The right stuff

And the beat goes on

It’s getting harder to find and

keep medical specialists in the

north\NEWS A6

already had three

Mike Turner's only 24 and he's

pacemakers\COMMUNITY B1

Timbermen triumphant
They sponsored and then ended

up the winners of their own
tournament\SPORTS BS

WEDNESDAY
February 25, 1998

but it's sometimes not heeded by drivers and that
means children are liable to be hurt. Bus driver

THE SIGN on local school buses may say stop Sheila Hansen is just one of those who has
watched a growing number of motorists breaking

the law and putting children in danger.

Bad motorists put students

at risk, say

ARE TERRACE drivers careless or just callous?

That’s what local school bus drivers want to know
afler watching car after car blast past them at stops,
even with the bus’s stop signs extended and lights
flashing.

““Everyone’s always in such a hurry,” says driver
Sheila Hansen. ‘‘It gets really crazy out there some-
times.”

While most drivers obey the rules of the road,
Hansen says some flout the law and children’s safety
by passing stopped school buses.

“T don’t understand it,’’ Hansen says. '‘The safety of
our kids is everyone’s responsibility.’’

"So far this year there have been a dozen recorded in-
cidenls of cars passing stopped school buses, And two
of those cars actually passed on the right side of the bus
when children were just about to get off.

That’s too much for Michael Docherty of Farwest,
the company which runs school buses here, ‘It’s sheer
sloppiness,”’ he says, '“The Motor Vehicle Act is quite
clear, You are required by law to stop both ways.”

Docherty says he would like to believe that the
people who run the stop signs are simply daydreaming
or unaware of the rules, but be doesn’t think that’s the
Case,

bus drivers

In fact, bus drivers report that when they toot their
hors at offending motorists, they aren’t met with em-
barrassed apologies. They’re met with the finger.

‘That indicates to me that drivers know the law but
are simply thumbing their noses at it,”’ Docherty says.

Another thing that surprises Docherty is that the
Speeding drivers aren’t just young people acting reck-
lessly, they’re peaple of all ages and walks of life.

And the problem isn’t confined to a single area. It’s
happening consistently all over lown.

“Tf it was localized, we could coordinate it with the
RCMP and they could monitor the area,’’ Docherty
says. ‘‘But it’s spread out."

Docherty points out that children don’t necessarily
live on the same side of the road where they get off the
bus. That means they have to cross the road, which is
why traffic on both sides of the street is required to
stop when the school bus stops.

In 1996 a child was struck at a bus stop by a passing
motorist. The youth suffered a broken leg but
recovered, Docherty is worried that another accident
may occur if people don’t obey the rules.

“Gad forbid someone could be killed,”’ he says.
‘For goodness sake take your time. We're talking
about the safety of our children.”

93¢ PLUS 7¢ GST
- VOL. 10. NO. 46

Cl gets money,

pays creditors

LOGGERS are now working and creditors
are being paid after agreements were signed
last Thursday to complete the restructuring of
Skeena Cellulose.

Cheques have gone out to settle unsecured
creditors claims by paying them $10,000 plus
up to 10 cents on the dollar after that — as was
agreed by a majority vote in January,

Thursday’s agreements saw $14.5 million put
in place to cover the creditors’ payments. The
creditors could get more payments in future
years if the company does well.

Plus the company’s operating line of credit
was increased ftom $110 million to $120 mil-
lion. That allowed it to start paying contractors
again, which in turn led to Monday’s restart of
logging operations which had halted last week,

But most importantly, the restructuring
means the bank and province will pour $170
million over the next three years into modern-
izing the Prince Rupert pulp mill, making it
more efficient and competitive.

The end result of the restructuring is that the
company emerges from nearly a year of court-
ordered creditor protection under the

Companies’ Creditors Arrangements Act.

“We’ve come through this,” said company
spokesman Don McDonald. “We're now on
the road to building hopefully one of the mast
competitive pulp mills in North America. Now
is the time for everyone to work together on
this,”

Skeena Cellulose is now 52.5 per cent owned
by the provincial government, after Victoria
agreed in the fall to buy out the Royal Bank’s
share. Minority partner Toronto Dominion
Bank has 27.5 per cent of the shares.

And the pulp mill employees in Prince
Rupert ~ both union workers and management
~ will get 20 per cent of the shares. That’s in
exchange for a 10 per cent pay rollback over
the next seven years.

Exact details of how those employee shares
will be distributed is still up in the air and sub-
ject to a court hearing in March.

The next step for the company will be the job
of appointing a board of directors and the nam-
ing of a chief executive officer to replace
interim CEO David Bowra, who had been the

Continued Page A2

Skateboard options still open

CITY COUNCIL has decided to set up a
temporary skateboard park on the arena hill
rather than rush the decision on a permanent
site, ,
Councillors agreed Friday to set ui the future
park's concrete ramps on the arena hill as a
temporary location for use this year.

But construction of the actual park — and pre-
cisely where it will end up — will wait until
Jater this year or even next year,

The temporary site would be on the parking .

lot overlooking the tennis courts,

Although the arena hill is emerging as the
favoured location, that’s also the expected site
of a multiplex including a second sheet of ice
and community/convention centre,

The city didn’t want to build the 10,000
square foot skateboard park now and then limit
their options as te where they can place the
multiplex later.

So now the skateboard park will be laid out at
the same time as the multiplex,

Although it puts the idea of moving the

farmer's market on the backburner, that possi-
bility hasn’t been entirely eliminated.

The city could return to that idea if there
tums out to be geotechnical or other problems
with the arena hill site, so

Although the Davis Ave. site of the farther’s
market would require an expensive new storm
sewer drain installed, city director of engineer-
ing Stew Christensen said the city will eventu-
ally need ta do that anyway,

Councillor Linda Hawes favoured a com-
plete look at the farmer’s market site, while Val
George said he felt the community response
against that idea should be respected.

“There’s an overwhelming community reac-
tion opposed to moving the farmer's market,”
George said.

City councillors have also warned market
reps not to view their present location as a per-

manent site. The land is increasingly scen as
valuable city-owned land in the heart of the
city that only has activity on it a couple of
times a week,

Child development
program in doubt

THE FUTURE of the special needs pre-
school program at the Terrace Child Devel-
opment Centre is in doubt.

A grant of $175,000 from the children
and families ministry helps pay the majori-
ty of the program’s costs. Fees and raising
money elsewhere make up the balance.

But that grant — amounting to one-
quarter of the centre’s budget — might not
be around this fall because the ministry
wants to change the way it pays for special
needs pre-school programs.

Instead of having the child development
centre receive a single grant, the ministry is
thinking about allocating money ta the
parents of special needs children. That
means they could send their children to
Places other than the development centre.

The theory behind the change is that
parents with special needs children
shouldn’t have to pay more for pre-school
care and should be able to send their chil-
dren wherever they choose.

Margot Van Kleeck, coordinator of the

centre, supports the idea, saying parents
should have a choice. But she points out the
special needs pre-school program at the de-
velopment centre charges the same amount
as any other pre-school in the city.

Instead Hays is worried that the pot of
ministry money could dwindle overall in
the new system.

Block grants help parents who aren't able
to pay preschool fees and that could change
if the overall amount of money changes.

She’s also worried that waiting lists might

become longer if demand can’t be met be- —

cause of a shrinking budget,

“I'd hate to see any of these children put
on a waitlist because there’s not enough
money to go around,”’ said Van Kleeck.

The centre runs two pre-school programs.
One at the centre is solely for special needs
children and the other, run out of the base-
ment of the United Church, is an integrated
class, about 25 per cent special needs,

Van Kleeck says the classes are now full
with 56 special needs students enrolled.

DEPUTY PREMIER Dan Miller is
facing calis for his resignation after ac-
cusations that a government lawyer im-
properly phoned a judge presiding over
the Skeena Cellulose restructuring.

The lawyer, Clive Bird, is now being

investigated by the Law Society of B.C.

for his conduct on Dec. 30.

| That's the day Bird — under orders
from Miller — caifed Supreme Court
tustice Allan Thackray at home in an ap:
parent effort to determine how the judge
would look upon the government's plan
lo hire Ralph Tormey to find ways to as-
sist small and mid-sized businesses in

the northwest.

Lawyers don’t normally discuss the
details of a case with the judge other
than in the courtroom.

The appointment of Tomey — whose
recommendations later led ibe govern-
ment to announce a $65 million bridging
foai program — is an-issue because {t
came just prior to the second vote of
SCl’s unsecured creditors on a package
that would. guarantee them around 10

_cents on the dollar.

The first vote had been forced through
by the government and the TD Bank by
designating a portion of their debt to un-

.

Dan Miller defends

secured status,

But after widespread criticism, the
government agreed to a second vote
without using its influence.

That Jan. 6 vote passed with 85 per
cent of creditors voting in favour.

Thackray, in his Jan. 11 ruling approv-

ing the restructure plan, concludes the

government could only have intended to
make the public announcement to
“sweeten? the offer and thereby en-
courage a yes vote, He sald that raised
concems about fairness and resulted in
what he called a ‘“‘seriovsly Qawed"’ pro-
cess.

call to judge

Thackray, in a Dec. 30 memo he added
to the court file, said he had ‘several
misgivings'’” about the telephone call
from Bird.

The judge said he believed the govern-
ment wanted his advance ‘‘blessing”’ to
go ahead immediately with the Tomey
appointment — effectively an attempt to
make the court a party to a political
move.

B.C. Liberal Geoff Plant has called on
Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh to order
a review of the government’s conduct
throughout the Skeena Cellulose pro-
ceedings, .

And Liberal leader Gordon Campbell
has called for Miller’s resignation.

Dosanjh has responded by saying he’ll
wait for the Law Society of B.C. to com-
plete its investigation and then will take
whatever action is warranted,

Miller, meanwhile, told the Standard
last week the issue has been blown out of
proportion, noting the judge did approve
the restructuring plan,

‘Cont'd Page A2