‘On the boil

know why\NEWS A10.

Braun’s Islanders are boiling
drinking water and they think the

Count’em

The beaker zone

Terrace Minor Baseball teams now
own three zone titles, what's
next?\SPORTS BS

A girls-only science camp gets
rave reviews from its
participants\COMMUNITY BL

WEDNESDAY
July 14; 1999

Hospital
seenas &
pediatric §
centre §

MILLS MEMORIAL Hos-
pital should become the
northwest’s centre — for
pediatric, adolescent and
malernily care, says a report
written by three lower main-
land health care officials.

The officials said Mills is
the most appropriate loca-
tion for a regional centre for
the above functions.

The Kiein report, named
after one of its authors, Dr.
Michael Klein, a UBC
professor and head of family
practice at the Children’s
and Women’s Health Centre
in Vancouver, was written
this spring after interviews
and Tesearch was conducted
last fall.

Klein and the other two
authors came to Mills at the
request of the Terrace Area
Health Council to look at in-
ternal hospital problems sur-
rounding pediatric services,

The report’s conclusion
about making Mills a
regional centre comes at a
time when the health coun-

S

cil has begun taking the first
Steps to improve northwest
pediatric services.

Indeed, the report recom-
mends “Terrace should not
delay the development of a
regional plan in order for a
regional consensus to
emerge on this issue."’

Health council chief exec-
utive officer Michael
Leisinger acknowledged the
report’s regional recom-
mendation, but said it
wasn’t the driving force for
what the health council is

now doing.
The Klein report even ex-
panded its original

pediatrics mandate to ad-
dress the touchy issue of es-
tablishing Mills as a

Wee

TANDARD

LOCAL FISH enthusiast Alois Schillinger has for years pushed the idea of restoring plants as the cormer-
stone to rebuild the food chain and eventually restore fish habitat and fish stocks.

A triend of fish habitat

full cost of modernization.

to 21.75.

suing for

SKEENA CELLULOSE is
being sued by the operators
of the chipper it abruptly
ceased using this spring.

Siender Lake Ventures
Ltd, owned by Don Hull
and Sons Contracting, filed
the suit July 6 against
Skeena Cellulose and em-
ployee Derrick Curits.

The statement of claim al-
leges Skecna Cellulose and
Slender Lake had a verbal
agreement last October that

regional specialist centre,

“Tt is our recommendation
that the strategic plan be a
broad one that recognizes
the unique capabilities of
Mills Memorial Hospital to
constitute the principal
regional specialist resource
for the northwest,”’ it said.

The health ministry has
recognized Mills as a
regional centre for some
specialties but has rejected
extending that concept —
and the amount of money it
would involve — to other
specialities.

That’s been a sore point
between local doctors, the
heal th council and the health
ministry.

ALOIS SCHILLINGER’S fascination
with fish began when he was five
years old.

Back in his native Switzerland,
Schillinger would help his uncle on a
trout farm he owned.

That experience translated into more
than seven decades of involvement
with encouraging fish populations ci-
ther on tank fanns or in the wild,

And now, at the age of 79, Schil-
linger has had his life’s work put on
paper in the form ofa manual.

The title — Fish Food Chain
Propagation Habitat Restoration —
sounds dry and academic, but what it
contains is not.

What it represents is Schillinger’s
tested theorics over the years on how
to go about providing the right en-
vironment for fish,

The key is the food chain, that inter-
connection of plants and marine crea-
tures culminating in a healthy fish
population.

Break the chain, Schillinger warns,
and you disrupt nature's way of
sustaining a healthy fish population.

“When there’s no food chain,
there’s no fish. It’s as simple as that,'”
says Schillinger.

Schillinger’s technology focuses on
restoring the food chain in creeks and
streams that have suffercd environ-
mental damage.

He restocks creek and streams with
plants which in turn provide habitat
for the tiny creatuzes upon which fish
feed,

Rocks, called “riffle rocks’? or logs
are placed on the beds of streams and
creeks, They provide sheltering and

feeding locations for juvenile fish
populations,

“Implementation of my technology
is safe and friendly to the environment
and has multiple advantages and eco-
nomic benefits,” says Schillinger.

"Tt will secure a year round fish
food supply guaranteeing a healthier
and disease resistant fish and an in-
creased fish survival rate will result in
increased fish population.’?

A steady and growing fish popula-
tion will also provide more employ-
ment, a considerable benefit given the
decline of jobs in the traditional ocean
fishery.

Schillinger has tested his theory on
local ponds and creeks.

One such project involved 4 barren
gravel pit east of town, Within a short

Continued on Page A2

was to become a written one
giving the contractor a five-
year deal to chip for SCI.

Slender Lake alleges it re-
placed an older chipping op-
eration wilh new equipment
~~ ata total cost of $1.85
niillion — to meet Skeena
Cellulose’s request for
reduced bark content in the
chips produced.

Despile producing good
chips, ihe statement says,
SCI gave Slender Lake
notice April 30 that it had a
deal io instead shift the
chipping to West Fraser.

The lawsuit demands
compensation for josses,
damages, lost profits, plus
aggravated and punitive

First steps toward better baby care

A SENIOR lower mainland hospital official
made a first visit here last week to begin

improving care for infants and young chil-:

dren.

Ron Lindstrom fom the B.C. Children’s
Hospital met with key local health care of-
ficials as the starting point.

The idea is to improve northwest
pediatric services through the co-operation
of all northwest health care agencies and
hospitals, says Michael Leisinger, the chief
exccutive officer of the Terrace Area
Health Council which runs Mills Memorial
Hospital,

“What we want is the best pediatric ser-
vice we can provide,”’ said Leisinger.

Mills Memorial Hospital has gradually
become the northwest’s main pediatric care
provider but budget cuts and changes in the

‘way It provides health care have resulted in
criticisms.

One of those changes was to merge
pediatrics with other services on the hospi-
tal’s main medical services floor and to do
away with having nurses devoted to
specific areas,

Local physicians and others say the result
of culs and changes have hampered
pediatric services and that too many infants
are sent south for treatment,

Leisinger said it was too early to talk
about what kind of money is needed ot
what structure will evolve,

But he did say the idea is ta have a co-
ordinated northwest pediatric service work
in close co-operation with B.C, Children's
Hospital in Vancouver.

“It has established linkages and partner-
ships elsewhere but this wil] be the first at-
tempt with a more rural area,”’ said

Leisinger.

“Perhaps we can become part of a

mainstream, cutting edge service involving
rotaling medical students and nursing stu-
denis,” he added.

Leisinger declined to use the word
““regional”’ in describing the planning for
improved service,

“T don’t want to label it right now. The

“The word regional can mean
different things to different
people. We just want to pro-
vide the best service we can.”

word regional can mean different things to
different people. We just want to provide
the best service we can," he said,

A foundation for what could come is al-
ready being put in place thanks to $400,000
from the provincial government.

The health council wants to use the
money to place two pediatricians under

contract — one that is already here and one
in the process of setting up a practice in
Termace.

That will not only provide a security of
income for the specialists but also provide
stability and allow cach one to spell the
other off, said Leisinger,

The idea of a broader pediatric service al-
ready bas the support of the only other
pediatrician in the northwest who is based
in Smithers,

Leisinger expects to have a plan ready for
health ministry study and approval by Sep-
tember or October,

That may sound quick, he said, but therc
are signs that the ministry docs want an im-
provement.

One of those signs was the speedy ap-
proval by the ministry of the $400,000 to
place the two pediatricians under contract,
said Lelsinger,

$1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST
(51.20 plus 8¢ OST outside of the
Terrace araa). : .

VOL, 12 NO. 14

Province
boosts its
SCI stake

Bank turns over some shares

By JEFF NAGEL
THE PROVINCE says the Toronto Dominion Bank has
agreed to hand over some of its shares in Skeena Cellulose
in recognition of the province’s decision to shoulder the

The deal, reached at the beginning of this month, will see
the province’s ownership in the company rise from the
present 52.5 per cent to 58.25. The TD’s 27.5 per cent falls

The bank agreed to transfer the 5.75 per cent block of
shares even though pulp mill workers in Prince Rupert
refused to hand over 4,25 per cent requested by the pro-
vince, said government spokesman Don Zadravec,

“They've said no to it and that’s where things sit.’”

The province approached both the bank and the pulp
workers union about getting an additional 10 per cent of
SCI because the province agreed to pay the full $110 mil-
lion cost of capital expenditures this spring,

’ The bank’s shares will flow to the province gradually as
the capital expenditure money gets spent.

Although the province told its partners in late May it
wanted more shares in lieu of their participation, that fact
was left out of government news releases.

“This is essentially a discussion between the three part-
nets,’’ Zadravec said. ‘'It didn’t impact on the capital ex-
pansion side or the operating side,.’’

Getting a bigger ownership stake in SCI will eventually
mean 4 greater return to taxpayers when the company is
sald back to the private sector, he added,

Chipper operator

losses

damages and court costs.

“Skeena has acted in ex-
treme bad faith and has dis-
played a wanton, high-
handed and outrageous dis-
regatd for Slender Lake’s
rights,”’ it says.

Slender Lake president
Lioyd Hull said he didn’t
want to take Iegal action.

“T thought it was resolved
until they started their latest
goon tactics,”’ he said,

Hull says talks with the
company were proceeding
well and SCI had indicated
it would require Don Hull
and Sons’ crews for road-
building work this summer,

But when the those crews
became available and Hull
inquired as to their destina-
lion, he says he was told
SCI wouldn't sign the road-
building contract unless he
agreed not to take legal ac-
tion over the chipper issue.

Hull noted his firms lost
nearly all the $2.5 million
they were awed when SCI
predecessor Repap B.C, col-
lapsed in 1997,

“T have contributed about
all I’m going to to Skeena
Cellulase,”’ he said,

| Michael Lelsinger