» 4

Casting votes

first time\NEWS A13

Kitsumkalurn offreserve band cant
members vote in election for the

He’s a scoundrel |

Midget melee

Why women can't resist the oddly
desirable hero in a play opening |
| this week\COMMUNITY B1

Terrace’s Midget rep hockey team |
faces injuries left, right and center
at zone finals\SPORTS B4

VOL. 13 NO. 49
WEDNESDAY
March 14, 2001
: www. beclassified:com’
$1.00 pus 7¢ GST

(51.10 plus 8¢ GST
outside of the Terrace area)

Gas pain may be

PNG is nearly broke and

it needs more money

By JEFF NAGEL
THE PAIN may be just beginning for na-
tural gas customers already paying double
what they were two years ago.

Pacific Northern Gas (PNG) is in a growing
financial crisis that has already pushed it to the
brink of insolvency, the B.C. Utilities Commis-
sion heard last week as it considered the util-
ity’s recent series of rate increases.

The dire picture that emerged from five days
of hearings is one so bleak it suggests the best
chance of relief for ordinary homeowners may be

STA

ee

“Terrace is B.C.’s 2001 Forestry Capital”

if PNG actually fails and goes bankrupt.

“It’s pretty hard to get a utility into a situation
this bad,” said Richard Gathercole, an intervenor
at the hearing representing low-income consumer
groups.

But he said the right combination of factors —
the loss of a major customer, an economic down-
turn, and skyrocketing gas prices — have con-
verged on PNG.

_ “You'd like to be more optimistic but [ don't
think most of-us are very optimistic right now.”

The northwest’s gas provider has jacked resi-

dential gas rates by 42 per cent in three steps *

since October. If the BCUC rejects the increases,
the extra payments will be refunded to custo-
mers. .

The majority of the increases are Strictly the

More on A5
lm Natural gas costs have surpas-
sed electricity here.
i Chop PNG’s profits, groups say.
@ Rates could kill other industries.

result of sharply higher natural gas prices ~
which are hammering gas users everywhere.
Those costs simply flow through to users and
can’t be blocked by the commission,

But part of the recent increases stem from
PNG’s sudden cash flow crisis arising from the
expected loss of giant industrial customer Me-
thanex Corp.

just starting ©

It has shut down its Kitimat methanol plant
and says it wants a more favourable deal from
PNG to transport its gas if it reopens.

PNG officials said they believe Methanex -
which uses 60 per cent of the natural gas flowing
through the utility’s pipelines — will never te-
open. That expectation has prompted them to
prepare to shift Methanex's share of the costs of
running the utility onto other-users.

The situation has also alarmed PNG’s credi-
lors.
PNG president Roy Dyce told the commission
banks want to reduce PNG’s line of credit below
its present $30 million.

Exacerbating the problem is that PNG rates

Continued Page A2

1 Doubt cast

@ Oodles of oolichan
THE QOLICGHAN were running strong in the Ske
weekends ago and Tsimshian people from up

and down the

river gathered to catch the oily smelt-like fish. That's Prince Ru-

ena River two pert resident Jackie Bolton showing eight-year-old Stanley how
to handle a dip net. The annual chance to feast on oolichan
attracted seals, sea lions and a sky full of seagulls and eagles.

Terrace Standard launches web site

THE TERRACE STANDARD now has its own
web site at www.terracestandard.com.

Selected news, community and sports stor-
ies and letters to the editor from each week’s
newspaper can be viewed on line at the site.

“This is an added service for our readers,”
said publisher Rod Link. “It’s a great way for
former Terrace residents who have moved
away to keep in touch with events here.”

The Standard’s classified ads can also be

read on line through www.terracestandard.com.
One of the site’s features is a Question of
the Week, which samples reader opinion on a
new topic each week, Results of the web poll
will be published in the regular newspaper.
The site is also a community portal, provi-
ding an extensive collection of valuable links
to other Internet sites. Links are included to
local schools, regional tourism and business
sites, local weather, road reports, and even

photo radar locations. It’s also easy to connect
to dozens more B.C. community newspapers.

The web site also enables the newspaper to
occasionally go beyond the bounds of its
weekly publication date and detiver breaking
news immediately. When an earthquake rat-
tled the northwest Feb. 17 we reported details
on our web site that afternoon.

Development is also underway to provide
access to story archives on the web site.

School budget balanced,

but new chal

Literacy goal up
against drop in

student numbers

By JENNIFER LANG
THIS YEAR’S $50 million school
board budget is balanced but the
demands on next year’s budget
are already stacking up.

Marcel Georges, secretary.
treasurer of the Coast Mountains
School District, said the educa- -
lion ministry came through with a’

special purpose grant enabling the
district to balance its books..

But that's cold-comfort for next .
year's budget, when the’ full im--

pact of declining enrolment will
be felt. a we

The district is down by 150 stu-
dents more than expected. That’s
a significant drop, Georges said,
adding that trend is expected to
continue next year. ;

The district will spend the next
few months developing next
year’s budget, an exercise
Georges predicts will. be challen-
Bing as officials grapple with
“multiple issues” affecting the
budget: tes :

Georges’ warning comes just as -

administrators have been told.to

find ways. of expanding literacy
- programs throughout the district,

Kitimat trustee. Peter King

leracy district wide.

‘wants the board to make reading a
~. priority by expanding a range of.
programs ‘aimed at ‘improving -li-

That could cost
about $200,000, ac-
cording to district
assistant superinten-
dent Sharon Beedie,
who gave trustees
an overview of liter-
acy programs last
week.

Most of that
would be training &
and staffing costs to [i
hire reading assis- iy
tants, Beedle added.

In . November
King tried to get his

- fellow trustees to direct the super-

intendent: of schools to “greatly
improve” reading scores across

“the -district by June,

King. said about 30 per cent of

Peter King

lenges loom

students tested here in the
education ministry's 2000
Foundation Skills Assess-
ment, a province-wide
snapshot of basic skills,
;] did not meet literacy ex-
pectations.
King said the school dis-
ef trict spent $60,000 last
j year in its search to hire a
Superintendent.
m “That money would have
aa been far better spent. on
students,” he said. “To

me, | think [improving li-
teracy] should be a
priority.”

Beedle said the district will be
collecting data at the end of. the
school year (o see if these literacy
programs are making an impact.

on Kincolith
road jobs

A NATIVE-OWNED company in the Nass is worried
people and businesses there will be squeezed out of any
opportunities from a $30 million road project. :

‘Officials from Sexwhl Lisims Construction Ltd. say
earlier requirements for local hire and local business de-
velopment have been watered down in the final docu-
ments submitted by developers who want to build the
29km road from Greenville west to Kincolith at the
mouth of the Nass River,

“Our concem is that there won’! be anything for local
hire and skills development training,” said Neil Okabe,
Saxwhl Lisims general manager.

“And we also think there won’t be anything for Ter-
race and Prince Rupert either,”

Okabe and other people from Saxwhl Lisims say that
when developers were first solicited nearly two years
ago, local hire and business development figure promin-
ently among criteria to be used to determine who would
get the project.

“But now, in the request for proposals, local hire and
development makes up just 10 per cent of the points in
the bidding process,” he said.

“We suspect local hire will be very, very minor if
anything at all.”

Saxwhl Lisims was formed by the villages of Green-
ville and Kincolith to not only become involved in the
road project, but to undertake maintenance projects and
further development leading off once the road is finished.

“We've invested a lot in training and in capacity
building,” said Okabe.

He said the corporation’s hopes were high during dis-
cussions with potential developers going back two years,

But that changed after Saxwhl Lisims got a chance to
examine the requesis for proposal documents .

The deadline for submission has now passed and the
proposals are being examined to determine who will
build the road.

Okabe said Saxwhl Lisims officials believe that those
running the project are obsessed with keeping it on its
$30 million budget.

And while Saxwhl supports the need for budget con-
trol, the feeling is that anything perceived as a risk to
that is being eliminated.

The Saxwhl belief is rooted in the new way in which
this project will be managed.

Instead of having the contractor bearing the full finan-
cial burden should the complex and difficult project run
into cost overruns, any overruns will now be shared be-
tween the contractor and the road's three owners — the
federal, provincial and Nisga’a Lisims governments.

That three governments’ desire to avoid having to pay
for overruns then results in pressure to tighten down on
costs as much as possible, said Okabe,

He said Saxwhl Lisims is also disappointed because
it’s getting no support from the Nisga’a Lisims govern-
ment. ss

Nisga’a Lisims government land and resources direc-
tor Collier Azak said there will be local hire and Oppor-
tunities resulting from the road work.

“That’s their opinion. I don't share that,” sald Azak of
the Saxwhl criticism. “There will be opportunities for
local hire.” ‘

Azak confirmed the Nisga’a Lisims government
would have to share in making up for any cost overruns
and that this makes it important the project comes in on
budget.

“The two are very much linked together,” he said of
the issue of local hire laid against construction cost,
“The bottom line is we want the road built.”

Azak said the Nisga’a Lisims government also real.
izes It won’t be able to make everybody happy, :

The successful road builder should. be chosen very
soon to follow up on an earlier government commitment
to have work started this spring, Construction is expected
to last two years,