Not all proportional representation systems are made equal EDITORIAL 4
Friday, October 26, 2018 | Your community newspaper since nce 1916
Rotating strike targets Canfor’s P.G. Sawmill Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca Canfor’s Prince George Sawmill and chip plant were targeted Thursday as the union representing Northern B.C.’s sawmill workers continued a campaign of rotating strikes. The move came the same day Canfor said their earnings for the third-quarter doubled from the year before despite lower lumber prices. The company’s net profit stood at $125.3 million for the quarter, raising the year-todate total to $407.3 million. On Monday, West Fraser said its earnings for the quarter were $238 million, pushing its year-to-date total to $781 million. However, both figures are down from the previous quarter, when Canfor took in $169.8 million and West Fraser $346 million. As of Monday, the price of top-quality two-by-fours at the Prince George Inland Container Terminal stood at US$356 per thousand board feet, down from US$446 at the same point last year, according to Madison’s Lumber Reporter. “We’ve known all along the employers have been doing quite well this last while and we’re cognizance of the fact that lumber has slid down somewhat from where it was but we’re just hoping we can get a fair agreement that the membership can accept,” United Steelworkers Local 1-2017 business agent Brian O’Rourke said. Members of United Steelworkers Local 1-2017, which represents 13 sawmills across Northern B.C., have been in a legal strike position since Oct. 6. Ten days later, Tolko’s Lakeview Lumber in Williams Lake was the scene of the first of a series of rotating strikes.
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
United Steel Workers were on strike at Canfor’s Prince George Sawmill on Thursday. Negotiations between the local and the employers’ bargaining agent, the Council on Northern Interior Forest Employment Relations (CONIFER), have been at a standstill since mediated talks broke off at the start of this month. O’Rourke said the focus now is on the southern Interior where sawmill workers in that region are conducting votes on whether to give their bargaining committee a strike mandate and the results should be out by Friday. He said they’re scheduled to be back at
the table with the Interior Forest Labour Relations Association, the employer’s bargaining agent for 16 sawmills in that region, on Tuesday. Three CONIFER members sit on the IFLRA bargaining committee, O’Rourke added. “We’ll see how things go down there and if things go sideways, then we’ll be back here at the table, I would have to presume,” he said. CONIFER has offered a five-year contract with two-per-cent wage increases in each of
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Crews pave Winnipeg Street at Carney Street on Wednesday morning. Winnipeg Street has been closed for several weeks as crews repair a leaking pipe that caused a sink hole.
Sinkhole repair nearly done Citizen staff The Winnipeg Street sinkhole saga is about to come to an end. Paving of the site is underway and the street should be completely reopened to traffic by next week, city hall said Thursday. Pedestrian traffic on the east side of Winnipeg Street could be delayed for a few days longer as crews also have to pour new concrete to form sidewalks,” the city said.
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“Residents are encouraged continue to stay vigilant and follow construction signs in the area as some operations, such as cleanup, will be still be occurring in the coming days.” Last month, crews installed a nine metre by 4.8 metre concrete chamber to replace a failed section of pipe, which caused several sinkholes at the location over the past few years. That project followed an extensive operation to remove ground-
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water from around the pipe that involved installing dams and three high capacity pumps to drain water from the site. Following a large rainstorm this spring, crews discovered eight metres of pipe had completely deteriorated. The city believes the deterioration was caused by turbulence from the discharge of storm water from the Carney Street storm sewer that enters the pipe at the location of the failed pipe.
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Mass murderer granted full parole A 100 Mile House man who murdered four people as a teenager and left his two-month-old niece in a room with her dead mother has been granted full parole. James Ruscitti is serving a life sentence for the 1996 executionstyle slayings of his adoptive parents, his brother’s 17-yearold girlfriend and a boarder who lived in their home near 100 Mile House. Ruscitti was 15 and a drug user when he and a 14-yearold accomplice committed the crime, though the Parole Board of Canada has said he was sober when he shot the victims, leaving the baby near death. The board says in its written decision granting Ruscitti full parole that it is concerned the 37-year-old man is still unclear about what motivated him to kill four people, though it is satisfied he’s struggling to understand his actions. Ruscitti is considered a moderate risk to reoffend, but the board says the positive aspects
of his life include a full-time job as an electrician and plans to live with his girlfriend and her daughter in their townhouse on Vancouver Island. His parole comes with several conditions, including that he not consume alcohol or non-prescribed drugs nor have any contact with the victims or anyone in their families, and immediately report all relationships and friendships with females to his parole supervisor. In its written decision dated Oct. 4, the board says a psychiatric assessment from 1996 prepared for trial indicated the offence was directly linked to Ruscitti’s strong antisocial and narcissistic personality. However, the board says Ruscitti has remained compliant with conditions of his release and respectful to his parole supervisors in the three years since he was granted day parole. He completed communitybased programming while he was on day parole, but the board also outlined some issues of concern. — see ‘YOU DENIED, page 3
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those years. CONIFER and USW Local 1-2017 negotiating on behalf of 13 sawmills that employ roughly 1,600 workers: Canfor’s PG Sawmill and Isle Pierre operations as well as its sawmills in Houston and Fort St. Joh; Lakeland Mills in Prince George; Dunkley Lumber Ltd. south of Hixon; Conifex’s mills in Fort St. James and Mackenzie; Babine Forest Products in Burns Lake; Tolko’s Lakeview Lumber and Soda Creek mills in Williams Lake and Quest Wood in Quesnel; and West Fraser’s Williams Lake Planer.
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