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PRINCE GEORGE
High today: -3 Low tonight: -10 Details page 22
Citizen
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31,1999
$1.00 (HOME DELIVERED: 50 CENTS A DAY)
TODAY
COMMUNITY
PAGE 13
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MOST COMPLETE IV LISTINGS
IN THE CENTRAL INTERIOR
In Today's
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Citizen
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Cornered by Baldwin
“Two thousand years. Wow, where did the time go?”
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INDEX
Ann Landers			40
Business 			28-30
City, B.C		.. .3,5-7,13
Classified 			20-23
Comics			38-40
Coming Events ..		31
Crossword 			38
Entertainment ..		34-36
Horoscope			22
Lifestyles			38,40
Movies			34,35
Nation			8,14
Sports 			9-12
Television			34,36
World			15,24
58307 00200
City gears for Y2K bug
(just as a precaution!)
by BOB MILLER Citizen staff
When the clock strikes midnight tonight, city staff will be on the job, looking to exterminate — but certainly not expecting — the dreaded Y2K computer bug.
City officials say they have reviewed its Y2K preparations and all systems are go for water distribution, wastewater collection and treatment, business systems and traffic lights.
RCMP will be at all three Community Policing Access Centres — downtown, at Spruceland and on the Hart Highway — and firefighters will be in service vehicles at Blackburn Junior Secondary School and at the following malls: College Heights, Hart Highway, Parkwood, Pine Centre and Spruceland.
Essential city staff will be on duty today and into Saturday to deal with any unexpected events that may occur.
However, experts say people should be prepared for the disruption of services that could happen at any time. Be prepared to be self-sufficient for three days:
■ If you are not on a city water system (gravity fed from reservoirs) have enough drinking water on hand to keep the home supplied for three days. Adults will consume four litres ^ day, kids somewhat l^ss.This does not include water for washing, cooking food Or flushing a toilet.
■ Keep enough non-perishable food to last the household for three days, remembering that some canned or pre-packaged food requires water to prepare.
■ Try to ensure an alternate heat source is available, and failing that, arrange to stay with someone who does have a fireplace or wood or gas stove. Avoid the buildup of carbon monoxide by ensuring proper ventilation for fireplaces and wood stoves.
■ If the heat goes off close off most of the house and keep open only the minimum number of rooms for living space. Keep plenty of blankets and warm clothes on hand at all times.
■ Keep on hand a manual can opener, candles and/or flashlights and a first-aid kit for injuries as well as a supply of regular medications. Have a battery-powered radio to listen to information from local emergency officials.
More on Y2K pages 3,5,8 & 14
.. .family fun
New Year’s Eve activities organized by the city’s leisure services department will be family-oriented. 1 A family skate is scheduled today from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Prince George Coliseum. And there will be a family swim at the Prince George Aquatic Centre from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Admission to both events is $2 per person. On New Year’s Day, families are invited to a free skate at the Coliseum from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
...certificates
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
Peter Stan, technical electrical foreman in environmental services with the City of Prince George, shows the SCADA master controller. This panel, with the use of two-way radios, monitors and can control the city’s water and sewage systems.
All children born in B.C. on Jan. 1 will receive a special certificate of congratulations plus a commemorative birth certificate from the provincial vital statistics agency, says a press release from the Health Ministry.
Each baby will receive a framed certificate signed by Health Minister Penny Priddy marking the child’s birth. Parents will receive their choice of six designs, free of charge.
About 115 B.C. babies are expected Jan. 1.
Gov’t action sought in
by BOB MILLER Citizen staff
Local business leaders have echoed a call by the B.C. Chamber of Commerce for Premier Dan Miller to step into the four-day-old lockout at B.C. Rail.
Prince George Chamber of Commerce president Lome Calder said he understands some lumber operations are shut down right now but the lockout won’t have to go on too long before it has an impact.
“Anything to get this thing concluded sooner rather than later is good,” Calder said of the step taken by the B.C. Chamber.
“We’re concerned about any stoppage of production due to a labor dispute,” he said, adding the local chamber wants to see the situation resolved before it does real harm.
Dale McMann, CEO of the P.G. Region Development Corp., said the corporation has not yet had an opportunity to discuss the B.C. Rail situation, but it’s fair to say there’s a great deal of concern because the
freight carrier plays such a large role in the regional economy.
McMann said resource industries here have had a difficult time over the past two or three years because of the economy and don’t need any added burden on them at this time.
John Winter, president of the B.C. Chamber, issued a news release Thursday. “We don’t think B.C.’s beleaguered economy can take much more of this,” said Winter. “The premier has to take steps now to get talks back on the rails or any progress realized by the forest sector in recent months will be for naught.”
In the statement, Winter said his concerns are based on the continued labour strife affecting B.C. business and the damage it is causing the
Next paper in 2000!
The Citizen will not publish Saturday, New Year’s Day.
Publication resumes Monday, January 3, 2000.
Have a safe and happy New Year!
province s reputation as a tral partner.
“Northern communities are expecting some improvement in the year ahead,” he said. “The well-being of existing trade is being compromised when we can no longer rely on a significant transportation system.”
Winter said 1999 was a disaster for business and whatever slight recovery is forecast for 2000 is already in jeopardy unless exports can be set to market at a competitive rate.
The B.C. Chamber of Commerce represents more than 26,000 businesses in the province from 117 local Chambers of Commerce.
Faced with 72-hour strike notice from its 1,600 unionized employees, B.C. Rail shut down its operations Tuesday, locking out about 2,000 of its employees along its 1,573-km line from Fort Nelson through Prince George to North Vancouver.
Locally about 490 employees are affected by the lockout, 390 of them union members.
Canfor chief our P.G. Newsmaker of the Year
The Prince George Citizen has chosen Canfor CEO and president David Emerson as Newsmaker of the Year for 1999.
Emerson steered the forest products giant through its acquisition of Northwood Inc. in one of the biggest forest industry moves in the past 50 years.
The new Canfor is the largest manufacturer of lumber in Canada, and No. 3 in North America behind only Georgia-Pacific and Weyerhaeuser.
It also made Canfor the second largest producer of pulp in Canada.
Emerson has already said the operations base of the largely northern B.C. and Alberta company will be in Prince George.
“This will put Prince George right at the top of the heap as a forest producing centre in the world,” Emerson said at a news conference to announce the $635-million buyout, which included acquiring $ 170-million of Northwood debt as well.
The buyout was the latest in a series of industry acquisitions that is leaving fewer, bigger companies, which analysts say is necessary to remain competitive globally. But it
was the first move by a B.C.-based company to buyout another.
“For Canfor, growth was a real imperative, standing still was not an option,” said Emerson during the announcement. “And all roads led to Prince George and Northwood. It’s a perfect fit into a new Canfor.”
The new Canfor has an annual allowable cut in B.C. of more than eight million cubic metres, which includes about 30% of the Prince George region’s cut. It now owns seven sawmills in northern B.C. and three pulp mills in Prince George.
EMERSON
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