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by industry, he had no problem drawing cheers when talking about opportunities for young people to get involved in the trades. He noted that completion rates in apprenticeship programs in B.C. were about 35 per cent, compared to more than 70 per cent in Alberta. The previous month, Dix also discussed skills training while giving a keynote address on forestry during the Council of Forest Industries luncheon. On Tuesday, he talked about mining. “I think it is wrong when communities who contribute so much get no access to jobs in new mines and that is our responsibility together to make sure that that happens,” he said. “I think it’s wrong in British Columbia that a government campaigns on jobs but cuts the staff required to process mining permits and that has to change B.C. That’s why
Although the Independent Investigation Office (IIO) has cleared the RCMP of an criminality in the case of the Greg Matters shooting, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP will file a complaint against the police. Tracey Matters, Greg’s sister, said she was disappointed in the outcome of the investigation, but she understands the mandate of the IIO is limited, and she’s grateful the file has been moved to the complaints commission. “There are some key issues for us,” Matters said during a telephone press conference Wednesday. “That is the urgent and aggressive deployment of an emergency response team to a simple domestic dispute. “We are very shocked and still bewildered about why an emergency response team armed with machine guns was deployed, and we still don’t have answers about why that happened. That’s a huge question and still remains unanswered.” She said she doesn’t believe Greg was an imminent threat, adding the emergency response team is supposed to be able to remove difficult people in a safe manner. In his 16-page report on the shooting, Chief Civilian Director of the IIO Richard Rosenthal said four North District Emergency Response team members sought to arrest Matters a following a 30-hour standoff at his Pineview home last September. The report details events over the 30-hour period, which culminated in his death … including a dispute with his brother, repeated calls to 911 by Greg Matters, several phone conversations Matters had with police, how the Emergency Response Team members confronted Matters, and the decision by one of the Emergency Response Team members to use lethal force to stop Matters.
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A listair McINNIS/ Fre e Pre s s
NDP leader Adrian Dix gives a speech during a rally for the B.C. political party on Tuesday evening at the Civic Centre.
Dix campaign stops in P.G. ALISTAIR MCINNIS sports@pgfreepress.com
For NDP leader Adrian Dix, Tuesday evening marked an opportunity to shine. Greeted with an applause in front of a room packed with NDP supporters, the mood was much different than the previous evening, when he took on other provincial party leaders in a televised debate. Dix faced no opposition in front of a couple of hundred people at the NDP rally at the Civic Centre. Winning the crowd’s support on this night was easy. Before Dix entered the room, introductions were made by the two NDP candidates of the region, Bobby Deepak of Prince George-Mackenzie and Sherry Ogasawara of Prince George-Valemount. They kept their speeches short, sticking with the NDP’s mandate of making change for the better, one practi-
cal step at a time. But when it became Dix’s turn to speak, he wasted no time taking shots at the Liberal government and its leader Christy Clark. “The premier said they were keeping taxes down. They raised taxes. The premier said they’d balance the budget. They haven’t. Five deficit budgets in a row.” Dix also mentioned how Clark said the Liberals offered a plan to control government spending. He said Clark has raised the debt faster than any other premier in B.C.’s history. He even poked fun at how they were spending money. “Four years when they said they were running on a jobs plan, and only created jobs for people in Liberal advertising companies.” The NDP have stressed the party’s plan to invest more in skills training. Speaking to residents in a region driven
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