PRO Pree erprueuervs Lanfear lands Granddaughter of. former | | resident discovers her roots on Lanfear Hill COMMUNITY B1 Tourism tangle City of Terrace, tourism society at odds over. proposed changes \NEWS A141 Race day Stock car drivers roar. 7 intoa competitive news season on Mother's Day . \SPORTS B4 Ce eee 5 By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN the month. - THE: OWNER of ‘a logging company which has been forced to dramatically cut its workforce says it’s time the provincial _ government’ found a way to boost the’ northwestern economy so it can catch-up . to 0 the boom happening elsewhere. - 4 Tan Munson: owns Bear Creek Con- _ tracting, a logging: operation. that at its:. _» speak:employed more than 150 full, time. . ‘=... workers in Terrace. By:next ‘week it could : employ just two people. - ~_ "The company has just sent roughly half of i its heavy equipment — grapple yarders,.° ; bulldozers, rock trucks, log trucks, grad-.. ers and more — on a barge to Vancouver . where, it will be auctioned off the end of - ey 7 o iz a GHALLENGES| facing. the Terrace Lumber Company’ Ss" ability to continue ‘Operating continue to mount. | For the second time in as many months the mill has turned ff the saws — this | time because its log supply i is completely ° drained. . { The shortage was noted early last week and the company hiad planned to shutdown the sawmill this week to let loggers : catch up to the demand, says.general manager Wayne Haw. “. = But by Wednesday last week, the yard was empty and the ; saws were turned off, Haw said. : “Deliveries have been slow and the loggers are putting | more teams. to work. out there to catch up,” he said last. week. ‘ | Missing women the focus — s of visit by private detective By MARGARET SPEIRS A SURREY-BASED private investigator is due in town this week to continue his probe into the missing and murdered women along Hwy16. Ray Michalko says he’ Il be talking to between 15 and 30 people in Terrace and area and several in ‘Smithers and Houston. _ \ -© He says he has compiled a number of tips about the dis- appearances and murders since he placed newspaper ads in February and March. * “T’ve got a number of tips and people that have talked to me that I want to talk to in person,” said’ Michalko. “I was completely taken off guard by the number of calls I’ve re- ‘ceived from the ads.” -. “I’ve probably had approximately 50 contacts with peo-, ple. The majority have telephoned me but there have been a . fair number of emails as well.” Py: > Tamara Chipman from Terrace, who disappeared iast fail, a is ‘the last person to be placed on the missing/murdered list. :. In every case Michalko takes on, he starts with a theory r ‘It’s the only option Munson says he “has left in order to salvage what he can of - the 40-year-old business from a savaged logging industry in the northwest. While Bear Creek continues to operate on,a small scale, the dramatic. downsiz- . ing over the last two years is an example ~ of what faces. many. independent: logging: : - contractors: in the wake of sweeping for-, . “vestry reforms under Bill.28— the Forestry, uP Revitalization “Act: — ‘introduced by’ the ~ provincial. Liberals i in 2003... It- put one-quarter of. the’ province’ s ‘ timber supply up for’ sale on the. open - .market, ending five decades of govern- 7 ment control over the resource. A critical element was a timber take- Sawmill closes down again | months with other difficulties including paying more than » ’ nadian dollar and soft international lumber market. . _ of theories, but hasn’t had time to refer back to them to see if : getting some pretty good possible leads that I think warrant - said Michalko. . Michalko fora story about the missing women after hearing TERRACE - back plan forcing major forest licensees - ‘such as Interfor'and West Fraser to give - ‘up 20 per cent: -of their long term for- est tenures, freeing up in the range of 8 © wide. We, Despite’ reassurances . made by. the. province . ‘at. the” time, major. licensees . ine from their ‘licences around’ ‘the: " tors met with Premier’ Gordon Campbell. before: ‘the takeback’. was complete and. cwere told the takeback would be equi- table around.the province. _ . _ “We had heard the takeback would be _More than 20 per cent i in this area and he « And though the ‘company plans to restart the machines next week it can’t promise it will stay up and running. ~ “It’s very hard to predict how fast the logs are going to come in and how fast we’ll consume,” Haw says.~.- . “We're confident we’ll be abel to start'on the 29th, the question is will the deliveries continue ata pace that will . allow us to run?” The Terrace Lumber ‘Company has struggled i in recent” 20 per cent softwood lumber tariffs at the border, a high Ca- While the sawmill is shut down, the log yard remains open Sy to receive shipments and shipments continue to go‘out.. * K and works to prove or.disprove it. Michalko began his search for answers to why so many women have gone missing along Hwy16 based on a couple he’s closer to the answers he believed he’d find. -“T guess I still have a theory but have spent a lot of time ‘looking into,” he said. He also ran ads in Prince George and Prince Rupert papers and forwarded one lead he received to Prince George RCMP. . - million cubic: metres of wood, ‘Province- - weren’t. required | to equally. distribute’ the | : BARGES FULL of logging equipment owned by Bear r Creek Contracting make their way down the coast to 9 Vancouver where. ie be sold ‘ ff. th he. end of the. month. wouldn't happen.” 8" “interior which are cheaper to'cut. , metres per year to'40,000 per ye: ’ He believes his company: ‘would ‘still’ ' “be working if: the 20° per: cent: takeback oth ; had never been‘ implemented. The’ situation’ worsénéd in’ this “area 8 ari when: ‘companies lost Virtually, perpetual “ . DAYBREAK FARMS general manager Ron Floritto’ q by a provincial tribunal, saying the farm i is. well run and does ot ave ‘any outstanding problems. - . } Fag farm | warn By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN who are handling the case. But he wouldn’t say which miss- ing woman the information c concems.... “It’s interesting. Sitice I’ve run the ad rn dutite surprised at the interest that I’ve received. from out of the province,” A U.S. magazine for private investigators interviewed that he was running ads in northem B.C, ‘ newspapers." st dd “T don’t plan to mn any more ads right now. I want to see : province ‘has t6 use‘its powers’ ‘tore ore an: order to change its: practices, ‘says agriculture minister Pat Bell. . : Daybreak Farms has not yet complied {with-a May:2005 order-by the:Farm: In- listry : Review Board (FIRB) ‘to. make: to changes which include controlling a fly “We: specially said- these: companies: ‘Skeena _ will pick and choose where: He said that » What did happen was licensees giving ne up expensive. to log. wood from around’ - here, to’ safeguard wood's ‘Supp ies. in ‘the © ‘In, Munson’s case that resulted in los- ‘ing 81. per cent of: his: logging. contract “TZ. through Interfor. ‘His, sompany went from | ri “ logging: in thet range ‘of::200,000°' bic. = : eorcnren 4 — Siew ° ‘CONTRIBUTED PHOTO se ee - from the farm. operation. act in an inappropriate way,” says Bell. “I am not very tolerant of people who Tf the. farm i in esti what happens with my time when I’m up there,” he said. ‘+ -