Smile. Your’re on .... She’s retiring It isn’t exactly Candid Camera but ; it is enough to give you a speeding ticket\NEWS A7 Look out, guys After more than 700 weddings, Linda Harris is calling it quits\COMMUNITY B1 Females are tearing up the Terrace Speedway race track i ina big way\SPORTS B4 WEDNESDAY AUGUST:4 19, 1998 ~S1 93¢ PLUS 7¢ GST VOL. 11 NO. 19 Super package costs $220,000 OUTGOING SUPERINTENDENT Frank Hamilton’s retirement package is costing ithe school district more than $200,000. Most of the $222,818 that'll be going to Hamilton stems from a 1996 contract he signed with the district, His retirement deal includes a payout of sick leave (188 days) for $77,093, ac- cred and accumulated holidays (63 days) for $25,830 and $107,014 which is equivalent to a year’s salary. There’s an additional $2,500 for financial counsell- ing. The board also passed a motion at a recent meeting lo grant Hamilton another $10,381 for working nights and even- ings. Details of Hamilton’s retirement pack- ape were released to The Terrace Stan- dard through a freedom of information request. . It isn’t unusual for senior administra- tors to have provisions in contracts to pay for financial counselling because of the tax implications tied to large payouts. Hamilton’s payout figure could have been much higher if senior administra- s RCMP celebrate 125 years DIFFERENT KINDS of uniforms are on display by Terrace RCMP officers as they're joined by civilian employees outside of the detachment one day. This year marks the 125th anniversary of the national police force which came tors hadn’t agreed to new contracts when the Terrace school district merged with Kitimat’s in 1996, Hamilton’s old contract was for five years but had a roll over clause which automatically renewed it for one year at the end of each year, In effect, the con- - tract was always for five years. As well, the contract guaranteed Hamilton five years pay if the school district ever removed him. After 22 years of serving as the school district’s superintendent of schools, Hamilton agreed to carly retirement this year to help the district with its budget problems, His early retirement, won’t save the board money this year or next year because of the size of his retirement package. Sharon Beedle, assistant superinten- dent here has been appointed acting su- periniendent of schools to fill the vacan- cy left by Hamilton, Beedle was formerly acting superinten- dent for the former Kitimat School dis- trict. into being in the last century to bring law and order to the west. It resembled a military organization in those days and that philosophy has been changing only recently, For more on force's history and what it is today, see Page A5. She'll begin September 1, until a permanent superintendent is chosen, “In September or October the board will name a committee and set a criteria for hiring a permanent position,’’ said . school district secretary treasurer Barry Piersdorff Jast week. ‘‘By February or March, there will be somebody sitting in the wings.’” Piersdorff said the board will be ad- vertising nalionally to fill the position. Longtime assistant superintendent Skip Bergsma has also retired this year. Anger at airline THE PLAN by an airline to cut service to Dease Lake north of here will abandon and bankrupt the region sur- rounding the community, says a Kitimat-Stikine regional district director, “They have wsed and abused the north,’’ said David Brocklebank at a regional district meeting Friday of the decision by Central Mountain Airlines to pull out of Dease Lake as _ of Oct. 5. anger by raising the middle digit of bis right hand dur- ing debate on the wording of a protest Ietler to airline officials. Central Mountain is also cutting out service to Ter- race, Watson Lake in the Yukon, Fort Nelson and Fort St. John in the north- east. It instead is picking up routes to he vacated by Air B.C., the Air Canada sub-. sidiary with which it has. forged -a business rela. tionship. Brocklebank says spinoff effects on norlhern com- munities could be severe, He worries airline suppliers and community — services staff who fly in and out of Cont'd Page A2 Native hunting laws a headache for COs Liberals push ‘Brocklebank regisitit’hig® at DAN AIKENHEAD knows more about aboriginal hunt- ing practices today than ever before. The New Hazelton conser- vation officer recently in- vestigated an illegal moose shooting south of Terrace. It would have been a routine invesligation, except the hunters were natives, and Aikenhead had to study traditional hunting rights be- fore charges could be laid. Like a conservation of- ficer with homework, Aikenhead took home books on tlorthwest aboriginal tra- dition, phoned ethno- historians in Victoria, checked legal precedences in other B.C, aboriginal hunting cases, and phoned Jocal band feaders. Ail to determine one thing: were Stanley McNeill and Russell Gascoyne — - the men who skot the moose — doing anything illegal? It’s a process conservation officers are dealing with more often since ralings like the Sparrow decision guar- antecd First Nations people ceremonial and sustenance fishing rights on the Fraser river, The Supreme Court deci- sion and others following it, including the Delgamuukw decision, defined and changed aboriginal hunting rights in B.C, Regulations have changed so much that conservation officers now operate under 1993 guidelines set out ina provincia] discussion paper, Interim Guidelines on Aboriginal Use of Fish and Wildlife. One of the paper's mandates is to ‘‘develop a wider appreciation and un- derstanding for recent legal and policy developments in B.C., relative to aboriginal _ interests in the management * col fish and wildlife " resources,’” It details terms, manage- ment principles, and enfor- cement procedures, provid- ing definitions for key lan- puage like ‘traditional terri- tory’ and ‘sustenance resources’, It’s here where hunting on traditional territories is balanced with safety and conservation concerns, Night hunting and driving with a loaded weapon, for example, are not atlowed anywhere, And bunting for endangered specics like Coho and grizzly bears are subject to allocation — limiting the catch so that fu- ture getterations of that City’s noise bylaws out of date COMPLAINTS ABOUT the noise from Skeena Cel- lulose’s new wood chipper have resulted in confusion over noise bylaws. Residents from as far away a6 McConnell Avenue started complaining after the massive chipper began operating 24 howrs a day, seven days a week, According to a report by Frank Bowsher, the city’s bylaw enforcement officer, the company was asked to stop running the chipper between 11 p.m. and 6:30 am. and to construct a felt noise barrier. SCI has since complied with the new hours, but has yet . to construct a noise barrier. At a city council meeting August 14, Bowsher said the. city’s current noise e bylaws don’t address a heavy industrial we zones. Councillor Olga Power is concerned about the stress the persistent noise may cause area residents. She said that council should be concerned about the health and well-being of its residents. According to the current bylaw, which was designed to apply to residential situations, and only requires the com- plaints of two families to find a noise unlawful, the chipper could be shut down. But council members agreed taking such actions against the mainstay of the local economy was not an option. “We should be careful, It is our industry and we ap- -preciate them being here in our community,’ said mayor Jack Talstra. “The city will now look to noise: bylaw precedents in : ‘other sawimill towns before deciding what action to take. species will survive, Likewise, hunting for species not traditionally used for food or celebrations is also illegal on First Na- tions land. Legislation changes when First Nations hunt off histor- ical territory. They lose all ceremonial and food rights to hunted meat and are sub- ject to standardized seasonal restrictions. Martin Melderis, chief conservation officer in Ter- race said the discussion paper is a good guideline but parts of it are already outdated, He said the document needs to be updated to make sure charges will be sup- ported by an ever-changing legal framework, Conservation officers want to make sure arrests will stick once they get to court. "You have to know the laws up front before you go forward,”’ sald Aikenhead, who explained most officers have too inuch to do to chase cases unnecessarily, Bolh Aikenhead and Melderis know crown pros- _ ecutors only take files based on case law precedeitce be- cause they can be won. for Nisga’a vote A SENIOR member of the provincial Liberal party in the northwest is taking the case for a referendum on the Nisga'a treaty to a high-level party meeting next month, Derrick Curtis, the party's regional director for north- em B,C. and the president of the Skeena riding associa- tion, expects a strategy for a referendum to develop at the meeting of riding association presidents, “The treaty sets up a system of apartheid within Can- ada by setting up a government for a group of people based on race alone,’’ he said last week. “There’s nothing in the treaty for those who live off- reserve,’ added Curtis of trealy provisions which pro- vide benefits for Nisga’a who live in the Nass Valley but not for those who live elsewhere. He’s also worried there is no Gnalily within the treaty, adding that clauses will provide the Nisga’a with other bencfils negotiated by other native groups when they sign their treaties, Curtis prefers a treaty in which cash is paid for land and Nisga’a become full and complete Canadian cilizens with full access to programs available to others, ‘Tustead we're going to set up special programs ac- cording to the colour of your skin,”’ he said, Since the Aug. 4 inilialling of the treaty in New Aiyansh, Curtis said he’s been hearing strong support in the northwest for a referendum, **There's a strong sentiment that this is apartheid in reverse. It’s like what happened in South Africa which is interesting because (Premicr) Clark is the person saying that’s wrong but that is what is happening here,’ said Curtis, In the meantime, Liberal MLA Mike de Jong is on his way north to probe public opinion about. the Nisga‘a deal. He'll be in the Nass, the Queen Charlotte Islatds, Prince Rupert and Terrace next week.