Tuesday, September 4, 2018 | Your community newspaper since 1916
No new wildfires in P.G. area Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff
CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Hit-to-pass
Car No. 5, driven by Justin Hall, slams into the driver’s side of car No. 316, driven by Darcy Fuller, during the main event of hit-to-pass on Sunday afternoon at PGARA Motor Speedway. Fuller went on to win the event.
Labour Day celebrated at Canada Games Plaza Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca Hundreds of Prince George residents were at Canada Games Plaza to celebrate Labour Day at an event hosted by the North Central Labour Council on Monday. For the third year the local council held a parade and celebration to honour the workers in the community. Mayor Lyn Hall opened the event with a rousing speech that recognized the hard work those in the community do every day. Sharing the stage with Hall was councilors Garth Frizzell, Murry Krause, Terri McConnachie, Frank Everitt and Brian Skakun. “I want to say thank you to all the working women and men throughout our city whether they be union or non-union employees,” Hall said. “If you work in small business, big business, mom-and-pop store or are a large employer – thank you very much.” Hall went on to say thanks to the more than 700 city workers and the 1,500 School District 57 staff, while acknowledging the rest of the workers in the community. “Thank you to all the workers in the city – you build the fabric of this community and we couldn’t be prouder of what you do,” Hall said. Heard throughout the mayor’s speech was the faint call of ‘here, here’ in response to some of Hall’s
Today’s Weather Hi +13° Low 0° See page 2 for more details and short-term forecasts
CITIZEN PHOTO BY CHRISTINE HINZMANN
Mayor Lyn Hall offers a few words of gratitude to those who live and work in Prince George during the North Central Labour Council Labour Day celebration held Monday at Canada Games Plaza. Joining him on stage were councilors Garth Frizzell, Murry Krause and Terri McConnachie, along with Matt Baker, chair of the organizing committee of the event, Coun. Frank Everitt, Don Iwaskow of the North Central Labour Council and Coun. Brian Skakun. talking points. “What’s really encouraging for me is that they do a Labour Day parade here,” Aaron Ekman, secretary-treasurer of the B.C. Federation of Labour and resident of Prince George, said. He said they don’t even do that in Vancouver. “The labour council has done a wonderful job organizing the
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event and the community comes out to support it,” Ekman added. “It’s important to remember the interior is really the lifeblood of the economy of the province.” The event saw unions hosting information booths throughout the Canada Games Plaza with free hot dogs and treats being offered to those in attendance. There was face painting and a
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bouncy castle with slide set up for the children. “This is an opportunity for all unions to come together – for all labour to come together – and celebrate our achievements from throughout the year and give back a little bit to the community,” said Don Iwaskow of the North Central Labour Council. “It’s been a great day.”
Curriculum changes coming
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NEWS 5
As of Sunday at about noon there were no new forest fires to report in the Prince George Fire Centre, according to Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, who met with media in the city. “There are approximately 500 fires still burning across B.C. and 18 of those are fires of note, which is considerably less than a week ago,” he said. “The fires across the northwest centre and the Prince George centre are looking better. We’ve had a bit of rain and rain doesn’t put fires out – it’s the crews on the ground that actually put the fires out – but rain helps because it allows them to take a more aggressive attack on fires.” Donaldson said they haven’t turned a corner yet but some of the major fires of concern are definitely more under control at this time and as most evacuation orders are not rescinded, evacuation orders have shrunk. “The Shovel Lake wildfire is contained at this point and fire lines held up against a big wind on Friday,” Donaldson said. “Wind is often not a friend to fire crews – it was up to 70 km/h on Friday – but the line held.” They are looking at shrinking the evacuation orders in that area, he added. The cause of the Shovel Lake wildfire is still under investigation, but it was not caused by lightning. “We will be continuing our investigation on how that fire got started,” Donaldson said. “There are still some major concerns around the fires south of Burns Lake, especially the Verdun fire.” There are between 300 and 400 people in the fire crew that is currently battling that blaze. Although there’s been some precipitation in other parts of the province there still hasn’t been any in that area, he added. “So that makes it more difficult for our crews to reinforce containment lines,” Donaldson said. “So far structural damage has been limited and we’re very happy about how our people have been able to get containment on that fire. With the big winds on Friday the fire is burning into some areas that had a lot of mountain pine beetle kill – very dry wood – steep slopes, places where it hadn’t been logged and so those kinds of conditions present challenges but overall with the cooler temperatures the fire behaviour becomes less aggressive.” — see ‘PEOPLE STILL, page 3
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