_ West of Cranberry:

‘thon, waiting for. more pine :
maushirooms to arrive. : : ~

Pm" here now,?? ‘said’ ‘Sami:
McQuarrie, a 30-year-old pick-_
er from Burnaby ; who has been
in: the camp. two weeks. “Pm
going to stick. it out for a few
more weeks,”

“As of last week, he said he
had found three ‘mushrooms.
One he ate, the other two were
worth $3.65.

McQuarrie is ata camp opera-
ted by'a Vancouver-based com-
pany called Natural Excellence
Industries International.

‘He's one of as many as 200
young people who responded to
the company’s ads — promis-
ing ‘income of up to $1,000 a
day’? — and paid a $1,000 ser-
vice fee up front.

The pickers have come from -
a8 far away as Ontarlo, Alberta,
Saskatchewan and the United
States to find the lucrative pine
mushrooms. The only problem
is there aren’tmaty,

‘A disastrous mushroom crop
has- left; many pickers out of

“money.: |

Drew Oakley; a, 23-year-old

White Rock, picker, ‘said. he’s

: ‘ Honie if he‘ doesn’t: get any _
“money from mushroom picking.

numbers and many « the: pickers seta. ag fi

‘catnip west of Cranberry -Juic-

broke and’ has 10 way to get.”

“MUDDY PARKING ari houses about 40 young fe
ction in the Nass Valley. Se ectoom i haven't appeared it reat
| rio arid,the U.S» ware broke e

#0

' Buess. rn hve to’ ‘go to well
. fora ‘bus ticket home.”? :- :

He paid his $1,000, ‘but has."
o left the camp ‘to pick alone, mo

“At the beginning it. was

"pretty good,’* he said, adding
- many of the pickers were from

the cities and had little experi-

‘ence living in the bush. ‘When
the sun was out everything was .

great. .But when it started rain-
ing, people started whining,”
The tough times ‘have

"prompted some of them to
‘blame the company for not

providing the facilities it
promised — gourmet ‘food, hot
showers and toilets -— for
which pickers were initially
charged a $25 a day camp fee.
Both RCMP and health minis-
try officials have been investi-
gating the situation, but so far
have taken no action. —
Vancotver RCMP: comier-
cial crime unit Staff Sgt. Roger
Ecklund said the province’s

“ ministry of. labour and ‘con-

sumer services. is. looking. into
the case.

The commercial crime _ unit
will wait for the ministry’s find-

inga and then decide whether to.

conduct a full investigation,
Ecklund sald. =
“Health inspectors ‘say, they’ Te

trying to ‘Teach company offi-, “

cials.'

Ron Craig described the camp ©

> as: “primitive?” and said an ine
_ Spéction of the camp last week

. found it ina state of disarray. oO
-He-said inspectors found the.
_ drinking: ‘water ‘and sewage dis- :
"posal inadequate.

The . canip billed itself as a
cooperative venture, with pick-
ers working together, flying to
remote picking areas in helicop-'
ters, and collecting higher prof-
its. by. flying the mushrooms
directly to the airport.’

The company’s: ads continued
to appear in the Vancouver Fro-.

vince newspaper up watil Tues-

day of last week.»
-Compaity president Guy Stuyt

refused to be interviewed last
” week, saying only that ‘‘every-

thing’s up in the air right now.’’

.Kjeld Samuelsson, the. camp.

manager, said the company and
remaining pickers are waiting
for the mushrooms to appear.

“We're just trying to make.

things happen,” he said.
“We're out here with a dream
—.a' mushroom dream — and
we're trying to make ago of
it.” nw ,

Mast , of the -pickers who

. orginally came to the camp
have. now abandoned it to pick.

on their own.
The camp’s: chief. scout, who

would: only identify himself’ as
‘Andy’, said :many: pickers’ ar-'

Hiyed: with inflated expoctations,
Cont'd page A3 «

GN. | wa

‘band
‘provincial -
a ca

: ~ being.
held | hostage ‘ins 2

“oo :

NEWS AQ

Orange Crush

« Defending champs
bury visitors In season's
first hockey tourney.

‘SPORTS C1

Light shines in —
on claims talks

TERRACE — _ Northwest
municipalities are getting an in-
creased presence in the Nisga’a
land claims negotiations.

It’ll take the form of regular
contact between municipal .coun-

cils and a provincial official al- .

ready assigned to the negotia-
tions. a

But fina] details of the plan
have yet to be worked out, says
provincial aboriginal affairs min-
isiry spokesman Judy Birch.

She said the effort is but one of
several initiatives underway to
provide more information on the
claims negotiations.

Those negotiations have been
criticized for the failure to pro-
vide any information on what is
going on.

“Tn the last several months we

have re-examined the structure to .

make sure there are effective
channels to the negotiations and a
way to share confidential in-
formation and that sort of thing,’’
said Birch.

She added the effort involves
not only the Nisga’a talks but the
wider aspect of negoliating other
native claims in B.C.

Birch said what is happening
now took time to develop given
that the province did not decide to

‘enter land claims negotiations un-
_ tilrecently,

‘We're now at a much better
Slage to discuss some matters of
substance (in the negotiations). It
was kind of hard to discuss when
we didn’t have anything specific
to talk about,’’ she said.

On the Nisga’a claim, the:

provincial government has added
a number of northwest provincial
officials to the negotiating team.

They, said Birch, will be able to
provide a regional perspective to
the negotiations, —

And it’s in this process that
municipalitics will become in-
volved.

Those officials include local
forest district manager Brian

Downie, regional lands official
Jim Yardley from Smithers and
Tom Chamberlin, the regional
provincial wildlife manager based
in Smithers.

Chamberlin did attend a meet-
ing with northwest mayors 10
days ago but it hasn’t been de-
cided yet if he will be the mun-
cipal contact, said Birch.

Kkkkk
In ihe meantime, the chairman

of a local group of forestry. and,

other companics says it is getting
closer to also finding out more
about the negotiations.

“We'd like input before the is-
sues are tabled,’’ said Pat Ogawa

of Skeena Cellulose. ‘We'd like
an opportunity for meaningful in-
put, not just generalities.”

He said the committee wants to
deal directly with the negotiators.

Ogawa added that the com-
mittee does recognize the -need
for some level of canldentialty
in the talks.

Liorary still waits
for gov tT mone"

TERRACE — It will be at
least six months before the local
library board knows whether Vic-
toria is prepared pay a share of its

planned $3.75 million expansion

project.

Government ::...affairs:... minister
Lois Boone has announced no
new capital grant program will be
put in place this fiscal year which
ends Feb. 28, 1993.

The new program is supposed
to replace the GO B.C. grants
which were scrapped by the New
Democrats in the spring.

At the time GO B.C. was
chopped, the library’s grant ap-
plication had not yet been ap-
proved.

But the library board and city
have since both worked on the as-
sumplion one-third of the cost
would be forthcoming under
some new, replacement program.

For that reason, although the to-
tal cost’ of the project was
estimated at $1.75 million, votcrs
in the June 20 referendum were
asked to approve borrowing only
$1.235 million.

Both had also anticipated a new

‘brary - grant

program would be in place by this
fall...

Ministty: spokcsman Doug
Harms last week confirmed the li-
application will
remain in limba “until we have

- And once the program jis in
place, all applications received
prior to the ending of GO B.C.
would be “looked at’’ before any
new ones were accepted.
Although details of the new
program have yet to be worked
out, Harms cautioned the dollar

value of individual grants will be |

lower than in the past. -

“Under GO B.C, the maxi-

mum award was $1 million and

the (new) approvals will not be as:

generous as that,’’ he said.

What the eventual maximum
would be remained to be seen.

Library board member George
Clark was not overly concerned

at the further delay on a grant de-

cision.

“We did foresee this
eventuality,’? he pointed out.
“We can build the expansion

with the amount of money . ap-

proved (in the referendum), what
we can’t do is put im a finished

basement.”

In the. past, ‘the board ‘has’ sug: .
gested excavating the basement

_... a0 operational program?” <0: now ARpANSION BVERAE he AoyernMeNt,,.:...

grant did not materializé;

That extra area would then be
sealed off and finished at a later
date when money was available. |

Clark said the board was set to
meet last night at which time it
would discuss “what course of
action to pursue’’,

It would then pass on ‘iw con-

- clusions to council and. be

prepared to mect. formally with

aldermen on the subject. .
Although details of the new

program have yet to be worked

out, Harms cautioned the dollar. .

value of individual grants would
be lower than in the past,

“Under GO B.C, ithe maxi-
mum award was $1 million and
the (new) approvals will not be as
generous as that,”’ he said.

What the eventual maximum
would be remained to be seen.

‘No’ votes 40 per cent.
up north, says NDP MP

TERRACE -—- Skeena NDP
MP Jim Fulton estimates that 40

per cent of the people attending .

public mectings in the norlhemn
part of the riding oppose the con-
stitutional accord.

The MP held those mectings .

over the last two weeks in com-
riunities along Hwy37 north of
the Kitwanga Junction.

While those who were firmly in
the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ camps prior to
the meetings stay there, Fulton
said the ‘‘overwhelmingly major-
ily’’ of the undecideds joined the
‘yes’ side once it was explained
to them.

He said supporters of the deal
made up a slim majority among

the 500 people who attended the
meetings.

Fulton docsn’t want to conduct
meclings with large numbers of
people in the larger centres of the
tiding.

He's not convinced people will
get to ask questions at large

‘gatherings.

His preference is to recruit
“speakers who simply want to
talk to people educationally about
the constitution’! at a number of
small, information sessions.

“My single pica at this moment
is that people who have some in-
terest and some background in
the constitution to contact any of
my constituency offices,’’ Fulton

said.

Fulton conducted the northern
mectings by going over the agrce-
ment clause by clause and ‘then
taking questions.

Although he makes no secret of
his support at the beginning of
each meeting, Fulton says he's
careful to keep the presentations
“entirely non-partisan’’, -.

Anyone wanting a copy of the
accord can contact Fulton’s con-
stltuency office at 638-1818 of
Skeena MLA Helmut’ Gies-
brecht’s office at 635-4146.

For more on Fulton’s opinion
of the proposed coristitution, see
Page A2, The Reform party says
‘no’, That story also on Page A2.

BEST BUY

« It’s not often you can
buy a church for $650.
Valdemar Isidoro did.

-NEWS+ A13