Have a good weekend everyone…

Only a hundred showed up for the Student protest yesterday??? Think most students are glad there is no classes

Good morning everyone, you too Axman! Ha, ha. I’m not going to heave a sigh of relief until the end of March but what a beautiful 2015 we’ve had so far!
Its nearly time to get to the gardens again. Soon, soon.

I find it curious that “there may be layoffs” at CNC “sometime in the future” is front page news, while AllWood Fibre, a medium sized employer in Prince George suddenly shut its doors this week with nary a mention. 40-60 employees show up for work to closed doors, all of them stiffed for at least two weeks pay. There’s something wrong when a business (or their bankruptcy receiver) can surreptitiously conspire to shut their doors while intentionally working their employees to the very end, knowing full well they’re not going to pay them.

Ya, we might have to get the lawn mower blades sharpened up this weekend. One could be mowing the lawn by the end of March this year.

If John Major is reading this than maybe now that the Winter Games are over I was thinking the casino could fix the light in their sign on the entrance to town from the south side. Its been like that for years (maybe since new), and makes the place look like a run down motel type dump. I wonder if the casino hotel cleans their rooms with that kind of vigorous maintenance?

And maybe the city can get around to cleaning the streets from all the road dust, seeing as the forecast doesn’t show any below freezing in the two week outlook. Surely the reserve funds for snow removal will be large enough from this year?

Also can’t forget all the pot holes in and around local businesses. In the winter we consider it good edict to shovel the snow in front of ones business… so why not the same when it comes to filling in some of the more dangerous pot holes with a shovel or two of gravel? Doing the good neighborly thing, at least until proper repairs can be made (especially when they are on business property)?

tarnfeather, is that what happened? I thought maybe it was just break up issues? I wonder what happened… too big to quick without enough stabilizers to ride out the ups and downs maybe? I wonder what will happen with all their fiber, because I’m sure PBEC is still going to want it.

Its just too bad All-wood couldn’t figure out the charcoal process, because I always figured that was a gold mine if they could have got it operational. I think it has the potential to be a whole new industry, just as wood pellets were. I wonder if their downfall has anything to do with that charcoal venture?

I heard a rumor that Elite might be next week? Just in the last few days talk about Canfor downsizing them or possible arrangements being made….

Posted on Friday, March 13, 2015 @ 5:42 AM by tarnfeather

I find it curious that “there may be layoffs” at CNC “sometime in the future” is front page news, while AllWood Fibre, a medium sized employer in Prince George suddenly shut its doors this week with nary a mention. 40-60 employees show up for work to closed doors, all of them stiffed for at least two weeks pay. There’s something wrong when a business (or their bankruptcy receiver) can surreptitiously conspire to shut their doors while intentionally working their employees to the very end, knowing full well they’re not going to pay them.

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Facebook was all abuzz the past month or so about how bad things were getting at AWF. Sad to see it come to this end.

Bankruptcy receivership is one of the biggest scams out there.

Maybe be like Maple Leaf and reopen elsewhere with the same principles and using the same equipment… just a new contract at a different mine site. This time in Northwest BC rather than Northeast BC.

POSTED BY EAGLEONE: And maybe the city can get around to cleaning the streets from all the road dust, seeing as the forecast doesn’t show any below freezing in the two week outlook. Surely the reserve funds for snow removal will be large enough from this year?

Are you absolutely blind eagleone! The crews have been out for more than a week. They were sweeping streets AND sidewalks at night even during the winter games!! 5th Ave, Tabor, Ospika, Tyner, University Way, Otway, parts of College Heights, those are all done!! Swept. At least their first passes are done. I’ve seen them out there every day. Water trucks, sweepers, loaders, dump trucks, sidewalk sweepers…..

Shame on you Eagleone!!

Posted on Friday, March 13, 2015 @ 6:02 AM by Eagleone: “so why not the same when it comes to filling in some of the more dangerous pot holes with a shovel or two of gravel?”
Someone did this in the big pothole on hwy97 north at the intersection just north of the weigh scales and a transport truck ahead of me went through it, loaded up the gravel in it’s tire treads and then proceeded to fire the gravel at my vehicle.

LIVED IT BREATHED IT ATE IT let me tell you not a very nice feeling to show up for work and the doors are shut. THEY didn’t give us our holiday monies, no severance, ZIPPO. YET they continued to do business go figure? WONDER why I have this rotten feeling towards them, they don’t give a rats ass about you or your kids. YOU could wind up in a ditch for all they care. THING is you have to pick yourself up, carry on. IRONIC thing is all of us slated employees went on to bigger and better jobs/careers. BUT…BUT… if I was ever to run into “MR.GOODFELLOW AND HIS PISSANT OFFSPRING” THATS ANOTHER STORY.

I am very surprised that there is very little coverage of the fact that Canadian Forces, both ground and air, stayed out of the fight for Tikrit. It seems that the Iraqis, along with Iranian support, are able to beat back ISIS on their own. If true, then can someone please explain to me what exactly our troops are doing over there?

Do Know Your Rights?

Bill 14. Bullying and Harassment in the Work Place

http://www.canadianemploymentpensionlaw.com/employment/bill-14-the-new-bullying-law-in-bc—is-your-workplace-prepared/

This was interesting reading…food for thought, have a great weekend!

“We are Lheidli T’enneh”

This was printed in the Citizen march 6th editorials by managing editor Neil Godbout.
I sincerely hope that the rest of the citizens in and around Prince George, do not have the same “warm fuzzy feeling” about this ridiculous idea, as Mr Godbout has.

Yes, Prince George may be on traditional lands, but it was the first pioneers and open minded business folks who first settled here that over the years, through generations of families, developed this spot on the confluence of the Nechako and Fraser Rivers to the city it is today.

They should be able to name it Ft George, Prince George or whatever the majority is in favour of.

Thanks

Hello all. Happy Friday. This may be all done with but I was wondering how local business feels they were impacted by winter ges. I was a volunteer and was not particularly impressed with lack of organization I did very much enjoy the athletes I met however. Would like to hear if people feel it was as successful as promised.

Also wondering how others feel about the many “temporary” structures people have in their yards. I’m talking about the tarp/canvass structures with pipes etc. they often collapse under the weight of snow. They are insightly in a residential neighbourhood in my opinion I am not permitted to have a clothes line in our subdivision but these things litter the neighbourhood. It’s ugly.

Thoughts.

Re Winter Games, the downtown business I work for, was not impacted either way by the games, other than our regular customers sometimes had a hard time finding parking spots. I did hear grumbling from several restaurant people who had hired extra staff and then didn’t have the big hyped up rush the Games people had warned them there would be. Hopefully the businesses in Red Deere won’t go through this as well.

I loved the “buzz” around town, the visitors and the positive kind words they had to say about PG. It might be interesting to see a financial breakdown of the costs of the Games, but maybe not; I’m sure my blood would be boiling! I liked the fireworks, but would rather had part of those funds spent here on much needed less frivelous things.

Re “temporary” structures, I agree they are an eyesore to some degree, but they serve a purpose, and hopefully the owners will be out removing them shortly now that the snow is rapidly melting.

Now, anybody besides me wondering how bad the forest fires are gonna be this summer??

Eagleone. In addition to cleaning the roads the City has been filling potholes. Perhaps you should give more attention to Prince George than to Tel Aviv.

The Tourist Bureau seems to think that they had 20,000 tourist to their site at the Winter Games Plaza. I think they are confused between local visitors, like myself, and actual tourists. I also expect that they are counting the athletes, coaches, managers, etc; that went through their site. I wonder how many times these athletes, coaches, and managers will be counted at the various venues to run the figures up??

What we need is realistic numbers of the people who attended the games, and only count them once. Then we would have a clearer picture.

Whats the chance of that happening??

Now, anybody besides me wondering how bad the forest fires are gonna be this summer??

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Our only hope is that there has been a marked decrease in the inordinate number of stupid and selfish people in this province.

But barring such a miracle, it’s gonna be a bad year.

so I read the population dropped about 800 individuals last year but they keep building mega houses and my utilities bill has gone up again to cover the infrastructure??

I hope all the cigarettes I see flying out of car windows stops before summer.

Speaking of cigarettes, has anyone looked at the grass by the lightpole outside the geriatrics (east) entrance to the hospital? I was waiting for someone and watched a steady stream of employees come out and have a smoke break, fling their butt on the grass and walk away. There are thousands of butts littering the area. Mind numbing.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Have a good weekend everyone…

Only a hundred showed up for the Student protest yesterday??? Think most students are glad there is no classes

don’t settle for a couple weeks save a ton of wages then give it back as a raise and a small signing bonus and they think they gained something

“We are the Lheidli T’enneh”

The funny thing about that proposal is that hardly anyone knows how to pronounce it.

Further funny thing. Somebody asked about the pronunciation in the comments on Neil Godbout’s piece. I replied with a link to the web dictionary entry, which has audio. My comment was blocked by the moderator because the Citizen does not allow links in comments! That’s one advantage of Opinion250 over the Citizen.

Big thank you to the Transportation Minister for the announcement that the province is going to crack down with tougher enforcement of the law already on the books and fine those who putter along in the right lane of all 4 lane highways in BC.

In the announcement he said studies have shown that these drivers impede the smooth flow of traffic and cause some serious accidents and are a leading cause of frustration on our roads and highways.

So when the blue hair rinse crowd is out searching for a storefront window or a farmer’s market to run into when they get confused about which pedal is which they will have to do it from the slow lane. Or contribute $170 from their pension to the motor vehicle branch.

And it’s 10 degrees 85% humidity and mouldy in Odoursford:D

Jeers

Good morning to all the Piranha in the fish bowl ….. chew on this for a bit.

Somewhere amongst dust, potholes, left hand drivers and retired01 from Abby we as a community have lost focus on downtown revitalization. Maybe it is no longer important as the shift has been to strip mall development in three areas of the City all associated with major corporate names.

What currently exists downtown among the government buildings and restaurants are empty lots and empty buildings for lease and for sale. We as a City are not alone in this transformation, thankfully we haven’t reached the same state of demise as Detroit or other industrial cities to the South.

There are challenges and we probably will not see significant change for the next 25 years. But the first start in any revitalization is repopulation and making the downtown a daily destination for more than just those that work in the area.

Public Markets have shown to be a major player in downtown revitalization. Do you feel that the downtown is ready for a Public Market Downtown …. home to a variety of your favorite local businesses now scattered around the City. Add in the Farmers, Artisans and Entertainers and you have a Social Hub of activity.

There are two possible locations on which to build this infrastructure ….. the question is … Will the City of Prince George make the land available for development and will the residents of Prince George embrace such a concept.

Loving this weather, appreciate the city already working on sweeping the roads.

Herbster:”It seems that the Iraqis, along with Iranian support, are able to beat back ISIS on their own. If true, then can someone please explain to me what exactly our troops are doing over there?”

Sorry, can’t help you with any reasonable explanation! Very puzzling, though!

Those women who do not wish to uncover their faces during a citizenship ceremony – what do they do when their picture has to be taken for a Canadian Passport or even a drivers licence? Do they refrain from driving and never leave the country?

Perhaps you or someone else can help me with an explanation?

Sparrow, I’m pretty sure it’s the slow drivers in left lane that they will be cracking down on, or did I miss something?

Also, your reference to seniors being the problem is offensive and the way you talk about them just seems mean. I find the problem to be all sorts of people who are oblivious to anyone else around them, age and gender doesn’t seem to factor in whatsoever.

WTH is going on with Pine Centre Mall, notice the new food booth is on prime real estate . Good for the new food booth, but bad for those that are located inside the court.

Con Mp John Williamson still sitting in the house of it’s okay to be a self exposed bigot and still be acceptable by harper . All you have to do is say sorry and every thing returns to zero bigotry . House of hipocracy has replaced the House of Commons .

PGFMA

Short and sweet answer to your question is No. As long as the city is the largest land holder in the CBD there will be next to nothing happening there. At least if a building or lot was in private hands the owner might work a little harder to develop something rather than pay tax year after year with little or no return.

As for bringing “variety of your favorite local businesses” to one building, how is this any different than bringing them to one block. Remember “Specialty Avenue” downtown not to many years ago was probably the nicest looking block in all downtown with the business owners working hard to keep it that way. Can’t say that any more with a bunch of windows opaque white on the engineering firm and for rent or lease in other windows, hardly the welcoming place it once was.

The first step IMO is getting a city planning department. What we have now is a bunch of chair warmers who likely have trouble planning tomorrow nights dinner and use the OCP to level their desk. Take the All West Glass building, kudos to them for the investment but Victoria Street is clearly the wrong location for that type of business, far more suited to a light industrial location.

Can’t give up hope completely, I expect next time I drive downtown there will be someone washing the windows and sweeping the cobwebs off the hotel construction crane. We were promised that building would resume in the spring and saw a ton of robins this week.

northernspirit

Yes I did mean left. Some older drivers hang on to their license way too long, bit of a sore point as one backed into my car a few years ago and had to claim damage over 2k when I sold it.

BC Green Party is hiring . See the home page . Hiring will be merit based, unlike the libs .

One reason seniors tend to occupy the left lane, is the lack of courtesy when they need to make a lane change for a left turn, and no one will let them in.

As far as safety, according to the NHTSA a 30 year old driver, and a 70 year old driver are about as equally likely to get into an accident. An 80 year old has same probability as a 20 year old.

I am interested in how they are going to write this law on left lane hogging. If you are in the left lane, doing 100 km, and someone is in the right lane doing 98 km, and the maximum is 100 km, what’s the judge going to say.

I agree, left lane hogging is a real problem. My personal solution is if I’m in no rush, is to slow down in the right lane and let as many people pass as can – assuming a short passing lane.

But it’s B.S. anyway. In order for the police to write a ticket, they would have to be there, and I travel the area highways extensively, and rarely encounter a patrol car. They used to patrol area highways on a regular basis, now, I have no idea what it is they do, but it isn’t active highway patrol.

Spring breakup is at least 1-2 weeks earlier than normal and loggers are out of the bush already in many areas. That could have a deleterious impact on local sawmills, pulp mills, pellet mills and all other related industries and suppliers who depend on an adequate supply of sawlogs in inventory.

Could get very interesting this summer if we don’t start seeing some precipitation soon – fires, early shift, forest closures, mill curtailments…..

sparrow, when you say older drivers your referring to those over 40 aren’t you? And remember it the right lane for slower drivers not the left, strange that once “you” get a bit older the memory can be off a bit eh.

Laid-off Alberta oil field workers stranded, told to find their own way home.

oldman1 I thought I heard that their company went broke.

All you so called good young drivers will become Seniors one Day, unless you like to sign out early !

The Liberals don’t enforce the laws that are already on the books, so don’t expect them to do much about slow drivers in the left lane. Especially when you consider that you need to be in the left lane to turn left. You can hardly ticket people for slowing down in the left lane to make a left turn.

As ski51 states. Its all B.S.

I hope on my Trip home the two Big trucks taking up both lanes on Mud River Hill where not driven by Seniors , I never could see them, I was not able to pass and the 3rd Lane downhill was not free, I think that’s where the Young Driver pass!

Posted on Friday, March 13, 2015 @ 9:57 AM by sparrow

Big thank you to the Transportation Minister for the announcement that the province is going to crack down with tougher enforcement of the law already on the books and fine those who putter along in the right lane of all 4 lane highways in BC.

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I understand it’s a new law with more teeth rather then tougher enforcement of the existing laws.

It would be nice to see those logging truck drivers who hog the left lane while keeping pace with the logging truck in the right lane get a few tickets.

Good afternoon to all my friends in George. Its balmy 18c and looks like more showers coming up. For those of you that check the environment Canada air quality will nonce how nice and fresh our air quality is here in the Valley. Its just the dummies that keep talking about Oderorford

I see we are back to driving habits today and this new tougher regulation on left lane hogs.

Even our great government doesn’t understand how one should drive on our streets and highways. They are two different roads that we travel. Its not the same driving down Ospika Blvd as driving on a provincial highway.

In the City you have a different pattern where drivers get onto a street and frequently leave a street. It is a COURTESY to keep left and the right lane is for off on traffic. Who cares what the rules are.

When you get onto a provincial highway and the speed limit is 120 km’s its another ball game. You keep right except to pass . The big problem is that noone drives the speed limit and the speeders screw up the traffic pattern. There are no rules or regulations that can rectify this problem. There is only one rule that’s important and that is “be observant and yee shall survive”.
Cheers

Herbster you are not getting a bang for you buck on where our troops should be. I’ll give you a clue. We have billions invested in our armed forces and Mr. Harper just cant see them sitting around doing nothing. And he doesn’t care on how they come on a flight or in a box.

It is mind boggling why we spend all this money on our armed forces we will never be a military power. But it does make a lot of bucks for Harpers friends in military supplies.

Does that help Herbster.
Cheers

Well for once I agree with retired02 – except I still don’t give a crap about the weather I’m Abbotsford. By the way it was a balmy 13 degrees here I’m PG but I digress.

My point is about the keep left except to pass thing.

I’ve lost count how many times people need to be reminded that is a highway law, NOT an urban law.

As retired02 points out, the left lane on four lane urban roads is not a passing lane. It is for traffic capacity and for people turning off and onto the road.