COMMUNITY: Grade 5 class sees Khutzeymateen
PROFILE: Houston Hikers put fun on the map
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2012
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Council rejects timber merger By Andrew Hudson Houston Today
News staff/Houston Today
RISING RELAY
Houston residents who joined the all-night Relay for Life fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society celebrate after hearing they had raised $67,000, well above the $50,000 goal. For more relay pictures, turn to page 18.
Houston council members, foresters and a mill worker told a touring committee of B.C. MLAs on Monday what they think of changes the province might make to forestry rules. Facing a pine beetle epidemic that may wipe out some 12,000 forestry jobs in the B.C. interior, the committee may suggest relaxing some environmental regulations and making other industry changes to lessen the blow. Most of the five Houston speakers supported some of the proposals, notably a plan to relax logging rules that protect scenic areas. Other ideas drew strong criticism. Mayor Holmberg said he is “vehemently opposed” to the idea of merging the three
“ “We’re really opposed to robbing Peter to pay Paul”
- Bill Holmberg
timber supply areas serving sawmills in Houston, Smithers, and Burns Lake. “We’re really opposed to robbing Peter to pay Paul, and that’s what we see with this thought process,” said Holmberg. John Rustad, BC Liberal MLA for Nechako-Lakes and the committee chair, said that merger idea hasn’t really been on the table so far, but added that it’s too early to say whether the committee will consider it or not. See TIMBER on Page 2
Enbridge reps visit northern B.C. as Kalamazoo reopens By Andrew Hudson Houston Today
Enbridge reps speak to Houston council clean-up of Kalamazoo River Houston councillors asked how quickly Enbridge can respond to oil spills on Tuesday after hearing a com-
pany update on the 2010 pipeline rupture that spilled more than 20,000 barrels of oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. Lorraine Little is a senior Enbridge spokesperson who is based in the eastern U.S. and saw the Kalamazoo spill firsthand.
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“It happened during a perfect storm.”
Little was touring several B.C. towns along the route of Enbridge’s proposed
- Lorraine Little Northern Gateway pipelines last week, and spoke to municipal councillors in plac-
es like Kitimat and Fort St. James. After hearing her present in Houston on Tuesday, Mayor Bill Holmberg asked, “The response time before you guys honestly felt you had a handle on the spill—how long was that?” Little said that Enbridge workers were
on the scene minutes after they realized they had a leak. “Literally, it was right down the road from them,” she said. “They were able to visually say ‘Yep, this is what happened,’ and had boom out on the river within 40 minutes.’” Councillor Rick
Lundrigan asked Little how Enbridge first learned it had a leak, and whether it has since upgraded its detection technology. “We were actually notified of the spill at our control centre— that was the morning of July 26,” Little said. See OIL on Page 2