Tuesday, April 9, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
First in line Doug and Jeanne Henning were first in line for tickets for the Fred Page Cup finals that will see the Prince George Spruce Kings play the Vernon Vipers. The pair lined up at 7:30 a.m. Monday morning, 2.5 hours before the Spruce Kings Box Office opened. There were about 200 people lined up for tickets prior to opening.
Council split decision on pot shops
Horgan vows to put B.C. timber to work Derrick PENNER Vancouver Sun Premier John Horgan promised that the province will build a major modernization of the Royal B.C. Museum using mass-timber components as a first step to kickstart demand for made-in-B.C., value added products. Horgan, speaking at the Council of Forest Industries convention in Vancouver on Friday, offered the measure as an incentive for the industry’s co-operation in a process to revitalize the province’s Interior forest sector, which is grappling with the challenge of shrinking timber supplies due to wildfires and the mountain pine beetle infestation. And it won’t just be the museum revitalization. Horgan said a new $1.9-billion St. Paul’s Hospital will use timber wherever it can. As for his government’s $20-billion capital plan, “to the greatest extent possible, mass timber will be the foundation of that construction.” “Announcing that the Royal B.C. Museum upgrade will be done with mass timber is transformative for the institution and also for the sector,” Horgan said. “Similarly, St. Paul’s and other projects will create a domestic market, and from there, we can start to market
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HORGAN to other jurisdictions.” Horgan talked about the concept as an election promise in 2017, but held it out Friday as an opportunity to an audience of some 650 industry representatives as he sought buy-in for a process to speed along a transformation of the industry from high-volume lumber production to high-value manufacturing. However, the industry is in the middle of shedding jobs by closing mills or reducing shifts to cope with those shrinking timber sup-
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plies at the same time as Horgan’s government is trying to create jobs in forestry. “If we don’t have a transformation away from the high-volume to the high-value economy, we’re going to be struggling,” Horgan said. “And this is not a surprise to anyone, nor did it just arrive on my watch. But as we deal with that downturn, we need to also deal with the approach. “And that’s where I’m asking the industry to be innovative,” Horgan said, calling for companies, First Nations, community leaders and unions to take part in consultation talks. The process won’t replace existing consultations with First Nations or timber-allocation discussion, Horgan said. The idea is for people in B.C.’s Interior to come up with a common vision for revitalizing forestry. “If I announce, as often happens at these COFI conventions, ‘This is the government’s view,’ there would be 100 people calling in to question the value of those incentives or restrictions,” Horgan said. “If I ask the people that are dependent on the industry to sit down and come up with a common position, we’re going to get better outcomes.” — see ‘HOW DO, page 3
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Two proposals to open privately-run cannabis retail stores in the city’s downtown met decidedly different fates at a city council meeting on Monday night. Council voted 7-1 to deny a proposal to open a store at 1289 Third Ave. – the old Plateau Clothing store – after learning it would be located across from a school that caters to vulnerable youth. Intersect Youth and Family Services at 1294 Third Ave is currently home to 32 students, ages 13-18 years old who, because of mental health challenges, are unable to attend mainstream school. That they would look at a cannabis store every time they walked outside was a point repeatedly driven home by a handful of Intersect representatives during a hearing on the matter. “Our youth that access our school should be afforded the same precautionary measures and even higher diligence due to their existing mental health and substance use challenges; and barriers to access the mainstream school systems,” Intersect executive director Shannon Croy said in a letter expressing opposition. It was enough to convince most council members to vote
against granting the proponent, Nasser Kamani, temporary use permit. Having a cannabis store across the street from such a school is “really leading to temptation,” Coun. Cori Ramsay said. Coun. Terri McConnachie was the sole councillor to vote in favour. She argued that the target market is adults 19 years and up and that safeguards are in place to prevent sales to minors. Backers of a proposal to open a store at 421 George St. were more successful as council members voted unanimously in favour of granting Grasshopper Retail Inc. a temporary use permit for the location. The permit will last up to three years before Grasshopper will have to either apply for an extension or to rezone the property for the use on a permanent basis. The intention is to give the city time to assess the impact of the store on the downtown. If there are problems, the city retains the power to pull the operation’s business licence and shut it down, council was told. Although 10 neighbouring business owners provided expressions of support, two expressed strong opposition to both applications. Christina Watts, who operates an arts supplies store and Philomena Hughes, who runs a photography studio, opposed the application.
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