Terrace is now host to anew air quality measuring device and that’s healthy\NEWS A13 Rita comes to town erm et ann ere. Singer Rita McNeil is including the northwest in her latest Canadian tour\COMMUNITY Bi Dream comes true WEDNESDAY. - May. 8,1996 Poll gives THE NPP enjoys healthy leads in all three northwest ridings, indicates an opinion poll com- missiored by The Terrace Standard, Takicn between May | and May 4, at the start of the provincial election campaign, the poll gives the NDP 47 per cent of the decided vote in Skeena, 55 per cent in North Coast and 40 per centin Bulkley Valley-Stikine. The Reform parly has 36 per cent of the decid- ed Vole in Skeena while the Liberals have 15 per. cent. Other parties are listed as having two per cenl, In North Coast, the Liberals and Reform par- lies are tied at 22 per cent of the decided vote with “other” listed at one per cent. In Bulkley Vailey-Stikine the Liberals are list- ed at second with 34 per cent, the Reform next «» Dead faint MICHELE SARICH swoons into the arms of gangster Dan Fraser murder trial, The two are actors in Terrace Lite Theatre's curre! 16th, To read more about the play, see page B3, Valley-Stikine, in Bulkley Valley-Stikine. with 23 per cent and “other” at two per cent. All three ridings have high numbers of undec- ided voters - 25 per cent in Skeena, 22 per cent in North Coast and 28 per cent in Bulkley All three of the ridings elected NDP candi- dates in the 1991 provincial election. The poll was taken by Ron Taylor who has an extensive background in polling in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. In Skeena, the sample size was 360 people while it was 310 people in North Coast and 345 For Skeena, the results are accurate within 5,2 per cent 19 times out of 20, in North Coust the 0 Continued Page A2 after learning of some tragic news at her nt dinner theatre play, Night of January - STAND NDP the The Mills family makes a solid connection between Terrace and Calgary\SPORTS B7 93¢ PLUS 7¢ GST VOL: 9 NO. 4. % decided vote 50 40 30 20 10 NDP tion. Theatre. LIB. REF OTH On stage HERE’S YOUR chance to listen to and question the candidates for the Skeena riding in the provincial elec- The Terrace Standard, The Sentinel and The Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce are hosting an all candidates meeting May 13, that’s next Monday evening, at the R.E.M. Lee On stage wiil be NDP candidate Helmut Giesbrecht, Liberal hopeful Rick Wozney, Andy Burton of the Reform party and Dave Serry who is running for the Social Credit party. The candidates will be making short statements, respond to those made by their opponents and will take questions from the audience. Bank of Montreal mamager Gordon Oates is the moderator. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. and ends at 9 p.m. There is no admission charge for the mecting. For more on the election, see Page A2 and Page A5. Kitimat Norther Union won't cut its own throat MILLS MEMORIAL Hospital begins talks this week on reducing its workforce but one of its unions won’ be involved. The Hospital Employees’ Unions (HEU) says il won't take part in talks that'll result in ils members losing jobs. “We don't want to participate in the demise of our members, or any other union members,” HEU spokesman Elaine Pigeau said last week. HEU members agree with plans to make the hospital’s main medical services floor more efficient by centralizing services but not to the extent there’ll be job loss, she added. “Patient safety is our Number One con- cern,” said Pigeau. The talks are to begin tomorrow and continue this month. They are based on a plan by Mills administrators to lay off substantial numbers of the hospital's licensed practical nurses (LPNs) in its emergency ward and replace them with registered nurses, Those registered nurses, in turn, are to lose hours on the main medical services floor once il is renovated to group the floor’s different wards closer together. Olga Power, chair of the Terrace Regional Health Care Society which runs Mills, said the society supports moves to renovate the main medical services floor. But she said plans to cut nursing hours on the floor are still subject to discussion, “The proposal will be reviewed .. Thorsday and it is not etched in stone,” " _ said Power. Layoff and renovation plans are in response to budget freezes and operating deficits, HEU olficials are challenging staff lay- off plans, saying the hospital ‘has a surplus of $2 million which it can use to: cover budget deficits. They also-question the number of .beds that'll form the new floor when renovations are complete. There are now 42 beds on the main floor and while hospital officials are saying that number won't change when renovations are done, they do say nine will be held in reserve foremergency use only, “They say we won't be losing any beds but under the new floor plan, there will be only 33 beds active,” said Pigeau. HEU officials also say the hospital is properly staffed for patient needs and safety under recognized accreditation standards. _ “LE those levels were appropriate-in the past, why change them?” said Pigeau, Socred issues apology to talk show host Mair SOCRED CANDIDATE Dave Serry has apologized to a radio lalk show host for sending what his party leader called a “very inappropriate letter.’' Serry faxed off the letter containing profanity and personal attacka to CKNW’s Rafe Mair last week after he excluded So- cial Credit party leader Larry Gillanders from a radio debate of party leaders May 1. “I got up in the moming and found a copy of this leticr on my fax machine,” says Gillanders. ‘‘I was very disappointed in Dave's actions, J gave him the choice to eliher apologize or stand dowa, He apologized."” In explaining why he sent the letier, Serry said CKNW and Mair didn’t give fair coverage during the lengthy debate over Alcan’s planned Kemance Completion Pro- ject by concentrating only on the environ- menialists’ opinions. ‘And now they are ignoring a party with a long history in B.C,,”’ Serry added. Mair has accepted the party’s apology, but not Serry’s. Gillanders has yet to sign Serry’s nomina- tion papers. They must be signed by May 15 for Serry to be the eligible Social Credit candidate in the Skeena Riding. “If the papers came ia today, I'd sign them,”’ says Gillanders. “I think Dave can learn from this, But if he does something like this again, Pl drop him. [ am confident that David cam meet the needs of his con- stituents, even though he does have some character Daws.’’ Group has vision of train link to Asia By DAVID TAYLOR IMAGINE A TRAIN heading through the mountains and brush of northem British Columbia. It’s loaded with aluminum and lumber, bound for the Orient. This may sound strange tolay, but onc group of individuals belicves that in the future, such a link will li a reality. The idea is the brainchild of Tucson Arizona «mining consultant) George Koumal. He envisions building a tunnel under the Bering Strait connecting Asia to North America. A total of 7,000 kilo- metres of new rail line would then con- nect Dease Lake B.C. to Yakutsk, Rus- sia. “It will establish the shortest link be- tween the East and the West,’ says Koumal, pointing out that the route is similar to that taken by alrlines. ‘“For ex- ample, a load of grain going from Sas- katchewan to India would only have to travel half the current distance,”’ Koumal also points out that the railway would open up nearly six million square kilometres of currently inaccessible teri- tory, * “This arca contains tremendous natu- ral resources like minerals and oil,’ Koumal says. ‘This is an opportunity to create real wealth.” To promote the idea, the Inter- hemisplcric Bering Strait Railroad and Tunnel Group (IBSRTG) was estab- lished. The group plans to hold an inter- national conference in London, England later this year to discuss the railroad, The IBSRTG estimates that the entire project would take between eight and ten years at a cost of $50 billion. Koumal says that selling the land along the rail- road to private enterprise would more than cover the costs. The greatest expense would come from the &0km tunnel stretching from Alaska to Russia, across the Bering Strait, Koumal says that because the tunnel could come to the surface to cross the Diomede Islands, the actual underwater distance. is less than that of the English Channel Tunnel, | It would be much easier to build too, he says, since the soit is mostly stable granite, whereas under the English Chan- nel it is mostly unstable clay. “We're talking aboul proven technol- ogy here,” says Koumal. “Engincering is not « problem,” The project has received the support of Alaskan Senator Ted Stephens and mini- stries in Russia, However, the biggest obstacle for the IBSRTG so far has been getting the U.S. government to listen, “We have to teach the U.S. Congress that Alaska is part of the United States,” Koumal says. ‘'We may even be able to teach the smarter ones where the Bering Strait ts.??