Gity’s girth expands Danger on the slopes

Avalanche tips for snowmobilers - while tackiing the

Teen joins tobaccoo team

It looks to be smooth sailing to include airport lands into city

Local teen has been — chosen to consult the

limits\NEWS A12

government\COM MUNITY B1

slopes\SPORTS BS

WEDNESDAY February 3, 1999

Gov't hal

WHAT WAS to be a key part of a plan to revitalize Mills Memorial Hospital as a regional medical centre is 10 more.

The hospital won't be the host for an orthopedic surgical position traditionally based in Kitimat,

Although such a move is the strong wish of the provincial health ministry, there is simply too much opposition in Kitimat to permit it, says Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht,

“There will be no attempt to move the orthopedic service,” said Giesbrecht last week. “‘The discussion has stopped. It was posing nothing but problems.”

Giesbrecht’s comments follow a con- fusing two weeks of. statements and counter statements between senior health

ANDARD

ts surgeon move plan

ministry officials and local health coun- cils in Terrace and in Kitimat.

The confusion began with a Jan. 19 meeting between two settior health min- istry officials and the Terrace and Area Health Council to discuss the deteriorat- ing Financial position of Mills Memorial Hospital.

From that came a two-part plan — hiring a specialist to set right the hospi- tal’s financial picture and, once that was completed, steps to establish Mills as a regional medical centre,

One of those steps, basing an orthopedic surgeon in Terrace, appeared to fit the minisiry’s long term objectives to place specialists in places where there are other supporting specialties.

That would fit the ministry’s goal of avoiding burn out among by specialists if they are the only one of their kind in the city in which they practice,

The ministry’s point was emphasized by the departure last September of Kitimat’s orthopedic surgeon and the continuing vacancy of thal posilion,

Local health council officials appear to have been too enthusiastic in embracing the regional concept by saying they had

‘the ga ahead to recruit an orthopedic

surgeon,

Aud that created a ruckus among their Kitimat health council counterparts, Kitimat city council and Kitimat doctors.

Their interpretation was that Terrace was trying to steal what they say is their

historical right to have an orthopedic surgeon.

Should that happen, said various Kitimat officials, other specialists in that city will follow and the local medical services would suffer drastically.

They also said they were told by senior health ministry official Sue Rothwell to continue efforts to find an orthopedic surgeon,

But she was the same person Terrace health council officials said told them 1o also go out and find one,

Giesbrecht now categorizes Rothwell’s conversations with Tetrace and Kitimat health ofticials as a ‘‘discussion” in- tended to move the orthopedic service to

Terrace provided there would be no

More — work > share

SKEENA SAWMILLS workers have over- whelmingly approved a 13- week extension of a federal work-sharing program. .

IWA local 2171 business agent Surinder Malhotra said union members voted 86 per cent in favour of ex- tending the program — which was to run out March 20 — and keep all of the sawmill’s 140 workers on the job until mid-June.

‘This is what they want to do — keep working, whatever they can get,” Malhotra said Jan. 30.

The sawmill has been mn- ning only one shift since September. Under the pro- gram, employees work half- time and employment insur- ance picks up most of the other half of their payche- ques.

The joint application trom the union and the company goes to Human Resources Development Canada for approval this week,

Malhotra said the future of the mill workers will now be decided by what lumber markets do between now- and June. *

West Fraser officials have said that barring a sig- nificant lumber price Im- provement, they'll run the mill at one shift for all of 1999,

That would mean layoff notices for half the mill's workers when the work- share extension ekpires in June.

“It depends stricdy on the market,’’ Malhotra added, “The market is moving up right now. But we dan’t know what's going to hap- pen in June.”

4 : ene sit aarti ca ja Ge cena el as

93¢ PLUS 7¢ GST VOL, 11.NO. 43

overall drop of service in Kitimat. -

Instead, he says, people in Kitimat declined ta participate in any discussion.

He named Dr, Jin MacKenzie, a Kitimat general practitioner, as one per- son ‘who should cool his jets.”’

“He’s getting his jollics out of spread- ing fear,” said Giesbrecht of statements by MacKenzie that Kitimat’s health ser-. viccs would suffer drastically.

With the idea of moving orthopedics to Terrace now dead, Giesbrecht said Roth well is spending her time calming people down.

Even though Kitimat officials have stopped the idea of shifting the orthopedic surgical position here, it does have merit. See Page A2.

Mills faces $1M

s What a lift

THAT'S CATHY Konst, left, and Senga Lillie heading up the chair at Shames Mountain for an-

computer fix bill

MILLS MEMORIAL Hospital has to pay upwards of $1 million to ensure its various computer equipment works Jan. 1, 2000.

Already hard hit by a deficit, the hospital doesn't have that kind of money and doesn’t know when the health min- istry will aunounce its plans to help out.

“We have to make our systems compliant with no addi- lional staff and, at this point, no additional money,’’ says Michael Leisinger of the Terrace and Area Community Health Council which rns Mills,

. Like large numbers of businesses, the hospital’s com- puter equipment reads the year with only the last two digits. °

So while 99 may be fine for 1999, 00 may be mistaken for 1900 and that could cause massive problems with the computerized equipment doing what it is supposed to be doing, ,

“It’s more of a sum of little things,’’ said Leisinger of the myriad of computer systems requiring adjustments and fixes,

He does want to hear what financial assistance plans the health ministry has soon because time is running out.

“With a lot of the things, if it isn’t done or ordered by March, they won’t make it,”’ said Leisinger,

“‘Suppliets are getting busy. We don’t want to be the SO1st request for fixes when the supplier can only handle 500,”" he said.

The hospital has started fixing its computer equipment’ and, for now, is keeping track of those expenditures in preparation lor whatever assistance the health ministry may offer,

Leisinger's heard talk of a loan program, of a grant pro-

' gram ora combination of the two.

Fish businesses get assistance

TOUR OPERATORS and lodge owners who depend upon the recreational fishing industry will be able to take ad- vantage of a $7 million loan program this summer.

It's part of a $400 million federal aid package first an- nounced in June 1998 to help those hit hard by the failing west coast salmon industry.

The loans are intended to help tour operators and lodge owners set up for business this fishing season.

To qualify, businesses must prove they rely on salmon for a living and must have already tried to borrow money from a financial institution.

‘‘We're a lender of last resorts,”’ said Joc Whitney of the 16/37 Community Futures Development Corporation in Terrace which is handling applications. It’s the largest of the community futures groups in B.C, and will handle ap- plications from Prince Rupert and the coast along the Skeena watershed to Houston.

other run. The mountain is enjoying an excep- tlonally fine snowpack this season.

Dec. 31, 1999,

Those who receive loans won’t need to make a first pay- ment until Oct, 1, £999. Interest won't be charged until

Liberal, Reform courtship continues

OFFICIALS OF the provincial Liberal and Reform party organizations here continue to mect about joining forces in the next provincial election.

And key members of those talks say they’re finding a growing amount of similarity between the two parties,

At the heart of the talks is a way to avoid a split of the free enterprise vote which would give the NDP an edge in the next provincial election. _

The way to do that is to have only one candidate run with ithe support of Reformers and of Liberals, those con- nected with the two parties, ,

‘We're going to take it to our general membership at our Feb, 24 annual gener- al meeting to ask them if we should con- tinue,”’ said Derrick Curlis of the pravin- cial Liberal Skeena constituency associa- tion.

“There are far more similarities than there are differences,’’ said Curtis.

Some glitches have been ironed out once the provincial Liberals point out

. they are a separate entity from the feder-

al Liberal party, he added,

The two executives have been meeting on average once a week. for. the past several manths.:. we Ute

Also sounding optimistic is Jim Bell, the secretary of the local Reform party coustiluciicy association,

That party’s executive is hearing back from members who say there should be talks about joining forces, he said.

“Once we gather everything up here,

we'll go down to the provincial execu- tive,”’ said Bell. , - “Whatever we decide, we're hoping they’l] leave us alone, more or less — if indeed we put together a deal for Skeena,”’

Ultimately, Bell continued, the goal of '

local. Reformers to piit in Victoria a

strong person as an MLA.

Bell said the Liberals and Reformers agree on a number of fronts, including a shared vision of a more effective gover- Inent system, —

“The left hand needs to know what the right hand is doing,” he said,

And if provincial Liberals encounter a Reform policy they wish to adopt, that's fine too, added Bell. .

**If they want to steal our policy, we'd be flattered,'* he said,

Coalition talks have also been going on between Liberal and Reform members in

east, That’s now held by NDPer Bill Goodacre.

kak kk It’s conceivable provincial Reformers might attend a Prince George gathering of northern Liberals the end of February, says Jim Bell,

Northern Liberals are expected to thrash out some policy decisions com- mon to the top half of the province to present to their southern counterparts at a provincial convention,

In the meantime, the Northwest Coali- tion af Dissatisfied Citizens takes to the road with a mobile billboard. See Aid.