Corkymania

Simply the best

NDP delegates and Skeena’s MLA
are in different camps in the NDP
leadership race\NEWS A10

From sushi to snowboards,
Kingfish to Terrace Mountain, here
are your faves\COMMUNITY B1

| Pride on ice

Terrace figure skaters came back
from Dawson Creek with six, count
‘am, six medals\SPORTS B14

WEDNESDAY
February 9, 2000

ov’t agencies split on emoke plan

Legion smoke room
okay with WCB, but
liquor inspectors

can't be sent inside

By ALEX HAMILTON
TERRACE LEGION president Pat Smith
believed he had the perfect solution to
keep both the Workers’ Compensation
Board and his smokers happy.

He was wrong.

Legion members want to build a sep-
arate smoking area inside the new
building they’re planning to construct
this summer, but the Liquor Control and
Licensing Branch has nixed the idea.

The tiquor branch will not license a

designated smoking room because its

inspection officers wouldn’t be able to
conduct routine checks without being
subjected to the risks of tobacco smoke.

Liquor branch official Helen Ped-
neault said because the new WCB non-
smoking regulations specifically say no
employer may direct any employee into
a designated smoking room, the Le-
gion’s smoking room can’t be licensed.

Pedneault explained liquor branch in-
spectors perform 1,600 compliance
checks a year in drinking holes across
the province to ensure pub owners aren't
serving alcohol to ‘minors or intoxicated
customers,

She said it wouldn’ t be possible for
inspectors to do checks standing outside
and looking in through awindow. ~~

“You have to, be able to walk through

and observe what’s going on al close

hand,” Pedneault said. “This is just the
current law and there’s no movement
afoct to change that.”

Smith is disappointed with the liquor
branch and the WCH’s unwillingness to
compromise, .

“Here we are offering the government
an alternative, but we don’t even get a
chance,” Smith said.

“We-can’t solve the problem because
of another government jurisdiction.”

Smith said he’s offered solutions-to
the problem, like having the liquor
branch inspectors wear gas masks when
they come, but according to him, the
government won't budge.

“Businesses can’t even try to do the
right thing,” he said.

Smith, who smokes, said he’s trying

to accommodate Legion members wha

puff because they make up the majority
of regular customers.

Liquor and food sales there are down
by 30 per cent, he added.

“The smokers still come, but not for
he same duration of time,” Smith ex-
plained. “It’s a quieter atmosphere down
at the branch.”

WCB spokesman Scott McCloy said

talks are underway with the liquor branch

_to find a solution.

“While we respect the Liquor Control
and Licensing Branch’s concer ta pro-
tect their workers, we believe there are
solutions that will protect everybody’s
needs,” McCloy said,

“We’re not in the business of banning
smoking, we’re in the business of protect-
ing workers,” he said, adding he’s hope-
ful something can be worked out.

Health
forums
dumped

HEALTH CARE officials
grappling with ways to
better spend scarce health
care dollars have backed
away from plans for public
meetings across the region.
. . Instead; theyll gather~
with selected groups or in- -
dividuals who have a stake
in health care, says the
man in charge of the effort.

Tony Briglio says the
decision reflects the limit-
ed time health officials’
have to submit a plan for
regional health services to
the provincial government.

The plan has to be sent
to the health ministry by
early summer, said Briglia
who also chairs the North
Coast Community. Health
Council in Prince Rupert.

“What we're going ta
do is have our CEQs [from
northwestern CHCs] iden-
tify stakeholder groups en
specific issues,” he said.

“We didn’t want to be
caught up in an issue that
would take a month or two
or three to deat with.”

The regional study is to
cost nearly $200,000.

The tack, of public
meetings should not be
taken as a sign members
of the public are being fro-
zen Gut, said Briglio.

“What we would hope
is that people would attend

their community health
council meetings and bring
up any questions they
might have,” he said.
Those issues. would then
be taken to the regional
group for consideration.
Meetings of the region-

al group may have to ac-
celerate, he added, to
complete the. study on
time and agree on where
regional health care serv-
ices should be and how

= Dazzling day

~ SHAMES MOUNTAIN was sparkling Sunday Jan. 31st under brilliant sunshine and blue skies, Chris’
Cordts and not quite three-year-old Tania were among the sklers taking to the slopes.

they should be managed.

Prosecutors to stage job action

CRIMINAL COURTS may grind to a halt for
two days next week when prosecutors provine-

e-wide will refuse work to back their demand
to form a union.

Instead of hearing cases Feb. 15 and 16,
Terrace’s three provincial Crown lawyers -
who have worked without a contract since
March 1998 ---will participate in a video con-

ferencing study session with the B.C. Crown |

Counsel Association, which has represented
their interests throughout the dispute.
Three weeks ago 97 per cent.of the associa-

tion’s 400 prosecutors voted’ in.favour of job

action. In northern B.C., 30 of 32 Crown prose-
cutors vated in favour of job action.

Terrace prosecutor Grant Lindsey said there “

may be some private lawyers here willing to
handle Crown cases for those two days but
otherwise, provincial criminal matters will
have to be rescheduled.

Lindsey said Crown counsels want the gov-
etnment to recognize its association as a col-
lective. That way employment issues can be
settled through mandatory non-binding arbitra-
tion every five years.

- “It requires some changes in legislation to
- let us unionize,” said Lindsey,

‘1 For now, the lawyers want the B.C, povern-

‘ment to accept a report it commissioned that

recommended granting of collective bargain-~
_ing rights to Crown counsel, immediate arbi- _
tration to settle outstanding finaticlal. issues. -

and the adoption of an orderly process to settle
outstanding disputes in the future.

They asked the Public Service Employee
Relations Commission (PSERC), to accept
the recommendations by Feb. 1 but that dead-
line passed without talks, said Lindsey. .

“They won’t talk to us,” said Lindsey.
“They. say: they. need direction from the Attor-
ney General's office.” .

So far, Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh has

‘refused to negotiate directly with prosecutors,

saying they need to talk to PSERC,

“We're running in circles,” said Lindsey, -
who wondered whether Dosanjh's run: for the:
“NDP leadership has anything:to do_ with. the. "

Bovernment's, refusal, to negotiate. « ss

Treaty hits
the Senate

By JEFF NAGEL

THE NISGA’A Treaty
is under scrutiny in Otta-
wa again and this time it’s

the Senate’s turn to probe

the intricacies of the deal.

Senators, who resumed
sitting Tuesday after an
eight-week recess, are ex-

pected to give the federal

treaty legislation second
reading as early as next
week,

After that it goes to
committee for detailed
discussion and debate.

That’s where senators in
the upper chamber —
whose job is to give legis-
lation. passed by the House
of Commons a sober sec-
ond look — are likely to
spend the most time ana-
lyzing Bill C-9,

Nisga’a strategists
aren't expecting quick
passage of the treaty.

They say all indications

-are the treaty is exactly

the type of legislation the
Senate will want to chew
ona while and spend time
making sure there are no
issues the House of Com-
mons failed to uncover in

debate last fall.

“We're not famous for:
rushing legislation through
the Senate,” admitted
B.C. Liberal Senator Jack
Austin, who will lead the.

debate on the treaty legis-

lation. .

He said it’s likely the
bill will be :handled: by
aboriginal peoples.-¢

mittee, although’ the legal

and constitutional affairs’
committee is another pos-
sibility,

“lm not anticipating
that the committee will
come to B,C,,” said Aus-
tin, adding a House of
Commons committee al-
ready went on the road
last fall.

Hearings will likely in-
stead be conducted in Ot-
tawa.

“It seems there are qu-
ite a Jarge number of wit-
nesses who would like to
appear on both sides of the
question,” he said. _

“Liberals and. Conserva-
tives, who ‘were united in:
"Supporting t the treaty in- the’.

$1.00 PLUS 7¢ ¢ GsT

(51.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the

Terrace area) -

VOL, 42 NO, a4 .

Pat Smith

House, hold 97 of the 105
Senale seats.
With no Reformers in
the upper chamber, it’s tin-
likely anything will hap-
pen there close to Re-
form's attack on the treaty
‘that culminated in 43
hours of marathon voting
on 471° proposed amend-
ments to the treaty.
Austin said that. will
probably mean debate will
focus more on the finer de- aft
tails of -the deal, rather ed
than its guiding principles.
Some’ senators, he ad-
ded, think Gitanyow na-
tives have to get a full
hearing because of their
overlapping claim with the

Nisga’a.

“We're not
famous for rush-
ing legislation
through the '
- Senate.”

~ Others want: to explore
the. treaty’ s ‘constitutional
issues, in: . particular
whether it créates a third
order of government as Bae
claimed by treaty critics. oe
“L.expect the (Gordon)
Campbell people will
come and ‘give evidence,
and express their usual
views," Austin: said.
The treaty pasped fhe.
3 by, a vote. 7

“come. from wee
tive: senators: Pat Carney -
and Gerry St. Germain,
who have both asked to
speak on the deal,

Austin said he’ has
studied the treaty at length
and is largely satisifed
with answers be’ § re-
ceived,

“A lot of my co
I-would call th@aar
cerns. of the yet-to-be-in-
formed — I have settled,”
he said, “I am still alert
for anything I may not un-
derstand or may not appre-
ciate in its accurate light.”

- There. ‘are, “six. ¢_ Senators
from B.C, LO,