He’s seen it all Unit closed Local man Harvey Doll celebrates his 104th birthday\NEWS A3 Mills Memorial Hospital has closed the doors on its | psychiatric unit\NEWS A9 Go team go! | Triathaloris, power lifting and road faces: the sports year in review continues\SPORTS B1 a WEDNESDAY. January 3, 2001. www.beclassified.com THE TERRACE and Area Health Council went against the advice of the man sent to control its expenses by adding nearly $400,000 to its Mills Memorial Hospital payroll this fiscal year. It hired more people and extended the hours of existing employees in key areas such as emer- gency and intensive care beginning last spring. Although the council’s budget year began April 1 last year, it didn’t know what its budget. was until last October. That would go against recommendations in a September 6, 2000 report by Tom Novak who was brought in by the health ministry arrived in the spring of 1999 in the face of mounting defi- cils. “It will be important for the Terrace and Area Health Council to follow the policy of not allow- ing for additional expenses unless the [health] ministry is willing to fund such expenses,” wrote Novak. “It will also be important that the health FIREFIGHTER LAWRENC this calico cat after he council not allow increases in spending to occur until the Ministry of Health has approved any in- creases in spending.” Novak at first acted as an “executive mentor” to health council chief executive officer Michael Leisinger. When Leisinger left in the fall of 1999 for a job in Prince George, Novak took over the posi- tion until current chief executive Dieter Kuntz was hired in March 2000. Health coune! iB wiedecd-- Novak's report, but said the health council had to provide for more services. And although the health council didn’t know what this year’s budget would be until October, it did receive indications there would be an in- crease, he said “We took a gamble,” Kelly said. The October budget, when it did arrive, added $1.7 miilion to the health council's operating Harn _ TERRACE $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST. ($1.10 pius 8¢ SST outside of the . | Tetreee area) — VOLS23 NO, 39° council against advice of $17.583 million. As well, the health disagreed mise, Kelly added, “we felt we weren't going to Bet any more money or new program money.” Novak’ was asked, but refused, to take out his with other comments comments. made by Novak that His report has also gone to the health mini: it “was receiving Stry, which paid his Salary while he was here. adequate funding for the health services at their present levels,” Bob Kelly delivery The health council has sent a letter to the of ministry outlining its Position. Novak arrived as the health council was post- ing a deficit for the 1998-1999 year of more than “Our problem with $600,000. that statement is we A budget boost of $800,000 for the 1999-2000 felt we would not get year, and a series of cost controls brought in by any more money Novak, resulted in a razor-thin surplus of about for know, but it is tight.” what y ever,” said Kelly. “He’s saying we a have enough money fear that expenses had been escalating at an and we probably do alarming rate,” a we $11,000. Novak’s Sept. 6 report indicated “there was a do budget for a total provincial government amount If the health council accepted Novak’s pre- E Stella and his family have adopted ; rescued it from a storm drain just before Christmas. Somehow the cal, now called Tigger, inside the drain where she dangled helplessly by one frozen front paw. The cat spent Christmas at the Stella residence. Its tront leg became stuck did require amputation but it is now recovering. Tigger’s doing just fine, thanks A CAT trapped inside a storm drain dangled by one paw until rescuers arrived on the scene, summoned by her tortured howls of anguish. It’s unknown how long the cat may have been trapped, her paw frozen to the metal grate covering the drain. But she managed to hang on for dear life until her cries of help alerted a passing motor- ist, who discovered the terrified feline dang- ling inside a storm drain on the 4600 block of Hamer Avenue Dec, 21. Firefighter Lawrence Stella was able to pry open the grate and remove it ~ along with the attached cat ~ from the drain. He used warm water from a neighbouring residence to melt the ice that had frozen the cat’s paw to the heavy, metal grate. New year rings in with income tax cuts Terrace Animal Control staff picked up the cat after the rescue, and later took her to a vet for treatment. The adult female calico’s shoul- der was dislocated as a result of her predica- ment. Stella) who nicknamed the cat “Trooper” because of her ordeal brought the cai home for the holidays so she wouldn’t have to spend Christmas alone. . However, after a week of nursing the in- jured leg it became evident that it needed am- putation. Tie operation sports a price tag of $500, a tall bill for a cat with no home. Stella tried throughout the holidays to find the cat’s owners but despite knocking on doors and putting up flyers nobody claimed her. Without any owners coming forward to pick up the veterinarian bill, the cat’s fate appeared to be dismal. Without the operation she would not live. But local velerinatian, Dr. Elorza has agreed to do the operation for a discounted rate and the Terrace Injured Animal Fund will be paying for the balance of the expensive operation. The fund was developed for injured ownerless animals that require veterinary al- tention. The Stellas have decided to adopt the cat and have her spayed. Their children have since renamed it Tigger. The Terrace Fire. Department suspects the cat may have entered the city’s drain system through an open culvert somewhere, and then wandered through the sewer pipes until she gol stuck, Cont'd Page A2 Naturai gas — goes up again AVERAGE HOMEOWNERS will be paying upward of $1,800 a year for heat based on the latest round of natur- al gas price increases which took hold Jan. 1. Residential prices went up 16 per cent that date and are on top of 10 per cent granted Oct. 1 of last year and 22 per cent on July 1, 2000. This latest increase comes solely from the price of the gas ilself. October's increase was a combination of gas cost-in- creases and hikes in the fee Pacific Northerr, Gas charges to deliver gas to customers here. ; Gas costs have been soaring over the past two years because of the strong demand for the commodity from the United States and because there are. now more pipe- lines reaching south of the border. , In effect, B.C, residents are bidding for gas with a weak Canadian dollar against American interests with a much stronger U.S. dollar. Natura! gas prices in B.C. have been deregulated for some time. Pacific Northern Gas passes along whal it pays for fas without any mark up. On July 1 of last year, the price PNG charged for a gigajoule gas to cover the commodity, delivery and fixed fee was $10.14. That went up to $11.15. Oct. 1 and rose to $12.97 on Jan. 1. The B.C. Utilities Commission, which regulates what PNG charges to ship gas, estimates a home uses 120 gigajaules a year of gas. Add in a franchise fee of $9.30 a month and GST of seven per cent, and the bill begins to add up considerably. a The Oct. 2000 and Jan. 1 increases are subject to ex- amination by the utilities commission at a hearing here in Terrace beginning March 5, . The price for small business gas consumers also went up. As of Jan. 1, the increase was 19 per cent, making for a total hit of 31 per cent since July 2000. PNG officials also hope by that time to have final de- tails of a deal between itself and Methanex which owns a methanol producing plant at Kitimat. That deal must also be approved by the utilities com- mission for it could have more cost implications for PNG's consumers. Although Methanex buys its gas inde- pendently, it pays PNG to ship that gas through its pipe- lines and has become its largest source of revenue. Methanex ciosed its plant in July of last year citing high costs. It included PNG on the list of high costs. Since then Methanex and PNG have tried to reach a deal that would lower Methanex’s costs and provide en- ough revenue to PNG to keep it in business. They did reach an agreement in principle last fall but have so far failed to come to a final agreement. There are worries that PNG’s other customers will have to pick up the slack should Methanex receive substantial price reductions. PNG president Roy Dyce said there hasn't been a lot of progress on reaching a deal. “Some days it seems ' questionable,” he said of negotiations. FEDERAL TAX RATES went down Jan. 1, providing a bit of relief for local residents dealing with natural gas price hikes. The new rates were announced last: October by the federal Liberal govern- ment and were a big part of its cam- paign platform leading .to its re-clec- tion in November, mo, This will be the second round of federal cuts in less than a year. The - first ones took place last spring. More modest provincial tax cuts were also 1 ~ "$30,000, the rate will be 16 per cent, a drop of one point. The 24 per cent | ‘middle tax rate will drop. to 22 per. announced in the spring, ing hold on Jan. 1, will eliminate pro- Other provincial tax cuts, also take vincial surtaxes on high earners. The provincial tax on income be- tween $30,000 and $60,000 will fall by half a percentage point and the small business rate dips to 4.5 per cent. The federal tax reductions should, on average, work out to a $1,100 say- ~ ings for one-earner family of four earn- ing $40,000 and $1,000 for a two-earn- er family of four earning $60,000. _ The reductions: are’ taking «place . through lowering of federal. tax rates on income. For-incomes up to about cent on income up to about $61,000. And the 29 per cent tax rate on in- come between about $61,000 and $100,000 will drop by three points to 26 per cent. This means people earn- ing more than $100,000 will still be. paying $29,000. But the surtax on high income earn- ers will be eliminated, The federal government has also brought back protection from having inflation” or wage increases ‘drive people to higher tax rate levels. The federal Liberals for years did othing to pratect people from having” inflation or wages push them to higher tax brackets, thus increasing the amount of taxes being collected. Now the amounts to be taxed will be adjusted to protect people from in- flation so that if their income rises, so ‘docs the level at which point they’ll enter a higher tax bracket, Also changing |s the education tax credit for full time students, from $200 a month to-$460 a month, The amount for part time students is $120 a month, up from.$60 a month. ; :.) The child. tax benefit is also in creasing by $300 as -of July 2001. This will “bring the. maximum - child - tax, . : $42,280 for people with four children, benefit to $2,372 for the first child... Py Many Canadians willalso benefit from a one-iime federal cheque to help them cope with high heating expenses. The cheques will be mailed the end of January 2001 and go to people who qualified for GST credils on the basis of their 1999 tax returns. Married and common law couples will get $250, Single parents families will get $250 and single people with- out children will get $125. Roughly speaking, GST credit in- ‘come limits in 1999 were $33,880 for people without children, .rising. to