PRINCE GEORGE
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THURSDAY, JULY 13,
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 50 CENTS A DAY)
Here's plan to fix health woes
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
The Northern Interior Regional Health Board promised Wednesday that within two years it will have a full complement of doctors and nurses, and perform 1,000 more surgeries a year.
It will also replace an aging nursing home in Vanderhoof during that time and pledged to move the region, in the next decade, from No. 50 to the Top Five in a Maclean’s magazine health survey.
The board delivered the commitments along with a 100-day action plan at its annual general meeting, which attracted about 70 people.
Board chairperson Lorraine Grant said a $ll-million settlement reached recently with the province — $10 million of it for Prince George doctors — will help attract health care professionals. The 100-day action plan includes setting up a full-time office to support recruiting efforts, an aboriginal advisory committee and preparing a surgery waiting list. At least 25 medical specialists and 18 family doctors are needed in the region, as well as 75 nurses.
“Typically, this (the annual general meeting) < is a time to look back,” said Grant. “But it’s time to look ahead — to talk about how to improve health.”
In an interview, Grant said the board wants
to build on the momentum that’s already happening in the community, referring to a health rally last month that attracted 7,000 people to the Multiplex. The rally was organized after 40 doctors pulled their hospital privileges in Prince George.
Grant said the board needs the community’s help, suggesting individuals promote their communities to potential recruits and look after their own health.
She acknowledged that some promises, like replacing the nursing home in Vanderhoof, were dependent on financing decisions from Victoria.
Dr. Paul Murray, who heads up the region’s
medical advisory committee, said the board can achieve its goals of recruiting a full complement of specialists and doctors.
“I think we have a package in place that makes it possible,” said Murray. It’s a matter of organizing a recruitment campaign that includes such things as launching a website, he added.
Joanne Cozac, a patient care manager at Prince George Regional Hospital, was also enthusiastic about publicly setting targets and an action plan. “To be able to communicate the plans and their importance to get the community to understand and support them, that’s very positive,” she said.
TODAY
COMMUNITY
PAGE 13
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INDEX
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Ann Landers..................31
Bridge.......................20
Business ..................22-24
City, B.C..............3,5,6,13
Classified ...............18-21
Comics .......................16
Crossword ....................16
Entertainment ............16,17
Horoscope ...................20
Lotteries....................15
Lifestyles’..................31
Movies........................17
Nation........................14
Sports ....................8-12
Television....................17
World......................15,32
Board eyes deficit
The Northern Interior Regional Health Board could be facing a $4-million deficit this year, if it’s able to run the Prince George hospital’s six operating rooms full time, board member Les Waldie said Wednesday.
“When we get going full bore, we need additional funding,” Waldie said at the board’s annual general meeting.
However, three months into the 2000-2001 fiscal year, the region is running at a modest surplus as it doesn’t have a full complement of medical specialists, he said.
The health board rang in a slight-surplus on its $131-million budget for the 1999-2000 fiscal year.
The health board region stretches from Burns Lake to the Alberta border, north to Mackenzie and south to Hixon.
Close to 73% of the budget went to wages and benefits for the region’s 2,300 staff. Another 12% was spent on supplies, the second largest allocation.
Special medical fund gets boost
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
A education fund started two weeks ago to raise money for a medical faculty at UNBC received a boost from the Royal Bank, which has volunteered to collect donations at its branches.
The bank has also started a drive to raise contributions among its employees in Prince George, Mackenzie, Vanderhoof-and Fort St. James, which will be matched by the bank itself. The financial institution joins local credit unions, which have already been collecting donations.
“The addition of a medical faculty at UNBC will result in further economic growth and a higher standard of living for all residents in northern B.C.,” said Royal Bank official Karl Penner.
The Northern Medical Education Fund was established following a rally at the Multiplex last month, which was organized to send a message to the provincial and federal government that residents want long-term solutions to the region’s medical crisis, which includes a critical shortage of specialists, family doctors and nurses.
The province has just settled a dispute with medical specialists with a $10-million package meant to retain and attract doctors.
Noreen Rustad, who is overseeing the medical education fund, said the amount collected so far has not been tallied.
■ Donations can be made at any branch of the Royal Bank in Prince George, Mackenzie, Vanderhoof and Fort St. James or at the Prince George Credit Savings Union, Spruce Credit Union or by mail to the Prince George Community Foundation, Box 1204, Station A, Prince George, V2L-4V3.
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Shooting victim’s motorcycle was parked in Legion Hall for memorial service.
Friends bid final farewell to slain motorcyclist
by JOHNNY CARIBOU NUNAN Citizen staff
At the memorial service for shooting victim Tracey Lee (Martynuik-Jack) Wolfe on Wednesday afternoon in the Legion Hall on Seventh Avenue, many of the Renegade Riders motorcycle club paid her the ultimate tribute.
The symbol of the club — the club’s colours — were flying.
“Friends do not cry for me, for it’s a better world I see,” read an emotional Cori Mitchell, a close friend of the 28-year-old. Mitchell read a poem from a 15-year-old girl, titled Riding Free, one of many poems recited at the memorial service.
A long table at the front of the room, held pictures and other memories of Tracey. In the middle of the table was Tracey’s black leather vest and her small black lid (helmet).
“I just got to know her but to know her was to love her,” said a woman who didn’t
want to be identified.
About 120 friends and family members gathered to pay tribute, including Mark Guillet, 31, who was shot in the mid-torso last week at the Harley shop in Prince George when Tracey was killed.
And the sombre crowd — in another form of tribute to Tracey — lit a marijuana cigarette and passed it around the congregation as an expression of Tracey’s spirituality.
Other memorabilia in the memorial service that helped celebrate Tracey’s memory was the Harley motorcycle Tracey had been building. On the handle bars of the unfinished purple Harley, a dream catcher had been placed.
“You’ve touched a lot of lives and you will always be remembered,” read Teala Brunzyeel from another poem.
Police have charged Tracey’s estranged husband, Gordon Darrell Wolfe, in her shooting death.
Red-light cameras start clicking next week
canada.com
58307 00100 1 8
by BOB MILLER * Citizen staff
Cameras will be snapping pictures of vehicles that run red lights at four intersections in Prince George starting Tuesday, Inspector Don Saigle of the Integrated Traffic Camera Unit in Richmond confirmed today.
“Drivers run red lights for many reasons, and none are acceptable,” Saigle said in a news release. “Your life and the lives of others demand that you approach an intersection cautiously so you can stop when the light turns red. These cameras are on duty day and night to stop red-light violators.”
The intersections are: Highway 16 at Domano Boulevard, Highway 97 at 15th Avenue, 15th Avenue and Ospika Boulevard and Highway 97 at Austin Road. Run a red light at any of the four locations and you’ll receive a $144 ticket in the mail along with two photos showing the violation.
The four sites were selected because they are high-crash locations and monitoring showed a lot of vehicles running red lights there, said Supt. Steve Leach, commanding officer of the city RCMP detachment.
“Red-light running is a growing hazard in Prince George,” Leach said. “We welcome these cameras to help curb
this dangerous driving behaviour.”
Mayor Colin Kinsley agreed the city has a problem with red-light violations at high-density intersections. “We expect the red-light camera program to go a long way toward increasing road safety in our community,” he said.
One in five crashes in B.C. occurs at intersections with traffic lights and those where drivers jump red lights are most serious because they often involve high speed and side-impact crashes, the news release says. Experiences in other countries show camera enforcement reduces the number of such collisions.
Cost of installing the red-light camera system was shared between the Ministry of the Attorney General and the Insurance Corporation of B.C. Red-light cameras are expected to generate $100,000 to $150,000 a year in fines in Prince George, the ministry says.
Provincially, the program will eventually see 30 cameras rotated among 120 locations throughout B.C. However, drivers will not be able to tell just where the camera is since monitoring units will function at each site, flashing the way the real camera does when drivers run red lights.
Downtown development corporation pondered
by BOB MILLER Citizen staff
Formation of a downtown development corporation could be the vehicle to spur major development in the city core, says Kirk Gable, president of the Downtown Business Improvement Association.
The idea was raised at an open house meeting Tuesday night at which the DBIA and its consultants discussed their downtown development strategy, offering the public a chance to exchange ideas on what should happen.
About 100 people attended the 7 p.m. meeting held in the Keith Gordon room at the library.
Although details are a bit vague at this time, a downtown development corporation would
bring all property owners together, including the city, with shares allocated in proportion to the value of their property, Gable explained.
It would be able to do things like land assembly — creating a critical mass of property for a major development, for example, enabling the corporation to get preferential mortgage rates and attract outside investment.
“It could be seen as a major force in putting these ideas together,” Gable said. “No longer would you be dealing with individual property owners one at a time.”
For example, if someone now wants to develop something like a public market, only the land owners immediately involved would directly
benefit, he said. But if the same project were done through a development corporation there would be some equity for all partners in it — everyone benefits.
“It’s a ways from reality, but the idea garnered a lot of interest,” Gable said. ,
During the first hour of Tuesday’s meeting, the association’s three consultants — Phil Boname of Urbanics Consultants, Norm Hotson of Hotson Bakker Architects Ltd. and Tom Becker of UMA Engineering — outlined the work they’re doing to develop a downtown strategy. This was followed by a question and answer session until 9 p.m. when the formal meeting ended, but Gable said people hung on
until about 10 p.m. talking with the consultants.
Gable said a lot of excitement and enthusiasm was evident at the meeting which he described as one of the best public meetings he’s ever attended.
Gable said he was impressed to see good support from city council at the meeting with Mayor Colin Kinsley, and councillors Gordon Leighton, Bruce Strachan and Dan Rogers on hand.
More meetings — either as public forums or workshops — will take place over the next few months as consultants work toward finalizing an area plan for the downtown, due the end of September.
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