PRINCE GEORGE
High today: 10 Low tonight: -3 Details page 2
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19,
Citizen
Serving the Centrol Interior since 1916
IWA union boss echoes call for stumpage cuts
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Local IWA forestry union boss Frank
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INDEX
Ann Landers .... ........14
Bridge......... ........15
Business ....... .....22-24
City, B.C........ .. .3,5,6,13
Classified ...... .....18-21
Comics ........ ........16
Crossword ..... ........16
Entertainment .. .....16,17
Horoscope ..... ........15
Lotteries....... ........15
Lifestyles....... ........14
Movies......... ........17
Nation......... .........7
Sports ......... ......8-12
Television...... ........17
World ......... ........15
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Everitt said Wednesday he agrees with Canfor that the system used to set taxes for logging on Crown land must be changed.
“We can’t be on a different page,” said Everitt, following a speech Wednesday by Canfor president and CEO David Emerson to a Prince George audience of business people, local government and labour.
“We’re talking about communities. We’re talking about people working, and there can’t be any difference. The only way the company survives is by making some money.
“Today’s numbers (presented by Canfor) show it can’t stay that way forever, or investment will turn off and go somewhere else.”
Emerson told the crowd of about 90 the Prince George area is shouldering an unfairly high stumpage charge, because concessions made to companies in other areas of the province are added on here.
The B.C. government sets an annual target it wants to collect on the timber taxes, so if the rates go down in one area, they must be raised in another.
This particular aspect of the system — called waterbedding — is costing Canfor $46 US per thousand board feet, which amounts to an extra 20% production-based tax, said Emerson. And waterbedding is only one element of a cost picture that puts 30 times more money into the province’s coffers,than into shareholders’, which, if not changed, could cripple the industry, he said.
Canfor has also been hurt by a restrictive trade agreement with the U.S. that has allowed some Canadian provinces and other countries to ramp up production and grab a portion of the Ameri-
cMcocnw 0311 market, said Emerson. EMERSON Mayor Colin Kinsley said he
believes the waterbedding issue the Prince George area is facing is a serious one. He’s planning on getting area mayors together to push the B.C. government for a stumpage fee that is market-based and shouldered equally throughout the province.
“I can’t do it alone — I don’t think David Emerson can do it alone — but if we all join together and start on the waterbedding issue, we can start bringing some attention to it/’ said Kinsley.
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
Dave Main, left, Femdale-Tabor volunteer fire department deputy chief, Erwin Stoll, regional district director and chief Bryant Kemble burn the fire hall’s mortgage recently. Paying the mortgage early saved $160,000.
Volunteer fire department saves taxpayers $160,000
by BOB MILLER Citizen staff
Budget surpluses collected over the years by the Femdale-Tabor Volunteer Fire Department have enabled the community to pay off its mortgage five years early at considerable saving to regional taxpayers.
Members of the fire department held an open house and mortgage-burning party at the fire hall to marie the occasion, with door prizes and rides on the fire truck for youngsters, said fire chief firyant Kemble.
By paying the $200,000 mortgage early, the fire department will save regional taxpayers more than $160,000 — $125,000 in interest and $38,433
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 50 CENTS A DAY)
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
HALLOWEEN APPLES — Anne Lawrence and her husband John decorate their home on Willard Place for Halloween every year and it attracts trick-or-treaters from all over. In fact, three came early for a photo this week. Neighbourhood siblings Travis Lepine, behind Freddie’s tombstone, sister Nicole, in the witch hat, and brother Brennan, as Batman, dressed up to rehearse for October 31.
Carrier droppingSaik’uz from treaty negotiations
on the principal, he said.
“With costs going up and up, we saw a chance to get out of this debt,” said Kemble. “I think it’s a good deal. It’s my money too (as a taxpayer).”
The open house brought three new recruits to the 22-person volunteer force. Kemble said he’d like to have 30 members to provide better coverage, particularly during day shifts.
The Femdale-Tabor Volunteer Fire Department, located at Highway 16 East and Giscome Road, has a 1985 pumper, and 1997 tanker, personal protective gear for 20, members, eight air packs and the necessary equipment to recharge them.
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
The Carrier-Sekani Ttibal Council announced Wednesday it is dropping one of its eight bands from treaty negotiations in-order to get baclcto the table with the B.C. and Canadian governments.
“The Saikuz has agreed that we could go back to the table and they would not be party to the interim negotiation,” tribal council chief Mavis Erickson said Wednesday. “My un-derstanding is the province and federal government would be willing to negotiate with seven of the eight bands.”
The B.C. government said it was ready to get back to the treaty table and was already working on a date for a meeting.
Erickson was flanked by Matthew Coon Come, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and Ed John, a member of the First Nations Summit.
Coon Come — who made waves after his election victory last July when he promised to be a “bad cop” in the fight for Aboriginal rights — said he wasn’t surprised to find out Aboriginals in B.C. are being excluded from having a share in the wealth of natural resources, like other natives in Canada.
“We’re talking about basic things. We’re talking about feeding our families. We’re talking about giving some employment opportunities to our people,
A T
COON COME
giving some hope to our children,” said Coon Come. “As it is now, we have a major uphill battle. We call upon the government to honour their constitution -and uphold Supreme Court decisions.” There have been treaty discussions 1 for the Carrier-Sekani for close to a year. Talks have been suspended for six months after the Saik’uz First Nation launched a court case against the province over the advertisement of a timber-harvesting licence in its traditional territory in the Van-derhoof area.
Talks were also halted last fall when another band started haryesting timber on Crown land.
The B.C. and Canadian governments have said they wouldn’t negotiate with the tribal council, representing about 5,000 Aboriginals west of Prince George, while one of its bands was in court The province said it was pleased by the recent turn of events. “We’ve stated all along our preference is to negotiate rather than be in court,” said Aboriginal Affairs spokesman Peter Smith.
The council and the governments had been trying to hammer out an agreement on setting aside resources for aboriginals in the interim, as its expected to take years to reach a final treaty.
The Carrier-Sekani say getting access to timber and protecting some areas now is an important step in giving their people hope a treaty can be reached. t
Doctors unanimously approve deal
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
Doctors in the Northern Medical Society meeting at Prince George Regional Hospital Tliesday night unanimously ratified a deal providing $10 million annually for the recruitment and retention of physicians.
But they continue to express concern about the local nursing crisis that ap-
pears to be getting worse on a daily basis, said Dr. Bert Kelly, NMS secretary. “They felt there was no end to this, no bottom to it,” Kelly said.
Eighteen surgical beds at PGRH have been closed in large part because of the nurse shortage. All this affects the NMS’s ability to recruit surgeons and anesthetists to Prince George. The soci-
ety had hopes of bringing two general surgeons and two anesthetists here.
But the hospital said there was no work for them because there was not enough operating-room time, Kelly said. But the reason for the lack of operating-room time was the nursing staff shortage.
“Despite efforts to recruit adequate numbers of surgical specialists, the ef-
forts will founder because the inadequacy of nursing staff levels,” Kelly said.
On a positive note, the NMS has actively begun recruiting 10 family physicians.
“We hope to be back to full staffing in that regard in six to 12 months,” Kelly said. But the government will have to address recruiting and retaining nursing staff in Prince George.”
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