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WEDNESDAY

| lce man

Age of corpse found in ice

taking longer to determine

By CHRISTIANA WIENS
THE AGE of an ancient body found frozen
in a Tatshenshini glacier is a puzzle that so
far has scientists stumped.

The problem, says provincial archacologist
Al Mackie, is that the ancient hunter actually
died where he was found two weeks ago.

It’s one of the first such situations in North Amer-
ica. Most other bodies found on this continent arc
of people who died and then were buried with tools
to prepare thei for the afterlife.

September.4;-1999 --- | A

Kwaday Dan Sinchi or “long ago person found",
the Chainpagne-Aishihik name assigned to the an-
cient human remains, was found with the tools he
was believed to be using when he died.

That “‘natural tool kit’? together with the remains
of an ancient moose and close proximity of a First
Nations hunting trail make the find more difficult to
compare,

“All the comparable things are found in burials
of some kind,’’ said Mackie.

That leaves archacologists at a loss to date the
man, based on an archaeological tool-dating sys-
ten.

“We. don’t bave a clue how old be is,’’ Mackie

said, ‘‘We have nothing to compare it to.”?

To compound the problem, all similar material
found in other sites have decomposed, leaving an
even smaller frame of reference for scientists to
compare the man’s ice-preserved tools and clo-
thing,

“Every single thing up there is perishable,’’
Mackie said,

A knife or possible scraping tool found at the
scene is thought to be made of spruce and bone,
tooth or claw and was carried in a leather pouch.
The person also wore a woven cedar hat.

An atlad, or sling-shot-like throwing board, found
al the sile was used up to 7,000 years ago and al the
time of western contact.

The person was also wearing a patched-tog ether

-- $4,00 PLUS 7¢ GST

{$L40 plus 4¢ GS7 outelde of the
, ~ Jarrace aren):
VOL. 12 NO. 21

’s tools are a rare find —

cloak inade of what appears to be skins of small
fur-bearing animals.

Bul without a frame of reference, scientists are
waiting for carbon-dating results and DNA samples
— Which could take up to a: month to return:

That means the remains, now in cold Storage, will
need to be moved and stored at the proper humidity
and temperature tc preserve their quality.

But where and when the remains will be moved
depends on the findings ofa soon to be set up man-
agement panel,

That panel — made up of provincial and First Na-
tions experts — then decides all matters conceming
the Tatshenshini ice man.

Continued Page A16

a Giant kermodei
JUST IN TIME FOR FALL FAIR: Jim Bonner keeps his friend, Sitka Spruce,

Monti Braun company while he completes a huge kermodei bear to date. Now
carving behind Copperside Foods Aug. 27. Carved into a giant Terrace area.

the bear represents one of Braun's largest carvings
a professional chainsaw carver, Braun grew up In the

IT LOOKS like reduced airline
competition has already made it
more cosily to fly to Vancouver
from Prince Rupert than from Ter-
race,

Air B.C. pulled out of Prince
Rupert in July, citing lack of pas-
sengers there, leaving the market to
the now financially distressed Ca-
nadian Airlines.

While the full fare rate out of
Prince Rupert remains about the
same as for Terrace, seat sale prices
announced Thursday are now
markedly different,

The base fare for a 14-day ad-
vance Inidweek retum Might out of
Terrace on the seal sale is $369 on

either airline — $50 cheaper than
the Canadian Regional Airlines fare
of $419 out of Prince Rupert.

The difference in airport pas-
senger fees — $28 in Rupert versus
$19 out of Terrace — plus the $11
fare for the ferry to the Prince
Rupert airport makes the cost there
even higher,

Once those charges, plus naviga-
tional surcharges and GST, are
added in, the cost to fly from Prince
Rupert to Vancouver return on the
scat sale hits $508.38,

All the same fees for flight be-
tween Terrace and Vancouver com-
es to $434.88,

Amirican Express Elan Travel’s

Trina Oldale said the seat sale
prices for the two cities are normal-
ly identical,

‘‘Maybe it’s because there’s only
one carrier going in there now,”
she said, ‘‘Air B.C. has pulled out
so Canadian has got the market.’?

If you have to fly immediately or
don’t book in advance, the full fare
prices are about the same:
$1,073.21 including taxes and sur
charges, Airport and ferry fees add
an extra $39 out of Rupert, and an
extra $19 out of Terrace, plus the
$5 airport improvement fee leaving
the Vancouver airport.

There's also another twist emerg-
ing in the new air fares, sald

Air fares already higher in Rupert

Oldale.

The airlines have begun pricing
blocks of seats on the same plane at
different prices. She said that’s
done on other routes but hasn’t
really becn secn here before,

So while the advertised scat sale
price out of Terrace is $369, there
are only some seats available at that
price. When they run out, she said,
prices rise to $399,

And in Rupert it's even worse,
There it appears less than half the
plane seals are at the $419 price,
rising 10 $499 after they fill up.

“The cartier you book the better
the chance you have of getting the

‘lower fare,’’ Oldale said.

City sets
November
‘plex vote

$8.0m estimate may be safer

By JEFF NAGEL

CITY COUNCILLORS have again flip-flopped on
the issue of the mulliplex, deciding last week to take
the project to referendum Nav. 20.

Councillors had twice debated the referendum date in
committee and twice the majority favoured an April 8th
vote to allow more time {0 pupuereme
crunch numbers, look for &
more money and ensure the
best chance af success.

But when the recom-
mendations came back for a
final vote Aug. 23, council-
tors David Hull, Olga Power
and mayor Jack Talstra were
on vacation,

Councillors Linda Hawes,
Ron Vanderlee and Val
George ont-voled Rich
McDaniel to defeat a tabled
molion to proceed with the Bees
April date, 7

They instead set the Linda Hawes
referendum for November 20 at the same time as
municipal elections,

Hawes said the move will save money by avoiding a
standalone referendum.

“T don’t think we need to be afraid of giving the tax-
payers a vaice,’” she said,

She said it would be wrong to spend a lot of taxpayers
dollars trying to get a firm price on the multiplex,

And Hawes noted it would be impossible to get an ab-
solute figure wilhout going to tender — an option thal
would have seen council spend an estimated $675,000
without knowing whether the referendum would pass,

“[ don’t think we have a mandate to spend ove more
cent on this until we know what the people want,”
Vanderlee added,

Tustead councillors decided in committee last Friday to
spend up to $7,000 on a peer review to decide whether the
nunibers can be trusted, About $60,000 has been spent to
date on conceptual design work for the multiplex.

“T slill feel quite strongly we have to firm up this price
betier than it is right now so we can tell people what the
price is and whal they’re going to get for that,’ George
said,

The peer review, independent from the consultants who
have already worked on the project, is intended to give a
degree of comfort as to the price estimates, although it will
not be anything near a guarantee,

Johnston Sport Architecture, the firm that has done all
work to date, told the city last week it might wish to revise
the price estimate up from $7.5 million to $8.0 million to
allow for possible cost increases over the next two to three

Continued Page A15

Airline merger a threat to prices here

By JEFF NAGEL

Financially troubled Canadian Airlincs

by United and Lufthansa

‘For Joc Consumer’s bottom Jine this

may

ANY MERGER of Canada’s two
national airlines would likely
Spell even higher prices and
poorer service for  north-
westemers.

“It should make a consumer ner-
vaus,”’ said Ken Veldman of the new

Terrace Economic Development
Authority.
‘Any time you go io a non-

competitive playing field in general costs

to the consumer tend to escalate and ser- .

vice to the consumer tends to decrcase,”*

is on the brink of bankrupicy and Ottawa
has suspended normal competition rules
for 90 days to allow the industry to ex-
plore olher options, ;

One proposal unveiled last week com-
es from Toronto couglomerate Onex
Carp. ia partnership with Texas-based
AMR Corp., the parent company of
Anmcrican Airlines. Onex has offerred to
buy both Air Canada and Canadian Air-
Hines and merge the two into a new na-
Uonal carrier. .

American Airlines would gain: from -

that’ arrangenient ‘because Air Canada

More on airlines:

m Westjet attracting fliers’

from here, page A14
w Airport revenue should
remain stable, page A16

would be forced to abandon its present
international partners United Airlines
and Lufthansa in favour of American’s
Oneworld network. —

Air Canada officials responded cooly
lo the proposal ad expectations are high
that other proposals — possibly backed

enlerge.

Foreign bids to buy Canadian airlines
have to be done in concert with a Cana-
dian partner, such as Onex, because of
rules limiting foreign ownership to no
more than 25 per cet, .

American already owns a quarter of

Canad iat: Airlines,

Veldinan said travellers should proba-
bly be more concerned about any nerger
of the two big airlines than they were
about the incredibly unpopular idea last
year of four big banks merging down to
two,

transaction will probably affect him
more than any of those proposed bank
mergers,’ Veldman said. ‘Now you?re
not talking about reducing competition
you're talking about eliminating it for
the short term.’

Vancouver aviation analyst Rob
Beynon agreed a merger isn’t likely to
reduce what he called the already high
air ticket prices in northwest Bc.

But he said. it’s too early to predict
what will happen,

Continued Page At 6