FOR THE second year in a row, School District 82 is going to ask the education ministry for money to make up a student shortfall, The district is short approximately 127 students because families have felt due to a decline in the for- est industry. That could mean a loss of $500,000 for a district already struggling with a budgetdeficit. h's particularly bad news because the district sets _ staffing and spending levels-in the late spring each year. When studénts don’t show up, cuts are then nec- essary to make up the shortfall, 7” But that means drastic adjustments after the new school year starts each fall and union contract provi- sions make that hard to aceamplish, says Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht. Delayed national gun registry clears court hurdle AN ALBERTA Court of Appeal ruling has given the green light to the federal government’s plan to register all guns in the country. The court voted 3-2 last week to uphold Ottawa's right to move forward with regulations under Bill C- 68, the federal gun control law passed in 1995. The law had been challenged by Alberta, territorial governments, Onturio, Saskatchewan and Manitoba on the basis it would make criminals of law-abiding citizens and intruded into provincial jurisdiction. A two-month delay in the start of the registration system had been announced by justice minister Anne McLellan a week earlier. Originally slated to start Oct. | with registration of A2 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 7, 1998 Aid sought to cover school enrolment drop He lobbied the education ministry last year for $425,000 to make up a student shortfall due to the forest industry decline. “This year I’m told that there are at least six other places in the province going through the same thing,’ said Giesbrecht. ’ Giesbrecht's already met with ministry officials and talks to education minister Paul Ramsey this week. He'll be using the example of the Prince Rupert “school district to press his case. “Um given to understand they've received more “comfort and assurances than. we have,” ‘said Giesbrecht of Prince Rupert which has had its student population drop because of the decline in commercial fishing and in forestry. Yet Giesbrecht also said an overall drop in provin- all rifles and shotguns sold in retail stores, that sys- tem is being held back until Dec. | to give police more time to get computer systems up and running. Private owners could begin voluntarily registering their guns on that date for a low $10-for-all-your- guns price designed to encourage early registration. Under Bitl C-68, all guns must eventually be regis- tered by Jan. 1, 2003 and all gun owners must get new licences by 2001. ’ “The extra sixty days will ensure that vital police data is completely loaded on the system, and will also allow more time for additional training of the Chief Firearms Officers’ staff at provincial sites," McLellan said. cial revenues will make an argument this year more difficult, School district officials won't know their exact enrollment figure until next week. The education ministry estimated the district would IF you've got EMA\ 1 Vi have 7,563 students at the start of the year compared to the district estimate of 7,548. The actual number of students in class as of about a week ago was 7,436, a drop of 127, “Now each one of those students is worth $4,005 so we're probably talking in the range of a $500,000,” said district secretary treasurer Barry Piersdorif. “The minister did support us last.year for 107 kids (lost from enrollment) and he is supporting Prince Rupert this year,” he added. “I believe that the two-month adjustment will assist all of our partners to be better prepared for a success- ful launch on December I.” McLellan said the system is ready to go, but the extra time will ensure it rolls out consistently across the country. Local opponents of the gun control legislation say they're not surprised by the latest delay, noting it’s the latest in a series of delays in implementation since Bill C-68 was passed in 1995, “They haven't got their stuff together —they haven't since the beginning since Allan Rock first came out with it,” said firearms safety instructor Gil Payne. 1998 Todd Gieselman Sponsor List The Skeena Cable Canadians would like to congratulate the Prince Rupert Bruins Hockey team for winning the Annual Todd Gieselman Memorial Hockey Tournament put on the weekend of September 17 through 21. We hope to see everyone back next year. We would like to extend a warm thank you to all the sponsors this year. Mc Elhanney West Point Rentals Terrace Paving Braid Insurance National Tilden Kermode Beverages Skeena Distributors § Northern Drugs Coca-Cola Cedarland Tire Remax of Terrace Safeway Overwaitea Foods Shoppers Drug Mart 7-Eleven Janitors Warehouse Molson Canadian Terrace Freightliner Real Canadian Wholesale Club All Seasons Source for Sports The BC Medical Association is buying ads asking the question, “Why isn’t Premier Glen Clark protecting Medicare?” STOP Press The answer is, “The Government i is working hard to protect Medicare. Booze seized to. ‘BC is the only province that has increased its health budget for seven consecutive years : —even in the face of federal cuts. Federal funding cuts removed $300 million of the federal share. curb teen violence TERRACE and Kitimat RCMP believe they put a stop to another teen fight Friday night by serving an alcohol-related search warrant at a teen party in Kitimat. “We seized a bunch of alcohol and took out a bunch of minors in there drinking illegally, so it all worked out rather well,” said Const. Robb Daly of Kitimat yesterday, The warrant was issued in conjunction with a Highway 37 roadblock at Onion Lake to keep a eye on large numbers of youth travelling the highway. During the day on Friday RCMP arrested nine of 12 Terrace suspects for sending four Kitimat youth to hospital the previous weekend. The arrests resulted in seven charges of assault causing bodily harm. The youth will appear in a Kitimat courtroom this week. “The vast majority of the youth are minors,” said Const. Marc Landry who investigated the case in Terrace, “I think there was only one adult in the bunch.” But Landry said the RCMP have not, as yet, made any arrests for property damage to a house on River Drive in Thornhill and an abandoned truck on Highway 37. "' Some of the:Victims are not being cooperative,” said Landry. “We're still looking far suspects.” Dr. Jim Lane, President of the BCMA takes the position: bist | “The funding of health care is entirely a matter of provincial priorities.” mo 4 (President’s Letter September 18, 1998) es je. Why would he let Ottawa off the hook so easily? That $300 million would provide - 6,500 long-term care beds plus 1000 open-heart surgeries, 1000 hip and knee surgeries and 3000 cancer treatments. _ This year BC put an additional $228 million into health services, including $21 million to reduce waitlists. - A national report commissioned by Maclean’s magazine found that BC’s health care system ranked number one in quality of care (health outcomes). You won't find this June 15, 1998 issue in any doctor's office waiting room. SCI plans shutdowns SKEENA CELLULOSE operations in Carnaby and Smithers will be shut down for at least a month this fall. The company announced it will halt logging in both areas on Oct. 9 until an expected re-start Nov. 16. The Camaby sawmill also shuts down Oct. 9 and will resume operations Nov. 9 after a four-week pause, said com- pany spokesman Don McDonald, The Smithers sawmill shuts for tive weeks on Oct. 16, with operations expected to resume Nov. 23. The planer will continue on a one-shift basis. The Hazelton chipping plant will shut for six weeks from Oct. 12 to Nov, 30. Terrace sawmill, woodlands and chipper operations are to continue umaltected. Strike vote scheduled LOCAL REGISTERED nurses will be joining their coun- terparts from around the province in a strike vote Oct. 14, At issue are the work loads experienced by registered nurses in hospitals, lung term care facilities and with home care programs. Nurses say workloads are increasing as only the sickest of people are being kept in hospitals nowadays because of budget cuts. And those discharged, who might otherwise have stayed in hospital in the past. require a higher level of care through home care programs. The nurses belong to the B,C. Nurses’ Union and it has been bargaining with the Health Employers’ Association of B.C. A wage increase is not an issue as nurses fall under pro- vincial guidelines of 0, O and.2 per cent for a three-year contract. _ BC invests more per capita into health care than any other province. The province has made major sacrifices in other ministries to make up for __. F federal cuts to health care. Civil servants have been asked to share the I burden. | . BC doctors are paid the highest fees in Canada. G.P.’s in BC make an average of $211,000 before expenses and $135,000 after expenses. The BCMA now wants a 10 percent increase in doctor’s fees — these increases would cost taxpayers $115 million. More funding for doctor’s fees means less money for patients. Premier Glen Clark is protecting Medicare! a | The facts prove it! | OE ; fF “BC has made Medicare a top priority. The BCMA claims Medicare j is in danger i in BC. The facts don’t support the BCMA claim. The priority is to improve service for British Columbians, not improve incomes ‘: for doctors. Safe driving pushed RCMP ISSUED seven tickets and 66 wamings last month as part of a back to school traffic safety crackdown on driv- ers and cyclists, Police concentrated on a different type of violation each week, and issued mainly warnings in an attempt to get driv- ers and others to brush up on their road safety. Does that mean that everything is fine in health care? Of course not, but how isa 10 percent increase in doctor’s fees going to get more health care dollars into the rural areas? Is that what all the ads are really about? Vancouver to Toronto—that’s adistance equal to the amount of old logging roads we removed and replanted last year in BC. And this year we'll almost double that amount, Road deactivation is part of our work to restore environmentally damaged watersheds, And part of Forest Renewal BC’s $596 million. " , FOREST ZO oes | rn investment in communities throughout BC last RENEWAL BC Watershed restoration results: year—~an investment which directly created 7,575 jobs for BC workers. Eighty per cent of our investments went to resource communities outside the Lower Mainland— most delivered by private sector companies in communities like yours. 4504 kin of old logging roads removed eae e Rae ee ee ees eee eee eee Explore our web site: www. dorestrenewal.be.ca [Road deactivation in Horsefly ave