ee OT Em

Up, up and away.

Three of a kind

Medals galore

A local firm is getting an aircraft
ready so it can be flown to its
owners in England/NEWS A10

The city’s animal shelter is getting
a hand from three jocal
youngsters/COMMUNITY B1

Two Special Olympics swimmers —
are back from Halifax with a fistful
of t medals/SPORTS C1

WEDNESDAY
JU Ly 27, 4994

Dawne Kay

A PERSON who filed a human
rights complaint against the city
has received an apology and
$1,500.

Dawne Kay alleged the city
contravened Section 8 of the Hu-
man Righis Act which prohibits
discrimination on the basis of
age, sex or religion.

Kay, 47, was an unsuccessful
applicant for the job of city eco-
nomic development officer,

She alleged the city . dis-
criminated against her on the
basis of age, her family status and
religion.

The position had been vacant
for same time, was advertised last
year and filled earlier this year,

The apology and settlement

“Tf the parties feel they can mutally resolve a dispute in
a way both feel comfortable with, obviously it's ap-
propriate they do that.’?

came after a provincial labour

ministry investigator had several
mectings with city officials.

A letter, signed by city adminis-
trator Bob Hallsor, to Kay
apologized ‘for any of our ac-
tions that have given you concern
or offence.’’

It added that ihe city should act
in a manner ‘‘so that no dis-
crimination of any kind arises,”

A second letter, sent by the city

to the Human Rights Council of
B.C,, said it would make ‘‘every
effort to avoid any actions which
could give rise to a future viola-

‘tion of the Human Rights Act.’

Speaking last -week, Kay said
the principle of her case. was
more important than the money.

“Money wasn’t the issue. If I .

had wanted more, I could have
sued, All F wanted the money for
was to pay for a word processor I

mw Haying time

ONE MAN and his dog took advantage of the recent good
weather to mow their meadow. Above, local farmer Ted

‘

Hamer and his calle check thé newly cut hay on his farm in
the Kelum Valley before bundling it up into bales,

Dease gold mine waiting ©
for government approval —

A COMPANY which owns a
gold mine near Deasc Lake is
wailing for approval from {he
provincial government for a pro-
ject it says will add years to the
mino’s life,

Wheaton River Minerals wants
lo use a relatively rare process in
B.C, to extract gold from: ore at
ils Golden Bear mine...

Instead of running ore through a
processing mill, It wants to’ use.

what is called heap leaching...

That invotves Spraying a waler

solution containing cyanide over -

heaps of gold-bearing ore,

The solution absorbs: the gold

which can then be filtered out,
Common in: American ” states
such as Nevada, heap leaching is

used in only ‘one. other spot in

BC,

Wheaton _presidsat’

provincial government. :

Visca :
Jutronich said he expects. a.
favourable _ response: from the |

“T have nothing but praise for
the B.C, government, The en-
vironmental process is very, very
fast,” said Jutronich,

“When we talked to the
government and said we needed
approval fast. They said let us

know what you want They’ve-

been completely helpful.”

: Jutronich said the plan to use
heap leaching arose after tests
were done on an ore body found
at the Golden Bear site,

“The method was found to be

more economical than by using a
more conventional milling meth-
od, he added.

If approved, heap leaching will
‘be used on ore from three loca-
tions at the Golden Bear site,

It'll also:be used on waste rock
generaled from mining operations

And there’s still ore fom mini-
ng now going on to be milled ina
conventional manner, said
Jutronich.

‘This means we have ore from -

five different sources, This is
comforting,”’ be sald.

Work js also going on at anoth-
er site on the mine location to see

if it contains sufficient gold bear-

ing ore..

TE there is a downside, it is that
Wheaton has laid off workers be-
cause current ore reserves are

 runtiing out.

of two previous - Golden Bear ~

owners.

Pevations atthe location. ae

All that adds. up to five years of

Heap leaching also doesn’t re- ~-
quire as many employees as does

a milling process,

Jutronich anticipates having 44
Including —

people on location,
“those. who ‘will. working on find-
ing more ore,

That’s down fom’ the 127
people employed just before the

first round of layoffs took hold -
8 Tie :

TOSCO ea acces

Wheaton anticipates spending
$12 to $13 million-to set up the
heap leaching system.

“"We eslimate there’s $23 mil-
lion worth of ore there so it could
be quite profitable,”’ said
Jutronich.

All of this is good news for
Wheaton which bought the Gold-
on Bear mine~ from. previous

owners Homestake for $1.5 mil-

lion Jast year,

That was, and is still is, consid-
ered to be a fire sale price for an
operation such as Golden Bear.

The oré body was first devel-
oped by Chevron witich brought
in Homestake In the carly 1990s.

Homestake estimated it lost $60
thillion (U.S.) on the operation
which experlenced problems with

‘the ore and with production. |
Homestake’ wes able to use a

$13 million (U.S) tax credit from” |
the sale-{o offset ‘profits else~
wheres sae se

used to prepare for the interview
and for my time,’’ she said.

Kay said that while she was sur-
prised by the quick offer of the
cily to setile, she realized that

going to a full public hearing.

would have been long and tinie
consuming for herself and for the
city.

“T feel the city knew its person-
nel procedures would ‘probably

not have survived being pul under -

intense scrutiny,’” Kay said.

City administrator Bob Hallsor
declined fo comment om the case,
saying it was a personnel matter. -

But he did say the settlement
should not be taken to be an ad-
mission of wrongdoing,

“We ever have, and never

‘ANDARD =

settles on rights case

75¢ PLUS: BEC est
VOL, is NO. ‘15

wil, discriminate,”? said 4 Hatlsor..

He called -the monelary. ‘Stitle-
ment a “corporate decision?’ and
agreed that going. through ‘ahi
man rights hearing’ would have
been a costly process,

Local labour” ministry official
Roger . Davis, who investigated
the- case, ‘also said ‘settlements
should not be taken as admissions
of wrongdoing.

“If the parties feel they can mu-
tally resolve a dispute in a way
both fecl comfortable with, ob-
viously it’s appropriate. they do
that,”’ he said,

“Tg the participants —_ are
motivated to settle things, they
have a tendency to resolve them
fairly quickly,”’ Davis added,

Wood code
is a worr

ROD ARNOLD agrees a Forest
Practices Code is needed.
However, the local professional

~ forester fears the. version .pro-"

posed by the provingial govorn-
meat will prove loo inftexible.

And because of that it could end
up causing as many problems as
it is supposed to salve.

He said the danger was the
code’s contents would come to be
regarded as unchangeable rules
rather than guidelines and would
be applied across the board

without regard to special circum- .

stances ina given area.

“The environment is a very
complicated thing,’’ Arnold cm-
phasized, adding, “I’m con-
cemed they’re not leaving enough
room for site specific decisions.’

He pointed to the past policy of
broadcast burning logged sites as
an example of a policy being uni-
versally applied without taking
into account the differing charac-
teristics of cutblocks.

If individual, professional judg:
ment was eliminated, Amold said
there was a danger the mies.
would ullimately mot fit the
ground to which they were being
applied. as

Another weakness, he sug-
gested, was the forest and en-
vironment ministries simply will
not have enough staff to enforce
the code.

- “There are not enough trained
people as it is,’ Arnold pointed

Rod Arnold

out.

_ While the code was full of oot

intentions, the exercise was point-

less if the government did: nol

provide the necessary personnel.
And given the difficulties “he

had finding experienced peopic,

for his own consultancy business
and the number of years it takes
to fully train Someone, there was
no quick fix for that problem.
Individuals were. hired straight
out of university and had “huge”
responsibilities thrust upon them
without the necessary experience.
»,Amold also maintained ‘lack of

"training WAS: & ‘problem - even

among those currently working in
the forest service,”

Demands on their time made it
impossible for them to undergo
the. upgrading/training necessary,
he said. ;

SO FAR the library ex-
pansion project is posing
minimal inconvenience for
patrons.

And, says chicf librarian
Ed Curell, that'll remain the
casc ifall gocs to plan.

So far, the only significant
change for library users has

off box. ..

Staff will have to contend
with losing some of their al-
ready limited work space as
the footings for the expan-

. slon go in, however.

Curell said’ they would
have fo move down into the
basement during thal phase,

Although (he plan is to
keep all aress of the library
open lhroughout ' construc-
tion, he added it might yet
prove necessary to close ‘off
small sections temporarily.

"ooEn the. meantime, the: big-:

by the Iiprary resulted from.
thé weather. - any

‘It’s going well —

been the closure of the drop

gest ‘problem’ -encountered’. cls - around “here,

. “AS art. of work on the “> be

Ed Currell

roof, some of the overhangs
were temoved, =”
Heavy .rains which’ fol-
lowed . almost Immediately .
resulted’ in some: Severe
flooding. rte
“There. were lows. ob buck-

said: Forfunalély,: however,
: damage bie limited toa few ae