Mind control Shogun Dojo fighters prepare for Canadian Offshore advance Two new reports say much more work is required — Tibetan tourists Two women find the food funny but the mountains karate championships \SPORTS B7 before any drilling begins\NEWS A10 marvelous during a trip to Terrace \COMMUNITY B1 $1.00 plus 7¢-GST ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the Terrace area) Parents in dark on school closures schools were being looked at, if any. “Just because those schools are Trustees sticking to script to chop budget By JENNIFER LANG COAST MOUNTAINS school trustees have reaffirmed their intent ta close schools in Terrace, Kitimat and Ste- wart fo help balance the budget. But trustees were unable to provide many specific details for parents in the Terrace area attending a public meet- ing on school closures May 2. Five schools — including Parkside and Copper Mountain Elementary in Terrace — are being considered for. clo- sure. A final decision will be made June 11, board chair Linda Campbell said. Trustees would not say which other named, it doesn’t mean these five schools will have to close,” Campbell said, adding other schools could be named after the deadline because the 60-day consultation period is merely a recommendation. Board vice chair Peter King closing schools is the easiest way to save money. The district is Facing a $3.5 million . budget shortfall unless cuts are made, Massive teacher layoffs are expec- ted to be announced in Terrace soon. King warned school programs like music could be next as the district looks for ways to make up the remain- ing budget shortfall. Some parents were disappointed that trustees appeared unprepared for the mecting. When someone asked why the board was considering closing Park- side two years after it decided to keep it open, the board chair appeared flummoxed. “[ don’t have the paperwork in front of me,” Campbell said, explaining she’d come straight from work. Parkside PAC chair Tracey Fel- hauer hopped onto the stage and with a large, red binder filled with the dis- trict’s school closure data and showed it to trustees. “T think the public needs ta demand a question period,” Felhauer said later. King said trustees were there io lis- ten. “This is your opportunity to give us information,” he said. Parkside parents have given up hope of saving their school. Instead, they're are asking the board to close E.T. Kenney Primary as well, and turn Clarence Michiel into a K-7 school. Parkside parents also want the board to open’ Mountainview Elemea- tary, a: new school that may not open. Seventy-three per cent of Parkside parents told the PAC they’re willing to send their children there. Felhauer said students need the sta- bility a K-7 school provides. Parents and staff-al Copper Moun- tain, meanwhile, haven’t given up their fight. PAC chair Lynn Smith said they’ve asked the board to instead close Thornhill Elementary because ii needs extensive repairs, and turn Thornhill Primary into a K-7 school. Now, all they can do is wait. “We just want lo know for sure if it’s being closed or nat,” Smith said. Parents also complained about not being able to tell their children where they will attend school next year. “Come September, where are they going to be?” wondered parent Kac- leen Foote. “T get a really uneasy feeling about how this is being dealt with,” she said. Gitaus resident Debbie Moore said the Kitsclas band may open up its own school if Copper Mountain closes, “We ate very concerned as a com- munity,” she said, adding parents fecl like “our children come last when it comes to these cutbacks.” Ay, MARTY LORIMER is one of nearly 500 local seniors who will face an extra $104 charge on property tax bills this year in the wake of city council's decision to end free garbage collection for seniors. JEFF NAGEL PHOTO eniors’ free garbage ride ends By JEFF NAGEL LOCAL SENIORS will have to pay for trash pickup starting this year. City council has decided to make senior citizens pay the full $2 per week rate it charges all other residents for garbage collec- tion. It will show up as a $104 charge on properly tax bills when they go oul at the end of May. The city will collect about $51,000 more each year from se- niors who used to pay nothing for garbage. “There was no way to pive each individual senior a break on their garbage collection,” ex- plained councillor David Hull, “There was no way to apply it fairly.” Although the city could easily forgive its $2 per week fee for se- niors with their own homes, il wasn’t as easy for seniors who live in apartments or condomini- ums. Their buildings have paid Ca- nadian Waste Management fer: ‘garbage pickup since the city pri- vatized commercial refuse collec- tion several years ago. Since privatization the cily has given Twin River Estates at least $2,000 per year ta help cover pickup costs. But other housing complexes with seniors have since asked for a grant as well, leading the city to re-examine the whole issue in the past year. The Twin River Estates subsidy will also be climinated, council decided. Rich McDaniel was the only councillor to oppose the decision, favouring continued free seniors’ garbage pickup. City staff had suggested the money raised from seniors could be used to trim trash pickup fees across the board, so everyone would have to pay $1. 85 per week instead of $2. But council opted to keep the tates at $2 to cover an overrun in costs at-the landfill and to begin amassing money to put toward re- cycling, other green projects, and eventual costs of decommission- ing the landfill. Hull said the free ride for se- niors was unfair to other citizens, “There are poor old people, there are poor middle aged people, there are poor young people,” he noted. He said a survey found most other towns don’t give seniors a break on garbage pickup. Everyone pays the same $3.69 per. week rate in Prince Rupert, while Kitimat seniors get a 10 per cent discount on the $1 weekly charge there. City council decision angers local seniors — LOCAL SENIORS are not pleased council’s decision to make them pay for. garb- age pickup, “They’re picking on seniors,” said Terrace senior Marty Lorimer. “They're starting to emulate our premier, thinking he’s doing the right thing.” Lorimer, who lives in her. own Graham Ave., is one of nearly 500 Terrace se- niors who will find.an extra $104 charge when with city per week. house. on they get their property tax notice next month. That’s to cover garbage pickup at a rate of $2 “{ don’t think any care or consideration has gone into this,” said Lorimer, who-was one of several seniors at the Happy Gang Centre who were angered by the decision. She and others said it adds further expenses ~ for seniors at-a time.when natural gas heating - costs are high. and the provincial government -. is raising other fees or clawing back services. “This government is picking on ‘the seniors,” added Dolly Roberts. “They're taking away the homes, they're taking away the medical and every damn thing.” Lorimer also pointed to the 0.5 per cent in- crease in provincial sales tax. -. “We're being. two-bitted to death,” she said. — “I think it should stop. It think it’s-high tinte they: put the brakes ‘on for a while.” NWBC to log despite challenges Court actions target timber : By JEFF NAGEL NWBC TIMBER and Pulp’s newly acquired forest li- cences could still be altered or even quashed by aborigi- nal court challenges. Although the sale of Skeena Ceilulose to the Mon- treal-based group was completed and the licences were transferred April 30, the Gitxsan and the Gilanyow are pushing ahead with their court fight. ; A B.C, Supreme Court judge last week rejected their request for an interim order postponing the licence trans- fer and approved the sale of SCI. NWB5C president Daniel Veniez had said any further delay could scuttle the sale and plunge the firm into bankruptey. Gitxsan lawyer Gordon Sebastian says a judicial hearing over the licence transfer is now set for May 13 in Smithers. Aboriginal challenges of the Skeena licence transfers are building off a new court ruling this year that said the Haida should have been consulted and accommodated when forest licences there were sold to Weyerhaeuser. Sebastian said the Gitxsan will have no problem showing they have a good initial case to prove aborigi- nal title to their traditional lands - one of the tests in the Haida decision. If the judge then accepts the Gitxsan contention that consultation over the Skeena licence transfer was inade- quate, he said, some kind of remedy will be in order. The court could direct the province and the company fo engage in further consultation, or even co-manage the territory with the Gitxsan, Sebastian said. Compensation could also be required, he said. And, he said, it’s possible the forest licences that supply Skeena's mills from Smithers to Prince Rupert could be altered or even quashed. “If he does quash it, everything’s back to square one - there’s no $6 million deal,” Sebastian said, “Then we negotiate: they’ve got the money, we've got the trees.” The Gitanyow are preparing for their awn judicial re- view in the second week of June. Chief negotiator Glen Williams warned NWEC may find itself preparing to run mills with timber it may not be allowed to use. “Between now and when we get our tuling they will be operating at great risk,” he said, Williams said the Gitanyow would prefer to sit down with NWBC and integrate land-use plans the aboriginal group is preparing with the company’s operational plans. Veniez said he looks forward to more talks with abor- iginal leaders. But he said he*s not holding back his plans because of the ongoing court challenges. “It’s full speed ahead,” Veniez said, adding NWBC now owns the assets and is proceding accordingly. “There’s no question that there is some uncertainty,” he added. “We've calculated the risks and we would not have ptoceeded with the acquisitlon if we thought there was a very serious risk of us not having the tenure or the licences.” Veniez said he was troubled some people criticize aboriginal leaders for challenging the licence transfers. First Nations have valid concerns with the sustainability of the resdurce and a right to be heard in court, he said, “They conducted themselves with a lot of grace, a lot of dignity and a lot of class in that court proceeding.” Gitxsan officials predict the Carnaby sawmill] won't reopen and NWBC will just export raw logs from their territories if the deal goes ahead unchanged. : - Although exports are part of his plan to quickly. gener- tte cash flow, Veniez refutes fears about the Hazelton sawmill. “We intend to run Carnaby,” he said.