arr nd Throwing a pot | Clay artist society is fired up about the future of its . chosen craft in Terrace \COMMUNITY B1 impaired Driver behind the wheel of truck that killed two Terrace | men had long history of alcohol offences \NEWS A9 lcebreaker Check out how the bantam rep hockey . ‘ players did at their first ,, tourney\SPORTS ct | $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST. « {$1.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the Terrace area) VOL,18 ‘NO. 28 _ ATLEAST twocredit unions, onea major. . player i in the field, are’ already interested in the Terrace and District Credit Union following the announcement. last week it is looking for a merger partner. | Envision, a Lower Mainland- based ~ credit union with $3 billion in’ assets, has _ a branch in Kitimat.while Northern Sav- ° ings Credit Union, based in Prince Ru- os pert, already has a branch here. . Terrace and District Credit Union‘ board chair Dan Condon said the credit union is just too small to take part in the. improving local economy. That’s because its lending limits are too small to grant the size of mortgage people are now secking and it cannot meet the needs of commercial borrowers. -“We don’t have the capacity to grant "a mortgage to buy a house i in Kelowna,” ’ said Condon. At the same time, the proportion of the. credit union’s* income from mortgages -and loans has been dropping, he said: ° “It’s really the’ nature of the beast,” Condon continued. “There, may be peo- ple who think it would. be really nice if we were to remain a little independent _ Shop but the reality is you just can’t run a small financial shop any more.” . He ‘noted that the number of credit ‘unions has dropped by just about half, cestandard.com _ from 93 to 5} in the past few years, _ Finding a larger credit union: would ‘- preserve the value of the credit union for. ~ its 4,000 members and open the doors for better. service opportunities, said Con- . don. And he said he and the board expect to keep intact the 60-year reputation of the Terrace and District Credit Union as a community contributor, a good employer and viable business. - It has $42 million in assets, a drop from previous years. : Barry Delaney, Envision senior vice president, said his organization would be interested in any talks with the Terrace . and District Credit Union, “There have been no. formal or in- formal discussions but would we like to have discussions?:- Yes we would. And do ‘we have an interest? Yes .we do,” he said. Envision came about in 2001. by a merger of First Savings Heritage, which had ‘the branch in Kitimat, and Delta Credit Union. Kitimat is its only branch outside of the Lower Mainland. “We’ve had a good success in Kitimat. We're pretty much a Lower Mainland - credit union but we aspire to be a provin- .cially-based credit union,” said Delaney. Northern Savings Credit Union board ~ chair Brian Nesbitt hoped his credit union ” - would be included on any merger list. ““We certainly: would be interested in | looking at it. We have a pretty good work- ing relationship. We do more commercial - lending. We could be complementary,” he said.: “Hopefully we could be Part of, | some process.” Northern ..Savings, with assets ° ap- © proaching $280 million, has its héad of-- fice and a branch in Prince Rupert and two branches on the Queen Charlotte Is- lands in addition.to the one here: = . But it also, has a mortgage’ and in- vestment office in. Victoria and has just » opened a similar office in Kelowna, CONT'D PAGE A2. Kitimat chosen as site MUSIC BRIGHTENED up the teachers’ nicket line in front of Caledonia Senior Secondary School Oct. 14. And they're playing for free due to a B.C. Supreme Court order banning strike pay. From left is Don MacLeod, Robin MacLeod, Allen Wootton and Greer Kaiser. Board backs teacher action | By DUSTIN, QUEZADA SCHOOL. TRUSTEES here are .backing teachers who remain on the picket line despite having their strike being declared illegal. Board chair Lorrie Gowen said trust- ees met Monday to draw up a letter of support for transmittal to the provincial government. “We're supporting teachers and urg- ing aresolution that’s fair and equitable, while respecting collective bargaining rights,” Gowen said last week. The Coast Mountains school dis- trict board joins more than 30 of the 60 boards in B.C. in urging the provincial government to resume negotiations with teachers. “T support unions Ive been on the line,” said Gowen herself a mem- ber of the B.C. Government and Ser- vice Employees’ Union. An employee of Northwest Community College, Gowen took part in rotating strikes ear- lier this year prior to a contract being | reached. She said the supreme court actions in freezing the finances of the B.C. sence Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) : set a dangerous precedent. Some boards are calling for the re- ' scinding of Bill 12, the legislation that extended the teachers’ contract for two years, while others want a return to lo- cal bargaining. The local push from " the school trustees comes as a relief to Veralynn Munson, the Terrace and Dis- trict Teachers’ Union president. Munson said early last week she had been sending e-mails to all the trustees, with no reply. But she spoke briefly. with Gowen late last week who told her of the letter of support being considered. Going into the weekend, B.C. teach- ers had been off the job since Friday, Oct. 7 despite members facing possible fines and union leaders in danger of be-. . ing jailed. In a unique ruling Oct. 13, Justice _Brenda Brown of the B.C. Supreme Court did not impose fines, but did freeze the teachers’ union’s finances, preventing it from doing anything con- nected to its illegal strike. That includes not paying teachers $50 a day in strike DUSTIN QUEZADA PHOTO pay. “(The ruling) was.a surprise,” Mun- son said. “We were bracing for a fine. “We ‘can still conduct regular busi- ness,” said Munson, adding that means "attending regular meetings and paying ‘rent and phone bills. The court ruling followed | an Oct..9 judgment deeming the teachers’ strike illegal. Labour minister Mike DeJong and education minister Shirley Bond said - several times last week that teachers were breaking the law. “It is important to recognize some-" thing: This strike has been deemed il- | legal,” said Bond. Union officials say that approxi- mately 22,000 of 38,000 teachers voted to continue the strike. While government officials and the B.C. Public School Employers’ As- sociation, the teachers’ employers, maintained through the week. the ille- gal nature of the walkout, support for the teachers from organized labour throughout the province swelled. CONT’D PAGE A16 By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN . ENBRIDGE Inc: announced last week-that . ‘Kitimat will be the end-point for a proposed _ dual pipeline called the Gateway Project. The estimated $4-billion project consists of two stand-alone pipelines -- one of which. will export petroleum from the Edmonton area to Kitimat for shipping to customers on — both the west coast of the. United States and — 40 ASiaee oo. Q 2 ' The second pipeline will transport a dilut- ; ing agent that will be off-loaded at Kitimat and to Alberta where it will be mixed with _ the petroleum product to ‘make it easier to ship through the first pipeline. The announcement comes after months of negotiations and of pipeline terminus | gas production used as feedstock to oil refin- 2 eries or to dilute heavy. oil for. easier trans- port by pipeline. “ This line will be 20° inches in.diameter : wor: and will move on average 150,000 barrels _ per day. The parallel petroleum export line will be 30 inches in diameter, pumping roughly 400,000 barrels a day. The company must still overcome several _ environmental and regulatory hurdles before _ the project is a go. It has already talked with more than 140 native groups in B.C. and Alberta. Roughly 40 are located ‘within 80 kilometres on either side of the proposed pipeline route. ~ In B.C., between 15 and 20 First Na- tions villages are located courting by the port cit- er, president of Gateway Pipeline Ltd., the _. subsidiary of Enbridge, which wants to start Shipping by 2010. - “We see this as creating a - tremendous opportunity for the north coast region as a ’ whole...and ultimately turning this vision ‘into a reality.” The pipeline route. is estimated to be 1,200 kilometres in length. Meyer expects 2,000 jobs will be created through construction, expected to start in 2008, and that approximately 75 permanent employees will be needed along the route S . when the project is finished. The terminal in Kitimat, once opened, would provide be- tween 25 and 50 local jobs. The diluting agent for the second pipeline is called condensate — a byproduct of natural ies of Kitimat and Prince “We -see this as the righor way of the Rupert. . x proposed pipelines, in- ’ Company officials say creating a tremendous cluding the Haisla at they chose Kitimat be- Opportunity for the Kitamaat. cause of its deep water north coast region asa The pipeline route port and abundant indus- whole,” = - pipeline . will come within 25 kilo- trialland.- ~~. official Art Meyer " metres of. Terrace before ’ “We certainly had tre- ; turning south to Kitimat. ° mendous support from -Officials say they” Kitimat,” says Art Mey- hope to partner with both the provincial and federal. governments and community education institutions such as Northwest Community College to’ create . ~ trades: training opportunities to help fill the several thousand anticipated job openings. : “That’s the real benefit to having a two- year time frame prior to construction,” Mey- _ -er says, adding he anticipates that training ~ will also extend to interested native people.. Enbridge is hosting !7 open houses along the proposed pipeline route. In Terrace, that open house is on Oct. 21 at the Best Western. Terrace Inn, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Enbridge is a pipeline company and won’t - own the product going through its system. ° Most of the companies sending their product ’ through have operations at the Fort McMur- ray tar sands. UNEMPLOYMENT HAS inched up ever so slightly in the.region, more than likely a reflection that summer is over, says a federal employment analyst. September’s rate of 5.6 per cent, a ‘nudge up from August’s 5.5 per cent, is . still one of the lowest on record in the last several years, says Patrick McIntyre from Service Canada. “Jt’s the fall. People went back to school and employment always. goes season. This is not unexpected,” he said. Data gathered by Statistics Canada for the area from the Charlottes to just this side of Vanderhoof show there were .50,600 people working over the age of 15 in September, a drop from 51,800 in August. But the number of people unemployed seeking jobs stayed steady over the two months at 3,000. ’ Last September’s unemployment rate - was 11.9 per cent with 43,100 people listed as working. stable right now. We’ll start seeing the strength of the economy as we move into _ down in the fall with the end of the tourist . “The employment situation here is. holds steady | the fall,” said McIntyre. — He noted that the 3,000 people saying they were unemployed but looking for work is the lowest-in years. In March 1995, 4,800 people were’ looking for work: but the working age -] population then was a lot higher at 73,700 compared to this year’s figure of 70,500.. And in April 1996 with a population listed at- 75,300, there were 3,100 people looking for work, McIntyre added. — The Northwest continues to record the best.increase in employment from 2004 to this year for any region in the province. Its 11.9 per cent unemployment rate in Sept. 2004 was the only figure above 10. per cent in B.C. Sept. 2005’s rate is the fifth best in the province, topping the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. B.C.’s rate in September is 5.9 per cent and the national rate is 6.8 per cent. The natural gas and oil’ producing Northeast continues to lead the province with an unemployment rate of just 4.4 per cent. Alberta has the lowest unemploy- ment rate among all provinces at 4.1 per cent while Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest, 15.3 per cent. within 80 kilometres of .