Team tally Meet the players swinging bats for Terrace in upcoming baseball tournament \SPORTS B5 Unhappy campers Fury spills out over plans to either cut parks or force local towns to pay for them\NEWS A12 * local Khalsa : Class in session ' Sikh youths from across ; the northwest flock to a camp\COMMUNITY B1 $1.00 pius 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the Terrace area} . :- VOL. 15 NO..14 Kitimat sounds alarm over Alcan By JEFF NAGEL KITIMAT officials fear Alcan will soon unveil plans to revamp its aluminum smelter so it uses less power, fewer work- ers and frees up more electricity for sale. By failing to take a strong stand against energy sales, they say Victoria is opening the door ta a scenario that could entrench and expand Alcan’s pattern of power sales and chop the number of Al- can-related jobs in the region in half. “It means devastating consequences for the northwest,” Kitimat city manager Trafford Hall told those who attended a July 4 chariber of commerce luncheon. He predicts Alcan will modernize its smelter in Kitimat so thal it produces slightly more aluminum than now but 380 megawatts for export. The new smelter would effectively be designed to create permanent “surplus” power, rather than use all the electricity available. Based on the workforce at a similar new smelter in Quebec, he said it could result in just 800 direct Alcan employees — 1,000 fewer than now. And Hall said the number of direct and indirect jobs in the region would be chop- ped from the present 6,000 to 2,850. He said those job losses would be much lower — the region might retain 4,500 direct and indirect Alcan jobs — if Alcan rebuilds the smelter to consume the entire 840 megawatts its Kemano power station produces. And if Alcan were to use the further 160 megawatts that the province pledged to sell it at discounted prices under a 1997 compensation agreement, the num- ber of regional jobs could be as high as 5,400. But Hall said the larger smeller and workforce is only possible if Victoria firmly blocks further power sales and leaves Alcan no other use for the electri- city than the smelting of aluminum. The only reason it doesn’t use all the electricity it now has to produce alumi- num, he said, is that the door has been opened to even more lucrative power ex- ports, “This is one of the most profitable smelters in the entire Alcan fleet,” Hall said, estimating it rings up a minimum $450,000 profit every day. “We're nol talking aboul saving an in- dustry. This is an immensely profitabie smelter.” He noted the newest Alcan smelter an- nounced for Quebec would get electricity at $37 per megawatt — well below market prices, but still much higher than the electricity generation cost of about $5 per megawatt in Kitimat. “All around the world they’re building new smelters. Alcan’s building them like crazy — they’re just not building them here.” Hall said Kitimat has been stymied in getling support from either provincial government civil servants or cabinet ministers. “They don’t return our calls,” Hall Trafford Hall uses much less power — freeing up about MARLENE McLEAN holds a photo of her daughter Vicki. The toddler died July 1 at Mills Memorial Hospital after a three. -day battle with a mystery illness. McLean says Vicki's illness wasn't taken seriously until it was too late. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO Family demands answers in aftermath of girl’s death By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN and JOANNA WONG VICKI MCLEAN’S family has begun the task of finding out how and why the four-year-old girl died in the early morning of July 1 at Mills Memoria! Hospital. That task includes meetings this week with health care officials and the coroner’s office. Marlene and George McLean have a lot of questions over the events which began June 28 when Vicki developed flu-like symptoms. “I really don’t know what happened to her,” says Marlene McLean. “She was healthy with no medical problems.” McLean feels her daughter deserved prompt and thorough treatment. She says things might have been different if tests had been done right away. She wants to know why Vicki was never admitted after she made several visits to the hospital and as her daughter became more ill. “I know it’s kind of mean to use needles and do blood work on kids but still they’d find something instead of guessing,” says McLean. Vicki was laid to rest July 7 at a funeral in More inside @ Officials begin investigation, A2 m@ Rights activist wants to start class action lawsuit, A2 m@ A chronology of Vicki McLean's fast hours, A3 Kitwancool, on Hwy37 north of Kitwanga. It’s the McLean’s family village. An autopsy was done in Prince George the middle of last week, after which Vicki was SCI didn’t pay its CITY COFFERS were emptier than usual last week when Skeena Cellulose failed to pay $816,000 in properly taxes by the July 3 dead- line. City officials for several months had feared the struggling forest company wouldn’t pay on time and took steps to restrain spending. One-such restraint measure because of the cash crunch was introduced July 5 when cily councillors decided the city would hold back on its usual annual $5,000 contribution for fire- works during the Riverboat Days.August long ~ weekend, “Skeena Cellulose, as expected, has not paid their taxes,” said councillor Val George. "It would be a bad message to send to the community — spending money literally to burn.” “It’s a nice thing to have, but not in the present budget situation we have.” The money shorifall is considered short- term. The city’s position is that Skeena Cellu- lose, like any other property owner, will have taken to Smithers where Funeral arrangements - were made. Three days before the funeral, a cortege of vehicles, the first one of which contained Vicki, slowly made ils way along the highway, from Smithers to Kitwancool where she was kept until the funeral. There’s been an outpouring of support from friends, and even complete strangers since Vicki's death. The loss has. shaken the McLeans, who have six other children, one girl and five boys. Speaking from her mother’s Terrace home last week, Marlene McLean was surrounded by a constant stream of family and friends dropping by to offer their support, condolences and prayers. “I don’t know how things are going to be: when everybody goes,” McLean says. Continued Pg. A2 to pay its taxes or else the company. y will even- tually lose its sawmill here in a tax sale. The company also owes the city a- further $576,000 in unpaid back taxes. .. That money is to be repaid over nine years” under the terms of the sale and restructuring of Skeena Cellulose in April. Terrace’s mayor-and councillors unsuccess-— fully attempted to block the purchase of Skee- na Cellulose by new owner NWBC Timber - and Pulp — infuriating NWEC: resident Dan Veniez: Cont'd Page A14 . Supporters were dismayed. 7 Skeena, 90.4 per cent: “said yes and 87: “eeswide. Premier lauds overwhelming referendum vote VOTERS in Terrace and Kilimat gave a resounding yes to treaty-making principles laid out in the just-complete provincial referendum. The Skeena riding, dominated by the two cities, deli- vered an even stronger yes vote than the provincial a aver- age on-each of the eight questions, ‘Only a handful ‘of ridings in Prince George, the north- cast, the Okanagan and the Fraser Valley voted yes by bigger margins. Premier Gordon Campbell hailed the results, released Jufy 3, as an overwhelming endorsement of negotiating principles that will reinvi- gorate treaty talks. “On principle after princi- ple, the people’s verdict is unmistakable,” Campbell said. “The net result is a re- sounding vote of confidence [:. in both the treaty-making Gi process and the principles that my government will take to the negotiating table.” Aboriginal leaders and Gordon Campbell “Rednecks have shown their colours,” said a disap- pointed Tsimshian chief ne- goliator Gerald Wesley. ‘“Skeena has more people saying yes to the questions [3% ‘than almost anywhere else.” Results here ranged from a low of 86.3 per cent who said yes to question 1 — which said private property should} not be taken away in treaties | - to.a high of 96.6 per cent, } who agreed in question fourd thal parks should be main- tained for the benefit of everyone. Provincial totals came in at 84.5 per cent to 94.5 per cent in the yes column, depending on the question. But the low turnout for the referendum means nearly two-thirds of voters did not send in theit ballots. In Skee- na, 38 per cent of voters returned ballots. , Taken that way, when nearly 94 per cent of Skeena respondents agreed aboriginal tax exemptions should be phased out, those yes votes really reflect only 34 per cent of the riding’s registered voters. - About 330 ballots from Skeena, or five per ‘cent, were Gerald Wesley _ counted as spoiled or tejected. About seven per cent t of ballots province-wide were spoiled. Those protest votes don’t include an estimated 100, 000 more ballats collected province-wide by ‘abori- ginal groups and churches that opposed ‘the referendum. _. The weakest yes margins came in urban, Vancouver and Victoria ridings that tend to be NDP strongholds in : provincial elections. ‘But despite what he. said were some reports of racial ‘name-calling during the referendum ‘at focal. ‘schools, Wesley said less damage was done by. the process. ‘than many feared. Most of the questions related to principles that: have long been. held by provincial negotiators both. under. the -- current government and under the former NDP. But question six asked if aboriginal self-government in future: treaties should be: modelled after. municipal , governments, rather than: the broader, . constitutionally entrenched powers given to. the Nisga’a, “0. The yes response was 90.4 per, cent: in Ske