Princess stays put

school\NEWS A8

Playground boat won't be removed
from a local elementary - 7

Flying high

ironman competition

Community Support helps local
long-time club get off the ground

Northern foursome put in a strong
show at the international

again\COMMUNITY Bi

triathalon\SPORTS B6

WEDNESDAY
September 6, 2000

Docs

By JENNIFER LANG
PATIENTS showing up at the
hospital will be transferred to
Vancouver, Prince George or
Calgary starling Monday unless
doctors and the B.C. government
settle their impasse over on-call
fees.

Terrace’s 19 specialists say
they will resign their hospital
privileges Sept. 11, forcing all
but the most critically ill pa-
tients to seck medical treatment
outside of the northwest.

“We will deal with life and
limb emergencies only, and

everything else will be shipped
out,” said Dr. Michacl Kenyon,
a Terrace internist who represen-
ted the northwest and rural spe-
cialists at the bargaining table.

Specialists in Kitimat, Prince
Rupert, and Smithers will also
withdraw services Monday, an
aclion that’s supported by the re-
gion’s other doctors in Hazelton,
Dease Lake and Stewart, Ke-
nyon said.

A contingency plan will go
into effect at Mills Memorial

Hospital. Emergency patients
will be stabilized, but Kenyon

said most patients should be be
prepared to travel for non-cmer-
gency services.

The planned walkout will in-
clude the following specialities:
surgery, anaesthesia, internal
medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics,
orthopedics, ophthalmology, ear,
nose and throat, and radiology.

Specialists will continue to
lreat patients at their private
practices during the walkout.

Terrace’s doctors say ihe $40-
million offer the government ta-
bled last week falls far short of
settlements reached in Williams

Lake particularly Prince George,
where striking doctors negotiated
on-call fees worth $40,000 a
year per doctor and more money
for recruitment and retention
packages.

The biggest chunk of the
package Victoria offered was a
flat retention payment that
would give each doctor between
$10,000 and $60,000 per year
extra, depending on how isolated
their region is and how proble-
matic recruitment has been

“It’s not equal.in every com-
munity because not every com-

munily is equal in the degree of
the problem,” said health mini-
stry spokesperson Michelle Ste-
wart.

“Costed out in Terrace it
would be on average $45,000 per
doclor per year on top of what
they already bill to the Medical
Services Plan, and on top of
what they already bill to WCB,”
she said.

Kenyon described the offer as
inadequate and misleading.

“They offered to take the
northern ‘isolation allowance, kill

Continued Page A2

$1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST.

(52.10 plus B¢ GST outside of the

Terrace area) ° 9?

VOL, 13 NO. 22

to resign on Monday

THE TERAACE LANDFILL will eventually be closed if olans pro-
ceed to establish a new sub-regional dump near Onion Lake.

Dump decision nixed Thornhill sewer

THE CITY feared a commercial
boom could take place’ in Fhorn-
hill and damage Terrace’s down-
town if the Thornhill landfill was
chosen as the area’s sub-regional
dump.

That has emerged as a critical
factor in the city choosing instead

to support a sub-regional dump |

site near Onion Lake.

City special projects director
Stew Christensen told city coun-
cillors he had initially favoured
the Thornhill sile because that
could have seen a major sewer
line built there to carry leachate
away for treatment.

He said the scheme woukl
have delivered a big bonus to
Thornhill property owners in the

form of a massive expansion of
the Thornhill sewer system to
serve most of Thornheights and
lower Thornhill. ;

“The cost of putting that line in
would be close to the cost of put-
ting in complete treatment la-
goons at the landfill,” Christensen
said. “I thought ‘Hey they would
pet the benefit of a sewer
system.’”

The sewer line would also be a
“greal advantage” to both the out-
lying areas and the cily should
amalgamation take place in the
not-too-distant future, he told
council.

The long-term costs of using
the Thornhill and Onion Lake
sites are about equal, with Onion

Fhat’s equipment operator Armand Zilinski, who works for dump

contractor Ed Moore Contracting.

Lake being the least risky site in
terms of potential harm to the en-
vironment,

“The only reason | felt Thora-
hill would be better is because we
could put in sewer at that time,”
Christensen said.

Thornhill rep Les Watmough,
however, still preferred the Onion
Lake site, he said.

“If he didn’t think it was a
good idea there was no sense in
us trying to shove it down their
throats.”

Christensen also had his own
internal advice -— from city plan-
ner David Trawin — who cautioned
against the idea.

Sewer service in Thornhill
could Icad to increased develop-

ment there, Trawin warned, and
particularly the possibility of
major commercia! develapments
— like shopping centres — outside
cily control.

The planner has also fought to
restrict major retail developments
in town along the highways that
could cause the downtown to go
into decline.

In the end, Christensen agreed
that unless amalgamation was im-
minent, the Thornhill dump option
and sewer plan would not be in
the city’s best interests.

City council followed Christen-
sen’s recommendation.

For more on the selection of
the new dump site, and other
stories on garbage, see page AS.

Dr. Michael Kenyon

Firefighters
to return to
the airport

AN AIRPORT firefighting
service in case of a crash
ot airplane emergency will
be reinstated here — but at
the lowest possible cost.

The niove is in response
to new federal government
regulations that will once
again require crash/fire
rescue service at airports
this size within two years,

Ottawa eliminated that
requirement just prior to
completing agreements to
hand many airports over to
local authorities.

The firefighting service
here — which employed six
fire fighters and cost the
Terrace-Kitimat airport
nearly $300,000 a year —
was eliminaled at the be-
ginning of 1998 when
Transport Canada stil? ran
the airport.

City and airport offi-
cials agreed Aug. 28 lo use
the cheapest method pos-
sible to comply because
they consider airport res-
cue service a costly mea-
sure that serves primarily
to comfort the public ra-
(her than provide 2 useful
service,

Most crashes happen
away from airports, said
councillor David Hull,
adding the average fire-
fighter would have to work
60 career lifetimes to sec
an incident where they
could have made a differ-
ence,

“This is not a safety
issue,” said the society’s
Gerry Martin. “This is a
political issuc.”

“Let's pravide the
amount of protection we
have ta to fulfill the regu-

lations at the least pos-
sible cost.”

City councillors and
airport society officials
have opted for a two-stage
response.

That means rather than
base a large dedicated air-
port firefighting truck at

the airport, they could use:

a smaller truck equipped
with fire extinguishing
equipment carrying 135 kg
of dry chemical.

That first response
Stage, operated by airport
maintenance staff, would

“This is not a!
safety issue. This
is a political
issue.”

be followed by a Terrace
fire truck, required to be
an scene within 20 min-
utes with 2,400 litres of
water, foam concentrate
and 135 ke of dry chemi-
cal powder,

It's expected the city
will sell of the existing
Amertek airport fire truck
it now owns and, possibly
buy a newer unit,

Fire chief Randy Smith
said the federal gayern-:
ment would likely provide |
a grant covering 95 per.
cent of the cost of the new
vehicle.

On mayor Jack Talstra’s
suggestion, the city is also
writing to the prime mini-
ster to tell him the reinsta-
tement of airport fire ser-
vice is “a lot of nonsense”
that should be abandoned.

system would end most missed flights

By JEFF NAGEL
A MAJOR push is now underway to
get the airport equipped with a preci-
sion landing system previously thought
to be unworkable here.

If an [nstrument Landing System
(ILS) jis set up here, a new study for
the Terrace-Kitimat Airport suggests it
would eliminate 75 per cent of the
missed flights that currently get diver-
ted in inclement weather.

That, say consultants Accuratus En-
gineering Ltd., could reduce the num-
ber of incoming planes that are unable
to land here from a present average of
72 per year to less than 20.

An ILS combines a localizer: that
gives horizontal orientation with a gli-

de-path indicator that shows vertical
measurements. It allows a pilot to
keep a Set of crosshairs lined up during
the approach so as to follow a steady
glide path down toward the airport.

A pilot would still need to visually
see the runway at some point.

But with an ILS system, they would
be able to fly down to 200 feet above
the airport — less than half the current
minimum altitude of 420 feet at which
point pilots must see the runway or ex-
ecute a missed approach,

It had long been thought an ILS ap-
proach here was impossible because of
regulations that restrict entry into air
space where there is mountainous ter-
rain — such as hills immediately south

of the airport.

But revised Transport Canada cri-
teria have loosened both that require-
ment and how sleeply planes can des-
cend into an airport.

Previously the descent angle could
be no more than 3.0 per cent, said air-
port manager Rick Reed. Terrace nee-
ded a descent angle of close to 3.1 per
cent for an [LS to work here.

The new maximum is 3.5 per cent,
Reed said, and airport officiats have
confirmed with Transport Canada that
ILS is now definitely possible here.

“Despite what had been said for
yeats — that ILS could not be used
here ~ it can,” said Terrace-Kitimat
Airport Society president Frank Ha-

milton. “It is quite possible to have an
ILS approach.”

The battleground now is political
rather than technical.

Hamilton said the system would
cost on the order of $1 million and
should theoretically be paid for by
NavCanada, the not-for-profit corpora-
tion that has taken over air navigation
in the country.

Officials there have promised an
“jnitial operational analysis” of bene-
fils of an instrument approach system
here,

Hamilton wants the system in place
in time to make flying more consistent
this winter, but fears NavCanada’s re+
sponse is the begining of a lengthy

round of foot-dragging.

“We hope this could be in opera-
tion by Nov. 1,” Hamilton said.
“However it's going to take a political
will to do il.”

The airport has written letters press-
ing the point with NavCanada and

asking for assistance from transpo la-_

tion minister David Collene
other federal officials. a
“Are there any other funding s sour-
ces under socio-cconomicinitiatives
that may be able to assisi us,” he asks.
Hamilton said there is overwhelm-
ing support in the community and from
local pollicians for a better approach
that would dramatically cut the

Continued Pg. A2