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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2008 www.princegeorgecitizen.com

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Report calls for changes to resource roadways
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff The B.C. forest safety council ombudsman delivered a report Wednesday calling for significant changes on resource roads, including establishing a new public highway designation. The designation, one of 17 recommendations, is meant to be put in place where resource roads serve as primary or secondary access roads for communities. The recommendations are meant to improve safety on the province's 400,000 kilometres of resource roads. In 2005, five of "I don't t h e 1 6 forestr y believe it's d e a t h s i n going to 2 0 0 7 h a p cost more pened on resource roads, money, I making it the think it's leading cause of deat hs in going to the forest sector. save The report money." also calls on the province -- Ombudsman to e s t a b l i s h Roger Harris regional road s a fet y m a n agement groups with the responsibility to manage all activities on resource roads in the province. The ombudsman, Roger Harris, said the recommendations are meant to address the changing nature of resource roads, which historically were created for logging and managed by the Ministry of Forests. Increasingly, resource roads are used by other industries, including mining and oil and gas, tourism, and by residents who rely on the roads for access to their communities, said Harris. He said some of the recommendations may need to be backed by legislation. "I think that generally this package of recommendations will put in place a management regime that improves the work place and resource roads for everyone. I don't believe it's going to cost more money, I think it's going to save money," said Harris. "So, I'm hoping that government, industry and other stakeholders will pay attention to it," he said. Harris said he undertook the rev i ew b e c a u s e o f t h e n u m b e r o f deaths taking place on resource roads and the exponential increase in volume and variety of traffic on resource roads. Harris, a former logger and ex-Liberal MLA from northwest B.C., said it's also the area he gets the most phone calls on as ombudsman. The B.C. Forest Safety Council -- which includes representatives from forest companies, loggers, trucker and the silviculture sector -- was created to help reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries in the forest sector. The other recommendations call for tightening up enforcement on resource roads, setting high standards for construction and maintenance and creating emergency response plans. The recommendations also call on the B.C. Forest Safety Council to develop an industrial driver endorsement program for resource roads. -- See INQUEST on page 2

Newborn staying with mom in prison
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff In the first case of its kind in B.C. and possibly in Canada, a Prince George woman who was given a four-year prison sentence for manslaughter Wednesday is allowed to serve her jail term with her newborn. Lisa Anne Whitford, 37, who had a baby last March during her time in custody, fired a fatal shotgun blast at her common-law husband at their home northeast of Prince George in 2006. Dave Lefebvre, communications manager for the Correctional Service of Canada, said the CSC until now had never dealt with a situation in which a jailed mother served her federal sentence with her child. He said he didn't have information about this kind of situation in the federal correctional institutions in other provinces, although a program is set up for it. "In B.C., it's the first time federally," LeFebvre said. Whitford appeared for her sentencing session by video from the Alouette River Correctional Centre for Women, but she will serve much of her sentence in the Fraser Valley Institution mother-child program. B.C. Corrections does not have a formal mother-child program, said Lisa Lapointe, spokesperson for the provincial corrections branch. At the Alouette institution, some inmates have given birth while in custody, and the child is allowed to stay with the mother in custody for a number of months. The policy is modified depending on the nature of the offence and the length of sentence the mother is serving, she said. -- see JAILED on page 2

Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

An empty logging truck travels over the Reid Lake connector road that ends on Saxton Road.

Area drivers to get ICBC rate break
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff ICBC wants Prince George drivers to pay less for auto insurance as a reward for improvements in traffic crash rates. While Lower Mainland drivers are facing as much as a sixper-cent increase in their ICBC rates, most areas of the Interior are slated for a break in the cost of basic premiums. "On average, Prince George drivers would see about a 3.5-per-cent decrease," said ICBC spokesman Doug McClelland. "In the Peace it would be about a three-per-cent drop. In the north coast region it is almost a six-per-cent decrease and in the Cariboo it is just over four per cent on your basic premiums." The proposal is before the B.C. Utilities Commission for its approval. -- See CITY on page 2

Logging truck traffic worries residents
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff Janet Valdarchi and her neighbour Brian Ellison stress they are not against logging or log truckers, but they are concerned that traffic coming out a narrow section on Saxton Lake Road is unsafe. Valdarchi and Ellison are also worried about the additional logging traffic coming onto Saxton Lake Road from a new piece of road built recently to connect to the Reid Lake area. Valdarchi lives just off of Saxton Road at the turnoff to Vivian Lake, and Ellison lives at Vivian Lake, about 30 minutes northwest of the city past Chief Lake Road. The connector road from the Reid Lake area comes onto Saxton right at the Vivian Lake turnoff. The two-kilometre stretch of road from there to the beginning of Saxton Lake Road is of particular concern to Valdarchi and Ellison. They believe the road is too narrow for logging trucks to pass in both directions, and also believe the increased traffic creates a hazard for people who live in the area, especially when the road is slippery. Both of them say the stretch of road should be widened, particularly if more beetle-killed timber is going to be taken out of the area. "You just hold your breath -- you don't want to meet a logging truck," said Valdarchi. Ellison said he can't understand why log truck traffic has been diverted from the Reid Lake area onto Saxton Road since there are more people that live in the area of Saxton Road, which turns into Ness Lake Road. Ellison, who has started up a recreational site at Vivian Lake, is also concerned that logging trucks and RVs in the summer will be a bad mix. "Somebody is going to get hurt, before this is over," he said. The two-kilometre stretch of Saxton Road falls under the responsibility of the transportation ministry. The ministry's Fort George district manager Rick Blixrud said the difficulty in widening the road is the province owns only the road top, and it would be costly to purchase private property to widen it. He said there have been measures taken to improve safety, including posting proper signage, ensuring plowing and sanding are done and monitoring speeds. Blixrud noted that three speeding tickets were handed out by ministry staff last week, although he didn't know what type of vehicles were ticketed. -- See MINISTRY on page 2

 NECHAKO RIVER ICE JAM

Warm water having effect
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff The introduction of warm water into the Nechako River appears to be having the desired effect on the ice jam, city liaison officer Don Schaffer said in an update Wednesday. "The ice jam appears to be smaller than it was last week at this time, when the warm water system was activated," he said. "The base of the jam, which extends several hundred metres into the Nechako channel from the confluence, appears to have been reduced by between 150 and 200 metres." -- See MILL on page 3

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