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a Kicking bud

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$1.00 pLus 7¢ GST
($1.10 plus 8¢ GST
outside of the Terrace area)

sign or else, Veniez tells unions

SCI boss sets Aug.

15 deadline for deal

By JEFF NAGEL
DAN VENIEZ has given Skeena Cel-
lulose workers an ultimatum ~ agree to
pay cuts by Aug. 15 or else the forest
company’s mothballed operations will
remain shut down until next spring,

Skeena’s CEO laid out that stark
choice at a chamber of commerce lun-
cheon here Friday.

“We cannot allow for this to go on
indefinitely,” Veniez told the audi-
ence in his first major address in Ter-
race since buying ihe firm from the
province in April.

If workers sign the deal, all opera-
tions would be up and running by Noy.
i, he said. Their pay would be cut 20

Future of
ferries up
in the air

By JENNIFER LANG
BUSINESS LEADERS on
the Queen Charlotte Is-
lands are trying to get sup-
port for‘their plan-to take”
over and operate a ferry on
a new northermnroute.

Islanders worry the
three times a week ferry
service between the Ski-
degate terminal and Prince
Rupert will be cut back to
just once a week, Dean
Bergstrom of the Queen
Charlottes Chamber of
Commerce said.

Right now, the Char-
lottes chamber is applying
for money to pay for a
feasibility study into the
plan.

The chamber of com-
merce hopes to duplicate
the success of the people
of Prince of Wales Island
in southeast Alaska.

When cutbacks due to a
Sagging fisheries and for-
estry threatened ferry ser-
vice there, local chambers
of commerce joined forces
to take over the service.

They now run a ferry
that offers twice daily ser-
vice between Ketchikan
and Hollis and have plans
for a second ferry to sail
between Wrangell, Peters-
burg and Coffman Cove on
the north end of Prince of
Wales Island.

Bergstrom said the
Queen Charlotte Islands
chamber wants to operate
two ferries.

The first would main-
tain the run between
Prince Rupert and Skide-
gate Landing.

be, gel ee

LOCAL FISHERMAN Fred Philpott shares the north point of Ferry stand last Thursday with anglers
from Alberta and Germany — and a healthy run of voracious sockeye salmon. JEFF NAGEL PHOTO

per cent, among other contract
changes. Wages at the Terrace saw-
mill would range from $17.50 to $24.10
per hour.

Veniez promised workers will also
get a $5,000 signing bonus ~ an ad-
vance on future profit-sharing that he
says will help make up for pay cuts if
everyone works to make the company
succeed.

Talks with all the unions, including
the [WA at the Terrace sawmill, were
to resume by this week.

Union members face added pressure
with Veniez’s vow to stay shut down
until spring if there’s no quick deal.

That’s because laid off workers’ re-

‘call rights expire after they’ve been

out of work for 18 months.
For the Terrace sawmill, shut down

last September, that important date
arrives next spring, Veniez said. It’s
less than two months away for the
Carnaby sawmill, which has been shut
down longer.

Although the existing contract and
union would remain in place, the com-
pany would then be free to pick and
choose which workers it wants to re-
hire after that point — or even bring in
large numbers of new employees.

“Seniority is gone,” Veniez ex-
plained. “I can hire whoever [ want.”

“Hopefully we'll get some logic
and reason from these guys.”

Veniez said the Aug. 15 deadline
for agreement on labour contracts is
necessary in order to begin logging
road construction and other needed
work ahead of a restart of operations.

it wouldn't make econo-
mic sense to restart be-
fore spring, he said.

“There’s a huge
amount of work to be
done,” he said.

He said a deal is nee-
ded in order for NWBC
Timber and Pulp, which
bought SCI in April, to
get $100 million in fi-
nancing.

Veniez said he ac-

Without a quick deal id

cepts blame for poorly
communicating to union
members what is needed,

“I probably did it too brutaily, ]

Dan Veniez

17,2002

said.

But he blamed union lea-
ders for the impasse.
“This is yet another
union jihad against the
dark forces of evil,” Ve-
niez said. “This time it’s
me. This time it’s their
own community, their
friends and their neigh-
bours, which they're ob-
viously prepared to sacri-
fice in the name of pro-
tecting an old collective
agreement,”

“Don’t you think it’s time
for members of this union

to say ‘Stop, we've had enough’?” he

probably did it too quickly, and my demanded. “Why are we spending

bedside manner probably stank,” he

A second ferry would
sail from Masset to Hyda-
burg, Alaska, tying into
the Prince of Wales Island
ferry system.

The second ferry would

Continued Pg. 412

Gov't critics
eyeing local
elections

By JEFF NAGEL
OPPONENTS of provincial
government cutbacks hope
to field-slates of candi-
dates for Terrace city
council] and school board
in elections this fall.

Gail Murray, spokesper-
son for the group, says
about five potential candi-
dates are now considering
a run for either council or
school board.

She described them as
“progressive thinkers” who
believe in common sense
and aren’t happy with
what’s been happening.

Murray said several
meetings have taken place
over the last two months
under the banner of the
Action Coalition of Ter-
race — a group that formed
earlier this year to fight
provincial government
cuts.

She said it’s likely can-
didates would run as a

. Slate and share campaign

organization and expenses.

Sitting city councillors
haven’! been tough enough
in opposing provincial
government service cuts,
downloaing of costs and
potential electricity dere-
gulation, Murray said. -

“They’re looking like
Victoria’s lackeys and
apologisis,” Murray said.
“There are people thinking
it's time to. have a change
there.” |

On the school side,

Murray said there's dissa-

Rail cops ticket anglers

also sail from Masset to
Port Simpson and Stewart,
creating a “much needed
circle route for tourist and
commercial traffic
throughout the whole north
country.”

A decision on the future
of northern and mid-coast
ferry service is expected
before the end of the year.

BC Ferrles has now re-
leased a report outlining
options for comment from
communities.

The provincial govern-
ment will have to_ approve
any plan to eliminate ex-
isting BC Ferties routes. .

BC Ferries officials
Continued Pg. A12

By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN
CN RAIL is being accused of insensitiv-
ity to tourists and anglers after issuing a
flurry of trespassing tickets to people for
crossing its railway tracks.

One loca! angler says he flatly re-
fuses to pay a ticket issued July 6 for
trespassing on CN property during a
crackdown by railway police.

Dean Porter says he and his son were
at a popular fishing hole across the rail-

way tracks just downstream from: the .
Kalum River when the $115 ticket was

issued. :

The area is frequented by local an-
glers and tourists bul is only accessible ©

by boat ot by crossing the train tracks,
Porter says his:son and another boy
were spotted on the tracks by a CN po-
lice officer. Porter joined the boys and a
loud confrontation ensued as he tried to

plead for leniency.

“He was rude — yelling at my son and
this other kid,” Porter says.

Porter says he tried to explain to the
officer that he'd been fishing at that spot
for nearly 10 years. “All I was trying to
do was plead the fact that he was going
to give us a ticket for something we've
done and other people have done for
many years,” he says. “Obviously he
doesn’t know the local area.”

But CN officials fear someone will
get hurt by a train on that track section.

“One of our CN police constables

“was in Terrace last week specifically to

see what could be done about the large
number of people who are using our rail-
way. as a foot path,” CN spokesman
Graham Dallas said. -

The fishing spot where Porter was
ticketed has a stretch of railway tracks

that run very close to the river.

It’s not unusual to see people fishing
from the tracks in lawn chairs, and that
was something the CN constable was
told to change, CN police Inspector Dan
Ritchie says. He added this is not the
first time tickets have been issued for
trespassing in that particular area.

“Too many people are seriously in-
jured or die each year because of fast-

“moving trains,” says Dallas, adding 22

trespassers died ‘crossing rail tracks in
Canada last year. 7

Porter says he’s going ta dispute the
ticket in court, adding at least 12 other
anglers weren’t ticketed. _

The office of Skeena MLA Roger
Harris received several calls from con-
stituents concerned that- issuing tickets

to tourists could have an adverse effect

on tourism here in the future.

tisfaction with, .the. fact
school trustees agreed to
slash the district’s budget,
as well.as the way result-
ing school closures and
Staff layoffs were handled.

Murray denied sugges-
tions the group could use
the municipal campaign as
an organizational dry run
for a possible recall cam-
paign to unseat MLA
Roger Harris this winter.

While some local
people favour a recall
campaign, Murray said she
opposes the idea and has
tried to discourage it.

Murray was consti-
tuency assistant for NDP
MLA Helmut Giesbrecht
when right-wing petitioners
unsuccessfully tried to re-
call him. ,

Having seen its effects
first-hand, she said, she'd
never work on a recall
campaign.

“I don't believe in it,”
she said. “I didn’t then and
I don’t now,”

“It becomes terribly di-
visive for the community.
H solved nothing. Helmut
continued to be the MLA.
But a lot of people spent a
lot of time and money on
it and a lot of angry words -
were spoken between the
two sides,”

“Rager Harris was elec-
ted as MLA here,” Murray
added. “We have our kick
at the can in the next pro-
vincial election. ‘That's
soon enough.”

i

RTER says he won't pay
a trespassing ticket Issued by CN
Rail. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO