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Thursday, October 18, 2018 | Your community newspaper since ince 1916

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Magic carpet ride Harold Spensley works on installing the ‘magic carpet’ ( a conveyer that takes beginner skiers up the hill) in the Nechako Rotary learning centre at Hart Highlands Ski Hill Wednesday.

Pot smokers celebrate legalization Surgical tower still on

Health Minister’s radar

Armina LIGAYA Citizen news service TORONTO — Cannabis was “flying off the shelves” in retail outlets and online stores across the country as Canadians looked to make their first-ever legal purchase of recreational pot and participate in the historic cultural moment. Less than 24 hours after Canada became one of the few countries around the world to legalize cannabis for adult use, some private retailers were either sold out of supply or were tending to long lineups and expected to run out by the end of the day. Newfoundland and Labrador cannabis retailer Thomas Clarke said he sold out of his cannabis supply late in the afternoon on Wednesday, and he doesn’t anticipate receiving more products until next week. He opened his store, Thomas H. Clarke’s Distribution, at midnight in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s, N.L., but was turning away customers by the afternoon. “Most of my friends and people who were gonna come today were going to come after work and now I gotta let down thousands of people, which is really bad for business and for my nerves,” said Clarke. He said he sold out of the 100 prerolled joint packages 30 minutes after midnight. Canopy Growth Inc. and Aurora Cannabis were the only two suppliers in the province with products available for the first day of sales, he added.

Today’s Weather Hi +9° Low 0° See page 2 for more details and short-term forecasts

LOCAL HOROSCOPE OPINION SCIENCE NEWS SPORTS A&E

Mark NIELSEN Citizen news mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

CP PHOTO

Anne Genovy smokes marijuana while celebrating the legalization of recreational cannabis in Vancouver on Wednesday. Wednesday marked the opening of what’s expected to be a massive market for legal sales in Canada – as much as $4 billion in the first year, according to a report from consultancy Deloitte. Still, Canadian investors were less enthusiastic than consumers, as many of the industry’s biggest players saw their stock prices fall on Wednesday. Canadians eager to make their first

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COMICS CROSSWORD MONEY WORKLIFE HEALTHIER YOU CLASSIFIEDS

legal purchase of recreational cannabis were met with long lineups at retail stores, technical glitches online and a relatively limited product selection. Jimmy’s Cannabis in Martensville, Sask., had a lineup of more than 100 people at one point and had processed more than 200 orders by mid-afternoon, said co-owner David Thomas. — see ‘IF DEMAND, page 3

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Killer Paul Bernardo denied bail

www.pgcitizen.ca

NEWS 8

Amid a small flurry of health-related announcements for northern B.C., the quest to bring a new surgical tower to the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia has not been forgotten, according to B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix. “Quite the contrary,” Dix said this week after he was in Fort St. James to announce a new Stuart Lake Hospital has been advanced to the business plan stage and in Quesnel to unveil a new urgent primary care centre. Any concern the Fort St. James project has jumped the queue is unfounded, he said. According to a Ministry of Health press release, discussions regarding replacement of the hospital date back to 2008. In September 2015, Northern Health submitted a concept plan for the project to Victoria and a revised version was submitted this summer and approved this month, moving the project to the business plan stage. That process will take 12 to 18 months with procurement and construction to follow. In contrast, he noted the previous government gave Northern Health the go-ahead to proceed with a concept plan for improved and expanded surgical services at UNHBC in April 2017, just before the provincial election. As envisioned at the time, the centrepiece is to be a six-storey building with advanced surgical suites. Concept planning work was also to be pursued for both mental health and cardiac services. — see ‘PART OF WHAT, page 3

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