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CITIZEN
Serving the Central Interior since 1916

PRINCE GEORGE

SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2003

80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 54 CENTS A DAY)

Cause of blaze still unknown
by KAREN KWAN Citizen Staff Police and fire investigators are still trying to find out what sparked a blaze that destroyed the Yellowhead Inn and Bank of Montreal this week. "It's still under investigation," RCMP Staff Sgt. Derald Lewis said Friday. He said investigators, including an RCMP arson specialist, haven't found anything suspicious in the debris of the 15th Avenue and Central Street complex. "But you still have to check all those avenues out first, and that's what we're at right now," he said. "We have to go through all the electrical" areas to see if there's anything that could have started the fire, Lewis said. Investigators are expected back on site Tuesday, he added. Meanwhile, safety deposit boxes were pulled out of the rubble at the former Bank of Montreal site and taken to the downtown branch, where customers began inspecting them Friday. District manager Andy Clough said all 300 to 400 boxes, which were housed in a fire-proof vault, were recovered. "Everything's been fine," he said of the condition of the valuables. Clough said the bank also plans to set up an automatic teller machine in an existing business near the former location, possibly in the next week. "(It's) to make it easier for customers," he said. Hours at the downtown bank have been changed to accommodate customers of the 15th Avenue branch, who were able to bank at different hours. The bank is now open Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fire chief Jeff Rowland has said the blaze likely began in the lobby of the vacant three-storey hotel and spread to the adjoining bank and other areas of
Photos by Dave Milne

Chairs and tables in the Yellowhead Inn's ballroom survived the blaze, right, as did the Bank of Montreal's vault with safety deposit boxes inside. the building. Firefighters were called around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday and didn't get the inferno under control until between 2 and 3 a.m. The 28year-old hotel has been listed for sale since it closed abruptly in February over financial problems. It's valued at $2.85 million, but was listed for $2.6 million. Without the building, the threeacre parcel of land is assessed at $2.4 million.

Softwood ruling confirmed by WTO
U.S. calculations wrong, decision finds
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff The World Trade Organization released its final decision Friday on Canada's challenge of the American countervailing tariff on lumber, reaffirming its preliminary decision leaked in May. The WTO panel -- in a 125-page decision -- found Canadian timber pricing systems can confer a subsidy, but the U.S. method used to calculate the subsidy is wrong. "The U.S. Department of Commerce has invented a subsidy where none exists," said B.C. Lumber Trade Council president John Allan. "The WTO panel has again agreed with Canada that cross-border comparisons are invalid under international trade law." The ruling is just the latest in a ser ies of legal c hallenges Canada has mounted in the long-running trade war with the U.S. over lumber. The final WTO ruling is similar to a North American Free Trade Agreement panel decision earlier this month. ALLAN While the WTO ruling is not binding, the NAFTA decision is. The NAFTA ruling called on the U.S. Commerce Department to recalculate the 18.79 per cent countervailing duty using a different method by Oct. 13. While Canada expects the duty to go down, the U.S. lumber coalition which launched the trade complaint against Canadian timber pricing is pushing to see the duties increase. Including the anti-dumping portion, tariffs on Canadian lumber total 27.2 per cent. The U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports

Softwood lumber dispute
has already submitted to the U.S. Commerce Department 12 additional types of subsidies they say are provided to Canadian softwood lumber producers. The new subsidies should add another 4.85 per cent to the tariffs, says the coalition. At stake in the trade dispute is $10 billion in annual exports to the U.S., of which $2 billion alone originate in the Northern Interior, the country's largest lumber-producing region. One bright stop against the punishing tariffs is a continuing, unexpected rise in the price of lumber. The price increase has been partially sparked by fears that wildfires in B.C., Alberta and Washington State could impact timber supplies. Madison's Canadian Lumber Report pegged the benchmark thousand board feet of spruce-pine-fir two-by-fours at $358 US on Friday, its highest level this year. The price has risen 20 per cent in the past month.

Citizen photo by Dave Milne

No paper Monday
The Citizen will not publish Monday, Labour Day. See Tuesday's Citizen for a full recap of the long weekend's news and activities.

BLAST OFF -- On the final day of the Science Alliance camps at The Exploration Place, children launched their water bottle/compressed air rockets in Fort George Park on Friday. With the help of triggerman and Alliance instructor Colin Hochachka, Megan Miller's rocket is sent skyward.

INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . .28 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Business . . . . . . . . . . . .36-38 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . .3,5,6,13 Classified . . . . . . . . . . .18-23 Comics . . . . . . . . . . .26,39,40 Coming Events . . . . . . . . . . .2 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Entertainment . . . .25,27,28 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Lifestyles . . . . . . . . .28,39,40 Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6,15 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15,24

Fort St. James logging contractor added to safety task force
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff A logging contractor from Fort St. James has been added to a governmentappointed safety task force, following lobbying from groups which represent loggers and haulers in the Interior northern B.C. The task force, named at the beginning of August, is meant to cut the serious injury and death rate in the forest sector in half within three years. Initially, the nine-person task force included forest company, union and Coastal logging officials, but no representatives from the logging sector in the Interior or northern B.C., where close to three-quarters of the province's timber is harvested. The Interior and North is represented by the Interior Logging Association headquartered in Vernon, the Central Interior Logging Association in Prince George and the Northwest Loggers Association in Terrace. On Monday, another forest company executive was named to the task force, along with an independent faller from Revelstoke. On Thursday, the task force held its first meeting in Vancouver. On Friday, Central Interior Logging Association general manager Roy Nagel received word that Keith Playfair had been named to the task force as well. Playfair, a longtime logging and hauling contractor from Fort St. James, is vice-chair of the Central Interior Logging Association. "We certainly welcome that they've cast the net a little wider," said Nagel. "I know they were trying to keep the task force as small as they could because when they get bigger, they become less effective. But I think it has a good makeup now." Nagel has been arguing that logging and hauling conditions are different than on the Coast, since most logging takes place in the winter in the Interior. Although a faller has been named to the task force, the Western Fallers Association is still petitioning to get a representative on the group. Prince George North MLA Pat Bell said the task force will also be travelling throughout the province and holding public meetings to get input. "I think that really is the right approach," said Bell. "It will give people an opportunity to make sure their voices are heard." Logging has the highest fatality rate of all industries in B.C. Between 1993 and 2002 there were 250 logging-related deaths in the province. A 1996 report by the Workers Compensation Board on the logging industry showed that more than half of the 70 deaths between 1993 and 1995 took place in the Interior and northern B.C. While fallers were most at risk for fatalities, accounting for 20 per cent of deaths during the period, truck drivers and log loaders and sorters were close behind, accounting for 19 and 18 per cent of fatalities respectively. The task force is expected to have their first recommendations ready for Labour Minister Graham Bruce before the end of the year.

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