The city wants to borrow $32 million, of which $10 million would go to improvements in the Aquatic Centre.
Residents to have say on city borrowing
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
The public will have its say over whether the city should borrow up to $32.2 million to pay for as many as 11 projects as city council voted Monday to advance the items to alternative approval processes.
If at least 10 per cent of the electorate, estimated at 5,546 signatures, sign a petition against a respective project, council will have to either scrap going ahead with the item or take it to a fullblown referendum.
The deadline for signing a petition is May.
The forms will be available at city hall starting on April 18, but because they were also posted with the agenda package for Monday’s council meeting, city hall will accept those that have been printed off, filled out and brought in before that date.
Most council members supported taking the step.
“We’ve been hearing for at least the 10 years I’ve been on council that there is a big storm coming in infrastructure rebuilds… and now we’re starting to see that the storm is arriving and there’s a lot to be done,” said Coun. Garth Frizzell.
If they survive the process, they will be funded through the Municipal Finance Authority which Frizzell said is “the least expensive debt mechanism we can get.”
For all but one, the money will be paid back over 20 years and, in total, they will add up to $2.5 million per year in debt-servicing costs and account for 2.3 per cent of future tax levy increases, according to staff.
“I’m sure these wouldn’t be in front of us if a) we hadn’t approved them at budget already and b) if staff hadn’t approved these as critical,” Frizzell added.
It’s a huge number, there’s no doubt about it. But procrastination won’t help the number go down any, it’ll raise it up.
— Coun. Frank Everitt
Coun. Frank Everitt echoed Frizzell’s comments and added holding off on the work is not an option.
“It’s a huge number, there’s no doubt about it,” Everitt said. “But procrastination won’t help the number go down any, it’ll raise it up.
“And we’ll be doing it on the
Kidney Foundation offers to Warm the Sole
Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff
chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca
The Kidney Foundation wants to Warm the Sole of each of the 3,300 dialysis patients in B.C. and the Yukon.
There are 215 people in Prince George who received a pair of Warm the Sole socks to help keep their typically chilly feet warmer. Diane and Paul Duperron, who are longtime volunteers for the local branch of the Kidney Foundation, are two of the volunteers who have been visiting patients on dialysis this week to gift the socks to those experiencing kidney failure.
Farrah Campbell, 41, moved to Prince George from Tumbler Ridge a year ago to get better care and said the support she gets here makes all the difference.
She said it’s not easy being a dialysis patient and explained how she used to cover up the bumps, bruises and needle marks on her arms from dialyzing for four hours
“It’s
part of who I am,” Campbell said, as she dialyzed Saturday morning. — see ‘I DON’T LOOK, page 3
basis of the critical mass of where something comes apart like we had this summer at the corner of 20th and Massey where we found ourselves in a position where we had to do more work than we intended to.
“And these projects, I think, fall into the category. If you leave things for some time, sooner or later it catches up with you. It’s a costly exercise.”
At $10.2 million, a major refurbishment of the Aquatic Centre in advance of the 2022 B.C. Summer Games is the biggest expense while the next largest is $5 million for replacing about 600 traffic signals and street lights.
That’s followed by $4.7 million to replace roofs on a dozen civic facilities, followed by $2.9 million for equipment purchases (which would be borrowed over 10 years at 2.6 per cent), $2.7 million for additional work at Masich Place
Stadium, $1.7 million for continued redevelopment at Ron Brent Park, $1.4 million to expand the mausoleum, $1.2 million for upgrades along 14th Avenue from Irwin to Freeman streets, $1.1 million for culvert replacements along Goose Country Road, $800,000 for upgrades along the Highway 16 West frontage road from Heyer to Henry Roads and $500,000 to signalize and reconfigure the intersection at Domano Boulevard and St. Lawrence Avenue/Gladstone Drive. Coun. Brian Skakun voted against proceeding with six of the projects: Masich Place, Ron Brent, 14th Avenue, Highway 16 West frontage, Goose Country Road and the street light replacements. All other councillors at the meeting voted in favour of all 11. Councillors Terri McConnachie and Susan Scott were absent from the meeting.
Sawmills reach tentative agreement with union
Citizen staff
The union representing workers at 13 northern B.C. sawmills is recommending they accept a tentative agreement with the operations’ bargaining agent.
The agreement, “provides a fair wage increase to our membership,” United Steelworkers
Local 2017-1 says in an online posting.
“It also provides significant improvements to benefits and contractual language.”
As proposed, the five-year agreement calls for two-per-cent wage increases in each of the first four years and 2.5 per cent in the last year.
The first-year increase is retroactive to July 1, 2018. and there will be a $500 lump sum payment on ratification and a further $500 on July 1, 2020.
It also calls for an increase to the premiums for shift differential and first aid, a reduction to the long-term disability premium and an increase to the coverage provided by disability insurance.
“The Bargaining Committee was able to fend off disappointing concessions presented by the employer during this round of bargaining by the strong will of our membership with a strong strike vote and rotating job action,” the union said. However, it added the probationary period for new employees will go to 60 days in six months from the present 30 working days in 90. Eligible benefits will still begin after 30 in 90. The tentative agreement with the Council on Northern Interior Forest Employment Relations was reached on Feb. 13.
three times a week for fear of what people would think. She said she doesn’t hide those marks anymore.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY CHRISTINE HINZMANN
Diane Duperron, a volunteer with the local branch of the Kidney Foundation, sits with Farrah Campbell, who is on dialysis three times a week. Duperron gave Campbell a pair of Warm the Sole socks as part of a campaign by the foundation.
Coldest Night of the Year benefits housing program
Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca
More than 100 people gathered at St. Giles Church Saturday night for the third annual Coldest Night of the Year event. The option was to do a two, five or 10 kilometre walk to catch a glimpse of what it’s like to be homeless and on the streets of Prince George in the middle of winter.
Just before the end of registration, those 111 people had raised more than $17,000 and counting, with proceeds going to the Association Advocating for Women and Community (AWAC,) a non-profit organization that has many housing programs to support individuals who are looking to secure and maintain housing.
Flashed up on the big screen during the safety meeting just before the crowd took to the streets was the question “why are you walking on the coldest night of the year?”
There’s only one true answer and here it is: Nicole Dennis.
She’s 31 years old and without AWAC she said she wouldn’t be here today.
She was born in Prince George and spent a dozen years here before her step dad got into so much trouble with drugs that the family moved to Vernon for a fresh start.
Dennis was 13 years old when she first became addicted to drugs. She couldn’t seem to stay clean. She came back from Vernon when she was 18 and took to the streets because of her drug habit.
After moving to Mackenzie and bouncing back and forth to Prince George, Dennis had her first baby in 2010 and moved back to Prince George for good in 2013. She lost her first born to the foster care system because she wasn’t able to care for him and she lived on the streets.
She was in and out of AWAC for years but she couldn’t stay off heroin long enough to make a difference.
“I’ve always been connected to AWAC,” Dennis said. “It’s my safe place.” She finally decided about four or five years ago that living under the back stairs of AWAC was where she could settle, but of course that couldn’t work for long. She tried to live within AWAC walls but it was a challenge for her.
“I loved being there but there was no place you could go that
you were by yourself,” Dennis said. “So I set up camp underneath the stairs and tarped it all the way around. I had one of those cheap air mattresses that you use to float on in a pool and put my sleeping bag on it. I had a tiny TV and a heater and that’s where I stayed for a while until they found me and told me that it wasn’t safe to stay there.”
She set up camp all over town after that.
“A lot of people used to joke that if the world was ending they wanted to stick with me,” Dennis said. “It was definitely always interesting and I always wanted to find somewhere comfortable for myself.”
Throughout that time Dennis always went to AWAC for a meal, a shower, a chat and finally decided she was ready to make a change.
She entered into the transition part of the housing program and eventually graduated to the residential side but failed to stay clean, which is against the rules for staying at AWAC.
“Drug addicts always find a way around the rules,” Dennis said. “You’d use outside and come back upstairs and then you’d get to the
point where you wouldn’t care and use in the room. Drug addicts are crafty, very manipulative, so I was able to hide it.”
She was so out of control at one point just over three years ago she just knew she was done and she was given an ultimatum – either go to treatment or she’d be kicked out.
“I told them I needed help and two weeks later my ass was on a bus,” Dennis smiled.
And where did that bus take her?
“To freedom,” Dennis said, and she cried. “To freedom.”
It was a 12-step program that took two-and-a-half months.
“And it was a powerful process,” Dennis said. “I had to face stuff I had buried for years. It was a very powerful process.”
Immediately after treatment Dennis returned to AWAC in Prince George.
She’s been clean for three years now.
“And do I look back?” Dennis asked and answered. “Not for the life of me do I ever look back.”
She got a permanent residence two years ago, has a two-year-old son she is able to raise herself and
she’s upgrading so she can go to college and get educated.
She’s chatty and outgoing and is thinking about being a receptionist because she knows those are where her strengths will shine.
“I’ll always be connected to AWAC,” Dennis said. She stops by to visit with staff every now and then.
“That place has saved my life so many times,” Dennis said.
“Whatever happened AWAC was always there to help me through it. The staff there made me feel safe and cared for when I couldn’t care for myself.”
Dennis stayed at the Coldest Night of the Year to volunteer. After participants took their walk downtown, they returned to the church for soup and treats and to talk about their experiences.
Organizer Alanna Le Cerf said she just wanted those who joined the walk to take it all in, think about those who are living outside on this very cold night and hope everyone gets a greater sense of community from the experience.
It’s not too late to donate to the cause. For more information visit https://cnoy.org/location/princegeorge.
CNC film fest screening Canadian flicks
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
The films are lined up and ready to roll.
Some of Canada’s best movies are shining on the silver screen of the Prince George Playhouse for the 23rd annual Cinema CNC Film Festival.
“We will be screening eight great Canadian feature films and a bunch of shorts, as well as serving up much fun and good spirits,” said Cinema CNC main organizer Peter Maides.
The schedule of fine flicks begins Friday and runs through Sunday.
The roster includes:
• The Edge Of The Knife –March 1 at 7 p.m.
• Giant Little Ones – March 1 at 9:30 p.m.
• Roads In February – March 2 at 1 p.m.
• Anthropocene – March 2 at 7 p.m.
• Falls Around Her – March 2 at 9:30 p.m.
• The Fireflies Are Gone –March 3 at 2 p.m.
• You Are Here: A Come From Away Story – March 3 at 7 p.m.
• Kingsway – March 3 at 9:30 p.m.
“We will be screening the shorts before the features,” said Maides.
“You might be interested to know that two of the shorts, Animal Behaviour and Weekends, (were) nominated for Oscars.” Passes are available for sale at Books & Company, the CNC Bookstore, and the UNBC Bookstore.
A full festival pass is $48, a Friday pass is $14, Saturday and Sunday passes are $21 each, and single tickets will be available at the door for $8 if seats are available for that showing.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Nicole Dennis shares her experiences being helped by AWAC on Saturday afternoon prior to the start of the Coldest NIght of the Year walk.
Professor giving speech about Swedish tycoon with northern B.C. ties
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
A rich visionary business tycoon from Europe once had his eyes dazzled by northern B.C. and tried to be a catalyst in Canadian development – all centred in this area.
He had the ear of B.C. premier W.A.C. Bennett. He had the ear of Europe’s most influential leaders. For a time, he was a household name in B.C. as much as his home country.
In Sweden, Axel Wenner-Gren was the inventor of the Electrolux home appliance empire and a financeer.
He was, in the first half of the 20th century, an equivalent in modern Canadian terms to a Ted Rogers or a Frank Stronach.
His intense interest in northern B.C., included the founding of several companies like Peace River Power Development, B.C. Electric and the Pacific Northern Railway, among others.
His sensational plans were documented in 1957 by both Maclean’s and Life Magazine. It made him an economic celebrity in this province where population and politician alike dared to hope that one of his dreams for the region might come to pass.
In a way, none of them did, but in another way some did find a way to come into existence and transformed B.C. in ways that still resonate.
Yet, almost 60 years since his death, the name Wenner-Gren has been almost entirely lost to local consciousness.
An academic with Prince George roots is working at sparking a revival of Wenner-Gren awareness. Frank Leonard is a former Prince George post-secondary teacher who is coming back to offer a unique look into the details of the ideas some called crazy, some called a scam in the making, and some called visionary.
“My interest in Wenner-Gren began during my eight-year stint as an instructor of history at the College of New Caledonia during the 1970s and ’80s,” said Leonard, who is now an adjunct associate professor with the University of Victoria and faculty emeritus with
Douglas College.
Leonard will speak at UNBC on Wednesday afternoon as part of the Archival Connections Speakers Series and his topic will be a retrospective of Wenner-Gren’s grand plans.
Those included sawmills, mines, hydroelectricity mega-projects, and even a proposed monorail line from southern B.C. to, in some brainstorming sessions, all the way to Alaska.
“One of the things that surprised me, when I began to do research, was – not just here but in Sweden – is how little has been written,” said Leonard.
“Wenner-Gren had the reputation of being the Swedish Midas, everything he did produced money, and when one begins to look at the documents and begins to look at the record, it is very spotty in Sweden and I think the only really undeniable entrepreneurial accomplishment was his creation of Electrolux in 1919.”
His business dreams for northern B.C. were almost utopian in their scope, and despite his money and his influence over politicians of the day, nobody in positions of power took the bait and
dumped taxpayer money into impractical schemes.
In fact, those British Columbians close to the Wenner-Gren development team noticed there was little substance behind the flashy presentations.
The monorail idea was never given more than some media pizzazz, due to the enormous cost of building such a thing. With so few people to transport (all that a 1950s monorail would have been capable of hauling), it made no sense whatsoever.
“He did run into trouble, on all of them,” said Leonard, of these businesses Wenner-Gren started to enable his ultimate dreams.
“The surveys were longer and more expensive than he expected. The best story of all was, because of the incredible cost of monorail, Wenner-Gren decided to build a conventional railway instead.
“Bennett was breathing down his neck because he wanted to use this for his election platform so in 1960 they created a brand new company called Pacific Northern Railway, and just before the date at which all of this would expire, according to the 1956 agreement (a secret plan struck between all the Wenner-Gren and B.C. parties), Bennett... and the B.C. cabinet took a special plane up to Prince George, they jumped on the PGE train and went to Summit Lake, walked out onto a podium, made speeches that Summit Lake was going to be the terminus of this new WennerGren railway, a camp was set up, a construction crew was in place to build a road bed of about 100 metres or so, Bennett, with the help of a local logger, took a chainsaw and cut down the first tree for this right-of-way.
“There’s a photograph of this in The Citizen. And once that was done (everyone left) and nothing was ever done about constructing the PNR after that fabulous day.”
Leonard’s fabulous day at UNBC is Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. when he will remind the public, in a free lecture, about this one-time celebrity businessman of the mid-20th century.
The discussion will be held in room 8-164.
Weak fourth quarter tempers banner year for Canfor
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Canfor Corp. generated “strong financial results” in 2018 as it earned $608.6 million in operating income – the highest the the sawmill and pulp mill operator has seen in over 10 years – the company said in a year-end report, issued last week.
“Reported annual results include record-high pulp and paper segment earnings and solid lumber segment operating income,” the company said.
“The latter was achieved despite major challenges presented by significant log supply constraints and log cost increases in British Columbia, severe transportation issues in the first half of the year, extreme weather across North America and one of the worst forest fire seasons in B.C., as well as significant market volatility during the year.”
However, it reported an operating loss of $79.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2018, “with the decline in earnings reflecting lower operating income for both the lumber and pulp and paper segments.”
The results include expense of $39.9-million that went to the ongoing duties charged for lumber imports into the United States. There was also a $36.7-million inventory valuation adjustment, representing the excess of the carrying cost of year-end lumber and log inventory over net realizable value.
Adjusted for those items, the company’s operating loss was $2.5 million for the fourth quarter, well down from the $246.9 million of operating income Canfor took in over the third quarter.
The company has imposed a series of production curtailments on sawmills over the final quarter of 2018 and the
first quarter of 2019 in answer to declining lumber prices.
Pulp production also took a hit when one of the recovery boilers at the Northwood plant had to be repaired and the Enbridge natural gas pipeline explosion at a spot just outside the city created disruptions to the fuel supply.
Looking ahead, the U.S. housing market is forecast to show a modest recovery through 2019, while the repair and remodeling sector south of the border is projected to record solid growth.
Notwithstanding high inventory levels, global softwood kraft pulp markets are projected to be steady through the first half of 2019, reflecting an anticipated pick-up in demand from China and reduced supply during the traditional spring maintenance period.
The full reports are posted with this story at www.pgcitizen.ca.
Prince George provincial court docket
From Prince George provincial court, Feb. 18-22, 2019:
• Sandra Lorraine Aalten (born 1964) was fined $50 for breaching probation.
• Robert Kenneth Christy (born 1959) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $2,000 for driving while impaired, committed in Tsay Keh Dene.
• Michael Darren Felix (born 1994) was sentenced to 31 days in jail and one year probation and ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution for theft $5,000 or under. Felix was in custody for 18 days prior to sentencing.
• Terence Francis Slater (born 1975) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $1,000 plus $150 in victim surcharges for driving while prohibited or licence suspended and driving while driver’s licence suspended, both under the Motor Vehicle Act.
• Brett Michael White (born 1997) was sentenced to one year probation for possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and breaching probation. White was in custody for 22 days prior to sentencing.
• Lorianna Mae Cahoose (born 1991) was sentenced to one year probation for theft $5,000 or under and possessing stolen property under $5,000.
• Ryan Kenneth Edward McLane (born 1983) was sentenced to 30 days in jail for assault, to 21 days in jail for breaching probation, to 20 days for breaching an undertaking or recognizance, to seven days for failing to appear in court, and to one year probation on the counts as well as one count of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
• Terance Karl Joseph Bouchard (born 1976) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $500 plus a $75 vic-
NEWS IN BRIEF
Green Party leader to be in Prince George
Federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May will be in Prince George on Saturday.
She will host a town hall meeting, free and open to the public, at the Uda Dune Baiyoh Centre, 355 Vancouver Street, 7:30 p.m. start.
She will also attend a meet and greet with UNBC students earlier the same day. It’s scheduled for 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Northern Undergraduate Student Centre event space. It’s also a free event but is open to students only. — Citizen staff
Police nab three from home invasion
Three persons are in custody following a home invasion robbery on Monday morning. Called to the scene on West Austin Road at 10:45 a.m., police converged on the spot within minutes, RCMP said, and arrested two men before they could hop into an awaiting vehicle.
A teenage youth who was in the vehicle was also arrested.
A modified firearm was located and seized near the scene. Stolen property, a replica firearm and a small quantity of drugs were also seized.
One of the four people who were in the home received minor injuries.
“Investigators believe that this was a targeted incident between persons known to each other,” RCMP said.
The suspects are to appear in court on Tuesday. Their names were not released.
— Citizen staff
Think before throwing out clothes, group urges
VANCOUVER (CP) — Clothing is clogging up
British Columbia landfills reaching nearly 20 million kilograms of textiles a year from Vancouver residents alone.
Metro Vancouver regional district is pushing people to think not just twice but three times before tossing out their clothing.
Jack Froese, the chairman of Metro Vancouver’s Zero Waste Committee, says people buy about three times as much clothing now as they did back in the 1980s. He says much of the fast fashion, which is relatively cheap to buy, ends up in the trash.
The campaign promotes greener options for reducing, repairing and reusing textiles, as well as tips on how to make smart choices when buying new clothes, or even purchasing second-hand or renting clothing.
IIO investigating police shooting
NEW WESTMINSTER (CP) — A man has died in New Westminster following a police-involved shooting. A release from New Westminster police says it happened just before 10 p.m. Sunday. Officers were called to a report of a suicidal man, possibly carrying a firearm, at the rear of a Walmart store in the Queensborough neighbourhood. Shots were fired as officers arrived and the man died of his injuries. The release does not state who fired the shots, but it says no officers or bystanders were hurt.
tim surcharge for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act, committed in Duncan.
• Shane Morgan Fowler (born 1987) was sentenced to six months probation for theft $5,000 or under, committed in Vancouver.
• Stephen Francis Erickson (born n/a) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $1,500 for driving while impaired under the Criminal Code.
• David Allen Walsh (born 1983) was sentenced to 20 days in jail for two counts of driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act, committed in Prince George and to 10 days in jail for driving while prohibited or licence suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act, committed in Surrey, and prohibited from driving for three years on the counts.
‘I don’t look sick but I am sick’
— from page 1
“I’m not going to hide it anymore,” Campbell added.
When she’s out in public she’s been approached by those who don’t know about her invisible ailment and they assume she’s got a drug addiction.
“I don’t look sick but I am sick,” Campbell said about having the disease they call the silent killer.
“And I’m not a drug addict. I’m on dialysis because my kidney function is only at four per cent.” She was diagnosed in 2002 with a form of kidney
failure that was a result of having chronic urinary tract infections in her youth. She has scar tissue on both kidneys. In 2002 when she was first diagnosed, her kidney function was at 50 per cent. Currently, Campbell is not on the donor list because her health is suffering. She hopes that will change quickly and she can be put back on the list soon. Campbell would like people to consider becoming living kidney donors and alternatively be sure to register as an organ donor
at www.kidney.bc.ca
The Warm the Sole campaign offers an opportunity to purchase the socks in support of the Kidney Foundation through the website. Each pair is $15, shipping included. The campaign was made possible through a grant from the Aviva Community Funds Small Ideas program and the Kidney Foundation was awarded $10,000. Your City Sports, the company that manufactures the socks, is donating an equal number of socks to the homeless in the Lower Mainland.
WENNER-GREN
Time for some Eric Allen
Paging Eric Allen. If there’s one man in Prince George able to remind local politicians who really calls the shots, especially when it comes to public spending, it’s Allen. In 2012, when the City of Prince George proposed to borrow $3.56 million to pay for the city’s portion of the $11.5 million cost to build a 3.3 kilometre dike along River Road, Allen took the city on. He needed to get 5,351 signatures on a petition between March 5 and April 24 to force the city to take the borrowing plan to a referendum.
He got 9,271 signatures and the city council of the day – a majority of which are still on the job (Lyn Hall, Frank Everitt, Brian Skakun, Murry Krause and Garth Frizzell) – walked away from the proposal. Perhaps these five gents think
the dike project would have gone through if Shari Green wasn’t the mayor at the time. Perhaps they think that because the referendum results on building a new Fire Hall No. 1 and a replacement for the aging Four Seasons Pool were positive, there will be no push-back on the city’s plan to borrow $32.2 million to pay for 11 capital projects. If someone – like Allen, for example – doesn’t collect 5,546 signatures or more before May 30 in opposition to all or some of the 11 proposed projects, the city will go ahead and borrow the money to complete the work.
The proposed projects include $10.2 million to renovate the Prince George Aquatic Centre, $5 million on street light and traffic signal replacement, $4.7 million to replace the roofs on various civic facilities and $2.7 million to further upgrade Masich Stadium,
which already saw $4.5 million pumped into it over the past two years.
The easiest target would be the aquatic centre. It was built 20
YOUR LETTERS
Wildfire burden downloaded on residents
During the summer of 2017, a great many people in Prince George contributed assistance to the B.C. wildfire situation and helped with the fire refugees from Williams Lake and surrounding area. Afterwards, volunteers were applauded as were the companies and local businesses that offered assistance and financial aid. Forgotten in the concerted thank yous were the employees that made the gracious contributions from these businesses possible. For many employees, dealing with food vouchers, increased product deliveries and many other increased duties and job expectations, it was simply a case of knuckling down and working harder to meet the added workload. In most cases, the employees of dozens of companies and the thousands of volunteers directly helping out at this time, received no financial compensation for their extra efforts, as they were simply doing their best.
City hall has recently increased the municipal tax rate by a staggering and unprecedented amount, and has done so on the back of a recent staggering and unprecedented pay increase to senior management positions at city hall. Pay increases up to 62.1 per cent as reported by the Prince George Citizen, occurred shortly before the wildfire situation and have been justified as commensurate with the formation of new
positions and duties. Essentially, the taxpayer is now responsible for paying absurd salaries to a small group of people who believe themselves to be outside the realm of accountability and deserving of self-assessed salaries.
The simply outrageous amount of the raises that senior management gave themselves is a commentary to their disregard and total lack of respect for the taxpayer and the other employees at city hall, who in all fairness, were most likely responsible for managing the increased workload that resulted from the fires.
The unprecedented nature of the raises and the sudden dramatic increase in our property taxes show a blatant and cynical misuse of the city’s financial resources and a direct and corrupted view that a few individuals can hold a municipality hostage and ransom it for what is greed and overinflated personal gain.
The province has been offloading its federally mandated responsibilities on B.C. cities for years, rather than fighting this injustice. The City of Prince George has followed suit and forwarded the burden on its citizens.
Paying for services is one thing, subsidizing an individual’s 62.1 wage hike is another. Mike Maslen Prince George
Utility bills a scam
It seems Terasen is just making charges up now.
Storage and transport, and also a delivery charge? Isn’t transport
and delivery the same? I don’t recall a gas truck pulling up to fill my natural gas tank.
Just make a flat rate price per gigajoule already so we don’t have to see all this gouging and made up charges. We’ve got your basic charge, municipal fee and the actual cost of the gas, which is almost the lowest price thing on there.
The cost of gas is $28 and delivery is $78. I don’t think I’ve ever ordered a meal or a product from here or another country where the delivery charges were more than the actual product. We also have the popular carbon tax of $31, which is more than 100 per cent markup of the cost of gas that was actually delivered.
My total bill was $191 for $28 in natural gas. Then there’s B.C. Hydro. Same B.S., different bill. It’s the only business or company in the world that I know of where the more you purchase, the more expensive it gets. Usually you get a better deal when you buy more but their step one, step two program is a bit backwards.
They even have a customer crisis fund that we have to pay for.
Maybe with all the money they’re making and increases, they could cover that themselves, I’m pretty sure we pay for this crisis fund for less fortunate but yet I still see people’s hydro getting cut off in winter, so is it another fake, made-up money grabber. This is a runaway gravy train and it’s getting a bit ridiculous.
Shane Giesinger, Prince
George
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. Maximum length is 750 words and writers are limited to one submission every week. We will edit letters only to ensure clarity, good taste, for legal reasons, and occasionally for length. Although we will not include your address and telephone number in the paper, we need both for verification purposes. Unsigned or handwritten letters will not be published. The Prince George Citizen is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
years ago for $9 million, approved by local taxpayers in the same referendum that gave the thumbs up to the construction of the Multiplex. In a 2017 referendum, 62.5 per cent of the handful of residents who bothered to vote supported borrowing $35 million to replace Four Seasons Pool.
It’s a sad irony that the number of people who voted yes – 4,923 – was enough to give the city the mandate to go ahead but it will take 5,546 signatures to force all or part of the city’s borrowing plan to a vote. Looking back to 2012, the real beef wasn’t actually about the dike but concern from residents that the city council and the new mayor, freshly elected just a few months earlier, weren’t working hard enough to control spending.
“The City of Prince George never seems to have sufficient money to
look after our roads or infrastructure, however they don’t seem to have any problem borrowing huge sums of money for their special projects, which result in further tax increases and further debt,” Allen wrote in a letter to the editor announcing his efforts to collect enough signatures to put a stop to the borrowing plan.
Perhaps it’s time this city council received a similar reminder that the past four years of big pay raises for the senior managers and mayor and council, hefty tax hikes and significant increases in hiring and spending are quite enough for now.
Perhaps it’s time for Allen – or someone just like him, armed with little more than pens, paper and sustained outrage – to put this city council on notice about its seeming neverending willingness to raise taxes and spend money.
— Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
Award-winning performances given in SNC-Lavalin scandal
The Academy Awards are over but it would appear there are still plenty of acting awards left to be won. Here are some thoughts on a few nominations and awards.
Nominees for best performance in role of a leader addressing a scandal:
• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for “I did not direct the attorney general.”
• Andrew Scheer for his hypocritical incredulity over “alleged direct involvement in a sustained effort to influence SNC-Lavalin’s criminal prosecution.”
• Jody Wilson-Raybould for “I will not be commenting.”
And the winner is… Trudeau. He has allowed a minor scandal to flare up into a newsworthy event. Somehow he and his office have managed to mishandle the whole situation from day one. Did he talk to the then minister of justice about the SNC-Lavalin case? Quite likely. Indeed, he is on record as saying he told WilsonRaybould the decision was hers and hers alone to make.
Is this out-of-the-ordinary behaviour on the part of the prime minister? Probably not. There are 9,000 jobs within the company which are at stake, many in Quebec. The impact of a guilty verdict would see the company banned from government contracts for 10 years. As they are already banned internationally by the World Bank, shutting the company out of the Canadian market would likely lead to its complete collapse.
Going into an election year, the government or the Prime Minister’s Office likely believed the failure of SNC-Lavalin would hurt their chances in Quebec. Further, it could be used as politic fodder indicating everything is not rosy in the Canadian economy.
After all, SNC-Lavalin is a major player.
Given the context, it makes sense the powers-that-be felt some form of intervention was probably a good idea and the prime minister or someone in his office felt a conversation with the minister was appropriate. Not really that unusual. I am not saying this is the way things should be – just this is the way things are.
The whole scenario gets complicated with the removal of WilsonRaybould from her position as the minister of justice. Her response to the perceived demotion was terse and perfunctory. It left open the possibility there was more than meets the eye with the reorganization.
Over the past couple of weeks, we have heard more and more about the case. It would appear some form of pressure was applied.
However, it is not the application of pressure which has turned
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this into a scandal but rather the mishandling of the issue from day one.
With a more open response, it likely would have blown over.
The prime minister should have learned the lesson most politicians need to know – if you are digging yourself into a hole, throw away the shovel.
Instead, this scandal will likely play out over and over during the seven-month run-up to the next federal election. It might even impact the outcome of the vote. In the meantime, the nominees for best performance in a supporting role during a scandal:
• Wilson-Raybould for “I will not be commenting.”
• Gerald Butts for “I categorically deny the accusation that I or anyone else in (the Prime Minister’s) office pressured WilsonRaybould.”
• Conservative MP Michelle Rempel for tweeting “It’s now officially PMO said he (can’t talk). Lots to dig up and unpack. Meanwhile, Canada needs a pipeline, is in the middle of major foreign policy issues, etc. What a disaster.”
Although it is a close thing, the winner is… Butts.
He resigned his position as principal secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office over the whole affair. A longtime friend and advisor to the prime minister, he was also a key advisor in developing the Liberal 2015 election strategy. Along with chief of staff Katie Telford, he was considered to be Trudeau’s top advisor.
Given his position, his resignation is perplexing. Even more so because of the way Butts defended his decision: “Any accusation that I or the staff put pressure on the attorney general is simply not true. Canadians are rightly proud of their public institutions. They should be, because they work. But the fact is that this accusation exists. It cannot and should not take one moment away from the vital work the prime minister and his office is doing for all Canadians. My reputation is my responsibility and that is for me to defend. It is in the best interests of the office and its important work for me to step away.”
Translation: I have done nothing wrong but I am falling on my sword anyway. Which raises all sorts of questions about why he would choose to resign and why at this moment? If the work is vital wouldn’t his absence cause problems? There is a lot at stake here and the performances are likely to continue for some time.
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Clear skies
CP PHOTO
Singh cements leadership with B.C. byelection win
Joan BRYDEN Citizen new service
OTTAWA — Jagmeet Singh tightened his shaky grip on the reins of the NDP Monday by winning a do-or-die federal byelection in British Columbia.
But the challenge he now faces in reviving the party’s flagging fortunes in time for this fall’s national election was underscored by the NDP’s simultaneous loss to the Liberals in Outremont, the Montreal riding that served as a launching pad for the orange wave that swept Quebec in 2011.
With most polls reporting, Singh captured Burnaby South with more than 38 per cent of the vote, ahead of the Liberal contender with 26 per cent and the Conservative with 22 per cent.
Had he lost, Singh would almost certainly have faced demands to resign as leader. Going into Monday’s byelection, many New Democrats – including Singh’s predecessor, Tom Mulcair – had questioned how Singh could lead the party in the October federal election if he couldn’t win a seat for himself. However, the loss of Outremont cast a pall over Singh’s victory celebration.
Lawyer Rachel Bendayan reclaimed the riding for the Liberals with 42 per cent of the vote, even as the governing party struggles with the fallout from allegations that the Prime Minister’s Office improperly pressured former attorney general Jody WilsonRaybould to halt criminal proceedings against Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.
The NDP’s Julia Sanchez captured 27 per cent.
Outremont was a longtime Liberal stronghold until 2007, when Mulcair scored a byelection upset for the NDP, creating a beachhead for the party in Quebec, from which it eventually went on to sweep the province in 2011 and vault into official Opposition status for the first time in party history.
Since those heady days, the party has fallen back to its traditional third-party status. It won just 44 seats in the 2015 election, 16 of them in Quebec. Monday’s loss of Outremont gives credence
to polls that suggest the party risks being wiped out altogether in Quebec this fall.
Vancouver NDP MP Jenny Kwan acknowledged the loss of Outremont was “a disappointment.”
“What we’re going to do, of course, is learn from this experience and then we’re going to redouble our efforts to ensure that the people of Quebec know we are there for them,” she said at Singh’s victory party.
In a third byelection Monday, the Conservatives handily hung on to the Ontario riding of YorkSimcoe, which had been held since 2004 by former Conservative cabinet minister Peter Van Loan. Scot Davidson took 53 per cent of the vote for the Tories, well ahead of Liberal Shaun Tanaka with 30 per cent.
There were, however, a couple of potentially bad omens for the Conservatives in Monday’s results.
The breakaway People’s Party of Canada, created last summer by one-time Tory leadership contender Maxime Bernier, faced its first electoral test in the byelections and results suggest it could be a spoiler that deprives the Conservatives of victory in tight contests come the fall.
While the fledgling party won less than two per cent of the vote in Outremont and York-Simcoe, it did surprisingly well in Burnaby South, where Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson won more than 11 per cent of the vote after running on a “Canadians first” campaign that was denounced as anti-immigration and racist by some supporters of rival candidates.
And in Outremont, the Conservative candidate ran a distant fifth with just over six per cent of the vote, behind the Liberals, NDP, Greens, and Bloc Quebecois.
The Greens, who’ve watched their vote share increase in a number of other recent byelection contests, came third in Outremont with some 13 per cent of the vote – up 10 points from the 2015 election. However, the party’s vote share was down slightly in York-Simcoe, at less than three per cent. The Greens did not run a candidate in Burnaby South, as a courtesy to Singh.
Pine Centre cannabis store clears public hearing
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
A proposal to open a provincially-run cannabis retail store in Pine Centre Mall cleared a hurdle Monday night when city council voted 6-1 to advance a spotrezoning for the location to final hearing.
The move came after a public hearing that drew an expression of concern from a representative from Northern Health, healthy settings advisor Jeff Kormos, who said the mall is a poor location because of the number of children and youth who are quite often in the building, particularly given its close proximity to Prince George Secondary School.
“We would just warn that having a cannabis outlet in the mall would potentially be more visible to youth and children in the area,” Kormos said.
Three letters to council on the item expressed a similar concern.
However, it was not enough to sway most of council. Only Coun. Cori Ramsay voted against, also over concern about its short distance from PGSS, saying better
locations can be found.
“I grew up in that area, in that neighbourhood, I attended PGSS,” she said. “I spent my lunch hours going to Pine Centre Mall and I do believe it serves as an extension, unofficially, of the PGSS campus.”
In support, Coun. Garth Frizzell said the mall caters to a wide variety of interests, “ranking from the liquor store to teen shops to a cigar store.”
Like Frizzell, Coun. Murry Krause noted a liquor store has been operating at the mall for quite some time, “and if there is a drug that’s used more than any other, it’s probably alcohol.”
Krause also noted he attended PGSS back in the 1960s and cannabis was readily available back then.
Coun. Kyle Sampson said measures will be in place to keep minors out of the stores, including a thorough identification checks. Two pieces of ID are required for proof of age.
Sampson added he toured a BC Cannabis Store in Kamloops and came away impressed.
“They do a really good job of making sure the right clientele
and that’s somebody of age,” he said.
Mayor Lyn Hall and councillors Brian Skakun and Frank Everitt also voted in favour. Councillors Terri McConnachie and Susan Scott were absent.
The store will be opened in a corner of the old Sears department store. Entrance into the store will be from outside the mall only.
Pending final approval, it will be the second BC Cannabis Store to win council’s support. The other is slated for the Westgate Shopping Centre. No applications for privately-run stores have gone before council.
Meanwhile, a proposal to amend the city’s zoning bylaw to allow cannabis production on land zoned heavy industrial was also advanced to final reading after no concerns were raised during a public hearing on that matter.
That rezoning will make way for an application to rezone sites at 7250 and 7574 Willow Cale Rd. measuring 14.9 hectares (37 acres) for a cannabis production facility. A public hearing on that proposal will be held at a later date.
The sun shine brightly over the CN Rail bridge Monday afternoon. The clear skies will continue until Friday with temperatures getting warmer through the week.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh celebrates his Burnaby South byelection win in Burnaby on Monday.
Province boosting spending on mine safety enforcement, minister says
VICTORIA — British Columbia’s mines minister says the Mount Polley tailings pond collapse is behind changes to increase safety and regulation enforcement in provincial mining operations.
Michelle Mungall said Monday the government will spend $20 million over the next three years to hire 65 safety and enforcement officials and improve the mine permit approval process in an effort encourage investment. She said the changes were based on the results in the Mining Jobs Task Force report which made 25 recommendations to improve mine safety for workers and the environment, while spurring investment.
“The Mining Jobs Task Force came in and said that is very important and this is how we need to
be doing it,” she said.
“That’s exactly what this announcement is about. We’re making sure situations like Mount Polley are more preventable going into the future because we’re going to have more boots on the ground.”
B.C. auditor general Carol Bellringer recommended in a separate report after the dam’s collapse that the Mines Ministry separate its enforcement and compliance division and make it independent from the permitting office, Mungall said.
In August 2014, Mount Polley’s massive tailings dam breached at the copper and gold mine in B.C.’s Cariboo region near Quesnel Lake, sending 24 million cubic metres of waste and mine water into nearby waterways.
Mungall made the announcement at a B.C. Mining Day news
conference outside the legislature accompanied by members of the mining industry. No charges have been laid in connection to the disaster. The statute of limitations on possible federal Fisheries Act charges will expire in August.
Imperial Metals Corp. said last month it is suspending operations at Mount Polley due to declining copper prices.
A company statement said the suspension plan includes milling of low grade stockpiles which is expected to extend operations to the end of May.
A report into the disaster said the tailings dam was built on a sloped glacial lake, weakening the foundation of the dam.
It said the inadequate design of the dam didn’t account for drainage or erosion failures associated with glacial till beneath the pond.
Measles outbreak spreads, warnings issued outside B.C.
Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — Two new cases of measles were reported in British Columbia on Sunday, with one of them prompting officials in Alberta and the Northwest Territories to warn the person may have exposed others to the infection as they travelled.
A spokesman with the Vancouver International Airport said the first case arrived on a Philippine Airlines flight from Manila on Feb. 11, and another person with measles departed Vancouver on an Air Canada flight to Edmonton the following day.
Chris Devauld did not know whether the passenger on the Philippine Airlines flight left Vancouver on another flight or stayed, nor did he know whether the Edmonton-bound passenger had arrived in Vancouver from another destination. Officials in Alberta and the Northwest Territories both issued warnings to people who may have been in contact with the passenger who flew to Edmonton.
Alberta Health Services said in a news release that an individual with a lab-confirmed case of measles who arrived on the Air Canada flight then rode in an airport shuttle to a hotel in nearby Leduc. The health agency said that person visited a Walmart in Leduc later that day, and left Edmonton on a Canadian North flight for Inuvik, N.W.T., on Feb. 13. Officials in the Northwest Territories also issued a statement, warning that a person flew to Inuvik from an “international destination” on Feb. 13, and that the person’s travels also took them through Yellowknife and Norman Wells, N.W.T., the same day.
Damien Healy, a spokesman for N.W.T. Health and Social Services, confirmed it was the same person who flew from Vancouver to Edmonton. Vancouver Coastal Health said the passenger who arrived on the flight from the Philippines and the passenger who departed for Edmonton both acquired measles while travelling abroad.
Group to fight arrests at homeless camp
MAPLE RIDGE — Pivot Legal Society says it has filed leave to appeal the B.C. Supreme Court injunction used by RCMP to enter a homeless camp in Maple Ridge and arrest six people.
Ridge Meadows RCMP said in a release officers made the arrests as Maple Ridge fire department officials and bylaw officers entered the Anita Place encampment on Sunday to enforce the injunction granted earlier this month.
Officials say they were concerned about propane heaters and stoves posing a fire hazard when used in or near tightly spaced tents.
Pivot said in a news release Monday that some of its members witnessed the enforcement and both city officials and RCMP contravened the injunction order. The group says police
and city officials shut off heat to a warming tent and refused to restore power, impeding health care and service providers from entering the encampment and preventing residents from accessing their homes.
Pivot staff lawyer Caitlin Shane says the group will ask for an expedited order from the court in an effort to force the city to communicate with residents of Anita Place.
RCMP say in their release that three of the people arrested face charges for violating the injunction and were expected to appear B.C. Supreme Court. Three others are charged with various Criminal Code offences, and Sgt. Brenda Gresiuk says they were expected in provincial court.
The Anita Place homeless camp formed nearly two years ago as a protest over unaffordable housing.
Citizen news service
A helicopter flies over the damage caused by a tailings pond breach near the town of Likely on Aug. 5, 2014. On Monday, Minister Michelle Mungall announced $20 million in additional funding to increase enforcement of mine safety and regulation enforcement.
Citizen news service
Podium performance
Canada takes silver in mixed relay at World Para Nordic Skiing Championships
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Canadians Natalie Wilkie and Emily Young finally got something they could sink their teeth into at the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships.
After missing the podium in a tough week of racing they teamed up with multi-medalists Collin Cameron and Mark Arendz and carved out a precious piece of silver in Saturday’s cross-country mixed relay.
“We needed a little estrogen on the podium,” quipped Young. They couldn’t quite keep up to Team Ukraine, which won its ninth gold medal of the championships, but silver was sweet for a Canadian team that fed off the cheers of their home country supporters who lined the course on a sunny but cold morning at Otway Nordic Centre.
Wilkie, an 18-year-old from Salmon Arm, had fourth-place
backstage at the Civic Centre on Saturday night prior to the evening’s medal ceremony.
results in the sprint and mid-distance cross-country events earlier in the week. She took the anchor leg after Arendz made his final push into the stadium.
“It was a little bit stressful know-
ing my team had come in right behind (Ukrainian skier Yuliia Batenkova-Bauman),” said Wilkie.
“I felt kind of stressed because I didn’t think I could keep up to (Liudmyla) Lianshenko but I did my
best and silver’s really good.”
Young’s best finish heading into the relay was her sixth-place result in the cross-country sprint and the 28-year-old drew added inspiration from the cheers of the flag-waving pro-Canada crowd, which included her family from North Vancouver.
“It’s fantastic to have my family here and all the non-family members of Canada – we have them cheering everywhere, they can throw their voices better than anyone I know, you can hear them on the far corners of the course,” said Young. “The energy you get from some cheering and from your coaches or non-coaches, it does help so much in the spots where they’re a little bit dark.
“It’s great to be home and to bring home a medal at the world championships is fantastic. This is where my journey started for skiing. My very first big competition was Prince George for Canada Winter Games, with the silver medals there, so to come home (to B.C.) and bring it back here four years later to have another silver
Spruce Kings end record-breaking regular season
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
Anyone old enough to remember the 1960s-era Batman TV series might remember that whenever the Caped Crusader and his sidekick Robin were beating up the villains, the floor was always tilted.
Kind of like the ice was in the Prince George Spruce Kings’ favour for much of the game Saturday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
They had the youth-injected Chilliwack Chiefs under siege most of the night and
came out of it with a 4-1 victory in the final game of the regular season for the two top teams in the B.C. Hockey League.
It was almost a foregone conclusion the Spruce Kings were going to win this one.
The Chiefs left a third of their roster back home in Chilliwack to get their veterans rested up for the playoffs and came north with a bunch of affiliated players to finish out the 58-game schedule with a couple games against their Mainland Division rivals.
With nothing at stake in the standings, the Kings gave backup goalie Keenan Ran-
cier a rare start and sat out Ben Brar, their leading goal-scorer, as well as forward Chong Min Lee and defenceman Max Coyle. Otherwise, they iced a full-strength lineup.
Just as they did in a 5-3 win on Friday, they largely dictated the proceedings on the ice.
Dustin Manz, with two goals, Layton Ahac and Liam Watson-Brawn took care of the Spruce Kings’ scoring.
Midget call-up Cade Cavallini notched the only Chiefs goal with a behind-the-net shot that deflected in off Rancier’s skate
medal here is pretty special.” Cameron, a sit-skier from Bracebridge, Ont., won gold in the cross-country sprint and silver in the mid-distance biathlon. He got Canada off to a great start in the relay, sitting just behind Ukraine and Japan as he tagged off to Young. “I just tried to stick with the Japanese guy (Yoshihiro) Nitta and just try to hang on to him for so long and give them as good of an advantage as I can and pass it off to Emily to keep us going,” said Cameron.
Arendz, of Hartsville, P.E.I., who won two silver and two bronze in individual races during the week, passed two teams during his freestyle ski leg. Canada, the Paralympic silver medalists in relay last year in Pyeongchang, completed the 10-kilometre course in 27:46.6, 1:16.5 off the winning pace of Ukraine (Dmytro Suiarko and guide Vasyl Potapenko, Oleksandra Kononova, Batenkova-Bauman and Liashenko) whose winning time was 27:19.2.
— see NORWAY, page 8
with one second left in the second period. Rancier came that close to notching his first career BCHL shutout.
“I went to see if anyone was back door (in front of the crease) and he shot the puck off my skate and in through the fivehole, but I’m happy to get the win,” said Rancier.
“The feeling’s great right now, the guys are really excited and really hyped up and we hope we have a long playoff run. We could definitely well be in Brooks with RBC Cup this year.”
— see EXPRESS, page 8
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Team Canada members Natalie Wilkie, left, Collin Cameron, Emily Young and Mark Arendz pose with their silver medals during the 2019 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships medal ceremony at the Civic Centre on Saturday night. Canada claimed the silver in the cross-country mixed relay.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
A gold medal from the 2019 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships sits
Express coming north for playoff opener
from page 7
The Kings let off the gas a bit in the third period and had to kill off a couple of penalties which skewed the shot count more in the Chiefs’ favour – 8-5 in the third period – but Prince George maintained a 36-24 edge in the game.
With their 39th win Saturday the Spruce Kings (39-13-1-5) set a team record for wins in a season, eclipsing the former record of 38 set in 1998-99, when they finished a 60-game schedule with a 37-20-0 record. They ended up this season with 84 points, also a team record, one shy of the first-overall Chiefs.
Watson-Brawn returned Saturday after serving a four-game suspension for an illegal hit Feb. 10 in Surrey and came back with a first-star performance.
“It was nice, the boys helped me out a lot and I just tried to keep it simple and it worked to my favour,” said Watson-Brawn. “These games are hard because you’ve got to stay dialled through 60 and sometimes you go down to their level but you’ve got to keep playing your game and keep grinding.
“It’s going to be a very tightchecking series (with Coquitlam) and we’re looking forward to how the playoffs go for us this year. Our defence is huge, we gave up very few shots a game and that really helps. If we play like that we’re going to go far.”
The Spruce Kings host the thirdplace Coquitlam Express in Game 1 of that best-of-seven series Friday at RMCA. Tickets are on sale at the Kings’ office. The Chiefs will take on the fourth-place Langley
Rivermen in the other Mainland series which also starts Friday.
Prince George won five and lost three head-to-head in the season series with Chilliwack.
Both will have to win their opening-round playoff series for the teams to face each again this season.
Chiefs assistant coach Cam Keith, who filled in for head coach
Brian Maloney, who was in Red Deer scouting the Canada Winter Games tournament, would like to see his team meet the Spruce Kings in the playoffs.
“Our focus for the weekend was to get some of our APs a couple of games of experience playing against what will hopefully be the two best teams in the league playing in playoffs so it was a great test
for them, especially in this rink, it’s always a tough battle,” said Keith.
“We’re going to be focused on our first round of course but in the back of our minds we’re hoping this will be our second-round matchup.”
The Kings got through the weekend without injuries. Nolan Welsh returned to the lineup Friday after missing five weeks with a concus-
Norway closes large gap to win gold
from page 7
“They were always ahead but the gap was much smaller,” said Young. “They’re a powerhouse. It’s intimidating because they’ve always been fast. We know what we’re up against and know we just have to do the best we can.”
Germany (Andrea Eskau, Alexander Ehler, Nico Messinger and guide Lutz Peter Klausmann) were the bronze medalists in 28:29.3, winning a close duel with Korea for the final medal position.
In the open relay, Norwegian standing skier Vilde Nilsen moved up from fourth to first on the last leg of the relay to give Norway the victory. Nilsen and her teammates Treygve Steinar Larsen, Hakon Olsrud, Eirik Bye and his guide Elvind Roed stopped the clock in 24:48.8. Bye came in together with his guide Roed to end the race and was greeted by his elated teammates with Nilsen, a two-time gold medalist in the individual events, waving the Norwegian flag.
“It’s amazing to win gold, that’s my first gold medal and I don’t know what to say crossing the line as a world champion,” said Bye, who has 10 per cent vision and can see only close objects. “Before the start I thought we were in position to win the bronze medal but the athletes before me did an incredible job.” Bye took the lead with about 500 metres left. Silver went to France (Benjamin Daviet, Anthony Chalencon and his guide Simon Valverde), who completed the 10km course in 25:00.8. Ukraine (Iaroslav Reshetynskyi and his guide Kostiantyn Yaremko, Bohdana Konashuk, and Gygorii Vovchenskyi) won bronze in 25:08.2.
In his first race at the championships since returning from Europe, visually-impaired skier Brian McKeever and his guide Graham Nishikawa of Canmore teamed up with sit-skier
Tulowitzki goes deep against Blue Jays
Ethan Hess of Pemberton and standing skier Kyle Barber of Sudbury, Ont., and finished sixth in the open relay.
As expected, McKeever, the 39-year-old veteran of the team, gave Canada a healthy lead after his 2.5km classic technique loop. The 27-year-old Barber, without poles, skied the second and four legs, while Hess, 19, covered the third segment in his sled.
“I took off just as a big group had pulled in just ahead of me, including the German sit-skier (Martin Fleig) and I tried to stick with him. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it happen,” said Hess. “There was a Bulgarian right behind me and I pulled ahead of him right at the first climb and I heard the guide screaming at their athlete the whole time and that was a cool
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Troy Tulowitzki got some payback against the Toronto Blue Jays in his first spring training at-bat for the New York Yankees.
Tulowitzki homered on his first swing in a Yankees uniform and jawed at the Blue Jays dugout after rounding third base following his drive Monday off Marcus Stroman, a friend and former teammate.
experience having someone chase you down like that and I did everything I could to stay ahead of him and managed to do that and tag off the Kyle.”
For Barber and Hess, it was their first relay experience in a high-profile event.
“The body was hurting after the first lap, I tried to hold on as best I could,” said Barber. “It was the best skiing I’ve done all week, for sure.”
The Otway crowd lining the course and watching from the lodge balcony erupted in a thunderous cheer for Barber as he strode across the finish line.
“Coming across the finish line to that welcome, I’ve never experienced anything like that. That was the coolest experience for sure being here,” said Barber.
“You know what happened, so no doubt about it, it was definitely extra, extra special,” Tulowitzki said after the Yankees’ 3-0 win. “That was a team that basically told me I couldn’t play anymore. It is spring training, it is what it is, but it was a big day for me.”
A five-time all-star, Tulowitzki missed last season because of surgery and was released by the Jays Dec. 14.
sion. Last year’s BCHL finalists are going into the playoffs having won 13 of their last 14 games.
“Obviously you want to go into playoffs on a winning note and feeling good about your game,” said Kings head coach Adam Maglio. “We still have to clean up on some things, our consistency through a whole game, we need to get a little better.
“I think the guys who have gone through a long playoff series understand how important every shift is and we have some guys who have to learn that the little things really do matter in playoffs an hopefully it’s cleaned up before and we’re not learning that during the playoffs.”
LOOSE PUCKS: Prince George minor hockey product Matthew Marotta, who usually skates for the Cariboo Cougars major midget team, played his second game of the weekend as an affiliated player on the Chiefs’ blueline. He has two goals and 22 points in 33 games this season with Cariboo… Manz reached the 70-point plateau with his empty-netter. The 19-year-old Lake Superior State University recruit from Vanderbilt, Mich., played all 58 games and led the Kings in scoring…
A group of about 100 athletes, coaches and support staff on the teams in Prince George for the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships turned out to watch… Attendance was announced at 1,403, which brought the average crowd count up to 983 fans per game, up from last year’s 898 average.
Silvertips top Cats
Citizen staff
So much for the winning streak. It didn’t last long. One game, in fact. One day after they ended a 17-game winless skid the Prince George Cougars traveled to Everett and lost 6-3 Saturday to the Silvertips.
Bryce Kindopp scored his team-leading 35th and 36th goals of the season to spice the Silvertips’ offence. Wyatte Wylie, Zack Andrusiak, Jackson Berezowski and Robbie Holmes also filled the Cougar nets. Wylie opened the scoring on the power play six minutes in, and 24 seconds later Andrusiak made it a 2-0 count for the WHL Western Conference leaders. The Silvertips outshot the Cougars 24-8 in the opening period and took a 3-0 lead into the dressing room.
Czech rookie Matej Toman scored twice for the Cougars and Josh Maser fired a single.
The Silvertips scored on their first three power plays, including Holmes’s game-winner, 2:59 into the second period, with Rhett Rhinehart serving a hooking penalty.
Cats’ goalie Isaiah DiLaura was replaced after 20 minutes and Taylor Gauthier came in for the second period. Dustin Wolf played the first two periods in the Everett nets and Max Palaga took over for the third. The Cougars were outshot 47-29.
The U.S. Division leaders improved to 42-14-2-2, while the Cougars dropped to 17-36-4-3, fifth in the B.C. Division and last in the Western Conference. The Cats host the Spokane Chiefs (31-19-2-5) tonight and Wednesday.
Canada’s Mark Arendz speeds through a corner section at Otway Nordic Centre during Sunday action at the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships.
Prince George Spruce Kings defenceman Nick Bochen looks to make a play in the slot while being checked by Max Wutzke of the Chilliwack Chiefs on Saturday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Alberta skip ‘in shock’ after Scotties victory
Gregory STRONG Citizen news service
SYDNEY, N.S. — Up one with hammer to win is normally the Rachel Homan wheelhouse position. Tied coming home with hammer is usually a lock too.
The Ontario skip picked the worst possible time to show a few cracks.
Alberta’s Chelsea Carey forced an extra end in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts final when Homan surprisingly came up an inch short on her draw to the fourfoot ring.
Carey then pulled out a wild 8-6 victory when Homan stunningly came up a foot short with a similar draw in the 11th.
“I don’t think I even know what just happened,” Carey said. “I’m still in shock.”
The steal of two left the crowd in disbelief. The dramatic finish gave Carey her second national women’s curling championship.
Brooms were sent flying when the win was sealed – with lead
Rachel Brown nearly hitting the scoreboard with hers – before joining Carey and teammates Sarah Wilkes and Dana Ferguson to celebrate.
Homan and teammates Emma Miskew, Joanne Courtney and Lisa Weagle could only watch in silence. The world’s top-ranked team had plowed through the competition entering nationals and were favourites to win at Centre 200.
“We had control and we had every opportunity to win,” said Homan.
The Ottawa skip was dominant in the first half of the game and looked like she would roll to a fourth career Scotties title.
“Who would have saw this coming? I’m still stunned,” Ferguson
said. “It doesn’t happen very often, if ever.”
Homan had two early steals as Carey frequently missed wide over the first few ends. Carey gave up three points in the fourth after a flubbed takeout attempt.
Alberta started to make things interesting after the mid-game break by scoring on back-to-back steals. Carey had a chance to pull even in the ninth end but was well wide with her final throw.
She took her chances in the last two ends by hoping Homan would miss on her draws since the ice was becoming less consistent.
“Rachel hasn’t missed a draw
to the four-foot all season,” said Miskew. “It was just a really hard guess out there.”
Just a day earlier, Ontario coach Marcel Rocque noted Homan’s strength when she had late control, pointing out she was 11-2 in one-point games this season with hammer and 5-0 in extra ends with hammer.
However, delivering precision throws when a national title is on the line can be a much different situation.
“She didn’t overthrow and gave it to the sweepers,” Rocque said. “That’s the way you’re supposed to do it. So she wasn’t off by
West teams load up at NHL trade deadline
Citizen news service
One year later, the Ottawa Senators and Vegas Golden Knights finally came together on a deadline day blockbuster.
Ottawa shipped winger Mark Stone to Sin City for a package that includes defence prospect Erik Brannstrom, centre Oscar Lindberg and a second-round selection in the 2020 draft just before the NHL’s noon PT trade cutoff Monday.
The Senators and Golden Knights were thought to be close on a deal involving Ottawa captain and star defenceman Erik Karlsson at last February’s deadline, but the potential swap never materialized.
The two-time Norris Trophy winner was eventually traded to the San Jose Sharks in September.
Stone was the last of three unrestricted free agents to exit the nation’s capital in the last four days after fellow forwards Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel
were traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets in separate moves as lastplace Ottawa strips its roster down to the studs and continues on the path of a potential rebuild.
Stone then signed an eight-year contract extension with Vegas. He, Duchene and Dzingel accounted for 41 per cent of the Senators’ goals this season before the trades. All three are in the prime of their careers, as is Karlsson.
“It’s the players’ right if they want to stay or not stay,” said Senators general manager Pierre Dorion, who also sent minorleague forward Tobias Lindberg to Vegas in the Stone deal. “We’ve made it clear through this process to these four players that we’re in a rebuild.
“It’s their choice, we tried to sign all four of them.”
The Golden Knights were looking forward to getting their new addition on the ice.
“He plays a complete game, plays every situation, and he’s going to really help our hockey club,”
Vegas head coach Gerard Gallant told The Associated Press. In all, teams completed 20 trades involving 32 players and 16 draft picks – including five conditional selections – on Monday. An arms race emerged in the Western Conference, where the Nashville Predators acquired physical winger and pending unrestricted free agent Wayne Simmonds from the Philadelphia Flyers for forward Ryan Hartman and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2020.
much. You play this game long enough and you know that that happens.”
The final was a rematch of the 2017 Olympic Trials final. Homan won that game in Ottawa when Carey missed a double takeout that would have forced an extra end.
“You don’t think you’re going to win that game,” Carey said. “They’re such good hitters that they usually run away with leads. It’s not easy to chip away at that.”
Despite a nose hit opportunity in the ninth, Carey decided to draw for two but her throw was heavy and she took a single.
The Calgary skip, who was named most valuable player, won in 2016 with a different team.
Earlier in the day, Homan defeated Saskatchewan’s Robyn Silvernagle 9-7 in the semifinal. Homan broke open a tight game with four points in the sixth end and was in control from there.
Carey earned direct entry into the final with a win over Silvernagle in the 1-2 Page Playoff game on Saturday. Homan reached the semifinal with a 3-4 Page Playoff victory over Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville.
Homan has reached the playoffs in all six of her Scotties appearances. The three-time national champion had never won by taking the long route through the 3-4 game. Announced attendance was 3,484 for the final to push the overall total to 46,796. The venue has a capacity of about 5,000 for curling.
Carey will represent Canada at the March 16-24 women’s world championship in Silkeborg, Denmark. Carey’s team received $32,000 for the victory while Homan’s rink got $24,000.
This game started off with only a fraction of the tension. By the end, it came close to matching it. Carey wrecked on a guard in the first end, going wide on an angle raise in the second and featherticking a stone in the third end to settle for one. Alberta finally caught a break in the sixth end when Homan missed a runback takeout for three that would have put the game away. Ontario gave up another point in the seventh when Homan couldn’t deliver on a come-around tapback. She had a chance for a double takeout in the eighth but hit for one.
The Canadian men’s curling championship – the Tim Hortons Brier – is set for March 1-10 in Brandon, Man.
Nashville also grabbed Mikael Granlund from the Minnesota Wild for fellow winger Kevin Fiala.
The Winnipeg Jets scooped up centre Kevin Hayes from the New York Rangers for winger Brendan Lemieux, a first-round pick in the 2019 NHL draft and a conditional fourth-rounder in 2022.
A pending UFA, the six-foot-five, 216-pound Hayes should give the Jets a presence down the middle on the second line as the club readies for another run at the Stanley Cup after making the Western Conference final last spring. Winnipeg actually made six trades in all, including the addition of centre Matt Hendricks from Minnesota, defenceman Bogdan Kiselevich from the Florida Panthers, and blueliner Nathan Beaulieu from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for picks, while Nic Petan was flipped to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Par Lindholm in a swap of forwards.
The Vancouver Canucks made two deals, sending defenceman
CHIEFS 1 AT SPRUCE KINGS 4 First Period 1. Prince George, Ahac 4 (Anhorn, B.Poisson) 1:36 2. Prince George, Manz 32 (Cozzi, Cunningham) 3:58 Penalties – Keranen PG (hooking) 6:01, Nelson CH (roughing), Ahac PG (roughing) 16:35. Second Period 3. Prince George, Watson-Brawn 6 (Schleppe, Donaldson) 12:28 4. Chilliwack, Cavallini 2 (Bowen) 19:59. Penalties – Donaldson PG (interference) 15:24, Nelson CH (roughing), Vanroboys PG (roughing) 19:23. Third Period 5. Prince George, Manz 33 (Cozzi, Cunningham) 7:24 (en) Penalties – Vanroboys PG (tripping) 3:55, PG bench (too many men, served by MacDonald) 6:53. Shots on goal by Chilliwack 8 10 8 -26 Prince George 13 18 5 -36 Goal – Chilliwack, Hildebrand (L,11-4-0); Prince George, Rancier, (W,5-2-1). Power plays – CH;
Erik Gudbranson to Pittsburgh for winger Tanner Pearson.
Gudbranson’s time in Vancouver was marred by inconsistent play after the third overall pick at the 2010 draft was acquired from the Florida Panthers in 2016.
“He had some injuries that kind of set him back,” Canucks GM Jim Benning said. “Maybe the style of game we played wasn’t a fit to his game.”
Vancouver, which beat Anaheim 4-0 on Monday night, also got Swedish prospect Linus Karlsson from San Jose for minor-leaguer Jonathan Dahlen.
The Montreal Canadiens added forward depth, adding Jordan Weal from the Arizona Coyotes for fellow centre Michael Chaput.
The Calgary Flames secured some blueline help with the acquisition of defenceman Oscar Fantenberg from the Los Angeles Kings for a conditional fourthrounder in 2020, while the Edmonton Oilers didn’t make a move prior to the deadline.
CP PHOTO
Alberta lead Rachel Brown, second Dana Ferguson and skip Chelsea Carey react after defeating Ontario 8-6 to win the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Sydney, N.S., on Sunday.
Green Book wins best picture in Oscar upset
Jake COYLE Citizen news service
LOS ANGELES — The segregation-era road-trip drama Green Book was crowned best picture at the 91st Academy Awards, delighting those who see the film as a feel-good throwback but disappointing others who ridicule it as an outdated inversion of Driving Miss Daisy.
In a year when Hollywood could have made history by bestowing its top award on Netflix (Roma) or Marvel (Black Panther) for the first time, the motion picture academy instead threw its fullest support Sunday behind a traditional interracial buddy tale that proved as popular as it was divisive. But Peter Farrelly’s Green Book weathered criticism that it was retrograde and inauthentic to triumph over more acclaimed films and bigger box-office successes.
It was an unexpected finale to a brisk, hostless ceremony that was awash in historic wins for diversity, including Spike Lee’s first competitive Oscar. More women and more individual black nominees won than ever before.
The Oscars otherwise spread awards around for Ryan Coogler’s superhero sensation Black Panther, Alfonso Cuaron’s black-andwhite personal epic Roma and the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
Lee, whose Do the Right Thing came out the same year Driving Miss Daisy won best picture, was among those most visibly upset by the award handed to Green Book. After presenter Julia Roberts announced it, Lee, whose BlacKkKlansman was up for best picture as well, stood up, waved his hands in disgust and appeared to try to leave the Dolby Theatre before returning.
Green Book also won best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali and best original screenplay.
“The whole story is about love,” said Farrelly, a filmmaker best known for broad comedies like Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary. “It’s about loving each other despite the differences and find out the truth
about who we are. We’re the same people.”
Backstage, Lee clutched a glass of champagne while reflecting on the 30 years between Driving Miss Daisy and Green Book.
“I’m snake bit,” he said, laughing. “Every time somebody’s driving somebody, I lose!”
Lee’s win for best adapted screenplay for his white supremacist drama BlacKkKlansman, an award he shared with three cowriters, gave the ceremony its signature moment. The crowd rose in a standing ovation, Lee leapt into the arms of presenter Samuel L. Jackson and even the backstage press room burst into applause.
Lee, whose film includes footage of U.S. President Donald Trump following the violent white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Va., urged mobilization for the upcoming election.
“Let’s be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love and hate,” said Lee, who was given an honorary Oscar in 2015.
“Let’s do the right thing! You knew
I had to get that in there.”
One of the biggest surprises of the night was in the best actress category. Olivia Colman won for her Queen Anne in the royal romp The Favourite, denying Glenn Close her first Oscar. Close remains the most-nominated living actor never to win, with seven nominations.
“Ooo. It’s genuinely quite stressful,” said a staggered Colman, who later turned to Close to say she was her idol, “and this is not how I wanted it to be.”
The night’s co-lead nominee Roma won best director and best cinematography for Cuaron, whose film also notched Mexico’s first foreign language film Oscar. Cuaron and his countrymen – Alejandro Inarritu and Guillermo del Toro, who presented Cuaron with best picture – have had a stranglehold on the category, winning five of the last six years.
Cuaron, who becoming the first director to ever win for serving as his own director of photography, referenced an especially interna-
tional crop of nominees in one of his three acceptance speeches.
“When asked about the New Wave, Claude Chabrol said there are no waves, there is only the ocean,” said Cuaron, referring to the French filmmaker. “The nominees tonight have proven that we are a part of the same ocean.”
The wins for Roma gave Netflix its most significant awards yet, but Green Book denied the streaming giant the best picture win it dearly sought. Netflix remains to some a contentious force in Hollywood, since it largely bypasses theatres.
The wins for Black Panther –along with best animated film winner Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse – meant the first Academy Awards for Marvel, the most consistent blockbuster factory Hollywood has ever seen.
The lush, big-budget craft of Black Panther won for Ruth Carter’s costume design, Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart’s production design, and Ludwig Göransson’s score. Beachler had been
the first African-American to ever be nominated in the category. Beachler and Carter became just the second and third black women to win non-acting Oscars.
“It just means that we’ve opened the door,” Carter, a veteran costume designer, said backstage. “Finally, the door is wide open.”
Two years after winning for his role in Moonlight, Mahershala Ali won again for his supporting performance in Green Book – a role many said was really a lead. Ali is the second black actor to win two Oscars following Denzel Washington, who won for Glory and Training Day. Ali dedicated the award to his grandmother. Bohemian Rhapsody, which kicked off the ABC telecast with a performance by Queen, won four awards despite pans from many critics and sexual assault allegations against its director, Bryan Singer, who was fired in midproduction for not showing up. Its star, Rami Malek, won best actor for his full-bodied and prosthetic teeth-aided performance, and the film was honoured for editing, sound mixing and sound editing.
“We made a film about a gay man, an immigrant who lived his life unapologetically himself,” said Malek who after the ceremony fell and was checked out by medics before making the rounds at postshow festivities. “We’re longing for stories like this. I am the son of immigrants from Egypt. I’m a first-generation American, and part of my story is being written right now.”
Queen launched Sunday’s ceremony with a medley of hits that gave the awards a distinctly Grammy-like flavour, as Hollywood’s most prestigious ceremony sought to prove that it’s still “champion of the world” after last year’s recordlow ratings.
To compensate for a lack of host, the motion picture academy leaned on its presenters, including an ornately outfitted Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry and a Keegan-Michael Key who floated down like Mary Poppins. Following Queen, Tina Fey – alongside Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph – welcomed the Dolby Theatre audience to “the one-millionth Academy Awards.”
Rudolph summarized a rocky Oscar preamble that featured numerous missteps and backtracks by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: “There is no host, there won’t be a popular movie category and Mexico is not paying for the wall.”
The trio then presented best supporting actress to Regina King for her pained matriarch in Barry Jenkins’ James Baldwin adaptation If Beale Street Could Talk. The crowd gave King a standing ovation for her first Oscar.
The inclusivity of the winners Sunday stood in stark contrast to the #OscarsSoWhite backlash that marked the 2016 and 2015 Oscars. Since then, the academy has worked to diversify its largely white and male membership, adding several thousand new members and opening the academy up internationally. Still, this year’s nominations were criticized for not including a female best director nominee or a best-picture nominee directed by a woman.
Though the once presumed front-runner A Star Is Born saw its chances flame out, it won, as expected, for the song Shallow, which Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper performed during the ceremony. As she came off the stage, Cooper had his arm around Gaga as she asked, “Did I nail it?” Best documentary went to Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Free Solo, which chronicles rock climber Alex Honnold’s famed, free solo ascent of Yosemite’s El Capitan, a 915-metre wall of sheer granite, without ropes or climbing equipment. Free Solo was among a handful of hugely successful documentaries last year including the nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary RBG and the snubbed Fred Rogers doc Won’t You Be My Neighbour. Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney biopic Vice won makeup and hairstyling for its extensive physical transformations. The category was one of the four that the academy initially planned to present during a commercial break and as its winners – Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia Dehaney – dragged on in a litany of thank-yous and were the first to have their microphone cut off. To turn around ratings, Oscar producers pledged a shorter show. In the academy’s favour was a popular crop of nominees: Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star Is Born and, most of all, Black Panther amassed huge sums in ticket sales. Typically, when there are box-office hits (like Titanic), more people watch the Oscars.
AP PHOTO
Filmmaker Peter Farrelly poses with the award for best picture for Green Book in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday in Los Angeles.
FORDEN
Irvina (Vi) Corallie
November 8, 1940February 22, 2019
It is with heavy hearts that the family of Vi Forden announces her passing on February 22, 2019. She is survived by her husband, Charles; children, Joseph Patrick McAulay (Lee), Terri Andrea Helgason (Brian); step daughter, Velvet Mary Speiss (Rick); sister, Thelma White (Glen); brothers, John (Trish) and Bud (Betty); grandchildren, Amanda, Heather, Derek, Michael, Ryan and numerous great grandchildren. A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.
Sunday, February 17th, 2019 at 4:30am Vernon Harvey Norbraten stepped up to the tee in the sky!
Vern was born August 17th, 1932 in Southey, SK. After a number of years later his family moved to Nipawin, SK where his family farmed. In the fall of 1949 Vern came to PG to work in the logging industry with his 2 brothers. The next spring he returned home to Nipawin to help his father farm. It was in 1951 when he met the love of his life, Marlene. They were married in 1954 and moved to Prince George, BC. Vern and his brothers worked in the logging industry and soon decided to build a portable sawmill and “Norbraten Brothers Lumber LTD” was created. They were successful because of their hard work over many years. In 1959 Vern had a new home built and moved his family into town. By then they had three children and a fourth on the way. In the early 1960’s Vern had purchased some land with 2 other men. It wasn’t long before he was the sole owner. “What to do with it?” He decided to build a Golf Course for the average golfer to enjoy! His brothers had bought him out of the mill and he went right to work clearing the 105 acres of solid Aspen trees. Vern kept busy in the winters with jobs and coached Minor Hockey for many years. He was so proud of his teams! Many of his hockey teams spent numerous hours picking roots on what would soon be open fairways. Finally in 1971 Vern opened his 9 hole course, Aspen Grove Golf Course. Some may say a bit to early... as it was in pretty bad shape. The family knew nothing about the golf business but he learned in a hurry! Vern and his sons struggled to build the 2nd 9 holes and in 1986 Aspen Grove became 18 holes. Vern was forever grateful for the encouragement and help from his friend George as well as all our loyal golfers. The years went on and Aspen was open. Over those years Vern’s family joined him working at the course. You could find Vern either golfing, working, walking with Josie or napping on the course somewhere! He always had a great hiding spot!
Vern looked forward to his golfing trips with 15 other buddies and always looking for the next “Hole in 1” - 3 wasn’t enough!
Vern was a Family man and was loved and respected by many. His laugh and sense of humor had been missed for a long time. Vern is survived by his wife of 64 years Marlene, Father to Lyn (John), Greg, Gary (Cheryl) and Ken (Amie). Papa to Jennifer (Neal), Jesse, Cordell, Kyle (Olivia), Kirk (Jen), Jennifer (Matt) and Laura. Great Papa to Kaylyn, Nicholas, Dyllan, Audrey, Emma and Lachlan. Uncle to Judy (Jim) and Vern and Great Uncle to many more.
A Celebration of Vern’s life will be held at Aspen Grove Golf Course at a later date. Our family would like to give very special thanks to the amazing staff at Simon Fraser Lodge. Vern was so well cared for over the last 5 years. He has joined his brothers Orville and Glenn once again.
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IVAN BRATTON
January 29, 1951 - February 21, 2019
It is with heartbreaking sadness we have to announce we lost our beloved brother and uncle to cancer on February 21, 2019. Ivan was predeceased by his father, Frank, mother Florence, brothers Walter and Glen, sister Lorraine, and nephew Leland. He is survived by brothers Elbert (Red), Harley, and sister Fay (Larry). Ivan is also survived by many nieces, nephews, and friends who all loved him. There will be no service as per Ivan’s request.
It is with broken hearts and profound sadness that we announce the peaceful passing of our beloved wife and mother, Marjorie Lily Doknick, on February 18, 2019. She is survived by her husband of 70 years, Sam, son Robert and daughters Sharron, Janet and Shannon. One of Marjorie’s greatest joy’s was family, especially her five granddaughters who will have cherished memories that will endure. She was an amazingly giving woman who touched the lives of many and will be missed dearly by all.
Currencies
OTTAWA (CP) — These
tive
provided by the Bank of Canada on Monday. Quotations in
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — A broad-based rally helped Canada’s main stock index close higher along with New York markets as U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to hold off on raising tariffs on Chinese goods.
“A positive day in the equity markets, most specifically driven by a bit more optimism around the potential for furthering negotiations between the US and China on trade,” said Craig Fehr, Canadian markets strategist for Edward Jones.
Trump tweeted that he had agreed to delay U.S. tariff hikes on China and that trade talks with the country were in advanced stages. Trade uncertainty between the two countries has been a significant overhang to the markets in recent months. The announcement helped lift the S&P/TSX composite index up 44.02 points to close at 16,057.03. The S&P/TSX energy index led gains with a 0.58 per cent rise as part of the broad gains that also saw financials, industrials and telecoms climb. The health-care index dipped the most, down 0.71 per cent, while consumer discretionary slipped 0.42 per cent. Energy stocks rose despite a drop in oil prices, with the April crude contract down US$1.78 at US$55.48 per barrel after Trump also tweeted that the global economy couldn’t handle a price hike.
“Another tweet, in this case, commentary from the Trump administration, kind of aimed at OPEC that oil prices still seem to be a bit too high,” said Fehr. Materials dipped slightly as Barrick Gold Corp. closed down 3.09 per cent after announcing a US$18-billion hostile takeover bit of Newmont Mining Corp.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 60.14 points at 26,091.95. The S&P 500 index ended up 3.44 points at 2,796.11, while the Nasdaq composite was up 26.92 points at 7,554.46. Stocks rose to continue a remarkable start to the year, but Fehr cautioned that investors shouldn’t expect the trend to continue.
“The rally that we’ve seen over the last two months is unlikely to persist in its current form.
We’ve seen nine straight weeks of equity gains, which is a historic run by any account. I think we’re probably going to see a bit more balance, a bit more volatility as we progress from here.”
The Canadian dollar averaged 75.91 cents US, unchanged from Friday.
The April gold contract ended down US$3.30 at US$1,329.50 an ounce. The April natural gas contract closed up eight cents at US$2.82 per mmBTU.
Main U.K. opposition party takes step to back new Brexit vote
Jill LAWLESS, Lorne COOK Citizen news service
British Prime Minister Theresa May returned from a seemingly unproductive meeting with European Union leaders Monday to a growing attempt by British lawmakers to stop her from taking Britain out of the EU on March 29 without a divorce deal.
With May and the EU at odds over not just how, but when Brexit should happen, her political opponents were getting increasingly desperate to take control of Britain’s muddled departure from the bloc.
At an EU-Arab League summit in Egypt, the EU warned Britain it faces the prospect of delaying its planned March 29 departure or the consequences of a chaotic exit. European Council President Donald Tusk, who chairs meetings of EU nation leaders, said Monday it would be “rational” to postpone Brexit day.
May insisted she intends for Britain to leave as planned in a little more than a month. But her often divided opponents may be coalescing around a plan to prevent Britain crashing out of the EU with no agreement in place.
The main opposition Labour Party took a big step Monday toward backing a new referendum on the country’s EU membership.
The party has previously said it would support a referendum as a last resort if it could not secure a new election or make changes to May’s EU divorce deal. Britain’s Parliament has so far rejected the deal struck between May’s government and the bloc, and is due to hold a series of votes Wednesday on next steps in the Brexit process.
Labour has proposed its own withdrawal plan as an alternative to the government’s deal with the EU. The party said Monday it would back a second public vote if the House of Commons rejects its plan this week, as is widely expected.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the party is committed to “putting forward or supporting an amendment in favour of a public vote to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit being
While there is little chance of a second referendum taking place without the support of Labour, the path to another Brexit vote is far from clear.
forced on the country.”
The party did not specify what voters might be asked to consider in any future vote, though it has previously said the option of Britain remaining an EU member would be included.
Labour has previously said it would only support a second referendum as a last resort if it could not secure a new general election or make changes to May’s divorce deal.
The change in approach follows the resignations of nine Labour lawmakers last week, partly over the party’s failure to back another Brexit referendum. It is likely to cheer many party members, who have backed calls for a so-called “people’s vote.”
While there is little chance of a second referendum taking place without the support of Labour, the path to another Brexit vote is far from clear. It would require the support of numerous lawmakers from the governing Conservative Party, for example.
Since lawmakers rejected May’s deal with the EU last month, the prime minister has sought to get changes from Brussels on a provision for the border between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.
The mechanism, known as the backstop, is a safeguard that would keep the U.K. in a customs union with the EU to remove the need for checks along the Irish border until a permanent new trading relationship is in place.
May wants to revise the deal to reassure opponents from her Conservative Party, as well as from a Northern Ireland party that props up her minority government, the backstop would only apply temporarily.
B.C. registry targets under-the-radar
Jan. 1 to March 31, 2019.
The
But EU leaders insist that the legally binding Brexit withdrawal agreement, which took a year and a half to negotiate, can’t be reopened.
The impasse has raised concerns that Britain will leave the EU without a deal, a scenario that would likely mean new tariffs on British exports and serious disruption to trade between the two sides. The Bank of England has warned that the British economy could shrink by eight per cent in the months after a disorderly Brexit. May has said a new vote on any revised Brexit deal won’t be held this week and could come as late as March 12.
A number of British lawmakers are seeking to wrest control of the process from the government and are looking to get support for an amendment that would require May to seek an extension to the Brexit date if Parliament fails to back her deal.
“I don’t see how businesses can plan. I don’t see how public services can plan, and I think it’s just deeply damaging,” Labour lawmaker Yvette Cooper, one of those behind the move, told the BBC.
On Monday, the EU’s Tusk warned that the chances of a withdrawal agreement being concluded in time are receding, and that sticking by the planned Brexit date would be too risky.
“I believe that in the situation we are in, an extension would be a rational solution,” Tusk told reporters at an EU-Arab League summit in Egypt after talks with May that he said included discussions over extending the Brexit process.
May insisted a deal in time was still possible.
“It is within our grasp to leave with a deal on 29th of March and I think that that is where all of our energies should be focused,” May said.
She said that “any delay is a delay. It doesn’t address the issue.”
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte warned her against “sleepwalking” into a chaotic Brexit next month.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable. And I think your best friends have to warn you for that,” Rutte told the BBC. “Wake up. This is real.”
in a project, she said. A contract assignment occurs when a buyer sells, or “flips,” a purchase contract of a condo to another buyer, often at a higher price, before construction of the building is complete.
James said the practice has been a factor in raising real estate prices while facilitating tax evasion when capital gains and other taxes are not applied.
She said she expected developers to comply with the registry.
“It’s in the legislation so they are required by law,” James said. “There are also fines in place if they don’t.”
AP PHOTO
British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during a media conference at the end of an EU-Arab League summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on Monday.
Jump in, hold on tight The Vanishing Man
MEMMOTT Citizen news service
Carol
The Vanishing Man: A Charles Lenox Mystery, by Charles Finch Fiction readers who crush on blueblooded British detectives will fall hard for Victorian-era sleuth Charles Lenox, if they haven’t already.
Lenox first appeared in Charles Finch’s well-received 2007 novel A Beautiful Blue Death. Lenox’s exploits, laid out in 10 subsequent novels, now share shelf space with other aristocratic crime solvers – Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey, Elizabeth George’s Inspector Thomas Lynley, and Maisie Dobbs, Jacqueline Winspear’s private detective who was widow of a viscount. Like these other royal relations, Lenox is independently wealthy and has answered a higher calling to ferret out justice for his fellow citizens.
The latest Lenox novel, The Vanishing Man, is the second in a series of prequels that offer delicious details into Lenox’s early years honing his observational and deductive skills as a private investigator.
The Vanishing Man takes place in 1853, and Lenox, a passionate, still-inexperienced 26-year-old, has as yet solved only a few cases for Scotland Yard. Filled with selfdoubt, he also continues to endure the scorn of the yard’s detectives who consider him a nuisance and that of his peers who find sleuthing beneath him.
moves at top speed
Soon another robbery is attempted, there’s a murder and it’s revealed that the missing painting may hold a clue to the location of a never-before-seen Shakespeare play.
As the story begins, Lenox is called to the home of the Duke of Dorset, who wants Lenox to discreetly look into the theft of a not-very-valuable painting of one of his ancestors. Lenox soon wonders whether the thief stole the wrong painting, which was hung next to an invaluable one – possibly the only oil painting of William Shakespeare done in his lifetime.
Soon another robbery is attempted, there’s a murder and it’s revealed that the missing painting may hold a clue to the location of a never-before-seen Shakespeare play. Lenox’s hunt for the portrait’s thief, the murderer and the missing play take him to the halls of Bedlam hospital and the British Library as well as a pub near London Bridge and the fashionable salons
of London’s West End. Finch’s novels offer more than just cozy yet suspenseful storylines. The Vanishing Man also captures the culture of the time in which it’s set – there’s mention of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the novel everyone in London is reading, and mentions of Charles Dickens, John James Audubon and the Duke of Wellington. As he looks out a window at Scotland Yard, Lenox sees “in the distance” workers toiling on a project: “some tremendous bell was going to be placed in a tower right by Parliament.” Big Ben. It’s part of Shakespeare mythology that one day a new play will be unearthed. Finch artfully and most satisfyingly ties up this plot thread in The Vanishing Man as well as that of the identity of the art thief and the murderer.
By novel’s end, Lenox learns of another suspicious death that needs investigating. In The Vanishing Man’s closing sentences, Lenox’s brother watches him ride away in a carriage and wonders “to which hidden, mysterious, thrilling corner, in the great city spread before him now like a world of marvels, his brother’s new case would take him.”
Longtime fans know what the future holds for Lenox. Everyone else needs to jump into the carriage with Lenox and hold on tight.
HANDOUT PHOTO
The Vanishing Man stars Victorian-era sleuth Charles Lenox.