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An imperial outpost

Sick of being single?

location of old Hudson Bay
Company fort\NEWS A5

Thick vegetation concealed the

which you can strike up

The bowling alley is the place at

friendships\COMMUNITY B1

Precision pays off

Local figure skaters take second
place at provincial
championships\SPORTS Ait

WEDNESDAY.
FEBRUARY 19, 1997

Group seeks local forest control

NORTHWEST LEADERS meet tomorrow to see if they can
put some muscle into 0 ideas to gain more local control of north-
west wood.

The meeting of ¢ community and aboriginal leaders stems
from Avenor's attempt to take over Repap's Prince Rupert pulp
mil] and three sawmills in the northwest. —

They're keying on ‘provincial legislation which calls for a -

five per cent take back on forest licences each time they change
hands,

The wood reverts back to the province for use by ‘small
operators or to rest in a reserve,

In this case, that could-amount. to nenzly 240. 000 cubic. .

metres should Avenor take over Repap nextsmonth and then sell
its northwest assets by next year.

Avenor says keeping the waad is crucial to its is plans’ 10 keep

Repap’s holdings working in the northwest and i is vital to attract
new owners.

But Stewart mayor Andy Burton views the wood as both a
carrot and a stick to stabilize the economy of his town and of
the northwest. ,

“We have to get our act together with industry." said Burton
last week,

~ "We could go to Avenor and the government and say we’ re

- prepared to work with you if you're prepared to work with us,”

One possible method is having the wood assigned to com-

~ munities under a community forest licence which they can then
_ use. as a bargaining chip,

Burton says he’s reluctantly leaning toward having commu-
nitiés be more aggressive in their approach to industry and the

7 government.

“What's left? There's nothing left that we can try, We're in
the same damn boat. We don’t want the whole pie -—justa piece
of it to be reasonable.” he said.

Burton. the-Reform party candidate in last year’s provincial

election. acknowledges thal his position is a philosophical

change for him.

“I struggled: with it. What the heck else am I going to do,”"
asked the mayor whose town has been hit hard by logging

shutdowns,

“Tf things ‘are to gat better, we've got to get innovative.” he

said-in adding that the cycle of having large companies owning
large pieces of northwest forests hasn't worked.

"*. Gitksan leader Elmer Derrick says the northwest can’t take

much more of having lar ge corporations control so much of the

forest resource,

“To let more corporations come in with business as usual ts

to let things keep on going down hill.” he said.

“We're close to the bottom now and we have to get going 10

find our way out of this mess,"

Continued Page A2

93¢ PLUS 76 GST
VOL, 9.NO, 45

Andy Burton

mA sunny skate

A LUTTLE EXTRA ics time couldn't hurt, even if itis in the parking lot behind the McColl Playhouse on
Kalum Street. That's 12-year-old Matthew Whitaker out enjoying the sunshine a few weeks ago.

Gov’t unplugs free phone referral

THE PROVINCE is pulling the plug on a toll-free phone
directory service that gave northerners free access lo govern-
ment offices, ;

Callers who dial Enquiry B.C. at 1-800-663-7867 atier March
Ist will stil get the service’s operators who give out phone
numbers for government offices,

But they won't be offering lo connect long-distance callers
for free.

The province says the five- year-old service had become too

popular and was simply costing too much money.:=

Enquiry B.C. ‘program coordinator Susun Park. said the ore nd

vice was projecting a dramatic increase in calls to 16 million
next year.

Nearly half of those would be long-distance calls connected
at the government's cost, she said. The projected result was
going to be total 1997 expenses of $2.76 million — about $1 mil-
lion over the agency's budget.

Park said the treasury board decided Enquiry B.C.’ s budget
would remain frozen, forcing the policy change. ;

She said they're also eliminating the service's Saturday hours =

and cutting weekday hours down to 8 a.m.to5 p.m.
“The general public are very unhappy.” Park said. ‘They see

it as a barrier to service.”

Skeena MLA Helmit Giesbrecht isn't happy either

“This is jus! another way of isolating people in the north and: -
the interior” he said, “And they will hear about it down here.”

TT HAPPENS each year as the weather
warms. A manure-like smell wafts up
from school fields when the snow and ice
disappears.

And alihough some students have been
nauseated to the point of vomiting, there
is no bealth danger, says a health officer.

What’s happening is the release of
smells from elements in the soil that have
been decomposing under the cover of
snow and ice, says Ron Craig.

“Terrace soils are of the type that are
swampy and are short of oxygen when
covered up,” he added.

“When exposed to oxygen you get that
smell and it can certainly be unpleasant,”’

The smells have prompted phone calls

Smell turns stomachs

to the health unit and schools. Officials
responded quickly and sent samples of
swampy water down south for testing.

“They found a low rate of bacteria in
them. Nothing like sewage,’’ he said.

Reports of the smells and effects on stu-
dents have been coming in fram public
and privale schools in the area.

The smells eventually disappear as
warmer weather dries up the soggy fields.

Some solutions include spreading
nitrogen fertilizer to speed up the
decomposing, process,

Other solutions are to avoid the areas
completely or to construct sidewalks
across some of the worst areas used by
people for access.

Emergency loans
only for Stewart

FOREST RENEWAL BC says it will guar-
antee whatever loans are required to get
northern contraclors who work for Repap
contractors back on their feel. But (hey will
nol guarantee the same program will be ex-
tended to Terrace contractors.

Stewart-area contractors feeling the pinch
from the Repap shutdown of logging up
north can apply for short-term, low interest
loans to gel them running again. The loans
are guaranteed by FRBC.

“‘Lols of these people have been feeling
the pinch since the fall,’’ says Amy Hart of
FREC, ‘They have idle equipment, payroll
problems and commitments to suppliers.
We want to get them working again.”’

So the crown corporation dropped off
$800,000 in Terrace last week to kick start
the loans program, Which is similar to one
FREC created to help contractors in Golden
last fall.

There, FRBC ended up guaranteeing $4.5
million, and Hart says they will do it here if
need be. ‘‘If it takes one million, we'll put
in one million, if it takes ten million we'll
put in ten million,’’ she says.

Contractors can apply for the loans al the
access centre in Terrace.

Job Protection Commission representative
Ed Sorel is responsible for processing the
loans and sending them to the credit union
for financing. As of last weekend he had

bandied six applications.

“There's a lot of interest,’’ he says. “It’s
a similar start to what we saw in Golden,’’

Sorel says the first loan was approved on
Monday for an application which had been
made last Tuesday.

“That one took about a week,’” he says.
“But once things are up and running we
should sec a turnaround time of about three
days.”’

Meanwhile, Hart says it has not been de--
cided whether to extend the emergency
loans program to include contractors out-
side the Stewart area.

“JT can't rule out that possibility,’ she
says. ‘It has been discussed, but there are
no plans to expand it at this time.”

Hart points out that there is an alternalive
for struggling Terrace area contractors af-
fected by the closure of West Fraser's
Skeena Sawmills plant, She says they are
still able to apply for a loan through FRBC
forest community business propram.,

Essentially the program consists of busi-
ness loans delivered through either 16/37
Community Futures or credil unions, Con-
tractors can apply for loans of up to
$250,000 to help prop up their businesses.

“The Stewart emergency loans are really
just an extension of that program,’’ Hart
says. ‘‘And we cati process these loans
quite quickly if the need is there.”’

Youth centre group told
to put its ideas in writing

A GROUP lobbying for the creation of a
youth centre here has been advised to draw up
a business plan.

City councillors told the group Monday
night they'd have an easier time assessing the .
proposal if they put it in writing and provided
cosl estiniates.

But. Terrace: Youth Centre Development
Commitiee chairman. Robert Oliver pleaded

‘for some: indication of, what council would -

- entertain, ~~

The group feels city. ‘hall. has tended to”

‘ignore .whatit says isa dramatic need fot a>.

youth centre here.’ we
“Oliver sald. the organized ‘activities and

~~ sports like youth soccer: tend to serve mattly ws

‘youtiger children.
By the ages of 13 or 14, ‘he said, it's. ho
longer coal to be inyole in organized activi-

ty, Instead they turn to the mall.

“They want a place where they can hang
their hat and call their own." Oliver said of
city youths.

Oliver said the group wants to find a build-
ing in the downtown area. but so: far hasn’t
found anything affordable to rent. .

"One building they looked at renting- would
have cost too much to renovate 10 meet build-
ing code, ¢
“2. Devon Kuiper said council has been “very
business-minded" for.some tlme-and-needs to
start thinking: more “about the needs of the
community, ©
Mayor: lack Talstra replied that the city’s
parks and recreation commission will be tak
‘ing on an expanded. Tole to 1o0k'at various pro-
posals for recreation facilities. adding itcould
-also look at the city’s “social needs",