ON THE WEB www.princegeorgecitizen.com Fire rocks P.G. Pulp Mill INSIDE MICHENER AWARD WINNER FOR PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2008 $1.00 (HOME DELIVERED: 61 CENTS A DAY) Mill shutdown blamed on ice jam by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff Winton Global is not operating simply because the danger of more flooding from ice jams on the Nechako River makes it not safe to do so, company president and CEO John Elmslie said Tuesday. Elmslie was speaking to The Citizen for the first time since the company decided last week to extend a pre-Christmas shutdown until mid-March, when they hope the ice jam threat will have ended. The closure of the company's planer mill on River Road and its sawmill in Bear Lake, north of Prince George, has put 200 plant workers off the job and impacts another 100 logging and trucking contractors. "This shut down is unexpected due to flooding, no question," said Elmslie. While the plan is not to come back until the ice comes off the river, Elmslie is hopeful that recent efforts to take direction action, like bringing in an amphibious backhoe to break up the ice, could allow the mill to start up earlier than March. The critical issue for Winton Global is the danger to its hot oil plant, which suppliers heat to its lumber drying kilns, and which is located on the north side of River Road next to the Nechako River. -- See WINTON GLOBAL on page 3 Aboriginal population increasing CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA -- More than three quarters of the off-reserve aboriginal population of British Columbia lives in urban areas, according to new census information released Tuesday that indicates more Canadians than ever who identify themselves as aboriginal are living in the country's big cities. The new census data released by Statistics Canada also shows the number of native Canadians living in Prince George has increased in the period between the 2001 and 2006 census -- to 8,045 from 7,160. The new census information indicates that across Canada, 72.1 per cent of the country's off-reserve aboriginal population lives in urban centres, compared to only 26.3 per cent who live on reserves. The number of aboriginal Canadians living off reserve since the last census was taken in 2001 has increased by 3.0 per cent. -- See editorial on page 4 See related stories on page 7 Artist's work going public /5 Citizen photo by Brent Braaten COOL MOOSE -- A rare white moose was spotted in the 300 block of Burden Street. This one was carved out of snow with the antlers added. Six decades at the Northern /13 Water supply still secure by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff The city's water supply remains safe from the effects of the Nechako ice jam, city utilities manager Marco Fornari said Tuesday, even though the number of pumping stations supplying water has been reduced to three from five. Standing in front of a pumping station at the west end of Wilson Park, Fornari said two of the lower level stations are being used strictly to draw down the water table in an attempt to ease some of the flooding caused by water seeping up through the ground from the Nechako. The responsibility of supplying water to the city has been left to three city wells, with the one at Wilson Park pulling most of the load. However, there's still plenty of capacity left in the system. City utility plant supervisor, Tony Pirillo, said the station's pumps are operating about 10 hours a day right now, up from about eight hours they're usually running this time of year, but still well below the 19 hours a day they run in the summer when demand is at its highest. Gabions and berms have been put in place at all of the stations but all remain safely above the 200-year floodplain, Fornari said. -- See EFFORTS on page 3 Citizen photo by Brent Braaten Marco Fornari, manager of the utilities division with the City of Prince George, answers questions Tuesday afternoon inside a pumping station beside Wilson Park on Ospika Boulevard. The city's water supply is not in any danger because of the flooding. Options for keeping fit /25 E-Mail address: INDEX 0 58307 00100 8 Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . .27 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Business. . . .. . . . . . . . .22-24 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . . .3,5,13 Classified . . . . . . . . . . .18-21 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . 26 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6,7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14,15 High : 1 Low : -7 page 2 news@princegeorgecitizen.com Our website: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com 00623468 T 7:00 PM TONIGH CN CENTRE AT NIGHT PORTLAND SWITCHBOARD: 562-2441 CLASSIFIED: 562-6666 READER SALES: 562-3301