Industry and trades oct 2015

AND

Industry TRADES

oCT

2015

CoVeR sToRY Mill explosions

PG Change 24 The Laws

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

3

Table of COntents PG 4-5 Softwood lumber agreement a BC priority with Trudeau........................................ PG 6-8 Winery bottles for bears................................................................................................. PG 9-11 Drilling into go-cart engines......................................................................................PG 12-13 Building the history of Prince George...................................................................... PG 14-16 How to build a business that builds.......................................................................... PG 17-18 Spinning wool by hand............................................................................................. PG 19-20 Alexander Mackenzie trail book.............................................................................. PG 21-23 Mill explosions change the law............................................................................... PG 24-25 Emily Carr University setting up in Prince George...............................................PG 26-27 LNG Conference starts youth fire.................................................................................... PG 28 Blackwater Gold Project hits safety benchmark.......................................................... PG 29 Resources Connector North group................................................................................. PG 30

PG 04

Murray River Coal Mine set for innovation..................................................................

General Inquiries | 250-562-2441 Publisher | Colleen Sparrow Editor | Neil Godbout Stories | Frank Peebles Circulation | Alan Ramsay Advertising | Dave Smith Creative | Grace Flack

Please Recycle

PG 06

PG 26

PG 28

PG 14

4

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

4

Murray River

coal mine set for innovation Frank Peebles Citizen Staff

The mining industry in this region is going underground.

All of the current coal mines in B.C. are openpit. In that style of mining, the personnel and machinery involved takes down entire mountainsides to liberate the coal seams inside the overburden and amongst the rock. This is common in the industry around the world, but in China they do things differently. The skills and technology in that country’s coal industry are focused on longwall mining - underground and surgical.

A China-based company has advanced a mine proposal for north-central B.C. and it

has now passed a major hurdle. It received its Environmental Assessment Certificate and it is now in the official stage of applying for permits to begin construction. Assuming it does, it would become the first underground coal operation in 25 years for B.C. and the first long-wall mine in Canadian history.

The proponent company is HD Mining International Ltd. and their proposal is for the Murray River Coal Project located about 12 kilometres south of Tumbler Ridge. As the crow flies, that is only 150 kilometres northeast of Prince George just over the Macgregor Plateau and Hart

Mountain Range.

According to official company estimates, the capital cost for the project will be roughly $688 million spent to set up.

The company predicts that during its 25-year operating life, the mine is expected to create 780 jobs.

Furthermore, during operation, the mine is expected to produce up to 4.8 million tonnes of coal per year and the company estimates the project will contribute more than $1 billion in total tax revenues to provincial government coffers.

HD Mining also estimates that the Murray River Coal project will contribute about $7.9 billion in direct, indirect and induced economic benefits within B.C. Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett, in an exclusive interview with Citizen Industry & Trades, said this was not only a major flow of cash into the pockets of British Columbians in the private sector, and also a big help in covering public sector expenses like running the medical system and the education system, but it was also a sign of an industry learning how to innovate for the benefit of the environment.

Continued on page 5

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

5

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES Continued from page 4 “This underground method is more environmentally beneficial than open pit,” he said. “You don’t have nearly the same footprint on the landscape. Its an exciting development for B.C. and for Canada.”

The nation’s immigration needs also get a boost from this new method of mining. No Canadian workforce knows how to long-wall mine. Experienced miners from China will have to come and train Canadians through the initial stages of operation, which means skilled Chinese people will spend time in our local economy, certainly spending their money but also hopefully some will like what they see here and stay for good.

Their training will also invent a new skill-set for Canadians as the long-term workers learn how to extract coal in this environmentally preferred and cost-effective way. Bennett explained that by using this specialized machinery to dig only on the coal seams themselves, leaving the rest of the rock and overburden intact, would be a huge savings to any company who chose to use it.

“The idea came from the company,” he said. “I

met with this company in Beijing in 2006 on a trade mission we did then, so it’s really gratifying to see that when you make these trips to encourage companies to invest in B.C. that it actually comes to pass. Those trade missions were like spending a penny to get $1,000 back, when you look at all the money it will bring into our economy and all the local jobs it will create, and all the positive spinoff effects. It’s just a great deal for the taxpayer, and that’s just considering this one mine proposal.”

Training initiatives and facilities are already in the active planning stages, said Bennett, so the promise of long-term Canadian capacity building will come to pass.

“They use the long-wall method in China, where they have everything from ma and pa operations to this giant scale. We don’t have people in Canada trained to use it, but we will.

And what’s really exciting about that is, these Chinese investors have other coal projects in B.C. that aren’t as far along in the long-wall implementation stage, so there is momentum to develop a whole new side to this industry in B.C.” Ministry of Energy and Mines staff explained that the long-wall mining technique involves the use of carefully designed and well-tested machines doing most of the underground work.

5 Multiple coal shearers are mounted on a series of self-advancing hydraulic ceiling supports.

The shearing machines are about 800 feet (240 meters) in width and five to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 meters) tall. The miners extract “panels” - rectangular blocks of coal as wide as the mining machinery and as long as 12,000 feet (3,650 meters). As the shears advance, the coal is cut from the non-coal rock it is attached to, the coal falls onto a conveyor belt rolling underneath the whole apparatus, and it whisks it out of the seam into the outside where it is then processed for shipment like any other coal operation.

This particular material is metallurgical coal, which is especially good for firing the mega-hot steel production factories in China.

“It’s a very important kind of coal that B.C. provides to that industry,” said Bennett. “When you think about it, take a look around your life, and you take notice of all the steel you have in your household possession - your iPad, your bike, your knives and forks - you realize just how vital this coal is to how you live your life. The world needs it and we have lots of it.”

6

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

6

Softwood lumber agreement

Justin Trudeau during his visit to the UNBC Campus in 2013.

Citizen file photo by Brent BrAAtEN

a BC priority with Trudeau

Frank Peebles Citizen Staff

The softwood lumber agreement that overlays the economies of so many northern communities has now expired.

On Oct. 12, the Canada / U.S. deal officially came to a close but is in a one-year holding pattern. No province is more attuned to the softwood lumber agreement than this one and Premier of British Columbia Christy Clark said the first conversation she wants to have with incoming prime minister Justin Trudeau pertains to the

renewal of that key pact.

“I’m going to make sure that our Prime Minister makes the softwood lumber agreement and its renegotiation a priority,” she said. “In my discussion with him, I’m going to ensure that the federal government understands the importance of free and fair access to the U.S. market and what that means for British Columbia but also, in a country where so much of the national economy depends on what happens here in British Columbia, the importance of this agreement for every single Canadian.”

Continued on page 7

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

7

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES Continued from page 6 Clark said the signing of the last softwood lumber agreement in 2006 spelled the end of five years of aggressive litigation leveled against Canada by U.S. lumber interests. Although international adjudicators like the World Trade Organization, North American Free Trade Agreement dispute tribunals, and courts on both sides of the border tended to disagree with most allegations made against Canada, it was still a costly and aggravating hassle for the entire sawmilling industry and all its related fields.

When the last agreement was signed, it triggered the return of $2.4 billion to B.C. wood manufacturing companies, held by the United States pending the outcome of the negotiations.

“None of us in this province can forget that forestry built our province. We also know that we cannot take its continued success for granted,” said Clark. “We have to work hard to ensure that forestry will endure as a key pillar of jobs and growth in B.C., to ensure that the 80 communities that depend on it continue to thrive. In order to do this, we all need to very determinedly and purposefully work together.”

Her opposition counterpart, provincial NDP

leader John Horgan, applauded the stance taken think the Premier agrees, but to our future,” said

by Clark to put B.C.’s No. 1 industry at the No. Horgan. “But there is, of course, lots to do here at 1 spot on the intergovernmental relations list home that doesn’t involve international negotianow that we have a drastically changed federal tions and that we can work on together as well Parliament. It is not a lost fact that many veterans to assist the industry today — trying to reduce of the incoming new government of the Liberal the amount of raw log exports, for example, and Party of Canada were also in government posi- a range of other issues that are in the hands of tions when most of the disputes were at their the government. I look forward to working with peak. them on those as well.”

“It’s critical that we stick The issues Horgan is It’s critical that we stick together on these trade referring to might seem together on these trade agreements. It’s also critilaughable to the U.S. agreements. It’s also cal that we work together Lumber Coalition, one of critical that we work to make sure we have a the leading lobby groups vibrant forest sector now urging Washington to take together to make sure and into the future,” said a much tougher stance we have a vibrant forest Horgan, who added that against the Canadian lumsector now and into the “I made my way through ber industry. They continue future. university working in the to taken positions that the forest sector” and was disinternational trade tribunals heartened to see more than 200 mills erased have dismissed as invalid arguments, yet they from the B.C. economy since 2002 and 25,000 have a strong protectionist voice since 1985. jobs went with them.

They contend that the Canadian lumber industry “I’m looking very much forward to sharing is wholly subsidized by the various provinces. information and ideas about how we can work Their main beef is, they have to buy their trees together in unison for all British Columbians to to cut into lumber from private landowners. But make sure we protect this critical and vital indus- in Canada - and this is the norm in B.C. - the vast try — not only to our past, I would argue, and I majority of timber is on land owned by the pub-

7 lic and the public doesn’t charge as much money for trees as a private landowner.

“The Canadian industry’s only real advantage over the U.S. industry is access to taxpayer-subsidized Canadian timber, which dramatically -- but artificially and unfairly -- lowers Canadian production costs,” said the USLC. “In addition to providing unfair subsidies, Canadian provinces have instituted other policies designed to maximize jobs and production in the Canadian industry - including minimum harvest requirements, domestic processing mandates, and log export restrictions - resulting in artificially high levels of timber harvests and lumber production even when the market is oversupplied.

“The end-result is that Canadian companies unload excess production into the U.S. market at a cost of thousands of good-paying American jobs,” the USLC continued. “Through the subsidies and policies that induce uneconomical manufacturing, the provinces export production cutbacks, mill closures and job losses to the United States. Efficient U.S. sawmills and workers cannot and should not be expected to pay the price for Canadian provinces’ efforts to protect Canadian mills from market realities and competition.”

Continued on page 8

8

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

8 effects of unfairly subsidized imports in the U.S. lumber market,” said Charlie Thomas, chairperThe argument from Canada, and it has been son of the USLC and vice-president of Shuqualak repeatedly upheld by the courts, is these for- Lumber Company in Mississippi. “Unfortunately, ests are not lumber farms. They are owned by world timber and lumber markets have evolved all - including the proprietors of mills - at full and the 2006 agreement is now outdated. The expense for the breadth of values it provides coalition intends to continue working with the many industries as well as the environment itself. U.S. Government to reach a new agreement that The prices for trees are set at fair market value will resolve this issue effectively in the future.”

Neither side is at the negotiating table at presfor all those combined factors.

While the coalition applauded most elements ent.

“If Canada continues to stay away from the of the previous softwood lumber agreement, its date of expiration produced more antagonis- negotiating table,” said Thomas, “the U.S. industry will eventually have no tic talk from the USLC. choice but to use our rights They are urging the under U.S. trade laws to offAmerican Department One key difference set the unfair advantages proof Commerce to balk with this round vided to Canadian industry. at simply renewing the of negotiations We hope Canada will make previous agreement. is, Canada is less use of this next year to work “The Softwood constructively with the U.S. dependent by far on Lumber Agreement Government to secure a stawas intended to reduce the American market ble and effective agreement the competitive imbalthat all stakeholders can supances caused by subport.” sidies growing out of The USLC has stated that their position is rootCanadian provincial government control of most of the fiber supply used to produce softwood ed in Canadian culture itself being the problem lumber in Canada and to minimize the harmful with the lumber industry, however. It remains Continued from page 7

to be seen if the Department of Commerce negotiators will be taking this as the c o n official United States position or if they accept t r a c t s t o s u p p l y American wholesale and retail outlets with 2x4s the repeated rulings from the trade tribunals.

“U.S. workers, industry, and landowners and plywood and ties and other common lumber. They have seen border duties in the past, should not be forced to and they are painfully costpay the enormous costs ly. of this Canadian social We, in this province, “We, in this province, are policy. In short, Canada’s are one of the world’s one of the world’s largest social programs must largest softwood lumber softwood lumber exportstop at the border,” said ers,” said Clark. “We have exporters. We have the USLC, implying that if worked very hard to diverprovincial governments worked very hard to sify our markets over the couldn’t treat public lands diversify our markets years, as well as our econas though they were priover the years. omy. Since 2006, softwood vate, then lumber compalumber exports to China nies sending wood over have grown from just 1 the border should have to percent to 25 percent today. That’s a remarkpay extra money.

One key difference with this round of negotia- able change and something that’s been good for tions is, Canada is less dependent by far on the communities across the province. We’re going American market. The vast majority B.C. lumber continue our work to expand Asian markets, but was typically sold to the construction indsutry of the United States will always remain a crucial the United States but in the past five years, China market for us — our closest neighbours, our closand other Asian countries have stepped up their est friends, anywhere in the world.”

Now that a new federal government has been purchase of our wood products, making the U.S. destination less of a factor overall. But many determined, all sides are interested to see what B.C. companies nonetheless have significant might now emerge in the form of a negotiation message to the United States.

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

Winery Bottles for

bears Frank Peebles Citizen Staff

PHOTO: Noemie Touchette, Farm manager at Northern Lights Estate Winery, stirs the apple wine made from local apples. The winery is making the wine through a partnership with Northern Bear Awareness Society. Northern Lights Estate Winery also made a donation of $2,500 to Northern Bear Awareness Society.

Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

9 Sure you can hold your booze, but conservationists and vintners in Prince George want you to also be able to bear your wine.

Northern Lights Estate Winery (NLEW), one of the city’s newest businesses, and the most northerly winery in Canada, is doing something to save the lives of local bears. They are making wine. It hardly seems like an innovation, on the surface, but here’s the cutting edge of the new service they provided: they made this special wine out of apples that would normally have fallen on the ground or over-ripened on the tree, thus turning into a deadly attractant for hungry bears.

Bears that habituate to garbage and over-ripe fruit is just their sort of garbage - get shot. Often, if it is a sow, the babies have to be shot, then too.

All because someone couldn’t be bothered to look after their backyard fruit.

This year, Northern Lights Estate Winery contacted the city’s Northern

Bear Awareness Society and stuck a deal. The manufacturing plant pledged to take all the apples the society’s Fruit Exchange Program could gather up, blend them, and make a sweet fruit wine.

The donations of apples came rolling in. The community got behind this practical use for unwanted apples, and contributed about 5,000 pounds of them. More than 20 varieties showed up in the mix.

“We took everything. We like to use apple blends,” said NLEW proprietor Doug Bell. “Some of these varieties may not be good eating apples, but they are very good when made into wine.”

The Bear Aware Program volunteers went to houses that called to offer their fruit and picked the majority of the donated fruit, but more than 1,000 pounds of the stuff was brought to the winery by the apple owners themselves.

Continued on page 10

9

10

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

10 Continued from page 8 “We have seen what the public’s reaction was, and this was just the first go at this. I think we may be able to double or even triple our intake in the next few years, which will help even more to reduce these attractants, and that reduces the bear-human interactions and it will reduce the number of bears that have to be killed,” Bell said.

The unwanted apples-into-wine scenario also had another major benefit. Since NLEW estimated the intake of fruit would result in about 300 cases of wine, they turned the proceeds of that agri-food product into even more bear hugs. This week, even before the wine was out of the vats and into the bottles, they made a cash donation of $2,500 to the Northern Bear Awareness Society.

Society president Dave Bakker was gobsmacked.

“With this money, we can pay off two years of our phone operation costs and two years of the insurance we must have to do our work.

Those are two of our biggest fixed expenses,” he said. “This is a real boost for us. It frees us up to direct money into better operations.

A good reason for doing that is making an

even bigger Fruit Exchange Program, because Doug is right, I think this is just the beginning of what we can do to collect that unwanted fruit. We can’t take it to the regional district’s compost site, it all has to go into the landfill, so now it has a real purpose and people responded well to that.”

There are many other attractants that cause the needless death of bears at the hands of conservation officers tasked to protect the public from habituated bruins.

These include things like unclean barbecues, unkempt bird feeder areas, and the worst of course is insecure trash cans. Some extra money for the society means focus can be put on all these topics.

“Destroying animals who are just being themselves is not the solution,” Bakker said.

“We must address the issue of attractants head-on, because there are no second chances or three strikes for these bears. If a bear is

getting into backyard fruit or your garbage can, they have to be killed. Period.

That is just sickening when you think of how unnecessary that is.”

Underneath all this respect for nature, conservation philosophies, and public safety concern, is another sip of good news from NLEW. Their first year was so successful, they have sold out almost all of their bottles. There is more in the fermentation stage now - 11 of their 14 fermentation tanks are full at the moment - and the apples will help boost the stock on their shelves, but the operation is getting set for a shutdown period in which they will concentrate on cleanup, marketing strategy, business development, and other preparations for year two. Bell said the public interest in what they are making on the shores of the Nechako, at the base of the cutbanks, has been nothing short of stunning.

Destroying animals who are just being themselves is not the solution. We must address the issue of attractants head-on, because there are no second chances or three strikes for these bears.

T h e y have sold almost 15,000 bottles this rookie season.

“We have been getting major interest from Kitimat, Terrace, Prince Rupert, Smithers, and we have had to say no to a lot of them because we are still in our startup stages and we are still concentrated on the Prince George market. But we feel like already we are considered northern B.C.’s winery,” he said.

“Demand has exceeded expectations, absolutely. Originally we were feeling like we could produce 1,500 cases per year, but when we felt the initial response from the public and from within the industry, we expanded those plans to 5,000 cases per year. Well, in this first year, where we were just getting on our feet, we have sold more than 1,200 cases, we have a sense of what the demand is in reality, so we are already looking over the numbers and seeing if an expansion is maybe a good idea already. We may need to build some more facilities. It’s not because we did something extraordinary outside of our original business plan, it’s because northern B.C.’s response has been so extraordinary. That is really exciting.”

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

11 Pat Bell speaks at the launch of the Northern Lights Estate Winery, back in October of 2013.

Citizen file photo by Brent Braaten

11

12

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

12

Drilling

into go-cart

engines Frank Peebles Citizen Staff

Citizen photo by Frank Peebles

In the hands of Tim The Toolman Taylor, things would probably have blown up, but in the hands of 14-year-old Griffin Frederickson everything rolled along perfectly.

It wasn’t perfect for several prototypes and redesigns, but eventually Frederickson was able to drive his wooden go-cart around Civic Plaza with comfort and ease, powered only by a common cordless drill.

He had been working on the project for the past two years at his home in Dawson Creek.

Oddly, when he entered the vehicle in his region’s science fair, it didn’t win because it wasn’t considered scientific enough. The organizers of the Mini Maker Faire in Prince George saw through that and brought the young inventor and handyman, er, handyboy to their event this fall, to inspire more makers young and old.

“I thought of building the go-cart first. That was my real goal,” he said. “Anyone in the world wants a go-cart. But engines cost hundreds or

thousands of dollars. Then I saw my dad putting up a fence.”

It was one of those true and rare moments when a figurative light bulb goes off over the head. Frederickson had an engineering epiphany.

“I saw him driving screws into the wood with his screwdriver, and I thought if it had the power to do that, so quickly and deeply, could it not also twist a tire?,” he said.

The eventual answer was yes, but it was not as simple as it was in the moment of eureka. He had to experiment repeatedly, learning by trial and error the fickle and indifferent properties of friction. At first he tried to use a bit (made of a carriage bolt augmented with a succession of nuts, wrapped in rubber) clamped in the drill, but that was ineffective. But he found that the entire chuck of the power drill (an 18-volt Dewalt) had the surface area to do the job.

Continued On page 13

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

13

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES Continued from page 12 Then it was a matter of traction. The chuck against a tire would do the work in only the lightest of conditions. Add any amount of weight or resistance and it slipped. Frederickson needed to add a layer of friction, somehow.

Rubber tape was the successful amendment. It wears out with use, but it can be easily reapplied, and the drill’s chuck is never the worse for wear.

But even that needed modification. The tape alone was too smooth. He found that by overrevving the drill a few times when the tape was first applied against the tire, that it chewed the tape a bit, and that distressed surface was effective.

Also, the tire itself had its quirks. A smooth rubber tire was not effective, but a knobby rubber tire would grab the tape, Frederickson discovered. He started by trying rubber tape on a wheel rim, but that did not work. There was a lot of experimentation with hubs, and adjustments to the drill’s angle and tension against the tire before sweet contact was established.

As any daredevil knows, pushing off into the abyss is the easy part. The delicate trick is how one stops. Frederickson needed almost as much

experimentation to figure out a braking system for the go-cart he could now successfully drive. He eventually found the correct friction materials for that, too, and it was just as simple as the rest of the machine: a knobbly rubber glove on a stick.

His parents could have complained about their work gloves constantly turning up with friction holes burned through, or their toolbox being raided for more drill batteries, but they were inspired and amazed at their son’s creativity.

“We have very inquiring minds,” said his mother. “Living in a rural community, there is always an opportunity to invent something new with items we find in our back yard. Griffin keeps a file of blueprints and notes of various inventions that he would like to build someday.”

The low carbon footprint of the electric drill go-cart was a pleasure for the whole Frederickson family to think about. There was no exhaust, no emissions or leaks, just the charging of reusable batteries. As long as the batteries are in supply and charged with power, there is endless driving of the go-cart. He is even putting his thoughts to wheel turbines and solar panels to charge the batteries as the cart drives and/or sits idle.

13 He solved the problem of acceleration. The drill speed had to be controlled via its trigger, but how do you steer, brake and hold a drill fixed in place behind your seat? A lever system had to be invented so the driver could work the trigger from up front.

“When the cart was in our school gym, we were able to go about seven laps before we had to change the battery,” Frederickson said.

Of course, as anyone with a go-cart dream will tell you, now the object is to build more than one and have drillpower go-cart races.

Knowing Frederickson, though, he might move on to other bright ideas.

He has proven his tenacity on this project, but he has also built a coffee table, a china cabinet and a band saw, so he clearly has an industrious mind that is always moving with much

strong impulses than an 18-volt battery could ever produce.

Citizen photo by Frank Peebles

14

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

14

Building the

history of PRince George

Frank Peebles Citizen Staff

There are few architects who live in Prince George anymore. Keeping watch over the construction of new buildings and neighbourhoods is the one who has served longest in those ranks and still calls this city home.

Trelle Morrow has become known as much as a local historian as for the many buildings he designed (including many schools, part of The Citizen building, the Roll-A-Dome when it was the city’s first covered curling rink, and perhaps most famously Sacred Heart Cathedral). He has written books about the city’s copious beehive burners, famous pack-train operator Cateline, the aviation industry’s past, and many more.

For the first time, however, he has applied his ink to that which he knows best: architecture.

Morrow’s latest tome is entitled Living Legacies: 100 Years Of Prince George Architecture. It looks at the emblematic home, commercial, institutional and industrial edifices from 1914 when the first rail link was connected to the city and 2014 when the city stood on the cusp of the century-mark.

“It was a centennial project for me. I had so much information stored up in so many places, I felt I should dig it out and arrange it somehow,” he said with a laugh and finally getting around to his own bailiwick.

Few sectors touch on all the industries and trades the way architecture does. The spectrum of wood, steel, glass, concrete, pipes and wires,

energy sources, the movement of water, the movement of air, the movement of people, etc. is all drawn out under the pencil of the architect, then heavily consulted through drafters, engineers, designers, contractors and developers.

So what can we learn from the first 100 years of local buildings? What point have we arrived at today, after each construction era gives way to the next?

“The biggest influence on what we did in Prince George was the modern period,” said Morrow, referring to the movement that showed early signs at the turn of the 20th century, still has some influence on new buildings, but had its biggest impact from the 1920s to the 1960s with creep on either side when, said Morrow, “we got into the postmodernism movement. I talk about this a little bit in the Prince George context, but there isn’t a lot documented on this subject for the whole province, and modernism was happening all over Canada.”

There are pros and cons to modernism, and also to postmodernism. Critics have called the former style boring and jarring to the eye for all its straight lines and symmetry contrary to nature’s curves and arcs.

Critics of the latter have pointed out its overemphasis on the facade to the detriment of the other sides of the building. Morrow points to the prime, local examples: the new Prince George RCMP detachment and the Two Rivers Gallery.

Yes, both are spectacular on the face, but walk around the perimeter and watch the effect turn to bland, disjointed and architecturally unrelated sides.

“They are donkeys in behind, and racehorses up front,” he said.

Continued On page 16

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

15

The Fichtner Apartment Building, which was the first multi-unit dwelling ever constructed in Prince George.

Photo by Trelle Morrow

15

16

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

16 Continued from page 14 The common denominator, said Morrow, is local architecture has generally followed patterns. It was never a cacophony of random buildings. He parcels these themes into categories in his book.

“It’s not up to me to say any of these things is right or wrong. It is for me to ask the question is this right for you? Is this what you want for the expressions your buildings make?,” he said.

He doesn’t hold back on the latest iconic item on the city’s landscape though. He is an open critic of the Wood Innovation & Design Centre for its name incongruous with its reality.

“The interior is great; the exterior is a disaster,” he said. “It looks like plywood patched over holes, and it is already weathering badly, and it’s only a year old.”

The city’s overall blueprint was set on a master urban plan that was partially implemented (the Crescents neighbourhood, City Hall’s location, etc. are the signs of this) but eventually development veered off that course.

Individual buildings adhered to architectural philosophies in a general sense, but individually there was a hodgepodge lack of cohesion. “But nevertheless, some good stuff came out of it,” he said. “The Moffat house was not just a log cabin,

it was based on Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie-style of design. Jock Munro built it and the Moffats bought it four or five years later.

“An awful lot of homes were built on designs clipped out of magazines, which is why in the Crescents area there are so many buildings close to one another but with dissimilar looks. The magazines of that day had floorplans included in them, and people wanted to have something all their own, so the owner would take a floorplan to a local a builder and get it built to suit.”

With so many mills in the immediate area, it was easy for prospective homeowners to buy a cheap empty lot and have the necessary lumber easily accessible.

“There were a lot of kit houses built, and we are going through a kit house revival period, if you look at what Winton Homes is doing,” Morrow said. “It was the same 100 years ago, especially out on the bald prairie where there wasn’t much lumber around. Some of that happened here, too. You can see it on Gorse Street with the three historic homes in a row. Kit homes.”

Homes have heritage value for more reasons than age alone, he said. Not every old building is valuable in a historic sense, but posterity is served better when its construction was part of a rare event, like the ones erected with Wartime

Housing Act funds administrated by Canada Mortgage And Housing (CMHC). These a n d they weren’t doing he details on Page 97 of the book.

The Nechako Subdivision of 1958 was notable enough work to justify their salary. Eventually he for the CMHC financial aid that spurred local couldn’t pay the bills and got run out of town.”

The advent of the low-sloped roof and the development. The Seymour Subdivision of addition of carports signaled an evolution in about 1960 was notable because CMHC was not involved - it was an initiative of the municipal Prince George homebuilding. Those features government to raise money for City Hall and began to emerge in the 1960s.

In 1955, the Masonic Hall was built, and stands ease the housing pressures of the day.

“Chapter 4 is my analysis of the housing cri- today, and is an excellent example of commersis,” Morrow said. “It was serious. Because of cial architecture of the day. It still stands and is actively in use. all the soldiers here durTwo federal governing the Second World War ment buildings stand out Because of all the and right afterwards, there in his mind for their place were more people than soldiers here during the in local construction hishomes to fit them in from Second World War and tory - the building now the 1942 to 1957.” right afterwards, there headquarters of the Native The Fichtner Apartment Friendship Centre and the were more people than Building is not especially one now occupied by BID interesting from an archihomes to fit them in Group and the downtown tectural point of view, he from 1942 to 1957 Canada Post office. said, but it was the first The parkade at the back multi-unit dwelling ever of City Furniture (along constructed in Prince George. It was a 1951 gesture to ease the overloaded need for rental Fourth Avenue) he calls the city’s most underrated architectural feature, built by Read Jones spaces.

When Morrow arrived in 1954 he was caught Christofferson of Vancouver that put a lot of in this crisis. He lived in tight shared quarters time and effort into their designs, so the eye had but “I bought a lot right away. I designed an something to go along with the functionality of 800-square-foot house, and it is still standing the place.

Although he strongly advocates for sensible today. When we moved in it was so new you heritage preservation, not just old for old’s sake, could still smell the wood. I borrowed $1,000 from my mother to buy the lumber, and paid it he does lament that “Prince George has done a lot to destroy its own heritage. I use a picture all back in a year or two.”

He came to work for the first architectural of the old Alexander Hotel in the book, as an office to ever be permanently based in Prince example, because that was torn down in 1957 for nothing more than a brick box, the Kresge George, the 1953 enterprise of Ralph Brownlee.

“He came from Edmonton and lived here full- Department Store building that is a furniture time but was always on the road,” said Morrow. store now.”

He focuses on seven distinct time periods, in “Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Vanderhoof, Burns Lake - he was all over the map. And he went his examination of the city’s architectural history. broke because he had so many people working They are available in spiral-bound book form at in his office, but he wasn’t there to supervise, local bookstores.

According to Morrow, this parkade on 4th Avenue is one of the most underrated structures in Prince George.

Photo by Trelle Morrow

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

17

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES BDC vice-president and chief economist Pierre Cleroux.

Photo from bcbusiness.ca

17

How to build a

business Frank Peebles Citizen Staff

The vast majority of businesses in northern B.C. are small or medium in size.

Statistics Canada sets the numbers at one to 99 employees as the definition of a small business, and 100 to 499 for medium. These two combined categories are called SMEs (Small-Medium Enterprise).

Most businesses in that profile are in some way connected to the industrial economy of the north. Perhaps you don’t do business in construction or mining or forestry, but chances are strong you have clients who do.

The bad news for small and medi-

um businesses is, Canada has gone through a small period of recession after a prolonged period of little to now economic growth. The good news, though, discovered by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), is how many of our nation’s businesses seem to have figured out how to beat the odds.

In the brand new report entitled SMEs And Growth: Challenges And Winning Strategies, the BDC peeled back the layers on 1,000 small and medium businesses from coast to coast, found out their growth patterns over the past three years, and then found out what the common traits were among the successful ones.

that builds

“We wanted to understand growth,” said BDC’s chief economist and the vice-president of research Pierre Cleroux. “Is it still possible to grow a business in Canada? We found 41 per cent of SMEs have outgrown the economy over the past few years. That is quite significant. Despite the fact the economy has not grown so much, they were able to do pretty well.”

Researchers were surprised by this, Cleroux said, but even more surprising was another discovery. Not only did four out of 10 outstrip the nation’s rate of economic growth, 29 per cent of all those surveyed were experiencing sustained growth, and 12 per cent showed strong.

Continued On page 18

18

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

18 Continued from page 17 To be deemed to be a “growing” business, these SMEs must have seen an increase in its revenue, profit or workforce in each of the last three years without having experienced any decline in any of these areas. Average annual growth of 5-19.9 per cent was considered “sustained growth,” with average annual growth of 20 per cent or more considered “strong growth.”

One such SME is Live Wire Automation Inc. of Fort St. John which does business all over northeastern B.C., has expanded to Australia, they have a new satellite office in Vancouver to be in closer touch with potential client companies “and hopefully get on some of the engineering projects from the commissioning and startup phase,” coproprietor Jason Keiser said, and Live Wire also does business in Prince George as a contractor to Pembina Pipelines for the natural gas industry already in place in this region.

Should the broader natural gas industry advance to the level of LNG pipelines and shipping terminals, Live Wire stands a strong chance of greatly expanding their business profile in northern B.C., but Keiser said they are not waiting for that to happen, they are finding ways to thrive right now.

Keiser (along with Australian-based partner

Peter Walsh) confirmed theirs was one of the companies surveyed by the BDC for this report, and they absolutely fit the profile of the “growing business” the data uncovered.

TYPICAL PROFILE OF GROWING SMEs IN CANADA (based on commonalities in the data): - was founded less than 10 years ago (Live Wire was started in 2007) - has more than five employees (15 in Canada, 17 in Australia) - has annual sales of $2 million or more (yes) - is located in Alberta (no, but in the petroleum industry that dominates Alberta’s economy) - is active in the construction industry, more often than not (daily, in their case) - is owned by more than one shareholder (two: Keiser and Walsh) According to the feedback provided by the 1,000 SMEs who took part in the research, there are some key obstacles to their success. For a few, but only a limited number, that was a lack of access to financing for their growth.

Keiser said Live Wire had some trouble getting money in the startup years, working solely with the traditional banks, but once they discovered the programs of the BDC, which dovetails with the banks and other financing sources, that got smoother.

On the other obstacles of growth (and how to get around them), Keiser said Live Wire was

again quite typical of the majority. The No. 1 point the was fierce competition, but apart from that the g r a s s r o o t s l e v e l , issues were internal: 47 per cent of respondents because they have better foundational skills, and mention difficulty managing growth in an orderly they deepened their loyalty which resulted in far fashion, while others describe insufficient famil- greater retention even in competitive professions. iarity with new technologies (40 per cent) or with Workers put large value in certified educational market trends and the competition (38 per cent). opportunities being afforded to them.

More than a quarter of respondents also pointed Building a smarter, more loyal workforce to managing debt levels as an obstacle to growth. played one part in the most surprising finding Those issues are helpful categories, but out on within the data, said Cleroux, but so too did the the ground it looks a lot like managers trying to point about innovation and the point about decide if they should invest money (usually incur- investing in technology and process efficiencies. ring debt) to purchase tools, training, more work- What caught the researchers off-guard, he said, ers, etc. and then going after bigger/more jobs or was the workforce numbers. The growth compagoing for ambitious workloads then bringing on nies had smaller employee turnover, but also did those resources after they win the contract. not either shrink or expand Of all those considerations, their staff numbers. skilled labour is the main one, It made sense, he said, We live in a much more said Keiser. once that data’s story become “It is challenging, yes,” he competitive environment, clear. With a country experisaid. “We could hire people competition from rival encing a declining workforce right now, we would love to due to small population companies within Canada hire people right now, but it is growth and high retirement and competition from so hard to find good people and demographics, doing more many more countries. then convince them to stay with fewer people is imporin the north more than one tant, but you can’t overwhelm winter.” those employees with more Live Wire is focused on high-tech tools that work than they can practically handle. help companies manage their operations and So, streamlining the operation, putting cutting operate their machines. It is complex and high- edge technology and work-saving tools in their skill. That helps, in that Live Wire knows how to hands, and investing in those workers’ skills and source the people who can do that sort of work, knowledge was carrying the day. but they have to then focus on retention, and “We live in a much more competitive environGoing after yet another contract takes careful ment, competition from rival companies within planning.

Canada and competition from so many more “Managing the growth has been okay for us,” countries then ever before who are now in the said Keiser. “There has always been that question game, so you need strategies. You need a plan,” of do we go for the work first then try to find the Cleroux said. “The best companies not only have people or do we get the people in place and go a plan, they have analysis tools to measure their after the job. I still don’t know the full answer to progress against the plan, so they adjust along that. But definitely there is big risk in hiring and the way. They improved their processes, they training people in the hope of getting work for invested in better tools and innovations, so the those people. There is also risk, though, in accept- same amount of employees can generate more ing a job and then not being able to execute on revenue without burning out or asking too much your deal. That’s why I was on-site myself with the of the same number of employees, and they staff at a site today. We could definitely use some stayed in close contact with their clients so they more techs right now.” could be responsive to their clients’ needs and Cleroux said if any four keys to success form stronger business relationships. emerged from the data, it was these: Cleroux was in Prince George doing field work - Be client-centric. with the local BDC branch only a couple of weeks - Train your employees ago, and said this city was especially one in need - Invest in technology and process efficiencies of following the success points outlined in the - Innovate report. This city has an economy focused on natu“These four strategies were what led the way ral resources, has strong global markets right for successful companies no matter what sector on the doorstep - Asia to the west and U.S.A. to they were in, no matter which local economy they the south - but also has a tight unemployment were in, it was these things that drove them into rate. The landscape is set for success, but there prosperity,” said the analyst. are few skilled people immediately available, He was particularly interested in the trait of so it is important to attract quality employees, training the employees. The backstory to that treat them well, put them in touch with quality point was, if a company provides personal devel- resources, and based on the examples like Live opment to their staff, not only do they perform Wire, it could make for highly successful local their duties better, but they innovate for you, at companies.

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

Spinning wool by hand Frank Peebles Citizen Staff Story on page 20

Citizen photo by Frank Peebles

19

19

20

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

20

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

Spinning wool by hand

Home-based industries forgotten by modern mainstream culture are finding new practitioners. The do-it-yourself movement and the 100mile diet are all parts of a rediscovery of traditional trades, and the inner spirit that yearns to survive and thrive with its own hands.

Before our clothing was outsourced to discount sewing factories in developing countries, or priced beyond reason by the haute couture runway designers, people used to make their own at home. Some of the best was crafted from wool sheered from a household’s own sheep.

The wool was cleaned, carded, spun into yarn, then knitted into garments.

Modern knitting maven Elissa Meiklem is one of many in the city who not only know how to wield the needles, they also know exactly where their wool comes from. Meiklem was one of the featured “makers” at this year’s Mini Maker Faire held in Civic Plaza. She had some wild and wooly demonstrations, and even her tools were DIY-approved.

Before it spun wool, Meiklem’s spindle spun tunes - and many were assembled in seconds by interested passersby. The spindle was a repurposed CD with a simple dowel through the hole

and a few simple bits affixed. The raw wool was fed through a small hook-eye, and as the little handheld unit twirled like a top in her hand, the strands strung out into a line. She was spinning quite a yarn.

“The spinning wheel is what a lot of people think of first when you think about how yarn was processed, but that was a relatively new machine. It’s only a few hundred years old,” she said. “Before, this was how our ancestors kept themselves clothed. You could spin wool as you walked to the market, or anytime you had your hands free. Old people could do it; kids were good at spinning wool.”

With practice it takes little time and little effort to get the basics of the wool spinning skill.

Passersby at Mini Maker Faire marveled at the simplicity of the CD/dowel tool, and needed little instruction to get the hang of the process of pulling the twisting strands of raw wool through the eye and winding it up in a ball of yarn at the other end, after it had angled over the CD as a directional guide for the thick, fibrous thread.

In times of old and times anew, that thread would be the stuff of sweaters and scarves, socks and mittens, in the clickety-clacking hands

From page 19

of knitters fashioning their own, well, fashions.

Several businesses and guilds in the Prince George area can spin you even tighter into the world of hand-spun yarn.

MakerLab at Two Rivers Gallery is the headquarters for the occasional yarn bombing events in which public objects like trees are adorned with hand-knitted clothing.

Top Drawer Yarn Studio at Books & Company (upstairs by Art Space) is a local knitters’ headquarters. It was opened in 2010 by entrepreneurs Alanna Siemens and Darlene Shatford who got some quizzical looks for their choice of shop, but they correctly assessed that wool culture was warming.

“It’s very empowering to be able to create something yourself,” said Shatford at the time of opening.

Siemens added, “You can create your own fashions and get exactly what you want, it’s great. There’s a lot of playful youth feel that’s really surrounding the culture of knitting right now.”

Going back even longer in the local economy is Laura Fry Weaving Studio. Fry has been a professional in yarn products since the 1975 and

Citizen photo by Frank Peebles

her local store has been in operation since 1977.

She makes a wide range of products, offers products by other weavers, and also teaches the industrial art. Her store is available by appointment. Call Fry at 250-563-3144 or look up her website at www.laurafry.com.

Darlene Mulholland is another wool-based textile entrepreneur who opened her own shop - Darlene’s Yarn & Handwovens - in 2005, to vend her own works and the woven creations of others. In 2009 the space changed hands to become Robyn’s Woolgathering. Recently the storefront on George Street has changed hands again, but retains the culture as J Wallis Woolens and Furnitre, speaking to the unmistakable audience for quality wool.

Perhaps the widest grassroots movement with yarn is the active Spinners & Weavers Guild located at Studio 2880. With decades of experience, plenty of hands-on mentorship and class instruction, and communal equipment to use, the guild is one of the main catalysts for the yarn-based DIY community in the region.

Visiting the Studio 2880 complex is encouraged to find out more.

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

Alexander Mackenzie trail book Frank Peebles Citizen Staff

Alexander Mackenzie painting.

Photo from wikipedia.org

21

The paddle-strokes of Alexander Mackenzie and his voyageur band of explorers passed right through this locality in 1793. They were on an epic canoe journey, a trade race on behalf of the Northwest Company. They were rushing to find a route to the Pacific just as he had found the key waterway to the Arctic Ocean that today bears his name.

It was here in the land of the Sekani and Dakelh and Secwepemc and Tsilhqot’in people that he heard and heeded some life-saving advice (specifically at the area now known as the Alexandria community). Yes, the river he was on (now known as the Fraser River) was connected to the target he sought, but he would have almost assuredly died in the impassible whitewater canyons if not at the hands of less hospitable First Nations further to the south.

He was told to leave the water and head down the well-used aboriginal road (known in some modern circles as the NuxalkCarrier Route or Blackwater Grease Trail) that would get him more easily to Bella Coola and the open ocean.

Continued On page 22

21

22

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

22 Ed Adams

Alexander mackenzie trail Book Continued From page 21

This they did, becoming the first known expedition to cross the breadth of North America. In Mackenzie’s footsteps was left a carefully journalled pathway known today as the Alexander Mackenzie Heritage Trail. In his footsteps was left a legacy that would eventually be called Canada.

Few people have studied that legacy like another explorer, a seeker of geographic and photographic truths, and now an author. Carol Blacklaws is the name on the cover of a brand new book shedding new shadows and light on the story of that historic first crossing of the continent. It is called In the Footsteps of Alexander Mackenzie.

“The book itself is a memoir by me, as the archaeological field assistant in 1979 and ‘80 to compile a heritage inventory of the trail,” said Blacklaws. “We did that for two years and it grew into education programs as well. What we found in that time is that the trail was so much more than just that - it was also all the First Nations people and ranchers who lived on the trail, they were the story.”

The trail exists on paper, and lines can be drawn on maps, but it is over contentious ground. Some of Mackenzie’s path is over land held today by private landowners and Crown

land under licensing agreement to forestry and mining interests, to say nothing of the aboriginal title that exists on that walk in the woods.

Today, although you cannot walk the full trail unfettered, there is a general sense of land-use peace. When Blacklaws and her crew were doing their research however, it was not so amicable.

“There was a war in the woods between the loggers and the First Nations,” she said. (That dispute blazed a different trail but from the same location - one through court that concluded with the landmark Tsilhqot’in Case, otherwise known as the William Case, that established more aboriginal defined title than ever before in Canadian legality.)

“Logging companies didn’t want anyone being out there at all,” Blacklaws said. “The ranchers also didn’t want anyone coming onto their land. It was actually understandable, at the time, but developing the knowledge and understanding of the trail posed a threat to some people back then. The loggers won some of that war, but the happy ending is, these are different times, and already the most beautiful part of the trail - from Gatcho Lake into Tweedsmuir Park and into the Bella Coola Valley - is accessible.

And it is not just gorgeous, it is absolutely stunning.”

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES Continued from page 22 The land was so visually spellbinding, the people and the landscape such equal characters, that Blacklaws put great emphasis on photography as she crafted the book. More than 40 photographs are interspersed throughout the text.

One of the best sets of photos from that research project, those taken by the late Vance Hanna, could unfortunately not be used for the book, said Blacklaws, but did a lot to inspire her to make the book happen. His were panoramic shots that were of high quality but did not fit well with the format of the pages. She forged ahead with other shots from that time, and hopes that the Hanna collection can still come to public life in some other future project, if his surviving family is agreeable.

“I think he would have been very excited by this,” she said. “There is a whole other book there. Vance was doing a completely different art form.”

Blacklaws was on the research project with her husband Rick, who has gone on to success as an author in his own right, as well as his work studying history, geography and anthropology.

It is Rick’s photos that make up the illustrative images used in this book.

“For me, photography is more than an exercise in colour, composition and light,” said Rick, an instructor at Langara College. “It is a way of using the present moment to peer into history and place. My photography focuses on people and their environment.”

He has four other books to his credit, including The Fraser River co-authored with Alan HaigBrown that won the 1997 BC Book Award.

“The First Nations people were such solid, wonderful people, they deserved to have so

Kluskus

many photos represent what we saw and did,” Blacklaws said. “Remember, this was a remote area from where European-based communities were, and it was at a time when most people of any description did not have very good camera equipment. We represented an opportunity to tell their story through pictures that had never been available to them before. It took us a long time, but we have done it.”

Blacklaws said many thanks are owed for that pivotal research, like to John Woodward and his nature conservancy group, the B.C. provincial government, the collected First Nations of the Cariboo-Chilcotin area, and an ad-hoc group of ranchers friendly to the idea of developing the knowledge of the ancient aboriginal roadway Mackenzie would eventually take into history.

“Archaeologist Paul Donahue determined there had been a continuous use of the trail for 4,000 to 5,000 years at least,” said Blacklaws.

Inexplicably, in her mind, was the continuing lack of national attention on Alexander Mackenzie at all. Sure, there is more understanding of him in this area, where a town is named for this explorer. And there is vague knowledge in Canada of the mighty Mackenzie River. Yet, the complexity of his accomplishments and especially the context of his route are hardly known at all.

“We have very little about Alexander Mackenzie in the Canadian psyche, but when you look south of the border there are multiple interpretive centres dedicated to the Lewis & Clark expedition even though Mackenzie did it earlier, went farther, over more treacherous terrain, and he was also under pressure to win the fur trading race,” said Blacklaws. “They were on a mission, not a tourist safari. They were in an urgent time crunch, looking for that trade route before their competitors could.”

23

23

24

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

24

Mill Explosions change the law Frank Peebles Citizen Staff

Lakeland Mills fire scene, moments after the explosion over 4 years ago.

Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Making sawmills safer from the potential hazards of ultra-fine sawdust was on the provincial government’s agenda this current sitting of the Legislature.

Led by the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and Responsible for Labour, minister Shirley Bond introduced Bill 35 - 2015 Workers Compensation Act - which contains direct responses to the coroner’s inquests into the fatal explosions at Lakeland and Babine mills almost four years ago.

A total of seven recommendations were directed at the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training, and Responsible for Labour: five from the Lakeland Inquest (May 14) and two from the Babine Inquest (July 31). Other recommendations were directed to a number of other government and non-government entities.

“Bill 35 demonstrates to the workers, their families and all British Columbians that the province is taking the necessary steps to make workplaces safer following the accidents that occurred in the Prince George and Burns Lake sawmills in 2012,” said Bond.

The two coroner’s inquests came out with recommendations to prevent future such incidents. There was already deep legislation on the provincial books to address workplace safety, so the new upgrades to the law took the following forms: * Require employers to immediately report to WorkSafeBC all workplace fires or explo-

sions that had the potential to cause serious injury to a worker; * Require employer investigation reports be provided to the workplace health and safety committee or worker health and safety representative, or be posted at the worksite; * Specify meaningful participation for worker and employer representatives in employer accident investigations; * Specify a role for workplace health and safety committees to provide advice to the employer on significant proposed equipment and machinery changes that may affect worker health and safety; and * Allow WorkSafeBC to proactively assist workplace health and safety committees in resolving disagreements over health and safety matters.

In addition to the coroner’s recommendations, the provincial government commissioned industry analyst Gord Macatee to investigate the two explosions and produce a report on his findings. He made 43 recommendations in his WorkSafeBC Review and Action Plan Report. Bond said the provincial government “accepted all 43 of the recommendations” and the plan now was “to ensure a worldclass inspection and investigations regime at WorkSafeBC” so her ministry was taking change measures to also incorporate the report.

Continued On page 25

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

25

Continued from page 24 Those changes will require WorkSafeBC to: * Implementing a new investigation model that preserves the ability to conduct both cause investigations and prosecution investigations; * Implementing the sustained compliance plan for sawmills as outlined in the report; and * Significantly shortening the timelines for issuing administrative penalties and to develop a hierarchy of enforcement tools.

She said Bill 35 also builds on the legislative changes made under a related piece of legislation from earlier in the year, Bill 9, that strengthened WorkSafeBC’s ability to promote and enforce occupational health and safety compliance in B.C. workplaces.

“Following the tragic mill explosions in Burns Lake and Prince George in 2012, the government has taken action to improve workplace safety in British Columbia so that workers come home to their families at the end of the day,” said Bond. “I hope today’s proposed legislative changes signal how seriously we take the inquest jury recommendations, and represent a lasting legacy and some degree of closure for the families of the workers who lost their lives or were injured.”

Citizen photo by Frank PEEBLES

25

26

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

26

Emily Carr University setting up in

Emily Carr University’s professor Haig Armen shows off his wooden computer component – the Mineblock – which helps protect kids playing the interactive online game Minecraft.

Citizen photo by Frank Peebles

Prince George Frank Peebles Citizen Staff

pound lignin? If 3D printers were using similar stuff to create tactile objects, why couldn’t wood The building has a name that has to be lived lignin - a cellular organic polymer - become such up to, and Emily Carr University is already well on a material?

He pointed to some of the things wood was its way to being the innovators of wood design already being used for, in the hands of ECU stucalled for in that title.

The Vancouver-based university is moving in dents. A miniature prototype was on display of and setting up its engineering programs that a wooden outdoor playground structure that will focus on ways of making wood work for had parts set on springs and interconnected with society well beyond lumber and linear furniture. hinged walkways. Kids could conceivably play a It’s something their faculty has been catalyz- game of grounders in which all the suspended streets and avenues ing for years, and it is moved multiple direcanticipated to reach new The Vancouver-based tions – safely – under heights with a UNBC their feet as they ran partnership and industry university is moving in and and delved in delight. connections in the heart setting up its engineering More than playground of the forest industry – at programs that will focus on entertainment, it is also the Wood Innovation & a subliminal physiotherDesign Centre in downways of making wood work apy tool, adding layers town Prince George. for society well beyond of fitness to the com“I was hired to bring lumber and linear furniture mon scurrying around a wood component into on normal outdoor our design programs at adventure structures. the Granville Island camAlso nearby was a pus,” said Christian Blyt, a longtime and award-winning associate profes- lamp all of wood sitting prominently in the room. sor at ECU. “They wanted to have design being It was sleek and attractive, almost a piece of applied at a higher level to the provincial fiber minimalist sculpture, and its bulb was LED so as supply. They wanted to infuse entrepreneurship to be cold to the wood’s touch. What was most into the forest industry, to move the thinking remarkable was the way you could swivel the light’s head all around its axis post. How was this way off to the side of lumber.”

Blyt will now be one of the principal minds possible? Many lamps do this but only to the bringing that train of thought to the new Prince point the wires twist to their limit. The secret is: George station. He said the possibilities for wood no twisting wires. By using the plugs from a guiwere almost endless, because of its obvious tar pickup, the lamp’s bulb could spin on its base properties of rigid surfaces easy to shape but all day long with no mechanical impediment. It’s construction-grade strong. But what about the simple, yet revolutionary. building blocks of wood, like the organic comContinued on page 27

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES Armen said.

He created an attachment that plugs into your “Our students learn from getting their hands computer that acts as a gatekeeper. Only trusted dirty, and using materials,” said Blyt. “Then you and invited other players get to have access to figure out what to do with the materials. How do your Minecraft game. It is a collection of circuits, you apply it to design? The material informs the plastic and wood. It is small, light, cost-effective design, instead of the other way around – get- to replicate and so it is cheap for the consumer. ting a design He is therefore able to bring an idea in your Minecraft is not mindless innovative wood product to the head then classroom, as a practical example gaming. It is virtual Lego, trying to figof what they can do with the stuff and you build with it in ure out how of trees, complete with the busithe computer or personal to build it. ness case that must accompany It’s a reversal gaming devise platforms, such a thing. of the usual “You need tech folks to figure collaborating with other direction out the machinery, business folks builders online. Teachers of a design to figure out the assembly line and are now using Minecraft as a course.” marketing and distribution, you The innoclassroom teaching tool have intellectuals on the engineervation flows ing side to determine what the not only from the ECU students. Like a science consumer actually wants and then try to provide professor has to do research to maintain rel- that before the customer even asks for it. We evance in the classroom, or an English professor teach that,” he said. has to produce poetry and prose, these design Even before ECU opened its doors, their stuinstructors have to work on their own inventions dents were already succeeding here. One set of using the tools and materials of their ECU labs. design students pitched their classroom project Haig Armen, associate professor of design, for at a Startup event in this city, and ended up example, is out on the cutting edge of parental obtaining $50,000 in outside investment to make safeguards for the video game generation, and their project into an actual consumer product. wood plays a part in his technological advance- Imagine what will happen when those projects ment – a simple machine already set for the retail are being pumped out the WIDC doors in nummarket and getting international tech-media bers, every year. attention.

“Design is the lost component in the world of “Minecraft is not mindless gaming,” he said, engineering and fabrication,” said Armen. “And referring to the world’s most popular online that is what we do. UNBC is going to develop activity among kids these days. “It is virtual Lego, the culture of engineering, and we will be right and you build with it in the computer or person- alongside them helping to teach the design skills al gaming devise platforms, collaboratt h a t ing with other builders online. Teachers w i l l are now using Minecraft as a classroom comIt is so important for teaching tool, because of that construcp l e students to get practical tion and design basis it has, and that ment interactivity.” applications learned the raw His own son loved Minecraft, but he engiin a safe, supervised had his gaming innocence punctured neerenvironment where they by a “griefer.” Just as there are throngs ing and of peers eager to help you build your can make mistakes that the raw Minecraft structures and societies, there busiwill inform them, not are a few vandals too. These “griefers” n e s s destroy them will pretend to be your friend (they are culture anonymous online strangers, just like the UNBC is legitimate game players), then implant destruc- working on.” tive commands into the scenes people are build“I really like connecting real life with learning. Imagine building an intricate sandcastle at ing interests,” said Blyt. “It is so important for the beach, someone comes along and offers to students to get practical applications learned in help, but instead pours water on the tallest tower a safe, supervised environment where they can and runs away laughing. make mistakes that will inform them, not destroy Armen’s young son got hit by a griefer. In bald them, and experiences the successes that will terms, it pissed this father off. And it set his pro- propel them forward into professions and interfessorial mind whirring. ests that will benefit them and the community.”

“The problem I found was, Minecraft and all For information on Emily Carr University prothose multiplayer games are open to inappropri- grams, visit their website. ate behavior that children can be exposed to,” Continued from page 26

27

27

28

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

28 Building spaghetti structures was one of the youth challenges at the GameChanger youth area during the B.C. LNG Conference this past week.

Premier Christy Clark visited the competing teams.

Photo courtesy BC Government

LNG Conference starts youth fire Frank Peebles Citizen Staff Youth was the focus of the 3rd Annual BC LNG Conference hosted this week by premier Christy Clark.

There was some superstar power from motivational speaker Christine Sinclair, one of the world’s most notable soccer players. And there was a lot of practical knowledge exchanged through creative thinking games in the GameChanger program, and youth engagement through social media platforms. For example the official Twitter hotspot #LNGinBC2015 reached 778,376 people between Oct. 7-16.

“This year’s conference provided a rich experience for everyone, including thousands of students who have new, exciting career options to look forward to,” said premier Clark at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

“LNG presents a tremendous opportunity in B.C. Over 2,000 young people attended the conference to get information about in-demand jobs and the Find Your Fit exhibit helped them to have a hands-on experience,” said Prince George MLA Shirley Bond, the province’s Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and Minister Responsible for Labour.

At the conferences and also touring the province is the Find Your Fit interactive exhibit offering Grades 6-10 students a hands-on way to experience the necessary skills for different careers, learn more about job opportunities and the tools available online at WorkBC.ca. LNG is one of the

industries that would benefit from the trades skills these young people would be learning. Since 2014, more than 55,000 people in 43 communities have visited the Find Your Fit booth.

Dr. Martha Piper, interim president and vicechancellor at the University of British Columbia, said the conference’s attention on youth was part of what universities, colleges and school districts are locked on every day.

“The post-secondary sector has a duty to enable students to achieve their fullest potential so they can take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead in LNG and, indeed, the full gamut of B.C.’s diverse economy,” said Piper. “Our faculty of applied science – whose engineering program is responsible for training nearly three-quarters of B.C.’s engineers – organized the Innovation Engineering competition at the GameChanger Youth Expo at this year’s LNG conference. The competition saw teams of students submit ideas for revolutionizing the LNG industry and displayed some of the ingenuity and skill coming from our schools and universities. I congratulate all the students involved in the competition, and I thank the government for continuing to engage with post-secondary institutions as critical partners in the B.C. economy.”

The conference also had some themes aimed at adults, especially those already involved in the liquefied natural gas sector, or one closely related.

Bond said, “The LNG Buy BC program provided businesses with an opportunity to learn more about how they can benefit from a future LNG industry. We will continue to work with our part-

ners, communities across the province and businesses to ensure that they are connected to the latest information preparing them to benefit both now and in the future.”

This year saw some of the big LNG proposals take major steps forward, giving indications that ground will soon be broken on liquefied natural gas port facilities on the west coast and on the long pipelines leading from the ocean to the gas fields of the B.C. northeast.

The provincial government and LNG Canada combined resources to help the construction sector get ready for LNG work in the future, but in the meantime be better trained for other building that needs done in the industrial setting. Two new funding programs have been introduced for employers to access training funds for their staff.

One of them is called the LNG Canada – Trades Training Fund and its complementary fund is the Canada-B.C. Job Grant (CJG). Together it puts $1.5 million new dollars into trades training.

Andy Calitz, LNG Canada’s CEO, said, “The $1 million LNG Canada Trades Training Fund will enable British Columbians to benefit from careers in all industries, and particularly the emerging LNG industry. By collaborating with government and the BC Construction Association, we can support construction employers and their apprentices with access to funding for training and skills development to fully realize job opportunities.”

The trades training initiatives is going to help the entire provincial trades sector, said Manley McLachlan, president of the BC Construction Association. He added, “The BC Construction

Association is honoured to support LNG Canada in its efforts to help construction employers get their new and existing apprentices the training they need to reach their trade qualification. This is the kind of collaboration between private sector and government that puts real advantages in the hands of our young people. We’re all for it.”

The construction phase of these LNG proposals (there are more than 10 on the table right now) would present the biggest employment opportunity, but many jobs in the extraction sector and the shipping sector would go on in perpetuity, as well as large amounts of annual taxation money to the provincial coffers, local government coffers, and First Nations coffers.

There are environmental concerns going along with this industry, however. While there are few fears about pipeline or shipping disasters with LNG they way there are for oil, the extraction process has a host of concerns ranging from using too much groundwater to triggering earthquakes to ensuring First Nations are properly in partnership with the work being done on their territories.

It is an industry still finding its way towards social license, but all agree that the benefits to overall society would be real, if the environmental and First Nations considerations are addressed.

As an indication of the will to accomplish this work, Clark said there were 37 First Nations represented at this year’s conference and 20 aboriginal companies were exhibitors in the tradeshow component of the event.

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

29

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

Blackwater gold project hits safety benchmark Frank Peebles Citizen Staff

The gold mine exploration company New Gold has some glitter on their health and safety record. Their Blackwater project south of Vanderhoof and west of Prince George has passed a milestone that has the rest of the heavy-industry sector talking.

In addition to accolades already gathered in, in the past year or so - named one of Canada’s “Top Socially Responsible Corporations” by Sustainalytics-Maclean’s and then winning the June Warren Nickel’s Energy Group Award for top safety culture - the Blackwater project passed a milestone worthy of a party.

New Gold threw a barbecue “Mining is one of the safest of the heavy industries for the community of Vanderhoof to celebrate their to work in,” said Bekhuys. “I think New Gold and min“achievement of three years of no lost time incidents ing in general takes safety as job number one. Part and two years without a single reportable incident at of that is to imbed a culture throughout our organithe Blackwater Project,” said Tim zation and with the contractors Bekhuys, the project director for we work with, and that has to Blackwater. “This is a significant come from the top down, from milestone for any exploration the president down.” project. Over the last three years, Bekhuys said one of the 500,000 work-hours have been most important parts of havperformed at the Blackwater ing a clean safety record is site, which is only accessible by being above reproach with roads frequently used by logtheir employees. The company ging trucks or by air, and expeadheres to a “whistle-blowers riences temperatures as low as are welcome” policy, meaning minus-47 degrees and as high as if an employee or a contractor plus-40 degrees.” spots a hazard, they are backed Hundreds of people work at up by management to bring it to the site they are hoping to turn the attention of their supervisors into a fully operational gold instead of imperiling others and mine sometime in the next three Tim Bekhuys, the project director for potentially costing the company years. A lot of that work requires untold amounts of money and the Blackwater initiative by mining company NewGold. Photo from operating power tools, hand resources to deal with a preventclean50.com tools, heavy equipment, and in able incident. all kinds of environments. Also, “We’ve certainly had minor the exploration site is a combination of company cuts and bruises, but nothing that has required someemployees and those on the payroll of contracted one to take time off work,” Bekhuys said. “Lost-time companies. All of them count against the Blackwater incidents is a main measurement in our industry, and project’s safety data, but all records were clean. in the 500,000 hours of work on-site in the past three

29 years, we haven’t had one lost-time incident.”

The exploration site was also home base to a contingent of forest firefighters, including helicopters, during the fighting of the Cheslatta fire, furthering the company’s reputation for putting safety first.

To celebrate this life-and-death statistic, and to say thank you to the community employees (70 per cent of the employees at Blackwater come from the immediate region, and 20 per cent are First Nations employees) who worked safely at Blackwater for that three-year period, New Gold threw a party.

At that time, the public also got an update as to the progress of the Blackwater project (exploration continues in the larger area around the main mine site, with the main site midway through the environmental assessment process, aiming at 2018 for the start of construction).

Open houses in Prince George and other Blackwater-connected communities will be announced later this autumn, so these updates can be discussed in full at these key points.

The occasion was also a prime time to make a donation. As an extra way of celebrating the safety record so far, New Gold gave a cash contribution to the Vanderhoof area’s search-and-rescue team so community safety can be part of the legacy of their mine safety.

30

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

30 Fraser Deacon, chair of the revamped Resource Connector North, formerly known as Northern Interior Mining Group .

Photo from nbcrecruitment.com

Resources connector north group Frank Peebles Citizen Staff The mining industry’s players in northern B.C. - the service sector, the construction sector, the tools and equipment operators - have noticed something about themselves. They are often the same people in the room when discussions take place about the forest industry, the agriculture industry, the petroleum industry, almost all the resource-based operations in the region. There are some who specialize, but many of the most successful businesses of the area are diversified, so they can move from a mill to a mine to a smelter to a drill rig in order to keep working as the market conditions have their cyclical effects on this combination of industries.

Which is exactly why the Northern Interior Mining Group has changed its name and its focus.

The group is now called Resource Connector North and its activities will centre on all the industries of the north, no matter what it might be.

The group is primarily dedicated to publishing the Resource Connector magazine which tells many of the stories of regional industrial activities, the Resource Connector directory which is like a phone book especially for the businesses and companies working in those fields, and they hold an annual seminar to bring many of those affected businesses into the same room.

“We have a new name and a new focus because this region is bigger than just mining, and our members were working in industries broader than just mining, so we kept mining but opened our umbrella wider,” said Fraser Deacon, chair of the group. “The mining industry had to respond to the global commodity prices, the LNG sector started to get the spotlight, Site C development was becoming a reality. Our members and the businesses in our directory were adjusting to those conditions, so we adjusted with them. There was just so much crossover between industries. Our members in mining were also working in forestry, in con-

struction, in agriculture somewhat, in tourism somewhat, in transportation. We felt strongly that we should reflect those crossovers and help our members that much more. Our group is not scaling down its interest in mining, it is scaling up its interest in those other sectors where that same expertise is in use.”

The group is in the process of launching its new brand, and thus upgrade the way it presents local businesses to each other. Being listed in the directory, attending the seminar, joining the board of directors, it all plays into relationship building and networking across the region. Even competitors are welcome at the same Resource Connector North table because, said Deacon, he knows of instances where major contracts were won by competitive companies banding together to upscale their bid package by working as a unit. If those numbers and names are at your fingertips, the advantages grow for those involved in the Resources Connector North conversation.

“Businesses like to lead their own level of connectedness. We just provide the channels for them to do that, if that’s what they want.

But we also make sure that people who buy your products or your services have a way of knowing about you, especially where new ones emerge who maybe haven’t heard of you yet,” said Deacon. “We want to make it as easy as possible for northern B.C. suppliers and service providers to get noticed by these companies.”

As the group transitions, the board of directors had some seats open up. At the same time, their membership has been growing steadily in the past couple of years.

“If you want to play a greater role in your industry, and make a difference in your region, then be part of that growth and check out our group. We have so many ways you could be involved in the conversation,” said Deacon.

The networking event is on Nov. 25 from 6-9 p.m. at Exploration Place. For more information on the ways to engage through the Resource Connector North group, including getting in on their publications, check out their website at www.nimg.ca.

T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

|

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c A

the Prince George Citizen

INDUSTRY AND TRADES

31

31

32

w w w . pg c i t i z e n . c a | T h u rsda y , O cto b e r 2 9 , 2 0 1 5