Gov't red tape strangles Endian logging company
TIMBER ROYALTY APPROVAL REFUSED
The
Citizen
Monday, December 8, 1980 Prince George, British Columbia
by TOM NIXON Citizen Staff Reporter
An Indian-owned logging company on the Stoney Creek Indian reserve will be driven into bankruptcy by the federal government — unless the company finds export markets within the month for band timber.
The Prince George Indian Affairs office has refused for more than six weeks to approve a temporary band council resolution allowing the company a reduced timber royalty to tide it over a slump in the export market.
The Citizen learned today that Ottawa also refused to overrule the local decision.
And logging company manager Don Liscum said today the company is bankrupt unless he can find a new export contract within the month.
Liscum, who manages S Bar K Logging for his brother-in-law Ernie John, said today that it’s too late.
“We lost our logging truck and the skidders will be next to go,” Liscum said.
“We have to get back into the export market where the volume and price is or we’ll lose it all.”
The export market was lost last summer and S Bar K Logging was granted a reduced royalty Oct. 25 by the band council so the company could compete for local markets and keep solvent.
The band resolution, however, was disallowed by the local Indian affairs manager.
Fred Singleton, acting director-general of reserves and
trusts for Indian affairs, told The Citizen in a telephone interview from Ottawa that the band would be asked to have another meeting on the issue.
That decision comes 13 days after Prince George-Bulkley Valley MP Lome McCuish was promised a review of the case by Indian Affairs Minister John Munro.
Singleton said the decision was made because reports from the regional director for Indian Affairs in B.C. indicated the band is split on the issue and the Carrier-Sekanni Tribal Council had also said it was opposed.
Tribal council chairman Justa Monk, however, verified today that the tribal council has taken no stand against the permit and he had indicated he was in favor of the band managing its own affairs.
Singleton said the band meeting Nov. 10 which verified the
October council decision, was not definite enough to indicate general support and two subsequent petitions had further thrown band solidarity into doubt.
Band members have charged that a petition against the permit was carried out by the band manager on orders from the local Indian affairs manager Myler Saville, and many people who signed, thought it was a receipt for welfare cheques which were distributed at the same time.
The council fired the manager because she had acted without authority.
Singleton said he didn’t know the history of the petition.
MP McCuish said he’s “fed up” with the whole affair.
’’The whole damned problem is that they (Ottawa) rely totally on the local manager (for Indian Affairs) and he has complete autonomy," he said.
McCuish said he told Singleton in Ottawa Friday that there had been charges that the petition against the permit had been done irregularly.
“I had a letter from (Justa) Monk in which he said he supported everything that could be done for free enterprise within a band, also,” McCuish said.
“It was given to the minister.”
McCuish said government policy is to allow Indians to manage their own affairs but “it’s only words - they don’t believe it.”
“They have no way to check on the local manager to see if what he says is correct.”
Meanwhile, tribal council chairman Monk said today that he warned local Indian affairs manager Saville to “act on this” or there could be considerable trouble.
Monk said he advised Saville that the problem should be negotiated or the Stoney Creek bank would undoubtedly bring the matter to the tribal council.
“I would not be at all surprised if Geof Thomas (Stoney Creek council chief) brings this to the next tribal council meeting,” Monk said.
The last meeting of the council was held before the issue broke out in October.
“The problem is that the band members don’t know which way they should turn on this now, they’ve heard so many different stories,” he said.
Neither regional director Fred Wachli nor local Indian Affairs manager Myler Saville could be contacted today to comment on the matter.
Tax i likely
ncrease
in city
TODAY
fiCG/IAft
"If I bought your burglar alarm for S30, it would be the only thing in here worth stealing."
FEATURED INSIDE
D
Ski team is spectacular
The Canadian men’s downhill ski team stunned observers by placing five skiers in the top seven of a weekend World Cup Race. Page 15.
White judge overruled
Two non-white legal consultants have overruled a white judge and released black Zimbabwe cabinet minister Edgar Tekere and seven bodyguards on charges of murdering a white farmer. Page 5.
Index
Bridge..........................
Business.....................
Bombeck column......
City, B.C........... 2,3,6
Classified...................
Comics........................
Crossword.................
Editorial.....................
Entertainment..........
Family.............................. 12
... 22 Horoscopes..................... 32
10,11 International.................... 5
... 28 Morberg column........... 13
,13,35 Movies............................. 30
19-25 Nutional............................. 9
30-33 Rolling Stone................. 31
.... 21 Sports......................... 15-18
...... 4 Television........................ 33
30-33 Wenzel column.............. 13
c
THE WEATHER
J
by AL IRWIN Citizen Staff Reporter
City taxpayers whose homes were assessed at $65,000 last year could pay as much as $135 more in taxes this year.
City council today receives the first draft of a 1981 provisional budget of $50.02 million.
The budget says that based on a 10-per-cent assessment increase, and a three-per-cent growth in new construction, a 13.5-per-cent mill-rate increase is necessary to meet a $1.81-million deficit.
The urban residential mill rate in 1980 was 8.33. The city collects one dollar times the mill rate for each $1,000 of assessed value.
At the 1980 mill rate, the owner of a home assessed at $65,000 paid $541.45 in taxes last year for city purposes.
The new urban residential mill rate would be 9.45. If assessments increased by 10 per cent, the owner this year pays taxes on assessed value of $71,500, or $675.67.
The $50.02 million budget, about $3.7 million more than last year’s budget, includes taxes collected for schools, hospital, regional district and the assessment authority.
The budget for city purposes only is about $27.8 million, up from $24.07 million in 1980, an increase of about 15.5 per cent.
In his preface to the budget, city treasurer Bill Kennedy says that while revenues from sources other than property taxes increase this year from five to 15 per cent, most areas of expense are increasing at a rate of 15 to 25 per cent.
This, Kennedy says, will leave an increasing share of costs to be paid through property taxes.
Kennedy cautions that preliminary 1981 assessment figures have not yet been received from the assessment authority.
But, on the basis of information available some weeks ago, the treasury department estimated increasing assessments and new construction would yield property taxes of $13.39 million or $1.81 million less than called for in the provisional budget.
If assessments increase 10 per cent, a 13.5-per-cent increase in the 1980 mill rate will be necessary to meet the deficit, unless significant budget cuts are made, Kennedy says.
A spokesman for the B.C. Assessment Authority, however, estimates that the average assessment increase will be 15 per cent. That would lower the mill rate increase necessary, but not the amount of property taxes the city must collect.
For city purposes, property and improvements are taxed at 100 per cent of assessment.
The residential 1980 mill rates were: urban, 8.33; suburban, 7.26; rural, 5.67. A 13.5-per-cent increase raises mill rates to 9.45, 8.24, and 6.43 for urban, suburban and rural respectively.
Other than the provisional budget discussions, council faced a light agenda today, when it held its inaugural meeting for newly-elected aldermen at noon.
A series of snowstorms is predicted for the next five days.
Today was expected to be cloudy with periods of snow beginning Tuesday morning.
Predicted high for tuday is -5 with temperatures dipping to -8 overnight.
The high on Sunday was -10 and the low was -5 with the overnight temperature reaching -10.
During the past 24 hours there has been 19 cm of snowfall.
On this date in 1979 the high was 3 and the low 1.
Sunrise today was 8:16 a.m. and sunset will be 3:49 p.m.
Sadrack says . . .
Detuils Pnge 2
(now hear THIS^
• There’s more than one way to skin a cat. One enterprising young city woman was seen this morning making her cheery way to work through the snow - on cross-country skis.
• New Caledonia Symphony conductor Kerry Stratton figures errors do sometimes pay off. Thursday’s Citizen scrambled a story about the symphony’s weekend family concerts so badly, the story was run again on Friday. The result: Vanier Hall was jammed to the rafters for both concerts, more than 1,500 people attended.
Got a news tip? Call The Chizen’s 24-hour news line at 562-2441.
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Poland:
Restraint
urged
WARSAW (AP) - Poland’s embattled Communist party held meetings throughout the country on the weekend to rally support while labor leader Lech Walesa appealed to workers for restraint.
Groups of party officials held sessions in factories and meeting halls, calling for action to restore order and “Strengthen the leading role of the Communist party,” the official Radio W'arsaw reported.
Similar meetings were scheduled throughout the week in an apparent attempt toshow the leadership was capable of defusing Poland’s economic and political problems without Soviet interference.
Walesa, meanwhile, made repeated calls for moderation at a union meeting in Warsaw on Saturday. Walesa heads Solidarity, the big union independent of party control that was formed after six weeks of crippling strikes last summer.
Since the end of countrywide strikes Aug. 1, however, Solidarity locals have been staging walkouts to press demands for higher pay and political reforms that have put them on a collision course with the government.
Belshaw acquitted of murder
Citizen photo by Doug Weller
Bill Pashal of Elm Street is one of the lucky ones today — a snowblower sure beats a shovel.
Get out the snow shovel
AIGLE, Switzerland (AP) — A Swiss court today acquitted prominent Canadian
anthropologist Cyril Belshaw of charges he killed his wife and altered dental records to frustrate tue inquiry into her death.
Belshaw, 59, a former department head at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, sat impassively as the verdict was read in a crowded courtroom here.
Belshaw was ordered to pay 30,000 swiss francs, about $20,000 Canadian, in court costs for having set off the inquiry by supplying the falsified dental charts.
The three judges and six jurors who weighed evidence presented in three days of trial last week were not persuaded by the prosecution’s circumstantial case that Belshaw may have killed his wife of 37 years in January 1979 during a quarrel about his affair with another woman.
Belshaw, in the trial’s most dramatic moments told the court he did not slay his wife, that he had no explanation how her nude and decomposed body was hidden near this town stuffed inside large plastic sacks.
The defence stressed the prosecution could not say exactly how, when, where and why Betty Joy Belshaw, 59, died
Prince George’s first major snowfall of the season hit on Sunday with 19 cm, far from the 29 cm recorded on the same day a few years ago.
“But we are going to get some more by tonight and tomorrow,” the weatherman said.
RCMP say the fact that it was a Sunday probably prevented any increase in traffic accidents because of the snow.
There were 11 accidents, some resulting in minor injuries.
“When it snows again most people will be used to it, a
police officer said.
There were no reports of damage.
The weatherman says the arctic front which brought the snow is moving eastward and it should be snowing in McBride and the mountains all day.
But the wind is blowing today and should continue to do so Tuesday.
“This wind is off the Pacific and should keep temperature up,” the weatherman said.
Lows tonight are expected to be -8 to-10 with highs of-5Tues-day.
“That’s pretty normal for this time of year,” the weatherman said.
But while Prince George and its surrounding areas got off lightly during the first major snow of winter, the Lower Mainland, other parts of the province and Washington State were hit much harder.
The severe weather claimed at least three lives.
A hunter froze to death in Kelowna, while a 16-year-old boy was found in a snowbank near Chilliwack. A truck driver lost control of his rig
near Boston Bar and ran off the road and over an embankment.
In Washington State the governor declared the northwest part of the state a “snow disaster” area. More than 25 cm of snow fell in the Bellingham area and more was forecast.
Travel to and from Canada was restricted to Interstate 5, the major highway link between Vancouver and Seattle.
Vancouver has a temperature of -12 Sunday, breaking the low record of -11 for Dec. 7, set in 1972.
Coast to get 'driverless' transit system
VANCOUVER (CP) - The B.C. government is going ahead with the automated light rapid transit system it wants whether Vancouver mayor Mike Harcourt likes it or not, says Municipal Affairs Minister Bill Van-der Zalm.
“Harcourt can’tstop it because the Greater Vancouver Regional District is bigger than the city of Vancouver," Vander Zalm said Sunday.
"We would like very much to have him aboard but we can’t have one
mayor holding up transit for the entire region."
Harcourt, who officialy becomes mayor today, says the government’s announcement Saturday that it will go ahead with an Ontario-made system is premature.
Harcourt is concerned about the system’s price, the fact it is driver-less, untried and the elevated track will allow passengers to peek into bedrooms of houses along the transportation corridor.
The program, unveiled by Munici-
pal Affairs Minister Bill Vander Zalm and Housing Minister Jim Chabot involves:
— completion of an automated light rapid transit line between downtown Vancouver and New Westminster by 1986;
— extending the system to the Surrey and Coquitlam town centres following additional studies;
— completion by mid-1982 of a commuter train service along Canadian Pacific Railway tracks on the south shore of Burrard Inlet to Port Moodv.
Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam; — servicing of governmentowned land, primarily in Port Moody, Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam, to provide 19,000 new housing units;
— introduction of a new building code to allow conversion of older and under-utilized residential, industrial and commercial buildings into housing:
— a review of the provincial home mortgage aid program and grants to ensure they reflect current market conditions.
$1.8 MILLION DEFICIT