Demanding better wages

Local community social services —
workers continue their job action
this week\NEWS A114

Reading is important

Now try this

A local celebrity reads to students
at Copper Mountain Elementary
Schoo|\COMMUNITY B1

What some might consider exotic:
is a way of getting - and staying
fit\SPORTS B7

WEDNESDAY
March 17,1999 -

By JEFF NAGEL
THE IWA will oppose West Fraser’s log
export plan to keep hundreds of loggers
working unless unionized sawmill
workers alsa get job protection.

IWA members last week voted 142-49
against the Job Protection Commission-
backed plan to let either the company or
its contractors export raw logs to Japan.

Because West Fraser plans to operate

no more than one shift at Skeena Saw-
mills this year it requires virtually no
new logging and the’ company - says
permission to export more than 200,000
cubic metres this year and maybe next is
the only way it can keep some 400
workers in the bush. —

_ The Terrace sawmill was reduced from
two shifts to one in September, -but

AND

IWA insists deal to save. logging jobs must ensure sawmill runs.

Union nixes log export plan.

layoffs were averted by a federal work-
sharing program, which ras out in mid-
June. More than half of the unionized
sawmill workers face layoffs then, and
IWA officials also fear a total mill shut-
down is possible, _ -

‘We're not going to sign the document
unless they’re willing to negotiate to
guarantee some job protection for the

people in the sawmills in Terrace and

Prince ‘ Rupert,”’ said IWA Local 1-71
business agent Surinder Malhotra. ‘‘We
want a guarantee that these mills will be

_ kept open.’

Malhotra said the company has merely
said it will run one shift this year — if
it’s economically viable to do so.

**We want an iron-clad guarantec for at
least one shift in Terrace and the same

thing for Northcoast Timber,’* he said.

Company officials say they will still
seck government permission to export
tie logs without the unien’s endorse-
tent.

‘*There’s still a chance,’’ said West
Fraser forester Bruce MacNicol.
There’s.a lot of other things at issue. I
don’t think the vote will mean too

much.”’
But Job Protection Commissioner Eric

van Soeren says the union’s move
amounts to a dangerous game that could
sce Virtually everyone who works for the
company in the northwest put out of
work,

“Frankly I think they’re shooting

themselves in the foot,’’ van Soeren said. .

“T think it’s a high-risk game.”

He said his economic plan would have
seen West Fraser commit to running one
full shift in Terrace and 40 per cent of a
shift at the Prince Rupert sawmill.

The union apparently wants more than
that, he said.

The mill workers believe there’s not
enough in it for them and somehow they
can coerce or encourage West Fraser to

_ perform more mill shifts,’’ van Soeren

said. ‘“They lost a bag of money in there
last year and ‘they frankly don’t want to
do it again,”’

He says the fact that the company is
even operating ‘one- shift right now has
been partially based on the hopes that the
economic plan would be approved.

Besides thé export allowance, the

$1.00 PLUS.7¢ GST
(51.10 plus B¢ GST. outside of the
Terace area) |.

VOL.12NO.49

government would also exempt the com-
pany from provisions that would normal-
ly see part of its licence taken back be-
cause it will not meet minimum cutting
levels over a five-year period.

Without that concession and without
exports, there may be much less motiva-
tion for the company to keep its mills
open for any shifts, he added.

*“T’m not real conti dent they’ll con-
tinue to do that,” van Soeren said.
“Now there’s no light at the end of the
tunnel, so why bother?”’

The government could still proceed
with the plan over the protests of ihe
IWA, but van Soeren isn’t optimistic.

Continued Page A2

Forest service
freebie ends

WHEN ‘YOU go out in the woods this summer make sure

you have your camping pass with yor.
Especially if you’re planning on sleeping overnight at a
“BAC. Forest Service site,

The mstic sites have traditionally been free, but this year

] users will need to buy a $27 annual pass or: pay an-$8

{single-use fee toa government agent before heading out.

1, The ministry is trying to make do with less dollars,’’
said forest service official Doug Konkin. ‘‘We need to es-
tablish something more self-sufficient.”

Last summer, forests minister David Zimnhelt : at first
chopped the recreation site budget from $4 million to noth-
ing. But he then found $1 million in other forest programs
to complete much-needed maintenance work.

Bill Marshall; the forest service’s senior recreation for-
ester, said managers were given the money with instruc-
tions to find ways to make the sites operate on budget.

The fees will be part of a new budget allocation begin-
ning March 1, but Marshall docsn’t know how much it will
be yet

Cont’d Page A2

Going camping
will cost more

EVERY TIME you camp in a provincial campground
this summer, you'll pay about $3 more than you did
last year.

But the good news is firewood will still be available
even though its cost is reflected in the price increase.

“We've included the firewood in the camping fee,”’
said B.C, Parks district manager Hugh Markides the
day the hikes were announced March 12,

“There will be no extra charge other than this.’

Marskides said other fees — such as parking meters

Alex Hamilton photo

« Handcrafted : Ss 7

zine. Rintisch offers folk art classes to the public through Parks
and Recreation. Students can signs up for her next evening
class March 25 to make wooden ballerina bunnies in time for
Easter. For story, see Page Bt.

Terrace folk artist Brenda Rintisch makes wooden country-hame
decorations. She designs all of her own pieces, like fancy paper
towel holders and wall hangings. Her artwork is so unique it is
featured in the March issue of Quick and Easy Painting maga-

Challenge aims to keep
Nisga’a out of courtroom

Lawsuit on behalf of non-native residents could seek injunction to halt treaty

LAWYERS for Nass Valley resi-
dent Lloyd Brinson hope to keep
the Nisga’a Tribal Council from

becoming a defendant in his con-—

stitutional challenge of the treaty.
Supreme Court Justice Paul Wil-
liamson reserved judgment on the
Nisga’a request to join the case
after hearing arguments last weck.
“It was not Mr. Brinson’s inten-
tion ever to directly challenge the
Nisga’a,”’ said Paul Formby, one of
his lawyers. ‘‘Rather his dispute is
with the two defendant govern-
ments for delegating and transfer-
ring his rights under the constitu-
tion, and for transferring the lands
and resources unconstitutionally,’”’
“He does not wish to antagonize
the Nisga'a people in any respect,”'
Formby added. “As the Nisga’a

have gone after the government to

secure their rights, so. Mr, Brinson
is going after the government to
secure his rights,”’

Formby said they don’t object to
the Nisga’a becoming intervenors
in the case on constitutional issues,
but said making the tribal council
formal defendants would greatly
complicate the case.

“T think it would become an ab-

solute gong show,’ he said, “They
could tum the thing into a land
claims trial, with oral evidence as
to--what they occupied, and we

could have other bands with over

lapping claims coming in.’

Tom Berger, acting for the Nisga‘a,
said it doesn’t make Sense’ to eX-

clude them.

*Tt’s their treaty,’ Berger sald,
“You can’t have a lawsuit about
the Nisga’a treaty without the
Nisga’a: It’s like putting on Hamlet
without the Prince of Denmark’? --

Brinson’s case is a class action law-
suit that could sce other non-

Nisga’a residents of the Nass join
him in claiming a loss of rights ag a

result of ihe treaty.
The action goca beyond the essen-
tial claim of a treaty challenge by
the B.C. Liberals that argues self-
government provisions amount to a
third-order of government and a
constitutional amendment.
Formby says the treaty also affects
Brinson’s constitutionally protected
tights involving voting, mobility
and freedom from discrimination
based on race,
Although a judge ruled the Liberal
challenge of the treaty must wait
until the enabling legislation actual-
ly becomes law, Formby believes
Brinson’s case cant press forward, -
"There are damages already with
respect to individuals lke Mr.
Brinson tiving in the area by virtue

of the uncertainty that the process

_ has created, by virtue of the fact the
Liberals aren't even contesting the
amount of territory that has been
given,’” he said. ‘"Fhey’ve suffered

loss of business opportunity and al-

ready their property values. are

depreciated.”’

The legal team will try to push for-
ward with the challenge . before
ratification in Ottawa and Victoria,
Formby said, by seeking an injunc-
tion to prevent the federal and
provincial governments from trans-
ferring anything to the Nisga’a un-
til the constitutionality of the treaty

- Ig tested,

‘He's living virtually in an island
in the middle “of this proposed
Nisga’a nalion,’’ Formby said. —

‘He's effectively. going to be dis- -

placed from his own province and
country,’” he sald. ‘'A nation is
being created, a society is being

created exclusively for the benefit

of one racial ethnic group, And:as
long as people are living in the

‘midst of that socicty that aren’t

Nisga’a, they will be discriminated
against onc way or the olher,”’

‘SPEAKING BEFORE the fees were announced last

for day users — had been discussed but he didn’t ex-
pect them to be implemented this year.

Markides added that the 20 per cent rate increase in
high-end parks such as Lakelse Lake, which provide
showers, firewood and some interpretive programs,
will allow them to break even financially.

Last year, he said, only two-thirds of maintenance
costs at Lakelse Lake were covered by the fecs that
were charged to campers.

The Lakelse Lake fee is going from $14.50 to $17.50.

Other northwest parks that provide sccurity and some
interpretive programs such as Kleanza Creek and Ex-
chamsiks are having their rates raised from $9.50 to
$12. All of the increases are effective April 1,

BC Parks officials say their camping fees are still less
than fees in Alberta and Ontario provincial parks and
those in Parks Canada federal parks. B.C. now has,
says a press release issued Friday, the only parks sys-
tem that provides firewood as part of their package
price.

Environment and parks minister Kathy McGregor
called this the first general fee increase since 1992.

She said money collected from fees at provincial and
forest service campgrounds is meant to stay in the park
system and out of general revenue where it can be ac-
cessed by other government programs.

ak kkk

week, Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht said he
had asked McGregor to back off eliminating firewood.

_ The elimination of firewood was announced last year
for some parks, drawing protests and letters. McGregor
reversed the decision within a few weeks of it being
made.

“I told her these ‘are unpopular moves that could be
avoided,” sald Giesbrecht.

“I don’t think we want to deny the right to have a
campfire,’’ he noted,