Fish criticisms unfair - Pen pals and sweethearts Hooked on speed Thousands turned out to see dragsters rip down Highway | 16\SPORTS B5 | | Heather Barnes came from England to meet an old pen pal. NW fisheries says columnist’s accusations of mismanagement - ” are unfair\NEWS A111 WEDNESDAY August 13, 1997 Banks trim demand for job PRESSURE IS mounting on unionized workers at Skeena Celullose’s idled pulp mill in Prince Rupert to accept job losses in order tosave the company. in what amounts to a final offer, the compa- ny and the two banks that own it have scaled down an original demand to cut 246 jobs to one where 219 would be jost. _ And 61 of those would be through attrition over the three-year term of a proposed rescue plan. ' Skeena Cellulose shut its Prince Rupert pulp mill down in June and is phasing out its sawmill operations elsewhere after mounting debts forced it to seek creditor protection. It owes the Royal and Toronto-Dominion banks $480 million and those two banks now own the company while trying to arrange a revival plan. - As well, pulp workers are considering the news that the banks and the provincial gov- ernment have reached, on broad terms, an agreement to jointly provide $150 million to make cost savings improvements to the Prince Rupert mill over three years. The banks have hinted they’li cut the pulp mill adrift and sell off Skeena.Cellulose’s | sawmills if they can’t soon reach a cost cut- ting deal with pulpworkers. - The unionized pulp workers are today yat- ing on their own as-yet-undisclosed counter- proposal put together by a New York con- sulting firm. Under the company’s plan for restructur- ing, operational improvements to the pulp mill: will result in fewer workers being needed. One person close to the details of the res- cue plan says the company figure of 219 jobsis firm. after 49 years\COMMUNITY B3 “The company hasn’t been characterizing this as alabour negoliation. What it did was look at its situation and to clarify it, to sof- ten its position to make it palatable,” said Martin Hyatt of Coopers and Lybrand, the company which is overseeing rescue plans. “The company looked for common ground but this is the end. No more,” said Hyatt yesterday. Also crucial to saving the company is union agreements for more flexibility and to allow contracting out. If the union agrees to the above and should the banks and the province reach terms on the $150 million in improve- ments, the banks would then help finance the estimated $120 million in expenditures, includitig logging road construction, need- ed in other areas over the next three years. “There is an expectation the banks would step in on that ($120 million) but this could also be generated by the company’s cash flow,” said Hyatt. ‘Talks between the banks and the govern- ment are expected to accelerate this week. While the goal is a three-year plan to res- cue Skeena Cellulose the banks also want pulpworkers to extend their contract for seven years. That ties in with a proposed payback to 2004 of the $150 million in improvements to the Prince Rupert mill. So far there has been no hint that the pro- vincial goveriment will take an equity position in return for its half of the $150 million in pulp mill improvements. There is also no firm idea of when and how the banks will sell off Skeena Cellulose, once it has been revived, and thus recoupsome of their investment. 93¢ PLUS'7¢ GST | 7 VOL. 10 NO. 18 Hyatt of Coopers and Lybrand said the banks are expected to take a financial hit of at least $100 million of the $480 million they have lent the company. And still to come is how to handle the $120 million the company owes other creditors. “That’s not on the table right now. First — we have to reach a viable business plan for a long term solution,” said Hyatt. But the presentation to focals Tuesday included statements ‘that contractors’ and suppliers will be expected to write off a portion of debts owed to them by Skeena Cellulose. ‘There's a heightened urgency behind the rescue plan because company stocks of © pulp are running low and its customers are being courted by other suppliers. . a Acurious mind | YOUNG GIRLS, such as Kristy Bryant, pretenaed ta be scientists last week during a girls-only science camp, sponsored by the women's centre. The girls enjoyed looking through microscopes at objects Ike. sea Stars, and more gooey things like yogurt. They also made bottle rockets and their own paper. Humans at fault for bear deaths ‘BEAR COMPLAINTS from all over the region are keep- ‘ing conservation officers hopping. And it's forced them to ‘kill nearly twice as many bears as last year. So far there have been 88 bear complaints in Terrace and “the same number in Kitimat. : That's up just slightly over last year, when there were 77 ‘complaints in Terrace and 83 in Kitimat. : But while 14 bears had been killed by this time last year, 25 have been shot by COs this season — 14 in Terrace and 11 in Kitimat. . * Conservation officers say it's just circumstances and not 3 policy shift that’s responsible for the increase in dead : “It's pretty much consistent with last year,” says officer - Martin Melderis. ‘‘But this year more often the bears. seem to still be there when we arrive.’’ Melderis points out there’s a direct correlation between the ripening of fruit on trees and the increase in bear com- plaints, starting with cherries and moving to apples in the fall. Officer Doug Forsdick also points out that people stil areo’t properly securing their garbage. “We just had a situation in Kitimat where there was a complaint and when we got there was a dumpster over- flowing with garbage,’’ he says. “It’s the same old story. Sometimes the message just doesn’t get through to people.’” ; - Black bears have been spotted all over town including Ferry Island, where CO's have set up a trap, Another trap - bas been set along Queensway where a grizzly was spotted last week. oo , Continued Page A2 trade. ily activities. She'll trade the phone THE VICTIM of a break-in Aug. 6 on the 4600 block of Hamer wants to make a Among ilems stolen was a Sony video camera containing a tape of various fam- ‘T'}l-trade that for the rest of my port- able phone, They took the handset but left the base. The base is worthless to me without the handset and_ it’s worthless. to them without the baie,” said tHe woman who didi’t wish to bt idéittified. She said there should be no problem is arranging a trade because the thieves: know which house they entered. The woman said she left her house 11:25. a.m. Aug, 6, returning just 40 minutes later. She‘must have surprised the thieves be- cause they Jeft behind a number of items they were preparing to take. ; “They. had our guns laid out ard they had gathered our (CD) discs and the VCR was unplugged,’ she said. Early start for mushrooms SOME GOOD actually came out of all the rainy weather we had last month. Mushroom season has started and already there’s four or five buyers open for business. . Nommally mushroom sea- son doesn’t start till the first week of September. But al- ready pickers are bringing in mushrooms from the Nass, Kitwanga and Hazelton area. As of late last week prices varied between $15-§24 a pound. “It looks like it might be another bunaper year,” says Ernie Moven. Emie Moven who works for Alpac, has been buying mushrooms for ten years. Tt Jooks like it might be another bumper year,’ he says, And that could be very good news for uacmployed forestry workers in the area, he adds. He thinks there will be a lot of people in the bush looking to make some extra cash, including people ~ from out of town, such as Prince Rupert. Even if August proves considerably warmer than July, it shouldn’t hurt the _ mushroom crop. “Rain is what makes them come out,”’ he says. - Tory Charton of TC's Shroom Shack, opened up last week, He’s seen quite a few wormy mushrooms so Far, and says the season won't really pick up for another few weeks. The last time there was an early start to the season was three to four years ago, when pickers were out In July. During a bumper yeat - there’s about five tonnes of mushrooms shipped out of the Terrace slrport every | day. a MUSHROOM BUYER Erie Moven is predicting a bumper year. Mushroom season started early this yaar, due to a rainy July. Beds for hospital A LONG planned improvement to psychiatric services here will begin to take shape here in two years with the opening of a six-bed facility at Mills Memorial Hospital, The $550,000 facility is meant for those not requiring more intensive psychiatric unit care but who nonetheless cannot live on their own. Neil Taylor, who is in charge of psychiatric services for the northwest, says this is a first step toward providing dif- ferent levels of care. He favours a cottage-style construc- tion with people living in it having access to treatment at. the existing psychiatric care unit at the hospital. Next on his list is a bigh level care unit of at least nine beds made possible by moving money and resources out of the provincial Riverview facility down south. “And we're looking at improvements to the existing 10- bed unit at Mills,”’ said Taylor. As well, the existing Osborne Home residential facility is to be phased out and its budget spread throughout the northwest for more community-based care. Osbome Home, now being run by the Terrace and Area Community Health Council, is simply too old and repairs are too expensive. The improvement in services projects on the grounds of ‘the hospital are intended to group in-patient and out-- patient care together, said Taylor. He said the idea behind grouping together services is to provide as much care as possible in an as efficient manner as possible. mo .