Driving force Local woman forced to grow up fast on the out- skirts of London in 1940s \COMMUNITY B41 What's mine? Exploration company executives get a rough reception from Tahitan: \NEWS A15 Strokes of success The Terrace Bluebacks | start the season with medai wins and top times \SPORTS BS _ $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST (81.10 plus 8¢ GST ~ outside of the Terrace area) — VOL.18 NO. 31 ovtit By RODLINK . ; THE PROVINCIAL government is go- ing to have to decide soon who speaks for ~ _ the Tahitan people north’ of here when it comes to their involvement on industrial development on their traditional territory, says a cabinet minister. It’s a situation made complicated be- cause of an internal Tahltan dispute over ' who carries enough authority to make de- . cisions on behalf of the Tahltan people, . says mines minister. Bill Bennett. Part of the problem is there is no clear definition of what constitutes enough. consultation of native people leading up to the government deciding to approve or deny industrial development, Bennett continued. The-Tahitan situation is being driven . by the i increasing number of mining com- - panies eyeing potentially billions of dol- part of mainstream economic ‘decision . 2 ‘Campbell's lars of investment on Tahltan traditional territory in response to a growing world- ,-wide demand for gold, copper and other ‘metals, ‘Also at stake is Premier Gordon making. The flashpoint to date. has been ‘the | plan by Fortune Minerals to spend hun- , dreds of millions of dollars to develop an open pit mine in the Klappan area which could result in a 20-year operation taking . out up.to three million tonnes of coal a year. Fortune or any other mining company. i » Fortune © ' “new relationship” plan in. which he wants nattive people to become www.terracestandard.com ; in jam over Ta Minerals executives got=more than they bargained for when they held.an information session here last week. Page A15 oA group of Tahltan elders and others has questioned the legitimacy of a Tahl-' tan governing group to sign deals with which contains representatives of the 10 main Tahltan clans, does not speak for all elders or all of the estimated 6,000 Tahl- tan people. ‘The group blocked road access into the Klappan | in July, leading to Fortune ‘receiving a court injunction ordering the blockade to be lifted. Fifteen Tahltan ‘were arrested at the blockade in Septem- ber for defying the court order. “At.some point the the province has to decide if the Tahltan Central Council TERRACE . speaks for the Tahltan people or not,” “said Bennett last week. “If we go ahead with a decision based on consultation with the Tahltan Central Council and this group of elders takes us to court, what then?” he added: Bennett said that while the courts have - said native groups do not have'a veto over developments and does require them to be consulted and accommodated, the pro- _cess of determining the level of consulta- tion required is far more murky. “When is enough, enough?” said Ben- nett. “Is there a formula to determine the amount of resources for consultation? -How.can we come to that?” If anything, Bennett said the provin- cial government wants to be ahead of the curve when it comes to consultation with native groups instead of having to rely on & Wednesday, November 9 9, 2005 n dispute “As for the Tahltan internal ansie’ 7 Bennett said that’s something, so far, for the Tahltan themselves to resolve. But he noted no government group of any kind can have the complete backing nor approval of its constituents. “T know there is a reluctance on the "~ ‘part -of government not to, do. anything to offend First Nations People,” Bennett continued. |. a “But at some point we have to agreeon. ., who talks to who. Perhaps it is the Tahl- tan Central Council who speaks for the’ Tahitan people in meetings with govern- ment. The B.C. Liberals were not elected unanimously, either,” he said. ; Bennett said he understands why For- tune sought its court injunction but is happy it is not taking legal action against those Tahltan who. were arrested. Cont'd Page AZ They say the Tahltan Central Council, -- m@ Flander’s crop AIR cadet Matthew Vanspronsen, left, and corporal Raven Bingham man a poppy table last week at Save-On- Foods. For extensive Remembrance Day coverage, go to pages A5, B1, B4-B7. By DUSTIN \QUEZADA JENNA Parks is only three months old but she’s expe- rienced more adversity than many adults will over their entire lives. Jenna was just five days old when she suffered con-. gestive heart failure and was ‘flown to Vancouver: Chil- dren’s Hospital. where she ‘underwent two operations. They involved a balloon ' dilatition procedure which is employed to open narrow valve openings in the heart. Since August 1 her moth- er, Nancy Parks, said they have been home for only 27 days. And now specialists in Vancouver want Jenna to have a heart transplant. “To fix valves, (patients) have a one in three survival rate,” Parks said. -“With a, “new heart, there is a 95 per cent success Tate.” So last week Jenna and her mother were flown by medevac. aircraft from Van- couver to Edmonton where the Terrace infant will await a heart transplant. © Parks said they had been waiting to see* which city they would head to — either Toronto or Edmonton — the only Canadian. cities where the procedure is done. In Edmonton, Jenna will be put on a transplant list at Stollery Children’s Hospital and her mother has been told it’s normally a four to eight ‘week wait for a heart that would come from Western Canada or the U.S. After the transplant, Jen- na can expect a six-week recovery period. and three ‘ months as an outpatient. Mother Nancy, who also has a two-year-old healthy daughter in Terrace, intends ~ to be by Jenna’s side for the entirety. And . with husband Tan studying at the University of Northern British Columbia _in Prince George, the Parks have had more than just their new daughter’s health to worry about. . The — financial- was eased while in Vancou- ver because Parks and her. daughter stayed.at the Easter Seal House. ' The David Foster Foun- dation, formed by the Cana- dian musician and producer who now lives in California, burden . DUSTIN QUEZADA PHOTO Tiny Jenna awaits a | heart t will cover the cost of travel to the Alberta capital and of accommodation there. _ But there are other ex- penses and in. order to help out, Jenna’s grandparents, who are caring for Jenna’s sister Emily, have. staged a garage sale. An account has also been set up at the Royal Bank. on Lakelse Ave. for donations. i ; Family friend Kim Mon- teith has also distributed do- nation jars throughout city businesses. Ask at the ser-. vice desk at Canadian Tire, Safeway, Zeller’s and the’ Terrace Inn Liquor store. . Finally, Monteith’s son, Ryan, wants to help. The seven-year-old is willing to take leaves for donations. Call 635-8838. the courts to come up with definitions. | Opinions differ over sportsplex project — By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN THE PROPOSED second sheet of ice/sport- splex. was a hotly contested i issue'as munici- pal hopefuls took to the R.E.M. Lee Theatre stage for a Nov. | all candidates session. Several incumbent city councillors re- treated from council’s decision this year to proceed with building a pared down second - Sheet of ice on the north side of the existing arena. =. would have seen a sportsplex of a second sheet of ice, youth centre, office space and retail space. built between the arena and pool. , cil to reevaluate that design and it now wants - to go to tender in January in hopes of more attractive bid proposals. City council incumbent Rich McDaniel told the audience he supports a multiplex, not just a second sheet of ice. tiplex,” he said. “I’m for the full shot-mul- tiplex.” - Councillor Marylin Davies said she is inorally opposed to using hundreds of thou- sands of dollars committed to the project so far if it is not used to build the 2003 design ~ the basis on which pledges were solicited. - “No, I don’t think morally we should be cutting it back,” she said of the city’s cur- of ice. think we’ll get it with no.tax money.” Council hopeful Kim Croot said she not only supports the building of a sportsplex, ports building a more complex design such as the multiplex proposed in the failed 1999 referendum. oy ; Fellow newcomer Robert .Shkuratoff said it doesn’t make any sense to talk about building a multimillion dollar facility when the real issue of establishing a secondary in- dustry for Terrace to prosper has to first be. That’s instead of the plan of 2003 which Skyrocketing building costs forced coun- ” “For.15 years I’ve been promoting a mul-__ of players, coaches and supporters Staying at - rent plan to build the smaller second sheet _ “And I think it is a little unreasonable to even if it means increasing taxes, but sup- . addressed. But Brad Pollard, also running for the frst 7 ‘time, says infrastructure such as a multiplex must first be built in order to draw industry. Brian Downie and Gordon Oates, who are also running for the first time, put their support behind building some sort of an ice rink facility and soon. Vee? But Glenn Kelly, another newcomer to _-municipal politics; said the whole debate is: becoming confusing for the public, not to mention the candidates. “There’s quite a bit of difference between a second sheet of ice, a sportsplex and a mul- © tiplex,” he said. “What is it that we are after here?” Whether it is the sportsplex or the second sheet of ice incumbent Caro! Leclerc says it must be built soon: “The hotel tax spiked in March when we | had the (Bantam provincial) hockey tourna- ment here,” she said. That’s because there. was ‘sch an influx area hotels that 1 many were sold out. ‘The two per cent tax.from every hotel stay in both Terrace and Thornhill, established this year, is given to the Terrace Tourism .- Society to market. the area for destination | tourism. It has generated tens of thousands of dollars never before available to promote ‘the city. Amaglamation in. some fashion with Thornhill also came up as newcomer Kim Croot has based: her campaign around the importance of having Terrace and Thornhill joined together. Both she and Carol Leclerc spoke with a unified voice that having Thornhill amal- | gamate with Terrace would result in signifi- . cant political and economic attention on Ter- race because the merger would>make it the second largest city north of Kamloops, next to Prince George. Leclerc explained that much federal and provincial money for capital projects and Cont'd Page A16 be ransplant JUST THREE MONTHS old, Jenna Parks needs a heart transplant. She and her mother are now in Edmonton awaiting the procedure. A bank account has been set _ ‘up to defray expenses and there are donation jars in stores around the city.