A look back |
The people, places and
things that made the
community news tick
\COMMUNITY B1

Unsubstantiated

Possible sightings of missing —
woman have not lead RCMP
any closer to soiving the case
\NEWS AS”

Sport recap

: Terrace athletes and
‘teams that shared the |

2005 spotlight

_ - \SPORTS B4

$1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST
($1.10 plus8¢ GST
outside of the Terrace area) |

ce —

7

we a Wednesday, December 28, 2005 |

| Credit unions working on merger

- TERRACE AND District Credit Union
members will. vote: late next spring to
~ merge with the larger Prince Rupert-based

_ Northern Savings Credit-Union provided

detailed negotiations go as planned.
“ The “two credit- unions reached a
broad-based deal last week and now need
-to address specific issues, says Terrace
and District Credit Union board chair
Dan Condon. ~

“We've already agreed there will be
no job loss. Everybody who wants a job
_ will have one. We now have to work on

merging the employees as well,” he said.
The Terrace and District Credit Union .

announced this fall it was looking for a
" merger partner, saying it was getting in-

unions of its. size to operate. ;
It has an asset value of $42 million,

while Northern Savings has assets of

$278 million and branches here, in Prince

’ Rupert, onthe Queen Charlotte Islands

and mortgage offices - in Victoria and

- Kelowna.
Condon said he was happy the board .

decided to pursue merger talks with

Northern Savings, describing it as a cred-,
it union that thinks along the same ¢ line as .

Térrace‘and District.

“They were very. clear in saying they

are a northern entity and have no wish to
be anything else,” he said. -

“We can. be part of one strong Tocal “

entity and not be swallowed up by some-

Two other credit unions, oné of which"
was Langley-based Envision with assets
of $3 billion, were also interested in the

‘. Terrace and District Credit Union.

Condon said.the Terrace and District |
Credit Union also has an agreement with

Northern Savings to create some sort of —
legacy that will retain the 60-year com-.....through the due diligence phase, North- - <
-em Savings official , . Brenda ‘Burghardt

mitment of. Terrace and District. to the -
community. _
The legacy, whether - it be monetary -

_ or take some other form, might even be

identified, with the Terrace and District |
name, he added.

The ‘no job-loss commitment extends -
to Paragon Insurance, ‘a subsidiary — of

. Terrace and District, Condon said.

ance subsidiaries of any. credit union in
B.C.,” he said. _
Condon anticipates a membership °

‘ratification vote in late-May or early June -

with the official merger to take place at
the end of June. . :

Although riierger details have yet to go

. did say there is agreement’ that the cur-.
rent Northern Savings and ‘Terrace, and |

District branch locations will eventually

become one.
“There will be one legal entity and one.

" physical location,” she said. That one lo-:. ’
‘cation has yet to be decided. :

‘Burghardt said Northern . ‘Savings

_one and says the merger will create a
strong local entity ata ‘time when char:
‘tered banks are expected to merge. >

- And she said a strengthened Northern

- Savings: Credit, Union operation in Ter-

race will help keep potential competitors oo a

at bay.
“The two parties are fairly. equal in
‘that [Terrace] market right now and this,

“will make for an even stronger presence,”

' Burghardt continued.

- 1990s. .
“Its present. day configuration is the

‘prodict of seven acquisitions and merg-
“ers over the years ‘and the oldest of those. -

credit unions began operations, in 1940. -

- - creasingly difficult for independent credit |

one from down south,” Condon added.

“It’s one of the most successful insur- .

views the Terrace market ‘as a growing —

TAIL SECTION. of the ‘Navair courier aircraft which crashed shortly after takeoff from the Northwest Regional Airport Dec. 20 is the most recognizabe remnant investi-

gated by Transportation Safety Board of Canada officials. The aircraft s two pilots were killed.

investigators probe fatal crash

; . By DUSTIN QUEZADA
TRANSPORTATION SAFETY Board of Canada officials

are concentrating on why a Navair courier plane veered to _

- the left before crashing at the airport here Dec. 20, killing
its two pilots.

“We never want to speculate but we have « concerns be-
cause of the position of the aircraft,” said Bill Yearwood,

the board’s regional manager of aviation accident investiga

tions.

The small, twin-engine Mitsubishi, crashed less than a
‘minute after takeoff from the Northwest Regional Airport
Dec. 20.at 6:30 p.m.

The plane inexplicably veered to the east after liftoff to
the south before crashing 300 metres beyond the airport’ s
fence in a wooded area.

Killed in the crash were pilots Simon Piper, 33, and Trev-
or Hardy, 31, both from the Victoria area. Navair’s base is
in Sidney.

Yearwood said aircrafts are expected to go straight when

_ leaving the runway and the fact that it crashed 500 metres off
the runway’s extended centre. line indicates it turned quite a
bit from its departure path.

“It indicates a turn prior to impact,’ Yearwood said.

_ “Was there a question in power differential between the left

' and right engine, a coritrol malfunction or a reason for the

_ pilots to turn back?”

_ “There was no damage to the fence,” added Yearwood.

“We know it flew, we know it turned.” oo
Yearwood says the safety board also studies the environ-

mental conditions at the time of a crash because: they can
affect aircraft performance. ;

But poor weather conditions have been discounted by
Laurie Brown, the manager for the Terrace-Kitimat Airport
Society, which runs the airport. ma

There were overcast conditions at 5, 500 feet with.a vis-
ibility of 10 miles. The temperature was around freezing,
light rain was falling and there were winds from the south
at three knots:

“Theyre quite acceptable . flying conditions,”
Brown.

Brown says airport staff, who had cleared the runway for
the plane’s takeoff, saw an orange glow to the south of the

terminal from where they were in terminal building.

-“The flash was the first indication,” Brown said.
- The staff pioceeded to activate the airport’s emergency

control centre triggering RCMP, fire and ambulance to the

scene.
There, airport staff escorted the responding agencies and
coordinated the search for the downed plane.
Terrace Fire Department chief Peter Weeber says 15 fize-
fighters from Terrace and Thornhill arrived 10 minutes after

the crash and met with airport staff that directed them to the .

vicinity of the wreckage.
“We started searching the area and around Beam Station

Road,” Weeber said. “Then we saw the plume of smoke and

found the burning wreck.”
The pilots were found dead on the scene in the wheckage
and firefighters proceeded with putting out the fire and set-

said

DUSTIN QUEZADA PHOTO

ting up lighting for the area.

. . Firefighters and.RCMP then secured the area and airport
staff plowed an access route to the site, heavily wooded with

60 to 80 foot tall trees.
A coroner arrived on the scene and the following after-

noon, the transpertation. safety board sent two officials from

Vancouver.
"Yearwood said his:men inspected the site, ‘spoke! to wit-
nesses and gathered information and data to try to determine

the cause of the crash.

What’s left of the aircraft will be taken: to Vancouver for -

a detailed inspection of the components in early January.
“If there is a doubt after [the wreck] is shipped, we can go
back to the pictures and the notes,” Yearwood added.

Yearwood said there have been a number of accidents -
-. in the past 20 months in Canada and the U.S. involving the :

Mitsubishi aircraft model.

Air Canada Jazz and Hawkair flights landing later that

night were not affected by the crash aftermath.

The Navair aircraft-was on a triangle run from Vancouver
to Smithers and then to Terrace with a return trip back down
to Vancouver as its final scheduled destination that evening.

Lost in the crash were a number of business and other
documents. - —

Navair officials met with Transport Canada officials Dec.
21 and voluntarily surrendered their operating certificate.
For that story, See Page A2. And airports the size of the one
here aren't required to have firefighting services. For that
story, See Page A&.

~ Wilson.

| Gas site
changed.

- KITIMAT:

‘gas and send’ it: throughout

m North America via. the PNG
pipeline. :
: But it also does not mean —

foe

taxation benefits will flow
directly to the Haisla either,

says Kitamaat Village chief

councillor Steve Wilson.
“The reserve out . at

' (Beese) was surrendered to

the federal government. in

_ 1997, so the lease agreement -
‘between Kitimat LNG and’
‘the: Haisla would be a head
lease between the company
' and the federal government,” ,

he explained.

“LNG = has ©
~ changed ‘the. preferred site...
* for its natural gas terminal to * -.
. Indian Reserve land at Beese » >:
~ -Cove, whichis already zoned
. industrial, instead of Emsiey :.
. Cove which is in the District...
| of Kitimat boundaries...
' It means Kitimat won’t

receive any taxation benefits
| from the planned project
. to import liquefied natural

That means the company” a 7

-would - pay Indian and...
Northern Affairs . Canada . -
which in turn would pass the. “>
“Money on to the Haisla. .
The. switch in. location *

has ‘allowed an Agreement
in Principle to be reached
between the . Haisla vand

KLNG. _—
“It addresses all of the
‘environmental concerns

that we’veexpressed,” said
“And I think by
taking this course of action

. we take it from being: a
marginal project to being
_the frontrunner and a project: ; .

that can now succeed.”

__ Kitimat LNG is already in
the provincial government's
environmental ° -

180-day
approval cycle but. asked
for that clock to stop ticking
again until January so it
could reach a deal with the

* Haisla.

“One of our issues was

- First Nationsaccommodation
and it just became much ..

more attractive to put the

“project on (Beese),” said
official Patti
’ Schom-Moffatt.
The length of the. lease
-.is still being negotiated

company

between lawyers, Wilson

- said, adding, “We've offered |

a 59 year lease.”
' Schom-Moffatt. said the
company still needs to study

the-lease length, but 20 years’
minimum is what they’ are

looking at.
“It ‘will have to. be at

‘least for the - ‘length of the

project.”

Pending regulatory
approval, Kitimat LNG
wants to start construction
next spring with full

operation set for early 2009.

~The Northern’ Savings Credit Union is © --"*
ay telatively new name, dating back to the