Stroke style Bluebacks train in and out of water as long Got an extra $45? Your property tax bili is going up — to help pay for. Bi Tune fish ; m Dr. Fishy’s new CD course season draws - near\SPORTS B10 the new hospital in Kitinat\NEWS AQ captures the essence. of life in northwest’ B.C,.\COMMUNITY B5 $1.00 plus 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the Terrace area) Any THE CiTY OF _ TERRACE | Skeena expands to add Bulkley Valley By JENNIFER LANG THE FEDERAL Skeena riding will ex- pand east along Hwy 16 rather than far io the south, an electoral boundaries commission has decided. The new riding is to be called Skeena-Bulkley Valley, taking in much of the old Bulkley-Nechako ri- ding. Boundaries had to be redrawn to give more seats to southern B.C, - where populations have grown while northern populations have shrunk. The new plan replaces the commis- sion’s previous widely opposed recom- mendation to create a Skeena-Chilco- tin riding that would have stretched along the coast and put Williams Lake and Lillooet-in the same riding as Ter- race and Atlin. Instead, Skeena’s boundaries move east as far as Houston, Burns Lake and Fort Fraser to just outside Vanderhoof. . “From a Skeena’ perspective, it's the best we could have hoped for,” Skeena MP Andy Burton said from Ot- lawa last week, reacting to a March 17 fedéral electoral boundaries com- mission report. The report follows public hearings last fail, including a Sept. 26 hearing in Prince Rupert. In.a show of regional unily, politi- cal leaders told commissioners to leave Skeena alone — or extend - the boundaries east. The new riding of Skeena- -Bulkley Valley would follow Skeena’s present Wednesday, March 26, 2003. | Line drawers relent on new riding boundaries and most of Bulkley-Ne- chako, except for Vanderhoof and the Prince George area, It would ‘also include part of the Central Coast riding, taking in Bella Coolla-in the south, in addition to Bella Bella, which is currently in Skeena.> .. ; “That still” takes it a very big riding,” Burton’ said, Opponents of the original plan had complained it would be impossible for an MP to adequately serve a riding the size of California. “It's not quite half of British Co- Peace lumbia, but it’s certainly more than one-third,” Burton said of the revised tiding proposal. ‘It’s going to be a lot of fun serving it, whoever is the MP,” added Burton, who intends to run for election a sec- ond time. “] think tuey'’re going to. enjoy it.” Skeena-Bulkley Valley closely re- sembles the Skeena riding of the 1970s. “It’s a step backwards,” said Lorne Sexton, president of the Skeena Continued Page A2 Gas rates group won't give up By JENNIFER LANG A GROUP of Terrace resi- dents opposed to a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq gathered for a final peace vigil} last Wednesday as hope for a solution to the crisis, faded. — The peace vigil was one of many that took . place across the world March 19, as U.S.. Presi- dent George W. Bush’s ul- timatum to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to disarm within 48 hours passed. It was a peace vigil turned silent war protest. “This is it,” said orga- nizer Roberta Robson, just hours before Bush took to the airwaves confirming her fears. “War is going to be declared.” Robson is a Terrace re- sident who decided to hold un ongoing peace vigil outside the Skeena Mall each Friday afternoon after she realized no one else was going to come forward to start something local. The weekly vigil has continued for the past month. “My fear is that there will be retaliation in the States,” Terrace resident Helen Davies said. “This is going to prompt other terrorists to do something.” Davies applauded prime minister. Jean Chretien’s announcement that Cana- da will not be part of an attack on Iraq without a United Nations mandate. “I'm proud of Chretien WE'LL PRESS ON: Marcel Giannellia, centre, ¥ was part of a small group gathered ‘outside the mall March 19. He's joined an ongoing peace vigil in Terrace each Friday for the past month. JENNIFER LANG PHOTO By MALCOLM BAXTER THERE IS good news, bad news and worse news for natural gas users. First the good news, In December the BC Utilities Commission ap- proved rate hikes for Paci- effective Jan. 1 — of 20 per ” cent in pas costs and 17 - users to deliver that gas. That approval was sub- “ject to a final decision after hearing arguments from major industrial users and customer advocates, After that, regulators _approved the gas charge hike, but told PNG it must shave its delivery cost charge ~ in part because the gas utility had under- estimated revenue it would get on the delivery side. ‘The order means PNG “not only has to reduce its delivery charge rate, it also has to refund — with interest ~ what users over- paid. But because the in- terim rate had only been in place a few months, PNG officials estimate the aver- age refund will be just $10, The bad news comes from PNG’s new applica- tion for an April 1 hike in the gas commodity charge. PNG can’t profit on the gas it delivers — it can only charge users what the BCUC agrees is a reason- able estimate of what PNG will have to pay for the gas it supplies. thing,” John Hart, a history With gas prices having soared beyond the level dig: Northern. Gas (PNG). -... . ~ per cent in what it charges. to rocket New PNG rates approved proved that last Friday. Therefore as of April ! residential consumption charges will leap from $6.204 per gigajoule to $7,478/gj. That’s a hike of just over 20 per cent. But there’s more. .For.. the.,.past. three . months consumers have not been paying the full cost. of . natural gas. They’ ve been getting a re- bate of 92.9 cents/gj to compensate for 2001 and 2002, when users paid more for gas than it even- tually cost PNG. _ - Therefore, while the ap- proved first quarter rate was $6.204/gj, residential users were actually: only being billed at $5.275/pj. The double whammy for users is the price rise has been so sharp the rebate has been ended, That means. in real ‘terms homeowners will be billed at a rate $2.203/gj higher than what they have been paying over the first three months of the year. That’s 41.8 per cent more. But because the fixed charge of $10.75 per month remains the same and the delivery charge has been cut slightly, the total in- crease the average user will see on their bills will be 21.2 per cent. That's $255 more a year compared to the Jan. | rates and $332 more: than in Jan, 1, 2002, And because delivery | charges are up close te 30 per cent since then, it’s for sticking to his guns,” she said, Others agreed. “He did the right and political science in- structor at Northwest Com- munity College said. Hart, who carried a sign sident Dan Veniez says. Third shift eyed THE TERRACE sawmill will likely run contin- uously and employ at least a third more workers when it restarts, New Skeena Forest Products pre- “We're talking easily 200 union employees under how we would configure the thing,” Veniez said in describing his plan for the mill if the labour A COMMMERCIAL ted on the west coast. Andy Burton says there’s no reason not that read, “Bush is the ter- rorist” said the prime minister should condemn finition, this is aggres- sion,” he said. Another Terrace vigil with the other people at- tending the vigil to deter- mine the group’s next step, BCUC approved for the first quarter, PNG asked also $33 a year higher than the rate on Jan. 2001, the the American president, “By the U.N,'s own de- Burton pushes for seal hunt By JEFF NAGEL ted each year on Canada’s east coast, and took place Friday. Robson said she would consult “We'll press on,” ‘for another price hike. The commission ap- last time gas prices explo- she said. a . ded, hitting $8,189/gj. seal hunt should be star- , says Skeena’s MP. 350,000 seals are harves- to set up a hunt here. says they're neither starving nor endangered. “They tend to play with salmon when they're full,” she says. “Fishermen don’t be- grudge a few hungry seals some salmon. But they don’t want to see them go through their net and rip the belly oul of every salmon,” That’s exactly what often happens, she said. dispute there is resolved. never been run on three shifts before.” U.S. duties on softwood lumber. “I want to run Terrace on three shifts,” he said. “Tl want to run the hell oul of Terrace. Terrace has Maximizing production to further cut costs is a survival strategy Canfor pioneered in response to Veniez said he’d also plan to add drying kilns and planer capacity here, among other upgrades. " New Skeena has seven employees on its payroll in Terrace, But company-wide it now employs more than 125, About a third of those work at the Kitwanga sawmill, while the company has been recalling others at ils Prince-Rupert pulp mill. “You can’t just go out and.shoot things ran- domly - nobody's advocating that,” Burton said. “If there’s a market for the product that comes — the pelts and the oil and meat ~ then it could be a viable industry just like any other species.” “It could establish an industry on the north ‘coast and Charlottes and create some jobs.” Burton raised the idea in the House of Commons Friday, calling on federal officials 10 investigate the viability of a seal hunt. “Salmon populations have been significant- ly reduced by huge seal.populations,” he -said. “He wouldn't say who proposed the idea. But a Haida hereditary chief. who said it’s: loo early to comment in detail met federal of- HUNT seals to create jobs, our r MP says. ficials in Otlawa last week to discuss the idea, One other group in favour is the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union. Its northern representive, Joy Thorkelson, says commercial fishermen have been Seeking . a seal hunt for years, She gays seals eat huge volumes. of salmon’ -and damage catches and nets. And Thorkelson “They like to look for the females with eggs and just rip the bellies of eggs out.” ‘Fhe Tsimshian and Nisga’a have talked about the idea of a hunt before. - But Thorkelson fears activists could launch an international boycott of B.C, salmon in re- sponse. “Everybody is so afraid of the silliness of the international preservationists,” she said. And Thorkelson isn’! optimistic the public could be easily convinced to support a seal hunt. “There’s far. more concern about seals. that there is about fishermen,” she - said, _.“Fishermen are the first endangered species. - “Way down any list of eridingerment would be the seals.” a