Porsche seeks increase of share in VW /22

Get Smart agent dies /17
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2005

More gold and copper found at Kemess mine /6

City snatches weightlifting event /8
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 57 CENTS A DAY)

Math, literacy up at schools
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen st ff a The latest Foundation Skills Assessment numbers for literacy and math are positive for local elementar y schools. For two schools in particular, Carney Hill and Glenview, the improvements are dramatic. At Glenview, Grade 4 reading scores went to 78 per cent of students meeting or exceeding expectations, which is up from 42 per cent. Numeracy results at the school were up to 97 per cent from 77 per cent. At Carney Hill, the number of Grade 4 students meeting or exceeding literacy expectations increased to 70 per cent from 45 per cent in only one year. The Grade 7 result went from 24 per cent meeting or exceeding expectations in 2004 to 54 per cent in 2005. "Those are excellent jumps," said school board chair Bill Christie. "Those are big improvements and it just goes to show those school's plans for student success are working. Those are really, undeniably, good numbers." Christie said individual school's plans for student success are constructed much like a business plan, but with academic goals as the bottom line. Some of these schools, including Carney Hill, also have a program in place called The Primary Project, which gives extra resources to classes that need extra help in the core subjects. It is a new program, but the results are already showing up. -- See EDUCATORS on page 3

Citizen photo by Dave Milne

Liberals hounded over gas prices
OTTAWA (CP) -- The Liberal government promised to create a national body to monitor gasoline prices as opponents pummelled it over sky-high rates at the pumps. The pledge came Monday as all three opposition parties, smelling political blood, ganged up on the government for failing to stop spiralling prices. "(We'll) ensure that we do put in place a mechanism for monitoring gas and home heating fuel prices in the months ahead," said Industry Minister David Emerson. It remained unclear how long it would take to create such a body or even whether it could make a dent in fuel costs. Cabinet hasn't yet studied the plan, government officials said. The list of mechanisms being considered ranges from a new national agency to a website that would be run from an existing department. An early draft proposal is being worked on by acting Natural Resources Minister John McCallum, who just took over his new portfolio. But the government faced growing pressure to do something and was considering an array of measures Monday. One possibility is toughening the Competition Act to single out gasoline companies in the event collusion and price-gouging are ever proven, said a government source. Finance Minister Ralph Goodale is also looking at rebates or other measures to help low-income Canadians deal with fuel prices, officials said. With an election likely months away, all opposition parties are detecting political gold in an issue that has outraged motorists across the country. The last minority government -- Joe Clark's Conservatives -- was toppled largely because of anger over fuel taxes in 1979. -- See GST on page 7

Van Bien elementary students Brooke Standeven, left, and Shyenne Laboucan play on one of the tire swings during lunch break, while Jake McLeod gets ready to climb on another tire.

Playground safety examined
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen sta ff School playgrounds are not being removed en masse, says school board chair Bill Christie. Rather, the district is checking the condition of all playground equipment to ensure it meets Canadian Standards Association guidelines and will remove parts that are in violation. Christie was responding to a Citizen story Thursday with district superintendent Dick Chambers that discussed the outright removal of all school playgrounds due to health concerns. "The safety issues the superintendent raised, they are real, but they may not apply to absolutely every piece of equipment," said Christie, who noted other jurisdictions have done outright removals, but the local district is still studying the issue. "The district has not decided to close or remove any playground equipment. The manager of maintenance is currently creating an inventory of all playground equipment and the condition of that equipment. That report will go to the education services committee, which meets Oct. 3. Then it will go to the school board in October, but not before we have discussions wit h schools and parents' groups." Christie said parts of the playgrounds will have to be replaced, repaired, or modified to meet current CSA standards, but total removal is not what the district envisions. "If any action is decided upon, our parent groups will be part of that discussion," he said. The cost of replacing adventure playgrounds in school yards in this district, as in many others across Canada, falls to each school's parent advisory council. Each one, according to Chambers, could easily cost $30,000 or more to replace. Chambers said the removal will take place over the next three years. -- See related st ory on page 3

Prince George House opens in Vancouver
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen st ff a Initiatives Prince George president Gerry Offet is hoping a small office on Vancouver's waterfront will pack a big punch when it comes to attracting investors to Prince George. Dubbed Prince George House, the two-suite office covering about 390 square feet on the fifth floor of an office tower at the Canada Place complex was officially opened Monday, drawing reporters from two Vancouver daily newspapers. Renting the space will cost $15,000 a year, the bill to be split evenly between Initiatives Prince George and UNBC. Rent also includes access to boardrooms and meeting rooms in the building, and the office is located two floors below the province's economic development office. "It's quite cost-effective," Offet said during a conference call after the opening. Three former Prince George residents -- Bob Buxton, Hans Wagner and Lily Chow -- will staff the office on a part-time, volunteer basis. Prince George House was the brainchild of Buxton and Wagner, who raised the idea about 18 months ago. Buxton said he'll be emphasizing growth in mining, oil and gas and the likelihood of an inland container port in Prince George as part of development of the Prince Rupert container terminal. Over the 21 years he lived in Prince George, Buxton was a partner in the accounting firm KPMG and, for a time, chair of the College of New Caledonia board. He moved to the Lower Mainland about three and a half years ago. "There are certainly very few people here who have much of the knowledge of the business opportunities in the Prince George region," he said. "My feeling was that there should be, at a fairly-nominal cost, some way for people that are familiar with the region to pitch in and provide a go-between for business people." It's hoped Chow, who now lives in Victoria but will be in Vancouver when needed, will act as a liaison with the Chinese community. -- See UNBC on page 3

High : 12 Low : 4 page 2

Vandals target schools in weekend spree
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen st ff a Nine Prince George schools were struck by vandals over the weekend, spurring a flurry of costly repairs for the school district. The hardest hit was Malaspina elementary, where 10 windows were smashed. Also hit were John McInnis junior secondary (seven broken windows), Blackburn elementary (six windows), Pineview (six windows), Buckhorn (three windows), Carney Hill (two windows), Highland (one window), Quinson (one window) and Harwin (exhaust fan damaged on the roof). One principal said the vandalism hits the children right in the heart, while secretary-treasurer Bryan Mix said it hits the school district right in the wallet. "This is pretty horrific, really," said Mix. "This comes strictly out of our operating budget. There is no insurance claim. We have insurance against property damage, but the deductible often precludes us from using it. The deductible is $3,000 per incident. So nine times out of 10, vandalism comes right out of our operating budget." The damage has not been calculated, but Marcel Richard, manager of property maintenance for the district, says the total will be ugly. "We don't have a total because the glass is on order," Richard said. "I know for Malaspina alone it was $665 for glass, then add the work involved. By the time you pay the overtime for the call-outs and the clean-up, its $1,500 or $2,000 just there at one school." Mix said the frustration is having no choice but to repair the damage and remove safety hazards for the children and recreational users of the schools. "The people who fix our buildings are our maintenance staff who get called away from their families on their days off and there is a human cost to that, never mind the money," Mix said. "And if we have all our people fixing windows, that means they aren't working on the list of other things kids need attended to in their school buildings. That list is already longer than we can see the end of. When this happens, it is just a direct cost against the entire education system." Neither Mix nor Richard can remember such a wave of vandalism against local schools. Malaspina principal Bruce Wiebe says

free

shop !
FOR A YEAR CONTEST!

INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . . 17 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Business . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-24 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . . 3,5,6,13 Classifi ed . . . . . . . . . . . 18-21 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . 17 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,14 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Citizen photo by Dave Milne

0

58307

00100

8

Blackburn elementary principal Bruce Walkey surveys the windows boarded up at his school after vandals struck over the weekend. discovering the smashed windows at his ered the damage as he walked his dog school was disappointing enough, but Saturday morning. "It is disappointing for the students to see what someone for them (the children) and hurtful for had done to their school was the worst them to see that kind of damage done. part of all. We've had tiny amounts of vandalism, "I don't think any kids who go to our but nothing on this scale. It is disheartschool did that. Our kids take a lot of ening to see this kind of destruction pride in our school, so I don't believe it when people work so hard to take care was anyone who is part of our school of things." community," said Wiebe, who discov-- See LEADS on page 3

SWITCHBOARD: 562-2441

CLASSIFIED: 562-6666

READER SALES: 562-3301