Tsimshian opposing Orenda

TERRACE — Tsimshian natives
say they are severing all ties with
ihe proposed Orenda pulp and
paper mill.

Member bands of the Tsimshian
Tribal Council made the decision
after concluding there will be no
job guarantees for area natives,
spokesman Gerald Wesley said
last week.

“We have withdrawn from any
involvement with the Orenda pro-
cess or the Orenda project,”
Wesley explained. ‘*We are not

Laurent
won't run

TERRACE -— Darryl Laurent
has announced he will not be
seeking re-election to council this
fall.

First elected in 1988, Laurent
was returned to a second term in
1990.

However, ‘This is not a
career,’’ he said last week. ‘*You
spend the first year learning the
job and the second and third years
you have fun."

However, by the fourth year the

realization of just how much time
the job takes beg|ns to set in.
. “JE you can afford the time,
that’s fine,’? he said. However,
there was a price to pay in terms
of other areas of your life.

There came a time, he said,
when councillors had to be honest
with themselves and decide
whether they were really doing
the job or ‘‘cheating it’’.

He'd come to the conclusion he
was now doing the latter.

“You come in full of ideas and
wanting to make all kinds of
changes,’’ he explained.

However, “‘reality sets in at
some point’ as does the realiza-

tion the” itiflvenct’ of “a-single ©

councillor is not that great.

Anyone who thought otherwise -
was fooling themselves, he
added, ‘pointing out it took four
votes to get anything passed.

For his part, he’d discovered a
person had to really enjoy the
‘politics’ to stay on council.

“I’ve fought some battles and
Fve lost some battles,’’ Laurent
said. And although some of those
had been with what he called city
hall’s ‘“bureaucrats’, he professed
genuine respect for the “‘really
good people” the city employed.

However, he added, ‘'T still
think there’s too many of them.”

Laurent said his fondest
memory will be of the Sunday
Shopping battles.

_ “Tt was the most trying time,
ihe time you got the most
derogatory phone calls,’’ he ad-
mitted,

’ However, it was also a time
when a councillor had to stand up
and defend what he believed In.

See story on Page 2 for other
election declarations by current
councillor members and a poten-
tial challenger.

supportive of the project proceed-
ing at this time.’

Tsimshians are not 100 per cent
assured the project will not harm
the environment, he explained,
and they are unhappy with the
progress of an Orenda socio-
econontic study aimed at finding
opportunities for jobs and other
benefits for natives. -

“They seemed to be offering
more obstacles and barriers than
opportunities for employment,’
Wesley said.

He said company officials have
said native job puarantees are un-
likely because the project is likely
to be restricted to unionized
workers only.

“We don’t want to go through
another process and see industry
come in promising benefits and
no damage, only later to find
that’s not the case,’”’ Wesley says,

“We're tired and feel offended

when we continually hear people
knocking ‘on. the door, saying
‘Here’s what we're. going to do

on your back yard. We're just

telling you about it because we're

supposed to. And good luck.’ ’”
Wesley said Tsimshian repre-

sentatives aren’t taking part in a
newly-formed Orenda monitoring
committee or a study looking al
the impacts of the project on na-
tives and on economic op-
portunities for natives.

The draft report of the socio-
economic study is now being dis-
tributed to affected parties, in-
cluding Tsimshian bands.

Orenda and the provincial

JERRY THE MOOSE is obviously no land lubber. To mark the opening of the area’s provincial
parks, he eased his way Into a canoe and took to the waters of Lakelse Lake. He won't be the
only one to enjoy boating on the lake before the su
(that’s him daing the moose thing) says there were more than 200,000 day users in 1992.
Across the Skeena reglon that figure is half a million, proof of the northwest’s drawing power.

mmer’s over. Area supervisor John Trewhitt

Airport could be fire training site.

TERRACE — The plumes of
black smoke over the airport are
gone for this year.

But the Terrace airport could be
the site of a lot more fire prac-
tices in years to come.

Airport manager Darryl Laurent
is lobbying for Tertace to be
made one of two regional tralning
centres for airport firefighters
around the province,

“We would not be doing this
weekly,” Laurent sald, ‘'I
wouldn't think it would be much

Yeo tee

Ps

B Invincible after all.

’ economic b

§ «= Skunked!
g the Northmen. are not}

more than once or twice a year.

Environmental concerns and
public pressure: have forced the
end of fire practices al meny
other airports in the Lower Main-
land. ©

Asa result, Transport Canada is
now considering creating two Gre
training centres where firefighters
from around the province would
meet to practice extinguishing
aircralt fires,

Laurent says there would be
eneBis to the city of

bringing in 30 or 40 firefighters
from other parts of the province.

And it would = improve
firefighter training for city and
Thornhill firefighters, who could
also use the facility.

‘We want to al Jeast be able to
make a pitch for this,’’ Laurent
said,

Environmental testing would
first have to take place near the
airport to ensure local streams
and lakes could not be affected by

ihe practices. ;

“These guys have gota hell of
a job to do to get an alrcraft fire
our and save people. These fel-
lows have got to be able to
respond. And the only way they
can do this is if they practice,”
said Laurent, .

Two dozen firefighters from
around the province were here
two weeks ago for the only fire
practice training session schedul-
ed for this year.

Live art
COMMUNITY + B2

‘ wa

.¢

government split the $85,000 cost
of carrying out the study.

Four Tsimshian bands claim
they have a stake in Orenda’s
proposed $500 million ground-
wood pulp and paper mill.

The Kitselas and Kitsumkalum
bands near Terrace claim the
area.

And thé Lax Kwalaams and

Meilakatla bands near Prince
Rupert say they also made tradi-
tional use of the area.

Orenda vice-president Frank

Foster declined to comment on

ing ‘commitice

the Tsimshian move and-sald ‘he
could not discuss the contents of
the draft report until it is fina-
ized, :

Remaining on the monitoring
committee are the Haisias of
Kitamaat Village. The are also
taking part in the socio economic
study. ;

Other members of the monitor-
include the
Kitimat-Stikine regional district,
various provincial “government
ministries, local governments and
Orenda.

Kitlope log
plan fails —

JERRACE — Haisla leaders
have turned dowa an offer from
Eurocan Pulp and Paper to log the
Kitlope River valley with Haisla
workers.

The offer, made by EBurocan
spokesman Bruce MacNicol,
would see the creation of 40 to 60
Haisia forestry jobs.

“They would basically have
control of the valley,” MacNicol

The proposal calls for creation
of a 100,000ha area — about'a
third of the watershed —- includ-
ing the Kitlope Lake area and the
Tezwa River, that would be

preserved from logging.
The north side of the Kitlope
River and the upper fiver

tributaries would remain avail-
able for logging. Al! of the area is
claimed by the Haisla,  —

MacNicol said about 2.7 per
cent of the watershed would be
logged over 120 years under the
proposal.

__Kitamaat Village chief conncil- _

‘lor Gerald Amos said he remains
opposed to any logging in the
Kitlope. oe

‘(As far as I’m concemed there
will be no logging,’’? Amos said
Friday. ‘There are other develop-
ments we are looking at ~— other
ways to create jobs in the val-
ley.”

Amos predicted ecotourism
could provide a substantial num-
ber of jobs in the valley without
logging.

And if logging does take place,
he said, alternative logging meth-
ods should be looked at.

He sald most people think that
when an. area is preserved from
logging, nothing will happen.
there. _ ee

“That’s a myth and we’re out
to disprove it,” Amos said, ‘*We
want to create jobs that are com-
patible with the area and aron’t
based on extraction, of {the
resources,’” _

MacNicol said the company is
trying to address some of the in-

‘terests of the Hnisla, because’ -it

anticipates the government will
impose « Clayoquot-style com-
promise if mo consensus is
reached. a
He said the company will agre
to preservation of the Kitlope if it
could get the 100,000 cubic
metres of wood a year it fas
rights to in the Kitlope from
somewhere else. a
“*But when you look at it practi-
cally 1 don’t know where that
100,000 could ever come from,”’
he said. ‘You can’t get it unless

you take it away from something
e agin ome

PP

MacNicol sald Eurocan would
enter into 4 co-management
agreement with the Haisla

The annual allowable cut-would
be recalculated for the Kitlope to
ensure it would be cut at a
sustainable rate. uo,

Eurocan would: also negotiate
with the Haisla to provide money
for training of Haisla workers,
foresters ‘and managets to

eventually run the Kitlope opera-

tlon, Poet,
The deal. would be, without

__ prejudice to the Haisla claim.

“

Wood company
searches for sites -

TERRACE — A company that
will make door and window com-
ponents here is within'a month of
chousing a site for its operation.

Forstar Trading of New West-
minster wants to be open late this
year, says spokesman Mike
Thorpe,

H’ll employ between 25 and 30
peop.; at peak operations.

The company will use rough
hemlock from Skeens Sawmills.

In return, Forstar will supply
wood from a timber sale it has
near Houston to the PIR mill in
Smithers. West Fraser owns that
mili and has a 50 per cent interest
in Skeena Sawmills,

"We want to be close to the
source, within a two or three mile
radius. of Skeena Sawmills.
Otherwise, we're looking at
trucking costs. There'll be con-

stant movement between the
two,’’ said Thorpe.
-Forstar will also use kilns at

Skeena Sawmills.

WELFARE
Fraud level lower. than.
“inthedities

NEWS ¢ 11

Thorpe estimated capital costs
for the Forstar operation at -31
million. oe

Forstar officials were in town
last week looking at possible
sites,

Thorpe said the company will
either lease a building or con-

struct one of its own.
Equipment won’t be that hard
to obtain and will be ordered once -
Forstar decides on a building.:
The Houston sale is for 120,000
cubic metres over five years. ©
‘Terrace is. also close to

tidewater for shipping the com-
ponents to markets in Japan,
Thorpe said, :

Forstar already produces value.
added wood components: at: a
lower mainland ‘plant for export
and has-an existing business rela-
tionship with West Fraser,

The Forstar arrangement is part
of a provincial government effort
fo encourage the growth of value
added waod products,