~ AG - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 2, 1994 . It’s train time ANY TIME is train time as Via Rail's The Skeena travels between Prince Rupert and Jasper. But there are clouds on the horizon with the federal goverment looking for ways to tim the costs of its crown corperations. There's been no word yet on when a final decision about The Skeena’s future is going to be made. hk ie, ee ee ay a a ila a i i ei i in Ni iil i il i te iin ian i tan ie Prince Rupert also taking steps Customer service training on its way LOCAL EMPLOYERS can ¢x- pect a survey soon asking them what should be in a customer ser- vice training course. The course is being developed by the Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce to help customer service workers and potential new workers. The plan is to train 20 existing employees and 20 unemployed people over a 40-hour course, said chamber manager Bobbie Phillips. And when finished, each participant will receive official certification. Those people will then be placed in a customer service labour pool, available to employers looking for qualified help, said Phillips. ““What’s interesting is that we're doing this from scratch and _are doing a manual as well,”’ she said, That way the chamber will have a course curriculum to use in fu- ture classes. The $55,000 cast to develop the course and to teach the first class is being provided by the federal government through its Canadian Jobs Strategy program. The prospect of building a course from the ground up and developing a curriculum hasn’t been done before, said Phillips. “This is going to be specific to this area,’’ she added. There will be a fee to take the course. The expectation is that future courses will be self sustaining be- cause the set up costs are being covered by the federal govern- ment. kk kkk Prince Rupert consumers now have the opportunity to either complain about or to praise their local merchants. The Prince Rupert and District Chamber of Commerce has set up a comment phone line in order to improve customer service. The lack of customer service was a prominent complaint last fall when a chamber survey dis- covered that 28 per cent of non- food items were purchased out of town. “We were getting the calls anyway,’” said chamber manager Lynne Hill in expanding upon the rationale for the comment line. She stressed the chamber will act only as an intermediary be- tween stores and customers. It won't offer a better business bureau service or become in- volved in legal issues. ‘Already il’s worked,” said Hill, ‘I’ve got phone calls from merchants and customers saying thanks. Merchants said they didn’t know they had a prob- lem,”” One side benefit could very well be a growth in the numbers out of town shoppers coming to Prince Rupert to shop, she said. Another step being taken by the chamber is the staging by the end of February of four customer ser- vice seminars. These are intended to train em-. ployees to give better service, The seminars are being given by Doug Smith of Smith Commu- nications, the same person who is setling up a customer service training course here in Terrace, SaM PPE eee eR ke Rae Re FABRICLAND IS expanding next door into the space once oc- cupied by Electrolux. The extra 1,000 square feet will add to Fabricland’s existing 3,000 square fect to expand what the store offers, says Marion Farlette, one of two partners. Expansion work is being ac- companied by renovations to the existing store, she said, , be done the end of February. In addition to Farlette and part- ner Lori Knoedler, there are two full time and five part time em- ployees. kk kkk THERE’S A family connection at work al Mand MCreations. Working at the custom sewing business is the mother and daughter team of Muriel and Marilyn Fallenback. And it got its start when the zel- ative who owned Personal Fit moved to Prince Rupert. “We never thought of doing it . before,’’ said Marilyn. But when her aunt moved to Prince Rupert, the .opportunity. came up to provide a service, she said. kkekkk Alcen is closing two Richmond - operations and axing 112 jobs. One plant made window frames and the other rods that were then turned into clectrical wire and cable. But three years of financial losses proved too much to handle, said Alcan last week, The plants had also been on strike for seven months. TNJ Sound Remax of Terrace They had been operated by Al- | Skeena Valley Fence Ltd. Pendragon Computers can for the past 36 years. Stewart Chamber of First Choice Travel tok kk Commerce Northern Healthcare bee ene and District Cham | C.E.MIl. (Stewart) Copperside Foods members to wite ov Exx in sup. Investors Syndicate Pacific Northern Gas port of cellular phone service Lynx Advertizing/Terrace = B.C. Hydro here. Helping Hands Ministry of Transportation The chamber has been told by | Lockport Security -_ & Highways B.C. Tel’s B.C. Cellular that Ter- | Century 21 - B.C. Telephone Co. race isn’t a part of a Gve-ycar plan to expand cellular service. Western Equipment Aqua Clear Bottlers coat tang demand coud brite | Blue Ridge Graphics Watkins Products xpected, said, K dei Trading C: : . chamber vice president John ‘| Kermodei Trading Co... (Quesnel) Evans. Central Mountain Air ~, Sight & Sound More informalion is availaole | B.C. Automotive . Akita Transport from the rare ak ~ | Red Carpet Food Services Link Windows ; : River industries ~. Skeena Broadcasters iM meager of the Norte by | Tetace Realty ~ Creative Options Northwest Tourlsm Association. | Far West Fuels Wilkinson Business From Kimberley, Quilley re- | Kalum District Forest Machines ~ places Greg Meredith who left Services “McEwanG.M. _ toward the end of 1993. Skeena Cellulose _ Mary Kay Cosmetics ~ Terrace & District Tolsec Canada | HELPING THE WORLD oo ehamber of Commerce al West Glass | ozy Corner Fireplace WRITE NOW Astro Pure Water Purifiers spec P y. Federal Treaty Negotiation Terrace Totem Ford Office CODE Book Your Space tye dover on By Calling Bobbie Phillips For information, cali +800-661-9633.] | atthe Chamber of Commerce 635-2063 Out & About Quilley began work yesterday and has 17 years of tourism ex- peirence. kak kk dustries is appealing the latest’ ap- proval of a B.C. Hydro rate in- crease, “Fabrictaind: hopes ‘the wark will ©" A coalition of B.C. forest, mini-~ ““ne and electro-chemical ‘in- The coalition says the increase has more to do with raising money for the provincial govern- ment than it has to do with rua- ning:B.C. ‘Hydro as a business. -- appeal to the B.C. Utilities Com- mission doesn’t result in a change. sam oS Student Works Painting — Terrace Chamber of Commerce April 29, 30 & May 1 at the Terrace Arena These organizations are going to be in this year’s trade show. SHOULDN'T YOU BE?! Terrace Co-op “Tt-said court-action is: next if the <. A. Facts about KCP Number 16 ina series answering the questions most often raised with Alcan about the Kemano Completion Project After their long disagreement over water flows needed to protect the fish in the Nechako, how did Alcan and federal fisheries reconcile their views so. quickly in 1987? The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and Alcan -- joined by the B.C. Ministry of Environment (MOE) -- actually resumed discussions in May of 1987, at the urging of the B.C. Environment and Energy Ministers. These talks led to the formation in August, 1987, of a nine-member Working Group consisting of scientists from the DFO, the MOE and Alcan. This group met under the guidance of Dr. David Strangway, president of the University of British Columbia, to consider whether the tools and approach outlined in the DFO's new Policy for the Management of Fish Habitat could provide an acceptable level of certainty for the protection of fish resources in the Nechako River. This policy was a key development in allowing a consensus to be reached. - Prior to the policy's introduction in 1986, the DFO could assess and enforce Poe requirements only in terms of waler flows. The Fisheries Act -- unchanged ° since the late 1800s -- was, as Alcan’s Bill Rich said at the opening of the -BCUC technical hearings on KCP in mid-January, "a somewhat blunt instrument in dealing with other resource activities.” ‘The Habitat Management Policy, however, introduced new elements that ‘could be looked to in designing resource projects so that they could meet the requirements of the Fisheries Act. DFO’s salmon enhancement program had demonstrated that fish habitat could be créated to enhance natural productivity. This provided new options for decision making: if a project was to alter certain kinds of fish habitat, it was possible to create replacement habitat using proven techniques. _ The provisions of the Habitat Management Policy provided the basis for the Working Group to break the impasse between the two flow regimes that had been staked out in the court proceedings. A program of measures to protect salmon was unanimously recommended. and incorporated into the 1987 Settlement Agreement, along with a mechanisin to carry out the recommendations. That mechanism is the Nechako Fisheries Conservation Program (NFCP), managed jointly by the. DFO; the MOE and Alcan. Scientists and technical experts with the NFCP _. have been working on the Nechako River for the past six years, successfully “testing habitat management techniques, Alcan pays the full cost of all habitat development and maintenance work; DFO pays for several research projects : on specific topics. Alcan’ $ commitment to the protection of the Nechako salmon resources, under the 1987 Settlement Agreement, is one of the most far-reaching. environmental obligations ever imposed on a private company in Canada. _ The Kitimat Information Centre The Kitimat Information Centre is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10.a.m. to 4 p.m. Drop by the office and we will be happy to discuss any questions you may” have about Kemano Completion. : Kemano Completion Project KITIMAT INFORMATION CENTRE 224 City Centre Kitimat, B.C, V8C 1T6 Tel: 632-4712 PRR ADAM ERROR RN