Time to take stock/17

Rollergirls skate thin line/ 26

Canada, U.S. set for hockey showdown/ 8
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2005

There'll be Timbits for everyone/ 6
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 59 CENTS A DAY)

Mishap puts couple in hospital with same injuries, same room
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff A Prince George-area couple is bracing for some long-term hardship following a serious Christmas Day accident. Andrew and Jamie Menu both suffered a broken back after their sport utility vehicle hit black ice while driving through Vanderhoof and tumbled to the bottom of a 10-foot ditch with boulders at the bottom. Both were wearing their seatbelts but much of the cab was crushed. They will be flat on their backs in Prince George Regional Hospital for at least six weeks and won't be able to work for at least nine months and face serious financial trouble as a result. Even so, the young couple, both in their mid 20s, are thanking their lucky stars it wasn't worse. "There were angels riding in that vehicle," said Andrew, who was knocked unconscious in the crash. Most importantly, their one-monthold baby, Andrew, who was strapped into a child car seat, escaped with nothing more than a few bruises. As well, they could easily have gone off the other side of the road and into the Nechako River rather than into the ditch and they just missed a head-on collision with another driver after spinning out of control. Moreover, Jamie had place her cellphone in her pocket where it was within easy-reaching distance, rather than on the dash like she usually does. There is no 911 service in Vanderhoof but she called her father, Jim Hamm, who lives with his wife, Lori, near Red Rock about 30 kilometres south of Prince George. And while Jim was talking to his daughter on the household phone, Lori was able to call 911 on her cellphone -- even though it had been drained of power because they had misplaced the charger. Emergency personnel were dispatched to the scene by 911 in Prince George and the Menus were rescued from the wreckage. "I actually was on the phone with 911 and Jamie, one in each ear, for probably 10 minutes and not a wobble in the phone," Jim said. "When I was finished with 911, I hung up the phone and the phone was dead again. "Just a whole rafts of small, little miracle circumstances that they got through, people were there, the baby was just fine. We're so thankful that they're alive." The couple are now sharing a room at PGRH and their baby stays with them during the day. Family members are taking turns keeping the trio company and helping out feeding the horses and doing the chores on the Menus' small farm near Paterson Road south of the city. "We do all the baby care but allow them to at least cuddle with their baby and do that sort of stuff," Hamm said. "And then we take the baby home at night. The hospital has provided us with a really good environment." The Menus suffered almost identical injuries. Both have three fractures in their back, two in the lower areas and one higher up near where their backbones meet their ribs. Some bone fragments are floating around inside their spines and the hope is they will be ejected outwards and away from the spinal cord. "This is why they're flat on their backs, in the hospital," Jim Hamm said. See Injured couple, page 3

Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Andrew Menu and his wife, Jamie, and son Andrew William, one month old, are in Prince George Regional Hospital after a single-vehicle traffic accident in Vanderhoof on Christmas Day.

NO PAPER
The Citizen will not publish Monday, Jan. 2. But we'll be back on doorsteps and newsstands Tuesday morning with our first edition of 2006. Happy New Year!

There's `wiggle room' in softwood lumber dispute
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff For the first time in the long-running softwood lumber trade dispute there were concrete changes in 2005. In early December, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the final results of its review of tariffs for the second year of penalties -- a period which runs from April 2003 to March 2004. It cut the tariffs on Canadian lumber exports to the U.S. in half. And unlike the results of legal wrangling -- where Canada has also won significant victories -- the Commerce Department review actually changes the tariff amount that Canadian companies pay going forward. The tariffs dropped from 20.15 per cent to 10.81 per cent, even lower for some companies like Canfor Corp. and West Fraser Timber. The new rate will save B.C. lumber producers about $250 million US a year in tariff payments, B.C. Lumber Trade Council president John Allan said following the U.S. Commerce Department's announcement. Canada also won some significant legal victories in 2005. In October, a North American Free Trade Agreement dispute panel ordered the U.S. Commerce Department to use a new profit margin for Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan -- used to calculate the countervailing duty rate -- by the end of October. That adjustment will bring the national countervailing-duty rate, below one per cent, which is considered to be zero, which would end the U.S.'s case on subsidy Earlier, in the summer, a North American Free Trade Agreement panel decision confirmed the U.S. had not proven Canadian lumber imports threatened the U.S. industry. The decision was key because if there's no threat of injury, the American case collapses. However, the U.S. refused to return the tariffs, saying a World Trade Organization ruling trumped the NAFTA decision. In the latest move, the U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports launched a constitutional challenge of NAFTA's dispute settlement system to contest the threat of injury decision. Canada is also suing the U.S. in the International Court of Trade for the return of tariffs, which now amount to more than $5 billion US. There was another positive development for Canada this month when the U.S. Senate voted to dump a trade law that allows American companies to profit from tariffs on Canadian imports, including softwood lumber. The Senate narrowly agreed to repeal the so-called Byrd Amendment as part of a sweeping budget-cutting bill. However, backers of the law, named for Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, struck a deal to delay ending the provision until Oct. 1, 2007. The Byrd Amendment was protested by dozens of countries, including Canada. The World Trade Organization ruled it illegal. It had the potential to disburse billions in softwood tariffs to American forest companies. While the U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports said they were disappointed by the repeal of the Byrd amendment, the American group stressed it expected tariffs paid up until Oct. 1, 2007 to be paid to the U.S. lumber industry. While there have been many developments recently in the trade fight, there has been no sign the two sides are getting together for formal talks. There'd be little chance of that anyway until after the federal election.

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INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . . 26 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Business . . . . . . . . . . . .34-36 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . . .3,5,13 Classifi ed . . . . . . . . . . . 20-23 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-30, Crossword . . . . . . . . . . .27,28 Entertainment . . . . . . . 25-28 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6,7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Kettle campaign ka-ching!
Citizen staff Final figures show the Salvation Army's Christmas Kettle campaign rang in $151,000, a 51-per-cent increase over last year, says Bruce Kirk, pastor. Last year the kettle campaign brought in about $100,000, he said. "So that $151,000 smashing the record," Kirk said. "We've never come close to that before." Salvation Army officials were worried the last two weeks before Christmas about whether there would be enough volunteers to raise the $100,000 that had been set as the goal of this year's campaign, he said. "But we ended up with outstanding volunteer support," Kirk said. "That's what really made the difference. We had close to all of our shifts filled." The level of community support was excellent. "People were putting in $100 bills, $50 bills," he said.

Warm weather beetle bomb?
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff It hasn't been cold enough to knock back mountain pine beetles but there is a question of whether the higherthan-normal winter temperatures could lay the foundation to help kill beetles. The higher temperatures could make the beetles more susceptible to cold snaps if it effects their antifreeze levels, says UNBC entomologist Staffen Lindgren. But that's unclear, he said. "It's really hard to know what's happening because it's so unusual," observed Lindgren. The beetles -- which continue to attack lodgepole pine forests in B.C.'s Interior -- manufacture a natural antifreeze which protects them from cold weather in the winter. Early in the fall, before the beetles have had a chance to produce their anti-freeze, a cold snap of -25 C or lower can kill them off. Once the winter has set in, it take an extended deep freeze of -40 C weather to kill them off. See Warm weather page 3

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