Rute

Bobble Phillips, secretary-manager for the Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce, received a commemorative plaque from members at the organization's monthly meeting last week. Phillips will be moving Into a new career position in April as coordinator of the city's Victim Assistance pro-

B.C.’s provincial parks are not being privatized, they’re be- ing contracted out, according to Ron Kerr, the Operations Of- ficer for the Visitors Services section of the Ministry of En- vironment and Parks.

‘dt’s not privatization.

There’s no sale of land,’’ said Kerr in a telephone interview. “All we're doing is expanding what we’ve been doing since 1983,”

Kerr explained that firewood and garbage collection services

Budget fund illusory

“3s not the sort of thing that’s easily grasped by the general public.”’

That understatement came from Heather Shannon, the president of the B.C. Institute of Chartered Accountants, during an interview that followed the

presentation of the B.C. budget -

March 24. She was referring to a

rather unusual feature of the

gram. - budget, the $450 million Budget

Forestry hearings set for next week

The Select Standing Committee on Forests and Lands will be in _ Prince Rupert next Wednesday to hear submissions on timber . harvesting contracts. - The committee was commissioned by Forests Minister Dave Parker, and it is expected that the committee’s recommendations will center around the practice of large companies giving small con- tractors ‘‘up front’’ money in order to inflate the value of a stand of timber, and therefore make it uneconomical for independent log- gers to compete.

Some independent logging contractors in the province have ac- cused some of the larger companies of engaging in this process in order to gain control of the industry and force the small, indepen- dent operator out of business.

’ According to one source in the industry, the large company can then average the inflated price of the small stand with their larger holdings and still sell their processed logs at a profit.

Another complaint made by some small contractors since the im- plementation of Parker’s new forest policy last fall contends that in- dependent loggers are the ones paying for increased costs due to higher stumpage rates and the shift of responsibility for silviculture from the government to industry.

Some of these contractors maintain that large companies are

covering these increased costs by negotiating ‘‘smaller and smaller contracts’’, and the end result may be that many small operators

will be forced into bankruptcy.

According to Craig James, the Clerk of Legislative Committees in Victoria, the committee was struck by a motion of the B.C. Legislature March 18. It will visit Cowichan, Kamloops, Prince Rupert, Nelson, Prince George, Williams Lake and Vancouver. He said the committee also has the power to hold additional meetings in other centers if they feel it’s necessary.

James said the committee, which is chaired by MLA Graham Bruce, will be examining the desirability of standard timber con- iracts and the desirability of setting up a means for arbitration bet- ween parties in timber harvesting contracts.

Stabilization Fund, which Finance Minister Me! Couvelier called a ‘rainy day fund’? that is supposed to ease the periodic ups and downs of the B.C. economy.

“It’s not real money,”’ Shan- non said, ‘‘there’s not a nickel backing it,”’

Shannon explained it like this:

during the 1987-88 fiscal year

the B.C. government earned $10.772 billion instead of the $10.322 billion it had forecast. Couvelier decided to take the ad-

_ ditional $450 million and carry it

forward to be reported as reven- ue in some future year. The problem was that the govern- ment had already spent the mon- ey, so Couvelier established a fund with nothing in it which the government can contribute to, if it wishes, and perhaps write IOU’s against. In current ac- count terms, the deficit came in almost exactly where Couvelier had predicted in his first budget: $800 million in the hole.

So why a special fund? ‘It’s supposed to make us look good to our creditors,’’ Shannon said, referring to agencies like Stan- dard and Poor who set the credit rating, and consequently the in- terest rate payable on borrowed money, for governments. But she doesn’t think the mirage will work.

“This isn’t going to fool anyone,” she said. ‘“It would be

a good idea if this were actually |

a surplus, like the Alberta Heri- tage Trust Fund, There’s no comparison, though - that was real money, billions of dollars. B.C. is a cyclical province, and this won’t really smooth any- thing out.”

When asked if she thought the fund with nothing in it was an unusual move for a government to undertake, Shannon replied, ‘tyes, “it’s unusual. I've never seen the likes of it before.”

Developer reveals plans for new Thornhill shopping area

Thornhill will soon be taking

its first real step in establishing

its own shopping district and making its residents a little less dependent on Terrace. A local developer expects the Thornhill Centre, which will be located next to Thornhill Motors, to be open for business late this fall or early next spring.

At an estimated cost of $750,000 to $1 million, the Thornhill Centre will offer Thornhill shoppers eight to 10 new businesses in a 14,000 square foot mall, and parking for 68 cars.

A spokesman for the developer said, ‘‘There’s roughly 6,000 people in Thor- - phill and there’s no place to shop... If I were starting out in business, that’s where I’d go. It’s open and there’s no com- petition.”

He compared Thornhill to Smithers, which he said is roughly the same size but has about 250,000 square feet of

retail space, compared to only about 5,000 in Thornhill and he said this sort of development is long overdue.

Horst Godlinski of Terrace Realty, the firm taking care of leasing arrangements, said space is still’ available but several retailers have shown genuine in-

terest.

He said that nothing is firm yet; but Thornhill may soon see a major drug store chain as well as a variety of other businesses close to home. These other

businesses could include a video -

store, restaurant, beauty shop, dry cleaner and doctors office.

CAI summer schedule

Effective May 1, 1988, Cana- dian Airline’s summer flight schedule begins. The daily Flight 627 from Vancouver to Terrace

(with a 25-minute stop in’

Smithers) departs at 8:00 a.m. and arrives at 10:10, At 10:40 a.m, the flight returns to Van- couver for an 11:55 arrival.

On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wed- nesdays and Saturdays, Flight 678 repeats the run, leaving Van-

couver at 2:00 p.m. and arriving in Terrace at 4:10. Departure from Terrace is 4:40 p.m. and arrival in Vancouver is 5:55 p.m.

On‘ Thursday, Friday, and:

Sunday, non-stop Flight 773 leaves Vancouver at 3:00 p.m. and arrives in Terrace at 4:10. Departure from Terrace on Flight 772 is 4:40, to arrive in Vancouver at 5:55 p.m.

‘Terrace Review — Wednesday, April 6, 1988 3

have been done on a contract basis in most provincial parks since the early seventies, and this began a trend towards contrac- ting out all park services that began in earnest in 1983 and would see all parks under private contract by 1990. ‘‘There’s really no reason to be concerned about what’s going

‘on because it is something that

has gone on for a number of years,”’ said Kerr. ‘‘And there have been pilot projects where we have done exactly what.we are proposing to see how viable this system is.”’

‘He said that under the plan, private contractors would “literally take over the parks”’, collect fees and, depending on the nature of the park, retain all or part of those fees as personal income.

According to Kerr, the ministry is presently putting a tender package together for the 1988 phase of the plan and will soon be accepting bids from in- dividuals or companies in- terested in participating.

He was careful to claim how- ever, that the plan would not

|

British Columbia Legislative Assembly

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON FORESTS AND LANDS

“B.C. parks move ‘not privatization’

compromise the present quality of provincial parks.

“<1 can almost guarantee you that you’re not going 10 see a deterioration in the service or security,” said Kerr. ‘‘One of the worst things we could do is to allow that to happen.”

He explained that park stan- dards would be established through the tendering process and, while the contractor would manage all aspects of the park, monitoring will be done by ministry officials, and the government will continue to set park user fees.

Kerr also pointed out that although the plan would mean an end to the ministries practice of hiring auxilliary summer staff, those people would be free to submit a bid and even if they are unsuccessful, the jobs would still be availalbe through the suc- cessful bidder.

“When you’re an auxilliary and you get laid off, you hope that you'll be able to come back to the job next year but you can’t always do that. But these people do have first choice at a job if they come up,” he said. .

——___

|

contract.

hours may be extended.

Mr. Craig H. James Clerk of Committees Room 236 Parliament Buildings

V8V 1X4

CHAIRMAN

TIMBER HARVESTING CONTRACTS

PUBLIC HEARING

' WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 1988 Commencing 9:00 am The Prince Rupert Hotel 2nd Avenue and 6th Street Prince Rupert

The purpose of this meeting is for the Committee to review the nature of timber harvesting contracts between tree farm licensees or forest licensees and contractors as provided in the Forest Act; the desirability of a standard timber harvesting contract; submitting to arbitration issues between parties to a timber harvesting contract and in the event that arbitration is recommended, the policy considerations and desirability of providing for the same by legislation or

Those wishing to appear at the above location should notify the Clerk of Committees as soon as possible. The hearing

Address all correspondence or inquiries to appear to:

Victoria, British Columbia -

Telephone: 356-2933 Fax: 387-2813 Mr. Graham Bruce, M.L.A.

ee