Music,, marvel Board bonanza Accidents and thefts are:driving Thornhill JuniorSecondary,s band A growing sPort will get big up ICBC claims and that's bad isin: line for international exposure at the Northern B,C. news\NEWS A8 recognition\COMMUNITY B1 Winter Games\SPORTS • L I / WEDNESDAY 93¢ PLUS 7¢ GST NOVEMBER 27;1996 D__AR D VOL9 NOI 33 i Contest begins Sawmill workers laid off THERE'S GOING to be plaques and prizes for those By JEFF NAGEL Although Skeena Sawmills is losing money, West who enter and win the various categories in the North- SKEENA SAWMILLS will shut down all opera- [] 200 more out of work, Pg A2 Fraser as a whole is not hurting. The firm reported west Real Estate Board's Christmas lights contest. tions for at least six weeks starting on Dec. 23. [] Repap meets Zirnhelt, Pg A2 the highest earnings in B.C, last quarter. It's the eighth year for the contest and organizer Lisa throwing 155 mill employees out of work. "It's all come to a head because of the econom- Godlinski hopes lois of people will enter. West Fraser officials made the announcement to The mill is presently losing $1 million a month. ics," Skeena MLA Helmut Giesbrecht said The best theme category of the past has been dropped workers here Friday after months of speculation But he denied suggestions the company might not Monday. "'There was a time when mil!s kept lhnc- in favour of one for apartments and mobile homes. about a possible temporary closure. reopen the mill. tioning even in bad times. Things seem to be differ- "We felt we needed a category in this area as well," The shutdown also means an immediate halt to all "'West Fraser has a commitment to this area," he ent now." said Godlinski. logging by the company's contractors, who were said. "We're not about to throw in the towel." Bob Friesen, eXecUtive director of operations for There's a category for best overall effort and ones for told the fi.nal timber shipments would be this week. The closure also comes at the same time both the ministry of forestS, said Monday West Fraser's bes t home, best street and best commercial display. West Fraser northwest operati0ns manager Bruce : West Fraser and Repap B C are pushing for chang' requests amount tO "a grab bag ' of changes that "The response from our sponsors has been great and MacNicol said he's hoping the mill Can be re'start- es to the system of stum;a;e tees and other reduc- would reduce delivered wood cnsts. we hope for a large number of entries as a result," said ed Feb. 3, but said that will depend on circUmstanc~ tions in logging costs ' ,We've got their.ideasl, iie=saidl "our staff is Godlinksi. es at the time. Both companies have a high proportion of pulp evaluating theni right tiow., The entry deadline is Dec. 18 with judging the next "We have lost a significant amount of dollars over logs in their stands, and say the low prices for those He said the ministry will respond to Repap's day. Entries can be faxed to the real estate board's of. the last two years and it seems that it's getting logs ,are not covering the hefty hikes in stumpage stumpage proposal within ,'i couple of weeks, and ,'~ rice at 638-1837 or dropped off at the various sponsors. worse and worse," MacNicol said. fees and logging costs over the last few years, response to West Fraser will come sooner. You'll find those listed in an ad in this newspaper. ~~ ~~~~4 'Openness' under wraps for now !ii:~'!:: :~: : "•: ~:~ NEW DEALS on how open Nisga'a treaty • 'Some of the measures in the new agree- • • :4 talks will be and what can be done on ment move a bit beyond what was in the Nisga'a land are being kept under wraps former agreement," Gosneil said, refusing ; "~, . • ,,..,,. until next week. to elaborate further. Federal treaty negotiation spokesman Gosnell said the Nisga'a have been Joseph Whiteside said the so-called "open- promised the recent government cutbacks ness protocol" and the interim protection won't disrupt the negotiations in any way. measures agreement -- which governs But he said last spring's election outcome resource extraction and development on has already played a role in treaty talks. Nisga'a landup until the final treaty is "The NDP doesn't have that great of a stgned ~ wt. be made pubhc at treaty majority." he said. adding he believes the talks here on ":i ,srsday, Dec. 5, narrowness of the party's victory led ]he 'TSarS, ill lie ihe Tirst ever open negotiat- government to Create its select standtng ing session in the Nisga'a treaty talks. committee on aboriginal affairs. The province, federal government and the That committee is now winding up its Nisga'a are now working toward a final tour of the province and is expected to give ;i¸'~ "'~ i treaty, which is expected to be finished in its recommendations on how the govern- the spring. ment should proceed with further land Nisga'a Tribal Council president Joe Gos- claim negotiations. nell said not all the talks will be open in the Gosneli said the Nisga'a are confident the days ahead. comnlittee's recommendations won't affect "That determination will be made by the the Nisga'a talks, but admitted he is watch- three parties as to which negotiations will ing the process carefully. be made open to the general public," Gos- He has stressed that the Nisga'a do not nell said. view their pending settlement as some More sensitive issues will be contained to others do m as a model for treaty talks. just representatives of the three sides, he "We've always said we're in this process said. for ourselves m we're not negotiating for The new interim protection measures anybody else." agreement replaces an earlier one that was Negotiators for the three sides explored in effect up until the Nisga'a agreement-in- forestry issues during talks here at the Ter- principle was reached last February. race hm all last week. The old one required that the Nisga'a be Gosnell said those isuses include the an- consulted about proposed logging, mining nual allowable cut review that's to take or development in their area. But it was place, and various transition measures, in- criticized as giving only empty consultation cluding how to deal with current licence with no real control over resource activities. holders and employment stability. Baby ward back in action MILLS MEMORIAL Hospital has partially "What we have is something built in the rolled back the centralization of services on 1960s that was designed in the 1950s," its main medical services floor. said Leisinger. It's done so by moving maternity patients What hasn't changed is combining the o back to maternity rooms which had been various nursing services into teams as op- closed in September and by re-opening the posed to having separate depamnents for maternity nursing station. each kind of medical service. Mills administrator Michael Leisinger "We still have that team approach, it's said the plan to group all classes of patients just the physical renovations haven't hap- into rooms surrounding the floor's main pened yet," said Leisinger. tll ¸i i;i nursing station didn't work, particularly Mills had forecast an expenditure of more with new mothers and their infants. than $1 million to construct a new main "Without physical.renovations to make nursing station, a new pediatrics station, this possible, it didn't work out as well as renovate other facilities and construct new / A holiday message we planned," he said. patient rooms. EVERYONE KNOWS they're not supposed to drink and drive, but during the hectic whirl of Christmas and Particularly troublesome is the closure of That plan stalled because of a government holiday parties, sometimes people have a few too many before they get behind the wheel That's why the well-baby nursery, meaning that new spending freeze and Mills has trimmed its grade five students at Clarence Michiel are giving adults a powerful reminder. During Drug Awareness horns are kept in the same rooms as their plan down to a new nursing station and Week last week, students coloured messages on bags the liquor store will be handing out. Here Lane mothers. pediatrics section at a cost of $500,000. Goldsmith tells adults not to drink and drive, Coming from the mouths of children, the message seems to Without renovations to create single- As of last week, Leisinger says health have even more meaning. patient rooms, new mothers and their ministry officials seem close to giving ap- babies were crowded together. proval for the project. Area enjoying growth in population One barometer of that is the area tion." he said. And it's also less stressful sifted and small business growth has pro- WE HAVEN'T run out of elbow room population now is in the 21,500 range, around the corner of Emerson and Orelg on the fabric of cities the size of Terrace, vided and will continue to fuel the econ- yet but Terrace and area has experienced says city economic development officer omy, he said. where two former doctors' office loca- Veldman adds. a healthy increase in population over the Ken Veldman. tions are being remodeled. "It's not just traffic and the things The slow and steady growth should past five years.