Rough rider Terrace wheeled wonder Chiron Kantakis blasts the Dragon in Quesnel\SPORTS B4 Murder probe RCMP release their findings on the disappearances of women along Highway 16\NEWS A10 Wali work | NWCC student art. fills a Terrace gallery for the first time\COMMUNITY BL $1,00 Pius 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus 8¢. GST outside of the Terrace area) ‘VOL. 14-NO. 22 IN WHAT appears to be a marked change from gavernment policy, Northwest Community College has been told it can start running a li- censed practical nursing program here beginning next year. The advanced education ministry has committed itself to financing 24 training spaces — just under half of the total new ones for the entire province for 2002. Along with that comes nearly $100,000 to set up the program. The news, released last week, is considered a change in what is normal operating procedure for post secondary institutions wanting to offer new courses. ‘ That’s because colleges who want “Terrace is B.C.'S 2001 Forestry Capital” owww.terracestandard.com College scrambles to train nurses to offer a practical nursing program not anly have ta receive the approval of the provincial government before it commits itself to paying for the pro- gram, they also have to have their fa- cilities, instructors, curriculum and lo- cations for practicum training ap- proved by the College of Licensed Practical Nurses of B.C., the institu- lion which regulates the profession. “They expect to have all approvals in place in time,” said Susan Clancy of the advanced education ministry last week. She was commenting on remarks made by the officials in her ministry responsible for planning. All this means a lot of work for the college in the next few months, says president Stephanie Forsyth. It doesn’t have an approved curricu- lum, instructors or even, at least for now, classroom and lab space. “It’s certainly a challenge we'll overcome,” said Forsyth. AH of the information on the plan- ned program is to be contained in a large document to be sent to the li- censed practical nursing college for examination by mid-October. The information was to have been ready this summer but the person hired to co-ordinate the project moved to another job out of town and a new per- son hired began work just this past week, said Forsyth. Northwest Community College docs, however, have an initial letter “Wednesday, September 5, 2001. dated this spring from the nursing col- lege telling it to continue to develop its planned program. Once the docu- mentation is studied, nursing college officials also have to inspect facilities at the college and at places where stu- dents can take practicum training. One method in which the program may be fast-tracked stems from a deal reached between the college here and Camosun College in Victoria this spring, said Forsyth. That agreement calls for the two colleges to split the costs and wark of developing a curriculum. It’s also not uncommon for colleges offering new programs to use the curri- culum already approved and being used by other colleges, iB x Work continues JIM JENSEN of Tradewinds Electrical trom Na- naimo works away Installing wiring at the regional psychiatric unit renavation project at Mills Mam- orial Hospital. At a cost of more than $600,000, the ur* will hava new ‘safe’ rooms, an update common area and kitchen and better living and working conditions. The project began last month and is due to be finished before the end of No- vember. Already finished Is an outdoor relaxation area with a gazebo and a greenhouse. Gov't abandons suit against Nisga’a treaty By JEFF NAGEL THE B.C. LIBERAL gov- ernment has abandoned all legal challenges of the Nisga’a treaty and con- cedes it must support the agreement signed in 1998 by the NDP. Attorney-general Geoff Plant announced Wednes- day the government won't continue the lawsuit he launched along with party leader Gordon Campbell and now forests minister Mike De Jong before they formed the government. The election of the Lib- erals created a strange si- tuation. “When the lawsuit commenced we were op- position MLAs suing the government,” Plant told the Standard, “But now we are members of govern- ment and we can’t sue ourselves.” Plant had previously conceded the court chal- lenge might have to be dropped because of the si- tuation. But he had favoured using the provincial gov- emment’s power to ask the Supreme Court of Canada for a reference opinion on the validity of the Nisga’a. self-government provisions. Plant and the Liberals oppose Nisga'a-style con- stitutionally entrenched self-government, which they say creates a new third order of government. They instead favour municipal-style self-gov- ernment in which native groups’ powers are delega- ted by the province. But Plant. last week said the province won't pursue a high court refer- ence either. That’s because a clause in the treaty. states that “no party will challenge, or support a challenge to, the validity of any provi- sion of this agreement.” “That prevents the pro- vince from attacking the treaty,” he said. “It would be a breach of the treaty.” “We do have an obliga- ‘tion in the-treaty to support the treaty.” -:He sald he increasingly suspects a reference ques- . tion. “isn’t likely to give = you very helpful answers" unless it's built around a very: specific set of cir- cumstunces. . “You could spend all this time and money and invested energy and emo- lion and get nowhere,” Plant said. “We think it’s impor- lant to build a respectful, constructive relationship with the Nisga’a,” he added. Plant said he hasn’t en- tirely given up on fulfilling the Liberal campaign pro- mise to seck clear direc- tion from the high court on aboriginal self-government. But he said it may have to wait for another suitable Buyers m The community college has more than 150 people interested in taking the licensed practical nursing program which is expected to last between 12 and 15 months. Although most of the attention of the past while has been on the short- age of registered nurses, there aren’t as many licensed practical nurses available as there should be either. Mills Memorial Hospital nursing director Marg Petrick said the facility has an immediate need for three li- censed practical nurses. She’s also looking forward to hav- ing students do practicums at the hos- pital and estimates it can handle two to three students per shift on the hospi- ials’s acute care ward. ultiply as mystery grips SCI By JEFF NAGEL THE NUMBER of potential buyers inter- ested in Skeena Cellulose continued to climb last week even a8 workers here and elsewhere grew increasingly alarmed about a possible -lengthy*shutdown. Several more possible: purchasers step- ped forward last week, said Skeena MLA Roger Harris.- “There's now 10 to 13 proposals of el- ther bits and pieces or all of it or some combination thereof,” Harris said Thurs- day, Most of those are groups and compa- nies interested in buying just part of the operations if Skeena Cellulose is to be broken up, he said. The most talked about suitor is Swiss- based Mercer International, which is in a due diligence study to-take a detailed look at buying the entire company, “Mercer is the only one public — the others are all asking for confidentiality,” Harris said. Mercer is expected to take another week or two to conclude its analysis of SCI, officials say. The shutdown of the Terrace sawmill didn’t happen last Tuesday or Wednesday as company officials had warned. IWA Canada official Surinder Malho- tra said one shift at the sawmi!l was laid off Aug. 31 but one more shift is expected to continue to run this week. SCI’s closed Prince Rupert pulp mill last week notified its employees a plan- ned return. to ywork this week won't hap- pen and that the mili is now in an “indefinite” shutdown, “The members are worried,” Malhotra said. “They want certainty. They want someone to buy this mill.” The biggest source of uncertainty is the status of SCI’s banking arrangements with the TD Bank, The line of credit - which wasn’t to be renewed past July 31 - was extended to Aug. 31, But that deadline passed Friday with- out a deal between. the government and the bank and there was no indication of what the consequences might be, Enterprise minister Rick Thorpe has repeatedly declincd to say what would happen if the deadline passes. “We continue to wark closely with the bank,” he said last week. “We'll wait and see what the bank does.” Thorpe stressed attempts to sell the forest company are complex. “This is not like going to the super- market,” he said, “This is a very, very serious operation.” Five in the hunt for council seat OFFICIALS HOPE this Saturday’s city council by-elec- tion goes smoother than an advance poll held Aug, 29. A bomb threat phoned in in the early morning hours of that day forced voting officials to move the poll to the arena banquet room. City’s chief administralive officer Ron Poole said someone left city hall a voice mail message at 3:30 a.m. Aug, 29 warning that a bomb had been planted, The caller said the bomb would detonate that after- noon. The building was evacuated at noon, Poole said. Terrace voters will fill the council seat left vacant when Olga Power moved away by choosing between five candidates. Betty Campbell, Stew Christiansen, Marilyn Davies, Bob Erb and Roger Leclere are running. Polls are open from 8 a.m, to 8 p.m. at the gym at Ca- situation — possibly some future lawsuit involving aboriginal rights - that doesn’t involve the Nisga’a, - “We intend to keep that commitment when the ap- propriate case comes along,” he said. The abandonment of the Liberal court challenge, the most advanced lawsuit involving the treaty, leaves unchallenged the judgment handed down by B.C. Supreme Court last summer, The ruling, which the ‘Liberals planned to ap- peal, said aboriginal self- "government powers had al- ways existed even if they hadn’t yet been implemen- Cont'd Page A2 ETHEL JACKSON was one of the polling station workers who had to move to the arena banquet room during Wednesday's advance poll after a bomb threat emptied city hall, ledonia Senior Secondary. Any Canadian citizen aged 18 and over who’s lived in Terrace for 30 days, and in British Columbia for the past six months is elfgible to vole. Eligible voters who aren’t on the provincial voters list can register at the polls using a piece of identification stating their age, name and current address, Elaine John- son, chief election officer, said. Since the provincial voters list may not be up-to-date, that’s something all eligible voters should keep in mind. “Just make sure you have some ID with you when you’ come to the poll in case you have to register,” Johnson said, The byelection also means people who own property in Terrace but who live outside of its boundaries can vale, she added. Non-resident voters should apply for a voters’ certificate at city hall first and bring that to the polls. A second advance poll is being held today at cily hall from 8 a.m, to 8 p.m. Johnson said turnout al the Aug. 29 advance poll was low, which isn't unusual for a byelection. “I do hope we get a decent turnout on voting day be- cause it is important to have good representation on city council,” she said.