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TERRACE

SKEENA MLA Roger Harris and mayor Jack Talstra want the Kermode bear to

be the mascot of the 2010 Winter Olympics. JEFF NAGEL PHOTO

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Registry Changes

The Ministry of Transportation is encouraging
consultants and consulting firms experienced
in road and highway engineering to ensure
they are registered in the ministry’s revised
Registration, Information, Selection and
Performance Evaluation, or R.I.S.F,, registry.

The R.L.S.P. computer-based registry was
created to assist in the fair and equitable
selection of professional and technical
consultants for the Ministry of Transportation
for assignments estimated at less than
$1 million.

The ministry of Transportation recently revised
its RI.S.P. system and is inviting consultants
and consulting firms to submit registration
information for this revised system, regardless
of whether they are registered for the current
R.ILS.P. system.

Registrations received by March 28, 2003 will
be processed in April, and responses will be
sent to consultants and firms by the end
of April.

To get more information about R1I.S.P. and
obtain application forms, visit the Internet site
of the Ministry of Transportation or contact the
R.1.S.P, administrator.

Web address: htt/://www.qov.be.ca/tran/
Click on Site index, then lock for R.1.S.P.
information.

R.LS.P,. Administrator
Engineering Branch

Ministry of Transportation
PO Box 9850 Stn. Prov. Gov't
Victorla, BC V8W9TS

Tel: (250) 387-5655
Fax: (250) 356-8143

Email to: Bev.Propp@gems3.gov.be.ca

as

COLUMBIA Ministry of Transportation...

Backers eye jobs,

habitat protection

By JEFF NAGEL
THE KERMODE bear should be-
come the mascot of the 2010 Winter
Olympics if B.C. gets the games,
northwest politicians and aboriginal
leaders say.

The idea was championed by
Skeena MLA Roger Harris and
mayor Jack Talstra at an’ Olympic
display in the Skeena Mall March 7.

Making the white bear the Olym-
pic symbol would be a “golden op-
portunity” to get massive global ex-
posure for Terrace and the northwest,
Talstra said.

“Think of what that might do for
tourism after the Olympic Games,”
he said.

He called on the audience to
imagine aboriginal carvers making
highly sought Kermode bear carvings
and even a factory in Terrace that
would employ people producing hun-
dreds of thousands of official Olym-
pic Kermode bear products.

TANDARD k

— with.
avin pic .
B2

. Wednesday, March'12,2003

White bear touted
for Olympic mascot

“Think of the warm and fuzzy
Kermode bears that we can produce
here in Terrace,” Talstra said.
“Think of those Kermode bears
being distributed to all those coun-
tries that send athletes to the Olym-
pic games,”

“Think of them. being sold in Lon-
don, England, in Paris, France, in
Tokyo, Japan, in Los Angeles and in
New York City. Hundreds of thou-

a Mayor now backs Olym-
pic bid. B2

sands of them. This would create an
industry.”

Tsimshian Tribal Council presi-
dent Bob Hill also backed the idea
as did John Clifton, the Hartley Bay
hereditary chief whose crest is the
Kermode bear.

But the original proponent of the
idea may have been Simon Jackson,
a 20-year-old West Vancouver envir-
onmentalist who pitched the concept
to Olympic bid boss Jack Poole

nearly a year ago.

Jackson’s Spirit Bear Youth Coa-
lition is pushing for an enlarged pro-
tected area for the white bears,
centred on Princess Royal Island.

Jackson says making the Ker-
mode the Olympic mascot will trig-
ger immense global! publicity for the
bear in 2010, and that knowledge
will probably nudge the province to
preserve its habitat:

“I hope this. would be. the mech-
anism that will help the government
see the need to protect the bear,” he’
said. “I would hopc the bid commit-

. tee would seize this chance to cre-

ate a more sustainable games.”

He called it a “win-win” that will
boost tourism and the region’s econ-
omy while providing the Olympics
with an ideal symbol — and help the
actual bears.

“It represents beauty, power, en-
durance — all that is right in this’
world. It’s a wholesome animal,
something British Columbians couid
feel proud to have as their emblem.”

The bear's white colour is also a

Continued Pg. B2