CITIZEN
The intersection of Queensway and Patricia Boulevard is scheduled to reopen on today. This week, crews have been working to repave and install lighting and electrical work at the intersection, which has been closed to traffic since Nov. 7 to allow for the installation of a sewer line along Patricia.
Citizen staff
The intersection of Queensway and Patricia Boulevard is scheduled to reopen today, the city says.
The stretch has been closed since Nov. 7 to allow a sewer line to be installed along Patricia.
Kim BOLAN Vancouver Sun
The vice-president of the union that represents B.C. prison guards says his members followed policy the day an inmate died in the back of a corrections van.
Dean Purdy of the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union said in a memo to his members that a government review has already determined that “no discipline is required” in the death of Alex Joseph.
Alex Joseph, 36, died of a suspected drug overdose Oct. 4 as he and other inmates were being driven from Prince George to Maple Ridge in the back of a B.C. Corrections vehicle.
Others in the van told Postmedia that they tried for more than an hour to get the correctional officers to stop and help Joseph by shouting and pounding on the walls. The van finally pulled over north of 100 Mile House, but by then Joseph was dead.
Postmedia reached out to Purdy for comment at the time of the original stories last month, but he didn’t respond.
ical, emotional and professional aftermath of the incident.”
“I can tell you that, at this point, the employer’s initial review has revealed that both (correctional officers) involved followed policy and protocol and as such, no discipline is required. This is good news and I will keep you posted if any other relevant findings emerge,” Purdy said.
“There will continue to be minor traffic interruptions on Patricia for the next few weeks while work continues at the site,” the city said. The line, which extends along Lower Patricia to London Street, is now complete except for operations to tie the new line into the existing downtown sewer main.
This work will require further excavation on Seventh Avenue near city hall and will be done when weather permits in the spring.
The east shoulder of Queensway has been temporarily paved to serve as a walkway connecting two sections of sidewalk. It will be replaced with a curb and sidewalk in 2019.
Two other walkways – one connecting Patricia Boulevard to Queensway and another running along the base of Connaught Hill –will be open, but will not be paved until the spring.
The new line was put in because the old one, which serves the downtown and industrial area east of Queensway, is at capacity. It’s also part of a larger project to upgrade aging infrastructure in the vicinity of city hall that is at capacity or at high risk of failure.
He said in his memo, obtained by Postmedia, that he understands that his members are frustrated “at the tone and content of the media coverage of this event.”
“I understand and share your frustration,” Purdy said. “It’s difficult to see our profession getting publicly criticized.”
He also said he supports the two members involved and offered his “commitment to making sure they have access to all the resources and supports they need to deal with the psycholog-
But B.C. Corrections said in a statement Wednesday that its investigation has not been completed and no determinations have yet been made.
“B.C. Corrections is treating this incident very seriously and conducting a critical incident review,” spokeswoman Cindy Rose said in the statement. “However, that process is not yet complete. As such, it would be premature to speculate on whether or not policy and procedures were followed, or whether any discipline may or may not be appropriate.”
— see ‘THE OFFICERS, page 3
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Some plays can run hot and cold, but Menopause The Musical is only full steam ahead. It comes in a flash to Prince George this spring, and tickets are on sale today.
Menopause The Musical is the raucous surge of R&B music and modern jokes about that age-old feminine reality. It’s billed as a “hilarious celebration of women and the change.”
Producers for the all-Canadian tour of this international hit play describe the story as one everyone – even men – will love to the core. It has slapstick antics, kick-ass singing and even a bra fight to help tell this everywoman story.
“Four women at a lingerie sale have nothing in common but a black lace bra and memory loss, hot flashes, night sweats, not enough sex, too much sex and more,”
said the presenters. “This hilarious musical parody set to classic tunes from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s will have you cheering and dancing in the aisles. See what millions of women worldwide have been laughing about for over 16 years.”
It has been seen all over Canada as well as around the world, but it has never come before to Prince George.
The play will get your knickers in a knot in the best ways possible, during two shows at Vanier Hall, presented by the Prince George Citizen, on May 4.
“These women form a sisterhood and a unique bond with the audience as they rejoice in celebrating that menopause is not ‘The Silent Passage’ anymore,” said show producers.
Tickets are $49.50, $59.50, and $69.50 (plus local service charges) at the TicketsNorth website or at the CN Centre box office. You can also charge by phone 1-888293-6613. Sales begin today at 10 a.m.
‘The officers would have seen Mr. Joseph unconscious...”
— from page 1
She said that when “the review is complete, B.C. Corrections will be able to confirm more details, but will not comment on personnel matters.”
The B.C. Coroners Service is also conducting an investigation into Joseph’s death, as is the RCMP.
Coroners Service media official Andy Watson said Wednesday that their investigation is ongoing and no decision has yet been made about whether to hold an inquest in Joseph’s death.
The RCMP’s North District major crime section has not yet completed its investigation, said Dawn Roberts, director of B.C. communications for the RCMP.
“It is still active and underway. We are waiting for a number of reports,” she said. Joseph, who came from near Fort St. James, had battled addiction for years and
had been in and out of jail. At the time of his death, he was in pretrial custody on a number of charges, including assault causing bodily harm and uttering threats.
Jen Metcalfe, executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services, said it would be “shocking” if B.C. Corrections found no reason for disciplinary action in Joseph’s death.
“I understand that prisoners are under camera surveillance in transport vans, so the officers would have seen Mr. Joseph unconscious and in need of immediate medical assistance,” Metcalfe said. “Even if there were no cameras for some reason, the officers surely would have heard the cries for help and banging of the other prisoners in the van.”
She said she hopes the death would lead to policy changes “so that anyone who puts prisoners’ lives in jeopardy is not permitted to work with this vulnerable population.”
Citizen staff
A new special prosecutor has been assigned to the Luke Strimbold case. Richard Peck, a senior Vancouver lawyer in private practice, will take over the job, the B.C. Prosecution Service said today. He will replace Leonard Doust, who has withdrawn for personal reasons, BCPS said.
Doust, also from Vancouver, took over the case in March because Strimbold was a former mayor and had connections to the B.C. Liberal Party. Strimbold faces 29 sex-related charges
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Avalanche Canada hopes to parlay a portion of a recently-announced $25-million endowment from the federal government into improved monitoring in the North Rockies.
Top priority will be given to shoring up and stabilizing the organization’s current programs, executive director Gilles Valade said in an interview, but the region tops the list of areas Avalanche Canada has eyed for expansion.
“We know that one is in need of our services,” he said.
“It’s been underserved and there’s been incidents and fatalities, so it is a proven need, more than just usage. The only reason we haven’t done as much as we’d like to so far is just because we haven’t had the capacity in terms of financial resources.”
The goal will be to deploy a full-time field team that would provide a regular regional forecast, similar to what is in place for the South Rockies.
As it stands, Avalanche Canada relies largely on backcountry enthusiasts and the handful of commercial operators in the region to collect data for a weekly conditions report.
It has also established weather stations and field teams visit the area four or five times per winter.
“We’ve done as much as we can with what we have,” Valade said.
Plenty of details still need to be worked out before anything gets going.
“We’re not sure if it’s supposed to last forever or if it’s 10-year renewal or a five-
A popular party band in Prince George will be performing a free downtown concert on Friday night.
Bralorne is in the Friday Night Mics spotlight at Books & Company. Organizers called them a “fan favourite” for their cafe regulars “featuring Mike Smith and Mike Vigano on guitar, Tom Habchi on bass, Brad Martin on drums, and all four on vocals.”
Bralorne, named for the quaint and rural B.C. town, is a mix of classic rock favourites, Chicago blues stylings and all original material. The concert will be held in the Café Voltaire section of the bookstore, as are all Friday Night Mics shows. There is no charge to attend and all ages are welcome.
If you miss Bralorne on Friday, they are also scheduled to perform at Moxie’s Grill on Jan. 12 then at Nelly’s Pub on Jan. 18.
College of New Caledonia is hosting a public engagement session today for the new Vanderhoof campus. It will be held at
year which will dictate a lot of what we can do with the money obviously,” Valade said.
There is also a chance a portion of the money will only be released if the provincial government provides matching funds, he added. Valade said he is seeking a meeting with B.C.’s Public Safety Minister to that end and noted 80 per cent of avalanche fatalities have occurred in this province.
“Hopefully the province will step in because certainly they need to up their funding level and also its predictability and sustainability because it’s mostly yearly grants and asks right now,” he said.
“In North Rockies the last thing we want to do is one year we get something and then we can’t do it in a sustained way which is worse than not starting anything, if you ask me.”
The endowment was announced as part of the federal Liberals’ economic update but the earliest Valade expects to see any of the money is at the end of the government’s 2018-19 fiscal year on March 31.
There have been no avalanche deaths in the region in the last two years.
But in January 2016, 41-year-old Angelo Kenneth Carpino of Prince George was killed in an avalanche while snowmobiling in the Evanoff Provincial Park, about 120 km east of the city.
Less than a week later, five snowmobilers from Alberta were killed in an avalanche in the Renshaw area near McBride. And in December 2016, an Edmonton man was killed while snowmobiling in the Morning Glory Bowl in the Clemina Creek snowmobiling area southeast of Valemount.
139 First St., the CNC building in the community, starting at 5 p.m.
It will featured a presentation from CNC, breakout sessions to collect feedback and a question and answer period. CNC president Henry Reiser, CNC Nechako regional principal Troy Morin, facility services associate director Theo Mushumanski and members of CNC’s leadership team are to attend.
Amnesty International Prince George will be hosting a Write for Rights event on Monday evening. It’s set for Artspace, above Books and Company at 1685 Third Ave., from 6:30 to 9 p.m. It is part of a worldwide letter-writing campaign in the name of standing up for human rights. It will also feature a candlelighting ceremony and a choir from Harwin Elementary School.
Last year, more than five million messages were sent to world leaders demanding human rights progress. This year, activists are aiming to replicate that success, focussing on 10 cases in 10 countries and all focussed women human rights defenders. More information is available at writeathon.ca.
involving six people all under the age of 16 at the time of the alleged incidents. None of the allegations has been proven against Strimbold. The BCPS said the matter has been adjourned to allow Peck to complete an independent assessment of the current charges.
“We cannot speculate on the time it will take to complete the independent assessment or whether the process will be delayed any further,” BCPS communications counsel Daniel McLaughlin said. Strimbold remains scheduled to appear in Smithers Supreme Court on Dec. 21 to fix a date for trial.
VANCOUVER
— The Justice Department says
the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, who is sought for extradition by the United States, has been arrested in Vancouver.
Justice Department spokesman Ian McLeod says in an email that Wanzhou Meng was arrested Saturday.
A clerk at the B.C. Supreme Court said Meng appeared in court on Wednesday and a bail hearing is scheduled for Friday.
McLeod says further details cannot be provided on the case because a publication ban is in effect at Meng’s request.
In a statement, Huawei says Meng is being sought for extradition to face unspecified charges in the Eastern District of New York.
It says she was arrested when she was transferring flights in Canada.
“The company has been provided very little information regarding the charges and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng,” the statement says.
“The company believes the Canadian and U.S. legal systems will ultimately reach a just conclusion.”
The U.S. Justice Department could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that U.S. authorities were investigating whether Huawei violated sanctions on Iran.
Huawei says the company complies with all laws and regulations in the countries where it operates, including applicable export control, sanction laws and regulations of the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.
The company’s website also lists Meng as its deputy chairwoman and The Associated Press reports that she is the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei.
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
On the anniversary of the day the actual Million Dollar Quartet meeting occurred in Memphis in 1956, Theatre Northwest was celebrating the same way Sun Records staff must have back in those halcyon days.
On Tuesday, TNW’s artistic director Jack Grinhaus was surveying the golden talent bursting forth from his stage the way legendary rock ‘n’ roll impresario Sam Phillips must have been beaming about the gold records spinning on his platters during those first years of rock ‘n’ roll.
Grinhaus and TNW are closing in on an attendance record that looks certain to fall if current ticket sales continue for Million Dollar Quartet, the play that is a hit with local audiences like none other.
“Something about it hit a note with this audience,” he said on the anniversary day. “The original record was set back in the days of Ted Price (founding artistic director) when he did All Shook Up, then Samantha (MacDonald, TNW’s previous artistic director) did The Buddy Holly Story and broke that record. And
now this one looks like it’ll set a new mark and it is Million Dollar Quartet. There’s a pattern here, and part of it is the ability of the play to cross all the diversities of background. Young, old, different ethnicities and different socioeconomic backgrounds – everyone is coming and everyone is loving it.”
They are coming more than once, in many cases. Grinhaus has never detected so many fans coming back for multiple viewings of a TNW play.
Another rare condition underway with Million Dollar Quartet is the camaraderie of the cast and crew. Grinhaus said it is common for the creative team to become quite close during the run of a play, sometimes making valued friends for life, but in this case the mood is particularly light and the bonds tightened by all the music involved. It must, he speculated, be somewhat how it was when these four stars – Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Karl Perkins – got together to jam back on that December day in Memphis in 1956.
“I love that this company is having so much fun with it,” he said. “You can tell, from the audience reactions, that this cast is having an unbelievable time together. That translates. Even during
their off-times they are jamming, just playing songs and singing with each other. I’ve never seen an exchange of energy that is so palpable between a cast and an audience. You can literally see the exchange going on, and there is a very physical reason why: because in our theatre the audience is so close to the stage, the way our stage is configured with out seats. It’s a closer relationship. When this play gets performed in a standard soft-seater, the physical arrangement is not as intimate.”
The play is now on at TNW until Dec. 20. It is not unprecedented for a play to be held over at the city’s one and only professional theatre company, but if projections carry on according to pattern, none of them will have sold as many overall tickets as this one.
Following Million Dollar Quartet, the next plays coming to the TNW stage this season include the Canadian classic heartwarming drama The Occupation Of Heather Rose (Feb. 7-24) and the lighthearted laugh-out-loud comedy Meet My Sister (Mar. 28-Apr. 17) which is a world premiere.
Those tickets are on sale now and represent solid local arts options for the Christmas stocking.
Derrick PENNER Vancouver Sun
The B.C. forest minister’s trade mission to Asia has become something of an annual tradition that, this year, has an air to it of battling back against tough markets that have crimped the province’s exports of forest products.
In past years, the event heralded B.C.’s breakthrough into the Chinese market, which rapidly took over as the province’s No. 2 export market after the U.S. for lumber.
This year however, as Forest Minister Doug Donaldson leads about 40 company executives, civil servants and Indigenous leaders on a 10-day sales trip to Korea, Japan and China, B.C. is in the fourth year of a slide in lumber sales to China.
That is a concern, Donaldson said, but the province recognizes that economic conditions have been tough in some of the places they are visiting, particularly in China, which is why their efforts will remain on selling higher-value products.
“Volumes to some of the coun-
tries we’ll be visiting are down this year to date,” Donaldson said.
“(But) the value is not down as much, so that shows we’re expanding into value-added areas.”
To the end of September, the volume of B.C. lumber sales to China was down 18 per cent to 3.4 million cubic metres, worth just over $703 million, which was 13 per cent less than the value for the same period of 2017, according to provincial trade statistics.
And for all of 2017, B.C.’s
lumber shipments to China fell eight per cent to 5.4 million cubic metres, though the value of those exports increased five per cent to almost $1.1 billion.
B.C.’s lumber sales to China peaked at 7.9 million cubic metres, worth just over $1 billion for the entire year.
B.C.’s total lumber exports to the end of September were down four per cent to 18.2 million cubic metres compared with 2017, although high lumber prices pushed the total value of those shipments up four per cent to just over $5 billion.
“The specific objective (of the trade mission) is to raise the volume of B.C. products ( being sold) into these jurisdictions,” Donaldson said. “Between Korea, Japan and China, that represents about $2 billion in export sales just last year.”
This year, thanks largely to a 17 per cent increase in the value of lumber exports to Japan, sales to the three countries as a region to the end of September are holding their own at just over $1.4 billion compared to the same period a year ago.
Donaldson said he is also encouraged by the mix of representatives on this year’s trade visit, which includes executives from smaller companies as well as the biggest forest-tenure holders and a doubling of representation from First Nations communities compared with the 2017 trade mission.
And B.C.’s sales pitch will key on elements of wood construction that are increasingly important to buyers in the destination countries, Donaldson said.
In South Korea, for instance, seismic upgrading of structures is an important topic in the construction sector, so B.C. representatives will talk about how wood products fit in with earthquake stability.
In China, Donaldson said, the country’s last five-year plan put a big emphasis on more environmentally friendly methods of construction, which B.C. can help with engineered wood products.
Amy SMART Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — The British Columbia government has introduced a strategy to shift away from fossil fuels and build the provincial economy around reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also leaves portions of the plan to be determined.
Premier John Horgan said Wednesday the plan called CleanBC will rely on cutting emissions from buildings, industries, vehicles and organic waste, while boosting the carbon tax and the production of clean hydroelectricity.
The plan will move the province to a low-carbon future, said Horgan, who introduced the plan with Green Leader Andrew Weaver.
“We want to make shifts: shifts in our homes, shifts in our vehicles, shifts in our industry to move away from burning fossil fuels and towards a cleaner, greener approach using British Columbia’s abundant electricity and other abundant opportunities that are now emerging and will emerge into the future,” Horgan said.
The climate-change plan will require all new buildings to be netzero energy ready by 2032, meaning they would need to generate on-site energy to power their own function. The government says new buildings will be 80 per cent more efficient by then compared with homes built now.
The plan also includes diverting 95 per cent of organic waste from landfills and converting it to other products.
By 2030, 30 per cent of all sales of new light-duty cars and trucks are expected to be zero-emission vehicles, rising to 100 per cent by 2040.
The plan also includes phasing in more renewable fuels to consumer gas products by ramping up new production of 650 million litres of renewable gasoline and diesel by 2030 and increasing the low carbon fuel standard by 20 per cent. That means gas at the pump could include a mix of biofuels and other cleaner fuel products, one official said.
Horgan said the challenges of climate change mean people must move away from burning fossil fuels.
“Every year, we’re seeing the unprecedented wildfires and floods that hurt so many people, communities and businesses,” he said in a statement. “We need to begin changing how we live, work and commute to put B.C. on a cleaner, more sustainable path.”
The cost of the plan will be outlined in next year’s budget, Horgan said, and officials said it will be fully funded.
The government has said the climate plan will be designed to meet legislated targets, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, 60 per cent by 2040 and 80 per cent by 2050. Overall, the plan aims to reduce B.C.’s dependency on fossil fuels by more than 20 per cent and increase its dependence on clean energy by 60 per cent by 2050.
When LNG Canada said in October it was proceeding with its plan to operate a $40 billion export terminal at Kitimat, Horgan said the government would still meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets. The plan says one of the conditions for liquefied natural gas development is that it fits in
the climate commitments, noting that the LNG Canada project could add to 3.45 megatonnes of carbon emissions to the province’s total.
“More reductions from LNG’s climate impact will be achieved through investments in electrification of upstream oil and gas production so extraction and processing are powered by electricity, instead of burning fossil fuels,” it says.
Weaver’s party has an agreement that supports the province’s minority NDP government and he shared the stage with Horgan in making the announcement.
“I look forward to working with government, business and other stakeholders to action this plan, so that British Columbians can count on a bright future where all our communities enjoy a thriving economy and a high quality of life for generations to come,” he said in a news release.
Horgan’s government already boosted the carbon tax in this year’s budget to $35 per tonne and will increase that by $5 a year until 2021. As the price rises, CleanBC will offer tax reduction incentives
to further reduce emissions, and a carbon tax exemption for any company that proves it’s the cleanest in its sector globally.
The switch to cleaner energy means increased biofuel consumption and a shift to hydro-generated electricity.
The government’s plan says by 2030, its new policies would require an additional 4,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity over the current demand.
“This is equivalent to increasing BC Hydro’s current system-wide capacity by about eight per cent, or about the demand of the city of Vancouver,” the plan says.
The added demand up to 2030 can be met by existing and planned projects, however, it will require new energy sources that could range from geothermal to wind power beyond that date.
Auditor general Carol Bellringer released a report on Wednesday that said Hydro’s generating facilities are running at near capacity and some of them are more than 85 years old. Her audit didn’t cover the $10.7 billion Site C dam project, which is under construction
on the Peace River in northeast B.C. and not slated for completion until 2024.
How the province will achieve one quarter of its emission reductions is still unclear. The government says the initiatives laid out in the plan combine to reduce the province’s emissions by 18.9 megatonnes, getting it 75 per cent of the way toward its 2030 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent of 2007 levels.
Strategies for achieving the remaining 6.1 megatonnes in reductions will be identified within the next two years, officials said.
Some environmental groups backed parts of the plan but questioned how the future liquefied natural gas industry fits into it.
“It’s one of the most important steps we’ve seen in years and yet we believe it doesn’t quite go far enough,” said Caitlyn Vernon of the Sierra Club BC. “We’re yet to be convinced how LNG and fracking will fit into this plan, how you square the circle of increasing emissions on one hand while on the other hand working to decrease emissions.”
Vernon said she’s looking forward to seeing the complete plan beyond 75 per cent. The speed of the plan’s commitments aren’t fast enough to meet what the science says is required to prevent excessive wildfires and other climate change effects, she added.
The B.C. Business Council said CleanBC begins to position the province and its businesses as a supplier of choice for international markets seeking lower-carbon intensive energy and commodities.
It also said there’s a need for greater understanding of the plan’s cost implications for both employers and individuals, but the council will work with the government to ensure policy solutions meet economic realities.
“By leveraging our low-carbon assets, including renewable hydro electricity, British Columbia can play an outsized role in reducing global climate impacts in highemission jurisdictions, while building a competitive and innovative economy for British Columbians and reducing emissions here at home,” president and CEO Greg D’Avignon said.
Since his death last Friday, the tributes have poured in from around the world for George Herbert Walker Bush, who will be laid to rest today in Texas, next to Barbara, his wife of 73 years, who died in April and their three-year-old daughter who died of leukemia in 1953.
Former prime minister Brian Mulroney delivered one of the eulogies during Bush’s funeral Wednesday, breaking down at one point while speaking about a friend he clearly looked up to, both as a man and as a leader.
The accomplishments and public service of the 41st president of the United States, both before he occupied the Oval Office – decorated veteran, CIA director, congressman, vice president – and afterwards – raising more than $1 billion for various charities, parachuting for his 90th birthday – are legendary.
Even his lesser-known acts speak to a man devoted to helping others, even at his own expense, as one Washington Post story noted. The 1992 White House Christmas party looked to be a grim affair, with Bush having lost his reelection bid to Bill Clinton the month before and a demoralized staff packing up their belongings before Clinton’s inauguration in January. Bush knew he needed to do something to lift everyone’s
spirits, so he swallowed his pride and called Dana Carvey, the Saturday Night Live performer who had impersonated Bush to devastating effect for years, and asked the comedian to appear as Bush at the party. When the band struck up Hail To The Chief, Carvey marched into the room in Bush character, greeted by howls of laughter from White House staffers. While Carvey took to the podium to wave his hands around, throw out some of those famous one-liners like “wouldn’t be prudent at this juncture” and inform the employees he had called down to the Secret Service as the president the night before, saying “feel like going jogging tonight. In the nude... fully unclothed,” Bush and his wife quietly entered the room and stood in the back, laughing with everyone else.
Before inviting Bush up, Carvey let everyone in on what his Bush impersonation was based on: “you start with Mr. Rogers, then you add a little John Wayne.”
In other words, a kind, gentle soul with a steel backbone who stands up for what is right.
In the past week, many others, not only those on both sides of the political divide, but from White House reporters who covered the Bush presidency, have cited similar qualities.
Bush’s funeral was much like John McCain’s earlier this fall – a sombre affair filled
with many laughs and fond memories of a decent man devoted to family and country.
The stark contrast between Bush and the current Oval Office occupant – the 45th president of the United States – is clear, yet the comparison should be greeted with optimism, rather than sadness at what’s been lost.
Two things are immediately obvious.
First, Trump – the man and the president – is a historical oddity while Bush – the man and the president – is the historical norm. There have been bad American presidents before but they are vastly outnumbered by the good ones from both political parties.
Trump was not asked to speak at Bush’s funeral Wednesday. It’s more than mere coincidence that the last sitting American president not invited to eulogize a former president upon his passing, regardless of their political stripes, was Richard Nixon, the last truly awful president.
Second, bad presidents make Americans realize they deserve better. In 1932, they fled from Herbert Hoover’s cold response to the Depression and flocked to Franklin Roosevelt, a man who projected both resilience and strength from his wheelchair and was arguably the greatest president of the 20th century. After the lawlessness of Nixon, American embraced the decency of Gerald Ford, the common man in Jimmy Carter and then the boundless optimism of
As heads of the world’s leading economies gathered in Buenos Aires for the Group of 20 summit last week, one of their key areas of focus was the future of work, with a particular emphasis on training and skills in the digital era. It is no wonder that the issue is top of mind. Reports of jobs being automated because of advances in robotics and artificial intelligence are commonplace. Estimates range from less than five per cent of current jobs being automated all the way up to 47 per cent of existing U.S. jobs being obsolete within possibly the next 10 to 20 years. Though nobody knows what will happen and when, signals of digital disruption are everywhere. General Motors just announced it will close five North American plants within a year, eliminating up to 14,000 jobs, as part of a renewed focus on electric and autonomous vehicle technology. The automaker’s decision has been met with outrage by politicians and union leaders in Canada and the United States, outrage fueled by the realization that government bailouts of the company in 2008-2009 did not yield more goodwill.
Uncertainty about the future makes it easy to rely on the status quo – we don’t expect people to sprint headlong onto a foggy field, but to move cautiously as their next step becomes clearer. But this slow incrementalism risks ignoring the many individu-
als today who are ill-served by outdated social support systems.
Both Canada and the United States are laggards when it comes to public investment in adult job seekers. U.S. spending on labour market programs as a percentage of gross domestic product, which includes training, unemployment benefits and hiring subsidies, is second-lowest among 34 advanced economies in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (0.27 per cent in 2016, which is one-tenth as much proportionally as countries such as Finland), while Canada ranks 17th (at 0.90 per cent). But providing people the right skills isn’t just a question of more funding. Many publicly funded job retraining initiatives are ineffective and were designed in a different, less tumultuous time.
Approaches from abroad demonstrate some potential ideas for more effective skills-training supports. Denmark’s flexicurity model allows firms to fire and hire workers easily – about 25 per cent of private-sector employees change jobs annually. But this rapid movement in and out of jobs, which is likely to be a key characteristic of tomorrow’s labour market, is supported by high levels of investment in skills-training and unemployment benefits (which can last for up to two years and replace 90 per cent
of income). Singapore recently introduced the SkillsFuture program, which provides lifelong learning supports to citizens on a digital platform, integrated training supports and individualized funds for skills development. A path forward for policymakers in other advanced economies would be to develop these types of integrated supports. Just as important, a rigorous approach to evaluating and scaling up interventions that are proved successful must lie at the core of any new training system, ideally with centralized evidence gathering and sharing of best practices coordinated by an institution such as the soon-to-be-launched Canadian Future Skills Centre. With more than a trillion dollars a year spent in the U.S. education and training system by employers, postsecondary institutions and government, the need to ensure new and existing investments are delivering strong returns and providing workers with the right skills is crucial.
The very real challenges facing the GM workers could soon be felt by people in many other sectors at risk of disruption. Uncertainty about the precise trajectory of the future of work shouldn’t preclude policymakers from taking decisive action now to support workers and job seekers. Inaction or delay will leave too many people struggling to keep up as the pace of technological change continues to accelerate.
– Sunil Johal is the policy director at the University of Toronto’s Mowat Centre.
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Ronald Reagan. It was Reagan and Bush that saved the Republican Party in Nixon’s wake. Bush was so loved and respected that Reagan chose him as his running mate against Carter in the 1980 election, despite the fact Bush challenged Reagan in a hard-fought battle for the Republican nomination. In modern terms, the equivalent would have been Trump wanting to mend fences with the Republican Party by picking Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz to be his vice president, instead of the obsequiously unctuous Mike Pence.
Like Nixon, Trump is now in a legal quagmire from which there is no escape via angry tweets, boastful rallies or the firing of longtime supporters. Nixon also tried the “you’re fired” route and it still didn’t save his presidency or his legacy. History appears to be repeating itself.
As recently as last year, Trump mocked Bush’s famous “thousand points of light” phrase to describe the willingness of Americans to give of their time, energy and money in the support of one another. It is Bush’s spirit, not Trump’s, that inspires today’s and tomorrow’s citizens, in the United States and around the world, towards working towards a a greater good for everyone, not just the people who say they like you. The choice is plain: be one of the points of light or be part of the darkness.
— Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
n the first day of 2019, the province of Ontario will celebrate the second anniversary of the implementation of the Health Menu Choices Act.
The legislation, designed and enacted by the provincial Liberal government, compels all foodservice chains that have at least 20 locations in the province to post the number of calories in all food and drink items they sell.
At the time, Ontario’s nutritional guidelines for restaurants, fast-food outlets and coffee shops were criticized by some, who saw the display of caloric information on menus as another example of a “nanny state.”
Centre-right politicians and commentators in the province were astounded at the thought of a provincial government meddling in the meal choices of residents.
Current Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who supplanted Liberal Kathleen Wynne after this year’s provincial election, is currently preoccupied with more pressing concerns, such as the future of the auto industry and his opposition to a federal carbon tax. Within this backdrop, the now-governing Progressive Conservative Party has not signalled any intention to do away with the Health Menu Choices Act.
Other parts of Canada have inadvertently benefited from the fact that many billboards and menus are designed for the country’s most populous province. Other jurisdictions do not have legislation as stringent as Ontario’s when it comes to informing the public about calories. Still, western provinces have ended up relying on the same displays that Ontarians have, complete with information that was nowhere to be found two years ago.
In British Columbia, the Informed Dining program was designed to provide restaurant guests with nutrition information on their menus, with an emphasis on calories and sodium. The program launched in 2012 – under the previous BC Liberal administration – and currently boasts more than 1,900 different food-service outlets. While impressive, the list does not include every restaurant. British Columbia’s program, unlike Ontario’s, is voluntary.
When Research Co. asked Brit-
ish Columbians if it is time for the province to follow Ontario’s lead and make calorie displays in restaurants mandatory, four in five residents (81 per cent) supported the idea.
There is little indication that this change, if implemented, will be regarded as a “nanny state” move: overwhelming majorities of British Columbians of all genders, ages, regions and political leanings believe this is the right course of action.
British Columbia has traditionally been one of the healthiest provinces in Canada. In its latest update related to countrywide physical activity, Statistics Canada reported that 64.9 per cent of all residents of British Columbia over the age of 12 had exercised for at least 150 minutes every week. This is a significant positive deviation from the Canadian average of 57.4 per cent.
In the survey, we also found out that two in five British Columbians (41 per cent) currently use an activity tracker. These devices can monitor specific fitness-related metrics, including distance walked, amount of exercise and/ or calorie consumption. Activity trackers are decidedly more popular in Metro Vancouver (47 per cent), among those aged 18 to 34 (also 47 per cent) and among women (45 per cent).
With a sizable proportion of British Columbians currently relying on activity trackers, it makes sense to find a way to bring the Informed Dining program to as many restaurants as possible. Four in five residents have no problem seeing this information everywhere, especially if their occupation makes them more prone to eat out.
Yes, it can be quite daunting to figure out that your favourite meal or drink will set you back hundreds – or even thousands – of calories. But there are many British Columbians who are already making the most of technology to try to lead healthier lifestyles. Having more information at their disposal can only help.
– Mario Canseco is the president of Research Co. and writes a regular column for Glacier Media newspapers.
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After years of drug addiction and homelessness, Kenny Sawyer found himself staring at a job application at Hypertherm, a New Hampshire company that makes industrial cutting tools. He was sober at last. He really wanted this job. But the application asked whether he had been convicted of any felonies.
Sawyer hadn’t. But he decided later that the company would want to know he had been jailed for misdemeanor assault after a fight over a crack purchase years earlier. He called to volunteer that information, well aware that a scrape with the law could cost him the opportunity.
“When I called back, that could have been the end of the deal,” Sawyer said recently. “But it wasn’t.”
Sawyer was hired in 2010 and still works at Hypertherm.
The company is one of 70 employers in the state that are casting themselves as “recovery friendly,” a wide-ranging term that signifies a new approach to the millions of people whose lives have been interrupted by drug and alcohol addiction.
These workplaces are willing to overlook employment gaps and some brushes with police that accompany drug use. They encourage open discussion of addiction in the workplace to reduce stigma. Perhaps most significantly, they treat substance abuse and relapse as medical issues like surgery or maternity – a time for the company to support, not abandon, the employee.
Hypertherm also pays its workers to volunteer at community organizations in New Hampshire, one of the states hit hardest by the nation’s opioid crisis, and to train as recovery coaches. It teaches employees and community members how to use naloxone, the antidote for opioid overdoses.
“We’re here. We understand,” said Jenny Levy, Hypertherm’s vice president of people, community and environment.
“If you’re seeking recovery, we’re here for you.” Research has shown that working helps people overcome substance abuse and stay sober. It provides income and health benefits, of course, but it also can instill meaning and purpose in their lives, which are powerful incentives to stay off drugs.
In some cases, work also provides the sense of being part of a team. It can make former users feel like they are shedding their roles as outcasts and rejoining their communities.
“One of the most important things that people in recovery talk about is how it feels, with their self-worth and identity, getting employed again,” said David Mara, New Hampshire’s drug czar.
“There’s not a whole lot of pride that goes into being a user,” Sawyer said.
About 22 million Americans are in recovery, according to federal data. But with a near-record-low unemployment rate of 3.7 per cent in the United States, 9.2 per cent of people in recovery are jobless involuntarily, according to a 2017 study by the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital.
In New Hampshire, where an estimated 60,000 people are in recovery, the 2.7 per cent unemployment rate is even lower than the national figure. The state had the nation’s third-highest rate of drug overdose deaths in 2016, the
most recent year for which final statistics are available.
For some companies, it makes business sense to hire and retain people who have abused drugs rather than seek new workers from a labour pool that shallow, Mara said.
Kevin Flynn, director of communications and public policy for New Hampshire’s Business and Industry Association, said the state’s drug problem comes up quickly at any private-sector discussion of the tight labor market. Employers recognize that they can serve their own needs and help people in recovery by hiring and retaining people with substance abuse histories, he said.
“Most thoughtful business leaders want to do the right thing by their employees when it comes to addiction, and to (addiction in) their families,” he said.
The idea for the state’s experiment with recovery-friendly workplaces began years earlier, when now-Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, ran a ski resort where he had a difficult time finding qualified workers, Mara said.
One developed a substance abuse problem, and Sununu helped him find treatment. When Sununu was elected in 2016, he proposed the idea of having private businesses help battle the state’s opioid crisis, Mara said.
There is no good data on whether former substance abusers make more reliable workers or perform better at their jobs than other employees, according to the Recovery Research Institute. But employers, researchers and government officials suggested that successfully helping an employee with a substance abuse problem breeds allegiance to the company.
Employees “who are supported through their recovery are incredibly loyal,” Levy said. “They make great workers.”
That doesn’t mean the approach always works. Hypertherm, an employee-owned company that started its recovery program in 2015, long before the New Hampshire initiative began this year, lost a relapsed employee to an overdose in 2017, despite its efforts to help.
One
— David Mara
“That person was in active recovery, open and honest,” said Matt McKenney, a workforce development manager at the company who has battled alcoholism. “Doing the right thing and sometimes making these efforts come with risk. We did not get the result we want.”
Some employers, such as banks, are prohibited from hiring people with convictions for certain crimes. Others may be reluctant to hire people with a substance abuse history for jobs such as operating heavy equipment that could endanger themselves or others.
At Hypertherm, employees who work in those areas but suffer relapses are put on light duty and monitored until the company is confident they can return to their old jobs.
Most addictive behavior begins before age 18, according to John Kelly, director of the Recovery Research Institute, which means that many people face gaps in their education as well as their work histories. Before an employer will hire anyone, the applicant has to acquire skills.
That need is sometimes met by organizations such as Anchor Recovery Community Center, a Rhode Island nonprofit that helps people in recovery begin the process of catching up. The approach is often to set up volunteer opportunities first, sometimes at one of Anchor’s three locations in Pawtucket, Warwick and Providence, R.I.
When people in recovery demonstrate that they can reliably keep to a work schedule, Anchor counselors help them look for jobs, go back to school or find training. The center keeps a database of recovery-friendly employers, and the state government is preparing to enroll businesses in a program like New Hampshire’s.
“Some people use the volunteer experience as a starting place,” said Deb Dettor, director of Anchor’s recovery support services.
“You have a structured way of dealing with other people where you’re expected to show up. You
can establish a work history, and then we can write a letter for you.” Recovery-friendly workplaces also try to pursue the larger goal of destigmatizing addiction, which many people still consider a moral failing. At Hypertherm and elsewhere, efforts are made to encourage employees to speak openly about substance abuse and the issues that surround it, if they are comfortable doing so. Tom Coderre, senior adviser on drug issues to Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, recalled the days when no one spoke about cancer at work. Later, it was HIV. Now, he said, addiction and mental illness are the taboos that must be broken.
“If an employee had a cold, they would have no problem calling in sick for work,” said Coderre, who is in recovery himself. “But if an employee had depression or anxiety or substance abuse, they would lie. They would tell the employer they had a cold.”
Craig TIMBERG, Elizabeth
DWOSKIN and Tony ROMM Citizen news service
A trove of emails and internal documents released by a British lawmaker on Wednesday illustrate how Facebook rose to dominance years ago by using people’s data as a bargaining chip, undermining the social media giant’s claim that changes to its business practices were motivated by a desire to protect people’s privacy.
The more than 250 pages of documents, which a British parliamentary committee recently obtained as part of a wide-ranging investigation into Facebook, revolve around a decision Facebook made in 2014 and 2015 to cut off developers’ access to posts, photos and other profile information from Facebook users. The internal com-
munications, some of them from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, appear to show Facebook trading access to user data in exchange for advertising buys and other concessions, which would contradict Facebook’s long-standing claim that it doesn’t sell people’s information.
“We’ve never sold anyone’s data,” Zuckerberg said in a post Wednesday. He added that the emails released by Damian Collins, the chairman of the British parliamentary committee, “were only part of our discussions.”
The records released by Collins are part of an ongoing federal court case in California brought by an app developer called Six4Three. Facebook said the Six4Three documents were misleadingly crafted and do not represent the company’s practices or policies.
The cutthroat tactics deployed by Facebook in its early years as a public company, and detailed in the newly released documents, caught up with the social media
giant this year. They are likely to fuel persistent claims that the company was cavalier with people’s personal information and set off even more concern among the public and lawmakers around the world that Facebook’s footprint is a risk to consumers and competitors alike.
A series of emails from October 2012 reveal Zuckerberg’s keen interest in figuring out how to extract revenue from Facebook’s trove of user data – and the app developers who relied on it.
“There’s a big question on where we get revenue from,” Zuckerberg wrote to one of his executives.
“Without limiting distribution or access to friends who use this app, I don’t think we have any way to get developers to pay us at all besides offering payments and ad networks,” he continued.
Zuckerberg’s private statements
appear to contradict a stance he had long maintained publicly, that app developers’ access was open and free.
Facebook said the 2015 decision to cut off developers’ access to people’s information was motivated by privacy concerns. But it also caused dozens of businesses, including Six4Three, to shut down, and it was a turning point in Facebook’s relationship with the startup community in Silicon Valley.
Collins’ interest in the sealed and heavily redacted documents springs from the British government’s inquiry into Facebook’s dealings with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which also benefited from the same access to user data. Facebook revealed earlier this year that Cambridge Analytica was able to obtain data on 87 million Facebook users.
Maybe it’s the places I’ve worked, and the adventurous spirit of those who live in the small towns of central B.C. and the Kootenays, but in my 28 years as a financial professional some repeated themes have crystalized.
These speak to the remarkable core qualities of those who have bucked the world-wide trend of mass urbanization, and headed toward quieter places in God’s Country to make their way.
Here are a few of my observations:
• Most of the financially-settled citizens of our region didn’t come from money, and very few of them wear their wealth on their shirtsleeves.
The pretentious pretend, but these are the real thing, and you probably couldn’t pick them out of a crowd.
• Their adult children may or may not have the same appreciation for their parents’ journey from rags to riches. The gift of that journey is dangerously out of reach to the next generation, precisely because of the success of the parents.
• Generosity toward the community is one of the natural outcomes of this.
Here is part two of my advice on support worthy causes:
Some tax incentives encourage Canadians to give charitably. A charitable gift to a registered charity produces a donation receipt for the fair market value of the donation, net of any benefit received, (for example, the cost of the meal at a charity dinner). You will probably then be able to claim a donation tax credit, in the year of the gift. Caveat: The amount of the donation tax credit cannot exceed 75 per cent of that year’s net income, except in the year of death and the year immediately preceding death, when the limit is 100 per cent. Donation credits can be carried forward for up to five years.
When a donation is made to a registered charity under your will, your executor may have some added flexibility in their use of the donation tax credit.
Some approaches offer immediate tax benefits, and others more long-term. Other more structured
giving options help fulfill your charitable intentions throughout your lifetime and even after death, with attractive tax benefits dripping along the way and accruing to your eventual estate. This is the stuff of legacy, and may be preferable to the less desirable legacy of “rags to riches to rags in three generations.”
For example, while donating cash is the most widespread and straightforward form of charitable giving, it’s also possible to donate non-cash gifts, including capital property, marketable securities, Don Cherry Bobble-heads, art and other collectibles, eco-gifts, private company shares or even life insurance policies. In particular, donating publicly listed securities may present a tax-efficient opportunity for some, as donors may benefit from the elimination of tax on any accrued capital gains, as well as the donation tax credit.
As mentioned above, there are options for making charitable bequests in your will, whether it’s a residual gift (a percentage of what is left of your estate after other gifts and debts have been paid), a specific gift (a fixed sum of funds), or a specific item of value (such as
art, antiques or jewelry). It’s also possible to make a gift on your death by naming a registered charity as the beneficiary of your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF), Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) or your life insurance policy. Leveraging an insurance policy is perhaps the most valuable way to give, at little or no extra cost to you. More on this in a later article. Those who may be interested in creating an ongoing endowment, or who wish to build a more personalized approach may want to consider either a private charitable foundation or a charitable gift/ donor-advised fund.
• Private Foundations: Generally speaking, private charitable foundations can work if you are willing to treat them more like a project than a purchase. These require passion, a greater time commitment and devotion of additional time and money.
• Donor-advised Funds: On the other hand, donor-advised funds will appeal to those who want to donate to a cause without the time and monetary commitments required for a private foundation. Given the wide range of options, your qualified tax advisor is an invaluable resource to help navigate through the restrictions, taxes, advantages and drawbacks of the
OTTAWA (CP) — These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Wednesday. Quotations in Canadian funds.
type of gift that feels right to you.
Planning your legacy
If you establish a charitable gift fund with a public foundation, you can recommend the criteria for grant-approval from your donated assets. Also, give some thought in advance as to how you want grants to be distributed if you were to become incapacitated or upon your passing, and this can be accomplished through completing a Legacy Intention Form or by writing a letter of intentions. This information can provide insight into your charitable intentions, including identifying specific grant recipients, programs or purposes. In general, it provides an opportunity to clearly state your overall charitable priorities and interests, and makes clear the fact that you will haunt them personally from the great beyond if they mess it up. More next week.
Mark Ryan is an investment advisor with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (member – Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and these are his views, and not those of RBC Dominion Securities. This article is for information purposes only. Please consult with a professional advisor before taking any action based on information in this article. See Ryan’s website at: http://dir. rbcinvestments.com/mark.ryan.
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index rebounded Wednesday on strong growth in the key energy sector, while the Canadian dollar fell to its lowest level in 18 months following the Bank of Canada’s decision not to change interest rates. The energy sector led by gaining 2.6 per cent on the day followed by materials and industrials, which together account for 40 per cent of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Health care fell more than six per cent on large decreases for cannabis producers Aphria Inc., Aurora Cannabis Inc. and Canopy Growth Corp. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 119.05 points to 15,182.64, partially making up for Tuesday’s 211-point drop. The market rose strongly in morning trading to reach a high of 15,253.77 on 180 million shares changing hands. Markets fell Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump indicated his affinity for tariffs. But excitement rose overnight after China said it was optimistic about a trade deal being worked out during the 90-day truce agreed to last weekend by the leaders of both countries, says Michael Currie, vice-president and investment adviser at TD Wealth.
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
In a showdown of two goalies who were teammates until last week, Prince George Spruce Kings puckstopper Logan Neaton had the last laugh. Neaton lost his shutout bid with 32 seconds left in the game, about 12 minutes after Vernon Vipers goalie Bradley Cooper, Neaton’s former Spruce Kings teammate, said goodbye to his. But that wasn’t what put a smile on Neaton’ face. It was the final score that did it. This one was close all the way through and the Spruce Kings left the ice at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena with a 2-1 victory. Kings winger Dustin Manz was the first shooter to strike. He took a carom off the end boards, a shot that came from pointman Liam Watson-Brawn, and with no Viper in his immediate proximity he had time to play with the puck before drifting a low wrister along the ice that found a sliver of net to the far side 7:22 into the third period. The Kings made it 2-0 with 1:12 left when Ben Brar took the puck off the side boards and from just south of his own ringette line while down on one knee he scored with a long slapper into the empty Vernon net. It looked like Neaton was well on his way
to his second BCHL shutout but the Vipers won a draw in the P.G. end and with 32 seconds left Teddy Wooding put a shot on net that trickled through the legs of Neaton. It was Brar’s sixth game-winning goal this season. He’s scored three of the four emptynet goals the Kings have in 2018-19.
Cooper, 19, was in his second BCHL season with the Spruce Kings until Nov. 27, when he was traded to the Vipers along with future considerations for 19-year-old winger Garrett Worth. Wednesday’s game marked his first start in a Vipers uniform.
“I had a lot of emotions coming into this game, I was a little nervous but confident at the same time,” said Cooper, a native of West Vancouver. “We battled hard and came up short. I wish I’d had that goal but it’s just the way to goes sometimes.
“It’s tough because that’s one I really wanted to win. Brar is the king of empty nets. It was overall a good game with tough battles and I think the boys were trying to fight for me to win that one especially.”
Cooper has grown quite accustomed to having donuts up on the scoreboard. In his first 23 games in the league with Kings he posted six shutouts, including his two goose eggs at RMCA this season against Coquitlam and Salmon Arm.
“It was nice coming back and being here,”
he said. “P.G’s close to home for me, I’ve lived my last year-and-a-half here and it was a cool experience playing here again, on the opposite side.”
The two-point victory moved the Spruce Kings (22-8-1-2) back to first overall in the 17-team BCHL. The Vipers (11-11-6-3) remained sixth in the Interior Division.
The game had added meaning because of what happened Wednesday afternoon in Chilliwack, where the Chiefs beat the Langley Rivermen 3-1 to vault one point ahead of the Spruce Kings. Chilliwack (23-9-0-0) hosts Powell River and Trail this weekend.
Neither team was able to score in the first 40 minutes. The Kings held the Vipers to six shots in the opening period but it was a much different story in the second period and the Kings were lucky to get out of it unscathed.
The Vipers made Neaton earn his keep in goal I that second period, pounding 15 shots at the 19-year-old from Michigan. They had good pressure in the Prince George end during their two power-play chances but the Kings made sure Neaton saw the shots coming at him and limited the Vipers’ second-shot opportunities.
The Vipers top liners, Connor Marritt, Jagger Williamson and Matt Kowalski, proved the most troublesome for the Kings
Prince George will be youth soccer central during the weekend of July 4-7. During those four days of early summer, close to 2,000 soccer players, officials and spectators are expected for the Les Sinnott Memorial boys provincial B Cup. Teams from the Prince George Youth Soccer Association teams will have a chance to showcase their talents on home fields if they qualify as zone champions.
“Hosting provincials in our community allows us the opportunity to showcase the fantastic facilities and amenities our city has to offer, but this is also a chance for our players to compete in front of their family and friends at an exceptional level,” said PGYSA president Kerrie Secor, in a prepared release.
“We have many qualified coaches, referees, and players in our area and are
We have many qualified coaches, referees, and players in our area and are looking forward to offering a great tournament...
— Kerrie Secor
looking forward to offering a great tournament and experience for all involved.”
According to Tourism Prince George and the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance’s Sport Tourism Economic Assessment Model (STEAM) estimate the event will spur $1.3 million in economic impact for the city, and more than $1.5M for the province.
The games will be played at Masich Place Stadium, Rotary Soccer Fields, and the Prince George Soccer Association Fields.
“We are very pleased to see that the newly redeveloped Masich Place Stadium played a strong role in the application to host the event,” said Mayor Lyn Hall. “Increasing sport tourism and sport development in our community is one of the primary reasons the city invested in this important piece of infrastructure and it is fantastic to see a return on our investment so quickly,”
Prince George last hosted the provincial B Cup in 2013.
The tournament is named after Sinnott, a former first vice-president of BC Soccer who moved to Canada in 1965 from his native Liverpool, England. Sinnott was a former chair of the Terrace Soccer Association, where he made his home at the time of his death of a heart attack in 2012.
the Sprit of Winter ringette tournament over the weekend in Langley.
Coached by Keith Sullivan, the doubleA Heat advanced to the gold medal game Sunday after tournament wins over West Kelowna (14-1) Port Coquitlam (5-2) and Richmond (8-1)
and they were guilty of making a lot more turnovers in the neutral zone than Kings’ fans have been accustomed to seeing. The Kings cranked up the intensity toward the end of the period and forced Cooper to make several difficult saves on closein tires near the net. Nolan Welsh had the best chance, following up on the rebound a long shot from Ben Poisson. Welsh dragged the puck across the crease and let go a high backhander but Cooper was ready for it.
LOOSE PUCKS: The same teams meet again in Vernon on Jan. 9…The Spruce Kings dressed two affiliated players. Defenceman Brendan Wang, 16, played his first BCHL game, called up from the Burnaby Winter Club midget prep team. The Kings were without three regulars on the blueline with Layton Ahac and Nick Bochen at the Canada West team tryouts for the World Junior A Hockey Challenge and Dylan Anhorn out with a concussion. John Herrington, a 16-year-old Cariboo Cougars major midget right winger, suited up for his second junior A game, filling in for injured winger Cory Cunningham (shoulder) and Worth (flu). The Vipers were missing defenceman Jack Judson and forward Alex Swetlikoff. Both will join Ahac on Canada West in the WJAHC tournament which starts Sunday in Bonnyville, Alta.
Ahac
Citizen staff
Layton Ahac has made the cut for Team Canada West and will not be available to the Prince George Spruce Kings for the next two weeks.
The 17-year-old Prince George Spruce Kings defenceman is among 14 B.C. Hockey League players who cracked the 22-player roster and will get a chance to defend the gold medal Canada West won last year at the World Junior A Hockey Challenge in Bonneville, Alta., Dec. 9-16. Ahac, a native of North Vancouver who has been recruited to play for Ohio State University next season, has 17 assists in 31 games for the Spruce Kings this season.
Two other Spruce Kings defencemen were invited to the team tryouts in Calgary which started Monday. Nick Bochen, 17, attended the camp but did not make the team. Dylan Anhorn, 19, was asked to attend the tryout but suffered a concussion in Saturday’s game against the Langley Rivermen at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena and is on the injured list.
Five players from the Victoria Grizzlies of the BCHL are on the Canada West roster, including forwards Alex Newhook, Alexander Campbell and Riley Hughes, and defencemen Jeremie Bucheler and Carter Berger.
The other BCHL’ers who made the team were: Forwards – Massimo Rizzo and Jim Silye (both Penticton Vees), Mathieu Gosselin (Merritt Centennials), Harrison Blaisdell (Chilliwack Chiefs), Ethan Leyh (Langley Rivermen), Alex Swetlikoff (Vernon Vipers); Defenceman – Mason Snell (Penticton).
Canada West beat the United States 5-1 last year in the championship game in Truro, N.S. The tournament has been reduced from its usual six-team format to five teams. Each team will play each other once in the round-robin tournament which includes Canada West, Canada East, the U.S., Czech Republic and Russia.
Kjell Kjemhus is heading back to Saskatchewan. The Prince George Cougars have traded the 17-year-old forward to the Moose Jaw Warriors for a seventh-round pick in the 2020 WHL bantam draft. In his second stint with the Cougars this season after he was brought back from junior A, Kjemhus, a five-foot-10, 187-pound native of Grande Prairie, Alta., had two assists and 14 penalty minutes in five games. In 28 games with the Cougars, dating back to January, when he arrived in a trade from the Regina Pats, Kjemhus had two goals and six points. He started the season in the BCHL with the Vernon Vipers and picked up one assist in 10 games. The Cougars roster is now down to 23 players –13 forwards, eight defencemen and two goalies. The Cats begin an extended roadtrip this weekend in Portland, Ore., where they’ll face the Winterhawks Friday and Saturday.
ESTEVAN, Sask. (CP) — Defending champion Jennifer Jones is right where she wants to be after the opening day of the Canada Cup.
The Winnipeg skip sits 2-0 after downing Darcy Robertson 9-7 in Wednesday’s evening draw after opening her tournament with a 7-5 win over Calgary’s Chelsea Carey (0-2) earlier in the day. Jones trailed by two heading into the final end, but scored three points to take the victory.
Robertson (1-1) had taken a 7-5 lead with a deuce in the eighth. Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., also moved to 2-0 with a 7-5 win over Ottawa’s Rachel Homan (1-1) in evening play, while Kerri Einarson toppled Allison Flaxey 7-6 in an all-Winnipeg matchup for her first win. They both sit 1-1. On the men’s side, Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher beat defending champion Reid Carruthers of Winnipeg 9-5, and Calgary’s Kevin Koe downed Regina’s Matthew Dunstone 9-6. Bottcher and Koe improved to 1-1 while Carruthers and Dunstone are winless at 0-2. Round-robin play continues Thursday.
Tom Cochrane to invest
HALIFAX (CP) — Singer-songwriter Tom Cochrane has been lined up as a potential investor in the newly named Atlantic Schooners, the group trying to land a CFL franchise for Halifax said Wednesday. A short statement from the ownership group said the Manitoba-born Cochrane, a multiple Juno Award winner, has been a longtime friend of Bruce Bowser, one of the group’s founding partners.
“Tom Cochrane, world-renowned musician and CFL fan, has confirmed his intention to invest in the Atlantic Schooners franchise,” the group said. The statement followed an earlier tweet by CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie.
A photo shows Ambrosie with his arms around Cochrane and Bowser with the caption: “With TWO members of the Atlantic Schooners ownership group.” However, attempts to reach Ambrosie for comment were rebuffed by the league office on Wednesday.
“The commissioner won’t comment on this matter,” a league spokesman said.
Although the CFL is yet to grant a conditional franchise to the ownership group, the drive to land a team cleared a major hurdle in October after Halifax Regional Council directed city staff to do a business case analysis of the group’s stadium.
Lori EWING Citizen news service
TORONTO — The Philadelphia 76ers might be a different team. But it was a similar result for the Toronto Raptors.
Kawhi Leonard scored 36 points to lift the league-leading Raptors to a 113-102 victory over Jimmy Butler and the newlook Sixers on Wednesday, Toronto’s 13th consecutive win over Philadelphia at home.
Jonas Valanciunas scored a seasonhigh 26 points, while Serge Ibaka had 18 for the Raptors (21-5).
Leonard connected on a season-high 5-for-6 from three-point range.
Butler had 38 points to lead Philly (179), while JJ Redick added 25.
The Raptors roared past Philly 129112 on Oct. 30 in Toronto, but less than two weeks later the Sixers upped the ante, acquiring Butler from Minnesota in a deal that drastically altered the Eastern Conference landscape.
“It’s very different,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said of his new-look team.
“But the fact is we haven’t won up here. It’s a combination of them being very good, and us sort of growing our program... I think the last game we played them, this year, this team, as it sits, is very different.”
The Sixers led for most of the first half, in part because of Toronto’s horrible shooting – going 3-for-12 from threepoint range – and looking lackadaisical on the defensive end.
The Raptors finally found some energy in the third quarter and took a 78-77 lead into the fourth. A 9-0 run put the Raptors up by nine points over their Eastern Conference rival, and when Valanciunas took a short pass from C.J. Miles and threw down a huge dunk, it put the Raptors up by 11 with 7:53 to play.
Leonard put an exclamation mark
Toronto Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard moves past Philadelphia 76ers forward Wilson Chandler during a game in Toronto on Wednesday.
on Toronto’s late-game surge when he grabbed a rebound and sprinted coast to coast to throw down a dunk. The emphatic play gave the Raptors a 15-point lead. Butler scored nine straight points for the Sixers, but it barely made a dent in the Raptors’ lead.
The Raptors beat the Sixers 28-12 on fast break points, and their bench outscored Philadelphia’s 41-18.
Earlier in the day, social media was buzzing about ESPN’s interview with Kyle Lowry, who didn’t beat around the bush about the DeMar DeRozan trade and his relationship with team president Masai Ujiri.
“I felt betrayed because he felt betrayed because that’s my guy. That’s my best friend,” Lowry said.
When asked about Ujiri, he said “He’s the president of the basketball operation and that’s it. For me, I come here and do my job.”
Ujiri laughed off the comment in an afternoon interview saying “Kyle Lowry is always mad at me.”
The night, dubbed “Mandela 100,” celebrated Nelson Mandela, who would have turned 100 this year. Former Raptors all-star Chris Bosh, Blue Jays legend Joe Carter, and former Chelsea star Didier Drogba were in attendance as part of the festivities and received a loud ovation.
The Raptors, who were coming off a 106-103 loss to Denver, were once again plagued by poor shooting. Leonard connected on Toronto’s only three-pointer in the first quarter, and the Sixers took an early nine-point lead.
The Raptors’ tough schedule continues through the next eight games, which are all against opponents with winning records. Toronto is in Brooklyn on Friday, then back home to host conference rival Milwaukee on Sunday.
Gregory STRONG Citizen news service
TORONTO — The off-season to-do list for Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins has a couple of glaring needs at the top as he prepares to head out to Las Vegas for next week’s baseball winter meetings.
Pitching and defence are two areas that Atkins would like to shore up as he plans for a 2019 regular season that could see a lot of young players get an opportunity.
The organization is well-stocked in the minor leagues but it’s unclear when that depth will bear fruit at the big-league level. A surplus of middle infielders throughout the team’s system could give Atkins some trade bait, or he could go the free-agent route to give his starting rotation a needed boost.
“What we’re trying not to do is put any firm timelines on anything,” Atkins said Wednesday. “Try to fine-tune the depth that we have. We feel so strongly about the position player group and wanting to complement that with pitching is a priority.”
At the moment, new skipper Charlie Montoyo has Aaron Sanchez and Marcus
Stroman as the key cogs in a rotation that could see Ryan Borucki slotted in at the No. 3 spot.
“Young controllable pitching is very difficult to acquire,” Atkins said at a luncheon with members of the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. “So we’re not going to easily and readily acquire more Borucki or Sean Reid-Foley types.
“I think adding at the free-agent level is more realistic and something that we’ll be looking to do.”
The Blue Jays are coming off another down year in the American League East. Toronto settled for a fourth-place finish in the division with a 73-89 record.
More pain is expected for at least a year or two. The good news for Blue Jays fans is that the organization’s top prospects could soon be ready for big-league action, with third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., at the top of the list.
Guerrero is expected to start the year with triple-A Buffalo before getting a callup a few weeks later, which would give the Blue Jays one more year of contract control. Atkins was asked Wednesday who he expected his starting third baseman to be on opening day.
“I think the most likely scenario would be (Brandon) Drury today but we’ll see,” he said. “We have a lot of off-season left.”
Another big question mark is at shortstop. Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and Richard Urena are in the mix and Troy Tulowitzki appears close to a return after heel surgery wiped out his season. Atkins said Tulowitzki, who has been working out with college players, is recovering well but it’s too early to say when he’ll be ready for big-league play.
“All of our reports are very positive,” he said. “So it’s really just a matter of getting him in the spring training environment.”
The winter meetings are set for Dec. 10-13 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino Resort. The BBWAA chapter also announced its annual award winners Wednesday. First baseman Justin Smoak was a unanimous pick as player of the year and left-hander J.A. Happ was named pitcher of the year.
Catcher Luke Maile took the most improved player nod and Borucki was named rookie of the year. Former manager John Gibbons was the winner of the John Cerutti Award for goodwill, co-operation and character.
least 3,800 years old, the termite empire in Brazil would cover one-quarter of B.C.
Citizen news service
In northeastern Brazil, in a forest so dry that the trees blanch bone-white, termites have been busy at work for millennia. The only external signs of their labour are dirt mounds, garbage dumps from their underground excavations. Dirt and garbage normally inspire as much awe as toenail clippings – but these are truly marvelous slag piles.
The conical mounds, about 2.5 metres tall and nine metres wide, erupt from the ground at regular intervals, spaced about 20 metres from each of six neighbours. From the air, the pattern evokes a checkerboard or the hexagonal combs in a beehive. A satellite map, via Google Earth, indicates the mounds cover more than 225,000 square kilometres. Put in context, that’s the roughly the same size as the federal riding of Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies, which covers the northeast corner of B.C., stretching from Prince George to the borders of the Yukon and Northwest Territories.
“Imagine it being a city,” said Stephen J. Martin, an entomologist and expert in social insects at Britain’s University of Salford. “We’ve never built a city that big.” And the centimetre-long termites, Syntermes dirus, did it grain by grain.
In total, the earth excavated by termites equals the volume of 4,000 Pyramids of Giza, as Martin and his co-authors report in a study published in the journal Current Biology. They collected samples from the centres of 11 mounds, and by measuring radiation in the mineral grains, determined the oldest mound tested is about 3,800 years old. Perhaps others are older. Based on satellite images and spot-checks across thousands of kilometres, the scientists estimate 200 million mounds dot the landscape. If the forest cover vanished, exposing the mounds in all their splendor, this place would be celebrated as a natural “wonder of the Earth,” Martin said.
Yet tucked under trees and thorny brush, the mounds can be hard to spot. Martin failed to notice them at first. He’d traveled to the Brazilian dry forest, called the caatinga, in pursuit of honeybees. Only after miles of driving, where the road sliced through the trees to reveal the mounds’ gumdrop shape, did he see them. These were termite mounds, the local residents told Martin. “No, that can’t be right – there’s too many of them,” he recalled thinking. Back in Britain, colleagues told him the mounds must be lake sediment or another geological feature.
The locals, of course, were correct, as
Martin found out when he returned. Miles from any major city, while walking near a swimming hole, the entomologist bumped into another biologist, named Roy Funch.
“He was walking up the river with a friend, and I was walking up the river to go swimming,” said Funch, a co-author on the new paper. Martin “looked like, obviously, an outsider,” so Funch, who also works as a tour guide, moseyed up, said hello and asked what brought Martin to Brazil. The termite mounds, Martin said, lamenting that nothing about them turned up in Google Scholar.
“I said, ‘Hey, you just met the only guy in Brazil who’s working on these mounds,’” Funch recalled. “So, you know, ‘serendipitous’ is putting it lightly.”
Funch had traveled to Brazil in the 1970s with the Peace Corps. The beautiful mountains and hiking trails persuaded him to settle in the country’s northeast, he said. He fell under the mounds’ spell, too. The tallest, which Funch calls “grandmother mounds,” reach four metres into the air.
(Not all of them are still active.)
“I don’t think anyone has ever seen such a modification of the landscape at such a huge scale by such tiny little creatures,” he said.
In the 1980s, Funch, who describes himself as a “backwoods scientist” but has a PhD in botany, wrote about the termite mounds for a popular science magazine. He hoped to catch other researchers’ attention. Nobody bit. Thirty years passed, and he decided to study them himself, until he teamed up with Martin.
These mounds, unlike the hives other termites build, are not nests or ventilation shafts. “We thought that the nests would be in the middle of the mounds,” Funch said. “They weren’t. They weren’t even under the mounds.”
A single large tunnel, about 10 centimetres in diameter, rises through the center of the mound. The termites deliver their waste and plug the tunnel at the top.
“No one has ever found the queens’ nests. We really don’t know what’s happening below the ground. Absolutely nothing,” Funch said.
The mounds make uncooperative subjects. Soldier termites emerge when researchers disturb the dirt. They’ll draw blood, Martin said. “They’ve got razor-sharp mandibles. They’ll slice straight through the skin,” he said. The nutrient-poor soil is a nightmare to dig up, baked hard as concrete in the heat.
One of the most important chemical reactions is combustion. It requires three things: a fuel, an oxidant and a source of ignition.
For a campfire, the fuel is the wood you are using, the oxidant is the oxygen in the air around us and the source of ignition is usually a match or lighter.
In the case of an automobile engine, the fuel is now gasoline or some equivalent material, the air provides oxygen and the source of ignition is a spark plug.
The chemical reaction is pretty much the same. The combustion of every hydrocarbon compound uses oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water if everything is in balance. If the balance is out a little bit, then the reaction might have too little oxygen and soot is generated directly. Or the reaction might be tweaked to get reactive hydrogen instead of water.
The average vehicle does produce a number of other byproducts during combustion. Various oxides of nitrogen emerge from the tail pipe. They provide the distinctive purplish colour to smog and account for some spectacular sunsets in the Lower Mainland. These compounds are also a health hazard. In sufficiently large quantities, they can kill but even at low doses they are potential carcinogens. Fortunately, they are also reactive and water soluble. Generally we don’t have to worry about NOx unless we live in a city with excessive smog.
Ozone is another by-product of combustion. It results from the combination of molecular oxygen with a single atom of oxygen making this allotrope. Ozone is also produced while welding and a number of industrial processes. In water, its oxidizing power allows it to destroy contaminants
so it is used as a disinfectant. In the stratosphere, it forms in a protective layer which shields the Earth from ultraviolet radiation. But at ground level, ozone is a respiratory irritant which can lead to headaches and nausea. In high enough concentrations, it, too, is deadly.
Carbon monoxide is another consistent by-product of the internal combustion engine. This gas is deadly as it preferentially binds to hemoglobin blocking oxygen uptake. Too much carbon monoxide results in asphyxiation and death. Tailpipes are also a source of particulate matter. PM 2.5 and smaller particles are able to bypass the hairs in our lungs intended to sweep away solid material. They settle on the surface of the lung, acting as irritants and leading to a variety ailments including inducing lung cancer. Further, the particles usually host a slew of poly-aromatic hydrocarbon compounds resulting from incomplete combustion. These are known carcinogens.
All of these compounds are found in varying amounts in automotive exhaust. For example, carbon monoxide makes up between one and two per cent of tailpipe emissions, depending upon the engine type and its operating condition. A well-tuned engine generates fewer emissions. It also depends, to some extent, on the time of year and the composition of the gasoline being used.
But it is carbon dioxide we mostly concern ourselves with when considering the effects of emissions from transportation. Every liter of gasoline we burn generates about 2.3 kg of carbon dioxide. For diesel fuel, it is 2.7 kg per liter.
Vehicles account for 20 per cent of our carbon dioxide emissions.
At this time of year, though, people tend to idle their cars. It is both unnecessary and wasteful.
A car’s engine doesn’t need to be warmed up for 10 minutes before being driven. Idling in the drive through line is nothing more than a waste of gasoline and a good source of greenhouse gases.
It is hard to find accurate data on just what “per minute” emissions are for an idling engine but Environment Canada estimates if we all idled for three minutes less each day we would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.4 million tonnes per year.
Perhaps more to the point, we would save 630 million litres of gasoline which would directly impact our wallets.
I have heard the arguments against turning a car’s engine off – it will cool off, it takes more fuel to start a cold engine, turning an engine on-and-off will burn out the starter motor – but these really don’t hold water.
The amount of time it takes to get out of a car, go into a Tim Horton’s to get a coffee, and then get back into your car is far less than the time it takes for the engine to cool down. Try it some time.
Idling an automobile contributes to climate change as well as emitting a wide variety of noxious substances. While in a city like Prince George we don’t generally generate enough vehicle smog for it to be truly noticeable, the cumulative effects of particulate matter and gases are not healthy either. Especially when they are unnecessary. After all, idling doesn’t get you anywhere.
Remoteness and poor soil are the very qualities that enable the termite mounds to endure. The area has long droughts, said University at Buffalo geographer Eun-Hye Yoo, an author of the study. (Yoo also met Funch in a Brazilian tourist town. “It’s a good place to meet people,” he said.) The climate, though not friendly to human agriculture, is stable. In this harsh environment, the termite kingdom flourishes.
“These termites have exploited this area and done very well for themselves,” Martin said.
The wet season lasts for about a month. The caatinga leaps from brown to green and back again. The trees bloom, and just as quickly they shed their leaves. Within weeks, the forest floor is stripped bare of leaf litter. The termites take everything to eat. Martin suspects the litter sustains them for the rest of the year. Termites elsewhere farm fungus on leaf detritus, but there are no known fungus-growing termite species in South America.
The scientists do not have a definitive explanation for the mounds’ unusual hexagonal spacing. The pattern is “absolutely striking and quite unusual in its scale. It’s a beautiful example of large-scale self-organization,” said Corina Tarnita, a mathematical biologist at Princeton University who was not involved with the new work. The only comparable pattern in nature so widely distributed, she said, are African fairy circles, rings in the brush that appear from Angola to South Africa.
But Martin proposed that, because these social insects “are very, very good at optimization” the six-pointed system may be the most efficient. Beneath the dirt, as seen by fiber-optic cable, is a large and interconnected tunnel system. The termites guide themselves by pheromones, the insect equivalent of a subway conductor.
“When you’ve got enough connections, it’s very easy to find the nearest mound,” Martin said. Only if a mound does not exist at the edge of the megacity will they begin to build a new one.
Tarnita cautioned that the mounds tested in this study were done so haphazardly. “It would be really important to have a systematic assessment of age that gives some sense of the relationship between a mound’s age and that of its neighbours, or its neighbours’ neighbours,” she said.
Martin agrees there’s plenty of work to do. No one knows how closely related the animals are at the far fringes of the empire. Their genetics are untested. And the colonies’ rulers remain a mystery.
“We’d love to get to the royal chamber,” he said. He’d sacrifice a marvelous mound or two to a backhoe, for science.
It is with a heavy heart that I have to say goodbye to my Mother VIOLA ELIZABETH PFEFFERLE, she passed away @ 5:55pm on December 1, 2018. Her daughter Debra is her only survivor. Mom was born in Lake Lenore, Saskatchewan on May 29th, 1925 on the farm of Pankratz & Emma Voelk (nee Schreiner) the 2nd oldest child of five siblings. Her oldest sister Isabel, Iris and brother Butch (Irvin) Voelk also survive her. Viola was predeceased by her husband Clarence Pfefferle and her sister Rosella (Sally) Denis and her parents. There will be a memorial for Mom at the Hart Pioneer Centre, 6986 Hart Highway on Saturday December 8, 2018 from 12:00pm4:00pm. All who knew her and bowled with her over the years are welcome to come by and share your stories and memories of being with her. You can enjoy checking out her life pictures that I have prepared of her long 93.5 years young journey.
RUSSELL SAMUEL
STOOKSBERRY
January 26, 1935December 4, 2018
It is with heavy hearts, and profound grief, we announce the passing of Russell Stooksberry, at the age of 83 years.
“Rusty” has departed this Earth to go well drilling in faraway places. Rusty leaves behind his beloved wife and soul mate, Carole of 54 years; sons Guy (Leanne) P.G., John (Denise), Calif;’ Todd, Oregon; daughters Linda (Mike) Idaho; Tina, Oregon; Toni (Hans), Oregon; stepsons Gary (Tammi), Oregon; Craig (Robin), Calgary, AB. Also survived by several grandchildren, especially his two right-hand men, Scott (Laura) and Jesse (Evelyn), as well as numerous great grandchildren, extended family members and friends.
Our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Dr. Khan, Dr. Carter; the nursing staff of UHNBC - FMU-POD-C and with deepest gratitude for Audrey, a beacon of light and encouragement in our darkest hours. No funeral by request. A Celebration of Life to be announced at a future time.
The Stooksberry Family
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As the family of the late Larry Norbeck, we would like to express our deep appreciation for all the support and caring given to us when Larry passed away - the phone calls - the food - the beautiful cards - the flowers - the hugs - the offers of help - all the people that came from in town and out of town, to the celebration of life for Larry - all of it - Larry’s heart would have been deeply touched by your presence and your caring. - Our hearts are deeply touched by your kindness and caring - it helps to carry us through this terrible, difficult and sad, sad time. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.
Joan, Dana (Andy) Koewen, Brendyn
