Team Canada? One Terrace ringette player takes the first step to trying out for the nation’s top team\SPORTS B6 Strike up the band The Thornhill Jr. Second- ary band will be going all the way to the nationals\ COMMUNITY B3 Sprucing up Some of vibrant new additions make an | appearance in children’s... hospital rooms\NEWS A12_ $1.00 plus 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus &¢ GST outside of the Terrace area) City could By JEFF NAGEL THE CITY could top up what’s needed to build a sportsplex here should the drive fall short to raise the $4 million that’s needed. Nobody connected to the project likes to talk about that option for fear of undercutting the efforts to raise money that are now underway, but mayor Jack Talstra has confirmed some short-term borrowing by the city could be done without going toa referendum. Terrace’s limit on — short-term borrowing, which doesn’t require a vole, is a maximum of $605,450 and must be repaid over five years. “We don’t even hope to use that,” Talstra said, “If we're $50,000: short: or $100,000 short and couldn’t go back to the donars for the top up then we might consider a very minimal taxpayers’ contribution.” “We have said there would be zero or very, very minimal local taxpayers’ money in this thing,” Talstra said. A federal-provincial grant will provide $2 million. Officials hope local donations and © other big corporate. contributions will make up the other $2 millionleading toa - ; spring 2004 construction start...” So far just over $250,000 has been pledged locally, leaving the project $1.75 million short. ‘ The mayor absolutely rules out. borrowing on that magnitude. ‘There will not be seven-figure borrowing,” Talstra pledged. But he did open the door a bit wider to short-term cy borrowing —if taxpayers don’t have to ultimately repay the money, He said further short-term borrowing might be palatable if local organizers pledge to continue to raise money to cover the city’s payments. “If that means it’s not taxpayers money, then it would be an option,” Talstra said. He said the same thing was done several years ago with the library expansion project,. when proponents raised more money after the fact, offsetting loan payments by the city. “In a sense we're doing it already,” Talstra said. He noted some of the pledges coming in. for the. sportsplex. are promises of money over a period of several years - such as the Terrace Rotary Club's Wednesday, Noverr aid sportsplex with taxes $50,000 commitment over five years. That means the city will have to come up with the money for the construction from other sources while it waits for those pledges to be fulfilled, he said. “Obviously we’te going to have to be creative to get this thing going,” he said. As it sils now, Talstra admits the sporisplex is highly dependent on a major corporate contribution, = “We ate going to have to look at the larger corporations for substantial amounts,” he said. Potential donors might include banks, soft drink companies or the NHL, Talstra ° said. Alcan is also a much rumoured contributor that locals hope might put up a large sum in exchange for having its mame on the facility. - nhet 12, 2003 The aluminum giant has been steadily giving money to Terrace groups this year, at the same lime it is embroiled in 4 major _ dispute with Kitimat over the future of its electricity sales. “They've been known to give big gifts before,” Talstra said. “Maybe it’s our turn.” , Big contribulors want to see a deep commitment from local..people first ‘before putting in their money, he said. “That’s why we have things like. the auction and 50/50 ticket draws and smaller donors coming in with letlers of support.” The push for major contributors is just beginning, he added. “We don’t expect an answer from them for another month,” he said. 4 Cont'd Page A2 &@ Kids stuff CITY EMPLOYEE Greg Merritt works away at the new playground being installed at Lower Little Park. It is replacing the old one behind the library and like its predecessor, comes courtesy of the local Kinsmen Club. The club has put up the $25,000 for the equipment and is contributing ‘abour on the weekends. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO Harris in fight to keep log exports Gov’t considering new restrictions By JEFF NAGEL LOG EXPORTS in the northwest will continue if Skeena’s MLA has anything ta do with it. : Roger Harris is urging his. government not to put the brakes on raw Log exports. “Tf you do that all you do is just lay off a bunch more people - with no gain,” he said, Forests minister Mike de Jong has indicated the government is examining options to tighten log exports — from an outright ban to an increased levy to discourage high volumes of exports. The province has come under increasing pressure from critics over the log export policy, = which includes a cabinet order allowing the export of up to 35 per cent of logs cut in the northwest. “We've heard concerns thal government is not gelling proper value for logs exported,” said = ministry spokesperson Rena Kendall- Craden. “So we may need to take another look at the existing system. We are studying the options.” Harris says the critics are wrong in targeting tog exports as a cause of the industry’s woes. “Log exports —aren’t stopping mills from running,” he said, “What's stopping mills from running is the economics of those facilities.” He Says exports are a symptom of an underperforming — industry -which the province is irying lo fix with its broad forest policy reforms. “For us log exports are essential,’ Harris said, “They're a critical component for the northwest.” Exports help keep logging contractors afloat while mills are shut down, he said. . And he said it could prove a useful ongoing too! to harvest old pulp-grade NAFTA @10 @ See A5 for more from our series on trade. timber to make way for second-growth stands, “I's better than letting it rot on the stump or have it burn down at some future lime,” Harris said. Everyone would like to see all B.C. timber processed in B.C. mills, he said. “Are we in a position to do that today? The answer is no.” Another factor driving exports is the softwood lumber dispute and the tariffs the U.S, has slapped on Canadian‘ lumber. That has shut down mills and created more incentive to export logs, which are not -subjectio U.S. tariffs, “If there’s a 27 per cent tax on lumber, people will try to get around it by exporting logs,” Kendall- Craden said. Export logs are increasingly being processed at mills in the northwest U.S. While government officials say 95 per cent of B.C. logs are milled in the province, opponents say exports have increased to the point where the logs leaving B.C, would have employed | 3,700 B.C. workers feeding several sawmills. - Unity B.C. leader Chris Delaney says Canada’s position in the softwood lumber dispute is being undermined by the flow of B.C. logs to feed U.S. mills.’ Continued page A5 Lunch crunch fine, say trustees SCHOOL TRUSTEES have abandoned a plan to change school bus schedules again to ensure all schools have a minimum 45-minute lunch break. The suggestion came from the school district’s education committee. The proposal would have lengthened lunchtime at five schools, most of them high schools, by three to.10 minutes. But it turns out those students like their present lunch crunch just fine, Terrace trustee Diana Penner said, “They were actually very happy with their lengths, “ she said, adding students say their breaks are long enough to recharge their batleries. “They were not tired in the afternoons,” Penner said. It wus a sufficient break.” Lunch and recess breaks were shortened at schools across the district this fall as part of the new, four-day school week, A recent proposal to shorten lunch times further to ease school bus scheduling complaints was abandoned, . Help us and help us now, mayor urges Ry JEFF NAGEL A PUSH is on for some kind of short-term make- work program to ease unemployment while Terrace waits for the forest industry to revive itself. Mayor Jack Talstra says he will advance that idea on the recommendation of a city-organized commitice which sprang out of the Communities in Crisis forum the city hosted in September. ‘Talstra. said the program might be a new incarnation of the old federal EBAP (Employment . helped unemployed forest workers during the igre recession Bridging... Assistance. Program) . that - of the early. 1980s. Workers then got a lop up to their unemployment insurance payments to go out and plant. trees and work on various projects in teams. , ‘You can’t go planting trees in the middle of the winter,” Talstra noted. “But there are some things you can do.” Committee chair Ian: Smith said pruning of lower limbs to promote cleat lumber can be done. effectively by workers on a snowpack. “Maybe: there's a similar. type -of program that: could. be set up to. create some: Silviculture opportunities out there,” Smith said, - a, = ‘The ‘mayor said hesees money for hat plan coming » out of the federal aid package for communities hit by the softwood lumber dispute. That’s the same program that's given the city $800,000 for its new tourist-friendly railway station project, “What [’m going to do is go back to the softwood initiative people and see if something like that could be done very quickly,” Talstra said. “Tust to try to. see what can be done in.the short term.” — He said the commiillee also wants the ministry of forests to release more wood sales that‘are ready to | go to get more loggers working), The planned restart. of West Fraser's sawmill’ in. January means there” “will soon n be local buyers again for or sawlogs. ee Talstra said he’s also prepared to explore ways to offer property tax relief to encourage new industry to set up here. That was one of the ideas that sprang from the September forum. “We are prepared to deal with incentives, investments -- (enterprise minister] Rick Thorpe doesn’t like the word subsidies 50 T can *t use that word any more.” Talstra’s idea is to cap the amount of. taxes collected from heavy industry, That : “way a new “value-added. plant. would spread the’ ‘payments of ‘the same amount of tax across more companies. The : Scheme would | in essenice offer rediiced taxes.