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It is incredibly incongruous that just three days after the College of New Caledonia board made the agonizing decision to student intakes for the dental assistant and dental hygiene programs and suspend the Aboriginal Early Childhood Education on-line program that Victoria gives the college $330,496. The money won’t help the dental program. Instead it is going to fund 64 trade seats to reduce wait times for students entering an “in-demand” trade profession. Apparently dental hygienists and...

Last week we were critical of Cariboo-Prince George Conservative candidate Todd Doherty for attending meetings that should be for elected officials only. And we stand by those comments. However, it shouldn’t have only been the Prince George Free Press that pointed the finger at Doherty and said “that is wrong.” Where are the New Democrats and the Liberals? Give Doherty and the Conservatives credit for understanding that they need to have a candidate in place long before the writ is dropped...

Prince George-Peace River MP Bob Zimmer met with members of the Prince George Legion, city council and Mayor Lyn Hall recently. The city has backed the Legion’s call for Ottawa to re-open the Veteran’s Affairs office in Prince George and, obviously, they had things to discuss. The meeting itself isn’t out of the ordinary … in fact it’s good that they are meeting. Hopefully a solution can be found. However, tagging along at the meeting was Todd Doherty. Doherty is the Conservative candidate...

It is truly a shame that the inquest into the deaths of Glenn Roche and Alan Little has gone so far off the rails. As Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe pointed out Wednesday, inquests are not trials. They are supposed to be adversarial. They are about the “public need for ascertaining the facts.” She also pointed out that participants testifying at an inquest are protected. In other words, what they say at an inquest cannot be used against them somewhere else. It’s a key part of the process....

It was quite astounding to hear that the Prince George fire department had been after Lakeland Mills to develop a fire safety plan as far back as 2006. The mill simply ignored the repeated violation pegged in successive fire inspections. While that may seem astounding, even more incredulous was the revelation that no major industrial operation in the city has a fire safety plan, even though they are mandated by legislation. Companies big and small simply ignore the fact that they need a...

When the Babine Forest Products mill in Burns Lake exploded and burned in January of 2012, no one seemed to know how much of an explosive hazard the fine dust from beetle-killed timber posed. When the Lakeland Mills sawmill in Prince George exploded and burned three months later, we were becoming aware that it was a hazard but nothing really had changed. During the inquest into the deaths of Glenn Roche and Alan Little, it has been referred to as an “emerging hazard.” It is clear no one,...

  Happy birthday Prince George. The venerable old city turns 100 years old today. There is no doubt, like anything that survives 100 years, there are some stories to be told after being around for a century. The city can’t actually talk, but those of us who live here can certainly tell the stories of the city … and we have been for 100 years. Some of the stories are written down (in the newspaper industry we often like to joke that we write history as it happens), some of the stories...

For those who thought unions played too much of a role in last fall’s municipal elections, here’s some food for thought or, perhaps, fodder for the cannon. There is no doubt that unions, particularly the Canadian Union of Public Employees, were more active than usual in the election. How active? According to documents released by Elections BC, unions contributed $45,859 towards the 24 city council and two mayoralty candidates. That sounds like a lot. But before you start tamping down the...

It’s hard to believe that just two weeks ago we were worried that there wouldn’t be enough snow for the 2015 Canada Winter Games. My how things have changed. When the Lheidli T’enneh unveiled its downtown pavilion last week, they had been busy the day before shoveling snow off the roof. Without a doubt, there is enough of a snowpack now that the skiing events for the 2015 Canada Winter Games will have enough snow. The only question mark is the speed skating, slated to take place on t...

BAT and BAP. If you’re around resource industries these days, you’ve probably heard those terms a lot. The acronyms stand for “best available technology” and “best available practices.” In the wake of an independent engineer’s report into the failure of the Mount Polley tailings pond last summer, BAT and BAP are being batted around with great abandon. Mines Minister Bill Bennett said that “government will act immediately on key recommendations” contained in the engineer’s report. The...