TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2002
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 54 CENTS A DAY)
INDEX
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Ann Landers..... .......17
Bridge.......... .......15
Business ........ ____18-20
City, B.C........ .. .3,5,13
Classified ....... ... .21-23
Comics ......... .......16
Coming Events ... ........2
Crossword ...... .......16
Entertainment ... .......17
Horoscope ...... .......15
Lifestyles........ .......17
Movies.......... .......17
Nation ......... ......6,7
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Television....... .......17
World........... . , . ,14,15
canada.com
FEELING BLUE — Girl Guide leader Julie Grier gets her hair coloured blue by Kim Koch while girls from the 1st Pineview Girl Guides look on. Grier, a first-time leader, challenged the Guides that if they sold over 90 boxes of cookies, she would dye her hair any colour the girls chose. The girls sold 115 boxes and chose Girl Guide blue for their leader.
SONGS HEAVEN SENT —
Judy Russell sits at the piano and plays a tune while holding auditions for the upcoming production of Jesus Christ Superstar on July 19 to 28. Further auditions will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. on Friday at Russell's Enchainement Dance Studio.
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
Tax hike approved
It’s official.
Prince George homeowners will pay 4.5% more on their property taxes this July.
City council gave final reading to the 2002 tax rates bylaw Monday night, which provides money for municipal, hospital and regional district purposes. For this year, the city is collecting a little more than $48.5 million in property taxes, which is an increase of about 4.5% over 2001.
The property tax for an average sin-gle-family dwelling, valued at $115,000, is $1,168, an increase of $44 from the previous year.
Tax rates in Prince George are still lower than average for most property classes in B.C., as compared to cities of similar size, to communities with pulp mills, and to other northern communities.
High today: 10 Low tonight:-1 Details page 2
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
A city task force formed to determine the impacts of massive B.C. government job cuts and restructuring has concluded the job losses will further add to the strains on the local economy.
The cuts and restructuring will also hurt the most vulnerable, increase the population drain and increase costs to the city, said the report, delivered to ■city council Monday night.
The Service Delivery Impact Task Force — created by city council after ithe B.C. Government Employees Union petitioned for a public input process on the impact of the job cuts — recommended council monitor the situation closely during the next one to two years as changes in the government sector are likely to continue.
Council followed that suggestion, as well as deciding to circulate the report to B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, local Liberal MLAs and agencies like the Prince George Chamber of Commerce.
“I don’t think we can do anything but monitor it now, but at least we have some information to take to the battle,” said Mayor Colin Kinsley, noting the information will help in budget planning.
The report determined that as of March 13 there were 150 government job losses in Prince George, adding up to a payroll loss of $6.65 million a year.
Other conclusions included:
■ Direct costs to the city will be about $400,000 annually, including increased Medical Services Plan premiums and increased provincial sales tax.
■ There will also be indirect costs in areas like transportation and infrastructure. For example, school closures may mean the city will have to build new crosswalks or change bus routes.
Task force chair Frank Overand noted, however, some opportunities were emerging in the private sector. These include technical specialists, who had lost their jobs with the government, finding work with private firms.
Overand said bankers locally are also noticing an increase in investment not present a year ago, although the scope of the task force review didn’t allow for a more detailed analysis.
Kinsley noted that the city’s building figures appear to support an increase in investment. Year-to-date housing starts of 24 are double the number last year. And the value of total building construction planned so far is up almost $3 million from last year.
The B.C. Liberal government job arts and restructuring — coupled with tax cuts and a promise to reduce business-strangling red tape — are meant to help balance the budget by 2005 and revitalize the economy.
Labour organizations like the BCGEU have criticized the cuts as too deep, saying they’ll have devastating ripple effects in the community.
TODAY
BYELECTIONS
The federal Liberals took an unexpected dip Monday in federal byelections that saw Canadian Alliance Leader Stephen Harper become leader of the official Opposition.
The Liberals won four of seven byelections, but were upset in two ridings previously considered as strongholds in Newfoundland and Ontario.
PAGE 7
Input sought on forestry changes
MLA committee set for hearings in Prince George on Wednesday
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
The public’s input into the B.C. government’s proposed changes to forest practices will make a difference, said North Island MLA Rod Visser, who heads up a Liberal committee seeking opinion on the changes.
The seven-person committee is in Prince George Wednesday at the Ra-mada Hotel from 9 to 5 p.m. to seek input on the changes meant to protect the environment.
For example, the Liberal discussion paper specifically asks for input on whether due diligence could be a defence in the proposed code, or timber licence holders should be held “absolutely” liable for environmental damages, said Visser.
“Now, I’m not sure how you can be more inviting than to do things like that. That is public consultation at one of its purest forms,” said Visser in an interview from Prince Rupert on Monday, taking a short break from the first public input session.
While there are options for tuning the code, Visser acknowledged his government has been clear on the direction its heading — creating a set of forest practice rules that rely on results, rather than red-tape.
“Forestry is an interesting and some times volatile mix of values,” noted Visser. “And government’s role in this is to find the balance. And the balance has to be where we have a productive and thoughtful economy with a known, understood and thoughtful en-
vironment. We use the two of those to build the social world.”
Forest Minister Mike de Jong released a 60-page discussion paper on May 1 which outlines the changes and has asked for public comment until June 30. The government hopes to bring in the new rules in the fall sitting of the legislature and implement them in the spring of 2003.
The B.C. forest industry has long been calling for a move to forest practice regulations based on results, and not numerous plan approvals and paperwork. It was estimated the code and all its related documents piled together was more than a metre tall. The industry estimated the prescriptive regulations costs $1 billion a year.
Brought in in 1995, the code was
meant to allay growing global concerns — fueled by a war in the woods between environmentalists and forest companies — that B.C. forest practices weren’t adequate to protect the environment.
The changes suggested in the discussion paper have been condemned by environmental groups like the Sierra Club of B.C.
The club said the results-based approach is vastly different than the current planning-driven code, yet the public is not being asked for its opinion on whether B.C. should move in this direction.
The discussion paper and information on how to comment on the proposed changes is available at www.re-sultsbasedcode.ca
PRINCE GEORGE
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
economy: report
Gov’t unveils Labour Code, WCB changes
VANCOUVER (CP) — The B.C. government
■ tabled three pieces of workplace legislation Mon-‘ day that it says are aimed at making the province more competitive economically.
But the year-old government’s proposed revisions to the Labour Code, employment standards • and the workers’ compensation rules are likely to further stir up British Columbia’s already riled unions.
The three bills, introduced by Skills Development and Labour Minister Graham Bruce, fulfil .promises in the Liberals’ New Era document in
■ last May’s election.
Labour law has been a political weathervane in British Columbia. The Social Credit government
enacted management-friendly changes in the 1980s and the NDP, returning to power after 20 years in 1991, made reforms that upset business.
“This is not an attack on labour,” Bruce said in Victoria. “This is trying to fix some concerns we’ve had expressed to us. I would hope that you would see that this is not a wild swing, pendulum swing of changes here.”
The Labour Relations Code Amendment Act gives its governing board clearer marching orders through eight stated principles.
The legislation now also requires the board to ensure job security and viability of a business be considered in its decisions. The government says it also clarifies employers’ rights to communicate
with employees during contract negotiations and union certification drives.
The labour board itself will be streamlined and be given the power to levy fees for some of its services to help recover costs. Further reforms will be considered after an advisory panel consults with interested parties.
The employment standards amendment act aims at increased workplace flexibility through measures such as allowing employers and employees to negotiate work schedules beyond an eight-hour work day without overtime as long as they are averaged over two to four weeks.
Bruce said the changes “are designed to provide flexibility and encourage self-reliance so employ-
ees and employers can build mutually beneficial workplace relationships.”
The legislation also cuts the minimum amount an employee must be paid if called in to work, which Bruce says will expand employment opportunities.
The bill toughens penalties for employers found to have broken the rules, with fines of up to $10,000 for a three-time offender.
Amendments to the Workers’ Compensation Act include changing the formula for calculating tax-free benefits to 90 per cent of net average earnings from 75 per cent of gross earnings, adjusting for inflation once instead of twice a year and capping those adjustments at four per cent.
Cuts will rattle
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