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TODAY
canada.com
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
CHAMPIONSHIP POSE — Gordon Scutt of Victoria flashes a victory smile while holding the Hewitt Bostock Trophy after winning the B.C. Men’s Amateur Golf Championship at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club. Scutt erased a four-stroke deficit to capture the title with a final round 66, which left him at seven-under-par after four rounds, four strokes better than second-place Kevin Klebe of Cultus Lake. See stories, Page 8.
Health officer answers criticism
See page 5
No foster care, so gov’t keeps kids in motel
SATURDAY
REPORT
Ann Landers..................24
Bridge.......................15
Business .................17-19
City, B.C...................3,5
Classified ...............28-32
Comics.................22,35,36
#Coming Events................24
"Crossword ...................22
Entertainment 20-21
Horoscope ...................15
Lifestyles...................24
Movies.......................21
Nation .....................6,7
Sports ....................8-12
Television...................20
World .......................14
PRINCE GEORGE
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Canfor Corp. has reacted to plummeting lumber prices and U.S. quota constraints, revealing Friday it has planned more temporary shutdowns at its northern sawmills.
Jim Engleson, a Canfor Prince George regional manager, said the company is doubling its already planned curtailment in the third quarter to about 160 million board feet, the annual production of one medium-sized mill. He was unable to release details Friday on which sawmills will be affected, saying employees at the sawmills had to
hear the news first.
Canfor — the biggest forest industry employer in the Prince George region — had already announced two-to-three week shutdowns at Fort St. James, Rustad Bros, and P.G. Sawmill.
“It’s pretty brutal,” said Engleson, referring to lumber prices that have dropped to the $220 U.S.-dollar level for a thousand board feet of two by fours. Last year at this time, the price was $415.
The $300-level is considered the break-even point for Northern Interior sawmills, although that can differ significantly from mill to mill.
Temporary shutdowns are not unusual in the industry, and the situation is also exacerbated by quota constraints under the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber agreement. Companies that ship over their quota into the U.S. — the Northern Interior’s main market — must pay costly penalties.
Other sawmills in northcentral B.C., however, are not planning any temporary shutdowns for the time being.
Slocan, another major forestry employer in north central B.C., is trying to tough it through the price slump. “No curtailments are planned,” said Slocan regional manager Keith McGregor in Mackenzie.
“We’ll be building inventories, hoping for the day when the market improves and we can sell. The problem is, we don’t know where the bottom of this is.”
Lakeland Mills president Keith Andersen said the Prince George mill has no temporary shutdowns planned, pointing out the mill was already closed for eight weeks rebuilding from a fire.
Carrier Lumber president Bill Kordyban Jr. called his operations upgrade shutdown timely. The market will be watched closely, as the upgrade is expected to be finished at the end of this month, he said.
The low prices are being blamed on a glut of lumber on the market.
“I don’t see much hope for the upside of lumber prices, although they may not go down much further,” said Laurie Cater, the publisher of Madison’s Canadian Lumber Reporter, which puts out a weekly price list of wood products.
High pulp prices may be keeping the sawmills of some integrated companies from taking temporary shutdowns to maintain a steady chip supply for pulpmills, said Cater. That simply means a continued supply of lumber to an over-supplied market, he said.
PAGE 13
Those were the days
Cornered by Baldwin
“It’s you."
00100
Help after bee attack appreciated
by JOHNNY CARIBOU NUNAN Citizen staff
Doreen Bartley has a message for the people living on Walker Road in the Hart.
“Thank you.”
While out canvassing for CNIB, Bartley was suddenly swarmed by bees who attacked and stung her and her five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter.
“They were all over me,” said an emo-
tional Bartley over the phone Friday. “I was very scared because I had the kids with me.”
Bartley said a man heard her screaming and arrived from nowhere to help her. An elderly couple also arrived and rushed the children away, taking them in side their nearby house and applied baking soda on the boy’s stings.
“I don’t know any of their names but I wanted to thank them for helping me,” said
Bartley. “I feel wonderful these people helped.
“You hear a lot of tragic stories but it’s nice to have a community that helps.”
Bartley said the first man who helped her told her that he had seen a man in bug exterminator gear along the Walker road.
“I just really appreciate their help,” said Bartley.
“Thank you.”
Resident wins thistle dispute
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Property owner Dennis Lawlor is wondering why he. had to go right to the top to get a particularly thorny issue resolved, but he’s happy it went his way.
The Fraser Fort George Regional District voted overwhelmingly his week during a public meeting to waive charges of $228.30 for cutting Canadian thistles — required by law — on his rural Beaverly property, which had been added to his tax bill.
He convinced the board that he had already chopped down the bothersome weeds after they asked him to do just that back in the summer of 1998.
Lawlor told the board during a hearing that he could provide witnesses, including his real estate agent, who remembers he and his son cutting down the thistles. He said he believes the contractor hired to cut the thistles may have been on the wrong property.
“I’m not going to pay to support an unjust charge,” Lawlor told the board. “In it’s wisdom, I’m asking for a little justice.”
In an interview following the decision, he said he was glad to finally get it over, but thought it was silly it had gone this far. “It should have been decided at a lower level.”
Anne Hogan, the district’s senior administrator, said there may have been some communication difficulties during the period when the thistles were cut. She was unable to say, in response to a question from district director Don Grantham, whether staff had followed up to see if the contractor had cut the weeds.
Hogan noted that only the board can waive weed control charges.
The original bill for the weed cutting was $187.25 but increased due to interest charges, which the board agreed to cover as well.
58307
High today: 24 Low tonight: 10 Details page 2
by KAREN KWAN Citizen staff
Nine children in government care have been living at a Fort St. James motel for the past three weeks, due to a lack of approved foster homes in that area, said the deputy director for quality assurance with the Ministry for Children and Families.
The children, all from the Fort St. James area, are
An official says ^eand
applications from Dawson. They are
potential foster par- u.nder 2iJ-hour supervi-
. , sion by homemakers
ents are reviewed from an agency con-
as staff have time, tracted by the ministry,
but in this case, the sl^£ver^cerne