Fallers win WCB 250 percent. _ increase in premiums to be rolled ae back\NEWS A110 Uphill battle a Skeena Wildcats junior. girls volleyball team nab second in home tourney \SPORTS B6 it’s a record - with diabetes \COMMUNITY BL Terrace's Gen Roberts . marks her sixth decade $1.00 pLus 7¢-GST PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT cuts to the civil service will take millions of dol- lars out of the northwest at a time it needs it the most, warns a senior official of the B.C. Government and Services Em- ployees’ Union (BCGEU). Wihe Papenbrock estimates as many as 450 positions will be cut in the north- west over the next three years based on the province’s own figures released last week. “There are 1,500 members of the BCGEU in this area. If you take 30. per ernment’s figures, for a cut, that's a very high figure,” he said. Provincial figures pul the average civil service wage and benefits position at $55,000 year, meaning the cuts here could amount to as much as $24.75 mil- lion annually once completed, as plan- ned, by 2004. Province-wide, the government has set a target of eliminating up to 11,500 jobs, or nearly one in three civil service posi- tions. A mid-range figure used by the pro- vince puts the total at 9,800 positions, ers and relying on attrition will take up 2,500 positions, leaving 7,300 postions to be cut. Of thal amount, the province esti- mates 2,500 people will take early retire- ment, meaning layoffs over three years for 4,800 people. “Can you imagine the discussions going on over the dinner table?” said Pa- penbrock. “Aside from this announcement, we don’t have any information as to the cuts in each ministry.” The culs were announced Nov. 21 by ee S A N D R D outside of the Terrace area) f civil servant which was distributed to government offices around the province. “There was no human contact. It’s ab- solutely dastardly and cowardly the gov- ernment didn't show its face,” said Pa- penbrock. He said the cuts were ordered to fil the ideology of the new B.C. Liberal govern- ment and don't make any fiscal sense. “Just think of the purchasing power that won’t be going from us to small busi- nesses,” Papenbrock continued. a cent, which is the mid-range of the gov- Soggy, soggy, soggy By JENNIFER LANG SURE, THERE may have been a few nicer days last week, but overall it can- tines to be a wet, wet fall. Terrace sloshed its way through the months of Sep- - tember and October, when twice as much rain fell compared to the same time period last year. The wet weather trans- lated into 165,8 mm of rain recorded here in Septem- ber, higher than the normal 98.5 mm. Adding to the misery, however, was the fact that precipitation fell during 20 days in September. October was worse. We endured 26 days*of recor- ded precipitation during that month alone, adding up to 219 mm of rain. Surprisingly, that much tain is normal for Terrace in October, according to Environment Canada’s cli- mate normals, based on three decades of records kept between 1961 and 1990. With all that rain, it’s not surprising Terraciles saw very little in the way of sunshine in the past two months. October was really dis- mal; Terrace received just 44 hours of sunshine during the entire month. From Sept. 5 to 30 we received more than twice that, logging 93 hours of sunshine in all. Most of that, however, came between Sept. 6 and 15, when we saw seven days with roughly 10 hours of sun each. That sun didn’t last. The rest of the month was pathetic in terms of sunshine, with just one day recording six hours of sun, and an entire week — from Sept, 16 to 21 - when there was no sunshine re- corded in Terrace at all. During October, we saw less than two hours of re- corded sunshine for the equivalent of three solid weeks, or 22 days. Ten of those saw no re- corded sunshine at all over the skies above us. After a promising start on Oct. 2 and 3, when there were 10 and 7 hours: of sun respectively, we es- sentially entered a tunnel of darkness, The good news ~ at least for skiers — is much of the precipitation we've seen this autumn fell as snow at Shames Mountain, spurring it to open -this . week, weather permitting, « Eliminating vacancies, auxiliary work- aida aut a ath ‘i . be , re T e time champ ERNIE Mil-homens has every right to be smiling. That's because the Terrace man nabbed his ihird consecutive World Champion title at the Cont'd Page A2 email and by a video featuring a senior Wiho Papenbrock Councillors doubt SCI vote would pass By JEFF NAGEL SEVERAL CITY councillors doubt a proposed sale of Skeena Cellulose will collapse if northwest towns don’t step up with millions of dollars. Mercer International has made a $20 million invest- ment by the communities a condition of its offer to buy Skeena Cellulose. But Terrace councillors say local reaction has been so overwhelmingly negative to the idea of ‘Terrace. rais- ing a $5 million share that they doubt it would pass a re- ferendum. “T have not found one person to date that has said this is a good idea for the city to invest in SCI,” said coun- cillor David Hull, adding that includes workers and busi- ness owners whose incomes depend on SCT. “Some people have gone up one side of me and down ihe other, questioning council’s sanity,” he said, Hull said he sees no appetite from local voters to sup- port the idea, which would be required in a referendum if any lacal tax money is to be pul at risk. “1 don’t think you'll get it past the taxpayer,” Hull said. “I don’t think you could ever spin this up fast enough.” If the communities decide not to or are unable to put up money, he predicted, that alone won't lead Mercer to walk away from the deal. Mercer’s demands for major concessions by unionized pulp mill workers in Prince Rupert is likely a much big- ger factor in whether the deal proceeds, he says. And its demands that Victoria deliver forestry cost re- ductions and relief from envirenmental liahilities may be even bigger. Agreements between Mercer and the pulp workers, province and communities are all supposed to be in place by Dec. 14. That's the date the parties must assure a judge the complex sale has a good chance of proceed- ing, or else bankruptcy protection could be overturned. Hull said the Swiss-based firm has been smart to in- sist on community buy-in once the idea was broached by Prince Rupert officials. But he said the main valie lo Mercer would be lock- ing northwes! towns’ into an unswerving commitment to the operations in the years ahead. “They don’t want our money,” Hull said. “They want our soul.” “What better people to have on side than the mayors of the northwest?” lf the money isn’t forthcoming, he predicted Mercer will make up the difference from other sources — if its business plan is good enough. “} would suspect the money is not a show-stopper,” he said, “Hf it’s a sound business plan and it makes sense to invest, money can be found.” “Who would walk away from a good project for want World Bench and Deadlift Championships in Reno, Nevada Nov, 15-20, For more, turn to paga BG. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO. of 10 or 20 per cent of the capital?” Teachers fear back-to-work order THE PRESIDENT of the local teachers’ union fears a legislated settlement ending the on- going labour dispute may be imminent. And that, Frank Rowe says, could mean school districts will strip class size restric- tions, remove support for special needs stu- dents, and will make it more difficult for tea- chers to do their jobs. “The [labour] minister, quite frankly, is looking for a reason to impose a settlement,” Rowe said. Teachers, who have been without a contract since June 30, began phase one of a limited job action Nov. 8, : Last week, labour minister Graham Bruce port on the status of contract negotiations be- _asked his own assistant deputy. minister to re- . move things forward at the bargaining table. tween teachers and school districts. Richard Longpre will meet with the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the B.C. Public Schools Employers’ Association and report back by tomorrow. “Our preference would be, if a mediator be- came involved it would be a neutral, third party,” Rowe said. “We don’t believe the de- puly minister is a neutral, third party.” Rowe interprets the decision as a sign the labour minister — and the government — is will- ing to force a deal on teachers. ‘Barly last week, the B.C, Teachers’ Federa- ' tion lowered its wage demand to a 22 per cent salary increase over three years in an effort to egy on the part of school districts to ensure The had wanted 34 per cent. In announcing his “fact finder’, Bruce said he believes there is still about a $5 billion-gap between the two sides. The association repre- senting school districts, meanwhile, has not withdrawn any of its contract demands. Rowe said that might be a deliberate strat- their demands become part of a legislated contract if the government steps into the dis- pule further. “Our contract demands are based on the daily realities of what we need to do the job,” Rowe said. a “Removing even the degree of support that we have now will. make the job that much harder to do.” Cont’d Page A14 Frank Rowe