“ out Don Coburn for the sixth seat. . leisure services,” for liquor. ~ go through several steps to ~. development services de- Home learning . Public and private schools -aren’t the only way local kids get an education \NEWS A5 Art inspiring art Wheels in motion for unique and collaborative art exhibit to happen in 2007 \COMMUNITY C1 Ribbons and goid Local skaters win over | 40 medals and awards in © out-of-town competition \SPORTS C4 i - $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST {$1.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the Terrace area) I VOL.18 NO. 33 TWO — NEWCOMERS and four . incumbents . will. be sworn in on. city council next month, based on the results of the Nov. 19 civic elections. Carol Leclerc returns for. a second.’ '« term after finishing first for six seats with ° 1,151. votes. That’s a big shift from the 2002 election when she narrowly edged ‘Consultant Brad Pollard and former forest service district manager - Brian Downie are the two new people to claim” seats on the municipal council and they'll. be joiried by the other returning council- lors, Lynne Christiansen, Marylin Davies and Rich McDaniel.’ Fee to be | charged > licences. GROUPS «. applying . ‘for Special . occasion’ liquor licences will now have to « _pay a fee to the city but the - process is expected ‘to be much less complicated. The city never before charged a fee for the process but groups willinow-have to pay $25 per application. The fee is to cover in- house adminstrative costs related to changes the city has made to streamline the application process for spe- cial occasion liquor licences for such events as beer gar- dens at sports tournaments. _ Under the old way of do- ing things, applicants had to ge tthe licence. A seperate li- cence had to first be obtained from the Liquor Control and Licensing Board before ap- plying to the city and geting comment from the RCMP for approval. “What was. happening .is these applications were coming by a letter to coun- ‘cil, sometimes here to the partment or, sometimes to says city | planner David Block. . Applications were often submitted without contact- ing the RCMP which posed a problem for approval from council, he says. The new system will now see the city take charge of the applica- tion process and contact the . RCMP on behalf of the ap- _ plicant, says Block. ; And because all those ap- plications will go through one departinent, there should be no confusion among city staff as to who handles, the requests. eclerc to Stew Christensen, who: sat on city council for one term, was the only incum- bent not re-elected to council. Newcomer Downie ran second with 1,142 votes, just eighth fewer than Leclerc’s. There were 1,116 votes cast for Lynne. Christiansen. © Marylin Davies, who topped the polls in the 2002 election, . earned 1,056 votes for the fourth seat. “She was followed’ by incumbent Rich. . McDaniel who logged 1,035 votes. He had the third most votes in the previous election. Brad Pollard secured the sixth “Seat on council with 1,012 votes leaving a gap of 115 votes between him and sev-, . enth place finisher Gordon Oates. B Christmas crafting | ' AGNES WALKER displays her crocheted and knitted goods at the craft fair in - the Skeena Mall Nov. 19. Several vendors were on hand to sell items fit to be found under any tree or in any stocking this holiday season. aa) At 42-years-old Pollard will be the youngest: person on council. Oates and Christensen battled for votes in the race for sixth position but neither. was able to _ get enough to bypass Pollard. Oates got 897 votes to Christensen’ s 847. Kim Croot earned 787 votes while Glenn’ Kelly earned 472 and. Robert _ Shkuratoff received 368. And in the referendum voters came up . with a yes vote which means the city will continue adding fluoride to its water. . Only 2,008 people:voted-in this elec- tion. With more than 8,000 eligible vot- ers in Terrace that amounts to an abysmal 25 per cent voter turnout. That compares toa 37; per cent voter turnout in the 2002 election. eenne Retired School ..administrator, and - " teacher Art Erasmus topped the polls .to be one of three Terrace school trustees on the Coast Mountain school district board.. ‘He gathered 1,147 votes toward his first _term on the board. ‘Former Kitsumkalum chief councillor Diane Collins, also running for the first ‘time, placed second with 849 votes while © Hal Stedham placed third with 776 votes - for his third term on the school board. . Tanis Kilpatrick placed fourth with °747 votes, former school trustee Gary ‘Wednesday, November 23, 2005 council. 7 Turner came in fifth. with 727 votes and. Maryann Freeman came sixth with 620, votes while Don Dunster came in seventh - with 327 votes. Lorrie. Gowen. was returned ‘as “the: school trustee: for Thornhill by, acclama- © tion, Diana Penner and Nicole Georgtin- - Bingham did not run again in Terrace, leaving Stedham as ‘the only t trustee to seek office again. , Those elected this time claimed office” with far less votes than in 2002. The front “ runner then was Diana Penner with 1,653 votes, far more than this past weekend’s first place finisher Erasmus who received 1,147 votes. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO | Austin to lead egislative aquaculture committee salmon diseases. Just last week Austin was at a Sport Fishing Institute of B.C. conference - in Richmond where he said he was. impressed with the value the industry creates. “It’s incredible. An angler here may have a fish that’s $100 in value. But in . the sport fishing industry, a fish can be worth thousands,” he said once expens- _ es such as fishing lodges and guides are taken into account. Austin said that there’s a business in Nanaimo created specifically to can - salmon caught by foreign anglers. “And that, alone employs 40 peo- ple,” he said. SKEENA NDP MLA Robin Austin” will be named chair of an all-party legislative’ committee charged with examining the aquaculture industry. The intention to form the committee and for it to have an opposition MLA as chair was first announced in Sep- tember when the legislature re-opened after the provincial election - As the NDP fisheries critic, Austin’s selection as chair was pretty much a given. “We'll be given 18 months to do the work of the committee and there will be six months for the government to implement the work,” said Austin. The committee will have six opposi- we tion MLAs on it and four government MLAs. prised that the committee majority will rest with the NDP. understand,” said. Austin. cal thing is that it does not damage our wild fishery.” say fish farms pollute and help spread Austin said people shouldn’ t be sur- “We Tepresent a lot of the coastal ridings,” he said. “Aquaculture is a complex issue to “The criti- The NDP for years has been a critic of aquaculture, saying that some of the techniques use are dangerous te farmed salmon as well as wild stock. Environmental and other groups Domestic violence — ; By. MARGARET SPEIRS THE RCMP and two local organizations are joining forces to better help: domestic violence victims deal with dangerous home situations. nee Police officers too often find themselves going to the same residences involving the | same people, says Staff Spt. Eric Stubbs. 3) “Some are high risk and as the cycle goes, : _ Often it gets more violent and more violent so these victims are in an increasingly preat- er amount of danger,” he said. To stop that cycle, the RCMP, the Terrace ‘Victims Assistance Program and the Ksan House Society are starting a pilot project so that victims, typically woman, have tailor- made plans dealing with their own safety and ’ assistance in leaving violent relationships. , Emphasis will be placed on determining - whether the women have enough money to leave, have family support in town or in another city and whether children are in- volved. . “There is going to be a team n effort. We're _ working together to try to help specific peo- ple,” says Stubbs.. The pilot project is.also viewed asa way -of helping victims who may not want to fol- - low through with criminal charges against their alleged abusers. Stubbs said victims are hesitant to make statements to police because of fear and dependence upon their partners. A woman may not want an abusive partner to go to jail,.especially if he is the main breadwinner, he added. ‘Domestic violence is a major issue; one that chews up alot of police time. Since the police do not report domestic violence cases to the media, the public may . not be aware of all the time the police do put in on these cases, he says. “There’s lots of domestic violence. Our members spend alot of time responding, in- - vestigating and processing these files,” he says. “I can’t say it’s on the rise, just that it’s a substantial problem that needs to be dealt with.” Stubbs estimates that each case requires a minimum of 20 hours of work, This includes not just responding to the call but sending a police escort with the per- petrator to retrieve personal items from, the B Yahoo targeted by Cops, . jlocalagencies —_ 5 residence. If officers have to conduct a fire- arms investigation, they have to first: secure a warrant. » All this doesn’t include the time taken i in. court if the case does go to trial. And this is just for the RCMP; often vic- tims services puts in additional time follow- ing up with counselling. ‘Sherry Pellegrino, the director of the v Vvic~, tim services program, which offers emotion- .al support and information, says the team effort will put a. person in touch with needed . resources.“ “We're excited about it in that we’re hop- ing that this will be an extra level of service we can Offer,” she said. - “It’s a Cough situation for a lot of the vic- tims who are primarily women,” said Pel- legrino. “It takes a lot of courage to go'to _ court.” Going to court can be a lengthy process : and victims may decide just to move on and ~ not deal with what’s involved, she added. Kristi Hanna of the Ksan House Society views the pilot project as a way of offering” ~ more help to women at a high risk of vio- lence. “We hope to connect the pieces so we ‘can work with a woman to meet her needs,” she said. “It’s really unique to have.” a The pilot project is also aimed at having a victim feel more comfortable in dealing with police, Hanna continued. A woman may not feel safe or comfort- _ able in contacting police on her. own com- pared to.dealing with a police officer and victim support workers at the same time. The RCMP and the two organizations are -. financing the pilot project on their own. Ie ll. be reviewed after six months. ‘Recent domestic violence Statistics are difficult to come by but the Ksan House So- ciety.in 2002 stated that 1,500 Terrace and area children witness family violence each year and that 1,000 women are victims of family violence each year. In. 2001, Terrace RCMP. statistics indi- cated that only one in eight women report domestic violence to police. In Terrace proper, 920 domestic violence incidents’ were reported to police while in the rural area, the number was 200. THESE YOUNG hockey fans show their appreciation for the River. Kings’ vic- tory over Kitimat at the Terrace Arena Nov. 17. For more on the game, turn to page C4. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO aed ar! ° ne a mee eM toe es a c