| $1.00 PLus 7° cst. outside of the Terrace area) . Mother lode _ Statistics confirm the \NEWS At 1, Northwest is centre of provincial mining boom | ‘Women and art Female artists from the region’ get intimate with their art for February exhibit | a \COMMUNITY BS” Games\SPORTS B4 Bound for 100 Mile. Local athletes ready to. -battle for medals at the ~ Northern B.C. Winter _ ye ‘ ..($1.10 plus 8¢ GST" a3) VOL.18 NO. 43 .. By SARAH. A, ZIMMERMAN ° ‘MUNICIPAL taxes’ will be going up - *- this” year even’ without’: taking: into” consideration. the additional -costs of ~ building. the proposed sportsplex/second ; sheet of ice. -~ “at this time,” “We'll be.tossing them back and forth.” will help.offset the costs of the recent city purchase of the old Co-op property, . _. "fo account: for a recent I raise in wages for’ . says M Pp , SKEENA MP Nathan Cullen” . how money is spent for native » provided to them. . ’ will handle those portfolios. _dards affecting some First ~ Nations communities. - ‘anybody,” he says, adding . » is critical, Cullen added. ‘curate numbers, not just in| ‘dollars but in numbers of _ vented,” he says. ‘ shots while arresting a person- accused of. “using a serrated-edge kitchen knife to rob the ‘Safeway gas bar here of $69 late i in the ’ afternoon of Jan. 25. . . _chasm between money spent tion stories, s¢ see Page AS. | The city has started i its budget delibera- oo tions and is considering an approximately » | a 3.6 per cent hike in taxes in 2006.: “These are very preliminary figures’ ‘says Mayor Jack Talstra. | ‘ Talstra says the proposed tax increase “the: city’ s unionized employees and an increase in, utility bills. for city-owned : facilities. “The hike will. also allow. the ‘city ‘to put: money back into departments . that - » have had services and staffing cut. back over the course of the past. five years. “We think we've turned a corner in the community,” Talstra says of cuts ‘brought.in when the Skeena Cellulose/. ’ New Skeena sawmill went into financial. ‘limbo resulting in unpaid tax bills: ; ” Unlike Prince Rupert, which budgeted ‘based on receiving unpaid taxes from its . ~ paid tax bill. ce %. .. “We want to’ ‘bring particularly the’. public works department, — that’s roads: - and'streets,~ back to/an acceptable stan" dard, ” said Talstra. That department has been operating | _ ‘on a roughly $1.5-million yearly budget and he’d like to.see that increased “ least to $2 million.” _ And. despite’, the uncertainty of the: cost of the proposed second sheet of ice , project, Talstra says that project does not factor into the proposed, tax ‘hike nor is- it included i in the draft budget the city is « working’ on. That’s because council still t icestandard.com pocket 0 on the project. “Ty s not yet in the, ,taxpayer’s domain in the sense that where we are right now “trying to build a “sportsplex - with dona- - ‘tions and grants’not with taxpayer’ s mon; . ey,” Taistra says.” - Until bids come back Feb. 9,:the city e won't know whether or not it has enough “money available in short term borrowing . ‘and money already raised and pledged to pay for the project, he. ‘Says. “If we’re short, then we have some further decisions to make and that is how . to make up the shortfall and one of those - options, of course, is from taxpayers “Then we have to decide if we are a): a _Teferendum « or not:” . going to build it and, b) whether we g0, to. - If the city, chooses. to- build it and it) becomes a capital project, ‘then those fig? . ‘ures will be added to the budget projec-| tions at that-time. And that could r mean an. - additional i increase in taxes. Bids on the project will come in: Feb. | : “9, at. which time council will, examine tts we ~ options. ! Talstra’ expects the draft budget to ‘be oe approved by April 9 ws The old Co-op property purchase cost pe $1.1 million. Council has-yet to-make a here cut spending to balance its‘own un- | Skeena pulp mill at some point, the city. as) hopes to avoid hitting taxpayers in the - will push for an overhaul of ‘6 people and how services are He says the’ way both the. federal fisheries department. and the-former’ Department. of Indian Affairs (DIA) now called Indian and Northern - Affairs Canada have been © run under the Liberals isn’t working and he’ll be watch- ing closely how the new. Conservative government “It just depends what the overhaul will be for,” he says. “It’s a very patronizing bureaucracy.” ; Cullen - agrees’ ‘there’s acl on services for native people and the still-appalling stan- “We spend many billions of dollars, yet we still have © people living in conditions - that we wouldn’t tolerate for’ ' there must be.a better way ‘of tracking how money | is - spent. Better accountability and a» measurement of changes the money is supposed to make in those communities “Measure yourself by.ac- homes built,: suicides, pre- _ For more federal elec- Robbery suspect nabbed, police officer By MARGARET SPEIRS |. POLICE FIRED an. unknown. number of -At least a dozen RCMP officers ‘were ' ultimately involved in attempting to stop a man as he left a Walsh Ave. apartment build- ing later that night in a truck that was stolen prior to the robbery. One officer discharged a shotgun and another a standard RCMP i issue 9-mm hand Terrace RCMP Sst. Bill Casault said of- -ficers staked out the truck after finding it in the apartment parking lot and that a chase started after the man returned to the truck - and sped away. He lost control and went into a ditch on Park Ave. close to the apartments adjacent rs fire guns | ; to the large vacant lot, which once housed _ the highways ministry maintenance yard. stable who was trying to arrest him. the driver to stop, said Casault. The driver then lost control and crashed | into a bush along Park Ave. Police apprehended the suspect with the - help of police service dog “Nack”. boos None of the officers were injured but the suspect suffered a minor bite to the shoulder from the police dog. Neither the truck, which was ay'impounded, nor any houses in the area suffered damage . -|- from the police gunfire, said Casault. Casault said irivestigators will review the security camera tape from. the Safeway gas .. bar. Officers did not recover a knife. Cont’d Page A2 Casauilt said the man drove toward acon- - That’s when officers opened fire to force _SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO. Oy i" : \ GIANNINO Pretto (top) and wife Sheila continue to. spar with Shell over contamina- tion at their gas station location and possible solutions to solve the problem so they can get back to selling gas. , money," Talstra says. Couple’ Ss struggle | _ decision as to what it wants to-do there. over contamination By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN : . SHELL CANADA says it will pay for an - ’ environmental assessment of Giannino and Sheila Pretto’s Shell station site on Kalum St. but when or if it will happen remains _ unknown. oe -The Jan. 23 offer i is the latest i in a series of ‘events which has hamstrung the Prettos from selling gas at the location: In late 2005, the Prettos had to stop selling gas for the second time in four years because contamination found at the site prevented them from using the property as collateral to. obtain business financing. __. Shell has denied responsibility for ‘the | problem but it now proposes to conduct the -assessment using its own environmental consultants to determine the extent. of the. 7 . contamination on the site. _. -The’Prettos: say they aren’t responsible > for contamination which they feel had taken °: - place. before they purchased the station. * oN .-. The assessment. offer hinges‘ on Pretto ..~- - supplying copies ‘of ‘the. environmental re- = ports he obtained when contamination on his | ~_-site.was discovered in 2001 while old under- “ ground f fuel.tanks were being replaced. John. McMynn,, Pretto’s accountant, ‘says : ‘the ‘couple is considering Shell’s offer but there are concerns . that ‘an environmental _ assessment, conducted by Shell may not be: | unbiased. . ‘6 . “They can’t afford to pay: for the assess- se ment, estimated to. cost in the range of - $30,000, says McMynn. * . _ “At least we can find out the extent of the © ‘ contamination,” McMynn says of the benefit *. of having Shell conduct the assessment. The Prettos and McMynn suspect the en- _ tire site is contaminated. _ “The environmental assessment will give _us a better idea of what the impact is on the © site,” says Shell official Denita Davis, saying . ’ what happens next is yet to be determined... _ If the assessment is done it will shed light on where and how. widespread the contami- nation is, but it may not help determine who is responsible : for the ¢ contamination. \ _ from the gravel roads, Gowe says.” at station petracles “The goal of the environmental: assess-° ment is not-to point: fingers...at this point," aaa Shell has little to no information about that a Site,” Davis said. . Pretto maintains - ‘any ‘contamination on- the site predates his purchase of the location. in 1982. after, first ‘becoming a leaseholder i in. 1974. resident Ron Gowe outlined the- history: of ‘In a letter to” ‘Shell, longtime Terrace: . _— the site and the practices used by gas: sta-" ee tion owners prior to the strict environmental guidelines used today. - ‘A Shell ‘service station has been: on that a site since the late ‘50s — a time when the . roads in Terrace. were unpaved and it was’. common practice to pour-used petroleum °. products on the ground to curtail the dust» . a In 1969, ‘the gas station on Kalum St. was’ _ ) “rebuilt ‘with ‘a ‘new facility, including ; a : car Lo wash; -he recalls. “Again, no remedial action was, ‘taken to. “clean up the extreme soil.contamination; ev- * _ ery thing was. just, built or paved over..Mr.° Giannino Pretto relocatéd to this location‘as.*~* - leaser. from ;Shell - ‘Canada i in (1974, ” Gowe ete » wrote. “During that: period, I was. s involved’ sev- 7 eral times in carrying out ‘electrical service -work in the car wash. In 1982, he purchased’ “ 7 ‘the operation from Shell, operating since as. * a private enterprise. NOTE: This was a com- pany operation until his purchase, which in- "| cluded ali the contamination from the earlier - dilapidated premises prior to modernization, neg which was owned by Shell and never cleaned _ up environmentally.”: The whole of Gowe’ s letter was s reprinted oon Jan. 11, 2006 in a full-page’ ad'in The Ter-.. . ‘race Standard paid for by more, than 2 a'dozen* “disgruntled local-business owners,” " includ-.” ing McMynn." “I think Shell Canada needed ‘ a wake-up - call and they seem to be avoiding their re- _Sponsibility and essentially trying t to © put him 7 out of business,” ' Says McMynn. . Cont'd Page A2. ne i ; Tae Mt on Kalum Lake Road. J. impact. “Young, people injured” _ AKITWANGA truck driver is happy nobody was seriously: - hurt after a car careened out of control and slammed into’ the front of his’ logging truck last week. a - Kirby Bissell. was carrying .a full load of logs | as. ‘he --e - headed north from Hwy16 on Kalum' Lake Dr. wher he. |. _ saw a Silver Honda car barrelling out of control at the base |. of the hill shortly after 3 pm. Jan.27, - +! . “He was coming around the comer pretty fast, ie Bissell pe ~ says; adding he slowed down to a crawl when he saw the .. _ car, “I saw him coming and knew he lost it”. : The car couldn’t negotiate the turn and Bissell says it. | |. appeared the driver overcorrectéd sending its tires into. Soft mud on the shoulder‘of the southbound lane. . “Then he-spun around and slid sideways into me,” he « “says “adding the truck w was early at a full stop before the: m . He believes the four people i in ‘the 'c car were , college- - aged students. Textbooks, papers and binders were strewn | about the accident scene. Paramedics took four people, | who were all able to walk away from the crash scene, to” _ the hospital for treatment. ; : 2 wt _ “One kid was knocked out for at least five minutes. we ~“ACAR RESTS below the fogging truck it hit Jan. 27 Bissell said. “Those kids are all going to be alright, that’s ’ SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO. all that feally matters” = ~ he