rane) sor | Stampede on ice Find out how the River Kings did in their first games against Williams - Make tracks Terrace man plans to update father’s book and Add it up A special report looks at the sportsplex and what the city has spent and raised on it so re-live the experience \COMMUNITY B1 far \NEWS A5 i =~ A Lake \SPORTS, BE $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST ; ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the Terrace area) Pub By DUSTIN QUEZADA still don’t know what the ramifications of ~. the two-week long- teachers’ strike will . be, The district lost eight days of instruc- tion to the strike and questions remain about whether local officials will be able use the money saved during the illegal -walkout and how the lost instructional time will be made up. ‘. Until the district finds out how the ° i - province intends to use the roughly $150,000 per day ‘strike savings here, how it, proceeds in making up for lost PUBLIC SCHOOLS are back in session this week but school district officials here _ e www.terracestandard,com: lic schools re-open at last - time is unknown, says: the’ district’s su- perintendent. Pied ve got to get the money sorted» ”’said Randy Smalbrugge. “How are we going to pay for those missed days?” ’ Smalbrugge fears the extra $20 mil- _ lion committed to target issues of class size and special needs students, as out- - lined: in the mediated settlement, would come from the pool of savings incurred during the teachers’ strike. Secretary treasurer Marcel. Georges said the last time the ¢eachers staged a strike it was for just one day and the education ministry allowed the districts to keep the money that would’ve been... : spent on teachers, support staff workers and benefits: , This strike. with 10 days lost i in most areas of the province, ‘has much bigger stakés, with the government saving mil- - lions province-wide. “(The government) is the banker, we don’t generate the money, ’ said Georges. Smalbrugge . and" Georges admitted this district, with a four-day instructional week, is better positioned to deal with making up lost learning time for stu- dents. “Ts it doable?” said Georges. “Yes, we have the fifth day available but we would have to sit down with the stakeholders | Wednesday, October 26, 2005 and the , public. we have eight days lost, * do we go for eight Fridays?” Going into last weckend’s vote by the province’s 38,000 teachers on mediator Vince Ready’ s recommendations, the lo- ‘ cal teachers’ union executive was advis- ing teachers to reject the proposal. Terrace and District Teachers’ Union president Veralynn Munson’ said teach- ers went into the strike with three goals: raises. class size limits and working con- ditions and none of them was’met in the arbitrator’s recommendations. ° “(Ready) has not addressed learning and working conditions,” Munson said. “We. have no trust in this government: without written guarantees.” “(The government) .will do nothing, download responsibilities on the school board and then blame'them, saying ithas .“ . given them autonomy but it isn’t real.” The second full week of the teach- ers’ job action was.eventful across the province with huge labour stoppages, the _ . premier’s first foray “into the dispute, a. hefty fine imposed on teachers, Ready’s mediating and finally'a weekend teach- ers’ vote to end the strike. A 20,000-strong group of public. sec: tor workers marched on the legistature Monday, Oct. 17 in Victoria, followed PY. Cont’d Page AQ o ot : ¥ Eg ETT se ea a LS 8 aes gis a imave pene T TT ae ean Lob OMT Sn THN SOR ER UITNIA AIR Ge TH gma SRO Cuca goo NCR, IM eth I 7 Ice princesses STEFANY HAMPTON, Terrace junior ringette goalie, guards t the net as a teammate races a Houston player for the ring during a tourna- ment in the Terrace Arena Oct. 21. Terrace won this exhibition game. . MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO AN ONTARIO-BASED | mineral exploration company thinks it could piggyback on a.plan to connect Alaska and the Yukon by rail to the rest of North America if the full potential of its Kiap- pan coal] deposit development is realized. . Fortune Minerals released last week a detailed feasibility study indicating it could profitably take out 1.5 million tonnes of anthracite coal a year from the Klappan area northeast of here by truck to the port at Stewart. The same ‘study also suggests a three million tonne a year operation is possible with coal mov- ‘ing either by road to Stewart or by rail through construction of an extension to connect with the CN line that reaches north of Prince George. Capital costs would range between $275 mil- lion for a road plan all the way up to $522 million for arail line connection. That rail line work would involve improve- ments to the existing line and a new section to the Klappan site; amounting to a 155km connection to the CN line which connects to Prince George. Fortune Minerals vice president Julian Kemp said last week his company’s capital requirements could be substantially reduced if it could partner up with the Alaska-Yukon plan. “They’re looking at two routes into B.C. and one of those would go right through our proper- ty,” said Kemp. Other potential resource developments in the _ northern B.C. would also benefit by a rail connec- ‘tion, he added. And the combination of Fortune’s plans and the other potential developments would more than tie in with the Alaska-Yukon concept of opening their areas to development by providing a rail connection to the rest of North America, Kemp continued. : “There are various scenarios we’re pursuing and we’re in contact with many parties,” he said. The Alaska-Yukon feasibility study began this year and will cost $10 million for a report due in 2006. Once loaded onto rail cars, ‘Kappan’ s coal could either go to Prince Rupert on the CN line that goes to Terrace or east, depending upon where the customers are, Kemp added. Fortune is also talking to several companies who already operate short-rail line routes else- where who might want to operate the connection from the Klappan to the existing CN line. Anthracite is the hardest of the coals and burns well, making it useful in the making of steel and for other industrial uses. Rail line wanted for coal mine _ Fortune’s feasibility study, which the company is now using to attract capital, indicates that the company’s most studied deposit in the Klappan, called the Lost Fox, could support an operation of ‘up to three million.tonnes a year for 20 years. — Kemp said Fortune’s decision-making process is made more tricky given the options of trucking to Stewart or choosing rail. It could invest in Stewart shipping facilities for a 1.5 million tonne a year operation to then discover more reserves later on to justify ramping up to three million tonne level based on using rail, he said. “This is where the risk element of investment comes in and why the feasibility study we now have is so important,” Kemp added. At the same time as Fortune pursues’ financ- ~ Municipal, school ‘hopefuls to appear - VOTERS WILL have a chance to form their opinions on © who deserves their support when municipal and school district candidates take to the R. B. M. Lee Theatre ‘stage Nov. 1. .There are 11 people running. for Six Terrace council . seats and seven people running for three Terrace school ' district seats in the Nov. 19 elections. The Thornhill: school district seat was filled by acclamation as’ WETe - regional district. spots. ‘Candidates will make opening statements and then take questions from the floor. The all candidates forum is hosted by The Terrace ~ tary Club and Terrace Toastmasters: (8 This is the public’ S Opportunity to pose questions to the candidates running for school board trustee and city. councillor. positions in the upcoming Nov. 19 elections. The forum will be moderated by local businessman Campbell Stewart. A media panel composed of NTV’s Kathy Brookes and reporters Sarah Zimmerman and Dustin Quezada from The Terrace Standard will pose questions to the candidates. - The event starts at 7 p.m. sharp and is expected to conclude by 9:30 p.m. School district candidates will be heard during the first half. Standard with the assistance of’the Skeena Valley Ro- 4 oo, ‘By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN . ANOTHER Alberta-based pipeline project is eying Kitimat ‘as a site for a base. “Pembina Pipeline Corporation and Terasen Pipelines an- nounced last week a $1 billion pian to build a terminal at . Kitimat to import condensate — a product used to thin pe- _troleum products for easier transport — and send it through a “new pipeline to Alberta. The “Spirit Pipeline” would stop in Edmonton where the condensate will then be mixed with the heavy Alberta tar ing, it is also moving ahead with assessments on the property that will be needed when it officially begins government environmental reviews. That field work was held up earlier this year when a group of Tahltan natives opposed to the general thrust of development blockaded road ac- cess into the Klappan. Fortune then received a Su- preme Court injunction telling the natives to lift the blockade. They did not and 15 were arrested by the RCMP in September. *. sands petroleum product before being transported to markets - through other pipelines. “The announcement comes just days after Enbridge Inc. : announced it plans to build a 1,200 kilometre dual line from Edmonton to Kitimat to both import condensate and then “to export petroleum products to the Asia and the Western United States. . While Enbridge has already completed what it calls an “open season” to establish whether there is enough inter-. est from shippers to make. the project commercially viable, Pembina is just entering that phase. . “We anticipate that at some point in the | coming year, likely at the end of the first quarter or the second quarter, we will be in a position to assess if we can proceed,” says Glenys Hermanutz, manager of corporate development’ for the company. Pembina already has'a significant amount of Pipeline infrastructure between Taylor in northeastern B.C. running down to Kamloops and linking up with numerous lines i in Alberta. And while Enbridge is planning to build a brand new dual pipeline with a price tag of $4 billion all the way from Edmonton to Kitimat, Pembina may only need to build the Prince George-Kitimat portion. “The reason the cost estimate ($1 billion) is somewhat lower than alternatives is that we would have the ability to use existing infrastructure,” says Hermanutz. That would also bump up the completion date of the proj-— ect by two years over the Enbridge proposal. Enbridge hopes to start building in 2008 and start opera- tions in 2010, while Pembina and Terasen are looking to a potential 2008 start-up date. Terasen will provide human resources and money to the project in addition to lending its expertise in building pipe- lines through mountainous-areas, Hermanutz says. If Pembina and Terasen proceed to the environmental re- view phase of the project, it will have to also ask communi- ties for their opinions and meet with First Nations groups along the pipeline route. bat as se tart abatt Seen tert 9 1228 ME araieebaak emt a A noo thn nr it ne etn ree Ere et ne Ln anne ann etal Lo bOI ca tenn Leen rd