Crash and burn? Wimbledon, it’s not overblown\NEWS A8& A federal report says ‘the public's S: fears of airport fires are _| The Terrace First Nations Council ~ | of Women will pick excess _ | fruit\COMMUNITY B21 Tennis hot shots Melita Bracken and Richard Kriegl score in Kelowna\SPORTS B4 ‘Trustees to slas By ALEX HAMILTON SOME TRUSTEES like an ef- ficiency team’s plan for emergency surgery on the school board’s budget. Others don’t. But education minister Paul Ram- sey has told the board it should fol- low most of the team’s 42 recom- mendations and balance the district’s budget by July 15. The three-member efficiency team was sent in Ramsey to help.the board find ways to deal with a, projected: $1.345 million deficit in the 1998-99 budget. Trustees decided not to pass the budget in April after planned music program cuts drew mass protests from local parents, sch Ramsey says board should follow most of the recommendations The team emerged June 26 with nearly $2.3 million worth of possible cuts. Music program cuts are near the bottom of the list, with huge cuts to administra- tion and closure of the Kitimat board of- fice near the top. Ina meeting June 29 with school board vice-chair Linda Campbell and super- intendent Frank Hamilton, Ramsey said he’d help the. school board to retire its deficit in every. way. possible — as long as trustees stuck: ‘to the report’s recom- mendations. In particular, Ramsey said he approved of carrying a $762,000 extraordinary deficit over into the 1998/1999 budget year, as long as the board agreed to sub- mit a preliminary budget by the July 15 deadline. The board must also retire that full 1997-98 deficit at the end of the 1998-99 fiscal year, and must not go further into the red without his permission. Ramsey said he would approve the sale of assets and transfer of proceeds. to the operating budget on condition that these proceeds ate set against the deficit, He also said he would consider approv- ing access to the local capital and annual - capital allowance reserve fund, but only if the money is set against the deficit and “other one time amalgamation or special purpose expenditures.” What the minister didn’t agree to was providing additional special grants to amalgamated districts ‘'to support the extraordinary costs.still to come in the merging of collective agreements.” Coast Mountains School district will also not receive any additional money under the new B.C. teachers’ contract. ‘Campbell promised Ramsey a balanced budget by the July 15 deadline, but she said it wouldn't be easy. “There are:some:pretty big decisions that have tobe made,” she said. “There’s lots of debate on administra- tive culs within the board itself.” As for the $2.3 million dollars in cuts that the report: says can be eliminated, Campbell said some of them aren’t pos- 93¢ PLUS. 7 est ~ VOL. dt NO, 13° ol budget sidle this year because of contracts, For example, the recommendation to lay off two trustees isn’t possible until their present terms expire in December, 1999. Overall, Campbell. wasn’t happy with the report and was disappointed that the team openly criticized trustees and em- ployees. In the 67-page report, the team used terms’ such as ‘‘dysfunctional condi- tions,”’ ‘“‘siege-like | mentality,’’and “confusion reigns,’’ in order to describe - the situation in the schvo! district. The report also talks of ‘aligned groups of trustees’” frequently battling each other, and of ‘“‘the we-they’’ - syndrome in terms of Terrace and Kitimat trustees. Continued Page A2 Natives to defy fish ban Gillnetters stage protest in the park By CHRISTIANA WIENS - and ANITA DOLMAN NATIVE COMMERCIAL fishermen here vowed Friday to keep on fishing in defiance of salmon fishery closures this summer. Ray Guno, who organized and led a parade and rally here Fri- day to highlight the aboriginal commercial fishery, said he and others are prepared to face’jail or boat seizures rather than obey the drastic restrictions imposed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). *“We are here because of the sal- mos and the salmon are here be- cause of us,”’ he told the group of about 90 demonstrators who con- verged on George Little Park. ‘‘If you take the salmon away, you are 7 committing cultural genocide.” Guno is president of the 4-15 Sur- vival Coalli- tion Associa- tion, a group of aboriginal commercial gillnetters who fish area 94-15 at the mouth of the Ray Guno skeen. They maintain DFO has mis- managed the fishery and that they would now face undue hardship _from the fishing closures aimed at prolecting endangered upper Skeena coho stocks. ; ‘In the past, whenever we were abused by the bureaucratic elite, we were content to crawl back and the perpetrators would go on their merry way. We're not going to do that anymore,’’ Guno said. ‘We, the 4-15, are going to go out fishing - as usual.” Guno said nailves are being un- fairly blamed for declining stocks of coho while a burgeoning sport fishing industry is the real culprit, LAX KW'ALAAMS DANCERS from Port Simpson cry out in response to aboriginal speakers at ‘George Little Park Friday, The dancers rushed to the protest after deciding to join Thursday night. ‘Coho and steelhead for biologi- cal reasons have always been low,” he said. “It’s a finlte number, but when you have an ever-expanding sports fishery, the salmon dis- appear’ Guno says ~~ the fishery, which he says is 85 -per ‘cent aboriginal in the zone near the river mouth, does take more salmon than the sports fishery. But he says they take more of the commercial sockeye, pink and spring salmon, while anglers upriver take more of the coho and steelhead. He said native fishermen were being used as 4 scapegoat to save face for the DFO on the conserva- tion front, His group is considering taking legal action against DFO, which he says has not fulfilled its fiduciary responsibility to rationally manage the fisheries. Guno said the group’s members are expecting prosecution and boat aid equipment confiscations. ‘They'll come down with a ham- mer,’’ he said, but added be doesn’t believe that police can put all of thern in jail, “We'll be seeking alliances with international orgattizations to claim back our fisheries,’” he said. Continued Pe Salmon angling ban may be tough to enforce - WHILE FISHERIES officers maintain’ there will be no fishing for salmon on the lower Skecna after July 26, enforcing that could be a problem. That’s because anglers will still be allowed on the river to fish for steelhead and: trout, Exactly how will fisheries officers tell if local anglers are legally fishing: for steelhead or ile legally catching and releasing. aalmon? ©: Unless anglers admit they're fishing for sal- mon, fisheries officers ment call on that,’ “IF people are catchi pretation: will be that them.” based on their behaviour. “The fishery officers will have to usea judges fisheries coordinator ‘Elmer Fast. ° after salmon and not steelhead, I think the inter- They'll be expected to’ change their gear, loca- will be forced to judge sald DFO. recreational ng salmon after salmon they’ re ‘trying to catch | tion or technique to avold catching salmon. Persistent offenders could: be charged with harassing wildlife. But guide Steve Nickolls is skeptical, saying it will be impossible for DFO to prosecute anglers. who fish catch-and-rélease for salmon. And he said the feds are refusing: to come . clean about that, © “They're asking People to lie in order for them to angle,”’ he said. | Fires burn near | Telegraph Creek MORE THAN 40 Telegraph Creek residents left the haze-. shrouded town over the weekend as apprehension rose about two forest fires blazing nearby. ; Residents were told to brace for a full evacuation if the winds went the wrong way, but by early Tuesday it appeared the town would not be threatened. Those who. left town, were primarily: the elderly, the, Nery. vo young, people with respiratory problems, and others who were too anxious about staying. They're staying ata schoo! i in Dease Lake. . The fires are both west of town and erupted i in the tinder-dry n northern woods after a series of lightning strikes Thursday and Friday. One is a 2,000-hectare blaze’ about 20 kilometres southwest of Telegraph Creek, and across the Stikine River, ° The other fire is more than 1,000 hectares i in size and about 25 kilometres west of the town — on the same side of the river.” It's believed to be close'to the Bali Ranch, beyond the historic townsite of Glenora. The fires are both out of control but are nowhere near the road that links Telegraph Creek with Dease Lake and Hwy37, : The difficult terrain and the smoke has made the fires difficult to fight, leaving crews largely sidelined, said Northwest Fire Centre communications coordinator Gord Munro. ; They're working on’ preparing a fire guard to stop the blaze that’s on the same side of the river. es But Munro said neither fire was heading for Telegraph Creek | as of Tuesday moming. Stikine Riversong lodge operator Dan Pakula said the fires have town residents on edge. ‘ “There's a lot of anxiety,” he said. “Some people are packing valuables in boxes and that kind of thing so if it did take a tum for the worst they would be ready to go.” Pakula said the smoke on Saturday had formed a spectacular column towering more than 30,000 feet in the sky, ‘ “It was huge — kind of like what a big explosion would look like, a big billowy ‘smoke cloud,” he said. . Kitkatla loses | injunction bid THE KITKATLA band has lost its bid for a court injunction to - stop logging by Interfor south of Prince Rupert in the first sig- - nificant test of the Supreme Court of Canada’ 8 Delgamuukw rul- ingonaboriginaltite, - The B.C, Court of Appeal ruled Monday that a lower court : judge was correct in dismissing the band's request for an injunc- ° tion on logging inthe Kumealon valley. The decision gives Interfor the green light to continue cutting — ~ something it’s been doing in that area since 1985. The band had argued they had not been adequately consulted, which the high court's Delgamuukw ruling last December said must happen when development takes. place: on land - where natives clalm aboriginal title. ; The company said it had consulted closely with the Lax Kw’alaams band, but later teamed the area is also claimed by the Kitkatla, Both bands belong to the Tsimshian Tribal Council. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mary Southin dismissed the Kitkatla application on June 25. She ruled that because the Kitkatla do not live on the land in question, and’ because it appeared they were using the aboriginal title process for "ge- . neral environmental purposes”, the weight of evidence in their favour was “thin” and not enough to displace Interfor's right to log. , ar Southin said higher courts may consider whether the weight of | - the evidence matters, or it’s simply enough that natives’ claim land to override logging permits In the name of Delgamuukw. “Tf the Strength of the evidence is of no matter on the question of title in truth the commercial life of the province can be brought to a halt,” Southin said, “Perhaps that {s. what Delgamuukw says, but it is not for a single judge lo bring. the commercial life of the province to a halt,” The three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal backed up that decision on Monday. and suggested the fact Interfor has already: logged nearly 1, 500 hectares there make site: region - a hardly unique Ta . as wo