A6 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 28, 1997

Yer pene ae pans amare pene gran eneal
CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD

The Mail Bag

Reality check needed

Dear Sir:

In response to Mary Bond’s April 30, 1997 letter.
Mary, if a person is incompetent, he is incompetent and
that is not name calling but a fact Dave Zirmhelt is in-
competent.

Mrs, Bond, you are very right, the contractors of
Repap had numerous meetings regarding payment
schedules with both Repap and amongst ourselves.
Yes, we did talk about withdrawing services, and many
other solutions we thought might help us get paid.

However, after getting some of the best legal advice
available in BC, we were informed we were not at
liberty to wilhdraw or withhold our services.

I still believe the forest minister should amend the
Forest Act, Woodworker's Lien Acts, and the timber
harvesting contracts and subcontracts regulations 30
that multi-nationa] corporations can not come into BC
and legally do what Repap did.

As far as working together, we the contractors get
along very well. Reluctantly, we all stayed working,
obeying the provincial laws. We paid our employees,
though we did not receive a cent from Repap for over
two months,

If ever a reality check was in order, [ would have one
done soon, Mrs. Bond. ] am very surprised someone
whose family relies on the forest industry such as your-
self is so blinded by your narrow minded political
beliefs that right and wrong are completely com-
promised.

Lioyd Hull, Terrace B.C.

A failing grade

Dear Sir:

Another issue of the paper and another [etter to the
editor fram Skeena’s MLA, Helmut Giesbrecht, (April
30, 1997) telling al] that will listen, he somehow gat
into an extremely well paying prestigious job without
even knowing what his job is.

Your job description sir, as I understand it is: “You
were elected by the majority of the voters in the Skeena
region to go to Victoria and represent the interests of
all the voters of Skeena.”’ Nothing more, nothing less.

Somehow you have completely forgotten what your
job is, and have taken on the job of representing Vic-
toria and shoving the NDP’s rhetoric down the throats
of the people in the Skeena region.

Mr. Giesbrecht, maybe I should put this in a format
you understand: On reporting the interest of Skeena to
Victoria - Sir, I give you an ‘F’,

I suggest you pull up your socks and do your job, be-
fore you make history as the first re-called MLA.

Lloyd Hull, Terrace B.C.

Gov't not to blame

An open letter to:

Bill Sauer, Secretary/Manager,
North West Loggers’ Association
Dear Sir:

In your open letter to the Minister of Forests in the
May 7 issue of The Standard you express concem at
what you feel were comments made by Ministers Zim-
helt and Miller and by me. You do not quote the com-
ments but you interpret them as saying that “‘the un-
secured creditors are deserving of their fate.’’ That
statement has not been made by any of the above-
mentioned three. It has not even been suggested by any
of the three.

What seems abundantly clear to the public is that
Repap breached their part of the bargain when they
started a delayed payment schedule. You state that log-
ging contractors could not “cease working, as to do so
would be deemed to be in contravention of B.C. Reg
258/91, therefore in breach of contract.’’ Yet the con-
tract was technically already breached, wasn’t it? If it
wasn’t, why didn’t the contractors simply do what
unions have done for half a century — show solidarity
and refuse to provide the service unless the payment
was on time? And, please don’t suggest that the
government would have legislated you back to work
without a guarantee of timely and proper payment for
services rendered.

Now the public also knows the reasons why this
didn’t happen, and I have also conceded any number of
times that the economic pressures for logging con-
tractors were very real.

Helmut Giesbrecht, MLA for Skeena

Loggers fear layoff
if roads aren't built

By JEFF NAGEL
LOGGERS HERE fear long
shutdowns in the months
ahead if the banks that own
Skeena Cellulose don’t pro-
vide money to build logging
roads this summer.

The Royal. and Toronto
Dominion banks are so far
releasing only a trickle of
cash to build roads.

And as of Jast week
Skeena Cellulose officials
had not yet been g’ven ap-
proval to spend money
needed to build roads in
June.

“Road building has to go
hard and heavy through this
road-building season or else
there are going to be shut-
downs,”” wamed Ken
Houlden, president of the
Northwest Loggers Associa-
tion.

Right now the company
has enough roads built to
continue logging operations
until about October.

And it has said it will in-
crease heli-logging opera-
tions to make that road-

accessible timber last
longer.

But summer is road-
building season, and

Houlden says without an ag-
gressive program the com-
pany will run out of wood it
can get to by winter or early
spring.

“There will be glitches in
the fall and winter, but by
spring there will be nowhere
to go at all,” he predicted.

Court-appointed monitor
David Bowra concluded the
company needs to spend
about $18 million this year
to build logging roads and
continue operating.

But whether a big chunk
of money will be released
appears tied up in negotia-
tions between the two banks
and the provincial govern-
ment.

Bank officials met with

- deputy premier Dan Miller
_ Just Thursday and demanded

concessions from the pro-
vince. But they were told
there was no money to be
had and that any easing of
costs would have to be part
of the province's Jobs and
Timber Accord.

Randy Derksen, owner of
Van Dyke Camp, accused
the banks of trying to liqui-
date Skeena Cellulose’s
most easily accessed timber.

The logging camp opera-
for says the strategy of
reduced road building and
intensified heli-logging con-
firms his worst fcars.

“They are going to strip
out the best of the best,’”’
Derksen said last week.
‘We're not talking about a
company that’s making an
effort any more.”’

Derksen, who led the
charge to bring assistance to
troubled contractors in the

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government.

Skeena

“Rhoda Witherly

ie,

Liberal

development.

Rhoda Witherly

A vote for Rhoda Witherly is a vote for a voice in

* The northwest corner of B.C. is being left out.
Skeena needs an effective and visibla Mamber of
Parliament who will represent everyone.

* Rhoda Witherly is cammitted ta working with the
government toward long term solutions for

* Rhoda Witherly is committed fo listening to the
people of Skeena and working with them to
encourage economic stobility, and regional

* Rhoda Witherly is committed to taking the Skeena
Voice to Ottawa and she will be heard.

* Authorized by Tom Weckworth, Official Agent for

Stewart area earlier this
year, is calling on the pro-
vince to suspend the compa-
ny’s timber licences now
before the most profitable
timber is creamed off. —-

‘I don’t believe we
should stand by and allow
the banks to strip these
licences off,’’ he said.

In particular, Derksen

Hull and Sons Contracting,
says he believes the banks
will go ahead and operate
the company.

He thinks they’re keeping
northwesterners nervous to
preserve their bargaining
position when it comes time
to win concessions — be it
from the contractors,
unions, suppliers, or the pro-
vince.

Whether a big chunk of money will be
released to bulld roads appears tied up In
negotiations between the two banks now
owning Skeena Cellulose and the provin-

clal government.

said, the province should
take away the Buffalo Head
and Orenda logging licences
in the Meziadin area.

So far this year, loggers
there have only worked’ for
a few weeks in February
and March after Jobs Pro-
tection Commissioner Doug
Kerley brokered emergency
aid for the area. Repap, now
known as Skeena Cellulose,
agreed to resume logging
there after getting an agree-
ment to defer payment to
the province of millions of
dollars in stumpage fees.

Logging in that area is
presently down and the
company has said it’s not
likely to resume this year.

Bowra’s May 7 report to
the court says Orenda and
Buffalo Head logging would
only resume this year if the
company can’t buy timber
on the open market at ac-
ceptable prices to feed its
mills.

So far the company has
been able to buy cheaper
sawlogs from Alaska, mean-

ing it doesn’t need to start

logging up norths** *

‘When you're faced with
the financial situation we're
in right now, you have to do
some of these things,’’ said
Skeena Cellulose woodlands
general manager Dan
Tuomi. ‘‘We're not happy
with it either, But for the
short term, we’ve got to do
what we've got to do,””

Derksen says it’s now ex-
tremely unlikely that the
company will meet its obli-
gation to log at least half of
the annual allowable cut in
the Orenda and Buffalo
Head licences.

He said the province
should make those licences
available to an operator that
can run them.

“'Those assets can remain
in the woods until there’s a
company prepared to opera-
te it properly.””

But Gordon Hull, of Don

“Tf they dribble it out a
little bit at a time it leaves
doubt there and maybe

keeps people thinking
there's still potential to
fail,’* he said.

Hull said the banks’ re-
quest for permission at the
outset to operate the compa-
ny for five years — instead
of two — was a signal they
expect to be able to recoup
the $470 million debt owed
them.

The Summer Fun continues
this weekend at Hanky’s

Friday, May 30
& Saturday, May 31

Games begin at
10:00 p.m.
Be early to get a
Zood seat!

A recently released John
Hopkins University study con-
cluded that mony deer and
bears carry o tick-borne disease
that can be serious or even
fotal when spread to humans.
The disease, Human
Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis or
HGE, {ao | con't pronounce it
either}, is transmitted when the
fick bites the animal ond is
spread to people in the same
manne,

Blood samples from 20 of 43
white failed deer ond 6 of 80
block bears had signs cf the
infection. It weokens the
immune system until il can’t
effectively fight olf infections
by viruses, fungi and bacteria.
Patients with HGE usually show
signs of general, flu-like symp-
toms, fever, headaches and
muscle aches and as such, get
misdiagnosed as o common cold
and are sent home for same

4635 Lakelse Ave

Environmental Health Issues: Tick You Of

SHOPPERS
DRUG MART

Note: Shoppers flyers delivered in the Terrace/Kitimat Weekend
Advertiser on Saturday have a sale start date of Wednesday.

rest. That's arising from an HGE infection.
scary because there is a spetial Avoid areas where ticks pro-
antibiotic thot can cure liferate such os places over-

patients in 24 ta 48 hours if the
infection is cought early.
The lust thing | want fo do is

grown with low-lying plant life.

Wear clothing to cover
exposed skin...no more running
naked through the meadow.
Apply a tick repellent over
exposed areas,

IF you find o tick bite,
remove the fick as quickly as
possible using tweezers. Ba
‘careful not to crush’it while
“attached ‘because you could
squirt the infective germ into
the wound.

If you develop flu-like symp-
toms after a tick bite, make
sure your doctor. considers the
possibility of an HGE infection.
A“bulls-eye” rash may also be
suggestive of a lyme Disease
infection.

Officer for Community.
. . Health Services.

to sturt a stampede to the doc-
tor every time there is a cose of
the sniffles passing around the
community. Just keep in mind a
few steps that will reduce the
chances of serious consequences

Cd
Px

Phone: 635-7261

The Application

Transmission Services,

The Regulatory Process

Interventions |.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

- A Hearing into the Issue of British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority’s

Wholesale Transmission Services Application

On February 17, 1997 British Columbia Hydro and

Power Authority ("B.C.Hydro") filed with the Commission

a Wholesale Transmission Services Application which -
allows Independent Power Producers and other utilities to
iransmit power across the B.C.Hydro integrated grid system
under certain conditions, This Application is in response

to several determinations made by the Commission in its
Decision dated June 25, 1996 which dealt wilh a previous
B.C.Hydro application with respect to Wholesale .

The Regulatory Timetable associated with this Application
is attached as Appendix A to Order No. G-53-97. The
process provides for Alternative Dispute Resolution of

the Application. Educational Workshops are scheduled

for June 12/13 and July 3/4, 1997, with the location -

to be announced later. Negotiations days are scheduled

for September 2-5, 1997 with a public hearing into the:
settlement document scheduled for September 22, 1997,

Any party who wishes to participate in these proceedings
and who has not yet advised the Commission Secretary
is asked to do so immediately, :

Participant Assistance

All parties intending to apply for Participant Assistance
must file a budget by May 30, 1997 consistent with the
Commission’s Policy and Rate Sheet as outlined in Order
No. G-103-96. Copies of the Participant Assistance Poticy
and Rate Sheet are available from the Commission upon

request,

Clarification

Persons intending to participale in the process and

who are uncertain as to the mannerin which to proceed,
may contact Mr. Robert Pellatt, Commission Secretary
or Ms. Deborah Emes, Manager, Strategic Services by
telephone at (604) 660-4700, or B.C. Toll Free at -
1-800-663-1385, or in writing to the address below or
by facsimile at (604) 660-1102, The Commission can

also be reached on the Internet at beuc@pop, goy,be.ca.
. BY ORDER

Robert J. Pellatt
Cormmission Secretary _.

Sixth Floor, 900 Howe Street, Vancouver, B.C, V62Z2N3 Canada Telephone: (604) 660-4700 Fax! (605) 660-1102 |

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