PRINCE GEORGE
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 14,2000
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INDEX
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Bridge......... ........32
Business ....... .....20-22
City, B.C........ .. .3,5,6,13
Classified ...... .....30-33
Comics ........ ........28
Coming Events .. ........29
Crossword ..... ........28
Entertainment .. .....25-28
Horoscope ..... ........32
Lifestyles....... ........23
Movies......... ........26
Nation......... .....14,15
Sports ......... ......8-12
Television...... ........26
World ......... ........16
58307 00200
Ticket to ride
(and ride and ride and ride and ride...);
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
Anne-Marie and Fred Maides of Prince George are taking a vacation to Miami, but the route they’ve chosen is a far cry from the average hop-on-the-plane winter getaway.
To take advantage of a free fare offer by Greyhound Canada, the couple must drive to Whitehorse, Yukon, for departure. They’ll be on the bus about 128 hours before arriving in Miami, with no stopovers.
“We learned about it in the The Citizen on Dec. 18,” said Anne-Marie.
“The story said people could take the trip from the farthest northern point to the most southern point — and if you can prove you did it, Greyhound will pay the fare both ways.”
The 8,920-kilometre trip is offered by Greyhound to promote the company’s integration of Canadian and American bus networks, and offers opportunities to travel anywhere between Canada and the U.S. for $258 return.
The Maideses will have their tickets officially initialed along the route, which takes them through Prince George, Vancouver, Seattle, Chicago and Jacksonville, Fla., and will keep a journal for Greyhound to use in future advertising.
“Reading that article was the beginning of our new adventure. The idea was exciting and challenging, but we mulled it over and over until after Christmas,” said Anne-Marie, a retired health-care worker.
“I guess it’s a way of proving seniors don’t have to sit on their duffs and twiddle their thumbs, or go on cruises that cost a lot of money,” said Fred, a mortgage broker and insurance salesman.
Even the lead agent at Calgary’s Greyhound Canada head office was surprised at the couple’s decision to make the trip, Anne-Marie said.
‘“Are you really going to do this,’ he asked me,
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Fred and Anne-Marie Maides are ready for their marathon Greyhound bus ride.
but he was really enthused, and said we were the first people to take Greyhound up on its offer.” During a five-day stay in Miami, the couple hopes to visit botanical gardens, swim in the Bay of Biscayne and take a day trip to the Bahamas, which is only about two hours away.
They’ve never been to Miami, but are familiar with Whitehorse since their daughter Beth Potter, whom they’ll visit following the trip, lives at Faro, Yukon.
The pair leaves today by car for Whitehorse and
they have given themselves three days in case of inclement weather to board the bus leaving at 1:15 p.m. on Monday.
They have a 30-minute stop in Prince George 5 p.m. on Thesday.
Their homecoming schedule is not yet finalized.
Greyhound’s Go Anywhere tickets must be purchased seven days in advance. The non-refundable tickets are valid for only 30 days and no stopovers are allowed.
City tax rate change seen
by BOB MILLER Citizen staff
The city’s mill rate will have to be changed to meet budget obligations resulting from a major drop in property assessments in Prince George, Mayor Colin Kinsley said Thursday.
He was responding to B.C.
Assessment office figures that show property values within the city have dropped this year from $4.1 billion to $3.88 billion — a decline of roughly $220 million.
The mill rate simply provides a formula through which the city raises what it determines it needs to operate the city. Last year, for example, the property tax portion of the city budget was about $45 million, the mayor said, and the mill rate was adjusted to i/iwci cv
collect that amount. KIN&LEY
In the majority of cases, this meant no tax increase for property owners, but there are always some whose assessment didn’t drop as much as others, and for them the taxes they paid last year might have been higher, he pointed out.
And that’s likely to happen again this year in some cases, even if the city manages to hold the line on spending.
Kinsley defended the practice of adjusting the city’s mill rate, pointing out that during 1992 to 1997, when property values were
climbing, the city lowered the mill rate to reflect that condition. In 1998 and 1999 the mill rate was raised to meet the city’s operating requirements.
“It’s all about averaging,” he said.
If during budget talks, which start Feb. 21, city council determines it can provide all the services the city needs for the year 200.0 for the same amount of property tax as last year ($45 million) then that’s the amount it will requisition, Kinsley said.
The mill rate will be set based on the city tax roll to raise that portion of the budget that comes from property taxes. In this year’s provisional budget, the city anticipates raising $45.4 million from general municipal taxes, special assessments and utility taxation. Kinsley repeated the comment he made during last fall’s municipal election that he’s shooting for no tax hike this year.
“I never promised a zero tax hike,” the mayor said. “But I am committed to keeping a lid on taxes.”
Kinsley said he instructed senior staff in the fall of 1998 to come up with a zero-tax-hike budget for 1999 and they did. He’s put the wheels in motion to do it again this year, but no one will know for sure until final spending figures are in for 1999.
Cause of Bedriesti fire still mystery
It may not be known until today or Monday whether the cause of the Bednesti Lake Resort fire can be determined, says Ken Dahl, fire safety officer with the provincial fire commissioner’s office.
“There’s not a great deal to work with at this time,” Dahl said Thursday.
Dahl and an RCMP constable spent Tliesday afternoon and evening and all day Wednesday at the scene.
The fire destroyed the main building at the
Highway 16 landmark, 50 kilometres west of Prince George. The coffee shop, dining room, lounge and convenience store were destroyed in the fire late Tliesday morning.
Investigators are looking at a couple of possible causes, Dahl said. Electrical problems are one. “We’re looking strongly at that.”
But if a source of ignition cannot be isolated by early next week, the cause will have to be officially listed as “undetermined,” Dahl said.
Pubs to protest by pulling Keno plugs
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
A number of pubs in Prince George plan to" unplug B.C. Lottery Corp. Keno machines and remove lottery pull-tabs to protest the Workers’ Compensation Board’s new smoking regulations.
“We want to hit the government where it hurts — in the pocketbook — and show that we can hurt them financially just like they are hurting us financially,” said BX Pub
owner George McDonnell, spokesman for dissident pub owners in Prince George. He said the Keno machines and pull tabs will be removed Jan. 24.
It was also learned Thursday that the provincial body, the B.C. Liquor Licensee and Retailers Association (formeily the B.C. Pub Association), intends to start court action Tuesday against the WCB regulations, but the details are not yet released, McDonnell said.
The new regulations ban smoking in all indoor public places where workers serve, in order to protect them from second-hand smoke.
Other Prince George pubs are complying with the regulations.
In the Peace River region, about 200 hospitality workers plan a demonstration in Fort St. John on Jan. 24 at the WCB office, city hall, liquor store, and the Peace-Liard Community Health Unit
Liberal leader says his party would cut forestry paperwork'■
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
Opposition leader Gordon Campbell proposed welcome changes reducing bureaucratic paperwork for the forest industry in his speech to the TrucKfLoggers Association Thursday, says the president of the Prince George Chamber of Commerce.
Lome Calder said he especially liked Campbell’s call for a results-based policy in enforcing the forest practices code and a promise to reduce paperwork by one-third within three years.
“That’s just what we called for in the B.C. Business Summit,” Calder said Thursday.
Campbell addressed 400 delegates at the Truck Loggers’ Association conference Thursday at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre. The convention concludes today.
Forest companies are often overwhelmed and have to devote excessive staff time completing paperwork under the Foresj Practices Code before they can even begin cutting timber for market, Campbell said. While the industry wants to maintain the Forest Practices Code, they want it to be results-based. That would mean a forest company would cut the timber according to its best interpretation of the code, and forests ministry officials would assess penalties for any infractions afterwards.
Campbell further said a Liberal government would cut paperwork by one-third within three years. In addition, he called for stumpage, or provincial timber-cutting fees, to fall within days or a couple of weeks of a fall in lumber prices, instead of the current lag of three to six months between a fall in the lumber market and a fall in stumpage rates.
No one in the forest industry or in the Official Opposition has provided the B.C. Forests Ministry with a copy of a result-based policy they have worked out for implementing the Forest Practices Code, said Forests Minister David Zirnhelt, Cariboo South MLA.
While Campbell calls for reducing paperwork for the industry by one-third, the current NDP government has already reduced paperwork by one-half on its own initiative.
“He’s long on politics, but short, short, short on policy,” Zirnhelt said.
Campbell and some forest industry representatives seem to forget the Forest Practices Code came into being because of threats of major boycotts of B.C. forest products overseas and because of many B.C. residents’ own concerns about the quality of forest practices in the province.
“The Forest Practices Code was brought in to save our markets,” Zirnhelt said.
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