Say hello to
the new.

Skeena

and goodbye to

Hazelton,

“Smithers — and Hartley Bay -

In an unexpected move last
~ qhursday, an all-party com-

_ ‘Inittee . of the B.C. legislature
: endorsed the reconimendations
~ get out by Justice Thomas Fisher
- to change the boundaries of

-B.C.’s_ electoral ridings _ and

eliminate dual-member -ridings.-
The endorsement means that
Fisher’s recommendations will

. ‘go.before the legislature prior to
| the next provincial election and

will probably be passed with few

- or no changes. —

Fisher set out to’ reduce popu-
lation inequities among ridings,

starting out with an average and .

then allowing a maximum devia-
tion of plus-or-minus 25 percent

from that average. The result

was a marked change in nearly

- all B.C, riding boundaries and

an increase in the number of
MLA’s from 69 to 75.

The riding of Skeena will
undergo considerable shrinkage
when the new system goes into
effect. In the 1986 election the

riding population’ was 43, 436 :
‘constituents, 3,7 percent above"
the provincial mean; in the next

election, Hazelton, Smithers and .
all the rural. areas east of Kit-.
wanga will be deleted from the

-Tiding, along with the coastal .

community of Hartley Bay, for
a population of 30,778, 20.1 per-.

cent below the new provincial -
_average riding population.

Adjacent ridings will ‘also be

changed substantially. The Atlin

riding will virtually. disappear,

with the’ northern areas that
‘include Dease Lake and Tele-

graph Creek being incorporated
into the newly-created riding of

-Bulkley-Stikine, which has its
population strongly weighted in bri

the south with Hazelton and
Smithers. The Nass Valley and
Stewart will be in the North
Coast riding that includes Prince
Rupert, the Queen Charlotte
Islands and coastal villages

down to and including Bella

Bella.

Parker would have won;
but ina closer race

If the — electoral boundary

changes recommended-by Judge
- Thomas Fisher would have been

in place for the 1986 provincial

“.election, Social. Credit’s Dave
- Parker would have won, but
- with a considerably reduced
“margin of victory over NDP in-
— cumbent Frank Howard.

Information obtained from

the B.C. elections branch shows

that 14,668 ordinary (not includ-

~ ing absentee votes or voters who
' registered under Section 80 at
- ‘the polls) ballots were cast in the

Skeena riding, 7,122 (48.55 per-
cent) for Parker and 6,164
(42.02) for Howard. In examin-
ing the poll-by-poll returns and

~ deducting votes cast by residents
-. of all comminities east of Kit-
_wanga and those from Hartley

Bay, —. all of which will be

. removed from the riding under

- Nurses vote today, but the ©
outcome is anyone’s guess

. Members of the B.C, Nurses’ aq

> Union throughout the province
_ vote today ona contract pro-
posal that many nurses have

publicly stated simply isn’t good

-. enough, despite recommenda-
_. tion from their bargaining com-
"=. mittee for acceptance.

Ursula Althaus, the Terrace

:-gturse who is the North West
- Region bargaining committee
-’ representative, said yesterday
- there is no forecasting the results
of the vote in this region or
province-wide. “1 couldn’t even

ot _ guess,” she said. ‘I think it’s

__.. going to be a surprise for every-
one.”

> A meeting was held July 6 in
‘Terrace to familiarize local
BCNU members with the terms

of the contract proposal. Al-

thaus characterized the teaction

“the néw boundaries — the total

ordinary vote comes to 10,290,
with Parker getting 4,953 (48.13
percent) and Howard 4,609
(44.79 percent).

Parker’s margin of victory

would have been reduced from:

958 to 344 votes.

The figures don’t include Sec-

tion 80 and absentee votes be-
cause there is no poll-by-poll
breakdown available for them;

total. ballots under those cate- -

gories came to 2,074, but the
percentages for each candidate
are within two percent of the
regular vote,

If the numbers above don’t
add up, it’s because there were
two other candidates in the race:
Liberal Bill Hayes and Inde-
pendent Gordon Sebastian, who
together pulled in 738 ordinary
votes.

s “mixed”. Two concerns she
maet with were the level of wage
increases (29.5 percent over
three years) — ‘!They’re not
what we wamted,’’ she said —
and premiums for night shift
and weekend work, which are
lower than the BCNU ‘wanted
and don't take effect until 1990.

Althaus said results from the
vote should be known sometime
Thursday and will be announced
at a press conference in Van-
couver.

If the proposal is rejected,
Althaus says, the bargaining
committee will have to call the
Health Labour Relations Asso-
ciation back to the table,

Meanwhile, the International
Union of Operating Engineers
Local 882, representing the engi-
‘neering personnel who work in

. ~ Ee
hieSiedit

7
Pe
« itimat’
“inimat

_ Am =

o, Tyure
-deke “

Hana’ _

oa a ¥ :

* Winutesint | ne
Luke ,

This map shows the redrawn boundaries of the Skeena provincial electoral riding as recom-

mended 1 by Judge Thomas Fisher. The dotted line indicates the old riding borders.

hospitals, has suspended medi-
ated talks with the HLRA until
the results of the BCNU vote are
in. IUOE spokesman Sean Le-
land said yesterday that his
members in eight hospitals from
Vancouver and Victoria voted
96 percent in favor of strike
action last week.

Leland said a vote in the
remaining areas of B.C, is.cur-
rently in the process of being
organized.

Mills Memorial Hospital em-
ploys four IUOE members.

Leland said the main unre-
solved issues in their talks is
money: the union is calling for a
40.5 percent wage iticrease over
two years, the HLRA's latest
offer is 17.8 percent over three
years, The previous contract ex-
pired Match at of this year.

Riverboat Race

TERRACE ROTARY
RIVERBOAT RACE

AUG. 7, 1989
COPPER RIVER FLATS —

1st Prize: $2000.00 :
2nd Prize: Weekend Trip for 2 to Vancouver
including accommodation (Century Plaza Hotel
Terrace Travel Canadian Airlines International Ltd.)
3rd Prize: Gas Barbeque

Tickets: $3.00 each or Two for $5.00
Available From Any Rotary Member

eee er)

ce ee