_ A4- The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 9, 2003 -_ TERRACE ~STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 WELL, THE BEEF INDUSTRY CERTAINLY NEEDS HELP... AND AIR CANADA... ANP THE OTTAWA'S COME UP WITH A BAILOUT THAT WILL DING PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. « V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (25()) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 WEB: www.terracestandard.com EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com Risky business (CANADIAN and U.S. negotiators are slowly dancing toward an agreement to end the soft- wood lumber dispute, or at least impose some sort of truce. And the deal they’re edging towards ought to raise at least some red flags here in the northwest. Granted, it’s difficult to turn our attention to the long-running trade dispute when all the work- ers are laid off at both Terrace sawmills. _ New Skeena Forest Products still needs finan- - cing to actually start up, And West Fraser’s saw- « mill here is down as a side casualty of the strike at its Kitimat pulp mill. But if we’re distracted by the immediate crises, © we risk losing out again when the softwood set- tlement is hashed out. ‘. That’s because all indications are the resolution will see Canada impose a two-tier border tax on dumber as it leaves for the U.S. The tax would replace duties and penalties the | U.S. has been collecting since the last softwood agreement expired. The deal would let a fixed amount of Canadian lumber enter the U.S. with minimal tax added — perhaps enough lumber to fill a quarter or a third of the U.S. market. But beyond that point much higher taxes would kick in, They would make B.C. lumber im- possible to sell south of the 49th parallel, ensuring U.S. lumber firms can fill most American lumber orders without cheap Canadian competition. Assuming a deal is reached, the big headache comes when Canadian officials sit down to decide how much lumber each company will be allowed to send south at the cheap tax level. Divvying up that quota will create winners and losers. Skeena Cellulose got virtually no allowance to sell to the U.S. the last time a softwood agree- ment was struck — because it was selling mainly to the Japanese market and the quotas were handed out based on historic sales to the U.S, If history guides the quota handout again, New Skeena will again lose. Even if historic trading is ignored and quotas are issued based on timber harvested, we may be in trouble because of the company’s long shutdowns as it lurched in and out of bankruptcy over the past several years. Someone, somewhere will have to stand up in the months ahead and fight for the northwest’s forest company to make sure it gets a fair shake. Much safer would be an outcome that avoids ~ quotas altogether and gives B.C. producers equal access to the U.S. market. That was to happen anyway through B.C.’s forest policy reforms, which address U.S. claims we subsidize our mills. New Skeena, if it gets on its feet, is poised to be one of the most efficient operators in B.C. It will survive — and even thrive — on a fair and level playing field. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS: Jelf Nagel NEWS/SPORTS Sarah A. Zimmerman 2002 WINNER NEWS/COMMUNITY: Jennifer Lang CCNA BETTER FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping & Carol McKay NEWSPAPERS CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Terri Gordon COMPETITION ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Bert Husband & Denise Young TELEMARKETER: C.J. Bailey COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.94 (+$4.06 GST)=62.00 per year; Seniors $50.98 (+$3.57 GST)=54,55; Out of Province $65.17 (494,56 GST)=69.73 Outside of Canada (6 months) $156.91(+10.98 GST)=167,89 MEMBER OF B.C. AND YUKGN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION AND Wisad Colnaile ded Flee B.C. PRESS COUNCIL (www.bcpresscouncllorg) Serving the Terrace and Thamhit ares. Published on Wednesday o! each week al 3210 Clinton Street, Teirace, British Columbia; V8G §R2. Stories, photographs, illustrallons, dasigns and typastyles in the Terrace Standard ara the proporty of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd., ils illustration rapro services and acivertising agencies, . Foproducton In whole or in part, withou! written parmission, is spacilically prohibited, Authorzad as second-class mall pending the Post Office Department, for ant ct postage In cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for thelr time and talents EACH TAKPAYER FOR #75 eo ioe ta VICTORIA - Today I'm saying farewell to an old friend, a po- litician, no less, the species newspapermen aren’t supposed to get close to. Jack Kempf, former B.C. MLA and Minister of Forests, representing the constituency of Omineca, died July | of a massive heart attack at his home in Mexico. He had lived there with his wife Norma for the past 10 years oF 50. Jack was first elected in 1975, the year Bill Bennett defeated Dave Barrett's NDP government. He served until 1991, when the NDP resumed power. I got the news of his death from Linda Babb, Jack’s for- mer executive assistant. He was 68 — my age ex- actly — which gives me pause to reflect on my own mortality. Jack was the kind of politi- cian you don’t see anymore today. A rough-and-tumble kind of _., guy, who cut his tecth as a lumber jack. When I first met Jack, he was a backbencher in Bill Bennett's Social Credit gov- ernment, When Bill Vander Zalm succeeded Bennett as premier, Jack became Minister of For- esis. It didn’t take long before Jack ran afoul of the powerful forest companies. WHEN ALCAN closed Kema- no many of that town’s library books were sold by the Ter- _ tace library. Fer one dollar I bought The Private World of Katharine Hepburn, a hefty 174 pages of unposed colour photographs taken by John Bryson, a LIFE photographer, from 1974 to 1990. The photos show Hepburn at her Connecticut family home on Long Island Sound, at their brownstone in New York City, or on movie sets. Both of her homes are old fashioned, furnished with wicker settees and yards of while slipcovers over dozens of cushions. Her one update was a bath- room installed on the ground floor of her four story brown- stone “out of consideration for her elderly visitors.” In her New York study hangs the large portrait pain- ted by Vancouver artist My- fannwy Pavelick and featured in The National’s June 30 in- terview with Pavelick. Nominated for numerous Academy Awards, Hepburn won four but never attended an Oscar ceremony; she even re- fay OUDDY FRO a SUE SAID FETE BOOKED rete OFF SO HE COULD PLAN P A BIG HUNT WITH HS | oo M THE MINE. MAD COW SA | DEVASTATES BEEF RODUCERS eae FROM THE CAPITAL | HUBERT BEYER He had ideas ‘that scared the hell out of them, like rein- forcing the idea that the people of British Columbia own the forests and not the companies. Unfortunately, Jack also was a lousy manager. He had no clue how to look after his ministerial office fi- nances. _ Jack had a mobile home. He also represented one of the largest constituencies in Brit- ish Columbia, To serve his constituents and actually talk to them and listen to their concerns, he would have had to rack up en- ormous hotel bills. Jack’s solution: Use the motor home as a constituency office, He asked the Speaker’s of- fice and they said that’s OK. ‘THROUGH BIFOCALS. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI fused to display them at home, Her first three Oscars are on permanent exhibition at the Guiness Hall of Records in New York. The fourth Oscar she loaned to an ill friend who | asked to borrow it for good luck. His widow now has Hep- burn’s statuette. She dressed big to camoufl- age her broad shoulders and “arms as long as a gorilla’s”, and wore flat heeled shoes to downplay her 5 foot 7 1/2 inch height, During movie making she did her own makeup and took along a full length mirror everywhere she worked, SARS VICTIMS, WHO'S GETTING COMPENSATED? b= ee =. Jack’s troubles started when he began doubting Vander Zalm’s style of government. His disillusion forced him to quit the Socreds and sit as an independent, Seeing the writing of the Vander Zalm government’s de- mise on the wall, Jack started to plan a swing through his constituency, in an effort to warn voters that the Socreds were doomed to be defeated in the next election, unless they dumped Vander Zalm, He asked me if J] was inter- ested in coming along on that prolonged trip. Hey, I was game. My only stipulation was that I pay my own way. I will never forget, Jack driving his motor home, “Jack Kempf MLA” emblazoned on_. the front — me following close behind in my car, greeted by constant honks of horns and waves of truck and car drivers going by. . At every stop, Jack had a “big audience. And he hammered his mes- sage home: Get rid of Vander Zalm or face the demise of the Social Credit Party. Well, wouldn’t you know it, soon found himself accused of _ conflict of interest over his mobile home-cum consti- tuency office. The powers that be were setting him up for the fall. Around her Connecticut home she trimmed trees, sawed wood for fireplaces at both addresses, gardened, and even shovelled snow off the flat roof of her New York building. The book is enjoyable for its look at her everyday life. But since her passing June 29, many TV clips and interviews with her friends have filled gaps and rounded her story. Anyone who watched Larry King Live June 30 heard some entertaining bits about her, in- cluding the first ever interview given by Spencer Tracey's daughter, Susie. Older women remarked upon all Hepburn did to advance the freedom of women to choose any line of work, and to dress to suit themselves, One young actress about to play in a Hepburn movie, was asked by a movie executive to smile, “Oh ] mustn’t,” she pro- tested, “I was told my teeth are so white they look like piano keys.” At which Hepburn noted, “They told me my teeth made me look like a horse. I've been making it pay for years.” A niece told of visiting a WHATS TO PLAN] MI GEEZ MARTEn’ J] THEYLL Evticr us ieespeeas ca") rece gore ty IN jouRGeag eo /| NOMEN THAT) THE Time I AND Gof!) \e, a LA remembered POLITICIANS . & MN = When the case went to trial, I was so incensed that 1 phoned Jack’s defence lawyer. I offered to be a character witness for Jack. My only stipulation was, as with the road trip, that I pay my own way. And I did, The government rolled out. . its high-priced lawyers, trying to nail Jack to the wall. When it was my tum to testify, I told the court that Jack was an honourable politi- cian, but a lousy administrator. T told the court that I would trust Jack with my life. The judge seemed per- plexed. He said he found it very un- usual that a reporter or column- ist stood up for a politician, I replied that I wasn’t there as a journalist but as a friend. Jack was fined $10,000, as I recall, and that was not what I call justice. At any rate, ] am still proud today that I stood: up’ for a- friend when he needed one.** ~ ' Jack, we saw too little. of each other in the past few years. : You were a politician of a kind we see no more. You were also a good friend. Thanks for the memories, Jack. : Beyer can be reached at: E-mail: hubert@coalcom.cont. Or phone him at (250) 381-6900. London nursery with Hepburn to buy a house plant. While they were in the nursery, a man walked in and not recognizing Hepburn, asked her, “Do you have any gooseberries?” Hep- burn said, “I’m not sure. I'll check,” and disappeared : to- ward the back of the shop. She teturned to announce, “Sorry, we have no gooseberries.” _ She drove a white car in New York. She felt white was - easier to locate in the parking lot; she wanted to make a quick, clean getaway from. adoring fans after attending Broadway shows. Oddly, she had neither a cat nor a dog in her life. For 27 years she shared a close friendship with Spencer Tracey, a Catholic, who re- fused to divorce his wife but — chose instead to live apart. Writing her autobiography, she skipped her affair with Tracey. “I don't understand why people care about things like that,” she said. “I mean I’m sure you've slept with one or two people, too, if that’s your sport, and I certainly don’t want to hear about it.” If only today’s celebrities thought so, too.