Aorean prisoner Competitive edge Tiny tumblers A local man seeks the truth to — Local gymnasts show they've got 7 what it takes at zone meet in ‘A Terrace woman takes her. | trade’s top spot in a regional purge his memories of a wartime massacre\NEWS A5 | skills contest\COMMUNITY B41. VOL. 13 NO. 47 WEDNESDAY February 28, 2001 www. beclassified.com $1.00 pws 7¢ GST ($1.20 plus &¢ GST outside of the Terrace area) Land use plan off to gov't Public divided © A DISPUTE over the final few protected areas in the Kalum land-use plan will have to be settled by the province. Kalum Land and Re- source Management Plan participants met again last week and approved the plan, but left three issues unresolved. ; They are requests to: M@ Preserve the 2,200- hectare Miligit Creek area of the upper Copper River for its high quality angling and scenic value. Prospec- tors also consider the area tich in minerals. M Preserve the large 60,000 hectare Foch and Giltoyees watersheds to link up with the Gitnadoix Provincial Park. . Forest companies did agree to much smaller protected areas protecting the scenic Foch and Giltoyees Inlets. Expand “visual. qual- ity” rules along. parts of . Douglas Channel to - the hide clearcuts better. LRMP members had hoped public comment over the past month or so would point strongly in one direction or the other over the unresolved areas. However, coordinator Eamon O*Donoghue said the public was just as divi- ded as the table in com- ments that came back. Many people wanted the proposed areas pre- served, he said. Many others also want to make sure there’s no further land taken away from logging and mining companies. “There was not any clear direction that cams out of the public review,” O’Donoghue said. “The table agreed to forward wzenoes Terrace named B.C. forest capital decision.” The City of Terrace has also signed off on the plan, but is urging the govern- ment to hold firm and not grant any further protected areas in the region, Councillor Val George, the city's LRMP rep, said 19 per cent of the region’s land base is now protected in the plan and there’s no good reason to place more land off limits to logging and mining. “{ don’t think there’s any justification for taking out any more land.” One thing that did emerge from the public re- view, O'Donoghue says, was a strong amount of: public concern about pub- lic access. © “There’s a lot of people who use forestry develop- ment roads and they’re very interested in how those roads can be used, and whether they’re open or closed,” he said. Suggestions were made - about logging road safety issues such as signage and gates. Other issues were raised involving grizzly bears being displaced by fisher- men, and conflict between motorized and non-motor- . ized recreation. “There were some good. ideas in there,” he said. A total of 54 -wrilten: submissions came in, es a - o @ Pro riders visit . LUKAS HUFFMAN (with goggles) his twin brother Jesse and Justin Mooney were three profession- Smithers\SPORTS B5 official, week. money, RD | Bucks for docs plan ‘working’ Bonus pay is starting to draw physicians, hospital head says NEW FINANCIAL incentives to lure physicians to the north are working, says one local health care ists, says Dieter Kuntz, chief executive officer of the Ter- race Area Health Council. “There’s no question about it,” said Kuntz last “We can see it working,” Physicians here for years have received a 14 per cent top of their normal fee for service billings but new in- centives, brought in last year, Provide for even more. Recruitment bonuses of $10,000 are now in place and general practitioners reccive $21,000 each year to stay in the north and specialisis receive $26,250, The psychiatrist recruited by the health council has so. far only given his verbal approval but signed documents ate expected soon, said Kuntz. “We've been informed he could be here the early part said Kuntz of the Canadian psychiatrist just finishing his education in the United States. “He also _ of August,” 7 | | eeeeremvene T en ean — mae SERA |) smmpurmmmmmnasanerms bi") 9 | = oo meee [~ 7 Recruitment bonuses and annual payments have helped in finding one psychiatrist and are intriguing ta other badly needed special- Dieter Kuntz wants to take some vaca- al snowboarders exploring the backcountry around Terrace last week, Sea story on page B5. @ Doctors are quietly collecting tion. He’s been going to school for some time,” At the same time, an ob- ‘ back pay from the © stetrician has accepted a province. A16 health council invitation to : Immiarant make a visit and will be Mm immigra here the middle of March. nurses to be fast- It’s been nearly a year’ tracked. A15 since one obstetrician TERRACE HAS been chosen as the province’s forestry capital for 2001. It’s a designation which dates back to the 1920s and is méant to recognize annually a community’s past, current and future involvement with the forest industry: Terrace’s selection sets in motion a series of events, some of which will take place in and around Natio- nal Forestry Week in early May. The designation comes from Managers join ranks of SCI unemployed By JEFF NAGEL SKEENA CELLULOSE’s saw- mill here may be up and down for ‘much of this year if lumber prices remain low, company officials. warn. The company laid off 45 managers and non-union support staff last week. Twelve of those employees are at the Terrace sawmill, said solid wood group vice-president Dan Tuomi, plus another 14 at Carnaby and four at its Smithers sawmill. vo They include woodlands employees, supervisors and secretarial staff. The Terrace mill shut down Friday, throwing 190 unionized sawmill em- ployees out of work. Also out of work . are 250 contract loggets. ~~. _ ned five-week shutdown here may be Fored B.C., a province-wide body which promotes the forest industry. Forester and biologist Peggy Mc- Dougall, who put together the local application, is pleased. with the news. oo “Even though times are tough, this is what this community was built on,” she said of the forest indu- stry. from young people to senior citizens _ President Bill Steele said the plan- She’s looking to get everybody extended beyond its previously anticipa- ted restart date of early April. “We are re-examining whether that time is appropriate or whether some other time is more appropriate,” Steele said. Lumber prices are so low and the. outlook for the year so poor that the downtime could be lengthy in 2000, he - ’ did. m@ Skeena Cellulose ‘still profitable — barely. Pg. A10 “We're not secure as to when the lumber market will improve,” he said. “I certainly don’t expect it to be this year that a significant change will take place.” But, he noted, SCI will need to: fill some lumber orders in order.to keep va- lucd Japanese customers, and will therefore have to-run-the Terrace saw-- mill some of the time. °" That could mean a pattern of start- involved in historical and education projects and even a family-based day to demonstrate ‘logging skills. “Now is the time more than ever for Terrace residents to come toge- ther,” McDougall said. “We can ce- lebrate the history of forestry in Terrace,” McDougal! gathered up 26 letters of support for the forestry capital de- signation. Her application promoting Terrace ran to three pages, Mills. and-stop activity for the Ter- race mill while low markets persist, Some laid-off empiayces may well give up and move to § seck work elsewhere, he added. “I believe we will lose some,” he said. “I would think that some of these people will | find work elsewhere. The un- § certainty has been around for | quite a long time.” The best hope for an uptick in lumber prices is that easing interest rates could spark a rise in house construction in the U.S. - But there’s still a lot of excess Jumber on the market right now, Steele said, and that could get worse in April. That's. when the Canada-U.S. Soft- wood Lumber Agrcement expires, ending “restrictions on how much lumber Cana- “dian producers can sell-into the U.S, “There's a whole lot of companies Bill S teele moved away, leaving Dr. Lani Almas as the only specialist of this kind in the area. The psychiatrist is the first of three the health council wants to hire to offer a regional service. There are two private psychiatrists already in town and one js on his way to Prince Rupert. ; The Rupert-bound psychiatrist is being loaned by that area’s health council to Terrace for the time being to act as the clinical director of the regional psych ward at. It means the ward can stay open and not be closed as had to happen Jan, 1 when the last clinical director left. That closure ended last week when a temporary director was found in Ontario to do a two-week stint here. Kuntz said the psychiatrist being loaned by Prince Rupert is to be here the end of this week, Sawmill faces start-and-stop year j poised to put more lumber into the U.S.,” he said. Stecle said there’s a long list of mills across North America idled by the low prices. The longer various mills remain down, the better the chance that prices could improve — the risk some operations will go under. “Over the next year if the pre- m@ scent market levels remain in place some weaker mills are not’ going to make il,” Steele pre- dicted. “We could be one of those. But I don’t want to fright- en people any more than they are now that that could happen.” Improved pulp prices or reduced ener: . gy costs would also help SCL Pulp has already plummetted from highs about a year ago and could erade further unless Asian economies regain Strength, Steele said. High natural gas prices have pushed up its cost of kiln-drying lumber to get a bettter price for hemlock.