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EDMONTON (CP) — Peter Lougheed, the man with a bulldog chin and crooked grin who transformed Alberta into a modern petro-powered giant and an equal player in Confederation, has died.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office confirmed the 84-year-old former premier’s death Thursday.

“On behalf of all Canadians, Laureen and I offer our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Peter Lougheed,” Harper said in a statement.

“Today Canada lost a truly great man. Peter Lougheed was quite simply one of the most remarkable Canadians of his generation.”

The Calgary-born lawyer and Alberta premier from 1971 to 1985 leaves behind a profound record of achievement and influence on public policy.

He took the reins of the fledgling Progressive Conservatives in 1965 and within six years had built a party that turfed a decades-old Social Credit dynasty and launched one of his own that continues to this day.

As oil prices shot to stratospheric levels in the 1970s, Lougheed became a provincial folk hero and a nationally recognized figure for his epic battles with Ottawa over control of Alberta’s black gold.

He kick-started petroleum diversification by nurturing oilsands development which now sprawls throughout northern Alberta, has brought the province billions of dollars and made it the economic driver of the country.

He fostered arts, culture and tourism and took the legislature into the modern age of communication.

He created a multibillion-dollar nest egg Heritage Savings Trust Fund as oil revenue began to pour in and championed medical research.

He helped patriate the Constitution and fought for a notwithstanding clause to ensure Canada would ultimately be governed by legislators and not the courts.

He championed bilingualism and in retirement spoke out against the Kyoto accord to control greenhouse gases, but urged caution over the environmental effects from unbridled growth of the oilsands.

He has served as mentor and role model for a generation of politicians, including current Alberta Premier Alison Redford.

This spring his endorsement of Redford and her policies during the general election campaign was seen as a pivotal boost that delivered another majority to the Tories.

“Overall, I think he goes down in my books as one of the giants of Canadian history,” said former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow, who came to know Lougheed well during the constitutional debates of the 1970s and ’80s.

“He always had foremost in his mind the development of Alberta, but also the development of Canada, because he saw the two going side by side. He really, really was an exceptional human being, a warm human being — just an exceptional Canadian.”

Harper called him a “master politician, gifted lawyer, professional-calibre athlete and philanthropist” and said he was instrumental in laying the foundation for the robust economic success that Alberta enjoys today.

“He was a driving force behind the province’s economic diversification, of it having more control of its natural resources and their development, of Alberta playing a greater role in federation and of improving the province’s health, research and recreational facilities,” the prime minister said.

“Mr. Lougheed did all of these things for his province while also working tirelessly towards a strong and united Canada.”

Edgar Peter Lougheed was born July 26, 1928, into an established family that had politics in its blood. His grandfather, James, had served in the Senate and in the cabinets of Conservative prime ministers Robert Borden and Arthur Meighen.

His father was a lawyer and, in 1952, 23-year-old Peter was also awarded a law degree. Two years later, he earned an MBA from Harvard. As an undergrad at the University of Alberta, Lougheed played football for the Golden Bears and the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos.

He married Jeanne Rogers of Forestburg, Alta., and together they would have four children.

Politics eventually proved irresistible to Lougheed. In 1965, at 36, he took over the Progressive Conservative party and rebuilt it from the ground up. He focused on strong candidates and constituencies, on one-on-one door-knocking and on the new medium of television, which was perfect for the telegenic Lougheed.

In 1971, the Tories won the provincial election and Lougheed set to work growing and diversifying the province.

In his pre-political days, he had spent time working in Tulsa, Okla., and saw a town where the oil resources were spent and the economy was in decline. That, he vowed, wouldn’t happen to Alberta.

He raised oil royalties to underscore provincial control of resources and encouraged a foundation of Alberta-based financial institutions to reduce reliance on central Canadian banks.

He encouraged funding and research into extracting oil from the rich bitumen deposits near Fort McMurray.

To open up the business of government, Lougheed ordered that all daily proceedings in the house be recorded and distributed in Hansard. The same year he ordered daily TV coverage of debates. Both continue to this day.

He looked beyond business, too.

Under Lougheed’s watch, the sprawling wilderness recreation area of Kananaskis Country west of Calgary was created.

Money flowed into the arts and there was support for the Banff Centre, performing arts venues in Edmonton and Calgary and the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival.

But it was his clashes with Ottawa on oil royalties that made him famous.

The oil price increases of the 1970s, spiked by turmoil in the resource-rich Middle East, sent money pouring into Alberta coffers. But the federal government wanted domestic prices kept below world levels and also wanted a share of the wealth.

Lougheed pushed back by refusing a deal with Pierre Trudeau, Liberal prime minister at the time, and later rejecting a similar one offered by Joe Clark and the Conservatives.

In 1980, Trudeau brought in the national energy program, a package of taxes and rules designed to funnel more resource revenues to Ottawa while keeping the domestic price below world levels.

Lougheed took it as a declaration of war.

In an impassioned TV speech, in which he accused the federal government of having moved right into Alberta’s living room, he threatened to cut oil production. In March 1981, Alberta cut its daily output of 1.2 million barrels by 60,000.
Trudeau eventually relented and a face-saving deal was brokered that increased the price of oil and reaffirmed Alberta as the master of its own resources.

Lougheed also took on Trudeau over the patriation of the Constitution in 1982. The package included an amending formula which, in Lougheed’s eyes, gave too much power to Ontario and Quebec and shortchanged the other provinces. He also saw the proposed Constitution as posing a threat to provincial resource ownership.

He began lobbying other premiers and eventually swung seven others against Trudeau.

“From the very outset we felt the federal government and the provinces are equal,” he said long afterwards. “We just refused to take a position of being junior.”

It was a brief encounter involving Lougheed at a first ministers meeting in the 1970s that sticks with Romanow most.

He was deputy premier of Saskatchewan at the time and was at the meeting in place of his boss Allan Blakeney.

Romanow took on Ontario’s premier, Bill Davis, over his contention that oil companies didn’t reinvest profits in oil exploration in eastern Canada.

The Saskatchewan position was to create an oil bank where profits from royalties could be saved and then spent on exploration throughout Canada. Trudeau stepped in. It wouldn’t work, he said, point blank.

Romanow, the only non-premier at 24 Sussex that day, was caught flat-footed in the prime minister’s glare. Lougheed bailed him out, turning the conversation back to the original debate with Davis.

“Afterwards, I walked up to premier Lougheed and I said, ’Peter, I want to thank you very much for saving my bacon with the prime minister. I think he had me in a chokehold on this particular argument,”’ Romanow recalls. “He didn’t see it that way and he had a very big laugh about it.”

It was such a simple thing that, for Romanow, said so much about the man.

“Peter Lougheed always made you feel at home, made you feel as if your views were of importance. He would make suggestions. There was no ... command and control. There was always a very, very collegial dimension to his actions in public policy.”

The Constitution was Lougheed’s last big fight.

He won his fourth straight election that year and moved on three years later.

Since then the number of awards and commendations have been staggering. There are buildings, parks, scholarships and streets named in his honour. He was named to the Order of Canada in 1987 and the Alberta Order of Excellence in 1989. He was an honorary chief of the Cree and Blood First Nations.

This summer, the Institute for Research and Public Policy named him Canada’s best premier in the last 40 years.

In accepting the award, Lougheed told the audience: “Let’s keep building.”

Efforts to find a new well in an Okanagan community have degraded water quality in an existing one.

As a result, a boil-water advisory has again been issued for approximately 150 people served by the Falcon Ridge system in the Joe Rich area, east of Kelowna.

People are advised to boil the water for one minute before using, disinfect it by adding two drops of household bleach per litre of water, or use bottled water.

The area has suffered from poor water quality for years, with frequent boil advisories. Some exploratory drilling has been done to find a new water source, but that activity has increased the cloudiness of water drawn from the existing wall, regional and health authorities say.

An aerial assessment this morning of the Trepanier forest fire evacuation area has revealed it is not safe enough for any more people to return to their homes.
It’s anticipated the earliest any change might be made to the evacuation order for Peachland residents is later this afternoon.
The air scan for hotspots has found at least 65 areas of concern in backyards and close to homes, including the Coldham Road area.
As a result of the aerial assessment, there is also no change in the evacuation status for approximately 17 property owners in the Regional District of Central Okanagan. This includes Star Place and addresses along upper Trepanier Road.

A village webcam shot of Big White Ski Resort on Tuesday shows that winter is not far off... which means neither is ski season. A storm that blew through the Okanagan left snow at the Kelowna mountain as well as at Silver Star near Vernon.

Here's the latest news from the Central Okanagan Emergency Operation Centre, which says there will be no changes the the evacuation orders and alerts from the Perachland fire until Wednesday at the earliest.

The Central Okanagan Emergency Operation Centre advises that there will be no further anticipated changes in the Evacuation Order and Alert areas until mid-morning tomorrow at the earliest.

This is based on the need to ensure public safety and that all areas are safe before allowing residents to re-enter.

Local government staff has been and are continuing an extensive effort to identify and where possible remove hazards that could threaten the safety of residents.  Among these hazards are dangerous trees, falling limbs and ground threats (unexpected holes) as well as ensuring infrastructure (electricity) is intact.  There have also been small isolated active fires identified in the Evacuation area.

Emergency Operation Centre staff are consulting with and constantly reviewing conditions from the field and are working with Incident Commanders to provide guidance on when conditions are safe for residents to return to their homes.

The EOC recognizes the inconvenience faced by the estimated 258 evacuated residents and their families.  There have not been any reported incidents of injuries so far from either first responders or the public.  This is in line with the BC Emergency Management Program which makes safety the top priority.  Everyone involved in the response to the Trepanier forest fire wants to keep that record intact.

It’s anticipated an update on the status of the Evacuation Order and Alerts will be available later tomorrow morning.

Evacuated residents may receive assistance with food, lodging and clothing by visiting the Emergency Support Services reception centre at the Westbank Lions Community Hall, 2466 Main Street in West Kelowna.  ESS will be available until 6:00 pm this evening and will re-open at 9:00 am Wednesday morning.

A comprehensive map of Evacuation Order and Evacuation Alert areas is available on www.cordemergency.ca .

A total of 1,292 people are still on an Evacuation Alert.

BC Hydro continues to work in the fire zone removing hazard trees and replacing several poles damaged as a result of the fire. Power may be off for residents in the Coldham Road and Trepanier Road area, from Upton and Trepanier to end of Trepanier past Hwy 97C, until approximately 9:00 p.m. tonight for repairs to the electrical infrastructure.

The District of Peachland will be in setting up a Recovery Office to support residents who have been affected by the Trepanier Forest Fire. Contact information and further details will be provided on Wednesday.

Information for Residents on Evacuation Alert

Those returning to the area are reminded that hazardous conditions may still exist on private properties.  The public is requested to stay out of fire-affected areas for their own safety.

The Emergency Management BC’s website provides some important information for those returning to their homes after an evacuation.  The booklet One Step at a Time – A Guide to Disaster Recovery can be found at:

www.pep.bc.ca/floods/docs/recoveryguide.pdf

Interior Health also provides some useful information for residents returning to their homes.  It deals with exposure to smoke from forest fires, food safety, water quality and septic tanks and disposal fields and can be found on its website Emergency Preparedness page:

www.interiorhealth.ca/YourEnvironment/EmergencyPreparedness

The Emergency Operation Centre reminds all residents that although the fire affected area may appear safe, serious hazards still remain.  The hazards listed below may not represent all the hazards you may come across.  Please be cautious!

·         Widow Makers – are burnt trees with little or no limbs that have limited structural support and may fall silently at any time.

·         Easy Bake Ovens – burning root structures that leave the surrounding ground unstable and extremely hot.  The roots can burn for days and are extremely dangerous.  These areas may appear as “dinosaur footprints” and must be avoided at all times.

·         Falling Limbs – may occur in any area where trees have been exposed to the fire!

·         Electrical Hazards – Please be aware of fallen power lines (and other utility lines) and power poles affected by the fire.  Some poles may be unstable.  Treat all fallen lines with extreme caution.  If you come across a utility line that may be activated, contact the necessary utility company.

·         Structural Hazards – Some of the homes affected by the fire may have structural hazards, fall hazards, and potentially dangerous gas pockets.  Avoid private properties at all times.  Standing chimneys and walls may appear to be sound.  Be aware the concrete in these structures may be fragile due to excessive heat that may collapse at any time.

·         General Site Safety – Emergency response personnel may be active in many of the areas you are working.  Please DO NOT block access to streets.

·         Wild Animals – The fire may have affected wild animals in the area.  If you spot a bear, cougar, or other animal in distress, please keep your distance and contact the conservation officer service.

New information and updates on the Evacuation Orders and Alerts will be available on the Regional District Emergency Program website www.cordemergency.ca  and updates will also be there and released to the media as soon as it becomes available. Media can contact (250) 469-8493 if needed. Public inquiries can be directed to 1-877-569-8490.

The evacuation order has been lifted for more than 1,100 Peachland residents forced from their homes by the Trepanier wildfire.

"Thanks to favourable weather conditions and excellent firefighting efforts, a portion of the area under evacuation order has been reclassified to an evacuation alert area," says a news release from the Central Okanagan Regional District. "Although residents on the following roads are free to return to their homes, they are reminded that they are on evacuation alert and must still be prepared to leave with little notice."

Here is a list of streets affected:

·         Peachland Elementary School
·         Clements Crescent, including the commercial area
·         Chidley Road
·         1st Avenue
·         2nd Avenue
·         3rd Avenue
·         4th Avenue
·         6th Avenue
·         7th Avenue
·         Pincushion Place
·         Ponderosa Drive
·         Ponderosa Place
·         Clarence Road
·         Greata Road
·         Lang Road
·         Lornell Crescent
·         Lornell Court
·         MacNeill Court
·         Morrison Crescent
·         Morrison Place
·         Shaw Road
·         Sutherland Road
·         Walker Road
·         The following properties on Trepanier Bench Road: 5149, 5151, 5155, 5161, 5165, 5178, 5180, 5217, 5227, 5237, 5329, 5240, 5250, 5260, 5270, 5280, 5290, 5325, 5335
·         The following properties on Huston Road:
·   5108, 5122, 5132, 5136, 5146, 5164, 5178, 5192, 5200, 5208, 5216, 5224, 5232, 5236, 5242, 5246, 5250, 5256, 5262, 5274, 5280, 5286, 5292, 5300, 5334, 5348, 5350, 5352, 5354, 5356, 5358

There are still more than 400 people on evacuation order.

Also, the Evacuation Alert involving properties east of Highway 97 has now been lifted, including the downtown and waterfront areas from Princeton Avenue to Robinson Place, affecting 432 people.

(Photo credit: Bo Skapski)

Tilman Hainle lost his boyhood home in the vicious wildfire that swept down a mountainside near this lakeside Okanagan community Sunday, but Canada lost a piece of history.

The house where Hainle grew up sat abandoned on a former vineyard Hainle had worked for 40 years, the result of a decision to sell the property to a developer last May.

(Pictured is Hainle Winery in Peachland.)

It was also the property where Canada’s first commercially released icewine was created in 1978. Hainle was a teenager when he and his father collaborated on the first of what would become the signature Canadian product.

“It’s a time for mixed emotions,” Hainle said in a sober interview Monday, hours after officials confirmed the house and three other homes were destroyed by the blaze.

“It certainly has a lot of significance, not just in terms of our history but it’s a significant piece of Canadian wine history as well.”

Hainle, 53, said his parents purchased the property in the early 1970s and became among the first in the area to plant European grapes. The creation of the icewine was a product of a father-son experiment.

“We didn’t realize at the time it was so significant,” he said.

Hainle has spent decades in the wine business, with the family vineyard expanding to a surrounding property over the years.

In 2002, the Hainle Vineyard Estate Winery was sold to another operator, while Hainle downsized to the original family homestead and operated a winery and bed and breakfast as the Working Horse Winery, so-named because of the horses he used to help with the work.

Hainle, who now lives on Vancouver Island and is a global winery consultant, said Monday his family was always aware there were fire hazards around the property because it’s an arid part of the province and the vineyard was up against the woods.

“It’s a very fortunate thing that we weren’t operating and had guests on the property or had to worry about getting the horses out in such a hurry like some of the neighbours did.”

The strong winds that sent the fire barrelling toward this lakefront community proved too much for firefighters attempting to keep the blaze away from homes, with gusts of wind acting like flame throwers and destroying four houses.

The fire, which started Sunday near Peachland and moved three kilometres in a little more than an hour, continued to send thick clouds of white smoke over the community Monday, with more than 1,500 residents remaining under an evacuation order.

— The Canadian Press

The strong winds that sent a fire barrelling towards this lakefront community in British Columbia’s Okanagan proved too much for firefighters attempting to keep the blaze away from homes, with gusts of wind acting like flame throwers and destroying four houses.

The fire, which started Sunday near Peachland and moved three kilometres in a little more than an hour, continued to send thick clouds of white smoke over the community Monday, with more than 1,500 residents under an evacuation order.

Three homes and an abandoned house were destroyed, fire officials said, along with several out buildings in the northern and western edges of town. No one was injured.

“The wind was blowing very hard in that area,” Peachland’s fire chief, Grant Topham, told a news conference Monday.

“We had the crews in there and they saved many, many homes. The wind blew the fire into those homes. They tried to save them as best they could; they tried their best. They saved many homes, but unfortunately, there were some they could not, did not save.”

Hundreds more people remain on evacuation alert.

The fire started near a park on the northern edge of Peachland, a community of about 5,200 located 380 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, but it wasn’t clear what caused it. Wind gusts as strong as 50 kilometres an hour fuelled the fire, which quickly grew to two square kilometres.

On Monday, 65 firefighters were at work with the help of water tankers, 17 fire trucks and half a dozen water-bombing helicopters. By mid-morning, officials said they considered the fire 50 per cent contained after a night of cooler temperatures and rain slowed the fire’s spread.

Topham said crews had made progress, but the fire wasn’t under control yet.
“We have areas where there are hot spots, there are trees that are still burning, there are stumps that are still burning,” he said.

“We are expected to get up to possible 50-kilometre winds. We may or may not get rain.”
Elsie Lemke, director of emergency operations for the District of Peachland, said officials were working to contact the residents whose homes were destroyed, but she wasn’t sure how long that might take.

“Our hearts go out to the property owners who have suffered loss because of this fire,” she said.

An emergency reception centre was set up in a community hall in nearby West Kelowna, where volunteers were taking down contact information and offering free hotel stays and other supplies to people who needed it.

Eddie Stadelman, 78, stopped by and secured a two-night stay for him and his wife, who were told to evacuate Sunday evening.

Stadelman said they were about to sit down for “a happy hour,” when gusts of wind prompted him to walk outside to have a look around.

“I looked up and there was smoke, and I knew there was going to be trouble,” said Stadelman, a retired Toronto firefighter.

Stadelman gathered photos, important documents and keepsakes, certain that the evacuation order was only a matter of time. Soon after, a police officer driving by with a loud speaker proved him correct.

“We expected to be evacuated because that wind was blowing and that smoke was rolling,” he said.

“In my mind, I have an escape plan. We had everything, so we just picked it up and put it in the car.”

Stadelman said he can see his house from the highway that runs just north of town, and he could see it was untouched.

Thick smoke lifting up from the mountains to the west of Peachland drifted over town, leaving the taste and smell of burnt wood in the air.

The buzz of helicopters was constant, as a steady stream of water bombers flew to Okanagan Lake before returning to douse the blaze.

The sky had been clear earlier in the morning, but eventually clouded over and residents were hopeful for the forecast that predicted rain.

On the other hand, the winds remained strong, picking up intensity as the day wore on.
Ron Polak noted the increasing winds with worry, wondering whether he and his wife would soon be among those forced out of their homes.

“From my house, through the trees, you can see a lot of smoke,” said the 50-year-old carpenter.

“It was a pretty late night for us.”

Polak said he first heard about the fire from a friend who was watching it from across the street.

“He actually phoned and said he was having some fun watching the fire, and then he got a little nervous and a bunch of us went there and got his stuff out of there and got him out,” he said.

“Next thing I knew, we were trying to get back into town to get other people out.”

Polak noted everyone in the Okanagan is respectful of the awesome power of forest fires. The arid region is home to award-winning wineries, but the same dry conditions that make vineyards a success can pose a forest fire hazard during dry summers.

Nine years ago, a late August forest fire around Kelowna, 25 kilometres up the road from Peachland, forced 27,000 people from their homes and eventually destroyed 239 homes.

“Everybody’s pretty conscious (about the fire risk). It’s the reality,” Polak said.

“2003 was a pretty big fire, but that was on the other side of the lake. This is more in your backyard.”

— The Canadian Press

Fire officials have confirmed that three homes in Peachland have been destroyed by the Trepanier wildfire and one abandoned home in the Central Okanagan West Electoral Area.

Numerous outbuildings have also been impacted. Emergency personnel are formulating a damage assessment and are in the process of notifying affected property owners. Victim Witness Services are working with Emergency Support Services to offer assistance to

affected families.

Peachland Fire Department is receiving support from BC Forestry and neighbouring fire departments including West Kelowna, Kelowna, Lake Country, Summerland, Penticton, North Westside, Ellison and Joe Rich.

Approximately 1,550 people have been ordered to evacuate, with a further 432 placed on evacuation alert. The fire is estimated at 200 hectares and is 50 per cent contained.

Approximately 65 structural firefighters, 70 BC Wildfire Management Branch Firefighters, 17 structural fire apparatus and six helicopters and four water tenders are fighting the fire today.

RCMP and Central Okanagan Search and Rescue volunteers continue to staff checkpoints to ensure security within the Evacuation Area.  Until the Evacuation Order is rescinded, no one will be allowed within the area unless authorized by emergency personnel.