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PRINCE GEORGE
Citizen
Details page 2 Serving the Central Interior since 1916 y EfiSffl
| TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2002 80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 54 CENTS A DAY)
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INDEX
Annie’s Mailbox .........19
Bridge........ .........22
Business...... .........32
City, B.C. ...3,5 13,17,18,31
Classified ..... ......20-23
Comics ....... .........26
Coming Events . .......2.31
Crossword .... .........26
Entertainment . ......25,27
Horoscope ---- .........22
Lotteries...... .........15
Lifestyles ...... ...17,18,30
Movies........ .........27
Nation........ .....6,7,14
Sports ........
Television..... .........27
World.........
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
AUTUMN BLISS — Photographer Troy Knox from Vision Photography takes advantage of the fall colours in Paddlewheel Park by the Fraser River to photograph bride Lauren Comeau, who married Nathan Gromes on Saturday.
Environmental upgrades planned for ten schools
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
- Work will start by the end of the month on ihe $1.6-million first phase of cost-saving environmental upgrades of 10 school buildings in the Prince George school district, said secre-Jary-treasurer Bryan Mix.
- Education minister Christy Clark recently gave the school board approval to borrow as much as $1.5 million to improve energy efficiency and avoid wasting water at Kelly Road, Mackenzie, McBride and College Heights sec-ondary schools as well as Buckhorn, Southridge, Valemount, Westwood and Nukko Lake elementary schools.
This will be the first of three phases of retrofits in compliance with Green Buildings B.C.
Retrofit Program criteria, with the help of Johnson Controls, Mix said.
The board “will pay back the principal and interest on local capital borrowings for the improvements within 10 years through operating savings in energy costs derived from the improvements,” Clark said.
Improvements will include more efficient lighting systems; upgrades to heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems; and the installation of more efficient water fixtures and waste-management systems.
The energy savings expected from the retrofits at the 10 buildings are expected to be more than $170,000 per year. Savings in maintenance costs should be more than $30,000 annually, according to Johnson Controls.
Group seeks Hydro petition support
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
B.C. Citizens for Public Power will be in Prince George Wednesday making a pitch for people to sign up for a class-action suit against the B.C. Liberal government.
They filed their suit in B.C. Supreme Court against the province and B.C. Hydro in an effort to halt privatization, deregulation and the break-up of B.C. Hydro.
Neither the province nor B.C. Hydro have filed their responses.
The lawsuit is, in part, an effort to block the sell-off of a portion of B.C. Hydro to Bermuda-based multinational Accenture.
“B.C. Hydro just doesn’t need fixing, and I think people have a real sense of ownership over it. It’s our
company,” said B.C. Citizens for Pub-lic Power spokesman Marty Veerkamp, who has been invited to Prince George by the Active Voice Coalition.
“I hear people saying it’s not my MLA’s company or (B.C. Premier) Gordon Campbell’s company. And if you’re going to monkey with this, you have to have a full consultation before you make any changes. And they haven’t even bothered to do that,” he said.
The forum at the College of New Caledonia cafeteria begins at 7 p.m. There is no cost.
The B.C. government has continued to say it will not be selling off B.C. Hydro’s core assets, including its dams, reservoirs and transmission lines.
However, the Liberals’ hand-picked energy task force recommended last December the break up of B.C. Hydro, including the establishment of an independent transmission entity clearly separate from all power generators, distribution utilities and retailers.
The panel has also suggested moving to market-based prices, which it expects would increase residential rates 30 per cent and industrial rates by 60 per cent.
It recommends a number of options for moving to market pricing, including instituting them now and providing rebates or a blended-rate system in which the existing electricity continue to be sold at current rates, adding new energy at market rates.
Under the blended system, it’s not
expected rates would increase as much because Hydro’s capacity to generate low-price power would offset the new power coming in at higher market rates.
The panel’s final report was to be ready by March, but it was delayed until the summer and has still not been released.
Veerkamp believes the government has delayed releasing the final report because it senses a growing public backlash to the push to break-up Hydro and move to market-based pricing.
Citizens for Public Power was formed earlier this year and it includes members like the B.C. Federation of Labour, the Council of Canadians and the Council of Senior Citizens.
GETTING READY FOR HALLOWEEN —
Melissa Gordon, 6, left, and sister Kayla, 7, got mixed up with some scarecrows Saturday at the Parkwood Place Dollar Store, where they were shopping with mom. There's lots of Halloween items in stores as the spookiest night of the year looms.
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Serial sniper strikes again?
ROCKVILLE, Md. (CP) — Police believe the serial sniper terrorizing the Washington suburbs lengthened his trail of random carnage late Monday with the shooting death of an elderly woman in a parking lot.
Witnesses said the attack had all the harrowing hallmarks of the recent slayings. The woman was pushing a shopping cart through a Home Depot parking lot when she was felled by a single shot, police said.
Several horrified shoppers who heard the sharp crack of the gunfire ran screaming toward the Home Depot and an adjacent Barnes and Noble bookstore. Chief Tom Manger of the Fairfax County police said his force was treating the killing as though it was linked to the others.
— See related story on page 15
Local duo honoured by duke
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
T\vo Prince George women received recognition for their sense of adventure and dedication to service when they received the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award from the duke himself during ceremonies recently held in Vancouver.
Lysianne Brassard, 25, and Amanda Ransom, 19, received the gold award for achievement in four categories — service to others, expeditions and explorations, skills development and participation in a planned program of physical activities. “I was excited to get the award from the duke himself,” Brassard said. “I think it’s an honour to receive it."
Brassard’s dedication to service included the many hours she gave to Cadets as an officer with the Cadets program. An expedition she undertook for the award program was the four nights and five days she spent camping and hiking in Quebec’s Chic Choc mountains. “I had to practise leadership techniques and teaching techniques with Cadets,” she said. One major exploration she pursued was a six-week camping trip in 1994 with Cadets in the Gaspe region of Quebec.
In the skills development category, she spent two-and-a-half years learning judo techniques. For physical activities she took up boxing five years ago for the training in physical fitness the sport offered. Ransom was also deeply impressed by the ceremony at which she received the award from the Duke of Edinburgh. “I found it to be a great honour, because not many Canadians receive the gold. Also, to receive it personally from the duke is an honour.”
Ransom's service included hours of volunteering at senior citizens’ homes and with the Royal Canadian Legion, the Lions’ Centre and the International Order of Odd Fellows. She was in the Army Cadets for seven years. Her expedition was a trip to Europe with Cadets, which included a week and a half of training in the bush in England with the British military.
The skill she developed was playing the trumpet. Her physical activities to earn the award included three years of playing rugby.
“I was alk> on a biathlon team for two years in Prince George with Army Cadets,” Ransom said.
Keep killer in tougher jail: MP
Citizen Staff
Prince George-Bulkley Valley MP Dick Harris is lobbying to have the killer of a Fraser Lake rancher kept in a medium-security penitentiary.
Earlier this month, Alfred (Scotty) Ormiston’s family spoke out against the possibility of his murderer being placed in a minimum-security jail. “You don’t pump three bullets into someone, bury him in a well and deserve to be reduced to minimum security,” Ormiston’s daughter, Denise Dykes said.
Bruce Douglas Peters, 38, is currently serving a life sentence at William Head Institution near Victoria for the second-degree murder of his neighbour in October 1995. But Correctional Service Canada is converting William Head into a minimum-security jail from its current medium-and-minimum security status
by the end of the year.
In response to Dykes’ plea for help, Harris plans to fire off a letter to the warden at William Head and to the federal correctional service. “We want to ensure he’s not moved to medium security," he said. “This is a very serious crime.” People who commit first or second-degree murder should not be released on parole, he added. “Our philosophy is that life means life. I roll my eyes when I see people who commit first or second-degree murder being paroled after serving a number of years,” Harris said.
Offenders convicted of murder face a mandatory life sentence, but are eligible for parole after 10 to 25 years, in the case of second-degree murder, and after 25 years for first-degree murder.
Peters was convicted in May 1997 and sentenced to life in prison with no possi-
bility of parole for 10 years for Ormiston’s murder. During his trial, he admitted to shooting Ormiston, but claimed it was in self-defence and that Ormiston was trying to steal his cattle at the time. The two families had a long-standing dispute over wandering cattle and grazing rights. Ormiston’s body was found a week later, stuffed into an abandoned well on Peters’ property.
It’s not known whether Peters is being moved to a minimum-security jail, because Correctional Service doesn’t release details of individual cases. But William Head says it will conduct security assessments on all inmates before classifying them for minimum or medium security. Prisoners who are pegged medium-security will be moved to one of four federal institutions on the Lower Mainland.
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