Sea King proposal draws flak / 6

Joss Stone captures soul / 14
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2005

Paper giant slims down / 20

Climb onto the Jungle Gym / 25
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 57 CENTS A DAY)

Vancouver office opened to market city
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff The city's economic development agency is opening an office in Vancouver to market Prince George to investors who stream through Canada's third largest city, The Citizen has learned. The office, located on Vancouver's downtown waterfront at Canada Place -- in the heart of the city's business district -- opens Aug. 2 and will remain open for at least a year, Initiatives Prince George Development Corp. president Gerry Offet confirmed Tuesday. The official announcement of the office's opening is not planned until September, he said. "Increasingly, there are more investors coming to Vancouver looking for opportunities, and this puts us on more of an equal footing with our competitor cities like Nanaimo, Chilliwack and Abbotsford, who are right there," said Offet. Costs are being kept low -- $15,000 has been budgeted for the project -- because the office will be staffed by volunteers, former Prince George businessmen now retired to the Lower Mainland, said Offet. Initially, the office -- which includes a meeting room -- will be open by appointment and for limited general hours. The office will also be open to Prince George businesses, for a small fee, to host meetings with potential investors. An influential Chinese immigrant settlement agency -- known as SUCCESS -- has agreed to include the Prince George office as part of its monthly tours when it takes new immigrant investors around Vancouver to introduce them to opportunities, said Offet. The offices are strategically located near the province's economic development offices, as well as the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, and the World Trade Centre office complex. Offet said they hope to concentrate on adding value to Prince George's economy. "In other words, rather than just distributing and servicing equipment to our resource sector, we'd like to see more of that equipment manufactured in Prince George," he said. They're also looking for investors in commercial and industrial real estate, anything related to the transportation sector, particularly with a container port slated for Prince Rupert, which should bring benefits to Prince George, added Offet. The $175-million container handling facility is expected to break ground this year and be operational in early 2007. Offet said it was actually a pair of former Prince George businessmen -- Bob Buxton and Hans Wagner -- who suggested the idea about 18 months ago. Wagner, contacted at his home in Port Coquitlam, said he still retains his affinity for the North, where he worked for Alcan for 35 years. -- see EMBASSY page 3

Officer offers downtown solutions
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff An RCMP officer who walks the downtown beat has made a list of recommendations for improving the area which he is forwarding to his superiors and to community leaders, all of whom are interested in front-line observations of the downtown. Const. Terry Fehr of the downtown CPAC office does rounds of the inner city core every day. His list of five recommendations are:  Remove all dumpsters from downtown alleys, moving instead to a model of garbage collection developed by the city of Seattle whereby street people are employed to gather garbage and clean alleys several times a day in the downtown. This takes smells and junk away more quickly, adds human presence to the alleys, and gives open views down alleys so illegal behaviour has nowhere to hide.  Shopkeepers must be encouraged to physically sweep sidewalks and alleys by hand, to clean the area on a regular basis and create the impression of human presence and dedication to the area.  Get rid of the graffiti as soon as it happens, no matter how frequent or inconvenient, abandoned buildings included. Graffiti, Fehr says, gives the message of civic/landowner apathy and territory effectively marked by vandals as their own.  Have a safe injection site inside for intravenous drug users, to take drug use out of the alleys and parks and public view. -- see WASHROOMS page 3

Citizen photo by Dave Milne

HANGING TEN -- Prince George Aquatic Centre lifeguard Aime Bachand acts like a big wave and shakes nine-year-old Matthew Longhirst off his surfboard during Summer Fun Safari Week at the pool Wednesday, while two swimmers do laps in the background. Each week has a different theme for kids at the pool until the end of the summer. Next week is Finding Nemo Week, followed by Visit the Ocean, Wet and Wild and more.

High : 18 Low : 7 page 2

INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . 23 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Business . . . . . . . . . . . 20-22 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . 3, 5, 6, 13 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . 16-18 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Entertainment . . . . . . 14, 15 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff Whether it will generate more revenues for charities was an ongoing theme when a public forum on bringing a community gaming centre to downtown Prince George drew about 20 people Tuesday night. The centres combine slot machines, bingo, Keno, lottery products and off-track betting into a single complex, which would also include a restaurant and a lounge for private functions. In partnership with John Major, who owns Treasure Cove Casino and Good Time Bingo, BCLC wants to open a stand-alone centre in downtown Prince George holding 50 slot machines -- the maximum number allowed in communities where a casino is located. BCLC regional manager Fred Feddema said the concept was introduced in early 2004 as a way to breath new life into faltering bingo halls. Although Good Time Bingo in Prince George is the third largest in terms of revenue in the province, Feddema said BCLC believes it could be even more successful as a community gaming centre. "People will say `that's the place to go,'" he said. While the payback on bingo has traditionally been about 60 per cent, slot machines generate a 92-per-cent return. However, Feddema said slots at the community gaming centres would take in

Charities worry about potential Pine beetle wood take in slot machine debate on U.S. hit list
smaller bets and yield smaller payouts than their casino counterparts. "You won't have $10,000 to $15,000 payouts," he said. In the months since such centres have opened in four other communities so far, Feddema said revenue has increased, and, while most bingo players tried the slots at first, many eventually returned to bingo because their money lasts longer. However, the book was still out on whether they bring in new bingo players or if most of the growth was due to the other games. This was a key concern for the charity representatives at the forum who remained worried they would lose money to the slot machines. Social concerns also took up much of the evening. Problem gambling counsellor Desne Hall pointed to a study showing between three and five per cent of the province's population are problem gamblers and a core one per cent are pathological. The forum was part of a public consultation process in the lead up to city council deciding on whether to allow the proposal to go to the rezoning stage. If it does go that far, a public hearing will have to be held at city hall. Meanwhile, the city is accepting comments through its website: www.city.pg.bc.ca. Submissions can also be dropped off at city hall. VANCOUVER (CP) -- Chances of a compromise resolution to the longstanding Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute appeared to dwindle on Tuesday after the U.S. side tabled a tough new proposal at talks in Washington, D.C. The package includes a lumber export tax to replace U.S. duties, which Canada has previously accepted in principle. But it's pegged far higher than Canadian lumber-producing would deem acceptable, a source told The Canadian Press. The U.S. proposal also puts a ceiling on lumber exports from British Columbia. American producers apparently fear their domestic market would be flooded with high volumes of wood from the B.C. Interior, where accelerated logging is underway to quell a massive pine-beetle infestation. The Americans also have not budged on a previous demand to keep about half the $5 billion in lumber duties already paid by Canadian producers since tariffs were imposed in May 2002. The U.S. proposal's so-called "exit ramp" to get out from under tariffs permanently would require provinces to institute market-based reforms to their forest policies that would raise stumpage anywhere from 100 to 230 per cent, with no provision for future reductions in the Crown timber-cutting fee, the source said. A Canadian proposal tabled last spring included a temporary export tax while provinces completed policy reforms, coupled with an independent dispute-resolution tribunal. But it ruled out export quotas and demanded all duties held as cash deposits by U.S. Customs be returned.

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