100 Mile House
Feds cut funding for public library access
A3 MAY 23, 2012
Fastball action heating up
“Participation” focus of Horsemen Rendezvous
A25
B1 • 52 Pages • Two Sections
Rodeo weekend brings out cowboys
A22 &38 $1.34 includes HST
Chamber checking its governance information Ken Alexander Free Press
South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce president Tom Bachynski says the local business group was “taken aback by the shocking costing information to become a regional municipality” that was supplied recently by the South Cariboo Joint Committee. Noting it’s something the chamber has been working on for five or six months, he says the information coming out of the May 14 joint committee meeting is not the same as “what we have gathered” since they started researching the pros and cons of a governance change for the South Cariboo.
“We’ve kind of thrown the anchor out and said, ‘let’s go back to our sources because maybe we misunderstood this.’ We’re just waiting to meet again with the sources that gave us the information of how a regional municipality comes together, how it functions and operates to see if we’re completely off-base or if we’re on-base and maybe the information supplied was for the extension of a municipality and not the creation of a regional municipality.” Noting they share the same word - “municipality,” Bachynski says they’re completely different things. He adds the verbiage was changed a few years ago and morphed from
county government to a regional municipality, and this is what the chamber representatives based their presentation to the joint committee on. “Really our population doesn’t change; it’s just called a regional municipality.” The chamber president says they may be wrong, and if they are, they will “drop it like a hot potato.” “There is no way we were doing anything to come close to the proposed numbers of $1,500 per household for tax increases. That is not our intention. “We originally started it because it was business driven to see if we
was involved with the formation of the CaribooChilcotin Beetle Action Coalition, which was formed in 2005, from day 1. She sat as chair and vice-chair of the initial group that had foreseen the events that are happening today, so she is well aware of the situation and issues. The committee will be conducting public consultations and has been asked to deliver a report by Aug. 15. The committee’s terms of reference are to specifically consider recommendations that could increase timber supply, including direction on the potential scope of changes to land-use objectives, rate of harvest and con-
version of volume-based tenures to area-based tenures. Says Barnett: “I think it’s going to be a challenging couple of months. However, I think it’s great we’re going to go out and talk to as many people as we possibly can in the pine beetle areas, which is about three-quarters of the province in my estimation.” A 24-page confidential mid-term timber supply report, which was mistakenly made public on the Internet last month and quickly became the focus of discussion and debate by independent Cariboo North MLA Bob Simpson, analyzed four timber supply areas:
See CHAMBER… page A5
Timber supply input sought Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett is sitting on the Special Committee on Timber Supply to examine and make recommendations about mid-term timber supply in British Columbia, as a result of the mountain pine beetle infestation. Barnett says she is pleased to be on the committee because she
The Voice of the South Cariboo Since 1960 How to reach us: Ph: 250-395-2219 Fax: 250-395-3939 www.100milefreepress.net mail@100milefreepress.net
See TIMBER… page A7
Chris Nickless photo
Ride-em cowboy... Wacey Mulvahill of Williams Lake went for a rough ride and a tougher landing when he rode Poker Face, a bull with a built-in attitude for shaking off rodeo cowboys, at the South Cariboo BCRA Rodeo in 100 Mile House on May 20.