Matt Damon named sexiest man alive /26

MICHENER AWARD WINNER FOR PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM

Oprah picks gothic romance as latest addition to her book club /29

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2007

$1.00 (HOME DELIVERED: 61 CENTS A DAY)

Victoria's homeless project a success, forum told
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff An apartment complex for the homeless in Victoria that's similar to a controversial proposal for the corner of Seventh and Queensway in Prince George was hailed as a success during a forum on affordable housing held Wednesday at the Civic Centre. Aimed at those who are the "hardest to house and have a long history of homelessness," the 26unit Medewiwin Apartments won an award from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. in 2004 for best practices in affordable housing. "It was one of the first in Victoria and it has been the model for other organizations to create additional housing in this sector," said Pacifica Housing Advisory Association executive director Karyn French during a presentation at the forum. The tenants typically suffer from mental illness and substance abuse and require housing that gives them a sense that "this is their place, this is their home," said French. The complex operates on a "peer support community model" where the tenants participate and have a say in the running of the building. Reduced rent and a payment-in-kind system, using food vouchers, is in place to give tenants incentive to help with the building's upkeep and so on. Staff is comprised of one full-time housing coordinator and the equivalent of 2.5 full-timeequivalent support workers, who help tenants with such items as learning life skills and meeting appointments for medical and financial help. Whenever there is trouble, French said it usually involves visitors or uninvited people who got into the building but she also said the tenants are not perfect, either. A "harm-reduction" approach is used, where substance use is not condoned and not permitted in public areas of the building. -- See PUBLIC HEARING on page 3

Couple's vehicle towed away, flattened
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff A Prince George couple are scratching their heads after their car was not only towed from their apartment building, but flattened at a salvage yard rather than impounded before they even knew it had been taken away. There is also some question as to whether the right vehicle was even towed away, but that's a side issue as far as Jeremy Norlander and Milenka Pavlic are concerned. "We're a family of four and our vehicle's not only been towed, but crushed within 10 hours of being towed," Norlander said. Five Star Towing owner Mike Karpe readily admits to towing the vehicle to a salvage yard for flattening -- he picked it up from West Pine Apartments during the evening of Oct. 24 -- but stressed he took management's word for it that the car was abandoned. "On an abandoned car, they sign the paperwork saying they've done their due diligence and they have the legal right to get rid of it," Karpe said. "I'm only a hired contractor at this point for an abandoned car." Without that paperwork, Karpe said he would've towed the car to his yard and charged the apartment $500 to cover the fees related to getting a vehicle declared abandoned and storing the vehicle for the five mont hs it takes to complete t he process. -- See MIXUP on page 3

Fort St. James mill still hasn't reopened
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff Pope & Talbot failed to reopen its Fort St. James sawmill as promised earlier this month, a blow to the forest-based community that already has another sawmill indefinitely idled. U.S.-based Pope & Talbot, which is under bankruptcy protection in Canada, had announced it expected to restart the sawmill on Nov. 5 following a three-week shutdown. However, the mill has remained closed (it's now in its fifth week) and company spokesman Mark Rossolo could not say Wednesday when or whether the mill would reopen. Ross Dirnback, who owns a truck shop in Fort St. James that supplies the logging community, said the continued closure of the Pope & Talbot mill is a blow to the community, particularly since Stuart Lake Lumber, a smaller mill, has been closed indefinitely since the summer. The two closures have impacted hundreds of forest sector workers. Another of the community's sawmills, Apollo Forest Products, recently moved to a four-day work week indefinitely. It's unclear if there has been any impact to Tl'oh Forest Products, a secondary lumber manufacturer in the community of about 5,000, 160 kilometres northwest of Prince George. Lumber producers in the Northern Interior, like others in Canada, have been reacting to poor lumber prices, a high Canadian dollar, a 15-per-cent export tax on softwood shipments to the U.S. and operational challenges in milling pine-beetle-killed timber. Some industry representatives and observers have called the situation the worst they have ever seen. Financially-troubled Pope & Talbot's move to seek bankruptcy protection has exacerbated worries for communities in which it operates. "This town is going to die," said Dirnback, who is also not happy to see logging trucks passing through town loaded with logs headed to Vanderhoof, Prince George and other locations. -- See LIEN on page 3

Citizen photo by David Mah

THANKS FOR THE PEDICURE -- Mann, a five-year-old warmblood, watches farrier Ryan Clarke file his hooves at the Prince George Exhibition grounds. Clarke had numerous pedicure appointments there Wednesday.

Agency taking extra time to ponder beetle proposals
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff The federal agency responsible for managing $33 million set aside to help B.C. communities diversify their economies in the wake of the beetle epidemic announced Wednesday it will take an extra two weeks to consider proposals. Western Economic Diversification received so many proposals -- more than 500 -- that it will take until Nov. 26 to analyze the expressions of interest and let everyone know whether their project has been chosen to move to the next stage, said Michelle Soucie, manager of the diversification initiative. Originally the agency had planned to respond to all the proposals by Nov. 16. The two-week extension to Western Economic Diversification's response time to the proposals will move up the other deadlines as well. Those proposals that move onto the second stage will have until Dec. 17 to submit their more detailed project proposals. Soucie explained that in the Prince George Timber Supply Area alone -- which includes Prince George, Vanderhoof and Fort St. James -- more than 100 expressions of interest were submitted. The vast majority of proposals came from the non-profit sector, but submissions were also received from the business sector. First Nations also put in proposals, said Soucie. More information on the community diversification initiative is available at www.wd.gc.ca/ced/mpb. ghoekstra@pgcitizen.ca

INDEX
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Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . .27 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Business. . . .. . . . . . . . .22-24 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . . 3,5-7,13

Classified . . . . . . . . . . .17-21 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Entertainment . . . . . . . 25,26

Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14, 15

High : 4 Low : 1 page 2

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