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. TERRACE STANDARD |

NESS REVIEW.

Out & GOv't rejects loan for
About Mushroom plant idea

Same chef,

New eatery

DINERS dissappointed with
the closure of Dante’s this
winter will be cheered by
news its head chef is start-
ing a New restaurant.

The Blackstone
Restaurant could be open
as early as this weekend in
the former Someplace Else
location at the Desiderada
Inn, says Dale deCaire,

“It’s going to be a higher
end restaurant, white table
cloth that kind of thing,’’ he
said. “Kt’s sort of a west
coast cuisine, A little bit of
French and a little bit of
Italian.’?

It will also only be open
for dinner.

DeCaire said there will be
a smaller menu, but more

specials, adding many
Dante’s favourites are com-
ing over,

He said the smaller 40-
Seat location and the shorter
hours should allow it to be
more viable than Dante’s

Was.

“Times were tough and
the smaller
place,”’ he said, explaining

~the'closure. |

_ Info Fair
‘on Saturday

IF YOU’re unemployed

and thinking of starting a

_ business, changing’ carcers

or getting training or up-
grading, the Options and
Sources Info Fair this Satur-
day is the place to be.

It's a free one-stop-
shopping spot if you're
trying to find out what’s out
there, says Mary Ann Skill
of 16/37 Community Fu-
ures,

: "Site said close to 30 feldéi!"

al, provincial and regional
service providers will be on
hand at the Terrace Inn from
9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Satur-

- day, March 13 to discuss

options,

“It’s a gathering of any-
body who’s providing any
kind of assistance program,
whether it’s training, job
cteation or business crea-
tion,’’ Skill said.

There’s info there on how
to sell to the government
and get in on bidding sys-
tems to provide supplies,
she said.

Also on are seminars on
¥2K solutions for small
business, small business de-
velopment, self-employment
programs, and post-
secondary and career op-

' portunities,

“Rather than people hay-

_ ing to run around and find

answers we're trying to pro-
vide afl the answers in one
place,’’ Skill added.

THE PROVINCE has rejected a request for
a $225,000 loan to finance startup of a
mushroom processing plant: in the Nass
Valley.

Tsunami Mushroom Co. president
Stephen Mills said the plant would have
created 20 jobs specially packaging pinc
mushrooms and shipping them directly to
Japan.

The project did not have the support of
the Nisga’a Tribal Council, however, which
told Mills in a letter they have similar plans
and cannot endorse a competing proposal.

Employment and investment ministry
spokesman Don Zadravec said Nisga’a op-
position was considered, but the primary
reasons for rejecting the request was Mills’
business case and the risk to any investment
of taxpayers’ money.

‘We felt provincial assistance at the level
requested was unwarranted,”’ he said.

Mills, who moved to the Nass’ Valley in
Tecent years from Vancouver Island, only
has $10,000 of his own money behind the
$450,000 proposal.

The rest was to come from a $215,000
loan approved by the Business Develop-
ment Bank of Canada, and the hoped-for

- $225,000 loan from the pravince.

Asked why so much government money
is required, Mills said the idea is new and
potential overseas supporters aren’t willing
to invest unless the government is seen
standing behind the project.

“We're at a loss to understand why
something of this nature is not supported,’’
Mills said, ;

He said supporting the plant would bave

prt cee

STEPHEN MILLS
government-backed foan ta build a
mushroom packaging plant in the Nass,

wanted a

helped establish a new value-added indus-
try and create jobs in a region of high un-
employment.

Mills maintains that by processing pine
mushrooms close to the harvest — cither by
refrigeration or drying them — better quali-
ty mushroom can be delivered to market in
Japan, fetching much higher prices than
normal for the B.C. crop.

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from the $1.48 milllon in
construction starts at the
same point in 1997,
~ Business licence numbers
have also continued their

- decline.

The number of licences
closed have outstripped new
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so far this year.
~The total number of

-. Heences — which fell from
-. 1,320 to 1,240 in 1998:—
are down another 55 to

1,185 as of the end of Feb.
rilary.

“City licensing inspectors
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dtop is a result of the con-
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oftown construction and
sub-irades not renewing
licences, as opposed to an

. erosion in core commercial
. businesses,

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