PRINCE GEORGE
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Local woman to head parole board
by KAREN KWAN Citizen staff
Educating the public about the parole system is a top priority, says a Prince George woman appointed to head the B.C. Board of Parole.
Tracey Thompson, former vicechair of the hoard, was appointed to the chair’s position by the provincial government last month. The full-time appointment, based in Burnaby, is a six-year one but can be renewed.
“One goal is to increase awareness of what parole is and what it does so the public understands,” she said. People sometimes view parole as a way to let the offender off easily or, conversely, as an instrument of justice, Thompson said. “What’s the purpose of having the person sit in jail and cost the system when they can make changes?” she said.
The parole system offers a structured environment to help offenders re-enter the community as contributing members, she said.
A former Prince George RCMP officer, Thompson said she became interested in the parole system when she witnessed what happened to the people she arrested. “I saw people going through the jail system and saw them come out really no different than they were before,” she said. “I saw jail as a short-term deterrent for crime. I saw parole as a mechanism that can assist someone to change if they truly want to,” Thompson said.
Before they’re released, an offender must come up with a plan that addresses issues such as counselling, treatment for addictions, education, and employment. “What we’re asking a criminal to do is change their behavior. It’s not an easy thing. They need support and supervision.”
As chair, Thompson oversees the 25-member board that makes decisions on whether inmates serving time in provincial institutions —jail terms of less than two years — should be released into the community to complete their sentences. A hearing is conducted by two board members to determine whether an offender would pose an undue risk to the community and whether the release would help with reintegration into society. Offenders can apply for parole after serving one-third of their sentence.
INDEX
Ann Landers____ ........16
Bridge.........
Business ....... .....28-30
City, B.C........ .. .3,5,6,13
Classified ...... .....18-23
Comics ........ ........26
Coming Events .. .........2
Crossword ..... ........26
Entertainment .. .....25-27
Horoscope ..... ........22
Lifestyles....... ........16
Movies......... ........27
Nation......... ......7,15
Sports ......... ......8-12
Television...... ........27
World ......... ........14
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Feds free funds for forestry
$ 75 million for diversification; no money for workers
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal announced Thursday $75 million in funding during the next five years for the forest industry to help diversify products and markets. But no help was announced for industry workers.
Dhaliwal said the money is only the first step in a federal government strategy to help the softwood lumber industry, which is suffering from a bitter trade dispute with the U.S. “I want to make it clear this is our first step in responding to the unfair and illegal tariffs of the American government. This is not the final step,” Dhaliwal said at a news conference in Vancouver, which was aired to reporters in B.C. “The first key to ensuring prosperity and long-term competitiveness is diversifying our markets for wood products.”
Dhaliwal — who toured the Prince George area recently — noted that 80% of Canada’s lumber goes to the U.S. He said markets need to be opened up in countries like China, Korea, Taiwan and India as they
have in Japan, Canada’s second largest wood products market next to the U.S.
Other options discussed by Ottawa include beefing up Employment Insurance to help workers who are impacted by the lumber trade dispute and providing some form of aid to companies to help them carry punishing duties.
Canadian lumber producers are expected to have to start paying duties totalling 27% beginning next Thursday.
Prince George mayor Colin Kinsley said he still expects to see the federal government kick in aid for forest workers and some assistance to small companies, but he called the marketing and research money “good news.”
“We’ve been talking for a long time about expanding markets and adding value,” noted Kinsley. “Next we want to hear what (the federal government) is going to do about the beetle kill.”
Northern B.C. communities and industry have been calling on aid from Ottawa in the fight of a massive
mountain pine beetle epidemic destroying valuable timber in north and central B.C.
Central Interior Logging Association manager Roy Nagel praised the funding, saying it’s just the kind of help the industry needs to find new markets and boost the secondary manufacturing industry.
“This is absolutely critical,” said Nagel, whose organization represents about 5,000 loggers and haulers in north and central B.C. “If we do not find new technology and other markets, and focus energy in nurturing the secondary manufacturing side, we’re going to be perpetually in this mess (lumber trade dispute with the U.S.)”
Fred Carroll, president of local 1-424 of the Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers union, said he hopes the federal government doesn’t forget the North of B.C.
“We’re not quite hurting right yet, but I have a feeling we will be,” Carroll said of the union’s 4,000 sawmill workers in the Northern Interior of B.C.
— See related stories on page 6 and 7
Target Asia for lumber: expert
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
B.C.’s Interior lumber industry should focus on growth in Japan and opening up the Chinese market in the Pacific Rim, consultant Jim Shaw told a group of business and community leaders.
Other potential markets in Korea, Taiwan and India will be more difficult to penetrate, Shaw said at a Yellowhead Rotary Club luncheon. For example, in India there is a wood building culture, but it’s based on hardwoods which are resilient to pests there, not the softwoods produced in northern B.C.
Even in China, it will take patience and persistence to break open a lumber market as almost all homes, apartments and buildings are constructed with concrete, said Shaw, who heads up the Pacific Rim marketing program for the Northern Forest Products Association, the Cariboo Lumber Manufacturers Association and the Interior Lumber Association. But the opportunities are immense, he said.
China has a population of 1.3 billion and growing as well as a burgeoning middle class in certain business regions as the country is opened up to the free market and an estimated 10 million housing starts a year. However, there are only about 300 wood-frame housing starts a year now, and realistically that shouldn’t be expected to increase beyond 15,000 in the next several years, noted Shaw.
In Japan it took 30 years to develop a demand for lumber that provides about $500 million in sales to Interior B.C. companies, said Shaw, whose Cross-Roads Strategies Group Inc. is based in Vancouver.
You have to overcome perceptions that wood is not a resilient building product, transfer technology and skills and even help develop building codes for wood, while fighting for market share with competitors, he said.
“I think the enthusiasm is appropriate for the marketplace,” Shaw said in an interview following his presentation. “When you start in a market as large as China, and you focus on one segment of it, I think what you’ll find is there will be other pulls that develop because people will start using your product, even in perhaps different ways than we thought possible.”
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
TWINKLE, TWINKLE LITTLE STAR — Marine biologist Sean Rollo shows a sea star to Sydney Hendricks, a Grade 1 student at Meadow elementary. The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre’s Aquavan was at the school teaching students about marine life and the connections between animals, environment and people. The Aquavan will be at Harwin elementary on Tuesday.
City studying potential use of woodwaste energy plant
by KAREN KWAN Citizen staff
Within the next couple of years, the city could be home to a cutting-edge system that promises cleaner air and cheaper energy, officials say.
A study is being commissioned by the city and Vancouver-based Greenbelt Renewable Energy Inc. into the feasibility of the multi-million dollar project.
“This would put us on the cutting edge of making use of environmentally-sound technology,” said Prince George Development Corp. president Gerry Offet.
The proposal would see Greenbelt build and run a co-generation plant, to cost in excess of $30 million, that would produce electricity by burning wood-waste. That electricity would be sold to B.C. Hydro, if the provincial government approves the move. At the same time, hot water created as a by-product of the plant would be fed into a Community Energy System (CES) that would replace other heating sources through an underground pipe network. The system would connect a limited number of buildings in
the downtown area, possibly civic buildings, hotels, and large office complexes which are major energy users.
According to a preliminary study undertaken by the city last year, the CES could eliminate the equivalent of about 8,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year and would save users 20% to 30% in heating costs.
“We’re hopeful construction could start early next year. While it’s not going to be a huge capital project, it will also create some jobs,” Offet said. “The city hasn’t committed to doing this project, but council has agreed to take the first step at taking a hard look at it.”
The initial study estimated the CES portion of the project would cost $4 million to $6 million. Options for construction and operation of the system, including a private-public partnership or third-party undertaking, would be examined in the report, but council has not made any funding commitments, Offet said.
He said the system would be the first in Canada to use that specific technology — pioneered in Finland — although
there are a couple of similar projects in Ontario.
The latest study would look specifically at Greenbelt’s interests and go into much more detail, addressing things like cost, timeline, and woodwaste supply. An “extensive” consultation process will be included in the study. “Everybody involved wants to give groups information about the project and get their input, particularly on the em'ironmental side,” Offet said. The document would also identify possible locations for the co-generation plant, which would likely require at least 10 acres.
Prince George is one of several communities being considered by Greenbelt, he said, but the only one in which a detailed study is being undertaken.
Offet said it’s not certain how much the study will cost because the contract hasn’t been awarded yet, but the price tag for last year’s study was $80,000, which was partly covered by a grant. A request for proposals is expected to go out by next week, and the study is scheduled to be complete by Nov. 30.
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