Rogers wins suspension appeal /9

Whistler mayor Canada's only to commute desert worth from Hawaii /6 a visit /29

Reeve's wife fighting lung cancer /15

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2005

80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 57 CENTS A DAY)

Home construction sector soaring
by PAUL STRICK LA N D Citizen st ff a Prince George's home building industry continued its strong performance in July and is in a good position to maintain high levels of activity through the rest of the year, says a market analyst with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. "Single detached starts are up significantly, 60 per cent more than in July of 2004," Paul Fabri said Tuesday. Work started on 32 single-family homes last month, up from 20 during the same month last year, according to CMHC statistics. Year to date, there have been 143 starts on single-family houses in Prince George, up from the 93 recorded during the first seven months of 2004, the CMHC said. That is an increase of about 54 per cent. "Yet it's definitely demand for singledetached residences that is leading the Prince George new-home market," Fabri said. A number of factors are lending strength to the new housing market in the city, he said. First, low mortgage rates are fuelling demand, Fabri said. Second, "very strong employment growth overall in B.C. means more people moving back into B.C. from other provinces," he continued. Third, the resale market in Prince George has been active to the point that listings have been dropping over the past two years. "When listings are down, people turn to the new housing market to find the home they're looking for," Fabri said. This points to a fourth factor in the resurgent homebuilding industry -- pent-up demand. -- See JOBS on page 3

PGX set to deliver blast from the past
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff The 93rd annual Prince George Exhibition showcases the history of the city and the fair with many new attractions and events. This year's PGX is Thursday to Sunday at Exhibition Park. Heritage Lane is a 17,000-square-foot outdoor showcase featuring a village depicting Prince George during its year of incorporation in 1915. Visitors will step back in time 90 years to the first general store, a blacksmith shop, a First Nations fish camp and the railway, with the mini-railway from the Railway and Forestry Museum making its inaugural run around Heritage Lane. "Visitors will be able to buy old-fashioned candy in the store, watch a blacksmith at work and ride the little train," said Kelly Morris, PGX general manager. "The town hall will set the scene for opening ceremonies at 6 p.m. Thursday, offer a daily cake-cutting ceremony and feature a historic DVD viewing in its little theatre." Nearby exhibition buildings will turn back the clock on the seven electoral areas of the FraserFort George Regional District and offer the popular contest on naming antique agricultural gadgets. "The annual challenge is to maintain the agricultural component of the fair," said Morris. "It's become more difficult in recent years with economic and industry changes in agriculture, but we still are an agricultural fair. We have farming families who've been here for generations." Kin Centre II is home to the Home Arts and Horticultural exhibition, but there are major changes in the floor plan.

FACTBOX
 Gates open at 10 a.m. daily. Regular admission is $9 for adults, $8 for seniors, and $7 for youth six to 12. Children five and younger are free.  Thursday is Pioneer Day. Seniors are admitted free all day and there's a tea garden rest stop in Kin II.  Fr iday is Kids' Day. Those 12 and younger are admitted free to 6 p.m.  Friday from 7 p.m. to midnight is Teen Night. A special $5 pass for the midway is available from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m.  Saturday is Family Day with a family rate for two adults and three children at $25.  Sunday is Farm and Ranch Day, offering $5 admission and a Farm-to-Fork pancake breakfast, 9 to 11 a.m., for a $2 donation. "The breakfast is designed to showcase local producers of beef, pork and eggs," said Morris. Pat Bell, B.C. agriculture minister and Prince George North MLA, will be flipping pancakes, and Cowboy Jack will entertain. "We now have five separate areas where you'll find all the entries together, from kids, youth, adults and seniors. For example, the kids crafts and pies will be in the kids section, and not mixed in with the others." The Prince George Highway Rescue Society, named the PGX Charity of the Year, will offer extrication demonstrations, and CN Centre will turn into The Trough, with major evening shows paying tribute to country entertainers. -- See NEW on page 3

Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Bill Forbes and Don Holzworth put together the tracks for the Rail and Forestry Museum's miniature portable railway that will be running through Heritage Lane at this year's PGX.

High : 22 Low : 8 page 2

MOUNTAIN PINE BEETLE EPIDEMIC

Shampoo success intrigues expert
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen st ff a A leading entomologist in the study of mountain pine beetle says the idea of shampoo as an antidote to the infestation is worth studying. When local homeowner Ernie Hoffman sprayed sudsy shampoo water all over the tree trunks in his back yard and claimed he saw pine beetles retreating from the bark and dying, it drew UNBC's Dr. Dezene Huber into the discussion. "It surprises me that this would affect them because they are under the bark, but if he saw it, he saw it. You can't argue that," he said. "I am curious about it now, definitely. It would be a pretty easy little experiment." Huber says the use of soap as a plant protection agent is not new. Safers Insecticidal Soap has proved quite effective against aphids, spider mites and other garden pests while at the same time being gentle on the plant. Perhaps, says Huber, a similar effect is happening with the pine beetles that Hoffman got all lathered up. However, cautions the professor, there are such things as flukes, exaggerations, over-estimations, and limitations. Just because one person had some success in the back yard doesn't mean an industrial-sized or epidemicsized solution has been discovered. What has been uncovered, said Huber, is an option to explore and it can be easily tested. In the meantime, a great deal of science is being applied to the pine beetle. Huber is a Canada Research Chair stationed in Prince George to learn about the bug's characteristics. "The pine tree is evolved to resist the pine beetle, that is why we have pine forests and they weren't all killed off millions of years ago," he said. "These beetles are native to the area, and for all intents they always have been out there rattling around in the woods. The reason you see so many trees succumb to the beetle these days is because there is a mass attack, there are just so many insects hitting each tree. If the attack is smaller the tree can often win." The chemical and physical relationship between the beetle and the tree are what Huber and his team are focusing on. For example, what is the chemical composition of the resins the tree throws at the beetle when it chews into its wood? How is the release of that sap timed? What does the beetle do to shield itself when the tree secretes its defensive juices? Hoffman floated another theory he had discovered doing his own Internet research into pine beetles that pine trees painted white stand a better chance against the beetle. Huber says that suggestion comes from research done mostly in the U.S. involving the southern pine beetle, a close cousin of the local pest. There are scientific results showing that pine beetles disguised in white might trick the beetles. It is not a certainty, Huber says, but the indications are drawing the attention of concerned homeowners like Hoffman and concerned scientists like himself, all of whom wish to get to the bottom of what is happening in B.C.'s forests.

City wants help to buy arena video system
Citizen st ff a City council will ask the Northern Development Initiative Trust and the provincial government for help to bring a new overhead display system to CN Centre. Permission was given to staff Monday night to apply for a loan of up to $520,000 from the NDI Trust and for a $330,000 grant from the province's Olympic Live Sites program to cover the cost of the $850,000 system. If purchased, the system would replace the centre ice clock at CN Centre, and allow for replays and enhanced advertising, as well as allowing the public a central location to watch the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and possibly the 2008 Games in Torino, Italy if the system was brought in soon enough. In April, council balked at committing $520,000 of city money to the item. But on Monday, Mayor Colin Kinsley, a proponent of the purchase, said a loan from the NDI would be low interest and be paid back over 10 years to maintain the fund.

INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . . 28 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Business . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-24 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . . 3,5,6,13 Classifi ed . . . . . . . . . . . 17-20 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . 15 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

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