Moms using maternity leave to start businesses /45

Neil Young announces Farm Aid lineup /17
SATURDAY, JULY 8, 2006

Get rid of grass in yard /25

Plenty of delights in Dubai /37
$1.25 (HOME DELIVERED: 59 CENTS A DAY)

Bus service starting for area patients
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff Northern B.C. patients needing to travel from home communities for referred medical care will soon have a low-cost bus service thought to be the first of its kind in the world. Northern Health's Connection travel program, reaching as far as Vancouver, will be phased in over the summer beginning July 17 with a service between Prince George and Vancouver. "This is a new service for Northern Health," said CEO Malcolm Maxwell. "So we want to introduce it gradually to our communities, work out any issues through a staged start-up, run it for a period of time and improve it based on feedback from passengers, community groups and health providers." There will be five long-distance coaches, holding 30 to 48 people, depending on how many wheelchairs are involved, offering wheelchair washrooms and baby change tables, said Sean Hardiman, regional manager of the Connections program. Four mini-buses, similar to HandyDart vans, will hold 20 people for short runs. Patients are allowed to take one companion with them. Hardiman believes this service including all types of medical care patients is the first of its kind in Canada . Most long routes will operate a minimum of two round trips a week. Short distance routes will operate one sameday round trip per week, allowing patients to return home the same day. Start dates and routes are:  July 17 -- Prince George to Vancouver (long-distance).  July 24 -- Fort St. John, via Mackenzie to Prince George (long-distance) Both routes connect with the Vancouver route. -- See SCHEDULE on page 3

Citizen photo by David Mah

YOUNG AT ART -- Chantel Anderson, 11, left, and Chantel Lacey, 12, made their marks at the rain barrel painting station Friday at the 16th annual KidzArt Dayz at the Civic Centre. There were numerous art stations, including face painting and chalk drawing.

SATURDAY REPORT

LIVING WITH ALLERGIES
by STEPHANIE MORGAN Citizen staff For Jacqueline Maslen, allergies have become a way of life. However, for this 62-year-old woman they came on as a bit of a surprise. Maslen lived most of her life without suffering from allergies. "It kind of all caught me by surprise because I found out just last week I had allergies. I spent years guessing, `oh maybe it's the dust.' All of sudden you go and you find out it's not what you thought." Her own discovery of her allergies came after a potentially fatal encounter with a nut last year -- her entire throat closed up on her, which led to a mad drive to the hospital. -- See more on page 13

U.K. firm plans treeplanting project
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff United Kingdom-based multinational company Reckitt Benckiser has announced plans to plant two million trees in northern B.C. to offset the greenhouse gas production from its manufacturing operations around the world. The company -- familiar more through its brand names like Lysol, Woolite, Clearasil and French's mustard -- started a pilot this year. The bulk of the trees will be planted in 2007 and 2008 in the Prince George and Fort St. John areas. Edward Butt, Reckitt Benckiser's director of environment, health and safety, said the project is not the complete answer to global warming, but it will help. "We think it's an excellent project, and we're really proud of it," said Butt. The company has bought 15 square kilometres of land -- 1,500 hectares -- in a dozen areas in Prince George and Fort St. John. The property is largely agricultural land, and some recently logged areas. The land will be planted with locallygrown lodgepole pine, Douglas fir and white spruce. Over the 80 to 100 year growing cycle of the planted forests, the company estimates the trees will absorb more than one million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is considered a greenhouse gas responsible, in part, for global warming. Reckitt Benckiser says the carbon absorption over the next century will offset the carbon output from its factories this year and next year, when it will produce more than eight billion products. Butt said Canada was chosen for the project because it's stable politically and the area has forestry expertise. He stressed the project is only one component of the company's effort to reduce its carbon output. The company has also reduced its energy use by 17 per cent since 2000 and launched an education program to get consumers to save water and energy while using its products. "To tell you the truth, planting trees is not the answer to climate change," said Butt. "It can help deal with the problem, but the answer is using renewable energy, making your manufacturing operations more efficient, and looking at ways of doing things differently, a whole lot that no one has got their hands around yet." Butt wouldn't say how much the company is spending on the project, or reveal the exact locations of the planting areas. He said it is no secret -- as the local crews who planted the trees know -- but the company is trying to take a low-key approach to the sites so there's not too much attention attracted to them. -- See UNBC on page 3

High : 22 Low : 13 page 2
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Forest sector rejects lumber deal
VANCOUVER (CP) -- Canadian forest companies who represent more than half the lumber duties paid to U.S. Customs say they won't co-operate to implement a key provision of the Canada-U.S. Softwood Lumber Agreement unless changes are made, effectively scuttling the deal. The agreement, initialled last weekend by International Trade Minister David Emerson and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, replaces punitive U.S. duties with Canadian border taxes and quotas. The Canadian lumber industry will get back only 80 per cent of roughly $5 billion US in duties collected since May 22, 2002. About $1 billion will remain in the United States, split between American lumber producers and the U.S. government, which is supposed to use the money for projects such as rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. The provision requires exporters equal to at least 95 per cent of total deposits to waive their legal right to get all the money back and assign the money to the Canadian government, which in turn would funnel some of it back to the Americans. But widespread unhappiness with the agreement, hammered out by Canadian and U.S. negotiators from an April 27 framework, seems to leave the Conservative government far short of that threshold. Objections centre on a two-year termination clause and rules critics say U.S. negotiators demanded at the behest of American producers in order to hamstring Canadian competitors. After his meeting Thursday with U.S. President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the agreement was final and urged everyone to work towards its implementation. Unless industr y opponents relent, t hat seems impossible even if the government navigates the deal's enabling legislation through Parliament past opposition roadblocks in September. Opposition members of the Commons trade committee want it convened later this month hold hearings on the agreement, said NDP trade critic Peter Julian. Few individual companies have come out publicly for or against the deal, preferring to let their industry associations speak for them. A survey of those groups indicates opposition is deep and wide. The entire B.C. coastal forest sector, representing about eight per cent of duty deposits, along with lumber remanufacturers -- three to four per cent -- and much of the B.C. Interior industry -- 25-30 per cent of deposits -- won't sign the waivers. -- See ASSOCIATIONS on page 3

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INDEX
Ann Landers . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Business . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-24 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . . .3,5,13 Classifi ed . . . . . . . . . . .30-34 Comics . . . . . . . . . . .18,47,48 Coming Events . . . . . . . . . . 20 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . 17 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,16

Citizen photo by David Mah

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READING ANTICS -- Kyron Swan, 6, and storyteller Lorelee Parker laugh as they explore puppets at the kickoff of the Prince George Librar y's Extreme Reading Club, which runs each week through the summer at both branches.

CDC SPORTS DAY to be held on July 13th from 10:00 to 2:00 At Masich Stadium, across from the Y
Come and join us for a funfilled day of wheelchair races, tennis and hockey. Juice and snacks provided, bring a bag lunch. The Prince George Child Development Centre, PG Surg-Med Ltd. and BC Wheelchair Sports Association are pleased to Sponsor this Event.

"Leader in Health Care Products"
1749 Lyon St, Prince George

Schedule of events: 10:00 Novice Athletes 11:00 Intermediate Athletes 1:00 Advanced Athletes
00497607

564-2240 fax 564-2243

1-800-663-2963 www.pgsurgmed.com

For information, please contact: Angela at the CDC at 563-7168 or Jennifer at PG Surg-Med Ltd. at 564-2240.

SWITCHBOARD: 562-2441

CLASSIFIED: 562-6666

READER SALES: 562-3301