Gardens north Pumped A local woman heads for the Canadian Fitness Championships in Hamilton\SPORTS B5 Best blooms propel green thumbs into the winner's circle\COMMUNITY B3 a Local police say the number | of car and truck thefts here has doubled\NEWS A9 WEDNESDAY 93¢ PLUS 76.6 gst VOL. 9 NO. 19 AUGUST. 21, 1996 Referendum drive aims at treaty SKEENA MP Mike Scott says he will organize a petition to force the province to hold a referendum on the Nisga’a land claim agreement, Under a new law, citizens can force a referendum on an issue if they gather signa- tures of 10 per cent of the voters in each of B.C.’s 75 ridings within 90 days, “The government has wrongly denied the people the opportunity to be involved in the Nisga’a land claim negotiations,” Scott said. ‘“We have no option at this point but to force the government to put the issue to referendum.’’ Scatt’s referendum — if the petition suc- ceeds and if a ‘Yes’ vote resulls — would Tenegotiale the Nisga'a agreement-in- principal and any other land claim agree- ments reached to that point on a set of prin- ciples to be developed before hand ‘‘in thorough consullation with the people of British Columbia.”’ If the initiative gets to the referendum stage, it would need to get the support of more than 50 per cent of the total number of voters, and more than 50 per cent of the vaters in at least two-thirds of the pro- vince’s constituencies. And Scott says it will be a monumental job to get the required ‘‘volunteer army”’ in place to get nearly 4,000 signatures from every riding in three months. referendum Jaw to make it virtually im- possible for anyone to succeed,’ he said, Scott says he’s now getting phone calls from all over the province from people in- terested in joining the campaign. _ But he says they’re not going to rush into It ‘We will not initiate the petition until such time as we have the volunteer orgati- zation in place,’* he said. That may happen this fall, or possibly next spring, he said, “It's a mammoth undertaking,’ Scott said, ‘'To get 3,000 to 4,000 signatures in each of 75 provincial ridings within a. 90 day thme frame is going to be a very, very “The NDP made sure anyone who would try to use the referendum law would be facing a monumental logistics task.’’ But Scott says it still is possible. “I would prefer that rather than going off in a disorganized fashion and risk not pro- ceeding, I would prefer that we had our ducks all lined up before we got into the ac- tual petition.” The first step, he said, is getting a province-wide organization in place. ‘We're contacting people all aver British Columbia who we think are natural allies in working with us to see this referendum in- itiative succeed,’’ Scott said. require the provincial government to “The NDP has Offer under wraps THE PROVINCE has finally made an offer aimed at inducing Terrace and Thornhill to become one. The restructure package — expected to favour a plan to amalgamate Terrace and Thornhill — is being kept . under wraps while it's reviewed by city and Kitimat-Stikine regional district officials. Acting mayor David Hull (mayor Talstra is on vaca- tion) said Tuesday moming he hasn't seen the offer yet, but said city officials described it as being a “pretty basic package.” Hull said the offer may not be released at all, because it may simply be the start of a long series of offer/counter- offer negotiations between the (wo communities and the provincial government. Regional district chair Joanne Monaghan said the committee charged with exploring the restructure scenarios should meet this week to analyze the 16- page package. Monaghan said they have four days —-until this Sunday - to decide whether Or not to go to referendum at the same time as the November elections. “By then we have to say yes, we're going lo do il or nT10, we’re not.” The question would also have ta be determined by then, but she said there could still be minor changes to the package afterwards. Hull said it doesn’t make sense to rush the process. “There is not a hope in hell of having this thing on the ballot for the November election,” he said. Even assuming the pack- age is acceptable, he said there’d be no time to edu- cate the public. “We have to make sure everybody understands the whole situation and every- one that bas questions has them answered;” he said. “We only have to look at the second sheet of ice ref- erendum to see what hap- pens when you make a not- well- prepared trip to the polls.” “Nothing would be worse for this process than to have one side of the river vote yes and the other side of the river vole no,” Hull said. “That would drive a rift so deep that. it would set this thing back a decade.” engineered this difficult task." m= Keep your head BICYCLE HELMETS become mandatory for all B.C. cyclists on September 3. That's Kaylee VanGenne who, despite belng only two and a half-years-old, knows to put on her helmet when she goes riding. Continued Page Ai2 Bike helmets now the law PARENTS WHO allow their chil- dren to ride their bikes without hel- mets after September 3 could face a $100 fine. The new bike helmet law applics ‘to all bicyclist, no matter what their age. And not any helmet will do, The helmet has to be an approved bicycle safety helmet, says Con- stable Barry Noonan. ‘The law is designed to cut down on injuries and deaths caused by ac- cidents involving cyclists. “Tt’s the result of a growing accep- lance of bicycle helmets, particutar- ly for children, as an added safety device, For jocal ICBC manager Paul McNicaolls it only makes sense when __ he cites statistics indicating that half of the 100 people who die each year in bicycle accidents actoss Canada, do so from head injuries, It’s simply a matter of an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure, he adds. ‘After you become a father, when you are dealing with a claim involv- ing a child, you think to yourself that it could have been my child,”’ MeNicalls continues. ICBC has introduced a helmet pur- chase rebate program to ease the cost of buying the protective gear. It's worth $10 for every helmet bought for a young person in kinder- garten to Grade 7. With helmets running in the neigh- bourhood of $40 or so for children, the rebate works out to approximate- ly 25 per cent of the price, McNicalls notes. The rebate is for helmets bought until Sept. 30 and forms are avail- able at local helmet retailers and at the local ICBC claims office. Rebate requests must come with the original helmet sales receipt and be approved by one of three agen- cies. Those agencies are the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), Sneil B95 or BSO or the American Socicty for Testing and Materials (ASTM F1447). Rebate forms must be postmarked by Nov, 12 to be eligible for the pro- gram, MeNicolls advises that purchasers check helmets for the appropriate stickers before buying. “Tf you buy a gas barbecue you are certainly going to look for a CSA sticker to make sure it’s been (ested, It’s the same principle here,”’ - he said. MeNicolls notes that CBC's rebate program is also aimed at reducing the cost of claims arising ¢ from bicycle accidents involving motor vehicics. Mike Scott PINE MUSHROOMS Pickers here anticipate a bumper crop By JEFF NAGEL MUSHROOM PICKERS are hoping the dismal wet sum- mer is about to produce a bumper crap of pine mushrooms. But so far very few of the prized matsusoke mushrooms are being found, says buyer Jackie Penner. “Everyone seems to think because it’s been raining there’s a lot of mushrooms out there,”’ she said. ‘‘But there isn’t. ‘There's some coming in but very few at this stage. Ie 5 a waiting game.”’ Normally the season docsn’t begin until after the Labour Day weekend, she added. ““We've had earlier years before where they’ve some- times started this early, but it hasn’t happened yet.’”’ But that hasn’t quelled the enthusiasm. Mushroom pick- ers have already established a camp south of Cranberry Junclion in anticipation of this fall’s crop. “It’s like mushroom city,’’ Penner said. ‘It's like hawks waiting for the kill.’’ A few veteran pickers who work for the ministry of forests think the optimism is justified. “The forestry almanac says it’s going to be a hot year,’’ says Richard Krupop. The-lack of sunshine, the wet summer, and the late snow- pack melt all point to a good mushroom season, he says. “There was slow melting even in the mountains up to the end of June and into July,’’ says Krupop. ‘That ground water level was retained fairly deep down.”’ Other indicators — like boletes mushrooms — have made early appearances, he said. Penner isn’t optimistic for outrageously high prices when the big crop does start coming in. Her depot was paying $20 a pound for #1’s as of last weekend, and she was expecting prices to drop further. Big game to get wired for data SMITHERS — Northwest moose and caribou can run, but they can’t hide. The Ministry of Environment is fitting five moose and five caribou with expensive electronic collars. With the help of a satellite, biologists will be able to monitor almost every move the animals make in the next two years. It's part of a larger plan to track 200 big game animals in the northwest, Next year taggers will collar wolves, moose, caribou, mountain goats and grizzlies at a cost of about $750,000 in Forest Renewal B,C, money. District wildlife biologist Rick Marshall says the five- year project will help researchers learn more about the area’s wildlife. That information will help the ministry better assess potential impact of logging and other activities on wildlife. Most of the animals get regular high-frequency radio cal- lars, but five caribou in the Liard River area in the Cassiar and five moose in the Klappan River area near Dease Lake will get higher-tech $10,000 electronic collars. Those devices contain a Global Positioning System (GPS) which can be tracked by satellite and automatically records the animal’s location eight times a day. Every three or four months taggers in an airplane will follow the radio signals to locate the animal, capture It, and download the information from the electronic chip. The results are the cxact migralory and breeding patterns of the animals, Taggers plan to put radio collars on a couple dozen griz- aly bears in the Babine River arca, and in August they col- lared 40 mountain goats in the Telkwa Range area, Tn October and January they will tag 60 caribou, 40 moose and 20 wolves in the Cassiar. Ten caribou in the up- per Sustat River as well as 21 moose and five wolves south of Burns Lake will also be tagged this winter.