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Lumber duties hurt consumers: U.S. group
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
An American lumber consumer group called on the U.S. International Trade Commission Thursday to focus on how the 27-per-cent duties on (Canadian imports are hurting consumers.
! American Consumers for Affordable Homes (ACAH) was responding to a hearing on the competitiveness of the
U.S. structural building components industry, which includes beams, arches and trusses. As part of those hearings, the International Trade Commission has surveyed home builders and lumber dealers.
“While we believe this study can provide useful information about lumber users, we hope that the ITC also will take into consideration the burden placed on consumers forced to
pay the 27-per-cent duties on Canadian lumber imports," said ACAH spokesperson Susan Petniunas. “The impacts are not just on lumber users; the current duties amount to a federally imposed sales tax on new home construction, remodeling and other applications for lumber. It is a tax on home buyers and homeowners.” Petniunas pointed out that even though current lumber costs have
dropped, the duties add to the instability and volatility of the housing market. “Without trade-distorting border taxes or other interferences such as quotas, the cost of lumber would be dictated by the free market, allowing for longer term stability,” she said.
The review by the ITC is considered an escalation of the softwood trade dispute by B.C. value-added wood
producers, a sector which has sales of about $2.9 billion annually. Only finger-joined lumber produced by the value-added industry is captured under the countervailing and antidumping duties totalling 27 per cent. Beams, trusses and I-joists are exempt.
The ITC has until April 30 to deliver its report back to the U.S. Senate committee.
Water, sewer rates boosted by council
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff
A rate structure plan that includes slight increases to the charges for water and sewer was approved 5-2 by dty council Wednesday night
Residential users will receive a five per cent hike in both their sewer and water rates, bumping the monthly charge up to $15.56 from $14.82.
Meanwhile, metered users will absorb average increases of 2.1 per cent for water and 1.8 per cent for sewer, all beginning in January.
The increases are in answer to the rising cost of providing the services, but also part of a plan to redistribute the charges so that they more accurately account for the cost of providing the service to the various users.
. As a result, residential customers will be taking tin more of the burden over the next four years. However, there will also be some changes for the metered, or industrial, commercial and institutional customers, as well.
Currently, the amount they pay for water usage is based on a declining-rate structure that sees the charge per gallon used decrease as the volume increases. Starting in January, it will be replaced with one that accounts for both system capatity and the actual amount of water and sewer used.
Those with 76 mm (three-inch) or larger connections, or 924 of the dt/s 1,390 metered customers, will absorb an increase, while those with connec-
tions under that size would enjoy a drop in the portion of the rate that represents system capaaty, reflecting the capital costs that the dty must pay to maintain such services.
Starting in 2003, a uniform rate for each gallon used will be phased in over four years, replacing the current declining rate while softening the impact on larger users in the process. The change should encourage users to conserve water, staff says.
If the conditions remain the same, staff will ask for increases of five per cent in the residential rate in 2004 and 2005 for both water and sewer followed by a 2.4 per cent increase for water and a 4.1 per cent increase for sewer in 2006. Metered users, meanwhile, can look forward to proposed decreases of 11.4 per cent in 2004 and 13.6 per cent in 2005 and no change in 2006 for sewer, and, for water, a slight increase of 2.3 per cent in 2004 followed by no change in 2005 and a 2.9 per cent increase in 2006.
Had the rate changes not been phased in, residential customers would have absorbed an extra $51 over 2003 to pay for water and sewer, rather than just $17.76.
Rookie councillors Glen Scott and Sherry Sethen voted against the move, partly over concern that the rate hikes may be the first of many that council will be asked to approve and because they want a better feel of the city’s financial situation before granting any increases.
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MPs take aim at soaring costs for gun registry
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff
The auditor general’s report on the ballooning cost of the gun registry comes as no surprise to Prince George-Bulkley Valley MP Dick Harris.
Harris said the Canadian Alliance has kept track of the rising cost of the program since it was launched in 1995.
Although the Alliance had to rely on freedom of information legislation to get the figures they were looking for, Harris said the number they arrived at was dose to the $1 billion by 2005 estimate put out by auditor general Sheila Fraser.
‘It wasn’t surprising to us,” he said. “I guess what we were very pleased to see was the damning report that the auditor general gave the gun registration and the government’s mismanagement of it confirms what we’ve been saying all along.”
Despite the runaway cost, Harris doubts the Liberals will scrap the program, but he senses backbenchers, particularly from rural constituendes, are feeling the heat from voters who oppose the concept of a gun registry to begin with.
Although there’s more support for a registry in urban ridings, Harris said the Alliance has found aty-dwellers are seeing the issue as another example of government mismanagement
The Alliance wants to scrap the registry.
“The number of firearm-related crimes has not gone down, even though Bill C-68 has been in force for a number of years, and whether a firearm is registered or not doesn’t seem to be a deterrent to someone if they’re intent on hurting or killing somebody,” Harris said.
But Harris would like to see a system that screens prospective gun buyers for any severe emotional problems that might make them dangerous, noting that commercial airplane pilots, among others, must display good mental health.
Meanwhile, in the House of Commons Wednesday Prince George-Peace River MP Jay Hill said the Liberals have not only swept the cost of the gun registry under the carpet, but are hiding the true cost of implementing the Kyoto accord as well.
“As Canadians line up at hospitals and clinics across the country waiting for critical medical services, Liberals continue to waste billions of dollars on their pet projects,” he said. “How many more gong shows do we have to sit through?”
— See editorial, column on page 4; story on page 7
Citizen photo by Dewe Milne
RHYME TIME — Evelyn Wou and daughter Megan, 2, act out a fun Mother Goose rhyme at the Family Y Thursday. Parents and tots were led in rhymes and stories by Marie Kelly from the public library.
Via buys glass-dome cars
by KAREN KWAN Citizen staff
Via Rail has purchased glass-dome rail cars from B.C. Rail’s short-lived Whistler North wind luxury train, and plans to hook them up to its northern B.C. service.
The federal Crown corporation bought five of the nine cars, B.C. Rail’s Alan Dever said Thursday. But he wouldn’t disclose the sale price, because the corporation is currently negotiating a deal for the other cars with an unidentified bidder. “We expect to recoup our investment in the equipment and we’re still working toward that,” he said. B.C. Rail spent about $10 million on the luxury train cars—which feature windows that curve into the roof—when it launched the service, between North Vancouver and Prince George, in May 2001. In September, it pulled the service, along with the Cariboo Prospector in October, leaving the dty with no passenger-train link to the Lower Mainland. B.C. Rail rited a $107 million loss last year and a projected defitit of $56 million this year as the reason for its decision.
Via Rail hasn’t publidy announced its purchase and officials could not be reached Thursday.
Northern B.C. Tourism Assodation executive director Dan Stefanson said the corporation plans to use the cars on its Skeena service, between Jasper and Prince Rupert via Prince George. Details on how Via would integrate the cars into the line and what kind of service would be offered were un-
known, but Stefanson said there’s been talk about increasing service on the route.
The move should hdp tourist operators promote the service, he said. “Well have to say we’ve lost the Northwind, but now we have a ‘but,’” he said.
Ken Veldman, vice-president of Initiatives Prince George, which runs the dt^s tourism arm, said he doesn’t see the purchase affecting tourism. “They’re beautiful cars and it’s nice to keep them in the area,” he said. “But it wasn’t the cars that made die Whistler Northwind a luxury service, it was the service level. And I would be surprised to see Via change its service,” Veldman said.
The tourism industry has blasted the elimination of B.C. Rail passenger service to the dty, which brought thousands of visitors to the area each year.
But Stefanson is more optimistic now, saying he sees a short-term impact but that people will find other ways to travel. ‘It’s disappointing to lose passenger service but I really think that in the long-run there’s a more sellable way to do it,” he said.
Tour operators have used rail as part of their circle tours, which bring people from Vancouver to Prince George, then to Prince Rupert by train and to Vancouver Island by ferry. Now, Stefanson said they’re looking to Greyhound bus charters to pick up the Vancouver to Prince George route, and to Rocky Mountaineer Railtours which would bring passengers from Vancouver to Jasper. “It will just be a bigger circle,” he said.
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