PRINCE GEORGE
High today: 5 Low tonight: 0 Details page 2
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10,1996
Serving the Central Interior since 79/6
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 50 CENTS A DAY)
Community rallies to help Games
But accommodation still needed for many young athletes
Citizen staff
Response to a weekend plea for billets for athletes attending the Northern B.C. Winter Games has been good, say Games organizers.
The plea was issued Saturday, a month before the Games’ start, when only 75 of the required 1,000 billet homes were confirmed. Since then Prince George families have opened up their homes with a rush of applications.
Late numbers weren’t available
at press time but billet organizer Martine Goddard said the applications are coming in.
She stressed that even though the response has been good in the past two days, many billets are still needed.
All children younger than 18 must be billeted according to Games’ rules, and close to 2,000 kids are scheduled to hit B.C.’s Northern capital from Feb. 9 to 11.
If a people are willing to billet
tar
WTaTaYft
children, they must be prepared to:
■ Take at least two kids;
■ Pick up the kids on Thursday night from their buses at Prince George Senior Secondary School;
■ Provide breakfasts and dinners during their stay here;
■ Provide transportation to the athlete’s sports venue; .
■ And give them a clean area to sleep in (the kids bring their own foamies and sleeping bags).
Billet applications are avail-
able at the Games’ office on 3477 15th Ave., the Public Library, the Games’ kiosk in Pine Centre Mall, the Civic Centre, Safeway, the Overwaiteas, the downtown Bank of Montreal, the three CIBC locations, the Scotia Banks, the main Royal Bank, the Coliseum, the Family Y, Northern Computers,
Northern Hardware and Spee-Dee Printers.
Citizen photo by Chuck Nisbett
ROMP Sgt. Gary Lenz surveys scene of spectacular accident on Highway 97 South south of Sintich Road on Tuesday. Damage is estimated as high as $200,000.
Spectacular highway accident triggered when van hit moose
Logging truck slams into tow truck, pickup truck and police car
by DAVID HEYMAN Citizen staff
Police have not yet decided whether to recommend charges after a spectacular early-morning accident on Highway 97 Tuesday that destroyed four vehicles, slightly injured three people and cost at least $200,000 in damage.
Prince George RCMP Const. Gord Molendyk said late Tuesday afternoon investigators were still hard at work trying to figure out why a fully-loaded logging truck slammed into a tow truck, then a pickup and a police car before careening into the ditch and spilling its logs.
Molendyk said the incident started at 6:40 a.m. after a mini van driven by Giancarlo Bellagamba, 62, of Surrey hit a moose on Highway 97 south about two kilometres south of
the Sintich Trailer Park.
Bellagamba’s damaged van wound up in the northbound lane perpendicular to the traffic. A tow truck was called.
Const. Mike Sim arrived a few minutes later and Bellagamba sat inside the police car to give a statement.
When the tow truck arrived, it backed up across the southbound lane, also perpendicular to traffic, and the driver, Darryl Wendland, 27, hopped out. Before he hooked the vehicles together he saw a southbound logging truck bearing down fast. Realizing it wasn’t going to stop, lie jumped into the ditch.
The logging truck, driven by James Hall, 45, of Quesnel, plowed into the tow truck, causing it to burst into flames. The logging truck con-
tinued into the police car, containing Const. Sim and Bellagamba, and a parked pickup truck driven by Lief Tevely, 39, of Buckhorn, forcing both vehicles off the road.
The logging truck then hit an abutment in the ditch and the logs spilled out, crushing the cab. Hall was found pinned inside and crews had to cut the logs and use the Jaws of Life to remove him.
Const. Molendyk said the accident will cost the insurance companies at least $200,000. He says the logging truck, a 1996 Kenworth, is a writeoff along with the 1989 tow truck. The pickup and the police car suffered significant damage and may also have to be written off. The mini van suffered only front end damage after the collision with the moose, which died at the scene.
PULP MILLS INVOLVED IN CANCER STUDY
Citizen staff
The three pulp mills in Prince George are involved in a provincewide study to find if working in their industry is hazardous to your health.
After almost five years, the first results are expected to be announced soon, says Garth Decker, vice-president pulp and paper manufacturing for Canfor here.
The B.C. Cancer Agency, with money from the forest industry, is looking at whether pulp mill workers have health problems more often than the general public.
More than 30,000 people who have worked in the industry have been tracked to see if their death rate from cancer is different from other people’s.
Dr. Pierre Band of the B.C. Cancer
Agency is expected to announce initial results before snow leaves Prince George.
“The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada and the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada are as concerned about a healthy environment as we are. They’ve been involved with the study since the start,” Decker said Tuesday.
NEGOTIATOR GETS $370,000 FOR TREATY TALKS WORK
SouthamStar Network
VANCOUVER - The negotiator representing Canada in treaty talks with the Nisga’a Tribal Council was paid more than $370,000 last year, according to federal figures.
David Osborn was the highest-paid consultant hired on contract last year by the department of Indian Affairs to help settle land claims with B.C. native Indians.
He earned $372,788, just slightly more than lawyer Tom Molloy, chief federal negotiator for the north-central region of the province, whose contract is worth $369,364.
That’s more than most tribal organizations in the province have been given in loans from the federal government to prepare themselves for treaty talks with B.C. and Canada.
Rather than using its own staff, the federal government hires consultants to head some of its treaty negotiation teams. Their contract figures include fees and some expenses.
The federal treaty negotiation office in Vancouver defended the payments to its chief federal negotiators, saying the positions carry great responsibilities.
“Their contract values are commensurate with the level of expertise we think is required so
Canada can be represented adequately at the negotiating table,” said Lome Brownsey, acting executive director at the treaty office.
He could not say how much of the amounts were fees and how much were expenses.
By comparison, salaries for department bureaucrats involved in B.C. treaty talks range from $38,000 to $93,000. Tribal negotiators are paid roughly $60,000 to $75,000.
The contracts for the two negotiators are among 86 funded by the treaty office over the past two years. The total value of those contracts exceeds $2.5 million.
The treaty office hired consultants to write speeches, teach negotiators how to speak to the media, interview candidates for jobs, design a logo and provide advice on fisheries, forestry and taxation issues.
Details of treaty office spending were requested by The Vancouver Sun last August. They were released Tuesday under federal freedom of information laws.
Reform native affairs critic John Duncan said his MP’s budget is half the amount paid to Osborn. And he questioned some of the expenditures — such as $6,400 for a logo and $5,800 to develop a “corporate culture” for the treaty office.
NATION
Ann Landers..... .......15
Bridge.......... .......17
Business ........ ... .22,23
City, B.C........ . . .3,7,15
Comics.......... ........8
Coming events ... .......15
Crossword ...... ........8
Entertainment ... ........9
Horoscope ...... .......17
Lifestyles........ .......15
Marketplace..... . . . .16-19
Movies.......... ........9
Nation .......... .....5,21
Sports .......... . . . .10-12
Television....... ........9
World .......... ........6
minutes
3830?
0010G
■ The man in charge of a UN peacekeeping mission to Rwanda in 1994, Canadian Maj.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire, received the Legion of Merit from the U.S. in a ceremony Tuesday. He won distinction for leadership that saved thousands of lives during the recent strife. Page 21
■ A woman, born back when horse and buggy was the rule of the day, who lived to see the space age,
VT'v: .r
has died in Owen Sound. Ismay Ann Cruickshank was 109. She said of her longevity “I don’t really understand it. I just keep on going.” Page 21
TELEVISION
Times have changed. It used to be that people who did the talking on television were celebrities. Now it’s the common folk — some with bizarre problems — guests doing the talking on the dozen or so daytime syndicated talk shows. Page 9
JUSTICE
■ Women jurors understood
Madonna’s fears and needed little convincing to convict the man accused of stalking the entertainer. Page 9
COMMUNITY
■ Leisure Services will soon be asking for your opinion whether the city should have an arts policy, and if so, what it should be. Questionnaires are almost completed and should be out soon. Page 13
■ Water and sewer systems are expensive, but who would want to try living without them? Sewage treatment upgrading this year will cost $11.3 million, while water services will add another $6 million to
your tax bill. Page 13
TRENDS
■ A minority of Canadians, primarily those who are young and single, resent taxes so much they have no qualms about cheating, a survey suggests. They say those who play by Revenue Canada’s rules are fools, that tax evasion is rampant and they oppose any sort of government crackdown. Page 24
WINNERS
■ Elaine Hauck gives a lot and has a lot to give to the city that’s been her home for 30 years. She helps with children’s grief counselling through the Hospice Society and volunteers at St. Vincent de Paul, doling out sandwiches Monday nights. For Elaine, being involved in the community pays off. “I get something out of it. I enjoy people.” Page
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