Shortfall leads to school cut

TERRACE — School District 88
is cutting teaching, maintenance

and custodial posilions to-avert a —

$579,000 budget shortfall.

One maintenance worker will
be Jaid off, and all custodians
face a one hour reduction in their
work day.

Five teaching positions are
being cut. The school board ex-
pects to get that reduction though
attrition arid rétirements’ without
laying off any teachers. ~~

Other cuts include: »

* Elimination of a learning dis-

abilities teacher position.
* Discretionary programs, in-
cluding’ money for the awards

a Thornhill house ‘April §

Pot’

“Sac — Sgt. Al
“Lindsay calls it routine.

marijuana plants, . seized
April 5 from a. concealed
room beneath a’ Thornhill
home on Cottonwood Cres-
cent.
The street value: $80,000.
A typical .indoor
hydroponic grow operation,
. says Lindsay, who works in
the drug section at the
Prince Rupert RCMP Sub-
division office.

"The bust: 87 high grade

banquet and flowers for sick em-
ployces, wil! be curtailed.

« Reduced money for educa-
tional change.

« Elimination of the Participac-
tion program. of.cash rewards for
workers who exercise regularly.

¢ Elimination of money for the
Books for. Babies program.

School board spokesman Laurie
Mitchell said trustees: tried ‘fo
maintain educational services. -

“] don’t like to have to cut back
teachers,”’ she said, ‘'I don’t like
to have to cut back maintenance.
But we have no choice. These are
days of restraint.”’

Mitchell said the $38.6 million
budget passed by the board last
week depends on the teachers ac-
cepting the board’s present offer
of a 2.5 per cent pay increase in
the first ycar and 1.8 per cent in
the second,

A. larger settlement than thai
will force (rustees to reopen the
budget and make more culs, she
warned,

The two sides were to mect.

‘today with mediator Barb. Sharp. °
'» Terrace District Teachers Union
president Cathy Lambright called ~

the culs ‘despicable. ”

‘ “They are protecting their

senior administration,”’ she said.
“They certainly are not protect-
ing services to students,”’
Lambright says there’s fat to be
cut within the district.
She said the
trumpeted earlier budget cuts this:

year of the districl’s personnel.

services director and a proposed
custodial supervisor, ;
But Lambright said the job of

~ personnel services director hasn't

been filled-for two. years, and the

“custodial supervisor was to be a
. hew position created this year...
'. “Phat’s a laugh,’’. she said.’
“Removing positions that don’t :

exist is hooey.’

board has’. trustees,

~ ing up.’?:

“They certainly have not made
any cuts lo administration what-
soever.’*

- No cuts have becn made to the
professional, development money
-and’ administrators
receive, she added.

“They're: culling services on
one hand and meanwhile they’re
sending three people to an educa-
tion technology conference com-

Lambright called the cuts a ploy
aimed at pulling more pressure on
the union at the bargaining table.

The reduction of five full time

‘teaching positions will make up

somewhere between $200,000

“and $270,000,

according “fo
secretary-treasurer. _ Barly
Piersdorff. -

School District 88 received ‘a
0.5 per cent increase in its budget
from Victoria this year. *

That wasn't enough to maintain
existing services.

Mitchell said trustees decided a
referendum asking taxpayers - to
pay for teacher salary increases
would not pass.”

‘Trustec John Pousette said ‘more
classes will probably see class
sizes go up.to the maximum al-
lowed this year.

‘Our backs are to the wall,”’ he
said. ;

ERRACE STANDAR I)

SEIZED: Police picked u up $80, 000 worth of marijuana in ‘an
indoor..hydropani¢. grow operation in the crawlspace. beneath
. A 29- ‘year-old man has been

ra

sa grov ;

A week earlier Terrace
RCMP and subdivision drug. -
officers raided a farm near: -
Cedarvale and seized .

* $400,000 worth of weed.

Marijuana cultivation: is’
big business in the north-
west. So much so that sei-
zures like this one aren't un-
usual .

“They’re everywhere in -

"western Canada,”’ Lindsay

says of the indoor grow op-

_ erations. “It is very lucra-

tive, ~

charged with marijuana cultivation and possession for the

“He says: ‘a conservative.

- estimate is that a competent
* grower. could harvest $1,000 -
worth of marijuana off each
plant up to three times a
year,

- “The demand is very high
and: it’s constant — no’
doubt about that,” he said,
“The profit is |< just
phenomenal.””

Lindsay said RCMP.
started aerial searches for
outdoor grow operations

' purpose of trafficking. That’s ROMP Cpl. Rob Mackey with a:
- sample of the seizure.

vth industry —

last year. : tots
Few major busts “were
made that year, but the year ,
before was a big one...
“The fields. we ‘harvested
two years ago were just”
magnificent,” he said.

The Terrace and Nass Val-:

ley areas ‘havé historically”
had weather’ more. con-
ducive to growing

marijuana . outdoors ‘than

other parts of. -the north
coast, he added. ve

TERRACE : — Land developers
will have to give up property or
cash under. a parks policy. now
being considered by | city. council,
The idea is that all city residents
should have equal. access to pub-
lic parks, suggests the policy

prepared by city recreation direc- .

tor Steve Scott.

His proposal suggests the city
should get ‘‘five per cent of the
land being subdivided or the cash
value of five percent,” ~-

The cash payment would be
used by the city lo finance park

They’ ve

development in the community.
The value of the land would ‘be

decided ‘by a professional ap-
. praiser, the developer paying half

the’ cost of that assessment.

. In his. submission to council,
Scott pointed out the Municipal
Act. gave the city the power to

“. implement such a policy and to
“set the cash value figure at up to

five per cent. ;

There are at present 16 desig-
nated parks (including -trails) in
the city, but less than a third of
the area they cover has actually

e quit!

@ Employees band to-

I gether. to. ‘stop Smok- |

beet developed as park space.

. Figures in‘the latest dratt of the,
land use plan‘also show Terrace

is lagging behind what it calls
“desirable standards”. -.

For example, community parks
such as Christy and George Litile

' Memoria! should provide 1.75ha —
per 1,000 of population according

to those guidelines.

The current figure is just one
third of a hectare.

As far as developed neighbour-
hood parks are concerned, the

"Cookie power

COMMUNITY + Bl fig

City ponders park future

present . figure . is 1. Lha/l, 000
compared lo the _ target
1.6ha/1,000, 9 *- 7

Not surprisingly, the plan con-
cludes, ‘deficiencies exist in the
provision of park space’’ and spe-

cifically mentions the west bench .

area,

developing “‘tot. lols’? in new
housing areas.

Scott’s proposal has . been
referred to a council committee of
the whole miceting,

Tt. also. recommends looking « at

Gov’t smacks
Mills again

TERRACE — Mills Memorial
Hospital has been given less
moncy to operate with than it did
last year.

And while hospital officials
aren’| announcing lay’ offs and
cut backs, they don’t exclude
something happening later on in
the year.

The news came in two parts —
one of which was expected and
the other which wasn’t.

The expected part was notifica-
tion thal Mills would not receive
an increase over its $12 million
budget of last year, says Terrace
Regional Health Care Society
chief executive officer Michael
Leisinger.

It had already planned to use a
surplus of several hundred thou-
sand dollars as a cushion with the
hopes of breaking even for this
budget year.

But ‘the unexpected: “news"coTe

cerned the $145,000 known as the
‘Malcolm Walker money’’, a
supplement Mills has received for
the past hwo years.

A health ministry official told
Mills last week it wouldn’t be
getting the money.

Malcolm Walker was a consul-
tant hired by the society two
“years ago to study the hospital’s
operations.

He recommended that the hos--

pital should receive more money
because of the services it per-

_ forms for people who live outside

of the Terrace-Thornhill area.
In return, the hospital was ¢x-
pected to become more efficient

“and generate additional revenues

of its own.

That money has been given for
two .vears but was never calcu-
lated as part of the hospital's base
budget by the provincial govern-
ment. ;

This. year, said Leisinger, the
hospital was: told the money

wouldn’t be appropriate given a
review of northern hospitals last
year which said they ‘already
receive enough money provided
they increase efficiencies.

“It’s  disappointing,’’. said
Leisinger last week. “We. have
already done what the province |
wanted us to do. We have at least
one létter on file saying they're
happy with our increased utiliza-
tion and . cos! containment
measures.”

He hopes Mills can absorb the
loss of the Walker money this
year but says a lot depends upon
the hospital’s continued measures
to cut costs.

“Tt may be we'll’ have to. go
back tater on this year to the de-
partment heads‘and see what else
we can do,’* he said.

“Clearly that (Walker). money. ,
is worth three jobs, We may gci

bit of a deficit,’’ ‘said Lelsinger.
‘What is frustrating, Leisinger
continued, is that the. hold the line
base budget actually represents a
cut of $500,000 once inflation,
wage increases. and benefit in-
creases are taken into account..
This’ll be the second year the
hospital’s budget has been Frozen.
Last year Mills closed 22. beds
and cut the equivalent of 11 full
time positions to avoid a deficil.
“‘There’s a tremendous feeling
of tiredness, We're expending so
much energy just to keep the
funding we've gol,” said
Leisinger.
He added that the board will

‘petition Skeena NDP MLA Hel-

mut Giesbrecht and health minis-
ter Elizabeth Cull to restore the
Walker money.

The hospital’s budget piciure 4s
further complicated . because . it
doesn’t know if ihe province will
give it the money to mect'a wage
equity policy brought in last year.

Nisga’a

TERRACE — Two of the
Nisga’a Tribal Council con-
vention’s four days here next
week will be open to the pub-
lic.
It’s part of an effort to pro-
vide more:information on the
_ activities of ihe Nisga’a as they
negotiate thelr land claim wilh
the provincial and federal
governments.
This‘l] be the 36th annual
convention of the Nisga’a
Tribal Council and i marks the

convention here

‘on economic development, the

holding

first time it will have been heid
in Terrace.

Nearly 1,000 delegates, ob-
servers and others are expected
to be on hand at the Terrace.
arena for the April 27-30
event. ,

Open.to the public are, the
final two days featuring reports

Nisga’a health board, native
justice and the announcement
of tribal council election.
resulls,

through: ihis:year and-may*rug-a “