Royal race

Runners get set to take
on the gruelling King of
the Mountain foot
race\SPORTS B5

Fish fracas

Local anglers worry
commercial fishing will
kill too many
steelhead\NEWS A7

, Rogue parliament?
m A new TLT play suggests
even politicians get
Caught with their pants
down\COMMUNITY B1

$1.00 Plus 7¢ GST
($2.10 plus 8¢ GST
outside of the Terrace area)

North will
lose clout
if pro rep
succeeds

By JENNIFER LANG
IF ADRIANE Carr gets her
way, B.C. will lose half of
its electoral ridings in a
Proposal she says will
make your vote count.

Carr is best known as
the leader of the Green
Party of B.C., a party that
would have won nine seats
in the legislature if a
mixed proportional repre-
sentation voting system
had been in place during
last year’s provincial elec-
tion.

She is also the petitio-
ner named in a citizen’s
initiative now underway
province wide thal could
force a referendum on the
issue,

Under pro rep, each
voter would vote twice on
election day — once for a
constituency representa-
tive and a second time for
a particular party.

That would allow
people to vote their con-
science, and would make

B.C.’s polarized election.

results a thing of the past,
Carr says.

She admits some seats
would have to be sacri-
ficed to make pro rep
work,

“I asked a lot of people
last year [while campaipn-
ing in the provincial
election], ‘Would you like
to see more MLAs?’ and
they all said no,” Carr said
from her office on the Sun-
shine Coast.

Her plan would mean
reducing the number of
seats in the legisiature
from 79 to 68, with just 35
seats tied to. specific ri-
dings based on current fed-
eral electoral boundaries.

Instead of serving con-
Stituents in just Terrace,
Kitimat and Kitwanga,
Skeena’s MLA would have
to cover the same boun-
daries as the federal Skee-
na riding - west to the
Charlottes, north to the
Yukon border and east be-
yond Smithers.

The remaining 33
“party” seats would be al-
located according to the
number of votes each poli-
tical party gets, as long as
they meet a five-per cent
threshold. Those party
MLAs would be free to ad-
dress what Carr calls
“constituencies of inter-
est” like social housing.

Continued Pg. A12

Collapse halts trains,
traffic along highway

,VOL.15 NO.416 05°

‘a Great gard

EILEEN CALLANAN stands surrounded by beauty in her splendid terraced garden. Callanan wel-
comed crowds of admiring strangers into her backyard July 14, when her home was one of nine fea-
tured stops on the Terrace Garden Tour, presented by Terrace Women and Development, a charity
supporting women's economic projects in the developing world.

en

JEFF NAGEL PHOTO

‘ death of four-year-old

SCI shutdown ‘illegal’ — union

THE UNION representing Skee-
na Cellulose’s Terrace sawmill
says it may take legal action to
try to force new owners to reopen
the mill. ;

IWA Local 2171 is planning to

argue before the Labour Relations -

Board that SCI’s owners are enga-
ging in an illegal lockout by keeping

‘the mill shut down, says union

spokesman Darrel Wong.
Skeena Cellulose CEO Dan Ve-
niez has vowed to keep the opera-

: tions shut down until next spring if

unions don’t agree by Aug, 15 to new
contracts that include a 20 per cent
pay cut.

“This is an illegal lockout be-
cause in fact what Veniez has stated
publicly is that he will not allow
people to return to work unless they
sign his concessionary proposal for a
new collective agreement,” Wong
‘said. “That’s a violation of the fa-
_bour code.”

“What we would be asking the
board to do is order the company to
‘reopen the facility,” he said.

Wong says the union may also al-
lege the company is engaging in un-
fair labour practices by distributing
leaflets and advertising in loca
newspapers and radio stations.

“What they’re trying to. do is inti-

midate the workers and to utilize the .

general public to put pressure on dur
membership to force them into’ a
concessionary collective
agreement,” he said, chee

“He’s threatening people,” Wong

said. “But we don’t scare that easi-
ly."

7

|

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"Wednesday, July 24,2002. -

Canfor boss
‘In conflict’
over advice

Veniez doesn't trust SCI foe

By JEFF NAGEL
SKEENA CELLULOSE CEO Dan Veniez says he
doesn’t trust the B.C. Progress Board to advise Victoria
on what’s good for the northwest because the board is
headed by the boss of Canfor.

David Emerson, the forest product giant’s CEO, is in
a conflict of interest in his role as chairman of the progr-
ess board, Veniez charged last week.

Emerson wanted Skeena Cellulose to fail — elimina-
ting a competitor for Canfor and other B.C. forest com-
panies, he said.

Now Emerson oversees the progress board and its task
groups, one of which is to ad-
vise the provincial government
on how to improve the regional
economies outside the Lower
Mainland.

“He’s been an ardent foe of
Skeena’s survival,” Veniez
said last week. “I object to the
chairman of the Progress Board
having any say whatsoever on
the future of the northwest
economy.”

“He’s in flagrant conflict of

interest with respect to the
northwest,” Veniez said.

The progress board was ap-
pointed by the premier to measure B.C.'s performance
over time against benchmarks it set. -

lis Regional Economies Task Group is to make reco-
mendations on how to improve the performance of the
regional economies outside the lower mainland.

Skeena Cellulose, northwest community leaders and
a series of reports on the plight of the northwest have all
urged the creation of a special forestry zone for this area
that takes into account its unique challenges.

Continued Pg. A2

Inquest not yet planned
in four-year-old’s death

By SARAH A, ner can ask the B.C. chief
ZIMMERMAN coroner Terry Smith to ap-
AN INQUEST into the prove an inquest.

A spokesperson from
‘Smith's office said it’s too
early to say whether or not
an inquest will take place
because the investigation —
is still ongoing.

David Emerson

Vicki McLean is not yet
being considered, say offi-
cials from the B.C. Cor-
ner’s Service.

McLean died on Cana-

da Day after repeated trips

to the emergency room at

Mills Memorial Hospital,
Preliminary autopsy te-

sults show she died of viral:

encephalitis, which at-

. tacks the brain tissue,
“An inquest isn’t being:

considered at this point in
time but certainly the in-
quiry is ongoing,” said
“acting regional coroner
“Beth Larcombe last week.

- An inguest is a public
hearing of the facts with a
five-person jury.

' An investigating coro-

Part of that inquiry in- |
volves a medical invest--
igator who is assisting the
local coroner's agent,
Clarence Nyce, with his
investigation. | Oo

The medical investiga-
tor can probe medical
facts connected to the
death, including issues of
Standards of care, Lar-
combe said. ;

McLean’s mother conti-
nues to question the time-
liness of tests her daughter
received at Mills in the
days preceding her death.

By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN
A WASHED OUT river bank along
along Hwy 16 west is to blame for a
temporary stoppage of rail and road
traffic last week.

The bank below a 120-foot stretch
of CN rail track washed away shortly
before noon July 18 leaving the tracks
hanging in mid-air and causing the
shoulder of the eastbound [ane of the
highway to crumble into the water. .

The slip out left the highway closed
for nearly 12 hours that day and forced
single lane traffic for at least two days
while CN workers scrambled to fill in
the bank and fix the rails.

Terrace resident Rod Myers was

fishing near the area when the bank...

started to slip away. He says the first
indication of the slip out was the
sound of splashing in.the water. .

“All of a sudden a whole section
under the tracks fell into the water,”
Myers said. “Within 10-15 minutes the
track was like a suspension bridge.”

It didn’t take long before Myers saw
the highway guardrail and part of the
eastbound shoulder fall into the water.

“We were just hoping a train wasn’t |

coming,” he- said.

Myers used a cell phone to call po-
fice and CN-was notified the track had
been washed out, ;

The affected part of the bank was
20 feet deep. and’ required. at least 200

truckloads: and 100 railcars, full. of

Thursday when the riverbank washed. ROD MYERS PHOTO

rock to fill the gap, said CN spokes-
man Graham Dallas, .
He said workers had to lay a tem-

porary track: using part of the east-.
bound lane of the highway in order ta-

get the rock to the location.

“Dallas could nat estimate a dollar :

cost of the repairs...

“It'll be extremely expensive con-
sidering the amount of rock material
we've brought in, the interruption of
rail traffie,” Dallas said, -

_-Repairs-will also have to be done to
the highway. at that location, said

‘highways road- manager Geoff Phillips.

The slip out not only destroyed the

shoulder of the highway at that loca-
tion but caused the asphalt to crack as
well. ;

Up to $15,000 has already been
spent.on a temporary detour road for
single lane traffic, with flaggers... --

Motorists have been pateint during
the. delays, officia