Hitting the dirt
Bioenergy sector burned up over slash piles
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Smoke plumes are rising from the backcountry all around Prince George. They are the telltale signs of spring in the forest industry, the annual burn-off of wood waste from winter logging, but the bioenergy sector is fuming over this old way of scorching the leftovers.
Every one of those debris piles is burning jobs that Prince George workers could have had, and burning money foreign countries were lined up to invest in the local economy, said John Stirling, president of Pacific Bioenergy (PacBio).
“We want to put it to productive use,” said Stirling. “The idea that we don’t have to burn things into the airshed, we can mitigate the risk of forest fire, and take that forest residual in as a product we can make use of, products we can sell into Japan where we are offsetting nuclear and coal emissions, what could be better?”
All wood-pellet (also called bioenergy, biomass or biofuel) plants in northern B.C. already sell as much product as they can manufacture, as fast as they can make it. Most of it goes to Asia or Europe where it is used in industrial furnaces or electricity
generation facilities to reduce the amount of coal, natural gas, nuclear and the worst of the greenhouse gases pollutants used by factories, mills and communities.
Pacific Bioenergy recently signed the biggest contracts in the history of the fledgling bioenergy sector, a sector that was pioneered out of Prince George. These pacts are for the largest amounts of pellets ever asked for and for the longest duration ever established.
“These new contracts, which extend to 2030 and 2035, represent a major extension to PacBio’s existing contracted sale portfolio,” said company CEO Don Steele.
“This new business assures the continued strong presence of our Prince George and affiliated manufacturing operations in the dynamic and growing Asian market. This business, in addition to existing contracts in the European and Japanese markets, demonstrates the fulfillment of over 12 years of pioneering market development work in the Asia region.”
Why, then, ask company officials, are brush piles burning all around the city when all of that woody debris – considered bush garbage by the lumber industry – is exactly what they need to fulfill these lucrative, long-term contracts?
— see ‘WE RAN OUT, page 3
Forestry convention focuses on challenges
Derrick PENNER Vancouver Sun
The challenge of producing lumber from B.C.’s mountain-pine-beetle and wildfire-ravaged forests will be a top topic at the Council of Forest Industries’ annual convention in Vancouver on Thursday and Friday.
For producers such as Canfor Corp. and West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd, adjusting has meant reducing mill capacity in B.C. while continuing to buy and build mills where trees are more plentiful, such as the U.S. south and even Scandinavia.
“Fibre availability is obviously critically important,” said Susan Yurkovich, CEO of the Council of Forest Industries, about the need for companies to “rightsize the industry” in response to declining timber harvests.
The province, in its most recent budget, indicated that annual timber harvests will have to be reduced to 56 million cubic metres by 2021-22 from 58 million cubic metres in 2018-19.
That will be a continuation of a trend that B.C. provincial trade statistics show that B.C.’s lumber exports shrank by five per cent in 2018 with reductions in shipments to the United States, China and Japan – all of the biggest export markets.
“The challenge of log supply in the interior has been long known by government,” Forest Minister Doug Donaldson said in an emailed statement, noting that the previous government knew as far back as 2006 that companies would run out of beetle-killed timber.
“This, combined with the impacts of climate change, meant that harvest levels would need to be reduced,” he said.
For most of the last decade, B.C. companies such as Canfor, West Fraser and Interfor Corp. have been buying or building mills in the U.S. south to compensate and in 2018, the credit-rating firm DBRS estimates that Canfor hit a milestone. It is likely that the share of Canfor’s lumber production in Canada fell to 51 per cent in 2018 from 73 per cent at the end of 2017, the agency wrote thanks to increasing production from U.S. operations and a big new acquisition in Scandinavia.
Canfor announced last fall that it was buying a 70-per-cent stake in Sweden’s Vida Group for the equivalent of $580 million, which DBRS estimated would account for 16 per cent of Canfor’s overall lumber production.
Canadian lumber producers have no choice but to expand further outside their base in order to adapt to the difficulties they have in sourcing logs in Western Canada.
— DBRS statement
West Fraser’s production in Canada is believed to have slipped to 55 per cent, compared with 57 per cent in 2017, and its production in the U.S. rise to 45 per cent from 43 per cent in 2017, DBRS wrote.
“Canadian lumber producers have no choice but to expand further outside their base in order to adapt to the difficulties they have in sourcing logs in Western Canada,” DBRS said.
Yurkovich likened it to an investment fund not putting all of its money into one stock.
“You diversify to mitigate risk,” Yurkovich said. “And to be able to grow, you want to also go where fibre might be more available. If you can’t supply your customers, they will find other people who can, and they are likely to be in other parts of Europe, America or Russia.”
Yurkovich said those firms are still world-leading companies that are headquartered in B.C., and “we are superproud that we have globally significant companies,” of all sizes, capable of operating outside the province’s borders.
Donaldson said the province’s focus remains pushing the industry to get more value and create more jobs from every tree that is logged.
That includes promoting the use of engineered mass-timber wood products, Donaldson said, through amendments to the B.C. building code to include their use in buildings as tall as 12 storeys, which the province announced March 12. Previously, such buildings were approved as one-off exceptions to the building code.
“The industry is certainly in transition, but as we’ve seen with recent investments (by companies) the forest sector has the willingness and capacity to be innovative,” Donaldson said.
Edward Duncan, 3 1/2, laughs after a crash on the BMX track at Duchess Park on Thursday morning.
HANDOUT PHOTO
Forest companies regularly burn slash piles after harvesting a site for lumber and pulp. Bioenergy companies say slash burning is a waste because they could use the waste material to create pellets.
Kitimat LNG commits to electrification
Nelson BENNETT Citizen news service
A promise made in Kitimat that the ChevronWoodside Kitimat LNG project would use electric drive could be a game-changer, if fulfilled, not just for the LNG industry in B.C., but for independent power producers.
At a LNG conference Wednesday, hosted by the Haisla First Nation in Kitimat, Rod Maier, vice president of public affairs for Chevron Canada, said the Kitimat LNG project would use e-drive, according to the First Nation LNG Alliance.
He was quoted as saying it would be “the Tesla of LNG plants.”
That is no mean pledge, as it would significantly lower the project’s greenhouse gas emissions profile, and significantly increase the demand for power. It would also meet the strict new best-in-class emissions benchmarks set out in the CleanBC plan.
A spokesperson for Kitimat LNG could not be reached to confirm the pledge to use e-drive.
Most LNG plants power their liquefaction process by burning natural gas, which produces carbon emissions. Electric drive is a lot cleaner, but a lot more expensive.
“The significance of e-drive is that it would substantially reduce, but not completely eliminate, greenhouse gas emissions from the LNG facility at Kitimat,” said David Austin, a lawyer specializing in energy at Stirling Law.
“From this perspective it’s very good news. But like all LNG projects, the proof will be whether it’s ever built.”
The amount of power that would be needed for a large LNG plant using e-drive would be roughly two-thirds of the power that would be produced by Site C dam, according to Jihad Traya, an energy adviser for Solomon Associates.
While Site C’s nameplate capacity is 1,100 megawatts (MW), it will have an average generating capacity of about 650 MW, Traya said. Each train powered by electricity would take about 200 MW. The Kitimat LNG project calls for two trains. If the Pacific Trail Pipeline that would supply the plants with natural gas was also electrified, that would mean the electricity demand from that one project could consume as much power as the new Site C dam will produce.
That might mean that independent power producers – pretty much shut out of B.C. with the sanctioning of Site C dam – could be back in business in B.C. But before anyone gets too excited, Traya points out that the Kitimat LNG project is still a decade away.
LNG is typically sold under long-term contracts, so sanctioning of new LNG projects tends to come in waves, with projects timed to meet contract renewal windows.
The LNG Canada project is being built to meet the next window around 2024. According to documents filed with the National Energy Board (NEB), the Kitimat LNG project would be timed to meet the one after that in 2029.
Although Chevron and it joint venture partner, Woodside Energy International, already have provincial and federal environmental certificates for the Kitimat LNG project and as-
sociated Pacific Trail Pipeline, the joint venture recently applied to the NEB to double the export capacity that was originally approved and extend their export licence from 20 to 40 years.
That application is all about keeping the project in play, Traya said. The project was originally approved in 2011.
“They’re nearing their sunset clause,” Traya said. “So you go back, apply for your 40-year licence. You’re pushing the string along.
“However, we’ve always said that we believe that there’s sufficient room for another LNG project off the west coast of Canada. The Chevron project has always looked like it has potential. It has its own set of issues, but under an expansion, and under the right set of circumstances around the fiscal regime, it can and may have the potential to work.”
But as he points out, Chevron, like Royal Dutch Shell, is a global player with a number of potential new projects on the drawing board. Deciding which one gets a final investment decision will all come down to making the numbers work.
Committing to e-drive could make the project more challenging from an economic standpoint.
“The ones that are electric drive are always at a disadvantage for competitiveness,” Traya said. “However, for it to work, if the power is delivered directly to the plant gate at some industrial rate comparable to what is in the Lower Mainland, it might work. And there might be some adjustments to the fiscal terms to make it net neutral for Chevron.”
LNG framework in place, Horgan says
VICTORIA (CP) – The British Columbia government has secured the last steps of the fiscal framework for liquefied natural gas projects in the province. The legislative assembly passed the Income Tax Amendment Act Thursday, and Premier John Horgan says that will secure the largest privatesector investment in Canadian history. The joint venture, which includes Petronas, Shell Canada Energy and PetroChina Canada Ltd., announced last year that LNG Canada’s $40-billion project on B.C.’s northern coast would proceed.
Driver killed in head-on collision
A 54-year-old man from the Cariboo-Chilcotin area was killed Wednesday evening in a head-on collision between the pickup truck he was driving and a transport truck on Highway 97 near McLeod Lake. RCMP, who were called to the scene at 6 p.m., said the southbound pickup truck crossed the centre line and collided with the oncoming vehicle. The transport truck’s driver received minor injuries. “Road and weather conditions were reported to be good, and the collision occurred on a straight stretch in a 100 km/h zone,” RCMP added. The victim’s name was not provided.
Hospice Society’s antique fair coming
The Prince George Hospice Society is hosting its annual antique fair and marketplace this weekend. It will be held at the Roll-a-Dome, 10 am. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5 with all proceeds directly supporting Hospice. “There will be over 100 vendors with incredible items such as collectibles, retro pieces, furniture, crafts, food, home based business and many more surprises,” executive director Donna Flood said.
This map shows the proposed location of the Chevron-Woodside Kitimat LNG plant on the Douglas Channel in Kitimat.
Downtown eyed for pot shops
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Two purveyors of recreational cannabis want to set up shop in the city’s downtown.
Hearings will be held during Monday night’s city council meeting for applications to open stores at 421 George St. and 1389 Third Ave.
Staff is recommending council support their applications to the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch for licences to sell nonmedical cannabis but with the proviso they operate under temporary use permits to give the city time to assess their impacts on the downtown before deciding whether to permanently rezone the properties for the use.
Temporary use permits can last for up to three years, with a subsequent renewal for a further three years.
Grasshopper Retail Inc. is behind the application for 421 George St. and that property is owned by Commonwealth Campus Corp. and Nasser Kamani of NK Botanicals Ltd. is the applicant for 1289 Third Ave. His Kamani Holdings Ltd. owns the property.
Grasshopper’s application includes letters of support from 11 surrounding businesses and one letter of opposition while Kamani’s has drawn three letters in opposition.
They are the first applications for privately-run cannabis stores to go before council.
A B.C. Cannabis Store application to open an outlet at Pine Centre Mall is up for final reading on Monday while one to establish a store at the Westgate Shopping Centre has already been adopted. Also on the agenda:
• The Prince George Tennis Club will make a presentation seeking $45,000 from the city to install six pickleball courts.
• A hearing will be held for an application to increase the size of a shop to store vehicles and equip-
ment planned for 2860 Gogolin Rd.
Four neighbours have signed a letter in support but staff is recommending council deny the application, saying the scale and size is excessive and is not keeping with the form and character of the surrounding neighbourhood.
• Plans to protect the city from wildfires and reduce conflicts with bears will be presented to council.
• A bylaw that would give bylaw enforcement officers authority to issue fines of $2,000 to $10,000 for mishandling contaminated soils will be up for three readings.
B.C. facing marijuana shortage
Glacier Media
B.C. has a marijuana shortage.
At least that’s the story with government-sanctioned cannabis products in the wake of the national legalization of marijuana last October.
“Supply is still very much an issue not just here but across the country,” B.C. Minister of Solicitor General and Public Safety Mike Farnworth said Thursday. He said the province has been pushing for the addition of marijuana microproducers into the supply chain to ensure enough pot gets to market. Supply issues began to plague market not long after legalization. And doobie-desperate British Columbians can forget wandering
down the street to the local dealer if that dealer’s become a neighbourhood nuisance.
Farnworth is introducing amended 2013 Liberal legislation aimed at cracking down on nuisance properties.
It includes taking action on properties where there are freelance dealers are involved in offenses involving the consumption, possession, production, sale or supply of cannabis in contravention of the provincial Cannabis Control and Licensing Act. That act regulates marijuana sales in the province post-legalization. As far back as January, cannabis shortages prompted Quebec to reduce weekly days of operation to four at government-run stores, while Ontario placed a limit of 25
on the number of private stores eligible to start operating in April. Farnworth said the shortages have led Alberta to stop issuing licences.
B.C’s neighbour had to cease issuances after its government-run distributor received only about 20 per cent of stock ordered from federally licensed producers. But, Farnworth said, the province is continuing work to approve licence applications for marijuana retail outlets.
He said of about 430 applications currently in process, some 390 are working their way through community level approvals.
He said a significant number of store applications do come up with alerts that require “a deeper dive” into an applicant’s background.
‘We ran out of fibre this winter’
— from page 1 PacBio’s forestry operations supervisor Conor O’Donnell visited a recent slash fire with Liam Parfitt of Freya Logging Inc., a company that works for a lot of the local sawmill companies to cut down trees and get them into the mills for making lumber, the products that sell for the highest amounts of money on the open market. A stick’s throw away was a hulking yellow concoction of steel with a greedy gut and unrelenting teeth. It chews trees, branches, limbs, just about anything organic, into a pile of fine dust. An extended yellow arm conveys the wood dust into the trailers of chip trucks destined for the pellet factories.
O’Donnell said PacBio has about five of these machines grinding up woody junk at any given time, and there are five or six more he knows of in the area working for other biomass companies.
“It’ll load a 53-foot chip truck in about 20 minutes,” he said, but the participation of lumber companies is so sporadic that “we ran out of fibre this winter. This is about keeping our doors open.” There is a chain of command in the forest and that is what keeps bioenergy companies from automatically capitalizing on the piles of debris littering the local forest after any harvesting operation. Each block of trees is designated to a lumber company. Whatever is left over after the lumber companies are done cutting can sometimes be sent to pulp mills for turning into paper products and that is the second link in the chain of command in forestry. They have long-standing deals with the lumber companies and in the case of Canfor the lumber and the pulp interests are owned together. That leaves whatever is left to bioenergy companies and, said the PacBio team, it is plenty of material. The term in all these forestry endeavours is fibre. The sawmills need a certain kind of fibre (wood) for lumber, the pulp mills need a certain kind of fibre for their products and the bioenergy companies need a fibre supply as well.
There are two main sources of fibre staring bioenergy companies in the face. One is the residual woody debris left on the ground (some of it is entire logs that just aren’t any good for lumber or pulp).
The other is all the dead pine that is largely still standing in the wake of the mountain pine beetle epidemic. Because it wasn’t harvested in a timely manner, they are now useless for lumber and not much good for pulp.
Parfitt called these “zombie blocks.”
Here’s why PacBio and the other pellet companies can only stare at these grey skeletons of trees – entire forests of the stuff.
“There may not be saw-log material in that stand, but there certainly is material –ideal material, actually – for our business,” said Stirling but he
explained that by provincial legislation, only the lumber company with the charter for that forest is allowed to cut it down and they are only allowed to cut down a set number of trees per year. If they cut down the dead pine, even to give it away to the pellet plants, that leaves them unable to cut down the equivalent amount of trees they need to make lumber.
Furthermore, a lumber company has to pay stumpage (a fee to the taxpayers’ bank account in Victoria) on every tree they cut, but the fee is too high if it’s only going to sell at pellet rates. Stirling said what’s needed is a government policy allowing for biomass harvesting of the otherwise useless timber so that it doesn’t count against the associated lumber company’s harvesting rights. Also, a stumpage rate has to be implemented by Victoria that charges an amount realistic for pellet sales instead of lumber sales.
There is another hurdle, though and it pertains to the brush piles. The lumber companies are held to rigid treeplanting requirements that gets in the way of bioenergy companies moving in to collect the woody debris.
“Don’t give out a contract on December the 10th and say you have to have it done by March 31st,” said Parfitt, illustrating a typical scenario. “What if it snows? What if the roads aren’t in shape until June? And that is why they (lumber companies) want it to burn, because they don’t want to plant it later,” as waiting for the right conditions for bioenergy staff and machines to go in and get the piles sets the treeplanting process back.
O’Donnell said, “That’s where it’s frustrating, because Canfor and Lakeland and all those guys understand that and will make concessions for us to go in there and get their piles. FFT (Forests For Tomorrow, a government program for forest management) and the B.C. government? No.” It might be changing, said Stirling, offering cautious hope despite it being too late for a lot of piles already in flames.
“Yes, we can,” Stirling said about the ability to act quickly to collect the residual wood or to start harvest on the zombie blocks of dead pine. “We have the contractors with the skills and equipment to do that. It does take some support from government.
“The government has some good programs. There’s FFT and FES and FCI (Forests For Tomorrow, Forest Enhancement Society and Forest Carbon Initiative), on the face of it, that are there to help, but the right of access (prevents bioenergy companies from getting in on the forest economy). The government is showing desire, there is some intent, but they haven’t gotten there yet. I’m optimistic. Coming off a couple of really tough forest fire years, and just after we’ve turned off beehive burners, why would we continue to slash burn?”
CITIZEN STAFF PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
A former clothing store is the site of a proposed cannabis retailer on Third Avenue.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
A former restaurant is the proposed location for a cannabis retailer on George Street.
B.C. gov’t to consider ‘relief’ for record gas prices: Horgan
Citizen news service
VICTORIA — Premier John Horgan says the B.C. government will consider “some relief” for those who can’t afford record high gas prices.
Horgan says his government will monitor prices at the pumps over the summer after they reached the benchmark record of almost $1.64 a litre today in Metro Vancouver, but he also suggested provincial taxes aren’t the only factor affecting prices.
He says he can’t explain a 12 cent a litre increase and perhaps the industry should invest more in refineries and the federal government should invest more in supply.
Dan McTeague, an analyst at GasBuddy.com, says there are several factors at play, but chief among them is a shortage of gas across the province and northwestern United States caused by two refineries in Washington state running at reduced rates.
British Columbia’s carbon tax also increased to $40 a tonne
British Columbia’s carbon tax also increased to $40 a tonne on Monday...
on Monday, which is double the federal carbon tax introduced in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick –provinces that did not previously have any carbon tax in place.
McTeague say the effect is a 1.2 cent per litre bump at the pump, which may be small but should not be discounted.
Horgan says the provincial government will monitor prices through the summer and if there’s an opportunity to step in and help, it will do so.
“But at this point, I’m hopeful there will be some correlation between the commodity price and retail price,” Horgan said.
“Those are issues that are market driven and out of my control.”
New AG Lametti says he won’t bow to pressure on SNC-Lavalin case
Mia RABSON Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Attorney General David Lametti says he will resist any attempt to pressure him on the SNC-Lavalin criminal prosecution.
Lametti is now in the hot seat on the court case that has rocked the Liberal government, resulting in the resignations of two cabinet ministers, the prime minister’s most trusted adviser and the country’s top civil servant.
The director of public prosecutions decided last fall not to negotiate a deferred-prosecution agreement with SNC-Lavalin, which is facing charges of bribery over its work in Libya between 2001 and 2011. Former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould says she was inappropriately pressured by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his senior staff to overrule that decision.
She believes she was shuffled out as justice minister and attorney general in January because she would not intervene, though the prime minister denies that had anything to do with her move.
Wilson-Raybould resigned from cabinet altogether Feb. 12, a day after Trudeau said her continued presence there, several days after her concerns about interference were first reported, spoke to her support for and confidence in the government.
However it is now alleged Wilson-Raybould set several conditions for her to remain in cabinet, including the firings of both Trudeau’s principal secretary Gerald Butts and Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick, the country’s top public servant.
Unidentified sources tell both the Toronto Star newspaper and CBC News that Wilson-Raybould also wanted a commitment Lametti would not step in to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin. Wilson-Raybould hasn’t responded to a request for comment on the claims.
Trudeau said he wouldn’t discuss a private conversation publicly, but acknowledged there was some sort of back and forth at play.
“We worked very hard to try to find some way to move forward together,” he said.
On his way into question period Thursday, where the SNC-Lavalin saga dominated the House of Commons again, Lametti said if that conversation happened between Wilson-Raybould and Trudeau, Lametti was unaware of it. That said, Lametti added he will not allow anyone to direct his decision on the matter one way or the other.
“The prime minister has never tried to direct me,” said Lametti.
“If someone else tries to direct me then they’ll hear about it.”
He said he wouldn’t comment on the details of the SNC-Lavalin case, but said he did receive “routine briefings” on the file when he became the minister. His spokesman confirmed to The Canadian Press that those briefings included a breakfast meeting with some of Trudeau’s aides where the discussion was largely based on the contents of the departmental briefing book prepared for Lametti.
That book discusses remediation agreements in general but makes no specific mention of the SNC-Lavalin case. It does say the application of a remediation agreement “to any particular case is a matter of independent prosecutorial discretion.”
Trudeau said Thursday he respects that Wilson-Raybould felt he and his staff were interfering with that discretion but that “I disagree.”
“I think it’s the job of a government to continue to look for ways to try and protect Canadians and their work,” he said.
Trudeau has said repeatedly that any conversations with WilsonRaybould about the SNC-Lavalin case involving his aides came because the government was concerned that prosecuting the company would endanger many of the 9,000 SNC jobs in Canada, a fear backed up by a presentation the company prepared for government officials in September.
Liberal MP Wayne Easter, who said he doesn’t think any of the conversations between WilsonRaybould and Trudeau, Wernick or Trudeau’s staff put any inappropriate pressure on her, also said
the commitment Wilson-Raybould reportedly wanted from Trudeau, that her successor would not arrange a deal for SNC-Lavalin, would have been inappropriate interference.
“What she is basically saying is the prime minister should order the new attorney general to do such-and-such on SNC-Lavalin,” he said. “Isn’t that a contradiction and that does shock me.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh rejected that interpretation of the conversation, arguing this is “another attempt to smear Ms. Wilson-Raybould.”
He said all she was doing was telling Trudeau and his office not to interfere.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer agreed, saying he doesn’t put much faith in the leaked conditions, but that the Lametti condition sounds more like she just wanted a commitment that the prime minister would not interfere in this case at all.
Trudeau removed both WilsonRaybould and former Treasury Board President Jane Philpott from the Liberal caucus Tuesday night, saying the breakdown in trust between them and the rest of the caucus, and their inability to express confidence in the government, left him no choice.
In a long interview on CBC Radio Thursday morning, Philpott said she was “stunned” by the decision and felt she had not been given an opportunity to explain her decision to resign from cabinet to either Trudeau or the caucus.
Philpott also said that if Trudeau had just admitted mistakes had been made and apologized for making Wilson-Raybould feel pressured, all could have been forgiven.
Province tables legislation to crack down on crack shacks
Dirk MEISSNER Citizen news service
VICTORIA — The B.C. government has put a target on properties linked to guns, gangs and drugs activities, the public safety minister said Thursday.
Mike Farnworth introduced legislation that empowers people to report alleged illegal activities in their neighbourhoods and gives authorities more clout to shut down those sites.
He said the Community Safety Act, if passed, would allow people to submit confidential complaints about alleged activities occurring at properties to a government unit that would investigate and enforce the act.
Farnworth said the unit would collaborate with neighbours and take escalating steps that would include ending tenancy agreements and closing the property for up to 90 days.
“What it means is there will be an enforcement unit that will have the ability to do a very fast, very quick
investigation and have the tools, working with local government, to be able to stop whatever illegal activity is taking place,” he said at a news conference after introducing the legislation.
“We all know the kinds of properties we’re talking about,” said Farnworth.
The nuisance or criminal activities include drug production, trafficking, possession of illegal firearms or explosives, after-hours sales of liquor and providing liquor or drugs to minors, he said.
“People living near ‘crack shacks’ and other dangerous nuisance properties have been waiting more than half a decade for this law to actually help them,” said Farnworth in a statement, adding the former Liberal government passed similar legislation in 2013 but it never was proclaimed as a law. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Yukon have legislation similar to B.C.’s proposed Community Safety Act, Farnworth said.
RCMP Supt. Ted de Jager, president of the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police, said similar community safety laws in other parts of Canada show that working with property owners can benefit public safety.
“There are properties that see hundreds of 911 calls for service because of an ever-changing group of criminals and offenders operating at those locations,” de Jager said in a statement.
CP PHOTO
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons on Monday.
Broncos tragedy remembered in ink
Bill GRAVELAND Citizen news service
It’s a day many want to forget. It’s the people they want to remember.
“I always have him with me now,” former Humboldt Broncos hockey player Ryan Straschnitzki says after a threehour tattoo session in Calgary.
Permanently inked into the skin of his right arm is the motto of Boncos head coach Darcy Haugan: “It’s a great day to be a Bronco gentlemen.”
Haugan was one of 16 people who died after the junior hockey team’s bus and a semi collided at a crossroads in Saskatchewan last April 6. Straschnitzki, paralyzed from the waist down, was one of 13 players injured.
“I think everyone lives by that quote,” says the 19-year-old from Airdrie, Alta. Other players who survived have also had Haugan’s words marked onto their bodies. Straschnitzki has 10 hockey pucks as well with the jersey numbers of the teammates he lost.
Chris Joseph of St. Albert, Alta., never got a tattoo in all his years of playing in the National Hockey League.
He has one now, in memory of his 20-year-old son, Jaxon, who died. It’s a favourite photo of Joseph holding a crying two-year-old Jaxon at a Vancou-
ver Canucks family skate. “We always found it funny and joked about how his hockey career almost ended before it started,” Joseph says. “I put it on my left forearm because I wanted to see it every day. The reminder isn’t of that day. The reminder is of Jaxon’s memories.
“I don’t care to remember April 6 that much. It’s every single day before that I want to remember.”
Kevin Matechuk of Colonsay, Sask., waited a month before his son, Layne, woke up from a coma. The 19-year-old is still suffering from a brain injury and has trouble speaking.
Matechuk got the word “believe” tattooed on his arm with his son’s hockey number – 28 – under it.
“We just really felt that we had to believe that Layne was going to get better,” he says. “Just about a month ago Layne wanted it too, so he got it on the same spot.
“A lot of times when I get kind of depressed and feeling down and if Layne’s not around, I just look at it and it reminds me of how far he’s come and it helps.”
Tyler Smith of Leduc, Alta., was also injured in the crash but recovered enough to rejoin the Broncos for a month at the beginning of the hockey season.
Smith, 20, had 16 birds tattooed on his left shoulder blade to honour those who died.
“I don’t know what it is about a tattoo, but it definitely just gives you a sense of comfort and peace... You have something on your body to represent them and hold that memory.”
One of the birds has a pink tail, explains Smith, in memory of the team’s athletic therapist, 24-year-old Dayna Brons of Lake Lenore, Sask., the only woman riding on the Broncos bus that day.
Janelle Glessman has an intricate tattoo on her leg to remember her sister. It’s a fox (because she and Brons both painted a fox at an art class), two sunflowers with brown centres like her sister’s brown eyes, and various leaves and flowers in groups of five.
“She had so many fives that happened throughout her life,” says Glessman. The sisters were born five years, five months and five days apart. Brons was born in May, the fifth month. She played sports and just about every time picked the number five to wear.
Brons died in hospital five days after the crash.
“It took me awhile on what I wanted,” says Glessman.
Scholarships, events, place names honour bus crash victims
Colette DERWORIZ Citizen news service
Families of those who died in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash say scholarships, events and places named in their honour helps keep their memories alive.
Sixteen people – including 10 players and the head coach – were killed and 13 players were injured one year ago when the junior hockey team’s bus and a semi collided at a rural intersection in Saskatchewan.
Dozens of bursaries and scholarships have been created in memory of those killed. Their names are also attached to arenas, dressing rooms, playgrounds and even a snowmobile shack.
Scott Thomas of Saskatoon, who lost his son Evan, said the memorials are an important part of grieving.
“It means the world to our family,” he said. “It’s just a way to keep his name alive, if you will. To us, it’s a statement about the impact that he had in those communities in the short amount of time that he was here on this Earth.”
Thomas said some of the honours are related to the size and scope of the tragedy that hit the hockey team.
“On the other hand, I think a lot of it is just about Evan. He affected a lot of people. He was just a good kid.”
Many parents said they have been inundated with support from their communities.
“It’s kind of overwhelming,” said Carol Brons of Lake Lenore, Sask. Her daughter, Dayna, the team’s athletic therapist, was killed.
“When she passed away, we knew we wanted to set up something... to help.”
They directed money to the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon and Mount Royal University in Calgary in the weeks after she died.
Since then, Brons said, there have also been bursaries created at the University of Regina and through the CFL Saskatchewan Roughriders. “It’s a way to give somebody else an opportunity to do what they want to do.”
Several families have also created memorial trusts and foundations as a way to give back to the community.
“You’re trying to keep Adam’s memory alive and let people know the person he was,” said Russell Herold of Montmartre, Sask., whose family created the Adam Herold Memorial Foundation.
“He would have done a lot of good things in his life if he would have had the opportunity. In some regards, we’re doing some of the things he would have done for others.”
The foundation’s goal is to provide opportunities to Saskatchewan youth to develop and refine hockey and leadership skills. It will provide top trainers for skill development, physical and mental training, coaching development and ongoing support for hockey programs in rural communities.
CP PHOTO
Calgary tattoo artist Mike Peace works on a tattoo on March 5 on Humboldt Broncos bus crash survivor Ryan Straschnitzki’s arm to commemorate the crash.
Kings goalie earns Twitter praise
Prince George Spruce Kings
goalie Logan Neaton attracted widespread praise from hockey watchers everywhere Tuesday night.
While the rest of his teammates were celebrating a hard-fought overtime win that knocked the Victoria Grizzlies out of the playoffs and booked Prince George into the league final, Neaton went to Grizzlies goalie Kurtis Chapman instead. Chapman stayed on one knee after Ben Poisson’s goal, clearly devastated after the tough loss.
Neaton’s first stop was brief but then he circled back and, after being initially stopped by the two concerned linesmen, approached a now-standing Chapman. The two goalies embraced and patted each other on the shoulder. By this point, Keenan Rancier, the backup goalie for the Kings, was at Neaton’s side.
Neaton, who turns 20 on Sunday, showed maturity far in excess of his years.
He knew he would have a long bus ride home from Victoria to celebrate a series win with his teammates. In the moment, however, he was put aside his own joy to reach out to the guy at the other end of the rink feeling a heartache only goalies can appreciate.
Here’s a sample of the Twitter compliments, including my own:
• @GregBalloch: Sportsmanship doesn’t get much better than what we saw from @ neaton_logan and @chappy1998 last night in Victoria.
• @GoaliesNeverSay: Immediately after the @SpruceKings eliminate the @ BCHLGrizzlies in a hard-fought overtime, goaltender @neaton_logan goes straight to his 20-year-old counterpart @chappy1998, whose excellent junior career was ended by the goal. That mutual respect is a beautiful thing.
• @CoachLiddell: Pure class Neats.
• @fireladdyguy: When I saw that clip it was so heartwarming to see such sportsmanship. Not sure the linesmen knew what to do when that happened. Goaltenders certainly have a different level of friendship and it showed here for sure!!
• @NeilGodbout: the goal is awesome but what @neaton_logan did after was pure sportsmanship and class - those @SpruceKings are fantastic ambassadors for #cityofpg.
• @HamWilder: Class, sportsmanship, leadership and no doubt some parents incredibly proud of their son, as @SpruceKings @neaton_logan skips the group hug and instead waits it out to console @BCHLGrizzlies Kurtis Chapman.
• @ToddDohertyMP: Very proud of my @ SpruceKings! The call of the winning goal is great but what makes me even more proud - our goalie @neaton_logan is the one of the first to console the @BCHLGrizzlies goalie.
NDP facing LNG jobs reality
New Democrats in opposition were strident critics of the lack of guarantees for B.C. workers in the deal the B.C. Liberal government was trying to put together for a liquefied-naturalgas plant.
But there are no hard requirements in the NDP government’s deal with LNG Canada for B.C. hires.
The new estimates of how many B.C. taxpayers will be in the 10,000-strong workforce on the project are remarkably low. They are between 35 and 55 per cent, according to a government briefing note made public by the Liberal opposition on Tuesday.
On a list of key assumptions the government is making about LNG projects in general, the percentage of workers from B.C. is estimated at 55 per cent. But Liberal critic Mike de Jong said LNG Canada is putting the percentage much lower – at 35 per cent, a point not disputed by the government.
The government has also positioned itself in favour of expediting the hiring of temporary foreign workers, another point of contention the NDP raised while in opposition.
But the current finance minister, Carole James, herself criticized the lack of B.C.-hire requirements in the Liberal approach four years ago.
“It seems to me that it would be even more important for a premier, if they were really looking out for British Columbia, to make sure that there were jobs for British Columbians written into this
IN THE FAST LEYNE
LES LEYNE
agreement,” she said in the house in 2015. “But no. There are no apprenticeship quotas, there are no training quotas and there are no job numbers that are in here.”
James urged the previous government: “You better make sure that local businesses have the opportunity to contribute, that local jobs are here.”
She was backed up by then-
Opposition leader John Horgan on that point: “We should make sure... that if we invite someone to take that product from the ground, they hire British Columbians and Canadians to do that.”
James and de Jong clashed over the issue this week. She cited LNG Canada’s commitments to local hires, apprenticeship targets and training. But they are just in the form of a standalone letter. They’re not written into any deal with the government.
“Certainly, from my perspective, it was the goal that we went to negotiations with and a goal that I’m very pleased with,” she said.
Asked what the mechanism is to enforce the promises, she said: “It’s the ongoing relationship that we have with LNG Canada around the commitment here.”
She said the assumptions that just 35 to 55 per cent of workers on the project will be from B.C. are cautious and conservative, and she thinks it will be higher.
With at least 45 per cent of the
workforce expected to come from outside B.C., the NDP has also made plans to expedite the use of foreign workers.
A cabinet decision note from 2017 discussed the use of foreigners and concluded that expediting their use would be perceived “extremely positively” by LNG Canada and seen as a signal of support for the project more broadly.
It was approved by Jobs Minister Bruce Ralston, who was among the NDP MLAs a few years ago who criticized the Liberals “for simply just trusting the proponent and taking them at their word.”
With B.C.’s low unemployment rate and the emerging skills shortages in the trades needed for the project, it would have been almost impossible to find 10,000 workers in B.C. to build an LNG plant.
Everyone involved in the project and the debate knows that, but few would acknowledge it. The NDP preferred to ride the patriotic “B.C. first” horse as far as it would take them through the years of LNG arguments. The emerging details show they started dismounting in a hurry within weeks of taking power. Now they’ve abandoned that position. There’s potential for as many as 65 per cent of the workers to wind up arriving from outside B.C. and an unknown share of them coming from outside Canada.
James looked very uncomfortable ducking detailed questions about that, because she and her colleagues ignored the inevitability of it for years.
Class & integrity. Attaboy Neats.
• @KeeganBell4: What a class act by PG’s goaltender Logan Neaton in this video. Great work young man.
• @JTLazare: As a former goalie (and one who has been on the wrong side of a season ending OT goal) this was amazing to see. @ neaton_logan goes right to Chapman after his team books a ticket to the finals. #GoalieBrotherhood.
• @mrslaursen2: First class sportsmanship from Neaton.
• @alijomo72: The spruce kings goalie is now one of my favourite players. I love seeing good sportsmanship out there. Congratulations @SpruceKings.
• @DonnyJo37233367: What a class act by Neaton, i know they shake hands after the series but to go over to the opposing goaltender to console him before celebrating with your own team shows true class and respect. Well done, Neaton, well done. — Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
YOUR LETTERS
Mayor babble
I heard Mayor Lyn Hall being interviewed on CBC Daybreak North and he was asked if he was considering joining the classaction lawsuit against fossil fuel companies that’s being promoted by Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps. I was appalled to not hear him reject the notion outright.
Prince George is totally dependent on fossil fuels. Except for one electric car, the city’s cars, pickups, trucks, graders, loaders, street sweepers, all of them require fossil fuels. As well, all the industry, business and residents that generate the economic activity that funds city hall depend on fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are the lifeblood of this city. Without them there would be no city here. Suing the companies that provide them makes about as much sense as suing the farmers who grow our food.
Abundant, cheap and reliable energy was the greatest source of human advancement in the 20th century. Every material social advance depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable energy. The availability of electrical appliances that free up time from domestic chores, getting children out of menial labour and into schools, safe indoor lighting for reading and industry, the massive increase in worker productivity, development and provision of modern health care, irrigating fields and the expansion of our food supply, cooking and refrigerating foods, a steady indoor supply of hot water and the promotion of hygiene and nutrition are all due to a reliable and affordable supply of energy, most of it derived from fossil fuels. No matter what you may think of detrimental effects of fossil fuel use, rather than suing fossil fuel companies, we should be thanking them for the modern, developed and privileged life they’ve given us.
The same applies to the City of Victoria whose mayor is pushing for this. Can she assure us that the City of Victoria uses no fossil fuels? No gas, diesel, coal, propane or natural gas in the city’s busses, trucks, cars, machines or buildings? That none of their revenue comes from sources that use fossil fuels?
One would think that would be a prerequisite before even contemplating such a lawsuit. What have these mayors been smoking?
Art Betke, Prince George
Goodbye to Trudeau
Justin Trudeau will be judged in November. I will not vote for a cheesy elitist who tries to bend the rule of law for any purpose including selfserving political gain. It just shows how corrupt government is at all levels when you finally has some-
one stand up for moral and ethical rule of law with honesty and they get canned. Well, Mr. Trudeau, I am going to do my part to have you canned and all your big shot elitists can go along with you. Wouldn’t it be great if we could elect truthful politicians for once?
See you in October to say goodbye at the ballot box. And, by the way, the India trip and selfies is enough to make me lose my lunch. Monte Ubdegrove, Prince George P.G.
nonsense
Re: Victoria nonsense, April 3 Citizen.
Mr. Bliss, thank you for pointing out Victoria currently doesn’t have a secondary treatment facility for the maybe five people who have somehow managed to make it through life without learning this. Anyone who makes this argument to knock Victoria down is really just ignorantly ranting at this point.
A quick Google search of “Victoria sewage treatment” will lead you to the Capital Regional District website, where you’ll be happy to learn that there has been a major capital project ongoing in Victoria for a while now which is – get this – building a secondary treatment facility. Best part is a lot of the funding is coming from federal and provincial revenues so I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your contribution. With all that said, there is zero scientific evidence that Victoria’s primary treated sewage has done any damage to the ecosystem but that argument is for another day. Thanks for playing.
Richard Dick, Victoria
Study for everyone
Two UNBC professors have secured $1.5 million of taxpayer money to do a project focused on strengthening mental wellness and suicide prevention among Indigenous elders in B.C.’s Northern Interior. I would assume they plan to do this study on all seniors as we are one community trying to survive. They do not have to spend $1.5 million to do research on all seniors or elders of every race and nationality.
The smart thing to do is talk to the seniors in seniors residences, assisted living and full care facilities. Here is a list to help the professors – loss of your partner and having your income cut in half, losing your independence and having to rely on family and friends, having to give up your home no matter where it is, having to deal with health issues and paying for prescriptions, having to look after a spouse with dementia or Alzheimer’s, job loss, family moving in, I could go on and on. Everyone, regardless of race, can be affected by health problems.
Helen Sarrazin,
Prince George
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Streaming makes it easy to discover great movies
Citizen news service
There’s no better way for the cinematically curious to explore than via streaming and on-demand services.
Set aside Netflix, for a moment, with its movie-of-the-week model and its dependence on ‘90s staple Friends for viewers. Consider instead the forthcoming Criterion Channel, debuting Monday.
The Criterion Collection has long been the go-to label for cinephiles, its curation serving as a sort of canonization of films old and new.
In addition to the thousandplus titles in the Criterion library, they’re rolling out special programs such as Columbia Noir, which will highlight noir movies by auteurs including Don Siegel (The Lineup) and Fritz Lang (The Big Heat). It’s a perfect entry point for folks who want to learn more about an important movement in movie history.
Those concerned about cost, however, might want to check out their local libraries. Many offer free access to a service called Kanopy, which also offers titles from Criterion’s library. (The Prince George Public Library offers access to two streaming services for card holders – Hoopla and Instant Flix).
The streaming and video-ondemand revolution has also expanded the range of first-run pictures available to audiences. Consider the case of Dragged Across Concrete.
Despite A-List talent including Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn, solid reviews and prestigious festival placements, Dragged Across Concrete is playing in only a handful of theatres.
And for good reason: it would
have been a hard sell to mass audiences.
Its mood is best described as Grindhouse Antonioni; director S. Craig Zahler’s film is languorous, luxuriating in the lives and milieus of its characters and punctuating that lived-in sensibility with moments of extreme violence. It’s great, but it’s not for everyone, so it’s wonderful that viewers who won’t have access to the movie in a theatre can catch it on video on demand.
While most people will end up seeing the film at home, the limited theatrical run is an important sign for viewers, said producer Dallas Sonnier.
“It’s a signal to the audience member at home that this is a movie that someone believed in it enough to put it in a couple of theatres, give it a chance and also make it available to you online or in your home,” said Sonnier, the chief executive of production company Cinestate. “We’re able to charge premium VOD pricing, and be in the ‘In theaters now’ folder if we are in approximately 15 to 25 theatres around the country.” That premium is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, all told.
In recent years, Cinestate – the company behind cult hits such as Western-horror Bone Tomahawk and the brutal jailhouse thriller Brawl in Cell Block 99 – has emerged as a fascinating independent studio. Sonnier said its business model is similar to the direct-to-video efforts of old.
“You keep the budgets super low. You go to a tax incentive film location... You sell the domestic rights for distribution up front, and you sell as much of the foreign territory distribution rights as possible before you start shoot-
ing,” he said. A big difference in Cinestate’s offerings compared with the straight-to-video efforts of Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme is the quality of the filmmaking.
Treat yourself to The Standoff at Sparrow Creek, a recent offering from the studio. Despite being made on a shoestring budget, writer/director Henry Dunham’s picture about a militia attempting to figure out which of its members engaged in a mass shooting at a police funeral is shot and lit with verve and style. The coterie of character actors Dunham and Sonnier assembled sell the drama, making Standoff feel larger than its setting: a couple of rooms in a lumber warehouse.
The Standoff at Sparrow Creek can’t compete at multiplexes with the likes of Disney and Marvel and Fox, being a smaller story aimed at adults without a huge name attached to it. But its quality speaks for itself, just as the quality of Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99 galvanized audiences to seek out Dragged Across Concrete. The appearance of Tomahawk and Brawl on Amazon Prime is complicatedly bittersweet.
“Streaming to us is a golden handcuff. It is an amazing way for tons of people to see your movie that did not see it in theatres, did not buy the Blu-ray and did not rent it on VOD. But, and this is a giant but, the streaming is the end of the road for the most part for your revenue stream,” Sonnier said. On the plus side, streaming can also serve as a form of advertising: “You try to capture all the attention and the eyeballs from one movie, and you use it to generate interest in your next movie.”
Cast says goodbye to Game of Thrones
Sophie Turner wore her waterproof mascara. The actress knew there would be a lot of crying.
She and the rest of the cast of Game of Thrones descended on Radio City Music Hall on Wednesday to bid farewell to the HBO hit show after eight seasons.
“It’s very exciting because there’s a whole new chapter of our lives we’re embarking on, but it’s also really sad because this other chapter is closing, and we won’t be able to play these amazing characters anymore,” said Turner, who plays Sansa Stark.
The groundbreaking HBO series, based on the popular book series by George R.R. Martin, has had crazy twists, eye-popping turns and a measure of fearlessness, like killing off main characters. It also has one of the most dynamic battle scenes ever filmed in an episode called Battle of the Bastards.
Pilou Asbaek, who plays Euron Greyjoy, said fans
can expect even more of those moments in the last few shows. The last season premieres April 14.
“There’s going to be a couple of episodes in season 8 which is going to be madness, which is going to be epic, which is going to be the biggest ever seen on TV,” Asbaek said.
Jason Momoa came back from the dead to attend Wednesday’s event. His character was killed off in the first season.
“It’s the greatest show on Earth and nine years ago I didn’t think I’d be here right now. It’s just beautiful to see my friends off, wish them luck and show the world that it’s the greatest show,” Momoa said.
Kristofer Hivju, who played the role of Tormund Giantsbane, pointed to the show’s unpredictability as part of its strength.
“It doesn’t follow the rules of storytelling. It follows the rules of life and the rules of death. And it’s unpredictable. It’s like a sports event.”
Dion announces Canadian tour
Citizen news service
Celine Dion is embarking on her first North American tour in more than a decade.
The Quebecois superstar revealed plans to play more than 50 cities across Canada and the United States starting in Quebec City on Sept. 18 and 20.
Dion will then head to Montreal for two shows on Sept. 26 and 27 before hitting Ottawa on Oct. 16 and Toronto on Dec. 9.
The dates are part of a larger world tour that’ll coincide with the release of her new album Courage later this year.
Dion made the announcement during a Facebook webcast from the Ace Hotel’s theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
She performed some of her famous hits, including My Heart Will Go On and I’m Alive, and took questions from viewers on social media.
The singer, who is to end her Las Vegas residency in June, suggested it was time for something new.
“So many people came to see us, and now I think it’s time we go see them,” she told an audience of her fans.
Tickets for the first leg of the tour go on sale April 12. She is to return to Canada in 2020 with a second leg of dates next year in Vancouver (April 17), Edmonton (April 21), Saskatoon (April 25) and Winnipeg (April 27).
Further shows outside North America weren’t part of the announcement. Dion told the audience she decided to name her album and tour Courage because it recognized the challenges life can hand people. In her case, she said it was the death of her husband and longtime mentor Rene Angelil.
“I went through a lot, and life had given me the tools... to find my inner strength, to find courage to keep going,” she said.
“When I lost Renee, before he went to his other life, he wanted me back on stage. He wanted me to make sure I was still practicing my passion, and I wanted to prove to him that I’m fine, we’re fine, we’re going to be OK. I’ve got this.”
Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn) and Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) in Dragged Across Concrete.
Citizen news service
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Smale, Sherba rekindle ‘69 Brier memories
They’re wearing dad’s sweaters in 92nd Kelly Cup, men’s curling championship
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Fifty years of being hung in closets did nothing to diminish the quality of the white wool sweaters worn by the 1969 B.C. men’s curling champions.
After all, they were made of pure virgin wool. Guaranteed mothproof.
That means no holes, not even a cigarette burn, in the nostalgic curling attire of Darren Smale, Scott Sherba, Byron Gallagher and Mike Gallagher when they hit the ice at Prince George Golf and Curling Club in this weekend’s 92nd Kelly Cup men’s curling championship.
It was 50 years ago that Kevin Smale (Darren’s dad), Pete Sherba (Scott’s dad), Dan Carr and Bob MacDonald wore those sweaters in the Canadian men’s curling championship after they won first of two B.C. titles to represent Prince George in what was then known as the Macdonald Brier (named after the tobacco company that sponsored the event).
They went to the Brier in Oshawa, Ont., March 3-7, 1969 as huge underdogs and after rolling to a 8-0 record came up against Ron Northcott’s Alberta rink, that was also 8-0, in the penultimate game of the tournament for both teams. Smale built an 8-4 lead after 10 ends and Northcott came back to score three in the 11th and stole two in the 12th to win 9-8.
Smale went on to defeat Newfoundland in the final draw and finished with a 9-1 record while Northcott topped Saskatchewan to finish 10-0. That was before the Brier adopted a playoff round. Had the teams finished with identical records, B.C. and Alberta would have played a one-game playoff. It was only the second time in Brier history that a 9-1 team failed to win the tournament or force a playoff. They returned to Prince George a couple days later to a hero’s reception, greeted by a crowd of about 1,000 at Prince George Airport.
“Scott and I thought it would be kind of neat to celebrate the 50th anniversary,” said Darren Smale.
“We’re both 50 and of course Mike and Byron Gallagher both played with my dad so there’s that connection as well. The sweaters are going to be pretty hot to wear. I’m skipping so I’ll wear mine and be OK, but the guys (sweeping) I don’t know how
Neaton
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
Prince George Spruce Kings
goalie Logan Neaton thought about joining his team’s celebration in the corner of the rink in Victoria Tuesday after Ben Poison’s overtime goal ended the Victoria Grizzlies’ season, but took one look at dejected Grizzlies goalie Kurtis Chapman down on his knees with his head down and skated over to the crease to give him a tap on the back. Neaton then circled back towards his teammates but decided the time was right to go back to Chapman and give him a hug and a few words to console him.
That remarkable expression of empathy to the heartbroken Grizzly netminder was a true act of sportsmanship and compassion which for a brief instant overshadowed the joy of the moment for Neaton, who brilliantly backstopped the Spruce Kings into the B.C. Hockey League Fred Page Cup championship series for the second consecutive season.
“I just congratulated him on a good year, I’ve definitely been on the other end of goals like that, losing a game in OT, and it’s not a good feeling,” said Neaton.
“We haven’t finished what we came here to start, we still have another series ahead of us, so there’s not too much reason to celebrate. Goalies understand what goalies go through and those are tough situations to be
championship
long they’ll be able to keep them on.”
Kevin Smale, a Prince George Sports Hall of Fame member, died of cancer at age 72 in December 2013.
“Dad would probably give me heck for wearing the sweater – ‘You didn’t win it,’” laughed Darren. “We’re doing for the celebration of the 50th, we’re not going there thinking we’re heroes. It’s just to honour our dads.” Scott and Darren were born within two days of each other in September 1968 at Prince George Regional Hospital and despite being so close on the curling rink gearing up for their run at the national championships their dads had no idea the wives were expecting.
“They didn’t know until they met in the elevator at the hospital,” said Scott Sherba.
“That’s how serious and intense they were about curling. They were focused. When they were curling, they curled six or seven days a week. It was a lot of work to play, and they had full-time jobs as well.”
Highlights of the 1969 Brier are available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=1ttfv7-6wMc
Back then, games were 12 ends long and
year when they play in this weekend’s Kelly Cup men’s
there were three draws each day.
“They played with corn brooms and they were tough,” said Scott Sherba. “They were pretty burly guys and their bodies took a beating. They played a lot of games and it’s impressive watching those guys sweep.
“The ice now is a lot easier to play. It’s a lot keener and more forgiving. It’s more consistent and what our guys are playing for soft hit weight today are what those guys were using for draw weight. Their skills back then were more than they need to be today and the field to get to the Brier and the qualifying process was a lot onerous than it is today.”
The Smale-Sherba-Carr-MacDonald team also qualified as B.C. champions for the 1971 Brier in Quebec City and finished with a 6-5 record. Carr, who moved to Victoria shortly after the 1969 Brier, died last year. McDonald lives in Kelowna. Pete Sherba, now 84, still lives in Prince George and will be at the rink watching his son trying the win his third Kelly Cup. Kevin and Pete each won the Kelly Cup twice.
“He’s excited to come and watch us play and see how we do,” said Scott. “The difference is my dad was 34 when he curled in his
sweater. I’m going find out if I’m pudgier at 50 than he was at 34.”
Forty men’s teams are entered in the Kelly Cup, which started Thursday afternoon at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club. Last year Darren Smale made the final-eight Kelly Cup round but couldn’t stop Garnet Boese from winning his first Kelly after nearly 40 years of trying. Boese is back to defend his title, teamed up with Dave Johnston, Stewart Robertson and Rick Gibb. Smale, who lives in Kamloops, is a twotime winner, most recently in 2016 with Byron Gallagher, Jason Howse and Rob Ubleis. Smale says he “caught lightning in a bottle that year,” after curling just once in four years.
Sherba, a two-time Kelly Cup champion. will be playing third this weekend, with Byron Gallagher at second and Mike Gallagher at lead. Byron won it with Smale in 2016. Mike has won the Kelly four times.
The Prince George women’s bonspiel starts Friday at 6:30 p.m., also at the PGGCC, with 19 teams entered. This marks the fifth season the Kelly Cup and women’s city championship will be contested on the same weekend.
in and I’ve been on the other side of them so it was just one of those things where the goalie union sticks together.
“He was phenomenal all series long and he put pressure on me to makes saves at the other end. It was kind of just respect for what he’s done throughout the year and in his junior career and what he did in the series.”
The Spruce Kings await the
winner of the Interior Conference championship, ether the Vernon Vipers or Wenatchee Wild. The Vipers lead the best-of-seven series 3-1 and can wrap it up with a win tonight in Game 5 in Wenatchee. If the series is extended, Game 6 would be played Sunday in Vernon, with Game 7 to follow Tuesday in Wenatchee. Neaton has been spectacular
in the playoffs, continuing on the success he had in the regular season, his first since joining the Spruce Kings from Fairbanks of the NAHL. His 1.92 goals-against average in 47 regular-season games ranks as the seventh-best in BCHL history, and he’s cut his average to 1.47 in 13 playoff games. He’s also improved his save percentage, from .914 (fourth best in the BCHL) during
the season to a league-leading .936 in the playoffs. His 32 regular-season wins is an all-time high for any Spruce King goalie and he had five shutouts.
Neaton, a native of Brighton, Mich., who turns 20 on Sunday, will move on to NCAA college hockey next season at UMassLowell.
Riding the hot goaltending of Neaton, the Spruce Kings have lost just one of 13 playoff games and they hot streak dates back to the last month of the regular season. Since Jan. 20, they’ve won 20 of their last 22 games. They opened the playoffs with a 4-1 series win over Coquitlam, then swept the regular seasonchampion Chilliwack Chiefs in a four-game series.
“I think the biggest thing for us is rest and that helped us through the first two rounds is getting the series done quick and being able to focus on our next opponent and that’s something we keyed in in this (Victoria) series as well to try to get it done as early as could going into the final,” said Neaton. “Now we can take our time and work on our pre-scouting and worry about what’s going to happen and not get caught up late in the series. We’ve been in situations before where we’ve been down in goals and you have to come back in games and it was good to face a bit of adversity going into the next round.” — see ‘IT WASN’T, page 10
Skip Darren Smale, far left, and third Scott Sherba, near left, shown leaning on their corn brooms with second Byron Gallagher and lead Mike Gallagher, for right, are the sons of 1969 Brier second-place finishers Kevin Smale and Pete Sherba and they will be sporting the sweaters their dads wore as B.C. champions that
curling
at PGGCC.
SCREEN CAPTURE IMAGE COURTESY OF THE BCHL
Prince George Spruce Kings goalie Logan Neaton consoles Victoria Grizzlies goalie Kurtis Chapman after the Spruce Kings eliminated the Grizzlies from the BCHL playoffs on Tuesday.
Predators defenseman Dan Hamhuis and Vancouver Canucks left wing Tanner Pearson chase the puck during a game in Nashville on Thursday.
Predators rally to beat Canucks
news service
Teresa M. WALKER Citizen
NASHVILLE — Ryan Johansen can’t wait to watch the Nashville Predators’ big play again.
Not his goal that preserved Nashville’s hopes of repeating as Central Division champs. No, he wants to watch how Filip Forsberg kept the puck in the zone setting up Johansen’s game-winner, a play Johansen called possibly the most impressive thing he’s seen his linemate do.
“The absolute relentless talented way to get the puck, strip the puck, get it back, make a play that was world-class,” Johansen said.
Forsberg fed the puck to Johansen for the winning goal with 19.5 seconds remaining, and the Predators rallied to beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 Thursday night.
Winnipeg needed a win and Nashville to lose for the Jets to clinch the division Thursday night. The Predators trailed 2-0 after the first period and 2-1 before scoring twice in the final 4:20. Then a 3-2 loss in overtime to Colorado left the Jets tied with St. Louis (97 points apiece) with Nashville atop the Central Division (98 points).
Now, the Predators need only to beat Chicago on Saturday night to repeat as division champs and clinch home-ice advantage for the first two rounds of the post-season.
Nick Bonino tied it up with 4:20 left when Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom got caught to the left of his net
with Austin Watson sliding across in front of him, leaving an open net for Bonino to score his 16th of the season. The Canucks lost their challenge for goaltender interference.
“It was a penalty on Jake,” Canucks coach Travis Green said. “It’s an obvious penalty, and they missed that.”
Johansen’s pass across the slot to Viktor Arvidsson instead went off the outstretched stick of Canucks defenceman Troy Stecher and past Markstrom’s left pad and in. The Canucks also challenged, this time for being offside and lost.
Colton Sissons also scored for Nashville, which now has won four of five. Watson had two assists in his first game back in Nashville after a 27-game suspension for alcohol abuse under the NHL’s substance abuse and behavioural health program.
Markus Granlund scored and Tanner Pearson each had power-play goals for Vancouver, which snapped a three-game winning streak. Quinn Hughes had two assists.
With so much on the line, the Predators trailed 2-0 after the first period with the Canucks outshooting them.
Nashville had killed 28 straight penalties over its last 10 games. But the Predators had a second left on a hooking penalty on Wayne Simmonds when Granlund scored his 12th at 8:49 of the first, lifting the puck over Pekka Rinne’s glove for a 1-0 lead.
Just 10.6 seconds remained in the period when Pearson scored with the puck going off the post and then off Rinne’s
back and in for another power-play goal.
“I didn’t like the start,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “I didn’t like the scoreboard. I didn’t like the penalties we took and they scored coming off both penalties. Just not sharp enough in that first. From there, I liked it. The second period, we got going right off the bat. We started firing pucks and delivering pucks and hunting a little bit more. From that, the game turned.”
The Predators pulled to 2-1 when Sissons scored on a wrister just 37 seconds into the second. Officials blew the whistle and waved off the goal on the ice, then a review showed Markstrom didn’t stop the puck before sliding into the net. The goal was reminiscent of a Sissons goal whistled dead in Game 6 of the 2017 Stanley Cup Final.
“I’m glad they changed that rule,” Sissons said. “I think it was actually the same ref (Kevin Pollock) of the Finals in Game 6 against Pittsburgh when they didn’t allow that goal of mine. It was a big one. I’m happy to help us get a win tonight. It was huge. I was saying to the bench, ‘There’s no way this is going through,’ maybe I should keep saying that, and it will go the other way.”
Nashville kept shooting away, and Markstrom made a stop on Arvidsson’s breakaway attempt with about 6 minutes left.
UP NEXT
Canucks: Conclude season Saturday in St. Louis.
Predators: Host Chicago in regular season finale Saturday night.
‘It wasn’t an easy series’
— from page 9
The Spruce Kings, as has been the case throughout the playoffs, showed better skating legs than the Grizzlies when the teams got to overtime in Game 4. Neaton came up with a showstopping blocker save on Kyle McGrath less than two minutes into overtime and from that point on they took control of the game, tapping into their energy reserves to dominate the puck in the leadup to Poisson’s series-winner, 18:09 into OT.
“It wasn’t an easy series and it feels good to get it done and have a bit of rest and get healthy for finals here,” said Kings head coach Adam Maglio.
The Kings limited the most potent offence in the league to just eight goals in the series, outscoring Victoria 15-8.
“Five-on-five we did a great job,” said
Maglio. “They found a bit on the power play but they’re elite shooters and they’re going to find stuff if you give them time and space and that’s what happens on a power play is you get a little more time.”
The Kings have an older team with four 20-year-olds and nine 19-year-olds.
More than half the roster remains from the team that went 24 games deep into the playoffs last year. The fact they’ve had extended rest periods heading into each playoff series is showing in their play on the ice.
They’ve been faster and more efficient in all facets of the game, smothering their opponents in all three series while outscoring them a combined 51-21.
“The rest and the way our guys train in-season are things that matter,” said Maglio.
“We really do stress physical fitness, it’s a big piece for us. We have a good strength coach (former Spruce Kings defenceman Jonathan Gibson) and our guys do a good job putting in the hours off the ice, which probably pays off later in the playoffs of if series get extended.
“The guys from last year understand that, even more so coming into this year, how important is to take care of yourself off the ice. We’re physically a very fit team and that definitely is showing in the playoffs.”
The BCHL final starts next Friday at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
The Kings will also host Game 2 on April 13. Tickets for the championship series go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. at the Spruce Kings’ office.
Cariboo Cats chasing Telus Cup berth
CLARKE
Ted
The glow of winning the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League championship his diminished.
One week after beating the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds in two straight at the provincial final in Abbotsford, it’s time for the Cariboo Cougars to go on a hunt for bigger game.
They’re in Calgary this weekend trying to chase a the Buffaloes into extinction.
The Cougars will take on the Alberta champions tonight (6 p.m. PT) in the first of a three-game Pacific regional series. The winner advances to the six-team Telus Cup national championship in Thunder Bay, Ont., April 22-28.
“It’s pretty exciting for our organization, hopefully we can make some history, winning this time,” said Cougars general manager Trevor Sprague.
The Cougars have advanced to the Pacific championship twice since the major midget league formed in 2005. In 2008, after sweeping the Okanagan Rockets 2-0 in the B.C. final they went to Calgary and lost the regional series 2-1 to the Buffaloes. In 2017, the year they hosted the Telus Cup in Prince George, the Cougars beat the Greater Vancouver Canadians 2-1 in the league championship series but because they were national tournament hosts the Cougars did not play the Alberta champs from Leduc in the regional series.
In 2001, before the major midget league formed, the team then known as Coast Inn of the North Cougars won a provincial playoff against Okanagan and went on to defeat the Calgary Royals three games to none for the Pacific title in a series played in Calgary. That Cougars team, which had Sprague as an assistant coach, hosted the 2001 Air Canada Cup, now known as the Telus Cup.
This year’s team turned it on in January and finished on an 8-0 roll, then reeled off playoff series wins over the Greater Vancouver Canadians, 2-0 in the quarterfinals, and Vancouver North East Chiefs, 2-1 in the semifinals.
“It’s just the way they’ve come together since Christmas, the coaching staff has done a great job making sure everybody’s on the same playing field and they’re all prepared between each game,” said Sprague. “They take a lot of pride in that and the players respond very well. That attention to detail that our players and staff have is a real key thing. It’s worked out very well for us, especially in the last half of the season.
“We have 12 17-year-olds and they can all be great leaders all pulling on that rope the same way right now and that comes down to great leadership and quality hockey. Then we have some of our younger guys chipping in the way they are. Last game we had Fischer O’Brien’s line chipping in for four goals and that shows that right through our team it doesn’t matter how old you are or how young you are or where you’re playing in the lineup, everybody has a role to play and we’re doing that. We’re playing four lines, where other teams are playing tow lines, and that makes us dangerous.”
Game 2 of the series is set for 6 p.m. Saturday. If a third game is needed that would be played Sunday at 1 p.m. PT.
Toman joining Czech camp
Citizen staff
Prince George Cougars centre Matéj Toman did not make the WHL playoffs as a rookie but he still has some hockey left to play.
The 18-year-old Czech native is among 19 forwards invited to the Czech Republic’s selection camp roster for the World Under-18 Hockey Championship, April 18-28 in Ornskoldsvik and Umea, Sweden.
After being drafted fifth overall by the Cougars in the 2018 CHL import draft Toman played 66 WHL games and finished 10th in team scoring with nine goals and 11 assists for 20 points.
Toman represented his county at the 2018 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup last August and helped the Czechs win bronze at the 2017 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Dawson Creek and Fort St. John.
MONEY IN BRIEF
Currencies
These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Thursday. Quotations in Canadian funds.
B.C. firm wins online eyewear ruling
Citizen news service
Ontario regulators have no right to block a company legally operating elsewhere in Canada from selling prescription eyewear to online customers in the province, an Appeal Court ruled on Thursday.
The decision means Ontario consumers can continue to order corrective glasses and contact lenses from British Columbia-based online retailer Essilor, which sells Coastal and Clearly products.
“The mere delivery in Ontario of an order for prescription eyewear that has been processed in compliance with the British Columbia regulatory regime, without more, does not establish a sufficient connection between Essilor’s online sales and the controlled acts proscribed by (Ontario’s laws),” the Appeal Court ruled. “Where the supplier of the prescription eyewear operates in another province and complies with that province’s health-professions regulatory regime when filling an online order placed by an Ontario customer, the final act of delivering that product to the Ontario purchaser does not amount to the performance of a ‘controlled act’ by the supplier.”
The case arose in December 2016 when regulators in Ontario – the colleges of Optometrists and Opticians – alleged Essilor was
The markets today
Canada’s main stock index managed a slight increase on a subdued day as gains in the energy and financials sectors outweighed losses in real estate and information technology.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 31.75 points at 16,311.61 on 190 million shares traded, well off the index’s average of 250 million shares. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 166.50 at 26,384.63. The S&P 500 index ended up 5.99 points at 2,879.39, while the Nasdaq composite was down 3.77 points at 7,891.78. Markets generally got a boost from increased optimism in trade talks as U.S. and Chinese leaders prepared to meet, said Kash Pashootan at First Avenue Investment Counsel Inc.
“At this point the market is pricing in that U.S. leaders and Chinese leaders will be hugging and kissing at the end of this meeting,” he said.
He said markets have priced in too much optimism on the talks.
“We know any time there’s too much optimism, there’s really only one outcome that can prevail, which is disappointment.”
The market rebound in the first quarter came even as debt downgrades increased and earnings per share growth slowed, increasing the chances of another correction, said Pashootan.
“When we look at the equity markets today, is we went from needing a correction to getting one, to needing another one.”
The Canadian dollar averaged 74.87 cents US compared with an average of 75.05 cents US on Wednesday. The May crude contract closed down 36 cents at US$62.10 per barrel and the May natural gas contract ended down three cents at US$2.64 per mmBTU.
The S&P/TSX energy index rose 0.46 per cent despite the dips on energy commodities, while financials were up 0.17 per cent. Information technology dropped 2.02 per cent as Shopify dropped 4.91 per cent on a short-seller report, while real estate was down 0.54 per cent.
The June gold contract closed down US$1 at US$1,294.30 an ounce and the May copper contract was down 3.9 cents at US$2.91 a pound.
acting illegally by accepting orders for prescription eyewear through its websites and shipping the products to patients in Ontario. It wanted the courts to end the practice.
In essence, the colleges argued only licensed professionals in Ontario could dispense prescription eyewear in the province. The colleges offered no evidence anyone was actually harmed by Essilor’s practices.
In January 2018, Superior Court Justice Thomas Lederer sided with the colleges. He ruled the company was dispensing corrective eyewear in Ontario and concluded the province’s rules should apply. Lederer ordered Essilor to stop the sales.
Essilor Group Canada, whose head office is in Quebec but runs its online operation out of B.C., appealed, also winning permission to continue its sales pending the outcome of the case. It argued that fulfilling Ontario orders did not amount to the controlled act of dispensing prescription eyewear.
The subsidiary of France-based international eyewear giant, Essilor International, also argued Lederer wrongly decided that Ontario’s regulations applied to its online sales.
According to court filings, the Canadian prescription eyewear market is estimated to be worth more than $4.5 billion a year. The Appeal Court noted that eyewear is part of a
trend toward online retail sales.
“The explosion in the volume and variety of online consumer transactions over the past decade has included the emergence of an online market for the purchase and sale of prescription eye glasses and contact lenses,” the court said. “In some jurisdictions, friction has emerged between the online vendors of such products and the professional healthcare bodies that historically have regulated the sale.”
In siding with Essilor, the appellate court found the company was acting lawfully in its home province, which has a similar regulatory framework to Ontario. Nor was it “dispensing” eyewear in Canada’s most populous province by fulfilling orders in B.C. and shipping them across the country.
Leaning on Quebec case law, the court also noted that providing prescription eyewear is a transaction with both health care and commercial aspects.
Barring the online sales would amount to using Ontario’s Regulated Health Professions Act to give the province’s optometrists and opticians a monopoly over the commercial importation of prescription eyewear. That could only happen if the legislature passed a law to clearly allow such a monopoly – something current regulations do not do, the court said.
When saying no to a sale is a win
Last week, I told a prospective client that I didn’t think that I could add enough value and wouldn’t take his money for business coaching. This would have been a nice-sized client for me and would have generated thousands of dollars in revenue.
He had 20-plus employees and was doing $2-3 million dollars in business. He was stressed because his business had lost a key customer, he knew he had to make some changes to replace the lost $300,000 in revenue.
It’s not that I couldn’t have helped him.
In fact, he said at the end of our conversation that the coaching session had been very valuable to him. He had more clarity on what he needed to do. I had provided him with some insight into some solutions that he hadn’t considered. He appreciated the opportunity to talk about his challenges in a confidential manner with someone who understood what he was going through.
It’s that he already had a solution to his $300,000 problem and had cut his expenses by 30 per cent in the short term.
He had an accountability and support structure in place and his business had systems in place that enabled him to work at a balanced level that sustained his
BUSINESS
COACH
DAVE FULLER
lifestyle. In other words, he was doing almost everything right.
I knew that I probably could have sold him a coaching package and that he would have derived some value from my services, however the value I could create for him would have been less that ideal from my point of view.
Now I know there are going to be some people in sales that would think that people like me are crazy and avoid having me talk to any of their sales teams. They would probably ask me why I didn’t close the sale? “You mean you had a fish on the line and you didn’t reel him in? You let money walk out the door?”
But it’s exactly that mentality that gives sales people a bad name. Why is it that in business we think that we need to sell to every customer that comes our way and expresses an interest in our products or services? So often our sales teams are so focused on hitting their sales targets that they don’t stop and ask if what they are doing is right for the customer.
The pressure to close the sale is so great that they want to close at
any cost. Instead of thinking about closing, we ought to be thinking about creating value. If we are only focused on closing rather than creating value in sales, it’s like putting your car in park while trying to get to your destination. Things are going to come to a halt rather quickly and the result is not going to be good either for you or the car. If we can determine through our sales cycle and proper questioning whether the person we have in front of us is an ideal client, that they need what we have, can afford to pay for it and are ready to make the decision, we are in a good spot. However, as we go through that process of discovery, we find that the conditions are not exactly ideal. In other words, the customer isn’t ready, shouldn’t be buying or the product or service we are offering isn’t going to solve their problems in the long run, then we need to slow down the sale. Unfortunately, some companies take the short-term approach in order to have the quick bucks.
When we fail to have our customers walk away knowing that what they just bought is going to make a significant difference to the pain or pleasure that they are seeking, we are in trouble over the long run. We will not get
the repeat business. We will fail to get testimonials and referrals that ensure that our business will thrive for years to come. Sales can be the toughest part of any business. Having great sales people that who know how to create value and understand clearly the sales cycles and systems that generate repeat customers is essential to your success. Having a sales system that ensures that customers see the value that you are creating enables your teams to close business transactions consistently and easily. However, there are times when turning away a sales prospect might be the best thing you can do. I am confident that my sales prospect will be back to me in the future. He has clarity on what I can do for him when he needs it and he has customers who need my services as well. He knows that I won’t sell him anything that he doesn’t need and that I only work when I can create value for him as a customer. Yes, I lost a short-term sale, but hopefully I spent my time building a valuable relationship based on trust.
Dave Fuller, MBA, is an award-winning certified professional business coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Want a valuable conversation with Dave? Email dave@profityourselfhealthy.com
Trump dumps border closure, threatens auto tariffs
Citizen news service
Abandoning his threat to seal the southern border, U.S. President Donald Trump warned instead on Thursday that he’d slap tariffs on cars coming to the U.S. from Mexico unless the country does more to stop the flow of migrants and drugs coming to the U.S.
In his latest walk-back in recent days, Trump told reporters he would try the “less drastic measure” before resorting to his standing threat.
“Mexico understands that we’re going to close the border or I’m going to tariff the cars. I’ll do one or the other, and probably settle for the tariffs,” Trump said at the White House.
It was a dramatic departure for Trump, who last week tweeted that he would close the border or large swaths of it this week unless Mexico immediately halted “ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States.”
Trump said at the time that he was “not kidding around,” and his acting chief of staff
“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.” — Mark Twain Call 250-562-2441
Mick Mulvaney said that it would take “something dramatic” for Trump not to close down the crossings.
Since then, however, White House advisers, American leaders in border cities and U.S. economists have warned that such a move would have enormous economic consequences on both sides of the border, interrupting supply chains and boosting U.S. consumer prices on everything from avocadoes to autos.
The U.S. and Mexico trade about $1.7 billion in goods daily, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which had said closing the border would be “an unmitigated economic debacle” that would threaten five million American jobs.
In recent days, Trump has appeared to put his threat on hold, praising the Mexican government for doing more to apprehend migrants travelling through the country from Central America.
On Thursday, Trump also threatened tariffs if Mexico doesn’t halt the flow of illegal drugs across the border, saying he’d give the coun-
try “a one year warning” to comply.
Separately on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats would file a lawsuit aimed at preventing Trump from “stealing” billions from federal programs and diverting the money to building barriers along the border.
Trump declared a national emergency so he could use more money to construct the wall he’s promised since his presidential campaign.
Congress voted to block the emergency declaration, but Trump vetoed that measure. Trump has been increasingly exasperated by the swelling numbers of migrants entering the U.S., including thousands who have being released after arriving because border officials have no space for them.
Arrests along the southern border have skyrocketed in recent months and border agents were on track to make 100,000 arrests or denials of entry in March, a 12-year high. More than half of those are families with children, who require extra care.
Mohinder Kaur Sandhu passed away peacefully on March 28, 2019 at the age of 89. Survived by her loving daughters, Balwinder (Pritam) Chahal and Manjit (Rajvir) Mann and son Skattar (Rajwant) Sandhu. Mohinder was also survived by her 11 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.
Predeceased by her husband, Jagir Singh Sandhu. Funeral service will be held on Saturday, April 6, 2019 at 10am at Assman’s Funeral Chapel. Prayer service to follow funeral service at Gurudwara
On March 24, 2019 Bob Townsley (born in Coal Creek, BC August 30, 1932), passed away quietly in his sleep. Immediately after his passing, Lucy Townsley (born in Marynin, Poland February 18, 1937) began to decline and 15 hours later she joined her love in Heaven.
This is Bob and Lucy Townsley’s love story; Bob was the rebel son of a fallen Canadian soldier and a very young mother ill-equipped to cope with the needs of her 3 kids. Lucy, the daughter of an immigrated German coal miner and a stay at home housewife. Many times she refused his advances, until one day she just didn’t. The world was a different place back then and both families had reservations about the pairing. But love persisted and continued to grow. They married in May of 1955. Bob and Lucy lived life the way they chose, surrounded by family and full of love. Although this is tragic and the most monumental loss, this is the story Bob and Lucy wanted; a love so pure and strong that not even death can keep them apart. They leave behind a grieving family but we take comfort in the knowledge that they remain together and are no longer in pain.
There was nothing they would not do for their family. Kind hearted people who helped out anyone whenever they could. We grew up in a house full of singing and happiness. Where a quick snack was a sugar bunny, breakfast was a bowl of coco mush, and there was always homemade bread. All seemed to be welcome in their home and their home was constantly full of kids. To some they will be remembered as hero’s, always there to catch any one of us if we fell.
Six and a half decades later; predeceased by their parents Francis and Molly, Ferdinand and Wanda, and by their siblings Bill, Ruth, Gerda, and Anita, they are survived by Lucy’s sister Rose, and all of their descendants. Bob and Lucy were great parents to 5 children, amazing grandparents to 11 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
After all these years they still held hands and Bob still told Lucy how beautiful she was. Bob and Lucy showed us all how strong their love still was. Like Bob has been saying for 30 years; “When the time comes Lucy… let me go first”. And she did.
Bob and Lucy requested no service and wished their bodies to be donated to science. The family will grieve privately.
Dome Ave, Cascade Ave, Delta Pl, Jackpine, Quentin Ave. •
Lower College Heights
O’Grady Rd and Park, Brock, Selkirk, Oxford, Simon Fraser,Trent, Fairmont, Guelph, Gladstone,Hartford, Harvard, Imperial, Kingsley,
Brebeuf Cres, Loyola, Latrobe, LeicesterPl, Princeton Cres, Prince Edward Cres, Newcastle, Melbourne, Loedel,
Pl, Lancas-
Hough
Guerrier
• • Upper College Heights • St Barbara, St Bernadette, Southridge, St Anne Ave, Bernard, St Clare St, St Gerald Pl, Creekside, Stillwater. • • KGV Area
Wainwright St, Burden St, Irwin, Harper, 1st,
Sahib Guru Nanak Darbar.
