Ae RE ne a ne ge en

District Economic De

TERRACE ~— A letter from the
City of Terrace saying that they
plan to ‘‘withdraw from partici-
pation’ in the Economic Devel-

opment Commission of the Reg-.

ional District of Kitimat-Stikine
by:the end of this year has left

‘commission directors wondering
’ about their future.

by Tod Strachan :

' “This dog-in-the-manger at-

titude — I don’t like it,’’ said
commission. chairman Andrew
Burton. ‘I think it’s very
narrow-minded. They’ve just
got tunnel vision,”’ -
Burton said Kitimat made the

same move about four years ago
and he could understand the

pressure they had probably re-
ceived from taxpayers, who
questioned the value of putting
$20,000 annually into regional

~ economic. development.

Terrace opts out of Regional

be persuaded to return: But in
the meantime, even though it

may mean a small increase in

rural taxes, the commission will
continue to function.

' According to Burton, last

year’s tax levy to support the
Economic Development Com-
mission was approximately
$53,000, with $21,000 of that
coming from Terrace. —

““We’re going to have to look .

at it,’’ said Burton. ‘But there’s

a bottom line budget and maybe .

we can operate on $30,000 next

year and just put, out -a very.

velopment.

Commission, Chairman disappointed

limited sort of economic devel-
opment... ss a

**But at least we can keep the
thing together in hopes of get-
ting more involvement - next
year. - :

*“We may be able to get Ter-
face back in, 1 don’t know,”
said Burton. ‘It didn’t seem
very promising from what we
heard here today, but there’s g0-
ing to be an election and that
council may change.

“In politics you never know,’’

he concluded, .

. Everyone welcorne,

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machine knitting. Regular monthly meetings will be held on the 2nd
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’

- Terrace Review — Wednesday, October 28, 1987 19

‘Last week the Skeena Mall parilcipated In a North America-wide campaign *
against drug abuse by young people and set up a “Kids Say K(no)w" informa-
tion’ center-in the malt concourse. Local students (left to right) Terri’ Miller -

(Skeena), Jason Hamer (grade one, Parkside), and Melton Kindred (Thomhill
- Junior Secondary) staffed the booth on Saturday, distributing leaflets and in-

‘It isn’t helping us,” Burton iim

said, describing public opinion. -

“It’s helping Stewart. It’s help-
ing Hazelton.”’
“I guess that’s the perspective

‘the taxpayer probably has of
it,’” «he said,

“They think,
‘There’s no real tangible benefit

’ to Terrace’.”’ ;

- “But there is. There’s a lot of

benefits.”

‘ ‘However, Burton explained

that economic development was

something you can’t ‘‘put a han-

dle on’’. ce
*‘What’s accomplished is very

intangible. But, for instance,-
‘ this Stewart power thing is of

such major importance to the
whole region and this commis-
sion has done a lot of work in
the background as far as getting

‘materials together and the sub-
mission we made to cabinet,’
_ said Burton.

“A lot of that work was done

by regional people, and it’s-real-

ly helped — but it’s very. intangi-
ble. There’s no result yet, there

“probably will be, but even when

there is you can’t put a value-on
it over the next hundred years.’’
_ Regional District Chairman

_ Les Watmough expressed simi- — ,
lar. feelings,. saying that the’

Stewart -hydro extension is a

good example of “the full. and. ~
’ total.cooperation of the region”

even though “Kitimat was not in
that:picture to any extent.’’

“If the Economic: Develop-

ment Commission was success-
ful in only that one project in its
entire life, it makes it absolutely

worthwhile,’’ he said.

“‘I firmly believe that an eco-
nomic development commission
should encompass all the part-
ners, including the munici-
palities, because without the
larger ones helping the smaller

ones, the smaller ones are never .

going to grow.

‘If you have a family, the
older brothers and sisters have
to help look after the younger
ones, Otherwise the whole fami-
ly would just cotlapse.’’

However, Watmough describ-
ed the rewards of economic de-
velopment in the same terms as
Burton.

“Things that we do today may

-occur two years down the road

with the economic development
commission getting no.credit for
it at all, although they were
perhaps instrumental in its
development."

Burton said he is going to
discuss a possible restructuring
of the commission with Kitimat
and Terrace councils and said he
believes that someday they could

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