I N S I D E : Was there really gold at Scottie Creek?. Page 16
Journal ASHCROFT t CACHE CREEK
Volume 120 No 7 PM # 400121123
The
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Serving Clinton, Spences Bridge, Lytton, Savona, Walhachin and surrounding areas Since 1895
www.ash-cache-journal.com
$1.34 includes HST
7
78195 50011
6
Premier launches “Prosperity Fund”
Dan Collett heads up the ice as Bill Drinkwater and Paul Quesnel check the position of the rocks in last weekend’s Mens and Ladies bonspiel at the Ashcroft Curling Rink. More on pages 8 and 9.
Local towns may be part of new federal riding The new proposed federal electoral boundaries will see the Fraser Canyon become a new riding. The Federal Election Boundaries Commission for B.C. released its report last week, which is now under review by the House of Commons. The review is part of a regular 10-year reassessment of federal electoral boundaries to reflect population growth. “The commission has a very difficult job to do and unfortunately remote communities are often the last to find a home it seems,” said
Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon MP Mark Strahl. “They give greater consideration to the bigger population centers and then add those smaller remote communities as they need to. I do have concerns there. It seems that some of those communities (in the Fraser Canyon) certainly would be better paired with Chilliwack and Hope.” The proposed Chilliwack-Hope riding would cover a fraction of the land of the current Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon riding, but would keep Chilliwack united. The
riding’s new 92,734 population size would include areas south of Hwy 1 which were previously at risk of being joined to Abbotsford. Most of the current Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon riding’s land would form a new Mission-Matsqui–Fraser Canyon riding, and absorb many communities north of the Fraser River, all the way from Agassiz and Harrison Hot Springs, to Boston Bar and Ashcroft. Pemberton, meanwhile, would join a new West Vancouver– Sunshine Coast–Sea to Sky Country riding, tying the
town to nearby Whistler. “The commission heard compelling testimony from people in Chilliwack that the community should be kept together as one federal riding,” said Strahl. “That then has a domino effect outside of that district. To get the right numbers, the City of Chilliwack was kept intact, Hope was added and there wasn’t any room really for any other communities to be added.” The commission will submit its final report on boundary changes to the House of Commons in June.
by Tom Fletcher Black Press VICTORIA – Premier Christy Clark kicked off the pre-election legislature session Tuesday with a pledge to establish a new fund from natural gas exports to support social programs and pay down debt. The main purpose of the “British Columbia Prosperity Fund” will be to pay down debt, starting in 2017 when the first liquefied natural gas facilities begins to ship LNG for export from the northern coast to Asian markets. It will be funded by a tax on LNG exports, as well as gas producers’ corporate taxes and traditional natural gas royalty revenues. The new fund is patterned after Alberta’s Heritage Fund, set up in 1976 as a legacy for Alberta’s oil and gas revenues. The B.C. fund would receive an estimated $100 billion from LNG revenues over 30 years, based on an assumption of five LNG production facilities exporting gas from the Kitimat-Prince Rupert region. The plan was presented in the throne speech delivered Tuesday by Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon, to open a four-week legislature session leading up to the May 14 provincial election. The key task for the B.C. Liberal government in that session is to pass legislation returning the provincial sales tax to B.C. effective April 1, and the speech hinted at relieving that tax as one use for the new fund. “Whether it is eliminating the provincial sales tax, or making long-term investments in areas like education or vital infrastructure that strengthen communities – these are the kinds of opportunities the B.C. Prosperity Fund can provide,” the speech says. NDP leader Adrian Dix said the government’s focus on LNG development is at odds with its heavily advertised jobs plan, with little mention of forestry, mining, tourism, film and TV production or high technology. The government missed its natural gas revenue targets in a budget update six months ago, so projecting LNG revenues many years in the future is questionable at best, he said. The government estimates that if B.C.’s LNG mega-project develops as expected, and all of the fund’s revenues are directed to debt reduction, B.C.’s $56 billion debt could be paid off within a decade. The province currently pays about $2.5 billion a year in interest on the debt.
Keep Warm with Pinnacle Pellets Pine
Reg. $215 SALE
19999
$
Fir
Clinton Building Centre
Reg. $249 SALE
22999 ton
$
Tel: 250-459-2544 Fax: 250-459-2596