Lock it up

Theft vehicles or items in
vehicles can be reduced

if owners locked
up\NEWS A3

Hear them roar |
WESCAR pro-stock racing
takes place this weekend
at the Terrace
Speedwayt\SPORTS B4

class young carvers

to a higher

plane\COMMUNITY B1

$1.00 pLus 7¢ GST
($2.10 plus 8¢ GST
outside of the Terrace area)

RURAL DOCTORS will continue to
have an edge ever their urban counter-
parts through a tentative $392 million
deal negotiated last week,

It comes in the form of on-call pay
— money for physicians who while they
are not on duty, have agreed to re-
spond if called to a hospital.

Local doctors have been getting
$10 an hour for 14 hours a day since
2(HK0.

Rates were different for other rural
and remote places and there was no
on-call at ail for urban doctors.

The idea of on-call payments for
rural doctors was to provide a recruit-
ment incentive and to keep doctors in
the north.

The new agreement eliminates the
per hour amount and brings in a lump
sum to be divided among a group of
doctors sharing on-call duties and ex-

tends the principle to include urban
physicians.

For continuous coverage requiring a
doctor to be available by phone within
10 minutes and on-site within 45 min-
utes, the amount is $225,000 a year.

When divided by the number of
hours in a year, the pay works out to
$25.68 an hour, more than the $10 an
hour for L4 hours a day that’s in place
now, says local physician Dr. Geoff
Appleton.

“It’s not an awfully lot extra, but it
is a significant lift for on-call,” said
Appleton, who sits on the B.C. Medi-
cal Association board.

And while on-call payments now
apply to.both urban and rural doctors,
there’s no reason to suggest that will
make it hard to attract or to keep doc-
tors in the north, he said.

“IF you are referring to GPs (general

More inside
w Wounds will take time to
heal, A2
@ Strike action was limited
here, A2

practitioners), it: would be rare for an
urban doc to do on call,” Appleton
said.

“In the Vancouver region, the large
hospitals either have staff physicians
or salary or physicians in hospitals or
work fee for service.”

Last week’s tentative deal ended
escalating strike action in the south
and the prospect of government legis-
lation to end the dispute.

Physicians in Terrace will continue
to receive 14 per cent northern isola-

lion premium on top of their normal
Medical Services Plan billings.

As well, general practitioners re-
ceive a lump sum of $21,000 and spe-
cialists $26,500 a year to stay in Ter-
race.

The lump sums and on-call pay-
ments were brought in here along with

_ the on-call money in 2000 to match

incentives introduced for Prince
George doctors who said they needed
more money to either attract physi-
cians or to stay in the community.

The $392 million a year deal is
retroactive to April 1, 2001 and is
good for three years.

That’s on top of billings which last
year nudged the $2 billion level.

Rural doctors,.as well as all others
elsewhere, get a general fee increase
of 11.2 per cent, dating back to April
1, 2001.

Northern docs keep income edge

Some of the retro pay has already
been sent out despite the ongoing fee
dispute of the past months,

The fee increases make up $185
million of the $392 million package
with the rest of the money going to on-
call payments, money for salaried
physicians and those working under
specific contracts and to help finance
increased costs brought on by more
people needing to see physicians.

An average fee for service peneral
practilioner was billing out $200,000 a
year before the dispute began.

In the Terrace area, with the fee in-
crease, the 14 per cent premium add-
on, the annual retention bonus and the
increased on-call payments, that
amount could now amount to more
than $270,000 a year. Doctors do cover
office expenses with their billings.

Cont’d Page Al6

ground in Jack Pine Flats last week

JAKE PENNER’s business of 27 years was burned to the surance but he does want to rebuild Copper Mountain Cedar
Products. It employed nine people. JOANNA WONG PHOTO

. Penner does not have in-

Mill owner eyes new start

By JOANNA WONG
THE OWNER OF a cedar shake mill de-
stroyed by fire last week says he wants to re-
build.

“We're going to try and rebuild once the
mess is cleaned up,” said Jake Penner the
day after a May 29 fire burned his Copper
Mcuntain Cedar Products mill in Jack Pine
Flats to the ground.

Penner, who has had the business for 27
years, said he had no insurance.

“It?s a hard day,” said Jake Penner. “I
don’t know what to say.” The mill employed
nine people, ;

Fire officials estimate approximately
$500,000 in damage was done. It was one of
the largest fires to take place in the area in

the past few years. The blaze completely de-
stroyed several buildings, mill equipment
and a forklift.

An investigation team has determined
that the blaze most likely started from sparks
from a waste burner being blown about by
shifting wind gusts the afternoon of May 29.

Penner says he discovered the fire after
work at approximately 6:30 p.m. Both of
Penner’s own emergency fire pumps proved
useless, a8 one pump lost power and the
other remained trapped in the burning mill.

Penner could only watch helplessly until
the Thornhill Volunteer Fire Department ar-
rived on scene at approximately 6:40 p.m.

“I sincerely thank the Thornhill Fire De-
partment for saving some inventory,” said

Penner.

In total, 29 firefighters from Thornhill
fought the fire, with two men sustaining
minor injuries.

“The fire was under control by about 10
p.m. and we were on scene until 12 a.m.”
said Thornhill Assistant Chief Michael
Moore.

The Terrace Fire Department sent a team

of five men who also assisted in bringing -

the blaze under control.

The B.C, Forest Service was called in to
help extinguish a secondary fire on a log
deck located on the same property several

hundred meters away. “We were concerned.

about fire spreading through the forest,” said
Steve Westby of the forest service.

true to his

By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN
KAREN and Darrell Brown didn’t plan on
adopting a kitten until a little grey bundle
of fur quite literally fell into their lives.

Darrel was in his workshop behind the
couple’s Thornhill home when he disco-
vered a wild cat had a litter of kittens in
the ceiling.

Somehow two of those kittens fell
nearly 12 feet from their home in the
ceiling landing behind an alr compressor
May 7.

The larger of the two kittens ran out
only to be caught in the jaws of the
Brown’s visiting son’s two large dogs.

“They grabbed her and that..was the
end of her,” said Karen. Brown.

Kitten’s experiences

new name

“Everybody was crying — it was horrible.”

Soon after, a loud mewing came from
behind the machine.

“They found this wonderful little runty,
grey ball of fuzz,” said Brown. “Hence
the name Lucky because he’s pretiy
damn lucky to be alive.”

Brown says their new little bundle of -

energy definitely has.a wild streak and
frequently gets-into mischief.

When the kitten, who Brown estimates
to be about two months old now, pets into
trouble he gets a whole new name -
Lucky Lucianno. .

-.“Lucky Lucianno was a gangster, so I
figure he must have some gangster blood
in him,” Brown said laughing,

ne

JUST over two months old, little Lucky Lucianno
has already used up two of his nine lives.

Union nixes
recruit scheme

IT’S GOING to be harder for northern and rural places
such as Terrace to recruit nurses from overseas.

That’s because the B.C. Nurses’ Union (BCNU) has
pulled out of a program which granted one-year work
visas to foreign nurses.

The program, run by the federal government, allows
workers into the country if no Canadians can fill job va-
cancies. In the case of nurses, @ visa was granted once
the BCNU was convinced it would not be at the expense
of a Canadian nurse.

But now, with southern health authorities closing or
changing health care facilities, the union says there’s a
growing number of laid off nurses. Until those nurses are
found jobs, the union has stopped giving visa approvals.

“The fact is we're certainly seeing the issuing of pink
slips, not so much in the Northern Health Authority area,
but certainly in the lower mainland,” says Leanne Mal-
thus, a Smithers nurses and northwest BCNU representa-
tive. “We have to protect our members and ensure their
tights are protected.”

“It would be wrong for us to open the door knowing
full well there are nurses laid off,” Malthus added.

While layoffs are only taking place in the south for
now, Malthus said the same will happen up north once
beds in Hazelton, Kitimat and the Queen Charlotte Is-
lands are cut back.

At the same time, the provincial government has eli-
minated an agency which matched up laid off health
care workers with vacant positions and assisted them in
either retraining or moving to new jobs.

Without that kind of help, Malthus said, nurses and
health care professionals who are laid off have no place
to go to find out if there are vacancies,

The BCNU decision has put a halt to some efforts of
Mills Memorial Hospital to bring in foreign-trained |
nurses, says nursing director Mare Petrick.

One foreign trained nurse got union approval just prior
to it pulling out but others, including ones from Austra-
lia, New Zealand and the Phillipines are caught up be-
cause of the situation. :

Also affected by the no-visa edict is a group of Filipi-
no nurses in Libya who have been trying to come to Ter-
race for nearly two years.

Petrick does expect the union to eventually lift its no-
visa approval decree once the nursing employment si-
tuation becomes much clearer.

‘She is happy that another program, called the Pravin-
cial Nominee Program (PNP), does not require BCNU
approval when an employer makes a job offer to. a forei-
gn-trained nurse.

“Two of the four nurses we want from Australia and
New Zealand are through the PNP program,” said Pe-
trick. “It’s really up to the nurse to choose.”

No further action

in pot plant seizure

TERRACE RCMP say they aren’t arresting anyone after
200 marijuana plants were seized from a home near the
downtown core downtown May 23.

Members of the Terrace RCMP drug section said they
uncovered a sophisticated indoor hydroponic marijuana
grow operation.

Police seized 200 mature plants which they say were
already in the budding stage. They also seized what they
call a significant amount of electrical equipment from
the home. ne

The plants were found packed into a single room of
the home, police said. ;

Drug sectlon officers Cnst. Mike Hacker and Cnst.
Bruce Lofroth said they can not divulge why no action is
being laken and that the investigation has been conctu-

ed. . ;

They did say people were living in the home at the
time of the rald,

4