Maybe he will This Old House for SCI\NEWS All Gordon Campbell doesn't rule out the possibility of continued money A new book showcases heritage - homes built in Terrace before 1940\COMMUNITY B1 Medal mania: Local athletes come home from B.C. Northern Winter Games _ laden with medals\SPORTS B6 VOL, 13 NO. 45 WEDNESDAY February 14, 2001 www.beclassified.cam $1.00 Pius 7¢.G5T ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the Terrace area) STAN Nisga’a urged to back off bear kill Critics rip three-year ban on grizzly hunt By JEFF NAGEL THE PROVINCE will ask the Nisga’a to voluntarily comply with a three-year moratorium on grizzly bear hunting. “I’m asking them to respect the moratorium,” environment minister. Jan Waddell told The Standard after an- nouncing the hunt ban Thursday in the wake of a high-pressure campaign by environmental organizations. ; _ He did not say whether the province would — or could ~ enforce the request. Nisga’a Lisims Government presi- dent Joe Gosnell wouldn’t say whether the Nisga’a will comply, but instead underscored their treaty rights and ex- pressed disappointment Victoria didn’t first consult with the Nisga’a. “British Columbia has a treaty obli- gation to allow us to take those two bears under the fish and wildlife chap- ter of the Nisga’a Treaty,” he said. If the Nisga’a de voluntarily abide by the moratorium, it will avoid the spectre of unequal huating rights in the Nass Wildlife Area. Negotiators designed the wildlife and fishing rights under the treaty so that when the Nispa’a are allowed to hunt or fish, so too can non-natives and other aboriginals. In the case of grizzly bears, it gives the Nisga’a a certain percentage of the bears that a committee determines can be safely hunted cach year. A larger number of huntable bears in the area are sel aside for non-Nisga’a hunters. But exactly how a hunt would be conducted hasn’t been determined yet, he added. Gosnell said there are plenty of grizzly bears in the Nass area, adding the Nisga’a don’t believe a hunting More bears page A16 Mm Environmental groups ’ set sights on a new target. m@ Victoria told -to -repay bear critic's docked wages. ban is needed to protect stacks. Waddell promised the government will deliver short-term compensation and other aid for guide-outfitters affec- ted by the three-year suspension of the grizzly hunt, Asked why the government didn't opt for a selective ban, leaving out areas where it’s not necessary, he said: “It’s a difficult decision. You have to either do it right or not at all.” He said the three-year province- wide ban is needed to conduct a pro- per study of bear populations, adding scientists are divided on that issue. The move to halt the hunt drew ap- plause from a wide range of environ- mental groups and bitter criticism from guide-outfitters. Skeena MLA Helmut Giesbrecht said hunt opponents are already begin- ning to argue it will take more than three years to get a reliable count. “Once you make a decision that’s not subject to strict science you leave yourselves open to all sorts of changes in where the goalposts are,” he said. “Now they want to deal with the is- sues of habitat, which suggests to me they’re going to go after the issues of jogging and more protected areas, so the goalposts keep changing.” . Giesbrecht opposed a moratorium — which he said will be difficult if not impossible to ever lift — and argued the government instead reduce the. hunt to whatever is sustainable based on the lowest population estimates. “It’s like using a hand grenade on a job where a .22 calibre rifle would do,” he said of the complete province- wide ban, “What can I say? I did my best. They decided otherwise.” He accused the government of “caving in” to pressure from foreign interests and called it a “convenient - Continued Page Ai6é Nearly 500. a The cup stops here B.C. LION Brett Anderson, local football fan Branden Beaupre and Canadian football legend Lui Passaglia gather around the coveted Grey Cup. Passaglia and Anderson made a quick stop by the Terrace Standard last Saturday en route to Prince , Aupert for an appearance at the All-Native Basketball Tourna- ment. Passaglia retired from the B.C. Lions after they won the cup in a close battle with the Montreal Alouettes jast Novem- ber. it was Passaglia’s third Grey. Cup win. Amos may run here for native By JEFF NAGEL GERALD AMOS, a prominent Haisla leader from Kitamaat Vil- lage, is being tipped as a poten- tial candidate for the new All Na- tions Party here in the coming provincial election. “He’s a great worker for the northwest and he may well be our candidate in Skeena,” said inter- im party leader Don Moses, a Merritt area resident. “He'd still have to get the nomination.” Amos, a former Kitamaat Vil- lage chief councillor, is vice-pre- sident-at-large of the party, Moses Guides slam river crowdin said, and a key organizer in the region. The party has been formed by aboriginal people across the pro- vince to challenge the existing provincial parties and advance is- sues such as the resolution of na- tive land claims. Moses said Skeena is one of the dozen ridings in B.C. the All Nations Party is targeting for their . high aboriginal populations. “We know we can impact at Icast a dozen ridings and maybe as many as 20,” he said. He said North Coast has the highest aboriginal proportion of the population, at close to 40 per cent, and will be a big focus of efforts. Skeena is third or fourth on the list of tidings by aboriginal popu- lation, he said, “ET think we can win Skeena,” he said. “I know we can win North Coast.” Moses said party members are busy forming constituency asso- ciations and preparing campaign material. “We think definitely by the 15th of March we should be ready party with six to 10 candidates and by the time the writ is dropped we should have a minimum of 12,” he said. He admits they won't likely field a full slate nor do they have a chance of forming government. “We've always felt that al- though we’re a minority you don’t have to win ta impact the politi- cal process. You just have to be there, put your issues squarely on the table, get the public’s eye on it, and we should do better.” The party’s leadership conven- tion Mar. 10-11 in Prince George. laid off by © Skeena Cel ABOUT 190 workers at ..Skeena Cellulose are bra- _ cing for another long shut- down of the Terrace saw- mill, starting Feb. 23. This time company offi- cials aren't saying for sure . how long the mil] will re- _ Main down, except that it’s expected to be at least five weeks, “It will be down, we think, until sometime in April,” said SCI solid wood division general . Manager Dan Tuomi. He blamed very low lumber prices and said the shutdown could last longer if bad markets persist. “We're just going to _ have to take a bit of a hia- tus until we see a bit of improvement,” he said; Workers here had just gone back to work this week, ending a three-week shutdown. Also affected by the mill shutdown here are around 250 loggers who work for SCI. Tuomi said they likely won’t resume operations in the bush until late March or early April. Mills and logging are also down in Hazelton, But the company agreed ta resume a chip- ping shift at its Carnaby mill, putting up to 100 em- ployees back to work there until mid-March. That was a result of workers there agreeing to take a 10 per cent pay cut to go back to work. “The contractors and the community came to us and said lock we’re pre- pared to do something fo get everything back to work,” he said. “We ap- preciate what they did,” However, he said, lum- ber prices are so bad the concession was only en- ough to restart chipping, and not the whole sawmill. Meanwhile, another 30 workers at West Fraser’s sawmill in Terrace were laid off last week, They had been on a. shift custom-chipping for Skeena Celluiose — work now no longer needed, Tuomi said-the halt to , chipping at West Fraser's . Terrace mill wasn’t a deli- ' berate effort to move the chipping to Carnaby to take advantage of wage concessions there. 7 He said the halt to’ chipping here is because ” there isn’t logging taking place near Terrace — be- cause SCI’s sawmill is down —and as a result pulp logs aren't coming in. - Tuomi said lumber: Prices are at their lowest levels in 10 years, ‘ “I don’t think it can go any lower,” he said. “We're hearing lots of an- nounced downtime across Canada and a lot of U.S. mills are down, At some point I think there will be a recovery, but how soon and how much - who knows.” g remedies. By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN FESHING GUIDES here are furious with a government proposal they say threatens to worsen — not avert — future overcrowding on popular rivers, Al issue is a 56-page government discussion paper thal outlines ways to control the number of anglers in th best fishing areas in B.C. oe The document sets out three op-- tions, The first is to abandon regula- tion. The second option is to build - ~~ it-will open the door to. uncontrolled * guiding on the waters, he adds. gests phasing out rod days for angling | upon the current model. os The third and most. contentious sug- puides and that residents be allotted a fixed amount of fishing time. Rod days are purchased by tenured guides and it gives them 2 certain ted to guide on classified waters. If the rod days are eradicated, as_ the document suggests, that could spell disaster for local angling guides. “Rod days are central and critical to the guiding business and to take them away would mean that it would destroy their businesses completely,” said Noel Gyger, president of the Ter- race and District Angling Guides As- sociation. - . If the current system is eliminated, “The rod day system would potenti- ally be replaced by allowing clients to purchase their own ‘angler’ days. “If rod days are taken away, what is _ an established classified: guide sup- number of days when they are permit-". posed.to do when a client applies for a licence and discovers that ali ‘angler days’ are sold?” Gyger demanded, Gyger says that could easily happen once an electronic licensing system, or ELS, is implemented. It would allow people to buy fishing licences for B.C.’s rivers on the Internet. “There is no way that the local re- sident anglers will tolerate an unlimi- ted number of guides guiding on clas- sified or special waters,” Gyger said, “This paper is a wish wash of things — with an outcome that is so far off base “that right now we are working to save this thing and get it back on track,” he said. Gyger strongly believes the current system, with some work, can control future crowding on rivers, He says the simple solution is to put together a Management plan for each of B.C.'s classified waters. That would bring together guides ard local anglers to determine how crowding on popular rivers could be avoided. The loca] groups would use their own experiences and data from the ELS to help regulate fishing on specific rivers, “From the responses I’ve seen, 99.9 per cent are to retain the current sys- tem but fix il,” says Gyper. “The third option [presented in the discussion paper] is completely unreasonable, it’s ‘like reinventing the wheel,” Fishing guides aren’t the only lo- cals upset by the discussion paper. Many: resident anglers feel the paper doesn’t adequately address their tight to priority access on B.C, rivers. “My suggestion is that if we need to control people we need to establish who we control and how we control them,” said local angler Tom Prother- oe. “As that takes place, the people who should be controlled last are the resident anglers.” B.C. Wildlife Federation inland fisheries chairman Phil Hallinan echoed that sentiment. “We want to make sure that the. last. person restricted from the waters: be resident anglers,” he said. “The do-: cument doesn’t give us comfort that! the resident angler will be the last one off the water,” he said. | " Anglers have until Feb, 15 to give: the review board their opinions.