Issuu

Wednesday, May 22, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Return of the Kings A lucky fan gets a photo with Prince George Spruce Kings goaltender Logan Neaton on Tuesday at Prince George Civic Centre during an event to celebrate the Spruce Kings success this past hockey season. Fans were able to take photos with and get autographs from their favourite players.

Local businessman suing Yellow Pages HANDOUT PHOTO

A combined lumber, OSB and plywood mill complex and log sorting yard in Fort Nelson, pictured here before it was shut down.

No timber shortage here Nelson BENNETT Glacier Media A lack of timber will likely close more mills in B.C. in the coming years, thanks to a dwindling annual allowable cut. But one area of the province that still has an adequate timber supply is Fort Nelson, which wasn’t affected by the mountain pine beetle the way Interior pine forests were and does not have the same conservation concerns over the mountain caribou that its neighbours to the south in the Peace region have. It just hasn’t had much luck getting idled mills in the area restarted. Mike Gilbert, regional development officer for the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality, has been trying to hammer home the message to government and industry that the Fort Nelson timber supply area (TSA) has an annual allowable

Today’s Weather Hi +18° Low +7°

LOCAL HOROSCOPE OPINION NEWS MONEY

cut of 1.6 million cubic metres that has been pretty much untouched for about a decade, and which is expected to increase, following a timber supply review that’s underway. It also has rail access, a willing workforce and cheap rents. The area’s boreal forest doesn’t have a lot of pine – it’s mostly spruce and aspen – so it wasn’t affected by the mountain pine beetle the way Interior pine forests were. And the region’s caribou are mostly boreal, not mountain caribou, whose dwindling numbers have prompted the province to develop a conservation plan that could take an estimated 300,000 cubic metres out of the annual allowable cut (AAC) for the Peace region to the south. “That plan has no direct effect on our TSA,” Gilbert said.

15 2 6 7 8

SPORTS A&E COMICS CROSSWORD CLASSIFIEDS

He expects some caribou conservation measures will be instituted but does not think they will have the same impacts as those planned for the Peace region. The Fort Nelson area had a dimensional lumber sawmill, an oriented strand board (OSB) mill and a plywood mill, all of which are shut down. Only one small family-owned sawmill in the area is still operating. Canfor Corp. owned the OSB mill that shut down, and the company still owns 1.2 million cubic metres of the area’s 1.6 million cubic metres of AAC as part of two different licences. One of the licences is attached to the OSB mill that Canfor closed in 2008. That licence is up for renewal in December and could free up 600,000 cubic metres to other buyers. — see ‘WE MAY, page 3

910 1112 12 12 1316

Feds fund drug driving enforcement NEWS 7

See page 2 for more details and short-term forecasts

www.pgcitizen.ca

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca A Prince George businessman is pursuing a class-action lawsuit against Yellow Pages Ltd., claiming the company failed to distribute copies of its directory in the city. In a notice of claim filed at the Prince George courthouse, David Payne alleges that contrary to a “fundamental express term of the contract,” the company failed to distribute a printed directory in 2017 and 2018 while to date no 2019 directories have been distributed. Yellow Pages had started soliciting local businesses in late 2016, and at about that time began taking monthly payments from Payne. “Until distribution of the annual print directory occurs, the advertising purchased from Yellow Pages by local businesses and business persons will not occur or will be significantly reduced, therefore frustrating the purpose of the contractual relationship between Yellow Pages and its business customers,” lawyer Jon Duncan says in the claim filed March 22. According to the claim, Payne knows of at least two other people within Prince George who bought advertising from the company. A judge must certify the claim in order to make it a class-action lawsuit. Certification does not determine the merits of the case. Rather, it is a procedural step used to determine if the case is appropriate to be dealt with as a class-action proceeding. “The process is to get a case management judge appointed, then apply for certification,” Duncan said Tuesday. “If certification occurs, then people in the class will be given notice of the action and their rights to opt in or out.” Yellow Pages did not reply Tuesday to a request for comment and the allegation has not been tested in court. The full notice of claim is posted with this story at www.pgcitizen.ca.

Newsstand $2.00 incl. tax Home Delivered 95¢/day

58307

00200