Supportive housing is back and its backers are working on anew — plan\NEWS PAGE A8 Sire and water ile wal Artists have combined forces fo a visual treat at the art gallery\COMMUNITY PAGE B1 WEDNESDAY... . MAY 22, 1996 Sola ait Paintball has returned to Terrace and its advocates say it is a lot of fun\SPORTS B7 TAN 936 PLUS 7¢ GST VOL: 9. NO. 6 NDP holds lead, new poll shows THE NDP remains in front in the Skeena riding, indicates an election opin- ion poll commissioned by The Terrace Standard, Taken between May 14 and May 18 the poll gives the NDP 45 per cent of the decided vote, a drop of two points. from one conducted at the start of the provin- cial election. — The Liberals have jumped from 15 per. cenl at the start of the election'to 27 per. cent while the. Reform party has dropped from 36 per cent to 28 per cent: One per cent of the decided vaters con- tacted chose another. party while™ 19° per cent of those contacted are undecided. The pol! was conducted by Ron Taylor. who has an extensive background in pall- : ing in Canada, the United States and the. United Kingdom. The results are accurate within 6.2 per cent 19 times out of 20 and this calcula- tion was carried out atier the exclusion of the undecided vote. , “Taylor contacted 250 people in the rid- ing. There was no immediate figure avail- able of those ‘who refused to respond. *- The question asked: of those who were “telephoned was: “If the election were held ‘tomorrow, Which party would: you ‘be most likely to” support.” - “Clearly there is ‘a trend towards the Liberals,” said Taylor of the results. -“The anti-NDP vote seems to have been vacillating about what to-do. It seems anti-NDP voters have now accepted the... fact Reform is not going to do il and are drifting toward the Liberals,” he added. — : Strike a pose RACHEL MULLER and Meghan Doyle will be performing the Ukrainian dance this Frida , as 21st Annual Dance Revue. This year 45 of Vicki Pa i b armitage wide variety of dances, from a can can to modem da the REM Lee Theatre. Tickets are $8 and $7, Taylor 2 the number of undecided voters remains high and feels these may be people who: are ‘antitNDP but who haven't yet decided how they are going to vate if they want to stop, the NDP. Helmut Giesbrecht. is running for the NDP,:.Rick Wozney. for the Liberals and Andy Burton for the. Reform: party, The Social. Credit candidate is .Dave-Serry while Doug Bodnar is. the | ‘Green ‘candidate. Across the north, the NDP has a heil thy lead in the. Narih:Codst riding with 49 per cent of the decided: vate followed by ~ Liberals with 33 per cent, the Reform ° - with 17 per cent and other at one per cent. In thatriding, 19 per cent of. those con-.: acted were undecided. >The sample size there was-250 with a 6.3 per cent accuracy rate 19 times out of 20), The race in the Bulkley Valley-Stikine riding is much closer with the Liberals now registering 40 per cent of the decided vole compared to 38 per cent for the NDP. Reform in that riding.has.20 per cent of the decided vate,two per cent chose another party and 17. per cent of those contacted were undecided. The sample’ size there was 250 voters with a6 percent necuriey Figure 19 times out of 20,’ Under the B.C. Elections Act, a copy of the: poil is available fram the sponsor upon request, The address for The Terrace Standard is 3210 Clinton St, , Terrace, B.C. V8G 5R2. decided vate % 50 40 30 20 10 Other SKEENA NDP Liberal Reform iainen's students, aged 5-18, will be performing a nee. The Dance Ravue starts at 4 p.m. this Friday at Natives receive education boost By CRIS LEYKAUF SCHOOL DISTRICT 8&8 will spend more than $1.1 million’on programs targeted spe- cifically at native students next year, It's coming from the provincial govern- ment which decided to set aside money for extra nalive education programs a few years ago. But it's taken while for the school district and native groups to agree how that money should be spent. A group called Su-Sit’Aatk, chaired by Teny Brown, has negotiated on behalf of native parents, the Kitselas band, Kitsum- kalum band, Kermode Friendship Centre and Nisga’a Tribal Council, While negotiations. have carried on in secret, the school district has slowly been releasing money. For cxample, over the 1995/96 school year, the district spent just over $300,000 on home school coordinators, tutoring pro- grams, cultural awareness teachers and sup- plies and resources. Althangh the schoal year is nearly over, that information was teleased just recently, The district’s actual budget for this school year was $725,000 though. So now it hopes to carry forward $420,000 to next year. Added to next year’s budget, that brings the total amount of spending next year to over $1.1 million. The district needs ministry approval to do this, but assistant superintendent Skip Bergsma doesn’t think that will be a prob- lem, since the money has already been allo- cated, If approved, School District 88 will have one of the langest budgets in the province for dealing with abcriginal education, said Bergsma. Here are the highlights from the budget. Mi $205,000 for up to 3.5 full time equiva- lent culture teachers, supplies, resources cand materials to. slazt-a First Nations Elementary Education Ceritre. The school where the centre will be based has not yet been determined. m $155,000 for five home school coar- dinators, $i $82,000 for extra Jea ming assistance plus another $51,000 for more learning as- ' sistance or a First Nations primary reading teacher, Wi $88,000 to set up and run a First Nations Education Centre meeting oom, with two offices and equipment in Skeena Jr. Secondary. This would serve as the base for native high school programs. This would also likely be where the coordinator of school programs, a $75,000 job, would be based. So far Bergsma said the school district has hired two new certified culture teachers, one from the local area, There are also plans to hire high school advocates or counselors, secretaries, a half time librar- ian, a half time administrator at $70,000 and more, And something called the Kermode Curriculum Project will develop Tsimshian legends into a format usable by teachers, “Tt should be quite exciting,’’ said Bergsma. He doesn’t expect to see any resentment from non-native parents at the high level of spending, because he says these programs . will benefit all students in the end, “We're all in this together,’’ he said, He thinks native education programs will foster an atmosphere of tolerance on which can be based better understanding of each other. Water, sewer costly THORNHILL RESIDENTS could pay more than $6,000 for water and sewer sys- tems, indicates a study prepared for the Kitimat-Stikine regional district, But the altemative is poor water quality and severe restrictions on development and lot sizes in the arca. The news came from Stanley and Associ- ates consultant Eric Wiens at a public meet- ing May 14. He said the popwation of Thomiill is likely to more than double to 10,000 in the next 30 years. “Currently 500,000 gallons of sewage is pumped into the ground in Thornhill every day,’ Wiens said. ‘There are very few proper septic tank ~~ anything from cars and wooden boxes to concrete lanks.”’ Wiens said that to maintain on-site dis- posal there would have to be severe restric- tions on development. Otherwise, Thornhill could face contamination of streams and water wells, as well as health risks, ‘‘When we were doing the “survey we. found overgrowth counts of coliform in the drainage ditches.” Wiens said. Minimum lot size would have to nearly triple in areas wilh good percolation: from 700 to 1500-2000 square metres (1/3-1/2 acre). In areas with poor percolation the suggested lot increase would rise to 20,000 Square melres (5 acres). The regional district has instead sug- gested that Thornhill move to full service, gravity-fed system, with treatment, pumps, lifts and collection for the whole area. This is the most expensive option, but will not place restrictions on growth. How- ever, lot-size restrictions would be enforced until the new system is in place. The total cost of the new system is ex- pected to run at about $9 million. Divided amongst 1900 lots, this works out to just over $6,200 each. Wiens pointed out that $5,500 of the total cost is eligible for provincial cost-sharing. Currently, this program tends to cover 25 per cent of costs but can cover 50 per cent. Water in Thornbill will cost residents as well, The suggested integration of regional district water, which services lower Thorn- hill, and Woodlands Utility, which services the betich will run at $5 million, This works out to $2600 per lot.