Emergency Services Files - March 2015

Our Archive of items of law enforcement and other emergency responders in Northwestern British Columiba.

From the North Coast Review

March 31 -- Three month drug investigation leads to cocaine trafficking charges for Prince Rupert man
March 18 -- RCMP hail work of volunteers for clean up mission at unauthorized gun range
March 17 -- Prince Rupert RCMP re-issues Wolf Waring
March 12 -- City looks to pick up RCMP detachment issue where they left off in 2012
March 2 -- RCMP look to shut down illegal shooting range near Highway 16

Media From Across the Northwest

Prince Rupert/Port Edward/Haida Gwaii/North Coast

March 25 -- Fire strikes Sixth Avenue home
March 24 -- Prince Rupert Man Faces Cocaine Trafficking Charges
March 17 -- Prince Rupert RCMP re-issue wolf warning
March 4 -- Prince Rupert RCMP crack down on illegal gun range along Highway 16 (audio)
March 2 -- Firearms Safety in Port Edward (video)
March 2 -- Prince Rupert RCMP issue Firearms Safety Alert
March 2 -- RCMP to Clamp down on Unauthorized Shooting Range

Terrace/Kitimat and elsewhere

March 30 -- Ambulances busy at time of accident near Terrace
March 25 -- Sentencing in Kitimat murder conviction case (video)
March 25 -- Thornhill needs more volunteer firefighters
March 25 -- Young Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murder of Kitimat Woman
March 25 -- Smithers Council and Fire Hydrant issues (video)
March 25 -- Fire Hydrant will cost religious group Twenty Thousand Dollars
March 20 -- Police arrest suspicious man, seize stolen items
March 20 -- Community involvement emphasized by Terrace RCMP inspector
March 20 -- Fallen Mountie Honoured with Memorial Park
March 20 -- Property Seized, Police Looking for Owners
March 19 -- Terrace Park named for slain RCMP officer
March 19 -- Constable Mike Buday Park Dedication (video)
March 18 -- Terrace Service Report
March 17 -- Terrace Service Report
March 17 -- Fake Oxy may be behind Kitimat Overdoses: RCMP
March 17 -- Full time bylaw office coming to Terrace
March 16 -- Thornhill calls out to potential volunteer firefighters
March 16 -- Terrace Service Report
March 15 -- Terrace Cop hit with heavy fine for hunting offences
March 13 -- Terrace Service Report
March 12 -- Terrace Service Report
March 12 -- Charges Approved in Kitimat Arson
March 12 -- Kitimat Arson Arrests (video)
March 12 -- Arson charges laid in Kitimat
March 12 -- Highway 37 Crash delays traffic
March 11 -- Terrace RCMP looking for Wanted Man
March 11 -- Wanted for alleged Drug trafficking
March 11 -- Terrace RCMP seeking Wanted Man Henry Haydon
March 11 -- Snow-damaged chimney sparks fire
March 4 -- In Terrace, a 91 year-old man spends four years pursuing a civil suite agains the RCMP
March 4 -- Cries for help
March 3 -- Usk homeowner fends off blaze

Ketchikan/Southeast Alaska

March 24 -- Wiring blamed for fatal house fire Monday
March 19 -- USCG crews getting certified on machine guns
March 2 -- Welfare check leads to felony drug charges

Archive of month to month reviews

RCMP look to shut down illegal shooting range near Highway 16

The Prince Rupert RCMP is looking for the assistance of the public in bringing to an end an unsafe practice not far from Highway 16, near Port Edward.

In recent days, members of the detachment have investigated concerns related the unauthorized used of firearms just outside of the urban areas of the community.

In a media release on Monday, the local detachment outlined how an area just off of Highway 16 is being used as an illegal gun range, a situation that the RCMP would like to bring to an end as quickly as possible.

While we understand that community members have used this area for shooting practice for a very long time we feel that in order to ensure public safety, the community must be made aware that this area is not a designated shooting facility ...We would also like to advise that there is a fully authorized shooting club within Prince Rupert’s municipal boundary that can be used for shooting practice and other designated shooting activities. -- Constable Matt Ericson, Prince Rupert RCMP

Below are two maps that put the location of the illegal shooting range into perspective, the first is an overview of location identified by the RCMP, relative to Port Edward and Prince Rupert.

The second a more centralized view as to where off Highway 16 the site is located.

Red marker indicates location of illegal
gun range related to Prince Rupert and Port Edward

Larger overview of location of illegal gun range
found just off highway 16 heading towards Port Edward 

As part of their information release, the RCMP reminded residents of the region of the various regulations that are in effect when it comes to the discharge of a firearm in the area in question.

You can review those notes here.

Should anyone have information related to the incidents in question they are asked to contact the local detachment at 250-627-0700 or through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477)

For more items related to RCMP and Emergency Services files in the Northwest see our archive page here.

Northwest will be well represented at all levels of Provincials in 2015

As we outlined on the blog yesterday, the Charles Hays Rainmakers punched their ticket to the 2015 Provincials, with a convincing string of victories in the NorthWest Zones.

The Rainmaker success on Saturday, sending Mel Bishop's squad on to Langley for a return engagement, looking to complete the mission that had them finish second overall in 2014.

And while the Rainmaker story in itself is going to capture a bit of attention at AAA Provincials, they are not the only squad from the Northwest making the trip to Langley this year.

In Single A ball,  Bulkley Valley Christian out of Smithers will be looking to claim some provincial bragging rights, as they kick off their Provincial tournament with a game one match up with Kelowna Christian.  The Bulkley Valley team heads into the tournament rated at number 5 overall of the sixteen qualifiers.

2015 Single A Tournament Draw for Langley 

Double A ball features Kitimat's Mount Elizabeth on their way to Langley with at tough task right out of the gate.  To open up the AA tournament, Mount Elizabeth rated at number 16, takes on the number one seed St. Michael's University school.

2015 AA Tournament Draw for Langley

The final tournament of the Provincials is the Big Show of the AAAA tournament and once again, the week long showcase will find North Coast residents and those on Haida Gwaii watching with interest as to the fate of the representatives from the islands.

As they did last year, Queen Charlotte Secondary has qualified for Provincials,  offering up some fascinating story lines as one of the smallest schools in the province takes on the largest of the basketball programs in BC.

Queen Charlotte Secondary launches their quest for a title against the Abbotsford's Yale in opening round action, with tip off on March 11that 10:15 AM.

2015 AAAA Tournament Draw for Langley

You can review the full tournament package for each Division below.

A Tournament March 11-14

AA Tournament March 11-14

AAAA Tournament March 11-14

A preview of all four Tournaments was presented on Sunday afternoon, as Chris Kennedy and Howard Tsumura offered up some snapshots of each team as they make their preparations for the Provincials.  You can check out the Tournament of interest to you below:



As we get closer to Tournament week, we'll offer up wider coverage of both the Rainmaker and Queen Charlotte quest of a title, while keeping an eye on the developments in the Single and Double A tournaments.

To review our past items of note on High School Basketball in 2014-15 see archive page here.

Opening Day Draw announced for AAA Provincials, Rainmakers to face Mark Isfeld on Day One

The pre tournament hype for the British Columbia High School Championships was launched on Sunday afternoon with a one hour special stream cast of the Opening round draws for all four levels of the Boy's tournament for March 11-14.

The Opening round schedule was previewed Sunday by Chris Kennedy and the Vancouver Province's Howard Tsumura, who offered up some intriguing notes about what may lay ahead for the Rainmakers as they make their Langley return.

For the Charles Hays Rainmakers, the opening tip off comes up on March 11th at 1:45 as the Northwest Zone champs take on Mark Isfeld from Courtenay.

The Ice advanced following the Vancouver Island championships over the weekend, one of three Island teams to make the trip across to Langley.











The Rainmakers will head into the AAA Tournament rated as the number four seed, among the sixteen teams that have qualified for the 2015 Championships.

Charles Hays won't be quite the unknown this year that they were one year ago, Tsumura has made sure of that, with frequent mentions of the Rainmaker squad and a feature article two weeks ago.

That review highlighted the path of Mel Bishop's Charles Hays team this year and in particular put some focus on the season that Justin McChesney has had in Rainmaker green and blue this year.

Not surprisingly, based on their play of the 2014 tournament, the pair suggested that the Rainmakers will be a presence in the tournament. With the provincial stage making for another opportunity for McChesney to continue to showcase his skills on the large stage in Langley.

As part of their pre-tournament observations, they marked the Rainmakers as a team to watch in this years draw. Creating even at this early stage, for a bit of the buzz for the Provincials.

The pair made note as to how hard the Rainmakers have fought to get back to the provincials, and will be a team that could find a lot of support from the LEC crowd should they begin to make another run at title this March.

Heading into the Provincials, the team to beat is Charles Tupper, ranked number one at the AAA level, a squad that the Rainmakers are familiar with from their travels to the south in 2014-15.

Most recently taking the Tupper squad on in January, with the Rainmakers coming within three points  in a thrilling 55 to 52 match up at the Pitt Meadows Air Show.

And for those looking for omens of potential success, the odds would seem good that a team with the name Charles will find success at this years Provincial.

Besides the Charles Hays Rainmakers, and Sir Charles Tupper squad, Charles Best has also qualified for Tournament action. As they head towards the March 14th championship game, the Rainmakers will be looking to make sure that at least one of the teams representing a Charles makes it into the banner battle.

You can review the full AAA overview from Tsumura and Kennedy starting at the 34 minute mark on the video below.

The remainder of the program offers up a breakdown of all the tournaments in play in Langley this month.




As we get closer to Tournament time we'll expand on our AAA Provincials coverage, until then you can keep up on all the developments from the Tournament website, Facebook page and twitter feed.

As well, the CHSS Twitter Feed will offer up more background on the Rainmaker preparations for their trip south.

The Charles Hays Senior Boy's are not the only team to be looking for a run at Provincials.

This week the Junior Girl Rainmakers take to the Court in their tournament at Langley. Their first game comes up on Wednesday against the number one ranked Lord Tweesmuir

Our page dedicated to their travels in the Fraser Valley will launch tomorrow.

To warm you up for tournament time, you can review the road to Langley from our archive page here.

Prince Rupert Real Estate Tracker, week ending March 1, 2015

Our weekly review of the local listings of the local real estate agents, tracking those properties which appear to be driving the local price structure for the North Coast.

Every Monday, we look over the listing prices of the past seven days and outline the Top 10 asking prices in the area, providing a snap shot as to where the Real Estate market may be trending on a week to week basis.

The listings below are purely for information purposes, for further background on the properties recorded, see our links page for access to the individual real estate listings.

The Archive for our weekly review can be found here.

Our list of the top ten priced homes for the week ending March 1 is below:

Prince Rupert Real Estate
March 1 2015 West Side

Prince Rupert Real Estate
March 1 2015 East Side

One new listing has broken into the upper rankings of our review this week, as a property on Silversides on the east side of the city makes its debut this week.

As it has been for a few weeks now, it is the West Side of the city that hosts the majority of the listings, with eight of the homes listed at over 469,000 dollars among the ten. The east side of the city counts two location for the week for your review.

The high end shifts to a property on 2nd Avenue West, which now claims the top of listings for the week.

Below our findings as of the Week ending March 1, 2015

1942-46 2nd Avenue W       $659,000  --  Royal Lepage
2040 Graham Avenue --       $650,000  --  Royal Lepage
160 Van Arsdol Street--       $649,000   -- Royal Lepage
2126 Graham Avenue --       $615,000  --  Royal Lepage
2044 Graham Avenue--        $549,000  --  Remax
1229 Conrad Street --           $525,000   --  Royal Lepage
1711 Sloan Avenue --           $499,900   --  Royal Lepage
216 Silversides Drive --        $489,000   --  Remax (new listing)
1765 Sloan Avenue --           $475,000   --  Remax
1701 Sloan Avenue ---          $469,000   --  Remax

For more items related to Real Estate see our archive page here.

For background on Housing issues in the region see our past items here.

Rainmakers go undefeated in NorthWest Zones! Claiming title and advancing to AAA Provincials

High energy on the court and an enthusiastic and loud crowd in the stands, made for some showcase basketball this past week. As the Charles Hays Rainmakers hosted the AAA Northwest Zones at the Prince Rupert Boulevard campus.

Following three days of entertaining competition, when the final basket had been counted, it was the host Rainmakers that were ready to make the travel plans to Langley, as Charles Hays claimed the tournament title with three convincing decisions along the way.

The Rainmakers began the tournament on Thursday evening with long time rival Caledonia in Chuck's house. A familiar visitor over the years, there have been some epic battles between the two Northwest communities, rivalries that run up and down the various levels of high school basketball.

Thursday night however belonged to the Rainmakers, who took charge of things early and never really looked back knocking down Caledonia by a score of 84-35.

That put the Terrace school looking to fight their way back into picture when they met up with Smithers the next day. However the Bulkey Valley squad, which has been making some noise of its own through this 2014-15 season came as advertised.

The Friday afternoon game at CHSS offered up some tough back and forth play, with both squads competing hard through the entire match. However, the final buzzer delivered the knock out blow on Caledonia, as Smithers claimed victory with a 50 to 43 victory over the Terrace squad.

Friday's schedule wasn't kind to the Gryphons,  offering up a tough situation for the visiting Smithereens. Providing for a turn around game at 7:30 in the evening that would see them tipping off against the defending zone champ Rainmaker squad, a group that was chomping at the bit for another chance to head to Langley.

With a boisterous crowd, one heavily inclined towards the Rainmakers bringing the gym to a fever pitch, the Charles Hays squad began to push hard into the third quarter, putting some distance between themselves and the visitors, registering the Rainmakers second victory of the tournament by a score of 67 to 43.

The Friday night match up set the table for Saturday's Northwest Zones Final, a Noon hour showcase that found the Smithers team hardly intimidated by their hosts, battling hard to keep pace with the Rainmakers.

A shot of the action between
Charles Hays and Smithers this weekend at Zones,
Many more photos at CHSS Sports twitter feed

In the end, the experiences learned from this season started to pay off for Charles Hays heading toward the mid way portion of the game, with the Rainmakers taking a 53 to 30 lead into the half, a string of three point conversions opening up the widening gap on the scoreboard.

Once the teams took to the court for the final half of the championship game, the Rainmakers kept the Gryphons at a distance, making sure that the determined Smithers squad didn't begin to chip away at the CHSS lead.
pressure on the

Three quarter time found a twenty point spread between clubs and from that point, with the prospect of Langley on their horizon, Mel Bishop's squad brought the game home.

Solid defensive play stymied the Gryphons attack, though not without a few tense moments in the final five minutes of play as Smithers put on an impressive late game push.

The Rainmakers adjusted quickly however to the Smithers attack, settling down the play and securing their berth in the Provincials with an 84 to 71 final score.

The Rainmakers finishing off their Zones going undefeated and having scored 235 points over three games, while surrendering only 149.

The thirteen point difference of the final, doesn't properly highlight the amount of heart that the Gryphons showed as they battled hard keep their Provincials hopes alive.

Through the weekend, the Smithers team was one that lived up to the buzz that has started to be heard about the Gryphons program, offering up the prospect of some very competitive basketball to come across the region in the years to come.

You can capture some of the excitement of the Northwest Zones from the CHSS Sports twitter feed, the CHSS portal which has provided comprehensive information on the Rainmakers at all levels.

With updates, commentary, as well as a number of photos and videos that provided snapshots of the enthusiasm for high school hoops over the three days of Zones, the CHSS twitter feed was (and is) the go to place for any Rainmaker information.

With the mission complete of picking up another Northwest Zones banner to be raised in the Charles Hays Gym, the Rainmakers can now turn their attention to the AAA Championships at the Langley Events Centre.

The Rainmakers will now make use of the lessons learned from the last three days of basketball and from the season just completed, putting it all together as they prepare for the challenges ahead in their blue print for 2015.

The opening draw for Provincials was held on Sunday afternoon, as the day one match ups were set.

During the pre-tournament event, which was streamed live from Langley, the Charles Hays squad learned that they will tip off their journey at 1:30 on on March 11th, when they take on Mark Isfeld of Courtenay.

You can start your research on the Provincials from a range of options, there is the AAA Provincial's website, Facebook page and twitter feed.

As well as those tournament resources, the twitter feed BCHoopScoop offers up a large volume of notes and observations on all of the teams participating in the various levels of Provincials in March.

For more on the Rainmakers road to Langley, see our archive page here.

Blog Watching, Week ending March 1, 2015

Our weekly review of the most read items of the last seven days finds interest in the Charles Hays Senior Boy's Basketball team peaking at just the right time.

With our preview and update page for the AAA Zones proving to be a popular destination this week.

Plans from the new President and CEO of Petronas to come to BC to talk LNG with the government also attracted a high rate of readers this week.

As did the Financial overview of the recent Municipal Election campaign, with our account of the Elections BC reports a frequently reviewed item through the week.

Rounding out our five top items, a pair of items that came up as a result of this week's Budget Presentation to Council. With our notes on the $925,000 subsidy for the Airport Ferry and a notice from the RCMP that it's time for a new detachment building attracting a strong audience as well.

Leading it all off this week however, was Rainmaker Basketball and our preview of the AAA Northwest Zones, with frequent return visits to view the scoreboard through the tournament.

The Road to Provincials  2015 runs through Prince Rupert  -- Our anchor page for the Northwest AAA Zones tournament at Charles Hays proved popular, as readers checked back frequently.  As a side note, the Rainmakers won the final game 84-71 and now advance to the AAA Provincials in Langley March 11-14 (posted February 26, 2015)

That item was followed by:

Petronas and the B. C. Government make a date in March for discussion on LNG project  --  The new President and CEO of Petronas Wan Aulkiflee Wan Ariffin announces plans to travel to BC in March for discussions on LNG with the Provincial government. (posted February, 23 2015)

Elections BC delivers Prince Rupert's Financial Review for Municipal election 2014  --  Mayor Lee Brain collected the most money and spent the most during the 2014 election campaign, his report and those of all the candidates for office were posted to the Elections BC website this week (posted  February 24, 2015)

Airport Ferry to sail with $925,000 subsidy in 2015   -- The Budget Report delivered this week by the City's Financial Officer provided the latest breakdown on Airport Ferry revenues and expenses
(posted February 26, 2015)

RCMP  deliver final letter related to new detachment requirements  -- City Council received notice from the City's Financial Officer that the RCMP have delivered their final letter of notice regarding a new detachment building for the city.  If the City does not move forward on plans for one, the RCMP can now build their own and send the City the bill (posted  February 25, 2015 )

You can find our Blog watching featured posted every Sunday morning by 9AM, a handy way to catch up to the week that was, at a leisurely weekend pace.

For those looking for updates to items as they are posted to the blog, don't forget about our email alert access.

A daily review of the latest items on the blog can be delivered to your email in box, simply by entering your email address into the information bar, items posted to the blog will be delivered to your e-mail account each day.

You can find the link to that feature on the upper, right hand side of the blog. Underneath the Follow the North Coast Review by Email indicator.

Our archive of weekly Blog Watching  can be found here.