It could be in your home children ilINNEWS AQ A local woman warns others about household mould that made her Brag about it_ You can do it — tell us what you like best things about living in Terrace\COMMUNITY B1 Meet the players Terrace’s midget rep hockey team is about to bring B.C.’s best here, find out why\SPORTS B5 “WEDNESDAY February 2,°2000 $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST. ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the .- Tersace area) "3 2 VOL. 12NO. 43°. Pulp price hike is good news By JEFF NAGEL THE SPECTACULAR recovery in pulp prices now underway means unexpected bonuses are on the horizon for hundreds of creditors of Skeena Cellulose. ; Two B.C. pulp industry analysts agree pulp is certain to average at least US $625 per tonne this year — the level al which extra payouts to unsecured creditors are triggered. © “Absolutely — 100 per cent,” Craig Campbell, - of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ global pulp and paper group, said of the probability of hitting that target. an Creditors who took 10 cents on the dollar for the unpaid debts of Repap B.C. (now called Skeena Cellulose) two years ago to help save it from bankruptcy get an extra five cents on the - dolar in each and every year up to 2004 if the pulp price SCI receives averages US $625 -a tonne. The extra payments rise to 10 cents on the dollar if pulp averages $725 a tonne in any of those years. . ; The provision was called the. “blue skies” clause by logging contractors who doubted it” would ever be triggered. But the skies are getting bluer with each passing month. Pulp prices that bottomed at US $450 a tonne in 1998 have reached $640 and could move again to $680 by April, says Charles Widman of Widman and Associates. “I think it will certainly average $625 this year,” Widman said. “The $725 ~ that’s probably next year.” - Campbell agrees a $725-plus average is a “strong possibility” in 2001. ; The bonus payments can be triggered more than once, potentially adding up to successive | payments if pulp prices remain high for a few- years. , The provision is contingent on SCI having an-. nual net cash flow after interest of at least $50 - million °°: A five per cent bonus could be worth any- where from a couple thousand dollars for. smaller creditors to more than $60,000 for a big one like Terrace logging firm K’Shian Construction, which was owed $1.25 million when Repap B.C. collapsed. tive villages were owed more than $100,000. Close to 300 creditors were owed more than $25,000. Campbell said while the outlook appears good for at least 12 months, higher prices will soon at- tract more pulp producers, boosting supply and eventually driving prices back down. “Tell the boys not to cash the cheques just yet,” he. cautioned. “Two or three of these big pulp machines ‘can just-open up the throttle and it will flatten things out pretty quick.” Widman, however, says the combination of low inventories, rebounding Asian economies and a synchronized global recovery means the pulp outlook is very positive. i “The dynamics haven't been this good in five years,” Widman said. “All of the pulp producers are going to have a very good year.” . An outspoken foe. in the. past of the province’s bailout of Skeena Cellulose, Widman says the ~ pulp turnaround will mean a better eventual sell- ing price for the company.. Negotiations to sell the company to Texas- If as’ widely speculated the province walked away from a lowball offer, Widman said, the de- cision now looks smart. “The government was probably wise to hold onto the mill under those circumstances,” Wid- man said. “They're certainly going to gel a lot better deal now.” He says he still wouldn’! be in a rush to sell, “It might be better to hang on and imprave the mill and maybe come out of it a lot better,” he said, Although the province last year released $110 million for modernization of SCI’s Prince Rupert pulp mill, company president Bill Steele also wants to channel] short-term profits into complet- ing the rest of the $180 million capital work he originally envisioned, Doing that would make the mill a very low- cost producer, he has said, and be the best way to pul the company on viable footing for the long term. The pulp mill restarted its second pulp line in December and is back at full production. SCI had individual months of profitability in - More than 100 contractors, suppliers and na- der. A champion in the making Poweriifter Ernie Mil-Homens recently became a world junior hours of sleep per night. The sport, he says, keeps him in pain — champion when he squatted 601-kilograms at an international there's never a day when his muscles don’t hurt. Still, he says powerlifting meet in Calgary. Mil-Homens achieved his goal he'd like to keep powerlifting until he's old and grey. For the full through 10 years of hard training, diet contral and sight to 10 story see sports, page BS. : based Enron Corp. broke down in early Decem- Smoke regs being obeyed By ALEX HAMILTON IT’S TAKEN almost a month, but all the busi- nesses in Terrace that employ workers, includ- ing the Skeena Hotel, are following the Work- ers’ Compensation Board’s regulations, which ban smoking in all B.C. workplaces. WCB regional manager Rick Hynes said there is only one business in Terrace (and per- haps the entire northwest) that legally allows customers to smoke. The Lunch Box Deli is an anomaly because it is a sole proprietorship so there are no em- ployees. Oo “If they’re not registered with the board and there are no employees, then there are. no workers. If they have no coverage under the act, then they don’t fall within our regula- tions,” said Hynes. Norm Zlolikovits, owner of the Skeena Hotel, who defiantly rejected the new regula- tions up until early last week, finally gave in after receiving whopping fines. _ “L have to comply,” Zlolikovits said, admit- ting the fines were adding-up. “It should make all the other’ businesses in town very happy. . All the bar owners can quit whining now.” cause he thinks its undemocratic for the gov- ernment to dictate business owners on ways to run their establishments. He will fight the fines. which businesses have received fines until ow- ners get a chance to dispute them in a hearing, Hynes said one proprietor in Terrace, who owns’ a restaurant and pub has received 13 fines, all worth $4,500, _ That means one business owner, who was wilfully rejecting the new bylaw, has been fined over $58,000 for both his restaurant and pub. The pub has been inspected seven times; . the restaurant has been inspectéd six times, . 2000 in all workplaces in BC to protect work~ ers from the hazards of second hand smoke. suffered the most from the regulations. Inn of the West, which owns dance-bar Hanky .. Panky's, said’bar business is horrendous... ~_.“Our regular sales for January have dropped 90 per:cent,” he said. “I’m out a lot of money. ;. home He’s cut 38 shifts, trimming his staff. The same goes for bartenders and servers at Gators Pub. Dullss Kleamyck, peneral man- ager of the Best Western Terrace Inn, said she’s laid off cight people because there aren’t any customers to serve. , “It’s really bad and the government is doing nothing about it,” she said. oo / The B.C, Liquor Retailers Association esti- mated about 525 jobs in the industry have been lost because of the smoking bans. Hynes hopes non-smokers start coming out of the closest and back into the bats. “These guys are really hurting. and we don’t see the non-smokers coming out yet. In restaurants we do, but not the pubs.” ; ; One hot spot that hasn’t been affected by the non-smoking bylaws is the the bingo hall. John Becher, owner of Lucky Dollar Bingo, said his sales have been affected slightly this month by the cold weather, not the smoke-free atmosphere. “It’s not hurting us,” he said. He said plenty of rion-smokers are tow re- Zlolikovits opposes the smoking ban be- Although WCB officers aren’t able to say The new regulations came into place Jan. 1, Drinking establishments in Terrace have Doug Barrett, general manager. of the Coast night,’"Becher.said; ah gularly attending bingo. “Even the ‘heavy smo-. 1999 but year-end results aren’t yet known. Steelhead | season still a big unknown | EVEN THOUGH 1999 was a good year for summer-run steelhead on the Skeena River, fisheries managers in Smi- thers say they have no idea what to expect next season. “There’s almost no way to predict steelhead abundance,” said acting fisheries manager Dana Atagi. “We really don’t know what will happen next year.” Atagi estimates 47,000 summer-run steelhead entered the Skeena River system in 1999. That’s up considerably from the five-year average of almost 30,000 steelhead, and almost five times the all-time low of 9,600 steelhead in 1991, said Atagi. Annual counts are calculated through an estimated index level at the Tyee test fishery and then multiplied to come up with a rough count for the entire Skeena River system. The results are verified through index studies on several Skeena tributaries but still represent rough estimates be- cause steelhead are relatively sparse. “We really put our faith in expansion numbers,” said Atagi. Steelhead management is also more complicated than coho or sockeye, said Atagi, because steelhead runs are smaller and don't have a fixed return cycle, During any summer run there could be fish from five to 12 brood years in the river. , And even though the Tyee was open a month longer last year than previous years, Atagi says federal net restrictions on commercial fishing is responsible for most of the hike, “We believe that more fish made il into the tributaries as well,” he said. If the DFO continues to restrict commercial sockeye fishing, he said, steelhead returns would benefit, He added anglers on the Skeena and Nass Rivers should expect another summer of catch and release, single barbless hooks and various bait bans on specific rivers. Atagi said anglers should always check the freshwater fishing restrictions before heading out on the river, Got to love the sunshine LET THE sun shine in. Terrace residents were spoiled with sunlight last month, with the number of blue sky hours coming in far in excess of the monthly average. The sun was glorious, said local Tiffany Bate- man, a student at Northwest Community College. “It definitely gets you in a better mood,” she said. Last month, the city basked in 78 hours of sun, which is 26 more hours than the average calcula- ted over a 30-year period. “It's a lot of sunlight for winter,” said Andy Schmiedel, flight services specialist at the Terrace airport, where climate data is recorded, Schmiedel said local residents haven't seen that many sunny days in row in a very long time. In fact, there were only 75 days in 1999 here tha were without precipitation. i Locals had to make do with only 1,153 hoife'O sunlight in 1999, compared with an annual average 1,404 hours, That’s almost 300 hours less sun than nermal, Schmiedel said, . Although last July was sunny, August was pitted with rain and cloudy weather. - The airport recorded 148.1 hours of sunlight in August compared with an average of 201.2 hours. That’s 54.1 hours less sunshine than average. - kers are sayirig, ‘Gee J can breathe when 1 go