High today: 25 Low tonight: 11 Details page 2
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19,
COMMUNITY
PAGE 15
Summer in the city
Cornered
by Baldwin
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INDEX
Ann Landers____ ........16
Bridge......... ........26
Business ....... .....20-22
City, B.C........ .. .3,5,6,15
Classified ...... .....23-26
Comics ........ ........18
Crossword ..... ........18
Entertainment .. ........19
Horoscope ..... ........26
Lifestyles....... ........16
Movies......... ........19
Nation ........ .......7,8
Sports ......... .....10-14
Television...... ........19
World ......... .........9
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PRINCE GEORGE
Citizen
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
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UBC joins doctor talks
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
The Northern Interior Regional Health Board and UNBC will be exploring ways to resolve the region’s doctor shortage in discussions today with University of B.C. officials.
The talks include examining if it makes sense to set up a medical faculty at the northern university, and looking at expanding a program that trains half a dozen family doctors at Prince George Regional Hospital each year now.
UNBC president Dr. Charles Jago says the northern university has made it clear it wants to play a more active role in health care training, as evidence indicates health profession-
als trained in the North are more likely to stay.
“The question is at what level and what focus,” said Jago. “Would we have a complete medical school of our own, or would we have some component parts of a broader medical training program that is provincial in scale? ... I think what is clear is that the provision of health care training in B.C. has to be done in such a way to meet the needs of the entire province.”
But Jago said it’s time to act quickly, generating a plan perhaps within four months to one year — but sooner than later.
The health board is also supporting expanded medical training in the
North. In a health action plan it released last week, the board cited the start of a northern medical school as one of its goals.
Board CEO Dave Richardson said some of the ideas are not new, but the momentum to push them through has increased since a doctors’ walkout in Prince George sparked a rally last month that attracted 7,000 people concerned over the state of health care in the region. “The issue of rural practice has come to the government’s attention, and they’re recognizing there’s strong evidence they need to do something more aggressive,” he said. “We’re very happy about that.”
Richardson and Jago, and other
senior UNBC and regional board officials, will meet with UBC president Martha Piper and Dr. John Cairns, the dean of B.C.’s only medical school.
The UBC officials will also get a chance to talk to representatives of the recently-established Prince George Citizens Health Group, which is chaired by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Glen Parrett.
Gord Leighton, one of the organizing members of the health group, said the meeting with the UBC senior officials is a “terrific” opportunity to share the community’s vision. The citizen’s group has already identified training more doctors, nurses and other health care professionals in the North as a priority.
Hospice House gets super tub
by JOHNNY CARIBOU NUNAN Citizen staff
A donation by the Automobile Dealers Association of Prince George to the Hospice Society is a perfect fit right down to the hook, lift, and tub sealer.
“Good feelings come from a hot bath,” said Cliff Alderson, general manager of Northern Toyota and member of the Auto Dealers Association. “(Hospice House executive director) Donalda Carson had a wish list and this was one of the items.”
Carson said Tliesday she was thrilled with the auto association’s decision a year ago to donate $25,000 towards the Clapperton Street facility’s new state-of-the-art Arjo Freedom Bath and Trixie Lift.
“We’re a non-profit society and the work we do is a struggle,” Carson said during the official opening of the programmable tub. “So when we receive caregiving — like a donation — it tells us people respect the work we do. This donation will be good for patients’ comfort.” The equipment allows staff to bathe residents who are unable to use the other house bathtub.
Auto association member Bob Bissonnette, the president of Northland Plymouth Chrysler, said the association is just giving back to the people who helped build the community. “Most of us have had a family member or a close friend that has used this facility,” added Alderson. “What you get here is a homey environment.” Members of the association include Northern Toyota and Northland Plymouth Chrysler as well as Honda North, Hub City Motors, P.G. Motors, Southgate Nissan, Shultz Pontiac Buick GMC, Sunland Motorcars and Wood Wheaton Chevrolet GEO Oldsmobile Cadillac.
Donalda Carson, right, executive director of the Rotary Hospice House, shows the bathtub and lift purchased by a donation from the Prince George Automobile Dealers Association, represented by Cliff Alderson, left, general manager of Northern Toyota, and Bob Bissonnette, president of Northland Chrysler (sitting in tub).
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
LIBRARY ACTIVITIES — Tausif Chaudhry, 9, tries on a set of dinosaur feet he made during the Junior Book Club activities at the Prince George Public Library. Activities, which include acting out books, building models and writing stories,are part of the library’s Summer Reading Club.
Better treaty info access sought
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Elected municipal leaders who give input into treaty negotiations in north central B.C. say they’re not getting documents needed to comment on the negotiations quickly enough.
Of particular concern is a chapter on governance for the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation treaty, expected to be the first band to reach a critical agreement in principle in this region.
Prince George Treaty Advisory Committee chairperson Sonny Beck said he learned the document already went to a different advisory group, the Northern Interior Regional Advisory Committee, representing interests like forestry and mining, two months ago.
The province’s negotiators, however, say the same information has been dispersed to both treaty advisory groups.
The issue of getting draft treaty documents — which the treaty group critiques — raised a great amount of concern among the committee’s members who gathered for a public meeting Tuesday in Prince George.
The consensus was they were being left out of the loop.
“We’re feeling frustrated,” said Beck, in an interview following the local meeting.
“This has been an ongoing battle. Now, it’s come to a head and we have to get this question cleared up.”
The draft treaty documents on different topics like governance, fish and wildlife and
access to treaty lands must come to the group which represents elected municipal leaders first, said Beck.
It’s especially important when it comes to issues like governance — which will outline relationships between the First Nation and municipalities on areas like water and sewage services, he said.
B.C. chief negotiator for the Northern Interior, Nancy Wilkin, said the treaty group should be getting up-to-date information from its member that sits in on the Lheidli T’enneh negotiations.
She added that the two treaty advisory groups had received the same information, anyway.
Wilkin also noted that there is no rule stipulating that draft treaty documents have to go to one group before the other.
Municipal treaty advisers want more funds
The Prince George Treaty Advisory Committee is bucking for more money to help them analyze and give input into treaty negotiations in north central B.C.
The advisory group, made up of elected municipal leaders, went into the red last year to the tune of $13,000.
This year they’re looking for $49,000 from the B.C. government. The regional districts of Fraser Fort George and Bulkley
Valley each kick in $25,000. Money is used for travel expenses, photo copying, producing a news letter and a website.
Additional resources are especially important as one of the treaty negotiations in its area, the Lheidli T’enneh, is nearing a critical land and cash offer from the province and Canada, treaty advisory committee chairperson Sonny Beck said Tliesday.
B.C. chief negotiator in the Northern Interior, Nancy Wilkin, agreed its important to get more resources to advisory committees as First Nations get closer to reaching agreements with the province and Canada.
However, she said there are other treaty advisory committees also vying for a set pot of money allocated for them — $366,000 annually. “I hope to get these guys more money,” said Wilkin.
Boy praised in rescue of seniors
RCMP credit the quick thinking of nine-year-old Alexander Schmidt in regards to the rescue of an elderly couple dumped into Tabor Lake about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday after their boat overturned.
Schmidt, who was fishing from shore near . the east end of the lake when he noticed the
couple in trouble, got help from nearby resident Hazel Peters.
Peters used a canoe to pull the man and his wife, who was trapped under the boat, to safety.
The unidentified couple, in their late 70s, were taken to hospital for observation.
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