“game a realily,”’ . TERRACE — There’s nobody left in Cassiar to mark the first ~ anniversary of ils mince closing down, The asbestos mine was the town’s major employer. So when - . it shut down fast Feb. 4 after the ‘provincial government tured “down. a. loan- request, the people __ began to leave, ~ By. the end of October last year, . a the last of the 1,100 residents had °. gone.: “3 Today, a caretaker couple lives oo nearby and eight men work out of a highways maintenance yard on the outskirts. Large buildings and homes — the oncs that weren’t moved out after a massive auction there last _ fall — sit empty and boarded up. “Tt looks like a bomb hit it. Worse than a bomb,’’ says one of ihe highways workers, "When people began pulling houses out, anything they didn’t want, they discarded.. It’s a mess,’ said Wayne Huber of Yellowhead Road and Bridge, the Ex-residents coping with new lives TERRACE Valdemar Isidoro was driving a truck, haul- ‘ing snow in Cassiar Feb. 4, 1991 when he heard the news on the radio, .0 Provinelal ~ fi inance minister ~ Glen’ Clark. had turned down a Joan request from Cassiar Mining ‘Corporation. | “~./-The rumours bad been floating ~ around Cassiar, an asbestos mini- ne cong. town near the Yukon border, ~~. for months before. “In_ debt and losing money be- cause of an expensive conversion from.an open pit to an -un- Oe derground operation, the compa- -: my needed the loan from the *s, provincial goveriment. “<> Refusal. put the mine o Teceivership, ending its 40-year .- life and that of the town of 1,100 = people, into “Up. until then [ didn’t think it ‘would. happen, That day it be- said Jsidoro.Jast week while sitting in the living room of his new home in Terrace. = “number of ex-Cassiar . - residents are living in Ter-. race. Others ‘are scattered! ' along Hwyl6, in Smithers,’ : ‘Topley Landing, in up ““[Granisle and in Prince George. oe - “During coffee break, in the ts ‘coffee shop, nobody could be- a lieve it,” he said, -> The next day provincial govern- _ment officials began to fly up in “< an attempt to explain their actions /and to outline what would happen © Jsidoro and the others heard of ‘the’ severance - pay package, the ‘offer to pay.moving.expenses and he buy backs of their homes. | A year later, Isidoro says he had no idea:his wife Zelia and chil- -dren Mariana and Pedro would ind themselves living in Terrace. And they are not alone. A large TERRACE -— One year after the Cassiar asbestos mine closed, the provincial government is still dding up the cost to the tax- “payer. Yet there ‘is general agreement hat: the final price tag could ‘ouch $50 million. 1ill:unknown is what the pro- wi get back ance all the official Steve owlett admits that amount ‘on’t come‘ close to easing .the inal overall cost, = oe number of ex-Cassiar residents are living in this area, Others are scattered along Hwyl6 in Smithers, Topley, up in Granisle and in Prince George. One of Isidoro’s neighbours is from Cassiar and he sees others around town, . Jsidoro said he hasn’t heard of any of the ex-mine workers get- ting jobs here, In addition to severance pay, relocation and home buy backs, the ex-employees were refunded the income taxes they paid on the amounts. They are also collecting unemployment insurance. Isidoro is a heavy duty equip- ment operator but hes been finishing off the basement of his home until spring comes. Leaving Cassiar for Terrace bas been an adjustment, he says, yet there are the benefits of more shopping and the weather. “People here complain about the weather, all the snow they are getting. To us, there’ sno snow,’ Isidoro said. Looking back, Isidoro said the treatment Cassiar residents " yeecived after the closure could have been much worse. | .-i ‘“Nobody’s every happy or ‘pleased: There was the equity buy” back (of homes) and they did pay - for improvements but if put up a garage and fence, unless you had a receipt, you weren't paid,”” he said. “In general, it hasn’t been bad. They could have said we’re lock- + ing up and that’s it,” he added. Isidore also bought the Catholic church in Cassiar during a mas- sive auction of the townsite and mining equipment last fall and has had people interested in some of its fixtures. ; Down .in Langley, Tony and Lee Coran are settling in at a- home they bought some years be- fore. ‘We left Oct. 31 when the lights were tumed off. Tony tumed off the lights at 7:30 p.m.,”’ said Lee who lived in Cas- company that has the contract to take care of Hwy37 to the north and south of Cassiar. The caretaker couple lives in a house next to ‘Yellowhead’s maintenance shop but: the Yel- lowhead. workers live in cabins out of town. Their families live elsewhere. — The workers don’t get any radio Slations, have no television. and groceries: are. a two-hour drive south to Dease Lake or a similar Jength journey north to Watson Lake in the Yukon, Cassiar also served as the ser- vice centre for the natives wha live north on Hwy37 at Good Hope Lake. Its closure left Good Hope Lake withoul close medical attention and police among other services. A helipad was put in last fall for emergency medical evacuations to Watson Lake, there are now regular visits by doctors and they now have an ambulance, says band cconomic development of- The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 3, 1993 - Page AS Happy birthday to Cassiar ficer Steven Jakesta. He's hoping Yellowhead Road and = Bridge moves its maintenance shop to Good Hope Lake next year. The one piece of good news for Good Hope Lake comes from its recognilion last month as an offi- cial band with its own land base, ‘*Before they (the governments) considered us squatters. Now we can develop our own infrastruc- ture and get more services,’ sald Jakesta, BEtL, FROM Catholic church in “Cassiar is ‘one of the few momentos ex- ‘resident it Valdeniar \sidero ~ +f One nationas go'stated inthe has, WW his.new, Terrace. hame, ‘Children Pedro-and Meriana celebrated thelr first communion in the hurch,’ Other ex-Cassiar families now ‘call Terrace home after the asbestos mine there closed a year ago. Smithers, Topley Landing, Granisle and Prince George also have thelr Cassiar con- tingents. siar for 26 years. She was responsible — for organizing the relocation pack- ages and is just now winding up that work, “We're getting on wilh it, but - Pm still wondering why it hap- pened. I still have a real. problem with that,”’ said Coran. The closure of the mine has caused problems for some familics and has resulted in some . break ups, she said, ‘Well never know how it’s af+ fected everybody,” Coran added. Linda and Jim McGill are now living in Princeton where Jim asSiar price “There’s no question we're going to take a bit hit. Just the loan and the loan guarantee is a big amount,” he said last weck. The loan was for $20 million and issued in 1988 to help pay for the cost of converting from an open pit to an underground mini- - _ng operation. The province further guaranteed “a $5 million Bank of Montreal loan to the corporation. | Cassiar Mining Corporation was never able to repay the $20 million so the province Jost that. and $6 million in interest. to the $50 mi Howlett estimates the province has spent $11 million on severance packages to ex-mine workers, equity buy backs of their homes and relocation expenses. It also spent $1.7 million in keeping the town running after it went into receivership, Last ‘month, the province and federal government repaid nearly : $5 million. in income taxes. deducted from: the severance, buy back and relocation pay outs, ~ And, finally, the province will pay for reclamation of the town site and huge slag heap on ils cut- works for Similco, a subsidary of Princeton. . Mining Corporation which owned the Cassiar mine. “Its been a real hard adjust- ment for the family. Some are coping better than others,”’ she said. “I’s a whole — different ballgame when you are forced out of some place compared to leav- ing whea you make your owa de- cision,’’ McGil] added, McGill was one of those who fought to keep the town and the mine together last summer. “I'm very, very resentful and upset,’” said McGill, adding she can’t sce the sense in spending millions of dollars in tax money to move out and support people ‘when there js still ore in the ground. McGill still hopes a mine might -some day open up again in Cas- . Siar but ‘says the provincial government backed itself ‘into a corner when it sold the assets of Cassiar Mining Corporation last year. She attended a Cassiar Christ- mas party in Prince George last December and said people there wished they would have stayed and fought the provincial decision to close the town. tag inches A massive auction held last fall took in approximately $6 million but the province is just one of many secured and unsecured creditors, Cassiar Mining Corporation’s North Vancouver dock is also for sale but it must first be investi- gated for possible environmental problems and thai might reduce the net result, said Howlett. Linda McGill, a former Cassiar resident who sat on a committee to keep the town and mine in one piece, says she’s appalled the price tag. Ilion mark - skirts, That could cost $5 million, *“The province kept saying it’s not a viable mince. [ think they. could have mothballed the whole thing for at least a year and given another company a chance to put something together,’ —_ said McGill. “There’s $2. billion worth of _ore there and it has to be worth something to somebody,'’ she said. McGill said she has tried but has been so far unsuccessful in . getting a copy of a report the pro- vince used to reach a decision not to loan the Cassiar mine more moncy last year to keep it open. TO THE TERRACE STANDARD Hunting appalls wildlife group Dear Sir: . We of the B.C. Wildlife Fed- eration find ourselves appalled at the disrespect shown by some of our Indians for the wildlife resources of this pro- vince, The results are disastrous! The elk. slaughter on Van- couver Island, the Elk kill in the Kootenays, deer in the Okanagan, moose in Prince George, as well as moose and deer in our Skeena region, We hear that the buffalo hunt is in jeopardy for 1993, mainly because of illegal poaching. Reports indicate -that as of De- cember 16, 1992. the resident harvest was 30 animals, non- resident harvest was cight animals, while the illegal har- vest was 150° plus animals. Sixty per cent of this: harvest was COWS. The Indians from Fort St. John area and Pink Mountain where the buffalo are were not the biggest offenders.. Most of this illegal harvest were from Indians outside of the area as far away as the Lower Main- land and Alberta. Our conservation officers are at a loss to lay charges because of ihe so-called Sparrow deci- sion which, by the way, is a directive for all of us regard- less of race, colour or creed, We are called upon as a people to obey all “‘laws-of-the land,’’ The B.C. Wildlife Federation understands that Canada is a sovereign nation composed of # multitude of persons of vari- ous religions, ethnic, cultural, racial, linguistic and national origins, We, as Canadians, are . a‘single' people. Ss 0 Se ee ee Canadian constitution: The Magna Carta is a founding document. It protects society in general and individuals from general oppression. We of the federation believe in the Magna Carta and collec- tively we hold the following to betrues 1. The laws of Canada apply equally to all citizens. . 2. The law sees no gen- der, colour, age, race in its ap- plication. The equality of op- portunity is just that. There is not a policy to favour any one particular group. 3. We see parliament’s duty as making laws and the courts duty to interpret: same, ‘Honour of the Crown” with ils precepts and principles does apply to all of us. i We must demand that the province change its policy and enforce the laws regarding our wildlife resource. We also be- Heve that the leaders in the In- dian communty are also sp- palled at what is happening but are unable to stop it while the province sits idly by. We sense that tolerance {s wearing thin, We ask that all of our laws be applied to ail people equally so that all policies do indeed reflect our laws, ; ' Gil Payne, Regional President, Northwest Region, B.C. Wildlife Federation Terrace, B.C. More on Page A? Wage The minimum wage is going up. This is the least amount of money a person can be paid. It is now $5.50 an hour. On April 1, it will go up to $6.an four. -The | ‘government says this will. help 75, 000 ~ workers i in'B.C. _A-lot of those workers crease. is up are women. And a lot of them are under the age of 25. . But one politician says small businesses will not be able to pay the in- Jack Weisgerber is the leader of the Social’ Credit patty. He says ‘there ‘will be fewer jobs as a result. province will come: to the Diane Pasek and Melanie McPherson are from Kitimat, They were in Terrace last week, They came to promote the B. C, Winter Games. . They will take place. in Kitimat at the end of Feb- ruary, People from:all over the games. waa