Saturday, April 6, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916
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Book sale Friends of the Library are holding a book sale this weekend at the Bob Harkin’s Branch of the Prince George Public Library. Members of Friends of the Library were able to shop for books Friday afternoon. The sale will be open to the public Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Premier launches forest policy review for Interior
Local delegate not part of protest during Ottawa event
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Prince George’s Lila Mansour kept that saying in mind when some unexpected controversy flared up in the House of Commons this week. She was among the 338 young women from across the country who were in Ottawa as part of the Daughters of the Vote program and, on Wednesday, they were in the chamber to give speeches on issues that mattered to them. But perhaps the biggest statements were made when dozens of them turned their backs on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and walked out on Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. Mansour was not among them. “I prefer to keep the dialogue open and, if I don’t agree with someone’s point of view, I prefer to listen to them and hear their perspective and voice my opinion and be able to have a conversation with that person,” Mansour said in a telephone interview. “And so I preferred not to walk out, I preferred not to turn my back, but instead to listen.” Mansour said those who chose to turn their backs on the PM did so in protest of the decision to eject former cabinet ministers Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott out of the Liberal caucus. “It was a critical issue espe-
The provincial government is launching a “regionally-driven” process to renew the Interior’s forest industry, Premier John Horgan said Friday. Speaking at the Council of Forest Industries convention in Vancouver, Horgan said he has invited forest company executives to join labour, First Nations and communities in local coalitions to develop “positive and forward-looking visions” for their respective timber supply areas. “This will be a local process, led by those who are committed to the future of forestry in their regions, and who are willing to do the tough work to create a shared vision of a prosperous, competitive industry,” Horgan said in a news release. The groups will be part of a larger effort that will see the government bring forward updates to the Forests and Ranger Practices Act this spring meant, in part, to put a greater emphasis on highervalue products. The initiative comes after a similar process for the Coastal forest sector was completed in January, following six months of consultation with various stakeholders. Opposition Forest, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations Critic John Rustad accused the government of abdicating its responsibility to lead the way. “John Horgan has announced
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Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
HORGAN
RUSTAD
that they have basically said ‘the government is not going to provide leadership on this, we’re putting it out to the companies and it’s on you guys to try to figure out how to deal with it,” Rustad said from Vancouver. He said the process differs from that on the Coast in the sense that forest company executives there were told to “reduce log exports or we’ll do it for you.” “They had goals that they laid out and tried to force the companies to come forward with solutions,” Rustd said. “That’s not the case here. What we’re seeing here is they’ve completely voided the field.” Both sides of the legislature appear to agree that the Interior forest industry is facing tough times
due to the downfall in timber supply following the accelerated logging of beetle-killed pine, record wildfire seasons, declining lumber prices and penalties imposed on exports to the United States under the Softwood Lumber Agreement. “All of these things, of course, are creating a real challenge,” Rustad said. “Mills are taking some downtime and we’ve seen some mill closures. “And that’s going to continue into the future, unfortunately.” Rustad, the Liberal MLA for Nechako Lakes, said he and his party are in the process of developing policy platforms on the issue while also looking at ways to get help over the short-term, particularly for operators in his riding.
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MANSOUR cially for the Indigenous women who felt it was inappropriate that he removed an Indigenous minister speaking truth to power,” Mansour said. “They felt that was kind of threatening them and how they are going to speak to power.” About the same number walked out on Scheer when he addressed the delegates just prior to Trudeau. Mansour said they did so because he did not want to fund the Daughters of the Vote program, which is run by Equal Voice, an organization that advocates for equal representation of women in parliament. Each of the delegates got a chance to deliver a speech and Mansour, who is of Syrian descent, thanked the government for letting so many refugees from the war-torn country into Canada but added they still need support. — see ‘IT WAS, page 3
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