PRINCE GEORGE
High today: 8 Low tonight: -1 Details page 2
FRIDAY, MAY 3, 2002
Citizen
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Hamhuis WHL’s best; Cats draft local teen with first pick
by JIM SWANSON Citizen Sports Editor
Thursday was an historic day for the Prince George Cougars.
It started when the team looked to a hometown teenager, 15-year-old Nick Drazenovic, as its first-round selection in the Western Hockey League bantam draft. Drazenovic is the first local product to be taken in the first round by the Cougars, and he couldn’t be happier.
'This is a dream, something I hoped would hap-
pen,” said Drazenovic, who scored 51 goals in 59 games last year for the Prince George Farr Fabricating bantam Cougars. ‘To stay at home, to play for a team I’ve grown up watching... this has been a good day.”
The good news day continued later in the day when team captain Dan Hamhuis captured a pair of major league awards.
Hamhuis became the first player in team history to be named the WHL’s player of the year, and followed in the footsteps that Christian Chartier left
behind a season ago when he added the league’s top defenceman award.
“Usually they pick someone for the top player award off one of the top teams because good players around them tend to complement the best players,” Hamhuis said from Calgary, site of the awards luncheon.
“But our team did a good job, and I give a lot of credit to my teammates, scoring those goals on the passes I gave them to help me get some points, and our goaltenders were outstanding. We had the low-
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INDEX
Ann Landers..................29
Bridge......................34
Business ................20-23
City, B.C.............3,5,6,13
Classified ..............30-35
Comics .....................28
Coming Events.............2,18
Crossword ..................28
Entertainment 25-27
Horoscope ...................34
Lifestyles...............19,29
Movies....................26,27
Nation ....................7,14
Sports ...................8-12
Television...................27
World.....................15,16
Seniors should not worry about home changes: Bell
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
MLA Pat Bell says he wants to stop the worry and anxiety being experienced by seniors and others in long-term and intermediate care homes across the province.
“Don’t worry. We’re not going to put you out onto the street. We’re not going to leave you without a place to go,” Bell said.
The B.C. government is firm in its commitment to build 5,000 new long-term and intermediate care spaces by 2006, the Prince George North MLA said.
Although there are no health care facility closures planned by The Northern Health Authority, there are longterm care facilities in other areas of the province “that are not appropriate and need to be rebuilt, and we’re going to do that in addition to the 5,000 long-term and intermediate care beds,” Bell said.
“But we’re not going to close any facilities until there’s a replacement in place for the people to go to.
“Right now there’s a lot of inaccurate information out there, and it’s scaring our seniors to death. That’s not right and there’s no reason for it,” said Bell, who said he believes seniors are most important to our society and should not be used as political pawns.
Howard Kushner, B.C. ombudsman, says he will accept complaints from people who say they’re being moved from residential care facilities without a fair process.
Kushner said there needs to be consultation with individuals and families and the process must be fair.
Kushner can be contacted at 1-800-567-3247.
Bell said he doesn’t expect the ombudsman to get a lot of work from this matter.
During Question Period in the legislature on Tuesday, NDP MLA Jenny Kwan said the government’s plan to build assisted living spaces doesn’t provide the same level of care as long-term care.
Katherine Whittred, Minister of State for Intermediate, Long Term and Home Care, replied, “Our government will provide the very best care ... in the most appropriate setting. We are offering more options and a wider spectrum of care for our seniors” and those who need long-term care will get it and those who are appropriate for an assisted living facility will receive that level of care.”
During the same session Colin Hansen, Minister of Health Services, said a consultation process will be done over the next three years to determine what facilities will be phased out.
“No door will be closed before another door is opened,” Hansen said.
A communications spokesperson for the health ministry said Thursday there have been no actual closures of longterm or intermediate care facilities in the province as far as the ministry knows.
The spokesperson said one long-term care facility in Rev-elstoke has received notice of closure, but no date has been set for the closure, and that officials are now working with those seniors and families to determine the best alternate plan.
est goals against in the league and set a team record.
“It’s quite an honour to be the first Cougar to win it because there have been so many great players in our organization.”
Hamhuis, from Smithers, is not expected back next season. The 19-year-old was selected in the first round, 12th overall, by the Nashville Predators in the NHL entry draft last June and is spending most of the summer in Vancouver preparing for the fall training camp.
— See related stories on page 8
Hallway TV ads concern students
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
A group of Prince George secondary school students are worried about the implications of corporate advertising on hallway TVs, says a Grade 12 student at the school.
The hallway TV screens seen by students moving from class to class have been used to advertise a brand of soft drink, a restaurant franchise and a U.S.-based computer firm, Jason Mann, 18, said Thursday.
PGSS has an exclusive contract with the soft-drink firm, and advertisements will appear on the hallway TVs encouraging students to buy the product from vending machines in the school, he said.
■ This seems to run counter to the message in classes about nutrition in which students are encouraged to avoid vending-machine snacks and drinks of no nutritional value and eat healthier foods, Mann said. The advertisements on the hallway TVs seem to make the instruction to students in health and nutrition classes into a mere academic exercise, he said.
Mann said school administrators has verbally warned students they might face suspensions if they continued to publicly criticize the in-school TV advertisements and the exclusive contract with the soft-drink manufacturer.
The principal of PGSS could not be reached for comment. Representatives of the Prince George Teachers’ Association and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association were also not available Thursday afternoon.
School District 57 superintendent Dick Chambers said that throughout the province, at the secondary school level, it is not unusual for a high school to have a contract with a beverage manufacturer and have a funding arrangement with the firm.
“It’s a pretty common situation in B.C. in our high schools,” Chambers said.
The contract with a corporation like a soft-drink manufacturer can provide a school with funding for popular extracurricular activities, he said.
Chambers said he did not know about any administrative warning to students about consequences for criticizing the contract with a soft-drink manufacturer, and referred inquiries to the principal.
The SD 57 board’s corporate sponsorship task force, formed last November and fine-tuned in late February, is working on an overall policy on the extent of corporate advertising and sponsorship allowed in schools. That committee was struck in response to awareness that there is no clear guideline governing corporate advertising in schools, he said.
The task force is supposed to report its findings May 28, but budget concerns arising since February and difficulties in finding people to represent all community and business groups on the committee have led to delays in its work, Chambers said.
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SOFTWOOD LUMBER DISPUTE
Silver lining to duty ruling
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Northern B.C. softwood lumber producers said Thursday’s U.S. International Trade Commission ruling, which means Canadian companies will have to start paying cash duties, has a silver lining.
Because the ITC ruled that there is only a threat of injury to American lumber producers from allege^ subsidies, Canadian companies won t have to pay an estimated $760 million to $1.2 billion in retroactive duties.
The ruling that there’s a threat of injury — and not the stronger finding of actual injury — should also strengthen Canada’s case at the negotiating table, said Northern Forest Products Association president Greg Jadrzyk, whose group represents more than 40 lumber plants in northern B.C.
“I’m far more optimistic today than I have been in some time that we may very well be able to find a resolution and avoid payment of the 27% tariff,” said Jadrzyk. “Clearly, between now and May 23rd — and it may be later than that — there’s a real window of opportunity. A lot of the substantial material that can form a deal has already been presented and discussed. Will there be some give and take? Of course. British Columbia was always prepared to make some changes in its offer if they were presented by a reasonable counterproposal from the U.S.”
May 23rd is the day companies are expected to have to start paying the duties.
The duties will cost lumber produc-
ers in Canada about $3 billion a year, about $600 million alone from B.C.’s Northern Interior, the country’s largest lumber producing region.
B.C. Lumber Trade Council president John Allen told reporters on a conference call he expected companies to be able to weather the duty in the short term, as long as lumber markets remain strong. But by the fall the duties could create serious damage, he said. The fall is the traditional time when lumber markets fall off as the construction season in the U.S. begins to wane.
“The smaller companies will be hit first — and may face outright closures — because they don’t have the financial means to carry the duty liabilities,” said Allen.
Lumber remanufacturers in northern B.C., represented by the Central Interior Wood Processors Association (CIW-PA), said the big question, still, is where to go from here.
Ken Pendergast, the CEO of the value-added association, noted that pursuing a legal case to the World Trade Organization is expensive, there’s no assurance of finality or any guarantee of a positive outcome for Canada.
He expects Canada will settle for some form of export tax.
And while the association is arguing for exemption, remanufactured products like finger-jointed lumber will still likely be caught under the tax, said Pendergast.
The benefit of an export tax is it’s collected on the Canadian side of border.
— See related story on page 6
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
WALKING THE PET HAMSTER — Fourteen-year-old Tina Siderov took her hamster for a walk Wednesday on the garden fence at her home. When the outside temperature gets above 15 degrees, it's all right to put on the mini-leash and take one-year-old Gzu for a walk to get rid of the winter cobwebs. Gzu was named after a licence plate Tina spotted.
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