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Penguins bring North Pole to Prairiedale
Council poised to pursue community forest in 2013 Cameron Ginn Omineca Express
On Monday, Dec. 17, Prairiedale Elementary School students performed A Penguin Christmas, a holiday musical abound with song, laughter and holiday cheer.
Report into ‘phenomenon’ of missing B.C. women released Cameron Ginn Omineca Express The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry released a report on Monday, Dec. 17, examining the “phenomenon” of missing and murdered girls and women in B.C. The 1,448-page report, titled Forsaken, analyzes the circumstances related to missing or murdered girls and women - many of First Nations descent across the province. The report largely focuses on the disappearances of more than 60 women, at least 26 of whom were murdered by serial killer Robert Pickton in Vancouver, over a 20-year period. “The loss of life is staggering,” wrote Commissioner Wally Oppal, a former B.C. attorney-general who directed the public inquiry. The disappearances and murders of girls and
women along the Highway of Tears, which are the subject of an ongoing RCMP investigation called Project E-PANA, is also reviewed extensively in the report. “The number of missing and murdered girls in northern B.C. is unknown; people have been disappearing along the highway network of Highways 16, 97 and 5 for decades,” the report says. “The vast spaces between communities acutely increase women’s vulnerability to violence given the lack of public transportation, and create additional challenges to the initial search and investigation of missing persons.” Oppal recommended that an enhanced public transit system be developed “to provide a safer travel option connecting the Northern communities, particularly along Highway 16”. All five volumes of the report can be downloaded at Missingwomeninquiry.ca.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Vanderhoof is one of the few communities in northern B.C. without its own supply of harvestable timber, says Mayor Gerry Thiessen. For more than a decade, Vanderhoof council has been pursuing a community forest, a designated area that "can provide long term opportunities for achieving a range of community objectives, values and priorities which can include the harvesting of timber as well as non-timber forest products," according to the Ministry of Lands, Forests and Natural Resource Operations. Discussions between council and ministry officials have intensified in the past 12 months, but there is currently no application for a community forest in Vanderhoof. As the district looks to take on a more direct role in managing its forestry, Thiessen said the process needs to be looked at objectively while also "ensuring that we have a fiber supply that will encourage business in the Vanderhoof area." A community forest would benefit Vanderhoof economically, attracting
business to the area and helping existing industry sustain operations, said Thiessen. "I think there would be huge incentives for companies in Vanderhoof that don't have a long-standing fiber supply to know that, if there was a community forest, they would have access," he said. Harvestable timber would offer the district a source of tax-free revenue that could be invested in extra projects to enhance the community, explained Thiessen. But establishing a community forest takes time. First, a community needs to submit an application, then an operating area needs to be identified, then a management plan needs to be approved by the ministry. Once a community is invited to apply for a community forest, it can take between one to two years before it becomes operational, according to the ministry. In 2013, Thiessen believes council will take a more in-depth approach to establishing a community forest in Vanderhoof. "I think you will see council looking very seriously at the pros and cons and different options that could benefit our community,” he said. Victims of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, were remembered by students at Nechako Valley Secondary School during a memorial walk on Monday, Dec. 17.
Community Telephone Directory 2013 Serving Vanderhoof, Fort St. James, Fraser Lake, Fort Fraser, Cluculz Lake, Tachie and area ADverTise your business or serviCe in The Telephone DireCTory. echako
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