4 Terrace Review — Wednesday, April 30, 1986 District may be forced to take land claims stand TERRACE — Recent correspondence between the Northern Develop- ment Council and Indian Affairs Minister David Crombie stimulated serious discussion about aboriginal land claims at the April 19 board meeting of the Kitimat- Stikine Regional District. . The NDC, a body of delegates from northern B.C, regional districts and municipalities, has come under fire at previous sessions of the RDKS board for issuing a position paper on the land claims question without consulting mem- bers of the regional districts. The NDC pro- posal revolves around extinguishment of native claims by a one-time cash settlement and land grants on a per capita basis for status Indians, a position which the ma- jority of the RDKS board finds unaccept- able. Media represen- tatives were refused ac- cess to the latest ex- change between the NDC Letters to the editor will be considered for publication only when signed. Please include your phene number. The editor reserves ihe right to condense and edit letters. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Terrace Review, Terrace Review Established May 1, 1985 The Terrace Review is published each Wednesday oy Close-Up Business Services Ltd. Publisher: Mark Twyford Editar: Maureen Barbour Staff Reporter: Michael Kelly - Advertising: 638-4339 or . 635-7840 ’ Production: ‘ Kim Kimble Office: '. Carrle Olson , Accounting: Mar] Twyford Sacond-class mali registration No. 6896. Reproduction of this paper or any por tion thereot Is prohibited without per- misston of the publisher. 4535 Greig Avenue, Terrace, B.C. V8G 1M7 Phone: 635-4339 a and Indian Affairs because the letters in- volved are in-camera material, but discussion at the public board meeting indicates that RDKS directors are unhappy with the NDC’s action. Director Joe Murphy, who represents a largely Native constituency, was particularly upset. ‘‘I’m nearly at a loss for words,’ Murphy said. “This letter to Crombie is totally misleading, and the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine is on the letter. It misses the mark by so much it’s... off the wall.”’ RDKS Administrator John Pousette, who is also technical advisor to the NDC, requested that he be allowed to withdraw from the ad- visory position due to the conflict between the two organizations on the land claims issue. “The NDC has no business taking a posi- tion on behalf of regional districts,” stat- ed Director Alice Maitland, and suggested that if the NDC con- tinues to press its pro- posal, the RDKS may have to draft its own position paper on native land claims. The regional district’s stand on the issue, ex- pressed by chairman Les Watmough at a recent forum in Smithers, is simply that all parties in- volved should meet as soon as possible for a speedy resolution to the confict. District news TERRACE — A referendum to determine whether the Kit- sumkalum ski hill is to be closed permanently will be held on June 14. The board of the Kitimat- Stikine Regional District passed an authorizing bylaw for the referen- dum at the April 19 meeting. Polling places will be in Terrace, Thornhill, New Remo, Usk, Ross- wood, Kitimat and Kitamaat Village. Ad- vance poils will be held on June 11 and June 12 at the regional district office in Terrace and the District of Kitimat Of- fice. “Well, to bepin with, ‘Rambo’ you'renor...”" BCTF flies in ‘to support | Terrace teachers TERRACE — The Ter- race District Teachers’ Association (TDTA) has announced that on Wednesday, April 30, a group of teachers representing the British Columbia Teachers Fed- eration (BCTF) Provin- cial Working and Learn- ing Conditions Commit- tee will be flying in to Terrace to meet with local teachers to discuss the current class size situation in the com- munity and the teachers’ dispute with the school board over class size and library staffing issues. Also attending with the group will be the BCTF President-elect Elsie McMurphy and two members of the ECTF staff. According to John Eades, TDTA president, the purpose of this visit is to provide for Terrace teachers the direct sup- port of educators around the province for their campaign to establish reasonable maximum class sizes and basic library staffing guide- lines in the district, to provide support for BCTF class size and staffing policies which the BCTF has maintain- ed for some 25 years and to encourage other local teacher associations to be involved in this cam- paign for educational stability. ‘‘We will be trying to focus attention,” Eades said, ‘‘on the current budget and contract deliberations with the Terrace School Board. bargaining Current legislation makes it very difficult, at best, to sit down at the bargaining table with school boards and come to agreement on these important educational issues.’ The current provincial educational finance system has under-funded education for a number of years and created uncertainty and instabili- ty to the system, Eades said. ‘‘These visiting BCTF members share our deep concern for creating stability to the educational system through the establish- ment of basic educa- tional standards.”’ The visiting teachers plan to visit local schools to speak to Terrace teachers about their con- cerns on class sizes and . to bring to these teachers the supportive messages from around the prov- ince. As well, the TDTA will have a_ general meeting of its members in the afternoon of April 30 where Elsie McMur- phy will address the teachers. Regional District news The Kitimat-Stikine Regional District will participate in a letter- writing campaign as part of an effort to reinstate daily railway passenger service to the northwest. The mail-deluge idea was proposed in a letter to the regional district from Edmonton mayor Laurence Decore. The postal protest will be directed at members of Women hold conference by Marilyn Vanstone - Board Member, Terrace Women’s Resource Center ; Equality —- One Year Later, was the theme of the Women’s Conference on the Charter of Rights held in Vancouver April 19. There were three speakers for the workshop on Future Strategies. Fran Watters represented the Charter of Rights Coalition in Vancouver. This group grew out of the concern of many women that there be an organiza- tion working exclusively in the area of women’s equality and the Charter of Rights and Freedom. She stressed that females, at the grass roots level, have to lobby for changes and educate the communi- ty. She points out that women do this very well. Richard Goreham addressed the audience. He is the co-ordinator of the Court Challenges Program, federally funded for equality rights litigation. Jane Shackell is a representative of Leaf — the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, a na- tional non-profit legal action fund. Leaf takes cases to set precedents. These cases must involve equality, must be a test case (i.e. have legal merit that will likely result in consequences for a significant number of people), must be cases that relate to the charter and must affect a large number of women. They prefer doubly disadvantaged people (i.e. disabled women.) All three of these people hoped guests would go home and spread the word. They felt that par- - ticipants at the conference can help by keeping an eye out for test cases in their own communities. The speakers also pointed out that litigation is a very slow expensive process and that lobbying and education are much better ways to bring change about. Women have made many strides in the last while but there are still many more issues to be challenged. _Letter Businesses praised To the editor, The Terrace District Teacher-Librarians’ Association would like to thank all the organiza- tions and businesses which made financial or material donations for the Young Writers Con- ference. School District 88, Rotary Club, Arts Coun- cil, Terrace District Teachers Association, Ladies Auxiliary to the Royal Canadian Legion, Canada Council, Terrace Hotel, Northern Drugs, McDonald’s, Totem Press, and Northwest Community College were all contributors. Eighty students from School District 88 benefitted from this unique opportunity of attending a conference with Canadian authors Frances Duncan, Gor- don Korman and Anne Walsh.: Without the sup- port of the community, this event could not take place as funding from Canada Council is limited. Eila George, Dawn Martin, Lyn Turner Dianne Weismiller Young Writers Conference Committee parliament, Transport Minister Don Mazan- kowski and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. eee At the April 19 meeting of the Kitimat- Stikine Regional District board, directors were in- formed that a joint pro- motional brochure in- volving B.C., the Yukon and Alaska will be distributed from the B.C. and Yukon pavilions at Expo 8&6, The project is the result of work by the North by Northwest Tourism Association, North by Northwest also updated the board on other programs, most of which are directed toward attracting tourists from the western part of the United States. f° A ‘. { i 1