_ Aa The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 7, 2005 TERRACE STANDARD . ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 | PUBLISHER: ROD LINK - ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. » V8G 5R2 ‘TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 + FAX: (250) 638-8432 WEB: www.terracestandard.com a EMAIL: revisroom@terracestandard. com . - Per-plex-ing © IT’S A shame Terrace city council’s decision to avoid’ making a decision: to go ahead, to re-think : | _ or to scrap its sportsplex/second sheet of ice. plan . comes at a time when municipal elections loom ' this November. : oo, _ That’ s because goody public policy can never rbe created i in the heat of electioneering. Political promises are just that — promises — _and’ objectivity gets tossed aside in favour of rousing rhetoric. | Which is why the mayor and council need to _ within a month schedule a public meeting to go | _ over. thei ins, ‘the outs, ‘the good and the bad of the | 7 second sheet of ice plan. . _. They need to do so as the. elected. local repre- oo sentatives of Terrace-and-not as candidates in the. upcoming election to do away with the politics |. -|. WE APPLAUD the effort be-. ' ing made by both sides to forge © anew relationship with B.C.’s » and concentrate instead on service to taxpayers. _ City council has never ever released any kind of report on its current second sheet of ice plan to conducted an informal poll of mainly business-. | people, tevealing at least the. appetite to think. about reviving a conference centre as part of al multi-use and purpose concept. | | a) , Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area. Published on Wednesday of ‘gach week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5R2. 7 provide: even. the simplest of details so taxpayers | | may be part of the inside workings. | _ -’Now. that. council has. decided to seek anoth- _ er round of bids early next year, there’s a bit of | ‘, breathing room here to produce an analysis. ~~ The absence of this kind of information and the . o : opportunity to question mayor and council can’t: leave a good taste in the mouths of citizens. All of that, hard work in organizing. local do- * nations, either in cash: or in-kind commitments, _ and the resulting goodwill stands to be lost should — there not be an n objective analysis 0 of what i is going on. | As unattractive as it might be, council has not debated the most fundamental i issue — and that is whether or not the current plan fora ‘stripped down . second’ sheet Of ice t6 be:attached t6 the northside’ of the current arena is worth of an expenditure ° likely to hit the $10 million mark. If council wants to spend that kind of money, ' is. it best spent in this fashion? Is the current location even suitable for a second sheet of ice? If council wants. to spend this kind of money, is there an- other location that might be more appropriate? Just recently city councillor Marylin Davies While that. may have been covering old ground and discarded years ago because of cost and taxa- tion implications, it is no less worthy of consider- ~~ ation than a pricey bare bones i ice sheet. _ More suspicious. minds might view council’ S decision to re-tender early next year as a way ‘of avoiding controversy during the election. -A‘public meeting, backed by proper informa- _ tion, would do much to do away with that.line of 7 thought. | : PUBLISHER/EDITOR: . Rod Link —.. ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS: Sarah A: Zimmerman COMMUNITY: Dustin Quezada - NEWS/SPORTS: Margaret Speirs FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping, Carolyn Anderson CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Alanna Bentham © ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: . - Bert Husband, Susan Willemen 2005 Wil win INER AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik NEWSPAPERS . COMPETITION PRODUCTION: Susan Credgeur * SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.94 (+$4.06 GST)=62.00 per year; Seniors $50.98:(+$3.57 GST)=54,55; Out of Province $65.17 (+$4.56 GST)=69.73 Outside of Canada (6 months) $156. P1C+10, 98 GST)=167.8 89 MEMBER OF » B. c. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION - AND - B c. PRESS COUNCIL (www. bopresscouncil. Org) Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the copy- right holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd., its illustration repro services and advertising agencies. Reproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, is specifically prohibited. : _ Authorized as second-class mail pending the Post Office Department, for payment of postage in cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents ws écu_s ae | @ @) Black Press . |We all can prosper from mining | By MICHAEL MCPHIE First Nations people. By urging-his fellow pre- - ‘miers to make room’ at the table for, First Nations -dur- _ing the recent first minister’s conference and'to draftanew | § |. strategy to lift their people out — of poverty within 10 years, Premier Gordon Campbell is « " injecting needed. energy and new thinking into. a dialogue. that ‘has been veering in the wrong direction for too long. - Opportunities have been . missed on_both sides — "greater - well being for the province’s - aboriginal communities have | not been realized and most certainly the province has lost potential investment. . Advancing’ a constructive ~ dialogue;and-developing:part-, .,.c “nerships>witi »B:G,’ s*First-Na=-= ||. tions community ranks as one of the top priorities for B.C.’s $4.5 billion mining industry. _ Our industry is in the early » stage of a resurgence, the likes of which have not been seen in _ B.C. for many years. However, realizing the full potential of this resurgence _and attracting new investment » is dependent on much greater levels of certainty in the prov- ince around treaty issues and .the roles and responsibilities of industry with respect to: - “consultation and ‘accommo- _ dation.” Resource revenue sharing? . “the duty and obligations of ' industry, and. government to: meaningfully consult and the . role of First Nations in the per- _ GUEST COMMENT Michael McPhie. mitting of new projects are all areas that require direction for governments and First Nations alike. _ Our industry has some suc- cess stories where mining companies and = First Nation communities have developed long” lasting = beneficial rela- tionships. At the Eskay Creek mine in northwestern B.C., 35 per cent of the workforce is First Nation and business partner- - ships with First Nation owned corporations generate addi- tional jobs and opportunities for their members. ‘Similar employment and business ar- rangements exist between the ‘Hupacasath: First Nation and Polaris Minerals. on northern . ‘Vancouver Island. Beyond B.C. there are nu- merous examples of: where . mining has been shown to be a major positive economic and ‘social force for First Nation communities. In particular, the diamond industry in Canada’s Arctic “gressive, ~ has grown, in just’15 years, to. become. one of the worlds largest. Its success is due in’ part ‘to. the partnerships with - the people of the north, pre- dominantly First Nations. Beyond. Canada, working ‘with and developing construc- tive relationships with indige- “nous peoples is very much the | norm for progressive mining companies and .the resulting benefits that flow from those “can . be substantive. ‘To real- » ize further success in B.C:, we need to find ways to advance the dialogue between industry - -and First Nations and build the capacity to establish‘ mutually’ - beneficial economic - arrange- ments. For too long it has been the . _Supreme Court of Canada that, after years of protracted and expensive legal battles, has of the ecosystems that are es- sential to all things and results _ in substantive benefits to. both local and regional economies. If the Premiers succegd in collectively agreeing to‘ “urge the Prime Minister to create a new policy to alleviate poverty ~ among the country’s three mil- lion aboriginals,” our industry « stands ready. to help. achieve . that worthy goal.” Our approach has. always - been to advance our interests” in a manner that is both sensi- _ tive to and inclusive of the in- terests of B.C.’s First Nations people. a The provincial government, as our collective legislated body has the obligation. to en- sure that the . various. parties at the table understand under ‘what rules and obligations they are to operate. driven government. POLICY ON... » onthe .. HEW, relationship’..be- First Nation issues. Harness- . ing and redirecting the creative . energy that has otherwise been lost in these disputes would surely generate far greater fu- ture benefit than perpetuating the status quo. Mining represents an ex-. traordinary opportunity for aboriginal communities to achieve the economic self- sufficiency they desire and deserve. In particular, it rep- resents a real chance for the large number of aboriginal youth in B.C. to work close to their communities in pro- multi-disciplinary © jobs that pay on average, over $90,000 per year. Modern mining and mineral development i is carried out ina -manner that is both protective ing., proposed. by the. governr,,, ment and .the- leading © First Nation organizations in B.C. ‘Suggests a path forward to helping better define these rules and obligations. Like First Nations, we too want to be part of the discus- sions in defining these new rules and policies to ensure our concerns are taken’ into © consideration. There is no doubt though that the discussion needed to be taken down a new path and — for that the’ parties who are leading this deserve our sup port. Michael McPhie i is President & CEO of the Mining Associa- .tion of BC which speaks on be- - half of mineral producers. Candy i is dandy and so is gandy © RECENTLY I took part in a writer’s workshop, something I had not tried before. Twenty -off us, from seniors to a 19-— year-old, gathered to learn from. published writers how to turn ideas into saleable pieces. I] never imagined so many | Terrace ‘residents . want to write, everything from poetry to greeting card verse, mem- oirs to horror: fiction. One aimed to write more interest- ing letters to family overseas. And another sought. help in writing stories he now tells to young relatives. , ‘One of our warm-up exer- _cises, was to write a charac-~ ter sketch of the person who might have owned a collec-: tion of oddments the librarian ’ found in George Little Park. From a black bag she ex- tracted a safety razor, a bot- _ tle of viridian green ink, two cup hooks, a pair of pink rave eyeglasses with lights flash- ing back and forth like ‘kids’ - sneakers, a book of six funny plays written by David Ives and published in 1994, a street map sketched on an envelope, a ticket to the Romper Room THROUGH: BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI on East Hasting, a photo of two people in bathing suits sit- ting on a floating log, and a red Swiss Army knife. ' Based on these diverse items the person we imag- ined had some similarities, but many unique features, depend- ing upon our life experiences. Some of us imagined a young woman newly arrived in Terrace, to find a job or to visit her mother in hospital. One saw the person as a male bouncer at the Vancouver club given the pink glasses by an - intoxicated patron as he hand- i ed her into a taxi. The ink led us to believe she might be a graphic artist or tattoo herself. Under the pen of Bob, a retired Alcan employee, . the book’s title, All in the Timing, led to an expression the rest of us had never met: gandy dancer. He explained a gandy dancer as a railroad man who worked with a partner taking turns hammering spikes when they laid new steel rails. _ Webster offered this defini- tion: “A labourer in a railroad section gang. Perhaps from the Gandy Manufacturing Com-— pany, Chicago, IIl., toolmak- ers, 1923.” ° My computer literate broth- er downloaded this: “There’s much «doubt and’ confusion about this wonderful expres- sion — first recorded in 1918 — for a member of a track-lay- ' ing or maintenance crew who tamped down the ballast be- tween the ties using a special tool. This involved vigorous stamping on the tool while turning in a circle.” And this: “Gandy dancer was the term used for the track workers back in the 1800s. The tools they used were made by - the Gandy Tool Company of Chicago, Illinois. The shovel was used to measure between the rails (four feet, one-half inch). The head: of the shovel was used to measure the width ‘ between the ties and it was Strong enough to pry the tie up against the rail as the spike was driven home. “The tool was: seemingly 7 called a gandy, but where the name came from is a mystery. The idea: that it referred to a Chicago business named the Gandy Manufacturing Com- pany - which supposedly sup- plied a variety of tools to rail- way workers - seems to rest on a reference in a book called Railroad Avenue by Free- man H. Hubbard, published in 1945. Several people have searched for this business, but have failed to’ find any trace of it in railway trade journals or Chicago city directories of the period. However a number of otherwise reputable works continue to give this as the source.”