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SATURDAY, APRIL 28,2001
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Another city bid controversy
Second local business questions why lowest offer didn’t win contract
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
A new four-year contract to supply hundreds of coveralls and clean them weekly for the city is “excessive” and will hit taxpayers’ wallets hard, says the owner of Northern Linen, one of the unsuccessful bidders.
City officials say the contract wasn’t awarded to the lowest bidder, Northern Linen, because price was not the only issue.
The issue has directed attention at the city purchasing department for the second time in a week. Last week, residents expressed anger when a city truck purchasing contract worth about $160,000 was awarded to a Williams Lake firm.
The monthly cost of the new coveralls contract, awarded to Spotless Uniform last December, has in-
creased from less than $2,000 a month to more than $7,200 a month, according to figures obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by Northern linen, a long-time supplier of coveralls to the city.
The difference could cost taxpayers at least $250,000 during the life of the contract, more if its extended to a fifth year, which is an option.
City purchaser Scott Bone contends the difference is less, perhaps only twice as much, although that won’t be known until after a full year of business. A report prepared for the mayor and city councillors estimates the average cost of the new contract so far at $7,000 a month versus the old monthly contract price of $3,560, a figure Northern Linen disputes.
Bone said a new tender system was set up to improve service and cut secondary costs to the city. Price only accounts for 15 of the 100-point system. Service accounts for 50 points, historical performance 20 points, and you can get 15 points for creativity and innovation.
Bone said the new contract provides improved service, new coveralls, increased reporting, a new
streamlined payment scheme and reduced indirect costs to the city to the tune of $80,000 a year.
The contract has already been reviewed by the city’s finance and audit committee, comprised of four city councillors and Mayor Colin Kinsley.
Committee chair Cliff Dezell said the decision of staff was upheld because while price was an issue, the benefit of improved service and a reduction in costs to the city itself was taken into account.
BONE
City staff have been instructed to monitor the costs of the new contract and report back to the finance and audit committee this May and in November, said Dezell. “We’ll be keeping an eye on costs. We want to see if staffs predictions come true,” he said. However, the city couldn’t cancel the contract even if costs were deemed to be out of line after a year.
Northern Linen owner Herb Miller maintains a contract of this kind is unheard of in the coverall supply business. “If it was within a $1,000 a month so be it,” said Miller. “But this is more than three times more for basically the same service. How do you justify giving them that kind of money?”
And Miller finds the city’s claim if s saving $80,000 unbelievable. “Did they layoff 21/2 employees?”
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canada.com
Not all is doom and gloom with health situation
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
The Citizen’s Health Group says it’s distraught by reports of deterioration at Prince George Regional Hospital, but all is not doom and gloom, says group chairman Roy Stewart.
“There’s a need for a balanced perspective” on the issues, said Stewart, who called a news conference Friday to update residents on the group’s stand, which included a plea to provincial election candidates for the promise of a three-year funding agreement for PGRH.
Earlier this week the Northern Medical Society (NMS) went public in blaming administration at the hospital for allowing the nursing situation “to deteriorate to the point where we can no longer guarantee safe care,” said Dr. Michael Moran, NMS president.
Northern Interior Regional Health Board directors responded by calling for a third party independent study scheduled to begin next week.
Stewart said he doesn’t understand the need for the doctors’ public comment, but noted the doctors are more privy to the inside workings at the hospital. He complimented the doctors for bringing their concerns out, saying any action taken is a forward step.
Horst Sander, a director of the health group, said he believes there is a “missing link” and lack of trust when it comes to all the hospital health groups working together to find solutions.
Tom Griffiths, vice-chair of the group, said “fracturing” among the groups “makes it harder.”The Citizens Health Group needs to be a catalyst to bring everybody together, said Griffiths, who issued an open invitation to participants with issues of trust to ask the health group to help.
Stewart said “there is some good news” happening, like 50 nurses expected to go to work here in the next few months from local initiatives like the CNC nurse refresher course, UNBC graduates and work programs at PGRH for third-year nurses.
— See editorial on page 4, story on page 6
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
WONDERFUL WALTER — Famous hockey dad Walter Gretzky, centre, signs autographs before the Air Canada Cup awards dinner Friday night at the Civic Centre. The team is made up of boys from Davis Inlet and Nain in Labrador and has been visiting Prince George for the week. The boys are sponsored by a YMCA in Toronto. — See ACC on pages 9,10,11,15,16
Liberals won’t sell Hydro: Bell
STEWART
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Prince George North hopeful Pat Bell accused the New Democrats of using scare tactics in trying to convince voters that a Liberal government would sell B.C. Hydro.
Premier Ujjal Dosanjh was on the attack again this week, warning a Liberal government would sell the Crown corporation, resulting in higher electricity rates and lower revenues.
“We’re not going to sell B.C. Hydro. How much more clearer can we be?” said Bell, who was campaigning in Prince George on Friday. “We view the NDP attack as an underhanded scare tactic. They’re trying to throw mud.”
The Liberal election platform outlines the party’s commitment to retain B.C. Hydro and all it’s core assets like dams, reservoirs and power lines.
But NDP Prince George North candidate Bryan Llewellyn said it leaves out items such as distribution channels, and in particular Powerex, the Hydro unit that buys and sells power on the open market. Powerex has been a money maker for Hydro, and selling it off would be a bad deal for taxpayers, said Llewellyn.
“Campbell will simply pass it (the profit) on to his friends,” said Llewellyn, a hospital lab technologist, campaigning in Prince George as well.
But Bell said he can’t see the Liberals selling off Powerex. “It would be crazy to sell off something like that. That’s a fundamental core asset you’d want to have the benefit of,” said Bell, a restaurant and logging truck owner. “It functions as a result of B.C. Hydro, and the two have to go hand-in-hand. Powerex has to go hand-in-hand with B.C. Hydro.” Energy costs have become a major issue for Prince George residents, who have seen their gas bills double in the past two years, fueled by increased demand in the U.S.
And jurisdictions that have deregulated electricity, including Alberta, have also seen prices increase. Ontario is also considering deregulating electricity.
Llewellyn said a new NDP policy would use any money above a $400 million B.C. Hydro stabilization fund as a dividend payout to customers, helping offset the cost of energy on a continuing basis. Before the election call, the New Democrats had Hydro make a one-time rebate to its customers.
— See election coverage on page 3, 5, 8
Fire in vacant house claims life
by KAREN KWAN Citizen staff
Investigators combed through charred rubble Friday morning after the body of an unidentified person was discovered inside a vacant home that caught fire in an industrial area of Prince George.
The gender of the deceased was not released Friday afternoon. An autopsy will be conducted Monday, deputy fire chief Jeff Rowland said. No one else was in the Fifth Avenue and Ontario Street house when the fire broke out, he said.
The cause of the blaze has not been determined, and Rowland would not say whether the fire is considered suspicious. “The initial investigation does not lead us to believe an accel-
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten Firefighters clean up the scene.
erant was used,” he said.
Homeless people often stayed in the dilapidated house, which has been va-
cant for some time, Rowland said. The house is flanked by another run-down, vacant house on the right and is surrounded by industrial-type businesses.
By 10 a.m. Friday, investigators were wrapping up at the scene and a contractor had arrived to board up the broken windows.
The Northern Fire Commissioner’s office is also involved in the investigation, along with the coroner’s office.
Firefighters were called to the blaze at 3:30 a.m. by passersby who noticed smoke billowing out of the structure. “Flames were coming out of the windows on the ground floor and upstairs,” Rowland said.
The fire started on the ground floor,
at the rear of the house, he said. Firefighters discovered the body upstairs, while searching for hot spots after they had knocked down the main part of the blaze, he said.
lil Greus, coordinator of the St. Vincent de Paul Society which operates a drop-in centre for low-income and street people, said she had received a number of phone calls Friday morning from distraught clients who thought they might know the deceased, “it’s really amazing how (the community) looks out for each other,” she said. The tragic incident illustrates the bleak reality facing street people, she said. “A total disaster area where no one should be is home for some people... It’s really sad to have to see,” she said.
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