PRINCE GEORGE
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Citizen
Last-minute pilots deal saves Air Canada
by DAVID PADDON Canadian Press
TORONTO — Agreements with Air Canada’s unions, including the last-minute deal with pilots, will allow the struggling airline to reduce its costs by $1.1 billion, Air Canada president and chief executive Robert Milton announced Sunday.
Air Canada’s plan to become a more efficient, lower-cost airline got a lift Sunday when the cash-strapped airline finally reached a tentative deal with its main pilots union, the last of its labour groups to settle. An Ontario judge had given the two sides until midnight Saturday night or face possible liquidation of the company.
Few details of the agreement with the Air Canada Pilots Association, the bigger of two pilots unions at the company, were released.
But Milton praised the ACPA union and acknowledged it faced “unique and complex issues.” “I salute Air Canada’s union leadership for doing the right thing under trying circumstances to ensure the survival of this great airline,” Milton said in a statement issued Sunday afternoon.
“I recognize what a difficult and unsettling time this has been for all of Air Canada’s employees. A successful ratification of all the tentative agreements will establish the foundation to move forward with lessors, lenders, key suppliers and other stakeholders.”
Air Canada passengers said they were relieved a deal had been reached but at least one employee was bitter at the sacrifice he’s been asked to make.
‘Tm taking a wage cut so that Canadians can go to Hawaii cheaper, and that’s against my bottom
line, so that makes me angry,” Air Canada flight attendant Rob Sheerratt said Sunday at Montreal’s Dorval Airport. But he added: “To save the company, I’m happy to do it.”
Although Milton’s statement didn’t say specifically what the pilots were contributing as their share of the cost-cutting, it provided the following breakdown of the $1.1 billion:
■ $766 million, including benefits, among unionized employees at the main carrier (which would include the main pilots union).
■ $110 million in reduced labour costs at its Jazz regional subsidiary (which would include members of a smaller pilots union).
■ $120 million from non-unionized and management employees.
■ $110 million from the realignment of the air-
line to a smaller network.
Although eight of the nine unions at Air Canada and Jazz had reached tentative agreements by last Thursday, the lack of a deal with the main pilots union resulted in a court order to reach a deal by midnight Saturday night or face the possibility the company could be pushed into bankruptcy.
A deal was announced about 3 a.m. Sunday and plans were called off for an emergency hearing in Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
“It has been a long and arduous process,” Don Johnson, president of the pilots union, said in a statement. “No one is happy with a situation where salaries will be cut, and jobs lost. However, our pilots realize the gravity of the situation and are willing to do what it takes to help build a new future for Air Canada.”
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INDEX
Annie’s Mailbox .............17
Bridge.......................21
City, B.C................3,5,13
Classified................19-23
Comics.......................16
Coming Events..............2,24
Crossword....................16
Entertainment................17
Horoscope....................21
Lotteries....................14
Nation......................6,7
Sports.....................8-12
Television ..................17
World.....................14,15
Tighter livestock feed regulations needed: MLA
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff
Feeding of animal ruminants to all livestock should be banned from the province says Prince George-Omineca MLA Paul Nettleton, even if the practice continues to be allowed in the rest of Canada.
“Let’s not wait for the federal government to do this out of necessity, but rather let the B.C. government protect its own cattle industry now, through a complete ban on animal content in any and all animal feed,” Nettleton said.
Since 1997, it’s been illegal to give cattle feed made from other ruminants, although those substances can be given to animals like poultry and pigs, since scientists believe those types of livestock aren’t susceptible to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease.
About 60 cattle from three quarantined B.C. farms — more than half from a farm near Prince George — are being slaughtered because there’s a
possibility the animals ate feed linked to a case of mad cow disease in Alberta.
Prince George North MLA Pat Bell, who owns the Wendy’s franchises within the dty, declined to comment on the issue riting a perceived conflict of interest.
However, according to Hansard, Agriculture Minister John van Dongen said there continues to be no evidence of any compromise in the safety of the food supply.
“On the three farms that were identified in the feed investigation, none of the animals entered the feed supply,” he said.
He also said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was interviewing customers of certain feed mills.
“I think it’s important for farmers to recognize that they have to comply with the law in terms of the use of poultry feed,” he said.
Nettleton also questioned the province’s ability to assess the impact on the province’s beef industry, and therefore gather the information needed to pressure the government to fairly compensate its 10,000 workers.
Arrest made in school arson case
Citizen staff
Police made an arrest in connection with the recent arson and vandalism at Meadow elementary school, when a 17-year-old male was taken into custody Sunday.
Meadow was closed for five days, three of them school days, after firefighters were called to the school on Dombierer Crescent around 2:20 a.m., Thursday, May 22.
They found a fire raging in one classroom, with another blaze in a second classroom fizzling out. One of the classrooms was also vandalized and the exterior of the school was spray-painted. About $15,000 damage was caused.
The incident occurred less than a week after a suspicious blaze destroyed two homes just two blocks away on Clare Crescent, and damaged seven nearby residences and five vehicles, as well as construction equipment. Damage from that blaze is estimated at $800,000.
Grass fires were also set in Moore’s
Meadow, down the hill from the subdivision, although other areas of the dty have been struck as well.
Altogether, 15 schools have been hit by vandals since the beginning of the school year, for the cost of about $200,000 to the school district.
Over the Victoria Day long weekend, vandals hit Peden Hill, Highland Traditional, Westwood, Haldi Road, Central Fort George Traditional, Hart Highlands and Gladstone elementary schools and Lakewood and John Mcln-nis junior secondary schools.
Just a day after the fire and vandalism at Meadow elementary, vandals spray-painted graffiti on walls at Pinewood elementary school, removed a plexiglass window from a door and pulled a fire alarm.
And firefighters were called to Blackburn junior secondary in early May to extinguish a small fire, a couple of days before the school was tom down.
The incidents remain under investigation, police said.
PC LEADERSHIP CONVENTION
Local Alliance MPs shocked by ‘the deal’
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff
Prince George’s two Alliance MPs were both shocked and awed by the outcome of the Tory leadership convention and how it was reached.
“I don’t know what other word to use than bizarre,” said Prince George-Peace River MP Jay Hill Sunday in reference to the deal Peter MacKay cut with David Orchard to win leadership of the party. “1 think he’s going to have a very serious damage control operation to conduct within his own party as his initial job as the new leader.”
To vault himself over the M „AV
top, MacKay promised Or- iviacivAY
chard he would establish a panel to reexamine the North American Free Trade Agreement, and ensure no merger or even riding-by-riding electoral arrangements between Tories and the Canadian Alliance.
Considering how vociferously MacKay spoke out against Orchard during the campaign, Hill said it came as a big surprise.
“It seems to me that it was all about winning and not much about
principle,” Hill said.
Prince George-Bulkley Valley MP Dick Harris said he was surprised and was hoping westerner Jim Prentice would win because he was most strongly committed to uniting the small-C conservative vote.
Like Hill, Harris predicts a huge backlash within the Progressive Conservative camp.
“In my opinion, Peter MacKay is a pretty egotistical guy. He’s displayed that in the past, and I guess this was just a continuance of that — thinking about himself only,” Harris said. “But I think he’ll pay a huge price for that.”
The price will be a wholesale loss of support to the Alliance, said Harris.
“I think this is going to result in the demise of the Tory party, in which case we’ll benefit in the end because there is just a tonne of people who have supported the Tories in the past that were also supporting some sort of electoral strategy in the next election.
“I think they’re going to be moving their vote to the Alliance party because we are the much stronger of the two.” — For related story, seepage 7
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SPCA
busy
again
Complete seizure of 32 dogs from McBride farm
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff
The SPCA completed another major haul Saturday when eight dogs were taken from a farm in the McBride area — the last of 32 removed from the site over the last year-and-a-half.
Similar to the removal of the last of 53 cats from a Prince George home 10 days ago, SPCA manager Jeannine Woodhouse said it was an instance of a well-meaning person taking on more than could be handled.
“They kept breeding and getting out of control,” Woodhouse said.
The process of removing the dogs took so long, Woodhouse said, because of the two-hour trip to McBride, 220 kilometres, and the limited number of animals the SPCA’s truck could carry'.
“We took off 14 dogs a little while ago, eight dogs this weekend and another 10 last year,” Woodhouse said.
The dogs’ owner, a woman who was renting the property, co-operated with SPCA requests, Woodhouse said, but had left the remaining dogs behind, as well as a herd of cattle neighbours are now taking
These puppies were among 32 residence near McBride.
care of, when she abandoned the property.
Between the seizures of the cats and the dogs and the other unwanted pets dropped off at the shelter, Woodhouse estimated 180 animals are currently under SPCA care locally. Sor'e were sent to foster homes, but the shelter, designed to hold 73 cats and dogs, is still crowded.
“We’ve been this crowded before,” Woodhouse said. “This is a little unusual because we have so many of those seized cats in our dog holding area which is not normal. We’ve set
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
dogs that were rescued from a
up temporary residence for these cats in all kinds of creative fashions.”
A notice of disposition has been sent out to the cats owner, setting out the requirements she will have to meet to get any of the 21 cats she wants back returned to her, as well as the veterinary bill she will have to pay. If she cannot live up to the standards set in the disposition, the SPCA takes ownership of the cats, and given the hefty veterinary bill alone, Woodhouse predicts the cats won’t be returned.
“We’re going through process right now,” Woodhouse said.
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