Inside
◆ Triple homicide - P. 6 ◆ Youth mental health - P. 7
◆ BCTF ruling - P. 2 ◆ Eye on provincials - P. 5
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WEDNESDAY, May 6, 2015
Council BRIEFS Blackwater update Claudette Gouger, Community Manager for the Blackwater Project, made a presentation before council April 22, to discuss the New Gold Inc. project’s future. Gouger said there are a number of exploration projects that are going to be looked into for deposits that could potentially be added to the project’s portfolio. New Gold’s Blackwater district is contained within a 1,100 square-kilometre area. “We are actively looking in those other packages for other exploration targets,” she said. She said the conventional openpit mine expects to employ 1,000 to 1,500 workers during construction and employ 500 workers during operation and has an estimated 17-year mine life. Blackwater’s estimated capital costs are $1.4-billion she said. “The price of gas has actually brought that down a bit, it used to be $1.8 (billion).” New site discovered Gouger said a high-grade mineralization was found close to the Blackwater deposit at the end of the 2014 exploration season and activity will start up in May-June to further sample soil and the deposit area with drilling commencing in July and Aug. “That’s the whole purpose of your actual exploration program, is to find out what’s out there and we were lucky enough to find one,” she said. As of 2013, New Gold has hired 65 per cent of its work force locally and 23 per cent was First Nation or of aboriginal descent Gouger said. Mayor Rob MacDougall asked about agreements that might be in place to address the needs for skills training. “We’ve been actively working with the regional district through their skills-gap analysis to try and get an idea and seeing how that information can be used to help shape training and education needs,” Gouger said. She said there might also be in-house training that takes place and New Gold will be partnering with CNC to try and make up for the loss of the Aboriginal Mentoring Association last year. Environmental assessments of the mine site are still under review by the British Columbia Environmental Assessment office. She said the office will determine when open houses will take place in local areas of the region. newsroom@caledoniacourier.com
Deal of the Week!
VOL. 38 NO. 10 $1.30 inc. GST
Tough job ahead for school board members
Michele Taylor photo
Dawn Godard, Grade 5/6 teacher at Sowchea Elementary School, presents an emotional argument against the closure of the school at the reconfiguration consultation meeting in Fort St. James, April 27.
School District 91 holds consultations on possible area school closures MICHELE TAYLOR Caledonia Courier
District board members held a reconfiguration consultation presentation, April 27, which could signal the closure of Sowchea Elementary School. Sowchea Elementary School, situated 16 kilometres outside of Fort St James, first opened with eight classrooms in September 1982. The school re-opened after a renovation and expansion of three portable classrooms in
September 1993. Part of the decision to close the 22-year-old elementary school is based on the state of the district’s building and the current and projected enrolment levels which were presented by the board to various groups attending the consultation. Stephen Davis, SD 91 Board Chair, said enrolments are not growing for the district schools, he said dropping enrolment trends make it difficult to financially maintain and staff the cur-
rent schools. “The dollars spent to maintaining buildings that are not required, cannot be spent in other areas of need,” Davis said. He said that in addition to shrinking enrolment, other pressures are factors such as increased hydro costs and maintenance of buildings, Davis also said funding protection is decreasing in order to support districts with growing enrolments. The BC Ministry of Education provides funding protec-
tion to eligible school district to protect against declines of more than 1.5 per cent in funding from the previous year. Funding protection is determined by comparing operating grants from the summer and autumn of the previous school year to total summer and autumn operating grants for the current year. Funding protection is provided to make sure the amount of decline is no greater than 1.5 per cent. Please see, Enrolment page 3
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