Prince George Citizen June 18, 2019 by Prince George Citizen

Tuesday, June 18, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

Man wanted in VLA shooting arrested Citizen staff The last of three suspects from a shooting in the VLA this spring is in custody. Prince George RCMP apprehended Eric Vern West, 38, on Monday morning after police noticed a number of people passing through an 1100-block Chilako Avenue home that has been associated with the drug trade. West was among nine suspects spread over three vehicles who were arrested. RCMP then executed a search warrant on the home with the help of an emergency response team. West has been wanted in connection with an April 15 report of multiple gun shots in the 2200 block of Quince Street. On that day, RCMP came across a man in an SUV parked in an adjacent alley suffering from a gunshot wound. Kyle Devro Teegee, 31, was arrested near the scene and Joseph Karl Larsen, 26, was found two days later. Both remain in custody. Drugs and a firearm were found in the vehicle West was in on Monday and the subsequent search of the home uncovered ammunition and drug trafficking paraphernalia, RCMP said. The home is familiar to the RCMP. In May 2018, Harjinder John Singh Berar, 51, was arrested on drug and firearms related counts after a similar operation was carried out on the home, but those counts were stayed this past March. In February 2016, he was sentenced to a further 15 months in jail after he was twice caught dealing cocaine and methamphetamine from the home over a three-and-ahalf month span.

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The Prince George RCMP, with the assistance of the North District RCMP’s Emergency Response Team, searched a residence on Chilako Avenue at approximately 10:30 a.m. on Monday. The search warrant was part of an ongoing investigation into alleged drug trafficking at the residence.

Poll finds support for Trans Mountain in B.C. Memorial scholarship benefits pair of CNC nursing students

Nelson BENNETT Business in Vancouver Sixty per cent of British Columbians support the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, according to a new Ipsos poll commissioned by Resource Works. The poll was released Monday, one day ahead of today’s anticipated announcement by the federal cabinet on the $7.4 billion to $9.3 billion twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline. Cabinet is expected to green-light the expansion again Tuesday, about a year after it was halted by the courts. “We wanted to – prior to the decision – do what probably the federal government and provincial government and oil companies are doing, but for their own reference, which is public opinion polling,” said Stewart Muir, executive director for Resource Works. “For every one person who is against the Trans Mountain expansion, there are two British Columbian residents in favour of it.” The poll was based on a survey of 800 British Columbians, province-wide. Support for the project was higher in the north and interior of B.C., at 63 per cent. Support in Vancouver was 59 per cent and 60 per cent on Vancouver Island. More than a year ago, an Angus Reid poll put the support for the expansion in B.C. at 54 per cent. More recently, in January, another Angus Reid poll found 53 per cent of British Columbians considered lack of pipeline capacity a “crisis.” Canada-wide, it was 58 per cent. Mario Canseco, president of ResearchCo polling firm, said support for the Trans Mountain pipeline among British Columbians and Canadians in general began ticking up after the Canadian government bought the pipeline from

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A sign warning of an underground petroleum pipeline is seen on a fence at Kinder Morgan’s facility in Burnby, the terminal of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Kinder Morgan Canada, which suggests some Canadians may have changed their stance once they, as taxpayers, had skin in the game. A little over a year ago, when Kinder Morgan announced it was abandoning plans to expand the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, the Trudeau government tried to save the project by buying the existing pipeline for $4.5 billion, about $1 billion of which was for work that had already been done on the expansion, before it was halted by the BC Court of Appeal last year. “Suddenly, when you’re an owner, you look at it differently,” Canseco said. He also thinks an advertising cam-

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paign by the Jason Kenney government in Alberta tying high gasoline prices in B.C. to pipeline constraints may have had some impact. Since the beginning of June, the Alberta government has blanketed B.C. with billboards, social media ads and advertising in mainstream media linking high gas prices in B.C. to Premier John Horgan’s “obstructing” the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. “Once you get those reminders consistently, there’s a chance that that could move anywhere from five per cent to 10 per cent of residents to say, ‘yes, this is the problem,’” Canseco said. — see related story, page 5

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Tuition for two semesters will not be a worry for two CNC nursing students named the recipients of the Dillon Adey Memorial 10th Anniversary Scholarship. This special award, valued at $7,000 each, was created to commemorate the positive influence and support that the Dillon Adey Memorial Endowment and annual golf tournament has brought to CNC, its students and the community in the decade since Dillon’s passing. Wanting to do something special for the 10year anniversary, Perry and Cindy Adey proposed a $10,000 scholarship in memory of their son that would substantially impact the life of one student. When reviewing the applicants, however, the Adey family came to a deadlock between CNC nursing students Shaudee Lavoie and Lisa Blackley. “Both students had stories that touched our family,” Perry said. “We really couldn’t choose. Since Dillon’s favourite number was 14, we decided to increase the amount to $14,000 and give two scholarships worth $7,000 each.” Blackley, who is in the first year of CNC’s practical nursing program, said she was in shock when she learned she was chosen to receive the award. A mother of two, she said the money will ease the financial stress of living on her husband’s income alone while she attends school full time. “I’m very honoured to receive this generous award,” Blackley said. “Words cannot express my gratitude. It’s life changing, really.” Lavoie, like Blackley, is a mother who had her household drop to single income when she went back to school fulltime. — see ‘I’M BEYOND, page 3

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