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CITIZEN
Serving the Central Interior since 1916

PRINCE GEORGE

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2004

$1.00 (HOME DELIVERED: 56 CENTS A DAY)

Native school pondered
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff The Prince George school district and the local aboriginal education board are exploring the possibility of an aboriginal school in the district. One objective of such a school would be to try to increase school completion rates among aboriginal students, trustee John Rustad said. "We're looking at this at the secondary level," he said. "That's where we are losing most of the students from our system." Recent provincial statistics showed that 42 per cent of aboriginal students in the Prince George school district who entered Grade 8 went on to finish Grade 12 and graduate, up from 36 per cent the year before and 31 per cent during 1998-99, Rustad said. By contrast, the provincial statistics showed, that as of 2002-03, 69 per cent of all students who entered Grade 8 in the district had gone on to graduate. This past fall, trustee Michelle Marrelli, Rustad, some school district staff, two members of the aboriginal education board and some education ministry officials travelled to Edmonton to visit the Amiskwaciy Academy, a school dedicated to an aboriginal cultural focus. "The Amiskwaciy Academy is open to all students, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, and provides students with an opportunity to learn in an environment that fosters cultural pride and academic excellence," Rustad said. "The school started as a Grade 10 to 12 facility and has since expanded." At Amiskwaciy Academy 100 per cent of students who entered Grade 11 went on to graduate. "That is phenomenal success," Rustad said. "It would be phenomenal if we could have that kind of success here with our students. It's in the transition from Grade 11 to Grade 12 where we lose a significant number of students." In view of continuing financial shortfalls and stresses on the existing budget, the district would need enough additional funding to cover the cost of establishing and operating such a school. No date has been set for starting an aboriginal school. However, it is listed as a key goal in the District Plan for Student Success, issued last Oct. 31. Such a school would promote aboriginal culture but not necessarily emphasize study of aboriginal languages, he said. "A key component to this school is that it will be an inclusive school open to all students, not just First Nations students," Rustad said. "I would see the concept as being the same as that of a French-immersion school, where students of any background immerse themselves in the French language." Details of what would be offered in the school would be worked out with the aboriginal community. "We would engage the aboriginal community... to work with their ideas and come to an understanding of what would be best for the school," Rustad said.

Citizen photo by Dave Milne

LEADER OF THE PACK -- Braydon Greulich leads the pack during surfboard races at Quinson elementary school's July in January celebration. Other events held during the chilly week included Frisbee throwing and hula hoops.

UNBC to host folk festival
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff Prince George will be the setting for an international folk festival that is attracting musical artists from throughout the world. "We're expecting about 25 artists and bands to attend from the U.S., United Kingdom, Africa and across Canada," artistic director Jo Beattie said of the Aug. 13 and 14 event to be held at UNBC. "I'm excited about this first such international festival for Prince George," said Beattie, who added the event has the support of Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Calgary folk festivals. "The big umbrella of folk includes blues, jazz, worldbeat, fusion, traditional and contemporary folk music with the genre of different styles, rhythms and interpretations," said Conway Fisher, chair of the Prince George Folk Fest. Verbal confirmation has already been received from Blue Rodeo of Toronto; Solas, a premiere U.S. Celtic band; Lee Boys, a gospel band from Florida; Martyn Joseph of the United Kingdom; Karen Savoca, from New York State; African worldbeat band Alpha Ya Ya Diallo singers and dancers; Wyrd Sisters, from Winnipeg; Sonny Rhodes Texas Blues Band; and Ox, an alternative country band heading Canadian campus
Citizen photo by Dave Milne

Folkfest chair Conway Fisher and ar tistic director Jo Beattie are thrilled to be working on an international folk festival set for August. charts this year. UNBC is a major sponsor of the event. "(UNBC president Dr.) Charles Jago and I came up with idea of holding the major festival on campus," said Beattie. "We were both excited about the idea and the fact it complements UNBC's vision to involve the community.

The hope is that if this goes well, the event will become an annual major festival to further enhance tourism and the cultural scene," she said. The Citizen is also a sponsor. Tickets go on sale at the end of March. Evening performances will be held outdoors in the UNBC Agora both days. Aug. 14 will feature shows, workshops and vendors inside the university. Organizers have about 50 volunteers, but are seeking 300 more to help with a variety of tasks like set up and take down of equipment, transportation and meeting and greeting guest artists. "We want it to be a community-driven festival and the collective works of many," said Fisher. Any business or individuals wishing to become sponsors or volunteers can e-mail: info@pgfolkfest.com For more information, visit the website at www.pgfolkfest.com Prince George Folk Fest was founded less than a year ago with a mandate to hold an international concert, said Beattie. Phil Beaulieu, a Folk Fest board member is a past technical director of the Winnipeg Folk Fest and his wife, Dianne, was the performance service co-ordinator for the event. "We're lucky to have them on board," said Beattie.

City hopes for $570,000 GST windfall
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff The city will gain more than half a million dollars if the federal government makes good on a proposal to exempt municipalities from the GST. Financial planning manager Trevor Smith estimated the city would save about $570,000 based on spending in 2003. To put that in perspective, $570,000 was the cost of adding 8,000 hours to the city transit system this year before projected ridership increases are taken into account. "That's a considerable amount," Smith said. The city actually sends about $1.33 million to Ottawa in GST payments, but gets a rebate of 57 per cent, or about $760,000 a year. However, the city pays the full amount of PST and gets no rebate. The federal government has also talked of sending five cents a litre of the gas tax back to municipalities, but Smith is not sure how it would be distributed to local governments. "I certainly haven't heard anything from a policy perspective on how the government would apply that," he said. Mayor Colin Kinsley is on record as supporting both initiatives, while stressing that neither is a tax increase, but rather a redistribution of the existing revenue so that municipalities get a bigger share of the pie. In regards to the gas tax, he would like to see a formula based on population, need and the amount of fuel sold within municipal boundaries. Because municipalities are regarded as creations of the provinces, getting Victoria onside would have to be part of the process, but Kinsley points to the infrastructure program, where each level contributes one-third of the funding to a project, as a possible model. The city has joined in a nationwide effort by municipalities to get a larger share of revenue from senior governments to cover what they call an infrastructure backlog. The tax levy could rise by 17 per cent over the next 10 years to deal with the shortfall without support from senior governments, Kinsley has warned.

INDEX
Ann Landers . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Business . . . . . . . . . . . .20-22 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . .3,5,6,13 Classified . . . . . . . . . . .29-35 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Entertainment . . . . . . .25-27 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6,7,14 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14,15

Assessment ahead for coal mine proposal
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff Western Canadian Coal expects to have its revised plan for the Wolverine open-pit coal mine in northern B.C. ready to submit by March to B.C.'s environmental assessment office, keeping the project on track for a year-end construction start. The assessment office has six months to rule on the plan. The proposed project, in the Tumbler Ridge area north of Prince George, would create about 200 jobs and would export metallurgical coal to southeast Asia. Metallurgical -- or coking coal -- is used to make steel. Western Canadian Coal also needs to hammer out financing and a transportation deal. "Everything is geared up for startup of construction in the fourth quarter of this year," Western Canadian Coal spokesman Barry Girling said Thursday. "We're advertising in the Financial Post looking for the first round of senior management staff to oversee the plant's construction and site development." Full production would start in the fall of 2005. Girling said interest in the coal mine has been heating up following a recent surge in coal prices. Canadian Elk Valley Coal Partnership in southeast B.C. negotiated a 20-per-cent increase in price for this year, the biggest jump since the 1970s. The price surge is pegged largely to China becoming a net importer of coal, said Girling. Western Coal has been in the environmental review process for two years, but Girling said the company doesn't anticipate any major roadblocks. "The stakeholders in the area are very supportive," he said. "It's a resource-driven area. There's oil and gas exploration there. Coal mines have been up there in the past." The company will continue to meet with stakeholders in the next few months, including the municipalities and First Nations. The estimated cost of the project is $116 million, but the company is looking at contracting out the mining operation, which means the company would carry only $50 million of the capital costs. The Wolverine project was originally planned as a joint underground and open-pit mining operation that would run for 11 years. Further study reshaped the project as an open-pit mine to run for eight years. The area, 175 kilometres north of Prince George, has a rich coal history. The Bullmoose coal mine closed last spring, ending two decades of coal mining in the Tumbler Ridge area. Two years before, the larger Quintette Coal Mine closed. At their peak, the two mines employed 2,200 people. The Wolverine mine proposes to transport coal along the B.C. Rail line and onto CN's line to the Ridley terminal in Prince Rupert. CN is expected to close a $1-billion deal to buy B.C. Rail's freight business and equipment within the next three months. Northern Energy and Mining is also working on a coal project in northeastern B.C., although the company is still in the exploration phase.
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