E-Mail address:
news@princegeorgecltizefl.com
Our Web site:
http://www.princegeorgetitizen.coni
INDEX
Annie’s Mailbox
Bridge......... ........22
City, B.C. ... 3,5,13,15,16,28
Classified......
Comics........
Coming Events. .......2,16
Crossword.....
Entertainment. .... 18,19
Horoscope..... ........22
Lifestyles ... 15,17,24,25,28
Lotteries....... ........14
Nation......... ..........6
Sports........
Television .....
World ........
SWITCHBOARD: 562-2441
CLASSIFIED: 562 6666
READER SALES: 562-3301
PRINCE GEORGE
High today: 10 Low tonight: - 3 Details page 2
Citizen
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
C0NTISTI
FOR
YEAR
MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2003
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 54 CENTS A DAY)
Airport officially no longer under gov’t control
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
Jim Vanderploeg of IRL Signs changes the signs on one of the trucks at the Prince George Airport. The old Government of Canada signs are being replaced with the new Airport Authority logo.
Prince George Airport Authority begins transition
Citizen staff
The Prince George Airport Authority took over control of the city’s airport from the federal government at midnight Sunday, but few if any trav-ellers will notice any immediate changes says authority chairman James Blalfe.
It will even be some time yet before the transfer is officially acknowledged. A ceremony won’t be held until April 11, when federal cabinet member Herb Dhaliwal will present Blake with a symbolic key to the airport.
“You’re not going to see much change until after that at least,” Blake said. “It’ll be pretty much business as usual.”
Because of the protocol that must be followed, which includes consulting the airlines, it will be another month before the $5 airport im-
provement fee is introduced. And in contrast to Vancouver International Airport, where travellers must pay the fee at a separate booth, Blake
said it will be included in the ticket price at Prince George beginning May 1.
Over time, signs and logos will be
changed from Transport Canada to the Prince George Airport Authority em-blem. A prime task will be develop-* ment of the airport-owned lands along Highway 16.
The changeover has been a long time coming. The Prince George Airport is the last of the 26 National Airports System airports to be transferred to local control under the National Airports Policy, introduced in 1994. The delay was due to concerns about downloading by the federal government and the September 11 attacks. A transfer agreement was finally signed on January 30.
Meanwhile, Blake said the proposed Canada Airports Act will soon go to the committee stage in the House of Commons. He said the act threatens to impose new regulations around airport management and eventually lead to higher ticket prices.
“There’s a lot of things that we’re not really happy with in regard to it, but we’re hopeful that during the committee stage it will get modified somewhat,” he said.
Mission accomplished for MR!
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff
The Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation’s magnetic resonance imaging campaign officially came to an end Saturday, when Overwaitea customers with Save-On cards were able to donate itheir points toward purchase of the machine.
Foundation executive director Tom Shand said Sunday there was a good response, although the tally from the event was still to be determined, j “We thought it was important to give people an opportunity to contribute in a way that would be helpful to us without a whole lot of consequence
to them,” he said. “A number of people did donate a substantial number of points, which will help.”
There is now enough money raised to pay for the community’s $1 million commitment to the purchase, Shand said. The money has been used to lever an additional $3 million from the provincial government and the regional district to not only buy the $2.5 million machine, but to spend $1.5 million on the building that will house it.
The MRI is expected to arrive by July 17, Shand said, and after a couple of weeks of testing, should be ready for patients.
“It will be extremely gratifying to have the MRI here. It has a lot of value for a lot of reasons to the hospital and to the people of Prince George and I think the community will have every right to be proud of itself in getting an MRI here,” he said.
The rest of the Foundation’s Centre of Excellence campaign is continuing.
Money raised will go to renovating the rooms and the air circulation system at Jubilee Lodge, and to renovating the Maternal Child Care Centre on the second floor at Prince George Regional Hospital.
Shand expects it will take another 18 months to
campaign
finish that phase of the Foundation’s efforts, while at the same time raising funds for an endowment fund to pay for continued education of hospital staff and physicians.
Meanwhile, Brody Begg of Prince George won the Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was first prize in a raffle put on by the PG Firefighters and the Foundation. Peter Beningfield won the second prize, a Harley-Davidson leather jacket, and Karen Jones’ name was drawn for the third prize, a pair of leather chaps.,
More than $180,000 was raised with the 3,500 tickets that were sold.
In
the line of fire
City woman returning to teach in Kuwait
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff
A near miss by a low-flying Iraqi missile won’t stop Liz Stevens from returning to Kuwait to resume teaching classes.
The missile avoided the detection of U.S. defence systems early Saturday morning, and landed just off the coast of Kuwait City, shattering windows at a popular seaside shopping mall.
It was the closest a missile has come to the Kuwaiti capital since U.S. troops based in the Persian Gulf emirate invaded neighbouring Iraq on March 20.
It was still a 15-20 minute drive away from where Stevens teaches and a 20-25 minute walk from where she lives while in Kuwait, and she’ll be flying back to the country Tliesday.
“I think things will be fairly safe,” Stevens said STEVENS Sunday, although she added some of her colleagues have decided not to return just yet.
The school, where the Prince George woman teaches Grade 3 girls, was closed March 16 and Stevens was evacuated from Kuwait due to the expected war in Iraq — the border of which is located only 50 miles from Kuwait.
Over the last week or so schools have started to reopen as troops make progress.
Upon hearing about the missile, Stevens was first concerned that it may have landed'in a residential area near the mall, and next that it may contain chemical or biological agents. Neither was the case, and to her surprise, a water clock located at the centre of the mall remained intact.
“When I first heard about it I thought the mall itself had been hit, which would have been pretty traumatic,” she said. “So I was relieved that there was no serious damage.”
She’s not looking forward to the possibility, but Steven^ is prepared to begin dressing like the local women should terrorists start to target North Americans in Kuwait.
But all things considered, Stevens said the situation has been no worse than expected, and as a fallback, she and her colleagues have visas that allow them into Saudi Arabia.
“We’ll just play it by ear and see what happens,” she said. “If something happens they can close the schools down again.”
Her prime concern was to get the school year ended before the blazing-hot summer begins. “We only have two months left-in the year, so it looks pretty good,” Stevens said.
- with files from Canadian Press
OUR SCOTT’S FAREWELL FINISH — Scott Bellavance of Prince George takes the high stand on the podium after winning Sunday’s dual moguls competition at the Canadian freestyle skiing championships at Apex near Penticton. Bellavance, who retired from competitive skiing following the race, is flanked by silver medalist Warren Tanner, left, of Grimsby, Ont. and Chris Wong of Prince George, who finished third. Two other Prince George skiers, aerial specialist Jay Nachbaur and mogulist Jennifer Simm, also posted top-five finishes. For more, see page 12
Synovate all but hooked up
Citizen staff
It won’t be long before a deal will be signed to bring a second call centre to Prince George, says Initiatives Prince George president Gerry Offet.
Initiatives Prince George has been in almost daily contact with Synovate, based in Arlington Hills, 111., near Chicago, and has been dealing with a couple of Prince George landlords, Offet said Sunday.
“We hope that sometime this week we can put something together,” he said.
After Synovate officials visited Prince George in mid February, the company went through two rounds of advertis-
ing for employees.
If all works out, Synovate should have a branch up and running in Prince George by June 1. Initially, about 60 people will be employed locally, but that number could reach 250 within a year, Offet said.
Synovate is a market research company and the call centre would be part of that effort. In contrast, LiveBridge, which opened in Prince George in November and whose headquarters is in Portland, Oregon, does telem^-keting on a contract basis.
Whether or not Initiatives Prince George will seek out a third call centre
business remains to be seen.
“We want to be careful that we don’t expand to the point where we don’t have enough workers,” Offet said. “Synovate will not directly compete with LiveBridge for workers because most of the callers (at Synovate) will be part-time as opposed to full-time and the hours will appeal to students and that sort of thing.”
After a five-day shutdown prompted by the war in Iraq, the LiveBridge centre reopened last Tliesday when U.S.-based BankOne, the centre’s sole client at the time, gave the go-ahead to resume dialing.