Terrace, BC, V8G 4A6

Lasti =g impressions A gripping contest We take a look back at the news Caledonia bands go digital with Skeena wrestlers score six that mattered over the last year their first ever compact medals at a Smithers \NEWS A5-A8 disc\COMMUNITY B1 tournament\SPORTS B5 MONDAY 93¢ PLUS 7¢ GST DECEMBER 30, 1996 VOL. IONO. 37 TANDARD J Repap wood transfer awaits approval FORESTS MINISTER Dave Zirnhelt which which Repap took over Orenda said Zirnhelt. The minister added he wasn't surprised at won't commit himself yet to public hear- Forest Products. The Repap takeover of Orenda was sub- the deal as Repap, saddled by heavy debti' ings on Avenor's planned multi-billion dol- One of those conditions called for wood ject to public hearings held in the northwest announced in the summer it was looking for lar takeover of Repap. from the Orenda iicence to be used at over the summer. a buyer or for a partner. Speaking last week, Zirnhelt says he first Repap's Prince Rupert pulp mill. Zirnhelt did say Avenor's interest in wants to read the official request to be filed Repap said it needed the wood as security Repap is a good sign for the provincial While forests minister Dave Zirnhclt is by the two companies to transfer the forest to finance a planned $250 million improve- forest economy. waiting until deciding upon public hear- iicences and tree farm licence belonging to ment to that mill. "We're fortunate there's a company ings, Avenor is gearing up for that to hap- Repap. Zirnheit did not link those improvements whose management has confidence in the pen. Ziruhelt has to give approval to the trans- as a condition of the licence transfer but he future of the area," he said. "We anticipate going through a public fer of the licences and public hearings to did tell Repap he wants plans for those im- "There weren't very many people inter- consultation process with the public and gain opinions and comments can be part of provements forwarded to him by June of ested and we're pleased there's a deal to with the stakeholders," company official that process. next year. secure the future of the northwest industry Dominique Dionne said last week from "There might be a devil in the details so Repap must also offer wood to Cged without a crash and then looking for a Montreal. we'll just have to wait," the minister said. Forest Products, owned by the Gitwangak Phoenix," Zimhelt added. But first, said Dionne, various regulatory But he did say Repap's new owners will band, and work toward a wood processing That last reference to a Phoenix is when a bodies, banks and Avenor and Repap share- have to abide, by the conditions of a licence facility of some sort in Stewart. new creation rises from the ashes of a holders must give their approval to the deal. transfer he approved earlier this year in "Those conditions stand as they exist," predecessor. The closing date is Feb. 28, 1997. Dave Zirnhelt Court hears timber tiff $5m wood seizure disputed FEDERAL LAWYERS are due ill court today arguing over the fate of $5 million worth of logs piled up in two locations near Prince Rupert. The wood, 27,000 cubic metres cut earlier this year, is the focal point of a dispute involving Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the Port Simpson band, a B.C. helicopter company and a Japanese company. ~ Indian and Northern Affairs officials seized the wood in August, saying the band hadn't received a permit to cut trees on federal reserve lands. That placed the federal government ill a tentative owner- ship position, one which it doesn't relish and one that's drawn a lot of heat. The Japanese company is angry because it has paid more than $2 million for I0,000 cubic metres of wood it didn't get, the Port Simpson band is angry because it wants to sell the wood for needed revenue and VIII Helicopters is angry because it hasn't been paid an estimated $900,000 by the band for work connected to the logging. If that weren't enough, the logging dispute threatens to disrupt land claims negotiations between the Tsimshian m Port Simpson is a Tsimshian village m and the federal and provincial governments. Federal lawyers today are scheduled to ask thc Supreme Court to declare that the logs don't belong to the Japanese company or the band. "Both have f'ded statements of claim," said Indian and Northern Affairs official Toni Timmermans last week. "We're asking the court to declare they don't own them. That means, by default, those logs belong to us." / Hello, 1997 If that happens, Timmermans continues, the federal government will sell the logs. VIH Helicopters is expected WAKE ME UP WHEN IT'S OVER: The new year creeps up all too quickly for many of us, and this party cat is taking the laid back to then be in a position to have its overduc bill paid. approach to the impending turn of the calendar. Lawyers for all parties met unsuccessfully Dec. 20 in an attempt to work out a settlement. Gordon Link, manager of the Port Simpson band's devel- opment corporation, blames Indian and Northern Affairs for the mess. He says the department didn't have a forester on staff to MLA 'vulnerable' to recal!a' process a cutting application filed earlier this year. And, he says, the department did accept $185,000 in par- Unseat one gov't member and force election, electronic revolutionaries tial federal stumpage fees for the wood. REVOLUTIONS ARE no longer a matter of "They've just about bankrupted the corporation. We make them vulnerable to a recall movement. have bills to pay and we can't pay them. We're also losing storming a government building. That's based on adding up.how many votes The modern day call to arms comes via the MLA Helmut the NDF received compared to the combined to- credibility with the Japanese company," he said. World Wide Web, that massive connection of tals for the other candidates. Link says he feels particularly sorry for VIH Helicopters computer systems allowing people to bare their Glesbrecht -- One of those ridings is Skeena, captured by as the fh'm is now chasing the feds for payment. souls to the world on any number of ideas. one of 13 NDP Helmut Giesbrecht of the NDP. And he's annoyed by Indians and Northern Affairs A growing discontent with the NDP provin- members Total votes gathered by Reform and Liberal which he says seems to have ignored the band ' s past log- cial govcrnmcnt over fiscal policies and forestry suggested as parties outweighed Giesbrecht's tally. ging history. "We know what to do. We've been logging issues has firmly taken hold in the form of web recall targets But recall isn't as easy as it sounds under rules for the past 8 or 9 years," said Link. ,'There's no way sites, electronic forms of posters or pamphlets. by Internet laid out by the provincial legislature several we've illegally logged." Dissolve 96, a North Vancouver-based plan years ago. He said the band expected to clear several hundred thou- encouraging pcople to send petitions asking campaigners. Recall promoters have to do more than simply sand dollars by exporting that first 10,000 cubic mctrc Licutenant-Governor Garde Gardom to dismiss gather names on a petition. batch, a second shipment of the same size and by sclling the NDP and call an election, has a web site. Recalling an MLA requires gathering signa- the rest for domestic pulp use. So does information on a web site advocating tures from 40 per cent of the voters who were But the wood has since been devalued bccausc it's bccn rceali -- the gathering of enough signatures so registered to vote in the MLA's electoral district on the ground so long since it was logged. that a particular MLA can be removed between in the last election and who are currently regis- And the band expects to get a bill for at Icast $100,000 elections to force a by-election. tered as voters. from the Japanese company which had a ship docked near The web site to recall is headlined "End the • Skeena MLA suspects letter- And supporters have to keep within spending Prince Rupert for nine days while waiting for the tangle to NDP" and carries economic statistics, quotes be cleared up. wrlUng campaign, Page AIO limits and have only 60 days to gather the and other information promoting the cause. name, s, Timmermans from Indian and Northern Affairs says the It was put together the end of September by • Local combatants say they're Moore says he's received a lot of response to partial stumpage payment of $185,000 is about one.third James Moore, a 20-year-old Coquitlam college doing their Jobs, page AIO his web site, giving him hope that recall might of what would be normally due and is now in what's called student. work. a "suspense account." :., "After the election I found it really frustrating "I know I'il be involved wherever it might That means the department hasn't officially accepted the and needed an outlet," he said last week. "Don't forget that if there is the successful be," he said. money, says Timmermans. "We told them in a letter it The process of recall can't happen until 18 recall and electoral defeat of just one NDP Vancouver area Liberal MLA Val Anderson doesn't constitute approval, she said.

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