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CITIZEN
Serving the Central Interior since 1916

PRINCE GEORGE

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2003

80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 54 CENTS A DAY)

Human bones identified
Police `treating it as a homicide,' release few details
by KAREN KWAN Citizen staff Human bones found near the city last month have been identified as a Prince George man who went missing two years ago, and police say foul play is suspected. RCMP, however, would not say how or when Currie William Casey, 47, died. "That's why we're treating it as a homicide," Sgt. Quintin Smith said, referring to the cause of death. "At this point in time we're not going to be releasing any more details," he added, saying police are trying to protect their investigation. He said he couldn't comment on any possible motives for Casey's death. A hunter stumbled across the skeletal remains Oct. 23 in a rural area outside the city. The exact location of the site and other details have not been disclosed. An autopsy was conducted in Kamloops early this month and further tests were being done at the RCMP forensic lab in Vancouver. Casey's wife, Dale Swenson, said she had been waiting anxiously for police to identify the body since news of the grisly discovery came out last month. RCMP notified her Nov. 12 that the body CASEY belonged to her husband, she said. "My knees started wobbling. I started crying," she said Wednesday. Many questions remain unanswered, though, she said. Swenson said police have not told her the cause of death and she's at a loss to explain why anyone would want to kill her husband "He never would hurt a fly. He was a hardworking, decent man. There would be no reason that anyone should have a problem with him," she said. Swenson last spoke to Casey Nov. 9, 2001, and reported him missing a week later. His vehicle was later found parked downtown and his dog was spotted wandering around the area. Since then, she said she's spent the last two years hoping to hear that her husband of 30 years -- the couple had separated a few months earlier -- was safe. "It's been a very difficult two years. It's been very stressful," she said. "We always tried to stay positive, but I think the reality of the (length of) time my husband has been missing, you start to have other thoughts that things aren't going to end smoothly," Swenson said. As upsetting as the news was, Swenson said the discovery allows her and the couple's grown son to start dealing with their loss. "I now can grieve. I do know now that my husband is deceased," she said. Although the couple had separated, she said Casey kept in touch almost daily, and the two had talked about getting back together. About a month before he disappeared, she said her husband appeared on edge, unhealthy, and was having financial problems, but never mentioned he might be in danger. Casey had been on stress leave from his job as a sheet metal worker for a few years before he disappeared. "He didn't seem himself to me," she said. At the time, she didn't think Casey was having serious problems, but said she now wonders if his demeanor had anything to do with his death. In the two years since he was missing, his bank account had not been activated and none of his cheques had been picked up, she said.

Train derails
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff A B.C. Rail train suffered a minor derailment about 20 km north of Quesnel on Tuesday morning. Company representative Alan Dever said five cars carrying sulphur went off the line near the Cottonwood River bridge, but remained upright and no one was hurt. A B.C. Rail crew was able to extinguish a small fire that broke out at one of the cars and a small spill of sulphur had to be removed from the railbed, he said. The cause was not yet determined and when the track would be reopened was unknown Wednesday. "That's going to be determined once our track crew has finished on the scene and start to look at the damage on the track," he said. Dever did not know how many cars were on the train, but he said there are typically about 80. Based in Williams Lake, Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection emergency response officer Rodger Hamilton said the accident and spill was not large enough for officials to attend.

Uncertainty clouds deal: economist
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff There's a considerable amount of uncertainty in the B.C. Rail deal -- and it may be some time whether its promised benefits can be properly judged, College of New Caledonia economist Al Idiens said Wednesday. The railway business is not just an ordinary business since it helps support important natural resource industries in communities along the line, said Idiens. As a result, an important question is whether any disruptions in economizing the rail road would be sufficiently offset by its potential benefits, including the $135 million from the $1-billion sale that will be plowed into economic development in the North, he said. Another problem is that there's no good criteria to judge the performance of CN, or an escape clause if they don't perform, said Idiens. CN has a 60-year lease with an option for another 30 years. There's a five-year moratorium on applying to the federal government to discontinue service on portions of the line, but what happens after that, questioned Idiens. "It might serve the railroad well in terms of profitability, who knows? But it should be serving us as well," he said. "From what I can see, they haven't really delivered well on that." That said, Idiens acknowledged there could be a lot of benefits from the integration. It could actually bring more workers into Prince George because it's a good place to centralize a number of operations, he said. "But again, there's no way to tell which way technology is going to move and which way outsourcing is going to go into the future," said Idiens. "Nothing's ever guaranteed." The deal to sell B.C. Rail's freight operations to CN will mean the loss of 430 jobs, more than a quarter of the work force. The B.C. government has said those losses will be offset by hundreds of new jobs at the Port of Prince Rupert and another 75 at the Prince George Airport, which got $4 million to help build international customs and runway extensions. As well as the $135 million to be spent on economic development in the North, the province is spending another $17.2 million to help the Port of Prince Rupert build a container facility. Another $15 million has been set aside for 25 First Nations along B.C. Rail to help with economic development.

Citizen photo by Dave Milne

RED-HANDED -- Breanna Payne, 8, shows off her red hands after she and her classmates made hand prints on the wall of Santa's Workshop at Exploration Place on Wednesday.

Number of new HIV cases soaring
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff The number of HIV cases is increasing at an alarming rate in the Prince George area, according to a public health nurse at the Northern Interior Health Unit. Mary Lea Penrose is calling it a "mini-epidemic" since case numbers in Prince George have increased to 15 from three in 2000. The 15 cases include 11 new ones since May 1, all identified in Prince George. Penrose said although the real epidemic is in downtown Vancouver's east side, where 70 new HIV infections have been reported since May, "11 new ones in Prince George is an alarming number. Currently the new infections are mostly among those who are, or have been, IV (intravenous) drug users, and the concern is that as numbers increase there's a chance of HIV spreading among the population who are not IV drug users," Penrose said. "The nature of drug users is that people make mistakes under the influence of drugs, and that can mean sharing of needles which are not clean. It's good that Prince George offers a needle exchange six days a week. Otherwise our numbers could easily be much higher," said Penrose. "What we're also seeing in the STD (sexually transmitted disease) clinic is a large number of people who are not careful with condom use," said Penrose. "Alcohol use, too, can be a factor, causing people to have unprotected sex." The rapid increase is a factor that really worries health officials. Since 1996, the number of HIV cases in this area have remained pretty stable with two reported in 1996, four in 1997, two in 1998, four in 1999 and three in 2000. "Then numbers jumped to nine in 2001 and 10 in 2002, and it's been steadily increasing." Diagnosis of AIDS happens when a person who tests HIV positive also has one of 21 AIDSdefining illnesses, such as tuberculosis, recurring bacterial pneumonia or yeast infections in areas like the trachea, esophagus or lungs, Penrose explained. "Condom use is inconsistent despite decades o f e d u c a t i o n , s o we n e e d to p r o m ote monogamy as well as condom use for those who do not choose monogamy." She noted that HIV is easier to transmit when other sexually transmitted diseases are present. "We've managed to reduce chlamydia infections by 10 new ones per month, but gonorrhea infections have nearly tripled over the past year," Penrose said.

INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . .42 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Business . . . . . . . . . . . .16-18 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . . .3,5,13 Classified . . . . . . . . . . .20-23 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Coming Events . . . . . . . . . . .2 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Entertainment . . . . . . .25,27 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Lifestyles . . . . . . . . .19,31,32 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6,7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14,15

CN ACQUISITION

Downtown development possibilities pondered
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff The possibility of CN's takeover of B.C. Rail operations freeing up land for commercial development in the downtown core is being welcomed by Downtown Business Improvement Association president Kirk Gable. "If that's true, I'm ecstatic," Gable said Wednesday, a day after Premier Gordon Campbell indicated the deal will generate surplus land at CN's rail yard along the north side of First Avenue. There's a wide range of possibilities, said Gable, who would even welcome big-box stores depending on how much depth the available land would have along the thoroughfare. "That would be really exciting for downtown because you would have complementary commercial uses adjacent to our commercial core, which would help everybody, I think," he said. Fitting in with the existing highwaycommercial designation along the south side, Gable said he would also welcome an automall or a series of dealerships. "I guess anything that we're currently building along Highway 16 West, if the space was available, could certainly be built along Highway 16 East," he said. "In some respects it's a question of momentum. If there is enough activity there, then the others will come too." What Initiatives Prince George president Gerry Offet finds more exciting is CN's apparent intention to consolidate maintenance and repair work in the B.C. Rail yard, making land for industrial use available in the process. Value-added wood manufacturing would make a logical fit in Offet's view. "Typically, what a railroad looks for is an operator that is going to utilize their service and a value-added manufacturer that's shipping out would certainly fall into that category," he said. Campbell also said CN will donate part of the yard to the city to expand Cottonwood Island Park, which Gable also welcomed as a chance to reconnect Prince George with the waterfront along the Nechako River. "The city of Prince George has been disconnected from the river for a hundred years almost, since 1913 or 14, whenever the railroad came in, and whatever we can do to reconnect with the river is good for the city," he said. "Not just the downtown, but the entire city." City long-range planner Grant Bain said the city's official community plan calls for a linkage of some kind between the parkland along the river and downtown Prince George and retail development along First Avenue, but probably not big box. "The OCP identifies that stretch of First Avenue, going from Victoria to Queensway, as being a long-range extension of the downtown core, so the kinds of development, from a longrange development perspective, that we'd like to see there would be the downtown scale of retail," he said. "We want to encourage pedestrian traffic and big box doesn't do that so much."

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