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Games organizers have plan to cope with warm conditions
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Canada Winter Games officials are keeping a close eye on the weather forecasts as another spate of unseasonable warmth is predicted to strike Prince George just as the Games begin.
Environment Canada is fore-
casting above zero highs starting Wednesday, climbing to 7 C on Friday before dropping back down to 2 C on Monday.
However, the overnight low is expected to drop back down to the -5 C range beginning Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
And according to the 14-day forecast from The Weather Network, overnight lows are expected to remain below zero through to at least Feb. 24, although highs slightly above-freezing are also in
the forecast further out.
Games CEO Stuart Ballantyne said there is enough snow in place for most of the competitions at the Games’ three ski venues - Tabor, Purden and Otway - while a contingency involving “shifts of time and then shifts of day” is in place for long track speed skating at the outdoor ice oval.
“If we’re coming out of a situation where it’s below zero at night, we might start a little earlier to get practice in and we’ll also look
at the days and see if we need to move a day here or there,” Ballantyne said.
Long track speed skating is scheduled entirely for the Games’ first week but actual competitions are scheduled for only four of those days.
Thursday, Feb. 19 and Friday, Feb. 20 are held in reserve in case of weather trouble earlier in the week. The highs forecast on those days are 0 C and 1 C, with lows around -5 C overnight, according
to The Weather Network.
Environment Canada will be issuing daily updates while event officials will do their own monitoring at the site.
It’s doubtful athletes will be forced to race at 4 a.m., Ballantyne said, but that’s what will happen if need be.
“If four in the morning is the only time to run it, I’d rather have the competition versus having to send the kids home without being able to compete,” Ballantyne said.
Throne speech backs off LNG predictions
Dirk MEISSNER
The Canadian Press
VICTORIA — A diverse economy will buffer British Columbia from declining oil prices that could affect investment decisions in the liquefied natural gas industry, says Premier Christy Clark.
Her comments follow Tuesday’s delivery of the Liberal government’s throne speech, which was mute on previous bold forecasts of an LNG bonanza but delivered the political agenda for the coming months.
Opposition New Democrat Leader John Horgan called it a half-hearted attempt by a government content to read a shopping list of old ideas that don’t ease the burdens of British Columbians and help them make ends meet.
“That was a half hour none of us will ever get back,” said Horgan.
The speech did not include estimates on future LNG plants, even though Clark said last month that B.C. remains on target for three such facilities by 2020.
“The price of oil will have a complex impact, some of it, I think ,good for British Columbia, in some of the proponents cases perhaps not,” she said. “But that (project) work is actively continuing behind the scenes.”
Clark said 18 LNG export-plant proposals are on the books in B.C., but no company has reached a final investment decision.
Last year, proponents for two major projects, Petronas and British Gas, said they were taking deeper looks at their plans and require more time.
Lt.-Gov Judith Guichon said LNG is still a generational opportunity that could create 100,000 jobs.
In 2011, the government’s jobs
Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon delivers the speech from the throne inside the legislature in Victoria on Tuesday.
plan forecast “one LNG pipeline and terminal in operation in Kiti-mat by 2015 and three in operation by 2020.”
Clark said in January that many energy companies interested in investing in B.C.’s LNG industry are re-examining their bottom lines as energy prices drop, but was confident about three B.C. export plants.
Guichon said the government has worked to ensure B.C. is a secure place to do business and is globally competitive.
“Global companies have already invested more than $7 billion to pursue their proposed projects, and they continue to undertake the work necessary to bring these projects to life.”
Guichon said B.C., with its growth in forestry, mining, tourism, agriculture, technology and natural gas sectors, is better protected against economic declines currently faced by oil-dependent jurisdictions.
“Today, provinces with oil-based
economies and indeed our federal government are forced to respond to the sudden fiscal impacts,” she said. “We are fortunate in B.C. that we have a diverse economy and the people, working in diverse sectors, to build our future.”
Clark said the throne speech sticks to the government’s 2011 jobs plan and chided reporters who suggested few new items were announced.
“I might have to write a letter of apology to your editor that I can’t help you come up with a news story,” she said.
B.C. will join an exclusive club this month by delivering what will likely be the only balanced budget among Canada’s provinces, Guichon said.
She did not mention possible changes to social-services payments suggested last week by Finance Minister Mike de Jong who said a larger-than-forecast budget surplus gives the government room to move on targeted initiatives.
Feds order drug makers to report shortages
Tamsyn BURGMANN
The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — A federal scheme that puts the onus of reporting drug shortages on pharmaceutical firms is being endorsed by a chorus of Canadian health professionals who say it’s a good first step towards remedying a life-or-death problem.
Health Minister Rona Ambrose announced the government is moving from an industry-run, voluntary system to regulated, mandatory reporting of medicine scarcity with the creation of an independent website and online non-compliance registry.
Companies that fail to publicly post anticipated and actual drug shortages, including discontinuation of their products, risk fines in the millions of dollars and the threat of being “named and shamed,” Ambrose told a gathering Tuesday at Vancouver General Hospital.
“We want to know exactly when they know when that’s going to happen,” said Ambrose, explaining that advance warning - six months would be ideal - will allow Health Canada to attempt to arrange substitutes.
“It’s really about timely and accurate information.”
A long lineup of health advocates support the plan, saying measures to prevent surprise drug shortfalls are essential to ensuring patients aren’t left hanging when their health depends on pharmaceuticals most.
The Canadian Medical Association lauded the move towards strengthening the notification system with a third-party website.
AMBROSE
“Persistent shortages in the supply of drugs pose a serious disruption to clinical treatment, increase medical error and put unhelpful pressure on the entire health-care system,” Dr. Chris Simpson, the association’s president, said in a release.
Recent examples of drug disruptions include shortfalls of a number of products in February 2012, where it was later revealed company executives knew of the impending issue three months earlier but took no action, said Dr. Douglas DuVal, vice-president of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society.
Another firm refused public notification when it was running out of a cancer drug, said Ambrose.
Health Canada also sent letters to drug companies that withheld timely information about shortages of nitroglycerin, which is used to treat a heart condition.
— see REPORTING, page 3
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