A|2 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 14, 2002 HEAVY MACHINERY continues to forge connection from Kincolith at the mouth of the Nass River to the rest of the Nass Valley. This photo is of work taking place approximately 12km from Kinco- : Nov. 23 set as date to open Kincolith Rd. a road’ Lava bed park centre opens THE VISITOR centre at'the Nisga’a mers a day,” said Bolton of visitors to Memorial Lava Bed Park is now open. the centre. Under threat of not opening this He’s also finding it useful because year because of budpet cuts, the centre it gives him a handy work area for his opened Aug. 3 after an agreement was existing campground management du- reached between provincial parks offi- ties. cials and the Nisga'a Lisims govern- Provincial parks official Jamie ment to split the operating costs; Hahn said the operating cost agree- Built to resemble a longhouse and ment was reached between senior using solar power, the centre is at the parks and Nisga’a Lisims officials. entrance to the park's campground, lo- He described the centre's financial cated by taking a left at the ‘Y’ inter- future as encouraging based on grow- section leading to Gitwinksihlkw and ing interest in the lava bed park. Greenville in the Nass Valley. “Once we get that highway project The centre is being run by Steve done, we can anticipate more visitors Bolton who is also the campground’s and for the building to fund itself,” manager and who had asked to find a said Hahn of the long term effort to way to open the centre. improve the highway leading into the “We're gelling upwards of 30 custo- Nass Valley, 8th Annual (,itxsan Cultirwine Days Celebrate the Gathering, Color & Rhythm of First Nations August 17 & 18, 2002 Starting at 12:00 p.m. Gitanmaax Totem Ball Park, Hazelton REE lith. The work is more than half finished and plan- ning IS now underway for an official Opening of the $30 million project on Nov. 23, GARY FIEGEHEN PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NISGA’A LISIMS GOVERNMENT fatePeces fo. Traditional, Non-Competitive Drumming, Singing Dancing, Sharing GOOD Food ¢ Merchandise © Trade ® Time THE NISGA’A Lisims government has set Nov. 23 as the official opening dale for the road to Kinco- lith. More than halfway fin- ished, the $30 million road ° will connect, for the first time, the Nisga’a village at the mouth of the Nass River with the rest of the valley. . The several hundred re- sidents of Kincolith now either take a scheduled ferry to Prince Rupert or travel there by float plane. Lisims government offi- cial Eric Grandison said the guest list has yet to be established but it antici- pales it will include senior federal and provincial offi- cials. “We're still working out a lot of the details,” he said. Tentatively planned is one ceremony at Green- ville, where the road starts heading west ta Kincolith, and one ceremony after- ward at Kincolith itself. The $30 million, 30km project involving blasting, filling in portions of the Nass River and construct- ing several bridges. ; Completing the project on its original schedule of this December means the contractor won't have to absorb extra costs over the winter months and avoid the possibility of shutting down over the winter, he said. Construction of the road began two years ago and is being financed by the fed- eral and provincial povern- ments and by contributions in kind by the Nisga’a. The toad won't. be paved as will be the case when the larger project to improve the road leading into and in the Nass Val- ley itself is finished. Instead, it will be built to a gravel standard of SOkph. When complete, the Kincolith road becomes part of the provincial high- way system and will be maintained by the local highways maintenance contractor, Nechako Northcoast Construction. Ramsay said the road will require an extensive avalanche watch and con- trol program. There are as many as 17 potential avalanche path locations which will need monitoring, he added. GENERAL ADMISSION Elders & Children 5 & Under FREE Per Day $2.00 To register for a boath to sell your goods Contact Donna Lee Sebastian at number below: Gitanmaax Band Office, PO Box 440, Hazelton, B.C. YOJ 1YO Telephone 1-800-663-4590 © Fax: (250) 842-6364 Health bosses look for help IT’S WRONG FOR unions to suggest the Northern Health Authority is contracting out patient care services, Says an authority official. In reality, says Mark Karjaluoto, it's looking for ad- vice on how lo manage those services. “We want to make the best use of our internal resources,” he said. The controversy began when the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU), which represents cleaners, clerks and die- tary workers, began releasing documents tied to a June request by the health authority on how companies could provide it with management services. It adds that one company called Sodexho, which has already provided one management report, is believed to have bid on the larger contract, suggesting it is the in- side track. “This is not contracting out,” said Karjaluoto. “We want to keep the public system intact.” “The HEU is out screaming that it's contracting out and thal’s not the case at all.” Karjaluota termed what the authority is doing as a continuation of a slow and steady change in the way health care is provided in the north, That step by step process is far different than in other places where entire facilities are being closed, he said. Sodexho, a French-owned multinational food services and housekeeping services provider, has been in the HEU’s sights for some time, Earlier this year the HEU accused Sodexho of unfair labour practices, saying it was part of a conspiracy to prevent the union and its members from being involved in contracted out work. But the B.C. Labour Relations Board late last week tejected the claim. BREE And while the Northern Health Authority looks for management help, it’s also in the market for a financial institution to provide it with banking and financial ser- vices, A request for proposals indicates the authority's bud- get is $385 million with an annual payroll of $202 mil- lion spread over 6,276 full and part time employees. OF that $385 million, $290 million comes in the form of grants from the health ministry. The authority has indicated that its creation last De- cember out of more than'a dozen small! health bodies can mean administrative and support savings. Financial services is one of those areas and the ex- pectation is having fewer people employed as a result. “The NHA is still in the process of centralizing the fi- fiance and payroll functions into the Prince George Cor- porate Office,” says-the request for banking service pro-’ posals. 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