Business

TransCanada has donated $250,000 towards skills training programs at the College of New Caledonia. The funding will be allocated to bursaries for trades students, region-wide safety training programs and implementation of the college’s Digital Delivery Initiative (DDI). “We are very happy with this agreement with TransCanada which will help to make education and skills training more available to to communities across the region and to low-income learners,” said Henry Reiser, CNC president,...

The Council of Forest Industries will be holding its annual convention in Prince George April 8-9. This year’s convention will attract senior industry, service provider, customer, community leader and senior government decision makers. “This year’s convention comes at a critical juncture in our history,” said James Gorman, COFI President and CEO, in a press release. “By bringing together key decision makers from industry and governments, we’ll be able to have the frank discussions we need...

The Red Chris mine north of Terrace is making the most of a temporary environmental permit and has begun both processing and shipping copper concentrate out the Port of Stewart. “The mill processed just over 193,000 tonnes in February producing approximately 2,400 tonnes of copper concentrate,” says a release on mine owner Imperial Metals’ website last week. The provincial environment ministry had granted Imperial an effluent discharge permit in early February, a three month permit expiring...

Edo Japan (Edo), a Canadian quick-service restaurant, is opening its second location and first street front location in Prince George today at College Heights Plaza. Known for its Teppan-style food, Edo has been a favourite among Canadians for more than 35 years. The new restaurant marks the 17th B.C. location, with a total of 107 locations across Canada. “We are honoured to be serving affordable, healthy and delicious meals to Prince George residents,” said Han (Ronnie) Tai and Yoon Jeong...

A sharp drop in oil prices and continued low natural gas prices have led to reduced forecasts of drilling activity in Western Canada for 2015. In Victoria, critics of the B.C. government’s push for liquefied natural gas exports have begun to claim that delayed investment decisions by LNG producers are the beginning of the end for the industry in B.C. David Keane, president of the BC LNG Alliance, has worked for major industry players and now represents an association of seven...

It started with a visit to Fraser Lake – and one to India. “There were two young mothers out there,” CNC President Henry Reiser said Tuesday morning, “who asked about access to post-secondary education.” The school was downsizing the satellite campus in Fraser Lake at the time, but Resier remembered a trip he had made earlier. “While I was in India, we had real-time conversations with Ottawa on a number of issues. The quality of the transmission was really good.” So Reiser and CNC started...

The Prince George Chamber of Commerce is teaming up with the University of Northern British Columbia to help local businesses reduce their carbon footprints. In 2014, phase one of this project focused on building awareness of carbon reduction initiatives to improve air quality within the Prince George airshed. The newly launched phase two will build on this, and shift the focus to carbon management; the process of accurately estimating and accounting for the carbon footprint of goods,...

The B.C. government has put a cork in its plan to charge a higher tax on higher-end wines. “Since we released our wholesale pricing model in November, we’ve heard concerns from the industry about the pricing structure for wines over $20 a bottle,” Justice Minister Suzanne Anton said Friday. “We are reducing the mark-up for this category – levelling out the wholesale price for wines that would have been impacted.” A major concern for wine stores and B.C....