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Tuesday, January 8, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Quick fix Cole Bendis, a welder with Stinger Welding, does some emergency repairs on one of the skid-steers used by the volunteer ice crew at the Outdoor Ice Oval. The warm temperatures have created challenges for the ice crew this season. Cooler weather is expected this week.

RCMP use ‘brutal force’ to break through blockade Rally planned for Prince George today Jennifer SALTMAN Vancouver Sun

he RCMP have breached a gate that a northern B.C. First Nation had erected to block access to a natural-gas pipeline project. Officers broke through a blockade on Morice River Forest Service Road, southwest of Houston, on Monday afternoon and arrested nine people, said protesters. One of the people arrested was Molly Wickham, spokeswoman for the Cas Yex house, which is part of the Gidimt’en clan, according to a post on the Wet’suwet’en Access Point Facebook page. The post claimed police broke through the checkpoint gate with “brutal force.” The protesters were detained at a Hous-

ton RCMP detachment. RCMP later said 14 people had been arrested. The checkpoint was one of two manned by members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation. The first, which has been in place for almost a decade, was set up by the Unist’ot’en, a house group of the Gilseyhu clan. It includes a camp and gate that obstructs the Morice West forest service road and the Morice River Bridge. The second checkpoint was put in place three weeks ago by the Gidimt’en clan, and blocked the Morice River forest service road. This is the one that was taken down Monday. The checkpoints are meant to keep workers away from the construction site for TransCanada PipeLines Ltd.’s $4.7-billion, 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline, which will deliver natural gas from Dawson Creek to a planned LNG Canada facility near Kitimat. Members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, which is made up of five clans

The checkpoints are meant to keep workers away from the construction site for TransCanada PipeLines Ltd.’s $4.7-billion, 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline. that have 13 houses, have long protested construction of pipelines through the nation’s 22,000 square kilometres of claimed traditional territory. They say such projects will jeopardize the area’s natural resources and restrict access to their territory. An injunction issued last month by a B.C. Supreme Court justice, and revised last week, prohibits anyone from physically interfering with or impeding any person or vehicle trying to access the area or carrying on pipeline business, including preconstruction and construction activities. They’re also prohibited from threatening, intimidating or getting within 10 metres of anyone actively working on the project. RCMP’s E Division said it would enforce

the injunction Monday morning. Police arrived in the area over the weekend, gathering in Houston and Smithers, the two municipalities closest to the checkpoints. On Monday, the officers convened in Houston before heading to the Gidimt’en checkpoint. In a video posted online earlier Monday, Wickham said, “We’re doing everything that we can to make sure that we’re going to be safe.” When officers arrived at the checkpoint they were told that hereditary chiefs would need to be present because barriers wouldn’t be removed without their consent. A handful of chiefs were allowed past the RCMP roadblock and taken to the checkpoint around midday. — see POLICE ACTION, page 2

Close to 20 per cent of property assessments incorrect, expert says Andrew A. DUFFY Victoria Times Colonist As many as 20 per cent of all residential property owners in the province should be appealing their property assessments, says the man who has literally written the book on the assessment appeals process. Peter Morris, a commercial real estate agent who has co-written a book entitled How to Successfully Appeal Your B.C. Assessment, said the sheer volume of properties the assessment authority has to evaluate means there are bound to be mistakes made. “It’s my belief that there are a good 20 per cent of assessments that are incorrect,” he said.

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“It’s not because B.C. Assessment is doing things wrong necessarily, but there are a lot of factors in play when it comes to assessments being incorrect.” Morris, who co-wrote the 64-page book with appraiser and former B.C. Assessment supervisor Tim Down, said the biggest factor is the number of properties on the provincial roll. The new roll, released this week by B.C. Assessment, has 2.07 million properties worth a total of more than $1.99 trillion. “There are more than two million properties assessed and not enough assessors to go and visit all two million every year so they use a computer model,” said Morris, noting that can lead to data entry errors, broad

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generalizations between properties in a neighbourhood and not taking into account subtle changes such as tree growth destroying water views. The assessment is an estimate of a property’s market value as of July 1, and physical condition as of Oct. 31. According to B.C. Assessment, changes in property assessments reflect movement in the market and can vary greatly from property to property. Assessors take into account current sales in the area as well as the size, age, quality, condition, view and location of a property. B.C. Assessment says only two per cent of property owners appeal each year. Morris believes that number would be much higher

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if people better understood the process. “They don’t understand and they have misinformation about what their assessment means,” Morris said. Morris said he was spurred to write the book after appealing his home’s assessment a few years ago and the person before him at the panel argued his assessment was too high because it didn’t take into account the lack of services he received from the municipality in which he lived. “When I heard that, it dawned on me that the average person does not know how to look at their assessment, understand what it means and how to appeal if they think it’s wrong,” he said. — see COMPLAINTS, page 3

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