) * A2 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 17, 2003 school trustees let loose at MLA over h By JENNIFER LANG SO MUCH for a new working relationship with Skeena MLA Roger Harris, say school trustees who were floored lo learn what the MLA had to say about how the school district should save money. Harris, who met with trustees last month, recently told The Terrace Standard he doesn’t think more: money is necessarily the answer to the financial problems fac- ing the district. Trustees were surprised to learn the MLA still advo- cales selling or leasing closed schools, and prefers year- round schooling to the four-day school week introduced here to cut costs. ~ eee meee ees Schocl board vice chair Nicole Bingham said she was stunned by Harris’ remarks. “It floored me, to be honest,” she told trustees. an “Mr. Harris sat here and said we are going to build a partnership, that this was going to be a new beginning,” Bingham said. She had hoped Harris would act as an advocate on behalf of the disirict’s needs to the education ministry. “It's very clear. to me thal Mr. Harris would like us to sell our schools,” Bingham said. “I am not about to do that,” she said. Bingham said Harris has told the board student enrol- ment will increase here when the economy improves-and more families move back. “We will need those schools,” she said. Bingham was also concerned about Harris's and edu- cation minister Christy Clark’s stance that school dis- tricts shouldn’t introduce a four-day school week simply to save money. “I don’t think they understand our district,” Bingham said, “I don’t think they understand our needs. I don’t think they give a damn.” Is remarks Gary Turner, a former Thornhill trustec, was so alarmed by Harris’ cost-cutting suggestions he went to the December school board mecting to urge the board to lake action. “When is it that you people are going to say, enough’s enough?” asked Turner, who was unseated fast year. “There’s not enough money in the system.” Turner said the board should refuse to make any more cuts to education — even if it means being fired and re- placed by a ministry-appointed trustee. “This has been 2 brutal year,” board chair Lorrie Go- wen said, but she isn’t prepared to run that risk. “Tam not about to hand my child over to the Liberal government,” she said. “I’m stuck between a rack and a hard place.” ; Gowen said the board considered handing in two budgets last spring — a balanced budget and a so-called “needs” budget, bul she doesn’t know if the board will consider taking that action this year. “It all comes down to an evaluation of the four-day schcal week,” she said. “We'd make that decision once we get that in.” When the board introduced a four-day school week to save an anticipated $1.4 million, trustees said they be- lieved it would be less disruptive than simply closing more schools, The board has turned down at least one request to sell Mountainview elementary and has not changed its offi- cial position that it won't lease closed schools to private schools, Trustee Hal Stedham, meanwhile, was baffled by Harris’s praise for the New Westminster school district, which opened up a school inside another school district. “Can you imagine anything more ludicrous?” Sted- ham said. “He’s from another planet.” Surrey firm buys Kitwanga mill By JEFF NAGEL Asian markets. ceeds from the Kitwanga they're satisfied New sale available NEW SKEENA Forest Products has struck a deal to sell its Kitwanga saw- | mill to Surrey-based West- ex Alberta Lid for $6.5 million. The terms of the deal, reached Dec, 5, create a big incentive for New Skeena to swiftly restart its idled Prince Rupert - pulp mill. That's because Westex would not have to pay $3.5 million of the purchase price for Kitwanga Lumber if the pulp mill doesn’t re- start by Sept. 1, 2004: Westex has already paid a $500,000 non-re-- fundable deposit and is to pay another $2 million when thé sale closes in January and = another $500,000 on May 31. Westex Alberta Lid. president Kumar Senthil said making more than half the purchase price contingent on the pulp mill's startup makes sense because about half of Kit- wanga Lumber’s revenue comes from the chips it produces. With no running pulp mill, he said, the saw- mill’s revenue stream is greatly reduced and there- fore i's worth less. Senthil says Westex would far prefer to pay full price and see the pulp mill restart — whether under the present New Skeena ow- nership or under different owners, An agreement between the firms guarantees New Skeena a supply of chips from Kitwanga. Senthil said Westex plans to restart the Kit- wanga sawmill around mid-January and have log- gers back to work before then. He said there are no immediate plans lo change the mill, which employs 50 workers. “We don’t want to tink- er around with the existing operations,” he said, ad- ding the mill could even- tually add another shift and hire more workers. Westex Alberta Ltd. is the export division of Westex Timber Mills, also of Surrey. Westex is a wholesaler that has been buying lum- ber from Kitwanga, treat- ing it with preservalives at a Langley plant and ex- porting the lumber to “We already have the market in place for the Kitwanga products,” Senthil said. Westex founder Mohin- der Gill is a former Westar employee who ance worked at mills in the up- per Skeena area, New Skeena’s parent company, NWBC Timber and Pulp, would agree to * make some of the pro- to keep New Skeena running for the short term. Without that, New Skeena would run out of cash at its current rate by the end of January, court- appointed monitors with PricewaterhouseCoopers say. The monitors’ first re- port to the court says Skeena is making all ef- forts to keep costs under control and preserve cash. “Twelve employees and contractors were laid off after the CCAA filing, and all current salaried person- nel and contractors have accepted a 40 per cent wage reduction effective the date of the CCAA filing,” the reporl says. She deserves the very Original price $4,999 Christmas Feature Price Jo DOSE en i 3.00ct Diamond Bracelet... 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