal Friendship Society Food Bank, Fort Nelson (food bank support)
- Fort Nelson Hospice Society, Fort Nelson (Zoom accounts, IT support)
- Fort St. John Women’s Resource Society, Fort St. John, (food hampers,hygiene supplies)
- Friends of Hudson’s Hope Society, Hudson’s Hope (sup-
port for food bank)
- Islands Wellness Society, Queen Charlotte City (food, meal delivery program)
- Lakes District Family Enhancement Society, Burns Lake (food and hygiene supplies,delivery)
- Nenan Dane zaa Deh Zona Family Services Society, Fort St. John (food, diapers,essential supplies)
- Networks Ministries Dawson Creek (food support)
- Northern Brain Injury Association, Regional (food support)
- Northern Environmental Action Team, Fort St. John (food packaging for meal delivery)
- Parent Support Services of BC (food, cleaning supplies)
- Prince George Brain Injured Group, Prince George (local travel assistance)
- Prince George Native Friendship Centre, Prince George (food hampers)
- Prince Rupert Indigenous Housing Society, Prince Rupert (food supplies)
- Quesnel Women’s Resource Centre, Quesnel (food, essential supplies
- Robson Valley Community Services, Valemount (hygiene supplies)
- Saulteau First Nations, Moberly Lake/Chetwynd (food, activities for families)
- South Peace Art Society - Dawson Creek Art Gallery (craft supplies for families
- South Peace Community Resources Society, Chetwynd/ Tumbler Ridge (meal delivery to seniors)
- The Salvation Army, Fort St. John (food bank)
- Tansi Friendship Centre, Chetwynd (food and supplies)
- Terrace & District Community Services Society, Ter-
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race (hygiene and PPE supplies)
- West Moberly First Nations, Moberly Lake/Chetwynd (food, essential supplies)
Funding requests from 88 agencies received by the United Way of Northern B.C. for ECSF support totaled $2.8 million to help community programs and services. Since the pandemic began, the Northern B.C. branch has allocated a total of $858,000 used to support 55 programs and 44 agencies. Those programs would have otherwise gone without funding.
“The UWNBC team is pleased to support such a strong and valuable initiative to help our most vulnerable right when it’s needed most,” said UWNBC executive director Trista Spencer, in a prepared release. “Our mission is to connect resources to local needs in Northern B.C. and we are proud to say this fund has brought a new and exciting opportunity to communities right across the region.”
Pepper Tree Team is excited to welcome Master Stylist Iwona! Iwona would like to welcome herclients to see her at her new loca tion.
www.thepeppertree.ca
CHRISTINE HINZMANN Citizen staff
The region’s forests are facing another beetle threat.
The spruce beetle’s spread throughout area forests during the past six years has been massive.
In 2013, 7,653 hectares of forest in B.C. were affected by the spruce beetle.
Last year, there was more than 503,799 hectares impacted across the province and more than half of that was in this area.
The Prince George district saw 259,629 hectares of forest hit by the spruce beetle while the Omineca Region, which includes Prince George, Fort St. James, Mackenzie, and Vanderhoof, reported more than 354,000 hectares of damage.
Since 2014, a total of 1.3 million hectares have been impacted in the province, making it the biggest outbreak of spruce beetle infestation since the 1980s.
The spruce beetle, which is endemic to the B.C. forest, prefers to attack old growth trees so as people travel to areas around Prince George like the Tacheeda Lakes area north of Bear Lake, sections of red can be seen in stands of trees that are heavily populated with spruce.
Spruce tree stands are not like pine forests.
There is significant secondary growth in a spruce stand of trees.
Look below the tall spruce in a stand
to see a diverse stand of trees of all ages that include balsam, pine fir, hemlock and spruce growing together.
“I know it looks devastating when you’re
flying over it but there’s a lot more alive in a spruce forest,” John Pousette, director for the Provincial Bark Beetle Response who was appointed to coordinate response efforts across the province, said. “There’s a significant amount of live trees in the understory of a spruce stand. So we want to make sure we’re prioritizing the stands with the most dead trees and not necessarily taking stands that will rebound and recover.”
Gone are the days when clear cutting is the only answer to mitigate a beetle infestation, like what was used years ago to target the pine beetle.
This is an example of what a stand of spruce trees affected by the spruce beetle looks like. This stand is in the Tacheeda Lakes area north of Prince George.
There are a variety of ways to mitigate spruce beetle damage.
The methods include starting with conducting ground and aerial surveys, doing single tree treatments of conventional trap trees, and more aggressive methods like fall and burn, fall and peel, pheromone baiting, sanitation/salvage harvesting, hazard and risk rating and high hazard removal.
Every year, plans are updated after an evaluation to consider the latest in monitoring.
See OUTBREAK page 7
Nicole Elizabeth Louise Alec, the original court date on August 19, 2020 at 9:30 a.m. has been adjourned to August 26, 2020 at 9:30 a.m. at Vancouver FamilyCourt at 800 Robson St., Vancouver,B.C., where the Director of Child, Family andCommunity Services will make an application for aTemporary Custody Order to Other, pursuant to section 41(1)(c) of the Child, Family and Community Services Act in connection with your child, D.A., born February 20, 2020. Youmay participate in court via teleconference by calling 604 681-0260 or 1877 353-9184, ID: 7179762. Youhave the right to be present and be represented by legal counsel.
Nicole Elizabeth Louise Alec, or anyone knowing her whereabouts, please contact Leah Henderson, SocialWorker, Ministry of Children and Family Development, 212-3665 Kingsway,Vancouver,B.C. V5R 5W2. Telephone: 778 572-5068. Collect calls accepted.
As far as controlling the spruce beetle infestation, the government is relying on harvesting while taking extra care to keep the unaffected portion of the forest intact.
“We’re surveying for red attack,” Pousette said.
“We’re flying in helicopters and airplanes and we’re doing a systematic survey to find where the current red is because as a tree gets attacked it generally turns red just like the pine beetle. When we see red we know where the live beetles are and where they’re laying eggs.”
That’s where harvesting takes place and the affected trees are brought to the mill.
“In the process we get rid of the beetle,” Pousette said.
“We’re doing a significant amount of salvage right now because this thing’s been going on since 2014.”
Research in the Ominica Region’s Forest Health Strategy 2018-2019 suggests the outbreak occurred because Prince George and Mackenzie have experienced warmer spring and summer temperatures since 2014.
Those warmer temperatures together with reduced precipitation and trees are uprooted due to wind have seen the spruce beetle thrive as they prefer downed trees to standing trees.
When populations of the spruce beetle are great, like they are now, the beetle will attack live trees.
“They are everywhere and they’re normally knocked back by cold temperatures but since temperatures haven’t been that cold those populations start to grow and that’s one of our biggest issues,” Pousette said.
If there was large concentrations of the beetle in a certain area, it would be a different circumstance where efforts to mitigate could be targeted but because the beetle is everywhere it makes planned mitigation a challenge.
To let nature take its course there needs to be a prolonged period of cold temperatures to kill the spruce beetle.
“The 40 below temperatures we had for a short time last winter wasn’t long enough,”
This 2019 map shows the widespread attack of the spruce beetle on area forests.
Pousette said. “We need an extended period of cold.”
reduction harvesting of spruce-beetle infested stands and hauling and milling strategies that will effectively reduce population spread. from page 6
Pousette said about a week should do the trick.
In the meantime, forest ministry staff continue to work with major licensees to develop and execute plans and management practices that sees targeted pest
CHRISTINE HINZMANN
Citizen staff
Local women’s hockey standout Kiana Wilkinson, 23, has turned pro, signing a contract to join the Kunlun Red Star professional women’s hockey team in Shenzhen, Guangdon, China.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic the team will be based in Russia for at least the first half of the season.
Wilkinson is thrilled with this opportunity.
“It’s something that I’ve only dreamed about,” Wilkinson said.
She started her hockey career at 13 years old.
In her ninth year of figure skating, she broke her arm and while she healed she pulled out some of her older brother Kyler’s hockey equipment. She quickly switched sports and at 16 years old moved to north Vancouver to play for the Pacific Steelers in the Junior Womens’ Hockey League.
Wilkinson ended her successful scholastic career this spring as a member of St. Mary’s Huskies, in Halifax.
The team is part of Atlantic University Sports and Wilkinson was captain for the last two years and played for five.
Unfortunately the team did not qualify to go to the national finals this year but she was honoured with the University Sport second team All-Canadian team award as the national leader for assists for a defence
player and second in points.
“I feel super honoured for sure,” Wilkinson said about the recognition.
“Our team is full of so many talented players so it’s always a team effort and getting that award was an honour, especially in my final year.”
Early in the new year, Wilkinson said she was in contact with the head coach of the Red Star team, Brian Idalski.
“He seemed very interested in me and then the coronavirus became more that it was so I basically packed up my life and drove home with my mom from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Prince George,” Wilkinson said.
She graduated from St. Mary’s with a degree in biology and psychology that she had to complete online.
After that, everything was a big question mark, she added.
“I was just trying to figure out a career because I didn’t think that continuing to play hockey was going to be an option anymore,” Wilkinson said.
As she tried to find a direction to go Wilkinson was contacted by hockey teams in Sweden and Hungary.
“I was just trying to figure out if one of those teams would be a good fit for me but I guess coronavirus was a blessing in disguise because it gave me time to wait things out,” Wilkinson said. “Luckily on (Aug. 9) Brian (coach for the Red Star team) reached out to me to say their sea-
Kiana Wilkinson in action during her time with St. Mary’s Huskies, a university hockey team in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
son was being confirmed and he asked if I was still interested. Everything happened very quickly.”
Wilkinson leaves for Russia in September and the season starts in October with 30 games on the schedule.
Wilkinson already knows two women on the team from her days with the Pacific Steelers when she played early in her career in the Lower Mainland. She feels good about them all traveling to their destination together.
To prepare Wilkinson has been training with her brother Kyler, 25, who is into crossfit.
About six days a week the pair weight lift and do cardio for about two hours.
She’s anxious to get back on the ice and hopes that will happen before she leaves the country.
The games in the Russian league are televised but with the crazy time change Wilkinson suggests people watch the videos that will be posted on YouTube. Wilkinson said the whole experience will be one she cherishes for a lifetime.
“I want to thank everyone for all their support, including coaches and team mates and especially my family, my mom (Coralie), my dad (Shane) and my brother Kyler - without them I wouldn’t be where I am today and I am very excited about this new opportunity,” Wilkinson said.
- with files from Ted
The UNBC Timberwolves men’s basketball team finalized its 2020 recruiting class on Tuesday, picking up shooting guard/small forward Matt Jickling.
The 18-year-old from Regina, Sask. hasn’t visited UNBC’s Prince George campus yet, because of travel restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he said he is keen to join the program.
“I chose the Timberwolves because the program coach (Todd) Jordan described sounded like a great fit for me, athletically and academically,” Jickling said in a press release. “Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, I was unable to tour the campus or speak to the players, but I did meet with coach Jordan. I was really impressed by his approach to focusing on the balance between academics and basketball. It was clear to me that this was the perfect choice for me.”
Jickling stands six-foot-four and can shoot from beyond the arc.
“I am a tall guard and I take pride in my defense. I like to challenge myself to stop
whoever I match up against,” he said in a press release. “I am also a playmaker and I try to find my teammates whenever they’re open.”
Jickling will spend his first season as a redshirt, training with the team and learning from the Timberwolves’ veteran guards like Vova Pluzhnikov, Tyrell Laing, and Payton Tirrell.
“In my first year with the team, I want to get stronger as a player. I want to show my coaches and my teammates what kind of player I am,” Jickling said. “I also want to develop into the best player I can be. As a redshirt, I want to put myself in the best possible position for next year.”
Jordan said the new recruit has plenty of potential.
“We are really happy to add Matt to our program. He is a longer guard who can really shoot the ball,” Jordan said. “We feel that he still has a lot of room to grow and develop and we are excited to work with him through that process. He is a high-level student and should be a great addition to our team and our culture.”
Jickling will study nature-based tourism management at UNBC.
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In the dog days of summer and with so many Canadians weary of talking/thinking about COVID-19 and the WE charity scandal, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you, America, and you never fail to captivate and horrify us simultaneously.
It’s a presidential election year and the two main candidates – Sleepy Joe Biden and the incumbent short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump – are saying it’s the most important vote in American history, like virtually all of the men and one woman vying for the job did before them.
Election years in America often lead to state of the union analyses. Enter Wade Davis, the former Yale professor who has returned to his native B.C. to teach at UBC. You may remember Davis was the guest speaker at a Bob Ewert fundraising dinner for the Northern Medical Program Trust here in Prince George back in 2013. Rolling Stone magazine recently published a lengthy essay by Davis called The Unraveling of America.
In it, Davis lays out a hot buffet of reheated reasons how and why America is falling apart. He lines up all of the usual suspects – racism, religion, urban/rural divide, wage disparity, addictions, homelessness, public health, guns, war, consumerism, exceptionalism, dwindling faith in expertise and institutions, sectarian political strife and on and on. In the end, his essay is really just a greatest hits package of putdowns all American academics and most Canadian citizens have been saying for decades, like the latest one – what borders on stupidity? Mexico and Canada.
Davis was quickly met with a blistering online response, most notably from Deanna Kreisel, an American professor who taught at UBC in Vancouver from 2006 to 2019 before recently taking a position at the University of Mississippi.
In The Unraveling of the Unraveling of America, she shreds Davis and his opinions with arguments that plenty of Canadians, especially those living outside Vancouver and Toronto, would also agree with. Canada has far more in common with the United States than differences.
Except for guns and rabid militarization, Davis’s list of America’s faults is the same as Canada’s but she does more than say
“oh, yeah, well, look at all the ways Canada sucks.” Her core arguments are that Canada and the rest of the world’s democracies struggle with the same issues America does to varying degrees, that the United States has always been more than just its numerous shortcomings and that the country’s many positives have attracted people from around the world to its shores for nearly 250 years.
Anyone cheering for America’s demise and a long overdue comeuppance for its ignorant citizens ignores some harsh realities. If the United States were to truly unravel, there would be little to oppose the anti-democratic, secret police forces of China and Russia from running amok across the globe. The only reason China hasn’t politically and economically throttled Canada into submission over the arrest of Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou, fully brought Hong Kong to heel and invaded Taiwan is solely because of the United States.
America’s Jekyll and Hyde nature has been front and centre from its very inception, when a group of wealthy white men, many of them slave owners, came together to write a revolutionary document that inspired democratic movements around the world.
Humanity has enjoyed an unprecedented level of peace and prosperity in the last 75 years, largely thanks to the same country that opened the era by using atomic weapons to commit mass murder against defenseless civilians. Twice.
The United States has led the world in environmental devastation yet was the birthplace of the environmental movement. The same country that makes people pay for health care, lets anyone who wants to carry around a gun and gives free rein to hate speech and dangerous conspiracy theories also boasts the best universities, the finest research facilities, the most innovative companies and an incredibly diverse array of radical artists, writers and thinkers.
Put simply, the U.S. is the worst country in the world… except for all the others. It is a land of contradictions, depraved and divine, united by its many divisions. Only in America could voters follow up Barack Obama with President Cheeto Christ Stupid Czar.
Hopefully Davis is wrong about America’s unraveling because the United States remains the best worst option we have, regardless of what voters decide on Nov. 3. — Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
In times of crisis, true leaders step forward. While effective political leadership has largely been absent, professional athletes, primarily players in the National Basketball Association and Women’s National Basketball Association, have demonstrated that celebrity status, when embraced with a sense of responsibility, can be a catalyst for global change.
Quite frankly, the examples of selfless leadership demonstrated by professional basketball players in recent months have almost been too many to mention.
When the remainder of the NBA season was cancelled in March, several players, including Kevin Love and rookie Zion Williamson, announced that they would help pay the salaries of stadium employees who found themselves out of work.
After the death of George Floyd, many players risked their health and their reputations by participating in protests.
As the NBA and WNBA have resumed play in their COVID-19 bubbles, the state-
ment “Black Lives Matter” has been front and centre. Players also advocated to be allowed to display social justice messages on their uniforms and the leagues obliged, albeit in a limited format. At a time when many are asking how we can bring about effective change, players remind us that we need racial justice, equality and education reform. We need to say the names of victims of racial violence and we need to stand up for one another.
It is also significant to note both leagues have strong international components, with players who come from all over the world and many others who have played outside of North America. They all make it clear to us that racism is a global issue.
Toronto Raptors star Serge Ibaka is from a former French colony, the Republic of Congo. He wears the phrase, “Respectez
biso,” which translates to “respect us.”
This message reflects the cultural and linguistic richness of his region, combining both French and Lingala to make a powerful statement.
France, like all European colonizers, does not have a stellar record in respecting the rights of Africans. The situation was even worse across the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a former Belgian colony, where Ibaka’s mother was born. The exploitation of the African continent by foreign interests continues to this day, as do poverty and violence.
Ibaka clearly understands the global significance of the Black Lives Matter movement. He states, “What is going on in the United States is what is going on everywhere…. in Congo, in Africa, in all the countries in Europe, it’s happening too, in different ways. The fight we’re fighting here is bigger than the fight people are thinking [about] because if we can win this fight here, we’re going to change a lot of things around the world.”
Patty Mills of the San Antonio Spurs also understands the responsibility that goes
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along with his status. He and his family have experienced horrendous racism as Indigenous Australians. Not only has Mills volunteered many hours in his homeland, he has agreed to donate his earnings from the NBA restart, a sum of over $1 million US to social justice causes in Australia. WNBA players are also speaking out courageously and have even shown a willingness to take on rich and powerful people who oppose the Black Lives Matter movement. League commissioner Cathy Engelbert expressed pride in the players “who continue to lead with their inspiring voices and effective actions in the league’s dedicated fight against systemic racism and violence.”
Many consider basketball, when it is played well, as the ultimate team game. NBA and WNBA teams demonstrate the amazing synergy that happens when talented people from all over the world come together in an environment of mutual respect.
It is time to not only recognize the character of these great athletes, it is time for us to follow their leadership.
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“Switch over and get 50 per cent off our regular fees and the second year free!”
You know the deals; you hear them all the time. Whether its phone services, internet providers, subscription newsletters or magazines, insurance, security systems, and a variety of other goods and services, it seems that some businesses want to offer deals to new customers that they refuse to offer to loyal clients.
Recently I negotiated a 75 per cent discount on a service that I receive to my house after I told the supplier that I believed I no longer needed it. I had been a customer of this company for 35 years and I felt that they had taken my loyalty for granted. In an effort to stop my departure they reduced my costs substantially and then came the pitch for additional services. Because I was ready to upgrade my internet services, I took their offer on a two-year contract. We settled on a price and everyone seemed happy.
Two hours later, the company was desperately calling and emailing me. It seems that they had made a mistake. They had bought out my service provider the previous month so I was already their customer and they couldn’t offer me any deals. Seems like they were prepared to offer substantial deals to strangers but not to friends.
We see these senseless practices all the time in business. Why would you treat an unknown new customer better than you treat a customer who has been loyal to you for years? Why is it that we think that these new customers are going to stick around after their contract expires?
Unfortunately, this type of thinking breeds discontent with loyal long-term
customers. When your loyal customers feel neglected and mistreated compared to your new customers there is a level of discontent that breeds embitterment. I had someone this week tell me how upset they feel when they see this practice but are refused a similar deal after contacting their supplier.
Companies need to realize how embarrassing this is for staff who must deny these deals to loyal customers. Not only are they setting their employees up to respond to irate customers, but the customer now has to make a choice between staying with that company and looking elsewhere for a similar product or service.
A better way to handle business development is to create an environment where there is substantial value for new clients to do business with your firm while recognizing and rewarding loyalty.
By being proactive with pricing and transparent with deals, trustworthy companies will not only adjust prices for short-dated products and services but
At one point the words “our neoliberal fallacy propelled by its own nihilistic inertia into the abyss” graced this page in early drafts. My work wife, a perfect caricature of a modern Grit who voted for Trudeau twice, said that simply wouldn’t help me get my point across on “Me to We.” I strongly disagree - therapeutic techniques pale in comparison to Old Testament verbiage, from colour to results. But I’m always up for a challenge. Here then is my attempt to tone it all down. The WE scandal enveloping Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his family, and his cabinet is not the worst ethics violation or egregious political play ever witnessed. John A. Macdonald’s Pacific scandal and Mackenzie King’s customs scandal were both far clearer breaches of the law in both spirit and word; MK did a better job of obscuring it by picking a fight with Governor General Byng, while Old Tomorrow had written a telegram demanding funds immediately for reelection.
offer new products, services and technologies to existing customers at rates similar to those they are offering to new prospects.
Service providers would gain much more respect offering their customers advantages months before their contracts expired instead of waiting until the last minute or by notifying them of beneficial newly obtained products.
Taking care of our customers can be a lot of work, however there are studies that show it costs five to ten times as much to bring a new customer up to speed than to take care of an existing one. Treating our loyal customers with honour and respect should include giving them proactive pricing and consideration for their dependable patronage. Failure to achieve this results in a dysfunctional business model necessitating a ceaseless search for new customers.
Dave Fuller, MBA, is an award-winning business coach and the author of Profit Yourself Healthy. Discontent or loyal follower? Email dave@profityourselfhealty.com
It seems that the lumber companies, Canfor in particular, are holding the township of Mackenzie for ransom while they try to extort a payment from the B.C. government in the form of lower stumpage rates. Any place else, it would be criminal activity. In commerce, it seems to be business as usual.
The B.C. government must not give in. It is well known that success in ransom taking encourages more of the same. Rather, the issuing of licenses to cut timber must be tightened up to discourage this kind of bad behaviour. In particularly, licenses
But the word “odious” is so apropo for the current disgrace in Ottawa precisely because the intimacy between the parties involved does not pass the smell test. When the First Minister of a 35 million strong nation has family who are regularly sought out and paid by an organization that won an uncompetitive contract, a raised eyebrow or two is certainly in order. When it seems that to these accused this is simply business as usual, tis time to gather tar and goose down.
To be clear, WE has its tentacles in everything and that is partly our fault. There was a time when merit counted and one could come up through the ranks - constituent assistants went on to become legislative assistants, eventually becoming the senior apparatchiks of parties as well as the elected officials of their hometowns. Now we have an internship-consultancy-lobbyist
should be issues on conditions that logs be milled at the nearest available plant to where they were cut and the cutting be completed within a specified time.
Ross Pearce Prince George
Government can call me but I cannot call them.
They put you on hold for hours. It’s a big waste of time.
Airlines in Canada will not answer their phone, Government trained, they have no need to pick up the phone for business
post-industrial complex that allows people to bypass anytime they might converse with voters.
This is a bipartisan issue, external as well as internal. The amount of Tory insiders that I met who had absolute contempt for the base was second only to the Grits and Dippers who are paid to hate us. Someday, when I am made emperor of the Conservative internship selection committee because all other options are clearly sub-optimal, I will explain to these earnest teens that we are not here to censor members and our mission is to work ourselves out of a career.
The point is imperialism has no place in government and the cousin of imperialism is aristocracy of the nouveau riche kind, where close cousins of a particular class hand each other afterwork and favours. All Trudeau and his family are guilty of in a sense is getting caught doing what everyone does - chasing contracts to help manufacture consent amongst a populace too over stimulated and exhausted to defend itself.
There are ways forward. In the age of COVID-19, the perfect opportunity to
because the government bails them out. The airline employees are given 75 per cent of their wages; at least they should have them answer their phones.
Phone companies in Canada will not answer their phones, again showing there’s no need to answer the phone because they have your business corralled. It’s easy to say go online but I am 70 years old and that does not work well for me.
Rural towns all over Canada have very poor data and Wi-Fi service. I heard the government had 36,000 employees ready to call us about COVID-19 but you cannot call them. Recently on the news, 40 some thousand Federal Government employees
change has been offered to us. Simply put, people must stop providing children for third parties to exploit via indoctrination that does not emphasize sacrifice as its central ethic; from lining up with newborns for placements in French Immersion to teens asking for sponsorship at “Me to We” events, all of it contributes to a leadership class system that does not empathize with those it claims to rule.
Again, this is the toned down version, though the colour has bled through too many times already for my detractors I’m sure.
But if I may be allowed to lean into it for a moment, left wing or right wing, we have forgotten that “the least of these” is whom we are supposed to help, not seek rent from. Without bothering to look it up, I’m fairly certain “WE” was about helping with all kinds of mental illness - if that mission surprises you, I’d argue that is their problem, not yours.
Calling for resignations from our Prime Minister or his cabinet is a futile but necessary act. Far better for all parties and people to return to instruments that instill virtue and sacrifice.
are at home collecting their wages. Lots of people are out of work, so get the economy going and hire them to answer the phone, being as the ones already hired can’t. For all levels of government, I don’t care anymore what you or your party stands for or what you or they do. I am only voting for those that can answer the phone and fine those corporations that wish to play that on hold game too.
So now if you get on board, our governments will change their practice and answer the phones or we put them on the side lines, period.
Harry Ulch Prince George
Do you remember what you were doing on Jan. 25? That was the day the first case of a novel coronavirus was reported in Canada. On Jan. 22, a man returned from Wuhan to Toronto and felt fine with no symptoms. The next day, he became sick enough to need hospitalization.
As with all new infectious agents, the public health system responded quickly, isolating the patient in a negative pressure room. Contact tracing began and fortunately, only one other person turned out to have the virus. But on Jan. 25, Health Canada declared Canada now had COVID-19. It was just over six months ago. It has been almost eight months since the first cases of a mysterious pneumonia were reported to WHO by China. And possibly nine months since the first cases of the illness were possibly detected.
Yet in that short period of time so much has changed. Worldwide, according to the John Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard, over 21 million cases of the disease have been reported with 761,393 people having died because of the virus. In Canada, those numbers are 123,318 cases and 9,067 deaths. In British Columbia, 4,274 cases and 196 deaths. We presently have
578 active cases and 3,500 people listed as recovered.
Of course, I am writing this on Aug. 13 and all of those numbers will be out of date within hours. The number of daily new cases is increasing as the virus spreads around the world and throughout our communities.
Further, these are the cases where the patient has sought out a test. Epidemiologists estimate for every case tested, there are another 10 who do not get tested either because their symptoms are so mild they don’t think they have the disease or because they are actually asymptomatic and feel fine.
On top of this is the latency period between the time when a person comes in contact with the virus and the time when their viral load is enough to cause symptoms and they become infectious.
All of this is to say we are well and truly in the thick of this pandemic right now and it is not going to disappear any time soon despite what naysayers may think. There
In our attempt to recognize, categorize and differentiate, individuals are waging the Third World War and we won’t even realize this until it is too late.
My family moved to tPrince George when I was six years old. I have always found PG to be a wonderfully welcoming community, filled with many generous and friendly folks. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to call this small northern city home. Perhaps it is because I grew up in a big family or perhaps the reason that I am very passionate about inclusion is because my heart doesn’t allow me to accept it when people feel alone; especially, since there are so many of us humans living on this planet.
I am not perfect, I do not believe that anyone is, and I do not claim to know all of the answers to the world’s problems. Thanks to my life’s experiences, I am able to recognize the civil unrest happening throughout the world.
Those who know me will tell you that I am a willing and passionate volunteer when it comes to community building. Of all of my roles, I am perhaps most thankful for the opportunity to lead a tremendously kind group of people to be a welcoming committee for new residents of PG who seek out interest-based opportunities for fellowship and belonging in this community. This program is called ConnectPG. Together, with the help of Mark Wessner and Ryan Beer, in 2015 we set out to create a system for helping this community become more inclusive towards those who move to PG from other places within Canada and throughout the world. Over
is so much more that we need to learn about the disease and its effects. Why is it so virulent? What exactly is it doing in our bodies? Is it mutating?
It has been estimated well over 60,000 academic papers on COVID-19 have been published since the outbreak began. Biochemists, microbiologist, genetic researchers, medical doctors, and health professionals of all stripes are trying to come to grips with the virus.
One thing that is becoming clear is that recovery from the virus is not going to be simple. Most of us have had the flu. You feel lousy for a few days, maybe a fever or chills, and maybe vomiting or diarrhea, but they you recover and get on with your life. Within a week or so, it is like the flu never happened.
Not so for many patients with COVID-19. In a recent article in Science, neuroscientist Athena Akrami discusses her recovery. “I used to go to the gym three times a week” she says but now “my physical activity is bed to couch, maybe couch to kitchen.”
She had textbook COVID-19 symptoms –a fever, cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, and extreme fatigue. But despite being considered recovered, her symptoms have persisted. Since March, she has had only three weeks when her body tempera-
ture was normal.
And she is not alone. Thousands of postCOVID-19 patients – considered recovered by a strict medical definition – have lingering symptoms, including fatigue, racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, achy joints, persistent loss of their sense of smell, brain fog, and permanent damage to the heart, lungs, kidneys, and brain.
The likelihood of any particular patient developing persistent symptoms is still one of the unknowns. It does not seem to track with the severity of the initial illness. For example, in one case a man had a mild infection while an elderly woman ended up in the hospital on a ventilator. Yet, he has been suffering from fatigue, falling asleep all day long and cannot work, while she has no symptoms except minimal lung damage.
It is clear that in the wake of the pandemic there will be an epidemic of chronic illness to follow. Many research groups are already setting up to follow patients for at least the next year and possibly for the next 25 years to assess the long term impact of the disease and its effects on the health of these patients.
Jan. 25 may have been the day the first case was reported in Canada but it is also likely to be the starting point of a very long battle for many patients.
the past five years, ConnectPG has held many events, group meetings and one-onone meetings as a way to engage in the practice of inclusion. At the same time, we have worked to encourage other towns and cities to do the same.
As I watch people throughout the world striving to find meaning within racial division, my heart is quietly beating out these words: “act, don’t react.”
Leaning on the teachings of great leaders, such as Gandhi, who spent most of his life living in exile, Martin Luther King, whose greatest asset was his sense of belonging, and Mother Teresa, a woman who selflessly taught the world the lesson that “we are all equals,” I try to use my head and my hands to honor their teachings by leading in ways that highlight inclusion. Yesterday, I learned of a new community group starting up in Prince George. While this was wonderful news, at the same time I learned that the purpose for this group is to exclusively serve the needs of Afro and Caribbean people moving to PG. Have we not come so far as a society to recognize that the more we differentiate ourselves, the less we are able to come together to solve tough issues. This is not to say that we should not find ways to celebrate our heritages and cultures, or that assimilation is the key to inclusion. On the contrary, we should both celebrate and share our traditions. I am sure that many would agree with me that life would be boring without this.
I am curious if others are feeling that there is a global movement, based on racial identification, that is dividing us on an individual level. If humans are not careful,
this unrest could lead to war. here will be no getting away from the negative effects of a war that is happening on every front. Some will try to support; some may try to engage, while others will disenfranchise themselves from the whole human race.
I urge you to do the math, take stock of the things that are happening around you in reference to this global social movement. Which side will you take? The teachings of great leaders have shown us the value of community and personal triumph. An answer is needed to soothe the pain caused by generations of human enslavement and power-over relationships. The key to this challenge lies in the personal responsibility of each one of us to manage our own power in ways that do not extend outside oneself.
Fifty years from now, will we have accomplished what we are setting out to do as a human population, to try to create a more sustainable world for ourselves and further generations, with the adversity and division that we are just beginning to create using social media, by insisting that racial identity continues to define our lives and our day-to-day actions?
When you seek out information on things you need, how easy is it for you to find this information? Do you find yourself needing a personal assistant just to wade through your options? Do you feel like these behaviors are the most efficient and sustainable use of your time and the planet’s finite resources? Many of us shop at box stores because it allows us to get a long list of items we require. We need to be thinking more like this as we create new community programs and services. We need to be le-
veraging partnerships and resources if we want to retain our current lifestyles. Most of all, we need to feel like we belong, and this cannot happen unless we create a collective vision for our community’s, based on our interests, and not on race, or the place where we were born.
Laurie Dillman
Prince George
Gary and his wife, Carroll, were the best of friends with my wife Lou and me. When our wives died last year, we were heartbroken.
To help with the grieving process, we chose a location on Cottonwood Island Park overlooking the Nechako River too have two memorial benches placed. This a wonderful program run by caring civic workers.
I was in Port Alberni when they were installed but our friend Al sent pictures of Gary sitting on Carroll’s bench beside Lou’s. I was eagerly looking forward to seeing them and spending time there.
As I rounded the last quarter of the trail, I saw Lou’s bench but Carroll’s bench was missing. I could hardly believe my eyes. Someone had stolen Carroll’s bench. How could anyone be so mean-spirited and cruel?
However, the thief had been seen. It was someone riding a quad towing a cart with a bench on it.
Good citizens of Prince George, help us get Carroll and Gary’s bench back.
Thank you.
Eddie Johnson Prince George
ARTHUR WILLIAMS Citizen staff
The Prince George Airport is expecting it could take years before passenger levels return to pre-COVID-19 levels.
CEO Gordon Duke and airport authority chairman Dean Mason provided an update to city council on Monday night.
“COVID has hit us very hard. We first talked about this in a managerial meeting in January. We thought we’d have a rough Q1 and be back to normal by June,” Duke said. “What we’re looking at is three to five years recovery to get back to 2019 passenger levels.”
Flights and passenger numbers have dropped by roughly 90 per cent in April and May, he said.
“Our revenue is pretty much nil,” he said. “(But) YXS, compared to other Canadian airports, is in pretty good shape. Through the good financial management of the Prince George Airport Authority, the airport is in pretty good financial shape.”
By accessing some of the financial aid available from the federal government, the airport hasn’t been forced to layoff any staff. With less activity at the airport, staff have been working with Meals on Wheels to support the community and taking part in the #supportPG movement, Duke said.
“The idea is a healthy local economy
2015 Canada Winter Games volunteers cheer the arrival of Team Manitoba athletes at the Prince George Airport. Airport officials say it could take years for flight and passenger numbers to recover because of COVID-19.
is going to put more people in airplane seats,” he said.
The local economy will be key to the airport’s recovery, he added.
“I think we are going to see a slow, very measured recovery,” Duke said. “(But) as
tough as it is, I think there will be some very nimble airlines who take advantage of this. I think there is a lot of pent up demand.”
Coun. Terri McConnachie said the prospect of a three-to-five year recovery is sobering.
“When you compare the number of flights to one short year ago, it’s a big drop,” McConnachie said. “We’ll get through this. I can’t wait to go back to Mexico one day, or other parts of the world.”
The new owners of The Generator are hoping to reopen the downtown nightclub. On Monday night, city council voted to show its support for the club owners’ application for a liquor license. Under the application, the owners intend to operate the club from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m daily.
“Generator Nightclub aspires to be a new place for grown ups to meet have fun enjoy and have a good time while Drinking responsibly...” Generator Entertainment Services director Zorwar Saini wrote in a letter of intent provided to city council.
“Our establishment will also have some games like pool & snooker tables, dart
boards, foosball table, etc.”
The nightclub has a long history in the city. The Van Oord family purchased the club in 1977 and operated it for decades, before its closure in 2016.
In his report to city council, city general manager of planning and development Ian Wells said city staff didn’t anticipate any
negative impacts to be caused by the club reopening.
John Kason of Simply Put Financial Services Inc., the property’s neighbour, supported the liquor application.
“We look forward to seeing the downtown become a vibrant entertainment district,” Kason wrote.
Over the past few weeks, Cindy Blackstock has been hosting a tutorial on systemic racism on her Twitter account.
The executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, Blackstock was born in Burns Lake. Along with her honourary doctorate from UNBC, this amazing Gitzsan woman has a PhD from the University of Toronto and is a member of the social work faculty at McGill University.
In other words, her life experience and her education makes her uniquely qualified in helping all Canadians understand what systemic racism looks like for Indigenous peoples in this country.
She has been tagging her posts with “#fairnessforeveryone” because fairness is where many white folks falter when it comes to even acknowledging the existence of systemic racism.
As a white male in his 50s, I was taught the history of Canada’s settlers in elementary school in the 1970s and high school in
the 1980s.
I was taught about Samuel de Champlain and John Cabot, Simon Fraser and Alexander Mackenzie.
I was not taught about how European diseases decimated the Indigenous population and then residential schools were used as a genocidal weapon on the people that were left.
A former policy advisor to Pierre Trudeau taught my university course in Canadian history, who fondly added numerous behind-the-scenes anecdotes about “Pierre.”
He did not teach us about Trudeau’s 1969 White Paper that called for eliminating the Indian Act because the special status it conferred on Indigenous peoples
collided with Trudeau’s idealistic view that all Canadians should be treated “fairly,” whatever their race, language or background.
Naturally, the last people to find out about this policy proposal were the very people it affected because consultation was unheard of and educated white men like my history prof knew best, just ask them.
The example is half a century old but that’s what systemic racism looks like and, as Blackstock clearly shows in her Twitter thread with numerous examples, it remains a huge, unresolved problem.
There are really just two responses from non-Indigenous Canadians who were taught a whitewashed version of the national history as heroic white settlers conquering a vast, dangerous wilderness.
We can continue to cling to a vision of Canada’s past that is little more than a racist lie or we can recognize our education was incomplete, at best.
We can continue to cling to what Black
scholars call “white innocence” – the notion that because we didn’t know, we’re therefore absolved of any responsibility to change the systemic racism that has benefited us our entire lives. Or we can recognize that we should be better than our ancestors and we must teach our children to be better than us.
We can continue to demonize, trivialize and marginalize Indigenous people and, with a straight face, claim that we still know what’s best for “those people” and we’re doing all we can to address their suffering.
wOr we can recognize that reconciliation lifts everyone up, makes everyone better, and forges a stronger, more complete Canada.
We can be on the wrong side or the right side of historical progress.
We can maintain a system of fairness that is clearly unfair or we can revise our notion of fairness to truly include everyone.
#fairnessforeveryone.
STEVE MACNAULL
Special to The Citizen
It’s Tuesday night and the new Restaurant at Naramata Inn is bumping.
Every table in the high-ceilinged dining room is full, as are the tables on the heritage hotel’s covered veranda, which doubles as the restaurant’s patio.
Between plating meals in his dream kitchen, celebrity chef and inn co-owner Ned Bell is making a point of mingling at every table.
He wants to make sure diners know he’s now at the helm, the food and wine are terroir-driven and that the Naramata Inn is back.
The 12-room inn, across the street from Okanagan Lake in small town Naramata, north of Penticton and across the lake from Summerland, was built in 1907 by town founder, land baron and tree-fruit pioneer J.W. Robinson.
The inn attracted some of the first tourists to the Okanagan and Robinson, a fun-loving character, and his wife threw some legendary parties at the Mission-style mansion.
Over the past 113 years, the inn’s history has been rocky.
Several owners and operators have tried with various amounts of success to make a go of the business, only to all eventually call it quits and put the property up for sale.
The Naramata Inn was sitting empty two years ago when Bell, his wife, publicist extraordinaire Kate Colley, designer Maria Wiesner and retired A&W Canada CEO Paul Holland, decided to buy it and turn it into a boutique hotel and restaurant to die for.
Bell is originally from Penticton and went on to a storied culinary career, including being mentored by renowned chef Rob Feenie at Le Crocodile and Lumiere in Vancouver; chef at Yew Restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver; appearances on TV shows Cook Like A Chef, It’s Just Food and Iron Chef Canada; writing the cookbook Lure: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the West Coast as Ocean Wise’s executive chef; and cycling 8,700 kilometres across Canada to raise awareness for sustainable seafood.
“The Naramata Inn is a unique place, a true inn, a restaurant with rooms,” says Bell.
“Being from Penticton, I feel I was destined to cook at the Naramata Inn. It’s my destiny. It’s a dream come true.” And Bell is dreaming big.
His goal is to have the best restaurant in Canada and the top wine list in the Okanagan Valley, a region known for it 250 wineries.
If the meal my wife Kerry and I had, plus our overnight stay at Naramata Inn is any indication, Bell is well on the way to his goal.
We feasted on scallops with glasses of Albarino from nearby Terravista Winery and halibut paired to sips of Riesling from Synchromesh, another neighbouring winery.
The rooms are stuffed with heritage charm, antiques, claw-foot bathtubs and comfy beds draped in all-white linens.
The 113-year-old Mission-style mansion Naramata Inn, above, is a 12-room boutique hotel with the restaurant owned and operated by celebrity chef Ned Bell. The rooms at the Naramata Inn, below, are heritage-chic.
Overnight room rates start at $219 and entrees in the dining room start at $21.
Book at NaramataInn.com.
Kerry and I rounded out our South Okanagan foray by cycling from winery to winery in Naramata along the Kettle Valley Rail Trail and finishing up at Cannery Brewing in downtown Penticton for glasses of summer craft brews Okanagan Daze and
Sunblink Berry Sour in the brewery’s new backyard.
A quick jaunt down to Osoyoos near the Canada-U.S. Border saw us check into Watermark Beach Resort for pool time, paddle boarding with Wakepilot in adjacent Osoyoos Lake, which touts warmest-lake-in-Canada status, and dinner of Cobb salad and rose wine from Bartier
Brothers Winery in Oliver at the resort’s Patio restaurant.
We wandered off-site to taste at Osoyoos’ newest winery, Lakeside, and had lunch of braised bison and Nk’Mip rose with a view at Nk’Mip Winery’s patio.
Check out VisitPenticton.com and DestinationOsoyoos.
arry Gairns, a former president and manager of Industrial Forestry Service Limited, was born in the northwest village of Atlin in 1932. His grandfather came to Atlin from Scotland near the end of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. At one time, there were 10,000 people in the area; now there are less than 500 full time residents.
Harry’s father was born in Atlin and worked as a miner. In 1942, the family moved to Vancouver for better education opportunities for Harry and his brother Dave.
The move to a big city after living in near isolation was quite a shock for young Harry. He remembers getting all the childhood diseases that first winter in Vancouver. The weather in Atlin was cold and dry and it seemed like it rained every day in Vancouver.
Harry graduated from high school in 1950 and enrolled at UBC that fall. After a compulsory year of arts and ccience, he chose forest engineering and graduated in 1955. He studied hard and was able to win several scholarship awards during those five years at UBC including the Canadian Institute of Forestry gold medal for the best overall record in forestry and forest engineering in his final year.
He married Margaret Joughin and the newlyweds moved to Prince George in 1955 where he started his nearly 40-year career with IFS. He was the vice president in 1959 and moved up to the position of president in 1969.
Harry can recount stories associated with the development of the forest industry - as far back as horse logging, towing logs in northern lakes, winter logging roads and ice-bridges, as well as life in logging camps and the evolution of forestry policies. A report by IFS, commissioned by the Prince George Industrial Development Commission in 1959, contributed to the establishment of the first pulp mill in Prince George in the mid 60s. Under his direction, IFS pioneered many improvements in forestry practices, including early use of computers, photogrammetric mapping and the establishment of the Ness Lake Forest Nursery now producing some 20 million trees for reforestation each year.
In 2001, Harry was appointed the board chair of the newly-created Northern Health Authority, the largest geographical healthcare region in the province.
Harry and Margaret had three children: Dr. Anne Poussette, Doug and Stuart, all still living in Prince George, who in turn gave them eight grandchildren.
Margaret was a school teacher before she married and when all the children started school she worked as a substitute teacher. Sadly, and after 56 years of marriage, Margaret passed away in 2011. In 2015, Harry married Barb (nee Longmore) Wilchek.
Barb Longmore was born in Vancouver in 1938. She said, “I was an only child and I hated my last name. We moved around a lot in the Vancouver area and I had to make new friends at several schools. The kids
at school teased me and called me ‘Barb the lawnmower.’ I used to get so upset and when my mother re-married to Jack Whitlock I was more than happy to have a name change. He worked for Mott Electric and was transferred to Prince George to manage their branch here. The move to Prince George also allowed me to attend the same school for four years and make lifelong friends.
“I met and married Fred Wilchek in 1959 when he was working as a repairman at Mott Electric. I worked at the Bank of Montreal as a bank teller and later Fred was hired by BC Tel as an engineering technician.
“I was a member of the Hospital Auxiliary for 35 years and an active member of St. Giles Presbyterian church since 1982.
“We had three children; Glen, Karen and
Susan who in turn gave us four grandchildren and one great granddaughter.
“Fred retired after 35 years of service with BC Tel and we were enjoying our retirement when sadly he passed away in 2011 at the age of 79 and after 52 years of a good marriage.
“Years went by and I was doing OK. I needed my lawnmower repaired (ha ha!) and a member of my church suggested that another church member - Harry Gairns - would be able to help me with the repair so I contacted him.
“We became friends, he shared produce from his garden and he took me out dancing. Dancing is now our passion and it keeps us healthy and involved.
“We got engaged on a Caribbean cruise, got married at St. Giles Church in March of 2015 and now live happily ever after!”
Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the numbers 1through 9only once.
Each 3x3 box is outlined with adarker line. You already have afew numbers to get you started. Remember: you must not repeat the numbers 1through 9inthe same line, column or 3x3 box.
Please join me in reflecting on cultural safety and our joint responsibility in creatingculturally safe spaces for all. Iwould like to share these documents widely,with the hope that they will help how you think about and approach cultural safety.This is especially important duringthistime, in the COVID -19 pandemic, which is challenging and pressuringall of us. It’s so important we thinkabout our actions and how we approach each other.
At Northern Health, the Indigenous Health team is working hard with leadership to develop culturally safe practices across all spectrums of the work we do, for the people we serve. It’s not just about looking inward, it’s about sharing information andhelping others recognize their role in making our workplaces and communities safe for everyone and free of negative discrimination.
The materials Iamsharing arehere to help you. The Indigenous Health website has additional information, as well as links to provincialand national resources. Each of us has to step into this journey on our own, but the Indigenous Health team is here to help provide advice, guidance, and information to our staff,physicians, and our communities to help make our workplaces and communities better for everyone.
-Dr.Margo Greenwood
Cultural Safety resources:
1. Thinking about cultural safety: https://www.indigenoushealthnh. ca/sites/default/files/august-2020/ Thinking-about-cultural-safetyCOVID19.pdf
2. Practical tips during COVID -19: https://www.indigenoushealthnh. ca/sites/default/files/august-2020/ Practical-Tips-During-COVID -19.pdf
Communities are resilient when they are able to respond to, withstand, adapt, and recover from adverse situations. The COVID -19 pandemichas created many challenges for Northern communities and community service organizations: it has changed how they deliver services, communicate with members, and run programming. New health and wellness needs within communities have also surfaced duetoCOVID -19, which organizations are facing at the ground level.
In response to these new challenges, Northern Health is releasing anew funding opportunity
Resilient Communities Grants are now available!
This is aone-time support for groups and organizations who need assistance
By Holly Hughes, Healthy Settings Advisor
adapting their practices and/or responding to new community health and wellness needs as aresult of COVID -19. Community or Indigenous organizations, non-profits, local governments, and schools are all eligible to apply
Grants are availablefor amaximum of $5,000 and applications arebeing accepted until funding is exhausted.
Information on eligibility,application details, and links to other funding opportunities canbefound on the Resilient Communities Grants webpage (https://www.northernhealth.ca/services/ healthy-living-in-communities/resilientcommunities-grants).
There are also other COVID -19 funding opportunities available to community organizations and businesses.
Richard A. Mackenzie Capt., CD (R’td) June 19, 1954 – August 13, 2020
Beloved husband, father, grandpa, brother and friend.
JACK HENRY
1950 - 2020
JACK HENRY born May 24, 1950 passed away on July 30, 2020. He is survived by his loving wife Joyce Henry, his children, grandchildren and numerous family and friends. He will be greatly missed by all.
Randy Horrocks
Dec 12, 1959 - Aug 21, 2019
Sadly Randy passed away after a fierce battle with cancer, he fought hard and very bravely right to the end in my loving arms at home, exactly where he wanted to be.
A private service was held to honour Randy’s life.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, September 19, 2020 at the mouth of Stone Creek where the creek runs into the Fraser River off Highway 97 from 12 pm - 4 pm. Please bring a comfy chair and a fond memory to share.
For more info and to confirm attendance, contact Gail (250) 612-8505 gailmacdar_64@yahoo.ca
September 2, 1945August 11, 2020
Rachelle Clare Green (née Riggan), 74, passed away peacefully with her family by her side on August 11, 2020. Born in Edson, Alberta, on September 2, 1945, she was the daughter of the late Donald Harvey Riggan and Gladys Alexina Riggan (née Garneau).
She is survived by her loving husband of 45 years, Wayne; her two daughters, Carianne (Mike) and Teresa (Jason); her grandchildren, Caleb and Elizabeth; and her siblings, Donald, Brian, David, Robert, and Patricia.
She will be remembered for her strength and for her devotion as a wife and mother.
In light of the times, family will celebrate her life in small, private gatherings. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Prince George Hospice Society.
Condolences may be offered at www.AssmansFuneralChapel.com
February 24, 1944August 11, 2020
It is with heavy hearts that the family of Brian Beach announce his peaceful passing at Prince George Hospice House at the age of 76. He will be lovingly remembered by his wife of 52 years, Rita. He also leaves behind his son Jeff and his grandson Brendan, his sister Brenda (Gary) Peacock, nephew Jason (Danica) Peacock, sister-in-laws Helga (Gordon) Ross and Edna Kopeck and numerous nieces and nephews.
Brian was predeceased by his parents Alfred/Gladys Beach and his in-laws Gus/Greta Angoldt, sister-inlaw Walda (Alex) Reszinyk, and brother-in-law Walter Angoldt.
Brian was born in Vancouver and moved to Prince George in 1948. He attended King George V, Duchess Park and graduated from PGSS after Grade 13. He attended BCIT, completed his apprenticeship and began his career as a Master Electrician. He worked in the construction Industry throughout B.C. for 24 years, then joined the City of Prince George in 1984 as an electrician and retired in 2011.
Brian was the President of the Courtyard Condo and true to his nature he would assist everyone in the complex with their maintenance problems. He loved helping people.
We would like to express our heart-felt thanks to the Cancer Clinic, Prince George Hospice House, Drs Lakhoo, Wankling, Palerme, Filatov, Gary and Brenda Peacock, Edna Kopeck, and the residents of the Courtyard.
Due to COVID-19 a Celebration of Life will be held, at a later date.
In lieu of flowers donations to Prince George Hospice House would be appreciated in Brian’s memory.
GERALD HUTTER
2x77.8
PGC002031
Hutter,DaleM.
August31,1957-August5,2020
Withdeepsorrow,weareannouncingthepassingofDale HutteronAugust5,atPrinceGeorge.
DalewasadearhusbandtoSandy;afathertoJeremy; father-in-lawtoCyndi;grandpatoWilliam,Jordy,and Ryder;andstep-fathertoChristinaandWill.Hewasa brothertoLorne,Lucille,Jerry,Mary,andBob.Included arehisextendedfamilyandnumerousfriends.Dalewas predeceasedbyhisparents,JohnandKarolaHutter.
Dale’shighlysociablepersonality,cleverwit,andunique talentscausedhimtobelovedbyeverygenerationofhis familyandeveryonehemet,withoutexception.Hekept closecontactwithallfamilymembers,fromtheyoungest totheeldest.
Dale’spassionsweretheoutdoors,hunting,cooking, drawing,music,Dodgecars,andhumour.HeandSandy couldoftenbefoundinthebackcountryencountering wildlife,fishing,pickingberries,orhavingwienerroasts inthesnow.
Dalewasaverysociablemanwithanunparalleledsense ofhumour.Hecouldtakeanysituationandtwistitaround intosomethingfunny.DalewasoftenaskedtobetheMC forspecialeventsandbecauseofhishumour,henever failedtoentertain.
Dalewillbemissedforever,butweknowheisata peaceful,easyplace.
Vhal, Iris
February 20, 1935August 8, 2020
With heavy hearts the family announces the passing of Iris Vhal.
She was predeceased by her husband Roland and sister Judy McCombie.
Iris leaves to mourn her children, Erwin (Linda); Randy (Barb), Mardeana (Howie), Stuart (Ginder), Cheryl and Lan (Robert).
Iris was the best grandma to Rick (Moira), Dan (Sara), Deana (Ben), Eliesha, Chrystal, Tyler (Katrina), Jared (Stacy), Alison, Mike (Krista), Leah and Sean (Kimberly). Iris had many great grandchildren Haley, Meeghan, Grady, Caleb, Evan, Norah, Ethan, Liam, Kali, Markus, Maddox, Kiefer and Lily.
She is also survived by her brother Gerry (Gloria). Mom was remarkable, resilient, intelligent, kind, open and welcoming. Their table always had room for extra plates.
Iris married Rollie in Saskatchewan in 1950. In 1956 they packed up 3 small children and followed their dreams to BC. The north would remain their home.
In the early years they had a logging company. She was busy with children and company business.
In 1966 Iris started a 30 year career at UHNBC. She started out in housekeeping, continued on to Nursing Unit Clerk and then went back to school to gain her designation as a Health Records Administrator. She worked in that field until her retirement in 1997.
Her retirement years were spent pursuing her other passions. In the summer she was an avid golfer and an early member of the David Douglas Botanical Garden Society at UNBC. In the winter she enjoyed her quilting club.
Iris was a face for the Prince George Alzheimer’s Society and was one of the original members of the Minds in Motion group through the Society. She loved her Thursdays-starting at Minds in Motion, then getting her hair done, a little shopping and a coffee with a treat.
In 2016 Iris moved into Two Rivers Seniors Lodge. Mom enjoyed her Lodge family. Cary and her staff always made the days fun and interesting. Visiting, bingo, music and dancing (always with her dancing shoes) brought a smile to her face.
Rest in peace Mom, always in our hearts.
“This getting old ain’t for sissies”
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your aid. Amen. Publication must be promised. This novena has never been known to fail if it is said for nine consecutive days. C.F.C. Tall attractive non-smoking senior lady wishes to meet a kind attractive Christian man. Must like dogs. Reply to Citizen Box 1001
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both in person and online. Online access for the Council Treasurer to review the accounting process in real-time. Communicate with us online with ease.
1. BACKGROUND: Nak’azdli Whut’en is a non-treaty First Nation located adjacent to Fort St. James, BC. It has eighteen reserves in total in and around Fort St. James. Most people live on Indian Reserve (IR) #1 which is separated from Fort St. James by Kwah Road. There are also a few families residing on IR #1A along the North Road at Four-Mile and William’s Prairie Meadow. The current population of Nak’azdli is close to 2,000 members though only about 700 live “on reserve.” Most of those living “off-reserve” live in Fort St. James or Prince George
2. PROJECT SUMMARY: The purpose of this Request for Proposals is to conduct an analysis of the current accounting procedures, systems and staffing needs that exist in our organization and to identify ways that we can support our finance department through training, growth and streamlined processes, including recommendations and ways to track and report budgetary spending.
3. PROPOSAL GUIDELINES: This Request for Proposal represents the requirements for an open and competitive process. Proposals will be accepted until 4:00pm Friday, August 28, 2020. Any proposals received after this date and time will be returned to the sender. All proposals must be signed by an official agent or representative of the company submitting the proposal. Expenses quoted in proposals must be all-inclusive and delivered by the applicant or the applicant’s company directly and cannot be outsourced. Proposals will only be accepted by firms or individuals who have not provided audit or financial services to Nak’azdli Whut’en. The proposal will be for the services of a CPA or CA to provide assessment and advice. All costs must be itemized to include an explanation of all fees and costs. Contract terms and conditions will be negotiated upon selection of the winning bidder for this RFP; All contractual terms and conditions will be subject to review by Nak’azdli Whut’en’s legal department and will include scope, budget, schedule, and other necessary items pertaining to the project.
WAREHOUSELIENS
Noticeto:PaulineKaiser owing$1008.00
Yourpersonalhousehold goodsthatyouleftin storageat357Ongman Roadwillbedisposedof asweseefit,after August25,2020,forrent owingtoSeneca EnterprisesLtd.PG. mail@senecaenterprises.com
WAREHOUSELIENS
Noticeto:WendyVoss owing$3591.00
Yourpersonalgoodsthat youleftinstorageat357 OngmanRoadwillbe disposedofasweseefit, afterAugust25,2020, forrentowingtoSeneca EnterprisesLtd.PG. 250-561-0890
IN THE MATTER OF THE BANKRUPTCY OF KENNETH AlvIN STEwARd MIllER
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R0011829212
NOTICE is hereby given that Kenneth Alvin Steward Miller filed an Assignment in Bankruptcy on July 28, 2020, and that John S. Beverley & Associates Inc. was appointed as Trustee. The first meeting of creditors will be held on the 18th day of August 2020 at the hour of 1 :30 in the afternoon, at the office of the Trustee, 1240 5th Avenue (via Telephone (250) 563-4300), in the city of Prince George, in the Province of British Columbia.
Dated at Prince George, BC this 29th day of July 2020.
R0011829212
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Woodlot Licence Plan
Woodlot Licence #262
R0011829531
Notice is hereby given, pursuant to section 17 of the Woodlot Licence Planning and Practices Regulation, that a woodlot licence plan has been prepared for Woodlot #262 held by Nechako River Holdings Ltd. This License is located west of Prince George along the Nechako river. If approved by the Ministry of Forests and Range District Manager, this plan may apply for a term of 10 years from the date of approval The woodlot licence plan is available for public review and comment by contacting the office of Aspen Ridge Consulting Ltd., during regular business hours between August 20th and September 20th 2020. Any written comments on the plan should be mailed to: 3161 Vista Ridge Dr Prince George B.C., V2N 5G8. Please phone (250) 613-2992 to book an appointment with Lee A. Foster RPF to view or discuss the plan.
4. PROJECT PURPOSE AND DESCRIPTION: Nak’azdli Whut’en finance department provides accounting and payroll services to wide range departments, program and services that we provide to our membership including but not limited to: Education, Social Services, Housing, Health, Justice etc. Additionally, the finance department provides financial services related to capital and investments of Nak’azdli Whut’en own source revenue from multiple streams. This is a very busy and complex accounting environment which provides AP, AR, and Payroll to up to 150 employees.
5. PROJECT SCOPE: This will be a three-month contract to provide the services described and to identify any other services and resources that may benefit our organization that pertain to financial accountability, timeliness and recommend next steps.
6. BUDGET: The Request for Proposal Budget should include the following:
• Fee for services
• Estimated hours for completion
• Cost for travel and accommodation
• Other as identified by Contractor
• All costs and fees must be clearly described
7. BIDDER QUALIFICATIONS: Bidders should provide the following items as part of their proposal for consideration:
• Copy of credentials
• Copy of business license
• Resume of person who will be responsible for the delivery of services
• References
• Timeframe for completion of the project
• Projected start date.
8. PROPOSAL EVALUATION CRITERIA: Nak’azdli Whut’en will evaluate all proposals based on the following criteria. To· ensure consideration for this Request for Proposal, your proposal should be complete and include all of the following criteria:
• Overall proposal suitability: proposed solution(s) must meet the scope and needs included herein and be presented in a clear and organized manner
• Organizational Experience: Bidders will be evaluated on their experience as it pertains to the scope of this project
• Value and cost: Bidders will be evaluated on the cost of their solution(s) based on the work to be performed in accordance with the scope of this project
• Technical expertise and experience: Bidders must provide descriptions and documentation of staff technical expertise and experience
Interested parties must submit 5 copies of their proposal to the address below no later than 4:00pm Friday, August 28, 2020
Nak’azdli Whut’en, Attn: Chief
Lay Down aGood Foundation
No shed will last verylongifit’sset on aweakbase. Most sheds can be supported by an on-grade foundation, whichconsists of solidconcrete blocks or pressure-treated wood timbers set directly on the ground. Theconcreteblocksortimbers (a.k.a.: skids) must be perfect level and placed close enough to supportthe shed’sfloor frame. And to protect the foundation blocksorskids from soil erosion, set them on a4-in.-deep bed of compacted gravel. If the foundation is relatively small, compactthe gravel witha hand tamper.But for any shed larger than about 8x10 ft., save yourself aton of time and sweat by renting aplate compactor,which is alarge gas-powered, ground-pounding machine.
If you plantobuild ashed that’slarger than 200 sq. ft., the building inspector will likely requireyou to install apermanent foundation thatextends down to the frost line. This type of foundation is usually constructed of poured-concrete piers or buried pressure- treated wood posts. Check withthe building departmentfor specificcode requirements and frost-line depth in your area
And be awarethatifyou’rebuying a prefabricated shed, it doesn’t come withthe foundation,which you must build prior to delivery
Nothing evokes summertime more than the delicious aroma of meat cooking on the barbecue. But these days, many brave Canadians are treating themselves to succulent grilled meats all year round.
Indeed, outdoor kitchens are increasingly popular with barbecue lovers. The setup might include a fridge, sink, worktop, a few cabinets, as well as the star of the show — the barbecue. Such a well equipped kitchen allows you to take full advantage of the joys of barbecuing. However, if you’d like to enjoy grilled meats all year round, be sure to set up your barbecue where it will be protected from the weather, especially from the wind, which slows down the cooking process.
Your yard or your budget doesn’t allow you to build a complete outdoor kitchen? By investing in a mid-range barbecue and setting it up properly, you can cook on it all year round for many years to come. Some gazebo manufacturers also stock specialized shelters, which are just perfect for cold winter cooking. Enjoy!
Do you love staying out on your deck or patio until late in the evening? Don’t let the cool night air discourage you.
Outdoor fireplaces have become really popular in recent years and are perfect for creating a warm atmosphere on decks. And with the huge range of models now on the market, you’re sure to find a design that blends perfectly with your outdoor decor. Imagine gathering a few friends and family members around your fireplace and enjoying those chillier evenings in comfort.
Another great way of extending your evenings in the fresh air is to buy a patio heater. Increasingly popular, these outdoor heaters can be run on electricity, propane or natural gas, and they’re now accessible to all budgets. Just wrap your hands around a warm mug of hot chocolate, position the patio heater in a strategic place in order to stay warm, and you’ll love being outside even in the off-season.
Whether you opt for a fireplace or patio heater, you’ll enjoy lots of al fresco evenings this summer.
These days, patios and decks are outdoor-living areas that are extensions of the home. They can be enjoyed until late into the evening, especially if the outdoor lighting is designed well. Good lighting is primarily a safety issue, although sconces, floor lamps, recessed lighting and other light sources also give your yard a unique and welcoming atmosphere.
For mood lighting, the trend is towards LED technology. Efficient and environmentally friendly, LED lighting comes in a variety of colours, which makes it easy to create the perfect mood. This technology even allows you to opt for a lighting system that changes colour at will. In other words, you can change the mood to suit the occasion.
However, don’t go overboard. Lighting should be discreet and create a soft, cozy atmosphere, much like moonlight would. Consequently, installing lights under chairs or armrests, or on risers, or using them to highlight the patio door or the flower beds, are all great ideas.
Security fences around in-ground pools or decks can be very attractive but they can also spoil a nice view. That is why glass fencing is becoming increasingly popular in backyards.
Highly resistant to shocks and weather, tempered glass fences are as discreet as they are safe and esthetic. They are available in several different models and fit perfectly into the landscape. Above all, they’re ideal for creating a yard with a modern, minimalist decor. In addition to offering an unobstructed view of the entire backyard, which traditional safety fences often don’t provide, glass fences also allow parents to keep an eye on children playing in the pool.
The glass panels are easy to clean and are installed just above the ground, allowing water and debris to drain away. And they don’t require any special maintenance, which you have to admit is a big advantage, right?
Thematic pavilions, or gazebos, are the talk of the outdoor design world at the moment, whether they’re used for relaxing, sporting events, family movie nights or poker games with friends. And they’ve become popular for good reason. With a roof and optional walls, backyard pavilions are perfect for enjoying summer without having to worry about sudden changes in the weather.
So, just like the kitchen, the living room and games room can now be moved out into the backyard. Thanks to new technologies and the wide variety of furniture and backyard accessories available on the market, modular sofas, cushions, TVs and video games can be set up just as well outside as inside.
You could also make your spa the centerpiece of a peaceful oasis. In fact, the possibilities are endless: chic, Zen, sporty, family oriented, exotic or relaxing. Simply choose a theme you love and create a stylish backyard pavilion that meets all your family’s needs.
These days, patios and decks have been transformed into outdoor living rooms. So, if your garden furniture is in need of being replaced, you can breathe new life into your deck by beautifying it with the latest furniture trends.
Two major trends are making their appearance on decks this summer. On the one hand, there’s the contemporary look, with clean, straight lines, no ornamentation, highend materials and narrower structures. The esthetics of the contemporary style involve earthy, neutral colours to create comfort and relax the eyes while you lounge on your patio.
On the other hand, bright colours have never been so popular, so it isn’t surprising that they’re appearing in yards everywhere this summer. Ruby red, sunshine yellow, apple green and teal: treat yourself to a patio filled with good cheer. You’re bound to find something that lifts your spirits among the huge variety of furniture and accessories available in stores this season.
If you like swimming and don’t have enough room for a swimming pool, a swim spa is the perfect solution.
Larger and deeper than a traditional spa but smaller than a pool, swim spas are equipped with a system for stationary swimming against a current. You can also do stretching, row in the water or aqua jog. And if a swim spa is ideal for exercising at home, it’s also perfect for relaxing. Because the water temperature is adjustable, you can enjoy both the pleasures of a pool and the therapeutic benefits of a spa. Some models have two separate sections so you can relax in warm water after your workout.
Indoor or outdoor, portable or in-ground, a swim spa can be installed just about anywhere. And because they’re becoming more and more popular, manufacturers now offer lots of different models. Which one will you choose?
Do you love swimming in lakes and rivers? You can create your own natural swimming hole by putting in an environmentally-friendly pool.
Natural swimming pools, or ponds, first appeared in Austria during the 1980s, and they are becoming increasingly popular in North America. Their cost is comparable to that of in-ground pools, and they’re filtered naturally, just as lakes are. The goal is to create a genuine ecosystem in order to purify the water in the swimming pond; this is done by filtering the water through a marshy area filled with plants and rocks. Pumps are used to circulate the water between the two areas. To prevent algae from forming, the swimming pool must also have a few plants, such as water lilies.
In short, if you love nature and don’t mind bumping into the occasional frog, natural swimming ponds are the ideal solution for enjoying the benefits of swimming without having to resort to pool maintenance and chemical products. Are you ready to immerse yourself in this adventure?
Are you about to start a home renovation project? The following tips may prove useful.
Obviously, you want your renovations to cost you as little as possible. Consequently, it’s important to plan well. The more detailed your plans, the less time and money you’ll waste. You should also check to see if you’re eligible for a tax credit or a financial assistance program. If you’re reasonably handy, you could do some of the work yourself. Ideally, you should always budget a little extra money for when unexpected costs come up; around 10 per cent of your budget is a good guideline.
Before choosing specialists for your renovation project, be sure to ask lots of questions. It’s important for you to know how many hours the job will take, if they are specialists in this type of work, if they have a licence and if their work is guaranteed. Above all, don’t hesitate to ask to see some of their previous jobs.
You prefer to do the work yourself? Don’t forget to find out about municipal regulations and if you need a permit.
Are you planning to eventually sell your home and you’d like to increase its value? Put all your efforts into the kit chen and bathroom. A new roof, hardwood floors and a fresh coat of paint could also increase your home’s appeal and give you a good return on your investment.
It’s essential to be well informed before starting a renovation project.
maker
boasts elaboratesolid oak trim
customcabinetry and corian throughout. Gourmet 16x20 kitchen has 36” gas range,convection microwave, wine fridge and amazing 9x4 island. Mastersuiteincludes an impressive9x11 wic, ensuitewith 2person steam showerand makeup desk. Gorgeous laundry and spacious bonus room compliment the topfloor with agym and 10x11 coat closet/ storage off the front entry.2bedroom suite has privatelaundry,acovereddeck and tons of storage.Liveyour dream!
This 4bedroom, 3bathroom home on a1/4 acrelot is avery desirable home Lots of updatesdone.2inch styrofoam wrapped around the whole home and then newsiding installed. All new windows and doors. Newfurnacein 2017,new hot watertank in 2019,roof done in 2005. The16’7x38’9 attached pull through garage is the man of the house’sdream space, even comes with radiant heatand 2electric doors. Perfect forRVortrailer parking. This home is suretoplease
exceptional house in the desirable Woodlands subdivision is astunner.With 2 beds upstairs and awalk-in closet in masterand spa-likeensuite. 2entries through the garage, one intothe laundry and one intothe entryway makethis an ease to bring in groceries. The customkitchen boasts high glosscontemporary whitecabinets and quartz counters with agas stove and anicegreyisland. Thefully Finished 2bedroom basement with large living room and
to do but move in and enjoy! 8223 St.John
This well kept family home in an idyllic neighbourhood has only had twoowners. Alarge masterwith awalk-in closet and ensuitetomatch.The flex room in the basement could easily be made intoa4th bedroom and the bath has all of the hook up forashower.
Whether you prefer prints that draw the eye or the timeless elegance of neutral colours, there’s plenty to choose from when it comes to shopping for window treatments. This season, natural fibre drapes, blinds and solar shades are in favour.
You prefer drapes? Choose silk or linen.
Are your walls and furniture very colourful? Balance the overall look with drapes in neutral tones. Your decor needs brightening up? Choose drapes in vivid colours. Of course, neutral shades blend in perfectly with a classic decor, while bright colours and patterns are eye-catching and a perfect complement to a modern decor.
Blinds are making a comeback. Ecofriendly, afordable, exotic and easy to maintain, bamboo blinds have it all. To protect your interior from the sun, go for solar shades; they’re perfect for uncluttered, modern decors. On an other note, shutters are sure to add a special touch to your home.
So, drapes, shades or blinds? It all depends on your preferences and the type of decor you like. Shop around for some inspiration.
Window dressings deserve your full attention.
You probably already know that watching TV in your bedroom is a nono, but did you know it’s not a good idea to read in bed either? Instead, organize a reading area that includes a comfortable armchair. For a good sleep, remove all unnecessary items and accessories from the room so as to create a soothing, relaxing atmosphere rather than one that always makes you want to clean up.
Does your mattress date back to the Stone Age? Invest in a good mattress that is neither too firm nor too soft and that will give you a good night’s sleep. If you have the budget and the space, opt for a king or queen size bed so there’ll be enough room for both of you to be comfortable.
Light, however faint, can afect your sleep even though you may not necessarily be aware of it. Make your room completely dark by putting in drapes or opaque blinds. Bedroom
Did you know that your bedroom’s decor could be the cause of your insomnia?
lighting should never be too bright, so be sure to choose bulbs that give a warm light.
Colours influence your mood as well as your ability to sleep well, so painting the walls of your bedroom a soothing tone is always a good idea. Pastel shades are perfect. Thinking about moving your furniture around? Don’t put your bed near the door or against a wall with a window.
Follow these simple tips and rediscover the pleasure of sleeping soundly. Of course, our decorating tips won’t be of much help to you if your partner snores. Sorry about that!
The time has finally come to repaint your home’s interior but you have no idea which colours to choose. The following tips are sure to help you out.
Ever heard of a colour wheel? This tool can guide you in your choice of the right colour combinations. In 2015, it’s rich, eclectic, bright and exotic colours that are all the rage. Be daring and opt for tropical and aqua blue, reds and spicy oranges, emerald, sapphire, golden yellow, plum and indigo. Black and gray are also still popular.
If your ceilings are darker than the walls, they’ll seem lower but will give the room a warmer feel. On the other hand, a ligh ter ceiling appears higher and the room brighter. You feel that your rooms are too small? Choose light colours to make them look bigger. You’re afraid of quickly tiring of walls that are all the same colour? In a bedroom, for example, you could opt for an accent colour on the wall where your headboard is located.
Monochrome tones are soothing. To create a balanced look, opt for contrasts between warm and cool colours. You love decorative accessories? Choose ones in stronger tones than the dominant colour of your decor. Don’t forget that your choice of
colours always depends on the mood you want to create. So let yourself be guided by the latest trends, but be sure to opt for colours that you like.
are in.
The front hall is the first thing your visitors see when they enter your home, so it’s important to make it look welcoming. It should also reflect the mood and style of your overall decor.
Lighting, furniture and accessories are critical. For example, a lovely mirror will draw admiring looks. Does your front hall have a closet with mirrored doors? Frame them with some beautiful, decorative moulding. Choose an attractive rug for the doorway. You could also go with an eye-catching wallpaper or wall colour that appeals to you.
A bench close to the door will make it easier for guests to remove their shoes. Better yet, choose one that doubles as storage space. A nice armchair is another good idea if you have enough room. Remember that your front hall must always be functional. Why not install a designer coat rack, a beautiful set of key hooks or decorative baskets or trays to store your accessories? A shoe rack is
always handy as well.
Good lighting is essential, so think about installing a stylish light fixture. You don’t want to have to clean the front hall every day? Choose large-format tiles. And remember that slate is perfect if you want a non-slip floor.
Enjoy choosing the accessories and furniture that you like the most or ask an interior designer about all the latest trends. Have fun!
