On Monday, May 14th, 2012 at approximately 5:51am, members of the Chetwynd RCMP attended a motor vehicle accident involving a single vehicle roll over, located on Jackfish Lake road and Clary road. Emergency personnel found one male occupant at the scene and despite life saving efforts were unable to revive him. The male's name is not being released. The Chetwynd RCMP are currently investigating all aspects of the collision, and are requesting that any witnesses of the accident contact the Chetwynd RCMP

The Chetwynd RCMP would like to remind all motorists throughout British Columbia to use caution when traveling and drive according to road conditions.

Cst M.A.Zinn
Chetwynd RCMP

Cpl J. Toye
NCO/ io Chetwynd Detachment

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Trent Ernst, Editor


Wednesday Morning
 

With relative humidity on the rise and the temperatures dropping, things are looking good for the 45 firefighters working on the Quality Lake fire.

According to Jillian Chimko, Information Officer for the Prince George Fire Centre, the fire is now completely contained by a fire guard. The ground crew has got hose laid around about 85% of the fire, which will allow them to get water to most anyplace on site.

There were two helicopters dropping water on hot spots yesterday, as well as a pair of cats knocking down the fire break.

Investigators have been on the scene, but as of yet, they haven’t determined the cause of the fire.

Forecast for this evening? Temperatures down to below freezing and the possibility of snow for tomorrow.
 

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Information Bulletin

For Immediate Release

May 14, 2012

Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations

Prince George Fire Centre

Eighteen new fire starts over the weekend

PRINCE GEORGE – The Prince George Fire Centre has responded to 18 new fire starts over the weekend. All fires are suspected to be human caused.
Dry and windy conditions in the Peace Region continue to pose a threat for wildfires. Twelve out of the 18 wildfires occurred in the Peace Region, including one fire reaching 140 hectares in size and requiring airtanker assistance. Currently three fires have been put out, eight are in patrol or mop up, and seven are currently being fought by Forest Service personnel.

(More Information Below the Cut)



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Tumbler Ridge Museum Foundation

The cover story of the May 2012 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology features a sensational fossil fish discovery that emanated from the mountains of the Peace Region. The ensuing national and international media attention, complemented by a University of Alberta press release by the authors of this research, and CBC Radio interviews, once again places Tumbler Ridge favourably in the international spotlight.

The fish in question is a coelacanth. Such fish were thought to have gone extinct along with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, until a discovery off the coast of South Africa in 1938 led to the understanding that some coelacanths are still alive, and live deep in the Indian Ocean.



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Trent Ernst, Editor

A cook fire gone awry was the cause of a blaze eight kilometers from Chetwynd on Asleson Subdivision Road on Highway 29 South, the main road to Tumbler Ridge on Saturday, May 5.

The Chetwynd Fire Department responded to a desperate plea from a resident living in a trailer subdivision at approximately 11:30 in the morning. The resident had been making dry meat when high winds carried the fire from the contained area to her trailer, a neighboring trailer, sheds and a pump house.



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Trent Ernst, Editor

Monday May 7, 2012

Present: Mayor Wren, Councillors Beale, Hewitt, Mackay, Torraville, Caisley, Snyder.

Staff: Barry Elliot, Angie Collison, Kelly Bryan, Candie Laporte and Matt Treit

(View council note below the cut)


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Trent Ernst, Editor

Larry White is a bit bemused by it all.

When asked how the mayor of a small northern town winds up as recipient of a provincial landscape award, White shakes his head and says “I honestly have no idea.”

White won this year’s annual BCSLA Community Service Award in the Individual Category. According to the letter sent to White by the BCSLA Board of Directors, the award was granted “in recognition of his efforts to protect the pristine natural areas of Tumbler Ridge as well as your work in mapping and naming its previously unknown lakes, waterfalls, and natural features, providing an invaluable service for BC parks.”



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Trent Ernst, Editor

The Red Chris Development Corporation was issued a Mines Act permit for its Red Chris copper and gold mine, located 80 km south of Dease Lake in northern British Columbia.

Red Chris Development Corporation, a subsidiary of Imperial Metals Corporation, projects the capital cost of this development to be around $444 million and it will provide 250 full time jobs. The site is estimated to have a mine life of 28 years with a reserve of 276 million tonnes of copper and gold.

However, the mine is not without its detractors. Members of the Tahltan First Nations, whose traditional area the mine is being developed on, vow they will keep fighting the mine, which they are worried will turn a pristine valley into a giant tailings pond.



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Trent Ernst, Editor

People looking for activity at the proposed Murray River Coal Project site will see little more than a few trees cut down. But in a few years, says Jody Shimkus, Vice President, Environmental and Regulatory Affairs for HD Mining International, this will be the site of one of the most highly sophisticated methods of underground coal mining in Canada.

The mine is currently moving into the advanced exploration phase, having received its bulk sample permit on March 15. The permit from the Ministry of Energy and Mines allows HD to remove up to 100,000 tonnes of material. “Prior to that,” says Shimkus, “we had approval for surface prep: which is basically a licence to cut down trees for our bulk sample site. Last fall we saw about 22 ha of trees come down.”



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Trent Ernst, Editor

After a rough 2011, things are looking rosy for Western Coal’s Wolverine Mine, according to Al Kangas, General Manager for the Wolverine Mine.

“We’ve turned a corner from last year,” says Kangas, in his office on the Wolverine Mine Site. “We didn’t have a very…successful year last year. We’ve instituted a number of changes to improve the place from a cost standpoint and a productivity standpoint.”

And those changes are working, it seems. Walter Energy’s quarterly results were announced last week, and the mine produced 400,000 tonnes of coal, which is what they were aiming for. More importantly, though is the cost of production. “Our costs are 14% lower than the same time last year, which is good news,” says Kangas.



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Trent Ernst, Editor

Starting May 1, accounts payable for Walter Energy’s Wolverine Mine were transferred to Walter’s headquarters in Alabama.

The move, which also applies to Western’s other mines in Northeastern BC, the Willow Creek and Brule mines, was done to “find efficiency within company operations.”

As part of the move, some employees will be moving from the Walter Energy office in town out to the Wolverine Mine Site. However, Nina Ng, Corporate Communications Manager for Walter Energy points out that the jobs aren’t being lost in Tumbler Ridge, just moved around. “The fact is we’ve created more jobs in the area,” says Ng. “We’ve created more rolls in finance and procurement out at the mine site, and some people have been moved there. We’ve created 175 new jobs at our Northeast BC operations since January.”



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Trent Ernst, Editor

A three-day strike by the teachers has been spun into a doubling of the Learning Improvement Fund, which results in an extra $535,106 for School District 59.
The funding announcement was the lion’s share of a recent announcement for increased funding for SD59, though an extra $76,688 is coming to the district through the BC Education Plan Fund.

The Learning Improvement Fund is set aside to help students with special needs and help teachers better address those needs, says Blair Lekstrom. “The BC Education Plan Fund provides important support to students who struggle with reading so they can succeed,” says Lekstrom. “It’s about helping teachers and students to do the best they can.”



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Trent Ernst, Editor

Over the last few weeks, Legion 286 has donated over $4000 to the community, and promises this is just the beginning.

Sean Shea, First Vice for the Legion says “We’re trying to give back to the community and trying to donate where we see the community may need it,” says Shea. “We gave TR Cares $1200, and the food bank $600. For the BC Seniors games we donated $200 for medals, and Youth Sports in Tumbler Ridge we have set aside a $2000 pot of money that they can use when they need it.



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Trent Ernst, Editor

A local fossil continues to make waves in the scientific community, years after it was discovered.

It was the summer of 2006, and Sheena Walkley was out with her family, along with the Helms and the Byren family from Oxford, UK, looking for fossils in the Wapiti Lake area.

Walkley, who was 13 at the time, discovered a beautiful fish fossil just laying on the ground. “Everyone kept finding stuff,” says Walkley. “It’s like a gold mine there, with all these fossils just lying on the side of the hill.”



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Trent Ernst, Editor

While the final reading for the District’s 2012 Budget hasn’t happened yet, council agreed in principle, at a special meeting held April 30, on the new tax rates for 2012. If everything goes according to plan, though, residents will see their taxes go up three percent.

Mayor Darwin Wren points out that a three percent tax increase is basically just keeping pace with inflation, which affects town hall as well. “All you have to do is look at our budget. There’s a big portion of it that’s operational, which directly relates to labour. We’ve got scheduled wage increases for our unionized employees that we’ve negotiated. We know what those are. And if you go and gas up your car, does it cost the same amount. Your Hydro bill goes up, your gas bill…it goes up for the district, too.”



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Trent Ernst, Editor

Hot on the heels of last month’s announcement of a Pilot program to expand the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) in Northern BC—a program that accelerates the permanent resident application program for skilled and experienced workers who want to settle in BC—The Federal Government announced the realignment of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

“I have heard from many local employers about labour shortages in our region and the difficulties they have faced in hiring temporary foreign workers to meet these employment demands,” said Conservative Member of Parliament Bob Zimmer. “The changes introduced today will ensure that these employers will have the opportunity to hire the skilled labour they need more quickly.”



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Trent Ernst, Editor

The Fraser Institute’s BC and Yukon Secondary School Rankings for 2012 came out last week, and as reliably as the spring sun brings out the flowers, the results are bringing out teachers and education pundits to comment on the results.

In Tumbler Ridge, the results have slipped from a historical average of being ranked number 260 in the province to the current position ranking Tumbler Ridge 271 out of 280 schools, with a 2.7/10 rating.

However in Chetwynd, the ranks have slipped from 226 in 2007 to 275 out of 280 schools in 2011 with a rating of 2.0. That’s down from a rating of 5.4 in 2007.
The highest rank school in the Peace is South Peace Secondary in Dawson Creek which is ranked 242 out of 280 schools in the province, down from 212 out of 261 last year. South Peace has a ranking of 4.3/10.



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By Matt Treit, Fire Chief

The month of April was a slower than usual month for the Tumbler Ridge Fire Department which responded to only eleven calls for assistance during that time.  These included four reports of ringing fire alarms, four First Responder calls, one grass fire, one chimney fire, and one report of a gas leak.  Training in the month of April included the topics of initial attack, forcible entry, fire extinguishers, class B foam, and First Responder training.  



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Trent Ernst, Editor

A tip from the general public turned into a drug bust for the local RCMP.

In mid-April, RCMP heard from an unnamed source that an individual was selling marijuana in Tumbler Ridge. The informant also mentioned that the person in question would be returning from a trip to Prince George with an unknown amount of marijuana on board their vehicle.  RCMP conducted a road check on Hwy 29 and located an individual with over 1/2 a kilogram of marijuana in his vehicle.  Charges for Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking in a Controlled Substance are being forwarded to Federal Crown and awaiting approval.  If anyone has information on the sale and distribution of illegal substances please contact Constable Douglas Erickson at the Tumbler Ridge RCMP Detachment. 250-242-5252

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This year the RCMP Foundation granted $8131 to the WOW Bus to augment the resources available to families.

Reference and fiction books, music, family games, puzzles, art supplies, and toys have all been added to the collection. These resources are being chosen by families and used in homes and on the bus throughout the South Peace Region. Because they are available through the WOW Bus library, they are being used by other early learning programs in the communities. Many of the resources are being shared with the South Peace StrongStart programs.



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