PRINCE GEORGE
High today: -6 Low tonight: -16 Details page 2
Citizen
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2002
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Pine beetle plague growing
Spread of forest pest could double this year, official predicts
bv GORDON HOEKSTRA mated to infest 72 million cubic metres of timber Mother Nature must co-operate with a pair of conditions, expects it to exnand at the same rate
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
A northern forest industry group warns the mountain pine beetle epidemic will almost double by next fall because there’s little chance this season’s mild winter will kill off the pests.
And the prognosis for any winter deep-freeze relief in years to come appears slim, said Northern Forest Products Association president Greg Jadrzyk.
“It gets scary," he said. “It’s called compounded growth. When it’s small it looks like it’s controllable. But when it gets to a certain critical size it becomes almost impossible to control.”
By the fall of last year, the epidemic was esti-
mated to infest 72 million cubic metres of timber in an area twice the size of Vancouver Island. By next fall, Jadrzyk said he expects it will have grown to 130 million cubic metres, an 80% jump, the same increase it made the year before.
It means the beetle will have attacked more than 10% of the estimated 1 billion cubic metres of lodgepole pine trees in north and central B.C., added Jadrzyk.
If those increases continue, it would take only three or four years to eat up most of the pine stands in the Interior, he said.
The province and the government are co-operating to slow the beetle’s spread, but both agree
Mother Nature must co-operate with a pair of back-to-back freezing winters to halt the epidemic.
Jadrzyk said the epidemic’s expansion means it’s more important than ever to get the help of the federal government to log and replant already dead trees. The industry has called on Ottawa for $600 million over the next decade, but with the increase, it will need more money, he said.
Jadrzyk expects that the province, industry and community representatives will soon meet with the Liberals’ new Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal.
The Forest Ministry says it can’t put a figure on the projected increase, but given the weather
conditions, expects it to expand at the same rate as in the past.
B.C. Forest Service beetle expert Bob Hodgkin-son said there are a lot of factors that come into play, including the chance of a deep freeze this winter and whether there’s a cool or hot spring and summer ahead. A hot su.nmer helps the beetle’s spread.
The beetle epidemic also tends to collapse after three or four years in specific areas, but will also expand into new areas, he said.
A successful winter logging program can also help stem the beetle’s expansion, Hodgkinson said.
MLAs’ 5% pay cut ‘superficial:’ NDP
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Prince George-Omineca Liberal MLA Paul Nettleton said Wednesday that taking a 5% pay cut shows MLAs are willing to tighten their belts while balancing the books.
Nettleton said the $150 he will lose from each two-week paycheque will hurt his household’s bottom line. “It’s not something I’ve done without some thought. It’s not just symbolic for us at all,” said Nettleton, who lives with his wife and children in Fort St. James.
The cut will cost each MLA about $3,600 a year, which will save the province less than $300,000. Although the pay cut is voluntary, all 77 Liberals MLAs have agreed to it.
The NDP has called the pay cut move a gimmick and they will not take it.
The Liberals are cutting 11,700 government jobs in the next three years, in an effort to save $1.9 billion and balance the budget by 2005.
NDP spokesman Chuck Fraser said the pay cut is simply an afterthought, a response to the backlash over ripping up collective agreements.
“There’s no balance there. It actually
shows them to be very superficial,” said Fraser, a Prince George NDP riding official, who added he hadn’t had a problem with the MLAs’ salaries.
The move will also do nothing to stem the tide of growing anger over government job cuts, imposing a contract on teachers and ripping up contracts for support workers in the health and social services sector, he said.
“That’s opened it up to bloodshed in this province. That pits neighbour against neighbour. How are you supposed to build healthy communities? Who’s going to invest in B.C. with that kind of stuff.”
The five-per-cent rollback takes effect April 1, after which MLA wages will remain frozen until March 31, 2005.
The cut reduces an MLA’s base salary to $68,500 from $72,100.
The additional pay received by cabinet ministers, committee members and the premier is not affected by the cut.
Premier Gordon Campbell receives an additional $45,000 and cabinet ministers are paid an extra $39,000.
Cabinet ministers face 20 per cent pay cuts if they don’t meet their budget targets.
Union plans legal challenge to contract changes
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen photo
A Hospital Employees Union spokesman said Wednesday all locals are legally challenging the Liberal government’s new legislation of BUI 29.
Mary Pat Wiley, HEU representative for the Prince George region, said every HEU local is hand-delivering a letter to members of the Health Employers Association of B.C., that states the union considers that its collective agreement, effective from 2001 to 2004, will remain in effect.
“The HEU is legally challenging the government based on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” said Wiley.
Cal Tant, executive director at PGRH, said he has received a copy of that letter. “We’re not at this time planning anything that would involve Bill 29, but as law abiding organizations, we’ll abide by the law of the land,” Tant said.
HEU members held a second rally Wednesday at noon outside Prince George Regional Hospital to protest the government overruling the collective agreement.
“Now that members are thoroughly reading the act, they are becoming more angry,” Wiley said.
Kathy Jessome, HEU director, said earlier that Bill 29 shortens layoff notices to a maximum of six weeks for most senior workers, allows employers to contract out services, gets rid of pay equity and wage parity, restructures bumping rights and reduces severance pay.
Health workers feel this opens the door to exchange union for contract workers and establish private hospitals, Jessome said.
On Wednesday, the B.C. Nurses Union sent a
letter to Health Minister Colin Hansen “demanding he give assurances to the public, in writing, that the government will not privatize core nursing services in acute care, long term care and in the community,” said Deborah McPherson, BCNU president.
The Liberal legislation last weekend that voided the nurses’ collective agreement means emergency wards are open to privatization and sale to private operators paves the way for downsizing and elimination of patient services and the closing of hospitals, McPherson said.
INDEX
Ann Landers..............17
Bridge..................21
Business .............22-24
City, B.C..........3,5,6,13
Classified ..........18-21
Comics ..................16
Coming Events.............2
Crossword ...............16
Entertainment............17
Horoscope ..............21
Lifestyles...............17
Movies...................17
Nation....................7
Sports ...............8-11
Television...............17
World.................14,15
canada.com
Area highways paved with tragedy
Fifteen residents have died in crashes during the last six weeks
by KAREN KWAN Citizen staff
Northern roads have turned deadly this winter, with 15 people killed over the past six weeks — three times the monthly average and more than the same period last year.
RCMP say it’s the worst January for road tragedies in more than 15 years in northeastern B.C.
The leap in deaths can’t be explained by a single factor, but road conditions played a role in all of the tragedies, according to Caroline Robinson, regional road safety co-ordinator with the Insurance Corporation of B.C. Unseasonably warm weather combined with poor driving behaviour in some cases could partly explain the increase, she said.
Other factors such as fatigue and alcohol use could also be involved.
“It may be that because we drive in these conditions much of the time, we become complacent. And that’s where we’re going to get into trouble and potentially see more fatalities,” she said. “Warmer temperatures may lead to drivers being less cautious,” but road conditions can change quickly, Robinson warned.
The recent deaths came in 13 separate crashes north of 100 Mile House — but mostly in the northeast — including a collision near Burns Lake that claimed the lives of three Prince George college students earlier this month.
During the same period last year, from mid-December to the end of Jan-
uary, 11 people were killed in nine crashes. The average monthly death toll is five.
“It’s the worst January we’ve had since at least 1986,” said Cpl. Bruce Fare, a collision analyst with the North District RCMP.
This month alone, there have been eight fatal crashes in the northeast region — almost 25% of the total for all of last year.
“It’s not boding well,” he said. In some cases, poor weather was partly to blame, but in others the roads were in relatively good shape, encouraging motorists to speed up, Fare said.
Despite prevailing thought, he said most fatalities don’t occur during the winter months.
Vehicles that crash on slippery roads
stop more gradually, absorbing the force of the impact, he said.
“Traditionally, my slow season is winter. We have more accidents, but fewer fatalities as a rule. This year it hasn’t been the case so far.”
Road maintenance contractors in the North have noticed an unusually high number of freeze-and-thaw cycles, said transportation ministry spokesperson Ron Wiebe.
“It’s one of the factors in road conditions,” he said.
Wiebe said contractors have been meeting maintenance standards. The province recently increased funding for northern road maintenance and restoration by $10 million this year, while making deep cuts elsewhere in the transportation ministry.
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Citizen photo by Dave Milne
STAYING WARM — These two colourful sisters, Amanda Goertz, 7, left, and Amy, 10, didn't let the cold keep them from enjoying the outdoors during a recent ski trip to Tabor Mountain. The weather is expected to stay cold through the weekend with even more snow on the way.
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