News

The United Steelworkers have launched a petition demanding Premier Christy Clark call a public inquiry into the explosions of the Babine and Lakeland sawmills. The renewed call for a public inquiry comes as a coroner’s inquest has been adjourned indefinitely after revelations that the company conducted its own forensic investigation of the Lakeland sawmill explosion and WorkSafeBC rejected the company’s attempt to share it with the agency. The Steelworkers’ legal counsel...

City council has made it clear that fixing the rift between two competing farmer’s markets in Prince George isn’t its job. However, city staff and council are forcing the matter by demanding that two markets learn to work together by next year because it wants to designate Veterans Plaza as the only downtown location for farmer’s markets. “We have two groups that can’t get along for whatever reason,” Mayor Lyn Hall said Monday. “We can’t mediate that, so don’t ask us to.” The farmer’s...

It’s been a year since the Canada Health Accord expired. Motorists travelling along Bypass near 15th Avenue were reminded of during the noon hour on Wednesday as about two HEU and BCGEU members rallied during what they called the National Day of Action for Health Care. “(The accord) has been expired for one year,” said Natalie Fletcher of the HEU. “What that means to British Columbians is about $5 billion in cuts to funding. The $36 billion (in cuts over $10 years) across Canada would...

The dental programs and counselling services at the College of New Caledonia presented their numbers to the board of governors Friday. Now the decision is whether those numbers will trump the budget numbers the board is working on. Because of the amount of feedback received on proposals to suspend student intakes on dental programs and eliminate a number of counselling positions, the board decided not to make its decision at the Friday meeting, but to postpone the vote until the April 24...

Ben Meisner has been holding politicians to account for many, many years. And that has earned him respect from those same politicians and the community. On Monday night Mayor Lyn Hall extended the city’s well-wishes to Meisner, who fell ill while vacationing in Manitoba last week. “On behalf of council I want to extend our thoughts and our prayers to Ben and Elaine,” Hall said to open Monday night’s council meeting. “Ben’s wish is that he gets back to Prince George and that is our wish as...

This photo by the Prince George Free Press’ Allan Wishart has won the Canadian Community Newspaper Association’s best news feature photo for newspapers with a circulation of more than 12,500.   The photo was shot in October as members of the Duchess Park Condors (in black) and Prince George Polars football teams took part in a moment of silence before the annual P.G. Bowl at Masich Place Stadium. The teams were honouring the memory of Tanya Cruse, who died from cancer a...

Avalanche Canada is issuing a special public avalanche warning for the North Columbia, Cariboos and North Rockies regions. This warning applies to recreational backcountry users and is in effect from March 24 to March 29. A winter of unusual weather has created a complex and unpredictable snowpack, explains Avalanche Canada Public Avalanche Warning Service Manager Karl Klassen. “Avalanches are being triggered both in the newer, surface snow and in deeper layers that formed earlier in the...

WorkSafeBC says it wants more information regarding the suggestion Wednesday that it refused investigative materials prepared by CASE Forensics regarding the April 23, 2012 explosion and fire at Lakeland Mills’ sawmill in Prince George. The inquest into the deaths of Glenn Roche and Alan Little was adjourned following the revelation. “As you may be aware, the coroner has adjourned the inquest into the deaths of Alan Little and Glenn Roche in the April 23, 2012 fire and explosion...

Cindy Oliver will have one message for the College of New Caledonia Board of Governors this afternoon. “When programs are cut,” the president of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of B.C. says, “the students end up suffering.” Oliver will be one of the presenters at a special forum called by the board to get public input on a proposal to suspend student intakes into some programs to help meet this year’s budget. The vote on the matter was supposed to be at today’s board meeting, but...