Terrace Review —— Wednesday, February.12,1992. _ industry to process wood in this region and the = amount of wood available to be processed has clear- ly-been a problem, but one that wasn’t spoken out loud in _ polite circles. The only thing to speculate over was which Ny Hh i ie economic factors kill them? Would the government step rand attempt to rearrange the resource allocation? Would ; shower down from the sky? . : _ © Skeena Cellulose’s.bid to take over Westar’s Hazelton. operations, if successful, would probably. good thing for " ‘Terrace because it would solve some thorny fibre. supply ‘problems for the Port Edward pulp mill. That mill has been + Petting a third of its wood chip feedstock from Westar, and ‘any restructuring of that arrangement by, say, an outside company purchasing Westar and radically changing the fibre flow, could have had. some. unpleasant repercussions, jlot-only.in Prince Rupert but also in Terrace. The fate. of ihe Terrace sawmill is inexorably tied to the company’s fitst priority, pulp.- : | «The effect. the deal would have on Hazelton and Kit- wanga, where the Westar mills are locates, is less clear at point, but it is probably safe to conclude that matters Gould not get much worse for those two communities than ‘they have been over the past year. The inclusion of native _ -interests in the proposed deal should bring some peace and " cooperation to the woods, and there seem to be opportun- industry that hardly ever comes about until the mass pro-- ‘duction operations wash up and leave a community . anded with nothing but its own innovative drive. ‘Despite this hopeful outlook, there is still a matter of -eoncern, Rather than diversifying forest tenure, an objéc- ‘tive that makes communities less reliant on single com- 4 . : “the sale of tenures held by Westar and Tay-M, nearly all ‘the timber from Stewart to Bella Coola and Prince Rupert: fook over Westar. No matter how responsibly they behave and no matter how good their corporate citizenship, the deepening dependency of this area on the good will and — _° financial acumen of Skeena Cellulose and West Fraser- __Etiso is enough to make most people who live here nerv- ee} or years now the mismatch between the capacity of _ ~ mills would bite the dust and how they would go. Would _ ‘ities for developing the kind of secondary manufacturing . ° . es.and.single indugtties,:this deal would. concentrates:!:% re tenure in a company that already has vast holdings in ‘region. With the collapse of Wedeene River Timber and. st of Smithers would be held by two companies if SCI. Established May 11,1985 __. Second-class mail The Torace Ree i Oe .. _ tegistration No. 6896 ° _ Business Services Ltd. 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Jack Beck - due to age, race, religion, colour, sex, nationality, ne OfficalT ssatiing anosatry oF place of origin. i . yt O} n . . 4 . -preauotion ston Managet 4595 Greig Avenue, rien VEG iM7 1+ production: on Gian Slater, Charles Costello, Phone: oe ‘George McLean, Gurbax Gi aX Wo ce.” Ranjit Nizar : pesounting: One yeor subscriptions: nn Malanwoenp heen | SGNsiSoraseaewen” Close Up Businost arvices Lid menmensincmtieninemrea Ea redd for publication only when signed, Please Lottera to the editor w publ fy Wh neo and edit pagent nevinnenneremmaranittneie eee On SYNT G7 Satna NOSE raze at aaa Ls aaa erie perce cnene eae reN ee NE f THOSE ot? INNES LSTHEY F100 QUR COUNTRY WITH THER 6000S, BUY - WP OUR INDUSTRIES... - HG a rag? i aon u a3 es hr 4, ered ta CEASE ORE SRE TY a iy —— | MO a y | PRISED FY Ff Bes) UH) re | © ‘The view from — a . - Victorta — =" by John Plfer VICTORIA — One has to won- - der just how interested — if at all — the general public was last _ week in what became known as The Virginia Jessop Affair. ‘Some members of the media were all excited and churned up about it; the two opposition parties saw a chance to score some politi- "cal points; the clerks of the Legis- lature were determined to preserve their power position; and a rookie MLA leamed a tough lesson when she appeared to threaten that power. a To recap: Ms Jessop, a long- | serving and capable civil servant, who also happens to be the wife of Tan Jessop, the former press sec- _ retary to the last two Social Cred- it Premiers, was offered a job as ” secretary in the office of the clerk of the Legislature. | That offer came from the clerks, the long-serving, distin- ‘guished legal officers who run this place regardless of which party forms the government, = ' However, they chose not to inform the Speaker-designate, rookie MLA Joan Sawicki of Burnaby, of that decision, despite the warning bells which one might. expect would be sure to ring when the name Jessop was raised, ‘Ms Sawicki did indeed get a. shock when hearing of the appointment, and she ruled the hir- . ing out of order. She has since stated that she believed the MLAs would have objected if Ms Jessop ‘got the post, that it would have "created a political controversy. But after three days of attacks and power plays and her own political controversy, the Speaker, upon being told by the MLAs' House leaders tliat there were no objections, withdrew her over-rul- ings _ Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. And there also is a job awaiting you, The Speaker says _She expects no problem in work- - © ing with you. . Ms Sawicki is a rookie, yes;, but she is no fool. She has some "strong ideas about how the office of Speaker should operate — not the least of which is getting tid of, once and for all, the assorted. _ _crests and logos all marked "MR." Speaker, replacing the Mister with. "The". ee LQ The lesson she has learned in the Jessop Affair will hardly slow her down at all; and this corre- spondent predicts.that she will — handle the legislative session — with its 51 rookie MLAs out of 75 — like a veteran... with a little help from the clerks, and ms Jes- sop! | In the wake (pun intended) of the rough ride that Royal Sealink Ferries had in its inaugural week _ “of operating passenger-only cata- marans between Vancouver and Victoria, you might expect the company to be filled with doom and gloom. _ But even though one of their sleek, speedy vessels was badly ‘damaged when it was in collision with a much larger ship from B.C. Ferries, and even though one of its promotional trips was on seas s0 rough that it was labelled the “ride and ralph" tour, the Sealink peo- ple's spirits reniain buoyant (O.K., no more nautical puns, ed.). Having taken the cruise between the two cities — down- town to downtown in two-and-a- half hours — I have to-admit that the service is useful, comfortable, convenient and affordable. And I therefore fully expect it to become - popular among tourists and busi- ” snesspeopte on both sides of the strait. . ” Thatis, it will fitean finans |. ’ cially survive the initial deadheads’ . which have been strewn to date in . its public-relations path (enough ' of the ocean-going puns and | - metaphors, already!). The parent company in Nor- — -way churns out one of these sleek ~ Cats every two months, and Sealink is hopeful that a couple of _ ‘them soon will be plying the = waters between downtown Van-- couver and Nanaimo, if all the red_ tape can be sorted out. at ‘ "That trip would only take 65 ‘minutes. Hell, that's less time than, - it takes to drive into Vancouver from Coquitlam or Langley during the rush hour! What a way tocom- mute! - < - a ~ The ships are like large, more spacious, more comfortable 747 — jetliners, and there areeven, movies shown during the voyage for those easily bored. . There is a log going for sucha ~ service to become a regular fed- ture on B.C.'s coast. All they have: to work on is staying out of the way of floating debris... and other - ferries! we Parting Thought: As Premier "Mike Harcourt promised when -he was in the Asia Pacific in. ‘November, other provincial Cabi- net ministers will be jetting there‘ soon, Next to go is Forests Minis- ter Dan Miller, who leaves on Fri- _ day for 10 days in Japan and - Watch for him to be followed early this spring by Agriculture .. Minister Bill Barlee of Okanagan- Penticton, and Tourism Minister Darlene Mar zavi. | a " ~. Why? 'Caase there's money in - them thar Asian hills, folkst! And _ B.C. wants some of it, =”