Another rally Protesters say Roger Harris needs to stand up to the Liberals \NEWS A12 Hot Raina Karrer heads south for women's provincial hockey championships \SPORTS B4 on the ice ~~ In demand ees forced to: put her - retirement on A local carver has been $1.00 pLus 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the Terrace alea) Parents striving to save school By JENNIFER LANG TIME IS RUNNING short for parents leading the battle to save E.T. Kenney Primary school. The school district is looking at con- verting the school into a permanent home for its two alternate high school programs. Parents were told last week that a pub- lic meeting tonight at the school district office couldn’t be delayed — and that other school closures across the district may be inevitable due to budget cuts. “This is a decision that will affect our children for life,” said Sasa Loggin, pre- sident of the parent advisory committee at E.T. Kenney. She feared individuals and groups op- posed to the proposal won't have enough time to come up with realistic alterna- tives. A commiltee of Terrace school trustees will hear oral presentations from the public tonight - just one week after parents opposed to the plan packed a school board meeting. Loggin doubted the schoo! board will have enough time to consider suggestions from the public before making a final de- cision next month. “Are they really going to spend their time on individual scenarios, individual schools, to see the human beings behind the numbers for their budget?” E.T, Kenny parent Karen Birkedal said moving 140 primary students to neigh- bouring Clarence Michiel will stretch that school’s present capacity of 330 past the breaking point. “] find it inexplicable and ludicrous to open a brand-new school and talk about putting my child in a portable,” Birkedal said in reference lo the new bench ele- mentary school now under construction. The district’s maintenance department estimates it could cost more than $200,000 to make the necessary renova- ‘tions to Clarence Michiel and E.T. Ken- ney, “Economically, the feasibility study handed out tonight indicates there are major costs to renovating these facili- ties,” Birkedal said. Clarence Michiel parents oppose the plan, too. Clarence Michiel parent advisory council president Anna Beddie doesn’t think the alternate school should be toca- ted so close to an elementary school. She worries the teens will set a bad example. “How many of these kids have crimi- nal records? How many of these kids are on probation?” Beddie said. She indicated the district may have concerns, too, adding the feasibility study looks at how much it would cost to con- struct a fence around E.T. Kenney. She’d rather see the alternate students moved into the old Kalum school at the district office at Kenney St. and Highway 16. That building is presently home to the correspondence school. The district will have to shave about $2.5 million from its operating budget due Cont'd Page A2 Sasa Loggin Natives want a voice a fa RON RAMSEY spent more time than he wanted | to in Mills Memorial Hospital while waiting to go By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN A TERRACE specialist says a shortage of beds for heart patients in Vancouver is putting patients here in danger. Local cardiologist and internal medicine phy- sician Dr. Barrie Phillips says people are frequently spending weeks in Mills Memorial while waiting for beds to open up down south. , “We're waiting an average of at least a week. Some people have waited as long as 15 days in hos- pital,” he said. “At $650 a day in hospital it’s a waste of the government and the peoples’ money.” Phillips says the cost is further increased because patients must be transferred by air ambulance which costs $6,000-$7,000. “The problem is in Vancouver, They need to open up more beds in St. Pavl’s and Vancouver General Hospital so people can be treated faster,” said Phillips. a Ron..Ramsey is one of Phillips’ patients who re- cently spent 11 days at Mills Memorial Hospital waiting for a bed in Vancouver. He needed an angio- gram ~ a simple test which determines if there is a blockage in the heart, Ramsey was admitted to Mills Memorial Feb. 25 Heart patients at risk here tare hie Tid - . ba cown south for a heart procedure. Doctors say this is happening all too often nowadays. and a bed wasn’t made available in Vancouver until March 8. “This happens frequently, I'd say every two or three weeks,” Phillips said of stays such as Ramsey’s, Ramsey said staying in a busy hospital such as Mills with a nursing shortage niade his wait extreme- ly stressful, “It’s virtually impossible to sleep, the last two nights I haven't slept at all,” Ramsey said the day before he left for Vancouver. “But you don’t dare go home because if you do you’re off the heart list.” He added the wait was made more difficult being separated from his family and not knowing when he would get the procedure. . But Dr, Phillips said many patients around the pro- vince don’t make it through the wait to get in. “Some people have died wailing but doctors can’t come out and say who they are,” Phillips said. He said more beds must be open or else more lives could be lost. “It’s not only dangerous it’s also foolish because economically speaking the government would save the money if they did the testing and the surgery faster.” on bid to sell off SCI _ By JEFF NAGEL ABORIGINAL leaders say a new court ruling means the province must listen to them before it sells Skee- na Cellulose to NWBC Timber and Pulp Ltd. Gitanyow, Gitxsan and Tsimshian native leaders say they will use the two-.- - week-ald decision handed down in a case involving the Haida to get their con- cerns addressed. , “It gives us the upper hand,” said Gitanyow speaker Glen Williams. “This is the law of the land.” The B.C. Court of Ap- peal held that the Haida assertion of aboriginal title on the Queen Charlotte Is- lands acted as an encum- brance on forest licences there. As a result, a forest Li- cence should not have been transferred to Weyer- haeuser without consulting the Haida when the com- pany purchased MacMill- an Bloedel. The, court didn’t say Weyerhaeuser’s licence there is now’ invalid, but said the issue must be re- solved. Provincial government officials had no response last week when asked whether the decision now means a different degree of consultation with abori- ginal groups will be re- quired as part of any trans- fer of SCI’s licences. _ But Williams said it’s clear the court ruling means the days of straight- forward transfers of timber licences are over. “Skeena Cellulose, NWBEC Timber and Pulp and the British Columbia government should consult . us regarding any timber that’s available that's coming from our territory,” he said. “We've asserted and provided evidence that we have aboriginal title.” He said there has been no dialogue and no consul- tation so far. Gitxsan negotiator Elmer Derrick said the Gitxsan will ask pointed questions and may oppose he NWBC bid if they don’t get the right answers. “We will exercise all the legal rights that we have. within the court Tulings,” he said, Derrick said he has grave. concerns about NWBC’s viability and.- about its history, as its key principals were with Repap when it collapsed . and plunged the region into chaos five years ago. “We don’t want to go down the same road we've travelled on,” Derrick said. “They've hurt too many people, they’ve hurt com- munities, they’ve hurt con- tractors. They’ve hurt the future of our young people... a “We can be opposed if that’s what we need to do to protect the economic interests of the northwest,” he said. Cont'd Page A14 MLA not worried about Haida suit SKEENA LIBERAL MLA Roger Harris doesn’t seem warried about a lawuit filed last week by the Haida which lays claim to the Queen Charlotte Islands and to the waters surrounding it. : That suit and a court judgement underscore his belief that aboriginal people must be “meaningful partners” in new economic opportunities, he said. “I’ve always felt that we aren’t going to move forward in @ new economy without their participation anyway,” Harris added. “I don’t think it’s cause for any great alarm.” St The Haida claim ail the islands as well all the seabed surrounding them, including all of Hecate Strait, It casts & major cloud of uncertainty over what was expected to be an imminent effort by the province to lift its moratori- um on offshore drilling, a The move came just a week after a significant Jegal victory for the Haida on a case involving the transfer of a forest licence. The B.C, Court of Appeal decision said there was a “substantial probability” the Haida will be able to prove title to some or all of the. Charlottes. Tsimshian chief negotiator Gerald Wesley said the Tsimshain and other groups stand in support of the Haida and called the court case a wake up call for the govern- ment. “They shouldn’t be surprised by it,” he said. The Tsimshian and other groups may also look more closely at the courts as an option. oO “It's going to cause us to look a little more directly at our options aside from negotiations, given the fact that negotiations have been just about at a standstill for the past several months,” Wesley said. He predicted the Haida will seek an injunction in the event the province attempts to lift the moratorium and proceed with offshore oil exploration. Pro-casino forces gather steam > A LOBBY campaign is going on be- hind the scenes to ensure there’s strong support for a proposed casino ‘here at a public hearing next week. Bruce Carruthers, who has been hired by Terrace Inn owner John Geor- gilas, says he’s working to ensure pro- casino voices are heard at the city hearing March 20. “] have a number of people that will speak at the hearings,” Carruthers said. 7 A fax from Carruthers was sent out from the Chamber of Commerce office. Feb. 28 to all chamber members, ur- ging them to support the casino. The fax instructed recipients to feave a message on the city’s talk back answering machine and to book one of the eight-minute time slots at next week’s hearing, Callers to the city’s talk back line opposed a casino here by a9 to 5 mar- gin in January. But since Feb. 1 the yes forces have picked up steam, log- ging 17 supportive calls yersus: five * from casino opponents as of Friday. | )+ sCartuthers predicted opponents of the casino will be at least as well or- ganized. “The people who are against it wil! be out in full force,” he said. “I’m sure there will be more of the opposition.” A poll of chamber members was also underway last week to determine the feelings of the membership. Carruthers said he didn't have the results yet, but had been told an carly count was running in favour of the construction of a casino here. He said council approval is the first © _major hurdle.-“Nothing can happen if it’s not approved at the council level,” he said. “If that doesn’t happen it’s pretty much a dead issue. The pubtic hearings 1 would assume will have a fair amount of weight.” Solicitor General ‘Rich Coleman has indicated that while councils can now change their minds and allow slot _ machines in their towns, that doesn’t aulomatically mean a casino will be approved, Coleman: stressed there are only a few that want to move from cilies that ‘don’t now allow:slots, and it’s far from certain that Terrace would be a con- tender for a relocation. “Even if it goes through council it will be quite. a bat- tle after that,” Carruthers noted. Carruthers, who worked on Skeena MLA Roger Harris’ campaign, said he; has approached the MLA. But he said he's been told any move of an existing casino to Terrace 1 will be decided by the B.C, Lotteries Corporation. oo ‘ The hearing begins at 7 p.m. March 20 at the- Coast Inn of the West, but - could spill over-into a second ‘day. 3a oA AP NRCS le ik al at te laf ca oP