Gateway to the North - April 2019

april 2019

Sara Shaak coming home for FanCon Frank PEEBLES Gateway staff

F Gateway file photo

Sara Shaak displays a copy of the Northern B.C. Film Guild in 2001 during her time as Prince George film commissioner. Shaak, who now works as a film producer, will be back in Prince George for Northern FanCon.

irst, Hollywood came to Sara Shaak, then Sara Shaak went to Hollywood, and now Sara Shaak is coming back to explain how it works.

The latest announcement from Northern FanCon is an all local one. One of the special guests anchoring the Creative Corner aspect of the convention was born and raised in Prince George and some say it was Shaak who pushed over the first dominoes that got a film industry underway in this region.

Shaak was the city’s inaugural film commissioner and scored the three largest film projects that to this day have ever come to the city to film: Reindeer Games, Dream-

catcher and Double Jeopardy.

Following Prince George, she took on the role of film commissioner in the Okanagan, with more success attracting the outside screen arts industry into that part of the B.C. interior.

Shaak used that experience to launch a career in film production.

She has been involved with a number of companies – Trilight Entertainment, Arrowleaf Entertainment Properties, Anamorphic Media Inc. – that specialize in the business side of the screen arts industry.

Her recent credits are numerous and high profile, like the robotic dog comedy ARCHIE and its sequel starring Michael J. Fox voicing the title dog character, Robin Dunne, Farrah Aviva, and more.

— see SHAAK, page 3

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Shaak to talk about show biz industry — from page 1 Other titles include Welcome To Nowhere with talent like Sara Canning and Chantal Kreviazuk; Cold Brook with its critically acclaimed cast of William Fichtner, Kim Coates, Harold Perrineau and Robin Weigert; the innovative satire series Gamer’s Paradise; the highly anticipated action movie Doorman starring Ruby Rose (Katie Holmes was attached to the project but had to withdraw) and Jean Reno, directed by Ryuhei Kitamura; and the MMAthemed fight flick Cagefighter starring Gina Gershon, Michael Jai White, Michelle Ryan and others.

“The focus of what I’ll bring to FanCon will be on the business side of the film industry,” she said. “The creative elements are covered by a lot of other people, but no project gets to go ahead without financing, and you won’t get a second shot at financing unless your project has a viable business plan and that plan is executed. Business fundamentals in the film and television industry is really what I’ll be there to talk about.”

She could be an aspiring filmmaker’s cold reality check or explosion of inspiration, depending on how practically prepared they are with their hopes and dreams. It is fine to fantasize about being a star, she said, but actually achieving it requires plans and more plans written down and costed out.

“A lot of people have good intentions but don’t have the solid business model,” she said. “It’s very much a relationship-driven business but you have to be legit, you have to be resilient, and you have to have the plans in place that make sense to inves-

Gateway file photo

Fans check out the booths and vendors during the second day of the 2016 Northern FanCon at CN Centre in Prince George. tors. Have a very realistic idea of what a budget is going to be. If you don’t have the rich uncle or a golden credit card, can you secure in-kind or cash-equivalent contributions to your project? Can you talk to actors and tradespeople you know about taking part at lower rates for your independent project? And most importantly of all, what’s your plan for distribution? You have to find

a mentor to help you cross that gap. And you have to open those conversations with more than just ‘I have a good story’ or ‘I have a good idea for a project.’ It’s a hard road, but like any industry, if you want to get past a certain point you have to think with innovation, you have to work at standing out, and you have to do a lot of homework before you go asking for money.”

The projects to which she is associated have reached across the globe in the “making of” process. Cold Brook did a lot of its filming in Buffalo with some work in Los Angeles. Doorman is filming in Romania.

Cagefighter is shooting in England. Her office is in Calgary, but her projects could have pins anywhere in the global map.

— see ‘I HAVE A, page 4

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‘I have a huge soft spot for Prince George’ — from page 3 She even attempted to use Prince George with a recent project. She made a pitch to city hall for some support to have a TV series come here for some filming in 2015 but the officials turned her down. She was not at liberty then to disclose what the project was but now she can say that it was Between, the teen sci-fi drama starring iCarly celebrity Jennette McCurdy and Jesse Carere from the teen dramas Skins and Finding Carter.

A town in Ontario agreed to the request and the two mini-seasons of Between were filmed there instead.

Prince George has another element beginning to boil within its arts community, Shaak said, and that is why she is all too happy to come back to her beloved home town for Northern FanCon. The success of The Doctor’s Case feature film and Geoff & The Ninja television series are the first examples of national and even international eyes tuning in to watch entertainment

projects made by P.G. people in their home region using local resources.

When Hollywood projects first came to Canada in significant numbers, it was just to use this country’s favourable tax structures and lower currency rate to make their shows more cheaply.

Over time, the investments of money, studio facilities, and human resources grew to the point there was all-Canadian capacity to make all-Canadian films like never before (Canada has always had a domestic film and television industry, but it was very do-it-yourself and had many practical limitations).

Prince George is now developing an in-house screen arts industry in much the same manner.

“I know the guys behind those projects, and they are champions. That’s how the industry gets started, and those initiatives are trailblazers,” she said. “I have a huge soft spot for Prince George, I have a lot of reasons for helping promote the industry

there, and I am seeing people expanding to that next level building from within and that is exciting, and it has to have that grassroots effort coming from within the community.”

She noted that in her junior high school, Lakewood (now Ecole Lac Des Bois), she went to class with well known actor Demitri Goritsas and producer Nolan Pielak of Electric Entertainment, all three of them still in touch today because of their involvement in the international film industry.

If one neighbourhood school in Prince George in the pre-2000s could stimulate that much screen arts involvement, she said, imagine what could happen when an event like Northern FanCon does its part to deliberately initiate hands-on knowledge about how movies and TV gets made.

Her main message of advice for aspiring filmmakers, and she will go into it in much more detail at the event May 3-5 at CN Centre, is know where its going before you attempt to go there.

“Your project is not complete unless someone wants to buy it, so who is that going to be? People think too much about the ‘getting it made’ part and don’t complete the thought about ‘who’s going to watch it?’” she said.

“Canada is producing great material.

The infrastructure in Canada on the public sector financing side is favourable to made-in-Canada material, and there are a lot of grants available out there, but don’t fall into the Catch-22 trap of aiming your project’s content at satisfying the grants’ criteria if it compromises the project’s ability to actually make money out in the world of the audiences. You have to really think through the business elements, including the distribution plan.”

Sara Shaak will distribute valuable information during Northern FanCon, running May 2-5 at CN Centre in Prince George.

The special guests you can see and meet include Firefly star Alan Tudyk.

— see EDWARD JAMES OLMOS, page 6

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B.C. has pot shortage

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Glacier Media

A vendor displays marijuana for sale during the 4-20 annual marijuana celebration in Vancouver on April 20, 2018. The province is facing a shortage of supply and local retailers of cannabis products.

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.C. has a marijuana shortage.

At least that’s the story with governmentsanctioned cannabis products in the wake of the national legalization of marijuana last

October.

“Supply is still very much an issue not just here but across the country,” B.C. Minister of Solicitor General and Public Safety Mike Farnworth said Thursday.

He said the province has been pushing for the addition of marijuana microproducers into the supply chain to ensure enough pot gets to market.

Supply issues began to plague market not long after legalization.

And doobie-desperate British Columbians can forget wandering down the street to the local dealer if that dealer’s become a neighbourhood nuisance.

Farnworth is introducing amended 2013 Liberal legislation aimed at cracking down on nuisance properties. It includes taking action on properties where there are freelance dealers are involved in offenses involving the consumption, possession, production, sale or supply of cannabis in contravention of the provincial Cannabis Control and Licensing Act. That act regulates marijuana sales in the province post-legalization.

As far back as January, cannabis shortages prompted Quebec to reduce weekly days of operation to four at government-run stores,

while Ontario placed a limit of 25 on the number of private stores eligible to start operating in April.

Farnworth said the shortages have led Alberta to stop issuing licences.

B.C’s neighbour had to cease issuances after its government-run distributor received only about 20 per cent of stock ordered from federally licensed producers.

But, Farnworth said, the province is continuing work to approve licence applications for marijuana retail outlets. He said of about 430 applications currently in process, 390 are working their way through community-level approvals. He said a significant number of store applications do come up with alerts that require “a deeper dive” into an applicant’s background.

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Edward James Olmos, Amy Acker joining FanCon lineup — from page 4 His voice was also in Big Hero 6, he was HeiHei the chicken in Moana, and he charmed the world as K-2SO in Star Wars: Rogue One. He was featured in the Con Man series, co-starred in A Knight’s Tale and I Robot, as well as Arrested Development, American Dad, The Tick, Doom Patrol, Santa Clarita Diet, and he’s going to blow up all over again when the new Aladdin movie comes out.

Also on the marquee this year is Hollywood legend and Latino cultural icon Edward James Olmos who riveted audiences of the Western world in roles like Gaff in Blade Runner, Professor Geller in Dexter, Jess in American Family, Judge Mendoza in The West Wing, Montoya Santana in American Me, Vamanos in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, the father in Selena, it all started with El Pachuco in Zoot Suit (first the play, then the film), and he is absolutely legendary for his award-winning lead role

in Miami Vice, his lead role in Battlestar Galactica, his acclaimed supporting role in The Burning Season, and the Oscar nomination he got for Best Actor for his leading role in Stand And Deliver.

Completing the hat-trick of celebrity guests, fans can meet Amy Acker, a true sci-fi heroine. She is a Saturn Award winner (Best Supporting Female Actor On Television, 2003, for Angel) and an Indie Series Awards winner (Best Guest Star-Comedy, 2014, for Husbands) and memorable roles in Con Man, The Gifted (playing Kate Strucker), Dollhouse, Person of Interest (she played Root), Cabin In The Woods, she was Kelly in Alias, and so much more.

There is also a roster of star cosplayers, visual artists, video game voices, and a complete set of behind-the-scenes professionals from the film industry.

Book tickets online now at www.fancon. ca or the TicketsNorth website listing all CN Centre coming events.

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Bioenergy sector burned up over slash piles Frank PEEBLES Gateway staff

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moke plumes are rising from the backcountry all around Prince George. They are the telltale signs of spring in the forest industry, the annual burn-off of wood waste from winter logging, but the bioenergy sector is fuming over this old way of scorching the leftovers.

Every one of those debris piles is burning jobs that Prince George workers could have had, and burning money foreign countries were lined up to invest in the local economy, said John Stirling, president of Pacific Bioenergy (PacBio).

“We want to put it to productive use,” said Stirling. “The idea that we don’t have to burn things into the airshed, we can mitigate the risk of forest fire, and take that forest residual in as a product we can make

use of, products we can sell into Japan where we are offsetting nuclear and coal emissions, what could be better?”

All wood-pellet (also called bioenergy, biomass or biofuel) plants in northern B.C. already sell as much product as they can manufacture, as fast as they can make it.

Most of it goes to Asia or Europe where it is used in industrial furnaces or electricity generation facilities to reduce the amount of coal, natural gas, nuclear and the worst of the greenhouse gases pollutants used by factories, mills and communities.

Pacific Bioenergy recently signed the biggest contracts in the history of the fledgling bioenergy sector, a sector that was pioneered out of Prince George. These pacts are for the largest amounts of pellets ever asked for and for the longest duration ever established.

— see ‘WE RAN OUT, page 10

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‘We ran out of fiber this winter’

Handout photo

Forest companies regularly burn slash piles after harvesting a site for lumber and pulp. Bioenergy companies say slash burning is a waste because they could use the waste material to create pellets.

— from page 7 “These new contracts, which extend to 2030 and 2035, represent a major extension to PacBio’s existing contracted sale portfolio,” said company CEO Don Steele.

“This new business assures the continued strong presence of our Prince George and affiliated manufacturing operations in the dynamic and growing Asian market. This business, in addition to existing contracts in the European and Japanese markets, demonstrates the fulfillment of over 12 years of pioneering market development work in the Asia region.”

Why, then, ask company officials, are brush piles burning all around the city when all of that woody debris – considered bush garbage by the lumber industry – is exactly what they need to fulfill these lucrative, long-term contracts?

PacBio’s forestry operations supervisor Conor O’Donnell visited a recent slash fire with Liam Parfitt of Freya Logging Inc., a company that works for a lot of the local sawmill companies to cut down trees and get them into the mills for making lum-

ber, the products that sell for the highest amounts of money on the open market.

A stick’s throw away was a hulking yellow concoction of steel with a greedy gut and unrelenting teeth. It chews trees, branches, limbs, just about anything organic, into a pile of fine dust. An extended yellow arm conveys the wood dust into the trailers of chip trucks destined for the pellet factories.

O’Donnell said PacBio has about five of these machines grinding up woody junk at any given time, and there are five or six more he knows of in the area working for other biomass companies.

“It’ll load a 53-foot chip truck in about 20 minutes,” he said, but the participation of lumber companies is so sporadic that “we ran out of fiber this winter. This is about keeping our doors open.”

There is a chain of command in the forest and that is what keeps bioenergy companies from automatically capitalizing on the piles of debris littering the local forest after any harvesting operation. Each block of trees is designated to a lumber company.

— see ‘WHY WOULD WE, page 11

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‘Why would we continue to slash burn?’

— from page 10 Whatever is left over after the lumber companies are done cutting can sometimes be sent to pulp mills for turning into paper products and that is the second link in the chain of command in forestry. They have long-standing deals with the lumber companies and in the case of Canfor the lumber and the pulp interests are owned together.

That leaves whatever is left to bioenergy companies and, said the PacBio team, it is plenty of material. The term in all these forestry endeavours is fibre. The sawmills need a certain kind of fibre (wood) for lumber, the pulp mills need a certain kind of fiber for their products and the bioenergy companies need a fibre supply as well.

There are two main sources of fiber staring bioenergy companies in the face. One is the residual woody debris left on the ground (some of it is entire logs that just aren’t any good for lumber or pulp).

The other is all the dead pine that is largely still standing in the wake of the mountain pine beetle epidemic. Because it wasn’t harvested in a timely manner, they

are now useless for lumber and not much good for pulp.

Parfitt called these “zombie blocks.”

Here’s why PacBio and the other pellet companies can only stare at these grey skeletons of trees – entire forests of the stuff.

“There may not be saw-log material in that stand, but there certainly is material – ideal material, actually – for our business,” said Stirling but he explained that by provincial legislation, only the lumber company with the charter for that forest is allowed to cut it down and they are only allowed to cut down a set number of trees per year. If they cut down the dead pine, even to give it away to the pellet plants, that leaves them unable to cut down the equivalent amount of trees they need to make lumber.

Furthermore, a lumber company has to pay stumpage (a fee to the taxpayers’ bank account in Victoria) on every tree they cut, but the fee is too high if it’s only going to sell at pellet rates. Stirling said what’s needed is a government policy allowing for biomass harvesting of the otherwise useless timber so that it doesn’t count against the

associated lumber company’s harvesting rights. Also, a stumpage rate has to be implemented by Victoria that charges an amount realistic for pellet sales instead of lumber sales.

There is another hurdle, though and it pertains to the brush piles. The lumber companies are held to rigid treeplanting requirements that gets in the way of bioenergy companies moving in to collect the woody debris.

“Don’t give out a contract on December the 10th and say you have to have it done

by March 31st,” said Parfitt, illustrating a typical scenario. “What if it snows? What if the roads aren’t in shape until June? And that is why they (lumber companies) want it to burn, because they don’t want to plant it later,” as waiting for the right conditions for bioenergy staff and machines to go in and get the piles sets the treeplanting process back.

O’Donnell said, “That’s where it’s frustrating, because Canfor and Lakeland and all those guys understand that and will make concessions for us to go in there and get

their piles. FFT (Forests For Tomorrow, a government program for forest management) and the B.C. government? No.” It might be changing, said Stirling, offering cautious hope despite it being too late for a lot of piles already in flames.

“Yes, we can,” Stirling said about the ability to act quickly to collect the residual wood or to start harvest on the zombie blocks of dead pine. “We have the contractors with the skills and equipment to do that. It does take some support from government.

“The government has some good programs. There’s FFT and FES and FCI (Forests For Tomorrow, Forest Enhancement Society and Forest Carbon Initiative), on the face of it, that are there to help, but the right of access (prevents bioenergy companies from getting in on the forest economy).

The government is showing desire, there is some intent, but they haven’t gotten there yet. I’m optimistic. Coming off a couple of really tough forest fire years, and just after we’ve turned off beehive burners, why would we continue to slash burn?”

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Research project focused on Indigenous elder mental wellness

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Gateway staff n partnership with Carrier Sekani Family Services, two UNBC professors have secured $1.5 million to pursue a five-year research project focused on strengthening mental wellness and suicide prevention among elders in B.C.’s Northern Interior.

The project will build on the work Dr. Henry Harder and Dr. Travis Holyk have carried out over the past decade when they looked at mental health wellness in Indigenous youth and young adults.

Holyk said they will be taking a

to uncover the information needed to find “strengths-based approach that acknowlsolutions and best outcomes. edges and supports the importance of “Basically, it puts the community ahead revitalizing Carrier and Sekani culture.” of the researcher, and Indigenous research methodology will be The project will implement we only pursue activities that directly benused as the framework and evaluate intervention efit the community.” for all phases of the across member nations of The project will project. implement and evalu“What sets IndigCarrier Sekani Family ate intervention across enous methodology Services. member nations of apart is that it starts Carrier Sekani Family and ends with commuServices. nity,” said Harder.

It will also seek to share the suite of ma“It means working with community memterials created through the study with other bers who help us to identify the project First Nations communities. priorities and also point to the best ways

Holyk is the Carrier Sekani Family Service’s executive director of research in primary care and strategic services and an adjunct professor at UNBC. Harder is a psychology and health sciences professor, and the Dr. Donald B. Rix B.C. Leadership Chair for Aboriginal Environmental Health.

The funding, announced Tuesday, is provided through the Institute of Indigenous Peoples’ Health, part of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Project partners and in-kind contributors also include Northern Health and numerous Indigenous stakeholders across the North.

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Kitimat LNG commits to electrification Nelson BENNETT Gateway staff

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promise made in Kitimat that the ChevronWoodside Kitimat LNG project would use electric drive could be a game-changer, if fulfilled, not just for the LNG industry in B.C., but for independent power producers.

At a LNG conference hosted by the Haisla First Nation in Kitimat, Rod Maier, vice president of public affairs for Chevron Canada, said the Kitimat LNG project would use e-drive, according to the First Nation LNG Alliance.

He was quoted as saying it would be “the Tesla of LNG plants.”

That is no mean pledge, as it would significantly lower the proj-

ect’s greenhouse gas emissions profile, and significantly increase the demand for power. It would also meet the strict new best-inclass emissions benchmarks set out in the CleanBC plan.

A spokesperson for Kitimat LNG could not be reached to confirm the pledge to use e-drive.

Most LNG plants power their liquefaction process by burning natural gas, which produces carbon emissions. Electric drive is a lot cleaner but a lot more expensive.

“The significance of e-drive is that it would substantially reduce, but not completely eliminate, greenhouse gas emissions from the LNG facility at Kitimat,” said David Austin, a lawyer specializing in energy at Stirling Law. — see ‘THE PROOF, page 14

Handout image

This map shows the proposed location of the Kitimat LNG plant site.

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‘The proof will be whether it’s ever built’ — from page 13 “From this perspective it’s very good news. But like all LNG projects, the proof will be whether it’s ever built.”

The amount of power that would be needed for a large LNG plant using e-drive would be roughly two-thirds of the power that would be produced by Site C dam, according to Jihad Traya, an energy adviser for Solomon Associates.

While Site C’s nameplate capacity is 1,100 megawatts (MW), it will have an average generating capacity of about 650 MW, Traya said.

Each train powered by electricity would take about 200 MW. The Kitimat LNG project calls for two trains. If the Pacific Trail Pipeline that would supply the plants with natural gas was also electrified,

that would mean the electricity demand from that one project could consume as much power as the new Site C dam will produce.

That might mean that independent power producers – pretty much shut out of B.C. with the sanctioning of Site C dam – could be back in business in B.C. But before anyone gets too excited, Traya points out that the Kitimat LNG project is still a decade away.

LNG is typically sold under longterm contracts, so sanctioning of new LNG projects tends to come in waves, with projects timed to meet contract renewal windows.

The LNG Canada project is being built to meet the next window around 2024.

According to documents filed with the National Energy Board (NEB), the Kitimat LNG project would be timed to meet the one

However, for it to work, if the power is delivered directly to the plant gate at some industrial rate comparable to what is in the Lower Mainland, it might work.

— Jihad Traya after that in 2029.

Although Chevron and it joint venture partner, Woodside Energy International, already have provincial and federal environmental certificates for the Kitimat LNG project and associated Pacific

Trail Pipeline, the joint venture recently applied to the NEB to double the export capacity that was originally approved and extend their export licence from 20 to 40 years.

That application is all about keeping the project in play, Traya said. The project was originally approved in 2011.

“They’re nearing their sunset clause,” Traya said. “So you go back, apply for your 40-year licence. You’re pushing the string along.

“However, we’ve always said that we believe that there’s sufficient room for another LNG project off the west coast of Canada.

The Chevron project has always looked like it has potential. It has its own set of issues, but under an expansion, and under the right set of circumstances around the fiscal

regime, it can and may have the potential to work.”

But as he points out, Chevron, like Royal Dutch Shell, is a global player with a number of potential new projects on the drawing board. Deciding which one gets a final investment decision will all come down to making the numbers work.

Committing to e-drive could make the project more challenging from an economic standpoint.

“The ones that are electric drive are always at a disadvantage for competitiveness,” Traya said.

“However, for it to work, if the power is delivered directly to the plant gate at some industrial rate comparable to what is in the Lower Mainland, it might work.

And there might be some adjustments to the fiscal terms to make it net neutral for Chevron.”

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