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Saturday, March 30, 2019 | Your communityy newspaper newspaper ssince ince 11916 916

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Slick move Prince George Spruce Kings forward Nick Bochen sneaks the puck past the outstretched stick of Victoria Grizzlies defender Jordan Guiney on Friday night at Rolling MIx Concrete Arena. The Spruce Kings won 4-2. For full coverage, see page 9.

Van driver found at fault in collision with cyclist Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett spoke at UNBC Friday morning about the federal governments budget with regards to clean energy.

Feds showcase electric vehicle plan Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff Federal cabinet member Carolyn Bennett played up her government’s plan to put more zero-emission vehicles on the road when she was in Prince George on Friday. She outlined a two-pronged strategy beginning with a rebate of up to $5,000 to purchase a vehicle powered by an electric battery or hydrogen fuel cell and with a price up to $45,000. A total of $300 million over three years has been committed to that program. Added to that, businesses who buy them will be eligible for a full write off on their capital cost allowance in the year of purchase, compared to 30 per cent per year allowed for gas-fueled vehicles. And the limit will be $55,000 plus sales tax, up from $30,000. “This can become a hugely, hugely important incentive for fleets to change over to zero-emission vehicles,” Bennett said during a media event at UNBC. In answer to a concern the $45,000 cap will limit the choice of vehicles people can purchase

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and still get the incentive, Bennett said those looking at pricier vehicles, “probably don’t need the rebate to make that choice.” However, she said it’s possible the made-in-Canada Chrysler Pacifica minivan could be included at a future date. The incentive was included in the federal budget released earlier this month, as was a $130-million commitment over five years to establish more charging stations across the country. It comes on top of $182.5 million committed to that cause in previous budgets. “We want to make it easier for Canadians to make greener choices by making it more convenient to use electric vehicles,” Bennett said, speaking from a podium placed between two electric-powered vehicles and in front of one of the two charging stations on the UNBC campus. Suzanne Goldberg of ChargePoint, who also attended the event, said a target for the number of charging stations the $130 million should deliver has not yet been set but the previous com-

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mitment of $182.5 million was to support about 900 of them. The aim is to have all vehicles sold in Canada being zeroemission by 2040. In the lead up, gas-free vehicles would make up 10 per cent of market by 2025, and 30 per cent by 2030 under the strategy. The transportation sector accounts for 25 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions and three-quarter of that come from trucks, cars and commercial vehicles, Bennett said. On the controversy over former Justice Minister Jody WilsonRaybould’s claim she was unduly pressured to intervene in the criminal case of SNC-Lavalin, Bennett maintained it came down to a difference of opinion over two legal options. “We’re sorry that she felt that she needed to resign from cabinet, it was an important voice at that table but all of the Indigenous caucus members are really important to how we go forward and we need that perspective and view,” she said.

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A B.C. Supreme Court Justice has found a driver completely at fault for a collision in which a bike rider ran into the side of his van as he was backing the vehicle out of a driveway and into an alley. Counsel representing the driver, Anthony Gordon Fane, had argued an action brought by the rider, Sean Samuel Rainey, should be dismissed because he was the author of his own misfortune. At the most, the liability should be split 50-50, Fane’s counsel, David Bilkey, contended. But Justice Dev Dley found otherwise saying Fane backed up into the lane despite being unable to see if there was other traffic in the pathway. “In essence, he was blindly backing up into a roadway,” Dley said in a decision issued March 8. Recounting testimony heard during a trial spread over six days, Dley said Rainey was riding his mountain bike down the middle of a well-maintained lane with a descending grade and a gradual curve to the right on the morning of Aug. 12, 2006. Dley said a solid wooden fence ran adjacent to the lane and ended at the corner of Fane’s property, blocking the view into his driveway for anyone travelling on the path Rainey was taking. Similarly, Fane’s “view of a traveller coming down the lane would also be blocked by the same fence.” Rainey testified the collision happened in “a blink of an eye,” with the van suddenly before him. He told the court he struck the back door on the driver’s side, smashed through the window and was then flung backwards and ended up against a fence. While Rainey was generally consistent in his version of events

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Rainey testified the collision happened in “a blink of an eye,” with the van suddenly before him. while under cross examination, Dley said there were two “glaring contradictions” between the testimony he gave at trial and during an examination for discovery. The day before the collision, Rainey had been travelling back to Prince George from Saskatchewan. At trial he denied smoking marijuana because the driver’s child was with them, but at discovery Rainey said he had “smoked it all the way from Saskatchewan.” And at trial, Rainey said his hands were on the handle bars as he coasted down the lane but during discovery, he said his hands were on top of the bike’s bull horns – extensions off the ends of the handle bars. Dley accepted Rainey’s evidence from discovery – that he had been smoking and his hands were on the bull horns – over that given at trial, noting discovery took place in 2009 and so, his memory of the event would have been better at that time. More important, Dley found the contradictions did not cause him to doubt Rainey’s reliability. “Not every contradiction or difference in evidence from a discovery to trial necessarily results in the rejection of a witnesses’ testimony,” Dley wrote in his decision. “It is the significance of the contradictions within the context of the entire body of evidence that leads to the rejection, in whole or in part, of a witnesses’ testimony.” — see RAINEY, page 3

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