Work-sharing Asian flu likely to linger

helping firms
avert layoffs

More than 100 workers aided

By ALEX HAMILTON |

RATHER THAN having to lay off employees, many
companies in Terrace arc tuming 10 work sharing pro-
grams to help keep staff on the payroll.

Currently 15 employers and 112 employees are on work-
sharing programs in Terrace.

Human Resources Development Canada’s Alice Ban-
nister said only two companies were in the work-sharing
program last year.

These programs are designed to keep regular employees
working when companies face tough times. .

Here’s how it works: Companies that can no longer pay

‘workers for 40 hours a week, but can give them 30 hours

of work, can apply
to ihe HRDC so
that unemployment
insurance covers
employees’ other
10 hours.

Unemployment
insurance will be
based on their
normal rate. A

To be eligible for
work sharing com-
panies must not be
facing scasonal hardships. For example, businesses in-
volved strictly in tourism, can’t apply for the work sharing
in the off-season.

To be eligible for work sharing, companies must supply
a recovery plan including information about their busi-
ness’s history, sales for the last two yeas, and information
on how the company plans to increase sales.

Work sharing programs are supported for 6-26 weeks.
Bannister said most of the companies in Terrace that are
currently work sharing are smaller companies.

Anyone interested in work sharing can call Mike Pan-
chuk at 635-7134 extension 235 for more information.

More turn to
Salvation Army

Many unaware aid is available

MORE PEOPLE are in need of the Salvation Army’s
services this year than previous years, according to Captain
Norm Hamelin,

In fact the need for social services is the highest it’s been
in five years, he said.

“We have all our regular customers as well as more
working class affected by layofis and downsizing,’’ he
said.

There is an increase in demand for food and clothing,
and more people are looking for information. + «

‘A SPECIAL REPORT
ON OUR ECONOMY

“Manly of these people have never really dealt with the .
social services net side of things béfore,”” said Hamelin:

“We haven't hit bottom yet. This
winter's going to be a tough one.”

He says most of his time is spent providing people with
information about how to access services.
Hamelin said he’s also noticed that many parents who

. wanted to send their kids to the Salvation Army’s day

camp couldn't afford it this year.
Terrace Anti-Poverty Group executive director Helga
Kenny also reports an upswing in people seeking help and
says many of them aren’t aware of the help available.
_“Most people were under the impression that you can’t
get social services if you’re working at all,’’ she said.
“They think you have to be destitute. But that’s not the
case,”
Kenny said that she get frequent requests for food, in
particular, but says the cupboards are bare.
“Our two deep freezers and cupboard are empty — un-
less you count the two cans of cranberries,’’ Kenny says.
“The situation is worse this year,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s quite
depressing.”
And she worries the worst is yet to come.
“We haven’t hit bottom yet, This winter's going to be a
tough onc. Get some help because you can.’’

Phone lines fall
as people leave

THE NUMBER of phone lincs in Terrace has dropped for
the first time in seven years.
- There were 7,797 residential lines here at the end of June
c mipared to 7,851 in April.

Business lines also dropped marginally from 3,728 in
April to 3,725.

“That has to be from people moving out of the area,”’
said B,C, Tel area manager Ed Clark.

He said changes in subscriber numbers reflect periodic -

mill shutdowns when businesses don’t disconnect phone
service although the number of people they affect through
lay offs is high.

Residential lines here from 1990-1996 grew approxi-
mately 20 per cent each year starting at 6,213 lines in 1990
and growing steadily cach year to 7,465 lines in 1996,

The numbers also reflect a move to more fax and data
lines in the past eight years.

FROM FRONT.

bad tiey bee

THE NORTHWEST economy won't be
improving significantly in the coming year,

says Helmut Pastrick, chief

the Credit Union Central of B.C.
In his May economic analysis of B.C.,
Pastrick says the forest sector has been hit .

by heightened competition,

high production costs and export quotas.
But Pastrick says that the most important
economic problem affecting the northwest

in the short term is the Asian

downtum has led to decreased exports of
‘natural resources, especially lumber, pulp,

coal and copper.

‘All the momentum is still downward,”

economist for -

He’s
government

lower prices,

market, whose

Pastrick said of the Asian markets in an in-
terview last week with The Standard.

But he adds that beyond the Asian
troubles, longer term problems stem from
increased regulation, changes to the Forest
Practices Code and high stumpage fees.
optimistic that the provincial

is moving to decrease

stumpage fees and bring relief to the
troubled forest sector.

Pastrick adds the economy will rally
back, if slowly. ‘It may take two to four
years for Asia to come back,’’ he says. ‘Of
course, that doesn’t make it very easy in the
here and now.”’

PRICES CUT: Carman Dayle outside her Gordon Diive home. Built just three
years ago, the house was on the market for two months and it sald for $30,000

less than it cost to build.

Realty glut means bargains

IF YOU'VE ever wanted to
buy a home in Terrace,
now’s the time to do it,

That is, if you have the
money.

“It’s a bzyer’s market in
Terrace right now, realtors
arg, ,over-supplied for the

demand and people with
money: basically have ‘their

choice,’’ said John Evans at
Remax.

Over 290 Terrace property
listings including
residential, commercial and
vacant lots — were listed on
the Multiple Listing Service
inJune.

But only 53 residential
properties were sold during
the same time period.

Evans said the number of

homes available in Terrace
has doubled since last year.

Part of the problem is that .

a lot homes simply don’t
sell as fast.

It’s not at. all uncommon
to hang on to a house for six

months, instead of selling it

‘ cet as _
in one month like last sum-
mer’?

homebuyers have such @
wide selection, people start
to move around a lot within
a community -and listings
can accumulate.

Over time, the buildup
leads to a property glut.

But then, this is real
estate, where capitalism
rules and eventually every-
thing sells if the price is

He also said that, when, .

“As soon as we undergo a
few price corrections, it all
levels out,’ said Gordon

Olson, director of the
Cariboo Real Estate Associ-
ation.

The association, which
tracks real - estate sales
across northem B.C., reports

. June’s average selling price:

‘of residential homes in Ter-

race as $161,116 — the
highest of 11 northern
centres from 100 Mile
House to Fort St. John.

The numbers, said Olson,
mean the best deals in Ter-
race are the top end of the
market in homes worth
$180,000 or higher.

“It's where all the activity
is,’’ he said.

Banks asked to give
breaks on payments

It’s not too bad yet, branch managers say

By CHRISTIANA WIENS
and ANITA DOLMAN
TERRACE MAY be feeling
economically pinched but
Money managers say it

could be worse,

One of the first indicators
banks have of an economic
downtum is late or missed
loan payments,

“] see people coming in
here every day to suspend
their payments,”* said Ken
Earl, branch manager at
Northern Savings Credit
Union.

Earl said a lot of pcople
have decided to sell larger
investments and are trying
to hold off on loan pay-
ments until their house sells.

He added that it’s not too
late for people without a
financial plan to start one, to
avoid sinking into debt.

For a new bank, Earl also

- gees a steady increase of

new savings accounts, bul,
surprisingly, the amount of

money in the bank is drop-
ping.

He assumes unemployed
loggers have begun living
off their savings rather than
investing their money.

“You get a real sense of
people putting in time uniil
the fail,”’ said Earl, ‘‘Iv’s a
real wait and see attitude.’”

Derek Itani at the In-
vestors Group said he has
seen some people suspend-
ing investments until the fall
or reducing the amount
they're investing but that no
onc is panicking,

“Those who weren’l
prepared are maybe going to

get squeezed out,’’ said

Itani.
Gordon Oates at the Bank

of Montreal has seen lend-
ing patterns slow down over
the past two years.

He said car Joons are
down, but housing mort-
gages are up.

Oates _ attributes the

growth in housing loans to
Terrace’s diversified econo-
my, saying that government
workers, large retail outlets
and a sizeable business sec-
tor cushion Terrace’s econo-
my. fp

‘*A large section of the
econmony .is still getting
regular paycheques,’’ said
Oates. ‘It’s not nearly as
bad as it could be.”’

Bankruptcies down -

Although the Anti-Poverty’
Society reports an increased
number of people coming in
looking for bankmpcy
forms, bankrupcy stats have
actually declined.

In the first quarter of
1998, only one business and
five consumers (private in-
dividuals) claimed
bankrupcy.

Terrace’s total for all of
1997 was 25 coasumer and
eight business bankrupcics,
up from 19 and four in
1996.

Building permits, business licences down

“Bie Or tale their Vehicle Off the'tomds 8 PVT as

‘ton this year. ; ;

But renovation work has been
considerable, both commercial and
residential.

That's the type of construction
that occurs most in this type of
market.

Gipps sald the flooded housing
market has also slowed down con-
struction...”

Some potential builders are wait-.
ing for their previous home to sell
before they atart building their new
-house. “We've had ‘a number of in-
quiries ‘of people saying’ if my

house sells 1 might build,’’ Gipps
sald,

The number of houses for sale
and the downward move of prices
also tends to make potential
builders think twice.

“There is a lot of product on the,

market,”’ he sald, ‘So people are
waiting to see what happens.”’

At the current rate of construc-
tion, the numbers won’t even hit
Gipps’ dismal prediction of $10 to
$12 million that be issued at the be-

‘ginning of this year,

Likewise, the city will fall short

of the 20-25 houses Gipps had
hoped would be built this year.

That’s a far cry from the 60 to 80
houses a year that have been built
here through many recent years.

Business licences have also taken
a tumble this year.

The City of Terrace has closed
off more than 150 business licences

this year. That represents more than

12 per cent of the total number of
business licences issued in town.
But there are still new businesses
faking out licences — 70 so far this
year — so the total number of busi-

ness Hicences has declined from
1,291 at the beginning of the year
to 1,212 at the end of June.

‘Gipps says the decline is mostly

the rers"t of the drop-off in con-
struction activity.
- He said the majority of licences
cancelled were for various types of
building contractors, roofers,
drywallers and the like.

‘“T know a number of people who

have moved down south and
moved bere and moved there to get -
work,” Gipps explained. -

| City’s coffers which got an acit of land from the devel- 5,

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 15, 1998 -A5 °

The Mail Bag ©

Too many bureaucrats

Dear Sir: wok.
This morning’s news greeted me with more disturb-
ing insanity: a new firm, sponsored with federal
government funding has been set up in Terrace to assist =,
young people find jobs.
These I suppose would be non-existent or extremely
low paying jobs if they can be found at all. :
The trouble with these types of firms are that the jobs
they create iend to be for the people working in these
offices. These firms are merely another burcaucracy
starting up with more office space, secrctarics, office
furniture, assistants and so on for the unemployed tax-—
payer to foot the bill for. t
The people in these offices across this country are an-
other example of the non-productive part of our society _
that has gotten out of hand and are helping lead our
country down the road to financial destruction. - i
1 am extremely curious and would love to know if
these people are working full-time for the same minti-
qnal pay as the jobs they find for young people. Do they =;
have to produce and are audited for a certain number of
jobs each year or do they just sit in their cozy litle pro,
tected office positions and live off the taxpayers’ back? =“
About a year ago councillor David Hull said the crea- +
tion of two or three minimal paying jobs was as good
as one high paying job on logging, construction, etc.
The politicians and want-to-be’s seem to be focusing *

- their direction of thought in creating hundreds of thou- -

sands of low paying jobs on which no one young or old }
can afford to purchase a decent vehicle, home, or nay
other major item unless they live with someone who-
can subsidize their income,

Our provincial government is just as guilty of
stupidity. Some friends and I were discussing the shake .
bolt industry and the possibility of making a living, at it.
Since the NDP virtually legislated myself and thou-
sands of others into the unemployment and poverty -in- —
come levels I thought it was about time they found usa.
new way of making a decent living. — _

I went to the forests ministry office and found outa
prerequisite is you must have been in the logging in-
dustry for a year before you are eligible to cut and sell
shake bolts, which is the same as cutting firewood.

Wouldn't it seem right then that when logging jobs
are shut down that loggers are not permilted to go into
another trade since they haven’t done whatever it may
be as a profession before? _

What I am pointing out here is that bureaucracy thing
again, the government had a good idea to create
employment in forestry then when an individual has =?
the resources and ambition to go after it they have an
office full of little bureaucrats with high-paying jobs
telling you that you’re not allowed to go out and make —
a decent living. . :

Iam going to take this a step further, an individual is
unemployed which seems to be in chronic proportions
in our community these days, and is driving around
town in a vehicle in poor condition either the police or = +

bey oe -~

__ that litte bureaucrat from the ministry of transportation,

will stop this individual and either give this person 8 i

Now, nobody goes through life dreamiiig about. the
day they can drive a rusted out bucket of bolis around
town but when a person.is driven to this. point by
government policy or what have you, is it really neces-
sary to have the potice and ministry of transport
bureaucracies kick you when you're down?

Bureaucracies, bureaucracies, bureaucracies. Isn’t it
about time the governments quit creating bureaucracics
and started creating real work for real people? “*.

DO Allan Grier
Terrace, B.C.

a

— eae

- Planner misguided

An open letter to city council: a,

Terrace. planner David Trawin, in the May 20th issue
of The Terrace Standard, is quoted as saying that Ter-
race needs more multi-family land: .

He zoomed in on blocks of undeveloped land be- .
tween North Eby and Sparks, north of Gair Street. Why
he selected this area is unclear but perhaps some apart-
ment developer has casually suggested this area. ;

There are many other areas that appear to have been —
omitted. Large blocks of land northwest of Lanfcar Hill ‘
or betweert Halliwell and McConnell, west.of Uplands =?
Elementary School for a start. What about lands ad-
jacent to the Spring Creek subdivision or directly
across from the Community College on Kalum Lake
Drive? There is also a three or four-acre parcel on Hal- — [
liwell just west of Temple which would fit Mr. '
Trawin’s needs,

Mz. Trawin implies that the apartment building at the

‘corner of Halliwell and Sparks is a fine example of 4
good planning and quality development .

He fecls that this building ‘‘did not change the
character of the surrounding neighbourhood.” :

I suggest that Mr. Trawin’s admiration for the ncigh- +
boushood should prompt him to have a standing offer
to purchase and live in one of. the houses directly
across from this monster. Perhaps he is from the big *

|
t

en ed

city back streets and enjoys-the picture window view of
45-foot high nondescript walls, unkept landscaping, »
broken asphalt, incomplete streets, general debris and ~
water ponding, _

Mr. Trawin applauds mixed-use neighbourhoods. [tis —
like a stew, you throw in all the leftovers in any order. ;
It takes very little planning. Stew can be delicious but I!
do not know anyone who chooses to eat the mixture
every day. If ‘“‘stew’’ planning ts to be the future of
Terrace then we don’t need a professional ‘‘cook”’.

Mr. Trawin also states thal the adjacent property
values are not affected by this brown boxcar. Is Mr.
‘Trawin an appraiser as well as a stew maker? How
many homes across from the Scott Avenue apartments =~
or Kalum Street have retained their value?

Several homes near the Coachman apartments lost
their value, privacy and view. a

Don’t create another Coachman disaster which went -
up without # site ot drainage plan, without the neces-
sary provincial permit, and was contrary to. the Cor-
munity Plan of the day. The neighbourhood was not in-
formed and when we objected with 4 petition signed by
156 bench residents we were ignored and it appeared
that everything was done to assist the developer, -

Was it because the only real benefactor was’ the  ™

oper for a water reservoir site fora $1.00? 9 0 2
EE Kolbjorn Eide *
“Tertace BC. >