PRINCE GEORGE
High today: 13 Low tonight: 4 Details page 2
TUESDAY, APRIL 23,1996
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 50 CENTS A DAY)
Tax hike reflects Multiplex costs
Homeowners will pay 3.2 per cent more this year to city
by DON SCHAFFER Citizen staff
When your taxes go up this year, you can blame the Multiplex.
Operating expenses and maintenance of the city’s spiffy new 6,000-seat arena accounts for most of the tax increase heading this way after Prince George city council approved the new tax rates Monday night.
Finance director Bill Kennedy confirmed that fact in response to a ques-
Fast growth seen in B.C.
VANCOUVER (CP) — British Columbia’s economic growth this year will top the rest of Canada, as well as the United States and Japan, the B.C. government forecasts.
The Vancouver Province reported that government sources say the forecast, normally released as part of the B.C. budget, also predicts 40,000 new jobs will be created in the province over the next year. That compares with 29,000 jobs last year.
The main growth areas are the service sector and “other” manufacturing — everything except wood and paper manufacturing.
Other highlights:
■ Strong economic growth of 2.7 per cent for the year. That compares with forecasts of 2.1 per cent for Canada and 2.0 per cent each for the United States and Japan.
■ The B.C. economy will continue to grow by an average of 2.6 per cent annually for the remainder of the decade.
■ Unemployment is expected to drop to 8.9 per cent, slightly lower than the national average of about 9.5 percent.
tion from Coun. Don Bassermann.
“Virtually, the vast majority of the increase is on account of the operating costs of the Multiplex,” Kennedy said during the council session.
The expected increase in city residential taxes will average 3.2 per cent as a result of council’s approval of the tax rate, proposed and recommended by Kennedy’s department.
The increase for the average urban residential householder will be S31.
The average increase in commercial tax will be 6.2 per cent.
Bassermann, often mentioned as a possible mayoral candidate for this year’s civic election, wanted to nail down exactly how much of the increase was generated by the newest civic facility.
“It seems to me that if you take away the Multiplex, the increase is very small,” he said.
Kennedy agreed, saying just over
three per cent of the 3.2 per cent raise is due to the rink, home of the Prince George Cougars, Mowat Cup playoffs, monster truck and professional wrestling exhibitions and numerous large concerts.
Kennedy stressed the increase is preliminary, since many of the figures are educated projections — some of the final figures the rates are based on aren’t final.
Earlier Monday, the finance direc-
tor said even if the rates were final, the figures wouldn’t reflect whatever taxes will he imposed from other agencies.
School taxes, for instance, are not covered in the figure.
“We don’t have the figures for school taxes or other things,” he said. “We’ll really have to wait two or three weeks for the final figures.”
More on city taxes, page 13
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Citizen photo by Dave Milne
ANYTHING TO HELP THE KIDS — Vanway elementary school principal Lee Bleecker doesn't usually kiss pigs — hardly ever actually — but he did it Monday to help B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. Students raised money to help the hospital and they could place it in jars designated to certain people. Whoever's jar had the most cash in it got to kiss Hampton, who was on loan from the Little Hovel gift shop and petting farm. The kids raised $486.77 and Lee got to know Hampton a little better.
APPEAL DELAYED, RALLY GOES AHEAD
by DAVID HEYMAN Citizen staff
The appeal of the sentence handed a drunk driver who killed three members of the Ciccone family in Prince George last September has been delayed at the request of the defence.
The new date is expected to be announced today, when defence lawyer Richard Gibbs officially asks for the adjournment in the B.C. Court of Appeal in Vancouver.
David Kevin Johnson pleaded guilty in December to three counts of impaired driving causing death and one count of leaving the scene of an accident. Johnson ran a red light at the intersection of the Yellowhead Highway and Domano Boulevard, causing a three-vehicle pileup. Former Prince Rupert alderman Jim Ciccone, 43, his daughter
Emma, 3, died at the scene. Rylan Ciccone, 12, died in hospital.
His brother Devin, 15, survived the crash and moved back to Prince Rupert with his mother Betty, who was not in the accident.
Johnson was sentenced to three and a half years in jail.
The Ciccone family, friends and average citizens were shocked and outraged at what they thought was a light sentence. The Crown had asked for a six- to eight-year sentence; the maximum sentence for impaired driving causing death is 14 years.
Gibbs says he needs the extra time to look over the Crown’s 25-page, 20-case argument filed April 17 which he didn’t see until late on the 19th.
“That’s simply no time,” said Gibbs in an interview Monday. “I had one business day to respond to him.”
At the B.C. Court of Appeal, three judges listen to the arguments of both sides and look at the facts from the original trial. They call no new evidence or witnesses.
Appellate Crown lawyer Alexander Budlovsky says the entire hearing for this case should take no more than two hours. The judges can either allow or dismiss the appeal the same day or reserve their judgment. If they accept the appeal, they can impose a new sentence, possibly on the same day.
The B.C. Court of Appeal is the highest court in the province, and its rulings can be appealed only to the Supreme Court of Canada.
A rally to protest light sentences to drunk drivers will go ahead today at 10 a.m. at the Plaza 400 building downtown which is home to the provincial courts in the city.
B.C. welfare: Gov’t claims huge savings
by Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — B.C. welfare reforms introduced last fall have brought a decline in applicants and savings that could reach $470 million, Premier Glen Clark said Monday.
“The (former) welfare system has not been working for people on it or for people paying for it,” said Cla*k in releasing a report on B.C. welfare bv the accounting firm KPMG.
Clark, widely expected to call an election soon, said the B.C. Benefits program introduced in November and tougher requirements for collecting welfare are providing incentives for people to get off income assistance.
“Some governments across the country, like The (former) Wel-
Alberta and Ontario, fare system Has
have chosen wholesale , . , .
cuts to the social safety not been working
net in what I would say for people OH it Or would be a rather brutal _ . . .
way to cut costs,” said for people paying
Clark. for it.”
Among the B.C. measures is a requirement for people to reside here three months before being eligible for assistance. The monthly payment for employable claimants with no dependents was reduced to $500 from $546.
Social Services Minister Joy McPhail told a news conference welfare recipients have dropped for the first time in seven years although they had been increasing since 1989.
There are still about 350,000 people on welfare in British Columbia, she said.
McPhail said other welfare reforms will be introduced this year, including one requiring students collecting welfare to apply instead for student loans which must be repaid.
The B.C. Benefits program doesn’t focus totally on cuts. It includes a family bonus of $103 a month for each child in low-income families, beginning in July. Basic vision and dental care are now available free to those children.
A Youth Works program is financed partly by the reduction in welfare rates for single employable adults.
Ron Hikel, the study’s author, said the policy changes had not been in place long enough to allow for anything but projections. “Nevertheless, the present review presents a reasonable best estimate using existing knowledge,” Hikel snys in his report. Should the welfare reforms continue, Hikel estimated a reduction in income assistance cases of nine to 14 per cent.
INDEX
SPORTS
Ann Landers.................14
Bridge......................21
Business ................16,17
City, B.C..............3,13,15
Classifieds..............20-23
Comics .....................18
Commentary ..................5
Community Calendar ....14
Crossword ..................18
Entertainment...............19
Horoscope ..................21
Lifestyles..................14
Movies......................19
Nation ....................6,8
Sports ...................9-12
Television..................19
World .......................7
58307
0010G
■ The 3-D archery season had its unofficial opening Sunday when the Silvertip Archery Club staged a Flat Field Shoot at its facility east of Prince George. Page 9
WORKPLACE
■ Peter Drucker is North America’s business guru. And he says every industry is going to have to consider global factors in the new
knowledge-based world economy. Page 24
CANADA
■ Rebel MP John Nunziata has been turfed from the Liberal caucus, putting his political future in doubt while being cast as a martyr for his anti-GST stand. Another Liberal MP, Dennis Mills, joined him, saying he’ll sit as an “Independent Liberal.” Page 6
■ More desk jockey policemen could be out patrolling a beat under a proposed national rejigging of RCMP administration. RCMP brass have prepared a proposal to merge 13 divisions across the country into
four regions. Page 8
STARTING OVER
■ Making a major career change is a course fraught with hazards, but it can be done successfully. Meet some people who dared take that big step. Page 24
WORLD
■ Former Communists did well as Italy took a turn to the left, results from a national election showed Monday, but just how far left was in question as disputes boiled among factions trying to form a coalition government. Page 7
COMMUNITY
This morning’s top local headlines:
UNBC institute to play a major role /page 3 How city reaches its tax rate/page 13 Heart, stroke risks emphasized/page 13 City man awarded bravery medal /page 15
CITY
■ A call for construction tenders went out again Monday to renovate the Prince George Playhouse. Planners have cut renovation work in half to reduce the budget to $1.9 million from the initial $3-million-plus plan. Page 13
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