Rally repeat This time Christy Clark is the target of protesters at a Liberal fundraiser\NEWS B1 Tea time What the history. buffs on the 75th anniversary committee have planned\ COMMUNITY B6 Extreme win. (; Hard working © fd hoopsters nail m top spot athome. °° ae tournament\SPORTS | B8 $1.00 plus: 7¢.GST ($2.10 plus 8¢ GST. outside of the Terrace area) Veniez wants more woods partners Natives, small firms may join revolution By JEFF NAGEL NEW SKEENA president Dan Veniez wants to widen his revolution in the woods to add aboriginal groups and smaller logging contractors as partners in controiling the northwest’s timber. Small contractors feared they may be frozen out of the woods by a hand- ful of big contractors to whom the for- est company boss planned to turn over complete control of the woodlands. But Veniez says they have a good point and now wants to set up a separ- ate chunk of woodlands dedicated to small- and mid-sized loggers. “What we have to do is provide them with a large enough allocation so that they could have the certainty that they’d have a piece of the business,” Veniez said. “These guys are efficient, they are cost-effective,” he added. “We want to make sure they have an opportunity to be in there to equalize the market.” He says he’d use the smaller con- tractors to create a productivity and cost benchmark that would control the costs of larger evergreen coniractors. “Al of these are ideas,” Veniez said, “Nothing is etched in stone.” meaningful way.” As a gesture of pood faith, he says, Veniez also wanis to pair up major contractors with northwest aboriginal groups in joint ventures that would control a sizable annual cut of timber. The hope is such joint ventures would result in aboriginal jobs, ad- vance goals of aborginal groups, ease uncertainty on the land for the compa- ny and bring business opportunities and advantages that would spring from First Nations involvement. “We have to see how it plays out,” Veniez cautioned. “But we have to in- volve First Nations in a tangible, more he’s agreed to an early surrender of Skeena’s timber to the Nisga’a -- two years ahead of the date for a final handover specified in the Nisga’a trea- ty. [t means the company will on May 11 - the third anniversary of the treaty taking effect —give up control of 175,000 cubic metres of timber to the Nisga’a Lisims Government. “I see no reason why we would want to hoard 175,000 cubic metres when the logical customer for that wood is us,” he said. . modelied on the Quebec festival. Veniez said the five-year forestry Terrace phase-in was put in the treaty because non-natives were scared. “Well, I’m not [scared},” Veniez said. “I don’t have that fear in the slightest. I want to do deals with First Nations. I want them to be part of our future.” . Veniez’s initial woodlands reform concept was that he’d lease out con- trol of the woodlands for 10 years to the biggest contractors wiih the most financial strength to do the job. Contractors would be able to cut and sell excess timber that Skeena doesn’t need. That could mean much Continued Page A2 grows more aboriginal First Nations now 15 per cent of population By JEFF NAGEL ABORIGINAL people are growing. in numbers and influence in Terrace and the northwest, the latest release of 2001 Cén- sus statistics reveals. The greater Terrace aboriginal. popula- tion grew by 37 per cent at a time when the overall Terrace populatiog, declined by 4.6 per cent to 19,980. That’s an increase of 835 people here who identify themselves as aboriginal - from 2,250 to 3,085 ~ between the 1996 and 2001 population counts, The non-aboriginal population here fell almost 10 per cent in those five years. Aboriginal people now make up 15.5 per cent of the greater Terrace area popu- lation. That’s up from 10.8 per cent in 1996. Aboriginals have more children than non-natives, but that trend alone does not -explain the native population growth here. Census stats show aboriginal babies aged 0-4 in Terrace number 360 — a far cry from the increase of 835. Alfie McDames, a Kitselas chief and executive director of the Kermode Friendship Society, says the Terrace aboriginal population growth is. likely being driven by in-migration from other communities, City of change mw See page Ad for the first of a two-part special report on our changing ethnichy. °: “There are some people moving up from Prince Rupert,” he said. The Prince Rupert aboriginal popula- tion dropped from 4,800 in 1996 to 4,625 in 2001, They now make up 30 per cent of the population there ~up slightly from 27.7 per cent in 1996. The aboriginal pro- portion grew because Prince Rupert’s Continued Page AS = Wonderful winter GRADE 1{ students Jayleen Stewart, left, Brittney Perkins and Kassidy Banister pose next to the building blocks used to construct a colourful castle of ice ona frigid winter day. Creating an Ice castle was just one of the events at Kitl K’Shan Primary School during its Carnaval, a week-long celebration of winter JENNIFER LANG FHOTO Clark meets her critics head on By JENNIFER LANG SCHOOL DISTRICT chair Diana Penner says trustees are viewing their first face-to-face meeting with education minister Christy Clark as an important first step. . Clark met privately with five trustees and senior managers for about an hour Friday, as. protesting teachers gathered outside the board office carrying picket signs. “We are encouraged by this meeting,” Penner said, describing the session as informal, “We were able to talk. about the issues that matter.” School district funding was high. on the list of ‘concerns. trustees ~ raised, In September the board is-: sued 2 non-confidence motion in Clark over the issue. Trustees also asked Clark keep a buffer grant worth $490,000 in place in order to help deat with part of an anticipated $5 million deficit for the coming year. “At this paint, the ministry is say- ing they want to reduce that to half this year, and to zero the next year,” - Penner said, adding she’s. hopeful’ = the meeting will result in further dia- logue on that front. _. Clark, meanwhile, told the Ter- race Standard the decision on the _ buffer grant has already been made. .. - But she agreed this district. is worse off than most because enrol-.' ment decline has been so dramatic. “And that's, to me, a larger eco- nomic issue. What we need to do is get the northwest economy back on its feet,” she said, adding that would | create jobs, encouraging more fami- - lies to move back. Clark also spent about 25 minutes” speaking with a small group of local teachers after being greeted by pro- - testers outside the. board office. unscheduled. meeting. “Time. will tell. If she pushes for more.money in the budget, we'll see," he added. “J don’t-have any. confidence in these.” : people’ to: fund education. properly and adequately anymore, 1 don’ ae wah “She listened but did she hear: us?” Uplands Elementary teacher™ Wendell Hiltz wondered after the” Health honchos want orthopedic doc here By RODLINK = HEALTH OFFICIALS want to base an orthopedic surgeon at Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace but have yet to determine how to pay for one. Placing an orthopedic surgeon here will comple- ment the one now based in Kitimat and one in Prince Rupert and is viewed. as part of the overall goal of . improving medical ser- vices in the northwest, “It’s listed as a priority’ but there has to be a. fair bit of work dene,” says Northern Health Authority official Mark Karjaluoto. He listed the need for more nurses, more equip- ment and more operating - _- room time at Mills as cost . factors that need to be considered. As it is, the authority has tightened spending, laid off-existing employees and has undertaken other measures in response. to a three-year budget freeze imposed by Victoria. Local physician Dr. Geoff Appleton, the north’s rep on the board of the B.C. Medical Association, welcomed the news. “The two guys we have here now are overexten- ded, The wait list is long,” said Appleton of. the two orthopedic surgeons in Ki- timatand.in Prince Rupert. “They can’t : easily . share. call. with Prince ‘George,": added Appleton. in referring to the practice of physicians covering for each other to allow time off and vacations. Adding specialists to rural areas is based on the premise that it’s difficult ta recruit and keep them if there are only one or two of a kind in any one area. The need for constant coverage, for example, means one-or two special- ists must be on-call more often than their counter- parts in urban areas. -It also means vacations and time off are more dif- ficult to arrange. But grouping specialists of one kind at one hospital is regarded as the ultimate | ideal by medical experts as it makes on-call and work sharing much easier, Karjaluoto was quick to point out there is no con- sideration being given to pulling the two surgeons out of Prince Rupert and Kitimat and placing them in Terrace as well, “That is absolutely de- finitely not going to hap-- pen at all,” he said, Placing, two orthopedic surgeons at one hospital in the northwest last came up in the early 1990s when. the orthopedic slot in Kiti- mat became vacant, .’ But Kitimat mounted a vigorous protest at the - possibility of losing its or-- thopedic position to Prince” Rupert so that city. would. have. two -such: surgeons and the plan was dropped. Placing orthopedic sur- geons at Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace fits the desires of a city-sponsored medical services watch committee. Among its goals is the establishment of a trauma centre at Mills to cover the northwest, Terrace already has a core group of specialists that would fit well with a trauma centre, but ortho- pedic surgeons are a.key part of what is needed. News ‘of the additional orthopedic surgeon plan came from the Jan, 18 board meeting of the NHA in Prince George. The board. has placed more obstetrical, paedia- tric and ear, nose and throat coverage in Prince George, more internal medicine specialists and orthopedic surgeons across the north, more radiolo- gists in the central north- ern area and more general practitioners in Burns Lake as key priorities. The. recommendations came from the health au- thority’s regional medical advisory committee. Although Prince George is the north’s major urban centre, it has had contin- ual difficulty finding en- ough obstetricians to. meet demand. Fixing that pro- -blem is the main medical manpower need in the north for the moment] Kar jalucto. sald: