Inside
u Rumble in Nechako Lakes P. 4 u Trails initiative P. 6
u New ski & board park P. 5 u Alcohol policy P. 8
Publications Mail Contract #: 40007759
WEDNESDAY, February 27, 2013
NEWS BRIEFS On the list
Elections BC is looking for voters to make sure they are on the registered voters list for the upcoming provincial election. The 2013 Provincial General Election will take place in May. Elections BC will be mailing out notices to 1.9 million residential addresses on February 25, 2013 to get residents to register or update their information, including removing people from the address who are no longer there. Voters can do this online at: www.elections.bc.ca/ovr or by calling Elections BC at 1-800-661-8683. Starting March 6, election officials will also be setting up at shopping malls, community centres and campuses to register voters. Early registration helps to ensure voters are informed of voting opportunities and are able to vote quickly when they arrive at voting stations. This year’s enumeration efforts are also planned to target groups traditionally under-represented on the voters list. Officials helping to register voters will be visiting homeless shelters, social service agencies and long-term care facilities. There were 3,145,120 registered voters in B.C. as of February 11, 2013, and 2,995,465 registered voters as of May 12, 2009.
PHONE: 996-8482 www.caledoniacourier.com
Pool passes, by a length
VOL. 35 NO. 52 $1.34 inc. GST
Ski and skate
Cameron Ginn Black Press The pool referendum passed and John Murphy was elected to council on Saturday, Feb. 16. In an extraordinary showing of electors at the Nechako Senior Friendship Centre, where the polling station was set up, Vanderhoof voted overwhelmingly in favor of allowing the municipality to borrow $4 million to put towards building a $12-million aquatic facility. According to official results from the municipal office, 1,207 electors from the District of Vanderhoof voted yes at the pool referendum, while 353 voted no. In Area F of the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako, 575 electors voted yes and 472 people voted against the referendum through various means, including mail-in ballots, advanced polling and by voting in person on Feb. 16. In the Vanderhoof by-election, which was held in conjunction with the pool referendum to reduce costs, John Murphy was elected to council with 782 votes. Candidates Peet Vahi and Marje Makow received 336 and 319 votes, respectively.
Mandy Dionne takes advantage of the opportunity for an evening skate on perfect ice at the outdoor skating oval on Feb. 16. It was the Community Ski and Skate organized by the District of Fort St. James, and featured nightime skating and a bonfire, cross-country skiing on the lake and on track set at the Stuart Lake Golf Course, and a pot luck dinner. One more photo on Page 6.
Privatizing forests? Tom Fletcher Black Press VICTORIA – The B.C. government has introduced amendments to allow the conversion of volume-based forest cutting permits to area-based tenures, a move that some have described as a move toward privatization of Crown forests. Forests Minister Steve Thomson said the government intends to proceed carefully with converting existing cutting permits, which set a maximum amount of timber that can be removed from a licence area each year.Forests Minister Steve Thomson. Black Press Photo Communities and First Nations in the tree farm licence at Hixon between Prince forest areas would be extensively consulted George and Quesnel. first, Thomson said Wednesday. “I think that is a misrepresentation of what The change is designed to make forest ligoes on,” Fisher said Wednesday. “We have cences more like existing tree farm licences or numerous recreation areas, lakes where people community forests, which give licence-holders go fishing, roads that people use to access their an incentive to invest more than the legal minifavourite hunting sites, berry picking site or mum in replanting and silviculture to increase mushroom harvesting. All that takes place in forest productivity over the long term. the area of the [Hixon tree farm licence].” Cariboo North MLA Bob Simpson has NDP forest critic Norm McDonald said the warned that the move could lead to public fortimber supply committee that toured the provests coming under the control of large forest ince last year to study the state of B.C. forests companies. in the wake of the pine beetle epidemic supJason Fisher, vice-president of Dunkley ported the use of area-based tenures. Lumber, rejects the privatization argument. But the ministry didn’t have studies to show His company bought a volume-based tenure at area-based tenures are a better way to go, alFort St. James in 2009 when it took over Stuthough most foresters believe it is better. art Lake Lumber, and also holds an area-based
Ruth Lloyd/Caledonia Courier
Budget tax hikes
Tom Fletcher Black Press
VICTORIA – The B.C. Liberals’ pre-election budget proposes to implement income tax increases on business and higher-income individuals, similar to proposals from the NDP opposition. The corporate income tax rate would rise one point to 11 per cent effective April 1, accelerating by a year an increase announced in 2012. NDP leader Adrian Dix has repeatedly promised to increase the corporate rate to 12 per cent, where it was in 2008. In Finance Minister Mike de Jong’s budget, tabled Tuesday, personal income taxes for those earning $150,000 or more would rise 2.1 per cent to 16.8 per cent for two years, starting next January. That increase is to be rolled back to the current rate of 14.7 per cent in 2015, de Jong said. Dix has indicated that if the NDP forms government, he would impose an income tax increase for those earning $150,000 or more a year, with specifics promised in the NDP election platform. De Jong stressed that B.C.’s
personal income tax rates are still the lowest in Canada for those earning up to $122,000 a year. With a provincial election set for May 14, this budget will not be passed by the time the brief legislature session ends in late March. Its measures are part of a campaign platform for Clark’s government, and the winner of the election must pass a budget in the fall. Also proposed is a tobacco tax hike of $2 per carton of cigarettes. De Jong said the effective date is held off until Oct. 1 to give people time to quit smoking, with 100,000 B.C. residents currently taking advantage of a provincial program offering free nicotine patches, gum or approved prescription drugs. The last tobacco tax increase was seven per cent when the harmonized sales tax was implemented in 2010, replacing the provincial sales tax that didn’t apply to tobacco. That tax is to be retained when the province reverts to the PST on April 1. De Jong’s budget also proposes to phase out school property tax credits for light industry for the 2013 budget year.