Prince George Citizen February 5, 2019

City council supports pot shop application

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

City council voted unanimously on Monday night in favour of advancing to final reading an application from the provincial government to open a retail cannabis store in the Westgate Shopping Centre. Their decision followed a public hearing in which one person spoke against the proposal.

Retired teacher and former school board trustee Bruce Wiebe raised concerns both about the effects of cannabis and the proposed location.

According to his research, Wiebe said consuming cannabis can cause panic and paranoia, slowed reaction time, impaired coordination, impaired memory, increased appetite, altered judgment and sensation and altered pain sensitivity.

Wiebe said he raised those points because he and his wife had been school teachers for 35 years.

“In all the years we’ve worked with children, we’ve always done our best to ensure that children received the best information, the best role modelling that was possible,” he said.

Wiebe said opening a store at that location runs counter to that principle, noting that a large number of children live in College Heights and go to Westgate with their parents to shop.

Wiebe’s concerns fell short of swaying city

Citizen staff

A court proceeding against 14 people arrested at a blockade against the Coastal GasLink pipeline was adjourned Monday to give time to decide whether the contempt of court charges they face should be pursued as a criminal or civil matter.

About 30 people showed up for the hearing at the Prince George courthouse in relation to the Jan. 7 incident that saw RCMP take down a blockade on the Morice Forest Service Road south of Houston. The action was carried out after CGL secured an interim injunction prohibiting protesters from impeding workers as they began pre-construction work on the project. If built, the $6.2-billion project will deliver natural gas from the B.C. Peace to the

council members.

Coun. Kyle Sampson said he’s heard similar concerns from other people but pointed to a “very thorough” package from the Liquor and Cannabis Distribution Branch regarding how they will handle their products.

“It’s a well locked-up, privately-kept

LNG Canada liquified natural gas facility planned for a site near Kitimat. Combined, the projects are worth about $40 billion.

On Monday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church agreed with counsels’ request to put the matter over to April 15, in part to give more time to go over disclosure materials but also to give the B.C. Criminal Justice Branch time to decide if it should pursue criminal charges against the 14. Whether to move to the matter to Smithers and closer to where the defendants live is also to be up for consideration on that date. Meanwhile, the deadline for those opposing a permanent injunction against blocking the project was extended to Feb. 20 from Jan. 31, with CGL now given until May 31 to file a response.

establishment,” he said. Likewise, Coun. Susan Scott said the measures that are proposed for handling the store’s stock are “sound.” Coun. Cori Ramsay said the location is a kilometre away from every school in the area and noted no minors will be allowed on the premises.

“The province has done a really great job in setting the boundaries and I know that they’re going to go to that level,” she said. Mayor Lyn Hall said the bylaw related to such stores gives council the opportunity to judge each application on its particular merits.

“This one here for me hits the mark,” Hall said. The plan is to open a BC Cannabis Store at a spot that was previously home to a bank. The front windows would be frosted to Health Canada’s requirements that cannabis not be visible to minors and the store would maintain a two ID policy for age verification. Customers will be limited to choosing what they want from displays with staff retrieving the purchases from a secured area at the back of the store. The application remains subject to the formality of being passed through final reading, likely at the next council meeting in two weeks.

Second store in works

Also on Monday, council voted to advance to a public hearing an application to open a privately-run retail cannabis store in a 4,300-square-foot corner of the old Sears department store location in Pine Centre Mall. And council advanced a proposal to include cannabis production in the city’s heavy industry zone.

Police seeking suspects from gunfight

Citizen staff

No injuries have been reported but at least one bullet pierced the wall of a neighbouring home, Prince George RCMP said, when an exchange of gunfire broke out late Saturday night in Central Fort George.

RCMP, who were called to the scene at 11:15 p.m., said it appears the exchange occurred between the occupants of a 500-block Alward Street home and of a vehicle described as a dark-coloured sedan.

Those involved had fled before RCMP arrived and while a police dog picked up a scent for several blocks, no one was

apprehended. However, a firearm was found near the home.

Two adult residents of the home have been spoken to but remain out of custody.

“Investigators believe this incident was targeted and not a random act,” RCMP said. “The investigation is continuing.”

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca (English only).

You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers. If you provide information that leads to an arrest, you could be eligible for a cash reward.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

A public hearing was held Monday night at city hall for rezoning application for a B.C. cannabis store to be located on Southridge Avenue.

City workers tackle burst water main

Citizen staff

A stretch of Second Avenue was closed Monday to give city workers space to deal with a water main break. The burst to the 15-centimetre cast-iron pipe, which was installed

in 1967, occurred near the alley behind the district energy distribution centre, leaving Surplus Herby’s and the Lheidli T’enneh economic development office without water.

The work was expected to take at least until the end of the day due in part to the many pipes running adjacent to the burst main from the energy distribution centre, which heats several key downtown buildings.

City crews were kept busy by a burst water main on Second Avenue on Monday morning between Dominion Street and George Street. The pipe was repaired by the afternoon.

Prince George court docket

From Prince George provincial court, Jan. 28 to Feb. 1, 2019:

• Leo Kirk Milton (born 1982) was sentenced to 27 days in jail for two counts of breaching probation and to 11 days in jail for willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer. Milton was in custody for one day prior to sentencing.

• Joshua Lamar Sam (born 1993) was sentenced to one year probation for theft $5,000 or under and to zero days in jail for breaching an undertaking or recognizance. Sam was in custody for 33 days prior to sentencing.

• Wilfred Charles Duncan (born 1985) was sentenced to one year probation and ordered to provide a DNA sample for assault causing bodily harm, committed in Fort St. James. Duncan was in custody for 119 days prior to sentencing.

• Everett Riley Edward Patrick (born 1977) was sentenced to 108 days in jail and one

year probation for breaking and entering and committing an indictable offence. Riley was in custody for 169 days prior to sentencing.

• Phoebe Casimel (born 1975) was sentenced to time served and one year probation for theft $5,000 or under. Casimel was in custody for nine days prior to sentencing.

• Peter Junior Charlie (born 1981) was sentenced to 12 days in jail and one year probation for possessing a weapon for dangerous purpose and breaching probation. Charlie was in custody for 20 days prior to sentencing.

• Dana Campbell Desjardines (born 1964) was sentenced to 43 days in jail for breaching probation and to 18 months probation, issued a five-year firearms prohibition and ordered to provide a DNA sample for assault. Desjardines was in custody for 107 days prior to sentencing.

• Leonard John Junior Joseph (born 1981)

was sentenced to six days in jail and one year probation for breaching probation. Joseph was in custody for nine days prior to sentencing.

• Lourie Thomas Karr (born 1971) was sentenced to 30 days in jail, to be served on an intermittent basis, prohibited from driving for one year and fined $1,000 plus a $150 victim surcharge for driving while driver’s licence is suspended under the Motor Vehicle Act.

• Brandon Douglas William Latta (born 1994) was sentenced to 21 days in jail and one year probation for possessing stolen property and driving while disqualified under the Motor Vehicle Act. Latta was in custody for 45 days prior to sentencing.

It was the first break workers have had to deal with since the cold snap started but whether that was the cause has not yet been confirmed, city spokesperson Mike Kellett said.

Second Avenue between George and Dominion streets was closed.

• Louie Andrew Laurent (born 1996) was sentenced to 12 days in jail for carrying a concealed weapon and willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer and to 10 days in jail for two counts of breach an undertaking or recognizance.

• Breanna Renee Payne (born 1995) was prohibited from driving for one year and fined $1,000 for driving while impaired.

• Patrick Williams (born 1981) was sentenced to one year probation for assault and mischief $5,000 or under. Williams was in custody for 22 days prior to sentencing.

• Brandon Joseph Poole (born 1985) was sentenced to one year probation and ordered to pay $200 restitution for mischief $5,000 or under and breaching probation. Poole was in custody for 29 days following his arrest.

• Edward John Desjarlais (born 1979) was issued a one-year $500 recognizance after allegation of causing fear of injury or damage.

• From Oct. 26, 2018: Edgar Cameron Davis (born 1975) was sentenced to two years probation, issued a three-year firearms prohibition and assessed a $100 victim surcharge for sexual assault.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

ME to WE promotes putting profits to positive social use

Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca

The chief operations director of ME to WE, a social enterprise that creates employment and economic empowerment in communities around the world, said employees are now looking to work for companies that are socially more conscious and who want to make the world a better place.

Ross McLeod, who grew up in Prince George and is now based in Toronto, returned to Prince George to give a presentation to KMPG on how to become a better steward of the world.

McLeod focused on the key points in his bestseller WEconomy, particularly having a purpose, an essential motivator for today’s employees.

“The idea behind my book is that there is an emerging economy system driven by purpose and profit and there’s kind of this intersection of how our economy, the environment and our social welfare come together and how it’s becoming more and more important for businesses to be thinking about purpose as a way to succeed where before it used to be a charitable initiative they might do on the side.”

Millennials have really high expectations around purpose when choosing a business for their employment, McLeod said.

“We see 76 per cent of millennials want to make a difference through their work,” McLeod said. “They want to inject more meaning into their jobs and will work harder for companies that

don’t make them park their humanity at the door.”

McLeod also notes consumers will support businesses whose products do some good and patrons will support businesses that have a positive impact on the world, he added.

As a good example of an organization that impacts the world with positive change, McLeod sites the Our Satya Foundation, which is an international organization committed to taking global action to improve maternal and infant health and well being in India. Shobha Sharma, the founder of Our Satya, lives in Prince George and experienced a health crisis immediately after childbirth herself and the healthcare she got to save her life inspired the creation of the foundation.

Inspirational women honoured

Citizen staff

Two inspirational women in Prince George were honoured with a financial donation to further celebrate their causes.

During last year’s International Women’s Day breakfast those in attendance heard from Colleen Fitzpatrick, who lost her son, Corp. Darren Fitzpatrick, when he stepped on an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Zahari district, near Kandahar City on March 6, 2010. The Silver Cross Mother of 2016-2017 has received $800 to go towards the installation of a plaque in Darren Fitzpatrick Bravery Park that will memorialize her beloved son. The plaque was originally donated by CP Rail.

The other speaker at last year’s International Women’s Day event was Shobha Sharma who started the Our Satya Foundation which supports women in positions of distress, poverty, and unequivocal socio-economic and political conditions.

Sharma received $800 that will go to the foundation to further engage women in rural India in programming around education, empowerment, health and wellness.

The International Women’s Day celebration breakfast is hosted by MLA Shirley Bond in partnership with the Ramada Plaza Prince George which allows for the donations to be made.

“This was a win-win,” Bond said. “It was a chance for us to highlight incredi-

City garbage collection calendar revised

Citizen staff

The city has issued a revised garbage and recyclables collection schedule in answer to the provincial government’s decision to change the date for Family

Day. After the 2018-19 schedule was released, Family Day was moved a week back to Feb. 18 from Feb. 11, making the schedule provided with city utility bills incorrect, the city said in a statement on Monday.

ble women and the things they are doing in our community and then be able to, through people attending the breakfast, support them with the monetary gift.” Bond said there are so many inspirational stories that go untold and the breakfast offers a way to tell some of them that ultimately inspire others to go out in the community and make a difference.

The seventh annual International Women’s Day Breakfast will be held on Friday, March 1 at the Ramada Plaza Prince George. Doors open at 7 a.m. and breakfast will be served at 7:30. Tickets are on sale now for $30 each. Purchase tickets through Laura in the Ramada sales office by calling 250-561-5685.

An updated schedule is now online at www.princegeorge.ca

Households can also sign up for email or text reminders, or create a custom downloadable or exportable calendar for the service through the website.

Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

The Heritage Commission has a weighty title, and their work is indeed important for the culture of the region, but it is a panel of regular Prince George people who want to highlight the key places in the history of our city.

Those people will meet the public and have an informal discussion about what they do each year to preserve the best of our past years.

The event will take place at the Prince George Public Library on Thursday at 7 p.m.

“Find out how to nominate a property for the Heritage Register and learn about historical buildings in our city,” said PGPL spokesperson Amy Dhanjal, who noted that this free public meet-andgreet was part of a menu of events at the library as they celebrate History Month each February.

“We always appreciate an opportunity to talk about local history and promote our local history collection,” Dhanjal said.

“So every year we do partner with the Heritage Commission on a number of programs, and this time we are introducing those people to the public. To my knowledge we’ve never done this before.”

There will be a number of short presentations about the city’s history, the efforts to preserve unique physical features around the city, and some introductions to the people who lead these ongoing efforts.

The headliner for the evening is a longtime local history activist beloved for his professional eye for buildings and many books that document the legacy of our region.

“Architect and local historian Trelle Morrow will be on hand to discuss nine Heritage Register entries done in the last three years,” Dhanjal said.

“He will also discuss numerous sites that may have the potential for the Register.”

The Heritage Commission is made up of a committee of nine people.

They are an official branch of the City of Prince George.

Those interested in being on this committee are asked to apply by the deadline of Feb. 12 at 5 p.m. City council appoints the commission based on the applications.

“The Prince George Heritage Commission advises in matters regarding the protection, conservation, and interpretation of heritage resources within the community by supporting, encouraging, and helping with their proper conservation, maintenance, and restoration,” the City explained.

For information on how to apply, go to the Heritage Commission page on the City of Prince George website.

The PGPL will also host the annual Jeanne Clarke History Awards on Feb. 24.

The annual Heritage Expo, in partnership with UNBC, will be held at the PGPL on Mar. 2.

Displays (one of them opening today) showcasing Black History Month features are also located in areas of the library as of now.

The future of local history also gets a bright spotlight in the Keith Gordon Room of the PGPL as the annual Teen Art Showcase is now open for viewing, in partnership with the Community Arts Council.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Chief operations director for ME to WE, Russ McLeod gave a talk to KPMG Management Service about ME to WE, which is a leading-edge social enterprise that launched in 2008 to use business strategies to help create positive social change and empower consumers to use purchases to transform the world.

Turn on, tune in, drop out

Would you be better off without Facebook? Would society benefit, too?

A team of economists, led by Hunt Allcott of New York University, has just produced the most impressive research to date on these questions.

In general, the researchers’ findings are not good news for Facebook and its users. Getting off the platform appears to increase people’s well-being – and significantly decrease political polarization.

Allcott and his co-authors began by asking 2,884 Facebook users, in November 2018, how much money they would demand to deactivate their accounts for a period of four weeks, ending just after the midterm election.

To make their experiment manageable, the researchers focused on about 60 per cent of users, who said that they would be willing to deactivate their accounts for under $102.

The researchers divided those users into two groups. The treatment group was paid to deactivate. The control group was not. Members of both groups were asked a battery of questions, exploring how getting off Facebook affected their lives.

The most striking finding is that even in that short period, those who deactivated their accounts seemed to enjoy their lives more as a result. In response to survey questions, they showed decreases in depression and anxiety. They also showed

improvements in both happiness and life satisfaction.

Why is that? The researchers don’t have an answer to that question, but they do show that deactivating Facebook gave people a nice gift: about 60 minutes per day on average. Those who got off the platform spent that time with friends and family, and also watching television alone. Interestingly, they did not spend more time online (which means that contrary to what you might expect, they did not replace Facebook with other social media platforms, such as Instagram).

Getting off Facebook also led people to pay less attention to politics. Those in the treatment group were less likely to give the right answers to questions about recent news events. They were also less likely to say that they followed political news.

Perhaps as a result, deactivating Facebook led to a major decrease in political polarization. On political questions, Democrats and Republicans in the treatment group disagreed less sharply than did those in the control group. (This is not because the groups were different; members of both groups, selected randomly, were equally willing to give up use of Facebook for the right amount of money.) It is reasonable to speculate that while people learn about politics on their Facebook page, what they see is skewed in the direction they prefer –which leads to greater polarization.

At this point, you might be thinking that these findings are absolutely terrible for Facebook. Indeed, those in the treatment group reported that they were planning to

use the platform less in the future – and after the experiment ended, they were doing exactly that.

But here’s the rub. After one month without Facebook, the median amount that users would demand to deactivate their account for another month was still pretty high: $87. The U.S. has 172 million Facebook users. Assuming that the median user demands $87 to give up use of the platform for a month, a little multiplication suggests that the platform is providing Americans with benefits: If each user gets the equivalent of $87 in benefits per month, the total amount is in the hundreds of billions of annually.

With that finding in mind, Allcott and his co-authors offer a strong conclusion, one that should provide a lot of comfort to Facebook’s executives. The researchers insist that on balance, Facebook produces “enormous flows of consumer surplus,” in the form of those hundreds of billions of dollars in benefits, for which users pay nothing at all (at least not in monetary terms).

Maybe that’s right – but maybe not.

Recall that those who deactivated their accounts reported that they were better off along multiple dimensions – happier, more satisfied with their lives, less anxious, less depressed. So here’s a real paradox: Facebook users are willing to give up a significant sum of money, each month, to make themselves more miserable.

To resolve the paradox, consider two possibilities.

The first is that the important measure –the gold standard – is people’s actual experi-

Healthy opinions

As the federal election campaign draws near, part of the focus from political parties will inevitably revolve around health care.

In all of the pre-election debates that Canadians have been exposed to in this century, there has been an opportunity for opposition party leaders to criticize incumbents, and for prime ministers to defend what they are doing on this file.

Under current guidelines, the federal government is responsible for funding the health-care system, while the management, organization and delivery of services is a provincial and territorial responsibility. This means that most of the discussions about health care during federal elections focus on money, while the provision of medical services is typically reserved for provincial campaigns.

Research Co. asked Canadians this month about their views on the health-care system, including their confidence in receiving timely assistance, what issues must be addressed and whether the private sector would be better positioned to deal with the medical needs of the country’s residents.

For starters, most Canadians hold a middle-of-the-road opinion: three in five respondents (60 per cent) think there are

some good things in the country’s health-care system, but many changes are required. And while 25 per cent believe the system is running smoothly and only minor changes are required, significantly fewer residents (13 per cent) think health care in Canada should be completely rebuilt. When asked about specific problems facing the health-care system, the federal government emerges almost unscathed.

Only five per cent of Canadians point to “inadequate resources and facilities.” The main hitches are, for the most part, under the purview of provincial administrations: “long wait times” (33 per cent), “bureaucracy and poor management” (24 per cent) and “shortage of doctors and nurses” (18 per cent).

In spite of their ability to identify their sources of dissatisfaction, Canadians are decidedly optimistic. Four in five respondents (79 per cent) are “very confident” or “moderately confident” that Canada’s health-care system will be there to provide the help they would need were they to face an unexpected medi-

cal condition or disease.

British Columbia is ahead of all other regions on the health-care user confidence question (82 per cent), followed by Manitoba and Saskatchewan (81 per cent), Ontario (80 per cent) Alberta (78 per cent), Atlantic Canada (76 per cent) and Quebec (74 per cent).

In the weeks and months ahead, voters will be treated to Conservative Party of Canada politicians and People’s Party of Canada candidates criticizing the existence of a federal deficit. Canadians are clear that any solution should not come at the expense of their medical services.

A whopping 74 per cent of respondents to the survey disagree with reducing government debt by making cuts to health-care funding.

The role of the private sector in Canada’s health-care system will also be debated during the federal election campaign. How to address this matter can make or break a candidacy. In 2000, the mere whiff of “two-tier health care” was enough to place Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day on the defensive.

Most Canadians (57 per cent) disagree that health care in Canada would be better than it is now if it were run by the private sector, but two in five (39 per cent) are in agreement.

— Mario Canseco is president of Research Co.

ence. When people say that they would demand $87 to give up use of Facebook for a month, they are making a big mistake. The monetary figure might reflect a simple habit (maybe people are just used to having Facebook in their lives), or a prevailing social norm, or even a kind of addiction.

The second possibility is that survey answers about personal well-being –including anxiety and depression – fail to capture everything that people really care about.

For example, Allcott and his co-authors show that Facebook users know more about politics. Those who follow politics might become more anxious and depressed – but a lot of people still follow politics. They don’t follow politics to get happy. They follow politics because they are curious, and because they think that’s what good citizens do.

Similarly, Facebook users might want to know what their friends are doing and thinking, because that’s good to know, whether or not that knowledge makes them happier.

Both of these possibilities undoubtedly capture part of the picture. But let’s not lose sight of the most striking implication of the new research: Voluntary use of Facebook (and probably Twitter as well) is making a lot of people stressed and sad. For many of us, deactivating might well turn out to be a gift that keeps on giving.

Cass Sunstein is the author of The Cost-Benefit Revolution and a co-author of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness

A take on carbon tax

The other day, I was asked by a friend to explain how carbon taxes could work.

I am probably not the best person to offer an explanation because I don’t like the way the carbon tax was rolled out in this province. But I will give it a try.

In essence, taxes and tariffs have the effect of increasing the price of a commodity. There are various good reasons for imposing either. Generally, tax revenue is intended to be used for things we call public goods. For example, school taxes help to offset the cost of a public school system which we all value. Similarly, a road tax helps pay for the cost of maintaining our roads.

Tariffs have a slightly different purpose as they are intended to prevent other countries from undercutting local businesses by dumping low cost goods onto our market. There are reasons why countries put these in place but the desire is to secure the domestic market.

A carbon tax has slightly different objectives.

It is intended to do a number of things. In one sense, it is a sin tax in the same way taxes on cigarettes and alcohol exist. Part of the intent of a sin tax is to encourage people to change their behaviour. For example, the idea behind taxes on cigarettes is to increase the cost of smoking and the increased cost will either induce people to smoke less or to quit entirely.

Does it work? Judging by the societal shift we see, it has in one sense. Over the past 20 years, consumption by the average smoker has dropped from 17 per day in 1999 to 13.8 per in 2017. But was this entirely due to the increasing price of a pack or did it have to do with a persistent advertising campaign designed to decrease smoking? Or societal pressure in the form of bans on public smoking? Or links to cancer?

So will increasing the cost of fossil fuels have a similar effect on our consumption pattern?

Proponents of a carbon tax argue yes. As the cost of fuel increases, consumption will decline as fewer people will be able to afford to buy it. Imagine how many people would be driving if gasoline was $20 per litre. The roads would be empty of private vehicles for all but the rich. And, of course, our economy would be in tatters. Our economy would collapse because much of it is predicated on the consumption of fossil fuels.

This is where the social engineering aspects of a carbon tax fall

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apart. While increasing the price of cigarettes can inhibit smoking, no one actually needs to smoke (yes, I realize nicotine is addictive) whereas our present economic structure is intrinsically linked to the consumption of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are presently not a luxury but a necessity. This is where the second objective of carbon taxes comes into play. A carbon tax is intended to induce a shift in our economy to non-fossil fuel based alternatives. Consider transportation. In the early 1900s, electric vehicles were a significant portion of the market but they couldn’t compete with the cheaper to run internal combustion engine. Gas powered cars and diesel engines won the price battle. Over the last 100 years, advances in battery technology and electrical motors have enabled electric vehicles to gain a toehold once more. But what is the incentive to retool our transportation sector? Billion, if not trillions, in capital will need to be spent if we are to enjoy our present level of transportation freedom and usage using electric vehicles.

The imposition of a carbon tax will increase the price of fossil fuels and what we pay at the pump. Eventually, when considering a new car or truck, consumers will – in theory – opt for the electric vehicle because the overall cost of purchase and operation will be less. If you are presently paying $1,500 per year for gas and a carbon tax shifts the total to $3,000, over the lifetime of a car – say, five years – that is an extra $7,500 (and a total operational cost of $15,000). The intent is for this extra cost to induce someone to pay for the slightly more expensive electric vehicle with minimal electrical costs. Will this work? Eventually, when the price of using fossil fuels gets to a point where the alternatives are cheaper to buy and easier to use. Unfortunately, no one knows exactly where that price point is. In the meantime, we will need to implement tariffs to prevent economies without carbon taxes from dumping low-priced products onto Canadian markets. The net result is we will pay no matter what. After all, death and taxes are the only sure things in life.

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Three killed in B.C. train derailment

Citizen news service

FIELD — A Canadian Pacific freight train fell more than 60 metres from a bridge near the Alberta-British Columbia boundary in a derailment that killed three crew members, a union representative said Monday.

The westbound freight jumped the tracks at about 1 a.m. near Field, B.C.

Greg Edwards with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference said the workers had just taken over the train east of the town.

“Everybody I’ve spoken with both within the company and within the union is just devastated by this,” he said. “It’s just terrible, terrible news.”

He said the locomotive fell into the Kicking Horse River. Two of the men were found outside and the other was still inside.

“I got the call in the middle of the night and it’s one of the worst calls that you want to take,” Edwards said.

The railway said in a statement that conductor Dylan Paradis, engineer Andrew Dockrell and trainee Daniel WaldenbergerBulmer were killed in the derailment.

President and CEO Keith Creel said he was deeply saddened to learn of the deaths, which he said will have a long-lasting effect on CP’s family of railroaders.

The railway will not speculate on the cause as it “owes it to those involved to get

Three crew members were killed when a train derailed near Field, B.C. early Monday morning.

it right,” Creel said, adding the company remains focused on the safety of its employees and first responders, as well as working closely with the families of the deceased. Creel said the company is also working with Parks Canada and other agencies to ensure the environment is not negatively impacted. Recovery will be complex and challenging given the remote location and

CP PHOTO

extreme weather, he added.

“As we work to safely recover from this tragedy, we do so with our fallen colleagues in mind,” he said.

A man who identified himself as Waldenberger-Bulmer’s father wrote on Facebook that he had lost one of the “jewels” in his crown.

“He will be sadly missed by me his father

and ‘mentor’ as he loved adventure and challenge as I do,” wrote Albe Bulmer, who did not immediately return a message seeking further comment.

The union said the crew was based out of Calgary. Edwards said the engineer had more than two decades of railroad experience.

The train had three locomotives and 112 cars – smaller than the 135-car trains the railway tends to run, Edwards said. The train was carrying grain to Vancouver.

David Karn, a spokesman for the B.C. Environment Ministry, said between 30 and 40 grain cars left the tracks in the derailment. He said the situation was being monitored and there was no immediate word of fuel or other contaminants entering the water.

Edwards said he didn’t know if frigid temperatures played a role.

“Cold isn’t good for train brakes and things, but we’ve been operating in the winter for years and years and years,” he said.

“We’ve dealt with winters ever since they invented the railway in Canada.”

Edwards said it would be tough for equipment and recovery crews to get access to the ravine near the Spiral Tunnels where the accident happened. The tunnels were built 110 years ago to help trains traverse the treacherously steep Kicking Horse Pass.

Killer Collective a page turner

Bruce DeSILVA Citizen news service

The Killer Collective (Thomas & Mercer), by Barry Eisler

At first blush, Barry Eisler’s new thriller resembles one of those cartoonish action movies in which a handful of retired covert operators who don’t trust each other are forced by circumstances to join forces for one last job.

Indeed, Eisler has assembled the most memorable characters from his 14 previous novels and given each major roles in The Killer Collective. There’s Livia Lone, a Seattle sex crimes investigator who would rather kill perverts than jail them. And John Rain, an assassin who specializes in “natural causes.” And Delilah, a treacherous Mossad agent. And Dox, a former Marine sniper. And deadly black ops soldiers Ben Trever and Daniel Larison. And the pair’s old

commander, Scott Horton. As the story begins, all but Lone have retired to quiet lives, but inevitably, trouble finds them.

The action starts when someone who wants to remain unknown uses Horton to arrange a hit. He’ll pay Rain a million dollars to kill a Seattle cop and two FBI agents if the hit man can make the deaths appear accidental.

After Rain turns down the job, an airliner carrying the FBI agents crashes into Lake Michigan. A team of assassins tries to bushwhack Lone and botches the job.

And Horton and Rain barely escape when the unknown bad guy tries to tie up loose ends.

Lone and the FBI agents had been marked for death after uncovering a pedophile ring involving six Secret Service Agents. Such a scandal would be embarrassing, of course, but would someone really bring down an airliner to cover it up? Clearly, a more nefarious conspiracy involving higher-ups must be at work.

old romantic involvements to past betrayals that have them bristling with mutual distrust. All of that must be overcome if they are to work as a team.

52

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kristoff

St. John, who played the struggling alcoholic and ladies’ man Neil Winters for 27 years on Young and the Restless, has died. He was 52.

Los Angeles police were called to his home Sunday and his body was turned over to the coroner. The cause of death was not immediately available Monday.

So Lone and Rain combine forces, and the Killer Collective is assembled to identify the conspirators and take them out.

Unlike movies such as Red (featuring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren), Eisler’s tale is anything but cartoonish. In fact, the most compelling part of the story is the way the author portrays the complex relationships among his characters, from

Eisler, a former covert operative for the CIA, knows this turf. And as usual with an Eisler novel, the plot is full of twists, the prose is muscular and the action unfolds at a torrid pace. The result is another page turner from one of the better thriller writers since James Grady published Six Days of the Condor in 1974.

Bruce DeSilva, winner of the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award, is the author of the Mulligan crime novels including The Dread Line.

Tweet about Kondo blows up on Ehrenreich

(AP) — An online takedown of Marie Kondo by author-journalist Barbara Ehrenreich has been widely condemned as racist and xenophobic. Ehrenreich tweeted Monday that she saw Kondo’s popularity as a sign of America’s decline and wished that the Japanese “decluttering guru” would “learn to speak English.” She later tweeted that she was “sorry” if she had offended anyone and called her

previous comment a missed attempt at “subtle humour.”

Ehrenreich is a liberal who writes often about the working class, notably in the bestselling Nickel and Dimed. Novelist Rebecca Makkai was among those calling Ehrenreich’s first tweet racist. She also lamented comments by such fellow liberals as Katha Pollitt, who cited Kondo’s speaking Japanese as “adding to her fairy-like delicacy and charm.”

St. John had played Winters on the CBS soap opera since 1991, earning nine daytime Emmy nominations. He won a Daytime Emmy in 1992 for outstanding younger actor in a drama series and won 10 NAACP Image Awards.

His business guy character wended his way through romances, deaths of loved ones and other daytime travails that descended into alcoholism, until his Winters went to rehab.

St. John announced in September that he was engaged to model Kseniya Mikhaleva.

“So early.....so early,” she wrote in her Instagram Stories. “Why you are leave so early????Why... you are always in my heart.”

St. John was twice married and divorced and was the father of a son and two daughters. His 24-year-old son, Julian, died in 2014. On Jan. 21, St. John retweeted “Grieving the loss of a child is a process. It begins on the day your child passes, and ends the day the parent joins them.”

CBS and Sony Pictures Television said in a joint statement that St. John’s death is heartbreaking.

“He was a very talented actor and an even better person. For those of us who were fortunate enough to work with him on The Young and the Restless for the last 27 years, he was a beloved friend whose smile and infectious laugh made every day on set a joy and made audiences love him,” the statement said.

Fellow cast members and friends were shocked and saddened.

“Sitting by myself in my car! It’s raining outside, with dark clouds and wind outside... am reading your tweets about my friend KRISTOFF! Thank you all for your kind words! I have none right now! He was a hell of an actor and simply one of the nicest guys ever! Can’t believe it!” tweeted Eric Braeden, who plays Victor Newman on the show.

Viola Davis and Yvette Nicole Brown were among others. Brown tweeted: “No!!! This news has truly broken my heart. Kristoff was pure & so kind. I will never forget how wonderful he was to me and everyone else he came into contact with. He was just a good, good man.”

Vegas artist sues Ariana Grande

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas artist is suing pop music star Ariana Grande, alleging federal copyright infringement over an image of a woman in a candle flame in the pop star’s widely-viewed God is a Woman music video. Representatives for Grande did not immediately respond Monday to messages about the lawsuit filed Thursday in Nevada by attorneys for Vladimir Kush and his company Kush Fine Arts Las Vegas. The document calls the image that appears about a minute into Grande’s 2018 music video nearly identical to paintings that Kush painted and copyrighted in 1999 and 2000.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and a court order to remove the video from the internet. The video has been viewed almost 200 million times on YouTube since it was posted last July. The video has been viewed almost 200 million times on YouTube since it was posted last July.

ST. JOHN Soap star dead at

AP PHOTO

The Killer Collective, by Barry Eisler, will keep readers flipping the pages long past midnight.

P.G.’s Pilote qualifies for Scotties

Humble pie

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

That was some case of indigestion the UNBC Timberwolves developed in the second quarter of their game against the Lethbridge Pronghorns.

By the end of that 10-minute stanza the entire starting lineup of the T-wolves was ready to check into the infirmary to get their stomachs pumped.

Their misery on the U Sports Canada West men’s court Saturday night at the Northern Sport Centre was a product of an unappetizing menu of long-range strikes, unrelenting drives to the net, smothering swats and acts of basketball thievery served up by the Pronghorns in a 106-68 thrashing.

The second game of the weekend set between the teams was nothing like the first – a 96-90 Twolves’ win on Friday. The Pronghorns caught on fire in the second quarter and annihilated UNBC 284, scoring 15 unanswered points heading into the locker room with a 45-28 lead at halftime and didn’t let up in the third quarter, outscoring the T-wolves 33-22.

Chad Oviatt, a Pronghorns’ third-year forward, drew a starting role for the first time this season and made the most of his opportunity, scoring a career-high 32 points and hauling in eight rebounds.

“It was a lot different (from Friday’s game). We took care of the ball and we worked hard,” said Oviatt. “Coming back from a loss, you just have to put the work in. Last night the energy wasn’t there and we were flat and just not into it but tonight we were ready to go.”

Eric Pierce scored 17 and Mike Pierzchala grabbed nine rebounds, both coming off the bench for Lethbridge.

“I’m really proud of Chad,” said Pronghorns head coach Mike Hansen. “Every coach’s dream is to have a player, whether he plays four minutes or 40, his approach and his demeanour and his attitude and selflessness doesn’t change. He’s been the one guy who’s minutes have been up and down all year long and I just felt like we needed to start with better defensive energy and made the decisions to start him and Brett (Warren) and (Oviatt) made me look awfully smart tonight.”

It was the most lopsided loss of the season for the T-wolves, in their final home game of the season. T-wolves forward Austin Chandler had his grandfather, mom and girlfriend from Washington State in the stands on seniors’ night and they watched Chandler and his teammates Jovan Leamy, James Agyeman and Vaggelis Loukas play the last home game of their university careers on Saturday.

Lethbridge serves up one-sided loss to T-wolves

Austin Chandler of the UNBC Timberwolves works against Mike Pierzchala of the Lethbridge Pronghorns on Saturday night at the Northern Sport Centre.

“Unfortunately it was our senior night and it definitely didn’t go the way we planned,” said Chandler, a native of Wenatchee, Wash. “Coming off a win last night, guys were feeling good, but any team with pride, if you lose on the road you’re going to come back hard the next night and that’s what Lethbridge did. In many ways, as a group of guys on our team, we kind of folded and the way we conducted ourselves didn’t reflect our team as well as it should have and it kind of sucks because this is our last impression at home. Losses happen, whether it’s 40 points or two points – the way we took the loss was unacceptable.”

Knowing his team was not going to recover from the blowout deficit, T-wolves coach Todd Jordan brought in his first- and secondyear reserves in the third quarter and they got their chances to play in the second half.

Vova Pluzhnikov, with 14 points, was the only T-wolf to reach double figures. Loukas had 10 rebounds. Leamy, who turned in one of his best games in two years as a

Losses happen, whether it’s 40 points or two points, the way we took the loss was unacceptable.

— Austin Chandler

T-wolf on Friday when he collected 16 points, 10 assists, five steals and nine rebounds, was held to just nine points in the rematch.

“They just went on a run offensively and we weren’t able to put some stops together,” said Leamy. “It kind of affected our energy and we didn’t really attack the same way we did offensively (in the first quarter) and it just built up.”

The good news for the T-wolves (9-11, 11th place) was their win Friday clinched their second consecutive playoff spot. Had they swept the Pronghorns they had a chance of finishing as high

as eighth in the 17-team league, which would have made them first-round playoff hosts.

The way it works in Canada West in the first round is the top four men’s teams – Calgary Alberta, UBC and Saskatchewan – earn first-round byes. The teams that finish fifth through eighth host a one-game series against a team that finishes ninth through 12th. The order of finish is not just determined from win-loss records, seedings are also based on the RPI index, which takes into account the quality of opponents each team faces in the 20-game regular season.

The T-wolves will travel to Abbotsford to play the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades (13-7, fifth place) in a one-game playoff on Thursday. Lethbridge (12-8, seventh place) will host the Victoria Vikes (10-10, 10th place) Friday night.

“Our focus now is to just look forward to UFV and prepare for that matchup,” said Leamy. “It’s a new season and we’ll re-focus and get back in the gym and work.”

UNBC women just miss home playoff date

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

It was a bittersweet day for the UNBC Timberwolves women’s basketball team.

The T-wolves managed to beat the Lethbridge Pronghorns 79-76 Saturday at the Northern Sport Centre on the basketball court but failed their math test conducted in the inner workings of the Canada West conference.

As a result, they will have to start the playoffs on the road and play the Trinity Western Spartans Friday night in Langley. Win-loss records determine which 12 teams qualify for playoffs. To determine playoff seedings, the conference uses the ratings performance index (RPI),

which takes into account the strength of each team’s schedule and the quality of its opponents and that was all it took to bump the T-wolves from eighth place and the right to host the opening playoff round, down to ninth. UNBC’s RPI index of .525 was two/thousandths of a point lower than Trinity Western’s .527, denying the T-wolves the chance to become the first UNBC team to ever host a Canada West playoff game. But they did lock up their third consecutive postseason berth, finishing with a best-ever 11-9 record. In their regular-season finale, the T-wolves fought back from a

four-point deficit in the first quarter to lead 36-34 at the half, then waged a narrow battle with the Pronghorns the rest of the game to hang on to the victory, avenging a 77-71 loss to Lethbridge on Friday. Graduating senior Vasiliki Louka, in her last game for the T-wolves on home court, was held to just four points in the first half but started finding her range in a six-point third quarter and had 12 more in the final quarter for a total of 22. The fifth-year post finished tops in Canada West in rebounding with an average 12.7 per game and was eighth in the scoring race, averaging 17.3 points per game. see LANDRY, page 10

Citizen staff

The 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Canadian women’s curling championship will have a Prince George flavour. Kristen Pilote (nee Fewster) earned the right to represent her home province when she teamed up with skip Sarah Wark of Abbotsford to win the B.C. women’s championship Sunday afternoon in Quesnel. The Wark team, which also includes second Carley Sandwith and lead Michelle Dunn, both of Abbotsford, as well as Pilote’s sister, fifth Jen Rusnell of Prince George, defeated Corryn Brown of Kamloops 7-4 in nine ends in Sunday’s final. Wark stole two in the first end and added two more in the third and fourth ends for a 6-1 lead.

Wark advanced to the championship game with an 8-6 win over Brown Saturday morning. Wark and her team, which also includes coach Rick Fewster of Prince George, the father of Pilote and Rusnell, advance to the Scotties national championship Feb. 16-24 in Sydney, N.S.

Brette Richards and her combined Prince George/ Kelowna/Victoria rink qualified for playoffs with a third-place 4-3 record. They beat Lindsay Hudyma of Vancouver in a playoff Saturday morning and lost in the semifinal 6-4 to Brown and claimed the bronze medal. Meanwhile, in the B.C. men’s championship, Jim Cotter advanced to the Brier for the eighth time in his career. The Vernon skip defeated Jason Montgomery of Victoria 9-4 in the B.C. men’s curling championship game Sunday morning in Quesnel.

Cotter and his team of third Steve Laycock, second Tyrel Griffith and lead Rick Sawatsky stole two in the first end and added two more in the third and fourth ends to take a 6-1 lead. Cotter added three more in the ninth to wrap it up.

Montgomery lost 9-3 to Cotter Saturday morning in his first playoff game in the modified triple-knockout event, then beat Josh Barry of Maple Ridge 11-5 to qualify for the final. Cotter will represent B.C. in the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men’s championship in Brandon, Man., March 30 to April 7.

Kings sink Rivermen

Citizen

staff

In a makeup game from one that was postponed earlier in the B.C. Hockey League season, the Prince George Spruce Kings beat the Langley Rivermen 4-1 in a Monday night road contest. The Kings, who outshot the Rivermen 27-17, got goals from Layton Ahac, Patrick Cozzi, Ben Brar and Liam Watson-Brawn. They led 1-0 after the first period and 2-1 after the second. Bronson Sharp netted the lone goal for the Rivermen. In the nets, Logan Neaton picked up the win and Shayne Battler took the loss.

The Kings went 2-for-7 on the power play while the Rivermen ended up 0-for-3.

With Monday’s result, the Spruce Kings bumped their record to 32-12-1-5 while the Rivermen slipped to 25-23-2-0. The Spruce Kings were coming off a weekend sweep of the Surrey Eagles at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. The Kings beat the Eagles 3-1 on Saturday after a 5-0 triumph on Friday. The Spruce Kings will be in Coquitlam this coming Friday to take on the Express. On Saturday, they’ll visit the Rivermen and on Sunday they’ll skate in Surrey against the Eagles.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

LOUKA

Sports Landry leads

UNBC offence

from page 9

Even when she wasn’t scoring in the first half, Louka was still dominant, using her six-foot-three height to block shots and haul in wayward balls. Her presence drew two and sometimes three checkers, which left her teammates open in other areas around the court.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game because Lethbridge wanted this game and we wanted it too and in the end I think we did a better job executing the best options and playing good defence and it’s really nice that we won,” said Louka.

“I try to help my team with whatever my good weapons are and defensively, under the basket, I won’t let anyone drive easy. I have to try to find different ways to help my team apart from scoring because sometimes it’s not my day, so I have to find something different.”

Maria Mongomo did what Twolves fans have come to expect as a fourth-year guard near the top of the scoring chart. She put up 19 points (close to her 19.9 average, third-best in Canada West), she hit three of her six three-point attempts and shot 6-for-15 from the field. Mongomo’s quickness and anticipation forced the Pronghorns into mistakes that led to four steals to add to her season total of 50 (second in the conference).

Kacie Bosch was the most dangerous Pronghorn, scoring 18 points. Asnate Fomina had 15 points and Amy Mazuntenic fired 13 points. Katie Keith picked up 10 rebounds.

Madison Landry shot a gamehigh 23 points for UNBC and many of those points came at just the right time to keep her team in the lead.

Alina Shakirova came off the bench to put in a strong defensive effort shadowing the Pronghorns’ top scorers and she collected 13 points, none more crucial than the two she sunk with a baseline drive with two seconds left on the shot clock to give UNBC a four-point lead with 14 seconds left. That entire sequence of passes and dribbles to avoid the Pronghorns going down to the other end for a potential goahead shot was a classic example of time management and ball control to defuse a tense situation.

“I think this win really showed our character, coming back from the loss, we really stuck together as a team today and our intensity was up the whole game and it feels so good to get that last win of the season,” said Landry, sporting a shiner under her left eye after taking an elbow under the rim late in Friday’s game.

Louka and UNBC guard Abby Gibb are the two graduating seniors on the UNBC women’s team.

“We’re definitely sad to see them go. They’re great people on and off the court, they’ve given so much to the program and the team and we’re really thankful we got to play with them,” said Landry.

The Pronghorns (12-8, seventh place) will host Manitoba in a onegame playoff this Friday.

Patriots stifle Rams on way to title

Eddie PELLS Citizen news service

ATLANTA — Greying but still gritty, Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots came to the Super Bowl intending to stave off, for at least one more game, the inevitable onslaught of the NFL’s future.

Job well done.

Pro football never looked flatter, older and more stuck in the days of the VCR than it did Sunday.

In a Super Bowl only New England could love, the Patriots won their sixth title by lumbering their way to a 13-3 victory over the Los Angeles Rams – that young, brash, highflying team with the 33-year-old coach and the 24-year-old quarterback who were, we thought, changing football before our very eyes.

If only we could’ve kept them open.

Among the Super Bowl records set: fewest points by both teams (16); fewest points by the winning team (13); fewest combined points through three quarters (six); most consecutive drives ending with a punt (eight by the Rams); longest punt (65 yards).

The halftime show with Maroon 5 offered no relief – roundly ripped, including by an Associated Press reviewer who called it “Empty. Boring. Basic. Sleepy.”

He could have said the same about the game. But give credit where it’s due.

The defence designed by Belichick turned Rams quarterback Jared Goff into a jittery mess. He completed 19 of 38 passes for 229 yards, with an assortment of rushed throws, misread coverages and, in the tiny windows in which LA showed any sign of life, a pair of terrible passes.

One, trailing 3-0 in the third quarter, was late and high to wide-open Brandin Cooks in the end zone; the other, trailing 10-3 with 4:17 left in the fourth quarter, was high under pressure for an easy interception by Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore that essentially ended the game.

“I know I definitely have a lot to learn from this one,” said Rams coach Sean McVay, who, at 33, is exactly half the age of Belichick.

McVay has been the flavour of the month in the copycat NFL. Other teams have hired away three of his assistant coaches over the last two years, as the league tries to catch up with his newfangled offence that cracked 30 points in 13 games this season.

On Sunday, it managed one 53-yard field goal from Greg Zuerlein and didn’t take a snap inside the New England 20.

Gilmore’s interception came minutes after Brady engineered the game’s lone touchdown drive. It was five plays and included four straight completions: 18 yards to Rob Gronkowski, 13 yards to Julian Edelman, seven yards to backup running back Rex Burkhead, then a 29-yard teardrop placed perfectly into the arms of Gronkowski, who was double-covered. Sony Michel ran it in from two yards for the touchdown with seven minutes left.

“We couldn’t get points on the board for one reason or another,” Brady said, “but in the end, it feels a lot better than last year, when we did get some points on the board.”

Last year, the Patriots fell 41-33 to Philly in a back-and-forth thriller that essentially featured one good defensive play: a sack and strip on Brady by Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham with the clock running down.

The year before, the Patriots scored 31 points in the second half and overtime for a

riveting 34-28 comeback win over Atlanta and title No. 5.

Then, this.

New England’s road to a sixth Lombardi Trophy – tied with Pittsburgh for the most –was never easy this season. The Patriots lost five times, didn’t have home-field advantage through the playoffs and, after every loss, were beset by questions over whether the 41-year-old Brady and his 66-year-old coach might be winding down. Through it all, though, they could score. New England averaged 27.2 points a game. And in the run through the playoffs, the offence scored 10 touchdowns and Brady barely got touched, and never got sacked. They were not clicking like that Sunday at the $1.5 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where 70,081 fans – most of them cheering for New England – watched the game. Other than Edelman, whose 10 catches for 141 yards won him MVP honours and made him look like a combination of Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice considering everything happening around him, the Patriots were out of sync.

Hart, Voracek lead Flyers past Canucks

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Carter Hart made 41 saves, Sean Couturier and Jakub Voracek scored, and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Vancouver Canucks 2-1 on Monday night for their eighth straight victory.

The Flyers pulled within five points of a playoff spot after having the NHL’s worst record on Jan. 9 – they were 14 points out of a post-season berth during the All-Star break just over a week ago. Philadelphia also became the first NHL expansion club to reach 2,000 victories Hart, Philadelphia’s 20-year-old rookie, won his seventh straight start with another solid game. His best stop came with 5 1/2 minutes left when he dived with his right arm to deny Nikolay Goldobin from a sharp angle on a power play, drawing “CAR-TER! CAR-TER!”

chants from the crowd.

Brock Boeser scored for Vancouver, playing the first of three games in four nights.

The game was delayed for several minutes midway through the third period after Vancouver’s Alexander Edler went down with a scary-looking injury. Edler’s skate got caught in Voracek’s stick, causing Edler to land face-first on the ice. With a bloodied face and dazed look, a conscious Edler was wheeled off on a stretcher while sitting upright.

Voracek scored on a breakaway 3:20 into the second period to put Philadelphia up 2-0. After Canucks defenceman Christopher Tanev whiffed on a pass at the blueline, Philadelphia’s Phil Varone lifted a pass ahead to perfectly set up Voracek. The Flyers forward deked to his forehand and shot just past the

Cougars’ skid hits nine games

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff

Nine games without a victory.

That’s the grim reality facing the Prince George Cougars.

The soul-searching continued Saturday night in Langley where the Cougars lost 4-2 to the Vancouver Giants.

Milos Roman scored twice for the Giants, collecting the opener on a Giants power play before the game was four minutes old, and added an empty-netter in the final minute.

Dylan Plouffe rapped in a loose puck off the end boards to score in the second period to put the Giants up 2-1, but Josh Maser tied it on a Cougars power play with 2.2 seconds left in the period, finding a loose puck in the

crease after defenceman Ryan Schoettler shot from the point.

The game-winner came from Justin Sourdif, who got himself open on a right-wing dash and lifted a shot in behind Isaiah DiLaura.

Cole Moberg scored his 10th of the season for the Cougars in the first period with a wrister from the point after Matej Toman won a draw in the Giants’ end.

DiLaura was the busier of the two goalies, called upon to make 28 saves. Giants goalie Trent Miner stopped 15 shots.

The Cougars were without veteran defenceman Joel Lakusta, who mised his second game with an upper-body injury. Centre Ilijah Colina was also out of the lineup, having returned to his home in North Delta for personal reasons.

outstretched right pad of Jacob Markstrom with a highlight-reel finish.

Vancouver got on the board 1:54 later after a rare mistake by Hart. Hart came way out of his crease to deny Brandon Sutter of a breakaway, but the goalie’s clearing attempt went off the boards and right to Boeser, who fired into the vacated net for his 18th goal of the season and fourth in the last seven contests. Couturier gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead with 1:23 left in the first period with a wrist shot from the slot that went just under the glove of Markstrom.

The power play tally was the seventh in the last nine opportunities for the Flyers, who scored four goals with the man-advantage in Saturday’s 5-4 overtime win over Edmonton.

The win left the B.C. Division-leading Giants (33-13-32-1) 32 points ahead of the Cougars. Now sitting last in the WHL’s Western Conference, the Cougars (16-29-3-2) are seven points behind the Kamloops Blazers for the second wild-card playoff spot in the conference. Prince George and Kamloops each have 18 games remaining in the season.

The Cougars haven’t won a game since Jan. 12, when they beat Kelowna 4-0 at CN Centre. Since then they’ve gained just two points, one each from overtime losses to Kamloops and Prince Albert.

The Cougars and Giants have three more games against each other over the next week. They’ll play tonight and Wednesday at CN Centre then meet again next Sunday in Langley.

LANDRY

AP PHOTO

Julian Edelman of the New England Patriots celebrates with the Vince Lombardi Trophy on Sunday in Atlanta.

MONEY IN BRIEF

Currencies

OTTAWA (CP) — These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Monday. Quotations in Canadian funds.

Judge approves Puerto Rico debt deal

Danica COTO Citizen news service

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A U.S. federal bankruptcy judge approved a major debt restructuring plan for Puerto Rico on Monday in the first deal of its kind for the U.S. territory since the island’s government declared nearly four years ago that it was unable to repay its public debt.

The agreement involves more than $17 billion worth of government bonds backed by a sales-and-use tax, with officials saying it will help the government save an average of $456 million a year in debt service. The deal allows Puerto Rico to cut its sales-tax-backed debt by 32 per cent but requires the government to pay $32 billion in the next 40 years as part of the restructuring.

Senior bondholders, who hold nearly $8 billion, will be first to collect, receiving 93 per cent of the value of the original bonds. Junior bondholders, many of whom are individual Puerto Rican investors and overall hold nearly $10 billion, will collect last and recover only 54 per cent.

“Puerto Rico has taken an important step toward its total financial recovery,” Gov. Ricardo Rossello said in a statement. “This represents more than $400 million annually that will be available for services in critical areas such as health, education, pension payments, and public safety, in compliance with other obligations.”

The markets today

TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index reached its highest level in four months Monday on a big surge in cannabis stocks.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 96.01 points at 15,602.32 after hitting an intraday peak of 15,606.34. That’s the highest level since Oct. 8.

“The recent rally in the healthcare sector, particularly the pot stocks, is providing a big portion of the lift for the TSX,” says Craig Fehr, a Canadian markets strategist for Edward Jones.

The health care sector gained five per cent on the day led by cannabis heavyweights Aphria Inc. which rose by nearly 13 per cent, Cronos Group Inc. 12 per cent and Aurora Cannabis 8.8 per cent on heavy trading.

Technology was up 1.6 per cent to follow the direction of the U.S. sector. Energy was up more than one per cent despite a dip in oil prices.

The March crude contract was down 70 cents to US$54.56 per barrel and the March natural gas contract was down 7.4 cents at US$2.66 per mmBTU.

The rally in oil prices over the past few weeks along with an improved performance of cannabis stocks have provided a lift for the TSX in 2019 and contributed to an 8.5 per cent gain for the market in January.

The influential industrials sector lost 0.09 per cent while materials was up just 0.14 per cent as gold prices fell.

The April gold contract was down US$2.80 at US$1,319.30 an ounce and the March copper contract was up 2.15 cents at US$2.79 a pound.

The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 76.18 cents US, down from Friday’s average of 76.37 cents US, which was the highest level since Nov. 7.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 175.48 points at 25,239.37. The S&P 500 index was up 18.34 points at 2,724.87, while the Nasdaq composite was up 83.67 points at 7,347.54.

North American markets have been driven higher by an improved outlook for economic growth, higher corporate profits, dovish monetary policy particularly on interest rate hikes and hope that a U.S.-China trade skirmish will be resolved, said Fehr. U.S. corporate profits have set a positive tone even though they are a bit more mixed than a year ago. Alphabet Inc. beat analyst expectations in reporting after markets closed that it earned US$8.95 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with a loss a year earlier. Net revenues after deducting advertising commissions was US$31.84 billion.

The deal was previously approved by bondholders but prompted hundreds of people to write and email Judge Laura Taylor-Swain, who held a hearing on the issue nearly three weeks ago, to express concerns about the government’s ability to make those payments and the effect it will have on public services. In her ruling, she wrote that she reviewed and carefully considered all those messages before making a decision.

“Many of the formal and informal objections raised serious and considered concerns about the Commonwealth’s future ability to provide properly for the citizens of Puerto Rico who depend upon it,” she wrote. “They are not, however, concerns upon which the Court can properly act in making its decision... the Court is not free to impose its own view of what the optimal resolution of the dispute could have been.”

The judge said that the deal represents a reasonable compromise and that fur-

In this Sept. 28, 2017 photo, destroyed homes are scattered in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, one week after the storm hit. In 2018 Puerto Rico’s governor said his administration had adopted new measures to better prepare for a disaster like Maria although, he warned of limitations given the U.S. territory’s economic crisis.

ther litigation would present a “significant gamble” for Puerto Rico. The island is mired in a 12-year-old recession and struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria as the government tries to restructure a portion of its more than $70 billion public debt load.

A U.S. government report issued last year found that Puerto Rico’s public finance problems are partly a result of government officials who overestimated revenue, overspent, did not fully address public pension funding shortfalls and borrowed money to balance budgets.

Taylor-Swain’s ruling said the compromise is “admittedly, deeply disappointing to countless citizens of Puerto Rico and investors in Commonwealth bonds.”

A federal control board that oversees the island’s finances praised the ruling, saying in a statement that the bond restructuring will help revive Puerto Rico’s economy.

“The deal demonstrates... our determination to resolve Puerto Rico’s debt crisis and establish sustainable foundations for (the)

Pembina going ahead with joint venture

Dan HEALING Citizen news service

CALGARY — A $4.5-billion Alberta project to turn propane into plastic will help deliver world prices to land-locked western Canadian oil and gas producers, says Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Ltd.

The company announced Monday it has decided with its joint venture partner, Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Co., to go ahead with their proposed integrated propane dehydrogenation plant and polypropylene upgrading facility northeast of Edmonton.

The plants’ plastic pellets will be sent by rail and shipping containers to manufacturers around the world to be turned into recyclable products used in automobiles, medical devices, food packaging and home electronic appliances.

“Sanctioning of the PDH/PP facility is the largest step taken to date by Pembina in executing its strategy to secure global market prices for customers’ hydrocarbons produced in Western Canada, and provides another exciting platform for future growth,” said Pembina CEO Mick Dilger in a news release.

Petrochemical Industries CEO Mohammed Abdullatif Al-Farhoud added in the same release that the facility is “ideally aligned with PIC’s continued pursuit of sustainable and globally diversified growth.”

Pembina was awarded $300 million in royalty credits in 2016 as an Alberta government incentive for the project.

At the same time, Calgarybased Inter Pipeline Ltd. got $200 million in credits for its nearby $3.5-billion polypropylene project, which is now under construction.

The credits allow producers to reduce their royalty payments

to the government and, as such, can’t be claimed by the petrochemical plants themselves.

However, Pembina said Monday it has made agreements with producers to “monetize” 80 per cent of the credits over the first several years of operation of the facility, which is expected to be in-service in mid-2023.

Pembina’s share of the project’s capital costs will be $2.5 billion including a 50 per cent interest in the joint venture, which will own the plants, and a 100 per cent stake in the supporting facilities.

Although the project exposes Pembina to some future commodity price risk from its non-contracted capacity, rating agency DBRS Ltd. said in a report it doesn’t make a material impact on the company’s positive credit profile because 85 per cent or more of Pembina’s adjusted earnings will continue to come from either fee-for-service or take-or-pay contracts when its complete.

The plants will be located next to Pembina’s Redwater fractionation complex, which extracts higher value components such as propane, ethane and condensate from natural gas. They will consume about 23,000 barrels per day of propane and have nameplate capacity of 550,000 tonnes of polypropylene per year.

The project is part of a resurgence in spending on industrial chemical industry projects in Canada. A recent members survey by the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada projected capital spending would jump by 65 per cent to $1.9 billion this year, the highest since $2.2 billion in 2014 and third-highest in a decade.

The survey suggested employment would rise by about four per cent or 640 jobs to 17,670 in 2019.

island’s economic road to recovery,” said Natalie Jaresko, the board’s executive director.

Antonio Fernos, a Puerto Rico economist, said in a phone interview that the agreement is a good deal.

“It’s positive because it brings some clarity to bondholders and what the board and government are willing to accept in negotiations,” he said.

More challenges remain, with Puerto Rico’s government still negotiating with those who hold general obligation bonds.

Last month, the control board asked the judge to invalidate $6 billion worth of that debt, including all general obligation bonds issued in 2012 and 2014, alleging that issuance violated debt limits established by the island’s constitution. Taylor-Swain has held hearings on the issue, but has not ruled yet.

In November, Puerto Rico’s government reached a debt-restructuring deal with creditors holding more than $4 billion in debt issued by the now-defunct Government Development Bank.

Cryptocurrency exchange seeks creditor protection

Armina LIGAYA Citizen news service

Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga is due in court today as it seeks creditor protection in the wake of the sudden death of its founder and chief executive in December and missing cryptocurrency worth roughly $190-million.

The Vancouver-based exchange filed an application for creditor protection on Jan. 31 and the Nova Scotia Supreme Court will be asked on Feb. 5 to appoint a monitor to oversee the proceedings, according to a post on its website, which has been otherwise shut down.

Quadriga owes $70 million in currency and an additional amount of cryptocurrency valued at approximately $180 million, based on market prices in December, to roughly 115,000 users, it said in its application.

Some have very large balances, with the largest affected user claim reportedly valued at approximately $70 million, court filings show.

Users have very little recourse to recover those funds, said Christine Duhaime, a lawyer and founder of the Digital Finance Institute.

Most assume the typical Bitcoin user is young, with money to burn, but the average age is closer to 45 years old, she added.

“People have emailed me and called me saying they’ve lost their retirement money. ... Because (Quadriga) have been around for so long and they were the largest exchange in Canada, I think people thought their money was safe.”

The online exchange launched in December 2013 and the platform allowed its users to deposit cash or cryptocurrency with Quadriga.

Court documents show that

Quadriga had been facing liquidity issues over the past year but a major issue arose in January 2018 when CIBC froze roughly $25.7 million of its funds held in the account of a third-party processor.

“Without access to the Affected Funds, Quadriga was unable to satisfy withdraw requests of users resulting in significant delays for users receiving funds from Quadriga,” it said in the application. Then in December, Quadriga’s founder, chief executive and sole director Gerald Cotten died suddenly, according to a post on its website and Facebook page.

“A visionary leader who transformed the lives of those around him, Gerry died due to complications with Crohn’s disease on Dec. 9, 2018 while travelling in India, where he was opening an orphanage to provide a home and safe refuge for children in need,” the company said.

Court filings show that after his death, Quadriga employees have been unable to locate or access cryptocurrencies worth roughly $190-million. Employees tried to access cryptocurrency within Quadriga’s “cold” wallets, a system which stores cryptocurrencies offline to avoid hacking, such as on USB sticks or electronic hardware not connected to the internet.

“Quadriga was unable to access the cold wallets and/or discovered that the cold wallets contained minimal cryptocurrency units,” it said in court filings.

Cotten’s widow Jennifer Robertson said she was not involved in the business while he was alive and the laptop which he used is encrypted.

“I do not know the password or recovery key,” she said in an affidavit. “Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere.”

Carl Felix Bjorklund

November 13, 1940February 1, 2019

Carl passed away peacefully with family by his side. He was predeceased by his wives Mary, and Cita, parents and siblings. Carl is survived by his first wife Mae and his children Sharon (Bill), Lloyd (Ruby), Vincent, Karl, Donna, Duwayne, Cheryl (Mike), Curtis, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and many other family members and loyal friends. Carl was born and raised in Prince George. Throughout the years, he accomplished many things. He was in the logging and trucking industry, also a successful business man, he loved the outdoors and truly enjoyed fishing with his buddies. Carl was gentle, kind, giving, and compassionate and his genuine smile would warm your heart. He has met so many wonderful people over the years and he was truly grateful for all the wonderful friendships that came of it. Carl will be deeply missed by his family and friends whom he cherished. A funeral service will be held on Friday, February 8, 2019 at 1:00pm at Westwood Mennonite Brethren Church, 2658 S. Ospika, with a viewing held prior to the service at 12:00 noon at Westwood Mennonite Church. Carl will be laid to rest in the Prince George Cemetery. Following the interment, friends are welcome to join the family at Westwood Church for some snacks and refreshments.

MAH, Esther Shue Fong

October 14, 1935 - Edmonton, Alberta January 26, 2019 - Calgary, Alberta

Esther beloved wife of Bud Chu Ming Mah of Calgary, AB, passed away at home, on Saturday, January 26, 2019 at the age of 83 years. Besides her loving husband, Bud, Esther is survived by her brother Daniel Chan (Ellen), and extended family and friends. Esther was predeceased by her daughter Colleen Sim (nee Mah) (2007) and her son David Mah (2016). Condolences may be forwarded through www.mcinnisandholloway.com.

In living memory of Esther Mah, a tree will be planted at Fish Creek Provincial Park by McINNIS & HOLLOWAY FUNERAL HOMES, Crowfoot, 82 CROWFOOT CIRCLE N.W. CALGARY, AB, T3G 2T3, Telephone: 403-241-0044.

NORMA WARR Died suddenly January 30, 2019 at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. She was the most important person to Mike and a caring mother for Stephen and Julie (now deceased).

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Norma worked at Sears for many years before retiring with Mike. She enjoyed European travel, and held the fort when Mike was off on Antarctic cruises. We both enjoyed reading so we met in a bookstore. Her favourite music was The Marriage of Figaro. There will be no service. Donate to charities of your choice. Norma will be remembered by friends and family and as Mike’s best friend. TL’ETINQOXSOCIALWORKER Tl’etinqoxGovernmentisseekingaRegisteredSocial Worker(MSW)whoworkswellinateamenvironment andhasextensiveexperiencewithadvancedand complexsocialworkcases.Underthedirectionofthe HealthandWellnessDirector,andinconsultationwith thehealthteamandrelatedgovernmentagencies,the individualwillmanagecomplexpsychosocialproblems, andperformavarietyofcaseworkandcounseling services.PreferencewillbegiventocandidateswithFirst Nationexperience.Foracompletejobdescription,email katrina.elliot@4cmc.ca.byJanuary25th,2019. 778-227-9493katrina.elliot@4cmc.ca