Travel tale

A local teacher joins
soccer squad for interna-
tional play and peace
conference\SPORTS B4

The long wait

Food bank organizers
prepare for their first
distribution of the
season\COMMUNITY B1

Blow it up good
The military moves in to
destroy explosives at the
crash site of a U.S.

nuclear bomber\NEWS A3

$1.00 plus 7¢ GST
($1.10 plus 8¢ GST
outside of the Terrace area)

>Cl’s IWA workers get strike pay

By JEFF NAGEL
UNEMPLOYED sawmill workers here
will get strike pay to bolster them in
their impasse with Skeena Cellulose’s
new owners,

Last week’s decision at the Van-
couver convention of Industrial Wood
and Allied workers ([WA) to open the
union’s national strike fund effectively
calls in financial reinforcements for
the workers here, improving their

chances of surviving a long wait

against SCI management.

“We're going to ensure that our
members have got some income while
we're trying to negotiate an agreement
with Skeena Cellulose,” said IWA
local 2171 president Darrel Wong.

“It will hopefully at least stabilize

people so we can negotiate a fair col-
lective agreement,” he said.

Strike pay will be $225 per week
plus $30 per dependent, he said. The
non-taxable assistance amounts to
around a third of the workers’ regular
take-home pay. Mill workers who
aren’t employed elsewhere and whose
EI] benefits have run out can apply for
strike pay, Wong said.

“What we’re going to do is he!p our
members,” he said. “Hopefully the
company will get the message that we
are prepared to negotiate a collective
agreement. It’s got to be based on fair-
ness, It’s got to be based on equity.”

Some workers here do have other
jobs or employment while the dispute
drags on, he said, adding perhaps 100

m NWBC president Dan
Veniez reacts to IWA strike
pay scenario, Page A2.
m Company appeals to
keep its wood, Page Aa.

workers or around two-thirds of the
workforce would likely get strike pay.

The sawmill workers, who have
been out of work for more than a year
now, are under pressure ta accept
Skeena CEO Dan Veniez’s proposed
Fresh Start agreement — including a 20
per cent pay cut.

Union officials had proposed a 10
per cent pay cut coupled with other

shift’ scheduling measures they said
would save the company millions.

The union has characterized the
present situation — in which the com-
pany could open the sawmill but re-
fuses to do so without concessions — as
a lockout.

“We're locked out, so the national
strike fund has been opened,” Wong
explained.

Workers were expected to begin a
lockout picket line at mill entrances
here this week after meeting Monday
with IWA national president Dave
Haggard.

“We hope the company will come
to their senses and sit dowa with us
and Iry to negotiate an agreement that
will provide reasonable income to our

members as well as a financial return:
to the company,” he said.

So far no talks are scheduled be-
tween the union and the company.

Talks had previously been set to
start Ocl. 1, but those were cancelled
and there are no plans to revive them.

Wong said the workers aren’t pre-:
pared to accept the company’s offer.

“We're not ignoring the situation
this company is in,” he said. “But
we're not prepared to go to the ex-
treme where workers have no rights i in
a collective agreement.”

Meanwhile the company. continues
work in preparation for a restart of its
Prince Rupert pulp mill, where work-
ers have agreed to a Fresh Start deal
including a 20 per cent pay cut.

Cash for the northwest
could make the mayor
a Winter Olympic fan

MAYOR JACK Talstra said he’s prepared
in principle ta support B.C.’s 2010 Winter
Olympic bid ~— if Victoria puts extra
money into northwest projects.

The mayor specifically wants more
provincial cash added.to.the.$2 million Whistler.
federal-provincial infrastructure-grant for Talstra said
the city’s proposed $8 million multiplex. the premier

And he also wants upgrades to Hwy16 fT also §= men-
and an upgraded road from the Nass Val- tioned the
ley to Hwy 37 at Cranberry Junction to Hwy16 corri-
create a circle tourist route. dor for up-

“Then we can see that it’s not just a grades, al-
lower mainland thing, but the legacies though there
are sort of spread throughout the i wae were no spe-
province,” Talstra said. Jack Talstra _—_cifics.

The mayor said vague promises of le- Cam pbell’s
gacies for all regions must become con- words gave Talstra some optimism. “He
crete action. “If words turn into deeds, seems to have sensed that it must be’
then we’re for it I think,” he added. good for everybody in the province, rather

The mayor was reacting to premier than just the lower mainland,” Talstra:
Gordon Campbell’s address to local poli- said. “The trick now is to change the
ticians at last week’s Union of B.C. Mu- words into deeds.”
nicipalities convention in Whistler. Talstra said council will likely re-ex-

Campbell unveiled plans to spend amine whether to support the Olympic:
more than $3 billion on major highway bid, although he added more discussions
upgrades, with more than $600 million and clarification from Victoria will likely
each tagged for the Kicking Horse Ca- be needed.

Electoral officer worried |

THE AREA’S chief electoral officer is public office, but locally we certainly.
wotried few people will run for loca! of- need pood people in there.”
fice. As of Sept. 27, Elaine Johnson was There’s no requirement to reside within:
aware of just two sets of nomination pa- city limits, for example, if you want to.
pers taken out for city council, and none — run for city council. :
for school board or regional district. Candidates must be Canadian citizens:
Nominations opened Oct. 1 and close at Jeast 18 years old, live in B.C. for six
Oct. 11. Nomination papers have been months and not be disqualified under the .
ready since the beginning of September. Elections Act. They must be nominated:
“We would like to have some compe- by two people who meet the same quali-
tition,” Johnson said. “I know people fications and live in the voting area for at
have become more disillusioned about least 30 days.

Workers, child services
will move out of gov't

THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT having permanent authorities,” said
has announced the latest in a series of Hayman last week.

moves to reduce the size of the civil Right now, the ministry’s northern
service, region has approximately 425 employ-

nyon area
area on Hwy]
and for the
Sea-to-Sky
highway to

Bi Balloon bonanza

JESSICA Bahr, 7, shows off her heart-shaped balloon sculpture made by Terrace's Mitch Adams. The girl
was taking in some of the gorgeous sunshine gracing the Farmer’s Market Sept. 28. Everthing from crafts
to canning and loads of vegetables from the fall harvest lined the booths. The market runs from early May

to the end of October. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO

Don’t touch Skeena,
region tells hearing

By JENNIFER LANG . Opponents of the plan
THE ELECTORAL boundaries com- “Basically, we all had d¥ig hope the commissioners
mission got a tesson in northern poli- come to the same conclu-; listen.
tical realities last week, when north- sion,” said Terrace’s act- Ag “T can’t believe they
west leaders spoke against proposed ing mayor Marylin Davies. would carry on. with the
riding changes at a hearing in Prince “You would have thought new cid'ng as Mey ve pro.
Rupert. we had got together in the 3 posed it - especially wit ee . “0

While opponents of the proposed afternoon.” . all the opposition they’ve | his fled it wavorves the children ees and a budget of $120 million.

Skeena-Chilcotin federal riding Places like Williams been getting, and the geo- [| 20 family ferrin opment ministry and == The new northern authorities will
failed to organize a united cam- Lake and Lillooet would A craphy lessons,” said means transferring-most of its employ- have the same boundarles as the mini-

. : we Lorne Sexton, Skeena ees to new authorities. They’ll be simi-  stry’s northern region.
paign, Alliance MP Andy Burton be. added to the new constituency association lar to those created for health care last They, along with other authorities

submissions. z

said a common theme emerged any- Skeena-Chilcotin riding

way — it just won't work.

“The proposed boundaries for
Skeena are just not acceptable,”
Burton said. “It’s too big. There are
no common social or geographic or
economic factors.”

In a rare display of regional unity,
community leaders from Terrace to
Telkwa told the commission to leave
Skeena alone — or expand the boun-
dary along Highway 16.

“It appeared everybody was on
the same wavelength, ” Burton said.
“Keep it the way it is, or move cast
— if you have to.”

Ten presenters spoke at the hear-
ing in person, Others sent in written

‘but Smithers and Telkwa Marylin Davies president for the Canadian

wauld be removed despite
geographic and historic ties -— an
idea that stunned Terrace city coun-
cil.

*] actually suggested they have a
geography course before they start
carving up a riding,” Davies said she
told the commission, headed by Jus-
tice Robert Hutchison,

The proposal ignores another real-
ity, Davies added.

“People from the north have very
little in common with those in the
Chil¢otin,” Davies ‘said. “We havea
different: set_of problems and a ‘dif.
ferent set: of life skills”...

. oe
i .

‘getting recommendations from Par-
-liament, with the new boundaries in
place for the 2004 federal election.

Alliance.

Sexton warns the proposed boun-
dary change would jusi add to the
economic woes of the region be-
cause it further erodes the region’s
already tenuous political clout.

“When they start doing stuff like
this to us, it really makes us feel
alienated from the democratic pro-
cess of the country.”

The commission’s final decision
on all proposed federal riding
changes are expected by June, after

year.

There will be two separate authori-
ties in the north, one for aboriginal
children and one for everyone else,
says the man placed in charge of mov-
ing from ithe old ministry to the new
way of doing things.

‘And there will be one province-wide
agency for adults with developmental
disabilities, said Doug Hayman. .-

He’s now based in Prince George ©

and is in charge of the northern region
for the ministry, taking ’in the area
from Quesnel north to the Yukon bor-

der and Alberta west. to. the Queen

Charlottes.
“We're about a. year. away from

elsewhere, will share internat services
such a8 payroll to avoid.duplication.
But each authority will be able to
work on their own plans to best man-
age the children and peaple In their
care.
As of July, there were 1 1245 child-
ren in the care of the ministry in the
north, of whom 507 were of aboriginal
origin.
Former NDP cabinet minister Ed

‘John has been named to: chair the

committee setting up the aboriginal
children’s authority.
Prince: George: city councillor Cliff

» Dezel Js doing the: ‘same for’ the other
authority, -