Inside
◆ Opinion poll results P. 2 ◆ Fort singer makes the cut P. 12
◆ Bridge investigation P. 6 ◆ Logic-neutral P. 4
Publications Mail Registration No. 2300
PHONE: 996-8482 www.caledoniacourier.com
WEDNESDAY, August 8, 2012
NEWS BRIEFS ER room update Expanded locum coverage will allow the Fort St. James Emergency Room to be open for nine days during the month of August. The dates the emergency room will be open are as follows: August 9 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. August 16 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. August 22 2 p.m. to August 23 5 a.m. August 23 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. August 25 8 a.m. to August 27 5 a.m. Northern Health has secured additional coverage with a Nurse Practitioner. The Nurse Practitioner will be at the Nak’azdli Health Centre on Friday, August 10, 2012 and at the Fort St. James Medical Clinic August 17th. The Fort St. James Medical Clinic remains open. Please note the following: Hours of operation are MondayFriday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. • Closed from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Appointments can be booked by calling 250996-8291. • Only same day appointments will be booked. Prescription refills are available on Wednesday’s from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at: • The Fort St. James Medical Clinic • Lakeside Pharmacy The Stuart Lake Hospital emergency room is the only department affected by these closures. The rest of the hospital will remain open and patients will not be impacted. Lab and X-ray at Stuart Lake Hospital are still operating as normal.
VOL. 35 NO. 23 $1.34 inc. GST
Eagle perch
A juvenile bald eagle sits atop Grad Rock at Cottonwood Park last Friday morning. The eagle was taking a break from eating a dead fish on the beach, with a large number of crows and seagulls trying to help him with it. Ruth Lloyd Photo
Northern Gateway debate continues on Ruth Lloyd Caledonia Courier District takes a stand In one more case of recent bad news for Enbridge, Fort St. James mayor and council voted unanimously to take a stand against Northern Gateway. The special meeting, held Tuesday, July 31, included the results of the recent public opinion surveys from the community on the proposed pipeline. A number of community members sat waiting for the final decision and after over a half hour of proceeding business, the results were brought forward. After the results were summarized for the room, council seemed very clear in their direction, with little discussion proceeding the final vote on the motion to oppose the project. “We’ve taken a lot of delegations, a lot of presentations, we’ve tried our best to educate ourselves.
“I think we’ve done everything that we can to include the community, we’ve done surveys, opportunities for people to speak one on one with councillors,” said Councillor Riley Willick. “I would personally feel comfortable to take a position on [the project] as a district.” “I concur,” said Councillor Russ Gingrich. Willick then introduced the motion to come out in opposition to the proposed Northern Gateway Project, which Councillor Joan Burdeniuk seconded and subsequently passed unanimously. “Thank-you,” said Mayor Rob MacDougall, which was then answered from the audience by Brenda Gouglas: “No, thank you,” she said and members of the public applauded in the audience. A formal announcement will be made, and so far, the District of Fort St. James is the first municipality along the direct pipeline route to come out in public opposi-
tion to the 1,177 km twin pipeline proposed to carry diluted bitumen between northern Alberta and Kitimat, B.C.. The district will now be submitting a Letter of Comment as a Government Participant in the Enbridge Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel process to express their opposition. The district may also choose to participate in the final hearings for the joint review panel. Mayor and council had initially been concerned opposition voiced by the community did not represent a broader cross-section of the community. So they provided opportunities for proponents of the project to come forward as well. “It’s just important to get enough feedback,” said Burdeniuk. “I think we’ve done that.” She also said she was glad to see there were some responses from those in favour of the project in their survey,
which gave her confidence there was input from both sides during the survey. Councillor Dave Birdi said he felt while the project had large benefits for Canada as a whole, “the amount of money we would receive is very minimal” while the risks to the local environment are substantial. Enbridge in the news Enbridge has already been dealing with the fallout of yet another oil spill, with 1,200 barrels leaking from the company’s Line 14 pipeline in Wisconsin. The company faced some strong reprisals from U.S regualtors in response to the Wisconsin leak last week. A letter to Enbridge from Jeffrey Wiese, associate administrator for pipeline safety at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), was quoted last week in a Globe and Mail article and used strong
language admonishing Enbridge. “The history of failures on [Enbridge’s] Lakehead Pipeline system, of which the affected pipeline is part, the defects originally discovered during construction, and the 2007 failure indicate that [Enbridge’s] integrity management program may be inadequate,” he said.“The continued operation of the pipeline without corrective measures would be hazardous to life, property and the environment.” The letter was a response to a request from Enbridge to restart the line after the spill in Wisconsin took place. Permission to restart the line was denied, and instead the company was notified they would need to hire an independent agency in order to develop and implement a new safety plan for the Lakehead network, which includes 3,000 km of pipeline, of which Line 14 is part. Continued on Page 3