Te
Lives remembered

Moving on

- fern ne ee

Six minute mile

A tribute was held for two local -
avalanche technicians who were —
killed this year\NEWS A14

Salvation Army captains Cindy and
Norm Hamelin are needed in
Moose Jaw\COMMUNITY B12.

Colin Parr used strategy at the top
of Lanfear to win The Kermocei
Classic May 30\SPORTS C1

_ WEDNESDAY
June 9, 1999

Poll tests MP’s provincial chances

STEP FORWARD Skeena Reform MP
Mike Scott, Stewart mayor Andy Burton,
Terrace mayor Jack Talstra, Kitimat mayor
Rick Wozney and Terrace city councillor
Linda Hawes.

Each is being tesied in an opinion poll as
being a potential candidate for the BC.
Liberal party for Skeena in the next provin-
cial election.

A polister asks people for their impres-
sions of all five people and if they’d be
more likely to vote Liberal if any of the five
was a candidate,

The poll, being conducted Western
Opinion Research of Manitoba on behalf of
the provincial Liberal party, also asks

Three mayors and councillor also queried as B.C. Liberal contenders

people for their opinion on which party is
best suited to handle key areas such as
health and education,

Mast of the people on the list are promi-
nent Liberals, making federal Reform MP
Mike Scott’s name stand out.

He conceded he has been approached in
the past but hasn’t given the idea of running
provincially serious consideration,

‘You never say never in politics, but I
think my commitment, my obligation and
my responsibility is to do the job I’ve been
elected to do,”’ said Scott who was first
elected to Ottawa in 1993 and returned in

1997,

Scott isn’t a member of the provincial
Liberal party, saying “‘it’s better I stay dis-
engaged from .provincial politics’? while
being an MP.

Sounding a bit more enthusiastic about
ruuning for the Skeena Liberal nomination
is Kitimat mayor Rick Wozney,

He was the Liberal candidate in 1996,
losing to victor NDP MLA Helmut Gies-
brecht, by 600 votes.

“Back then the Skeena Liberals were a
pretty green group. We didn’t have a lot of
seasoned people,’’ said Wozney of that

campaign,

As for this time, Wozney’s seriously con-
sidering running again for the nomination.

“I'd like to have the opportunity to nar-
row that gap of 600 votes,’’ he said.

The mayor of Kitimat since 1988, Woz-
ney moved up north in 1971 to practice
law.

Terrace mayor Jack Talstra won't be
thinking about running for the nomination
uniil after the summer.

Continued Page A2

~ $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST
(S140 plus 8¢ GST outside of the
* Teraco area) © :

VOL. 12°'NO.9

Mike Scott

Frigid
spring
shatters
records

IF THE recent cold and wet
weather here seems ex-
cessive, it’s because it is.

It snowed and rained more
at the Terrace and Kitimat
airport last month than ever
recorded there before. wf

In May, the airportbroke a §
39-year-old precipitation
record as well as a 46-year-
old snowfall record.

The airport’s mean month-
ly precipitation rate for May
is 49.9. millimetres. The to-
tal precipitation rate last
month was more than twice
that amount, at 105.6 mil-
limetres.

As for snowfall rates, the
airport broke another record
in May when 15.4 centi-
metres fell, The previous
record was 8.4 cenlimetres
recorded in 1965.

It was also considerably
colder in May than average.

The average tempezature
for the month is 9.9 degrees
Celsius, Last month's aver-
age temperature was below
normal at 7.6 degrecs Cel-
sius.

According to Gary Myers
climate specialist at En-
vironment Canada, May is
the last month to record
snowfall.

He explained snow can
still fall in June, but never

ig

enough to record,

Myers said it has never
snowed in Terrace in July or
August. In 55 years it has
only snowed once in Sep-
tember.

= No dogs allowed —

KEITH JACOBS and his callie Talesin wants city council to change the pro-
posed dog ban in Christy Park to exempt Howe Creek Trail, See story Pg. 3.

Drop in unemployment may
herald end of the recession

UNEMPLOYMENT in the northwest
has dropped sharply and is now lower
than anywhere in the interior,

The jobless rate, which has been
declining here since December, fell
from 9.2 per cent in April to 84 per
cent in May —— the lowest level since
July, 1997.

Only Victoria at 6.6 per cent, Van-
couver and the Lower Mainland at 8.2
per cent and Vancouver Island at 8.3
per cent are lower.

The northeast region, where unem-
ployment had been the lowest in B.C,
through 1998, shot up more than a full
point to 9.1 per cent.

Unemployment eased slightly else-
where in the interior. It’s lowest in the
Kootenays at 9.8 per cent and highest
in the Cariboo at 14.1 per cent.

The drop here — coupled wilh ex-
pectations of increased logging ac-
tivity — means the northwest could
be on the verge of coming out of the
recession. .

“Vm cautiously optimistic,” said

federal analyst Karen Wienberg,

She noted the stats don’t yet reflect
the retum to the bush of West Fraser
contractors under a log export pro-
gram or Skeena Cellulose plans to
return its pulp mill to full production
and put 500 people back to work.

Wienberg also noted the cold spring
means the usual increase in jobs
through seasonal employment hasn’t
really taken hold yet.

Some constriction projects are
planned across the region, and a
healthy tourism season is expected.

*[ would expect next month we
should see even more of a
turnaround,’’ she said. ‘‘The op-
timism that seems to be out there in
the business community should be
reflected 2 Httle bit more,’’

City of Terrace economie develap-
ment officer Ken Veldman said he’s
scelng more business people begin-
ning to contemplate new projects.

“It seem that those people sense
there’s going to be a turnaround over

the next year and they’re geting them-

Selves into position,’’ Veldman said.
“It looks like things sort of bot-

tomed out over the winter,’” he added,

Strengthening lumber and pulp:

prices should help stabilize the forest

industry and in turn ripple through the

northwest economy, Veldman added.
He said there was little question that

the cyclical resource sector would -~

eventually rebound.

“The bigger question is how much
will you recover,” he said, ‘Will you
go back to where you were when you
first went down? That’s something
we'll have to sit and watch for.”

Detailed statistics for this region
showed an increase in the number of
full-time workers in May and a drop
in the number of part-timers.

The provincial average for unem-
ployment is now 8.4 per cert, down
from 8.8 per cent a month ago. The
national unemployment rate is down
0.2 to 8.1 per cent,

City vows to move

ahead on

CITY COUNCIL is committing to make a
number of key decisions this summer to
move forward plans to build a pared-down
$7.5 million multiplex,

Foremost among them is getting the
Kitimat-Stikine regional district to agree to
the proposal, getting a firm price estimate,
and deciding how much money the city
should borrow for the project.

The plan, approved by council last week,
also sets out the need for council to develop
# referendum strategy,-to explore other
ways to finance the project, and officially
put the Rick and Paul King Foundation in
charge of community fund-raising.

But council will for now stop short of
also selting a referendum date — which
would be the next step.

“This docs not commit the city to any ac-
lion other than to continue to explore
things,” said recreation . superintendent
Steve Scott,

Councillor David Hull said it's important
to move forward,

“We're at a critical point with this pro-
ject,’ he said, adding if council doesn’t
back the work done so far, the process will
drag and volunteers working on it will start
to burn oul and give up.

“{ firmly believe council is behind the
project,” he added.

Councillor Val George said it’s
worthwhile to get the project details ironed
out regardless of when it goes forward,

“Something like this is going to be built
some time — whether it’s one year, two
years, five years, 10 years or 15 years,’

multiplex

George said.

He said it’s important to determine how
much extra local taxpayers are prepared to
pay for the multiplex,

“It would be a terrible step backwards if
il goes to referendum and gets turned down
again,”’ George noted. ‘‘That could set it
back five to 10 years.”’

The multiplex would include a second
arena, double gymnasium, change rooms,
teen centre, climbing wall, community
kitchen and a pair of multipurpose rooms.

Eliminated fom the design — but siill
theoretically planned for a more distant sec-
ond phase — is a 250-seat-drama theatre,
squash courts, a weight room, arts and
crafis space, and child-minding space.

An open house is planned for next Wed-
nesday from 2 to 8 p.m. at the arena,

If there’s public support for the scaled-
down plan at that meeting, Scott said, the
project will continue to advance.

Although council was given a loose price
estimate of $8,05 million last week, that has
subsequently been firmed up and reduced
to $7.5 million, Scott said,

The reduction is partly due to reduced sile
preparation costs because of the smaller-
footprint, but he added savings were also
found in other areas.

It's a 35 per cent drop in cost from an car-
Lier $11.4 million all-inclusive proposal.

The drama theatre was the priciest com-
ponent eliminated from the plans, Scott
said. Bul he noted the double gym space
will also be set up to take theatre lighting

and will include a roll-out stage.

Mayor’s treaty support
raised in heat of debate

REFORMERS were once
again called racists and even
Tenace's mayor and council
were dragged into a heated
debate on the Nisga’a treaty
Thursday in the House of
Commons.

Indian Affairs minister
Jane Stewart, —_rebulting
Reform calls to refer con-
slitutional questions about
the treaty to the Supreme
Court, suggested Skeena
MP Mike Scott hasn’t been
listening to bis constituents
on the issuc,

demanded 4 retraction.
, He later withdrew the
remarks under orders from
the speaker, but was not
ejecled for a day as
Reformers had requested,
Reformers spent the day
arguing the high court
should decide now — be-
fore the treaty takes effect
— whether it amounts to a
constitulional amendment
and whether self
government provisions
could threalen the rights of
individual Nisga’a people.

“Has the honourable
member talked to the mayor
-and the council of the City

- Of Terrace who, 1 would

note, made a_ particular
week in April Nisga’a Ap-
. preciation Week in honour
of the Nisga’a treaty???
Stewart demanded.

“In our community we
recognize ihat the mayor of
Terrace is a good Liberal,”’
Scott chat back. “We would
expect that he would fall
into Tine and support
whatever the minister and
the governinent come up
with. That is hardly a sur-
prise.”

Scott said he has talked to.
. the Nisga’a on many occa-

Sions, noting a two-hour
televised debate with chief

Jane Stewart
Joe Gosnell in 1996,

‘She seems to think that
Nisga’a people are a
homogeneous group who all
think the same way and all
want the same things,’'
Scott added. “She should
recognize thal 40 per cent of

the Nisga’a people did not

support this agreement, Six-
ty per cenl is hardly a big
mandate (o proceed forward
with this kind of treaty,"”
The Skeena MP and
aboriginal affairs critic also
tangled with B,C. Liberal
MP Lou Sckora when. he
called Reformers racists.

‘You are sacist. You -

know you are,” Sckora
repeated after —

Scott.

Scott said that the treaty is
primarily a self-government
arrangement and that by
entrenching those provisions
within it — rather than asa
side agreement as with the
the Sechelt band ~ a third
order of government is cre-

. ated,

“The charter rights of
Nisga’a people have been
put in peril as a result,”
Scott said, “Even though it
says in the agreement that
the charter applics, it alse
says in the charter when
‘speaking about rights and
freedoms, that the guarantee
Shall not be construed as to
abrogate or derogate from
any aboriginal treaty or
other rights or freedoms.”

Continued Pg. A2 °