Big bird’s gone Air B.C. replaces its jet service here with Dash-8s turboprops\NEWS AQ, A12 The big art Sounds of summer home for the big A chainsaw Picasso comes back logs\COMMUNITY B1. Terrace juniors take to Rotary field in the preliminary games of ‘the year\SPORTS B6 — | WEDNESDAY May 19, 1999 Natives sue over fishing collapse NATIVE commercial fishers are suing the federal government for millions of dollars in compensation over the destruction of the salmon fishery. Ray Gono, of the Area 4 First Nations Commercial Fishers Association, was in Vancouver with other asso- ciation members Friday to file the lawsuit against the federal government. “Ninety per cent of the aboriginal commercial fish- ing fleet has been displaced or bankrupted,’’ Guna says. The case secks damages for loss of earnings and loss of capital investment in boats and equipment, It also demands natives get co-management of the salmon and its habitat. The action contends the federal government breached its fiduciary, or trust-like, duty to protect the interests of fishermen. Guno and others blame the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for the salmon crisis. He rejects the idea that Skeena River coho are endangered, and says if there are problems, it is DFO’s fault for mismanag- mement and Ottawa’s duty to compensate natives for losses. ‘We couldn’t make pay- ments on equipment and our boats were seized,’’ says Guno. He’s managed to maintain his boat by working the rest of the year as a Northwest Community College — in- structor in Greenville. But he says he’s told his son and his students there’s no future in the way of life that natives have traditional- .. [ ly considered their birthright. *{ tell them to forget it and stay in school,” he says. Guno says the concept of the food fishery was in- vented by non-natives to ai- low them to take over the fishery. He rejects the idea that na- tives have an aboriginal tight to fish only for food, ceremonial and social rea- sons —- but not as a com- mercial liveilhood. “To us a salmon is not just some commodity we sell on the open market. It is our culture,’’ he says. ‘There was no such thing as a food fishery. There was no distinction made. That was a foreign concept,’” he says. ‘‘They basically legis- jated our rights out of ex- islance.”’ The group is particularly angry at Terrace-based sportsfishing interests, who Guno said have largely suc- ceeded in a campaign to end commercial fishing at the mouth of the Skeena. That estuary zone known as arca 4-15 — is the traditional fishing area of the native gillnetters who comprise more than 80 per cent of the commercial fleet. ‘As far as the public is concemed, we're the guys who decimated the. steel- head and coho, and.it’s not true,”’ native - some, but to seven-year-old Kyla Baker dandelions are beautiful. She picked her bouquet - Signs of summer GREAT FLOWERS: They may be weeds to from a grassy field outside Parkside Elementary School this week. Baker graduates from Grade 1 at the school In June. Christiane Wiens photo City urged to buy track Skeena school site could be destined for housing subdivision TERRACE RESIDENTS are worried about losing Skeena's track facilities after the school is demolished and the land is sold. Dighton Haynes, a teacher at Uplands Elementary, spoke to city council May 10 to ask the city to con- sider purchasing the land from the school board. “There’s an enormous amount of public use,’’ Haynes said. He explained that on any given night the fields and track are used by two or three athletic groups. His concern resis on where those teams will go if the land is sold and developed as housing. “it will put pressure on existing fields in town,’’ Haynes said. “If we lose one we'll need to replace it some- where else,”’ Haynes was also concerned about the longevity of Caledonia and Skeena track and field programs without a running track. “The track and fleld program is going to die,’’ Haynes said. School board secretary treasurer Barry . Plersdorff sald it’s up to whoever buys the Skeena School site to decide to whether or not to keep the : running track. DIGHTON HAYNES wants the > city to consider buying the Skeena school field and track. Piersdorff said the land will go out io tender in two years once a new senior secondary school is built on the Caledonia site, _Piersdorff said a financial agreement was made with the education ministry that the current Skcena. school land would be sold,and (he money would be used to offset the costs of building the new school. “There’s nothing unusual about that,’’ Piersdorff said.‘“The ministry does that with any site with ended oc- cupancy,’’ Many residents are worried the land will be bought by a developer who will turn the green space and the track _ into housing units. The hope is that the city will buy the land and keep the Jand as parkland. “*You never know the city may come through,’’ Piersdorff said, But city councillor David Hull said council hasn’t had any formal discus- sion on the topic. Hull did say however that even if the city bought the land, it would be good planning to develop housing along a strip of site to offset the costs of purchase. He added that there’s a fair amount of parkland in the area already consid- ering Caledonia’s school grounds, Veritas’ school yard, ET Kenny and Parkside’s school grounds, Christy Park and the natural wooded area that leads anto the bench, The issue was referred to a May 0 Parks and Recreation Advisory Board mecling that 1s open to the public, $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST _ "($1.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the | Torace area) VOL. 12 NO. 6 Volunteers still charged for checks They're paying at city hall instead of RCMP detachment By CHRISTIANA WIENS THE CITY of Terrace will continue charging voluntecrs $20 for criminal record checks despite the RCMP’s refusal to do so. The move puts volunteer organizations such as Ter- race Minor Hockey and Veritas Elementary School out thousands in refund dol- lars bey had hoped to get back for fees charged in the last two years, City administrators be- lieve the city is legally al- lowed to charge volunteers. “They're charged a fee for service,”’ said city ad- ministrator Ron Poole. ‘“We don’t want to nail volunteers, we just want to recover some of these costs.”’ The city started charging volunteers three years. ago biit took a brief hiatus last January while the policy was discussed with — the RCMP, who have a tule against charging volunteers. The city got around that stipulation at the end of April by having municipal staff at the detachment pro- cess and charge for criminal record checks. That puts organizations such as Terrace Minor Hockey out $3,000 it has paid since 1997, Club president Steve Smyth peancd a letter in February asking ihe city to reimburse the club. Smyth said that by charg- ing volunteers, who commit to hours of ice time each winter, the city destroys the level playing field between Terrace and competing hockey clubs, Minor hockey volunteers in Kitimat and Prince Rupert, he said, don’t pay the fees because their checks are done by the provincial RCMP detach- ments who aren't allowed to charge volunteers to check their criminal records. ‘*There’s no consistency or commonality in how it’s delivered,”’ he said. Frances Nyuten, Veritas Elementary School princi- pal, asked the city for a $1,240 refund on behalf of 62 volunteers at the school. She received a limited response from. her letters and phone calls to the city and didn’t expect a full refund. "Tt doesn’t surprise me,’ She said. “‘] would have been more surprised if I had gotten the refund,’ City bans dogs from two parks DOGS WILL soon be al- lowed to frolic off-leash on a small part of Ferry Island ~~ but theyll be banned altogether from Christy Park and George Little Park downtown. City councillors decided last’ weck that pooches should no Jonger be allowed in Christy Park because of the number of young soccer players they fear could come into unhealthy contact with doggy doo there, Similarly, they decided the heavy public use of Little Park around the library meant it too should be declared dog-free. Councillor Olga Power said the downtown park is important to low-income families, adding it should be clean. "T don’t sce why we need dogs at either park,’’ agreed ‘councillor Linda Hawes. But councillor David Hull suggested the city is irra- tionally ready to create a “paramilitary state’? over a litile dog excrement, "It seems we're getting a bit carried away with rules and repulations,’’ Hull said. Councillors also recom- mended the city try as a three-month trial ailowing dogs to run off the lcash in the hydro line area of Ferry ’ stand. Leashes would still be re- quired on actual trails. Hull. said that idea is meaningless if the cily doesn't enforce the leash rule on the rest of the trails in the park and actually start lickeling violators. He says the vast majority of dog owners using the park jet their dogs run loose on the trails and said he doubls a minor policy change will stop that. He said he’s not aware of many complaints about dogs on the island and suspects i's not a major problem. **Are we going to create a police state down there, create a big to-do and regu- late something that doesn’t seem to be a big problem in the first place?”’ he asked, The recommendations are both expected to be passed by council at its May 24 meeting, Councillors decided against putting in scoop- and-poop stations —_—that would dispense baggies — at a cost of $125 to $900 each. Instead the cily will sct up some garbage receptacles further along the island’s trails and set up signs reminding people to bring bags and scoop their dog’s poop. The excrement issue was particularly bad this year be- cause of the amount of snow, said parks supcrinten- dent Steve Scott. “You couldn’t look around at all,”’ added coun- clllor Ron Vanderlee. ‘You had to look where every step went.” Scott said they'll also try running a gradcr through the road part of the park, past the gates, to help clear away the excrement next winter,