Gateway | October 2014

GATEWAY Canada Winter Games Torchbearers Revealed

Canada Winter Games torchbearers were named Friday during an announcement held at city hall.

NEWS PAGE 6

Island Mountain Arts Working To Fund New Home

Your community voice for the north!

WEDNESDAY October 15 2014

NEWS AND EVENTS FOR PRINCE GEORGE AND CENTRAL INTERIOR

Dream a little dream Spruce Kings show home lottery now open

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT PAGE 22

Traditional Pit House Unveiled Near UNBC

UNBC and the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation officially opened a traditional Dakelh-style pit house

LIFE PAGE 26

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

This year’s Prince George Spruce Kings show home, built by Scheck Construction, is located at 2693 Links Drive in the Aberdeen Glen subdivision. Tickets went on sale Friday.

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NEIL GODBOUT MANAGING EDITOR

Win a home fit for a King!

Andrea JOHNSON | Citizen staff

W

alk into the Spruce Kings lottery show home and the first thing one notices is the afternoon sun streaming into the great room.

It’s enhanced by the west-facing views that overlook the seventh tee at Aberdeen Glen Golf Course.

The custom-built home by Scheck Construction is a 2,986-square-foot, five bedroom, three bath home located at 2693 Links Dr. in the Aberdeen Glen subdivision.

It features nine-foot ceilings, neutral colours, wide entry-ways, large windows, and two patios.

The rooms are uniquely decorated by donated items from Prince George businesses

and organizations.

Tickets, all 9,500 of them at $100 each, for the 2014-15 edition of the Spruce Kings lottery home went on sale Friday and are available until March 19, 2015.

“If you win the house, it’s life-altering, it’s all about the lifestyle,” said Spruce Kings business and marketing manager Lu Verticchio. “The amount of community support we’ve received is amazing. People buy tickets to win the home or they buy tickets to support the team.”

The Spruce Kings are a community-owned team in the B.C. Hockey League.

The Kings lottery home is the ninth one built in the team’s history. Net proceeds from the show home, combined with the 50-50 draw, account for 75 per cent of the team’s operating costs.

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CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

The kitchen in the Spruce Kings lottery home is warm, bright and modern-looking.

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Cont’d from page 3 “Without it selling out, the team’s financial future is in jeopardy,” said Verticchio.

The main floor features a great room – a large, spacious area with an open kitchen and living room. There’s even a fireplace.

RK Furniture Gallery has donated the five stainless steel appliances for the kitchen.

A custom office, with items donated by Spee Dee Printers, is just off to the side of the main entrance.

There’s also an art studio room, (sponsored

by Studio 2880 and the Community Arts Council) featuring local art from Studio 2880 and the Groop Gallery.

Off the great room is a master bedroom with an ensuite bathroom (separate walkin shower and a soaker tub) that overlooks the golf course.

Walk downstairs to the recreation room/ man cave and there’s a collegiate feel.

One bedroom is a UNBC-themed room, decorated in the university’s colours of green and gold. There’s a bed throw, hoodies, flags celebrating the school’s 25th anniversary as well as the Timberwolves, who compete in the Canada West Conference of

n Spruce Kings Show Home Canadian Interuniversity Sport.

The other bedroom is all College of New Caledonia with its traditional colours of navy, red and white. The bed is covered in a custom-made duvet by Quilts Etc. The main man cave sports two framed Spruce Kings sweaters, a clock, and a 60inch flat screen TV on the walls.

There’s a replica Coliseum ice surface coffee table surrounded by comfy, oversized furniture.

To get away from the sun, a covered walkout patio is available.

Dennis Busby from Northern Hardware has staged the home, just like he’s done for the last eight for the Spruce Kings.

He said this particular home is one of his favourites.

“Every house presents its own challenges, but this year everyone was very easy and fun to work with,” he said. “It’s exceptional, especially the people I’ve met who’ve brought stuff in. The house really is built by the community.”

A-Tech Security has come on board for the first time, installing a highly-sophisticated security system that not only controls the

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

A UNBC-themed bedroom is one of the features of the Spruce Kings show home.

locks, but the lights and thermostats.

“We wanted to give back to the community,” said A-Tech manager Scot Saul. “It’s a big job to wire a house like this and this system has several interactive devices.”

The show home is available to tour Monday to Friday from noon to 4 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Tickets, which sold out last year, are also

available at Canadian Tire, Pine Centre Mall, Central Builders and Northern Hardware.

Besides the grand prize show home, 14 early bird prizes are available.

To purchase tickets, a 24-hour hotline is available, 250-962-4946 (IWIN).

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Canada Winter Games torchbearers revealed Christine HINZMANN | Citizen staff Canada Winter Games torchbearers were named Friday during an announcement held at city hall.

With many torchbearers in attendance, speakers included Jonathon Dyck, torch-

bearer committee lead at the Canada Winter Games, Stuart Ballantyne, chief executive officer of the Games, MLA Mike Morris and Mayor Shari Green. “The Canada Games is a celebration of youth, sport, culture and community and each of the torchbearers of the 2015

CITIZEN STAFF PHOTO

Scott McWalter is one of 150 torchbearers chosen to Illuminate the North leading up to the Canada Winter Games held in Prince George.

GATEWAYnews Canada Winter Games Torch Relay reflect these values,” said Ballantyne.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate and recognize these deserving individuals and we are pleased to have them help us spread the spirit of the 2015 Games throughout the region as torchbearers.”

Scott McWalter, who was nominated by three people, was asked to say a few words on behalf of the torchbearers during the announcement.

“The 2015 Canada Winter Games torch relay is really an opportunity to show off the spirit of the community of Prince George to the nation,” said McWalter. “I am so excited to share this honour with all the torchbearers.”

There were more than 400 nominations received by the Games committee between July 3 and Aug. 15.

“This is very surreal and I am full of gratitude,” said Lisa Redpath, project coordinator at the Prince George & District

Community Arts Council, who was also chosen as a torchbearer. “I was chosen for the arts and culture category and it’s very near and dear to my heart. I just think this is an amazing opportunity and I will do the very best I can.”

Torchbearers will carry the Roly McLenahan Canada Games Torch as part of the 2015 Canada Winter Games Torch Relay throughout northern B.C. starting in Prince George on Nov. 4, which is the 100-day-out marker for the beginning of the Games.

A complete list of the torchbearers is at www.canadagames2015.ca/ torchbearers.

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Northern B.C. boom straining P.G. housing Frank PEEBLES | Citizen staff The newly reopened Victoria Towers low-income housing complex already has a significant waiting list, thanks to an increasing number of homeless people coming to Prince George from other northern communities.

“This [Victoria Towers] is a really welcome addition. It restores what was lost in the fire [November, 2011] and improves on it,” said Leo Hebert, executive director of the Prince George Metis Housing Society.

“BC Housing has done a wonderful job here, but we still have a wait-list of 600 to 700 people.”

Victoria Towers was restored tafter a fire three years ago left the building uninhabitable. It now has 91 apartments for families of low to moderate income. While it looked like significant pressure would be eased from the city’s housing crunch, that has not

been the case. The Metis Housing Society has for years been one of the primary agencies getting affordable housing for people coming into Prince George from outlying communities in the immediate vicinity, but he said lately the pressure for a Prince George bed is unprecedented from outside the immediate region.

“The economy out west is definitely causing a strain on the resources here,” Hebert said. “We see it clearly in our organization.”

He is referring to the economic boom going on in Kitimat, Prince Rupert and Terrace with several megaprojects all happening at once in those coastal communities.

“It has caused a massive jump in rental prices, if you can find a place at all,” said Barb Ward Burkitt, executive director of the Prince George Native Friendship Centre, another organization that provides housing options and working with partner

agencies also doing so. “We’ve been hearing stories of basement apartments that were going for hundreds per month suddenly being worth thousands per month.

A lot of people can’t afford that, and that’s the really low-end accommodations, so there is nowhere left in the market there.

So the people get squeezed out of their homes and they come here. The shelters here are filled to over capacity and I’m really worried because winter is coming.

You can’t turn people away when it’s cold out. We’ve put people up on cots in our common areas, but that’s not a home. And I think this winter coming up could be the worst we’ve ever experienced for people looking to Prince George for some kind of roof over their heads.”

According to a U.S.-based report by the MacArthur Foundation and the Center For Housing Policy that overlaps Canadian studies, “research has shown that the

stability of an affordable mortgage or rent can have profound effects on childhood development and school performance and can improve health outcomes for families and individuals.”

The report entitled The Role of Affordable Housing in Creating Jobs and Stimulating Local Economic Development also said “the research demonstrates that the development of affordable housing increases spending and employment in the surrounding economy, acts as an important source of revenue for local governments, and reduces the likelihood of foreclosure and its associated costs. Without a sufficient supply of affordable housing, employers — and entire regional economies — can be at a competitive disadvantage.”

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New president officially starts at CNC Frank PEEBLES | Citizen staff The College of New Caledonia has installed its new president.

Henry Reiser had been doing the job as CNC’s 11th boss since February, transitioning into the role gradually. At an installation ceremony on Friday morning, he took full control of the college helm.

Reiser thanked those who had smoothed his way into the key community position.

He spoke of the potential of the northern economy and the potential of local students to connect with that prosperity. He acknowledged the college’s position as “a leader in economic development” and how people of all ages and walks of life could

have progressive lives by working with CNC. “Our programs touch so many in the north,” Reiser said, adding that the good work done in the past to position CNC was now in his hands to advance into the future with new and innovative programs and learning tools.

“I am ready to roll up my sleeves and get started. I am very excited to be here and eager to get going.”

The ceremony began with the regal tones of Shoshanna Godber playing harp, then the procession advanced into the CNC Gathering Place to the pounding of Lheidli T’enneh First Nation drummers, dancers, and the singing of Josh Seymour. Flag

CITIZEN PHOTO BY FRANK PEEBLES

The College of New Caledonia invested its new president, Henry Reiser, at a ceremony Friday morning.

GATEWAYnews bearers marched ahead of the academic and dignitary line.

Lheidli T’enneh elder Darlene McIntosh said the invocation speech, speaking of “a bond of trust” being bestowed upon Reiser. She called on the community, the college staff, and Reiser to work together to “harness the energies” of the region’s people. “Let us illuminate what we can do as a community to highlight education,” she said.

Local MLAs Mike Morris and Shirley Bond both told Reiser, and the gathered audience, that they were each students at CNC themselves. “You have been gifted with the presidency of a very special place,” Bond said, while Morris said he expected CNC to take on an even greater role as catalyst in the economic fortunes of this region in future.

Mayor Shari Green said she had appreciated the work Reiser had already done to prepare for the position and learn the communities in which CNC had a presence.

“You are seeing the collaborations and the passions people have to grow our com-

munity, raise their families, and stay in our region,” and CNC was a major role player in that, she said.

UNBC’s new president Daniel Weeks was also present at the ceremony and assured those gathered that he intended the path between the region’s community college and university to be well and intentionally worn.

“We will set the standard in this province for cooperation and collaboration,” Weeks said.

Others who offered their words of welcome included Lheidli T’enneh chief Dominic Frederick, student representative Leila Soila Abubakar, CUPE union president Lily Bachand, faculty association president David Rourke, board chair Keith Playfair, and Arthur Fallick, representing Kwantlen Polytechnic University where Reiser was most recently positioned.

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Yinka Dene Alliance determined to block Enbridge pipeline Gordon HOEKSTRA | Vancouver Sun The waters of Nak’al Koh are a deep emerald, almost black at times.

The forest presses in at the sides — a mixture of spruce, pine, aspen, birch and willow — so thick it seems like a primeval blanket.

A fierce rain rises up suddenly, hammering the water and the aluminum boat that Stuart Todd navigates, strengthening the already deep, tangy-earth smell.

Todd smiles wryly at the sudden downpour, recounting tales of moose he has seen swimming the river.

“They are great divers,” he says. “They can go down deep and feed on the weeds at the bottom.”

The river (called Stuart River in English after John Stuart, a clerk with the fur-trading North West Company in the early 1800s) is also home to salmon, trout, dolly varden, ducks, geese, elk, grizzly, black bear and beaver.

This is the heart of Nak’azdli territory — downriver from where the revered chief Kwah is buried, and where Calgary-based Enbridge wants to run its $7.9-billion Northern Gateway oil and condensate pipelines.

It is also the heart of the pipeline opposition spearheaded by the Yinka Dene Alliance, a group of six First Nations, including the Nak’azdli, which has sworn they will not let the oil pipeline be built. They say their traditional territory encompasses about 25 per cent of the proposed 1,177-kilometre route from Alberta to Kitimat on the coast of B.C. In Nak’azdli, which is adjacent to Fort St. James on the southern shore of Stuart Lake, the great concern is that any economic benefit from the pipeline is not worth the risk of a spill on the waterways in their traditional territory.

They are most worried about the effect an oil spill would have on sockeye salmon and the Nechako white sturgeon.

The Stuart sockeye runs — the river is the last leg of a

1,200-kilometre journey from the Pacific Ocean to their spawning grounds — are an important source of food and culture for the community.

Although the runs can still be large, the number of salmon that reach Nak’azdli is already dwindling. Some years, the community has to purchase salmon farther west, outside of its traditional territory.

And the Nechako white sturgeon is at risk of extinction, listed by Canada as an endangered species. The Nak’azdli have not been able to fish sturgeon for more than 20 years.

For the Nak’azdli, the waterways, carved out during the last ice age 10,000 years ago, are an important physical and spiritual presence. So much so, that they call themselves the Dakelh, which in their language, means people who travel by water.

With the approval in June of the Northern Gateway pipeline by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, Cont’d on page 14

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GATEWAYnews n Yinka Dene Alliance Determined To Block Enbridge Pipeline Cont’d from page 12 the stage has been set for a battle over the project and it is unclear what will be the outcome.

The question remains: Will the pipeline get built?

The conflict became more complicated with a recent landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling that granted the Tsilqhot’in title to 1,750 square kilometres in central B.C., a first for a First Nation in British Columbia. It set out a strengthened need for government and companies to get consent for industrial development, except where significant national interest can be argued.

The Nak’azdli, similar to other northcentral and coastal B.C. First Nations, have said they will take whatever steps are necessary to stop the pipeline, using the courts or blocking the project directly on the land.

“The Dakelh people avoided conflict because the final answer in a conflict, it’s gruesome,” says Peter Erickson, a hereditary chief who holds the same title of Ts’oh Dai as chief Kwah did more than 200 years ago.

“You look at the conflicts around the world — do we have to go to that point?” says Erickson. “At the same time, we have to ensure this land is here for our grandkids. … This project, on such a scale, cannot be allowed to come into our territory.”

Enbridge has said it won’t be ready to start construction until late 2015 and says that, in the interim, it can engage First Nations opposed to the project and gain their support.

The company says it has already signed

equity sharing agreements with 26 of the 40 First Nations along the proposed route. That number, the company says, includes 11 of the 22 First Nations along the pipeline route in B.C., but does not count the five coastal First Nations that are so adamantly opposed. It means about 40 per cent of First Nations in B.C. directly affected by the project have signed deals to take a financial stake in the pipeline, according to Enbridge’s calculations.

Janet Holder, executive vice-president of western access for Enbridge, said she believes more First Nations will eventually sign on.

There are discussions underway with First Nations who oppose the project, but she won’t say with whom.

“We’ve had a meeting — not myself — but with a group you would probably believe are definitely opposed (to the pipeline), who are having that conversation with us, saying if we were to work together, how would this all work and what opportunities are out there and what role can we play?” Holder said.

Lillian Sam, 75, spreads a map out on her kitchen table. It’s a copy of one made by an anthropologist in the 1940s. Obtained as part of research to trace community descendants and for the First Nation’s land claim efforts, it is marked off in large parcels of land, some hundreds of square kilometres, with family names. They delineate keyohs — areas where families had the rights to gather food and to fish, hunt and trap, but also had the responsibility for the land. An area just below the lake,

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GATEWAYcareers

Job training funding given to CNC, UNBC Citizen staff The provincial government is providing $1.1 million to the College of New Caledonia, in part to deliver three programs aimed at improving the job skills of aboriginal people in this region.

The money will go to a heavy equipment operator certification program under a partnership with the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, and for an essential skills and safety certification program, leading to a B.C. Adult Dogwood, with the Yekooche and Takla Lake First Nations.

CNC is also receiving funding for its aboriginal

service plan intended to enhance services and programming for aboriginal students at the Prince George, Mackenzie, Lakes District, Nechako and Quesnel campuses.

As well, the University of Northern British Columbia is receiving $200,000 for its aboriginal service plan, which includes transition programming, elder support, a writing festival as well as support a First Nations Centre counsellor position at the Prince George campus.

The funding will also support an aboriginal coordinator position at the UNBC Terrace campus.

Local MLAs announced the funding Wednesday in a press release.

Limestone firm inks deal with First Nation Citizen staff Graymont and the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation have signed a cooperation agreement regarding the company’s proposed limestone quarry and lime plant near Giscome.

Under the agreement announced last week, the First Nation stands to see economic benefits from the proposed development. The agreement also addresses potential concerns about archeological sites, traditional use in the area and environmental impacts.

“Lheidli T’enneh is very pleased to have reached this agreement with Graymont,” Lheidli T’enneh Chief Dominic Frederick said in a written statement. “Graymont has been very respectful and has taken our concerns and interests seriously. This represents a critical step for an initiative that we believe will have a positive and lasting impact on the com-

munity of Lheidli T’enneh and the region.”

The proposed lime kilns stand to be a major new source of greenhouse gases – with the potential to increase the province’s carbon dioxide emissions by 0.32 to 1.24 per cent above 2012 levels, based on data for similar lime kiln operations in the U.K. gathered by environmental consultant Entec.

The amount of emissions depend on the level of production and choice of fuel for the kilns, which could include coal or petroleum coke – an industrial byproduct created by crude oil refineries.

Graymont estimates the plant will employ 10 to 15 people full time once operational.

In a press release Graymont president Stéphane Godin said the agreement, “cements an already strong relationship” with the Lheidli T’enneh.

Earlier this month Rob Beleutz, Graymont’s health, safety and environment manager and auditor, said the company expects to file to the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office for environmental certification before the end of the year.

If the company receives all regulatory approvals in 2015, Graymont plans to begin construction in late 2015 and be operational by 2017.

For more information about the proposed project, see Limestone project grinds ahead (http://bit. ly/ZAiviy), which was published in The Citizen earlier this month.

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Cont’d from page 14 to the west of the Nak’al Koh River, is marked with Kwah.

Her grandfather was a grandson of chief Kwah.

Lillian calls the land “precious,” as she runs her hand over the map, and says any pipeline spill will affect a lot of habitat.

Sam says that their lifestyle — which still includes the use of traditional foods — is important and it has to be recognized. There is a rich history on the land — and potential future — that they wish to protect, she says.

“Our elders have always said you cannot eat money,” says Lillian. “The food and the land is so important for us. Not only for us, for … other people. You see the devastation of the oilsands: a huge part of that land is no good. What’s going to happen to us? What’s going to happen to our children and our grandchildren?”

The keyohs remain today, and while they are used differently than they were in the past, they are still important, says Liza Sam, a nurse for the Nak’azdli health program.

When people talk about keyohs, they talk about it as their home, she says.

Her family’s keyoh is on the Nations Lakes, but she also has connections to others on Camsel Lake and at the village of Tachie, all north of Nak’azdli.

“It’s not just fish and berries and meat — it’s our sense of where we were, who we were before we were moved onto

n Yinka Dene Alliance Determined To Block Enbridge Pipeline reserves,” says Liza. “When I go to these keyohs, I get that sense of peace — that spiritual sense of where I belong.”

Elder Tina Erickson notes that historically the First Nations that made up the Yinka Dene people had lands that stretched west hundreds of kilometres to the Tahltan people, hundreds of kilometres north as well, and west to the continental divide where the Sekani people lived.

It was chief Kwah, born in about 1755, who greeted Simon Fraser in 1806 when he was establishing fur-trading forts, and provided fish and food to his starving party.

“Our people say that we were put here to look after this part of the earth. And we take that seriously,” says Erickson.

Decades of industrial activity have already brought significant change to the Nak’azdli’s traditional territory.

Beyond the thick carpet of forest at the edge of the Nak’al Koh River, the land has been broken into pieces from logging, road building, farming and most recently Thompson Creek Metals’ $1.4-billion Mount Milligan gold and copper mine.

And while the Nak’azdli have continuing concerns about resource development, it has, over the years, become a partner.

It has jointly owned lumber company T’loh Forest Products since 1995 with Apollo Forest Products. It also owns

a piece of the Conifex sawmill with several other First Nations. It has signed on to Dalkia Canada’s $235-million bioenergy plant under construction. And it has a revenuesharing agreement with the B.C. government for Mount Milligan, which is expected to provide $24 million over the life of the mine.

The First Nation also owns a grocery store and a gas station, and it recently purchased a second gas station and restaurant.

The business interests have over time provided more jobs and money.

That has been significant for the growing community of about 1,800, about half of which live in the Nak’azdli reserve.

But the Nak’azdli’s growing business interests, and the fact they will soon own two gas stations, prompts the question: why do they not support the pipeline?

The risk of a spill is remote. Enbridge has calculated the probability of a major rupture in the B.C. Interior is once in 1,566 years (about a 0.06-per-cent chance a year). For a “pinhole” leak, the probability is once in 79 years (about 1.2 per cent a year).

Enbridge also plans to install shut-off valves on either side of the Stuart River (about 3.5 kilometres apart) to limit the amount of oil that could spill into the river in the rare Cont’d on page 20

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n Yinka Dene Alliance Determined To Block Enbridge Pipeline

Cont’d from page 18 case of a major rupture.

Chief Fred Sam stresses the Nak’azdli are not against development.

“But not this one,” he says in a soft-spoken voice, referring to Northern Gateway.

Still, it creates a strange juxtaposition.

There is no question the Nak’azdli depend on oil and the fuels derived from it for their vehicles and boats, and gain profit from it through their Petro-Can gas station.

The chief acknowledges this has been a difficult question for them.

Profits from their business enterprises have been used to improve the newly built Nak’al Bun elementary school (originally funded by the federal government) with an upgraded gym, a commercial-style kitchen and high-tech interactive white boards for the classrooms.

Sam said the community is trying to find a way to use less fossil fuels.

Kwah Hall is now heated with an energy system that burns wood waste (energy from renewable sources is considering a greener alternative to fossil fuel), and the grocery store, new elementary school and an apartment they own all use geothermal heating.

The Nak’azdli are not alone in their opposition to Northern Gateway in the local area. The District of Fort St.

James also opposes the project, citing similar concerns that an oil spill would be devastating to the waterways in the area.

Mayor Rob MacDougall points to the lake, which can be seen from the district’s boardroom. “Envision that with an oil slick — that’s something we don’t want to see,” he says, recalling the major spill Enbridge had in Michigan on the Kalamazoo River in 2010.

“I think from our perspective you could have the best technology, but all you need is the smallest flaws and that technology fails.”In Prince George, northern B.C.’s largest city of about 80,000, Enbridge is hosting a meeting of community advisory boards. The boards have been organized and funded by Enbridge to provide a venue for sharing information and ideas on the project.

Normally, the sessions are private (you have to have applied and been invited to participate) but today the doors have been opened to reporters for luncheon speaker Peter Howard, CEO of the Canadian Energy Research Institute, which is funded by industry and government.

Howard’s talk encompasses both oil and natural gas, and he endorses a coterie of oil pipelines, including Northern Gateway, as necessary to get expanding Alberta oilsands production to market, including new, important markets in Asia.

Among the members of the five regional advisory groups are 15 First Nation groups, including five Metis groups and five First Nations from Alberta.

There are four First Nations from B.C.: the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, the Gitxsan (two groups), Hagwilget Village Council and Skin Tyee.

The Cheslatta Carrier Nation has been at the advisory board table since its inception in 2009.

The Cheslatta claim traditional territory encompassing about 20 to 30 kilometres of the pipeline route, to the west of the Nak’azdli.

Mike Robertson, a policy adviser for the Cheslatta, said they remain neutral on the project but are in discussions with Enbridge. He would not say whether the First Nation is one of those that has signed an equity agreement, but adds that being offered an ownership stake in a resource project is a rare opportunity.

The community of 350 members — about one third of whom live on a reserve south of Burns Lake — lost a significant employer when a joint-venture sawmill that provided about 140 manufacturing, logging and transportation jobs closed permanently in 2011. Robertson said the Cheslatta respect the concerns of other First Nations on the Northern Gateway project, including over the risk of a tanker spill on B.C.’s coast, but says the alternative to

GATEWAYnews transporting oil via an “engineered” pipeline is the lessappealing option of shipping it by rail.

“It’s easy to just come out and oppose a project, but I think we have to totally understand it before we can say no or yes,” he said.

Holder, the lead on Northern Gateway for Enbridge, attended the community advisory board meeting.

Three years ago, Holder offered to head the project and move back to her hometown of Prince George from Toronto where she was a senior executive in the natural gas division.

Enbridge has tried to capitalize on the credibility they believe her roots in a northern B.C. community give her.

Many television and print ads feature Holder.

Although Enbridge would like 100-per-cent support from First Nations, Holder acknowledges that is not likely.

“There’s no major issue that’s ever been dealt with in this country, a social issue or infrastructure, that’s going to have 100-per-cent support from aboriginal communities, as well as the general public,” says Holder.

Holder argues that while First Nation opponents have been very vocal, there are First Nations that support the project that have not voiced their opinions.

The equity agreements signed by First Nations — there’s an up to 10-per-cent stake available in total — will

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provide a share in profits as soon as the project begins operations.

“This was not First Nations having to put up their hand and saying we support you. They could remain neutral.

They just could not openly oppose us,” says Holder, of those that have signed equity agreements.

“I will say, though, those that have signed on are meeting with us on a very regular basis and working on ways to further partnering with us that goes well beyond equity components,” she said.

Holder will not say exactly what the company is doing to convince First Nations such as the Nak’azdli to support the project, saying the company never discusses its efforts with individual First Nations.

But she notes that Enbridge has a team whose job it is to meet with First Nations in northern B.C. And when it is needed, senior executives also meet with First Nations leaders face-to-face, she says.

Enbridge CEO Al Monaco was in Prince George the day of the community advisory board meeting for a session with three unnamed First Nations chiefs.

“I’d say there’s more (First Nations) talking to us than people probably realize,” said Holder.On the return trip upriver, the rain has stopped as quickly as it started.

Todd points to the riverbank and explains how in the

past, they knew the salmon would return when the berries turned red.

The Nak’azdli believe that chief Kwah watches for the return of the salmon, and the first big spring rainstorm is Kwah beating his drum to announce the arrival of the salmon, explains Anne Sam, a councillor with the Nak’azdli.

It is the salmon that hold paramount importance here.

At the Nak’al Bun elementary school each fall, the children learn to clean sockeye and get them ready for canning or drying, part of an effort to maintain the connection to the land and the Nak’azdli culture, says Sam. Todd slows the boat, shows where he has seen elk come down.

Reflecting on the Nak’azdli’s resistance to the pipeline, Todd says simply it is because they believe it will harm the river.

“Salmon always come up this way,” he says with a sweep of his hand.

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Island Mountain Arts working to fund new home Frank PEEBLES | Citizen staff When a sudden but expensive real estate opportunity came to Island Mountain Arts, they almost as suddenly gathered tens of thousands of dollars to purchase the property. They still have a long way to go to complete the deal, however, and time is running out.

Island Mountain Arts (IMA) has a yearround gallery, operates many arts classes and workshops year-round, runs the annual ArtsWells festival, and many other cultural activities.

Although they are based in Wells - the hamlet at the end of the Barkerville Highway, the doorstep community for the historic town - their economic and cultural impacts are felt directly in Quesnel and Prince George.

IMA is headquartered in a large building on prominent Pooley Street, but for many years their activities and possessions have needed to be farmed off to other sites around the tiny town. With a recent resurgence in mining and forestry activity in the area, those few available buildings are now being snapped up by industrial companies, putting a further squeeze on IMA’s operations. By a stroke of luck, when one came up for sale - the spacious building next door they had salivated over for years they got the first right to purchase.

They slapped down a $5,000 nonrefundable deposit and set to work scrabbling together the $65,000 down payment required to outright purchase the $275,000 building. A crowd-sourcing fundraising campaign got underway only a couple of weeks ago, led by IMA executive director Julie Fowler, board president Yael Wand and vice-president Paul Crawford.

“It looks as if this first phase will reach close to $35,000 plus the $5,000 deposit,” said Crawford. “It means we reached half the 25 per cent down payment we needed at first, but things are encouraging with Integris hopefully coming on board.

“This doesn’t mean our fundraising efforts are over,” he added. “On the contrary, every bit more that rolls in will help us build our case with the credit union. The more we can put down the more likely this property can be the Island Mountain Centre for the Arts. A ‘nest’ for artists.”

The crowd-sourcing campaign is still underway on the Indiegogo website, or through IMA’s front office. The financing must be in place by Monday or the deal could fall through.

That would be an opportunity loss for the entire region, said Wand, a successful singer-songwriter based on Salt Spring Island (formerly a resident of Wells) who continues to support IMA with her volunteer efforts.

“Wells is a town full of creative people,” Wand said. “Photographers, visual artists, dancers, musicians, actors, writers, crafters and still many more artists flock to Wells every year to create, inspire and learn. IMA has served as a cornerstone in this broad artistic community for 37 years ... generally contributing to the cultural wealth of British Columbia. My own involvement with IMA has helped me grow as a performer, develop my creative business skills, engaged me in community and inspired me over and over again. I know I am just one of thousands of artists who has benefited from participating in and contributing to IMA’s programs.”

The building would specifically allow IMA to house their visiting artists without the need of precious local hotel space, which also frees those rooms for more incoming tourists and participants. The new building would also provide needed storage space, meeting space and instructional space, all within a few paces of the existing IMA operation.

“Whenever we have to fundraise for something - and this is probably the most important fundraising campaign we have ever done - we always think about the big philanthropist out there, hoping for some-

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Cont’d from page 22 one to just drop the whole amount down for us in one shot, but it never happens,” said Fowler. “Our growth has always happened because hundreds of people contributed little bits, doing what they can, and it all adds up. That’s what’s happening here, but we still wish for that big angel benefactor or a favourable financing deal with Integris, that would have the same effect.”

OPTIONAL SIDEBAR Hopes for New History In Old Digs Like almost every inch of the Wells area, the building IMA hopes to own comes with a rich history that even touches Prince George (notice names like Garvin Dezell and Hub King). The IMA staff dug up the property’s past for public knowledge, as they attempt to raise enough money to make the purchase. Their account of the adjacent lot is: This building was constructed in late 1938 by Garvin Dezell Contractors (who also built the Wells Community Hall) for the Cariboo Gold Quartz Mining Company. This was the major office building for the town.

The first floor contained the Royal Bank and the RCMP. The second story held the offices of the Wells Townsite Company and lawyer Hub King.

From 1985 to 1989, Mosquito Creek Mine had offices on the first floor and the second floor had been converted to

a private residence.

In the late 1990s the building exterior was heavily modified as it was turned into a bed-and-breakfast. A peaked roof structure was built over the original flat roof and finished with metal roofing.

The exterior walls were insulated with two inches of rigid foam insulation on top the original clapboard, before being stuccoed and painted. There is also some insulation in the space between the original ceiling and roof.

Most of the original windows were replaced with double-glazed aluminum windows. Although these modifications served to disguise the heritage qualities of the building exterior, they PHOTO BY IMARTS.COM did provide the building with a more Island Mountain Arts located in Wells, BC. practical exterior protection system for local weather conditions.

Outbuildings: The large lot contains two outbuildings.

There is also a foundation from a previous Quonset hut One is a garage which was once the first Royal Bank that collapsed from snow load, which provides an excelbuilding in Wells. The other is a small cabin that was lent opportunity for an additional building to be built at moved onto the site. some future time.

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Traditional pit house unveiled near UNBC Arthur WILLIAMS | Citizen staff UNBC and the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation officially opened a traditional Dakelh-style pit house along the Cranbrook Hill Greenway trail network near the university on Saturday.

The pit house was built between July 5 and July 25 by a group of 12 UNBC undergraduate and Lheidli T’enneh high school students and part of an experiential learning course offered through UNBC’s First Nations studies program.

Vince Prince lead the team, using his experience building a pit house in Fort St. James and drawings from the journal of 19th Century missionary Father AdrienGabriel Morice. Not much is known about Dakelh-style pit houses, he said, although archeological evidence shows they were

used in the region at least as early as the 1600s.

“They [pit houses] were the permanent winter dwellings,” Prince said. “We had two drawings and two paragraphs of original information.”

Traditionally, area First Nations like the Lheidli T’enneh would travel to a number of camps throughout the year, hunting, fishing and gathering, he said. They would spend the winter in their permanent winter camps in pit houses.

Pit houses have were built by a wide variety of cultures throughout the world – particularly in the Americas and northern Europe. The common feature among them is they are built over a, typically circular, pit excavated out of the ground with a wood and/or earthen roof structure.

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CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Vincent Prince lights a fire and speaks about the Dakelh-style pit house that was built by UNBC students along a trail at Forests for the world.

The pit house built by the students is built on a circular pit three feet deep, with a pyramid-like wooden roof structure built over top, Prince said.

The clay and topsoil excavated from the pit where then spread on top of the wooden structure, he said.

Over time, grass and other plants will grow in the soil cover to help further insulate the pit house, he said.

“In winter time, it has plenty of insulation value,” he said. “Under four inches of topsoil there was no moisture. There is going to be no moisture getting to these logs.”

Smoke from fires in the house’s central fire pit will help dry and preserve the wood as well, he said.

“It makes it really tough,” he said. “Even to cut it with a power saw... it is really, really tough. It doesn’t break like normal dry pine.”

Access to the pit house would traditionally be from the top only, using a log with steps carved into it, he said. But they chose to include a side entrance for ease of access, a feature found on pit houses from warmer climates to the south.

“The size of the logs is [also] way bigger than they would have used,” he said. “They would have used much smaller logs – maybe four inches around.”

The team used chainsaws to cut the large logs, which were on the site donated for their use, and steel hand tools like shovels and drawknives to build the house. All the digging and hauling was done by hand, he said.

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Group deals with suicide aftermath Christine HINZMANN | Citizen staff You don’t ever get over it but you can learn to live with it, are the comforting words spoken by a person who knows.

Pat Russell lost her 40-year-old daughter, Sharon, to suicide in 2001 when they lived in Winnipeg.

At the same time, Sandy Galletti lost her sister.

Together, mother and daughter have found a way to cope with the loss.

When Galletti moved to Prince George seven years ago, she saw the need for a mutual support group for those who have lost a loved one through suicide so Heartbeat was created. It started when she connected with Canadian Mental Health and found out they were looking for someone to facilitate the group.

“I was at a point in my life that I could offer something and I really wanted to honour my sister and do something in her memory that would be of benefit to other people because she herself was a very caring woman, she was a nurse by profession,” said Galletti, who is the youth services regional liaison for Northern Health. Sharon had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was in an unhealthy relationship at the time of her death, Galletti explained.

Sharon had made other attempts to end her life and had been hospitalized for her illness in the past.

When Galletti first started the group, Russell, who followed her daughter to Prince George, didn’t want any part of it.

“I didn’t think it was appropriate or that I needed that, and I guess, to be honest, I wasn’t comfortable with it,” admitted Russell. “But I know now it’s aided in my healing. It helped to talk about it with other people.”

Now Galletti and her mother co-facilitate the group every third Monday of the month.

“We would like to see the shame and blame disappear, and that’s through education,” she added.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Sandra Galletti, left, a facilitator for Heartbeat Support Group, and her mom Pat Russell.

Right now there are about six people who attend the open support group on a regular basis and others are always welcome to attend.

Galletti encourages people to start with a call to her, because she understands how daunting it can be to walk into a room filled with strangers to talk about something so personal. Russell can also reach out to people by telephone and often calls those in the support group just to check in.

A common concern for people in the group is the judgment that comes with having a family member commit suicide.

“Many people who have joined the group have commented that it’s the first time they’ve been able to talk openly about what’s happened in their family,” said Galletti.

Concern for other family members is also a point that comes up in the meetings, said Russell. For how they are dealing with the grief over the loss of a loved one or that another family member may choose the same path.

“The thing about Heartbeat is that everyone in the group can relate,” said Galletti.

“And that’s really important - having the support of others that know what you’re going through.”

The meetings are held every third Monday of the month at the Canadian Mental Health Association office at 1152 Third Avenue at 6:30 p.m. or call Sandra on her cell at 250-961-9330.

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Cont’d from page 27 days of construction to build the house, he said, with six and a half of the days used to dig the pit.

Traditionally, obsidian or flint tools were used to cut and shape the wood, Prince said. Digging sticks were used to excavate the pits, which were almost always built in gravel or sandy soil near water ways, Prince added.

Prince urged residents to come and explore the pit house, which is an approximately 15 minute walk down the main Cranbrook Hill Greenway trail from the parking lot near UNBC. “I want to make sure people enjoy it. Come and visit it,” he said.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE Gabriella Solonas was one of the students who took part in the course and built the pit house.

Solonas, an undergraduate First Nations studies student at UNBC, said she was eager to sign up for the course after hearing about a similar class last year in which students built a traditional dugout canoe.

“The course was really awesome. It was very different than being in the classroom,” Solonas said. “It was like we were building a relationship with the Lheidli... and the Lheidli territory.

It also gave her a better understanding of the resourcefulness, knowledge and skill of the Dakleh people, she said.

The bulk of the students who took part were women, she added, and the experience really showed her how strong women could be.

“I look at it like a birthing experience: we were sweating, crying and some of us bleeding,” she said.

UNBC professor Antonia Mills, who developed the idea

and put together the funding and support for the class, said the pit house will continue to be used for teaching.

The pit house will be used as a classroom for First Nations studies students and environmental studies, she said.

Students who took part in the class will be providing tours of the pit house as part of the university’s 25th anniversary celebrations this year, she added.

“It’s a very valuable learning tool,” Mills said.

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