Prince George Citizen February 6, 2025

The city’s updated Official Community Plan lays out an ambitious vision of the future

COLIN SLARK Citizen Staff

City council passed first reading of a bylaw that will amend Prince George’s Official Community Plan at its Monday meeting but held off on approving a public hearing until councillors have a chance to propose changes to it.

BC law requires municipalities to have official community plans outlining their long-term goals and how planning and land use rules will be shaped to fulfill them.

Prince George’s existing OCP went into effect in 2012. Director of planning and development Deanna Wasnik said that they used to be updated every 10 to 12 years, but municipalities are now required to update them every five years.

Work on the plan has been ongoing since December 2022, when council directed city staff to update it.

Plan projects 100,000 people in Prince George by 2040

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The updated OCP projects Prince George will have 100,000 residents around the year 2040 and 110,000 residents around 2050.

Since then, staff and consulting firm Urban Systems have been developing an updated version of the plan, which led to public consultation including a round that ended in November 2024 focusing on the plan’s first draft.

At the beginning of the proposed amended OCP is the following vision statement:

“Our community is the ‘Gathering Place’ of the north, specifically a confluence where people, cultures, regional economies, transportation, and river systems come together. In 2050, the City of Prince George will be rich in cultural diversity, honour our heritage, and celebrate a high quality of life surrounded by natural beauty.

“Our community will have a vibrant urban core, and a diverse local economy that attracts new businesses, amenities, and emerging technologies. This community recognizes that to ensure resilience, we must collectively protect our environment, strategically invest in cost-effective infrastructure, and manage growth. This will assure us to be the “Gathering Place” and a confluence of the north.”

To accomplish that vision statement, the plan set out five long-term goals:

• Create complete communities that meet residents’ daily needs, including a wide range of housing options

• Protect, enhance and build trails in parks and open spaces

• Invest strategically in existing and cost-effective infrastructure to serve current and future generations of residents

• Maintain a strong, diverse and flexible economy with mixed-use developments

• Be an environmentally conscious and responsible city that integrated climate projections into its approach for land use, servicing, development and transportation Presenting on the public consultation

via Zoom was Kelsey Schaumann of Urban Systems, who said during that process, objectives to achieve all those goals were laid out and then residents were asked whether they thought those objectives would help the city achieve those goals.

She said residents generally agreed that the objectives and the goals were aligned except for the fifth goal, which had a mixed bag of responses.

Of the 152 people who chimed in on the fifth goal, 23 per cent were neutral while 28 per cent either disagreed or strongly disagreed that they were aligned. Another one per cent said they were unsure of whether the objectives and goals were aligned.

In general, residents expressed a desire for more protection for natural spaces like Ginter’s Green, for the city to address lack of infrastructure, transit and transportation access, and to examine the potential impacts of new development on the environment.

Mayor Simon Yu said that the province’s legislation on small-scale and family housing recognized that BC has a missing middle-range in its housing

Mandy Jones told Bennett that more items on the environment, climate and agriculture were added following consultations with the public — including specific protections for Ginter’s Green. Wasnik said the city is already doing some work on the environmental front that it could better communicate with the public.

Out of fears that the meeting might run too long and citing a closed meeting that still needed to take place, Yu moved for the scheduled first reading of the bylaw amending the official community plan be deferred to the Feb. 24 meeting.

However, that motion was defeated with only Yu, Frizzell and Klassen voting in favour. Council then voted to extend proceedings past the 10 p.m. time limit. Later in the meeting, after the Urban Systems report, Jones returned to the centre table to give staff’s presentations on the OCP changes.

supply. He asked if it would be possible to recognize this in the OCP by outlining that a mixture of housing types is needed in various neighbourhoods.

Wasnik said that she thinks the new OCP as well as the associated complete community assessment account for the need for mixed-use housing and it is certainly something that can be reflected in the documents.

Coun. Trudy Klassen noted that the public wanted more partnerships with Indigenous groups and asked for more information on what that could entail.

Schaumann said the elements relating to reconciliation were handled by the city and not her company.

Wasnik said she was part of the team that met with Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, making a similar presentation regarding the OCP that Urban Systems did. She said she did not have results on hand but that she could get them for later in the OCP review process.

Coun. Tim Bennett asked whether the public feedback led to any changes in the final draft being presented to council.

Manager of development services

Jones noted that while the document informs land use and zoning decisions, amending the OCP does not change any of the city’s zoning regulations. The document is informed by other city plans, like its active five-year housing plan, the regional solid waste management plan, neighbourhood plans, the recently presented complete community assessment and the myPG Sustainability Plan. She said the OCP needs to be updated to reflect trends that have changed in the last 13 years, like different housing needs.

Addressing the population projects, she emphasized that they are estimates only.

Beyond the public consultations and other municipal plan, she said the OCP is also shaped by city council’s resolutions and provincial legislation.

One of the biggest items in the OCP, Jones said, is growth management. She said it emphasizes thoughtful land management to avoid urban sprawl, like supporting infill developments. This is important, she said, given that Prince George has to manage growth over 329 square kilometres.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY COLIN SLARK

Prince George city council listens to a remote presentation about last year’s public feedback on amendments to the official community plan during Monday’s meeting on the second floor of city hall.

Council spent $22.5K on travel over last half of 2024

COLIN SLARK Citizen Staff

Prince George city council spent a combined $22,445.41 in travel- and event-related expenses in the last half of 2024, according to documents presented at the Monday, Feb. 3 council meeting.

Council’s expense reports for the third and fourth quarters of 2024 were made public during the meeting.

Here’s what each council member spent, ranked from highest to lowest total expenses:

• Coun. Trudy Klassen: $5,630.94

• Coun. Tim Bennett: $3,929.98

• Coun. Garth Frizzell: $3,426.26

• Coun. Ron Polillo: $3,161.92

• Coun. Kyle Sampson: $3,027.40

• Coun. Cori Ramsay: $2,426.09

• Coun. Brian Skakun: $832.82

• Coun. Susan Scott: No expenses claimed

The City of Prince George released the travel spending of its councillors and mayors for the last six months of 2024.

• Mayor Simon Yu: No expenses claimed Bennett went to the Union of BC Municipalities convention in Vancouver in September at a total cost of $3,929.98.

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Frizzell also went to the UBCM convention with $3,436.26 in expenses.

Klassen went to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ annual general meeting in Calgary in June and the

UBCM conference (combined cost of $5,473.44) as well as the mental health and addictions forum hosted by the City of Prince George ($157.50)

Polillo travelled to the UBCM conference at a cost of $3,161.92.

Ramsay claimed $2,426.09 in expenses for the UBCM convention.

Sampson participated in the UBCM convention and claimed $3,027.40 in expenses.

Skakun’s only travel expense was $832.82 for the UBCM convention.

Yu and Scott made no travel-related expense claims in the last half of the year.

During the Feb. 3 meeting, council voted to accept the third- and fourth-quarter reports but did not discuss them.

Councillors had a $8,000 expense budget in 2024, though that number has been boosted to $10,000 for 2025. Yu’s travel budget received a $4,000 boost.

CITIZEN GRAPH BY COLIN SLARK/DATAWRAPPER

Councillors extend meeting to discuss OCP further

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Showing a comparison between the growth management maps in the 2012 OCP compared to the new proposed one, Jones said the number of land designations have been reduced to just three for the sake of simplicity.

The number of land uses under the new OCP has been reduced from 19 to 15, partially to align with provincial housing legislation and promote a mix of housing types.

The number of designations for development permits has been increased, she said, to account for erosion in areas with significant slopes. Currently, exemptions for development permits are split between the housing bylaw and the OCP.

The new OCP would incorporate all the exemptions.

To implement the 2025 OCP, amendments need to be made to the zoning bylaw, the subdivision and development servicing bylaw, the tree protection bylaw and the development procedures bylaw.

However, because of the new OCP going into effect, the city must also undertake further reviews of those four bylaws as well as the tree protection bylaw.

Some of those reviews and resulting changes may extend beyond 2025, Jones cautioned.

A couple of planned road expansions in the 2012 OCP, southwards on Foothills Boulevard and the expansion of Massey Drive from Foothills Boulevard to Tyner Boulevard, are no longer listed in the 2025 OCP.

Coun. Cori Ramsay asked how staff will be communicating its progress towards the objectives laid out in the OCP. Jones said she could see the city’s departments working together to create report cards and then working with Wasnik to communicate the results to council.

She said small businesses frequently don’t have the resources to apply for OCP amendments and wondered about considerations for that.

Following up on Ramsay’s line of

thought, Coun. Trudy Klassen said she thought there should be more designated neighbourhood corridors in the plan, especially in the Hart.

Klassen wondered why the OCP has a line discouraging residents from planting fruit trees. Wasnik theorized that was in response to conversations about how to mitigate bear risk, saying that it wouldn’t be a regulation, just a general principle.

Coun. Kyle Sampson said he thought the new OCP is much more people friendly and less centred on trying to push through traffic.

He also asked why a bridge connecting the BC Rail Site with the western part of the city isn’t included in the OCP, even if it does require funding from higher levels of government.

Wasnik said the OCP is concerned with what can be achieved for the road network within the next 20 years and such a project is beyond that scope.

Bennett expressed concern that Prince George wouldn’t be able to pay for the capital projects the OCP lays out.

At the end of discussions, Yu said he didn’t think the draft OCP was ready to be presented to the public because

of its relationship to the capital plan. While there are some tweaks, he said, it doesn’t tie in the fundamental infrastructure projects needed to enact real growth and change.

Expounding further, he said he didn’t think the document is presented in a way that will grab the attention of the general public, even if there is an upcoming public hearing.

He said he didn’t think the document was a plan to turn Prince George into a great city.

Council finally started voting on administration’s recommendations about the OCP at 11:12 p.m., after voting unanimously to extend the meeting length for a second time.

The first recommendation was to grant first reading of the OCP bylaw. The second was to consider the OCP in conjunction with the city’s current financial plan.

The third was to consider the OCP in conjunction with the regional district’s solid waste management plan.

The fourth recommendation was to consider the OCP in conjunction with the city’s strategic framework for a sustainable Prince George. The fifth was to

grant second reading of the OCP bylaw. The sixth recommendation was to give notice of a public hearing while the seventh was to add a special council meeting on Feb. 26 to hold the public hearing.

Yu was the only councillor to vote against administration’s first two recommendations. The third recommendation passed unanimously while both Yu and Klassen voted against recommendation four.

Consideration of administration’s fifth through seventh recommendations was delayed until the Feb. 24 regular meeting, meaning that the public hearing for the OCP will not be held this month.

As amendments cannot be made after a public hearing for the OCP is concluded without holding another public hearing, this means that council still has time to present amendments before residents have a chance to weigh in.

Once a public hearing concludes without further amendments, council would then vote on whether to grant final passage of the OCP at that same meeting.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY COLIN SLARK

Coun. Cori Ramsay asks a question about the proposed 2025 official community plan during Prince George city council’s meeting at city hall as Coun. Ron Polillo listens.

Hart U-Haul rental business given one-year reprieve

Temporary use permit approved for company operating without proper zoning

COLIN SLARK Citizen Staff

Prince George city council granted a Hart business a one-year temporary use permit to continue operations at its Monday, Feb. 3 meeting.

Jewel Henricks has been operating a U-Haul truck and trailer rental location at 7714 Hart Highway since October 2023, a property zoned only for residential use.

As previously reported by The Citizen, the city took note that the business was running on residential land the month after it opened and told Henricks that she had to come into compliance with zoning bylaws.

Henricks applied for a temporary use permit in May 2024 and the matter only came before council this month where staff were recommending the permit be denied as vehicle rentals are considered unsuitable for residential areas.

In a letter accompanying her application, Henrick’s states that she is attempting to meet a growing demand by offering the rental services. She argues that customers would likely spend 15 minutes on average at the lot and there would be two full-time staff always present on-site.

Her application package includes a petition with 278 signatures and five letters from nearby property owners voicing support for the permit to be granted.

Two of those letters were from Henricks herself, who said in a Jan. 30 interview that she submitted them as the owner of neighbouring properties after being notified by the city that it was soliciting comments from potentially affected properties near the business.

During staff’s presentation on the item, director of planning and development Deanna Wasnik said there is an active bylaw complaint against the business and that it would be better

suited to an industrial area.

She added that the petition does not include the addresses of those who signed it, making it difficult to make sure whether they are nearby residents.

Mayor Simon Yu said he was interested in granting the permit in the hopes of finding a solution before the three-year term expires.

He added that it is difficult for businesses to open in the current economic climate, that the business in question is the only one of its type in the neighbourhood and it’s the only U-Haul rental open on weekends in Prince George.

“We should have the empathy to allow the owner to find some time to move their business,” Yu said.

The mayor’s suggestion was that the city grant the business a two-year temporary use permit as they have already been open for a year.

Coun. Cori Ramsay said she agreed with staff’s recommendation to deny the application for the reasons Wasnik outlined.

years and got no revenue out of that property and that’s one of the reasons that I signed up to do this because I can’t afford to carry it with no income.”

As a senior with disabilities, she said, running the business is something she said she and her partner can still do.

One of the issues with the property, she said, is that it is not connected to the city’s sewer services meaning that she and her neighbours must use septic tanks. She said she’s asked the city about getting service extended to her property but was told it would be done at her own expense at a price higher than $30,000.

Coun. Trudy Klassen said she has sympathy for small business owners. She also said the province wants to take a more active approach to natural resource development and that could mean increased need for U-Haul rentals.

Coun. Tim Bennett said Ramsay’s comments on the tax implications were a good point and the precedent of approving the permit could be a problem.

She also said that in a residential area, it would be taxed at a lower rate than other U-Haul rentals on appropriately zoned properties in the city and would see the city inadvertently giving the applicant a tax break.

She said she thought it would be proper for the applicant to instead request for the property to be rezoned, clarifying that she doesn’t want to kill the business — just follow the rules.

City manager Walter Babicz clarified that staff’s recommendation was on land use entirely, not the tax implications.

Speaking to The Citizen last week, Henrick said she started operating the U-Haul business in October 2023 and didn’t know about the zoning issue until the city reached out the next month.

If she’d known about the issue, she said, she would have tried to work with the city to find a solution.

“I’ve owned the two lots here for approximately 15 years,” Henricks said. “And the one lot basically has been left vacant. So I’ve been paying taxes for 15

Coun. Susan Scott agreed with staff’s recommendation as it was presented.

Coun. Ron Polillo said he was sympathetic, but that the business in question did not follow the proper procedure.

Coun. Garth Frizzell said it would have been an “easy no” from him should the business have been on the highway directly, but the property in question is on a frontage road. Given that two of the adjacent properties are owned by the same person and the lack of businesses in the neighbourhood, he asked whether a one-year permit could be instituted instead of the typical threeyear permit.

Coun. Kyle Sampson said he was thinking along the same lines as Frizzell and supported granting a one-year permit.

Ultimately, council voted five to three in favour of granting a one-year temporary use permit to the business. Scott, Polillo and Ramsay were the trio opposing the permit.

Coun. Brian Skakun was the only member of council not present at Monday’s meeting.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY COLIN SLARK

Prince George director of planning and development Deanna Wasnik (left) explains administration’s objection to granting a U-Haul business in the Hart a temporary use permit at the Feb. 3 city council meeting as manager of IT services Luke Reid looks on.

Rosalyn Bird calls out lack of growth for gaming grants

COLIN SLARK Citizen Staff

The Conservative MLA for Prince George-Valemount is calling on the provincial government to increase grant funding from gaming revenues sent to non-profits and parent advisory committees, saying a Prince George non-profit is being disadvantaged under the current system.

Rosalyn Bird and the Conservative Party of BC sent out a media release criticizing the lack of growth of funds provided under the community gaming grants program.

“In the 2022/23 fiscal year, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) reported a record net income of $1.6 billion for the province, fuelled by growth in gambling activity and the legalization of single-event sports betting,” the Tories’ release said.

“However, funding for non-profits through the Community Gaming Grants program has remained stagnant at $140 million annually for nearly a decade.”

The release said that the Prince George Regional Highway Rescue Society, which responds to out-of-jurisdiction motor vehicle accidents in the Fraser Fort-George Regional District, received $100,000 from the grant program in 2022-23 but $75,000 in 2023-24.

Data from the province’s website shows that program funding was around $135 million in the 2014-15 fiscal years, going up to around $139.4 million in 2016-17 and then to $144.3 million in 2017-18 before plateauing between $139.5 and $140 million in the years since.

This is backed up by the provincial government’s data, which shows that the society received $75,000 in 2023-24, $100,000 in 2022-23, 2021-22, 2020-21, 2019-20, 2018-19 and 2014-15, $60,000 in 2017-18 and 2016-17 and $175,000 in 2015-16.

However, The Citizen was unable to reach the society for comment and ask what its funding requests from the program had been in those fiscal years. This year, the release said, the society has asked for $125,000 but has

yet to hear if its application has been successful.

In a phone interview from Victoria, Bird said the society reached out to discuss its funding situation with her.

“I’m shocked that organization actually depends on gaming funding,” Bird said.

“It is a vital, vital rescue operation in the north. Those guys cover 24,000 square kilometres of roads and they respond to areas that police, fire and ambulance don’t.”

Bird said the society told her that they don’t know why their grant was reduced in the 2023-24 fiscal year and that this year’s funding announcements are late, usually taking place at the beginning of the year.

Given the strong gaming revenues, Bird said more money should be disbursed to community organizations, the process to apply for grants should be streamlined and the province should be more transparent in breaking down where all the money collected from gaming is sent and for what purpose.

At the same time, Bird said, it would be an opportune moment to review municipalities’ share of gaming

George organizations received the lowest total funding from the community gaming grants in the last two fiscal years over the last decade.

Bird said the amount of money disbursed via community gaming grants has not substantially increase over the last decade.

Here are the total figures for those same years:

• 2023-24: $139,899,232

• 2022-23: $139,784,291

• 2021-22: $139,941,026.23

• 2020-21: $139,856,014

• 2019-20: $139,868,971

• 2018-19: $139,766,381

• 2017-18: $144,303,903.82

• 2016-17: $139,340,639

• 2015-16: $135,133,369

• 2014-15: $134,917,800

While the total amount of funding is generally higher than it was a decade ago, there has been little change since the high point in 2017-18.

revenues as more and more responsibilities are downloaded from the provincial level.

As an example, she mentioned Prince George having to house wildfire evacuees last year.

She said she’s doing more research on the topic before speaking with government representatives about the issue.

The amount of funding Prince George organizations have received from community gaming grants have varied from year to year.

Here’s the total amount of funding local organizations have received in the last five fiscal years, according to data from the province’s website for the program:

• 2023-24: $4,013,311

• 2022-23: $3,997,850

• 2021-22: $4,800,189

• 2020-21: $4,448,595

• 2019-20: $4,317,360

• 2018-19: $4,454,136

• 2017-18: $4,207,040

• 2016-17: $4,206,660

• 2015-16: $4,326,526

• 2014-15: $4,778,360

Those figures show that Prince

The percentage of total funding Prince George received from the total amount of funding over the last decade looks like this:

• 2023-24: 2.87 per cent

• 2022-23: 2.86 per cent

• 2021-22: 3.43 per cent

• 2020-21: 3.09 per cent

• 2019-20: 3.09 per cent

• 2018-19: 3.18 per cent

• 2017-18: 2.91 per cent

• 2016-17: 3.02 per cent

• 2015-16: 3.2 per cent

• 2014-15: 3.54 per cent

Like with the funding amounts, Prince George received its lowest share of the entire gaming grants pool over the last decade in the last two fiscal years.

In an email response to questions about the program and Bird’s concerns, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport said there “are many applications doing incredible and important work, including the Prince George Regional Highway Rescue (Society).”

They also said that grants are typically paid out within 12 to 16 weeks of an application being submitted.

PRINCE GEORGE REGIONAL HIGHWAY RESCUE SOCIETY/FACEBOOK

A Prince George Regional Highway Rescue Society team carries out an exercise in a wooded area in this photo from the group’s Facebook page.

City of Prince George distances itself from X (Twitter)

MATTHEW HILLIER Citizen Staff

The City of Prince George recently announced that it would no longer be using X (formerly Twitter) for regular updates and will monitor it far less frequently.

“The main reason is decreasing engagement,” said Claire Thwaites, senior communications advisor for the city.

“We do a social media review at the start of the year and we look at our current platforms and we assess audience growth and engagement … We’ve just gone through our 2024-25 review and had a look at the stats and it’s the only platform where growth and engagement are on the decline. So it just doesn’t seem overly beneficial to keep investing the time into it.”

The city’s X account, @CityofPG, has 5,706 followers and is following 230 other users.

Another factor behind the decision were changes to the app itself that have happened since Elon Musk bought the company and changed its name.

“I think it’s just reflective of users on the platform in general,” said Thwaites.

“I don’t think it’s our content that is slowing it down because we’ve seen a change across the other platforms.

For example, we’ve seen a 17 per cent growth in followers on Instagram. I think it’s probably more reflective of just the climate on X in general and a lot of people choosing to move away from that platform.”

The city is still planning on making regular posts to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. As well, staff is also looking into reaching out on different platforms such as Threads, Bluesky and Reddit.

The city’s X account will still be used for important updates and information, such as reports on road closures, scams, and emergencies.

City received $3.03M in revenues from Treasure Cove in 2023-24

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

To Bird’s point about wanting more transparency in how gaming revenues are allocated, the spokesperson pointed to a webpage for the British Columbia Lottery Corporation detailing how the province spent the $1.5 billion in gaming revenues it earned in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

It included $1 billion into the province’s general revenue fund, $147.3 million in transfers to the provincial health special account, $140 million for community gaming grants, $107.5 million in revenues shared with First Nations, $94.5 million in Host Local Government payments to municipalities and First Nations that host gaming facilities, $16 million to fund the BCLC’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch, $9.1 million to support the province’s horse racing industry, $4.6 million for the province’s responsible gambling strategy and $3.3 million in funding for the

The City of Prince George is moving away from posting updates to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

Joint Illegal Gaming Investigation Team.

Prince George’s section on the site shows a statistic that the city earned $3.03 million in revenues shared from the operation of the Treasure Cove Casino in 2023-24.

According to the spokesperson, location is not a factor when grant applications are being considered except when grants for capital programs are being discussed.

“Grant levels are assessed and distributed based on demand, resulting in fluctuating funding levels each year,” they wrote.

“Grant funding is also determined by the current financial state of the organization.”

However, the spokesperson did not say when exactly grant applicants for 2024-25 could expect to receive notice of whether their applications were successful and for their funding amounts to be released publicly.

OPINION

One year later, The Citizen is also looking to the future

KENNEDY GORDON Citizen Managing Editor

Well, we’re still here.

The Citizen entered a new phase of its existence a year ago. On Feb. 1, 2024, readers and staff learned that Cameron Stolz and Terresa Randall-Stolz had bought the paper from Glacier Media, saving it from certain closure. That’s no exaggeration – Glacier had just shut down two other BC papers and wasn’t being subtle about its intentions for your Citizen.

As of February 2025, we’re better than we’ve been in years. A lot of that is due to the new ownership’s motto: “Locally owned, community focused.” This is a mindset all of the staff operate by every day.

And it’s working. We’ve grown while being unabashedly pro-Prince George and having a positive vision for the future of the newspaper and our online news site.

A year ago, this paper was less than half the size it is now. We’ve done that not only by adding staff, but by taking on a commitment to bring you at least 48 pages of local content each week, and a promise to cover everything happening in our community and our region, from civic government to crime to human-interest stories and local sports.

We told you about our major 2024 changes in a year-end editorial in December. On the anniversary of our new ownership, we continue to be optimistic about how we see our future.

City councillors extended their meeting Monday night to go into detail about the updates to the city’s Official Community Plan. It offers a look at the city’s priorities and plans for growth over the next two to three decades.

On Monday night, city council hashed out an updated Official Community Plan at another long meeting. It’s a road map for the city’s development for the next 25 years.

A lot of it will seem like wishful thinking. A population of 100,000 by 2040 and 110,000 by 2050? That’s no small feat, especially given Prince George’s 2021 census of 76,708 and an estimated current population of 78,378.

However, we’ve seen what has happened over the past 25 years. The city has evolved dramatically, from a modest regional hub to a growing centre of business, culture and recreation, with a modern hospital, a university and a boom in tourism-related businesses.

The OCP’s goals are ambitious, yes, but so were the ones set a generation ago

The five goals outlined in the new OCP aim for more than just population growth.

They call for the creation of complete communities with diverse housing

options, more green spaces and trails, a flexible economy that attracts businesses and emerging technologies and an environmentally conscious approach to urban planning.

These targets reflect an understanding that in the 21st century, cities must be designed to meet the needs of their residents while protecting the natural world.

Prince George is already ahead of the pack on that one, and we’re well-positioned to embrace these forward-thinking ideals, particularly as its economy diversifies and its industries modernize.

But this transformation will require collaboration and commitment from all levels of government, including city council, businesses and our residents.

The process of amending the OCP has already sparked valuable conversations about housing, business, environmental protections and Indigenous partnerships, and these discussions will only continue as the city moves forward.

The concerns we’re hearing, like the

need to be welcoming for business, protecting natural spaces like Ginter’s Green and providing better infrastructure and transit options, are crucial.

As Prince George evolves, your local newspaper will be essential. Just as we’ve documented the city’s history back to 1916, we’ll continue to share the stories of success and progress, both large and small, as the city works to fulfill its vision. The Citizen will be there to report on changes to the civic core, the arrival of new businesses and amenities, and the ongoing efforts to protect the environment.

It will also keep the public informed about the challenges the city faces along the way, ensuring transparency and accountability in the process.

Like The Citizen, Prince George has faced its share of challenges and has come a long way in the last 25 years. There is no reason why the next 25 can’t be just as transformative.

While the goals of the updated OCP may seem as far-fetched as the idea of someone buying a newspaper in the 21st century, they reflect the kind of long-term planning and vision that cities need to remain competitive, sustainable, and livable in the decades ahead. We’re excited to see the optimistic pro-Prince George vision that the city has for the future growth of our community.

As we’ve seen with The Citizen, having that positive approach can lead to amazing changes.

Have your say with a letter to the editor: editor@pgcitizen.ca.

We acknowledge the financial support of the government of Canada.

Nous reconnaissons l’appui financier du gouvernement du Canada.

Cameron Stolz Owner / Publisher

Terresa Randall-Stolz Owner

Kennedy Gordon Managing Editor

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OPINION

BC is already importing significant levels of electricity

BARRY PENNER Guest Columnist

I appreciated the editorial by Kennedy Gordon, published online on Jan. 24 (BC could be importing electricity).

My only significant quibble is with the headline. BC Hydro has already been importing large amounts of electricity in the past two years on a net basis (we have been importing about eight times more than we have been exporting).

The latest figures show BC Hydro imported approximately 20 per cent of its electricity requirements in 2024 (9,808 gigawatt hours net) for the second year in a row, following 2023 imports of 10,739 gigawatt hours net.

According to BC Hydro’s Fiscal 2024 Annual Report to the BC Utilities Commission, the annual cost of imported electricity reached $1.4 billion.

This means that for two years we’ve imported an amount of electricity

roughly equivalent to the output of two Site C dams, mostly from south of the border where the majority of their electricity generation comes from natural gas or coal-fired power plants. Under the CleanBC policy, municipalities are encouraged to restrict the use of natural gas for heating in new

residential and commercial buildings in favour of greater use of electric heat pumps.

Already adopted by Vancouver, Victoria and some other communities in southwest BC, this change to the building code will become mandatory province-wide by 2030.

The CleanBC policy has also resulted in provincial mandates requiring 26 per cent electric vehicle (EV) sales by the 2026 model year, rising to 90 per cent by the 2030 model year (and 100 per cent by 2035). These mandates are backed by a $20,000 penalty for every vehicle that does not comply.

A study conducted last year for the Energy Futures Initiative found that it will require the equivalent of two site dams worth of electricity to support 100 per cent EVs on BC’s roads.

The cumulative impact of these policies is to drive up domestic electricity demand, leaving us more vulnerable due to BC’s current dependence on electricity imports ... especially as a possible trade war looms with the United States.

Let’s hope cooler heads prevail and we have time to adjust our policies.

Barry Penner is a former BC cabinet minister and the current chair of the Energy Futures Institute.

Tariff threat: Time for us to refocus on other opportunities

With so much going on, we should be exploring unusual and new ideas

ALBERT KOEHLER Guest Columnist

Let us refocus. Refocus on what? Well, we all must explore other potential industries, trade opportunities with countries other than the United States only.

Our Central Interior Forest industry has taken a hit, something that has been sneaking up on us over the past 20 years. In the eighties, BC’s population was slightly half the number of what it is today, but many inventions took place, most of them applicable in the forest industry.

The annual BC Natural Resources Forum was held in Prince George most

recently where much of what was presented sounded promising, especially when thinking about energy and mining. In the past we did not have much of a manufacturing industry in the Central Interior.

However, why not exploring unusual and new approaches? We are blessed with much industrial land around Prince George, especially all the vacant land around Boundary Road.

In the late 1980s a Canadian truck, called the “Grizzly” was born with 80 per cent of all parts made in Canada. The company Grizzly Trucks Limited was incorporated, and they built trucks for the heavy industry.

The original prototype of the truck was shown at the 1990 Truck Loggers’ Convention in Vancouver.

The original idea was to offer a full range of Grizzly trucks to suit commercial and hobby customers alike.

Unfortunately, not many trucks were built because the mass manufacturing did not take off. There is still much speculation today about why and what happened.

There is also the rumour that another truck company paid lots of money to the Canadian Grizzly company to stop producing them. Again, rumours.

Now my thoughts: Why not pick up the idea again to build true Canadian vehicles in the BC Central Interior?

No, I am not drunk and can still think clearly!

An idea is often followed by action. The economic opportunities in the Central Interior are still unlimited.

I referred to the Grizzly story as an example only.

If the idea is not about vehicles, then something else could be invented, built here and sold all over the world. Required personnel for a new enterprise

could be hired from anywhere!

Yes, our interprovincial trade barriers would have to be eliminated first, and a true Canadian economic union must be established.

We also must advertise Prince George better as a desirable place to live with educational opportunities, a friendly environment offering arts and sport facilities, for example.

Let us focus on how to improve trade with Asia and Europe and get up and explore what can be done to soften any potential tariff blow, never forgetting that education, possibly advanced education, broadens the mind and may very well lead to inventions and ideas that can be followed by action for the benefit of all of us.

If there is a will then there probably is a way.

Albert Koehler, P.Eng., is a former city councillor.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Barry Penner, chair of the Energy Futures Institute, speaks during the BC Natural Resources Forum at the Civic Centre in Prince George on Jan. 14. Looking on is Andrew Robinson, CEO of the Nisga’a Lisims Government.

OPINION

Editorial: Council’s vote to maintain library funding shouldn’t have been so close

The library is a lifesaver! If you read for fun, you’ll be spending 10-35+ dollars on each book you buy, or more if you buy cookbooks, whereas you can borrow them for free from the library.

They have story times and programs for kiddos (my daughter loves story time!), technology help for seniors, tutoring for children, even a group to practice learning English.

And it’s all free.

The library is awesome and I bring my daughter there almost every week, even though the downtown area has gotten scary.

Em7

Editorial: Council’s vote to maintain library funding shouldn’t have been so close

Thank you for sharing this! I completely agree – this space is incredibly important.

Kids need a place where they can explore, learn, and grow. It’s essential that we invest in spaces with as few barriers to entry as possible (third places concept) and support students, child education and families.

S Goods

Pickering Farms of PG clean up at Denver show

Great story. Heavy horse competitions have always been my favourite events at fairs. Congratulations. Oldfatguy

City of Prince George reports increase in theft of copper wire

Honest questions here as I don’t know much about this topic, but how many dealers are able to accept what is obviously stolen copper wire (and catalytic converters for that matter)? Is anything being done to target them? Why is it not treated the same as pawn shops?

J Jonah Jameson

Updated Official Community Plan predicts 100,000 in Prince George by 2040 Plans have been predicting 100k population since the ‘70s. As of 2021 we were at 76,708. We need to attract 23,292 people and/or breed like bunnies.

If one were to say 1 new job comes with a family of 4, that’s still 5,823 jobs. We’d need to attract multiple business. I’m not going to hold my breath.

Lou Maurice

Ottawa releases full list of U.S. goods subject to tariffs

Stay strong Canada and help those of us that may be hit harder than others.

We cannot give in to a nation he’ll bent on self-destruction at the expense of our own well being.

Trump wants more favourable trade deals and he thinks by terrorizing his allies he’ll get what he wants. Let’s show him a bit of spirit and resistance the Canadian way. Buy local.

CC Mail

BC to pull some American alcohol products from stores

So we are going to increase the overall cost of everything now as we aren’t self reliant yet and will take years to get there.

Explain how this will help the economic position we have been in?

The companies push the tariff costs to consumers. That combined with the ridiculous carbon tax watch how expensive a trip to costco etc will become.

Alucard

BC to pull some American alcohol products from stores

People are going to drink what ever booze they want, this will have no effect.

We need to get them with something they want like our lumber, stop sending our Raw Logs to the U.S. and other places, we have 13 mills close down, get our jobs back . It’s going to take a lot of lumber to rebuild in the US after their fires.

We are going to have to charge 25 per cent more to off set the tariffs. I can’t believe Rustad is not on this.

FHR

James Steidle: Why the Douglas fir is disappearing from area forests

Thank you for continuing to raise these important issues and providing suggestions to improve the situation. “... leaving as few as 20 large Douglas fir per hectare can ensure Douglas fir naturally regenerates.”

S Goods

James Steidle: Why the Douglas fir is disappearing from area forests

Well said, James.

Those lower mainland corporate lobbyists and the billionaire bunch have pretty well done all the raping and pillaging they can of our north central BC landscape, using local workers to do the dirty work.

It paid well while it lasted. But now that there is next to nothing left, the rich move on to other, richer fields, leaving behind a whole bunch of unemployed people and forests that won’t support us for another generation or two.

The rich have become richer, the poor, poorer.

Maybe the local inhabitants will be more insistent on sustainable practices in the future, when there is enough forest regrowth ro have something to sustain.

It might involve more sweat equity, but at least it could fill the pockets that need it, not the pockets of already insanely rich shareholders who leave when all is gone.

Linda Wiicik

Tariffs on hold, but forest industry watching closely

TED CLARKE Citizen Staff

The recent fires in Los Angeles have caused massive destruction, leaving at least 16,000 structures in need of rebuilding.

Many of these will require wood or wood products, raising concerns for British Columbia’s softwood lumber producers.

Historically, disasters like hurricanes or tornadoes have led to a surge in demand for Canadian lumber.

However, that dynamic is now threatened by the possibility of a 25 per cent tariff on most Canadian exports to the U.S., including lumber, if President Trump follows through on his plans.

Although Trump initially announced the tariffs would take effect on Tuesday, he delayed his plan by 30 days on Monday.

Kim Haakstad, CEO of the BC Council of Forest Industries, expressed cautious optimism but noted the potential harm to both Canadian and American consumers.

“It’s going to increase the cost of housing,” she said, emphasizing that both countries need affordable housing and should avoid trade barriers that could escalate costs. This concern is especially relevant in California, where significant rebuilding is required after the fires.

Haakstad also warned that Prince George, a hub for sawmills and pulp mills, would be hit hard by the tariff. With loggers struggling to meet their harvest quotas, the forest industry in the province is already facing job losses, primarily in north-central BC. “We’re

worried about future job losses and the potential for mill closures,” Haakstad said. “We need to strengthen our industry and diversify markets for the long term.”

Softwood lumber exports from BC to the U.S. have been declining over the past few years.

In 2024, BC exported 4.134 billion board feet of softwood lumber, worth $3.138 billion, down from 4.334 billion board feet in 2023. The peak year for BC exports was 2016, when 7.077 billion board feet were shipped, valued at $3.896 billion.

Haakstad emphasized the broader impact of the tariffs, which would affect not only lumber but other Canadian industries, including those making value-added products.

John Brink, the owner of Brink Forest Products in Prince George, expressed concern about how the 25 per cent tariff would hurt his U.S. customers, who would have to absorb the cost increase.

“This could create inflation and potential recession,” Brink warned.

He noted that the situation would

have long-term consequences for trade relations.

He has already seen a near-doubling of export duties, from 8.05 per cent to 14.54 per cent, and predicts they could rise even higher, potentially reaching 55 per cent.

Despite these challenges, Brink emphasized that his company would do whatever it takes to adapt and protect its 300 employees.

Brink believes that Canada must work together to find new markets and address internal trade barriers. He cited the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) as a potential avenue for expanding trade beyond the U.S.

However, he also pointed out that Canada’s lumber is largely suited to North American construction needs, particularly dimension lumber for residential housing.

Brink agrees with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s stance, which includes counter-tariffs on U.S. products. “You cannot be bullied by a bully,” Brink said, stressing the need for a united front to

safeguard Canada’s forest industry. He also pointed out that provincial and federal governments must collaborate to preserve the sector, which has already shrunk by half since 2000.

British Columbia’s lumber industry exports 85 per cent of its production, with about 65 per cent of that going to the U.S. The rest is shipped to markets in Asia.

Despite the challenges, Brink remains hopeful that the industry will adapt by tapping into new trade agreements and seeking alternative markets. However, he argues that internal trade restrictions within Canada should be eliminated.

“We need to work together as a country to protect our resources and open the borders between provinces,” Brink said.

The U.S. has long objected to Canada’s timber management practices, arguing that harvesting on Crown land provides Canadian companies with an unfair subsidy.

This has led to countervailing duties, and while Canada has successfully contested many of these through the World Trade Organization (WTO) and NAFTA, the tensions have never fully dissipated.

The most significant agreement was the Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA) of 2006, which resulted in the U.S. returning over $5 billion in duties to Canadian producers.

However, the agreement expired in 2015, and since then, duties have been re-imposed, averaging around 20 per cent.

For companies like West Fraser Timber, the rate has reached 24 per cent, and for Canfor, it’s 20.26 per cent.

BC COUNCIL OF FOREST INDUSTRIES

Kim Haakstad took over from Linda Coady last week as CEO of the BC Council of Forest Industries.

Judge bans already-banned driver from driving again

BOB MACKIN Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A man charged with possessing stolen property under $5,000 pleaded guilty Jan. 29 to two Motor Vehicle Act charges instead.

In Prince George provincial court, Judge Michael Brecknell sentenced Jeff-Davis Conger, 44, to two concurrent one-year driving bans for driving while prohibited on Aug. 24, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2024.

In the first instance, Prince George RCMP officers observed Conger drive a stolen 2002 GMC Sierra into a Husky Gas station where he parked between shipping containers. They arrested Conger after he exited the vehicle and determined he had been prohibited from driving since April 2021.

RCMP arrest two after stabbing incident at city hotel

A woman tried to run after a man was stabbed in a city hotel, but was soon caught by police.

Prince George RCMP say it happened at about 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 28 at a hotel on the 2900 block of Recplace Drive.

Officers called to the scene found a man and woman who know each other. The man, who had a non-life-threatening injury, was unco-operative with police and was arrested. He was later released pending a future court date.

Police say the woman attempted to flee but was arrested outside the hotel. She was held in custody after the arrest. The investigation is ongoing.

Teen accused of making bomb threat against restaurant

Restaurant staff told police that a caller had threatened to “blow the place up.”

Staff quickly evacuated the restaurant and waited for police to arrive. Officers searching the building determined the call was a hoax after finding nothing suspicious left inside or outside of the restaurant.

“Through the ensuing investigation, police identified a 14-year-old Prince

Last August, police caught him driving a Ford F250 without a front licence plate after noticing the vehicle pull into an alley off Hemlock Street. Police also noticed Conger had been prohibited from driving since April 2021. Conger, who has worked as a truck driver and equipment operator, has a lengthy record for driving violations. His ICBC file includes seven roadside

CRIME NOTES

George resident as the caller,” states Corporal Jennifer Cooper, media relations officer for the Prince George RCMP. “Investigators attended the youth’s home and spoke with him and his guardians, where the youth admitted to making the prank call. The youth is not known to police and this investigation will be referred to our Restorative Justice unit for resolution.”

The RCMP reminds the public that it is an offense to utter a false bomb threat.

A person is found to be making false bomb threats they could be charged with uttering threats and/or mischief.

Police seek witnesses to city man exposing himself

An investigation is underway after a man allegedly exposed his genitalia, first on a city transit bus, and then in a movie theatre.

While a suspect is in custody, police are looking for any other witnesses to similar incidents.

Prince George RCMP say the first incident happened at about 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 13 when a man allegedly exposed himself a young woman in an empty

prohibitions and 10 instances of failing to produce a driver’s licence or proof of insurance, along with multiple tickets for speeding and failing to stop at a stop sign.

In addition to the driving suspension, Crown and defence jointly asked for a $500 fine on the first file and $750 fine on the other. Brecknell also ordered Conger to pay $75 and $112.50, respectively,

section of the bus. The woman left the bus and called police.

The second incident took place in a movie theatre at about 4 p.m. the same day. It’s alleged that the same man started to masturbate in view of other people before staff removed him. Police were called and the man was arrested.

“This is a complex situation that our Special Victims Unit is aware of and is currently investigating,” stated Cpl. Jennifer Cooper, the Prince George RCMP’s media relations officer. “The suspect was arrested for both incidents and released to the care of his group home on an Undertaking with conditions. Police officers are asking that if anyone else experienced a similar event to please contact Prince George RCMP by calling our non-emergency line at 250-561-3300.”

The man is described as heavier set, Indigenous and in his mid-30s to mid40s with short dark hair.

On the day in question he was wearing a black-and-camouflage jacket and grey camouflage pants.

Officer involved in fatal Mackenzie shooting cleared

The investigation into a case involving a suspicious bank teller and a 3D-printed handgun that led to the

in victim surcharges.

Brecknell said the new driving prohibitions “are just a kiss on the cheek and a slap on the back because you already have an indefinite prohibition back to 2021.”

“So, assuming you get all your matters cleaned up and have a nice chat with the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles, and do everything that they want you to do, you probably won’t be legally permitted to drive on any roads in British Columbia for quite some time,” Brecknell said.

He warned Conger that the driving ban carries over to Alberta, which has a reciprocal enforcement agreement with B.C. authorities.

“So if you got pinched over there, you’d find yourself in trouble as well,” Brecknell said.

shooting death of a man in Mackenzie last year has ended without charges for the police officer involved.

BC’s Independent Investigations Office (IIO), which probes serious injuries or deaths that result from the public’s interactions with police, concluded that charges were not warranted.

Investigators determined that a man tried to cash a cheque at a bank on June 1, 2024, but the teller recognized the signature as that of someone who had died three years before, despite the cheque being dated to that day.

Police were called and escorted the suspect out of the bank without handcuffs.

The suspect then fled and was caught by an officer and two bystanders, but managed to get away before brandishing a black handgun.

The officer then shot the suspect in the neck.

Investigators say a video shows parts of the encounter, and that the officer tried to perform First Aid.

The suspect was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead.

The IIO determined that the weapon was a loaded and fully functioning 3D-printed 9mm handgun, and that the officer felt an immediate threat to his life, making lethal force justified.

CITIZEN FILE PHOTO

A city man who was already subject to two concurrent one-year driving bans landed back in court on new charges.

Drive-through drunk driver earns house arrest Sifting through the ashes

BOB MACKIN

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A provincial court judge had harsh words Wednesday, Jan. 29 for a man who pleaded guilty to drinking and driving, failing to stop and fleeing from police in Prince George.

Judge Michael Brecknell ordered Levi Michael Lorenson, 24, to spend two months under house arrest, two months under 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for six days a week and 20 months on probation for the April 30, 2024 incident in College Heights.

Brecknell also banned Lorenson from driving for two years and he must pay a $2,000 fine plus $600 victim surcharge within two years.

“Your behaviour on that day was so egregious, in my view, the criminal record is necessary,” Brecknell said. Lorenson was severely intoxicated when he rear-ended another vehicle in the Domano Boulevard Dairy Queen lineup.

He drove away in the Volvo from the scene without sharing licence and insurance information with the other driver. Prince George RCMP were alerted to an impaired driver and attempted to stop Lorenson, but he fled.

“Certainly he had no regard for anybody else on the road,” Brecknell said.

Lorenson was finally apprehended by an off-duty officer after he had lost control and struck a tree. His blood alcohol content was above the legal limit. “He was grossly intoxicated,” the judge said.

Brecknell said Lorenson’s lack of criminal record and decision to plead guilty instead of stand trial were in his favour. The pre-sentence report said he stopped drinking the day after the incident.

“That, if it’s true, is a positive sign, because he should not be drinking, at least he should not be drinking anywhere near a motor vehicle,” Brecknell said.

Brecknell remarked that Lorenson, a drywaller, has no serious underlying issues, such as a mental illness or addiction.

Nonetheless, he is barred from consuming alcohol or drugs, except for a prescription medication, during his conditional sentence.

“It’s important to keep in mind that Mr. Lorenson has employment,” Brecknell said. “He wants to be a contributing member of society, so he should be allowed to serve that sentence in the community.”

Crews work at the scene of the 4th Avenue fire in Prince

on Tuesday, Jan 28. The cause of the Jan. 16 fire at the

location of

is now under investigation. Crews worked to eliminate possible ignition sources and determine what caused the fire to spread so quickly. RCMP will determine in a separate investigation if there was any criminal or malicious intent involved in the fire. While the building, which was being used to store furniture, was destroyed, there were no injuries.

City reports loss of $25,000 in copper wire to theft

CITIZEN STAFF

Over the past six months, the City of Prince George has experienced a rise in the theft of copper wiring from streetlights, with repair costs since October totalling an estimated $25,000.

Now the city is calling on the public to help curb a sharp increase in wire thefts that has been causing significant disruptions and costing taxpayers thousands of dollars.

Thieves typically target streetlights, gaining access through handholes to cut and remove underground wiring. The price of copper in BC as of Jan.

1, the price of copper in British Columbia was about $5.22 per pound for No. 1 copper, $5.02 per pound for No. 2 copper and $4.63 per pound for No. 3 copper, with the price of bare bright copper at about $5.42 per pound.

The theft of copper wiring not only

create safety concerns by leaving areas without proper lighting, but they also require extensive repairs that drain valuable resources from maintenance crews.

The thefts generally occur late at night in less-trafficked areas, such as

residential neighbourhoods, where the thieves can easily escape without being noticed. The City is urging residents to remain vigilant and immediately report any suspicious activity near streetlights to the RCMP.

If you witness someone tampering with streetlights — especially after hours and outside of regular city crew work hours — residents are encouraged to contact the Prince George RCMP’s non-emergency line at 250-561-3300. In the case of an active crime, call 911. Authorities also request that people provide detailed descriptions of suspects, such as height, weight, clothing or any vehicle involved, if safe to do so.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY MATTHEW HILLIER

George

former

City Second Hand

ALEX TEPETIDIS/PEXELS PHOTO

Copper wiring is often the target of thieves.

Collision near Spruceland

First responders work at the scene of a collision at Highway 97 and 5th Avenue in Prince George on Monday. It happened just before 3 p.m.

Trial begins for man accused of using bear spray in basement suite

BOB MACKIN Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A 21-year-old man went on trial Monday, Feb. 3 in Prince George provincial court, charged with assault with a weapon, possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and breach of a release order.

Russell William Don Smith is accused of discharging a canister of bear spray inside a residence near Harwin Elementary School on Sept. 16, 2023.

The Crown alleged Smith was engaged in a verbal argument with another man in the basement suite and then asked to leave.

Rather than leave peacefully, it’s alleged Smith sprayed the noxious substance at someone in the residence, affecting people inside the basement suite and upstairs.

Prince George RCMP officers treated the occupants, including a 12-year-old boy, before paramedics arrived.

Downtown motel machete attack trial continues

BOB MACKIN Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The lawyer for the second man tried after a Prince George motel resident was seriously injured in an August 2022 machete attack said Friday there is no evidence his client committed break and enter or aggravated assault.

Terry La Liberté, acting for 49-yearold Kerridge Andrew Lowley, told BC Supreme Court Justice John Gibb-Carsley during the third day of closing arguments that the Crown’s case was “rife with reasonable doubt in terms of what happened in that room.”

That room was unit 255 of the Econo Lodge City Centre Inn where resident Arlen Chalifoux emerged with grisly injuries to his right arm after an altercation with Lowley’s co-accused Dakota Rayn Keewatin, 31.

La Liberté said Lowley was in the suite for a brief six or seven seconds, did not “get up close and personal” with Chalifoux and did nothing other than “check it out and apparently say ‘stop!’”

Lowley approached the truck and got in the driver’s seat. They drove away at almost 5:35 p.m.

While detectives found a lot of blood on the passenger side of the truck, La Liberté said it was not tested to match it with any of the participants.

“That absence of that evidence, in my respectful submission, is deadly to the Crown’s case,” La Liberté told Gibb-Carsley.

Further, he said the Crown failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Lowley, who has no criminal record, had the intent to aid or abet the commission of an aggravated assault. “Merely being present at a scene does not establish intent.”

“The chaotic nature of the events suggests that any involvement by Mr. Lowley could have been simply incidental rather than criminally intentional,” La Liberté said. “In fact, he’s there, he didn’t do anything until he was called in.”

The Crown alleged that Smith’s previous release order prohibited him from possessing any weapon, including bear spray.

Judge Judith Doulis was expected to hear testimony from five witnesses.

A local man is charged with assault with a weapon, possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and breach of a release order.

La Liberté recounted key moments of the surveillance video shown in court during the evidence phase, which ended Dec. 5. The footage showed that, at 5:31 p.m., as they waited outside the door, Keewatin handled a bottle of water and, briefly, a mobile phone from his front pocket. Lowley held nothing.

A minute later, a man exited the room and walked down the nearby staircase. Then Keewatin knocked on the door at 5:32 p.m. and knocked again 30 seconds later. The door opened at 5:33 p.m. with a puff of bear spray. Keewatin dropped or tossed aside the water bottle in the hallway and entered. Lowley, who was pacing and rubbing his eyes, followed, but exited within six or seven seconds.

Empty-handed Lowley immediately walked down the exterior hallway toward a staircase. Keewatin then left the room carrying a machete, which he dropped in the hallway near the top of the stairs, exited the building and entered a black pickup truck’s passenger seat and took off his shirt.

The judge asked whether Lowley could plead self-defence, but La Liberté said his client’s involvement was so brief that it would not apply.

“He walked in because he’s there to apparently help his friend. But he didn’t do anything.”

Closing submissions began Jan. 28 with Crown prosecutor Andrea Norlund arguing that surveillance camera footage and Chalifoux’s testimony were enough to find the two men guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Norlund said the “only reasonable conclusion” is that Keewatin and Lowley were the same people who entered Chalifoux’s room and participated in the assault.

Neither of the charged men testified during the trial.

Keewatin’s lawyer, Jason LeBlond, said in court on Thursday, Jan. 30 that exercising the right not to testify “shouldn’t be interpreted to his disadvantage.” LeBlond also cast doubt over Chalifoux’s testimony, calling it unreliable and inconsistent.

La Liberté went even further, labelling Chalifoux a “disreputable, drug-dealing liar.”

CITIZEN STAFF PHOTO

ICBC shuts down Class 1 MELT programs at 2 schools

One driver tells The Citizen he was left scrambling after sudden move

MATTHEW HILLIER Citizen Staff

Two Prince George driving schools have had their Class One Mandatory Entry-Level Training (MELT) driving classes terminated by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC).

The abrupt move left some student drivers unable to complete their training, which has an average tuition that can be more than $10,000.

Darren Stich is currently trying to complete MELT at another driving school.

He’s unhappy with ICBC’s treatment of the issue and his lost time.

“It’s just a completely frustrating situation, said Stich. “I’m raising a kid by myself, and I’m just trying to get my school done.

“ICBC’s response was instead of helping me in any way possible, it was just to say I should be happy I don’t have to do the whole MELT program again.”

ICBC confirmed the move in a statement to The Citizen.

“The Mandatory Entry-Level Training agreements at Taylor Professional Driving Ltd. and Go Team Professional Training Ltd. in Prince George have been terminated earlier this month because the two schools were not in compliance with all the requirements to maintain their participation in the program,” ICBC stated.

“Both schools have received a letter from ICBC outlining the violations and reasoning for the termination of the MELT agreement.”

A representative of Taylor Professional Driving Ltd. confirmed the decision by ICBC. Go Team’s management did not respond to a request for comment.

The Class 1 Mandatory Entry Level Training program (MELT) is required for anyone who wants to get a Class 1

Commercial Driver’s Licence in British Columbia. It was designed to provide practical experience, educate new drivers and help them develop safe driving habits during the beginning stages of their careers.

The program was introduced in 2021 in response to the Humbolt Broncos crash that claimed the lives of 16 people three years earlier.

“I’m now going to be doing the MELT program for almost another four months,” Stich said. “That’s four months with a restriction on you that you can’t work any more than 30 hours a week.”

Stich took the MELT course to become a fully licensed driver for Arrow Transportation Systems, but due to the

SATURDAY FEB 15, 2025

School bullying prompts calls for trustees to resign

ANDIE MOLLINS Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

WILLLIAMS LAKE - Caregivers calling for the resignation of School District 27 (SD 27) trustees and administration say they feel unheard after their Jan. 27 delegation to the board of education was cut short.

Following months of campaigning for the district to change its response to violence and bullying in schools, the group Concerned Parents and Caregivers of Williams Lake (CPWL) was granted the opportunity to speak at the district’s first regular board meeting of 2025.

“The policy of ‘inclusive schooling,’ which allows repeat offenders to remain in mainstream schools, fosters a toxic climate of bullying and fear,” said George Hobi, the delegation’s appointed speaker.

Hobi was referring to policies set by the district and the Ministry of Education and Child Care (MECC) on inclusive schooling. He believes these policies are leading to cases in which students with serious behavioural difficulties are not receiving the alternative schooling they may need and instead are being kept in classrooms lacking appropriate supports and causing disruption in learning.

Hobi’s own child has experienced recurring instances of bullying at Lake City Secondary School in Williams Lake.

In an email responding to The Tribune’s request for an interview, SD 27 Superintendent Cheryl Lenardon said the district takes student safety and the creation of positive learning environments seriously.

“While student conduct is a reality in all public schools in B.C. it is not accurate to characterize the learning environment in our schools as toxic. School principals and the parent advisory councils they work closely with are not making these claims,” Lenardon wrote. Hobi went on to recount his and other caregivers’ experience with district staff and trustees as they try to stand for their children’s mental and physical safety in school, explaining they are

ANDIE MOLLINS, LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

Melissa Coates, left, a mother who plans to run for the vacant SD 27 trustee position, meets with Kathy MacDonald whose grandchild had to leave the district due to bullying and George Hobi, a spokesperson for the group Concerned Parents and Caregivers of Williams Lake of which all three are members.

sent in endless loops without meaningful improvements.

“We are ignored, stonewalled and stalled,” he said, adding the district “reacts even more aggressively” when the parents continue to push for change.

At about 14 minutes into Hobi’s delegation, Delainey interrupted Hobi as he began to name reasons why the CPWL was of the opinion that trustees are “disconnected from the community.”

“Mr. Hobi ... I will warn you about making personal attacks against people...I think it’s a little bit inappropriate,” Delainey said. As Hobi went on with his statement, claiming one of the board members was “double-dipping” by holding two council positions, the trustees agreed to a recess.

“Mr. Hobi you’re out of line,” Delainey said, adding he was welcome to submit his speech for review. Delainey and Hobi spoke over each other as the recess was being called, Hobi pushing to be heard and Delainey insisting he had gone too far.

This was the second time Delainey cut into the delegation, the first instance as a reminder to Hobi that board bylaws meant only trustees can put motions forward and thus they could not immediately respond to what the delegation brought forward. This was following Hobi’s request to adopt three topics as permanent issues to be addressed

group, how it collects data and how the group is working with their parent advisory council to address their concerns. But the trustees said the Facebook group was the extent of what they learned from the delegation.

“The delegation continues to demand the same information and does not seem satisfied with the answers being provided. Sometimes, the answers we provide are not what people want to hear, but that is the reality we face,” the trustees wrote.

Following the meeting’s adjournment, Hobi stood before the board once again to finish his statement, and did so despite trustee Linda Martens and Delainey warning they would call another recess.

on board meeting agendas. These are health and safety for students at SD 27, the district’s Statement of Financial Information and an opportunity for a question-and-answer session on all agenda items.

Currently, SD 27’s board of education bylaws only allow for public comments following the board’s regular meetings, while some district boards in BC, including District 28 in Quesnel, allow questions at the end of their meetings.

SD 27 chair Angie Delainey reminds George Hobi of the CPWL he could only make a statement and not call for a motion during his delegation to the board.

In an emailed response to The Tribune on why the delegation was cut short, the SD 27 trustees said the delegation surpassed its allotted time and the board did not get the opportunity to review any material from the delegation prior to the meeting, as was requested. While Hobi mentioned a presentation preceding his own lapsed longer than his, the trustees explained presentations are typically around 20 minutes as opposed to the 10 minutes allotted for delegations.

The trustees also said they would not “give space” for the harassment of staff, students or trustees. Nevertheless, the trustees wrote they were interested to learn more about CPWL’s Facebook

“You’re going into an area that wasn’t on the agenda so at this point I would suggest either the speaker sits down, or we have to go into another recess because this is not acceptable,” said Martens.

Hobi stood his ground, and so did the caregivers of CPWL who attended the meeting, clapping as Hobi concluded his statement, which called for the trustees’ and administration to resign due to the “ongoing crisis.”

“It’s another joke,” Hobi said in an interview with the Tribune following the meeting, saying he felt he hasn’t gotten a response to his requests stretching back to June 2024.

In their email to The Tribune, the trustees said they are working hard to make changes, but that cannot be done overnight.

“We want to be clear: we have heard this group’s concerns and are actively working on them. That said, the data and feedback we receive from those on the ground, as well as from the ERASE program, do not suggest that there is widespread or alarming behaviour in our schools,” the trustees wrote.

Melissa Coates, a member of CPWL who is planning to run for the vacant role of trustee on the SD 27 board of education, also addressed the board following the meeting’s adjournment.

Artemis makes first pour at new Blackwater mine site

TED CLARKE Citizen Staff

VANDERHOOF - Artemis Gold

Inc., owner of the Blackwater Mine, announced Wednesday, Jan. 29 that it has completed its first gold and silver pour at the mine site.

Also known as Blackwater Gold, the mine 160 kilometres southwest of Prince George remains on target to ramp up to commercial production starting in the second quarter of 2025.

“While still in commissioning, Blackwater’s crushing circuit has displayed sustained crushing operations above its prescribed nameplate throughout,” said Jeremy Langford, Artemis Gold president and chief operating officer, in a media release.

“The milling circuit is also performing in line with expectations at this stage of the commissioning and ramp-up phase.”

The open-pit mine is the largest gold mine development in the Cariboo region in more than a decade and it is powered by a new 133-kilometre BC Hydro transmission line now feeding one of the mining sector’s first fully-electric ore processing plants.

The mine’s 44 square-kilometre footprint covers an estimated eight million ounces of gold reserves and 60 million ounces of silver reserves.

Trustees say a third-party review of bullying is under way in SD27

“As a mother it breaks my heart to share that my child continues to face bullying,” she said. She acknowledged that changes have been made since the district’s previous superintendent, Chris Van Der Mark, stepped down, but said more needed to be done.

“I would ask each of you trustees to consider what you would do if it was your child coming home in tears...our children deserve better,” she said.

After the meeting Coates told the Tribune her child is bullied every day.

“I’m sick of my kids coming home with this,” she said, adding she often wonders if it’s her “kid’s day today” as she hears about haunting stories of violence from other parents.

“This is all from our district not doing their job,” she said.

Kathy MacDonald, who herself

attended school in the district and whose three grandchildren now attend schools in SD 27, said nothing has changed.

“It’s become acceptable,” MacDonald said about violence in schools. One of her grandchildren is leaving the district because of the bullying they face.

Another parent told The Tribunetheir child no longer feels comfortable approaching their teachers about the bullying and assaults they experience on a daily basis.

In their email to the The Tribune, the trustees pointed to the anonymous reporting tool ERASE available to students and parents, and also noted a third-party review of the district’s culture climate is currently underway by Safer Schools.

“The district...is eagerly awaiting recommendations to improve safety in schools,” the trustees wrote.

A feasibility study predicts the mine will produce 321,000 troy ounces of gold annually over the first five years, increasing to 381,000 ounces of gold extraction in years 6-10.

Construction of the Blackwater mine began soon after the province approved a construction/operation permit on March 9, 2023.

With an expected 22-year lifespan, the company hopes to mine 11.7 million ounces of gold and 122.4 million ounces of silver, and it could be producing for 30 or 40 years.

The mine is expected to generate 457 direct full-time jobs per year over its operating life, having already provided 825 direct full-time jobs during the construction phases.

It will pump an estimated $13.2 billion into the provincial economy and $3.2 billion into provincial revenues over the multi-decade life of the mine.

Gold is currently worth $3,984 CDN per ounce.

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ARTEMIS GOLD PHOTO

This is the Blackwater Gold operations camp in October 2024.

What’s happening in PG

Garden Planning 101 goes Thursday, Feb. 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the downtown branch of the Prince George Public Library. This presentation by REAPS is for those who are thinking of starting their first vegetable garden this year or looking to try some new gardening methods. Attend to learn more about the basics of organic gardening and how it can help support healthy people and ecosystems.

IceJam – Songcraft by the Tracks with John Wort Hannam goes Thursday Feb. 6 at noon at the Central BC Railway and Forestry Museum, This is a free Coldsnap Music Festival workshop. Against the backdrop of a museum that is historically charming, this event features an afternoon of storytelling, fond insights into songwriting, and acoustic songs by one of Canada’s leading folk artists. For more information visit www. coldsnapfestival.com.

IceJam – Mama’s Broke goes Thursday, Feb. 6 at 5 p.m. at the Two Rivers Gallery, 725 Canada Games Way. This is a free Coldsnap Music Festival workshop. Enjoy a fantastic late afternoon performance that invites people to enjoy a captivating blend of folk, roots, and raw energy. In addition to the music, there will be food for attendees to enjoy while soaking up the ambience. A celebration of community, culture, and creativity not to be missed. For more information visit www.coldsnapfestival.com.

Artist Talk & Opening Reception goes Thursday, Feb. 6 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Two Rivers Gallery, 725 Civic Plaza. Join artists Amber Bracken to discuss her works in Dreamers, as well

as Betty Kovacic and Emily Neufeld to discuss their works in the group exhibition The Road Not Taken. Enjoy an artist talk, light refreshments, cash bar and the opportunity to connect over art and conversation. This event is free and open to all ages to attend. Come earlier to enjoy the ColdSnap IceJam concert held in the atrium space from 5 to 6 p.m. prior to the opening reception.

IceJam – Stories & Song with Jeff Stuart & Lindsay Pratt goes Friday, Feb. 7 at noon at PG & District Seniors Centre, 425 Brunswick St. This is a free Coldsnap Music Festival workshop. Sweet Americana-inspired folk songs, combined with dreamy harmonies, take the listener’s heart. Together Stuart and Pratt offer an experience that is as

emotionally moving as it is entertaining. Don’t pass up the chance for an afternoon of entertainment and intimate storytelling. For more information visit www.coldsnapfestival.com.

IceJam – Celtic Jam with Beolach, Jocelyn Pettit and Under the Rocks goes Friday, Feb. 7 at 3 p.m. at Knox Performance Centre, Heritage Hall, 1448 Fifth Ave. This is a free Coldsnap Music Festival workshop that is an acoustic Celtic kitchen party-style jam which invites local music lovers to experience a dynamic and intimate performance where artists share tunes, stories, and spontaneous collaborations. Participation is not just encouraged but celebrated - it’s a perfect opportunity to trade songs and stories with other

musicians in a relaxed, welcoming setting. For more information visit www. coldsnapfestival.com.

Chris Goodwin Band Live goes Saturday, Feb. 8 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Nelly’s Pub, 2274 John Hart Highway. The Chris Goodwin Band is kicking off their 2025 show schedule by celebrating the release of their brand new single, G ‘n’ R Tee, currently playing on SiriusXM Top of the Country radio. It’s going to be a party. Cover is absolutely free and the dance floor is waiting.

Bookworm Boogie with Ginalina goes Saturday, Feb. 8 from 10:15 to 11 a.m. at the Prince George Public Library’s main branch. This is a free Coldsnap Music Festival workshop. Everyone is invited to join Juno nominated singer-songwriter Ginalina, who is known for her cheerful and heartwarming folk songs that applaud nature, family, and community, inspiring children and parents alike with singing, dancing, and connecting. The event will start with a music-themed reading to welcome the children and make for a good transition to an interactively engaging performance. For more information visit www.coldsnapfestival.com.

The Art of Breaking Through workshop with Cat Clyde goes Saturday, Feb. 8 at noon at Omineca Arts Centre, 369 Victoria St. This is a free Coldsnap Music Festival workshop to discuss trials and tribulations of getting into the music scene, inspirations behind songs, and how to go from an idea to a finished creation. Q&A to follow. For more information visit www.coldsnapfestival.com.

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The Art of Breaking Through, a Coldsnap workshop with Cat Clyde, happens Saturday, Feb. 8 at noon at Omineca Arts Centre, 369 Victoria St.

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Coldsnap for Kids – 1! with Robin Layne & The Rhythm Makers goes Saturday, Feb. 8 at 1:30 p.m. at the Knox Performance Centre, 1448 Fifth Ave. This is a lively, interactive concert full of fun rhythms and playful melodies designed just for children. With upbeat tunes and exciting percussion, this show invites young listeners to dance and clap along. The performance is a joyful celebration of sound, introducing children to the wonders of rhythm and beat in a way that’s both engaging and educational. For more information and tickets visit https://www.coldsnapfestival.com

IceJam – Acoustic In-the-Rounds with St. Arnaud & the Hearts goes Saturday, Feb. 8 at 3 p.m. at the Knox Performance Centre Heritage Hall, 1448 Fifth Ave. An intimate, in-the-round performance with members of St.Arnaud and The Hearts. This is a free Coldsnap Music Festival workshop featuring a distinctive kind of performance in which the artists gather and share their songs and stories with inspiration in a collaborative, up-close setting. For more information visit www.coldsnapfestival. com.

Valentine Bazaar goes Saturday, Feb. 8 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Prince George Roll-A-Dome, 2588 Recplace Dr. Come out for a fun day of shopping, sit down and enjoy lunch, take some selfies, and do some crafts with the kiddos. There will be food and coffee vendors, local businesses, crafters and artisans.

Nature Spa Workshop goes Sunday, Feb. 9 from 2 to 5 p.m. at St. Michaels Orthodox, 2793 Range Rd. This event, presented by Wildflower Farm and Moose, Mushrooms and Mud offers an immersive spa experience as you hand craft your own spa products using florals, herbs, healing oils, salts and more. Herbs and florals are locally grown and foraged. Products participants can create include infused massage oil, wildcrafted tea blend, body lotion bar and a body sugar scrub. Price is $80 per person. To register text Lisa at Wildflower Farm at 250-961-3519. For more information visit https://www.facebook. com/events/4011162732542680

38th Annual Prince George Iceman goes Sunday, Feb. 9 at 10 a.m. This is the ultimate winter challenge featuring for ages 16+ a 8km ski, 10km run, 5km skate, 5km run, 800m swim. For ages 10-15 a 4km ski, 5km run, 3km skate, 5km run, 400m swim. This multi-sport event brings together winter pursuits and showcases the city’s great recreation facilities. This is

a race for everyone from beginner to elite athletes and includes both solo and relay team categories. The event is spectator-friendly with many opportunities to cheer on participants at the Otway Nordic Centre, the Outdoor Ice Oval and the Aquatic Centre. For more information and to register visit www. pgiceman.ca/register/.

Arts & Crafts with The Garrys workshop goes Sunday, Feb. 9 at noon at Omineca Arts Centre, 369 Victoria St. This is a free Coldsnap Music Festival workshop on making music and getting into the scene. With live performances the workshop is set to explore the ideas that inspire songs and go through a process of how those ideas reach the finished product. Attendees will learn songwriting basics and are welcome to ask questions about how to manage the transition from a new band to a popular act. For more information visit www. coldsnapfestival.com.

Coldsnap for Kids – 2! With Ginalina goes Sunday, Feb. 9 at 1:30 p.m. at Knox Performance Centre, 1448 Fifth Ave.

by Robert Harling

Steel Magnolias

February 13th - March 5th

Four-time Juno and five-time Canadian Folk Music Awards nominee Ginalina pioneers unique family folk music, eclectic fusion folk music, and beautiful children’s books that celebrate family, nature, community, culture. Her songs and stories are respectful and real, warm and winsome, emotive and energizing. For more information and tickets visit https://www.coldsnapfestival.com

SD 57 Indigenous Education Community Dinner goes Wednesday, Feb. 12 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Prince George Secondary School cafeteria, 2901 Griffiths Ave. This is an evening for connection and conversation around Indigenous Education in SD57. Many voices and lots of input are essential to help guide programs and services. Come share experiences, ideas, and insights on how to further support Indigenous student success across School District 57. All ages welcome. Dinner, door prizes and childcare provided. Register with Dorthy at 250-562-4843 or dstewart@ sd57.bc.ca.

Craft & Chat at the main branch of the Prince George Public Library goes every Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. in the magazine corner, second floor, where fibre artists are invited to bring their latest projects to share, vent frustrations, brag about successes, get and give help and join in lively discussions. Snacks provided. This event is in partnership with Great Northwest Fibre Fest.

If you’ve got an event coming up email us at news@pgcitizen.ca to offer details including name of the event, the date, time and location, ticket price and where to get them and a little bit about what’s happening, too. LOCF

The annual Prince George Iceman races happen Sunday, Feb. 9, with skiing, swimming and running.

Renick, Artistic Director

From the Rez to the Mountaintop with local author

CHRISTINE DALGLEISH Citizen Staff

Mother, wife, author, basketball player, weightlifter, school district trustee, educator, mentor and most recently designer of her own clothing line, Erica McLean is kinda busy.

The title of her book wraps it up nicely.

From the Rez to the Mountaintop, Becoming Who We’re Meant To Be is a book McLean self-published and released in 2023 as she believes through love, work and the pursuit of growth, everyone can change their world.

Early years

McLean is from the Gitxsan First Nation and grew up on reserve in Hazelton.

“The beginning for me was going to an alternative school,” McLean said.

“There is one high school in Hazelton and at the time I was a struggling student. When I was younger I loved school. I loved to read and I just loved being there but life, circumstance, all kinds of factors took place and I started to fall off in eighth grade like many of my peers and I moved to Prince George for a little bit while my mom and her then-husband were going to school and then I really fell behind because I dropped out of school here because I just couldn’t handle moving to a different community and trying new things and being in new spaces.”

After her family moved back to Hazelton she landed in the alternative learning school.

“Which was just a little portable out back of the main school,” McLean smiled.

“And it was lovely for me but it was a very difficult place. It wasn’t uncommon for books to be thrown, kids to be yelling and fighting with teachers and bickering amongst each other but I had this core group of friends. We talked, had lots of fun, told stories in class and it was just this really nice place to belong and it was there that I found that sense of belonging.”

McLean always had a connection to

sport and in particular, basketball and soccer, since she was 10 years old, she added.

“It was something to hold on to,” McLean said. “When I was in Grade 10 I started to feel what my community was struggling with.”

Theft and alcohol use were some of the challenges McLean mentioned.

“And then of course I would see my friends and other people I cared about struggling,” McLean recalled.

“So that’s when I started to notice things weren’t good or what they could be. Meanwhile, because I had this very nice circle of adult supports, these adults who cared about my success at school, and I kinda got to do the work at my own pace, I’m seeing this reality, I’m seeing this social landscape of challenges while also starting to see little glimmers of progress.”

She was 17 when she realized what she really wanted to do with her life was help people, she added.

instructors and you worked through all these things together – these were new worlds and new challenges,” McLean explained. “So I felt a little safer.”

It was hard to leave the security of home.

“I remember we all cried in the driveway when I left,” McLean said, who is the middle child of four.

“So I just chipped away at college and really struggled being a student and living on my own and all of those things that come from leaving your reserve.”

As she was nearing the end of her time at the college she welcomed her first child, needed to take some time off and was determined to come back and finish the course, McLean added. (McLean is married to Guy and has two children, Carter, 14 and Olaf, seven.)

She completed the course as a new mom and then transferred to the university to further her education.

“I had lots of dreams of what I was going to do to help people and the places that I was going to go,” McLean said. “All the schools and universities that I was going to attend, stuff like that. By the time I graduated high school, I would call myself a would-be athlete because early on I stopped applying myself. So when I graduated I actually won a ton of academic awards, which is bizarre considering the academic capacity that I felt I had coming from an alt school. But looking back, there was value to it and I did try hard to reach that milestone.”

Post-secondary

Her goal to help people sent her to Prince George after graduation where she enrolled for the social service worker diploma program at the College of New Caledonia.

“And it was amazing – the people –the faculty – you have this small core group of people – your cohort and your

“As an undergrad you do a lot of group presentations,” McLean said. “And I remember one particular session where I was telling my cohort that I love prevention and early intervention and that’s where I am going to spend all my time and my instructor was like ‘That’s great! You know what you want to do but you’re never going to work a day in your life,’ and it was funny. We all laughed but the reality is that in social work you are intervening at a crisis level. That’s the work. Very little of it is spent in prevention and early intervention.”

Despite that bit of reality, McLean really felt that was where she belonged.

“I thought there had to be a way,” McLean said. “That work is out there and after I finished my undergrad I spent the summer just kind of enjoying that because that truly was my Everest. It took me five years to finish that program and it truly felt like ‘oh my gosh, I did it!’ It was so exciting.”

She then applied for a job at School District 57 because during her practicums she had worked there and she loved it, she added. CONTINUED

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Erica McLean amplifies the voices of young leaders in the community through her Giving Forward program.

Erica McLean looks to lift up youth in the community

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Work life

Her first position was as an Indigenous Education Worker and realized very quickly that she had found her place.

“This is prevention and early intervention because I got to work with families and run programs that I care about, that I was passionate about,” McLean recalled.

“It was important to share with students and families and it was awesome.”

She spent seven years in that position at an elementary school.

During that time another opportunity came up as a Community School Coordinator, which is a social work role as the responsibilities lie in connecting students to the school, and then out in community as well as their families, and finding resources for the schools.

“It was essentially making connections and that was perfect for me,” McLeod said.

“Having the autonomy to build it as

you see the need and having the space to be creative with the guidance of a mentor who is still a dear friend helped carve that out for me and would ask the question – ‘what do you want to make of this?’ – and then ‘go!’ And I look back at it now and wow!”

McLean spent 10 years working in education and chose to end her career at SD 57 in 2022.

“It was so tough but also good and I told everyone that I would keep working on these ideas and this voice and I’ll keep trying,” McLean said.

School board trustee

That summer a friend had suggested she run as a school board trustee in the fall election.

McLean didn’t know much about the inner workings of the school board and in the past she would do her research and vote for candidates but she’d never even sat in on a board meeting.

“I would say I was not super involved prior to embarking on this journey,” McLean laughed. “But I decided to do it anyway because that’s kind of who I am. And I thought ‘well, if this is good work and we need someone like me then OK, I’ll do it.’ So I tried and the campaign was such an experience and it was scary because it was difficult work and I felt like my voice wasn’t strong. So it was a really tough learning curve but I can look at it now as we’re two years into our term and it’s a difficult space and I showed up and I kind of just do my best work with who I am and what I have.”

McLean said she always goes back to her values.

“Here are my values and they are in stone and what I know is written in the sand meaning that I can learn, my opinion can change based on new information and I just try to do my best to do that work.”

After two years McLean said she feels good about this learning experience and that being a school board trustee has led to other work.

“Other opportunities have come up for me to lead in other ways in governance in Indigenous communities and

Indigenous organizations,” McLean said. “And that’s the kind of message that I want to share with other people who look like me or who might be a woman with young children or an Indigenous person who is interested in being a leader in some way. I think there is so much value in putting yourself out there regardless of fear of what might happen or fear of people’s opinions. It’s difficult but it’s also necessary and I hope that any work that I do – any accomplishment that I might make in this work will make it more inviting for others. I hope my work inspires others to get involved.”

Her book

At the same time McLean was recording her audio book for From the Rez to the Mountain Top, Becoming Who We’re Meant To Be

She left her career in education with the intention of doing more in sharing her voice as much as she could and in

broader ways.

“I gave myself a deadline of 2022 and published on Amazon on Dec. 22, 2022,” McLean laughed.

Her book was written unintentionally in three parts, McLean added.

“Part one is love, part two is work and part three is grow,” she said.

“Part one is about learning to love the parts of myself that I wanted to hide from the world. The parts I was ashamed of. So in part one I talk a lot about growing up without money and how I didn’t realize that impacted me as an adult. Not wanting to raise my hand, not wanting to speak and always flying under the radar or be the authentic version of myself because I didn’t think my voice was valued or worthy.”

She said she really hopes she tells her story in such a way that encourages people to consider their own path.

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This image is from the cover of Erica McLean’s book, From the Rez to the Mountaintop, Becoming Who We’re Meant To Be.

Author embraces education, athletics and entrepreneurship

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The second part of the book - work - is about learning how to get out of your own way, McLean added.

“I realized that when we’re struggling sometimes we’re standing in our own way and once I learned to love the parts of myself that I wanted to hide and embracing the whole me and loving the whole me I realized I had to work really hard to develop that person.”

Part three, grow, is about getting to that place where you thought you wanted to be only to discover there’s another thing you want to do, another place where you want to be, McLean said.

“Part three is about all of these beautiful lessons that remind me – remind us – that the world keeps going and you need the sunshine and rosy parts but you also need the difficult heavy, challenging parts. That’s what makes the picture worthwhile. That’s what makes it beautiful. It’s all of those things.”

There is a grand intention to this book, McLean said.

“It’s to remind people that we all have a space, a strength and a voice in this world because that was kind of my realization through my own journey and I think we could all use that message,” McLean said.

Athlete

“I have always loved movement,” McLean said. “When I was younger and living on the reserve, running was probably one of my favourite things to do.”

She played soccer and basketball.

She didn’t live in a world where she knew that if she loved something that she could work really hard at it and with some luck do really well in basketball, McLean said.

“I had some natural athletic ability but around the eighth grade it was more about relationships, attention, boys,” McLean said. “It wasn’t about working hard for something you love. My friends were getting better and growing and that’s when I just kinda checked out.”

She drifted in and out of sport, still loving to run.

“I didn’t know it at that time but

running was very meditative,” McLean said. “It was the space for me to think about possibilities, think about the future, think about the dreams that I had or anything that I would like to do. So I look back to that time and think how necessary it was for me to just move outdoors in nature.”

Fast forward to her mid-20s and she still felt the same way.

That’s when she found a crossfit gym with like-minded people.

“It was all about community and all about feeling strong,” McLean said.

“That really clicked with me and I loved that. So I held on to that and I went down this 10-year path of finding ways to feel strong, not only for myself but for others because I started bringing that into education.”

McLean took certification training and started training young people.

“And it was awesome,” McLean said.

“I don’t even know if I can tell you what it’s like when you see this little light switch go on when something clicks and

powerful lessons I’ve ever learned and I wanted to share that with young people I worked with.”

When she left her work in education she did some community/high performance coaching for a little while.

And that evolution has come into the work she is doing now, McLean said.

Clothing line

She started her own athletic clothing brand called Skanii Athletics. The word ‘skanii’ is derived from the phrase in Gitxsan meaning on ‘top of the mountain’.

“I wanted something that was connected to my home community,” McLean said.

“We all have a strength, a voice and a space in the world, and that’s the message I want to get across. What I am trying to do is create a social movement through community.”

A very important lesson she has learned in education is about what people can become when you give them the space in the right environment to see for themselves how strong they can be, she added.

you know they feel strong.”

McLean loves Olympic weightlifting which is a competitive strength sport where participants lift a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead. A thletes compete in two specific ways of lifting the barbell overhead. The snatch is a wide-grip lift, in which the weighted barbell is lifted overhead in one motion. The clean and jerk is a combination lift, in which the weight is first taken from the ground to the front of the shoulders (the clean), and then from the shoulders to over the head (the jerk).

“I love Olympic weightlifting for its capacity to empower someone,” McLean said.

“And the reason I love that so much for others is that I know that when I had some sense of mastery in weightlifting I felt strong in the gym and I actually felt strong in all other parts of my life and that message was so important. That was probably one of the most

To demonstrate that even more strongly, McLean started Giving Forward as part of her business model at Skanii Athletics where future leaders are championed by amplifying underrepresented voices. Every purchase made helps provide sponsorship clothing packages to young leaders in sport and their communities while helping to tell their story. Indigenous communities often teach about reciprocal relationships - if you take something, you give something back. Guided by the principle of reciprocity, McLean believes in giving forward to those who uplift and inspire.

“The leadership development, that voice development is so necessary,” McLean said. “It’s also very powerful. It’s a huge opportunity in Truth & Reconciliation and that’s kind of what I want to do with that work, use it as a space to support young leaders. It’s all about building the next generation of leaders.”

For more information about McLean visit www.facebook.com/Skanii.Erica.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Erica McLean uses weightlifting as a way to reach out to youth to encourage success in life.

Curious moose wanders into a PG back yard

A young moose eyes the camera during an encounter in the back yard of Citizen owner and publisher Cameron Stolz on Saturday, Jan. 25. Have you had an encounter with wildlife this winter? How about last summer? Share your photos with fellow Citizen readers by emailing them, with a short description telling us where and when the picture was taken, and we’ll publish them online and in our print edition.

CITIZEN STAFF PHOTO

Registrations are now open for this year’s B2B Expo

CITIZEN STAFF

Small business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs and community partners are invited to register for the Business to Business (B2B) Expo, set to take place on Feb. 14 and 15 at the Civic Centre.

The event, a collaborative effort between Community Futures Fraser Fort George, the Prince George Chamber of Commerce and the City of Prince George, offers an opportunity for local businesses to connect, learn and grow,

states a press release.

“We’re excited to offer this event as a way for both established businesses and emerging entrepreneurs to engage with each other and access the support resources that can help them thrive,” said Anna Duff, general manager of Community Futures Fraser Fort George.

“With strong participation from business support organizations, the Expo will provide a unique opportunity for attendees to engage one-on-one with these resources.”

The expo will kick off on the afternoon

of Feb. 14 with a networking event, followed by learning workshops on Feb. 15. The Expo will wrap up that day with a public session from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., giving participating businesses the chance to showcase their products and services to local residents.

Neil Godbout, executive director of the chamber, emphasized the importance of the event for strengthening local business connections. “This is a chance to bring local entrepreneurs together and explore new opportunities,” Godbout said.

The event aims to:

• Strengthen the local business community

• Foster new partnerships

• Share valuable resources

• Drive economic growth in Prince George and surrounding areas

• Create platforms for ongoing collaboration between businesses, with an emphasis on developing potential industry clusters in the region

For more information and to register, visit cfdc.bc.ca/b2bexpo.

ABOVE: Caleb

It’s hands-on fun as children make their own pizza

CHRISTINE DALGLEISH Citizen Staff

There was a box with a picture that could very well be the origin story of pizza set on a table at the PG Italian Club kitchen in the heart of downtown Prince George on Monday, Jan. 27.

The scene was set with a cartoon-like green slice of Bad Pizza with a grimace on his face as he sliced off the top of a towering apartment building in a bigcity skyscape.

It had an airplane overhead dropping – maybe tomatoes? – on Bad Pizza’s head while the sunshiny Good Pizza came to the rescue in hero-like fashion to save the day.

The artist, Griffin Woodworth, 12, said Good Pizza always wins.

And it certainly did as eight children learned how to make authentically good pizza from scratch with guidance from the wise and gentle volunteers of the

Prince George Italian Club on the Pro D Day.

The children were between the ages of eight and 12 years old and were delightful participants.

Anna Monetta, a member of the Prince George Italian Club for the last 25 years, said sharing good food with good company is key and sharing the knowledge of how to make that food offers a chance for those in the community to get a glimpse into what it’s like to be Italian in the best way possible – through delicious food.

“We started off doing a test in April and then we decided we’d do a pizza-making workshop and invited the community,” Monetta said.

The morning class was at capacity with eight children but requests came fast and furious at registration time so they decided to do an afternoon class, too.

After making the dough the children

were invited into a space where they could do other activities, including colouring sheets depicting Italy that including bits of information about the country.

CrossRoads Brewing donated pizza boxes for the individual-sized pizzas the children made and they were encouraged to use their imagination to draw on their boxes, like Griffin did in epic fashion, while the dough rose. Volunteer Maria Marchetti, a retired teacher, gently guided the children in their artistic endeavours.

“We did a little bit of language sharing, too,” Monetta said. “But I think we need to do that separately in another session so today the kids learned that ‘mozzarella’, ‘parmesan’, ‘pizza’ and ‘sugo’, which is sauce or salsa, are all Italian words.”

“Buongiorno!” Silvia Spoletini, another volunteer, happily added, contributing another Italian word that means good

day or hello.

“We’re always looking for ways to encourage membership and raise awareness and by inviting the children into the club, perhaps parents will eventually come, too,” Monetta said.

“We’d like to invite the next generation to join, and then the next generation after that.”

During the workshop the children were given their aprons first.

“Then it’s all about following kitchen rules, so everyone had to wash their hands,” Monetta said.

Then the group followed the basic dough recipe that was on a poster on the wall, along with the kitchen rules of safety.

Everyone followed the recipe to create their dough and then it was put in the oven at a low temperature to encourage it to rise in a timely fashion.

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Kids also have a chance to learn about the Italian language

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“It depends on the weather, it depends on relative humidity, sometimes the dough puffs out right away, sometimes it doesn’t,” Monetta said.

Monetta demonstrated how to make the sauce that was simmering in a big pot on the stove.

Tomato sauce, basil and oregano, with fried bits of onion, is all that’s needed for perfection.

Each child goes home with the recipe for the pizza dough and the sauce at the end of the workshop.

“The key is to let it simmer,” Monetta nodded as she stirred the sauce.

“It’s not that hard. Just know the longer it simmers the sweeter the sauce.”

There’s nothing like gathering with friendly volunteers in a warm kitchen filled with the scent of yeasty dough and tomato sauce bubbling on the stove while the unmistakable scent of

parmesan and mozzarella blend into the comforting aroma of traditonal Italian goodness.

Volunteer Marilia Mauro did the heavy lifting, stacking big glass bowls and doing the prep work in anticipation of the afternoon session of pizza making.

About 20 minutes later the dough was ready for the kids to gather in the kitchen once again. The dough went quickly into their pie plate to be worked into a classic crust.

Don’t smooth it out too much or over work the dough though, Monetta advised. Gentle motions with eager fingers did the trick.

“It feels really spongy and in the oven it’s gunna rise,” Griffin said knowingly about his newly-formed pizza crust.

“I’ve done this before – I cook at home so I really like this. It’s fun.”

Monetta instructed the children to sprinkle a bit of olive oil on the crust after they shaped it from ball of dough

to pizza crust.

Then it was time for the sauce.

“You have to spread the love around,” Monetta laughed as she guided the children through the pizza making process.

“That’s enough sauce … that’s enough sauce … that’s enough sauce … now that’s really enough sauce.

That one’s going to be juicy!” Marchetti laughed with the sauce-loving child.

“Everybody ready? OK, now it’s time for the parmesan and mozzarella!”

With names on pie plates the pizzas were popped into the oven until golden perfection was achieved.

As the children gathered around the table once again, this time to eat their creations, a hush fell over the room, each enjoying their made-with-theirown-two-hands pizza.

There were comparisons made, with admiration expressed over how thick some crusts were (Griffin’s) and how cheesy and saucy other pizzas had become.

As parents arrived to pick up the children, one mum said she was delighted to find this cooking lesson available to children in Prince George.

“I think Prince George could use more kids’ baking and cooking classes so this is really amazing,” Van Tay said.

“I hope since they’ve had such a good turn out they’ll do more. This is such a great thing for the community. My family is half Asian so this is a great way for my son, Ryan, to be immersed in other cultures. There are a lot of times people invite children to decorate a cupcake or make their own pizza using pita bread but this was how to make everything from scratch and that’s a whole other lesson that kids need to learn. So this is awesome and that’s why we signed up right away.”

For more information about the PG Italian Club and all they have to offer check out their Facebook page at www. facebook.com/pgitalianclub.

CITIZEN PHOTO BY CHUCK NISBETT

LEFT: Anna Monetta hands a spoon to Briggs Verticchio, 8, as he ladles sauce onto his pizza dough at the Prince George Italian Club on Pro-D Day Monday, Jan. 27.

Cheung, 9, marvels at the thickness of 12-year-old Griffin Woodworth’s pizza.

RIGHT: Aubrielle Mercier, 10, puts the finishing touches on her pizza box as she waits for her dough to rise.

Rotarians raise thousands for Harwin school

L’Donna Lynds, left, acting principal of Harwin Elementary, Garnet Weston, president of The Rotary Club of Prince George Yellowhead and Jennifer Boots, chair of Harwin Elementary’s parent advisory calendar, take part in a cheque presentation on Wednesday, Jan. 29. The club raised almost $9,000 for the school. The Yellowhead Rotary Club recently donated $8,746.81 to the Harwin Elementary School Parents Advisory Council (PAC). ‘I think there’s a lot of need for youth within our city,’ said Weston ‘And I think it’s vital to provide a strong foundation for those youth.’ The Rotary Club makes yearly donations to support schools and youth in Prince George. Last year The Rotary Club donated to Ron Brent Elementary School. These funds were raised through monthly 50/50 draws, as well as through Yellowhead Rotary’s Business Breakfast 50/50 draw at the Festival of Trees.

Hospice is looking for new ways to help local families

MATTHEW HILLIER Citizen Staff

Prince George Hospice Palliative Care Society (PGHPCS) has been selected to participate in the UBC Nav-CARE Compassionate Dementia Inclusive Community Initiative.

“This comes out of a bigger project,” said Hospice executive director Donna Flood. “One of our strategic goals is to look at how to create a wellness centre for people who are living with a life-ending disease … This initiative is strictly targeted at dementia. We’re looking to the community to let us know what it is they need. And then we will look at developing something to support them, something sustainable.”

The initiative is designed to identify issues and areas of focus needed to help further support both for people living with the illness and their caregivers.

“The thing that we are hoping to do is find the greatest need right now,” said community programs team lead Laurie

DeCroos. “This is in terms of supporting people living with dementia and their care partners and families that will then manifest into a program or a service.”

So far Hospice has identified a need for more social spaces and quality-of-life care for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s and more respite for permanent caregivers.

DeCroos knows that the support

for caregivers is one of the essential aspects of this initiative and better support for them translates to better support for patients.

“One of the things that we find is that often the care partner gets forgotten about because there’s so much of the focus is on the person living with the illness,” said DeCroos. “It’s really important for both the person living

with dementia and care partners to get through this journey with support for each of them … We want to make sure that they don’t get forgotten about and they can tend to their needs.”

However, community support is essential for this program to achieve success and the PGHPCS is asking for the community to come forward with lived experiences to help identify gaps in care.

“We’re going to be asking a wide variety of individuals in our community,” said DeCroos“Which will be people living with dementia, fa. mily members, care partners, and organizations. We want to know what are some of the gaps we’re seeing in our healthcare system as well. What are some of the gaps that we’re going to see in the future and then what initiative can we have that can help support our community.”

If you or a loved one has lived experience with dementia or is a caregiver, PGHPCS encourages you to complete an online survey to help develop their care.

PRINCE GEORGE HOSPICE PALLIATIVE CARE SOCIETY PHOTO

The Prince George Hospice Society operates out of a building on Ferry Avenue.

How an old band T-shirt inspired a new hit single

CHRISTINE DALGLEISH Citizen Staff

When a coworker tells you you’re good enough to be the lead singer of a band it gets you thinking.

At least it did when Chris Goodwin got that bug put in his ear.

The Prince George elementary school music teacher – yes, there is still such a thing – took that notion and ran with it and now he and his bandmates are enjoying their most recent spike in success with their latest release, G n’ R Tee.

Let that sink in for a second. Goodwin said people have tried to put an Italian flare to it like it was a fancy pasta, tried to make it a word but once you know, you know – it stands for Guns ’n’ Roses T-shirt – and then we all nod knowingly as it all comes together.

The back story is even better because it’s all about Goodwin’s girlfriend who stole his old G n’ R tee from his donation pile and the story will put a big ol’ grin on your face, if you like country or maybe even if you don’t like country.

Did I forget to mention they’re a country band? They’re country in the best way with a foot-stompin’ beat and a cheeky grin that goes along with the song’s hook about how great Chris’ girlfriend looks in his T-shirt.

The song has been picked up by SiriusXM Top of the Country, channel 171, and is in regular rotation on the 100 per cent Canadian country content station.

“It’s a pretty big deal,” Goodwin said. “So we thought we’d have a little party to celebrate.”

The Chris Goodwin Band will take to the Nelly’s Pub stage on Saturday, Feb. 8 to celebrate their latest song’s release.

“Most of the songs that I write are typical country songs about drinking, partying, love, relationships and my lovely girlfriend of 11 years one day said to me ‘why don’t you ever write a song about me?’ as kind of a joke – in jest – and I said ‘uh-oh, pressure!’ and so I was laying in the backyard one day and I thought ‘what am I actually going to write about?’ and I had an old Guns ’n’ Roses T-Shirt that was gettin’ kinda

holey that I was going to throw out and she actually wouldn’t let me and she kept it for herself and still wears it to this day as a pyjama shirt and that was the inspiration for the song.”

The Chris Goodwin Band includes Goodwin (lead vocals/rhythm guitar), Patrick Michaud (lead guitar), Steve Smith (bass guitar) and Chester Hewkin (drums).

“We’re all from Prince George and we’ve all been in the local music scene for years and years and years,” Goodwin said.

They got their start when they performed during RibFest in 2019 hosted by Pacific Western Brewery.

“We all came together as a one-off to play a country music thing and we all got along really well and one thing led to another – COVID happened – and that slowed us down and then coming out of COVID we recorded and released our first song called Shot of Jack Daniels so that went really good,” Goodwin said about the song that was released in 2022.

“It went all the way to No. 2 on the Canadian Independent Country Chart and it also went to No. 2 in the UK on their Indie Country Chart as well.”

Goodwin credits PG RibFest organizer

Kyle Sampson for the band’s start.

“If it wasn’t for Kyle, there would be no Chris Goodwin Band,” Goodwin said. “He has supported, encouraged, and promoted us, free of charge I might add, as he has done for many other people and organizations in Prince George.”

To keep up with their skills the band rehearses once a week at Sound Factory’s warehouse area and when they record their music that’s also done locally with producer Connor Pritchard with Pulp City Music.

“Most people in our local music scene record with Connor who is a fantastic producer,” Goodwin said. “He does work in all genres. I think we’re his only country act.”

Goodwin said they’re really proud of their latest song.

“We had it written and recorded with Connor and he sent us the tape and something wasn’t sitting right with it for me,” Goodwin said.

“Everything sounded exactly the same as you hear now except for the guitar solo – it’s completely different now. At the time I didn’t know it was the solo that was rubbing me wrong, I just knew something wasn’t sitting right. We ended up getting booked to open up for a band called Nice Horse at

the CrossRoads Street Festival and we were sitting in the green room before the show and it just kinda hit me and I said to Pat, our guitar player, that solo was wrong. It needed to be bigger and needed to be as big or bigger than the rest of the song and I wanted it to be inspired by something Slash would do from Guns ’n’ Roses. It had to be this big standout, run into it kind of solo. Pat said he totally got what I was saying and then I called Connor to say we had to rerecord the guitar solo and Pat rewrote it pretty much overnight and it was like ‘Oh my God! That’s it – that’s the guitar solo right there!’”

When Goodwin heard the solo rerecorded he said he truly believes that’s what took the song to the next level.

“It’s probably my favourite song we’ve done and we’re already at over 10,000 streams on all of the streaming services,” Goodwin said. “It’s going really well for us and I’m quite excited it about it.”

Goodwin wants everyone to come out to join the party at Nelly’s on Saturday, Feb. 8.

“We always have a really good time at Nelly’s and it usually ends up being a party in the parking lot too,” Goodwin said. “So come early to get your spot!”

The Chris Goodwin Band will celebrate their latest hit single release at Nelly’s Pub on Saturday, Feb. 8. From left are Patrick Michaud, Chester Hewkin, Chris Goodwin and Steve Smith.

Elvis Stojko headlines Fire and Ice event in Mackenzie

The

superstar skater will be joined by up-and-comer Teysan Angeline Henry March 1 and 2

MATTHEW HILLIER Citizen Staff

Elvis Stojko and Teysan Angeline Henry will star in Fire and Ice in Mackenzie in March.

The figure skating show happens at the Mackenzie Recreation Centre on Saturday, March 1 at 6 p.m. and Sunday, March 2 at 2 p.m.

The Mackenzie Figure Skating Club is hosting the event.

Henry, a nationally recognized figure skater, is a member of the Gitxsan and Tsimshian First Nations.

She is a recipient of a 2022 Premier’s Award for Indigenous Youth Excellence in Sport, and has won gold in competition in Kelowna, two bronze and one silver medal in Williams Lake, and is also the first Canadian to be featured in Native Hoop magazine.

“One of my favourite medals is Super Series,” said Henry.

“I got gold back in 2023 for my gold artistic, and it was against around 10 skaters in my group. It’s hard to get gold in the Super Series because it’s against a lot of skaters from different regions. My second favourite achievement is also gold. I got gold for my Star 8 free skate at Super Series Victoria Day.”

Henry has an extreme passion for skating and her favourite aspect of the sport is to see her achievements shine through in her performances.

“It’s a lot of ups and downs,” said Henry.

“Like, sometimes I would lose some jumps and I would get super frustrated, but the moment I get it back, it’s a nice feeling. Figure skating in general also eases my mind because I’m sometimes full of anxiety and it’s really soothing to skate.”

Stojko is one of Canada’s most successful male figure skaters, lauded for his unique style and technically proficient performances.

He is a two-time Olympic silver medallist and a three-time world champion, and has won seven national titles.

He is known as the first person to land a quadruple-double jump combination in the 1991 World Championships. In addition, he was recognized by the governor general with the Meritorious Service Cross.

In recent years, he has shifted some of his focus to auto racing while continuing to appear in skating shows, Stojko was born in Newmarket, Ont. and is still inspired by his hometown to this day.

“It’s always nice to be able to get out to the smaller communities and connect with the kids,” said Stojko. “I started skating in a small community here in Ontario years and years ago, it’s a bigger city now but it was a small little town. It was a great time and it just brings back memories of when I was a kid growing up and having a skater, either a pro or someone coming into skating, coming out and inspiring the kids. So it’s fun to get connected to my roots.”

Stojko also spoke on how rewarding it is to see how his skating has inspired others at performances like Fire and Ice.

“It’s a way to connect to a lot of people who had seen me skate over the years,” he said.

“Some had a chance to go to some of my competitions that were held in Canada. Some of them were young kids and now they’ve got kids of their own or they are coaches. It reminds me of how skating has connected with so many fans across the country.

“You forget how many people watched skating back then and it’s a way to hear their stories and have them share some of their stories about how people like myself or Kurt Browning or other skaters have inspired them to either become a coach or help inspire their kid. That’s an inspiring piece for me.”

Tickets are $15 each and can be purchased on at mackenziefigureskatingclub.uplifterinc.com/events.

Tickets will be available for purchase for people outside of Mackenzie on Feb. 10.

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Elvis Stojko (above) and Teysan Angeline Henry (below) will be in Mackenzie on March 1 and 2 for Fire and Ice, presented by the Mackenzie Figure Skating Club.

Six-year-old boy in fight of his life battling cancer

CHRISTINE DALGLEISH Citizen Staff

Help six-year-old Nixon fight cancer.

That’s the call out on the GoFundMe page seeking donations to make Lindsay Andreza and her six-year-old son’s cancer battle a little less burdensome.

Nixon and Lindsay are in the fight of their lives as what started as an earache turned out to be a rare form of aggressive cancer called Rhabdomyosarcoma.

Nixon is at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver with Mom, Lindsay, constantly by his side during treatment. They are staying at Ronald McDonald House, which is close to the hospital.

Lindsay Cote has organized the GoFundMe page to help support the family during this crisis.

“They have begun Nixon’s chemotherapy journey,” Cote said in her poignant statement on the GoFundMe page.

“Despite the intense challenges, Nixon

Six-year-old Nixon and his mom Lindsay are seen here at BC Children’s Hospital as Nixon gets treatment for an aggressive form of cancer. Friends are putting the call out through GoFundMe for the community’s help to ease the financial burden.

and Lindsay have faced each treatment like true warriors - showing resilience, strength, and courage that leave

everyone in awe. Nixon’s treatment plan is extensive, involving multiple rounds of chemotherapy, potential surgery

and the possibility of a two-month stint in Seattle for proton radiation. The emotional, physical, and financial toll on Lindsay and Nixon will be immense, along with the financial challenges of travel, additional medical expenses, and Lindsay’s time away from work. This is why, as Lindsay’s friends, we are asking for your support and where we can all make a difference.”

Lindsay and Nixon are incredibly grateful for the generous support they’ve received so far, Cote said in the post.

“Lindsay has always been the kind of person to show up for others, and now it’s our turn to show up for her and Nixon,” Cote said on the GoFundMe page.

“Let’s rally together and give them the strength and support they need as they face this long journey ahead.”

To donate to the cause visit www. gofundme.com/f/NixonAndLindsay.

Network of new EV charging stations hits BC milestone

MATTHEW HILLIER Citizen Staff

The transition from gas to electric vehicles is often slow in areas like Prince George and its surrounding communities. However, one program aims to change that.

Charge North has created a charging network of 1 million kilometres of emissions-free travel, the equivalent of driving around Canada more than 120 times.

Charge North is a program initiated by the Community Energy Association with help from over six Northern and Interior regional districts along with more than 40 local governments and First Nations communities.

This includes funding from the Northern Development Initiative Trust, the Province of BC, the Government of Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

The program aims to install a network of EV charging stations throughout central and northern BC to reduce

emissions and improve access to electric vehicles.

So far from 2022–2024, the program has installed 60 charging stations all across the north, with the focus being on rural communities that have little to no access to charging stations.

The program has connected 2800 km of highways from Logan Lake to Fort Nelson and Haida Gwaii to the Robson Valley, allowing electric vehicles to travel where it was previously highly impractical or even impossible to do so.

Locally, the Prince George Public Library has been declared the most popular Charge North station, which has been used more than 2,600 times.

The Charge North program comes at a great time, as Ev adaptation is on the rise with the number of EV vehicles being purchased up 30 per cent in the North.

Overall, BC has seen 117,000 electric passenger vehicles purchased in 2023, amounting to 4.3 per cent of all vehicles in the province.

A crew installs an electric vehicle charger near the Prince George Public Library in October 2022. It’s the most popular Charge North station.

Feb. 4, 1974: A pile of pennies, nickels and dimes adds up to about $75 for Duchess Park Secondary School students Jim Renwick (left) and Marco Fornari. Students at the school collected the coins to donate to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal’s shelter in the city. Representing the SPCA at the count was a little dog named Pudding. CITIZEN FILE PHOTO

Mrs.

4, 1991: The

CITIZEN

Feb. 5, 2011: Glenview Elementary student Jenna Forrest, 10, left, joins Jesse Gray, 7, teacher Rena Watt and Damien French, 7, from Hart Highland Elementary, to learn about Indigenous culture during a Talking Feather Ceremony at Glenview. The event involved 42 kids from grades 2 through 6. CITIZEN FILE PHOTO BY DAVID MAH

Feb.

Spruce Kings’ Gord Lennox crashes to the ice as Quesnel’s Chris Spencer follows. The Spruce Kings, then part of the Peace Cariboo Junior Hockey League, beat the Millionaires 14-1.

FILE PHOTO BY BROCK GABLE

Feb. 4, 1957:

J.W. Thompson of 108 Kelly St., helped by her daughter Maureen, 4, was one of the many people with frozen pipes who had to melt snow to obtain water. The number of homes with frozen pipes totalled 80 and continued to mount in number, a situation blamed on a frozen water main on Moffat Street. CRAFTSMAN PHOTOGRAPHERS

New cutting-edge equipment advances surgical care

RADHA AGARWAL

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A new 4K laparoscopic tower, costing $270,000, has been installed at the Prince Rupert Regional Hospital to enhance surgical services in the region.

This technology will provide a higher quality of care by offering surgeons sharper visualization, improved depth perception and superior image clarity, according to the Northern Health Authority.

“This translates to more accurate and less invasive surgeries, ultimately benefiting patients with quicker recoveries and fewer complications,” said Northern Health.

Laparoscopy procedures are typically minimally intrusive, requiring small incisions in the abdominal or pelvic regions.

The superior-quality tower contains a high-definition camera, a light source, a monitor, and a recording system.

For patients with cancer, this gear

Several businesses and organizations sponsored the purchase of the Stryker 1688 AIM 4K laparoscopic tower for the Prince Rupert Regional Hospital. Pictured from left to right: Tyler Halliday (DP), Monika Cote (Prince Rupert Port Authority), Reid Lindsay (Rampage), Judd Repole (Rampage), Ken Veldman (Prince Rupert Port Authority), Christina Hill (DP), Ian Robinson (DP), Stefan Delloch (North Coast Health Improvement Society), and Erin Stromdahl (Northern Health).

allows for more precise tumour removal, reducing the need for extensive surgeries and promoting faster recovery.

A standout feature of this system is the Spy-Phi imaging technology, a handheld fluorescence imaging system that provides critical visibility of blood

flow and tissue perfusion, the process by which blood moves through tissue allowing the exchange of oxygen and nutrients to cells and removing waste.

“This advanced tool assists surgeons in complex procedures such as gastrointestinal, and gynecological surgeries, enabling them to identify

crucial structures like blood vessels and lymphatic pathways more accurately. By enhancing visualization, Spy-Phi reduces the risk of surgical complications, making procedures safer and more effective,” said Northern Health.

Access to this improved healthcare infrastructure locally will reduce the need for patients to travel long distances for treatment.

“This upgrade not only benefits patients but also strengthens Prince Rupert Regional Hospital’s ability to attract and retain skilled professionals who are eager to work with the latest technology,” said the health authority.

Several organizations, including the Prince Rupert Rampage Senior AA men’s hockey team, Prince Rupert Port Authority, DP World, and the North Coast Health Improvement Society, came together to sponsor the purchase of this Stryker 1688 AIM 4K laparoscopic tower.

Northern Health estimates patients will now receive quicker diagnosis and treatment, leading to better patient outcomes and shorter hospital stays.

COVID-19, flu and HPV: All about immunization in

NORTHERN HEALTH

Immunizations, a process by which a person becomes protected against a disease through vaccinations, is important for people of all ages. It helps your immune system recognize and quickly kill bacteria and viruses, which can cause serious illness or death.

Keeping your immunizations up to date helps protect yourself, your community and B.C.’s health care system. Immunizations are provided at public health units, doctor’s or nurse practitioner’s offices, and pharmacies throughout the province.

The B.C. Immunization Schedule can help you determine when you or your family needs to be immunized and how to access these vaccines:

• Infants and young children

• School age children and teens

• Adult, seniors and individuals at

high risk

• Vaccines for respiratory illnesses

Getting immunized against respiratory illnesses is the most effective way to stay safe.

Influenza

Everyone 6 months or older can get your updated influenza (flu) and COVID-19 vaccines at the same time this respiratory illness season.

The best way to prevent flu is by getting immunized each year.

Everyone six months and older can get a free flu vaccine this winter in Prince George and across BC.

COVID-19

Immunization is one of the most effective ways to protect yourself against severe illness from COVID-19.

Everyone 6 months of age and older can get the updated COVID-19 vaccine.

Human

papillomavirus (HPV)

The HPV vaccine is a cancer-preventing vaccine that can benefit you, no matter your sex, gender, sexual orientation or sexual activity status. It is given as a series of either 2 or 3 doses over a 6 month period.

In B.C., the HPV vaccine is offered to all students in grade 6 as part of B.C.’s routine immunization program. People who missed getting the HPV vaccine can receive it for free as long as they get their first dose before they turn 19 and the last dose before they turn 26.

It is also recommended and free for individuals ages 9 to 26 who are:

• HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) positive

• Two-Spirit, transgender or non-binary

• Males who have/may have sex with males, including those who may not yet be sexually active

• Males who are street-involved

BC

Register for Health Gateway to view or download your immunization records. If your immunization records are missing on Health Gateway, they can be entered into the electronic Provincial Immunization Registry.

I need help

Phone the call centre if you need help with your flu and COVID-19 vaccine appointments:

• Register with the Get Vaccinated system

• Book or reschedule your appointments

• Update or correct your registration information

Call: 1-833-838-2323

Monday to Friday: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Statutory holidays: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

Translation services are available in more than 220 languages.

Telephone for people who are deaf or hard of hearing: Dial 711

Project update: Dawson Creek hospital taking shape

NORTHERN HEALTH

The new Dawson Creek and District Hospital has risen to the skyline and we have said farewell to the two mighty tower cranes – Hank and Dan.

These mechanical marvels played a crucial role in the construction of the new hospital and have captured the hearts and imaginations of our community.

On Nov.14, Hank (tower crane No. 1) was carefully dismantled and removed from the site, followed by Dan (tower crane No. 2) on Dec. 4. Their departure marks the end of an era but also reminds us of the exciting and quick progress being made.

In addition, the installation of structural steel on Level 3 is now complete as well as majority of the roof installation, with the remainder being complete in March.

Work continues on interior framing throughout the building and work is now underway on wall rough ins for mechanical and electrical as well as the installation of windows on Level 2.

What’s next

Over the coming months, the exterior of the building will start looking different each week as work begins on the full building envelope.

Focus on the inside of the building will remain on mechanical and electrical wall rough ins, with the first zones being complete by the end of January. In February, interior drywall installation will begin followed by finishes and architectural items such as paint, millwork, wall protection and flooring. All of the windows on Level 1 and Level 2 will be installed by the end of February, which will allow for more natural light throughout the building.

Elevators are currently being installed and will be operational by the end of March.

Mechanical and electrical rooms throughout the building will also start taking shape as more equipment is delivered and installed. The remainder of the multi-trade racks will be installed on Level 0.

Readiness and transition planning

Angus Connect has been actively advancing operational readiness at DCDH in collaboration with the Project Management Office. In September 2024, Phase 1: Project Initiation and Current State Assessment was successfully completed.

This phase included capturing Corporate Opening Day Views, conducting a Lessons Learned workshop to gather insights from neighbouring capital projects, and engaging program leaders to understand the current state workflows at DCDH.

In October 2024, Angus Connect launched Phase 2: Development and Implementation, the largest phase in the three-phase approach, which will continue until Substantial Completion (November 2026).

Through extensive collaboration with regional and local stakeholders, Angus Connect completed patient journey mapping and materials mapping during their second site visit, conducted a future state assessment, and developed a comprehensive change map to address key changes across people,

and control and rehabilitation attended a detailed mock-up review of the inpatient washroom and accessories on-site of the new hospital.

This session was crucial for gathering user feedback and ensuring the design meets the highest standards of functionality and safety.

Areas of feedback included:

• Nightlight placement for enhanced nighttime visibility and safety

• Location and size of swing-up grab bars

• Placement of sink cleanout and shut-off valves

• Backrest placement and width to comply with BC Building Code

• Height and support of the flush valve

• Accessible placement of Nurse Call, Emergency, and Call Bell devices

• Paper towel dispenser location for improved access and safety

processes, and technology.

Building on the insights from the change map, the development of an orientation, training, and education plan is underway to guide upcoming engagement sessions focused on the facility’s start up activities.

A risk register was also developed to track risks across all disciplines in the replacement project and to support ongoing discussions about mitigation strategies.

Currently, Angus Connect is collaborating with user groups to develop operational readiness workplans. These plans will outline detailed steps for operationalizing each major change in the new facility.

Angus Connect is energized by the progress made and looks forward to continuing this meaningful work to ensure a smooth and successful transition at DCDH.

Other exciting news

Mock-up review: Inpatient washroom and accessories

Prior to the holidays, users from facilities maintenance, infection prevention

Northern Lights College tour

Recently, representatives from the Northern Lights College (NLC) Executive and Health Sciences teams joined us for a site tour.

We want to extend our thanks to NLC for their incredible collaboration over the past year – they have been an exceptional neighbour since construction started.

They have allowed Graham to lease a portion of their land for the site offices complex and temporary parking lot for site workers and have worked closely with us to ensure that everyone is informed about any road closures due to construction activities.

In return, we supported NLC by providing them with excavated dirt and fill for future projects on their campus. This mutually beneficial exchange has not only helped manage resources efficiently but also contributed to their development plans.

As part of the project, we will also be straightening out the rear access road into the NLC campus, which will enhance accessibility and safety for everyone using the road.

NORTHERN HEALTH PHOTO

The new Dawson Creek and District Hospital is under construction in the community.

Local Sports

Fans score free pizza with big Cougars win

TED CLARKE Citizen Staff

Koehn Ziemmer is the confirmed pizza king of the Prince George Cougars.

He made 4,025 fans at CN Centre last Saturday that much happier when, for the sixth time this season, he scored his team’s fifth goal of the game, giving everybody in the building a coupon for a free pizza courtesy of Domino’s.

“He’s Mr. Pizza Man, that’s funny, I think that’s his sixth now, it seems any time we need that fifth goal he gets it,” said Cougars captain Riley Heidt. “It’s cool we can set something like that up for the fans.”

Cougars fans were already in a celebratory mood knowing their team was well on its way to a win over the Tri-City Americans when Ziemmer cut against the grain and fired a bullet into the net to help put the wraps on a 5-2 victory and complete a two-game weekend sweep.

That was the 119th goal of Ziemmer’s WHL career and he’s now just one goal away from Chase Witala’s all-time Prince George Cougars’ record for most goals in a career.

The Cougars got two goals and an assist from Borya Valis and it was fourpoint night for Heidt, who had a goal and three assists to tie Prince George native Mark Morrison’s all-time franchise record with 235 career assists, dating back to the Cougars’ WHL origins in Victoria.

“It’s pretty cool and I didn’t know that until a little while ago,” said the 19-yearold Heidt. “I’ve been saying it all along I’ve been fortunate to play with a lot of good guys throughout my career here and it’s been exciting,”

“When the years go by all of a sudden they just start racking up and I’m just trying to get better every day.”

Dating back to his minor hockey days in Saskatoon, Heidt has always been a

Cougars winger Matteo Danis celebrates his third-period goal Saturday with the fans at CN Centre. The Cougars beat the Tri-City Americans 5-2.

setup guy first, but he can also snipe and has 108 career goals, 12 off Witala’s record.

“I’m very passionate about seeing a smile on a guys’ face (after setting up a goal), I think that’s why I play the game, for my teammates, and any time I can see that happen and we’re getting success as a team I don’t care who puts it in,” said Heidt. “That’s always been my mentality and I just stick to my strengths.”

Matteo Danis had the other goal for the Cougars, who improved to 28-15-32. The Cats are still one point behind the BC Division-leading Victoria Royals, who won 2-1 Saturday in Portland, and Prince George remains fourth overall in the Western Conference.

Max Curran and Jaxen Adam were the goalscorers for Tri-City (23-20-4-1,

seventh in the West).

On the heels of a four-game losing streak on the road, the Cougars went 4-1 on their homestand and appear to be gaining some momentum. They allowed 30 or fewer shots in each of the past five games.

“The combinations are finally starting to click for our group and it’s showing so that’s exciting,” said Heidt. “We’re starting to figure out what it takes to win every night. After Christmas it always gets tighter and we’re figuring out how to win those games.”

Down 1-0, the Cougars came out with pants-on-fire urgency for the second period and were rewarded with two quick goals to grab a lead they would not relinquish.

Valis got it going as the pointman on the power play, scoring his 24th of the

season with a hard wrister from right circle. Less than a minute later Heidt was in the ideal spot standing in front of the net when Aiden Foster’s sharp-angle shot ricocheted off both goalposts and bounced to Heidt, who slapped it in for his 23rd goal.

The Cougars kept pouring the pressure on and had 10 shots on the board in the period before the Americans managed to get one on Josh Ravensbergen and they went into the second intermission leading 2-1.

Valis struck again in the third period, taking advantage of a turnover when Americans defenceman Jackson Smith’s clearing attempt was intercepted by Koehn Zimmer. Heidt was in the centre of that action and got the first shot away.

‘COUGARS’ ON PAGE 34

Green places 57th in European Open individual race

TED CLARKE Citizen Staff

Prince George biathlete Moira Green placed 57th out of 98 women in the IBU European Open Championships Wednesday in Martell-Val Martello, Italy.

Green nailed 16 of her 20 targets and finished the 15-kilometre course 6:27.9 behind race winner Johanna Poff of Germany, who shot clean and completed the course in 47:06.4.

Green won the overall title at the Canadian world junior trials a few weeks ago in Prince George and is preparing for world championships in Sweden, Feb. 26-March 5.

Marlene Fitchner of Germany won silver (0+0+0+0, +9.5) and bronze went to Anna-Karin Heijdenberg of Sweden (1+1+0+1, +18.0).

Janice Grundahl of Regina finished 36th (0+1+0+0, +4:23.6) as the top Canadian.

Shilo Rousseau of Thessalon, Ont., was 46th (3+0+1+1, 5:15.12) and Benita Peiffer of Whistler placed 71st (1+4+0-2, 8:31.1).

Emily Dickson of Burns Lake did not enter Wednesday’s race.

In the men’s 20 km individual event,

Moira Green of the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club shoots in the standing position at the Canadian world junior trials in Prince George at Otway Nordic Centre Jan 5, 2025. Green placed 57th in the individual race at the 2025 IBU European Open Championships in Martell-Val Martello, Italy.

Isak Frey of Norway took gold in 54.10.7 (1+1+0+0), Fredrick Muehlbacher of Austria won silver (0+0+0+1, +31.7) and bronze went to Emil Nykvist of Sweden (0+0+0+1, +47.2)

Zachary Campbell of Chelsea Que., was 57th (2+1+1+0, +5:54.8), Daniel Gilfillan of Comox was 73rd (0+1+0+0, +7:56.5) and Gavin Johnston of Campbell River was 89th (1+2+0+1, 10:14.6).

The race drew 108 starters. Competition at the European championships resumed Jan. 30 with sprint events, followed by pursuits on Saturday and team relays on Sunday.

Cougars are back on the road after five games at home

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 33

Danis delivered the dagger, 8:37 into the third, after linemate Jett Lajoie started a play up the right side. Lajoie got crunched into the boards and Danis took the puck across the blueline and let go a high snapper that found the farside corner of the net.

The goal came seconds after Ravensbergen made a nifty pokecheck to break up a dangerous looking scoring chance when Gavin Garland got the puck behind enemy lines.

Special teams were a factor. The Americans took five minor penalties and even though they allowed just one goal the Cougars gained all kinds of traction with the extra skater that helped them retain their swagger.

The Americans scored on their second of only two power plays.

A marathon first period marred by penalties, one fight, and a few goal-line uncertainties that needed video replay to decide took 50 minutes to complete.

The Cougars caught a break 4:33 into the game when an apparent goal from Americans captain Jake Sloan was disallowed. Jake Gudelj centred the puck into the deep slot and it kicked up high for Sloan, who batted it down off Ravensbergen’s shoulder and Sloan got his stick on the loose puck and knocked it in. After seeing the replay the officials determined Sloan’s original contact was above the height of the crossbar.

The Americans got on the scoreboard not long after when Max Curren slipped a shot in just inside the goalpost to the short side behind Ravensbergen.

Another review was needed 11:52 into the opening period when Cougars defenceman Bauer Dumanski turned

on the jets to split the defence and lost his balance while pushing the puck forward. The goal was dislodged as the puck slid into the Tri-City net but it was ruled no goal when Danis made contact with goalie Ryan Grout.

The first period ended badly for the Cougars when their scoring leader Ben Riche and Americans defenceman Terrell Goldsmith collided in an open-ice hit and Riche landed hard on his shoulder. He stayed down for a couple of seconds and skated to the dressing room and did not return.

The Cats’ bus left early Sunday for Kennewick, Wash., where they took on the Americans for the third time in a week Tuesday night to start a threegame trip that also stops Friday in Kelowna and Saturday in Kamloops.

LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars learned Saturday D Corbin Vaughan drew

a 10-game suspension for his hit on Swift Current Broncos forward Braden Birnie in Tuesday’s game at CN Centre. Vaughan, who missed both weekend games, won’t be eligible to return from the seventh suspension of his WHL career until Tuesday, Feb. 25, when the Cougars host the Kelowna Rockets ... Linesman Caden Fanshaw suffered a cut on his left hand late in the first period breaking up the fight between Sloan and Cougars D Alexsey Chichkin late in the first period and had to leave the game for repairs. The Prince George native got stitched up during the intermission and came back with his hand wrapped in tape ... The Cougars were wearing special jerseys designed by Mariah Speers, the President’s Choice Children’s Charity CHL jersey contest winner. Those game-worn jerseys are available for auction online.

Caledonia Nordic nominated for sport tourism award

TED CLARKE Citizen Staff

When it comes time for the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club to decide whether to bring another international biathlon/cross-country skiing competition to Prince George, it’s hard for the club to ignore its own history of staging big events.

Looking back on what the club brought to the city last year, there’s 7.2 million reasons to try do it again.

The Para Biathlon World Championship and Para Nordic Skiing World Cup Finals that happened on back-toback weeks last March provided an estimated $7.2 million boost to city businesses.

The two events at Otway Nordic Centre further cemented Prince George’s reputation with the International Biathlon Union and International Ski Federation (FIS) as a permanent player on the world stage, capable of hosting virtually any Nordic sport event.

Improvements made to Otway Nordic Centre for the 2015 Canada Winter Games allowed the club to stage the 2019 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships and the success of that event provided the impetus to bid on the 2024 events.

Working on a budget of $2.47 million, the 2019 championships attracted $150,000 inaccessibility grants used to improve the Otway facility.

That event left a $4.42 economic impact.

“It was great that we hosted a similar event in 2019, so we had a great model to follow and a lot of good foundation to build from,” said Caledonia club past-president Kevin Pettersen, who made a presentation to city council at Monday’s public meeting to summarize some of the highlights of bringing the para nordic world to Prince George and talk about the club’s increasing ability to host major events.

“We had more volunteers than we had anticipated and that was a testament to our community and how everyone comes together when there’s something exciting like this. Certainly,

A fireworks display at the Prince George Conference and Civic Centre on March 5, 2024 marked the start of the 2024 Para Biathlon World Championship and Para Nordic Skiing World Cup Finals.

I think it made a huge impression on the international federations that were involved, FIS and IBU.

“I think they were so delighted to have not only the facilities and the snow, because snow was not a common thing last year and they had to cancel six of the eight events for para nordic at the world levels. When they came to Prince George and saw all the snow and the trails they were so relieved, and then when they got to experience the hospitality with all the volunteers, that was the icing on the cake. There’s no doubt in their mind that they want to be coming back to Prince George.”

FIS race director Georg Zipfel gave Pettersen the bib he wore on the course during the races and promised he will be back. Pettersen and the Caledonia club have been asked to bid to host the same para nordic events again as early as 2028.

Budgeted for $3.3 million, the two events last year included eight days of competition that involved more than

100 athletes and their support teams of 100 coaches and wax technicians. The club attracted 350 volunteers for the two weeks.

The city provided $250,000 from the major events hosting budget for the two para events.

Canada Games Plaza and the Prince George Convention and Civic Centre hosted the opening/closing ceremonies, medal ceremonies and banquet.

Grant money from Northern Development Initiative Trust, BC Gaming and private donations allowed the club to build a $1.1 million snowmaking system that covers seven kilometres utilizing 31 hydrants and nine snow guns. There was sufficient residual funding to pave a 3.5 kilometre trail to be used for roller ski training, national and international summer race events and recreational club activities.

Based on the success of hosting the two para Nordic events in 2024, Pettersen learned on Thursday, Jan. 30 that the Caledonia club is a finalist for Canada Sport Tourism PRESTIGE

BERGMEDIA

A visually impaired skier and his guide make their way through the stadium area at Otway Nordic Centre in Prince George during the Para Biathlon World Cup in March 2024.

Awards, nominated for International event of the year (budgeted for $2 million-10 million) to be presented in Calgary in March 20.

Caledonia is among the largest Nordic ski clubs in North America, with 2,154 members.

BERGMEDIA

Italian experience a game-changer for PG biathletes

TED CLARKE Citizen Staff

Aliah Turner’s Italian experience competing for Canada at the FISU World University Games was like no other the Prince George biathlete has ever encountered.

Racing on a brand-new course built in the shadow of the ski jumps used in the 2006 Olympics at Pragelato, Italy, Turner’s first taste of international competition only left her hungry for more.

Jet-lagged and skiing on trails she had only a day or two to discover, the firstyear University of Calgary kinesiology student started off with a bang. In the short individual race, a 12.5-kilometre event, she shot 16-for-20 and ended up finishing 22nd in a field of 47 as the top North American..

Turner, 18, raced in four of the five events over 13 days and was satisfied with all her races.

“It was two of the most exciting, action-packed rewarding weeks I’ve ever done,” said Turner. “I was happy with how I performed. I’m pretty sure myself and my teammate, Ella Niedre, who’s 11 days older than me, were the two youngest out there in the field.”

The course built on the edge of the Piedmont mountains near Val Troncea Nature Park was quite flat and offered few resting sections and it took an all-out effort to ski the course before entering the shooting range.

“There was nothing super technical like climbs and descents, you’re just working for the whole 2 ½ kilometres and that was something new to me and it kind of threw me for a loop,” said Turner. “It was fun to race on a different type of course on a different type of snow. All of the races were a lot of fun, with a lot of support from the Canadian parents out there cheering us on.

“It’s an experience not a lot of people get to do because it’s every two years and you have to be a student-athlete at a high level for both, something that’s kind of unique and I was really excited to be part of FISU family now.”

The World University Games were the perfect lead-in to the junior world

championships for Liam Simons.

Simons, a 20-year-old first-year engineering student at UBC-Okanagan in Kelowna, will represent Canada again at the world finals set for Oestersund, Sweden, Feb. 26-March 5.

Simons competed at the world trials Prince George in early January and finished third overall.

Competition wise, the highlight of World University Games for Simons was his 28th-place result in the sprint, Jan. 18. He finished as the top North American after shooting eight-for-10.

“I’m pretty happy with how the races went,” said Simons. “It all came together in the sprint, I pulled things together from what I learned in the first two races. It felt good.”

“It was a great experience and a wild two weeks, lots of fun. It was cool to get the first international race done. It was a

quick turnaround, just learning the course and how people skied.” Simons raced in all five biathlon events, including the single-mixed relay, teaming up with Anna Perry of Calgary to finish 10th out of 17 teams.

Walking into the big sold-out arena in Torino with a crowd of more than 12,000 watching behind the Canadian flag during the opening ceremonies was an unforgettable part of the trip for Simons.

“The opening was so cool, just the walk-in and seeing so many people, it was something else,” said Simons.

Ther biathlon/cross-country skiing

venue was about a 90-minute drive away from Torino, where a majority of the events, including the opening and closing ceremonies were held. The biathletes stayed in a hotel near the top of a mountain and one of the highlights was racing past a downhill ski school where a group of enthusiastic Italian kids gathered up against the fence to cheer on the biathletes as they skied past.

Turner watched some of the cross-country events and Simons got to see short track speed skating and they both took part in the opening/closing ceremonies.

“Having a multisport event made it even more of a well-rounded experience,” said Turner, “It was so fun. I met some of the best people I’ve met in the sport in Canada and other countries so I got to race with them and spend time outside of competition with them and it was super-fun. It’s got me even more jazzed for the rest of the season.

“The closing ceremonies were more of a celebratory event with really cool performers on stage and a DJ and we got to spend the night on the town in Torino and got to see the city from more of a touristy perspective.”

The biennial World University Games are for university or college athletes under the age of 25 and Turner and Simons anticipate they’ll eventually return to the FISU event.

Both will meet up again in Valcartier, Que., for the Canadian biathlon championships in March. Simons will fly directly from Sweden to Quebec for the national event, March 8-13.

Turner, who lives and trains in Canmore, will be back on her home trails at Otway Nordic Centre for the Teck BC Cup cross-country races Feb. 14-16.

Simons is looking forward to heading to Sweden for the junior word championships and knows he will have to raise his game competing in the highest-calibre event of his career.

“FISU was a good warm-up for that and this is the real deal, it’ll definitely be another step up,” he said. “It’s a World Cup venue, which will be so cool to be at and experience.”

HANDOUT PHOTO

Liam Simons of Prince George attracts a crowd of Italian kids after he raced in the biathlon men’s pursuit on Jan. 20 in Turin, Italy.

Turner

Bichon blasts to strong finish at World Cup in China

TED CLARKE Citizen Staff

Mackenzie native Evan Bichon keeps getting faster on the World Cup slopes and last weekend in China he offered further proof he’s becoming one of the world’s elite in snowboard cross racing.

The 26-year-old D.P. Todd Secondary School graduate finished a season-high 11th out of 54 men who entered Sunday’s race in Beidahu.

For Bichon, it seems only a matter of time before he ends up standing on the medal podium.

“I feel good about placing 11th at the World Cup in Beidahu, China,” said Bichon, in an email to the Citizen.

“My riding has always steadily progressed upwards, and consistently placing in the top 10 is within my grasp. As for reaching the podium this season, I am confident I can make it happen.

“It feels good to be one of the top Canadians on the World Cup tour currently, but I am aiming to be one of the top athletes on the World Cup circuit and my sights will remain set on that throughout the season.”

Bichon qualified 19th for the race. On Saturday he ended up 26th after qualifying 20th quickest.

Now ranked 21st in the World Cup points standings, Bichon posted a career-best March 23, 2024 on Canadian snow when he finished fourth at a World Cup race in Mt. St. Anne, Que.

Now in his sixth season on Canada’s national team and ninth season racing World Cup events, Bichon still has some catching up to do to match the consistency of Canadian teammate Eliot Grondin.

The 23-year-old from Saint-Marie, Que, won both races in Beidahu and was fourth in the only other World Cup race this season Dec. 14 in Cervinia, Italy. Grondin captured the silver medal in the solo men’s race at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and teamed up with Meryeta O’Dine of Prince George to win Olympic bronze in the inaugural mixed team event in 2022.

The 2026 Olympics are only one

2, 2024.

year away in Turin, Italy and Bichon is showing signs he will be part of the Canadian squad that gets to compete in the five-ring circus.

‘There are still lots of races ahead, but as long as I continue competing with the focus and intensity I currently am, earning a spot for the 2026 Winter Olym pics will very much be within reach,” Bichon said.

Twenty-three-year-old Colby Graham of Prince George posted his best-ever World Cup finish on Sunday, placing 16th after qualifying 31st. His previous best (17th) was in Mt. St. Anne in March 2023.

“I am very proud of Colby for earn ing a personal best result at this last event,” said Bichon. “I know how hard he works, and it’s great to see that work pay off.”

They certainly aren’t doing it for the money. They have to pay for their own flights to World Cup destinations and training camps and that eats away travel budgets in a hurry.

“While it is very difficult to sustain being in sports financially as a Canadian athlete, I have always remained 100 per cent committed in the pursuit of reach ing the top of my sport of snowboard cross,” said Bichon.

“I work full-time five days a week in the off-season as well as train in the gym before and after work, this adds up to about 65 hours or more per week

without I would not be able to complete a full season in my sport.”

His sponsors pay some of his bills but he’s always looking for more donors willing to share the load and has a webpage set up to accept donations.

At 26, he’s not ready to retire just yet.

“I’ve never felt like hanging up the board, but the reality is if I don’t achieve high enough results each season, then that will be the end for me in sport,” Bichon said.

“That said, I have competed for almost a decade with that pressure on my shoulders and continue to improve each season. I am truly thankful for all those who have and continue to support me on my journey in sport.

between working and training for my sport.

“I plan on making this season my best one yet.”

O’Dine finished 19th in qualifying and

Evan Bichon of Prince George, left, leads his heat at a World Cup race in Gudauri, Georgia, April

Both Timberwolves teams swept in weekend series

The Cascades proved too hot to handle for the UNBC men’s and women’s squads; Action resumes Friday in Langley against Trinity Western

TED CLARKE Citizen Staff

The crowd was into it and that made for a noisy gym with the stands at the Northern Sport Centre packed with Prince George elementary school students Friday afternoon.

They came to see the UNBC Timberwolves try to shake off a Canada West men’s basketball losing streak against the visiting Fraser Valley Cascades. But on this day there was no victory celebration for the guys in green and gold, who lost 90-67.

The visitors from Abbotsford broke open a close game in the second quarter while out-rebounding the TWolves 15-5 and took a 43-29 lead into the locker room at the half.

In the third quarter, Cascades forward Dario Lopez turned into a one-man wrecking crew, racking up 17 points when he shot eight-for-10 from the field and Fraser Valley (8-9, fifth in Pacific Division) never looked back.

It was the seventh consecutive loss for UNBC (1-14).

Lopez totalled a game-high 25 points and had 12 rebounds. Arpan Singh (14 points), Ismail Hernandez (13) and Clay Kurtz (13) also reached double figures.

Takeshi Croke had five steals and five assists.

Duchess Park graduate Evgeny Baukin collected 16 points and seven rebounds to lead the UNBC cause, while Chris Ainsley finished with 13 points and Josh Gillespie had 10.

In the women’s game that followed Friday night, the Fraser Valley Cascades (12-5) improved their stake on second place in the Pacific Division with a 77-56 win over the host UNBC Timberwolves (4-11).

Maddy Gobeil scored a game-high 23 points for Fraser Valley, backed by a 12-point, 13-rebound game from Julia Tuchscherer.

The Cascades went into the intermission leading 44-30.

Amrit Manak and Sarah Kulisin each contributed 12 points for the TWolves while Sveta Boykova led UNBC with 13

rebounds and has six assists and six points.

The same teams met again at Brownridge Court Saturday at 7 p.m.

Evgeny Baukin did what he could to try to stop the bleeding for the UNBC Timberwolves Saturday night at Brownridge Court but he was only putting off the inevitable for his win-starved team.

Despite netting a game-high 23 points in three quarters of action at the Northern Sport Centre the third-year forward couldn’t prevent the Fraser Valley Cascades men’s basketball team from completing the sweep of UNBC in their two-game U SPORTS Canada West series.

The visitors from Abbotsford waltzed to a 94-65 win to even their record at 9-9.

Dilveer Randhawa, with 20 points, and Ismael Hernandez, with 17 points, led the Cascades’ scoreboard assault. Dario Lopez hauled in 13 rebounds and Matthias Klim finished with 11.

Chris Ainsley had seven points and first-year forward Miller Davies collected six for the TWolves, who dropped to 1-15 on the season.

UNBC coach Todd Jordan decided to give Baukin a breather and sat him out for the fourth quarter to give some of the TWolves’ freshmen some playing time.

The UNBC women also lost 77-51 on home court Saturday to a veteran-stacked Fraser Valley squad.

The Cascades were led by Bernie Leda’s 22 points and a 20-point effort from Maddy Gobeil.

Julia Tuchscherer contributed eight rebounds for the visitors, who improved their second-place Pacific Division record to 13-5.

Sophomore guard Viktoria Filatova picked up 17 points to lead all UNBC shooters, while Amrit Manak collected 11 points.

Sveta Boykova reached a game-high nine rebounds for the TWolves, who dropped to 4-12.

Now down to their last four games this season, both UNBC teams will be in Langley to take on the Trinity Western University Spartans in weekend doubleheaders Friday and Saturday.

HARSH BANGA/UNBC PHOTOS

ABOVE: UNBC Timberwolves forward Evgeny Baukin drives to the net during Saturday’s Canada West men’s basketball clash with the Fraser Valley Cascades at the NSC.

BELOW: The UNBC Timberwolves take on the Fraser Valley Cascades Saturday at the NSC, where the Cascades scored a 77-51 win over their Canada West hosts.

Spruce Kings run into major penalty trouble in 6-1 loss

TED CLARKE Citizen Staff

Having lost two of three games to the Prince George Spruce Kings this season, the Victoria Grizzlies weren’t about to take the Spruce Kings, who currently sit outside of the Coastal Conference playoff picture, lightly.

And they didn’t.

The Grizzlies’ offence exploded for five goals in the second period — two on a five-minute power play — to cruise to a 6-1 B.C. Hockey League victory on Saturday night at The Q Centre.

With the win, the surging Grizzlies (21-9-6-0) jumped over the idle Surrey Eagles into second place in the conference, six points back of the conference-leading Chilliwack Chiefs, but Victoria, which is 6-0-2 in its last eight games, has a game in hand on the Chiefs.

After Tom Molson opened the scoring for the Grizzlies midway through the first period, the Grizzlies’ offence went to work starting early in the second.

Daniel D’Alassandro beat Spruce Kings netminder Ryder Green just two minutes into the middle period. Then it was Reegan Hiscock and Landon Mackie scoring just 38 seconds apart midway

New goalie from QMJHL

The Prince George Spruce Kings announced Sunday that the team has signed goaltender Charles-Edward Gravel for the remainder of the 2024-2025 season. Gravel is a 6’1, 194 pound right-handed catching netminder from Lévis, Que. who has played 211 regular season and playoff games in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League over the past five seasons. Overall, he has won 99 games, including 20 playoff games with a 3.06 GAA and a .901 Save %. In 28 games this year with the Saint John Sea Dogs, Gravel posted a 14-14 record with a 2.82 GAA and .914 save percentage. Last season, Gravel went 12-4-1 in the QMJHL playoffs for the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.

through the frame.

Brock Cummings broke Oliver Auyeung-Ashton’s shutout bid, getting the

Spruce Kings (13-20-3-1) on the board with seven minutes remaining in the second to cut the Grizzlies’ lead to 4-1.

Late in the middle period, Prince George’s Isaac Holt and Victoria’s Julian Cull got into a mix-up and Holt was given a five-minute major penalty for boarding, sending the Grizzlies’ power-play, fifth best in the BCHL, to work.

Sam Ward struck first for the Grizzlies on the man-advantage, and then Ward set up Finn Kallay for another power-play goal with just one second left in the period.

The Grizzlies finished with 27 shots on goal in the middle period.

Hiscock, who is headed to the NCAA at Ivy League Cornell next fall, finished with a goal and two assists for the Grizzlies, while Seamus Latta, who is NCAA committed to Princeton University, chipped in three assists.

Auyeung-Ashton made 26 saves to improve to 11-2-2 on the season. Green finished with 36 saves for the Spruce Kings.

The Spruce Kings started their roadtrip with a 6-1 loss in Nanaimo on Wednesday, then beat the Alberni Valley Bulldogs 5-2 on Friday, Now eight points out of a playoff spot in the Coastal Conference, Prince George will host the Coquitlam Express Friday and Saturday at Kopar Memorial Arena.

DARREN STONE/VICTORIA TIMES COLONIST PHOTO

Victoria Grizzlies’ Malcolm Green picks up the puck in traffic against the Prince George Spruce Kings in BCHL action Saturday night in Victoria.

MICHAEL HAWKINS PHOTO

Pickering Farm’s heavy horses rock Colorado arena

Blondie, Tonto, Stoney, Shine, Doc and Dennis competed at the 2025 National Western Stock Show

TED CLARKE Citizen Staff

For Zane and Diane Pickering, the four-day haul on winter roads from Prince George to Denver was well worth the time and effort.

They brought with them on their trip to Colorado their star equine athletes – Blondie, Tonto, Stoney, Shine, Doc and Dennis – and they all left a heavy impression at the 2025 National Western Stock Show.

In teams of two they dug in their hooves and did Prince George proud at the three-day competition, winning two of the three heavy horse pull events and finishing third in the other.

Heavy horse pulling is the ultimate test in real horsepower. The sport dates back to pioneer days when farmers would enter their strongest draft horses, usually in teams of two, to find out which horses could pull the heaviest stone boat (a steel sled weighed down with cement blocks) over a 14-foot distance.

Blondie and Tonto, whose combined weight of 4,500 pounds made them the lightest of the heavyweight class, were harnessed together against seven other teams, some of which weighed as much as 5,500 lbs, and despite their inexperience they defeated them all, pulling 15,700 lbs to win the championship.

Stoney, the prized stallion of Zane and Diane Pickering Farms, teamed up with Shine in the middleweight class and pulled 13,800 lbs, more than any of the other seven teams representing several northern U.S. states, the American hotbed of heavy horse pulling.

Doc and Dennis competed on the final day and pulled 11,800 lbs to finish third in the lightweight class. They were the lightest of the light that day in the Denver arena, weighing a combined 3,300 lbs.

“That was way beyond expectations,” said Zane Pickering. “The heavyweight team were green, that was their first pull. We just exercise them, they’d never been in a competition and they were up against seven seasoned teams. Every team was heavier than us, some of them were up to 5,500-plus pounds and that’s like having an extra horse.

“We probably could have pulled another load, had we had to, and we were pleased to see that.”

Draft horses were the working animals of Canadian farms in the early decades of the 1900s. The heavy horse breeds – Clydesdales, Shires, Belgians and Percherons – were essential to grain and dairy farmers for their ability

to move heavy loads and plough fields. In the years before tractors and other motorized farm machines became mainstream, most farms needed a stable of at least 10 heavy horses to work the fields.

The heavy horse pull started out as a way for farmers to settle bets as to who had the strongest team and it grew to become a staple competition at fairs like the B.C. Northern Exhibition in Prince George, Falkland Stampede, Royal Manitoba Winter Fair and Calgary Stampede.

Pickering has been entering heavy horse pulls since 2012 and utilizes Belgians to do the hauling in competitions. He also enters Percherons as hitch

horses to pull wagons in stock shows.

“They live a great life, they get the best of food and nicely-kept barns and such,” said Pickering, who owns and operates Falcon Contracting in Prince George.

“Those horses, I’ve heard people say you’re pulling them too hard and it’s bad for the horse but they’re athletes and they want to do that. When it’s time to put their collar on to hook them in the morning they put their head down to receive their collar and they want to do that. They’re not herd horses, they’re there for a purpose.”

Pickering will be back at the Calgary Stampede in July and also plans to enter shows in Kentucky and Indiana.

HANDOUT PHOTO

Zane and Diane Pickering Farms of Prince George had a memorable week at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colo. on Jan 24-26, 2025, winning two heavy horse pull championships. Standing in front of heavyweight champs Blondie, left, and Tonto are, from left, Zane Pickering, teamster/driver Larry Burton, Diane Pickering, and Cody Burton.

Coach recognized for building up rugby in the Cariboo

ANDIE MOLLINS

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

WILLIAMS LAKE - Born in Seattle but raised just outside of Williams Lake, Todd Pritchard has made his mark in B.C.’s Cariboo as a passionate promoter of the region’s rugby community.

A leader, team player, community supporter and connector, Pritchard describes his experience in rugby as quite different from the more athletic, professional approach to the sport often seen today.

“We were just a bunch of guys going out and playing and having fun,” Pritchard said.

Pritchard has played and coached rugby for about 50 years and has been instrumental in promoting the sport throughout the Cariboo.

He played rugby as a schoolboy at Williams Lake Secondary School (WLSS) and Brentwood College, while also dabbling in soccer, hockey and European handball.

He played rugby at UBC while working towards a degree in business administration, and joined the Williams Lake Rustlers Rugby Club in 1979, the year it was founded. His first rugby coach from WLSS, Paul Carnes, was among the men Pritchard played with in the early days of the club.

Carnes, who refers to Pritchard as a “very dear friend,” said the latter was instrumental in establishing the Rustlers and has been a longtime treasurer for the club.

Carnes said Pritchard helped to “build up the game of rugby,” having promoted it across the Cariboo. He has been a member of the BC Rugby Union’s board of directors where he had the opportunity to promote B.C.’s northern rugby community, helping to attract about 27 teams to visit Williams Lake annually during the Stampede Rugby Tournament.

Pritchard has been helping with the Stampede tournament since it first began in 1980, and though the Rustlers have only won the tournament twice, it remains one of his most treasured

memories as a rugby player.

“It was awesome,” Pritchard said of the team's first tournament win in 1983.

As well as being a player, Pritchard has done his fair bit of coaching in his time.

When the Rustlers were short on a coach, Pritchard stepped into the role for just short of 15 years. He also coached rugby at Columneetza and WLSS as well as a young team at Cataline Elementary, starting his youngest son in the sport as early as the second grade.

“You have to step forward to coach your own kids,” he said, remembering how he did this for soccer as well when there weren’t enough coaches around.

Pritchard continued to coach rugby in local schools up until three years ago and was out playing rugby himself in early January at the Rustlers’ annual Snow game.

Pritchard has been inducted in the BC Grassroots Rugby Hall of Fame which, while not officially recognized by the BC Rugby Union (BCRU), is a testament to his commitment to the sport.

Pritchard and his team helped promote the sport in and around Williams Lake, sometimes travelling almost 12 hours to compete against other teams in their league.

It’s a big commitment, he said, but

it’s worth it. The Central Interior Rugby Union was formed in 1981 and included teams from Quesnel, Prince George, Fort St. John and Williams Lake. Today, teams from Prince Rupert and Terrace also compete in this league, though the Quesnel team has folded.

He’s been on BCRU’s board of directors and currently sits on the BC Rugby Hall of Fame Committee where he helps to determine who will be inducted. Pritchard said it’s an honour to work with the committee and be part of the discussion.

“People have dedicated their life to either playing or coaching or growing rugby and these are people that have been huge in the rugby community,” he said about inductees to the BC Rugby Hall of Fame.

Some of the inductees are people he’s crossed paths with as opposing coaches or players.

Despite more than 50 years of playing rugby, there’s a lot more to Pritchard than the sport.

“Family is everything...that’s really all there is,” he said. Nevertheless, the two have in a sense melded together. All three of Pritchard’s children are rugby lovers themselves, and one of his grandsons is showing promise too, working hard to tackle rugby players at the Snow game by holding onto their legs.

All three of Pritchard's children grew up playing rugby in Williams Lake, and have represented the central and northern interior selects at the Provincial Regional Championships. Pritchard’s oldest, Brendon, has played rugby for UVIC and the Oak Bay Castaways and is the current captain of the Rustlers. Pritchard's youngest, Jordan, also played with the Castaways and his daughter Sydney has played for B.C. in the Canadian National Championships and now plays for Nanaimo.

Pritchard told the Tribune that rugby players love to sing, and he’s no exception.

For at least 40 years now his family and friends come together for an annual carolling party, bringing the songs of Christmas around their neighbourhood as the holiday approaches.

“I wasn't blessed with a great voice,” Pritchard admits, but that doesn’t stop him one bit. “I love to sing,” he said with a big smile.

Pritchard mentioned a lot of names during his interview with the Tribune, and said it would be hard to point to one person who has had the most influence on him. Instead, he chose to thank everyone he's played for over the years. "These individuals have given me so much joy over this time, and I think of them all as my rugby family."

Rugby players Todd Pritchard, Mike Levitt, Nino Calabrese and Al Fortune in 1986. Pritchard has played and coached rugby for about 50 years and has been instrumental in promoting the sport throughout the Cariboo.

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Life Events

Teresa Carmela Manfredi Febuary 9, 2015

Looking back ten years. Looking back with memories. Upon the path you trod, we bless the hours we had with you, and leave the rest with God. Love, Ines, Frank & Anthony

In Loving Memory

Richard Allan Murchie

Passed away - Jan 30, 2022

age 54 years

Eileen “Sis” Pederson

November 11, 1935 – January 25, 2025

Eileen “Sis” Pederson passed away peacefully, on January 25, 2025, at home with her family at her bedside.

Eileen was predeceased by her soulmate and loving husband, Ernie as well as grandchildren Lindsay and Ryan.

Sis will forever be remembered and dearly missed by her children, Joanne (Roman), Wes (Denise) and Sandi (Lon) and grandchildren Shaun (Lianne), Cory (Dinah), Kelsey (Trevor), Kevin (Lara) and Blair. Great grandchildren Thomas, Claire, Parker, and Haylen will also deeply miss their beloved Gigi.

The family would like to extend their extreme gratitude to Dr’s Neary, Preston and Khan, the Palliative Care Nurses, and Home Support Teams. Of special note - “Queen” Diane you were our rock!

A Memorial Service will be held at 1:00 pm, Saturday, February 8, 2025, with refreshments to follow. Please join us at the Trinity United Church at 3555 5th Avenue, Prince George, B.C. (corner of Union and 5th Ave.)

The Service will be livestreamed from Trinity’s website @ https://www.trinitypg.ca

Obituaries In Memoriam

In loving memory

Joe Mortenson

Feb 8, 2021

Death takes the body

God takes the soul

Our mind holds the memories

Our heart keeps the love

Our faith tells us we will meet again.

Lorence Wesley Cole

December 10, 1962 - January 20, 2025

Missing & loving you always

Always in our hearts and never forgotten. Love, your family and friends

Wife Cecile, sons Marc, Marvin (Janet), daughter Laurie Jo (Marcel) and families

Lincoln James WHITEHEAD

May 29, 1971 - February 6, 1993

Remembering Lincoln

We can’t feel saddened over the loss of those we love without first remembering the joy of loving them. The real sadness would have been never having had them in our lives at all.

Remembering is a journey the heart takes, back into a time that was, and our thoughts are the only tickets needed to ride.

We who have truly loved are blessed.

We are blessed because he’s always remembered and forever loved...

Mom & Dad

Charlene Dettling & Raye Sherback and sister, Shandee Whitehead

Lorence Wesley Cole, a man of unparalleled integrity, warmth, and quiet strength, passed away on Monday, January 20, 2025.

He was a devoted husband and father and will be lovingly remembered by his wife of 33 years, Tracy, and their children, Greg, Jillian, and Erin (Mason).

It is announce Maureen.

industry as a server for many George.

We would like to thank team for their care and concern, University Hospital of Northern care of her.

A celebration of Lorence’s life will take place on Sunday, February 9 at 1:00 PM at the Blackburn Community Centre, 2451 South Blackburn Road. Please visit https://www.dignitymemorial.com/ lorence cole for more information.

Predeceased by father & She leaves behind 2 brothers Ken (Maryann), uncles, aunts, nephews.

There will be no service by

Rest in

GABRIELSON,

(nee Mahon)

April 30, 1932 - January

Lynda Gail Perry, born December 5, 1946, passed away peacefully on January 25, 2025.

Celebrate the lives of loved ones with your stories, photographs and tributes

Formerly of Mackenzie, BC, Lynda was pre-deceased by her husband Murray Perry. She is survived by her daughters Sherilynn (Kevin) and Deborah and her three grandchildren: Scott, Douglas and Devin.

As per her request there will not be a service. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to a’ charity of your choice.

“Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us every day…unseen, unheard, but always near: still loved, still missed and very dear.”

Love, your family.

Eileen was born in Vermillion with her family to Prince seven. Her quick wit, feisty compassionate heart will She was predeceased by (1983), husband Bud Gabrielson Gordy Barber (2011), and friends and family. She daughter Diane, numerous well as friends who became said to enjoy every day, help other and keep looking forward. beliefs and wishes there will at this time. Think of hummingbirds return in the

Lynda Gail Perry December 5, 1946 - January 25, 2025

Maureen

remembered

Classifieds

Net Wrapped

Stored In Shed

$165.00 Each

250-614-6667

250-568-2338

Firewood

BIRCH Firewood in 20 foot lengths. Delivered by dumptruck load. $1100. or bucked to length $1300 per load delivered 250- 614-6667

BigSteelBox Corporation

located at 5495 Hartway Dr, Prince George BC. claims a PPSA Lien against Janelle Walsh of Prince George, BC, for arrears of container rent amounting to $4,585.28, plus any additional costs of storage that accrue. If not paid in full, the contents of the storage container filled with what we believe to be furniture, boxes, mattress, and other miscellaneous items will be sold via online auction, on Ibid4Storage.com, on February 8, 2025

250-614-6667

250-568-2338

*On Feb. 17, 1998, the United States defeated Canada by 3-1 to take home the gold medal in the first women’s hockey tournament held at the Winter Olympics, in Nagano, Japan.

* On Feb. 18, 2003, Kim Daehan

• On Nov. 11, 1831, Nat Turner, an American slave and educated minister who believed that he’d been chosen by God to lead his people into freedom, was hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia, for leading a revolt with 75 followers through Southampton County, killing about 60 white people.

ARIES (March 21 to April 19) A longforgotten promise is recalled. It’s not too late to follow up on it. You might find a pleasant surprise waiting. Meanwhile, see a doctor about a pesky health problem.

TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) The best way to get over a personal disappointment is to get out, meet old friends, and make new ones! One of those new friends could very well become a special person in your life.

ignited a gasoline-filled container inside a subway train in Daegu, South Korea. The resulting blaze engulfed the six-car train and spread to another that pulled into the station minutes later, killing 198 people and injuring nearly 150 more. Daehan later confessed to police that he’d wanted to commit suicide and chose a crowded place to do so because he didn’t wish to die alone.

* On Feb. 19, 1777, the Continental

• On Nov. 12, 1969, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed the extent of the U.S. Army’s charges against 1st Lt. William L. Calley at My Lai, Vietnam, in a cable picked up by more than 30 newspapers, saying that “The Army says he [Calley] deliberately murdered at least 109 Vietnamese civilians during a searchand-destroy mission in March 1968, in a Viet Cong stronghold known as ‘Pinkville.’”

GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) A chance to invest comes with some strings attached that could cause economic problems later on. Be careful. Cupid favors romantic possibilities with a loving Libra or a passionate Pisces.

Congress voted to promote Thomas Mifflin; Arthur St. Clair; William Alexander, Lord Stirling; Adam Stephen; and Benjamin Lincoln to the rank of major general, leaving Brigadier General Benedict Arnold feeling slighted that five junior officers received advancement ahead of him and, in response, threatening to resign from the Patriot army.

* On Feb. 20, 1939, New York City’s Madison Square Garden hosted a

CANCER (June 21 to July 22) A simple problem threatens to turn into a legal showdown unless it’s cleared up soon. Wishing it away won’t help. In addition, a telephone call could lead to a change in travel plans.

LEO (July 23 to August 22) A close friend who suddenly becomes remote is in need of your warm reassurance. Give it generously. Meanwhile, a misunderstanding on the job creates the potential for future problems. Settle it quickly.

• On Nov. 13, 1979, Philadelphia 76ers center Darryl Dawkins leaped over Kansas City Kings forward Bill Robinzine for a memorable slam dunk that shattered the fiberglass backboard. His equally memorable comment on the move, which was not his last and the sound of which spectators likened to a bomb going off: “It wasn’t really a safe thing to do, but it was a Darryl Dawkins thing to do.”

VIRGO (August 23 to September 22)

Career advancement involves the need for added training. The investment of your time and effort will pay off. In other news, some stormy personal situations begin to calm down.

• On Nov. 14, 1882, outlaw Frank “Buckskin” Leslie shot and killed Billy “The Kid” Claiborne, who had publicly challenged him, in Tombstone, Arizona.

• On Nov. 15, 1984, Baby Fae, a month old infant who received the world’s first baboon heart transplant, died at California’s Loma Linda University 20 days after the operation. Three other people had received animal heart transplants, but none survived longer than a few days.

• On Nov. 16, 2001, British author J.K. Rowling’s most famous and beloved creation, the bespectacled boy wizard Harry Potter (played by Daniel Radcliffe in his first major role), made his silver-screen debut in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” which went on to become one of the highestgrossing movies in history.

rally celebrating the rise of Nazism in Germany. Inside, more than 20,000 attendees raised Nazi salutes toward a 30-foot-tall portrait of George Washington flanked by swastikas, while police and some 100,000 protesters gathered outside..

* On Feb. 22, 2006, a gang of at least six men, some armed, made off with 53 million pounds from the Securitas bank depot in Kent, Great Britain -- the largest such theft in British history.

LIBRA (September 23 to October 22)

Scale back on your grandiose schemes for a while. Neither the time nor the circumstances are right to make the huge financial investment needed to see the matter through. A Gemini has romance on the mind.

SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21)

You could soon face a fascinating dilemma: Do you continue seeing a very special person who is currently in your life or renew a relationship with another person who will suddenly return from your past?

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) Financial problems need your attention. It’s a good idea to cut back on unnecessary expenses until these money matters are under control. Then go out and have a great time!

CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) What you may now see as a good reason to end a relationship could turn out to be based more on supposition than substance. Don’t make any rash decisions.

AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18)

Change is the watchword for this week. Some Aquarians will be moving to new places while others will be taking new career paths. Steer clear of a family dispute.

PISCES (February 19 to March 20) Be prepared for a romantic disappointment to become a fading memory with the arrival of a new love -- possibly a Gemini. Meanwhile, talk to someone you trust about developing your idea into a marketable product.

Homes & Living

Dealing with those frozen pipes

Winter can be a beautiful season, but it also brings challenges, especially when temperatures drop significantly. One common issue homeowners face is frozen pipes. When water inside pipes freezes, it expands, which can cause pipes to burst and lead to costly repairs. Here are some suggested steps to help you deal with frozen pipes and prevent them from freezing in the first place. Always consult a professional plumber. Use pipe insulation or heat tape to wrap pipes, especially those in unheated areas like basements, attics, and garages.

Seal Cracks and Gaps: Ensure that any cracks or gaps in walls, floors, and ceilings near pipes are sealed to prevent cold air from reaching them.

your dream door starts here

Keep a Steady Temperature:

Maintain a consistent temperature in your home, even when you’re away. Set your thermostat to at least 55°F (13°C).

Identify Frozen Pipes by checking for Frost. Look for frost on the outside of pipes. If you hear a strange sound when you turn on the faucet, it could be a sign of a frozen pipe. If water flow is reduced or stopped completely, it’s likely that the pipe is frozen. To help thaw frozen pipes, open faucets connected to the frozen pipe. This will help relieve pressure and allow water to flow once the ice melts. Apply heat by using a hairdryer, heating pad, or portable space heater to gently warm the frozen section of the pipe. Never use an open flame!

Start from the faucet and begin thawing near the faucet and work your way towards the frozen area. This helps ensure that melting ice can escape through the open faucet. If a pipe bursts, immediately turn off the main water supply to prevent further flooding. Contact a plumber to repair the burst pipe and assess any damage.

Remove any water and dry the area to prevent mold growth. There are some long-term solutions to consider. Such as relocating exposed pipes to more insulated areas of your home. Using heating cables on pipes that are prone to freezing. Improve the insulation in your home to keep it warmer and reduce the risk of frozen pipes.

By taking these suggested steps, you can protect your home from the damage and inconvenience caused by frozen pipes. Stay warm and safe this winter!