Rute

Bobble Phillips, secretary-manager
for the Terrace and District
Chamber of Commerce, received a
commemorative plaque from
members at the organization's
monthly meeting last week. Phillips
will be moving Into a new career
position in April as coordinator of
the city's Victim Assistance pro-

B.C.’s provincial parks are
not being privatized, they’re be-
ing contracted out, according to
Ron Kerr, the Operations Of-
ficer for the Visitors Services
section of the Ministry of En-
vironment and Parks.

‘dt’s not privatization.

There’s no sale of land,’’ said
Kerr in a telephone interview.
“All we're doing is expanding
what we’ve been doing since
1983,”

Kerr explained that firewood
and garbage collection services

Budget fund illusory

“3s not the sort of thing
that’s easily grasped by the
general public.”’

That understatement came
from Heather Shannon, the
president of the B.C. Institute of
Chartered Accountants, during
an interview that followed the

presentation of the B.C. budget -

March 24. She was referring to a

rather unusual feature of the

gram. - budget, the $450 million Budget

Forestry hearings
set for next week

The Select Standing Committee on Forests and Lands will be in
_ Prince Rupert next Wednesday to hear submissions on timber
. harvesting contracts.
- The committee was commissioned by Forests Minister Dave
Parker, and it is expected that the committee’s recommendations
will center around the practice of large companies giving small con-
tractors ‘‘up front’’ money in order to inflate the value of a stand of
timber, and therefore make it uneconomical for independent log-
gers to compete.

Some independent logging contractors in the province have ac-
cused some of the larger companies of engaging in this process in
order to gain control of the industry and force the small, indepen-
dent operator out of business.

’ According to one source in the industry, the large company can
then average the inflated price of the small stand with their larger
holdings and still sell their processed logs at a profit.

Another complaint made by some small contractors since the im-
plementation of Parker’s new forest policy last fall contends that in-
dependent loggers are the ones paying for increased costs due to
higher stumpage rates and the shift of responsibility for silviculture
from the government to industry.

Some of these contractors maintain that large companies are

covering these increased costs by negotiating ‘‘smaller and smaller
contracts’’, and the end result may be that many small operators

will be forced into bankruptcy.

According to Craig James, the Clerk of Legislative Committees
in Victoria, the committee was struck by a motion of the B.C.
Legislature March 18. It will visit Cowichan, Kamloops, Prince
Rupert, Nelson, Prince George, Williams Lake and Vancouver. He
said the committee also has the power to hold additional meetings in
other centers if they feel it’s necessary.

James said the committee, which is chaired by MLA Graham
Bruce, will be examining the desirability of standard timber con-
iracts and the desirability of setting up a means for arbitration bet-
ween parties in timber harvesting contracts.

Stabilization Fund, which
Finance Minister Me! Couvelier
called a ‘rainy day fund’? that is
supposed to ease the periodic
ups and downs of the B.C.
economy.

“It’s not real money,”’ Shan-
non said, ‘‘there’s not a nickel
backing it,”’

Shannon explained it like this:

during the 1987-88 fiscal year

the B.C. government earned
$10.772 billion instead of the
$10.322 billion it had forecast.
Couvelier decided to take the ad-

_ ditional $450 million and carry it

forward to be reported as reven-
ue in some future year. The
problem was that the govern-
ment had already spent the mon-
ey, so Couvelier established a
fund with nothing in it which the
government can contribute to, if
it wishes, and perhaps write
IOU’s against. In current ac-
count terms, the deficit came in
almost exactly where Couvelier
had predicted in his first budget:
$800 million in the hole.

So why a special fund? ‘It’s
supposed to make us look good
to our creditors,’’ Shannon said,
referring to agencies like Stan-
dard and Poor who set the credit
rating, and consequently the in-
terest rate payable on borrowed
money, for governments. But
she doesn’t think the mirage will
work.

“This isn’t going to fool
anyone,” she said. ‘“It would be

a good idea if this were actually |

a surplus, like the Alberta Heri-
tage Trust Fund, There’s no
comparison, though - that was
real money, billions of dollars.
B.C. is a cyclical province, and
this won’t really smooth any-
thing out.”

When asked if she thought the
fund with nothing in it was an
unusual move for a government
to undertake, Shannon replied,
‘tyes, “it’s unusual. I've never
seen the likes of it before.”

Developer reveals plans for
new Thornhill shopping area

Thornhill will soon be taking

its first real step in establishing

its own shopping district and
making its residents a little less
dependent on Terrace. A local
developer expects the Thornhill
Centre, which will be located
next to Thornhill Motors, to be
open for business late this fall or
early next spring.

At an estimated cost of
$750,000 to $1 million, the
Thornhill Centre will offer
Thornhill shoppers eight to 10
new businesses in a 14,000
square foot mall, and parking
for 68 cars.

A spokesman for the
developer said, ‘‘There’s
roughly 6,000 people in Thor-
- phill and there’s no place to
shop... If I were starting out in
business, that’s where I’d go.
It’s open and there’s no com-
petition.”

He compared Thornhill to
Smithers, which he said is
roughly the same size but has
about 250,000 square feet of

retail space, compared to only
about 5,000 in Thornhill and he
said this sort of development is
long overdue.

Horst Godlinski of Terrace
Realty, the firm taking care of
leasing arrangements, said space
is still’ available but several
retailers have shown genuine in-

terest.

He said that nothing is firm
yet; but Thornhill may soon see
a major drug store chain as well
as a variety of other businesses
close to home. These other

businesses could include a video -

store, restaurant, beauty shop,
dry cleaner and doctors office.

CAI summer schedule

Effective May 1, 1988, Cana-
dian Airline’s summer flight
schedule begins. The daily Flight
627 from Vancouver to Terrace

(with a 25-minute stop in’

Smithers) departs at 8:00 a.m.
and arrives at 10:10, At 10:40
a.m, the flight returns to Van-
couver for an 11:55 arrival.

On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wed-
nesdays and Saturdays, Flight
678 repeats the run, leaving Van-

couver at 2:00 p.m. and arriving
in Terrace at 4:10. Departure
from Terrace is 4:40 p.m. and
arrival in Vancouver is 5:55 p.m.

On‘ Thursday, Friday, and:

Sunday, non-stop Flight 773
leaves Vancouver at 3:00 p.m.
and arrives in Terrace at 4:10.
Departure from Terrace on
Flight 772 is 4:40, to arrive in
Vancouver at 5:55 p.m.

‘Terrace Review — Wednesday, April 6, 1988 3

have been done on a contract
basis in most provincial parks
since the early seventies, and this
began a trend towards contrac-
ting out all park services that
began in earnest in 1983 and
would see all parks under private
contract by 1990.
‘‘There’s really no reason to
be concerned about what’s going

‘on because it is something that

has gone on for a number of
years,”’ said Kerr. ‘‘And there
have been pilot projects where
we have done exactly what.we
are proposing to see how viable
this system is.”’

‘He said that under the plan,
private contractors would
“literally take over the parks”’,
collect fees and, depending on
the nature of the park, retain all
or part of those fees as personal
income.

According to Kerr, the
ministry is presently putting a
tender package together for the
1988 phase of the plan and will
soon be accepting bids from in-
dividuals or companies in-
terested in participating.

He was careful to claim how-
ever, that the plan would not

|

British Columbia Legislative Assembly

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE
ON
FORESTS AND LANDS

“B.C. parks move ‘not privatization’

compromise the present quality
of provincial parks.

“<1 can almost guarantee you
that you’re not going 10 see a
deterioration in the service or
security,” said Kerr. ‘‘One of
the worst things we could do is
to allow that to happen.”

He explained that park stan-
dards would be established
through the tendering process
and, while the contractor would
manage all aspects of the park,
monitoring will be done by
ministry officials, and the
government will continue to set
park user fees.

Kerr also pointed out that
although the plan would mean
an end to the ministries practice
of hiring auxilliary summer
staff, those people would be free
to submit a bid and even if they
are unsuccessful, the jobs would
still be availalbe through the suc-
cessful bidder.

“When you’re an auxilliary
and you get laid off, you hope
that you'll be able to come back
to the job next year but you
can’t always do that. But these
people do have first choice at a
job if they come up,” he said. .

——___

|

contract.

hours may be extended.

Mr. Craig H. James
Clerk of Committees
Room 236
Parliament Buildings

V8V 1X4

CHAIRMAN

TIMBER HARVESTING CONTRACTS

PUBLIC HEARING

' WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 1988
Commencing 9:00 am
The Prince Rupert Hotel
2nd Avenue and 6th Street
Prince Rupert

The purpose of this meeting is for the Committee to review
the nature of timber harvesting contracts between tree farm
licensees or forest licensees and contractors as provided in
the Forest Act; the desirability of a standard timber
harvesting contract; submitting to arbitration issues between
parties to a timber harvesting contract and in the event that
arbitration is recommended, the policy considerations and
desirability of providing for the same by legislation or

Those wishing to appear at the above location should notify
the Clerk of Committees as soon as possible. The hearing

Address all correspondence or inquiries to appear to:

Victoria, British Columbia -

Telephone: 356-2933 Fax: 387-2813
Mr. Graham Bruce, M.L.A.

ee