PRINCE GEORGE
High today: 9 Low tonight: 3 Details page 2
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27. 2002
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 54 CENTS A DAY)
Doctors recruitment fund maintained
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
The $10-million agreement to recruit and retain doctors in Prince George, between the B.C. government and the Northern Medical Society, is safe for now.
Sindi Hawkins, health planning minister, during a conference call Tuesday, said the understanding is the agreement “will remain in full force until there’s a renewal agreement.”
She said that renewal agreement will be negotiated as soon as possible.
Although Prince George doctors never threatened to withdraw services over a dispute arising from the government cancelling an arbitration ruling, the news Tuesday was that the B.C. Medical Association and the government signed a
memorandum of understanding to reach a negotiated settlement.
She said the memorandum of understanding contains about $390 million for each of the next three years to provide services and resolve the dispute. The money is broken down as follows:
■ There is $185 million in new funds for doctors fees in accordance with an agreement between the BCMA and the government.
■ Retroactive pay of $80 million for on-call services for 2001-02 fiscal year will be paid based on a schedule to be jointly agreed upon.
■ Payments totalling up to $125 million,will be made available in future years for a new on-call and availability program to be agreed upon by both parties, and identified by health authorities.
Negotiations will also begin on how to resolve other outstanding issues like the rural agreement, doctor-of-the-day services, telephone advice and a dispute resolution mechanism for future negotiations.
Dr. Bert Kelly, vice-president of the Northern Medical Society, expressed disappointment with the memorandum of understanding.
“Having scanned it, 1 can see they have negotiated only the intent to negotiate again, and I’m not sure how this advances anybody’s cause,” said Kelly.
“There’s nothing in here to tell me they’ve restored the right of the medical profession to go to binding arbitration in the future, and I see nothing that makes me think they have restored the medical profession’s ability to take the govern-
ment to court on a breach of binding arbitration agreement.
“The BCMA is still playing against a team that makes the goal post disappear and takes the ball, too. “How do you trust that?” Kelly asked.
Hawkins expects threats of withdrawing services April 1 like on-call anesthetists and elective surgery will not happen.
“We’ve had a response from doctors in Kelowna who’ve withdrawn from any work actions, and we’re still waiting to hear from other areas,” said Hawkins.
“We’re pleased that we’ve reached an understanding ... to meet the needs of patients. We know that doctors care about patients and we care about patients, so we knew we had to find a way to look after the needs of patients.”
Huge deficit looms over school district
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
The School District 57 board must trim costs to meet a projected shortfall of $9,228,830 by the time it adopts its preliminary operating budget April 23, trustees heard TUesday.
Of this deficit amount, $2,315 million can be attributed to a loss of provincial grant money because of enrolment declines, while $2,727 million is from the impact of a changed government funding formula in respect of schools and $4,186,830 stems from operating cost pressures, said trustee Bev Christensen.
“Of the $4.2 million increase in operating costs, 60% is from the pay increase the B.C. government gave to teachers and then failed to fund the last two years of the contract, leaving it to school districts to pay that out of their own already tight budgets,” said Christensen, chair of the SD 57 board’s management and finance committee.
The school district had already made difficult cuts in meeting shortfalls of $2.2 million for the 1997-98 school year, $1.9 million for 1998-99, $489,000 for the 1999-2.000 school year, $65,319 for 2000-2001 and $420,654 last year.
“That was a reduction of a total of $5 million in the operating budget over the past five years,” she said. “For the next school year, we are asked to eliminate almost twice that amount in just two months,” Christensen said.
During the public comment session at the start of the board meeting, Sandra Davie, president of the Prince George
District Teachers’ Association, said to trustees, “On behalf of the teachers of Prince George, 1 ask you to truly represent the people of this district and refuse to initiate the process of cuts that will be so damaging to public education and instead put forward a needs-based budget that would provide for the best possible education for children.”
Marilyn Hannah, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3742, representing support staff, agreed.
Instead of making big cuts, trustees should lobby the government to increase funding for education. “The future of our children is at stake,” she said. “We cannot accept this.” Christensen said that when she considered the size of the deficit, she thought to herself, “I can’t do this.”
But then, she said, she considered how a board that passes a deficit budget cannot do so without provincial approval. Passing a needs-based budget, as the union representatives suggested, would lead to the province dismissing elected trustees and replacing the board with a government-appointed trustee, who would make cuts as the government wanted them made.
This imposed appointee would make decisions from strictly an accounting viewpoint without local comment, she cautioned.
“1 think Prince George residents would want the decisions made locally by locally elected trustees who understand conditions in this district,” Christensen said.
TODAY
COMMUNITY
E-Mail address:
news@princegeorgecitizen.com
Our web site:
http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com
INDEX
Ann Landers .... ........17
Bridge......... ........20
Business ....... .....22-24
City, B.C........ .. .3,5,6,13
Classified ...... .....18-21
Comics ........ ........16
Crossword ..... ........16
Entertainment .. ........17
Horoscope ..... ........20
Lifestyles....... ........17
Nation ......... ......7,14
Sports .........
Television...... ........17
World ......... ........15
canada.com
Softwood summit sought
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell announced Tuesday his government will invite labour, politicians and industry leaders to an emergency “softwood summit” to develop a plan to battle punishing duties imposed by the U.S.
Details on the summit are still fuzzy, but the idea is to reach a consensus on what to do next now that Canadian negotiators were unable to reach a negotiated settlement last week with the U.S., said Prince George North MLA Pat Bell, who spoke out on the trade dispute in the B.C. legislature on Tliesday.
Where and when the summit will be held have not been announced.
The U.S. Commerce Department levied duties totalling 29% on Canadian softwood lumber imports last Friday, which is expected to have a devastating impact on the B.C. industry.
Several mills on the B.C. Coast have already shutdown, while Interior mills are expected to weather the storm while U.S. lumber prices remain high, likely until the fall.
The summit could be somewhere other than B.C. as representatives from across Canada will be invited, noted Bell.
“I think we’ve tried to negotiate, and I think we need to move away from that at this point and start hitting them where it hurts,” said Bell, suggesting the U.S. lumber industry coalition that launched the trade complaints against Canada could be a target.
It’s a small group of U.S. companies and a pair of labour unions causing the damage with the trade dispute, said Bell. “Maybe it’s time to start dividing up those groups.”
International Paper, the world’s largest forest company and a member of U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, might not like to be a target of an ad cam-
paign in major American newspapers which indicated it was responsible for raising U.S. housing prices.
“They don’t want their name soiled, and maybe it’s time to drag it through the mud,” charged Bell.
Other smaller members of the coalition might also be open to pressure if they are shipping products to Canada, added Bell. “Is Boeing sending engines to Quebec, to Bombardier, on pallets built out of (U.S. coalition) products? And if they are, then perhaps there’s some leverage there,” he said.
U.S. do-it-your-self retail giant Home Depot — a vocal supporter of free trade in lumber with Canada — may be able to help if they’re selling products made from U.S. coalition companies, added Bell.
B.C. had been part of an earlier plan to launch an advertising campaign to let American consumers know duties on softwood lumber would increase the cost of housing. That plan was put on hold indefinitely following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
Lumber remanufacturers hope for new deal
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Secondary lumber manufacturers in B.C.’s Northern Interior are holding their collective breaths, hoping for a negotiated settlement before punishing lumber duties must be paid in mid -May.
The U.S. Commerce Department imposed duties totalling 29% on Canadian softwood lumber imports last Friday after negotiations failed to reach a breakthrough.
If lumber remanufacturers have to pay the duties — and particularly if those duties are levied on the higher value of their finished product, rather than the raw lumber material — then “we’re dead,” Canadian Woodworks president Arnold Zwiers said Tliesday.
“I can’t imagine a manufacturer that can absorb those costs,” said Zwiers, who heads the lumber trade file for the Central Interior Wood Processors Association. “Something will have to be done by the middle of May because this industry cannot survive this scenario.”
Remanufacturers buy inferior lumber and the trim ends from sawmills, and then cut and glue the pieces to create a product known as finger-jointed lumber. There ale three secondary manufacturers in Prince George that produce finger-jointed lumber, employing hundreds of workers. There are other plants dispersed throughout the Northern Interior of B.C. including Vanderhoof and Mackenzie.
The secondary manufacturers’ efforts to ensure they were exempt from the duties failed, and now they’re hoping that the duty or export tax, in the case of a negotiated deal, is calculated on the raw material they use to produce their finger-jointed lumber product. If they have to pay the duty, or an export tax, on the value of their finished product they simply won’t be able to absorb the duty, said Zwiers.
Municipalities demand solution
The North Central Municipal Association added its voice to those calling for Canadian negotiators to reach a solution in the softwood lumber dispute with the U.S.
“This dispute is putting thousands of our people out of work and has the potential to destroy resource-dependent communities,” said Jim Thom, NCMA president. “There is still a window of opportunity to find a solution in this dispute.”
The NCMA represents 40 municipalities and regional districts north of 100 Mile House, including Prince George and Quesnel.
There’s also a growing chorus of voices calling for an escalation of the trade battle by linking the lumber trade dispute with other commodities exported to the U.S. including electricity, gas and oil. However, International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew has said he is not prepared to start retaliating against the Americans as Canada has a $90-billion trade surplus with the U.S.
The 2% or 3% price premium they get on their product will not allow them to absorb the duty, even at current prices which are strong, because of the cost of making the product, explained Zwiers.
That’s unlike primary lumber manufacturers in the Northern Interior which are able to absorb the duties at the current price. John Brink, who heads up Brink Forest Products, emphasized that ensuring the duty or export tax is calculated on remanufacturers’ raw materials is critical, he said. “We have to be very, very vocal about it,” said Brink.
If an export tax or duty is applied to the full value of finger-jointed lumber, the investment tap will be shut off to B.C. and capital will flow to the U.S. secondary manufacturing industry where they will have a competitive advantage, he said. Brink, however, said he still believes Canada will reach a negotiated settlement in the trade dispute.
— See related stories on pages 6, 7
SWITCHBOARD: 562-2441
CLASSIFIED: 562-6666
READER SALES: 562-3301
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
SONG AND DANCE — Members of the Fats Waller Musical Revue Company perform one of the high-energy numbers from Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Vanier Hall on Tuesday Evening.
PAGE 13
Bookworms
058307001008