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ANDARD :

WEDNESDAY
JULY 29, 1998

93¢ PLUS 7¢ GST
VOL. 11 NO. 16°

Voices grow for Nisga’a vote

CALLS FOR a referendum on the Nisga’a treaty are
growing louder.

Skeena Reform MP Mike Scott, B.C. Liberal leader
Gordon Campbell, and B.C. Reform president Bill
Vander Zalm are all calling for a provincial vote on
the deal,

Although each Nisga’a will have be able to voie on the
deal, Premier Glen Clark has said there will be no broader
referendum of B,C. citizens. He has promised a free vote
in the legislature either this fall or in the spring.

It would be absolutely disastrous from our standpoint if
the issue of a Nisga’a treaty went to a referendum,’’
Nisga’a Tribal Council president Joe Gosnell said last
week. ‘‘Aboriginal rights have not been dealt wilh easily
by the general public.”’

“Something as important as a treaty should not go to
referendum,”’ Gosnell added. “Duly elected governments
represent the interests of their constituents as we represent
the interests of our people.’’

Jack Ebbels, the province’s depuly minister of aboriginal

affairs and the negotiator who brought home the deal, said
the practicalities of holding a referendum would be dif-
ficult.

“Who would vote on such an iter?” Ebbels asked.

He queried whether such a referendum should be limited
to residents of electoral area A (the Nass Valley) of the
regional district, the people of the northwest region, all
citizens in B.C. or even all of Canada.

“Other Canadians will be contributing probably 70 to 80
per cent of the costs of this treaty, should it be all of cana-
da who vote? Those are questions that are interesting to
consider.”

Skeena MLA Helmut Giesbrecht said holding referenda
ofien is an idea that would serve the interests of the more
populous south, but not necessarily nosthemers.

“Do we really want a referendum on SCI?’ he asked,
“There’s a lot more clout in the south. You have to be
careful about that referendum stuff,”’

Federal chief negotiator Tom Molloy also refuted sug-
gestions that the treaty constitutes an amendment to the

Canadian Canstitution, thereby triggering B.C. legislation
that requires a provincial referendum on any such constitu-
tional amendment.

"The treaty specifically states that it is not an amend-
ment to the constitution,” Molloy noted.

kaka kk
A LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE representative on the
Treaty Negotiation Advisory Committee is incensed Vic-
toria completed the treaty without keeping its promise to
fully consult the third-party group.

But local businessman Gerry Martin says he and most
other local entrepreneurs are convinced the treaty will be
great for business in Terrace.

“It’s going to be very good for the area,’* Martin said.
“People here are very positive about that aspect of it.”’

**] think it’s wonderful they got this thing finalized and I
wish they’d get a whole bunch more of them finalized and
get some of this uncertainty around the province cleared

out.””
Cont'd Page Ai0

Jack Ebbels

m Ducks on parade

THE DUCKMASTER Bruce Cameron stores about 5000 rubber
ducks for the annual Ferry Island Duck Race. This year’s race
will take place Aug. 3. The ducks seil for $5 (or five for $20) and

'

help the Terrace Rotary Club raise money to buy laser eye
equipment for Mills Memorial Hospital and a heated tent for Ter-
face search and rescue, Last year the duck race raised $12,000.

Ambulance was lost
while baby choked

A CHOKING five-week old
baby girl and her parents
waited approximately eight
minutes while a misdirected
ambulance sat lost July 3.

Problems began when a
B.C, Ambulance Service
crew from Smithers, in town
and at Mills Memorial Hos-
pital at the time, was dis-
patched from the service’s
Kamloops call centre.

The call for help came
from Fetro and ilda Tsares
whose baby, Jade, was
- choking. They live on Olson
in the horseshoe.

But, says a joca!l man who -

was listening to the scanner
that evening, the Smithers
crew was sent south, not
north from the hospital.

According to Art Mooney
the directions said, ‘‘when
you leave the hospital, turn
south. The first street past
Scott is Olson.”

He said the dispatch direc-
tions were repeated twice as
attendants, by then on
Haugland Ave. which runs
past the front of Mills
Memorial, were lost.

' patcher

Eventually, a call came
through from dispatch teli-
ing the attendants to standby
for new directions, recounts
Mooney.

The crew was then sent
north across the - Sande
Overpass and up Eby Street
before turning off on Olson
lo reach baby Jade,

Ambulance officials were
unavailable for comment
last week on the incident or
to say why a Smithers-based
ambulance crew was in Ter-
race and how it happened to
be dispatched to a local call,

Terrace fire chief Randy
Smith said it appears the
Smithers crew and the dis-
were unlamiliar
with Terrace strecl loca-
tions.

The Terrace fire depart-
ment’s first responder unit
teached baby Jade five
minutes before the Smithers
ambulance unit eventually
arrived.

Locai fire department per-
sonnel had been monitoring
the call and realized the am-
~ bulance was on the wrong

side of the overpass.

When the dispatch service
called them to ask for
proper diréctions,
firefighters asked if they
Should go to the call as they
were closer,

The Kamloops-based dis-
patcher. declined the as-
sistance but the firefighters
went to the Tsares house

_ anyway,
i Fire chief Smith said no
first responder call was
made to the fire department
from the ambulance dis-
paich service.
‘Realistically, we should
have been called,’’ he said.
Ilda Tsares is also upset
because she believes the
ambulatice ° service's
Kamloops-based dispatcher
was uncaring and abrupt.
“She didn’t even give us
any directions ‘on what to do
unlil the end of the call,’*
said Iida’s husband, Petro.
The Tsares believe their
baby is only alive today be-
cause Petro stayed calin and

Cont'd Page Ai2

ILDA, JADE and PETRO Tsares want to know what
went wrong when an ambulance got lost on the way
to their home. Bapy Jade was five weeks old when
she started choking on her own vomit,

eorerrr eee vie eer ere

Coho returns
look healthy

THE NUMBER OF coho salmon returning up the Skeena
River is up but more closures are on the way for river
auglers.

The Tyee test fishery, a Department of Fisheries and
Oceans (DFO) boat that measures the numbers of fish that
relumm to the mouth of the Skeena, is bringing in record

iches, says Les Janz a federal biologist in Prince Rupert.”
"But Janz says that’s because there’s no commercial
fishery this year. They were closed down to protect what's
left of B.C.’s threatened coho stocks and the high number
of coho coming back is being used as proff by DFO that its .
protection plan is working.

“With no commercial fisheries this could be an.average..
run with better escapement levels,’ said Janz. “It’s too
carly to suggest (he stocks are at an all-time high.”

What is known is that the coho index levels so far are the -
fifteenth best on record, Chum levels are the best ever, :
while chinook and pink counts are average.

Sockeye stocks are a little below the desired levels.

But the DFO definitely won’t adjust planned salmon '
fishing closures. In fact, word of the significant coho
retums was followed a few days later by DFO releases :
reminding angles of closures announced earlier in the year.

Angling for all species of salmon closed down in the .
Skeena downstream from the railway bridge crossing in
Terrace until Sept. 5,

Starting Aug. 2, angling for all species of salmon will be
discontinued in the Skeena and tributaries upstream from
the railway bridge crossing in Terrace.

The closures, said DFO recreational fisheries manager
Elmer Fast, are being put in place specifically to ensure the
highest number of coho return to their breeding grounds as
possible.

“There will be non-directed angling for salmon only on
the Skeena,’’ Fast said. ‘“Those salmon that are caught
aust have been done so accidentally and then they must be
released,

911? Not yet

THE 911 emergency number system may be on its way
lo the north - but il’s going to take a while to get here.

‘BC Tel has an application into the CRTC (Canadian
Radio Television and Telecommunications Commis-
sion) to look at setting up basically not 911, but the
platform for providing that on 4 provincial basis,’’ ex-
plained Judy Tracy, manager for health and administra-
tion projects with the Kitimat-Stikine regional district.

But she’s quick to point out thal even if the applica-
tion is approved, this will only be the initial stages of

. any eventual 911 number serving the entire province,

Tracy said that what B.C. Tel is proposing so far
deesn’t include the actual emergency vebicle dispatch
system.

“If you called 911, the call would be registered. But
you still have to have that system in place for the call
to be forwarded to the appropriate dispatch,”’ she said.
“So there is a whole other system that would have to
go in place before you actually had the service.”

And there are a number of hurdles some
municipalities would have to clear before the first step
of a 911 number would be possible.

Several areas in this region are still on multiple party
lines and 911 requircs single lines in order to work.
Homes also need house numbers for accurate dispatch-
ing.

Tracy noted the cost of providing the service and the
willingness of people to pay for the convenience of a
single emergency number would be other determining
factors.

“TE it's going to cost people another $25 a month
they might decide that they don’t want it,”’

However, Tracy said if BC Tel becomes involved in
providing this service the cost may not be as formid-
able.

Another consideration would be deciding if there Was
appropriate demand,