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WEDNESDAY
January 20, 1999

SCI agrees to tax payment

THE CITY of Terrace won't have to
agree to further property tax deferrals to
help out cash-strapped Skeena Cellulose, '

Mayor Jack Talstra was in Vancouver

last Wednesday where mayors from Ter-
race, Port Edward and Prince Rupert

were expecting pressure to extend tic

company’s present schedule to repay.

back taxes,

Prince Rupert and Port Edward —
which are together owed more than $13
nuillion — did agree in principle to a fur-
ther one-year deferral.

But the company and provincial Job
Protection Commission officials agreed

to maintain the existing payment sched-:

ule for Terrace,
That calls for SCI to repay the

$991,000 owed for 1997 taxes in 48 pay-

ments [rom now to the end of 2002, -
The payment schedule was worked out

‘when the company came out of creditor

protection in early 1998,

Talstra said the company agreed to
treat Terrace differently because of the
smaller amount of money involved here,

He said Terrace appreciates ihat the
company is operating but felt that no fur-
ther tax money should be deferred in the
interests of fairness to the city’s other
major sawmill and other businesses that
have no such arrangement,

“‘At some point somebody has to say
to this company it’s time to get back into
the real business world and compete ona
fair playing field with their campeti-
tors,” Talstra said, ‘'So we may be
doing the company a favour in that sense
in that you can’t baby this company
forever.”

‘“We need the money quite frankly,’
said Talstra. ‘We have lost $500,000
over the last three years in direct cuts
from the province to our municipality
and we’re dealing a decrease in assess-
ments that could drop us another
$300,000. So we're down about

$800,000, a large part of which I would

attribute to (he provincial government.’

Talstra said the company’s outlook is
brighter than many people think — par-
ticularly if it can get $40 million from its
owners to go ahead with a restart of its B
mill in Prince Rupert.

Skcena NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht
ripped into city council for not doing
more to support the company right now.

“All of a sudden when Skeena Cel-
lulose is getting close to the verge of
breaking free from the past, they’re put-
ting the screws to the company,”’ Gies-
brecht said.

Giesbrecht said not supporting the
company in the same way as Prince

93¢ PLUS 7¢ GST
VOL. 11 NO. 41.

plan

Rupert is “short-sighted” and that Tere
race will have only its council to blame
for any fallout,

“Who knows? Skeena Cellutose tay
have to react in some way. What hap-
pens if it has to shut down a little bit
tore often? What happens if focal con-
tractors can’t log as much?”

Talstra said he didn’t understand Gies-
brecht’s concerns.

He said company officials had agreed
they can likely handle the payments to
Terrace and that even the Prince Rupert
delegation didn’t object to Terrace’s de-

agence

Millis
out of
money

IF MILLS Memorial Hospi-
fal was a business, it would
be on the verge of declaring
--bankruptey or at the very
' least, looking for protection
from creditors.

Latest financial figures
show the hospital will be
flat broke and unable to
meet its financial commit-
ments by next spring,

Continual annual budget
deficits are. eroding the hos-
pital’s reserves and its equi-
ty position, says a report by
hospital official Paul
Manhas.

“These reports also show
that as a best case scenario
we can only continue to op-
erate as we have been until
March 31, 2000,” said
Manhas,

“If we do not receive ad-
ditional funding or reduce

IT WASN'T the way things were supposed to go Jan. 14 when an AirBC Bae-
146 jet landed at the Terraca-Kitimat airport. The aircraft came to a nose-down

stop off the end of the runway. No one was injured in the incident. AirBC and
National Transportation Safety Board officials are investigating,

our costs by then we will be
in danger of not being able
to mect our obligations,’’ he
continues,

As of Dec, 10, 1998

Jet aircraft skids off end of runway

TRANSPORTATION SAFETY investigators and

AirBC officials continue their probe into why a compa-:

ny Bae-146 jet slid off the runway after landing Jan.
14,

“The landing itself was fine,’? said AirBC official
Angela Mah, “‘It slipped off the end off the runway,
We don’t know why.’’

There were no injuries among the 12 passengers and
five crew flying up from Vancouver,

This is the second time in five years an AirBC Bae-
146 has gone off the runway here in Terrace. -

Uniike other aircraft such as the Boeing 737, the Bae-
146 does not have thrust reversers, those conical-
shaped devices which pop out behind the engines once
an aircraft is one the ground. They act as a breaking
tacchansim.

Instead, the Bae-146 uses speed brakes and wing,
flaps to stop.

AirBC spokesperson Angela Mah said the plane also —

landed with the wind. Pilots prefer landing into the
wind. .

Mah said this particular landing was well within the
Bae-246's breaking limits,

“It landed according to weather and runway condi-
tions,” she said. ‘‘Everything was done according to
company policy,’

A two-member maintenance team checked the jet
later that day, By Friday, Jan. 15, it had passed air-
worthy tests and was flown back to Vancouver for ad-
ditional inspection.

It was expected to be back in service that night.

The plane is one of five Bac-146 aircraft used by
AirBC. They went into service 10 years ago,

Transport Canada representative Rod Nelson said the
runway tested negative for ice 40 minutes after the
plane landed.

“It was 60 per cent bare and dry and 40 per cent bare
and wet,’’ said Nelson.

Nelson also said the runway was tested for friction,
but those results aren’t in yet,

Passenger Peter Ranson, a Vancouver businessman,
said the accident wasn’! a big deal.

. “No one screamed, Everyone was very calm and
cool,’’ he said. “It was a non-event.”

He said the pilot tried to land once but couldn’t be-

“He seemed to be coming in quickiy,’’ Ranson said
of the second approach, “After we touched, down, we
bounced.’? .

He said the runway looked glassy or extremely wet,

“T don’t think he could put on the breaks — it was
too icy or too wet,’ Ranson added. ‘You could feel
him pumping the breaks,”’

Then he said it got rough all of a sudden and then the
plane came to a stop.

Fellow passenger James McDonald, a professor at
UNEC, said if the rmway had béen longer everything
would have been okay.

“Pve had rougher landings than that,” he said, ‘The
most exciling thing is that we didn’t have to turn back
to Vancouver,’’ .

Lynne Wahl of Kitimat said the captain did a good
job of keeping the plane straight ‘‘so it didn’t go turn-
ing or lipping over or anything.”

-Her son Shawn thought the whole incident was great,

“Tt was so cool — it was amazing, We came down
and missed half of the runway, then we used the other
half,”’

_ For more on this story, please turn to Page A2,

cause the weather looked spotty.

‘Manhas, reports a total equi-
ly position of $660,748,

But based on deficit
projections, he’s forecasting
a drop to $411,548 by
March 31, 1999 which fs the
end of the bospital’s current
fiscal year..

That represents an erosion
of just under $250,000 alone
in barely three and a half
months.

Senior health ministry of-
ficials met with the Terrace
and Arca Health Council
last night in a closed session
to discuss the situation.

Details of what the offi-
cials had to say weren't
available at press time,

Late last week the chief
executive officer of the
health council characterized
the session as crucial,

Cont'd Page A2

Readers’ poll opposes treaty |

AN OVERWHELMING percentage of
those who completed ‘our readers’ poll
want Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Gies-
brecht to oppose the Nisga’a land claims
treaty when it comes up fora free vote in
the legislature,

Of 318 responses faxed, emailed,
mailed or band-delivered, 91 per cent
were opposed, Just 23 people, ar 7.9 per
cent, felt Giesbrecht should vote in
favour of the treaty,

Five people were undecided and there
Were four spoiled response forms.

Broken down by city or area, 20 Ter-
race residents were in favour, 250 were
opposed and two were undecided, -

Just one Kitimat resident was in favour «

with 28 opposed and two undecided.
One person in Stewart was in favour, one
was opposed and one was undecided,

One opposed form was received from
Smithers and two from the Hazeltons. .

One opposed form came from Prince

Rupert while three opposed and one in

favour came from the Nass Valley.
Iniroduced in November, Bill 51, the

bill to ratify the Nisga’a treaty, is now in’

third reading,
At this: stage, it is passed along to
MLAs sitting in a committee so its con-

‘tents can be examined line by line. After

this. has concluded, the final vote. takes
place which, in this circumstance, be a

free vole where MLAs are not tied to

parly lines,

Some of the responses came in with
additional comments.

“Who won the batile on the Plains of
Abraham in 1776 in Canada?’ wrote
one respondent.

Another objected to ‘‘the fact that it is

promoting the view that the Indian

people are different from the rest of Can-
ada aid promotes the reserve system;’’
*‘Segregating a group of people who

‘have ‘Indian’ blood In- their ancestry is.
- going backward,” sald another respon-

dent. . : .
-“A happy productive person — 'na-

tive’ or otherwise — is someone who is
treated with respect — provided with the
opportunity for an education anda pro-
ductive job. 1 do nat believe isolating
groups of people will help anyone,” -

Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht
said the results haven’t canvinced him to
change his mind and oppose the treaty,

“it’s not a pall in the sense of how one
is usually conducted,’? he said,

“This enables people to gear up on
something and respond in this kind of
passionate way,’’ oo

The MLA said the people who have

contacted him about: the treaty don’t ©

reflect the resulls of the readers poll.

“T just don’t get thal kind of read,”
said Giesbrecht. ‘I'd like lo know if the
people took the time to get more in depth
information and I'd like to find out why
{hey were opposed.’"

The MLA said he took his lead from
locai business leaders who are in favour
of the treaty,

“Tm not just hearing support from
people who belong to the NDP," added
Gicsbrecht, “I’m bearing it from people
Who are riot. That’s telling me that there
must. be something good about this
(treaty),”” .

‘And if I’m wrong, I'll pay the price

~at the ballot box," Giesbrecht said,