. Forests to the people Mini-hoops Bursting with colour A group of local loggers want to reform the province's forestry practices.\NEWS A11 | They're like the Harlem Globetrotters, the Half Pints are coming here\SPORTS B4 Hannah and Walter Boser’s _ garden won first place in Best . Garden Contest\COMMUNITY B1 WEDNESDAY — July 28, 1999 mer. nurses take holidays. Terrace Standard, ; He said administrators are encouraging doctors to keep P\ | people in the hospital for the absolute minimum amount of lime possible, to not admit them at all or to send them else- Dr. Paul W where. spare, Dr. Paul Warbeck said hospital managers failed to prepare for the predictable problems that occur when ‘There is no evidence that they were planning summer scheduling in a timely manner; they seem to believe naive- ly that reliance on casually employed staff is no different than relying on part-time or full-time staff for difficult scheduling problems,”’ Warbeck stated in a letter to The $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST _ ($1.20 ptus B¢ GST outside of the Terrace area} - VOL. 12 NO. 16 Hospital didn’t plan, say docs Nursing shortage here until end of August By ALEX HAMILTON DOCTORS SAY the nursing shortage, which has restricted admissions at Mills Memorial Hospital, is the fault of administrators not planning properly for the sum- Mills has restricted admissions to ils general medical ward to 15 people when the baby nursery is open and to 20 when the nursery is closed. It bas run out of its own staff nurses and can’! find enough casual, on-call nurses to fill in, Warbeck said doctors are very uneasy since they are un- able to serve the community adequately. He added that a number of administrators have degrees in nursing, but none of them have offered their services to help with the shortage, They could do something useful like answering the phones or paperwork to free up another nurse, Warbeck said. “I don’t see that they have seriously considered all their options,”’ he said. Michael Leisinger, the hospital’s chief administrator, . Said the nursing shortage is something that happens every summer when nurses take time off for vacationing, but this ycar the shortage is at dangerous levels, Leisinger said it’s impossible to predict a nurse shortage like this even though nurses must book holiday times mouths in advance, ce “Everything should have worked out per normal, but some nurses have icft the community ta work elsewhere which was not expected and the casual pool has depleted by those taking the vacancies of the permanent positions that left,’” he stated, Five staff nurses tefl to work elsewhere in a short period of time, causing the crisis. Ivs impossible to foresee resignations and full-time nurses calling in sick, Leisinger added. Normally, when‘a full or part-lime nurse is sick or takes holidays, a casual nurse will be called, But Leisinger said the casual pool list has also depleted because many are vacationing, on sick leave or on long term disability. Some casuals can also only work on specific days or have specialities related to specific wards. Cont'd Page A2 ae : P a vo A, property July 17. The bear was moved to an un- disclosed location north of Terrace later that same day. Rare Kermodei is trapped A RARE Kennodei bear was trapped, tranquilized and taken far into the bush after it was spotted eating the chick- ens of a Lakelse Lake family July 17. Debbie Jean, who lives on the property, said the family wasn’1 in danger and that family members were more con- cemed for the conservation of the bear. Legally, the Jeans have a right to shoot the bear to pro- lect their property, but they didn’t. ‘‘Because it's a. Kermodei,” Jean explained. The bear was also lucky it had not yet ventured into Jean’s garbage. By entering the garbage, the bear would have shown sure signs of habituation, that may have forced conservation officers to shoot the bear, despite a 30-year- ban on hunting Kermodeis. “4 think be would have probably seen his days num- bered,”’ said Sean Sharpe, head of environment ministry's northwest wildlife branch, Conservation officers set two snare traps in hopes of catching the Kermodei. By 3 p.m. the afternoon of July 17, the bear caught himself in a pot snare — a metal cylinder lined with chicken designed to grab hold of the bear’s paw. The bear chewed the wire around his foot and clawed trees, but failed to escape before conservation officers Adrian Juch and Dale Ryan returned to the scene, Within 35 minutes of their return, the bear was tranquil- ized, tagged and ready to be trucked up to a remote loca- tion north of Terrace where it would be unlikely to retum, Juch explained the further a bear is moved and the more geographical features it needs to navigate, the less likely it will return here as one of the problem bears conservation officers will have to shoot this year, , “The chances of it being relocated again are very rare,’ said Juch. , Thal would put the Kermode amongst the four bears conservation officers have shot in Terrace so far this year, Area residents shot seven additional bears, | Early morning deal | averts Alcan strike ALCAN’S UNIONIZED workers are being asked to ratify a contract giving them raises of at least 2 per cent a year for three years and a one-time signing bonus of $1,500. Approximately 1,400 members of CAW Local 2301 had originally rejected a final company offer-and “put up’ picket lines 12:01 a.m. July 24, The resulting tentative deal was reached four and a half hours later, just as the com- pany was in the middle of winding down its aluminum smelter operations. Company and union representatives say a key feature to ending the strike was agrec- ing to form a committce to deal with pen- sion issues which couldn’t be solved during talks, Union bargaincrs had wanted workers to retire with fuller pension benefits at an ear- licr age than is now the case. Workers now receive full pensions if any combination of age and years of service add up to 85. But Alcan said it couldn't negotiate changes. to its pension plan because it is managed by an Alcan subsidiary which ' takes care of the pensions of alf its workers across Canada, It did offer to set up a sister plan, but that was rejected by CAW, “The commitiee [on pensions] is pretty Significant. It will be a senior committce with local representatives and, in our case, head office, There will be decision makers on this commilice,”? said Alcan official Kathleen Bourchier. Alcan workers now receive $55 a month for every year of service meaning the monthly amount for a 30-year employce works aut to $1,650. Alcan officials noted other pension plans negotiated by CAW for GM and Ford workers work out to $48 a month for every year of service. In terms of wages, workers will receive one per cent a year for three years, Based on the average Alcan wage of more than $50,000 a year, the one per cent equals more than $500, Alcan’s final offer was .5, | and 1 over three years. But workers also get a guarantee of at least another one per cent a year as a bonus for mecting certain plant and company financial and performance targets, The targel each year is three per cent. Alcan’s final offer had beca no guaran- teed minimum bonus. Non-union workers already receive the bonuses but there is no guarantced minimum. Company officials noted the bonus amounted to 2.67 per cent, 2,97 per cent and 2.46 per cent over the last three years which haven’t been stellar economic ones for Alcan, . Workers also won a guaranteed minimum pension for employees with 30 years of ser-, vice at age 5S and will receive a one-time payment of $10,000 for anyone who retires within the next three years. The current average Alcan wage of more: than $50,000 a year places them among the; highest paid union workforce in B.C. With’ benefits, the amount comes to $75,000 a: year. Had there been a strike, Bourchier sald the company had plans to replace lost aluminum production here at facilities else-- where, She said opening a closed potline at a plant in Kentucky and extending the operat- ing life of an old plant in Quebec were pos- sibilities. Logging proposal sought for Stewart A PROPOSAL to make logging in the Stewart area more economical and stable is to be sent to government in the next couple of weeks, Details on the proposal are still being finalized, sald Stewart mayor Andy Burton, adding he doesn’t want it made public until forests minister Dave Zirnhelt bas seen it. But Burton did say the proposal will take direct aim at the historic problem of the forests in’ the Nass Timber Supply Area: forests full of low-value logs that are only good for pulp. The low values mean it’s usually the last area licensees turn to for logs. “Right now ils a fibre basket that's only accessed when markets are at their peak,’’ Burton said, ‘‘When there's a shortage of fibre they use us and when things go sour they turn us off,”’ An area that unprofitable, wilh operations - that go up and down, is a difficult area to; justify the hefty costs of logging road con- struction and silviculture, he said, To add to the difficulties, a large area of hemlock forest bas been attacked by pests like the green-striped looper. ‘We're looking at innovative methods of - dealing with some of the silviculture costs, with road buiilding costs,’ he added, ‘‘Anything’s on the table at this point in time.” One possibility is designating the region an economic zone where different rules would apply than elsewhere in the pro-' vince, he added. ‘When the timber value is very, very low maybe you have to look at that in a dif- ferent light,”’ he added. The idea of treating the high-pulp area differently is one that was also put forward a year ago ina forest industry development strategy commissioned by the Cily of Ter- race and prepared by former forests minis- ter Dave Parker. | It suggested the area be dealt with as a ‘rehabilitation chalicnge’’ outside the common onc-size-fils-all forest manage- men( sysiem. The suggestion was that proper reforesta- tion of those arcas could produce much bet- ter crops in the future. Skeena: Cellulose and West Fraser offi- cials are also involved jn the discussions. SCI woodlands vice-president Dan Tuomi -sald innovative idcas there could make op- erations more viable for. all operators.