“s,” WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1989
“2 MOL S, IssueNo.17

on Neha 18a

Legislative Library,
Parliament Buildings
Victoria, B.C.
V8V 1X4

a

Phone 635-7840.

Fax 635-7269.

School district ratifies $28 million budget _

TERRACE — The School Dis-
trict-88 board of trustees met in
a ‘special session April 18. to
ratify the district’s budget -for

the 1989-90 school: year. The ©

district will spend $28,135,771,
. an increase of $3,356,788 .over
" dastyear,

The increase represents a 13.5
‘percent rise in. spending, re-
flected in a 13.8 percent increase
in residential property taxes.

The tax rate will go from the
current. $9.06541 per $1,000 of

assessed value to $10.32477. The _
- impact on home owners, how-

ever, will be partially offset by.a
$50 increase in the provincial
Home Owner Grant. : District
secretary-treasurer Barry

Piersdorff says the median home -

owner in the area (assessed value
of about $40,000) will pay an ex-
tra $27; within the city of Ter-

A pertormance by the

Strathcona Chinese Dance Company at the Terrace Arena banquet

rscteo te

. room Saturday was enjoyed by dozens of youngsters and their parents. Following the per-

formance, about 40 young people got a

75-foot dragon.

feel for the Chinese culture when they manned this

race the average assessed value is
closer to $70,000, and the owner

of that average property will pay.

$38 more this year. -

New initiatives will account
for $546,447 in the budget.
Items highlighted by the board
include: - ;

@ Salary for the new. Director.
of Personnel Services position

— $70,000.

@ Specialized training for be-
ginning teachers, special educa-

- tion personnel and primary

school

coordinators
$150,000.

| @ Gitksan language program —
$54,000. .

@ A change in the textbook
program, wages for additional
classroom assistants, training
for principals and implementa-

tion of the. first phase -recom-.
~ mendations : from, ‘the. Royal.
- Commission account for the rest

of the funding. ~

The non-shareable capital.

budget (projects financed entire-
ly from local funds) is $156,450.
Planned projects include a joint-
venture playing field develop-
ment with the regional district at
Copper Mountain elementary

school, an adventure play- —
ground project in Kitwanga, —
busettes for Caledonia and
Hazelton secondary schools,

miscellaneous computer acquisi-
‘tions and two new vehicles for

the district.
- The board says most of the

overall budget increase will go

toward hiring additional teach-

‘ers to reduce class sizes and

paying salary increases negoti-
ated in the February collective
agreement with the TDTA.
Although the dollar value of
provincial funding to the district
is up from last year, Piersdorff
said the budget-sharing ratio —
the proportion of. expenditure
paid by the province — is down’
slightly to 88.52 from 88.99 in
the 1988-89 year. oO
- Piersdorff said the lower ratio

could be a reflection.of higher.
"assessed property values in the

district.

This year’s tax increase com-
pares favorably with the hike
last year, which: boosted taxes
on a home assessed at $65,000
by $99.80; last year’s total bud-

_get increase was $541,551.

Loggers press
for new route |

TERRACE -- City council will
be meeting with Northwest Log-
gers Association president Alex
Houlden and interested associa-
tion. members to discuss a pro-
posed truck route which would
bypass the Sande St. overpass.
The meeting is in response to a
letter from Houlden to council
in which he ‘‘urgently’’ requests
a “second and more thoughtful-

ly-engineered railway overpass,

Mining conference draws full house

Organizers, mining execu-—
tives, local businessmen. and
politicians all agree “— the
Northwest Mining Conference
held in Terrace last Friday was a
huge success,

by Tod Strachan

The primary goal of the con-
ference was to give Terrace.
_ businessmen an opportunity to
try to tap into the multi-million
dollar Northwest mining in-
dustry. And although it will take

time before anyone can say that
goal was accomplished, contacts
were made, views were shared
and many seeds were planted. It
was the beginning of a new
dialogue between the Terrace
business community and the
Northwest mining industry.

The conference began with the
Deputy Minister of Energy,
Mines and Petroleum, Doug
Horswill, zeroing in on the

Northwest’s primary concern: |

Alaska is lobbying the industry

‘“‘with a vengeance’’, we have to
develop hydro transmission lines
and roads. Horswill continued
by describing the government’s

efforts to develop infrastructure

in the area, but mining represen-
tatives would later point out that
it was far too little.

The difficulty facing the min-
ing industry in developing new
resources was best described by
the ministry’s District Geologist,
Dave Lefebure of Smithers. Ac-
cording to Lefebure, the North-

west is mineral rich and there.

will be many more new mines
opening as long as exploration
continues. But the mining in-
dustry is a high risk business.
“Only one in one thousand ex-
ploration projects actually pro-
duce a mine,’ says Lefebure.
And that one mine that goes into
production will probably only
have a life of five to 15 years —
if the market remains strong.
But: it’s not all gloom and

continued on page 27

Skeena students launch hard-hitting drama — page 26

‘We would like some practi- —
cal input into the initial design _
of such a project,’’ writes Houl-
den. “This would be in addition
to the Sande Overpass which is
totally unsuitable for the heavy
truck traffic that uses it.”’

According to Houlden, 100
loads of logs, 50 loads of chips
and 20 loads of lumber cross the
Sande overpass daily, and this is
only to the West Fraser mill on
Hwy. 16 west. ‘‘This does not
include logs flowing south to
Kitimat or the many loads of
lumber and chips coming from
the interior as far east as Prince
George and going to Prince Ru-
pert,’’ says Houlden.

He says the rate of overturned
trucks on Sande overpass is less.
than 1/1,000 of one percent, but
he also maintains that the rate
should be cut to zero.

‘‘When the last truck over-
turned on the overpass we were
very fortunate that it was a cold.
windy day,’ says Houlden.
‘*Had it not been, the chances of —
someone at the’ crosswalk would
have been greatly increased.”