A2 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 25, 1998

Miller gets two thumbs up
from loggers’ spokesman

THE MAN who spoke for Skeena Cellulose loggers and
creditors over the last year says it’s now time to thank Dan

Vehicles damaged

TERRACE CRIMESTOPPERS is look- was more than $1,200,

ing for help to solve damage done tocight | Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward of
vehicles at Thornhill Motors, 3026 High- up to $1,000 for information leading to
way 16 East, near Old Lakelse Lake the arrest and charges being laid against
Road, between 6 p.m. Feb. 6 and 7 a.m. this or any other unsolved crime. If you
Feb. 7. have any information, call 635-TIP, that’s

is due. He stuck his neck out and he should get some com-
mendation for it.”

Miller for saving the company.

Justin Rigsby spoke out in suppor! of the embattled
deputy premier Friday, the same day Skeena Cellulose be-
gan issuing cheques to contractors settling their debts and
paying for advance work.

It marked the end of court-approved creditor protection
and the beginning of the company *5 restructuring.

“ET think you have to give him credit for saving the jabs
in this area,’’ Rigsby said of Miller.

Rigsby has been front
and centre since the col-
lapse of Repap BC.,
organizing a massive rally
of loggers last March and
pressing for action since
then.

Rigsby also helped rin
Reform MP Mike Scott's
campaign last year, so
he’s not going to be ac-
cused of being a New
Democrat.

But he says Miller went ; >
ahead with his plan to buy Justin Rigsby
the company — the only way be could see to save the
region’s biggest employer — against overwhelming advice
that it would be political suicide.

“A lot of people are really happy they’re back to work
and I think he’s partly responsible,’ Rigsby added.

“IT probably haven't been his most favourite guy over the
past year. But I think you have to give credit where credit

STOP Press

_NEWS_

~ Lucky to be alive

A WOMAN and her two young children woke up just in
time to flee ta safety after a kitchen fire early yesterday
morning in a house on the 2700 block of Sparks.

Fire chief Randy Smith said the fire appears ta have
started in the kitchen and gone through the vent hood up
into the attic. “There was quite a bit of heat in the attic, and
damage to the trusses,” said Smith.

Smith said the mother was woken up by noises her toddler
was making, and she and children quickly fled the house.
Smith said there was a smoke alarm in the basement, but
not one on the main floor.

“Tt was a very near miss,” he said. “It would have been a
teal tragedy.” He stressed the importance of having a smoke
alarm on every floor of the house, and outside the sleeping
area,

lab

Arsonists suspected

THE TERRACE fire department was kept busy over the
weekend responding to a rash of deliberately set small fires.

First the department responded to two washroom fires on
Friday at Caledonia Sr. Secondary. Then late Saturday night
firefighters put out a fire by the cash machine at the Bank of
Nova Scotia. Then on Sunday firefighters put out a small
fire set by the Woodlands Apartments on Kalum.

Fire chief Randy Smith is concerned that the same person
set the fires as a prank.

“They probably thought of it as a prank but they’re jeop-
ardizing a number of people,” he said. “I don’t think the
people who are doing this are thinking of the long term
tamifications of their actions.”

Bridge plunge
TERRACE RCMP are investigating the sudden death of a
woman who fell from a Ferry Island bridge on the moming
of Feb, 21.
_ Police say foul play is not suspected at this time.
The 39-year-old woman wag ‘.illed when she fell from the
island’s east bridge to the rocks below.

Vehicle destroyed

A MAN driving from Prince Rupert on his way to Prince
George totalled his car about 41 km west of Terrace.

Fire chief Randy Smith was one of those who responded
to the accident which took place around 8 p.m. Monday
night. The driver was moving to Prince George and wasn’t
familiar with the highway’s twists and tums. He missed the
turn at the CNR railroad crossing and his car skidded out of
control. Fortunately the 1997 Neon’s airbags saved him
from injury.

The car caught on fire about 20 seconds after impact.

Rigsby said he was crilicized last week for speaking aut —

against Liberal leader Gordon Campbell’s statements
about Skeena Cellulose.

But Rigsby didn’t take anything back, and went on to say
Liberals are feeding misperceptions that the government
has already spent more than $300 million,

“They’ve not paid out $300 million like everyone
thinks,’’ he said,

In reality, only the portion to pay out the Royal Bank has
actually been spent so far, he said.

Most of the capital spending to make the pulp mill more
efficient will take place over a number of years. Some of
ihe money the government has committed to assist the
northwest would have had to be spent anyway — and
probably a lot more of it — had the company collapsed.

Rigsby also dismissed as a “non-issuc’’ a government
lawyer’s phone call to a judge ordered by Miller.

But Rigsby reserved his strongest praise for the govern-
ment’s loan program expansion which brings the total
available to small and medium-sized businesses to $65
million.

“T can’t say enough good things about what the loan pro-
gram will do for financial stabilily in the community,’’
Rigsby said.

Rigsby says the creditors’ group has disbanded and he’s
no longer its chairman. He’s looking forward to better
times if Skeena Cellulose can now move toward a more
solid financial footing.

‘Some of the guys in our group have visibly aged over
the last year,’’ he said. “It’s been really hard on some of
them,”’

FROM FRONT
SCI in tough market

court-appointed monitor with Coopers and Lybrand.

McDonald says the big obstacle now are the low prices of
lumber and pulp.

“We're in a tough, tough market. That’s the biggest challenge
that we have the least control over,” he said.

Also up in the air is how quickly area logging contractors are
going to be paid for ongoing work.

The company wants a return to “common industry practices” —
loggers working and then being paid for that work within some

period of time. But that’s what led to huge unpaid bills being °

Tung up by Repap B.C.

Although consultant Ralph Tormey recommended the com-
pany continue a policy of advance payments te logging contrac-
tors for about a year, company officials are not keen on the idea.

McDonald says the firm wants to operate under “common
industry practices” which would mean work is done and pay-
ment is issued within a specified periad.

“There’s just a whole bunch of reasons to do that,” McDonald

said, but added the issue is in the hands of Victoria. “If a major -

shareholder of the company wants us to do business that way
then we might be doing business that way.”

1 ’
oan ay

New and used vehicles had minor
damage done to them, such as broken tail
lights, broken head lights and scratches,
all seemingly without reason, Damage

635-8477,

pers does nol subscribe to call display.

“The Amazing
JELLO Weekend” ©

It wiggles and jiggles and
can be so much fun!!!
Hanky’s has just the party for you!!!

Callers are not required to reveal their
identity or to testify in court. Crime Stop-

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28

Wiggle or Jiggle on down this
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Located in the Coast inn of the West

From front

Phone call

‘What are we being criticized for? We're being criti-
cized for appointing Ralph Torney, making a commitment
of some additional $54 million to assist small and medium-
sized businesses in northwestern B.C.,”’ Miller said. “All
we were doing was trying to assist the businesses of the
northwest.’* ,

Miller said comments by Campbell about Skeena Cel-
lulose are feeding southern confusion about the province’s
involvement and ultimately are hurting the company.

He said every erroneous story in southern media hurts
the company in ihe marketplace.

“f really wish they’d just shut up about it and think a
little bit about the ramifications of what they do,’” he said
i Liberals. ‘It seems to me they want this company to
fail.’?

“In my view, Campbell is being imesponsible and [ can
only conclude he has written off northwestem B.C, He
docsn’t care about the peopel and the communitles here.’

Miller says he’s irritated by the criticism, but says he’s
staying the course,

“I probably put more cnergy into the Skeena Cellulose
issue than anything else I have done,’’ Miller said.
“We've taken all kinds of hits on that. [’m criticized al-
mest daily for what we've done. But it doesn’t bother me a

it.

Miller, meanwhile, is continuing to challenge Campbell
to a debate over the Skeena Cellulose situation.

“Ti betcha he never comes.’’

See Page AS for. excerpts from Judge Thackeray's

“ruling.

Over the past few years
we've seen all sorts of
different investment
products thal are introduced
to the market, most of
which are a new version of
an old offering. Recently

however, there has been a -

lot of talk about a seemingly
new types of investment
product, the index finked
GIC.. This product has in
fact, been around for some
time. Back in my Montreal
Trust days, we offered a
product called a Stocklink
GIC™ (the predecessor ta
the Stack Index GIC™), but
at that time it wasn’t as
popular as a regular five
year GIC which was paying
more than 99% guaranteed.

Index linked GICs are
GICs in every sense of the
word in that the principal is
guaranteed by the bank, The
return of the index linked
GIC, which is not
guaranteed, is usually
derived from a particular
market index such as the
TSE 35/100/300 or even a
number of markets
combined such as the those
of the European, American
and even Asian markets
with a particular weighling
altached to each.

Some of these GICs will
have a cap on the rate of
return it can earn (usually
20 - 35%) or a participation
factor usually between 60
and 90%, To show you how
the participation factor
works, let’s assume that the
associated stock index of
the GIC went up 10% and
the participation factor was
80%. Your return would be
80% of the 10% return or, in
other wards, 8%. This is
where you have to decide
which methad of return
calculation you prefer. Do
you take all of the return of
the market up to a preset
limit or do you take only a
portion of the return with no
preset limit? You will have
to ask yourself how much
you expect the associated

stock market index to grow
and which calculation
method will benefit you the
most.

The most common ways
that return is calculated on
indexed linked GICs are:

1) Rate of growth of the
index fram the issue date to
the maturity date of the
GIC,

2) Rate of growth of the
index from the issue dale to
the average closing value of
the particular index in the
month prior to maturity.

Be careful of the details
as some financial
institutions will offer the
index linked GIC for use in
your RRSP only or they
may require that it be held
in Non-RRSP form. I have
seen a few institutions that
require a self-directed
RRSP be set up to held the
index linked GIC which
could require you to pay
fees. Remember that the
relurn on these GICs are not
known until maturity and
that when this type of GIC
is held outside of your
RRSP, all of the return is
taxed as interest income in
the year of maturity.

With the realization that
equity fund values can in
fact go down and interest
rates are still quite low,
index linked GICs are
ptoving to be a popular
investment option. Index
linked GICs not only allow
you to participate in the
equity markets without
risking any principal but
also are free of the
management fees associated
with -mutual. funds or
additional fees associated
with guaranteed investment
funds. Index linked GICs
cantiot replace a good
equity fund or a properly
managed portfolio of stocks
but they can be a potentially
powerful addition to your
overall portfolio.

David Madsen CIM, CFP,
FCSI

David B. Madsen,
CIM, CFP,, FCSI

“Professional

Investment
Advice”

To arrange an appointment

please call

In Terace 635-2264 /In Kitimat 632-6191 |

Scotiabank &

; _ bisli cabinets,

; ” May'N Not Be Exactly As I

Door replacement & & repairs to

qi) Rite Way Contracting | oO
"4734 Hamer Ave, Terrace © (250) 619-7181 © (250) 635-

SCRIME

ESTOPPER

The meeting will review the role of Crime Stoppers in Terrace
and upcoming events for 1998. Also slated is the election
of officers for upcoming year.

For more information call Ed Berney at 635-6347