PRINCE GEORGE
   High today: -1 Low tonight: -13 Details page 2
Citizen
 Serving the Central Interior since 1916
 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27; 2002
 80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 54 CENTS A DAY)
Legal Services offices to close
                                                                                                    by KAREN KWAN Citizen Staff
    Critics fear the closure of the Prince George Legal Services Society office and cuts to Legal Aid services will create a justice system solely for the rich.
    The society announced Monday it will close all 60 of its offices across the province by September, replacing them with seven regional centres, a provincial call centre and 24 local agents. Almost 75% of staff jobs will be eliminated. Locations of the regional centres have not been announced.
    “The changes are going to impact services to disadvantaged people. It will create a justice system for the rich. If you don’t have money you’re not going to have justice,” said Lorna Waghom-
  Kidd, representative with the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union. The BCGEU represents eight administrative and paralegal staff — of 11 LSS employees — in Prince George.
    The LSS also confirmed Legal-Aid funding will be phased out starting April 1, for all family cases that don’t involve violence and all poverty-law cases such as disputes relating to welfare, Workers’ Compensation Board and landlord-tenant disputes. As well, all summary advice services are being eliminated.
    The move comes as the society implements a 39% funding cut over three years — bringing the budget to $54 million from $88 million — handed down by the Attorney General’s ministry.
    LSS managers will meet with offices across the province within the next couple of weeks about regional centres and staffing, Waghorn-Kidd said. “Staff are disappointed they’re being cut. They’re on tenterhooks, wanting to know what’s going to happen,” she said. Based on workload, she said it makes sense for the Prince George office to become a regional centre. In 2000-01, the local office received 3,439 applications for funding, of which 1,869 were approved.
    According to the union’s collective agreements, staff for any regional centres would be hired based on seniority, she said. But she noted the government has tom up contracts in'the healthcare sector.
    Audrey Schwartz, executive director of Active * Support Against Poverty, said the cuts will further marginalize disadvantaged people. Low-income people will have to make their own way through an often confusing legal process, she said. “I imagine some people just won’t pursue their legal issues anymore. The tasks are just too daunting.” Family disputes that don’t get resolved could create emotional and health problems, Schwartz said. She added she hopes mediation and negotiation measures will be available to deal with some cases.
    Last week, the Attorney General removed the LSS board and replaced it with a trustee after members refused to make the budget cuts.
 School district facing huge shortfall, layoffs
                                                                                             by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
    Basing predictions on enrolment projections and budget information available, School District 57 can expect a budget shortfall of about $7.2 million for the 2002-2003 fiscal year, trustee Patricia Wick Thibault said Ttiesday.
    To meet such a shortfall, the district may have to lay off as many as 119 staff from all levels by mid-2003, SD 57 sec-retary-treasurer Bryan Mix said.
    These predictions may change de pending on what information SD 57 officials receive in Friday and Saturday meetings with deputy education minister Emery Dosdall about the district’s provincial funding allocation for the next budget year, Wick Thibault said.
    SD 57’s final budget for 2001-2002 was about $122.3 million when the district had 17,760 students, Mix said. Expenditures for the 2002-2003 budget year are expected to be around $128.3 million, while revenue is projected to fall to $121.1 million. An anticipated enrolment decline of 570 students is expected to reduce per pupil grant revenue by $2.25 million, while other costs will rise by $4.92 million, he said.
    As a result of declining enrolments, the number of students per district employee was 10.24 in 2001 compared to 11.08 in 1997, Mix said. The average number of students per district employee was 10.47 over the past four years.
                                                                                       To reduce the number of full-time
   employees to conform to the four-year average of students to employees would save about $5 million, he said. This could be done by laying off 40 teachers, 17 support staff in the Canadian Union of Public Employees No. 3742, ten custodians in CUPE, sue administrative officers, five members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBCJA) and ' four members of exempt staff.
     To make up the whole shortfall of $7.2 million would mean laying off 119 full-time staff members or their equivalent, Mix said.Over the course of a three-year budgeting cycle now prescribed by the province, the district could face a total budget shortfall of about $14.8 million. One reason is that, beyond the 570 enrolment drop for 2002-2003, the district can expect a further decline of 1,047 in its student population by the 2004-2005 school year. Another is the 2.5% increases in the second and third year of a legislated contract with teachers that the province has left unfunded, he said.
     To meet that $14.8 million shortfall over three years, the district would have to reduce the number of full-time employees by a total of 249, Mix said.
     Mix emphasized these are hypothetical numbers.
     A budget must be set by April 27, and there will be budget consultation meetings with staff groups and the public, said Wick Thibault.
TODAY
  E-Mail address:
  pgcnews@prg.southam.ca
  Our web site:
  http^/www.
  princegeorgecitizen.com
D
                                                 INDEX
  Ann Landers..................26
  Bridge.......................24
  Business .................18-20
  City, B.C..............3,5,6,13
  Classified ...............22-25
  Comics ......................16
  Coming Events,................2
  Crossword ...................16
  Entertainment................17
  Health.......................21
  Horoscope ...................24
  Lifestyles...................26
  Nation .....................6,7
  Sports ....................8-12
  Television...................17
  World.....................14,15
 SOFTWOOD LUMBER DISPUTE
Progress sought in new talks
                                                                                       by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
    The best B.C. can hope for in renewed softwood lumber talks this week is for the the U.S. to agree to postpone a deadline for issuing a final ruling on duties, a key northern forest industry official said Tuesday.
    This is despite an assurance from Prime Minister Jean Chretien on Monday that the bitter trade dispute will be over by the end of next month.
    Any interim agreement would likely see Canada paying some sort of tariff on lumber until a final deal was hammered out, said Northern Forest Products Association president Greg Jadrzyk.
    “That’s the sort of concepts were hearing about, but at this point we haven’t heard anything specific. We’re not aware of any deal being imminent,” he said.
    “For most of us in the industry in B.C., we were as caught off guard by the prime minister’s comments as his staff.”
    Canada faces a March 21 deadline when the U.S. Commerce Department is set to impose a final ruling on steep duties on lumber.
                                                                                   Just last week, International Trade
  Minister Pierre Pettigrew and Len Edwards, the deputy minister, said it would be difficult to get a deal for that deadline.
    Some Canadian industry observers have said the U.S. administration — under pressure from American lumber interests — will wait until just before that deadline before offering a deal.
    If could put Canada in the uncom-
  fortable position of either accepting whatever deal the U.S. puts up or having to face paying up to $1.7 billion in duties.
    There is a mechanism that would allow the U.S. administration to suspend the final duty ruling, but it remains unclear whether the co-operation of the hardline American industry coalition would be needed, said Jadrzyk.
                                                                                                                         Canada protests tariffs in court
   International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew announced Tuesday that Canada is adding a second legal challenge to punitive duties placed on lumber by the U.S.
   The Canadian government has filed a notice of intent requesting the establishment of a binding panel under Chapter 19 of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to review the U.S. Department of Commerce’s final lumber countervailing duty.
   “A durable solution to the softwood lumber dispute is our preferred approach,” said Pettigrew. “However, we are taking action today to keep all options open as the discussions proceed.”
   Canada is also challenging the countervailing lumber duty at the World Trade Organization.
   Northern Forest Products Association president Greg Jadrzyk said the problem with the legal challenges are they take years to complete. “In some way, it’s hard for us to gain much comfort from this.kind of action knowing that the outcome won’t be known for five years,” said Jadrzyk.
                                                                                                                                                                    — See related story on page 6
PETTIGREW
    Following talks between senior Canadian and U.S. trade officials in Ottawa last week, meetings have been scheduled in Washington, D.C. today and Thursday.
    Senior B.C. forests ministry officials, including Deputy Minister Don Wright, will meet separately with the U.S. trade delegation.
    The back-to-back meetings come af-ter almost two months of stonewalling by the U.S.
    At stake is $10 billion in annual lumber exports to the U.S., about 20% of those from the Northern Interior.
    A B.C. forests ministry official said the province will be looking for a more detailed response to the proposals it tabled before Christmas to resolve the trade dispute.
    B.C. suggested a slate of reforms including moving to an auction-based timber-pricing system.
    But the American industry, represented by the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, said the reforms didn’t go far enough to offset alleged subsidies.
    The U.S. administration repackaged a number of suggestions during last week’s negotiations, but still have not put a proposal on paper.
TAKING FLIGHT — Nate Cassie, 7, has his eyes closed as he soars off a bump on his flying carpet during Winter Fun Day at Immaculate Conception School Tuesday. Primary grades went to Strike Zone for bowling in the morning while intermediate students went curling or skiing at Tabor Mountain. In the afternoon, the primary grades went on a hike, went bobsleighing, played hockey and did some sledding before finishing the day with popcorn, hot chocolate and a video.
BERKSHIRE
INVESTMENT GROUP INC
                                                     Shel Jacobsen Sandy Ramsay Isabel Fleck
                                                           Investment Funds Advisors
 vl-2020 w bringyu u rm u/myiulije. cum
 SWITCHBOARD: 562-2441
 CLASSIFIED: 562-6666
 READER SALES: 562-3301
   ::
 mm
058307001008