_e ee ee - ™ _ ee EE ee Sidewalks, please Dynamic duo On the team City councillor Tim Down says. it’ Ss. time to move into the 21st. | | A pair of champion country dancers has set up shopiin A hearing impairment hasn't stopped Paula Wesley from century\NEWS A8 Terrace \COMMUNITY BL playing hockey\SPORTS BS WEDNESDAY MARCH 5; 1997 93¢ PLUS 7¢ GST | VOL. 9 NO. 47° Repap protected from creditors Logging contractors face uncertain future LOGGING contractors here don’t know how they'll stave off bankruptcy now that Repap B.C, is protected from its creditors. : The company owes-an estimated $30 million to its logging contractors in the northwest but any chance of payment for now was frozen Monday. when Repap received protection from any court action taken by : creditors. “T can’t provide any comfort to-any of the people - who hold the bills that Repap owes,” Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht said Monday. “It’s not going to be a pleasant experience for some of them.” Repap B.C. now has six months to come up with a plan to deal with its debt. Good Lord, that would be a major blow to the com- munity,” said Giesbrecht of the situation facing the contractors. Repap vice-president Rudy Schwartz said the com- pany intends to continue operations and has no plans to lay offits 1,300 employees. But there’s no indication yet how many of the 1,000 . employees of Repap-affiliated contraciors might lose their jobs if contractor bankruptcies now follow. Those contractors had been pressing the provincial government for some kind of financial assistance. Their plea was based on a proposed takeover of Repap by Avenor, another Montreal-based pulp and paper manufacturer. Shareholders for those companies were to meet March 12 to vote on the dea! but contractors said they needed help before that date. Avenor had said it would honour Repap’s debts as part of the deal but that possibility ended Monday when Repap B .C, was excluded from a new proposed takeover package. “If we.have to write off receivables with Repap il could put us in some fairly dire financial consequenc- es,” said Alm-wood Contracting’s Justin Rigsby. Local contractors like Alm-wood say they don't like the idea of FRBC-backed assistance loans being extended to them, because it would mean going deeper in debt. Contractor Gordon Huil isn’t optimistic banks would even grant such a loan to contractors who don’t have a great chance of gelling their money out of Repap. Their preference is that any money be lent to Repap B.C. instead and be immediately used to pay the con- tractors’ logging bills. ‘Tt doesn't matter what happens, it’s going to be _ tough,” Hull said. “We're owed a lot of money,” Eliminating the B.C. arm of Repap will allow the two firms to ditch $620 million of debt connected to Avenor shareholders. All shares of Repap B.C., however, will be turned over to the Royal Bank and the Toronto Dominion Bank - the company’s two largest creditors, owed a tolal of $480 million. The forest licences have been transferred to the banks without the five per cent takeback usually asso- ciated with ownership changes. That concession — along with allowing the company to continue to defer its stumpage payments — was key in persuading the banks to take the Repap B.C. shares, employment and investment minister Dan Miller told the Standard, “We didn’t want to see the operations go down,” Miller said. “It was pretty clear that had we not.been prepared to be as helpful as we have there would have been a much worse result.” He said it’s estimated the outstanding stumpage “I don’t want to see them take 20 cents on the dollar. J Repap B.C. and sweeten a share exchange to appeal to Continued Page A2 THERE MAY BE NOTHING but dirt at the site of the new Terrace Little Theatre playhouse, but that didn't stop actor Russ Sangster and director Danie! Barnswell for getting a feel for the new spot. come a little closer to reality after this Sunday's Applause ‘97 telethon, Come down and check out the great entertainment at the R.E.M. Theatre from 11 till 9 p.m. on March 9, Admission is free, Sangster practiced a few lines from Hamiet, as he gazed upon and there's lot's of door prizes. poor Yorick’s skull. The two are hoping the new playhouse will Liens placed on logs, chips A LEGAL MANOEUVRE Friday may help two big logging Repap B.C. have filed liens against wood in Repap's yard totalling $1.7 mil- lion and K’Shian Construction has filed a lien for $915,000. logs and chips in the Terrace mill yards and in Prince Rupert, If the liens are upheld it may mean buyers will be unwilling to pay for lumber or chips from Repap until the debts are paid, The liens came just under the wire. Had they been. filed visions granted to Repap B.C. would have kicked in. Whether the move will work or not may be played out in court. “Tt is our view that the liens that were placed on our wood in Terrace and the chip pile in Prince Rupert are not valid, ” Repap B.C. vice-president Rudy Schwartz said Monday. But Vancouver lawyer. William Holder, acting for the contrac- tors, says his instructions from his clients are to proceed. “My instructions are to enforce the liens if it’s not resolved in some other manner,” Holder said, « — Gordon Hull, co-owner of Don Hull and Sons Lid, said he decided to act because he was not confident about assurances provided by Repap B.C, to that point. “That’s the only protection we could find to try to secure e what we have coming,” said Hull said of the liens. owed up until the end of January, plus their February advance. Tt does not include work done since then. “We're part of this community. We've been here 08 years. We're committed to the community and the people who. work is as committed to it as we are. To him if he has to let Repap B.C. fail to make this deal with Avenor go through I don’ t think he’d give two hoots about Tertace.” “We're here for the long run,” he said. “In order to do that we need to he able to pay our bills. And we’ve put paper on the wood to ensure we get paid.” Logging couuactors weren't the only companies filing liens against Repap B.C, A computer search last Friday for a listing of the liens stalled when the system froze because of overload. by aauto leasing company owned by Jimmy Pattison, Tt was for a 1993 Cadillac Seville driven by a Repap corporate executive, Land up for protection By JEFF NAGEL NEARLY TWO-THIRDS of the forested lands within city limits should-be protected fram developers, says a consul- tants’ report. Tough rules on new development that would protect fish species, threatened wildlife, rare plants, crosion-prone soil and high-value recrealion areas Within selected environ- mentally sensitive zones, But the proposed restrictions will probably be watered down by the time council is through with them, City planner David Trawin said ECL Envirowest Consul- tants took a ‘“‘worst case scenario”’ approach in preparing the development restrictions. Rather than taking a guess at how restrictive council wanted to be, he said, the consultants went to the more stringent end of the scale with the expectation council will reduce them to what it wants, The proposed guidclines would require analysis of land proposed for subdivision by a landscape architect or regis- tered professional forester, Before any construction proceeds in a sensitive area, a developer would have to submit a tree survey and manage- ment plan, a stormwater management plan, and erosion and sediment control plans. The guidelines say. preserva- tion of natural vegetation and trees is strongly encouraged, It also sets out development setbacks from fisheries sensitive zones and additional requirements to protect fish habitat. The nearly 300 hectares of forested land identified : a8 ¢il- viroumentally sensitive include: Wi Skeena River shoreline including side channels around Taxpayers may frown on latest merger offer contractors here get $2.6 million in overdue payments from ° Don Hull and Sons Ltd. and subsidiary Slender Lake Ventures The docurnents, onder the Woodworkers Lien Act; aim at both Monday, it would have been too late, as creditor protection pro- - He said the liensrepresent what the three contracting firms are’ for us,” Hull said. “I’m not sure (Repap chairman) George Petty. Included in the list that did become available was a lien placed , Braun's Island and Little Isiaud, plus a 600-metre-long ditch south of Eby St. where juvenile salmon were found. @ Kitsuaukalum River shoreline. Wi Spring Creek and its tributary Heek Brook, which the study says has already been made inaccessible to fish by land developihent. @ Howe Creek and the entire bench escarpment from Skeenaview Drive to Kalum Lake Drive, plus above ground portions of Howe Creek further downstream to the Skeena River, i Terrace Mountain, including the biking trail. Identifi ed for high wildlife, forest, fragile soil, and recreation vatucs. The report says there’s important fish habitat within city limits that helps support the 24 species of salmon and other fish found {n local rivers, “(The shorelines, side channels and back channels of the Skeena and Kitsumkalum Rivers provide iniportant habitats For migrating adult salmon and rearing juvenile salmon and trout,’’ says the report, - Spring Creek also helps sustain important salmon spawn ing and rearing habitat, the shidy says. Five of the nine different forest plant groups found in wooded arcas of lown are rare or vulnerable, the report says. The study also identifies for protection four species of Cont'd Page A2' IT’S SWEETER but a consultant isn’t sure the province's latest offer will make Terrace taxpayers want to join Thomhill. The new amalgamation offer from Vic- toria would add $900,000 in additional - restructuring assistarice grants. But consultant Eugene Lalonde says the money would only reduce taxes to Ter- race residents by i per cent for one year. “A reduction in the tax dollars by 10 per cent in one year would have little im- pact to persuade the taxpayers of the city that this Is a good deal,”’ Lalonde says in an update to the Kitimat- Stikine regional district, ye - Altematively, he siys, the $900,000 could -be uséd as seed money toward some kind of:capital project. But be noted “that sum wolildn’t go far. Lalonde’s' report also stresses the great uncertainty; involving = government finances (hese days. Now may not be. the. | best lime, to cut a good deal with Victoria but it m: a be that things aren’t going to gel ‘ett ahd local laxpayers should take what they can gel, he said. Lalonde said the analysis of the offer could change if his restructure report was updated to reflect 1996 values and changes the province has made to the way ‘ municipalitics operate. He said he could do that in six wecks ala cost of $15,000, Lalonde said the June 30 deadline for a referendum {is do-able but would require quick action. Terrace councillor David Hull says that since lhe extra money is spread over four years it would amount to Jess than $250,000 in each year, That’s only 12 per cent of the cily’s capital projects budget for this year and just a tiny fraction of the overall city budget. “T's not alot of money,”’ Hull said, “] don’t really think it changes the overall picture a whole fot,” Thornhill regional district director Les Watmough wants: sewer lines in. the. ground before he'll agree to a merger with Terrace. For that story, see Page, Al, } of f