PQ picks new leader /7

Cyclist makes stop on world tour /13

Rough start to road trip for Cougars in Medicine Hat /8
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2005 80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 59 CENTS A DAY)

NDP demands better forest safety
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff The New Democrats called on the B.C. Liberal government Tuesday to make policy and regulatory changes to keep forest workers alive. The NDP laid out a list of more than one dozen issues it wants addressed in the wake of a rising death toll this year in the B.C. forest sector. The number of fatalities now sits at 37. The latest was a tree faller in Kamloops who died this week. A log truck driver was killed in Prince George last month when his loaded logging truck crashed into a power pole. The truck ended up in the front yard of a Prince George home. Two other log truck drivers died in the Northern Interior earlier this year. "Families are being devastated while this government sits on its hands and refuses to look at legislation and regulation that is killing and crippling B.C.'s forest workers," said NDP forestry critic Bob Simpson, a former forestry executive. Simpson, the MLA for Cariboo North, lives in Quesnel, 125 kilometres south of Prince George. The NDP said the Workers' Compensation Board Act and regulations need changes to clarify who is responsible for planning safe forest operations.

A Citizen investigation into the deaths of log haulers
The New Democrats also said accountability needs to be restored to the companies that hold timber harvesting

rights, including the province when it holds timber rights. They also called for an independent review of Ministry of Forests policy changes that have been implicated in creating unsafe working conditions. The NDP said any legislative changes needed to improve safety must be made. The New Democrats cited, for example, that the Ministry of Forests no longer approves road designs, and there are no standards set out in regulations or legislation for road maintenance, road warning signs or inspections. Hauling occurs both ways on single, narrow roads with inadequate pullouts,

added the NDP. The Ministry of Forests also confirmed that radio calling is used only as a precaution and is not a legislated oversight on forest roads, the New Democrats said. The points on forest roads were all raised in a Citizen story 11 days ago. The findings were part of a sevenmonth Citizen investigation, which raises questions of whether any lessons are being learned from the mounting death toll. Accidents involving tree fallers are the leading cause of death in the Coastal region of B.C. In the Interior, log truck drivers lead the death toll. -- See VICTORIA on page 5

Premier wants child deaths investigated
VICTORIA (CP) -- Premier Gordon Campbell says he expects all child deaths to be reviewed in British Columbia and the provincial government is prepared to provide the resources to conduct those reviews. "There clearly has been a problem," Campbell said Tuesday. "The problem is going to be fixed and children's deaths will be investigated in this province so that we learn and improve on the quality of support we provide to the children across British Columbia." The NDP has called them the forgotten children after the government admitted this week that the reviews of the deaths of more than 80 children in government care were shut down or never completed when the Liberal government cut the children's commission office in 2002. Kathleen Stephany, a former B.C. coroner's service special investigator who is now suing the government for wrongful dismissal, has said the children's commission had 500 open cases. Watch Thursday's Prince George Citizen for results of a Citizen/PGTV election poll on the Prince George mayoral race and top local issues.

Canada to appeal WTO lumber ruling
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Canada then won another key vicCitizen staff tory when a second NAFTA panel deCanada is appealing a World Trade nied an extraordinary challenge from Organization panel finding that the the U.S. on the injury case. The deciU.S. is in compliance with its interna- sion is key because if t here's no tional trade obligations in the soft- threat of injury, the U.S. lumber inwood lumber injury fight. dustry's case in the trade battle col"We're quite confident we'll win lapses. this appeal," International Trade Peterson stressed the WTO finding Minister Jim Peterson told reporters does not change the fact the NAFTA Tuesday. process -- which is enforceable unThe W TO's decision reder U.S. law -- has already jects Canada's challenge of concluded that the U.S. was the U.S. International Trade wrong to impose duties on Commission's ruling that Canadian softwood lumber Canadian lumber imports in the first place. threaten the American lum"The WTO panel's concluber industry. sions address different legal T h e U. S . h a s u s e d t h e obligations and cannot be WTO ruling on injury to arused as an excuse by the gue that a North American United States to avoid comFree Trade Agreement panel plying with NAFTA," said ruling on injury -- which Peterson. PETERSON was won by Canada -- was Canada is also suing the wrong. U.S. in the International Court of The case on injury is a question of Trade for the return of tariffs, which whether Canadian lumber, which the now amount to more than $5 billion U.S. claims is subsidized and being US. dumped below cost, hurts the AmeriThe trade dispute is a significant iscan lumber industry. sue in the Northern Interior, CanaThe U.S. International Trade Com- da's largest softwood lumber producmission had found that Canadian ing region. In Prince George alone, lumber imports posed a threat to the there are more than a dozen sawmills U.S. industry. and lumber remanufacturing plants But a NAFTA panel ordered the employing thousands of workers. trade commission to reverse its posiCanfor -- the largest forest compation, saying the commission had ny in the Northern Interior -- has alfailed to prove its case. The trade ready paid out nearly $700 million commission reluctantly agreed and US in tariffs. turned over its original finding. -- See related story on page 5

Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Tax cuts borrowed from Tories, MPs say LIVE Free!
FOR A YEAR

High : 3 Low : -5 page 2

HOLIDAY GLOW -- Lawrence Williams, an electrician with the City of Prince George, installs Christmas decorations Tuesday afternoon along Fourth Avenue.

C O N T E S T

INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . . 26 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Business . . . . . . . . . . . .22-24 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . . 3,5,6,13 Classifi ed . . . . . . . . . . . 18-21 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . 17 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6,7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,15

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by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff Prince George-Peace River MP Jay Hill is accusing the Liberals of stealing from the Conservatives after the Grits promised $29 billion worth of tax cuts on Monday, $5.3 billion of which would come this fiscal year. "It's right out of our policy book," Hill said from Ottawa. "I mean, how ironic that on the verge of an election that they know they're going to lose because of the corruption, they've suddenly discovered tax relief." Part of the plan, if implemented, would give a two-income family of four earning $60,000 a break of $499 in 2005 taxes. The measures also include a $500 increase to the amount Canadians can earn without paying federal income tax. That maximum would rise to $8,648 from $8,148, and would save taxpayers $80. The savings would also include a reduction in the lowest personal income tax rate to 15 per cent from 16 per cent, retroactive to last January. That would be worth $272 to the family of four. But both Hill and Cariboo-Prince George MP

Dick Harris said Canadians should wait to see the results on their paycheques before believing the Liberals will follow through on the promise. Past tax relief was clawed back in the form of higher Canada Pension Plan contributions and Employment Insurance premiums, they stressed. "A study showed very clearly that Canadians' disposable inHARRIS come has not increased in any measure over the last 16 years," Harris said. "So, when the Liberals say they're going to give tax cuts, Canadians say `I'll believe it when I see it on my paycheque.'" Hill said t he Liberals have exper ienced a "deathbed conversion" after accusing the Conservatives in the last federal election of being reckless when they promised significant cuts to income tax. During the election campaign, the Conservative platform included reducing federal income tax over four years to the lowest tax bracket of 16 per

cent for everyone earning up to $70,000. A taxpayer earning $50,000 a year would have saved about $1,000 once the plan was fully implemented at a cost of $6.2 billion to the government. "They attacked us at every opportunity with negative campaigning suggesting that we as a nation couldn't afford tax cuts," Hill said. "And now, all of HILL a sudden, they can afford not just some minor tax relief but some massive tax relief. It's the very same policy they attacked 18 months ago." Both Hill and Harris said the Conservatives will be rolling out a new platform that will feature significant tax relief during the coming election once it's declared. "We'll be unveiling our tax relief program when the election is called and it'll be real tax relief, not just a tinker-around-the-edges election ploy," Harris said. -- with files from Canadian Press

Re-Elect Brian Skakun
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