Not for us

Writers shine on

Becoming routine

The first of two speakers on
NAFTA to visit here is opposed to
the deal/NEWS A7 ;

_| Anew book by literacy students
< offers a multitude of northwest
‘experiences/COMMUNITY B1

Mike Vandermuellen has won his
‘second golf title of the season in
a junior tourney/SPORTS B6 |

WEDNESDAY
OCTOBER 6, 1993

ANDARD =

70¢ PLUS 5¢ cst
VOL. 6 NO, 25°

NDP, Reform deadlocked |

THE REFORM party and ihe
NDP are virtually tied in support
from decided Skeena voters, an
opinion poll conducted for The
' Terrace Standard shows.

The poli, conducted across the
riding between Sept. 26 and Sept.
30, indicates 31 per cent of de-
cided voters will vole NDP and
30 per cent will vote Reform.

The question ‘‘How would you |

vote if a general election were
held tomorrow’? was asked of

oe people.

The Progressive Conservatives
and the Liberals trail with 18 and
15 per cent respectively. -

The National party came in at
three per cent, the Greens two per
cent and the Christian Heritage
Party one percent. There was no
percentage backing of the Natural
Law party,

Of those contacted, 66 per cent

were decided and 34 per cent

were either undecided or did not

give an answer.
The sample size of 470 gives a
maximum eror of plus or minus
4.6 per cent 19 times out of 20.
When undecided voters or those
who did not answer are factored
out, the maximum margin of error
is 5.6 per cent 19 times out of 20.
The figures, when compared to
the final voting resulls of 1988,
show a large drop in support for
the NDP.
The party, with Jim Fulton as

@ Autumn colours

STUDENTS Cathy Dickson and Kurt Muller enjoy a fall walk among the leaves and the
_ colourful maples on the Northwest Community College grounds. a! ye ae

CONSTRUCTION OF a rad to
a proposed gold mine at Eskay
Creck north of here has started.
The plan is to get as much done
this year as possible in prepara-

next/ year, says an official of
Homestake Canada,

The 24km route leads off from -
a road into the Iskut Valley area -
from Hwy37 that was finished in.

1992.

It'll cost an estimated $7 mil-

lion and is needed {0 move equip-
ment - and... materlal. .-io
Homestake’s Eskay property, said
John Turney.

‘We're now clearing and gmib- :

bing a. plonser. route: ‘of cad '

he said,

Homestake is underwriting the
cost of the road and has received
a special use permit from the

_ forest service for its construction.
tion for a full construction season |

“The road plan has been
reviewed by the various agencies

and no real showstoppers were.

found, ** sald Turney.

Doing the clearing and. grub-
bing work is :Terrace firm Don
Hull and ‘Sons, Also on the pro-

ject is the Tahltan Nation Devel- -

_ opmerit Corporation, Both outfits

: were involved in’ construction of

the first sectlon leading in from
. _Hwy3? at Bob Quinn Lake, |

Completion of: the road is

needed ° next year to meet a

Road to Eskay gold

Homestake plan for mine devel-
opment.

Homestake says ote reserves
are estimated al 2.2 million

_ ounces of gold and 100 miltlion

“ounces of silver.
~ ‘That's enough for the company
fo propose an underground mine

"producing 360 tonnes of ore a day
“for elght to 10 years.

“. Homestake does noi yet. have.
full permission ‘from the provin-
~clal ‘government to- begin -mine

development but will file. its final

_ application late this month or ear-

~ ly November. oe :

|. Speaking recently, mines minis: .

-ter-Anne. Edwards ‘sald “permis-
, “a

as granted for fhe road. din

its candidate, drew 52.7 per cent
of ihe vote. Next came the Tories
with 28.3 per cent and the Liber-
als with 14,6 per cent.

Ii’s the large number of un-
decided voters which: fascinates
Ron Taylor of, Educomp, the

“lower mainland company thal did

the polling.

Nearly half of undecided voters
questioned told pollers they voted
NDP in 1988,

“In effect, NDP votes are

parked, leaving the potential for
those votes to return to the
NDP,”’ said Taylor.

He said the NDP can’t afford to

lose anymore support, adding the .

NDP must go out and grab back
large numbers of those people.
The problem facing those un-
decided voters who supported the
NDP last time is that there isn’t
another party out ihere for them
this election, Taylor continued,
He wasn’t surprised by the sup-

port for the Reform p party, saying
that voters are in a volatile mood.

‘Clearly a large mmber of PC
votes have moved to the Reform
party,”’ said Taylor. —

A continued very clase race be-
tween the Reform and NDP could
bring victory to the party that can
deliver the vote on election day, -

“If you have an organization
that can do the legwork, do the. -
phoning, that’s what might
count,” Taylor said.

Lawyers eye pot |
at end of rainbow _

By JEFF NAGEL

. THERE’S BIG MONEY at stake

for some local lawyers depending
on the outcome of the federal
election.

The. federal government hires
private lawyers across the country
to carry out its business —
primarily federal drug prosecu-
tions — when required.

The Terrace law firm Cramp-
lon, Brown and Arndt has
received those federal contracts
ever since Brian Mulroney and
his Conservatives came to power
in 1984,

_ .Over_the last, five years -— the | ..

Conservatives’ latest term in of-
fice — the law firm has received
more than $1.3 million in pay-
ments from the federal Depart-
ment of Justice.

The company’s federal billings
peaked at $338,000 in 1988-89
and declined to a low of $118,000
in 1992-93..

Before 1984, under -Plerre
Trudeau’s Liberal goverment,
the law firm that had the contract
for federal government business
was Talstra and Company.

Jack Talstra’s Liberal party
connections are a matter of public
Tecord,

Talstra ran against MP Jim
Fulton as the Liberal candidate in
Skeena in 1980 and he is the offi-
cial agent for Liberal candidate
Rhoda Witheriy’s campaign in
this election.

According to Elections Canada
records of 1988 election Finances,
Talsira donated $250 to the
campaign of 1388 Liberal candi-
date Odd Eidsvik. His law firm
~— Talstra and Company —
donated anothey $250.

On the Tory side, lawyers Jeff
Amdt and Don Brown were
members of the Conservative
Party’s nominating commiltec in
Skeena earlier this year,

Brown is legal counsel for the
campaign of Conservative candi-
date Danny Sheridan in this clec-
tlon.

Crampton, Brown and Arndt
donated $5,000 to Progressive
Conservative candidate Ray Hal-
vorsen’s 1988 federal election
campaign, according to Elections
Canada,

If history is a guide, Crampton,
Brown and Arndt depend on the
re-election of a Conservative
government to ensure the renewal
of their federal contracts,

A Liberal victory could herald a
switch of federal law contracts
here back to Talstra’s office. ,

But Jack Talstra says that’s far
from assured.

He says there are other law
firms that could be in line for the
work — including that of Liberal
campaign manager Don Silver-

‘sides who has a Prince Rupert

practice —ifthey wantit,
A lot oF lawyers. don’t-even

want this work,’? Talstra said, ad- -
ding that the $82 per hour tariff is

much less than most lawycrs’
normal hourly rates. Travel ex-
penses account for much of the
federal billings from the. north-
west, he said.

But it does help cushion any
gaps in a firm’s practice. .

“You know it’s a cheque you

can count on,’’ Talsira explained.

Tt is steady work Itis depend-
able work. But it is not really
lucrative work at all,”’ adds -Ter-
race lawyer Jeff Amit.

‘Yeah, sure it’s patronized
work,’” he says. ‘It’s the law-
yers’ reward for political activity -
on behalf of the party that forms
the government,

“The NDP hires people and
awards many appointments to
various boards and commissions.
The Liberals appoint their law-
yers, And the Conservatives ap-
point their lawyers,”
_, We got work as a result of our .
political connections in 1984,"
Amdt says. “We are probably the
Conservative firm in the riding —~
and we have, na qualms about
that. Silversides and Talstra are
ihe Liberal firms,’”

He says law has always been an
arca of patronage.

Arndt recalls when Liberals

Cont'd Page A2

THE SHREDDER will be
working overtime at retiring
MP Jim Fulton’s Terrace of-
fice sometime between now
and Election Day, Oct, 25

Nol that the destruction of
files means the retiring New
Democrat MP is trying to
hide anything potentially
scandalous.

It’s simply a requirement

‘under privacy legislation,
explains Fulton's executive
assistant Judy Chrysler.

The files in question are
personal ones. of con-
stituents. They contain all
the details of problems they
brought to Fulton and re-
lated correspondence,

Because of confidentiality,
those files cannot simply be

cessor, no matter who that
might be.
So Chrysler’s going to

MP’s documents
off to shredder

- carefully, not found at the

handed on to Fulton’s suc- .

have to borrow a shredder,

She says the regulations
‘appear to work on the as-
sumption every individual
who’s dealt with Fulton’s
office has kept their own
personal record. - .

While. shredding may
seem a dramatic way of
dealing with the situation,
Chrysler points out the con-
stituents at least know the
files ‘‘will be disposed of

dump fluttering aboul in the
breeze.”

Meanwhile, back in Ot-
tawa Fulton’s personal files
have been boxed up for
Storage in the archives.

Chrysler sald the
mountain of paper work
produced by 14 years in of-
fice filled more than 90
boxes, ‘“‘and they’re big
boxes’’,

mine underway

anticipation of the company

receiving final mining approval.
*“We have not seen anything

yet that leads us to belleve the

company, won’t be. able to go:

ahead,’’ said Edwards.

**We don’! expect there will be
a problem. If the road could not
be started this fall, the company
would not be able io meet its
scheduls.”'

‘We have a (toad) bond. ‘th
place and we’ think the mine ap-

“plication will go through,” Ed-

wards added,

Homestake envisions 80 people

working at the mine site, -”

Hwy37 and then south to the
Equity silver mine site at Houston
for processing.

The Houston operation is exe
pected to employ 150 people.
‘Homestake chose Houston. be-

. cause of existing facilities serving
Placer’s Equity silver mine which .

is soon scheduled to close.
It looked al other locations in
the. northwest, including © the

Dubose area ‘south: of: Lakelse .
Lake?

The declsion to shift processing

away from the. mine: site’ came.
after further investigation into the
ae kind of ore there. ae

Ore will be trucked out over the 2

oat Esky Creek: wl rea a lot

“-Homestake sald the kind-of ore

of power to process. | a

The process to be used is ‘almost .
like a pressure cooker which will
break down the ore to expose ithe
gold.

ht. will scceleraie very ‘quickly

“the natural process that occurs
~ when rock is exposed to air.

Homestake wants to take waste
rock from the site and dump it in

_ one of several small lakes- nearby

Houston.

\ ‘That will keep the rock covered
and so prevent .acid generation
which occurs when exposed to
ait, itsays,

_ Eskay. “Creek, wil:
‘Homestake’ 8 second mine in B. C