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WEDNESDAY -
August 25, 1999

PM vows to
ratify treaty

By MIKE COX

“IT WILL PASS.”

That was the determined message prime minister Jean
Chretien delivered to the Nisga’a Aug, 21 in New Aiyansh.

Chretien stressed the importance of implementing the treaty
not only for the Nisga’a, but for all Canadians.

“This will be a victory for the Canadian way,” he said.

Nisga’a leaders want to see the treaty passed by the end of
the year, but Chretien was hesitant to give an exact date.

“It will be passed, there’s no doubt about it — it’s just a mat-
ter of time,” he told them.

Before his address to the Nisga’a, Chretien and Gosnell -
along: with other officials ~ met at Gosnell’s house for a pri
vate conference.

“We talked about the ratification process and some other
administrative problems that have to be faced,” Chretien said
in an interview after his speech,

Chretien, along with his wife, daughter and grandchildren
were welcomed back to the Nisga'a community after his 30-
year absence.

“A high point of my career is when I became an honourary
Nisga’a citizen and part of the killer whale clan,” Chretien
said in his,address to the crowd.

Chretien’s first visit to the Nass in 1969 was the firét visit of
an Indian Affairs minister to the area, and now he is the first
prime minister to come here.

“Having the Nisga’a treaty implemented will be one of the

highlights of my political life,” he told the crowd,
Nisga’a dancers greeted the prime minister as he walked

through the crowd, and Joe Gosnell’s opening speech praised.

Chretien’s commitment to the treaty,

“Yes, prime minister, it took all those” intervening. years
since you were last here with us, to negotiate the Nisga’a
treaty,” Gosnell said. “Twenty five years of struggle and hard-
fought compromise.”

He also warned that opponents aim to sabotage the treaty
when it comes up for debate in the House of Commons.

' “Fanning the flames of fear and i ignorance, their crude
methods resonate with a racism and negativity so painfully
familiar to the aboriginal people of this country,” he said.
Objections such as those raised by Reform MP Mike Scott
- that the prime minister’s support of the treaty places undue
political support behind a treaty not yet debated by Parliament
— were dismissed.

Chretien said if Scott was serious about his objections he
would also have visited the valley.
| Skeena’s MP left Terrace on Thursday for Ottawa.

YOUNG AND OLD
alike waited patiently
(top) for the arrival of
‘prime minister Jean
Chretien in New
Aiyansh. {t was his first
visit back to the Nass
valley since visiting
Kincolith as Indian
Affairs minister in
1969. He was also
minister in 1973 when
the federal government
decided to enter treaty
negotiations with the
Nisga’a after a split
court decision in. the
Supreme Court of
Canada. At left,
Chretien receives a gift
carving from Nisga’a
carver Alver Tait.

Airport user fee takes effect

Passengers not
thrilled about it

By MIKE COX
IF YOU DON’T pay, you
don’t fly.

That’s what airline counter
staff have had to tell people all
week now that a $19 airport
user surcharge has taken effect,

Reactions have been mixed,
but most out-of-lowners were
shocked at the price.

“I! pay five dollars in Van-
couver to fly, but 19 secms a bit
excessive,”’ said Vancouver
resident Marion Houlbrook.

She said she wasn’t surprised
at the charge because tolls have

become a fact of life.

“You have to pay to use
pretty much everything now,”
she said.

Gary Yabsley, also from Van-
couver, didn’t object to the
charge, but wanted to know
what it was going towards.

“If it's actually put into im-
proving the airport then it’s
good,”* he said,

Counter staff said there is no
way that tourists would have
know about the charge, but were
surprised how many locals
didn’t realize that it is in place.

A few people have been irate
about the fee, one counter at-
tendant said, but the attendants

have to deal with it.

“It’s been pushed on us as one
of our duties,”’ she said.

Carol Harvie from Terrace
sald she travels six to seven
times a year.

She said the fee wiil add con-
siderably to her flying expenses,

Having the fee to keep the air-
port open, Harvie said, is a posi-
tive thing, but would like to see
what it is being used for at the
end of the year.

“T’d like to see a tally of
where the money is going at the
end of the year.”

Her daughter, Sonya, ‘wasn’t
so. understanding about the
charge. oe

“Tt sucks,” she said.

Sonya flew in to Terrace from
Edmonton so she wasn’t
charged a fee.

“*I don’t have to pay to fly out
of Edmonton, and 19 dollars
seems like a high. price,”’ she

' noted,

Dr, Carstens from Terrace ob-
jected to having to pay cash at
the counter.

*‘When you gel here you have
to pay hard cash,”’ he said, ‘‘It’s
as bad as the airport improve-
ment fee down south.’*

Carstens fears that the fee will |
remain in place for ihe airporl’s

lifespan, which he sees as unfair

to people flying.

$1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST
($1.10 plus 8¢ GST outslde of the
Terrace area)

VOL. 12 NO. 20

Hospital to

cook meals

for seniors

Latest cost-cutting measure

By MIKE COX
RESIDENTS OF Terraceview Lodge will be
eating hospital food for the rest of their lives.

The change is slated for April ist, but it’s no joke.

Tom Novak, the hospital’s financial trouble shooter,
said the cooking now done at Terraceview will be
moved to Mills Memorial Hospital to save money.

*“We’re working on a plan to integrate our dietary plan,”
he said.

Novak said there would be no layoffs, but money will be
saved on processing of food,

There will still be a kitchen at Terraceview for some
preparation, he said, but most of the cooking will be donc
in buik down at Mills
Memorial Hospital.

“*]t will be a much smaller
dietary program ai Ter-
raceview,”’ he said.

Terraceview residents
won't have the current menu
al Mills to choose from, he
said, and the meals will not
be tray served.

The thought of cating hos-
pital food every day may
not seem appealing, but
Novak said he’s sampled the
food at Mills.

**It tasted good to me, but
I’m not too picky,” Novak
said.

Cousideration will be
laken, he added, that people Tom Novak
in Terraceview are residents and aot short-term patients.

“‘Those people are residents — il’s their home.’’

Novak said this plan would start saving money within
two years, but denied hours of kitchen staff at Terraceview
would be cut.

The two kitchens are different unions, but Juanita Bar-
felt, acting chief administrator, said there would be no
need to change unions.

Union officials declined to comment on the proposal,
ciling a gag-order that only Barrett and Novak can talk to
the media.

One Terraceview volunteer is worried residents will suf-
fer in an effort to save money,

“Terraceview has been in the black for years and Mills
is always in the red,’’ sald the woman, who declined to be
named.

Saving money, she said, will come at the cost of the
elderly residents of Terracevicw.

“You're taking cookies from old people and that’s sup-
posed to save money?” she demanded.

A CEDAR HAT found with ancient human hones ina
melting glacier last week. Sheep hunters found the
body in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park last Tuesday.

Ice man found in

northwest glacier

THE DISCOVERY of the
body of an “ice man’? along
wilh clothing and tools in a
norlhwest B.C. glacier may
be a find of world  sig-
nificance.

Sheep hunters found the
body, which may be thou-
sands of years old, in an ex-
posed face of a glacier in
Tatshenshini Park, just
south of the Yukon border.

The bones of the ancient
man have some skin still at-
tached.

Also with the body were

artifacts including a cedar

hat in good condilion and

and an ancient throwing
spear never before found in
this part of the world.

The discovery has piqued
the interest of researchers
and is fuelling speculation
that it could yield important
clues to the migrations of
ancient people betweea Asia
and North America.

B.C. Parks officials con-
firmed ihe find and said
Scientists are on site to look
afler the find.

They’re also consulting
with Champagne-Aishik na-
tives on how to handle the
remains,