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Volume 57 No. 33
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Sentinel
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Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
1.34 INCLUDES TAX
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Mayor awarded Queen’s Jubilee medal Sean Glanville Kitimat mayor Joanne Monaghan was presented with the Diamond Jubilee Medal for Kitimat at Tuesday’s Council meeting. The medal marks the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the throne, and to celebrate the Queen’s dedication and service to Canada throughout the Diamond Jubilee year. Monaghan was one of many Canadians bestowed the honour of the prestigious award in recognition of dedicating her life to the service of Kitimat over the 35 years. “It was a big surprise; I was very honoured, these don’t come easy,” said Monaghan. Upon Monaghan’s arrival in Kitimat in the 1970s the town was still very much in its infancy stages after the development of Alcan in the 1950s put the town on the map. She has since dedicated her past 40 years to helping others and improving lives throughout the community. “I always believed in help-
ing others. When I came here 40 years ago it was a relatively new community so there was a lot of things that could be done so I just wanted to make a better community for people.” Some of Monaghan’s accomplishments include being mayor since 2008 and service on Council for 35 years. She was the first woman to serve as President of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) for two consecutive terms (1994-1996) and during her tenure with the organization was responsible for the ground breaking Provincial legislation that recognizes municipalities as the third order of government. “When I was president of the UBCM I looked at the constitution and municipalities were listed between saloons and asylums and because they were in that position they couldn’t get any funding from the government,” noted Monaghan. “I said I’m gonna get that changed and they said you never
will since it’s in the constitution. The last day I was president after my second year I got the premier and the deputy premier to sign that we were now in third order of government and able to get funding.” During parliament when our Prime Minister mentions third order of government, we can credit that to mayor Monaghan’s hard work. Monaghan is the only person to serve as president on all municipal elected official organizations at the local, provincial, and federal level including the Northern Central Local Government Association, UBCM, and Federation of Canadian Municipalities. She also spent eight years as a board member for the BC Heritage Trust and five years on the Northwest Community College board. Monaghan’s passion for politics began from simply attending council meetings when her ex-husband Paul Monaghan was mayor of Kitimat. Continued on Page 2
Kitimat Mayor Joanne Monaghan shows off her medallion and certificate she was awarded recently as the recipient of the Diamond Jubilee Medal. Sean Glanville
Chinese delegation visits District set to decide on fate of Cain The District of Kitimat hosted Chinese dignitaries last week including her excellency LIU Fei, Consul-General with ambassadorial rank of the People’s Republic of China in Vancouver. Her and some colleagues were in town to get a first hand look at perspective economic development opportunities in the region. “Her excellency LIU Fei and her entourage were here to look for what’s available for investment with China,” said Kitimat mayor Joanne Monaghan. “The purpose of the trip was to be more acquainted with what Kitimat had to offer in terms of investor development; she was very interested in possibility for the economic development industries to invest money.” The Pacific-Rim partnership between Canada and China has never been more crucial as China look to procure resources such as Liquified Natural Gas.
China named LIU Fei its new Consul-General for Vancouver this past November replacing Liang Shugen. LIU Fei, 55, is a former Chinese ambassador to the Pacific nation of Micronesia and was China’s first consul-general to Brisbane, Australia. The main function of the Chinese Consulate General in Vancouver is maintaining and accelerating the trade relationship between China and the British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. Their goal is that bilateral trade between China and Canada and economic cooperation will continue to grow in the future. Under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Commerce of China, they provide trade/investment policy updates and business information for governments, Non-governmental organizations, companies and individuals of the both sides.
Sean Glanville A rally is scheduled Friday evening in front of the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine (RDKS) offices in Terrace just prior to their 6:45pm meeting to help save German Shepherd Cain. The meeting will discuss the fate of Cain, who this past April was seized from his owners by RDKS dog control for aggressive behaviour and taken to the Thornhill Animal Shelter where he has since been placed in a kennel until he awaits his day in court. With Cain’s court date tentatively set for December, he is looking at eight months inside a kennel, and his owners and the Kitimat Humane Society feel the dog’s living conditions are inhumane. Activists are fighting for Cain to be transferred from the Thornhill shelter to the Kitimat
Animal Shelter where he will receive an upgrade in care and quality of life. “We are rallying people in support to sign a petition to get the dog released into a better care facility. We just want to take care of him and give him everything required to keep him healthy and stop him from going kennel crazy until he has his day in court.,” says Kitimat Humane Society manager Mary Ann Oullette. “We have vaster programs, we have dog handlers, the dogs are not locked down into kennels for more than eight hours if that, and this is seven days a week.” Oullette mentions that the Thornhill shelter does the best they can with what resources they have but there are certain things they can’t offer the animals. “They don’t have a volunteer base, the dogs only go for
walks with the animal handler if they have time, and they give them toys in the kennel but if he’s locked down every day from 5pm until 8am the next morning that’s 16 hours a day Monday to Friday.” Oullette also adds that on weekends it’s even worse because people only come in long enough to clean and feed so animals are locked up more than 16 hours. Murray Daly. RDKS Bylaw Enforcement Officer, feels the animal is being treated properly at Thornhill Animal Shelter and there is no reason to transfer him to Kitimat. “The dogs not being treated inhumanely, it’s housed, it’s fed, it’s provided all the necessities of life including human interaction and by no means is it being treated poorly,” said Daly. Continued on Page 3
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