carrier sekani Tribal chief mina holmes speaks out, page 14 welfare office possibly on the move, page 4
Prince George Thursday March 12, 2020
Team canada eyes gold Page 19
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Ski resort plan still active Citizen staff/Glacier Media
Citizen Photo by James Doyle
Champion at work
Harshpreet Kaur works on her winning painting during the final round of competition at the seventh annual Art Battle Prince George on Friday night at the Bob Harkins branch of the Prince George Public Library. Kaur competed against 11 other artists in the competition that saw painters created their pieces in 20 minutes. Kaur will go on to the provincial competition held in Vancouver later in the year.
City, airport preparing for coronavirus Arthur Williams Citizen staff
The City of Prince George and Prince George Airport are following the lead of public health officials on the global outbreak of novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, and taking steps to prepare hosting the 2020 World Women’s Curling Championship starting this weekend. In a statement issued last Friday, the city said it’s been in regular contact with Northern Health and provincial public health officials to get reliable information about the disease. “Health officials have indicated that the spread of various illnesses – ranging from colds and flu to COVID-19 – can be prevented if people stay home when sick, properly wash their hands, and disinfect surfaces that are frequently touched (such as door knobs, phones, keyboards, and hand-rails),” the city statement said. “As the operator of many facilities that attract large numbers of people, the
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city is also working to double-down on providing public information in all civic venues.” CN Centre will be hosting athletes, support staff and spectators from around the world when the curling championship begins on March 14. “As the organizers of the event, Curling Canada and the World Curling Federation have been working with officials from a variety official health agencies for guidance to help ensure a safe and healthy event,” the city’s statement said. “The organizers further report that teams competing in the WWCC are already in Canada training and acclimatizing. In fact, Team China has been outside of China for the last six months and training in Europe and Scotland.” Prince George Airport Authority president and CEO Gordon Duke said the airport has already been taking steps to prepare, including adding additional
signage reminding visitors to wash their hands, stockpiling supplies of hand sanitizer, and reviewing internal plans. There is also a national pandemic plan developed by the federal government, if the disease were to begin spreading widely through the country. “We have reached out to public health officials and we will continue to do that and stay in touch,” Duke said. If a suspected case of COVID-19 were reported on a flight headed to Prince George, the airport would be ready to respond, he said. “If an aircraft were directed to us... we do have a quarantine plan for how we would deal with that,” Duke said.”We will always take our lead and follow the direction of public health officials in that regard.” The airport has also looked at its supply chain to ensure it has sufficient supplies if travel to China or other major supplier countries was interrupted.
The plan to build a year-round skiing resort outside Valemount has gained new prominence following the backers’ failure to establish a similar resort in the Kootenays, according a letter to the community’s mayor. In the face of fierce opposition from local First Nations, as well as environmental protection groups, Glacier Resorts Ltd. agreed in January to back out of its long-running effort to build the Jumbo Glacier Resort in the Purcell Mountains. “This means that the Valemount Glacier Destinations project is now poised to become the only high-alpine year-round glacier skiing destination in North America,” said project consultant Tommaso Oberti in the letter to Valemount Mayor Owen Torgerson. A 60-year master plan agreement with the provincial government was signed in March 2017 but since then there has been little if any progress on the project which is to provide access to the summits of Mount Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Twilight Glacier, Glacier Ridge and Mount Arthur Meighen and base-area village with residential, hotel and commercial space. The project’s price tag had been put at $100 million, but in January, Oberti told Glacier Media that a scaled-down version could be developed if between $50 million and $75 million is raised. “If the money were to come in tomorrow, we would start construction this summer,” he said. “It would take a year to get the day lodge and initial gondola built, so you’re looking at the earliest possibility for skiers on the mountain being 2022.” See SKI RESORT, page 4