Legal speed bump

They’re back!

An upset in the ongoing libel
lawsuit between MP Mike Scott
and ex-MP Jim Fulton\NEWS A415

Those arty, alternative films will
run every second Monday night at
the Tillicum\COMMUNITY B1

_| Pride on ice

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

WEDNESDAY
February 23,2000

$1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST
{$2.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of tha
. Terrace area)...

VOL. 12 NO. 46

College keeps key program

NORTHWEST COMMUNITY College will con-
(inue to offer students its natural resources pro-

gram even though it will have to come up with
$500,00 to do so.

Forest Renewal BC (FRBC) has been giving’

the college grant money to operate the two-year

natural resources program in ‘Terrace, Smithers .

and Prince Rupert for the past four years.

But the provincial crown corperation’s con-
tract with the college finishes at the end of this
school year, says acting college president Brian
Lopston.

_ “FRBC isn’t going to continue in the business
of funding training,” he said.

FRBC gets its money from provincial stump-
age revenues but that’s been severely cut be-

cause of the slump in the forest industry,

Instead of dumping the natural resources pro-
gram, which provides training in numerous areas
of resource management applicable to the north-
west, the college is working on a plan to come
up with the money to run the program itself.

Lopston said the two-year program, which of-
fers a certificate at the first level and a diploma
option afterward, will be saved because of the
strong public demand for its courses.

“Courses, like this, are valuable programs in
this area,” Lopston said. “It’s relevant training
for people who live here,”

He added: “And there are jobs for those who
take it.”

There are now about 70 students in Terrace,

Kitimat and Prince Rupert are enrolled in the
program. Field sites are located within minutes
of the campuses providing students with upportu-
nities to combine the theory learned in class with
hands on practical skills needed for employment
in the natural: resources field.

The courses are popular because credits can
be added toward university degrees, Lopston
said.

The college is already working on a plan to.

save $200,000 a year by reducing the program
from five semesters to four.
Terrace’s natural resources program coordina-

‘tor Trish Nuyten said reducing the semesters

won’t affect the quality of the program.

said.

Nuyten explained the $200,000 will be saved
by cupping the program lo 18 students, which
means only. running one lab. More: sludenis
means running two labs, which is costly.

Lopston said the college has a planning pro-
cess in place to identify how lo save the addi-
tional $300,000 more needed tu run the program,

’ He’s confident the additional money will be
found, despite the cotlege’s debt.” ;

The college's $993,000 debt was accumulated
over a number of years.

“Last year we started paying it back,” Lop-
ston said. “This year we'll be tackling it again.”

Administrators expect the college to be out of

eo

RICK TERLESKY has bee

By JEFF NAGEL
TERRACE has gone satellite crazy,

“The Terrace arca is growing faster than ei-
ther the rest of the country or British Columbia
on average,” said Bruce Barr, senior vice pre-
sident of Star Choice, the leading satellite TV
provider in this area. “It’s a real hot bed.”

Bart said subscriber’ numbers here are
around 1,000 — a-penetration rate about 20 per
cent ahead of the national average.

You don’t have to tell that to satellite dish
retailer Colleen Austin, owner of Terrace-
based Universal Home Entertainment.

She won a trip for signing up more than 500
new Star Choice customers last year, It put her
in the top five per cent of dealers nationwide.

Rival service Express Vu doesn’t have as.
much market share, but-still reports 267 sub-
scribers in Terrace, around 200 in Kitimat and
344 in Prince Rupert.

If most of those customers are former cable
TV subscribers, the numbers represent a big
loss of revenue for Skeena Cablevision, opera-
ted in Terrace by Okanagan Skeena Group.

Close to 1,300 satellite dish owners in Ter-
race alone could represent at least $600,000 a
year in lost cable revenue, |

n so busy installing satellite TV dishes
around town he had to clase his electronics repair shop for two
weeks to keep up with the wark. He and other satellite TV dealers

“Our business has doubled,” said Sight and
Sound’s Tony Demelo. “It's scary what it must
be doing to the local cable company.”

He said many of his customers switched be-
cause they’ve purchased higher resolution TV
sets and now want the better video resolution
and audio quality that only satellite delivers. |

But he said another part of the equation is
anger with the monopoly Skeena Cablevision
has had up to now.

Satcllite promises 130 video channels and
65 music channels — considerably more than
what the local cable system can deliver — for
less money. And although satellite systems
cost at least $200, many locals are willing to
put up the money to switch providers.

Electronics Plus owner Rick Terlesky, who
installs dishes in addition to running his Lazel-
le Ave. clectronic repair shop, says he’s in-
stalled more than 200 since mid November.

He pinpoints the increase in business to re-
cent cable service rate increases and a loss of
some channels on some cable packages.

That’s also when Star Choice and Express
Vu slashed the prices of satellite systems.

“The promotions came up and people just
said to hell with it,” Terlesky said. “And the

. A An

say dishes have been going up al an astonishing pace. Terlesky
was installing this dish on the wall of one of the apartments in the
Twin River Estates seniors housing complex.

Going crazy over dishes

business just went crazy.”

Sears Canada owner Dean Porter, who-re-

ports selling around 30 to 40. systems per
month, says even senior citizens are quick to
buy satellites.

Most of the people. buying dishes now are
former cable customers, he said, rather than
rural residents who never had cable anyway.

“IF they're rural they’ve had it for a long
time,” Porter said.

There are downsides. ‘Unlike cable, where
different TVs in different rooms can watch dil-
ferent channels, satellite subscribers must buy
additional receivers or base units to’ go with
each TV.

Satellite subscribers don’t get CFTK’s news
and other local programming on channel 7 or
Skeena Cable 10 community programming,

which includes live local broadcasts like the .

annual Rotary Auction, cily council meetings
and election debates, :

Okanagan Skeena Group, which is now
owned by Quebec-based Telemedia, has put
all of its cable operations up for sale. —

Possible buyer Edmonlon-based Regional
Cable Systems, is now conducting. an audit of
OSG’s cable systems.

“We've just made it ‘leaner and meaner,” she

the red by March 2001.

Youth detox
facility to open

A NEW $850,000 six-bed youth detox facility operated
by Terrace and District Community Services Society
should be ready te treat young people with addictions
mid-April.

It’s meant for people between 12 and 18 addicted to
everything from narcotics to solvents. But it won’t be a
medical treatment centre. Those requiring that level of
treatment will still have. to go elsewhere.

This is one of several such facilities being started
around the province with the idea of putting services
closer to where young people live.

‘Jacquie Stokes, children’s ministry official, said there
are very few youth detox services in BC ~.and they are
located in the Lower Mainland.

“Overall the north has less services than the south —
less opportunity for services,” Stokes said. oO

The more services the government provides closer to
the youths’ home communities, the easier it will be to
stop the drift of youths from the here to Vancouver, said
Stakes. “We don’t believe that anything good comes
from youths with social problems drifting to the south,
Youth have fewer positive supports if they fall. into
homelessness in Vancouver and their addictions tend to
escalate.”

Stokes said the children’s ministry will try to bring
northwest youth who have drifted to the south back here
for treatment. ,

Terrace and District Community Services Society ex-
ecutive director Mike Beausoleil is hiring workers and
buying a building.

Youth who need medical detox — those who suffer se-
vere medical withdrawal or suffer medical complications
arising from withdrawal — will be referred to Mills Mem-
orial hospital or the adult medical detox facility in
Prince George.

Other youth detox facilities are being developed in
Fort St. John, Williams Lake, Prince George, Surrey,
and Vancouver.

Intersection use
called a danger

A TERRACE citizen’s group says too many drivers are
using a tight hand turning lane at the intersection of
Hwy16 and Kenney for the wrong reason.

The problem is that drivers approaching the highway
on Kenney from the southside use the right hand turning
lane as a shortcut into the Copperside parking lot on the
other side of the highway.

_ That means the drivers cut across four lanes of high-
way. traffic and some do so without stopping or slowing
down for oncoming traffic, says Dorothy Alway of the

- local-community consultation group

It, meets repularly with RCMP officers to talk about
public safety and criminal issues. ;

Local ICBC manager Frank Fekele, a member of the
group, says the provincial insurance corporation knows
the intersection -is a problem and that it is being inclu-

Cont'd Page A2

CN guilty in trestle collapse

THIS RAILWAY trestle bridge south of town collapsed in October, 1997, killing
two workers who had been part of the reconstruction project.

CANADIAN National Rail
was found guilty Feb. 15 of
failing to ensure the struc-
tural integrity of a railway
bridge that collapsed south
of Terrace in 1997 killing
two workers, ;
William Hugh Carson,
34, of Kamloops and John
Marti, 34, of Telkwa died
Oct. 27, 1997 when waod-
en trestles on the bridge
they were working on. col-
lapsed into a ravine. under

FILE PHOTO the weight of a crane, -

Carson was the crane
operator in the bridge’ re-
construction project bet-
ween Tertace and Kitimat.

CN. ‘spokesman
Feeny could ‘nol
whether the company will
iry to: appeal the. Labour
Code conviction,

“We haven't hada

“chance.to read the written
transcript yet,” Feeny said.

Compariy. lawyers
argued -at trial that.Catson
did not work for CN Rail

Jim :
siiy :

when the accident hap-
pened because he was
working wilh Scott Steel
Lid., an. Edmonton compa-
ny, contracted ta oversee
the construction, ~

Provincial court Judge.
~James- Jardine dismissed
. that” argument. because

Carson: Was paid. directly

- by the railway and was us-~

ing CN equipment.:
“CN Rail was “acquilted

on four other Labour Code

offences.

The judgment follows a
January, 1998 ruling by the
Workers Compensation
Board that Scott Steel
failed to properly rep

Scott: Stee! also faces
WCB charges for the

the bridge. ,

‘death: of John Marti. That

trial date has not yet been

“set. :

~ CN Rail is scheduled to

‘be -sentenced March 21
‘and faces’°a_ maximum
penally.of $100,000.