Money divides Orenda, gov't

TERRACE — The provincial
government won't consider
giving Orenda Forest Products
financial help wntil it first comes
up with some money of its own.

But Orenda says it can’t get any
money for its. planned pulp and
paper mill until it receives the
guarantee.

The two positions are the latest
in a series of events started early
this year when Orenda asked the
province for a $100 million guar-
antee to help finance the planned
$500 million mill. .

Nearly $400 million. would
come from loans organized by &
nine-bank consortium lead by the
Bank of Montreal and GE Capital

school
junked

TERRACE — A $6 million high
school in Cassiar, barely opened
before. the mine and the town
closed last year, is to be sold as
salvage.

The Stikine school district had
wanted it moved to Dease Lake
but the job, estimated at $5 mil-
lion to $5.5 million, would be too
expensive, school district
chairman Mike Strange sald last
week, .

“It would have been fairly dif-
ficult,’’ said Strange of the move.
“Instead what can be removed,

cupboards. and items fixed to the .

floor will be taken and the rest
sold as salvage.”

William Storie Secondary
School opened in late 1991, com-
plete with a computer Jab, science
lab, shop and photo darkroom.

The asbestos mins supporting
the town went into receivership in
February 1992 when the provin-
cial’ government declined to’ pro-

vide Cassiar Asbestos Corpora- |

“ton with‘a'loan guarantee,
Strange did say thé-school. dis-

trict has benefitted by using ~

equipment ‘bought for the school
in its other facilities.

And he said the enrolment in
Dease Lake probably didn’t war-
rant moving the school there.

“Times are tough when it com-
es to money for the (education)
ministry and politics entered into
it. At least the ministry will get

some money for salvage instead

of pulting money out,” Strange
said,

The school district is negotiat-
ing with the education ministry to
take apart and.move to Dease
Lake Cassiar’s . Snowridge
Elementary School.

It’s of modular construction and
would be easier to move than
would the secondary school.

We're talking to the (Tahitan)
Triba! Council to see if we can

get a shared arrangement on ~

Snowridge,’’ said Strange.
kkkkk OO
The education ministry did give
the Stikine school district $1.
million last year to move staff,
teachers and some other buildings

to Dease Lake from Cassiar .

where it had its headquarters.

and

Corporation. It’s these banka
which want the guarantee as a
sign of government commitment
to provide them with
security, says Orenda vice presi-
dent Frank Foster.

“We have a letter from the

‘Bank of Montreal that outlines

the issue of a guarantes. It says it
would be most advantageous to
financing if the guarantee was
forthcoming. from. .the govern-
ment,’* he said.

“Its not a statement made ex-
plicitly but by reading between
the lines the guarantee is a requi-
site,"’ Foster continued.

He said the Orenda financing
plan has the guarantee as part of

the package and that a failure to
secure it would mean redoing the
package.

~The province 's position is con-

tained in a letter sent to Terrace ~

mayor Jack Talstra from Premier
Mike Harcourt. --

“A definite commitment of pri-
vate sector funding for a sig-
nificant portion of this: project

would be an important and posi-
tive assessment of risk,’’ said

Harcourt in May 3 letter.

“Tt would help signify what
modest amount of government in-
volvement, if any, would ensure
the project proceeds,’’ he con-
tinued.

Harcourt was responding to a
March letter sent by Talstra in
support of Orenda’s loan guaran-
tee request.: |

-One problem facing Orenda is

. that: there. isn’t - a formal: loan

guarantee. program to which’ it
can apply, © 73 a

The previous Soctai
government cancelled: ‘its loan
guarantee program in. the: “spring

.- O£ 1991-and the NDP government

is still working on what it wants

to do.

Speaking last week, ‘Skoona
NDP MLA Helmut -Giestirecht
said. the government warits to
make sure any possible ‘financial
commitment will result in n jobs.

“F's unusual for governments
to get in at the start. It’s a matter
of the company first gelting all its
ducks in a row,” said Giesbrecht
adding that he views government
investment as something that can
put a project over the top.

“{ don’t think we’re being hard
about this. Orenda could try to
market this project with the loan
guarantee. They could go off and
sell this. project. That’s. not’ the
game ihe government is in. We’ re
not playing the stock market here.
We're providing jobs,’” he said.

Foster said there are examples
in B.C. and in other provinces of
governments providing loan guar-
antecs in advance of obtaining

needed financing.

One example is the granting
several years ago of a loan guar-
antee to a company in. Williams
Lake to build a fibreboard plant
to use surplus chips from .that
area,

Although Cariboo Fibreboard
did get the guarantee it still hasn’t
come up with the money to devel-
op the project.

. Foster’ said. the . banks...have
come as far as they can without
receiving a loan guarantee.

And he said Orenda is working
on a winter construction plan to
enable it to get a start later this
year instead of having to delay
until next spring,

TERRACE STANDAR

ONE-MAN SHOW, Bill Tumer solos on his round these days | now the city has” switched to
one-man garbage trucks, “It’s a lot of work,” he says, but notes having the compactor working
‘white he drives to the next house helps pick up the pace. The city has just added a second —
one-man truck to its fleet, a move which will help cut the cost of collection over time.

Unwelcome visitor comes a knocking —

TERRACE — ~~ They’ re back and
they’re hungry...

Black bears are starting to show
up in town, prowling local back-
yards, looking for food.

Terrace... conservation officer
Glen Slater says.the first serious
bear complaint of “the season

came May 8, when a bear tried to

get into a trailer on North Eby St.
around midnight.

A woman was slecping on a
couch there when the bruin tried

to come in through the window.
-The occupant woke up, yelled
at the bear and cailed police.

Meanwhile the bear worked on

the door of the trailer.

“Tt bad its paws right around
the handle of the door and it was

trying to get in,’’ Slater said.

“This bear knew what il was
doing.’’

A couple hours iater that night
the same bear struck again,

wo

Desert Storm

+ Terrace vertynen

Bhanglacklustre. -
| Camels out todry .
SPORTS cS C1

“it came and pounded on the
‘pack door of a house and was
peering through the windows and
looking around,"’ Siater reports.
“The lacy screamed at it and it
wenlway.?

It’s unusual for bears to actually

try to break into homes, he said, --

““Thal’s aggressive behaviour,”
he said. *‘It just goes to show you

they’te that unpredictable —- es-

pecially when they’re hungry —

COMMUNITY * BS

and who knows what could hap-
pen. Ed

Most bear incidents . can bé
avoided by taking precautions.
_ Improperly stored garbage, pet

food, dirty barbecues, and un-

protected bechives or fruit ‘trees
are all powerful bear attractants,

_ Slater says.

Careful storage of garbage ‘and

- other things that attract bears can

eliminate many ‘Problems, ‘he
said, ,

No conflict

in Kitlope,

says minister —

By JEFF NAGEL
TERRACE — _ Environment
minister John Cashore doesn't
think he Js in a conflict of interést

in deciding the fate of the Kitlope

River valley — even though’ his
adopted daughter traces her roots
to the valley.

Cecilia Reikee may come slong
with Cashore on a trip to the Kit-

‘ lope this summer.

Her natural father is Haisla
elder Cecil Paul, who was born in
the Kitlope and is a strong advo-
cate of its preservation. :

Reikee has never been to the
Kitlope but, if all goes according
to plan, will make the trip in early
August to discover her native

sNpritage,.

Cashore says he dovsn't think
that will make his job more dif-

- ficult,

_A decision on whether to
preserve some or all of the
317,000 hectare watershed from
logging is expected by the end of
1995,

When the time comes to make
that decision, Cashore says he

~ will be relying heavily on. the

recommendations he receives.

“We have to rely on the ex-
pertise of the officials and others
involved. in this process,”
Cashore said last week.

“Given the process that’s un-
derway I think that by the time I
became involved we would have
a pretty clear indication of which
way ta go.””

Kdeally, he said, there will be a

consensus recommendation on
what to. do with the Kitlope,

-But he won’t make’ predictions :

on whether such a ‘solution can be

~ geached.

“J don’t want to pre-empt the

. process that’s going on,”’ be said.

Cashore said the trip will be a
combination of business and
pleasure.

His trip to the Kitlope is being
organized by Ecotrust — a
branch of U.S,-based .Conserva-
tion Intemational.

The organization calls the Kit-
lope — located south of Kemano
at the end of Gardner Canal. —
the largest intact temperate rain-
forest:in-the world.

Ecotrust is: seeking alternatives

to logging in the Kitlope and
Sponsored a conference three
weeks ago at Mt. Layton Hot
Springs where stakeholders met
in an effort to find common
ground,

Eurocen Pulp and Paper holds
rights to cut 100,000 cubic metres
of wood a year in the Kitlope. |

There Is a:moratorium on log-
ging there until August 1995.

Company officials have said

. they will expect wood from an-
other.area as compensation if the
Kitlope is preserved.

They warn that any large reduce
tions ‘in the company’s timber
holdings could force layoffs at
the Eurocan pulp mill in Kitimat
and Eurocan-owned Skeena Saw-
mills in Terrace,

Road bucks cul

TERRACE ~~ The highways
ministry’s road repair budget for
the northwest has been cut badly
compared to previous years,

A total of $14 million is to
spent on rehabilitation projects in
the northwest’s four highways
districts compared to the $19.6
million spent last year.

The Skeena ‘district’s share is
$4.6 million.

Rehabilitation is defined as
restoring or improving existing
roads and bridges.’ That's’ dif-
ferent than maintenance work
carried out by private road and
bridge contractors,

On this year’s rehabilitation
project list’ are recycling asphalt
and putting a sealcoat on 19.3km
of Hwyi6 between Kasiks and
Exstew toward Prince Rupert,
putting down sealcoat on 27km of

Hwy37 leading south from Ter-
trace to Onion Lake and doing a
study at Black Creek on Hwy37
toward Kitimat to see if raising
the highway will cut down on
road closures due to flooding.

A permanent access will replace .

a temporary one at the. ML
Layton Hotsprings turnoff and
there’! be hardseallng of several
bridge approaches in the Nass
Valley to cut down on the amount
of gravel on the decks.

Preliminary engifesring will

also be done for a future
reconstruction of the road head-
ing east from Terrace to Kitselas.

And there will be no capital
projects in the district this year
with the exception of putting a
walkway over Hwyl6 at Gitse-
quecla to connect one side of the
village with the other,

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