School’s back . . .
Pay Attention to Safety!
GRATEFUL GRAD
ICE IS BACK
Gabriel Garcia is grateful for the WEST program at NWCC.
Young hockey players happy to be in camp.
OUR TOWN /A6
SPORTS/A11 S
THE INTERIOR NEWS 105th th Year - Week 34
Smithers,, B.C.
Wednesday, y, September p 5,, 2012
www.interior-news.com
Single g Copy py • $1.34 (($1.20 $1.20 + 14¢ HST))
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Guilty as charged BBQ FUN Telkwa’s Centennial BBQ was a blast.
COMMUNITY/A9
INSIDE OUR TOWN A6 LETTERS A5 SPORTS A10 COMMUNITY A7 THREE RIVERS B1 CLASSIFIEDS B5
FEATURES TERRY FOX RUN A12
WEATHER Wednesday HIGH: 21 LOW: 9
Thursday HIGH: 25 LOW: 8
Friday HIGH: 25 LOW: 7
Saturday HIGH: 22 LOW: 7
Sunday
Susan Leuenberger guilty of fraud and theft over $5,000 By Jerome Turner Smithers/Interior News
Susan Gail Leuenberger was found guilty of theft over $5,000, fraud over $5,000, and making false entry in an accounting journal by Honourable Justice Calvin Struyk in Smithers’ B.C. Provincial Court last Tuesday. Leuenberger’s Houston-based company Pleasant Valley Accounting Services Ltd. was found to be derelict in accountant duties done for the Moricetown Band owned Kyah Industries Ltd. between 1999 and 2004. Revenue Canada seized over $90,000 in taxes from Kyah, which initially alerted the forest products company to Leuenberger’s activities. Leuenberger claimed the money from Kyah, which amounted to over $100,000 per year, were for services she provided. Pleasant Valley is currently listed as a private company with four employees having annual sales totaling nearly $272,000, according to manta, a small business website. See FRAUD on p. A2
CANYON LIGHTS UP TELKWA BBQ Canadian country recording artist George Canyon lit up the crowd at the Telkwa BBQ celebrating the village’s 100th birthday. More photos from the weekend’s festivities on p. A9. Percy N. Hébert photo
Job loss not a problem in Smithers By Percy N. Hébert Smithers/Interior News
HIGH: 22 LOW: 6 Despite a flurry of activity in the mining sector and transportation industry, employment statistics for the month of
July didn’t paint a pretty picture for northwestern B.C. However, Smithers District Chamber of Commerce Manager, Heather Gallagher, said Smithers is an exception. “Business is good in
Smithers, but employers are having trouble retaining employees,” Gallagher said. The problem she said, is the abundance of jobs in the resource sector that is luring people away. “People are leaving their jobs to go work in the high-
paying jobs in the resource sector,” Gallagher said. The Statscan report showed the unemployment rate was highest in northwestern B.C. at 11.9 per cent, followed by the Cariboo with an 8.1 per cent unemployment figure.
This time last year, the unemployment rate in northwestern B.C. was 7.7 per cent. The employment rate in northwestern B.C. took a hit, falling to 58.1 per cent from 66.4 per cent a year ago.
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see page A-16