Events from 1971

The $4.3 million BC Tel building was under construction on Sixth Avenue. Pre-cast slabs used as exterior cladding gave the building a modern appearance. Although the original concept called for an identical building to be added onto it for future expansion, the addition was never built.

A 135-bed addition to the hospital was constructed. A donor who wished to remain anonymous gave $5,000, the largest individual donation the hospital had ever received, to help furnish the addition.

The CRTC hearings in October did not hear the application by BCTV to bring a second television station to Prince George. BCTV President Ray Peters had promised in January that he would bring an affiliate station to the city by the end of the year. The application would be put to a November meeting in Ottawa.

Later in October, Dunkley Lumber owners announced they had installed a smokeless burner which would cut smoke and fly ash by 99 per cent. They hailed it as the answer for mills which would all have to meet the air quality standards expected to be imposed by the BC government in 1972. Bill Dunkley noted that, for the first time, the snow all around the burner was white. The Dunkleys made the modifications to their burner with about $30,000 in labour and materials. They expected to recover their initial investment within three years, through the savings on yard cleanup costs alone. With the design refined, the cost of duplicating the burner was estimated to be closer to $20,000.

In November, Mayor Harold Moffat cut the ribbon at the official opening of the library’s $87,650 expansion. The mayor had made an emphatic stand against the library’s budget and plans for expansion, but the library board chairman, Daphne Baldwin, insisted on his participation in the ceremony.

Plans were unveiled for construction of a government building at Victoria Street and Third Avenue to house the Bank of British Columbia and federal offices. The lot, at the corner of the major downtown intersection, had been vacant for two years.

Toward year’s end, City Council voted in support of the construction of a $2.4 million parkade that would straddle Brunswick Street at Second Avenue. The structure was designed to hold 560 cars, and featured ground level retail space for a "mall effect" at street level.