The Prince George
Citizen
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11,1991
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Sex charged to taxpayers? 8 Tougher sanctions hinted 9
Braves even NL series
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Phone:562-2441 Classified: 562-6666 Circulation: 562-3301
FOREST UNIONS, ENVIRONMENT GROUPS
‘Peace in the woods’ pact eyed
by Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — Major environmental groups and forest-related unions have joined forces in a bid to end confrontation over B.C.’s forest resource.
Eight groups, comprised evenly of union and environmental organizations signed an agreement Thursday that establishes the committee for Jobs and Environmental Peace in the Woods.
President Jack Munro of IWA Canada, the woodworkers’ union, said the agreement represents a recognition that the squabbling
over the province’s forest resources must end.
Missing from the agreement are the federal and provincial governments and native groups.
However, Colleen McCurry of the Vahalla Society said the agreement is only the beginning of a dialogue and natives’ involvement will be encouraged.
Environmental groups have not ruled out future logging blockades but Joe Foy of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee said
Polls show major gain by Liberals
Citizen news services Polls by both Angus Reid and BCTV say the B.C. Liberal party made huge gains following this week’s televised leaders’ debate.
Reid said Thursday he has never seen numbers like those contained in a sample of 601 B.C. adults questioned following the debate.
“I think that anything is possible right now. I think it’s a whole new ballgame.”
Reid’s results were echoed by a telephone poll, conducted Wednesday night for BCTV. It suggests the Liberal party now has the support of 23 per cent of decided B.C. voters in Thursday’s provincial election.
Reid’s preliminary results indicate the NDP is favored by about 40 per cent of the post-debate public, followed by Social Credit and
the Liberals neck and neck in the high 20s.
BCTV’s poll shows an increase of nine percentage points for the Liberals from the previous poll done last Thursday and Friday. The party’s support had fluctuated between nine and 12 per cent during the first two weeks of the election campaign.
This poll suggests the NDP now has 38 per cent support, down from 41 per cent last week, while Social Credit now has 26 per cent, down from 30 per cent.
Both polls claim to be be right, within 4.5 per cent — enough votes to win or lose an election — 19 times in 20.
The Liberals, last elected in the 1975 provincial election, have not had a member in the legislature since 1979.
Worried dad wants son kept locked up
by Canadian Press QUESNEL — Peter Palamarek is campaigning to keep his violent and mentally ill son locked up.
Palamarek, a resident of this Central Interior community 400 kilometres north of Vancouver, warned the town in a poignant, open letter that his son could kill if he is discharged as scheduled on Tuesday from a psychiatric ward in Prince George.
“He is very aggresive and shouldn’t be out on the streets,” Palamarek, 59, said Thursday. “He should be locked up.”
Quesnel Mayor Stephen Wallace is furious at the impending discharge of Douglas Palamarek, 34, from Prince George Regional Hospital’s psychiatric ward.
“Schoolchildren and women have told me they are extremely frightened of this man,” said Wallace.
“The system is failing the town.
We need some help from (the provincial government).”
Palamarek, a severe schizophrenic, has been in hospital at the court’s direction, for two months.
He had been arrested for vandalizing a car, his fourth arrest since April. That’s when an order subjecting him to mandatory anti-psychotic injections was overturned.
Since the order was quashed, he has also been picked up for chasing schoolchildren with a knife and pushing a woman out of an elevator.
Every time he is arrested, he spends a few weeks in hospital and then is released to face the charges.
Douglas Palamarek explained his behavior from hospital.
“I am frustrated with society’s pere eption of the mentally ill and society calling me derogatory names,” he said.
there shouldn’t be any — at least in the short term.
Blockades at several B.C. logging sites this year have resulted in confrontations between environmentalists and forest industry workers.
Many of the disputes have ended in protesters’ arrests after logging companies got court injunctions against the blockades.
“If we are going to protect both our workers and our forests, we must find common ground,” Munro told a news conference to announce plans for the treaty.
He said blockades add stress to the already-dangerous job of logging-
The stated goal of the committee is “developing the means to replace confrontration with co-operation in British Columbia’s forests.”
Foy said the participating groups want to create a situation that gives decision-making power to B.C. citizens and concluded: “I believe we won’t see blockades.”
Munro reacted skeptically.
“I would certainly hope that last
statement is the case,” Munro said. “People should understand it puts enormous pressure on our membership, who are working at very dangerous work, when we are faced with blockades.
There have been at least two previous agreements that were supposed to resolve land-use conflicts: A 1988 Dunsmuir Agreement developed by 34 government agencies, industries and environmental groups and a 1989 accord endorsed in Tofino by 170 representatives of B.C. Indian bands,
trade unions and environmental groups.
The one-paragraph agreement Thursday to negotiate peace was signed by representatives of IWA-Canada; the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union; the Pulp and Paperworkers of Canada; the Canadian Paperworkers’ Union; the Western Canada Wilderness Committee; Greenpeace Canada; the Wilderness Tourism Council; Earthlife Canada; the Sierra Club of Western Canada; the Valhalla Society, and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
TRUCKERS TOLD TO STOP
City used as tire dump site
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen Staff
Prince George has been a dumping ground for rubber tires from as far away as Terrace.
Nobody knows how many large, off-road tires are buried in the landfill site on Heather Road, but the practice was stopped Wednesday by city officials.
J&R Holdings, a trucking firm from Abbotsford, was dumping B-train loads of tires on a fairly regular basis, but drivers have been told “no more,” landfill attendant Bill Tomm said Thursday.
Tomm got the order from city engineering officials to stop out-of-town dumping.
Tomm, who’s had the city landfill contract for four months, says he wasn’t aware the tires were coming from outside the area.
“All I knew was there would sometimes be a pile when I arrived in the morning, which we’d cover up the same day.”
But he won’t “even venture a guess” about how many tires are buried in the site.
Terrace and other B.C. communities, especially in the Lower Mainland, have issued bylaws to ban tire dumping, or have added
controlled gates to prevent unwanted refuse from entering.
Two tire dealers in Terrace, where the banning bylaw went into effect June 1, confirmed the hauling service was offered at $4 per tire.
Blain McKenzie, northern manager for Contract Tire Ltd., said the offer by J&R Holdings had been made, but he never used the service. He has 500 off-road tires piled in his yard.
“At $4 per tire, do you know how much that bill would be?” said McKenzie, who was told the tires were being taken to Prince George.
Jim Chcckley, co-owner of Ce-darland Tire Service in Terrace, has used the service.
“I just shipped 200 tires out at $4 each and I have two more loads to go,” he told The Citizen.
He said he was first told the tires were being hauled to Cranbrook or Surrey marshalling yards, but added,”Last week I heard a rumor they were being dumped in Prince George.”
Calls to recycling marshalling yards in Cranbrook and Surrey confirmed no off-road tires have been received there from the northern half of the province.
Neither Prince George nor the
Fraser-Fort George Regional District have bylaws restricting tires at the landfill site, which is open 24 hours a day.
There is no gate control, either, like ones found in southern landfill sites or in Interior communities like Cache Creek, Kamloops and Williams Lake.
J&R Holdings is also registered with the B.C. environment ministry as a “hauler” of recyclable tires. Company principle Harvey Heinrich is listed as an advisory committee member of the Provincial Scrap Tire Collection, Reuse, Processing and Recycling System.
Off-road equipment tires are becoming increasingly hard to dispose of throughout the province as communities ban them from garbage sites and recycling processes are not yet established.
Recycling processors in the southern half of the province turn car and light truck tires into mats, bumpers and fuel, but are just now considering a process to shred the larger tires for fuel.
Tomm, who accommodates about 200 garbage trucks a week, says gate control will be established at the Prince George dump this month. He says people “won’t recognize the site within a year” because he has a lot of
innovative ideas, including designating garbage to specified areas.
FFGRD launched a solid waste management plan in January to comply with provincial legislation requiring a reduction in waste by 30 per cent in 1995 and 50 per cent by the year 2000. The City of Prince George is working with the regional district on the program.
Environment ministry officials say regulations to ban tires at landfills will be issued as soon as they’re satisfied that collection and transportation systems have been established throughout the province.
Brian Grant, environment ministry solid waste adviser, said tires in landfills will plague communities for generations to come.
“They are a real nuisance. They’re difficult to bury because they tend to float to the surface from trapped air and gases from landfill sites.
“They not only take up space, but can harbor insects and rodents, and are a potential fire hazard.”
The good news is they are a readily usable material which can be turned into other uses, Grant said.
Low tonight: 4 High tomorrow: 12
INDEX
'What can you recommend for my wife? Apart from the obvious."
Ann Landers .... 26
Bridge.................36
Business........22,23
City, B.C..............2,3
Classified .... 30-38
Comics..................28
Commentary...............5
Crossword...............35
Editorial . . 4
Entertainment . 28,29
Family..................26
Horoscope..............36
International............9
Movies.................29
National.................8
Sports..........13-17
Television..............35
| COSMETICS 1,1 1
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
The victim of a collision between a car and a truck at the intersection of 15th Avenue and Ogilvie Street is helped into a neck brace by paramedics. The unidentified woman was taken to Prince George Regional Hospital for treatment after the accident Thursday at 12:30 p.m. The other driver suffered no injuries.
Helping hands
058307002005