Going for the gas

Jailhouse greenthumbs

Methanex wants cheaper natural
gas and other aid to help keep its -
methanol plant open\NEWS A&

Local prison inmates are being
praised for their work to beautify
the city\COMMUNITY Bi

Edged off the field

A former Terrace player says he
may scrap his soccer school here
next year\SPORTS B5

WEDNESDAY —
August 9, 2000

ANDARD

$1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST
($2.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of tha
: ~ Terrace aren) -

VOL..13 NO. 18

Centre still closed as costs climb

Four youths waiting

for rehab treatment

By KEITH FREEMAN
A CONTROVERSIAL youth drug and
alcohol rehabilitation centre on the
bench is still yet to open, costing
thousands of dollars a month in salary
and operating expenses,

Staff training and preparation is
responsible for some of the delay from
what was to be an early summer open-
ing date, say officials.

As well, the centre has yet to re-
ceive an operaling licence from the
provincial government. ;

But neither provincial officials or
local ones from the centre’s sponsoring
agency will talk about issues surround-

The centre is located in a recently-
purchased house on Halliwell near Eby
and has a budget of $550,000 a year.

“Most of the operating funds are
being spent on salary costs,” said
Peter Cunningham, the community
services manager for the Ministry for
Children and Families in Prince
George.

Cunningham confirmed that four
potential clicnts are waiting for treat~-
ment at the centre, including one from
as far away as Dease Lake.

The centre’s staff includes a super-
visor, five activily workers and a youth
addiction worker.

“We've had some vacation time
thrown in as well,” Cunningham said,
alluding to program manager Jeanette

and July, when the centre was origin-
ally scheduled to be opened.

“U's not unusual to louk at a train-
ing period of four to six weeks for new
staff,” Cunningham said. The centre is
also the first of its kind in B.C.

Meanwhile, centre neighbours are
entering their third month of picketing
outside of it. They say they weren’t
asked: for their opinion prior to the
centre’s location being announced.

A brochure put out by Northwest
Addiction Services, a branch of the
Terrace and District Community Ser-
vices Society which runs the centre,
does provide a bit more information on
the kind of clients it will handle. It
says pregnant women will be given
priority al the centre.

The brochure also states that the

centre is not a detox program, and that
youth who enter the program must
have gone through at least 14 days of
detoxification prior to their admil-
tance.

Meetings between residents and
Northwest Addiction Services broke
off in May.

“They've gone past the puint of sor-
ling things oul,” picketer Jeanne Hadi-

kin says. “They're opening a business

in my neighbourhood, and | wasn't
consulted, our group initiated the last
meeting.”

Hadikin said that the number of
cars parked along Halliwell is danger-
ous at times.

“One day there were cars parked all
over the street, almost blocking the in-
tersection, forcing people to pull way

oul to see if traffic was coming.”

She likened the centre to a day-
care, adding that the short term care
provided at the centre would have a
very low success rate.

Terrace and District Community
Services Sociely director Mike Beau-
soleil said he doesn’t have a problem
with the picketers.

“It's within their rights,” he said,
adding however, that no talks are
scheduled with the bench residents.

Hadikin said she’s nol opposed to
the centres, bul thinks that longer term
facilities located oul of town, where
clients can work outdoors, would be
more effective.

“Ninety per cent of passing cars
wave or honk al us,” she said. “We'll
be out here as long as il takes.”

a“ .

ie

ing its lack of an operating licence.

oe ° ‘ nm ic te

Anderson’s two-week holiday in June

Cte
Gita

OSBORNE HOME

By SARAH GLEN
A WELL-WORN front porch is
littered with plastic deck chairs, a
wooden bench and a few ashtrays.

Inside, crossword puzzle books
are spread on the coffee table
next to a pair of reading glasses.

It looks fike an average bunga-
low in an average neighbourhood,
but this is a house with a purpose.

_ The Osborne Home is the re-

_ gion’s only long-term care facility
for the mentally ill and has been
‘operating out of the aging house
on Hall Street for 25 years.

“We offer our residents a
chance to learn independent liy-
ing skills that will help them ad-

resident ida Campbell and interim program oniy care facility for th
manager Pam Bebby relax in the summer sun. The home is the operating out of the same location for over 25 years.

Home for mentally ill is aiming
for smooth move to new street

just to community living,” said
Pam Bebby, interim program
manager for the home.

Residents suffer from a wide-
range of mental illness — from de-
pression to schizophrenia, They
are monitored 24 hours a day.

But at this home the focus isn’!
on the illness it’s on living.

“Mental illness is like any
other sickness,” said Bebby. “If
it’s not treated it just pets worse.”

Bebby isn’t just talking about
medication either. Residents are
encouraged to get involved in the
community volunteering their
time as part of their treatment .

They get involved in sports, art

and a local support group called
the Stepping Stone Clubhouse.

“After they get up and have
breakfast most of the people here
go off to their other jobs - much
like everyone else,” said Bebby.

Living independently is the en-
tire focus of the program.

“Having a mental illness isn’t
any different from having

diabetes,” Bebby said. “It has to.

be monitored and treated but that
doesn’t mean someone has to stop
living.”

That's the message Bebby and
others are trying to gel across to
the neighbours of a proposed new
location for the home.

é mentally ill in the region and has been

The idea is to get the neigh-
bours’ support to help make the
move from the home on Hall
Street to the onc on Kofoed easy.

And although the new home -

isn’t a done deal — it still needs
Regional District approval to re-
zone the property — the support of
the neighbourhood would make
everything easier.

“That house is our first
choice,” she said. “It would be
great for the home.”

The current home is “is preat
bul it needs a lot of upkeep.”

The regional district will make
decide on the rezoning applica-
tion at its Aug. 11 meeting.

g MP wont

run again

Scott bows out,

making next

election a wide open race

~ By ROD LINK
AFTER WINNING the
Skeena riding in 1993 and
again in 1997, Canadian”
Alliance MP Mike Scott
won't run in the next fed-_
eral election.

Scott said he made the
decision for personal rea-
sons. .

“T was 39 when T was
first elected and I’m 46
now,” said Scatt. “I do
have commitments out
there to meet and these
are considered in life to be
the prime earning years.”

He gave no immediate
indication of how he would
make a living after leaving
public office which, pre-
dict some analysts, could
be as early as this fall if
Prime Minister Jean Chre-

tien calls an election.

Scott said it would be a
mistake for anyone to con-
sider politics as a career.

“| didn't want that to
happen. Nobody should be
involved just for the sake
of being an MP,” he said.

The MP said he began
thinking about retiring
from politics about six
months ago and made his
decision in the spring.

A supporter of Preston
Manning for the Alliance
leadership, Scott said his
decision is in no way con-
nected to Stockwell Day's
victory over Manning.

“] told my
(constituency association)
executive well in advance
of the leadership contest
that | would not seek the
nomination again,” said
Scotl.

Mike Scott

He said he had also toll
Day he did not wish to be
considered for any critic’s
position on the Alliance
shadow cabinet announced
last weck.

Scott was part of the
western wave af Reform
politicians sent to Oltawa
when the Progressive Con-
servative party collapsed
in the 1993 election,

Almost from the day he
was elected, Scott adopted
native affairs as a key area
of interest becoming, in
the end, his party’s: chief
crilic for native affairs.

Nalive issues look up a
majorily of his time, bul}
he did conduct a vigorous
defence of businesses and’
workers hurt when Repap

(now knawn as Skeena,

Cellulose) collapsed in
1997,

Continued Page A2

Docs here join those demanding money

IT WAS only a matter of time
before doctors here talked
about resigning bécause of
frustrations with medical ser-
vices, says a local physician.

But if was a deal in Prince
George this June which gave
doctors there more money than
ones here that sparked plans for
mass resignations scheduled to
begin this afternoon.

“Honestly | think the job ac-
tion would have happened here
anyway sooner of later. Prince
George was just the catalyst,”
said Dr. Bill Redpath, who

speaks for the 35-member Ter-
race and District Medical Asso-
ciation.

“There is just so much frus-
tration over the years and after
endless mectings, what does
one do?”

Doctors last week said they
wanted to directly deal with the
provincial poyernment on de-
mands for more money and bet-
ter medical services here.

But last week the province
said it was going to give com-
munity health councils the au-
thority and the cash to strike
local agreements with their

doctors.

But it backed away from that
idea late last week after receiv-
ing an unsympathetic response
from the health councils.

Heading into last weekend,
local doctors were monitoring
talks between the province and
the B.C. Medical Association
about setting up a sysiem to ne-
gotiate broad pay scale and ser-
vice improvements.

They were also asked to re-
frain from resigning to give
those parties a chance lo come
up with a way to negotiate a
province-wide solution.

Based on a job action time-
table developed last week, the
first to resign loday at 5 p.m.
are the majorily of the area’s
specialists,

Mills Memorial Hespital has
put into place a plan to deal
with job action.

High on the doctors’ lists of
frustrations are hospital budget
cuts, bed closures, restrictions
in operating room hours and the

inability to find nurses, said

Redpath.

“We have specialists who
have been here quite a while
and who enjoy living here but

they aren’t able to do their
work,” he said.

The first specialists sche-
duled to resign are general sur-
geons, a urologist, anaesthet-
ists, an ophthalmologist, an ear,
nose and throat specialist and
an internal medicine specialist.

Barring any agreement,
they'll resign their hospital pri-
vileges but then apply for privi-
leges to handle. only emergen-
cies.

{t means there'll be no clec-

tive surgery, said Redpath.
General practitioners will
work as normal and there will

be full obstetrical and pediatri-
cian coverage.

The fatter specialities con-
cern care for babies and young
children, a sign local doctors
don't want lo create any halle
ships in this particulate,
said Redpath. :

He did warn thal the other
specialists and general practi-
tioners have plans to (urn up the
pressure on the province for a
settlement.

Doctors here have yet to
submit a tist of monetary de-
mands but say they'll be similar

Continued Page A2