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TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013
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Leora Wildi fa<^es jmonthly bills of1 $3,000-plus for medicine that frees her joints. But she’s getting help to keep her ■•going.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Leora Waldie is receiving support for her medical bills from anonymous supporters and students at Prince George Secondary School.
Peter JAMES Citizen staff pjames@pgcitizen.ca
Leora Wildi is touched her fellow Prince George Secondary School students are rallying around her in her time of need.
The Grade 12 student needs medication that costs thousands of dollars a month to treat chronic graft versus host disease (CGVHD), which she got after receiving a bone marrow transplant as a result of treatment for leukemia. Wildi’s condition causes her joints to tighten and she now uses a wheelchair to get around. The drugs will help loosen those joints and give her greater mobility to perform everyday tasks.
Wildi received the support of an anonymous donor for one month of treatment earlier this year and said the results were positive.
“I know it’s working,” she said Monday during an interview at PGSS. “I can feel it in my joints and in my bones.”
mI think it's very generous of them to be donating their time and energy to help me when most of them don't even know me.
I really appreciate it.
— Leora Wildi
Another supporter has pledged money for a second round of treatment and she’s expecting to receive the medication soon. But with the cost of the drugs surpassing $3,000 a month, Wildi and her family are looking for more support to ensure she can receive a full 18 months of care.
“It’s very expensive and we as a family cannot afford it,” she said.
Her classmates are already stepping up, with the first big fundraiser happening Friday when students will sell
homemade samosas to teachers during a professional development day.
Students in the Free the Children club at PGSS will also help set up for the professional development event and will donate their honorarium from the school board to the cause.
“I think it’s very generous of them to be donating their time and energy to help me when most of them don’t even know me,” Wildi said. “I really appreciate it.”
Teacher Mike Carson, who supervises the Free the Children club, said students also plan to hold ice cream sales and other fundraisers in the coming weeks to help raise more money for Wildi’s medication.
In addition to helping out Wildi, members of the Free the Children club also volunteer locally at the St. Vincent de Paul Society and raise money for a host of international causes related to young people and education.
“When we heard about [Leora’s plight], we thought this is exactly what our club is all about,” he said.
—see CREW, page 3
Bankrupt man faces $200K bill for foregone taxes
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
A Quesnel man has been ordered to pay Canada Revenue Agency $200,000 for his role in an “RRSP stripping scheme” that saw investors attempt to use his company to withdraw contributions without paying any tax on them.
According to a decision issued by B.C. Supreme Court master Douglas Baker on an application to discharge Gregory William Rivers, 61, from personal bankruptcy, Rivers had invented a “rescue shuttle” - essentially a stretcher with an enclosed capsule to protect the patient.
To develop and promote the invention, Rivers founded Advanced Rescue Technologies Inc. in 2000 and in the process was put in touch with three “financial advisors” who
I assume the
[psychic forecasts] were of little assistance but it might be said that they were at least as helpful as whatever accounting or financial advice Mr. Rivers was getting.
— B.C. Supreme Court master Douglas Baker
helped him raise over $3.5 million in total from about 100 investors. However, Rivers was told that
when investors requested, 80 per cent of their funds would be returned to them and, of the remaining 20 per cent, 10 per cent went to the advisors as commission and 10 per cent would remain with the company.
When asked, Rivers “simply and routinely” wrote cheques on the company’s accounts for return of the funds, which were characterized as loans to investors but there was no documentation confirming the loans, no terms of repayment and no security given.
“It was the return of this 80 per cent, and its characterization as loans that allowed the original investors to recoup at least 80 per cent of their original RRSP funds, all without any tax,” Baker said in the ruling.
— see INVENTOR, page 3
COUNCIL
Opposition packs chamber to stop recovery centre
Charelle EVELYN Citizen staff cevelyn@pgcitizen.ca
We need to work with [the OCP], not alter it every time the
City council was faced with almost nothing but objections from the public on the issue of proposed changes to allow a proposed women’s treatment centre in the former Haldi Road school.
Council chambers were stuffed Monday night as residents took the opportunity to speak out to mayor and council about the offered amendments to the official community plan and zoning amendments.
After an initial presentation by proponents for the Northern Supportive Recovery Centre for Women, it took nearly two hours before council heard another presentation in favour of the application.
Opponents from both inside and outside of the Haldi Road neighbourhood expressed concern over a plan they characterized as the city trying to “fit a square peg into a round hole.”
“We need to work with [the OCP], not alter it every time the wind blows,” said Terry Mann.
The proponents of the Northern Supportive Recovery Centre want to convert the former Haldi Road elementary
school into a 30-bed residential __________________________
women’s facility. In order to do so, they require a change to property’s zoning as well as the city’s document guiding land use - the OCP, last officially upgraded in June 2012.
The subject property, 5877 Leslie Rd., is designated as Rural B under the OCP, marked for wind blows.
“moderate-intensity rural resi- ---------------------
dential use” with a minimum lot size of one per two hectares.
The amendment would “permit affordable housing and/or special needs housing, at densities council considers appropriate, in all the residential area including rural areas.”
While the potential changes to the text of the OCP help make the application a better fit in the city “it doesn’t change the fact Haldi residents have spoken up... and don’t want a women’s treatment centre in their neighbourhood,” said Debora Munoz.
According to members of the Haldi Road Committee, the group of residents who oppose the application, 71 per cent of the neighbourhood is opposed to the proposal.
The group also brought forward a 1997 subdivision proposal for the area that didn’t meet the approval of the city’s planning department due to servicing difficulties and the change to the character of the neighbourhood.
“It’s interesting how planning departments decision can go from one extreme to the other,” said Tracy Kettles.
Area resident Peter Goudal spoke up in support of the plan, offering that the amendment would provide those with a requirement for special needs housing a choice to not live in the bowl area of Prince George.
Presenters expressed dismay over a five-minute time limit set out at the beginning of the public hearing by Mayor Shari Green. Once everyone had a chance to speak once, the floor was opened up again for those who required more time to finish their presentations and take questions from council.
For council’s decision, go to www.pgcitizen.ca.
Terry Mann
I
Minister falls on sword amid deepening Liberal scandal PAGES 6, 7
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