0 Serving the Terrace and Thomhitl area. Published on Wednesday of "A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 15, 2006 | TERRACE TANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27,.1988° ”’ PUBLISHER: ROD LINK . _ ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B. Cc. * V8G 'BR2- : TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 - FAX: (250) 638-8432 a “WEB: ‘www.terracestandard. com : EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard. com “Seniors at risk PICK A neighbourhood, any heighbéurhood, i in .. Terrace and area and ask this question: “Ever left _ your vehicle door unlocked and found its contents | ,missing the next day?” . . The, answer won’t be surprising to members of _ the local RCMP detachment but it may bea shock to others. a “CD players, CDs, tapes, tools: spare change, even. gift certificates and children’ S crayons have gone. ‘Missing. | ; -Itsa consistent and persistent low level of ¢ crime ~ taking place: in. the. dark hours throughout the “area. : - While this may, be regarded as: frustrating at the. ~ very least: and accompanied by a certain amount : - of anger | ‘that somebody - has. been poking’ around - in your vehicle, when crime moves into the day- , light. it becomes a concen of every Person living in the area. : And the crime that i is worst of all i is that commit- ted against. senior citizens. = _ There have been two reported purse snatchings . here since late last year. In both cases elderly women out walking i in the daylight were assaulted. - Both involved two young people. In the first case, police suspect the. young people were female. _ Just last month police report: two elderly wom- en answered a knock at their front: door to find a “young. woman, asking 1 for money. In the first case, » the woman said she needed to take. a sick child to. “the hospital. When the homeowner went into the back of her house for a minute, the young woman. took some money from a nearby table and fled. _ In the second instance, the young woman told the - homeowner she was collecting money to help the family of Jenna Parkes, the young ‘Terrace girl | _ who recently had a heart transplant i in. Edmonton. . - That young woman was given $5. ‘It’s reprehensible that the pursesnatchers assume . they have the free right to roam the streets look- ing for targets of opportunity — people who can- - not defend themselves. _ It’s even more reprehensible that someone seems ‘to know exactly where senior citizens live in or- “der to.scam money. That takes not only planning but it becomes a deliberate and thought out act of crime. -«: _ The RCMP i is asking for assistance in ‘solving : these crimes. It may.even be there are more ex-— amples than have been reported so far. Those with - information can either call the RCMP detachment «directly or the anonymous Crimestoppers tip line at 635-8477. | . And when these people a are arrested and: charged and convicted, an example needs to: be made. Prey on seniors and you. suffer the most serious of consequences. Anything else would be unac- _ ceptable. _PUBLISHER/EDITOR: ~~ RodLink ©. ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach _ PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur . NEWS: Sarah A. Zimmerman ‘COMMUNITY: Dustin Quezada “ NEWS/SPORTS: Margaret Speirs FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping, Carolyn Anderson. .. lait livat SUPERVISOR: Alanna Bentham . ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: ~ Bert Husband, Susan Willemen AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik PRODUCTION: Susan Credgeur SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.94 (+$4.06 GST)=62.00 per year; Seniors $50.98 (+$3.57 GST)=54.55; Out of Province $65.17 (+$4.56 GST)=69.73 . - Outside of Canada (6 months) $156. 91410. 98 GST)=167.89 YONA each week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5R2. @ B lack Press _ Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the copy- right holders, including Black Press Ltd., its illustration repro services and advertising agencies. 2005 WINNER CCNA BETTER COMPETITION _ + MEMBEROF B.C. AND YUXON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION AND . B.C. PRESS COUNCIL (www-bepresscouncil.org) ’ Reproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, is specifically prohibited. - Authorized as second-class mail pending the Post Office Department, tor payment of postage in cash. | Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents _ NEWSPAPERS . - mowers : brakes. a . _RRROLL UP THE RIM To w iN beet Oy eo ems as we FA : RIZE, A AFGHANISTAN . THE ALASKA: Canada Rail’ Link Newsletter recently “re- ported “The Yukon Ports. Ac- .. cess Strategy Study, is under- way...to . examine re short-term tidewater access for Yukon shippers — specifically ~ the ports of Skagway, Haines, | and Stewart/Hyder.” This group made a trip to Kitimat and even they could * quickly see there is no “pub- _licly accessible” port of Kiti- - mat for them or anyone else to =. ship i in or out of. Over the last’ six ‘months — there has -been a concerted ‘effort by a number of people: * to bring entirely new forest ‘industries into'the northwest, specifically wood pellets and other biomass products. The northwest fiber bas- ket is the lowest valued in the province, our ability to har- - vest is’ entirely -dependent-.on : finding a market for the :pulp. ° With all of our stands at a 50 — per cent or better pulp content, the harvest community is lim- ited in how much of their cash flow can continue to be.tied up in roadside pulp that they can not sell. Equally the ability of - the local sawmills to move toa second shifts is constrained by “|: the lack of harvest activity. . ' The challenge for any of © these new ventures’ in the northwest is in accessing markets. Currently they must ship ‘through the Vancouver port.in order for them to move © » their’ product. Not withstand- ‘ing the frustration around ac- cessing Tall cars the ‘cost for relevant: |~ .. ROGER HARRIS ‘this transportation makes most. . of these businesses uneconom- ical out of the gate. ' Now in previous ‘articles I have talked about the fact that there is no publicly accessible private’ port in Kitimat, but ‘rather three’ major’ companies -who own port infrastructure: : They ‘will decide what will or will not be shipped across their facilities. These invest- ments were made by them to handle their proprietary prod- uct. As long as the three ma- jor companies choose to limit access to their facilities there is no Port of Kitimat. This has always been the case. . Meanwhile, Methanex has ‘become the community’s next victim. Technology is continu- “ing to. reduce the workforces at both Eurocan and Alcan. The community is shrinking and the council’s engaged in a fight that deflects attention from the real v victim here, the region. ce ‘What is so ‘infuriating today. is that the challenge around at- |. tracting , new. businesses into: _ the region today is same as it -was 20 years ago and what it” * will be well into the future, - unless we decide to move . forward with a vision for the development of a true port in Kitimat. We need a publicly ac- cessible port on the Douglas Channel to handle break-bulk products. There are investors out there prepared to invest in , that infrastructure if space was made available. The Haisla as ‘ _ well as economic development organizations and municipali- . ties from our region are reach- _ ing out and bringing all of the players to the table. ° The Prince Rupert contain- er port project in many ways owes its success to the tremen- - dous: support: it received right across the.Western Canada. It: was support: that came from First Nations, municipal coun- cils in B.C. and Alberta, and industry who could clearly demonstrate the financial ben- _efits of such a project. A break bulk port in Kiti- mat can garner the same level of support. It would facilitate. expansion of the wood pellet industry right across north, es-. . pecially in the pine beetle in-. fested areas of the province. It would be the point of’en- try for all of the construction materials for the many pro- posed major industrial projects that stretch well into Alberta. It is the perfect complement “public port at Kitimat? You bet to Prince Rupert which will | “see all.of its available land ; consumed by activities around . containers, coal and grain. » It is because of the broader .- impacts and benefits to the — provincial/federal economies — that. this project like the con- ‘tainer port needs government support at both the provincial . and federal levels. This is not a project we can afford to leave to one commu- - nity to drive. . Immediately a Kitimat port corporation should be formed with. membership from the Haisla; and businesses that have exist- ing foreshore or facilities ’ on. the Douglas Channel. - This group should move. quickly to garner the appropri- ate level of provincial and fed- eral participation and support. . ‘They. need. to..get:,ony:with ‘identifying the, right locations -and operating form for devel- oping a publicly accessible fa- cility on the Douglas Channel. If done right a port in Kiti- on the Terrace/Kitimat areas as the container port is having in Prince Rupert today. The - jobs and businesses that will flow. from such a facility will far: out strip any reductions expansion at Alcan.’ ° -A .true visionary plan ‘is about looking to the future. Our future is in taking advan- tage of our natural assets. We Fores ‘local municipalities _ “mat will have the same effect — that will occur from smelter are a gateway, it’s about time we actually. became one. THE SIGNATURES of my husband and I are among the , 3600 on MLA Robin Austin’s petition protesting the _pro-— posed hike in natural gas rates. Maybe Pacific. Northern Gas has read that Petition; ‘Maybe not. = . Either way, [ m feeling picked on after what took place recently. On Feb. 14 a Pacific: Northern Gas truck stopped. . at our:gate. Two employees stepped out, one of them car- | ._ rying a shiny new gray gas meter. “We'd like to exchange your gas meter,” he said. “Why?” I asked. Our cur- rent meter had suffered no accidents from runaway lawn- or trucks without ’ “For accuracy.” -So, if my present meter wasn’t accurate, who had been . cheated? Me or the gas com- -pany? With the high cost of natural gas already, I would expect the utility company to post an armed guard anywhere a gigajoule exits its pipeline. The man carrying a long- necked propane torch asked, “Would you like me to light your pilot lights when we’re done?” “Sure,” I said. Pilot lights are always in the dark, at floor level. Lighting a pilot light m THROUGH: BIFOCALS 7 CLAUDETTE SANDECKI squatting on - your hands and knees poking a flaming wad of alcohol-soaked cotton crimped into one end of an 18-inch long wire through a loonie sized opening is difficult enough for an inexperienced but younger homeowner. I don’t: recom-. mend the pastime for seniors . on bony, arthritic knees meet- ing concrete. I. led the torch-bearer through the house, opened the door to the basement, and ‘left him to it. Aside from fire- wood, there isn’t anything to steal from our basement. so I thought. That evening while ready- ing for bed, I noticed the hot Or tap water in the bathroom sink | felt warmer than usual. The water always gets warmest af- | - ter our morning ‘showers; this rise in temperature had.no eX- -planation. Except one. . In my. slippers. I padded’ down to the basement, flash- _light in hand, and checked the knob that regulates the tem-. perature of the hot water in the tank. Sure enough. The knob » ' dishes will be cleaned at that was uniformly dusty except in two places, each, the size of a fingerprint, where dust -had been wiped off exposing the -knob’s bright blue. Seems that while lighting our pilot. light the employee had" decided our water tem- - perature should be higher. . Or. was he more interested in hav- ing us buy extra gas? The idea any company rep- ~ resentative would act like a visiting mother-in-law and adjust our water temperature ‘without my permission both- ers me for two.reasons: First, by setting the gauge higher, he was forcing us to pay higher costs for our gas consumption. Was this his. way of earning Brownie points with PNG? Second, a higher temperature puts us at risk for accidental scalds. Statistics confirm se- niors (babies and children, too) suffer serious scalding injuries in alarming numbers -has been Gas company is in hot water — either due to falling i in the tub or from unnecessarily hot tap water. Some scalds have re- sulted in death. Authorities advise keep- ing domestic water supplies at 120’ degrees F. or 49 degrees C. specifically to reduce the risk of scalds to babies, chil- dren and seniors. Authorities assure our laundry and our temperature. | We have no need of hot, hot: water. We. do our laundry in. cold water. Once we’ve both | had a morning shower, we use little hot water the rest of the day. So why heat 30 gallons . unnecessarily 24 hours a day? Unless you feel PNG deserves more revenue. ‘Despite a compensatory . payout from PNG’s largest . consumer, Methanex in Kiti- . ‘mat, the utility wants to raise ; ‘their domestic rates even more | _ ‘to further make up for losing Methanex.. Residents already are upset and growing suspicious. To discover a company employee tampering with a homeowner’s hot water. tank gauge under the pretense ofre- - > lighting the pilot flame fuels my suspicious of the company and its true intent. ‘with rising natural gas prices