Back it goes

B.C’s fire commissioner says
schools will be allowed to post

And the winner is:

‘The Terrace Little Theatre wins _

best play award at Skeena Zone

Start revving your engines

| Terrace racers prepare their
|| vehicles for the new |

artwork in hallways\NEWS A14

Drama Festival\COMMUNITY B1

WEDNESDAY -
March 31; 1999

season\SPORTS B6

ANDARD

$1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST.
($1.10 plus B¢.GST outside of the
Terrace area} a

VOL, 14.NO, 52

New log export plan underway

By JEFF NAGEL
THE JOB PROTECTION Commissioner
is working on a revised plan to allow
West Fraser to export raw logs to put lo-
cal loggers back to work.

Eric van Soeren said Friday renewed
discussions with the company, the
forests ministry and the [WA are leading
towards a new proposal to require at
least half the logs cut are made available
for sale to B.C. companies,

That would have happened anyway un-
der the original plan, he says, but making
ita defined condition may ease concerns
that local sawmill jobs could be lost.

“It will give comfort to the people
who think jobs are being exported,” van
Soeren said.

Unionized workers voted down his
original proposal in early March, but
TWA reps are mecting again with their

members.

Van Soeren said the new proposal —
which hasn’t been finalized yet — will
also likely break the previously proposed
200,000 cubic metres a year into smaller
chunks over a shorter period of time.

That’s in line with a Terrace city coun-
cil request last week that exports be al-
lowed only for a short term and with
tight monitoring.

“There were concems that 200,000
cubic metres is a real big number,’’ van
Soeren noted. ‘‘That may still happen.
But at least this way by doing it in small-

‘er chunks and by careful monitoring

there isn’t any possibility of abuse.”’

“T don’t think there was anyway but
this will make that clear.”

Rather than the standing green export
permit originally requested that would
have required a cabinet order-in-council,

van Soeren said he thinks it may involve
a different type of permit.

“We're talking about a much more
limited type of export that would be
monitored much more closely as we
progress,” he said,

He said his revisions to some extent
amount io window-dressing to make the
idea more politically palatable, adding
there was never any chance of the log-
ging being more than a break-even enter-
prise.

And although Skeena Cellulose has of-
fered to buy any saw logs West Fraser
would export, van Soeren says the issue
is not whether there are buyers in B.C.
for the wood but the price they’re willing
to pay.

Saw log market prices in B.C. are well
below the cost of logging for West
Fraser. But Japanese mills will pay more

because they're state-subsidized and bet-
ler able to extract specialized prades of
lumber to the exact specifications of the
market there.

In practice, van Soeren said, a compa-
ny is only allowed to export to a level
where the profits from selling overseas
make up for the losses on the logs it selis
within B.C. 4

If profits begin to excced the domestic
losses, the B.C. government can then
jack up the fee in lieu of manufacturing
it charges on the logs to make up the dif-
ference, He said the level of exports is
effectively reduced, -

Under that scenario, van Soeren said,
50 per cent or more of the logs will be
available for B.C, buyers.

But van Soeren says if exports are
denied and the company is told to make
all the logs it cuts available for domestic

sale, it could stand to lose between 20 .
and 40 per cent on every log it cuts,

The reality is that none of that logging
would ever take place and none of that
timber would be available domestically,
he said,

“Tf somebody thinks West Fraser is
getting some kind of windfall out of it
they're wrong,” van Socren said.

“*There’s nobody walking away with
bags of cash here. This is just a way of
putting people back to work.”

The only thing West Fraser real] y gains
from the whole exercise, he added, is the
government’s promise not to take away
part of its licence for failure to meet min-

imum cutting levels over a five ycar pe-
tiod,

Cont'd Page A2

| Fishing lodge

a

mw Handcuff her!

UNDER ARREST: Kelsey Minhinnick and Amy Mattern at a
dress rehearsal for the Terrace Skating Club’s annual carnival
called “A Musical Time Warp.” Among other performances, Min-

hinnick played a police officer in YMCA and Mattern played a
hippie from the ‘60s musical, Hair. The event was held at the
arena Thursday, March 25.

Christiana Wiens photo

Nisga’a in on treaty suits

THE NISGA’A Tribal Council will join the fed-
eral and provincial governments as defendants
in two court challenges aiming (0 stop the
Nisga’a treaty,

One is a lawsuit by the B,C. Fisheries Sur-
vival Coaltion that argues the treaty is either un-
constitutional or a-constitutional amendment,
that would in tum force a provincial
referendum.

The other case is a class action suit filed by
Lloyd Brinson and the B.C. Cilizens . First
Sociely that argues the treaty violates the rights
of non-natives in the Nass Valley.

In both cases the groups involved said they
wouldn't object to the Nisga’a jolning the case

as intervenors, but making them defendants’

would create an adversarial situation they didn’t
intend,

The Nisga’a argued ihe cases could have a
“catastrophic’’ effect upon them, ending a 109-
year pursuit of a treaty and 20 years of negotia-
tions,

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Williamson
on March 23 ruled that the Nisga’a do have a
“direct interest’’ in the proceedings and will be
directly affected if the plaintiffs succeed.

“The Nisga’a Final Agreement will cither be
rendered void immediately, or will be subject to
the vicissitudes of ihe amending formula set out
in Part V of the Constitution Act,” Williamson
muiled. “If not catastrophic, the impact would be

significant and would extend to most if not all
aspects of the daily life of members of the
Nisga’a Nation,’’

The judge added that the tribal council praba-
bly has a greater stake in the outcome of the
Brinson case than in the other court challenges
aimed at the treaty because it also seeks an in-
junction that would stop transfer of land, cash
and resources to the Nisga’a under the treaty.

He concluded there was no necd to also list
tribal council president Joe Gosnell as a
defendant as he is covered along with all other
_Nisga’a by the inclusion of the tribal council as

; defendants,

Lawyers for Brinson had resisted the Nisga’a
application, saying it would set up an adver-
sarial situation Brinson had not intended and
that It could greatly complicate the case,

Legal counsel Paut Formby said an appeal is
possible.

“We'll consult with our clients first and the
lawyers for the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coali-
tion to see what they’re going to do.”’

Formby is in the unustal position of being

. both lawyer and participant in the court action,

because he and two other lawyers with his firm
are listed as directors of the B.C. Citizens First
Society. a

He said they formed. the society initially as a
“possible political body that might serve to press

* for alternatives to the current treaty process for

settling Land claims.

*Ys there a conflict there? [ don’t know,”
Formby said. “If I’m called as a witness ]7ll
gladly pass the case over to someone else and
go out and organize the province.”'

Formby said he and other Jawyers in_ the
saciety work in Chinatown in Vancouver and
their experience with cultural challenges there
heightened their concerns about the con-
sequences of treaty-making with natives.

“We believe there’s a need to unify the coun-
iry not stress racial differences,’? Formby said.
“We look at the Nisga’a agreement as a form of
aparthcid and whether it’s a golden cage or
‘Whatever it will cause tremendous resentment
and disunity.”

“So we decided to form our own society to

‘dry to alert the people to these issues,"’ he

added. ‘'The next thing we knew we were con-
versing with Mr. Brinson and said let’s look at
the class action aspects.”

Formby said legal challenges are just onc
aspect of trying to stop the treaty, adding the
best chances of success are still in the political
arena,

“What British Columbians should be doing is
trying to organize with respect to the debate
that’s going to occurin the legislature,’’ he said,
“They should bring to bear as much pressure as
possible on the politicians." : a

business dips

FACED WITH record-low reservations for the 1999 fish-
ing season, fishing lodges are asking for help and have
recruited some support from Terrace city council,

What lodge owners are lacking are the number of salmon
and the species of the fish prospective clients will be al-
lowed to catch this year, oe

Not having those regulations means that when prospec-
tive clicnts do call, they’re often put off by the lack of
solid information.

Catch quotas are expected to be released next month
some time, but one lodge owner, Wolfgang Volker, who
runs Kermodei Fishing Lodge on Hwy16, says that’s not
soon enough.

He says he usually has 50 to 60 bookings by this time of
year. This year, only 20 customers have booked reserva-
lions,

Volker said most European tourists book their holiday
time in January or February. Even now, he said be can’t
guarantee tourists calling from Germany or Holland what
they’I] be able to fish for on the Skeena and when,

He said many tourists have already made reservations at
Alaskan fishing lodges,

“They'll kick them right to Alaska,’’ said Volker, who
lost $80,000 last year. ‘I believe they want us out of busi-
ness.’””

The issue came up in Terrace’s city council meeting
Mareh 22, where city councillor Val George asked that
council approve a motion to write a letter of concern to
federal fisheries minister David Anderson.

The letter asks Anderson to make ‘‘an immediate and
urgent decision regarding recreational fishing regulation
for the 1999 season.”

His decision, say local city councillors, should ‘‘take into
account the importance of the recreational and economic
benefits of the sports fishery in the Skecna region.”

Fewer fish
licences overall

WHILE NORTH coast commercial fishermen wail to
see how many coho, spring and chinook salmon they'll
be allowed 1o catch this season, there is one thing
they'll know for certain.

There will be 322 Fewer north coast commercial fish-
ing licences out there.

Since federal fisheries minister David Anderson an- [|
nounced his plan to reduce the west coast salmon flect
last June, the north coast has accounted for 43 per cent
of all licences retired in B.C. It’s a relatively high num-
ber given there are far fewer licences between Van-
couver Island and the Alaskan Panhandle compared to
the south as il is.

The new number of north coast salmon licences — |-
1,014 compared to 1,136 before — was reached
through two rounds of voluntary retirement. Round
three of the program is scheduled later this fall.

Troll, gillnet and seine fisheries were cul equally by
25 per cent leaving 129 seine licences, 652 gillnet
licences and 233 troll licences still active on the north
coasl.

Bach licence holder will receive an average payout of
$432,115 for a seine licence, $80,840 for a gillnet
licence and $82,119 fora troll licence,

Since June 1998 the south coast and Vancouver Is-
land licences were cut at 19.4 per cent, But in just three
years the commercial salmon indusiry in B.C, shrunk
from 4,112 licences in 1996 to 2,557 licences in 1999
— almost a 38 per cent Dect reduction.

The program has also been criticized for increasing
the corporate concentration of the ficet as independent
fishers sell out licences in tougher times.

Seventy-seven per cent of seine licences retired since
1994 represent individual fishermen. -