Needle return rate better than 90 per cent, health officer says
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Contrary to the impression left with city council, the vast majority of needles Northern Health’s harm reduction clinic gives out are returned, according to public health officer Dr. Andrew Gray.
As part of a presentation Sept. 17 on the deployment of two-person bylaw compliance teams to the downtown, city council was told they picked up enough needles to fill three 19-litre (five-gallon) pails over August.
That drew some strong comments from Coun. Brian Skakun, who questioned whether the clinic can even be considered a needle exchange anymore.
“It’s just absolutely appalling and in my opinion, Northern Health has completely failed us,” Skakun said.
But Gray said that despite appearances, more than 90 per cent are either recovered from clients on a voluntary basis when they exchange them for fresh ones at the clinic at Third Avenue and George Street or discarded in special containers distributed around the city.
Unfortunately, a small proportion does end up discarded on the street and of course that’s where the public concern arises.
— Dr. Andrew Gray, public health officer
“Unfortunately, a small proportion does end up discarded on the street and of course that’s where the public concern arises,” he said. Gray acknowledged the number the team found is more than people would like to see but also noted they patrol areas where most of the public tend not to go such as alleyways. All the needles the team picked up were found on the street and in camps in the downtown and none from the sharps containers placed around the area, city
spokesperson Mike Kellett confirmed on Tuesday.
Gray dismissed requiring clients to exchange needles on a one-for-one basis as unrealistic because it will force users to share needles and increase the risk of getting infections and spreading viruses like HIV.
Gray also said they don’t pose the danger many people think they do. He said the chances of being stuck by a needle are low and the viruses found on one are likely dead by the time it’s been found.
“There’s actually never been a case of anyone contracting HIV from a discarded needle that’s been sitting around, versus a fresh needle that’s just been used and has visible blood on it,” he said.
That said, a discarded needle should still be handled with care. Ideally, said Gray, they should be picked up with tongs or gloves and put into a rigid container – a plastic bottle or pop can will do.
And he said children should be discouraged from picking up any needle that happens to have been found in a playground or park.
Illicit drug deaths surpass last year’s total
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
The number of deaths in the city from overdoses on illicit drugs is continuing to climb.
There were 29 such deaths as of the end of August, seven more than were recorded for all of 2017, according to an update from the B.C. Coroners Service.
“Things have gotten much worse in Prince George,” said Northern Health public health officer Dr. Andrew Gray. He said an unpredictable drug supply appears to be a culprit.
“A lot of people know they’re getting fentanyl now but the dose is so unpredictable,” Gray said. “That’s what really drives the overdose risk.”
A form of opioid, the drug is considered 100 times more potent than heroin and has been the source of a surge in
overdose deaths large enough for authorities to call it a health care crisis in the province.
Northern Health’s strategy for preventing deaths includes distribution of takehome kits of naloxone which counters the effects of fentanyl. They’re distributed out of the harm reduction clinic at Third and George, which can also test drugs for their contents and provide a place for addicts to use their drugs and be treated immediately should they suffer an overdose.
More clients are getting access to suboxone and methadone to help wean them off opioids.
And with some funding from the provincial government, Northern Health is in the process of establishing a community action team made up of representatives from a number of different
organizations to try to come up with a shared strategy.
A little empathy can also go a fair way, according to Gray.
“One of the limiting factors for us to mounting a complete response to this is stigma and criminalization,” Gray said.
“People are trying to cope with their pain and generally speaking, that’s why (they become addicted)... the pain that arises due to severe childhood trauma or to physical injury.
“There is more and more discussion of these issues in our society as a result of this crisis, which is one good thing.
“But having compassion and understanding the struggles that people are going through and why they make the choices they do is one of the most important things for us to really get to the bottom of this emergency.”
Treatment options needed to curb overdoses, critic says
Jeremy HAINSWORTH Citizen news service
The BC NDP government’s delays in providing a greater range of addiction recovery options in the face of the overdose crisis are putting lives at risk, the BC Liberal opposition critic for mental health and addictions said Tuesday.
“We need more treatment and recovery options immediately,” Jane Thornthwaite said in an interview. “We clearly are not doing what needs to be done.”
She told the Legislature on Monday that the NDP should work to end the opioid crisis by offering identified addicts residential treatment as is done in Portugal.
“Continuing to pour money into harm reduction, including replacement therapies and drugtesting kits, helps save lives today but won’t end the cycle of addiction,” Thornthwaite told MLAs.
She said in the interview those options are part of the solution but not the full spectrum of what’s needed. She suggested a need for more detox availability followed by other recovery options.
“It could be 12-step, it could be not,” she said.
“There’s a real inequality right now in our province about abstinence-based treatment.”
Her suggestions contrast with those put forward to Union of BC Municipalities conference (UBCM) delegates last month by the NDP-appointed leader of overdose crisis response team.
Dr. Patricia Daly angered members of B.C.’s abstinence-based addiction recovery community when she suggested opioid addicts use prescribed drug treatments for the rest of the lives.
“(There’s) a need for lifelong treatment that will allow you to function,” said Daly, Vancouver Coastal Health’s chief medical health officer. Daly told UBCM delegates that pressure to remain abstinent and the stigmatization of relapse in 12-step recovery programs may not be as effective a long-term solution such as medication. Thornthwaite said the comments have resulted in B.C.’s recovery community using a #StopDaly hashtag on social media.
In a Sept. 26 response to a request to identify which drug replacement therapies are approved for use, Anna Low, freedom of information co-ordinator for Vancouver Coastal Health, said Daly is not an expert in that area.
“Dr. Daly does not make recommendations for drug treatments for opioid use disorder as this is not her area of expertise,” Low said in the emailed response. “In B.C., these are made by the B.C. Centre for Substance Use (BCCSU), and they communicate directly with physicians with their recommendations. Some are also endorsed by the provincial government.”
Low noted the authority “does not approve drugs or medications for opioid use disorder – this is the jurisdiction of Ministry of Health, College of Pharmacists, and Lower Mainland Pharmacy.” The provincial Ministry of Health website said PharmaCare covers methadone, buprenorphine/naloxone (also known as Suboxone) and the slow-release morphine Kadian as treatments for opioid addiction.
None of the manufacturers of those specific drugs listed in the ministry website are named in a lawsuit the government filed against opioid drug makers Aug. 29.
NDP deputy caucus chair Rachna Singh agreed with Thornthwaite in the Legislature that residential care investments are needed to assist addicts in quitting drugs.
However, she also stressed the need for harm reduction and overdose prevention sites such as Insite in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
There, medical staff supervises users as they inject.
Singh, a former alcohol and drug counsellor, said the first priority is to keep people alive.
“There’s no treatment for addiction if the patient is dead,” Singh said. “We should have all kinds of treatment models. If we don’t have the person seeking the treatment alive, there’s no point in creating all these kinds of services.”
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Used needles sit in an alleyway between Quebec Street and Dominion Street on Tuesday morning.
Art Battle veteran reclaims victory
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Veteran soldiers know how to strategize and marshall their resources on the field of combat.
Carla Joseph, the winner of Art Battle 2016, is now the local event’s first repeat champion. She topped the 12 competitors to win her second title in three years.
“It was so fun. I enjoyed it –probably more this year than past years because I’m not so shy and I’m getting more used to it,” she said. “I can pretty much block everybody out when it’s happening.”
Art Battle is an international organization that has local, regional/provincial, national and global events always within the same format. Fine arts painters are given a canvas, an assortment of colours, a 20-minute time limit, and a live audience. In Prince George, the event is held at Hubspace and there are three rounds of four painters vying for the audience’s votes. The top votegetter moves on to the finals, plus one wild card winner who topped the second place painters from all three initial rounds.
Those final four must reset the clock and paint-off again for another 20 minute throwdown. Whomever earns the most votes in the finals goes on to the provincials in Vancouver this coming summer.
Lisa Redpath of the Community Arts Council, the event’s local host agency, remembered when she saw Joseph win the audience over in that final round, despite a strong set of competitors alongside her (Michael Doyle, Darlene Nicoletti, and Erin Stagg were the other finalists).
“She painted a war horse, and she finished by slathering her hand in red paint and stamping her whole hand on the black and white horse, and you could just feel the ripple go through the crowd, it was a turning point and you could feel it in the room.
People afterward said it gave them chills.”
The 2017 Art Battle winner, Christina Watts, was not competing this year, but did attend as a spectator and agreed that “when she did the red hand, she changed the whole competition, it was exactly what the painting needed and the audience got a real ‘wow’ moment out of that.”
Joseph admitted that she hoped
for that effect and saved it until the end.
“I’ve been practicing,” Joseph confirmed. She worked on two competition elements she knew from past experience she would need to control. One was painting as well as possible within the 20 minute time limit, so she practiced for speed. Two was experimenting with colours to pick an effective and efficient set, so she didn’t
waste time thinking about which shades to use on the two images she chose.
Both her images – the preliminary round was won by depicting a large bear sitting with care alongside a cub, with trees and birds around. This painting was a silhouette in black and white except for the dominant tree which Joseph painted autumn red – were chosen and rehearsed well in advance.
“I’ve been doing bears a lot lately, using it in the mural work I’ve been getting, and in the classes I’m teaching,” she explained. “I chose the red tree because I was inspired by the girl who went missing in Smithers, Jessica Patrick (found deceased on Sept. 15 after a two-week absence), and that also inspired the red hand on the horse. Jessica was on my mind so much through the last month, and it came out in these ways.”
As with all Prince George Art Battle events, the artists’ paintings are sold at auction that night, with half the money going to the Community Arts Council and half going to the artist. The audience of about 150 people bid this year’s paintings to their highest-ever sales results. Redpath said they averaged about $200 each, with the war horse image getting the highest bid at $500.
“People know they are bidding on a unique work of art, and because of the creation under pressure, they also know it’s special for that reason as well. It’s a memento of a big, exciting occasion you all shared together.”
“The first year, I think my pieces went for $80 each,” said Joseph. She has developed her skills while the community has also developed its understanding and awareness of this rare event.
“I’m just glad all three of my girls came to see me this year,” said Joseph. “I want them to see me do that, and maybe think they can do challenging things, too. And they are all aspiring artists, too.”
Local writer featured in book
Canadian Acts of Kindness is what the last edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul is all about and one local writer’s story is included in the 101 Stories of Caring and Compassion. Linda Gabris instructs writing workshops, offers international cooking courses and has authored the book Cooking Wild, with her latest book soon to be completed. Gabris’s work can be seen in magazines in North America as she shares her knowledge in an outdoor cooking column.
The Canadian Chicken Soup for the Soul book will be released Oct. 30 and showcases how small gestures can make a big difference in someone’s life. The collection features stories about random acts of kindness.
Vanderhoof RCMP to get more officers
Three more officers will be added to the Vanderhoof RCMP detachment, Mounties said Tuesday.
“Although the exact date of the arrival of the new officers has not been set, the community can expect to see them soon,” RCMP said in a statement. The announcement comes two weeks after Mayor Gerry Thiessen told MLAs who make up Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services the town’s detachment is understaffed and overworked to the point where few stay longer than they have to. The addition will increase the detachment’s complement to 14 officers in addition to its five-member dedicated traffic unit.
HANDOUT PHOTO BY CHRISTINA WATTS
Carla Joseph’s war horse painting made her the first repeat winner of the Prince George Art Battle.
a Veg Room, in Eastlake, Ohio. There was little controversy on Monday night as
council held a public hearing on a proposed bylaw regulating
Public hearing on cannabis bylaws draws sparse response
The city’s proposed bylaws and policy outlining how the city will regulate cannabis sales and production passed through the public hearing stage without major controversy on Monday night.
A trio of business partners who have their eye on establishing a retail outlet in the city showed up to commend council members on their decision to reduce the fee for a business license to $1,000 from $5,000.
They also gave council assurance they intend to run a viable operation that is “safe and inviting” and maintains a high level of integrity.
There was discussion over some technical issues raised by two Prince George residents in a letter to council.
They questioned the need for a clause in the business regulation and licensing bylaw addressing ventilation in retail stores, saying the product will not produce an odour.
“Think of cigarettes, they are sealed and you cannot smell
tobacco through the packaging,” they said.
“The same will be for cannabis. At this time, retail businesses will not be allowed to open any packages, customers will not be able to smell, touch or try the product before purchase.”
They also noted that while the bylaw requires an applicant to show proof the business has obtained applicable federal and provincial certification, there is no such thing as federal certification.
“The federal government has made the initial law, with each province to amend and change as they see fit, after that, it is up to the municipal government,” they said.
When asked by a city councillor for a response, planning and development general manager Ian Wells said the provisos were included as redundancies to make sure the city has the power to enforce those measures should there be a need.
Noting retailers can be no closer than 1.6 kilometres to each other, Mayor Lyn Hall asked for clarity on how applications to set up shop near a school or daycare would be
treated. Like all other applications, Wells said they would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, “because you could be 500 metres from a school and across a four-lane highway.”
Also noting applicants must pay a $7,500 fee to the provincial Liquor Control and Licensing Branch, Hall also asked if applicants will be able to get a sense of how many others are ahead of them in the process so they can decide if it’s worth going ahead and risk losing that money.
Wells said providing specific details would probably not be possible because that would breach confidentiality and was not sure if the fee to the LCLB would be refunded should council turn down an application.
However, he said he could get confirmation.
The related bylaws and policy will be up for final reading on Oct. 15, two days before cannabis becomes legal in Canada. With the public hearing closed, council can no longer receive new information on the bylaws without risking the need to hold another public hearing, it was noted.
Students taking part in reconciliation walk today
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
On the heels of Orange Shirt Day, a new event will step forward for Prince George’s restoration of Aboriginal relationships.
The Central Interior Native Health Society will welcome about 240 students from School District 57 and neighbouring School District 91 to take part in the Walk To Truth And Reconciliation. It happens today with an opening ceremony at 10 a.m. at the newly opened downtown gathering centre Uda Dune Baiyoh / House of Ancestors (355 Vancouver St.) operated by the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation.
The students will be in Grades 6 and 7.
CINHS executive director Shobha Sharma, said “It is important Grade 6 and 7 students are educated about the history of Canada’s Indigenous people and the role truth and reconciliation plays in our community. By participating in this walk, young people from Nechako Lakes and Prince George will be active participants in our communities’ ongoing journey of truth and reconciliation.”
The Walk To Truth And Reconciliation is a figurative one as much as physical. Sharma explained that in addition to activities at the House of Ancestors, there would be further activities at the CINHS facility, provincial courthouse, and at the Prince George Native Friendship Centre all located with a short walk of each other.
“Students and teachers will
Run for the Cure saw support
Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca
Hundreds of people gathered at the new pavilion at Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park Sunday morning to Run for the Cure.
The CIBC-sponsored event raised awareness and funds for breast cancer research to find a cure. The total raised at the end of the run was $40,865, with donations continuing to come in online.
Several people spoke at the event including local MLA Shirley Bond, Mayor Lyn Hall, Chantal Craig, general manager for the Pine Centre’s CIBC branch, Margaret Jones-Bricker for the Canadian Cancer Society and breast cancer survivor Viva Swanson.
Each speaker offered words of welcome and encouragement to the 235 registrants and their supporters at the park and put a call out for the need to find a cure.
“Today is about caring for one another,” Bond said.
“We know that we can make a difference by walking, donating, and most importantly, by supporting the people in our communities.”
Bond said hearing a breast cancer diagnosis can be pretty tough and not just for the person but for their family and friends as well.
“We’re here to celebrate survivors and let you know that we’re with you and we care,” Bond said.
Bringing home the reality for those in attendance during a beautifully sunny fall day was Jones-Bricker.
“Every day 73 Canadians hear the words ‘you have breast cancer,’” Jones-Bricker said. That needs to change, she added.
“With your help every year we’re able to raise the funds to support vital research and support services for those Canadians diagnosed with breast cancer and we thank you so very, very
much for making that possible,” Jones-Bricker said.
The final speaker was cancer survivor Swanson who shared her cancer journey with the crowd.
“I had cancer for six days,” Swanson said.
“I was diagnosed on April 10, 2015 and on April 16 I had my lumpectomy. They removed the mass, they removed the contaminated lymph nodes and all of my treatment afterwards – 24 weeks of chemotherapy, four weeks of radiation – was to make sure it never comes back. The reason it’s never coming back is because we have committed to the cause. We have committed to ensuring there is a cure.”
Swanson went on to say that with the advancements in protocol of the disease that even from a decade ago the experience of having breast cancer now is so much different than it was before.
Today there is equipment geared for early diagnosis, procedures and medications to rid the body of the cancer and cuttingedge technology used throughout the whole process.
“So we are beating it every single day,” Swanson said.
“I am happy to be here to share this day with you and to attempt something I have never done before.”
Swanson was running the five kilometre Run for the Cure for the very first time.
Before they started the run she made one final request from the crowd listening to her every word.
“I would really appreciate it if you would join me to share this moment,” Swanson said.
“Today we are running for our sisters, our mothers, daughters, and our daughters’ daughters. We are running for our friends, the men in our lives and for ourselves. We’re running to make breast cancer beatable. I ask you all to join me in a promise – if you would repeat after me – today we run to make breast cancer beatable.”
be greeted by a Lheidli T’enneh elder and take part in a traditional welcoming ceremony to instill a positive and respectful start to the day,” Sharma said.
Students will learn phrases in the Dakelh language (also called Carrier by those who came later in history) and those phrases will be used throughout the event, Sharma said, “to understand the need for a revival of language and highlight how the revitalization of language is central to colonization and the revitalization of Indigenous identity.”
At the CINHS clinic, members of the CINHS team will facilitate guiding students through a conversation about what a so-called “Indian Hospital” was, and explore traditional Indigenous approaches to healthcare.
“At the Prince George courthouse, students will learn about how the justice system treated Indigenous people in the past, and about Indigenous Court and how it differs from a traditional European-style justice system,” said Sharma.
At the Prince George Native Friendship Society, students will hear about the experience of residential school from those who survived this now outlawed practice.
“In addition, at the House of Ancestors, students will participate in a discussion about the concept of traditional lands, the significance of the Canadian reserve system and the idea of landlessness, to understand the difference between owning land and belonging to the land and how that difference impacts how and where we
live,” said Sharma. “At the end of the walk the students will be invited to share their ideas about colonization, truth and reconciliation, and how to be allies with their neighbours and classmates.”
Following the event, students will be asked to create a collage or poster representing their experience during the Walk To Truth And Reconciliation.
Art pieces will be displayed in the CINHS integrated health care centre and potentially other public art spaces, “to generate discussion and show the path that is being forged by the youngest generation, toward a future of reconciliation and unity,” Sharma said.
It is hoped, according to the organizers, that the deeply impactful colonization practices of the past can be understood by modern youth, especially so as to recognize how they are still having meaningful effects in today’s ongoing Canadian society.
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Carmen Fultz, an employee of Buckeye Relief LLC, sorts the male and female marijuana plants inside
Prince George city
marijuana sales and production.
LNG Canada project gets official go-ahead
Citizen new service
VANCOUVER — Final approval for a massive liquefied natural gas project in northern British Columbia shows that major resource projects can be built in the province, the CEO of LNG Canada said Tuesday.
The future of major energy projects in British Columbia has been at the centre of a debate because of the provincial NDP government’s opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline. But Andy Calitz said the LNG plant that’s planned for Kitimat on B.C.’s coast and a 670-kilometre pipeline delivering natural gas from the northeast corner of the province shows the way forward.
“It validates the reality that in B.C. projects can be done if it is done in the right way when it comes to resource development through a process of building relationships before we build the project,” he said.
“LNG Canada proves today that British Columbia, the beautiful province of British Columbia, and Canada can monetize our significant, low-cost natural gas resources, that we can access new markets in Asia, that B.C. and Canada can attract foreign investment, that B.C. and Canada can deliver competitive energy projects and take a place on the global map of energy exporting countries.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the project is an example of his often repeated position that exporting Canada’s energy resources is possible while also protecting the environment.
“We can’t build energy projects like we did in the old days, where the environment and the economy were seen as opposing forces,” said Trudeau.
“In the 21st century, we don’t have to choose between a healthy environment and a strong economy. They must go together.”
The five partners in the LNG project have agreed to a $40-billion joint venture. Trudeau said the amount being spent is the largest single investment by the private sector in Canadian history.
The partners – Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsubishi Corp., the Malaysian-owned Petronas, PetroChina Co. and Korean Gas Corp. – delayed the final investment decision in 2016, citing a drop in natural gas prices. Each company will be responsible to provide its own natural gas supply and will individually market its share of liquefied natural gas.
The first liquefied natural gas is expected to be shipped before the middle of the next decade.
Calitz said the project received support from the B.C. government, local First Nations and the Kitimat community – and LNG Canada is ready to proceed with construction.
B.C. Premier John Horgan said the project will help a region of the province that needs jobs.
“This is a generational opportunity for northern British Columbia, one that could not be passed up,” he said.
But provincial Green party Leader Andrew Weaver called the announcement a “profound disappointment.”
“Adding such a massive new source of (greenhouse gases) means that the rest of our economy will have to make even more
sacrifices to meet our climate targets. A significant portion of the LNG Canada investment will be spent on a plant manufactured overseas, with steel sourced from other countries,” he said in a statement.
“B.C. taxpayers will subsidize its power by paying rates twice as high and taking on the enormous public debt required to build Site C. There may be as little as 100 permanent jobs at LNG Canada. I believe we can create far more jobs in other industries that won’t drastically increase our emissions.”
Horgan’s minority NDP government only governs because of the support of the Green party and the premier said the province realizes the challenge the project brings for its climate change goals, but it plans to work with the companies to drive down emissions.
“With the revenue, some $23 billion coming to the province from this project, we will be able to innovate, we will be able to work with renewables, work with Shell and the joint venture partners to drive down emissions over the long term,” Horgan said.
Horgan acknowledged Weaver’s concerns, but added he doesn’t share them: “I believe we that can meet the objectives we set for ourselves over the next 12 and then 23 years.”
B.C.’s climate plan means the province has agreed to cut carbon emissions to levels that are 40 per cent below what they were 2007 by 2030. The plan also saw the province increase the carbon tax by $5 a tonne
Non-B.C. wines coming to grocery stores
Citizen staff
B.C.’s policy that restricts licensed grocery stores to only be allowed to carry British Columbia Vintners Quality Alliance (BC VQA) wines on shelves will end by Nov. 1, 2019, according to the B.C. government. After that date, licensed grocers will be able to stock wines from around the world on shelves.
The change came as part of the Canadian government’s negotiations with the U.S. that resulted in the trade pact that will be known as the United StatesMexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
“B.C. worked closely with the federal government and agreed
to amend the measures relating to wine in grocery stores,”
said Premier John Horgan and Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology Bruce Ralston in a joint statement.
“This policy has been controversial for some time. We knew this was a problem that we were going to have to fix. We will continue to work with the Canadian government to resolve it in a manner that best protects our wine industry.”
Ralston’s ministry does not plan to allow standalone stores that use BC VQA licences to sell wines from around the world.
There are 29 grocery stores in B.C. that are able to sell wine on shelves, including the Spruceland Save-On-Foods.
on April, 1, with the same increase planned annually until 2022.
Clean energy advocate Pembina Institute said it is still waiting for the provincial government to reconcile LNG’s carbon pollution with its climate goals, criticizing the project for taking B.C. “in the wrong direction.”
The province has also promised to repeal its LNG income tax and streamline how taxes are administered, saying in a statement that the current tax “has led to uncertainties hampering investment.”
Horgan said he expects the NDP will be able to get support for the tax changes in the legislature.
“It’s our expectation that there will be vigorous debate from every corner of the legislature, but at the end of the day... this is not about a political party, this is about the people of British Columbia, the British Columbia economy, and people have been working on this for a long, long, long, long time, and I am fairly confident that partisan politics will not get in the way of the single largest private-sector investment in Canadian history.”
In Edmonton, Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous said the announcement is good news but also a fundamental inequity when compared with the stalled Trans Mountain pipeline project.
“LNG is good for B.C., it’s good for Alberta and it’s good for Canada. These are the exact types of nation-building projects that we
need to see more of,” Bilous told reporters at the legislature.
But Bilous said there’s little difference between the LNG project and Trans Mountain, which would twin the existing line to triple the amount of oil flowing from Alberta to the B.C. coast in order to fetch a better price on overseas markets.
Trans Mountain is on hold while the federal government reacts to court-ordered directions to consult more with affected First Nations and explore the impact of the project on marine life.
Bilous said the LNG project will mean a larger increase in tanker traffic than Trans Mountain off the coast of B.C.
“We can’t have a country built on double standards. We need the federal government to move and move quickly to ensure that both of these projects move forward.”
Coastal GasLink is building the gas pipeline and it has negotiated agreements with the elected councils of all 20 First Nations on the route.
Karen Ogen-Toews, CEO of the First Nations LNG Alliance, called the final investment decision “great news for the B.C. economy, for Canada, and for First Nations.”
“Responsible LNG development means real benefits to Indigenous Peoples and communities, long-term careers and reliable revenue to help First Nations close the economic gap between their members and other Canadians.”
LNG project boosts gas industry confidence
Dan HEALING
Citizen news service
CALGARY — The approval of Canada’s first LNG export terminal is expected to boost investor confidence in Western Canada’s natural gas sector.
But the LNG Canada project’s ability to provide a new market for natural gas and thus support depressed prices won’t be seen until the facility is built sometime in the middle of the next decade, observers say.
The announcement on Tuesday, coming on the heels of Canada reaching a trilateral trade deal with Mexico and the United States on the weekend, lifted the mood in the room at an investment bank’s commodity price forecast breakfast in Calgary.
“It’s excellent news that we can get an announcement of a major project in Canada,” said Dale Dusterhoft, CEO of Trican Well Service Ltd., after the event.
“The impact on the immediate market probably isn’t great, in terms of an immediate recovery of pricing, but if we can get this and others built behind it, it’s great for the long-term future of the Canadian business.”
He said he doesn’t expect any increase in demand for his company’s well completion services in the next year or so but said it will start to grow in 2020 as LNG Canada’s completion date nears and producers increase exploration budgets to prove up their resources.
The impact on the immediate market probably isn’t great... but if we can get this and others built behind it, it’s great for the longterm future of the Canadian business.
— Dale Dusterhoft, Trican Well Service
The announcement ensures Canada will be able to export domestic energy products to global markets at a fair price, said Chris Bloomer, CEO of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.
“The project... represents a major investment in the Canadian economy, which is critical as our country seeks to attract and retain foreign capital,” he said.
Global natural gas demand is expected to increase 45 per cent to 199 trillion cubic feet per day by 2040, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, which welcomed news that Canada will be able to export to customers other than those in the United States.
The five partners in LNG Canada say they’ve agreed to build the $40-billion project that includes a gas liquefaction plant in Kitimat on B.C.’s coast and a 670-kilometre pipeline delivering gas from the northeast corner of the province.
A continued glut of gas in Western Canada and the march of American shale gas into its traditional markets including Eastern Canada convinced analyst Martin King of GMP FirstEnergy to roll back his forecast for a recovery in
benchmark Alberta gas prices next year. At the event Tuesday, he said natural gas prices will average C$1.57 per thousand cubic feet in 2019, just two cents higher than this year, and marked down from an earlier prediction of C$3 per mcf. By comparison, New York prices are expected to average US$3.35 for the same amount of gas in 2019, up from US$3 this year.
Gas traditionally sells for more in New York because it’s closer to major population centres but the difference has been widening recently due to pipeline capacity constraints in Alberta and B.C.
“(LNG Canada) is something which is definitely a positive sentiment boost for the industry,” King said.
“It certainly gives producers something to hang their hats on.” The project’s initial phase will require about two billion cubic feet per day of gas to produce about 14 million tonnes per year of supercooled liquefied natural gas, thus increasing the market for Western Canadian gas by about 10 per cent when it comes on stream, he said.
The United States could become the largest LNG exporter in the world by 2025 as nearly a dozen new projects seek regulatory approval, King said, but he added Canada can compete because the Canadian West Coast is much closer to customers in Asia and its gas supply is cheaper.
The LNG Canada decision is expected to encourage other proposed project proponents to make investment decisions.
“We believe this project has the potential to be the first of many on the West Coast of Canada, if Canadian LNG follows the global standard, being that LNG export areas tend to be ‘hubs’ of terminals, rather than standalone facilities,” National Bank of Canada analysts said Tuesday in a report.
CP PHOTO
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and LNG Canada CEO Andy Calitz speak after an LNG Canada news conference in Vancouver on Tuesday. LNG Canada announced that its joint venture participants Shell, PETRONAS, PetroChina, Mitsubishi Corporation and KOGAS made a final investment decision to build the LNG Canada export facility in Kitimat.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY CHRISTINE HINZMANN
Susan Driedger of Vanderhoof pulled her many treasures behind her as she browsed through thousands of items available for sale during the Junk in the Trunk Sale held Saturday at CN Centre’s parking lot.
More than Junk in the Trunk at local event
Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca
It should’ve been called Treasures in the Trunk Sale.
The popular Junk in the Trunk Sale hosted by REAPS on Saturday is a spring and fall event held at CN Centre’s parking lot.
Many of those who attended the 14th event looked pretty happy holding a variety of items in their hands, in reusable bags and one woman had a wagon filled with goodies.
And it’s not just the 2,000 or so people who came to buy that were happy. The event has become so popular that registration to be a vendor saw all 125 spots filled a month ago.
Despite the bracing wind, the treasures and trinkets, clothing, furniture and tools were bought and sold at lightning speeds.
Suzanne Driedger from Vanderhoof walked along checking out all the items on display, pulling her wagon filled with shiny treasures behind her.
“Knowing that I keep these items out
of the trash and find them a new home or repurpose them in some way if I have to, that’s what it’s all about,” Driedger said.
Driedger is the ultimate recycler, reuser and repurposer and she’s been doing it for years.
She got to be such a good collector of found items she decided to upcycle her passion into a business and is the proud owner of House of Hope, located in the heart of downtown Vanderhoof.
“I knew that I couldn’t keep all the cool things I’d found so I started with a small shop,” Driedger said. Soon her passion grew.
Moving from her modest 200 square foot space to her leased 1800 square foot store six months ago she is now able to share her restoring and refurbishing knowledge with others who are likeminded.
“So people can make things or if they have a treasure they feel needs some re-loving they can come to my shop and they get to use my classroom space to do that,” Driedger said.
Over in the gravel parking lot at CN
Centre was a giant trailer where recyclers were not charging to accept tires, including rims, old appliances, including refrigerators and freezers and batteries.
“So you’re able to drop off your large appliances for free,” Terri McClymont, executive director of the Recycling & Environmental Action Planning Society (REAPS), said.
At about 11 a.m., they’d already had to switch out a full trailer with an empty one because so many people took the opportunity to drop off their bigger recyclables before heading over to see what they could find at the biggest garage sale in Prince George.
“We’re hoping to continue that program next spring with more stewardship programs on board,” McClymont said.
“So things like electronics, paint, household hazardous waste, a lot of those things will be recycled at the Junk in the Trunk Sale.
“Everything can be disposed of in Prince George. It’s just nice having a one-stop shop, especially with no charge for those recyclables that need freon removal.”
Citizen staff
Economic development will be the theme when the Northern Regional Construction Association hosts an all-candidates meeting next week for those vying for a seat on city council.
Set the Courtyard by Marriott Prince George next Oct. 9, from 6 to 8 p.m., it is open to the public in general and admission is free. But those interested in attending need to register through nrca.ca. Space was still available as of yesterday.
The Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of British Columbia and the Canadian Home Builders’ Association are co-hosts.
Two other all candidates meetings are on the calendar:
• A “candidating” event will be held at the Prince George Public Library on Oct. 10, from 6:45 to 8:30 p.m.
Attendees can spend up to two minutes of oneon-one time with the candidate of their choice to ask questions and discuss issues before moving on in a “speed dating” format.
There is no registration and it’s free to attend.
• The Citizen, in partnership with the Prince George Chamber of Commerce, the B.C. Northern Real Estate Board and UNBC, will an all-candidates forum for council candidates in the Canfor Theatre at UNBC on Oct. 16, from 7 to 9 p.m.
An audio of the forum hosted by CBC on Sept. 24 is posted online at www.cbc.ca/player/ play/1329458755963
Wine Lovers event a success for Spirit of the North
Citizen staff
Friday’s sold out Wine Lovers fundraising event held at the Coast Inn of the North raised $74,072 for the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation.
The event saw a five-course culinary experience, which paired a variety of carefully selected wines to perfectly compliment the flavours of the meal.
Proceeds will go toward learning equipment at the Northern Clinical Simulation Lab at the University Hospital of Northern B.C. Clinical simulation is a valuable tool for physicians, students and clinical staff as well as first responders throughout the north. The purchase of a newborn training simulator called SIM NewB and other simulation equipment is on the horizon.
For more information or to donate contact the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation office by calling 250-565-2515.
Roads always an election issue
In what has so far been a dull municipal election campaign, an old-school criticism of any sitting mayor and city councillor running for re-election is being rolled out by Cameron Stolz. Simply put, Stolz is talking up roads and especially the fact that the current city council cut the road rehabilitation budget by $2 million – from $7 million to $5 million in the 2017 and 2018 budgets.
He’s not wrong.
For the past two years, city council scraped $2 million away from roads and plowed that money into sidewalks and parks.
In February 2017, as city council considered clawing money out of the roads budget, the city’s engineering and public works general manager Dave Dyer offered a warning.
He told council that with the reduction, city staff would still be able to keep up work on the arterial and collector roads but local roads would be neglected.
“We’ve been able to make some great headway on the local roads in the last three years with the $7 million,” he said. “That will suffer for sure and we will have to look at micro-surfacing treatments more so in areas where we can use it. We can’t use it in all areas where we have issues with our local roads.”
Coun. Garth Frizzell tried to sway his council colleagues to spare some of the road budget, first with an additional $1 million in spending for roads through a tax increase and then with pulling back $600,000 from the additional $2 million for sidewalks and
Crews work on Sept. 27 to install the first of six pre-cast concrete pieces to replace a failed
parks, but both of his efforts failed.
The problem is actually even worse than Stolz indicates, according to the City of Prince George’s 2018-2022 Provisional Financial Plans report.
The preamble of that report notes that the city has not increased the $5 million road rehab levy since 2013, meaning that inflation has been chipping away at the roads
budget every year since then.
From 2014 through 2016, city council spent $7 million on road work by diverting the $2 million Prince George receives from the Community Works Fund, a pot of money that goes to municipalities from the revenues collected by the federal government’s excise tax on fuel.
Now that the proceeds from the Com-
CAQ win good for Quebec, Canada
Four years ago, as the Parti Quebecois government was defeated, I wrote:
“In the 1960s, Quebec bought into the notion that secularism and sovereignty were the keys to prosperity... secularism emptied Quebec’s maternity wards... and sovereignty began to take on an ever more national-socialist motif...(Quebec has) negative birth rates, protest marches, and awful traffic laws. But Quebec can be great again.” It appears that moment has finally arrived.
That night, the Quebec Liberals took over from the Parti Quebecois and began to trim the fat of sovereigntist government.
Premier Phillipe Coulliard is a medical doctor by trainin, and having diagnosed the province as on its way to financial death by cancerous public programs, he began to surgically remove the worst of it as best he could.
For that service, and his party’s various scandals over the years, he was awarded second place in this election.
La Belle Province has now turned over to the Coalition Avenir du Quebec, the first party to break through the PQ/Liberal dualism in 50 years. The CAQ is
a center-right party, but in the rest of Canada it would appear to be francophone nationalists with Paul Martin’s economics.
The leader, Francois Legault, a former sovereigntist and airline developer, has promised to end referendums and to get Quebec’s economy moving by reducing government red-tape.
This is welcome news for the rest of Canada, as one of the single greatest brakes on our potential has been an underdeveloped Quebec, with cradle-tograve socialism clogging all of the arteries of creativity.
And while Quebec was still helping itself to billions in equalization even when posting a surplus under Couillard, it is possible that the Quebecois are interested in recapturing their heritage as brave voyageurs instead of a legacy of sclerotic Marxist voyeurism.
There’s one more twist to this story, in light of the recent deal to
replace NAFTA with the USMCA; the government in Ottawa is now surrounded by hostile or indifferent provincial ones, and the new deal has increased competition for Canadian dairy farmers who reside largely within Quebec. Add the Alberta election as well as the fact that B.C.’s governing coalition could fall at any time and it’s possible that right-leaning parties could rule from coast to coast.
That’s going to be hard to explain at election time. Doubly so if the CAQ and other ruling parties start discussing infrastructure or pipelines in a positive fashion. And if all those staffers take leave to help the Tories win in 2019, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s future is uncertain.
Obviously, that is all speculation, but one thing is clear: Quebec is changing, and that is good news for the whole country.
Whatever Legault’s faults, which critics have cited throughout the campaign, he has led a 10 year old party to power on promises of growth in a province that hasn’t had many good ideas since the Quiet Revolution ruined all. It is my hope that his fellow premiers embrace and encourage him – for there is no Canadian future without Quebec’s help.
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munity Works Fund have been going into sidewalks and parks, spending on roads has not only declined, it’s falling further and further behind with each passing year.
The newly-elected city council could decide to put the Community Works Fund proceeds back into roads or it could take that money and spend it somewhere else, leaving road rehabilitation work stuck at $5 million yet again. But even if that money were to go back into roads, it still would be less than what was spent from 2014 to 2016, thanks to inflation.
City staff recommend an automatic two per cent annual increase in the roads levy to deal with this problem but that comes with the obvious tax implications for local residents.
While Stolz isn’t telling the whole story when he complains about a $2 million cut to road rehabilitation spending, he is identifying a pressing problem that can’t continue to be ignored.
Some residents go months or even years without using city infrastructure like the public library, swimming pools, arenas, parks and even sidewalks. But, along with water and sewer, roads are the one piece of city infrastructure most residents use daily.
Diverting the money from automobile fuel tax away from roads doesn’t make much sense, in either the short or long term. Neither does freezing the road rehabilitation tax levy for five consecutive budget years.
Sounding the alarm about roads at election time can be a cynical election ploy but it’s also a legitimate concern that needs addressing by all the candidates.
— Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
Canada knuckles under to Trump bullying
The moral of the story: bullies win. Often. Canada has little to show for its negotiation of a new trade pact with the United States and Mexico. And when U.S. President Donald Trump says his biggest concession was “making the deal” at all, you know you’ve been mugged.
The agreement late Sunday was like buying plywood to cover the windows in hurricane season as storm clouds materialize – prudent, but defensive to minimize what would otherwise ensue.
Canada entered these discussions with all sorts of distracting ideas: clauses on gender and Indigenous rights, labour and environmental standards, among them. Sorry, wrong White House. That guy timed out in 2016.
Not so long ago, Canada was taking a more practical, hopeful note about the need to modernize the 1994 deal and bring it into the digital age. It had this belief, stoked by history, that America would come to its senses and realize we were BFFs.
Sorry, wrong White House again. The new guy believes Canadians set fire to his home early in the 19th century.
Instead, today, as polite and deferential world players, we are gauging our country’s success –the “great day for Canada” Justin Trudeau professed – not by what was gained but by how little was lost.
The United States forced Canada’s hand and correctly held out the spectre of economic turmoil if Canada didn’t participate in time. After all, America’s economy might withstand a trade war in a non-NAFTA context, but Canada’s likely wouldn’t.
At first reading, it is apparent American negotiators extracted more access to our dairy and chicken markets.
The deal caps how our auto industry could grow, but more mildly than expected. It kept a mechanism of sorts in place to resolve disputes, even though the courts are quite kind anyway.
Interestingly, it permits countries to pull out if one of them creates a trade pact with a “non-market economy,” sending a signal that a Canada-China deal has to meet the approval of our southern neighbour.
Just as poignantly, America didn’t concurrently lift the very tariffs it earlier placed on Canadian steel and aluminum as extra leverage for trade bargaining – it claims those are, all of a sudden, on a different track to resolve. Trump suggested Monday that the effect of any eventual deal has to have equivalent benefit to the tariffs.
It remains in charge of the proceedings.
Nowhere to be found is the winwin-win that chief Canadian negotiator Chrystia Freeland sought. About the best we can say is that it could have been worse. Our dollar could be cratering, our industries could be girding for great pain, and we could be entering a period of undue uncertainty greater than at any time in recent memory.
Instead, we have peace with a price.
A bully has a tendency once a fight is won to befriend the weaker one, and so it was as Trump talked about “working together” as a continent to ensure the rest of the world does not take advantage of us.
I’m not sure we want him as our watchdog – he talked about our “energy” and “timber” – but we can’t always choose our protector.
So, our covenant with the U.S. and Mexico today has a new term sheet, even a new name: the USMCA, the U.S.-Mexico-CanadaAgreement.
Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue like NAFTA. Sounds like US-MECCA. (How about scrambling the letters a bit? SCAM-U has a certain feel to it. Or CAMUS, like the author of The Fall or A Happy Death.)
Mainly, we can breathe a little easier with the foot off our neck.
The U.S. president can claim victory, which is all-important to him in every aspect of life. Canada can claim, well, that even if we didn’t get the bully to stand down, we were not exactly taken down.
Kirk LaPointe is the editor-inchief of Business in Vancouver and vice-president, editorial, of Glacier Media.
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of
NATHAN GIEDE
Right of Centre
KIRK LAPOINTE Business in Vancouver Guest Column
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
section of pipe at the sinkhole on Winnipeg Street.
MONEY IN BRIEF
Currencies
OTTAWA (CP) — These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Tuesday. Quotations in Canadian funds.
Canada to pursue China trade, despite U.S. pressure
Mike BLANCHFIELD Citizen news service
OTTAWA — Canada will pursue deeper trade ties with China, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday as the government rejected accusations its new U.S.Mexico trade deal ceded sovereignty over that goal to the Trump administration.
The government found support from Canada’s chief negotiator of the original North American Free Trade Agreement, who said an unusual clause covering future free trade with “non-market” countries did not infringe Canadian sovereignty.
The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement allows any of the countries to withdraw from the deal on six-month’s notice if one of the partners enters into a free trade agreement with a non-market economy – language widely seen as referring to China.
The USMCA also requires a member country to provide notice and information to the other two partners if it plans free trade talks with a “non-market” economy.
The clause in the new agreement – which still needs formal approval in all three countries –gives the other partners a say in the text of such a deal.
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — The initial shine from Canada’s tentative trade agreement with the U.S. and Mexico wore off on Tuesday as Canada’s main stock index closed lower on weakness in the key energy, financial and industrial sectors.
The S&P/TSX composite index enjoyed a muted rally on Monday after the deal confirmed Canadian autos wouldn’t face new tariffs, but after the euphoria wore off it ended the day only slightly higher, said Allan Small, senior investment adviser with HollisWealth.
On Tuesday, it closed down 87.20 points to 16,017.23, after hitting a low of 15,987.14 on 248.2 million shares traded.
“(The deal) took away the uncertainty that has been looming over this trade negotiations for quite some time, but at the end of the day I think the agreement itself wasn’t too different than the existing one,” he said.
“I think the market went up on a bit of a relief rally and today we’re back to the grind.”
Small said investors are optimistic about the upcoming earnings’ season, but he expects companies will talk about how tariffs are starting to take a bite out of profits.
On Tuesday, the gold sector led, rising 3.6 per cent, followed by materials.
Healthcare was down 3.6 per cent, led by a 9.8 per cent drop by cannabis companies Aphria Inc. and 6.5 per cent decrease by Canopy Growth Corp. Information technology closed off 2.5 per cent, followed by energy at 1.8 per cent and industrials at almost one per cent.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average set a new record high, gaining 122.73 points to close at 26,773.94 led by gains from Intel, General Electric, Caterpillar and 3M. Small said the Dow’s gain is misleading because it involves just 30 of the largest stocks.
Meanwhile, The S&P 500 index lost 1.16 points to 2,923.43 as banks and technology were down, while the Nasdaq composite fell by 37.75 points to 7,999.55.
After hitting a four-month high of 78.11 cents US on Monday, the Canadian dollar fell, trading at an average of 78.02 cents US. The November crude contract was down seven cents at US$75.23 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was up 7.2 cents at US$3.17 per mmBTU. The December gold contract was up US$15.30 at US$1,207 an ounce.
and improve our trading relationship with them in ways that are beneficial both to Canadians and to everyone,” Trudeau said at an event in Vancouver.
Conservative MPs repeatedly referred to that clause as a “Trump veto” during question period, while trade experts remained divided on whether that was in fact the case.
Trudeau said pursuing deeper trade with China remained a part of the government’s economic diversification strategy that has seen it sign a free trade pact with the European Union, move to ratify the rebooted Trans-Pacific Partnership this fall and push for deeper ties with South American countries.
“Obviously, China is a significant, growing player on global trade. And we, as always, will look for ways to engage, deepen
Canada’s efforts to formally start free trade talks with China stalled late last year and there are no plans for formal talks on the horizon.
Chinese leaders bristled at the Trudeau government’s progressive trade agenda that includes gender, labour and Indigenous rights.
John Weekes, Canada’s chief NAFTA negotiator in the early 1990s, said the new clause is no different from the pact’s original clause that gives any country the right to terminate the agreement on six-month’s notice for any reason.
“I don’t really like it,” Weekes said of the new “non-market” clause. “But in terms of rights and obligations, it doesn’t impose any obligation on Canada not to nego-
tiate an agreement with anybody. We don’t undertake to do that.”
U.S. President Donald Trump is embroiled in a trade dispute with China that has seen the U.S. impose tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to retaliate.
The inclusion of the clause surprised many trade experts, some of whom said it would impede Canada’s trade aspirations with China.
“The U.S. could conceivably terminate for Canada engaging in a free trade agreement discussion with China,” said Cyndee Todgham Cherniak, a Toronto trade lawyer on Canada’s roster for settling disputes under NAFTA.
“This impinges on Canadian sovereignty – the U.S. gets to tell us who we can enter into a free trade agreement with.”
Patrick Leblond, a University of Ottawa trade expert, said it doesn’t give the U.S. a veto over
USMCA writes new rules around online content
Jordan PRESS Citizen news service
OTTAWA — The newly released North American trade pact could prevent large websites from having to quickly take down questionable material in what is being seen as a potential victory for freedom of speech online.
The digital trade provisions in the U.S.Mexico-Canada Agreement include wording that doesn’t hold internet companies liable for content posted from third parties like users, essentially arguing the company is not the publisher, just the host.
Digital policy expert Michael Geist said such safe harbour rules haven’t been part of the Canadian landscape, which is why content like critical, over-the-top restaurant reviews are more swiftly removed in Canada than in the United States.
The wording is a first for the North American trading partners and could set the stage for it to be embedded in Canadian law, said Geist, the Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa.
“This, I think, is actually a good provision. It helps freedom of expression online, it provides some amount of a safe harbour for internet companies that try to do the right thing by removing content in appropriate circumstances and it’s the sort of thing that Canadian law has been missing,” Geist said in an interview.
The three trade partners heralded the agreement-in-principle, which still has to be ratified by all involved, as a major step forward to deal with issues that were in their infancy when the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed a quarter-century ago.
The digital trade provisions could also limit geographical restrictions on where
data is stored and roll back requirements that companies wanting to do e-business have a physical presence in a particular jurisdiction.
The wording is new for the continental trade partners, which didn’t have similar provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement, but it is found in other agreements that Canada has signed.
Still, the agreement also gives governments an out, allowing for exceptions for provincial governments that want to, for instance, keep patient data stored in their jurisdiction.
“There’s no clarity here,” said David Murakami Wood, the Canada Research Chair in surveillance studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. “It’s one of these things where it could mean everything and it could mean nothing.”
Susan Aaronson, an expert on digital trade from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said the USMCA falls short around data rules, which is why she is urging the Trudeau government to think more about a national strategy to figure out how to help data-driven sectors like artificial intelligence and smart manufacturing.
“That’s where it (USMCA) has just totally fallen short and that’s why I think Canada needs to think long and hard about it,” Aaronson said.
Laura Tribe, executive director of the group OpenMedia, said Canada would get to keep what’s called its “notice and notice” system, which kicks in when an internet provider must notify a user about an unauthorized download of copyrighted material like a movie or television show.
The wording in the digital trade chapter could also put Canada at odds with a free trade agreement with the European Union.
Canada’s trade policy. Besides, he added, “Canada would not negotiate a deal that would threaten its access to the U.S. market. The United States as a market remains much more important than China ever will.”
A spokesman for Jim Carr, Canada’s new minister for international trade diversification, said nothing that Canada agreed to in the USMCA would hamper the ability to pursue trade a trade agreement with China.
Joseph Pickerill said Canada is making sure its “interests and values” are protected as it continues exploratory talks with “a complex market” such as China, and while it prepares to send a trade mission there next month.
“The rationale agreed to under USMCA aligns with this approach, and in no way infringes on Canada’s sovereign right to develop commercial relations with any country of its choosing.”
Vancouver home sales down sharply
Citizen news service
VANCOUVER — The Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board says home sales across the region in September plunged more than 40 per compared with the same month last year.
Statistics from the board show 1,595 homes changed hands in Metro Vancouver last month, a 43.5 per cent drop from the 2,821 sales recorded in September 2017.
Since spring, home listing totals have risen to levels we haven’t seen in our market in four years.
— Ashley Smith, Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board
The board says the result for last month also marked a 17.3 per cent decline when compared with sales in August. September sales in Metro Vancouver were also 36 per cent below the 10year sales average for the month. A news release from the real estate board says more homes were listed across Metro Vancouver in September while demand remained below typical levels for this time of year. Board presidentelect Ashley Smith says listings are accumulating as sales slow, easing prices just over two per cent since September of last year, while the composite benchmark price for residential properties has tumbled 3.1 per cent over the last three months.
“There’s more selection for home buyers to choose from today. Since spring, home listing totals have risen to levels we haven’t seen in our market in four years,” Smith said. “Metro Vancouver’s housing market has changed pace compared to the last few years. Our townhome and apartment markets are sitting in balanced market territory and our detached home market remains in a clear buyers’ market.”
The total number of properties listed for sale in Metro Vancouver was 13,084, a 38.2 per cent increase compared with September 2017 and a 10.7 per cent increase since August, the board says.
The benchmark price for a detached home was $1,540,900, a 4.5 per cent decrease from September 2017 and a 3.4 per cent skid over the last three months. The benchmark price of a condominium apartment property was $687,300, marking a 7.4 per cent increase over the last year but a 3.1 per cent slide in three months. Townhomes had a benchmark price of $837,600, up 6.4 per cent since last September but a two per cent decline in three months.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stands during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday.
Sports
Road trip reward
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
After coming up empty in their three previous games this season, the Clarence Fulton Maroons made the seven-hour trek to Prince George seeking a path to victory.
They found what they were after Saturday on the turf at Masich Place Stadium, scoring on their first possession when Quin Williamson punched the ball in from four yards out.
That was an indication it was going to be a long afternoon on the football field for the short-staffed Kelly Road Roadrunners, who went down in defeat 33-7 to the Maroons in their B.C. Secondary Schools Football Association exhibition game.
The Vernon-based Maroons rank as a mid-pack team in the five-team Interior Conference and head coach Mike Scheller liked what he saw out of his group Saturday. There wasn’t much to dislike.
“We’re a pretty decent team and haven’t had a good start to the season – this has definitely been our best game of the year,” said Scheller. “We’ve played some good competition and we’re definitely on the upswing.
“It’s a super facility here. It’s a great honour coming to play here – the Prince George
Maroons get
taste
of victory against short-staffed Roadrunners
It’s a great honour coming to play here – the Prince George teams are always great about traveling all over the province so we wanted to return the favour.
— Clarence Fulton head coach Mike Scheller
teams are always great about traveling all over the province so we wanted to return the favour.”
Fulton led 26-0 at halftime. Williamson scored two majors in the opening half, his second on a 19-yard run. Hayden Catt also found the end zone on a 37-yard pass from quarterback Evan Trottier. Seth Pallister scored on a 10-yard run late in the first half and junior team running back Dayton Inginhall added a third-quarter touchdown run from 12 yards out.
The Maroons were fortified by several call-ups from the junior varsity team and brought 25 players to Prince George. That meant they could rest most of their players with each change in possession, a luxury the Roadrunners, with just 16 players available, did not have.
TJ Nyberg was called into service to take the snaps for Kelly Road, with first-string quarterback Josiah Harder and secondstringer Curtis Zagalia both suspended for an off-field incident. Fulton ripped holes in the offensive line and Nyberg was on the run
constantly trying to avoid getting swarmed and performed admirably, but all that scrambling eventually took a toll. He got sandwiched by two tacklers at midfield late in the third quarter and had to leave the game.
“It wasn’t the biggest hit but it was pretty good, I passed out apparently,” said Nyberg. “I was supposed to be the one catching, not the one throwing, but I think everybody stepped up.”
Nyberg also plays on defence – at cornerback or safety – and by the end of the game the Roadrunners had just three healthy spares.
“The second half is always hard if you’re playing both sides of the ball, but I think we held up pretty well,” Nyberg said. “There’s always room for improvement.
“That’s a good team, their division down south is really tough. The football is very serious. This was just a little road bump. Nothing comes easy, even though we have some experience. I’ve played with some of these guys since Grade 8 but it doesn’t matter how long we’ve been together. Everybody has to
College Heights rolls to another volleyball title
Three tournaments, three titles. For the College Heights Cougars, the season is unfolding in flawless fashion so far. The senior boys volleyball team from College Heights clinched its latest victory on Saturday on home court. The Cougars hosted the Jon Bragg Memorial and defeated the D.P. Todd Trojans 25-16, 25-13, 25-15 in the championship match. The Cougars also won the season-opening Kodiak Classic and D.P.
Todd’s annual tournament. In those two finals, they downed the Trojans as well. In the match for third place at the Jon Bragg, Centennial Christian School of Terrace topped the Duchess Park Condors 27-25, 25-22, 21-25, 25-16. Kelly Road, Bulkley Valley, Chetwynd and North Peace rounded out the field.
Each team had an all-star named, as follows: College Heights, Isaiah Ohori; D.P. Todd, Cole Johnston; Centennial,
Jacob Ringma; Duchess Park, Jonas Singh; Kelly Road, Graham Hepner; Bulkley Valley, Joshua Boone; Chetwynd, Brendan Koehn; North Peace, Michael McDermot.
Local senior boys volleyball teams take a break this weekend. Some will attend the Best of the West tournament in Kelowna, Oct. 12-13.
On the senior girls side, College Heights and the PGSS Polars will be in the field at this weekend’s UBC Okanagan tournament, also in Kelowna.
Caps finally get to raise Stanley Cup banner
Howard FENDRICH Citizen news service
ARLINGTON, Va. — After all of their individual days with the Stanley Cup from Moscow to Minnesota, all of the fountain-diving and beer-guzzling, the parade and the diamond-encrusted rings, Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals get to do something else new for the franchise: raise a banner signifying an NHL championship.
The team and its fans finally will enjoy that rite tonight, before the Capitals open the regular season by hosting the Boston Bruins.
“The atmosphere is going to be unbelievable,” Ovechkin said. “The people are going to be happy. Some might even cry.” The Cup itself, now etched with his name, will be on the ice for the banner ceremony, which is supposed to start 15 minutes before the opening faceoff. And then it’ll be time to play hockey that counts for the first time since a 4-3 victory on Lars Eller’s goal in Game 5 against the Vegas Golden Knights back in June.
Prince George’s
“Once that banner goes up, it’ll be nice closure for everyone that what happened was real,” forward T.J. Oshie said Tuesday after Washington practiced.
“And we can start focusing on the future and trying to do this thing again.”
There will be a different coach in charge of Washington – Barry Trotz left when he didn’t get the sort of contract he wanted and was replaced by one
of his assistants, Todd Reirden – but otherwise, not much has changed: 18 of the 19 players who appeared in the Cup-clinching game are still around.
“The systems and stuff, it’s all the same. So it’s pretty straightforward,” goalie Braden Holtby said about the switch from Trotz to Reirden. “Obviously they have different personalities and it’s going to take some adjusting for everyone, but that almost can be a good thing in that way, because we do have almost the same roster coming back and when you have that happen, complacency can sometimes set in, just because everything’s the same. That little change might help us stay fresh and stay excited about things.” What’s entirely, and inalterably, changed is the whole vibe around the Capitals, who have been around since 1974 and only once before even made it as far as the conference finals. The longtime core of Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom never had been past the second round of the post-season. Whatever sense of doom and gloom that hung over their team for years has now disappeared.
— see CONNOLLY, page 10
come together and work hard, too.”
The Roadrunners didn’t have much to cheer about until the early stages of the fourth quarter, when Brendan Watts, a provincial all-star linebacker who also plays at running back, took a handoff and scampered 22 yards for a major – breaking the goose egg for Kelly Road. Samuel Maganda, called into service as placekicker with Harder suspended and Parent unavailable, nailed the convert.
Roadrunners head coach Ryan Bellamy wasn’t using the lack of numbers as an excuse for the lopsided result but admitted it hurt missing so many of his key players. Already thin at quarterback, the Roadrunners’ two top receivers – Logan Devauld (broken wrist) and Brayden Richards (concussion) – were injured two weekends ago in Kamloops. Starting running backs Jordan Parent and Colton Fors both had work commitments and couldn’t play Saturday. All six play defence as well and their absence left Kelly Road vulnerable.
“We ran into some numbers problems today but we’ll deal with it and be ready to go (this) week,” said Bellamy. “(The Maroons) came up here ready to play, they brought a good squad and it was nice to have them here. They had a couple big licks hanged on them but you can tell they’ve been seasoned well.
— see JUNIOR VARSITY, page 10
Cariboo Cougars stay undefeated
Citizen staff
The Cariboo Cougars skated to a tie and a win in road games against the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs last weekend. On the ice in Burnaby, the teams ended in a 5-5 deadlock on Saturday. In a Sunday rematch, the Cats prevailed 2-0. It was the second weekend of the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League season and saw the 15to 17-year-old Cougars duplicate their results from opening weekend when they tied and then beat the visiting Valley West Giants. With their 2-0-2 record, the Cats find themselves in a fourway tie at the top of the standings. Three other teams – the Greater Vancouver Canadians, Vancouver Northwest Hawks and Okanagan Rockets – sit at 3-1-0. In Saturday’s game, the Cougars took a 5-4 lead with 7:17 left in regulation time but the Chiefs got the equalizer with 2:22 to go. Offensively, Alex Ochitwa paced the Cats with a pair of goals, while John Herrington had a goal and an assist and Curtis Hammond had two helpers. Colton Phillips-Watts was the goaltender of record for the Cariboo club. On Sunday, Xavier Cannon was flawless in the Cougars net with his first shutout of the season. Both Cariboo goals – by Booker Daniel and Brendan Pigeon – came in the second period.
This weekend, the Cougars will be in Abbotsford, where all the BCHMML teams will gather for the league showcase event. The Cats will face the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds on Saturday and again on the holiday Monday. As for the new minor midget Cougars, they will begin their inaugural season this weekend. The Cats will play a tripleheader in Coquitlam against the Northeast Chiefs, with games set for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Kelly Road Roadrunners player TJ Nyberg breaks free from would-be tackler Alan Bargaso of the Clarence Fulton Maroons on Saturday at Masich Place Stadum. The teams met in a B.C. Secondary Schools Football Association double-A varsity exhibition game.
Citizen staff
TWITTER SCREEN CAPTURE IMAGE
Brett Connolly, who assisted on the Stanley Cup-winning goal for the Washington Capitals, has received his championship ring.
Late heroics
Javier Baez of the Chicago Cubs gestures after hitting a run-scoring double against the Colorado Rockies in the eighth inning of the National League wildcard playoff game on Tuesday night in Chicago. The run tied the game 1-1. The Rockies were leading 2-1 in the top of the 13th inning at The Citizen’s press deadline.
Severino on other side of wildcard clash
NEW YORK — Luis Severino gets a wildcard do-over.
After getting just one out for the New York Yankees against Minnesota last year, Severino starts this year’s winner-take-all matchup against the Oakland Athletics tonight.
“I just want to win,” Severino said Tuesday. “If I can go four good innings and then the bullpen comes, that would be great.”
Severino was chosen over J.A. Happ and Masahiro Tanaka despite a second-half slump. Rookie manager Aaron Boone said he made the decision after a staff meeting Saturday, slept on it and finalized it the next day.
“I think he’s equipped in so many ways to handle this, and perhaps most importantly, he’s equipped with amazing stuff and the abil-
ity to dominate big league hitters because he’s such a talented pitcher,” Boone said.
Severino left last year’s wildcard game trailing 3-0 after allowing four hits and a walk. Chad Green, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle and Aroldis Chapman combined for five-hit relief as New York rallied for an 8-4 victory.
“I was too excited,” Severino said. “It was a good experience. Now I’ll take that tomorrow and try to treat that game like a regular game.”
A 24-year-old right-hander, Severino was 19-8 with a 3.39 ERA and 220 strikeouts. He was 14-2 with a 2.31 ERA at the All-Star break but lost six of his next nine decisions before beating Boston and Tampa Bay in his last two outings.
He lost 8-2 at Oakland on Sept. 5, allowing
Junior varsity Roadrunners
— from page 9
six runs – five earned – and six hits in 2 2/3 innings. He threw two wild pitches and Gary Sanchez had two of his major league-high 18 passed balls.
“I think it was a miscommunication between us,” Severino said. “I think we didn’t set the right signs.”
The wildcard winner advances to a Division Series against Boston starting Friday. Boone is including Happ, Tanaka and Lance Lynn as part of a nine-man bullpen tonight.
Severino rebounded last year to beat Cleveland in Game 4 of the Division Series, getting a 5-0 lead and allowing three runs and four hits in seven innings. He lasted four innings in Game 2 of the Championship Series against Houston, a game the Yankees lost 2-1, then gave up three runs over 4 2/3 innings in the 7-1 loss in Game 6.
Connolly pegged as first-liner
— from page 9
“All the talk of jinxes and things like that,” Oshie said, “people can kind of get out of their minds.” Ovechkin, Oshie and Backstrom were among the Capitals who had to sit through a banner-raising as the opponent two years ago in Pittsburgh, when Sidney Crosby and the rest of the rival Penguins celebrated a championship. This time it is Washington’s turn. “You hear all the things going on. That’s the same feeling you want to have yourself, and we’ll have it tomorrow,” Backstrom said. NOTES: D Michal Kempny will miss at least Washington’s first two games. He is on injured reserve after getting elbowed in the head by Blues D Robert Bortuzzo last week. ... Washington claimed St. Louis Blues F Dmitrij Jaskin and reassigned D Jonas Siegenthaler to Hershey of the AHL. ... Fs Jayson Megna and Nathan Walker made the opening-night roster. ... F Brett Connolly is expected to start against Boston in place of Tom Wilson on the top line with Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Wilson’s hearing for his hit to the head of Blues C Oskar Sundqvist is scheduled for today.
Canucks loan Gagner to Marlies
TORONTO (CP) — The American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies have acquired forward Sam Gagner on loan from the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. The move comes after the veteran forward cleared waivers. Gagner, 29, signed with Vancouver as an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2017, agreeing to a three-year, US$9.45-million contract. The native of London, Ont., was coming off a career-high 50-point season with Columbus Blue Jackets, but mustered just 10 goals and 21 assists in 2017-18 with the Canucks. While Gagner will play with the AHL affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver retains the right to recall the winger at any time. Gagner was reportedly looking to join an AHL team based close to his family.
facing College Heights tonight
In the double-A varsity exhibition that followed Saturday at Masich, the College Heights Cougars topped the Salmon Arm Golds 18-12.
The Cougars scored on their second possession, a 20-yard quarterback sneak from Oak Adams. Dawson Day hauled in a short pass from Adams to make it a 12-0 game in
“Missing a couple quarterbacks is challenging but it’s what the team needed to deal with after our trip. It’s good experience for the guys who are here and we’re going to grow and get better from here.” Bellamy was reluctant to use his junior varsity players and risk injury in an exhibition game against bigger and older senior veterans, knowing they have a junior varsity game tonight at Masich (7 p.m.) against the College Heights Cougars, a contest that could move either team into first place in the North Division.
New York-Oakland winner at Boston (Sale 12-4), 4:32 p.m. SATURDAY, OCT. 6 New York-Oakland winner at Boston (Price (16-7), 5:15 p.m. MONDAY, OCT. 8 Boston (Porcello 17-7) at New York-Oakland winner, TBA TUESDAY, OCT. 9 Boston at New York-Oakland winner, TBA THURSDAY, OCT. 11 New York-Oakland winner at Boston, TBA HOUSTON VS. CLEVELAND FRIDAY, OCT. 5 Cleveland (Kluber 20-7) at Houston (Verlander 16-9), 11:05 a.m. SATURDAY, OCT. 6 Cleveland (Carrasco 17-10) at Houston (Cole 15-5), 1:37 p.m. MONDAY,
the third quarter and just before the quarter ended Golds quarterback Chase Henning found the end zone on a short run.
Austin Adams started the fourth quarter with an 80-yard kickoff return to give College Heights an 18-6 lead and Henning brought Salmon Arm to within a touchdown, scoring from 10 yards out.
Each team brought 21 players to the field.
The Cougars had 10 Grade 10 players in the lineup, while the Golds utilized seven from their junior varsity squad. The Roadrunners will now prepare for their next Northern Conference league game Thursday at 8:30 p.m. against the D.P. Todd Trojans at Masich, preceded at 6 by the College Heights-Prince George Polars game. The defending Northern Conference-champion Polars played their first regular-season game Saturday in Vanderhoof, defeating the Nechako Valley Vikings 34-6.
Sharon and Bram saying farewell
Citizen news service
TORONTO — Prolific Canadian children’s entertainers Sharon Hampson and Bram Morrison are signing off.
After playing for generations of families, the duo – formerly known as Sharon, Lois and Bram – say they’re planning a run of cross-country farewell concerts that stretch into next year. The shows mark their 40th anniversary as performers.
Sharon and Bram also plan to reveal a new version of Skinnamarink next year that includes additional lyrics.
In total, four new singles will be released in the coming months, and each reveal will be organized around a public sing-along event.
Sharon, Lois and Bram formed in 1978 and built a burgeoning children’s entertainment business that took off with their bestselling debut album One Elephant, Deux Elephants.
The trio went on to host The Elephant Show, a variety TV series with music and comedy sketches.
Lois Lilienstein died of cancer in 2015.
After her death, the Order of Canada inductees continued playing shows. They also plan to release the new picture book Skinnamarink in September 2019, as their concert dates wind down.
Upcoming performances include stops in Sault Ste Marie, Ont. (Oct 6), Nanaimo (Oct. 10), Kelowna, (Oct. 14), Calgary (Nov. 18) and a number of dates in New Brunswick in May 2019.
Real Peggy Sue dies at 78
Citizen news service
LUBBOCK, Texas — The Texas woman who inspired the 1958 Buddy Holly song Peggy Sue has died at a Lubbock hospital.
Peggy Sue Gerron Rackham of Lubbock died Monday at University Medical Center, according to UMC spokesman Eric Finley. She was 78. The family gave the hospital permission to confirm the death, but asked that no additional information be released, Finley said Tuesday.
Peggy Sue Gerron in 2008 released her autobiography Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue?: A Memoir by Buddy Holly’s Peggy Sue to mark the 50th anniversary of the song.
Gerron, while promoting her autobiography, said material for the memoir came from about 150 diary entries she made during the time she knew Holly. Gerron was born in Olton, Texas, but moved to Lubbock where she attended high school and met Holly and his friends.
“I wanted to give him (Holly) his voice. It’s my book, my memoirs,” she said about her book, according to a 2008 Associated Press story. “We were very, very good friends. He was probably one of the best friends I ever had.”
She married drummer Jerry Allison, from Holly’s rock ‘n’ roll band The Crickets. The couple later divorced.
Her son-in-law, Tom Stathos, on Monday reminisced and told KCBDTV in Lubbock that the song Peggy Sue initially had a different name.
Peggy Sue Gerron unveils her new book
Peggy Sue during a Jan. 11, 2008 press conference in Tyler, Texas.
“It was originally going to be Cindy Lou (Holly’s niece) and that he (Allison) wanted to impress Peggy Sue so he got Buddy to change the name.”
Holly wrote several other popular songs, including That’ll Be The Day and Maybe Baby. He also penned the song-sequel Peggy Sue Got Married.
Holly died at age 22 in a Feb. 3, 1959 plane crash in Iowa that also killed Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson.
A 1978 movie, The Buddy Holly Story, featured Gary Busey in the title role.
A 1986 movie called Peggy Sue Got Married featured actress Kathleen Turner as a character also named Peggy Sue who faints during her 25th high school reunion, then believes she’s gone back in time and reconsiders how her life
turned out. The Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock pays tribute to the singer, musician and songwriter described as “Lubbock’s most famous native son.”
McCartney gets into wedding pic
Citizen news service
WINNIPEG — All you need is love, but having a former Beatle in your wedding pictures doesn’t hurt.
Jen Roscoe and Steve Gregg were getting their official wedding photos taken Saturday alongside the Red River in Winnipeg when one of their friends noticed a guy passing by on a bicycle. He had a hat on. But when you’re one of the world’s most famous music artists, it’s hard to not to be recognized.
“One of my groomsmen said ‘Dude, that’s Paul McCartney,’”
recalled Gregg.
“We just heard someone say ‘Congratulations,”’ added Laurie Dixon, who was taking the couple’s wedding pictures.
McCartney, who had played a concert in the Manitoba capital the previous night, was on a cycling path that ended not far away. So when he turned around and came back, Roscoe and Gregg asked him to be in a couple of photos.
“He graciously said OK, and he asked if we were the... happy couple, and we said yes,” Gregg said.
“The whole thing took about 20 seconds.”
AP FILE PHOTO
Whatever Happened to
HOLLY
Sharon Hampson, Lois Lilienstein and Bram Morrison are shown in Toronto in July 2002.
CP PHOTO VIA LAURIE DIXON AND TAMARA LARGE OF MADIX PHOTOGRAPHY
Paul McCartney greets newlyweds Steve Gregg and Jen Roscoe.
Patricia Dodorico
April 26, 1940 - July 20, 2018
It is with great sadness our family announces the passing of Patricia Dodorico.
Pat lost her courageous battle with cancer on July 20, 2018, with her family by her side. She was predeceased by her father, mother and daughter. Pat was born and raised in the Lower Mainland where she met the love of her life, Lino, and they were married June 28, 1958. They moved to Prince George to further Lino’s career with the BCR in 1965. After leaving Prince George once more Pat and Lino returned in 1994 to the place they called home for so many years. Pat enjoyed many memories with her children, Gord (Erin), Tena (Ron) and Darcy. She loved when her grandchildren, Jennifer (Jeremy, Russell), Allesha (Chris), Shelby (Travis), Cody as well as her 6 great granddaughters would stop in for a visit. Pat only left this world after she celebrated her 60th wedding anniversary and helped welcome her 6th Great granddaughter!!
To the world you are a mother but to your family you are the world
A celebration of life will be held on October 4, 2018, 1-4pm at The Salvation Army Church, 777 Ospika Blvd S, Prince George.
Takeda,Gail
September25,2018
GailpassedawayonSeptember25th,afterashort, courageousbattlewithlungcancer.Shepassed peacefullyinherhome,withfamilybyherside.
BorninVancouverandraisedinPortAlberni,Gail’s familymovednorthinthelate50’s,settlinginPrince George.Shewasanoutgoingandfun-loving teenagerwholovedtheoutdoors,camping,fishing andboating.At19shemarriedTakTakeda.They movedtoBurnsLake,KitimatandVancouverwith theirchildrenMayJaneandJason,beforeputting downpermanentrootsinPrinceGeorge.Thefamily spenttheirweekendsattheircabinonFrancoisLake orskiingatthelocalskihills.Gailworkedinbanking, risingthroughtherankstobecomeaCIBCBranch Manager.Sheinstilledherdriveandworkethicinher children,whobothgrewtohavesuccessful businessesandfamiliesoftheirown.
Gailandhersecondhusband,MaxBernhardt, enjoyed12greatyearstogetherinPrinceGeorge. TheylovedexploringDesolationSoundontheirboat, aswellastravellingBCandAlbertaintheirmotor home."Grammy"lovedtakinghergrandchildren along,sharingherpassionfornature,andespecially theocean.WhenMaxpassedawayunexpectedly, GailmovedtoVancouvertobeclosertoherfamily. Shespent12happyyearsthere,enjoyingher childrenandgrandchildren,andespeciallyherdaily walksalongtheYaletownseawallwithherbichonpoodlecompanionHoney.Shealwayslovedagood discussion,beitaboutpolitics,herfavoriteplacesin theworldorthelatestbookshehadjustdevoured. Shelovedherannualwintertripstovisitfamilyin Mexico,whereshewasaffectionallyknownas"Mama Gina"tohermanyIxtapafriends.Shetravelledthe worldwithherlifelongfriendBarbaraJarvis,sharing amazingadventureswhilecruisingthroughout EuropeandAustralia. Inherlateryears,Gail’sgreatestlovewastimespent withhergrandchildren.Inherfinaldays,she reminiscedthattheirspecialtimestogetherwereher mostcherishedmemories.Gaillivedherlifefullyand passionately.Shelivedwell,workedhard,loved deeplyandlaughedloud.Shewastrulyaninspiration tousall.
GailissurvivedbyherdaughterMJThompson,sonin-lawBobbyandhergrandsonsJoey&Mitch;her sonJasonTakeda,daughter-in-lawChrisandher grandchildrenJake&Erin;hersonErichBillingMeyer,daughter-in-lawCarolineandtheirdaughter Julia;hersistersValerieBerthaumeandSidney Davis;herbrotherAllenDavis(deceased);Tak TakedaandtheentireTakeda,DavisandBernhardt families.Shewillbeespeciallymissedbyheroldest friends,whomeanteverythingtoher:JudyClark, BarbaraJarvis,JanetLoucks,JackieStevens,Peter LayhewandYvonneDrane(deceased). AtGail’srequest,therewillnotbeafuneralservice. Herasheswillbelaidtorestathercelebrationoflife, plannedfornextsummerinVancouver.Inlieuof flowers,pleasedonatetothecharityofyourchoice, inhername.Condolences,aswellasanymemories you’dliketoshare,canbesentto mj.thompson30@gmail.com
Margaret Beverly Long (Seely)
Aug 30, 1921 - Sept 16, 2018
Our dear mother, grandmother, and greatgrandmother died peacefully at Jubilee Lodge in the loving care of family and staff. Margaret was born in Quesnel but grew up in North Vancouver, where she obtained her ARCT piano teaching degree at age 17. In 1940 she obtained her Normal School qualifications and took a teaching position in Palling, BC, near Burns Lake. She met her future husband, Arthur Long, who then enlisted and served in the BC Dragoons, a tank corps that saw action through Italy and Holland until 1945.
Margaret wrote Art daily for five years. They were married January 26, 1946 and returned to Palling, where they started a small logging and sawmilling business. The city girl became camp cook for the crew and mother to three sons. When the boys became school age, the family settled in Palling, where Margaret began her career as a piano teacher, which continued until she was 80. In the following years she was a founding and executive member of the Lakes District Festival Association. Her music touched many generations of local people through accompaniment for church services, weddings, funerals, dances, concerts, and summer camps. She taught elementary school mostly as a District Music Specialist in Burns Lake and Houston, spreading her joy of music to a wide audience. She also taught swimming lessons to many children in Palling and at Mollice Lake Camp. She and Art were avid travelers, with a special love for Africa. Following Art’s death in 1985, she lived in Burns Lake and later moved to Prince George to be nearer to her family. She is survived by: three sons; Sandy (Roberta), Gordon (Linda), and Jamie (Beverly); six grandchildren; and ten great-grandchildren, all of whom considered Gramma Margaret the family Matriarch, Mistress of Limericks, and ultimate arbiter of all things musical. A memorial service will be held in Prince George at Trinity United Church, 3555 5th Avenue on Saturday, October 6 at 2:00 PM. Interment of her ashes in Burns Lake will take place next year.
Aug
1989 - Sept 28, 2018
A son; a brother; a grandson; a nephew; a “cool cousin Kevin”; a friend, a writer; a fireman; a welder; an uplifter; a man who was brave, respectful, caring, funny and lots of wonderful things… above all he was a lover of others to the core of his being. Kev you will be greatly missed by everyone, especially your mom, Claudette Plante, and sister Katie Plante, your extended family and numerous friends. We love you and wish you peace as you join your dad, Norris Plante. A celebration of Kevin’s life and legacy will be held Thursday, October 4, 2018 at 2:00pm, at the Hart Community Center. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Prince George Elizabeth Fry Society will be greatly appreciated. Grace Memorial Funeral Home in Care of Arrangements.
Kevin Norris Joseph Plante
27,
