Coping | How victims services programs here are dealing with cuts one year later\NEWS A5 Getting a glimpse The art gallery welcomes the work of a New Hazelton photographer \COMMUNITY B3 : t ponspiel draws a! 30 teams from B. C. $1.00 plus 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the Terrace area) TARY TERRACE | ANNIVERSARY 2003 Parent vows By JENNIFER LANG PARENTS HAVE not been adequately consulted on moving to a four-day school week, says a local mom who believes it's still not too late to fight the school board’s money-saving plan. Tanis Purssell said she disagrees with the proposal, expected to save $1.4 million in operating expenses, be- cause it balances the budget on the backs of students. She said other school districts have surveyed parents on the four-day week. When 60 per cent of parents said no in the Trail-Castlegar district, which bor- ders the Grand Forks district, the first in B.C. to go te a four-day week, the plan was ditched, Purssell says. “T really wish they would survey us,” Purssell said. “That way, the community can speak. Jt appears they don’t want to listen to the commun- ity.” School trustees plan to adopt a new school calendar based on a four-day week at the May board meeting in Ki- timat. Under the School Act, local school calendars that deviate from the regular school calendar must be circulated among parent and employee groups for one month prior to adoption. On April 16 the board meets with district parent advisory council repre- sentatives, the Terrace and District Teachers’ Union and CUPE staff to discuss the proposed calendar. That’s going to be a closed meel- ing, says acting assistant superinten- dent of schools Rob Greenwood. Parents who want a-say on the pro- posed four-day week have until Tues- day to register their comments with schoo] planning councils and parent advisory committees, he said. The draft calendar proposes schools be in session from Monday to Thurs- day, except when Mondays are statu- tory holidays. The district says it is responding to concems in making the school day as short as possible, Elementary students would go to school for 50 minutes longet than pre- sent, with one 15-minute break for re- cess and a 45-minute lunch time, add- ing up to a 5.6 hour day. Secondary students would go to school for 54 more minutes, making the school day 7.1 hours long. There to fight 4-day week plan would be one 20-minute recess and a 45 minute lunch for high schoolers. The district is also reviewing bus schedules to see if routes can be ad- justed to lessen the impact of a longer day on kids who take the bus. Non-instructional days are still up in the air — but they won’t affect the . number of days classes are in-session. Teachers and the board are still work- ing out.the details, Greenwood said. Trustees have also decided to con-' duct a survey nex! year to determine the impact of the four-day week — once it’s already been put into effect, Rupert eyes $15m loan New Skeena still needs cash A chance to shine 14-YEAR-OLD Nina Batjer stands outside the A.E.M. Lee Theatre with her sheet music last week, just moments befora she took to the stage as the title character from the musical, Annie. Batjer, who sang the song, “Maybe”, was among the many gifted young performers competing in the music theatre category at the Pacific Northwest Music Festival, The festival attracted 2,000 performers of all ages from across the region. For more memories, turn to Page B1. JENNIFER LANG PHOTO Wal-Mart cleari By JEFF NAGEL A WAL-MART store here could get final city approval by the end of this month and be under con- struction as early as June, a city official predicts. First Pro Shopping Centres cleared a key hurdle last week, getting provincial government ap- proval to build as close as 20 metres-to the riverbank - a re- laxation of the normal 60-metre setback, That means a larger big box store can fit on the property ~up to 100,000 square feet, The loosening of that rule was based on a First Pro study that river erosion is minimal along the Hwy 16 property just downstream of the new bridge. If there are no problems with the remaining issues, city deve- lopment services director David Trawin said, council could ap- prove the final rezoning and the big box store’s development per- ng final hurdles. mit at its April 28 meeting. The main question mark is a detailed environmental assess- ment now underway. Results could be back by next week. Trawin said First Pro spent $60,000 on drilling to test for any contaminants that may~ have spread underground across the highway from the old Petro Cana- da bulk fuel plant, and for any munitions buried underground at an old Second World War bunker. “If it gets a clean bill of health it’s off to the races," he said. The city, developers and high- ways ministry are also to meet to settle highway access issues. The developer would then-fina-- . lize the site plan and address any further city conditions to get de- velopment permit approval. The city will trade its animal shelter and nearby park land for a strip of park land along the river-- bank for a riverside trail. By JEFF NAGEL PRINCE RUPERT cily council is mulling over a plan to lend $15 million to help New Skeena Forest Products start up the pulp mill there. It’s an idea that could leave the City of Prince Rupert owning the Terrace sawmill ~“which’may* se- cure such a loan — if the company failed to repay the money. A group of Prince Ru- pert residents spent the last several days lobbying councillors there to agree to a city-backed loan. to . New Skeena. The company is still short of the financing it needs to fire up the mill and start producing pulp by June 1 in order to deliver it to customers by early July as promised, New Skee- na’s CEO says, Dan Veniez says he didn't ask for the loan but welcomes the efforts of backers in Prince Rupert. “They took the initia- tive,” he told the Standard. “] was of course aware of it and supportive of it.” Veniez said Prince Ru- pert’s money would be se- cure because it could be backed against New Skee- na’s first pulp sale worth 1 $60 million. He said it could also be secured against the Ter- race sawmill and the forest licences — as suggested by Rupert advocates - or the pulp mill itself. “If a meteor hils, if pulp markets go south, if we somehow don’t manage lo do what we say we we're going to do, the security is there,” Veniez said. He said new forest te- forms allow the free subdi- vision and sale of licences make it easy to break’ off sections of timber to sell to clear any debts, One appraisal released by ‘Veniez puts the Terrace sawmill’s market value at $20.7. million and . the value of ali the company’s . assets at $221 million. . Veniez was asked if the Rupert Joan is critical to starting up. “This $15 million would get us there, It would guar- atitee our startup in June. It would get us over the goal . line,” he said. “Is - this- make or break? We. will- do this somehow.” Conventional bank fi- nancing — even at high in- terest rates - is difficult, Veniez said, because of Skeena’s reputation. It all means financing i is coming in smaller chunks a bit at a time, he. said, adding the company is-$15 to $20 million. short of what's needed for startup. © “We're close and we'll get there,” he said. “Every little bit helps. It’s a coali- tion of the willing we're ' putting together.” Veniez said he. would offer the city a three per cent share of the company for the $15 million and.a seat on, New: Skeena's board of directors. He ‘said the interest rate would be prime plus five per cent -or around 10 per cent. The town would be paid out within two years, '“They get a tax base back, they put 400 people. back at work who are paid exceedingly well for what they do, and they get the economy of the commun- ity moving again,” he said. By JEFF NAGEL KITIMAT’s campaign to block further power sales by Alcan is coming to Terrace, A petition that has circulated for weeks in Kitimat is now here and gaining signatures. Spearheading the push is Ross Sle- zak, the former smelter workers union head in Kitimat and now a Terrace re- sident. About 250 unionized Alcan workers live in Terrace, Slezak. said, adding many are low on the seniority scale and could be the first to go if there are layoffs at. the smelter. “Obviously there is a-vested inter- - est in Tefrace not to lose these 250 good well-paying union jobs,” he sald, Slezak, the mayor and council in Kitimat and the more than 2,300 resi- dents there who have so far signed the petition want Victoria to block power sales and thereby force Alcan to use all Kemano-generated electricity to smelt aluminum. They say that's the only way to be assured of maintaining the current 1,800 jobs at Alcan, which they fear could be slashed almost in half over time if the aluminum company is free to sell its electricity. “If Alcan is allowed to sell power, the tradeoff will be jobs,” Slezak maintains. . He said the group, which calls itself Save The Northwest): plans to stage a ‘ town-hall meeting in Terrace on the Alcan power issue in early May. That will be the formal springboard to the petition campaign here, he said. Slezak said they also hope to meet Terrace’s mayor and council and gain their support in pressuring Victoria. “This would have the same dire ne- gative impact on Terrace residents as it would in Kitimat,” he said, adding the loss of families who depend on Alcan. would drive Terrace properly values down and hammer the city’s re- tail businesses. “It's no secret that a good majority of the Kitimat shopping is done in Terrace,” he added. Where Terrace city council sits on the Alcan-.power issue is unclear. Mayor Jack Talstra said no stand has been made because council is . waiting for a presentation from Kitimat council on the subject. But several city councillors made statements during last fall’s election backing MLA Roger Harris’ idea that Alcan power could be sold beyond the Kitimat. area to attract more industry to the northwest generally. That undermines ‘the Kitimat con- tention that Alean’s original 1950 agreement dictates power can only be sold for use in the “vicinity of the “warks.” Harris has said the province’ s bar- galning position was severely eroded -when the, province signed the 1997 agreement. ‘with Alcan “that addressed - the province’s cancellation of the half- built Kemano Completion Project, ROSS SLEZAK wants Terrace to oppose Alcan power sales.