Leave snow piled on boulevards, Skakun says
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Letting snow pile up on the city’s boulevards is among the measures city councillor Brian Skakun is suggesting to lessen the load taxpayers are shouldering for the snow control service.
Skakun raised the possibility during council’s budget meeting on Feb. 11, when they approved a $1.5-million increase to the function, pushing the annual budget for the service up to $8.5 million. The hike amounted to 1.5 percentage points of the 4.3-percent increase to the property tax levy, making it the single largest component of the rise.
Skakun said nearly 6,000 truckloads of snow were report-
edly transported to the city’s snow dumps from mid-November to early-January.
“I’ve been on council awhile and I’ve never seen us haul that much snow,” Skakun said.
“I did a lot of driving around today, and I counted kilometres where, in my opinion, we could’ve put snow on the sides of the roads or the meridians... to save a considerable amount of money.”
Heights of the piles would still be reduced at intersections to provide sight lines for motorists and pedestrians, he added.
In reply, public works director Gina Layte Liston said concern over the windrows “sitting even for the period of time that they are sitting,” generates the greatest number of service requests related
to snow control and added they’re removed in the name of traffic safety.
During a normal snowfall, she said the streets are cleared and then contractors go back to remove the piles.
“We also see loading out of areas that have one-way plows, specifically because of sidewalks and that loading out occurs also for the traffic and pedestrian safety reasons,” Layte Liston said.
She also defended the practice, since 2014, of keeping four or five grader operators on monthly retainers, “so that when we call, they are there.”
“That is an essential part of meeting the timelines during a normal snow event,” she added. — see ‘I THINK THAT, page 3
Province unveils child fund, climate plan, revenue sharing
Dirk MEISSNER Citizen news service
VICTORIA — The B.C. government maintained its focus on providing programs to help families cope financially in its latest budget Tuesday, following efforts a year ago to crack down on property speculation in the housing market, bringing in a child-care plan and eliminating health-care premiums.
Finance Minister Carole James said Tuesday her balanced budget offers a helping hand to people with a package of child benefits for families, loan relief for students, assistance increases for the poor, homeowner incentives to fight climate change and a long-term revenue sharing agreement with Indigenous Peoples.
B.C. is forecast to have the highest economic growth in Canada in 2019 and 2020 at 2.4 per cent this year and 2.3 per cent next year. It has also had the lowest jobless rate in Canada for the past 17 months, she said.
The 2019-20 budget is forecast to post a surplus of $274 million.
“People were told by the past government they had to chose between a strong economy or investments in people,” James said in her budget speech. “The truth is we can and must have both.”
She said the minority NDP government’s budget is “balanced both fiscally and in its approach.”
A spokesman for one of B.C. major business organizations said the budget numbers are credible, but investors would have liked to have seen more efforts to stimulate growth in the budget.
“We expected to see a bit of a spending-oriented budget from the NDP and I think they deliv-
ered on that,” said Jock Finlayson, vice-president of the B.C. Business Council. “It’s a budget strong on the social side, but weak on the economic development side.”
Opposition Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson said the budget does nothing to stimulate the economy.
“The NDP don’t really have a plan to make B.C. a better place,” he said.
“This is a budget that’s designed to take people for a ride.”
The budget includes a $400-million B.C. Child Opportunity Benefit that offers help to families with children up to 18 years old. James said the benefit, which starts in October 2020, provides up to $1,600 annually for families with one child, $2,600 for two children and $3,400 for three children. James said the benefit will make a difference to many families who want better lives for their children.
“Too many people in our province are just a paycheque away from poverty,” she said. — see ‘IT’S THE, page 3
CITIZEN FILE PHOTO
A bulldozer moves snow up the pile at the city snow dump at 17th Avenue and Foothills Boulevard in January.
JAMES
RCMP HANDOUT PHOTO
Over the past six months, many sets of lost keys have been turned in to Prince George RCMP. The RCMP is urging anyone who has recently lost their keys to come down to the police detachment to check if their keys have been dropped off.
Prince George RCMP home to trove of lost keys
Prince George RCMP are hoping to reunite some lost keys with their rightful owners.
Over the past six months, several keys on distinctive lanyards, many with unusual key chains and quite a few with expensive vehicle remotes, have been dropped off at the detachment.
But the RCMP can hang on to them for only so long before they end up being destroyed. So they’re asking anyone who may have lost their keys over the last half year to drop by and look through their lost key box.
As for those who find them, all found keys can be dropped into a mail box, even those without an ID tag.
“Canada Post will deliver keys with ID tags to the organization responsible for the tag and will deliver those without ID tags to the local police,” RCMP said.
Provincial court docket
From Prince George provincial court, Feb. 11-15, 2019:
• Shannon Lee Haskell (born 1980) was sentenced to a 60-day conditional sentence order and 18 months probation for uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and breaching an undertaking or recognizance.
• Lucas Kenneth Richard Turner (born 1987) was sentenced to 18 days in jail for breaching probation.
Turner was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.
• Allan Troy Baker (born 1984) was sentenced to 18 months probation, ordered to provide a DNA sample and issued a lifetime firearms prohibition for aggravated assault.
Baker was in custody for 371 days prior to sentencing.
• Todd Davis (born 1995) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended, committed in Bear Lake.
• Garett Daniel Stead (born 1970) was sentenced to one day in jail and one year probation for theft $5,000 or under.
• Sonja Kristan (born 1975) was sentenced to zero days in jail for breaching probation.
• Dustin Jeffrey Olson (born 1991) was sentenced to 12 days in jail for theft $5,000 or under, possessing a breaking instrument for a coin device and breaching probation and to one year probation on the charges as well as one count of possessing stolen property.
Olson had spent a total of 40 days in custody on the charges prior to sentencing.
• Aaron William John Clifford (born 1988) was sentenced to 78 days in jail and prohibited from driving for two years for dangerous driving and possessing stolen property under $5,000.
Clifford was also sentenced to one year probation on the counts as well as one count of possessing a stolen credit card.
Clifford was in custody for 58 days prior to sentencing.
• Cody Michael Cruse (born 1998) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended.
• Eric Axel Robertson (born 1985) was sentenced to 45 days in jail, served on an intermittent basis, prohibited from driving for two years and fined $1,000 plus $150 in victim surcharges for two counts of driving while driver’s licence is suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Mark Cody Singh Sidhu (born 1994) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Tyler Bert Sinclair (born 1986) was sentenced to one day in jail and one year probation for theft $5,000 or under.
• Shayna Joan Stump (born 1990) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $1,000 for driving while impaired under the Criminal Code, committed in Anahims Flat Indian Reserve.
• Nicholas Raymond Turner (born 1980) was sentenced to 120 days in jail and one year probation for possessing stolen property under $5,000 and to 30 days in jail for breaching probation.
• Christine Anne Walker (born 1968) was sentenced to one year probation with a suspended sentence for breaching probation.
• Shayne Delmar Edward Pilon (born 1971) was sentenced to 48 days in jail for theft $5,000 or under and to 30 days in jail and ordered to pay $1,000 restitution for breaching probation and to one year probation on the counts. Pilon was in custody for six days prior to sentencing.
• Colby Selly John Johnson (born 1983) was sentenced to 19 days in jail, served on an intermittent basis, for possessing a firearm contrary to an order and prohibited from driving for one year for driving while disqualified under the Criminal Code. Johnson was in custody for 26 days prior to sentencing.
• Raymond Dereck Joseph Bessette
(born 1984) was sentenced to 30 months in jail and issued a 10-year firearms prohibition for possessing a prohibited or restricted firearm, to 90 days in jail for possessing a weapon for dangerous purpose and ordered to provide a DNA sample on the charges, and prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 victim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended.
• Mary Anne Desjardins (born 1964) was sentenced to 30 days in jail, served on an intermittent basis, and prohibited from driving for one year for driving while disqualified and driving while impaired, both under the Criminal Code.
• Xavier Ricky Josephy Love (born 1997) was sentenced to 121 days in jail and prohibited from driving for three years for dangerous driving causing bodily harm, committed in Quesnel. Love was also sentenced to one year probation on the count and for theft of a motor vehicle, also committed in Quesnel, and possession of a break-in instrument, committed in Stoner.
Love was in custody for 97 days prior to sentencing.
• Alexander Joseph McDonald (born 1962) was sentenced to three years in jail, issued a 10-year firearms prohibition and ordered to provide a DNA sample for manufacturing or transferring a firearm.
• Andrew Palmer Setter (born 1967) was sentenced to one year probation with a suspended sentence for three counts of possession of a controlled substance.
• Brian Mark Visona (born 1970) was sentenced to 45 days in jail, prohibited from driving for five years and fined $800 plus $115 in victim surcharges for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act, committed in Mackenzie, and driving while prohibited, committed in Prince George, to seven days in jail for possessing a controlled substance, committed in Prince George, and to one day in jail for breaching an undertaking or recognizance, both committed in Mackenzie.
Citizen staff
CITIZEN
Truck fire
Firefighters work to put out a vehicle fire on Nicholson Street at Opie Crescent on Tuesday afternoon. The truck was parked in front of a business on Nicholson Street, but was dragged out onto the street to protect the building.
‘I think that we can do a little better’
— from page 1
“Without those graders, there would be no way we could make those timelines,” Layte Liston added.
Skakun claimed the practice of leaving the windrows untouched had been in place for years in the past.
Roughly $900,000 is budgeted for sand removal in the spring and he said taking down those windrows could be included as part of that work rather than leaving it to contractors.
“I appreciate the work that we do on it but I think that we can do a little better with it and I’m just looking for ways that we don’t have to haul all the snow away like we didn’t do for decades,” he said.
He also said Fort St. John spent less than $2 million to service about 350 kilometres of roads from which snow is removed from about 40 km after it’s cleared.
Prince George snow control crews service 670 km of roads and 189 km of sidewalks.
Finance director Chris Dalio said the $8.5-million figure is based on the average amount the city has spent on snow control over the last five years combined with a goal of building up a contingency fund
equal to a quarter of the annual operating cost.
In 2018, the city spent $9.7 million on snow control, in 2017, it was $7.1 million, in 2016 it was $5.3 million, in 2015, it was $7.6 million and in 2014, it was $7.3 million.
Coun. Frank Everitt struck a more supportive note for the increase, noting in part that a previous decision to remove retainers was a mistake that cost the city when a major snowfall occurred and not enough graders could be found because they were busy elsewhere.
“The other important thing is we’re trying to put a contingency in place so we cannot go year after year and ask for an increase,” he said. “And sometimes you take a little hit in that, but I tell you, it’s nothing to the heat that we will take when we aren’t able to meet the demand for snow removal that’s out there within our community.”
He also said the idea of removing the snow is to make room for the additional snowfall that will follow, “rather than waiting for the sunshine and the rain to take it away in the spring.”
Coun. Murry Krause said he re-
membered when contractors were not in place and how horrible the roads were as a result and spoke in favour of building up a contingency fund.
“In the long run, it really is worth having money in the bank to cover off those years where the snowfall is particularly large,” he said.
Coun. Susan Scott said she’s heard “nothing but good things” over a recent move to clearing snow from residential streets during the night.
Council will be reviewing the snow control budget in the coming months and Layte Liston was asked to provide a figure for how much the city spends specifically on removing the snow once it’s been cleared from the roads and streets.
Skakun also wants more detail on how the budget is spent, similar to the way he says it’s presented to council in Williams Lake.
“They break their budget down into sidewalks, roads,” Skakun said in an interview on Monday.
“They report back I think yearly on how much they’re over budget, under budget, a little bit more about how much it costs for contractors to haul snow.”
Parolee arrested in Grande Prairie
Citizen staff
RCMP are crediting the public for helping find a parolee who went on the lam from a halfway house in Prince George.
Tal Kalum LaRiviere, 31, was taken into custody in Grande Prairie on Monday, within a “matter of
hours” of his image and description being made public. LaRiviere had been at large since Feb. 2, when he missed his curfew and wasn’t found until the information was released, RCMP said.
“The Prince George RCMP would like to thank the public for their assistance in this matter.”
Students made Para Nordic flag display
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
World events command that flags be flown. Showing the colours of the nations attending the 2019 Para Nordic Skiing Championships came down to an all-local log and some College of New Caledonia (CNC) craftsmanship. The result was a set of flag holders that truly represent the region on the world stage.
CNC’s Foundation Level Carpentry program often allows students the opportunity to work on projects benefitting different aspects of the community, said instructor Chris Kelly. In this case, the ski event’s organizers came to them with a proposal and one large hunk of evergreen.
“For this project, students were given a full timber more than five metres long,” said Kelly. “Carpenters don’t get to work with such large pieces of full timber that often. It’s a good experience for students because they have to adapt and make a plan that’s going to work for the requirements of the project.” It took eight people to position the chunk of tree so students could begin their wooden surgery. Student Matthew Worthington said they started with a circular saw, then a hand-saw but neither was working for the task.
“These types of challenges are part of being a carpenter. We moved onto a chainsaw and that worked quite well,” Worthington said. “It’s pretty amazing to be a part of a foundation program and have access to projects like this. Any way we can gain more experience while delivering a token to the community is fantastic.” Fellow student Ming Wu said it was an honour to take part in the project.
“This is awesome for me because I’ve never done anything like this before. I’m glad I got to work on something good for Prince George and CNC.”
The log was trisected and holes were drilled to accept seven flags per unit.
All the work CNC’s Foundation Level Carpentry students put into the Para Nordic flag pole project counts as part of the 480 hours these students accumulate towards their apprenticeship.
“As an instructor, I enjoy inspiring people by showing them they are able to do these type of projects,” Kelly said.
“If we’re able to give back to the community while doing that, that’s always a positive too.”
The 2019 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships run in Prince George until Feb. 24 at Otway Nordic Centre. Each evening, medal presentation ceremonies will be held at 7 p.m. at the Prince George Convention and Civic Centre. On Sunday, that will happen at 5 p.m. with the official closing ceremony at 6:15 p.m. and a celebration banquet to follow.
‘It’s the right thing to do on the path to reconciliation’
— from page 1
“When family budgets are squeezed, even a small setback can lead to a crisis,” James added. “Too many people feel stuck, worried that life will never get better for their full potential.”
She said the government will increase social assistance payments by $50 a month, eliminate interest on student loans, raise support payments for children of foster parents and improve accessibility to disability assistance.
Eliminating interest on provincial student loans will save graduates an average of $2,300, “so they can start their careers off on the right foot,” James said.
The budget does not name the poverty reduction strategy that James highlighted before the budget, but said programs like the child fund, assistance rate increase and the elimination of student loan interest are poverty fighting measures.
She said the government is preparing to announce its full reduction strategy in the coming weeks.
Some anti-poverty groups said they were looking for more in the budget.
“We saw a poverty reduction approach,” said Trish Garner, a spokeswoman for the B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition.
She said the $50 social assistance increase is “far, far too low. We were hoping for a much more significant increase.”
Iglika Ivanova, the senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said she saw the makings of the poverty reduction strategy but wanted to see more.
“For me it’s there, but maybe not as ambitious a plan as you would have liked,” she said.
The government passed legislation last year to cut B.C.’s overall poverty rate by 25 per cent over five years and the child poverty rate by 50 per cent.
The budget does lay out the government’s climate strategy that was introduced last December as Clean BC.
James said the $902 million Clean BC plan is the largest investment in climate programs in the province’s history.
The climate plan will offer up
Some anti-poverty groups said they were looking for more in the budget.
to $6,000 on the purchase of a zero-emission vehicle, provide homeowners up to $14,000 for retrofits and switches to energy efficient heating, and $2,000 to replace fossil fuel home heating systems with electric heat pumps. Families are also eligible for a $400 climate tax credit this year, James said.
“We are reducing climate pollution by shifting homes, vehicles and businesses away form fossil fuels, towards clean electricity and other sources of renewable energy,” she said.
The government’s climate plan is slated to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, 60 per cent by 2040 and 80 per cent by 2050.
Green Leader Andrew Weaver said the budget has his party’s influences on it, including the Clean BC plan and the move to eliminate student loan interest payments.
Weaver said last week’s throne speech lacked vision, but the budget is a “clearly articulated vision” that signals moves towards a 21st century economy.
The budget also includes a $3 billion revenue sharing agreement with Indigenous Peoples over 25 years. James said the agreement to share provincial gaming revenue was reached after decades of talks.
“It’s the right thing to do on the path to reconciliation,” said James, whose speech harkened to her upbringing in Victoria to emphasize the budget’s theme.
“I saw first-hand that often, all it takes to change a person’s life is an opportunity, paired with a hand-up,” she said.
“Those values of caring, of opening doors, of recognizing that everyone has something to contribute, of living within your means and sharing that you have; those are the values the people of this province expect from their government.”
PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Ducks on ice
Ducks walk on the ice and wade in the water of the Nechako River by the canoe launch on Tuesday afternoon.
Two Rivers Gallery holding AGM tonight
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
The city’s premier visual arts gallery is about to hold its annual general meeting.
The Two Rivers Gallery is operated by a not-for-profit agency called the Prince George Regional Art Gallery Association. Their AGM is scheduled for tonight at 7:30 p.m.
“Join us for highlights from the past year,” said a statement posted by the association.
“Two Rivers Gallery is a nonprofit organization and as such we are accountable to you the public as well as our board of trustees. At Two Rivers Gallery we believe in transparency, so every year we hold an annual general meeting where
we discuss our future plans for the gallery, publish our audited financial statement, elect board of trustee members and share our successes.” It will be an opportunity to learn about the practical operations of the facility located at Canada Games Plaza.
Discussions are scheduled for some proposed changes to the organization and the annual election of officers for the board positions that have come due. Contact the gallery for information on how to become a voting member of the organization. There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer, sponsor and otherwise support this charitable organization that is responsible for so much of the region’s thriving arts scene. Twelve currently sit on the association’s board.
Aquarium back in court
VANCOUVER — The British Columbia Court of Appeal has sent the Vancouver Aquarium back to court over its attempt to quash a park board bylaw banning whales and dolphins in city parks.
The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation passed a bylaw amendment in May 2917 banning cetaceans being brought to or kept in city parks after two beluga whales died in captivity at the aquarium.
The facility, which is located in Stanley Park, launched a judicial review seeking to set aside the amendment on four grounds, including that the park board’s licence agreement with the facility prevented it from applying the change.
back to the B.C. Supreme Court for determination of the aquarium’s other three grounds challenging the bylaw amendment.
The aquarium’s operator, the Ocean Wise Conservation Association, says in a statement the matters raised by the appeal are of great significance to the facility’s operations.
“We will need to take the time necessary to review the judgment with our legal counsel and consider the implications it may have on our organization before determining our future course of action or making any further public statements about these matters,” the statement says.
Park board chairman Stuart Mackinnon says the board is pleased with the top court’s ruling.
Pipelines, UN, immigration feature in protest in Ottawa
Citizen news service
OTTAWA — A convoy of Canadians fed up with the Liberal government rolled into Ottawa Tuesday with demands as varied as their vehicles.
The United We Roll convoy began in Red Deer, Alta., on Valentine’s Day and made its way east over four days with stops for rallies along the way. After four days of cross-country driving, the convoy mustered in Arnprior, Ont., just outside the capital but got off to a late start Tuesday morning. With police escorts, its trucks, buses and cars hit downtown Ottawa after the morning rush hour, disrupting the city only slightly.
Scores of semis, pickups and other vehicles occupied several blocks of the street in front of Parliament as about 150 people gathered in knee-deep snow on the Hill for speeches by organizers and a handful of conservative lawmakers.
About 30 police officers stood between the convoy members and a counter-protest that gathered nearby, focused on Indigenous causes.
support for the oil and gas sector. They left out another of the convoy organizers’ complaints: that Canada signed a non-binding United Nations agreement on migration in December. The Conservative party opposed the signing of the global compact, although Scheer did not mention it.
Nor did People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, whose omission drew cries from the crowd when he spoke about the importance of the oil industry.
“Where’s the UN?” yelled one woman.
One placard on a truck outside Parliament declared NO to “UN/ globalism, carbon tax, tanker ban, dirty foreign oil, open borders” and YES to “Charge Trudeau with treason, Energy East, yes to pipe lines, look after veterans, photo ID & Canadian citizenship to vote.”
Other signs backed a variety of causes, including Canadian agriculture and protecting free speech. One called on Canadians to eat beef.
er from Saskatoon, gave one of the day’s first speeches, talking about federal policies as the results of agreements with the United Nations to implement its sustainable development agenda.
“You cut the head of the snake off, we get our country back, all of it, including pipelines built, including dumping the carbon tax, including getting rid of the migrant pact,” he said.
A second day of protests is planned today. Citizen news service
A B.C. Supreme Court judge agreed with the aquarium and declared the bylaw amendment void, but a panel of three Appeal Court judges overturned that ruling in a decision issued Tuesday. The latest judgment says a municipality cannot weaken its legislative powers in a licence agreement unless expressly authorized by a law, and there’s nothing in the Vancouver Charter that would enable that.
The high court sent the matter
“The amendment to our bylaw is thoughtful and reflective of public opinion. The court’s decision upholds our legislative powers to regulate activities and operations within our parks,” he says in a statement.
The aquarium announced last year it would no longer house dolphins or whales, but said it was important to continue to pursue the court case because it opposed the park board using a bylaw to alter its licence agreement.
“It is time that Canada has a prime minister that is proud of our energy sector,” Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer told the crowd. He emphasized the convoy members’ demand that the federal government get pipelines built to help get Alberta oil and gas to new markets.
Half a dozen Conservative MPs and senators blasted the Liberals’ carbon tax and reiterated their
Started by Glen Carritt, the owner of an oilfield fire and safety company in Innisfail, Alta., the convoy protesters have demanded the Liberal government scrap the carbon tax and two bills that overhaul environmental assessments of energy projects and ban oil tankers from the northern coast of British Columbia.
“The core message is we need immediate action for our pipelines to get in the ground, to get to tidewater and to the rest of Canada,” he told The Canadian Press in a previous interview.
Mark Friesen, a convoy organiz-
Friesen, like many of the convoy participants, is affiliated with the populist “yellow-vest” movement, Carritt said the convoy was not itself a yellow-vest protest. Amid concerns the convoy had become a magnet for extremist, anti-immigrant activists, organizers stressed the rally was peaceful and open to anyone fed up with the federal government.
Despite charges by its critics, Friesen insisted the yellow-vest movement is not racist or antiimmigrant.
“We are a country of immigrants,” he said. “We need more immigration but we need to determine these policies in Canada for Canadians.”
Meanwhile after a cabinet meeting inside Parliament’s West Block, Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi told reporters he was focused on increasing pipeline capacity.
“It’s very unfortunate that the convoy that is here today, their message has drifted away from pipelines to issues that are not relevant to the discussion on pipelines,” the Edmonton MP said.
Surrey pastor, son, companies fined for fraud
The panel has ordered Alan Braun to pay the same amount taken from the investors, plus $450,000 in administrative penalties, while Maxwell has been fined $300,000 and Jerry Braun must pay a $200,000 fine. The decision also sets out restrictions on various market activities for the men, including a permanent ban prohibiting all three men from acting as a company director or officer. The panel said in an earlier finding of misconduct that the men’s actions were exacerbated by the predatory nature of their dealings with one of the investors, whom it described as “vulnerable.” It also said the Brauns “preyed upon and shared spirituality with the investor.”
CP FILE PHOTO
Beluga whale Qila leaps out of the water at the Vancouver Aquarium in Vancouver on June 25, 2014.
CP PHOTO
Pro-pipeline protesters stand on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday.
NEWS IN BRIEF
B.C. students, staff asked to stay home from schools
VANCOUVER (CP) — Some
33 students and staff at two French-language schools at the centre of a measles outbreak in Vancouver have been ordered to stay home because they haven’t provided proof of vaccination.
Vancouver Coastal Health says there have been eight confirmed cases of measles at Ecole Secondaire Jules-Verne and Ecole Rose-des-Vents.
Spokeswoman Tiffany Akins says both schools had documented measles vaccination rates that were around 70 per cent before the outbreak.
She says the health authority’s staff were able to confirm the vaccination records of more students in light of the outbreak, bringing the rate up to around 95 per cent.
But she says the 33 students and staff who have been sent home have either been unable to provide this documentation or are still refusing to vaccinate.
Akins adds that the individuals will be allowed to return to the schools if there are no new cases of measles at the institutions by March 7.
House explosion not considered suspicious
CALGARY (CP) — Police say the death of a man whose remains were found after a house explosion in Calgary on the weekend is not suspicious. They say the man has tentatively been identified as a resident of the home and was the sole occupant at the time of the blast.
Police and fire department investigators have determined the explosion and fire were caused by human activity, but they’re not considering the man’s death suspicious.
More than 25 people – some several blocks away from the house in the city’s southeast – called 911 to report a loud bang about 4:20 a.m. on Sunday. Firefighters arrived to find the house engulfed in flames that were spreading to neighbouring properties, one of which was badly damaged.
One neighbour said the home’s owner, a single man, regularly goes to Thailand in the winter, but the neighbour had not seen a tenant in the house for a week or so.
B.C. capital budget hits record high
VICTORIA (CP) — The B.C. government says its capital spending program will reach its highest level ever in 2019-20, with $20.1 billion being spent on construction projects.
The amount includes $4.4 billion for previously announced health projects such as the redevelopment of the Royal Columbia Hospital in New Westminster, a new patientcare centre at the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops and funding for the new St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.
Another $6.6 billion is to be spent on transportation, including the Pattullo Bridge replacement in Metro Vancouver, the Broadway subway extension in Vancouver and making the Trans-Canada Highway four lanes through Kicking Horse Canyon.
A total of $2.7 billion is to be spent to maintain and replace kindergarten to Grade 12 schools. And $3.3 billion is budgeted to fund construction projects at post-secondary schools, including a new sustainable energy building at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, a health sciences centre at Camosun College in Victoria and an expanded trades training centre at Selkirk College in Nelson.
Finance Minister Carole James says the capital budget also includes a continuing focus on seismic upgrades for schools.
Canadian retaliation to U.S. metal tariffs causing pain, ambassador says
Mike BLANCHFIELD Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Americans are complaining about the pain caused by Ottawa’s retaliation against the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs, Canada’s ambassador to the United States says.
David MacNaughton was referring to Canada’s imposition of $16.6 billion in retaliatory tariffs on American imports last year after President Donald Trump used a section of U.S. trade law to impose tariffs of 25 per cent on Canadian steel and 10 per cent on aluminum. Mexico was also hit with the U.S. tariffs, and has also imposed its own punitive duties.
“Canada and Mexico have done some strategic retaliation, which is causing some anxiety in some important states,” MacNaughton said Tuesday at a conference on trade hosted by the Canadian Global Affairs Institute in Ottawa.
“I hope we can get the steel and aluminum tariffs off because it’s causing huge tensions between our two countries and it’s unnecessary.”
The Canadian “countermeasures” hit products in U.S. states where Trump prevailed to win the presidency in 2016.
They targeted a wide range of goods, including ketchup from Pennsylvania, bourbon from Kentucky, orange juice from Florida, toilet paper from Wisconsin and Ohio and panels for circuit breakers and fuses from Michigan.
“I saw one of the senators the other day, and he said, ‘I’m really concerned about the retaliation; you’re hitting some of the products that are grown in my state,’” MacNaughton said. “And I said, ‘Oh, that’s purely by accident, Senator, we’d never do that deliberately.’ ”
The remark sparked muted laughter among some attendees.
MacNaughton said he was optimistic about the possibility about getting the tariffs lifted. He predicted this would inevitably occur the same way Canada overcame its differences with the protectionist Trump administration to get a newly negotiated North American
free-trade agreement last fall: by continuing to lobby U.S. lawmakers.
MacNaughton recalled being approached by two U.S. senators, a Republican and a Democrat, late last summer to discuss the stalled renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The Mexicans had struck their own deal with the U.S. and the clock was ticking on a Sept. 30 deadline imposed by Trump to get a deal with Canada.
MacNaughton said it led to him hosting a dinner for 15 U.S. lawmakers.
“They heard the word from the administration about what our position was. I was trying to explain to them how we were much more flexible than that – that there were some really good things in the negotiations that we were trying to push for,” MacNaughton recalled.
“I think that they helped at least nudge the administration into a position where they were much more flexible, and much more reasonable in the last three or four weeks of the negotiations.
“We’re trying to do the same thing right now with steel and aluminum.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has been pushing the Americans for the alleviation of the so-called Section 232 tariffs, including this past weekend at a major international security summit in Munich, Germany, during meetings with the new U.S. House Speaker, the veteran California Democrat Nancy Pelosi.
“We spoke a lot about the (Section) 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum and I explained why Canada is so strongly opposed to them and why Canada believes they must be lifted. We also spoke about the Canadian retaliation and heard that that is indeed having an impact,” Freeland told reporters on the weekend from Munich.
Freeland also said she pushed the powerful Republican who heads the Senate finance committee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, during a meeting earlier this month in Washington.
“Sen. Grassley has raised in public the notion that the president has used these tariffs as a form of leverage for trade negotiations,” said Freeland. “But I did explain to Sen. Grassley the Canadian position that now that we have concluded our trade negotiations with the United States that is all the more reasons why these tariffs ought to be lifted and that this is a very important concern for Canada.”
MacNaughton said his latest conversations with newly elected Democratic lawmakers lead him to believe that there will be no serious opposition to the new trade agreement in Congress. He said he’s confident that “side letters” will ensure the enforcement of labour standards in Mexico, a U.S. priority.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of the Democrats and I know there’s an awful lot of things in the news about maybe the agreement’s in trouble,” he said Tuesday. “I think when it comes to an up-or-down vote, I think Congress will pass it.”
Oilsands reviews full of bad science, study says
Bob WEBER Citizen news service
EDMONTON — Dozens of oilsands environmental impact studies are marred by inconsistent science that’s rarely subjected to independent checks, says a university study.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” says University of British Columbia biology professor Adam Ford, who published his findings in the journal Environmental Reviews.
“You would have to go out of your way to make it this bad. It’s just a symptom of the state of the industry and it’s definitely a signal that we can do better.”
In 30 different assessments filed between 2004 and 2017, Ford found each study considered different factors in different ways. Few independently checked their conclusions. And those who did were notably less confident about the industry’s ability to restore what it had disturbed.
Ford says the inconsistent approach means the resulting tens of thousands of pages piled in the offices of the Alberta Energy Regulator reveal little about the overall health of one of the most heavily industrialized landscapes in Canada.
Energy companies planning to build oilsands projects must file an environmental impact assess-
ment. Such assessments generally take representative species and consider, based on expert opinion, how development would affect different aspects of their habitat.
Ford found 35 different species were studied. Only one – moose – appeared in all 30 assessments. Only 10 appeared in more than half of them. Some assessments looked at species groups; some didn’t. Some differed on their definition of wildlife habitat.
“You would think that projects that are that close together, that are similar in nature, would have a more common set of shared species,” he said.
Moreover, the ways used to evaluate industrial impact were all different. Some 316 different mathematical models were used to measure habitat and they came up with different results from each other 82 per cent of the time.
Only 33 of the models were independently verified by field data or separate statistical methods.
Ford found the assessments that used verification were about twice as likely to project serious lingering environmental impacts.
Since there’s so much variation with so little checking, there’s no way to tell which assessments are more accurate, Ford says.
“Given the largely inconsistent approaches used to measure and
rank ‘habitat,’ we have no basis with which to measure the performance, accuracy, or reliability of most habitat models used in oilsands (assessment),” the paper says. The stakes are high.
Land disturbed by the 30 projects covered nearly 900 square kilometres. About half of it was considered high-quality habitat.
The paper also says that of the 1681 oilsands applications made to the regulator since December 2013, 91 per cent were approved and one per cent denied.
“It is not clear if or how reporting negative impacts on wildlife in an (assessment) has any bearing on project approval,” it concludes.
The Alberta Energy Regulator declined to comment on the paper.
Ford suggests standardized oilsands assessments would be faster, cheaper and more likely to produce a clear picture of what’s happening in northern Alberta.
“What are the species we need to know about? We have experts in Canada who spend their entire lives thinking about these species. Let’s get them involved so we can create robust habitat models, so that we don’t have to revisit everybody’s individual opinion.” Ford says the current approach has real consequences for real people.
“There’s people who live on this land (whose) culture and way of life is tied to those animals. And we’re telling them we’re pretty much making this up.”
Canada’s Ambassador to the United States David MacNaughton attends a luncheon in Montreal on Nov. 16, 2016. MacNaughton says he’s hearing complaints from some Americans about the pain caused by Ottawa’s retaliation against the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs.
A challenge to city council
Have you had a 12.56 per cent increase in your annual income over the last four years without taking on a new job? If you haven’t, do you know anyone who has?
Have your pension and old-age benefits increased by 12.56 per cent in the last four years?
Unless you’ve taken an internal promotion that comes with significantly more responsibilities or found a better opportunity with another employer, it’s unlikely your yearly income has gone up by anywhere close to 12.56 per cent. Some of you may have – through no fault of your own – seen your income frozen or even reduced in the last four years.
Unfortunately, none of those possibilities stopped Prince George city council from increasing property taxes by 12.56 per cent over the last four fiscal years. On top of last week’s 4.3 per cent hike for 2019, the rates were raised by 1.87 per cent in 2018, 3.18 per cent in 2017 and 3.21 per cent in 2016. Don’t take it out on unionized City of Prince George employees because they are also negatively affected. The current four-year contract for the city’s CUPE workers gives them a 6.75 per cent increase, so they’re not keeping up, either. Constantly raising taxes well above the cost of living unites people on both sides of the political divide. As the above example shows, public sector union members have
just as many reasons to be appalled by tax hikes as fiscal conservatives.
Last week, labour lawyer and two-time provincial NDP candidate Bobby Deepak got into a tussle on Facebook with city councillors Frank Everitt and Brian Skakun about the tax hike. Deepak demanded to know when city council was going to get serious about responsible fiscal management, rather than just treating local taxpayers like a bottomless ATM machine. Both Everitt and Skakun pointed fingers at the provincial government’s Employers Health Tax, stressing it added an unexpected $1 million expense to the city’s bottom line. Naturally, they glossed over the fact that expense is less than a quarter of the $4.45 million in additional city spending for 2019.
When Deepak brought up the significant wage hikes given to the city’s senior management team, linking to a Citizen editorial from last summer, Everitt waved it away as “misinformation” and said senior city managers were only getting a 1.5 per cent increase this year. Of course, there is a big difference between a 1.5 per cent increase when someone is making $200,000 or more per year than the unionized employees making a third of that wage getting 1.5 per cent more under their collective agreement but Everitt didn’t mention that. Nor does he mention that the “misinformation” on the wage increases for senior staff in 2015 and 2016, along with the overtime they collected during the 2017 wildfire
evacuation crisis, came from the city’s own statements of financial information. No one from city administration or city council has ever said up to this point that the data or the way The Citizen reported was incorrect in any way. Jillian Merrick complained on Facebook last August that “the Prince George Citizen is at work with city staff” and urging people to be “wary of the facts provided in an editorial” but also never said which facts – if any – were wrong.
As for Everitt, a longtime union man elected to city council three times with the generous support of local labour defending management wages is rich with irony.
So maybe this discussion needs to happen face to face, rather than through editorials or on Facebook.
In that spirit, Deepak has agreed to join me in offering a challenge to any two members of this city council to a formal public debate on city tax increases and spending.
The Citizen will book the facility, arrange with the UNBC JDC West team to moderate, with questions from the audience afterwards and admission being a nonperishable food item donation, with collected proceeds going to St. Vincent de Paul.
Hopefully two members of city council are up for the challenge.
As for who got 12.56 per cent pay increases (or more) over a four-year period, there were a select few who just happen to be senior managers at the City of Prince George.
YOUR LETTERS
Indigenous people should be exempt from vacancy tax
I received a form letter dated Feb. 5 from Steven Emery, administrator, Speculation and Vacancy Tax, requiring all property owners in the taxable regions to complete a declaration. The tax is designed to ensure that foreign owners and satellite families are fairly contributing to B.C.’s tax system.
I have written to the press and spoken on radio many times on my First Nations viewpoint when it comes to the unresolved issues in this country, how to reconcile with our people, and how government fails to find ways and solutions to right past wrongs. Where were the First Nations representatives when the province came up with a new tax?
Did they give any forethought to how a First Nation person who purchased land in a “country stolen” would receive the demand to make their land available to a land of immigrants in 2019? Have they learned anything from our past history and how we feel about the land and asking us once again to accommodate with our land (my land)?
If I hear one more time the exemption is in place for native reserves, then I know there is no government body in this country interested in reconciliation. Unless you traded off most of your
uninhabited traditional territories, all native reserves are held in trust by the federal government, virtually owned by the government, so does it make any sense for one arm of government to tax another arm of government? I don’t live on a reserve, but if I am subjected to a tax for leaving my home empty then this government has zero interest in reconciling the theft of the land with me and forcing me again to turn it over to immigrants either through rent or selling, or face a fine called a tax.
This is another failure to include our voices and now they will hear my voice on this matter and I wonder how many British Columbians (non-native) feel the Liberals and NDP created this issue when they sat passively while our housing market in these tax regions were used to shore up a weakening economy?
What did they think would happen if they allowed foreign ownership to control the cost of housing and failing to protect a born Canadian this “human right in Canada” based on the cost of living?
They apparently did not learn a lesson from this debacle. The federal and provincial governments continue to sell to foreign governments our industries and farm lands in the prairie provinces. What will happen for Canadians when the cost of all these commodities are a replay of what happened to housing? Government continues to contain and
isolate these as singular issues and then they knock on the doors of Canadians to fix their blindness for election points?
Didn’t the federal government just purchase a wealthy Texas oil company’s pipeline while we still import the finished product?
Who is paying for this? Or this would be a guilt-conscience tax called climate change while we still drill, baby, drill?
What we need is an ongoing report card so Canadians can make an informed decision when they cast their vote. China owns 30 per cent of Site C, so how much of LNG is owned by foreign interests? Hold them all to account instead of letting them sit by passively so it looks good for change every four years.
We all held hope in a young Liberal with a young family to have the experience to relate to Canadians and now we sit with broken promises and some of the most costly decisions to fall to taxpayers.
Like I say in my letters, if I want my home empty as an Indigenous person, this is my inherent right without punitive measures against me. The land was taken once and now government is threatening to tax or fine me for my land because they were complacent when people were screaming in Vancouver to stop the foreign interests spilling billions of dollars into Vancouver.
Jo-Anne Berezanski,
elder Lheidli T’enneh First Nation North Saanich
LETTERS WELCOME: The Prince George Citizen welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. Submissions should be sent by email to: letters@pgcitizen.ca. No attachments, please. They can also be faxed to 250-960-2766, or mailed to 201-1777 Third Ave., Prince George, B.C. V2L 3G7.
SHAWN CORNELL DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
The community services general manager’s income increased by 14.1 per cent from 2014 to 2016.
The planning and development general manager’s income went up 30.2 per cent from 2014 to 2016. The administrative services general manager’s income went up 23.7 per cent from 2014 to 2016. The human resources director’s income increased 44.1 per cent from 2014 to 2016. The engineering and public works general manager’s income went up 58 per cent from 2014 to 2016. The engineering and public works director’s income increased 44.5 per cent from 2014 to 2016. The finance director’s income went up 62.1 per cent from 2014 to 2016. These increases came with new job titles and the shuffling around of management responsibilities, while the number of individuals on the senior management team grew.
Meanwhile, the city manager’s income only went up by 8.8 per cent from 2014 to 2016 but a 2017 consultant’s report commissioned by the city recommended an immediate 15 per cent raise for the city manager. No word on if the previous or the current city council has followed the recommendations of that report.
Hopefully we’ll be able to discuss all of that during a public debate.
Will keep you all posted on date and time details if the challenge is accepted.
—
Editor-in-chief
Neil Godbout
Weighing the possibilities in the SNC-Lavalin scandal
The SNC-Lavalin Affair in brief:
• Feb. 8, Globe and Mail, breaking news: PMO allegedly attempted to influence former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in SNC-Lavalin prosecution; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denies “directing” Wilson-Raybould with her continued service in cabinet used as proof.
• Feb. 12, Wilson-Raybould resigns from cabinet, solicitor-client privilege keeping her silent.
• Feb. 18, Trudeau’s principal secretary and friend, Gerald Butts, resigns.
A final note: on Feb. 15, the Justice Committee convened, but the Liberal majority voted down calling WilsonRaybould or Butts as witnesses. As of press time, no statement has been made by Wilson-Raybould, though she has retained legal counsel to help clarify her options.
general was the lone voice for truth and justice; she was demoted – eventually she quit; Butts’ is just the first of many heads soon to roll.
There is perhaps one accusation to partly agree with: Canada has become a banana republic.
Those are the facts, but what to make of them? As with any incomplete story, there is plenty of room for conjecture and fair comment. What follows then are a range of possible interpretations, from polite to colourful – feel free to stop reading when your bias is confirmed:
• Everyone is telling the truth, just not terribly well: Mr. Sunny Ways never felt he unduly influenced his attorney general; Wilson-Raybould’s interpretation is different, so she left; Butts felt he was a distraction, so he quit of his own accord; when it all comes out, everything will settle.
• Everyone is telling half the truth and badly: the prime minister did have some words with his attorney general – he had a preferred course for her to take; her lawyerly brain set off alarm bells, eventually causing her to leave; Butts is innocent, falling on his sword to protect the hapless prime minister.
• Everyone but the prime minister is telling the truth: Trudeau wanted SNC-Lavalin let off the hook; Wilson-Raybould wouldn’t do it, so he fired her; when allegations arose, he tried to dodge; Wilson-Raybould’s conscience compelled her to leave; Butts is the scapegoat in order to protect his friend Trudeau.
• The PMO is wicked, WilsonRaybould is a paladin: the prime minister and his minions conspired to release SNC-Lavalin from its punishment; the attorney
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• Everyone is lying: There was clear direction from the Prime Minister’s Office; the attorney general asked for something in return, possibly support in a future bid for leadership or an even higher portfolio; everyone double-crossed each other; all hell will break loose as soon as the full story comes to light. The truth probably sits somewhere in the murky middle of these scenarios. But as we wait for more details, some housekeeping is in order regarding the comments these events have triggered in many pundits, from prophecies of utter doom to excuses for corporate greed.
• These allegations are unprecedented: No, there have been many scandals between big Canadian firms and governments of all levels – see the ongoing ViceAdmiral Mark Norman case. The real issue at hand is that key people have allegedly been caught covering it up.
• This is the end of Trudeau and his government: Perhaps – but the prime minister has wiggled out of sticky situations before. Certainly, his brand is permanently tarnished but until the evidence clearly points to him, he’s still the Liberals and his government’s single biggest asset.
• These charges against SNC-Lavalin are bogus anyways: Far be it from me to tell la Belle Province and Lord Conrad Black where to stick it, but “we do not hang men for stealing horses, but so that horses might not be stolen.” I politely suggest all corporatists take that line to heart. There is perhaps one accusation to partly agree with: Canada has become a banana republic. Certainly we cannot really be a serious country, for many of our political problems are patently absurd, from a constitution without proper clauses to a navy without proper ships. But addressing our issues would require some semblance of real courage and that is truly lacking.
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RIGHT OF CENTRE NATHAN GIEDE
Wilson-Raybould speaks to cabinet, will be invited to speak at committee
OTTAWA — Former cabinet minister
Jody Wilson-Raybould says she’s still talking to her lawyer about what she can and can’t say publicly about allegations she was pressured to avert a criminal trial for Quebec engineering giant SNCLavalin.
Wilson-Raybould made the remarks Tuesday as she exited the suite of offices in Parliament’s West Block that hold both the cabinet room and the Prime Minister’s Office, just as a cabinet meeting was breaking for the day.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on his way into the House of Commons that she had asked to speak to cabinet, but he would not say what they discussed and stressed all cabinet conversations are confidential.
Wilson-Raybould resigned as veteransaffairs minister a week ago. Her resignation came several days after anonymous allegations were made to the Globe and Mail newspaper that the Prime Minister’s
Office had tried to convince her to allow SNC-Lavalin to negotiate a remediation agreement as a way to avoid the company’s criminal prosecution.
The implication was that her refusal to agree led to her January demotion from the more-senior justice portfolio to veterans affairs.
On Tuesday, however, she said she was still a member of the Liberal caucus.
“I am still consulting with my legal counsel, as I think people can appreciate, or should appreciate, the rules and laws around privilege, around confidentiality, around my responsibility as a member of Parliament,” she said. “My ethical and professional responsibilities as a lawyer are layered and incredibly complicated so I am still working with my lawyer.”
Trudeau has acknowledged there were conversations with her about the case, but that he told her the decision was hers to make, and she was not being directed to do anything. On Monday, the controversy led to the resignation of Trudeau’s principal secre-
tary, Gerald Butts. Butts denied he had done anything wrong but said he had become a distraction for the government so he was stepping aside.
Wilson-Raybould has hired former Supreme Court justice Thomas Cromwell to advise her about what solicitor-client privilege can allow her to say.
Cabinet met Tuesday for the first time since the allegations broke.
The House of Commons justice committee agreed last week to study the affair, but the Liberal-dominated committee initially declined to invite WilsonRaybould to appear.
However, shortly after Tuesday’s cabinet meeting committee member and Liberal MP Iqra Khalid tweeted that she will ask the committee to invite WilsonRaybould to testify.
MPs spent the morning debating an NDP motion calling for Trudeau to waive solicitor-client privilege to allow WilsonRaybould to speak freely about what happened, and to call a public inquiry to get to the bottom of the matter.
B.C. measles outbreak prompts health warning
Sheryl UBELACKER Citizen news service
TORONTO — Canada’s top doctor is urging Canadians who haven’t been vaccinated against measles to get their shots in the wake of a B.C. outbreak of the disease and the always present danger of cases being imported into the country by travellers.
Dr. Teresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said measles is a “serious and highly contagious disease” and that getting inoculated is the best way to avoid getting sick – and transmitting it to others who may be unprotected.
Tam’s comments Tuesday come in the wake of a cluster of nine cases of measles in Vancouver that began in recent weeks after an unvaccinated Canadian child contracted the disease on a family trip to Vietnam.
“There’s always a risk of measles importation into Canada,” Tam said from Ottawa.
“We eliminated measles in Canada (in 1998), but what we’re seeing is importation from when people go travelling to another country and then bring it back. But when they bring it back to pockets of underimmunized groups, then we’re going to see the potential for more people to be infected in Canada itself.”
Infection with the measles virus starts with a high fever, coughing, sneezing and red eyes, followed by the development of a blotchy, painful rash, said Dr. Sarah Wilson of Public Health Ontario. “The rash starts on the face and moves down onto the trunk, to the chest and the back, and then it spreads to cover the whole body.”
Measles can lead to such complications as ear infections, blindness, pneumonia and encephalitis (swelling of the brain). It can also be fatal.
The disease is highly contagious, spreading through virus-laden droplets after an infected person coughs or sneezes.
“I think one of the features of measles that makes it so exquisitely infectious is that it’s airborne,” said Wilson, noting that viral particles can remain in the environment for up to two hours after being introduced.
“Those measles virus particles can stay suspended in the air and anyone who’s unvaccinated who then goes into that doctor’s office or restaurant or airport lounge, they can acquire measles.”
Another complicating feature of measles is that it can be contagious for four days before the rash arises, said Tam.
But Tam said getting two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is virtually 100 per cent effective in preventing the disease within a given population.
Some people cannot be vaccinated, including infants under six months of age, people with certain underlying health conditions and those undergoing chemotherapy – meaning they must rely on high levels of immunity within their communities to prevent infection with the virus.
Mia RABSON Citizen news service
CP PHOTO
Liberal MP Jody Wilson-Raybould leaves the Parliament buildings following Question Period in Ottawa on Tuesday.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley speaks during an announcement in Edmonton on Dec. 2. Notley says her government is investing in rail cars to help move the province’s land-locked oil to market.
‘We take action’ Alberta leasing rail cars to get oil moving
says the province is spending $3.7 billion to move landlocked oil to market by rail – and it isn’t counting on Ottawa to pitch in.
“We must take action today to provide more relief to our energy workers and the families who rely on these good jobs across this province and this country,” she said Tuesday.
“Albertans don’t just stand by. We take action.”
Notley said the best long-term solution is for new pipeline capacity to coastal ports, which would enable Alberta crude to be sold to overseas markets and ensure the best price.
Investing in rail is a medium-term stop-gap as pipeline projects such as the Trans Mountain expansion to the West Coast remain in limbo, she said.
The province aims to move up to 120,00 barrels of oil per day by rail by 2020 under deals with Canada’s two major railways, Canadian Pacific and Canadian National. Initial daily shipments of 20,000 barrels are expected to begin as early as July.
Alberta is leasing 4,400 railway cars – more than three-quarters new and the rest retrofitted. It initially thought it would need 7,000 cars, but was able to lower that number because it found better routes to market.
Shipments of grain should not be disrupted by increased oil traffic on the railroads, Notley said.
When the premier first floated the oilby-rail idea last fall, she urged the federal government to come on board.
unions, Mi’kmaq
She said Tuesday she’s not happy there has been no firm response, especially since an uplift in Alberta crude prices would boost Ottawa’s revenues, too.
“We’re not going to stop putting it to the federal government that they should be at the table, but we’re not going to wait on them either.”
The province estimates its rail plan will lead to a $5.9-billion increase in commercial, royalty and tax revenue for a net gain of $2.2 billion. It also expects the plan will mean the discount for Western Canadian heavy oil versus U.S. light crude will shrink by US$4 a barrel from early 2020 to late 2021.
Last fall, the price gap exceeded US$50 at times, prompting Alberta to impose mandatory production cuts as a short-term measure to staunch the bleeding. The production cap was eased earlier this year, and Notley said Tuesday that it shouldn’t stay in place any longer than necessary.
Oil brokerage Net Energy Exchange indicates the heavy oil discount is now at US$14.50.
Novia Scotia LNG project signs deals with
Investing in rail is a medium-term stop-gap as pipeline projects such as the Trans Mountain expansion to the West Coast remain in limbo, she said. Citizen
HALIFAX — A proposed liquefied natural gas project says it has signed agreements with the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs, the Nova Scotia Construction Labour Relations Association, and unions in Cape Breton.
Bear Head LNG says the mutual benefits agreement with the assembly is a commitment to develop the project on the Strait of Canso in an environmentally sustainable manner.
CEO John Baguley calls it a “significant milestone” for the project and demonstrates the company’s commitment to providing direct benefits to Mi’kmaq communities.
The company also says its project labour agreement with the unions ensures a stable work environment for the development of its facility.
It says the labour agreement governs the terms of employment for employees represented by the unions at the Bear Head facility and gives priority to qualified residents of Cape Breton Island and mainland Nova Scotia.
The proposed facility will comprise an initial development of an eight to 12-million tonne per annum liquefied natural gas facility, with the capacity and approvals for further expansion.
The company says all required initial permits are in place to construct the export facility, while Canada’s National Energy Board and the U.S. Department of Energy have granted export licences.
Liquid natural gas produced at the Strait of Canso facility will be transported by vessels to overseas markets.
Notley said she expects many of the leased railcars to be painted with Alberta’s logo, but details still need to be worked out.
The plan calls for the provincial government to buy oil from Alberta producers and then sell it wherever is most lucrative, though those details have yet to be worked out. Currently the U.S. Gulf Coast, home to numerous refineries well-suited for Canadian heavy crude, is an attractive destination because heavy oil shipments from Venezuela are declining, provincial officials said.
The NDP government announced the multibillion-dollar, three-year investment despite the possibility an election could be called any day.
“We plan to be government after the next election, but regardless we plan to ensure that outside of election cycles, the best interest of Albertans are taken care of,” Notley said.
Opposition Leader Jason Kenney said if his United Conservative Party forms the next government, it will rigorously review all deals signed during the legal campaign period to make sure they were done in good faith, are in the best interests of Albertans and are a good use of taxpayers’ money.
He said the NDP government is committing taxpayer money to an investment that the private sector has indicated it would be willing to take on itself, given the right conditions.
“This is government-by-improvisation and I think it exposes us taxpayers to serious risk by a government trying to spend like drunken sailors while they’re probably on their way out the door.”
Law firms selected in QuadrigaCX debacle
HALIFAX (CP) — Two law firms have been selected to represent users of the insolvent QuadrigaCX exchange who are owed about $260 million, most of it in cryptocurrency.
Justice Michael Wood of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court issued a decision Tuesday saying he had appointed Miller Thomson of Toronto and Halifax-based Cox & Palmer as representative counsel. As of last week, the firms represented 252 creditors – all of them QuadrigaCX users – with claims amounting to about $15 million.
The Vancouver-based exchange was shut down Jan. 28 following the sudden death in December of its CEO and sole director, 30-year-old Gerald Cotten of Fall River, N.S. Court documents say $190 million in missing Bitcoins and other cryptocurrency is locked in offline digital wallets – but they remain beyond the reach of the company because Cotten was the only person who had the encrypted pass codes. Another $70 million in cash is owed to users, much of it tied up in bank drafts held by third-party payment processors.
In his decision Tuesday, Wood said Miller Thomson and Cox & Palmer have extensive experience with insolvency cases under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), and he noted
“Many
that Miller Thomson has expertise when it comes to cryptocurrency.
The main goals for the representative counsel are to make the proceedings efficient and cost effective, while providing clear lines of communication with the users, Wood said.
He endorsed the team’s communication strategy, which includes the use of social media and online discussion groups like Reddit to reach 115,000 affected users.
“The rationale is that users are already discussing the Quadriga issue in those places, and it is important to have accurate information available to them,” Wood said.
The two law firms had previously proposed to cap their fees at $250,000 during this initial stage of the court proceedings.
Cotten’s widow, Jennifer Robertson, has already committed $300,000 to the court process, which requires Quadriga to pay all of the legal fees. Robertson holds a controlling interest in the company, an arrangement spelled out in Cotten’s will. She remains the sole secured creditor.
Wood said the two law firms and the court-appointed monitor overseeing the case, Ernst & Young, will be asked to select users to join a committee that will help the monitor and the lawyers.
– energy, materials and financials. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 99.20 points to 15,937.44, after hitting an intraday high of 15,953.90. After a dismal December, the U.S. and Canadian markets are off to some of the best starts this century, says Craig Jerusalim, portfolio manager at CIBC Asset Management. The TSX is up 11.3 per cent yearto-date and just 3.8 per cent off its all-time high set last July. But that doesn’t mean the strong performance will endure. The last two times the TSX started off so strong were in 2000 and 1987. “And neither one of those two years had good outcomes halfway through the years,” he said in an interview.
On Monday, the Toronto market was driven higher by stronger prices for metals and oil, helped by a weaker U.S. dollar. The key materials sector gained almost two per cent as individual miners saw their stocks gain as much as nearly 10 per cent, led by Turquoise Hill Resources and including Barrick Gold Corp. which was up 4.6 per cent. They rose as the April gold contract was up US$22.70 at US$1,344.80 an ounce and the March copper contract was up 7.6 cents at US$2.87 a pound.
Jerusalim says gold is approaching a key level as it acts as a hedge against weaker economic growth and lower equities.
“If it breaks through that ever important $1,350 level, there’ll be a lot of momentum investors chasing stocks higher,” he said.
“The historical profitability of the gold producers is quite poor but the length of the current cycle fears of an economic slowdown have refocused investors attention back to the sector, especially in light of some big sign of U.S. trade deadlines that have been earmarked for the beginning of next month.” Technology was up 1.2 per cent while the energy sector increased by nearly one per cent as the April crude contract was up 47 cents at US$56.37 per barrel and the March natural gas contract was up 3.7 cents at US$2.66 per mmBTU.
The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 75.54 cents US compared with an average of 75.38 cents US on Friday. In New
Citizen news service
EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Rachel Notley
Nice move, better save
Reid Perepeluk of the Prince George Cougars is stymied on a breakaway chance by Everett Silvertips goalie Dustin Wolf during the MondayTuesday doubleheader at CN Centre between the WHL teams. The Silvertips defeated the Cougars 4-1 in the opener and 4-1 on Tuesday night thanks to three unanswered goals in the third period (see summary, page 10). The Cats (16-35-4-3) have now gone 17 games without a victory and are buried at the bottom of the B.C. Division and Western Conference standings. The U.S. Division-leading Silvertips – who also sit atop the Western Conference – improved to 41-14-1-2. Next up for the Cougars are road games in Kamloops (Friday) and Everett (Saturday).
B.C. staying in contention at Scotties
Rink featuring P.G. sisters has 4-2 record so far
Citizen news service/Citizen staff
SYDNEY, N.S. — Kerry Galusha used to take close losses in stride when she came up short against top teams at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Things are different this year. Galusha feels her team has more potential this time around. And the Northwest Territories skip has been getting downright mad at times if an opportunity to win is missed.
“That wouldn’t be an emotion that I used to feel,” Galusha said. “It’s definitely a different Scotties this year for sure. I think people are taking note.”
Galusha is a solid 3-2 after 11 draws of play at Centre 200. She nearly pushed Team Wild Card’s Casey Scheidegger to an extra end in a 6-5 loss on Tuesday afternoon. Her other defeat was a 7-4 decision to Jennifer Jones on Sunday, a loss that left Galusha seething because she felt she was a half-inch away from preventing Canada’s decisive three-point ninth end.
“They were really mad after, which to me, I actually like that,” said team coach John Epping.
“That means that they really care and they really believe that they can be a contender at the end of the week.”
Galusha was tied with Jones and Saskatchewan’s Robyn Silvernagle in third place behind Scheidegger and Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt, who were 4-1.
Birt outscored New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford 13-12 in an extra end. It was the highest-scoring game in Scotties history.
Jones ended a two-game skid with a 9-7 win over Yukon’s Nicole Baldwin while Silvernagle posted an 8-4 victory over Kelli Sharpe of Newfoundland and Labrador.
In Pool A play, Alberta’s Chelsea Carey was the lone unbeaten skip at 6-0. She beat Nunavut’s Jenine Bodner 10-5 in the morning and topped Ontario’s Rachel Homan 6-3 in the evening.
“We were able to stay nice and calm and loose, and managed to pull it off,” Carey said.
Homan, who earlier dropped a 6-5 decision to Manitoba’s Tracy Fleury, fell into a four-way tie for second place at 4-2. Fleury, North-
ern Ontario’s Krista McCarville and B.C.’s Sarah Wark were also tied in second.
Wark – who has Prince George sisters Jen Rusnell and Kristen Pilote playing lead and third respectively – lost 8-7 to Northern Ontario in an extra end in Tuesday’s morning draw and then held off Quebec’s Gabrielle Lavoie 7-6 in the evening. Fleury dumped Nunavut’s Jenine Bodner 12-2. McCarville defeated Nova Scotia’s Jill Brothers 9-5.
B.C. started the Scotties with a 7-6 win against Nova Scotia, beat Manitoba 7-5, dumped Nunavut 10-1 and lost 9-8 in an extra end
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Fans who turned out at Otway Nordic Centre over the weekend to watch the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships were probably wondering where Brian McKeever was. The 39-year-old visually-impaired skier from Canmore, a 13-time Paralympic champion and winner of 19 world championship gold medals, missed Sunday’s mid-distance race and was not on the entry list for Monday’s sprints. McKeever is half a world away in Monacco, where he’s attending the Laureus World Sports Award banquet. His threegold, one-bronze performance in the 2018 Paralympics in Pyongchang, South Korea, led to his nomination for the award in the athletes-with-a-disability category. Oksana Masters of the U.S. is also nominated but skipped Monday’s ceremony to
come to Prince George for the duration of the world championships. The other nominees are German long-jumper Markus Rehm, Greek bocchia player Grigorios Polychronidis, Dutch wheelchair tennis player Diede deGroot and Slovakian skier Henrieta Farkasova. McKeever is expected to race in Saturday’s team relays and the 20-kilometre crosscountry race Sunday.
Bachinsky makes his mark
to Alberta on Monday.
Today, Rusnell, Pilote and their Team B.C. mates will face Ontario’s Homan in a key game in the afternoon draw.
Galusha said her team was a little off in Tuesday’s defeat, with a chance for a deuce denied when her final stone came in heavy in the 10th end.
Her Yellowknife rink will close the preliminary round Wednesday with games against P.E.I. and Yukon.
Epping said the team is capable of making the top four in Pool B to get into the championship pool, adding they have a shot to reach
“I just tried to stay focused and pick up the pace and do my best,” said Bachinsky, a 20-year-old from Kenora, Ont.
Jesse Bachinsky made it though Sunday’s 10-kilometre visually-impaired men’s cross-country race unscathed, but not his ski poles. With half a lap left in his race, some faster skiers in the men’s standing category were passing him on either side when he got his poles stuck and snapped both of them. He finished the race but ended up last in a field of 15.
His guide, Simon Lamarche of Victoria, handed him a pole but he still had the strap of the broken one attached to one of his hands, which slowed his progress. Despite his partner’s mishap, Lamarche was impressed with Bachinsky’s progress Sunday. He had a slow start to his season on the Alberta Cup circuit but performed well enough in his first World Cup two months ago in Finland to crack the Canadian squad for the world finals.
“He really improved today – the end of the race was a bit tough for us but 3 1/2 laps were awesome and I’m really proud of him because he pushed really hard today,” said Lamarche.
Bachinsky is a B2-class racer and can see shadows on clear days but in snowy
their goal of an 8-3 record.
“Some people say maybe that’s a bit too high,” he said. “But I think they can. They gave Wild Card a great game today, they’ve given (Jones) a great game with Team Canada. So we have opportunities for sure.”
Galusha decided changes were necessary after a 2-6 showing at last year’s Scotties.
“I had an awful time last year,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that again.’ So let’s change things up. We added Brittany (Tran) on at second, who has been a huge asset to us. Let’s travel more, let’s put in the time.
“This is the most open and honest team I’ve ever been on and it seems to have really worked. It’s just a totally different feeling.”
Along with third Sarah Koltun and longtime lead Shona Barbour, the team entered five World Curling Tour events this season and won a title in Kemptville, Ont.
“We were looking at the (ranking) points,” Galusha said. “We never look at points. We’re never up there to look at points. It was really fun to win money and being in the mix of things.”
The team currently sits 34th in the Canadian rankings.
“That (title) just gave them a big boost and you can tell that here,” Epping said. “It’s definitely a different team with much higher expectations. They’re ticked off when they lose instead of being, ‘That’s OK.”’
Galusha, 41, is making her 16th career Scotties appearance and fifth in a row. She has never had a winning record at this event, but that could change this year.
“It’s very different,” Galusha said. “We have the team that can be there at the end of the week.”
The championship round starts Thursday. The Page playoffs begin Saturday and the final is set for Sunday.
or foggy conditions he has no vision and his condition is worsening. The two wear headsets to communicate with each other on the course and Bachinsky responds to Lamarche’s voice commands. They’d already skied the course at least 100 times before Sunday’s race and Bachinsky is familiar with the terrain but depends on his partner’s voice to tell him when they’re approaching hills and corners or other skiers. The entire course is designated a “holding zone,” which means Bachinsky is allowed to hold on to Lamarche’s pole, especially on steep downhill sections, but he’s not allowed to pull Bachinsky up hills.
“Basically I rely on having really good balance and what I hear (from Lamarche) and I navigate just be feel,” said Bachinsky. “It’s hard to really judge how fast you go, you just keep going fast and try not to slow down. This is a really fast course and that’s where you make up your speed on the downhills to carry you over the hills.” — see PRESSURE, page 10
Jen Rusnell, left, and Kristen Pilote – sisters who grew up on the ice sheets at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club – sweep a rock against Nova Scotia during the Scotties Tournament of Hearts at Centre 200 in Sydney, N.S.
Pressure is on Canada at home championships
from page 9
“The conditions are really great, it’s fantastic racing with these guys, you gain experience every time and we have an amazing and supportive group,” he said.
On Monday, Bachinsky competed in the cross-country sprint event. He placed 11th in the first qualification race, however, and did not advance to the semifinals. Later, in the final, Zebastian Modin of Sweden claimed the gold medal. He placed ahead of silver-medalist Yury Holub of Belarus and bronze-medal-winner Dmytro Suiarko of Ukraine.
Coach’s critique
Following on the heels of a 16-medal performance at the 2018 Paralympics, expectations are running high in the Team Canada camp. After the first two days of racing, standing skier Mark Arendz, a six-time Paralympic medalist in 2018, was two-fortwo with cross-country silver and biathlon bronze to add to Canada’s medal count, while sit skier Collin Cameron earned a silver medal in Saturday’s biathlon. On top of that there were some near-podium misses on the weekend. Standing skier Brittany Hudac was fourth in her biathlon race, Natalie Wilkie was fourth in her standing cross-country race and sit-skier Derek Zaplotinsky was a fifth-place finisher in his cross-country race Sunday.
As one of the perennial leaders on the para nordic world scene, Canada’s crew knows their own past performances set the bar high to rise to the occasion racing on home soil.
“I do love the start to the championships but it’s also, sadly, expected,” said coach Robin McKeever. “The pressure’s on, right, and we’re at home here so it makes it ad-
Canadian cross-country skier Jesse Bachinsky makes his way around the course on Sunday at Otway Nordic Centre.
ditional pressure. We’re just focusing on skiing the way they can, that’s the biggest key and I’m happy with that start to the week.”
Cameron is Canada’s top sprinter and, despite being sick in bed Sunday, added to that biathlon silver medal when he earned his country a gold in Monday’s cross-country sprint event.
Chill’s out
It appears the worst is behind the competitors, weather-wise. Bone-chilling cold and wind chills that delayed practice sessions and made life difficult for course workers last week are giving way to closer-to-normal weather conditions. The high on Tuesday
Close call
The puck goes just wide as Cariboo Cougars forward Fischer O’Brien crashes the net against the South Island Royals on Saturday night at Kin 1. The Cougars beat the Royals 8-1 in the first game of the weekend doubleheader but dropped a 3-2 decision on Sunday despite outshooting the visitors 33-22. In the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League standings, the Cougars are now in fourth place at 21-8-5-0. The Royals, in ninth, have a mark of 10-23-1-0. The Cats are down to their final six games of the regular season. They’ll host the seventh-place Greater Vancouver Canadians this Saturday and Sunday. Games are scheduled for 4 p.m. and 10:30 a.m. at Kin 1.
Canadians hammer Italy at junior curling worlds
LIVERPOOL, N.S. (CP) — Canada’s Tyler Tardi is back on the winning track at the world junior curling championships.
Tardi’s B.C.-based rink beat Italy’s Luca Rizzolli 10-3 in the Tuesday afternoon draw, pushing Canada (3-2) into a five-way tie for second place.
Coming off an 8-7 loss against Scotland’s Ross Whyte on Monday night, Tardi, third Sterling Middleton, second Matthew Hall and lead Alex Horvath scored three in the fourth end against Italy (1-4) and another five in the sixth to put it away.
Whyte’s Scotland rink leads the way at 5-0 after a 6-2 win over Matthew Neilson of New Zealand. Canada, Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland and the U.S., are tied for second after the lone men’s draw of the day.
Canada faces China and Germany today.
On the women’s side, Canada’s Selena Sturmay imroved to 3-2 with an 8-3 win over South Korea’s Min Ji Kim in the late draw. Sturmay began the day with a 9-3 loss to Sweden’s Tova Sundberg on Tuesday morning. Canada raced out to a 4-0 lead against the South Koreans by the third end, scoring singles in the first and second and a deuce in the third.
The Edmonton-based rink of Sturmay, third Abby Marks, second Kate Goodhelpsen and lead Paige Papley had won two in a row before the loss against Sweden (2-2).
The Canadians are tied for fourth place with South Korea. Switzerland’s Raphaela Keiser (4-0) pulled into top spot in the standings with a 7-6 win over Russia’s Vlada Rumyanceva in the early draw.
was -5 C, with some morning and evening snow. Tuesday was a rest day and, when racing resumes today at the championships, highs are expected to reach of -3 C . On Thursday and Friday, high temperatures are predicted to be -4 C and -1 C respectively.
Blues hitting all the right notes
ST. LOUIS (AP) — In the beginning of the season, the St. Louis Blues were finding ways to lose games. Now, they’re managing to pull out wins.
Ryan O’Reilly scored 34 seconds into overtime and the St. Louis Blues beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Tuesday night for their franchise-record 11th straight victory.
“It’s fun hockey,” O’Reilly said.
“We’re really enjoying it. You see from the start of the year how frustrating it was and how we kept working and working and not getting the result. Now, you see the way we’ve come together and everybody’s invested in each other. Everyone’s trying to make it easier for the next guy.”
O’Reilly started the game-winning sequence with a stellar defensive play to break up a Maple Leafs chance. The effort created a 2-on-1 break with Vladimir Tarasenko, but O’Reilly took the shot himself.
“He (Mitch Marner) was winding up there, I kind of saw that he had me beat already so just went flying – just a desperate play, trying to get back,” O’Reilly said.
“Saw (Blues goalie Jordan Binnington) went down and he was going to try and throw it in front, got my stick down and luckily it turned into a 2-on-1 for us.”
Jaden Schwartz and Colton Parayko also scored and Tyler Bozak had two assists for the Blues. Binnington made 29 saves to win his ninth straight, extending the longest winning streak in franchise history for a rookie goaltender.
Zach Hyman and Auston Matthews scored third-period goals as the Maple Leafs erased a 2-0 deficit. Frederik Andersen made
38 saves as Toronto wrapped up a six-game road trip with a 3-2-1 mark.
Hyman scored at 6:34 of the third, snapping the Blues’ shutout streak at 233:50. Matthews followed just 31 seconds later as the puck deflected off his skate past Binnington. It was Matthews’ first career point in six games against the Blues, who were the only team he didn’t have a point against.
“I would have liked to seen us crawl our way back and win the game, but I thought we did a lot of good things today in the latter half of the game to set us up for success and I was impressed with a lot of our play,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said.
Schwartz gave the Blues a 1-0 lead midway through the first, scoring off a backhand feed from Bozak. Alexander Steen started the play, forcing a turnover in the Maple Leafs’ zone.
Parayko made it 2-0 with a power-play goal with 2:18 left in the first. Parayko’s shot was initially ruled off the post. Once play was stopped nearly 20 seconds later, a review showed the puck hit the bar and went in. Parayko didn’t think it went in initially.
“I thought it hit the post because I didn’t see anybody react,” Parayko said.
Toronto centre Nazem Kadri left the game with a concussion after the first period. Kadri took a big hit from Vince Dunn early in the game.
Tarasenko had his NHL-high 12 game points streak snapped. He was named the NHL’s second star of the week on Monday. He had four goals and six assists for the week ending Feb. 1.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Scenes from childhood
Victoria AHEARN Citizen news service
TORONTO — Growing up as an only child with divorced parents, Trevor Jimenez spent weekdays with his mom in Hamilton and weekends with his dad in Toronto. His mom was in a few car accidents during Jimenez’s childhood and his memories of that time are often laced with visuals of her with a neck brace on.
His dad, meanwhile, lived in a condominium near Toronto’s Chinatown neighbourhood and Jimenez remembers seeing the bright lights of the city zip by as they drove along the Gardiner Expressway to get there. Such elements are woven into Jimenez’s touching short animated film, Weekends, which is up for an Oscar on Sunday in a category that also includes Vancouver-based couple David Fine and Alison Snowden for Animal Behaviour, and Toronto-raised Domee Shi for Bao.
“There’s a lot I’ve taken from my childhood and my own experiences and put into the film,” Jimenez said in a phone interview. “So it’s loaded with that kind of sentiment for me.”
Jimenez wrote and directed the 15-minute, 2D story, which follows a little boy who splits time between his mom’s house and his dad’s Toronto apartment in the
Jimenez mines his memories with Oscar-nominated short film
1980s. The film is free of dialogue, instead telling the story with music, ambient sound, dream-like moments and roughly styled classical animation.
His mother’s place is quiet, littered with moving boxes and sparse on furniture at the start of the film, indicating the breakup is fresh and raw. She wears a neck brace and seems to be struggling emotionally. Later, a new man enters her life and the relationship is a volatile one.
The neck brace was intended to indicate the car accidents his mother went through, but also “to visually show a fragility in her, to make you care, which is how I felt when I was a kid,” Jimenez, who works in the story department at Pixar, said from Berkeley, Calif.
The boy’s experiences with his dad are markedly more vibrant. They drive into the city together with Money for Nothing by Dire Straits blasting on the speakers, watch body-horror movies on TV
Famed designer being mourned
Citizen news service
PARIS — Karl Lagerfeld, the iconic couturier whose designs at Chanel and Fendi had an unprecedented impact on the entire fashion industry, died Tuesday in Paris, prompting an outpouring of love and admiration for the man whose career spanned six decades.
Although he spent virtually his entire career at luxury labels catering to the very wealthy – including 20 years at Chloe – Lagerfeld’s designs quickly trickled down to low-end retailers, giving him global influence.
The German-born designer may have spent much of his life in the public eye – his trademark white ponytail, high starched collar and dark glasses are instantly recognizable – but he remained a largely elusive figure. Such was the enigma surrounding Lagerfeld that even his age was a point of mystery for decades, with reports he had two birth certificates, one dated 1933 and the other 1938.
In 2013, Lagerfeld told the French magazine Paris Match he was born in 1935, but in 2019 his
assistant still didn’t know the truth – telling The Associated Press he liked “to scramble the tracks on his year of birth – that’s part of the character.”
Chanel confirmed that Lagerfeld, who had looked increasingly frail in recent seasons, died early Tuesday in Paris. Last month, he did not come out to take a bow at the house’s couture show in Paris – a rare absence that the company
Imax filmmaker dies at 75
Citizen news service
TORONTO — Canadian filmmaker and industry pioneer Toni Myers, who was known for visually arresting Imax films about the Earth and surrounding planets, has died.
Myers died Monday at home in Toronto after a bout with cancer, Imax confirmed on Tuesday. She was 75.
The producer/director/editor worked on documentaries, films and TV series that explored everything from the deep depths of the ocean, to the outer reaches of space and the 1990 Rolling Stones Steel Wheels concert.
Her recent work included 2016’s A Beautiful Planet, narrated by Jennifer Lawrence; the 2010 Space Shuttle Atlantis documentary Hubble 3D, narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio; and 2009’s
Under the Sea 3D, narrated by Jim Carrey.
“Toni’s incredible contributions to IMAX’s legacy and the world of film are only matched by her pas-
attributed to him being “tired.”
“An extraordinary creative individual, Lagerfeld reinvented the brand’s codes created by Gabrielle Chanel: the Chanel jacket and suit, the little black dress, the precious tweeds, the two-tone shoes, the quilted handbags, the pearls and costume jewelry,” Chanel said.
The brand’s CEO Alain Wertheimer praised Lagerfeld for an “exceptional intuition” that was ahead of his time and contributed to Chanel’s global success. “Today, not only have I lost a friend, but we have all lost an extraordinary creative mind to whom I gave carte blanche in the early 1980s to reinvent the brand,” he said. Tributes from fellow designers, Hollywood celebrities, models and politicians quickly poured in.
Donatella Versace thanked Lagerfeld for the way he inspired her and her late brother Gianni Versace. Former supermodel Claudia Schiffer, who credits Lagerfeld as her mentor, called him her “magic dust.”
“What (Andy) Warhol was to art, he was to fashion; he is irreplaceable,” she said.
sion, kindness and unique ability to inspire hope in others through storytelling,” Richard Gelfond, CEO of IMAX, said in a statement.
“For 25 years, I was fortunate to call Toni a dear friend and I know I echo the same sentiment as anyone who has crossed paths with Toni when I say she was truly one-of-akind and will greatly be missed.”
Born in Toronto, Myers attended the Ontario College of Art and began her screen career as an editor on television dramas and music films. The music projects included collaborations with musical greats John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Santana.
Myers’ other award-winning films include 1985’s The Dream is Alive, 1994’s Destiny in Space and 1990’s Blue Planet. Just last week she was awarded the Order of Canada by Gov. Gen. Julie Payette.
while eating popcorn and Chinese takeout, and play with a samurai sword and his father’s antiques.
“He’s really into history, just as the character in the film, and antiques in general, so I have memories of going to Harbourfront. He actually had samurai armour in the house and crazy paintings and furniture,” Jimenez said.
He also recalls watching David Cronenberg and Akira Kurosawa movies with his dad.
“Lots of films I probably
shouldn’t have been watching, but it definitely influenced me in a big way,” he said.
Jimenez started making Weekends more than 10 years ago, after graduating from Ontario’s Sheridan College in 2007 and working with several big companies, including Disney Feature Animation, Illumination Entertainment and Blue Sky Studios.
He funded it with a stipend from a Pixar co-op film program that supports independent filmmaking for employees, and in 2016, recruited Chris Sasaki to be the production designer.
Weekends has already won prizes at various festivals and was nominated for an Annie Award for best animated short subject.
When the Oscar nomination came in last month, Jimenez saw it on a live stream with his wife, with whom he was celebrating their wedding anniversary that same day.
His mom was also present, on Skype, and cried when she heard her son’s name.
“I think it’s a personal story for her too,” he said. “She had been a part of the film before it was created and I’ve shared every version of it with her just to make sure she was comfortable with it.
“I think a lot of it is the proud mom but I think it’s a special feeling and moment with for her, too. It’s really nice to share it with her.”
MYERS
LAGERFELD
TREVOR JIMENEZ HANDOUT PHOTO
A scene from the animated short film Weekends is shown. Weekends is up for an Oscar on Sunday.
herfamiliesandfriends, wasadedicatedmember oftheArmedForces,and willalwaysbe rememberedforher generosityandtenacity. Sheissorelymissedand hermemorywillliveon withthemanypeople whoseheartsshetouched.
Richard (Mickey) H. Millns, born April 24, 1934, passed away peacefully in his sleep February 2, 2019. Leaving behind his loving wife Joan of 63 years, 5 children: Faye (Gord), Nadeen (Fred), Rick, Judy (Lori), Sean (Rose) and 30 grand and great grandchildren. Mickey was a well known and respected businessman in Prince George. He started All Points Express and Javva Mugga Mocha. He was a gentleman and always helped anyone in need. Words cannot express how much he is loved by his family and those whose lives he touched.
Arvey Lawrence Webster
Passed away suddenly on Feb 14, 2019 at PGRH. Survived by brother Lloyd Webster of Cecil Lake, BC. His children; Cherryl (David) Garnot, Ray (Dee) Webster, Brenda Stewart, Holly (Brad) Jones, Rick (Deanna) Webster, Cindy Webster, numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. predeceased by wife Verna Webster, sons Lawrence and Dwight Webster, and sisters. He will be lovingly missed by all. funeral services to be held at Lakewood Funeral Chapel at 1:00pm Thursday Feb 21, 2019, luncheon to follow at Moose Hall at 633 Douglas St. Prince George, BC.
It’s with great sadness and sorrow we announce the passing of Michael Sindia September 11, 1951 - February 12, 2019 Mike passed away peacefully with his loving wife Sandi and sister Sandra by his side, on February 12, 2019 at Surrey Memorial Hospital. He was predeceased by his father Bob Sindia and nephew Darrell Sindia. Mike is survived by his best friend, soulmate and loving wife Sandi, mother Jean, sister Sandra (Ken), brother Danny (Judy), sons Rob (Tamara), Shayne, Jason, and Bryon, as well as 13 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren, many nieces and nephews, as well as a countless number of friends. Mikes love for life and happy personality, along with his wonderful laugh, will be greatly missed but will live on in our hearts and memories. He was a wonderful and loving man whom it was an honour to know. The funeral service will be held at Lakewood Alliance Church (4001 5th Ave, Prince George, B.C.) at 1:00pm with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Mike Sindia’s name to the Prince George Hospice House. Thank you!
Bessie Stockall
In loving memory of Bessie Stockall Born in Nipawin, Saskatchewan in 1931, Bessie and her family moved to Prince George in 1951. She passed away peacefully surrounded by family on the 15th of February 2019 at the Jubilee Lodge. Bessie was predeceased by her husband Don and survived by her sons Michael (Lisa-Marie) and Patrick (Dianne)McCallum, and her grandchildren, Deanna (Ray), Amanda, Tara (Landon), Shaileen (Lance), Travis (Ashley), as well as her great grandchildren Tyler, Kassy, AdleyAnne and Lawson. Bessie is also survived by her brothers Bob, Bud and Gordon, and sister Luella also. She was predeceased by her brother Jack. Bessie enjoyed spending time with family (the Dondales, McCallums and Doyles), playing cards, listening to music and going dancing. A funeral will be held at St. Mary’s on Wednesday, February 20th at 3:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, cash donations will be accepted to raise money for a new fireplace for the Jubilee Lodge.
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