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Door open for return of hockey fights
Promoter feels vindicated; brawling spills into crowd
by TED CLARKE and MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff Like it or not, this might not be the last time the Battle of the Hockey Enforcers will be waged in Prince George. Event promoters considered the night a success and want to stage future Hockey Enforcers events in the city, which has the backing of Prince George mayor Colin Kinsley. "We would love to come back to Prince George. Everybody's been great and I think next time we do this we'll spend more time marketing it and be more organized," said Gerry Johannson, a partner with promoter Darryl Wolski in The Sports Corporation. "Politically, this is such an unpopular event and it was great to see the town give it a chance and support it. We have a track record now and I think people can evaluate it more fairly. " Saturday's hockey fights spectacle attracted a crowd of about 3,100 to CN Centre and a worldwide pay-per-view television and Internet audience. Wolski said the paid count was around 2,000. He said he won't know the pay-per view numbers for at least another month. Extra security was on hand as part of the promoter's requirements but it wasn't enough to keep the police from being called in as the on-ice violence spilled over into the beer garden and several fights broke out among the spectators. Police made five arrests, putting up with unruly patrons pouring beer on them in the process, while two people were sent to hospital to get stitches.

CP photo

Prince George's Trent Potskin, right, knocks down Eddie O'Toole during round robin action at the Hockey Enforcers fighting event at the CN Centre Saturday. It was also a busier-than-usual night downtown, Prince George RCMP Sgt. Wayne Gordey said, as another 30 people were put behind bars largely for public drunkenness and causing a disturbance. Kinsley did not attend Hockey Enforcers but maintained his support for the event, which made the city front-page news and topped sports network broadcasts. "We got coverage across the country and we filled all the hotels, and restaurants were full -- you can't buy that kind of publicity," Kinsley said.

INSIDE
 Enforcers' role nearing extinction: winner, page 12  Potskin fights against medical advice, page 12  Audience reaction mixed, page 11  Jim Swanson column, page 12 "There's no reason not to host this again, as long as it's safe. "We have to remember the crowd we're talking about and who this appeals to, and they loved it. -- see COUNCILLORS page 3

Northern B.C. paces growth of agricultural land base
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff Growth of farm and ranch land in the province has been entirely on the back of northern B.C., according to a report on the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) compiled for a Lower Mainland municipality. Between 1974, when the agricultural land reserve was started, and 2003, the amount of land designated for farming and ranching purposes grew by about 43,300 hectares. But when the figure is broken down to the six panel areas, only the north panel had a gain -- 123,000 hectares -- while all of the others experienced losses. Of that total, 29,380 hectares had been added in the Fraser-Fort George Regional District, second only to the Bulkley-Nechako Regional District, where 67,109 was added. The Peace River Regional District was third highest at 24,623. Agriculture minister Pat Bell saw no problem with the outcome and said he expects more agricultural land will be added in northern B.C. as it is cleared of beetle-killed pine trees. Bell said the real problems is the pressure to convert prime agricultural land in the more populated Fraser Valley, Okanagan and the south end of Vancouver Island to other purposes. But he said the other five panels that review applications around the province have also been tough. The south coast panel allowed just 178 hectares to be removed as the result of a controversial 400-hectare application in Abbotsford, he noted. The report was drafted by staff at the City of Burnaby who qualified their findings by saying complete and accurate data on the ALR is not currently available. As a result, the city has called on the Agriculural Land Commission to provide yearly statistics on changes in the size of the ALR. The findings have become a key point in the Fraser-Fort George Regional District's effort to get more agricultural land designated for industrial purposes in the proposed Pineview official community plan. The ALC's northern panel recently gave only partial support to requests to take land out of the reserve at three locations in the Pineview area:  The panel approved 70 of 400 acres south of the Carrier Forest Products sawmill, for which the regional district had been seeking an intermediate industrial designation. -- See BELL page 3
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Colton Graham takes on another spoonful of Wendy's Frosty during the Frosty eating contest at Summerfest. Graham eventually won the cold-treat contest.

High : 16 Low : 9 page 2

Mayor vows to get relief from land slippage woes
Citizen staff With the provincial election now well out of the way, Quesnel mayor Nate Bello says he'll be stepping up efforts to secure $13 million from the provincial government to deal with ground movement on the west side of the community Bello said Sunday a short meeting with Community Services Minister "I don't Ida Chong will be held during the Union of British Columbia Municiwant to say palities convention in September a our patience and he's seekingherlonger one in October to bring up to speed on is wearing the situation. "I don't want to say our patience thin ..." is wearing thin, I want to give the -- Nate Bello, government time to settle in, but Quesnel mayor this is a real issue and one we hope they will address," Bellow said. Land in the Uplands area of West Quesnel is slipping by about three to seven centimetres per year. A moratorium on building has been in effect for the area, where about 3,000 people live in 750 homes, and property values have dropped drastically. The city has come up with a $13-million multiyear plan to halt the sliding but the annual capital budget for the town of 10,400 people 116 kilometres south of Prince George is about $1 million a year. -- See WATER, related story, page 3

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Summerfest leaves a smile on downtown
Citizen staff This year's Summerfest gave Downtown Prince George executive director Janet Morris-Reade plenty to be happy about. "I had a lot of people coming up and saying to me `this is a wonderful, wonderful event," she said Sunday as the second half of a talent show that featured a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico as the prize, got underway. Indeed, she said the talent show was one of the attractions that drew accolades. "It's brought a lot of people in and there's been a lot of involvement," she said. Other highlights for Morris-Reade included Neal Diamond impersonator Gerry Armstrong and the following he's generated. "We've had the same people coming back time after time to see him perform again," she said. Similarly, Scooter the Clown consistently drew a gaggle of kids. "He does his performance on stage and then he wanders the street and there's always a lineup of kids to go and see him," she said. There was also the Frosty-eating race, pony rides and plenty of tables and tents up and down George Street. And things were kicked off with a parade on Saturday morning. "We had tons of families, it was really exciting," she said. "The kids had little balloons and batons and costumes...it was just so much fun and that's what we wanted to do, have a really great community event." In that name, the emphasis was on variety. "There's got to be something for everybody to make it interesting," she said. Other than a bit of rain Sunday morning and grey sky through to the early afternoon, MorrisReade thought the weather was co-operative. As for the vendors, some did better than others. While some said sales were up compared to the usual farmer's market days, others said it was a struggle and said more booths were needed along George Street to create a shopping atmosphere.

INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . 17 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 City, B.C. . . . . 3, 5, 13, 19, 28 Classifi ed . . . . . . . . . . . 19-23 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Entertainment . . . . . . 16, 17 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 15

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