New man in town Up With People As Mills Memorial’ s new CEO, Dieter Kuntz hopes to improve More than 100 youth will soon be in town to present a Broadway- Futsal fever Men’s indoor soccer returns to Caledonia to finish the 2000 season\SPORTS B4 health care delivery\NEWS A12 style musical\COMMUNITY B1.. WEDNESDAY. April 19, 2000 STANDARD $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST ” ($1.10 plus 6¢ GST outaide of tha . Terrace area) :. VOL: 13 NO. 2 senate gives treaty the green light By JEFF NAGEL THE NISGA‘A treaty is now law, although the document supposed to bring certainty to the regian comes inta force shrouded in the uncertainty of pending court challenges. Senators voted 52-15 with 13 ab- stentions to pass the treaty last Thurs- day, Royal assent was ‘granted the same day by Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson. Nisga‘a leaders and chief councillors from all the villages were in Ottawa to Nisga’a Tribal Council president Jue Gosnell said the treaty marks the end of an era as the Nispa“a now pre- pire to govern themselves and no tonger be wards of the state subject to the rules of the Indian Act, “Today the Nisga’a people become full-fledged Canadians as we step out from under the Indian Act ~ forever,” Gosnell said. “Finally afler a struggle of more than 130 years, the government of this country clearly recognizes that the Nis- ga’a were a self-governing people since treaty gives the new Nisga‘a Lisims government nearly 2,000 square kilo- metres of land and resources — about eight per cent of their claimed tradi- tional territory. A $190 million cash transfer, from - which the $50 million the Nisga’a spent negotiating the treaty must be deducted, is to be transferred gradually over 15 years. Further grants to help establish the new government and set up a fisheries conservation fund bring treaty cash transfers to around $253 million. The focus now turns to the setting of an effective date, when the money begins to flow ‘and the interim Nisga’a government lakes power under the tres- ty. That date could be as soon as early to mid-May, said tribal council spokes- man Nelson Leeson, He said the Nisga‘a are preparing 19 pieces of legislation that must be-in place by then to set the rules of how they will govern themselves, : The required legisiation includes a forestry act, a fisheries act, an adminis- but hey, this is what we always said we wanted,” Leeson stressed there's a lot of work to do for the Nisguva to achieve what they really want. “We've gota long way to go.” he said. “We don't want to go from being de- pendent on the federal government to being dependent on the money we've negotiated,” Leeson said, “We've got to - work to build an economic engine.” The treaty still faces five separate le- gal challenges, the first of which, filed witness the historic moment before heading back to the Nass valley to celebrate. Habitat impact awaited IT’S TOO early to tell what exacl impact a cut in Fish- eries Renewal B.C’s budget will have on local fish habi- lal projects. But Steven Groves, the local watershed stewardship co-ordinator who ' works * with local groups, is pre- dicting less work will be done compared to 1999, “Right now we're look- ing at doing half as many projects as we did last year,” said Groves of 1999 spend- ing of $480,000. Specifics won't be avail- able until late this month or early next month after local proposals and their costs are evaluated. Groves suid the final de- termination rests on the number of proposals re- ceived and their costs. Fisheries Renewal B.C. is 4 government crown cor- poration charged with im- proving fish populations and the seafood industry, Its overall budget for sal- moanid projects this year is $4 million, less than half of the $10.4 million it spent last year, Groves said local salmo- nid enhancement groups worry that what they’ ve built up over the past two years will be lost because of budget cuts. Fisheries Renewal B.C. receives the bulk of ils maney from the provincial government but in the past said, well before European contact, In addition to self-government, the * Gosnell] The Nisya’a agree to give up their excmptians from income and sales tax over the next eight to [2 years. a trative uct and numerous other rules for governmental operations, “It's going to be quite a challenge also received money from other ‘agencies such as For- VIOLENGE PREVENTION: Jocelyn lannarelli, sexual assault counsellor, and Sarah de Leauw, Women’s est Renewal B.C. und B.C. Centre coordinator, want the community to help stop violence against women. In the past three years. Hydro. 131 women have been sexually assaulted in the Terrace area. Sexual assault statistics don’t tell the whole story SEXUAL ASSAULT statistics here are soaring this year. But that doesn’t mean there are any more assaults than in previous years. _ What has changed is the way in which police record sexual assault investigations. A new methad of gathering statistics may give the im- pression of a large increase in assaults. - “Anytime there's o sexual assault we're con- cerned about it,” said Terrace RCMP Sat, Darcy Gollan. “This isn’t any worse than any other year.” The detachment has worked on 18 files to the end of March this year, said Gollan. That's more than half the 29 reported files-in Terrace and Thornhill in all of last year. Gollan said only two of this year's offences involve cases where the offender was unknown Wo the victim. Those two cuses — a home invasion-style sex- . ual assault in the 3600 block of Kalum March 22 and the March 31 sexual assault of a lone woman near the Copperside store at Kalum and Davis - have been well publicized. The detachment is also investigating one sex- ual touching file and one historical file where the victim and offenders knew euch other. There ore two other outstanding files where officers here contacted witnesses or served war- rants, The remaining 12 files, said Gollan, are all concluded. Two resulted in charges against two ~ males ~a young offender and an adult, The other 10 files are ones in which the local detachment helped out other detachments. It's the way this category is reported which inflates the Statistics, said Gollan: “It’s a reflection of the work we're doing - it’s not necessarily what's going on in the communi- y.” he said. ~ » statistics aside, Gollan acknowledged that not all sexual assaults are reported to the RCMP and don’t then appear on its statistics, Victims in some circumstances prefer to deal with the sup- port of their peers at the sexual assault centre or women’s centre, “Many of them go through that route rather than go the more formal public process,” Gollan said. “We have no control over that.” Gollan added historical sex crimes can be time-consuming lo. investigate because evidence and witnesses ore hard to track down. The number of acquaintance-related sexual as- saults makes sense to Irlanda Price, the coordina- ior of the Terrace Sexual Assault Centre. Typi- cally, 90 per cent of all rapes are executed by someone the: victiin knows. She added that if the surge in RCMP statistics this year reflects an increase in reported crimes, it is positive because people-are holding their of fenders to task through the courts. - But any increase is dangerous: “It’s really frightening,” she said. by the B.C. Liberals, is to be heard May 15.00! Trouble seen from having a shortfall of students By ALEX HAMILTON THE SCHOOL district is bracing fora drop in envolment of about 140 students across the region the next school year, raising ihe spectre of teacher layoffs and classroom closures. Terrace and Thornhill appear to be the least affected but i's a different story in Kitimal, says assistant superintend- ent Andrew Scruton. Based on the actual enrolment to date and the number of Kindergarten students known to be registered for next year across the region, Scruton expects about 7,220 to 7,250 students in school September 2000, down around two per cent from the 7,362 students enrolled September 1999. The distrier’s problem of falling enrolment is most acute in Kitimat where 80 fewer students are expected this Sep- tember. _ Acting superintendent Sharon Beedle explained a big de- crease in student enrolment is a problem because the district gels paid per student. Fewer students translate into less money to run the district, _ “It’s very very disconcerting because we have cut and cut and cut and we don't know where we can go next,” she said, Beedle added that fewer students means the district will need fewer staff. “We'll just have to see where student declines are and eliminate as many teachers and support services as possible that will allow us to manage,” she said, Administrators must estimate how many students will be enrolled next year in advance, in order to hire or lay off teacher's according to lime frames set out in union contracts, ‘Scruton said the district must be very careful to base its next year’s budget on a conservative enrolment figure, be- cause hising more teachers than necessary is costly. ~The major drop in enrolment comes from the smaller numbers of kindergarten and elementary students starting school. “We're getting fewer students caming in kindergarten than are graduating in Grade 12," Seruton said. In Kitimat, where the projected enrolment drops are to be ‘felt, Scruton estimates Kitimat’s school population of 1,100 will shrink by nearly 2 25 per cent over the next five years, : Scruton cites Kitimat’s stable population base and a sharp drop in the number of babies born there over the past decade us the two major factors at work, He noted the number of births each year in Kitimat have plummeted from 152 to just 100 a year in that period. When that’s combined with Kitimat's unchanging popula- tion base, it all adds up to one-quarter fewer school-aged children by 2005, Across the country Canadians are having fewer children or pulting of f having children until they’re older. As well, the children af the so-called Baby Boomers are now making their way through high school. Once they graduate, there won't be as many teenapers re- placing them in classrooms. While clementary school closures are possible - particu- larly in Kitimat where there's classroom space for 60 per cent more students than are presently there — Scruton cau- tions that high school teachers will still be if big dem ! “This is the beginning of a teaching shortag;élllm province,” he said. ™ “There is a shorlage al present of secondary specialists” like math, physics and drama teachers. At the school board’s néxt education committee meeting, anew policy grappling with the fallout of dectining enrol- ments will be examined. The board is expected to render its decision on the new policy April 30. “We're trying to organize things ko there will be. no layoffs," said Scruton.