The Prince George
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17,1993
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ALCAN’S ORIGINAL KEMANO PROJECT
Indians get flooding settlement
by BEV CHRISTENSEN Citizen Staff
Forty years after work began on Alcan’s Kemano One project, the First Nations people who once lived on the shores of Cheslatta Lake have approved a land settlement offer for the land flooded by the project.
Details of the out-of-court settlement with the Department of Indian Affairs (DFO) will not be released until it is approved by DFO,
Mike Robertson, spokesman for the Cheslatta Carrier Nation said today.
He expects Ottawa to approve the package within two weeks.
The settlement compensates the 140-member band for the land flooded in the 1950s after Alcan built the Kenney Dam, south of Vanderhoof, in the first phase of the Kemano hydroelectric project.
The out-of-court settlement resulted from court action initiated
MORTGAGE RATE: 5.75%
by the band in November, 1990, charging the federal government with fraud, duress and breach of trust.
The action stemmed from what the Cheslatta claimed was DIA’s mishandling of agreements leading to the flooding of 10 reserves on Cheslatta Lake and nearby Cheslaslie Lake south of Bums Lake during the 1950s.
When their traditional lands were flooded, the band migrated
overland to near Grassy Plains, where they first squatted on Crown alnd and lived in abandoned sawmills. Later they acquired land in the area.
In 1991 the band went to court to force Alcan to turn over all documents related to its acquisition of non-Indian land near Ootsa Lake before the completion of Kemano One.
The settlement should not be confused with the Cheslatta
peoples’ fight with Alcan over the company’s Sl-billion Kemano Completion Project (KCP), Robertson said.
In January Premier Mike Harcourt announced public hearings will be held into the environmental and economic damage KCP will cause to the Nechako River Basin.
The announcement came after documents prepared by DFO were leaked indicating the 1987 Nechako Settlement Agreement
which permitted the project to proceed will decimate lucrative salmon runs migrating through the river.
Alcan claims migrating salmon will be able to survive in the low water flow regime outlined in the agreement.
If KCP proceeds, water flows in the Nechako River near Vanderhoof will be reduced to 12 per cent of their pre-1950 level.
! City of fice
Federal gov’t will investigate ‘extra billing’
by SHERYL THOMPSON Citizen Staff
Federal Health Minister Benoit Bouchard will assess the extent of extra billing by doctors in Prince George and elsewhere in B.C.
Bouchard responded in the House of Commons in Ottawa to concerns raised Tuesday by MP Brian Gardiner (NDP, Prince George-Bulkley Valley).
At least one of seven anesthetists at Prince George Regional Hospital has opted out of the province’s Medical Services Plan and is charging patients an extra administration fee above what the MSP will pay.
The extra fees range from $45 for minor surgery to $135 for major surgery.
While patients can sign MSP claim cards to have doctors collect the MSP fee, the patient has to foot the bill for the administrative fee.
Bouchard said he will enforce the Canada Health Act which does not allow the provinces or the doctors to extra-bill. The Act also stipulates a mediator should be brought in if doctors and the province can’t reach agreement on a fee schedule.
In February, MLA Lois Boone (NDP, Prince George-Mount Robson) said she wouldn’t be surprised if Ottawa stepped in and cut transfer payments to B.C. for the amount doctors are extra billing.
If Bouchard enters the dispute it won’t be the first time Ottawa has intervened in a medical billing issue in B.C. In 1986 Ottawa penalized B.C. for allowing hospitals to charge administrative fees in emergency rooms.
Earlier this month provincial Health Minister Elizabeth Cull urged Prince George doctors to stop extra billing, saying it is jeopardizing negotiations between the B.C. Medical Association and the Ministry of Health.
This province currently allows extra billing. Legislation banning extra billing could be introduced if needed, Cull said in January.
The minister was unavailable to comment today.
MLA Paul Ramsey (NDP, Prince George North) forwarded information about the anesthetists’ fees to Cull’s office Monday afternoon.
“The minister had asked me and people in the community to send to her examples of extra billing. She’s urged the doctors in Prince George to cease extra billing and said she will consider legislation banning extra billing if they persist,’’ Ramsey said Tuesday.
Dr. Jan Burg, the B.C. Medical Association representative for the Prince George area, said Tuesday he wants the provincial government “to deal with us honorably and stick to the Canada Health Act.”
“We’re just down one person — we won’t fill this position,” Bayiis said.
Dawson Creek’s immigration office closed two years ago. Immigration offices in Prince Rupert, Kamloops and Cranbrook will be phased out and close eventually.
Some enforcement officers will continue to work in those communities, probably out of Canada Employment Centres.
Of the immigration offices in the Interior and northern B.C., Kelowna’s will stay open, as will Prince George’s.
“We’re the hub of the North up here,” Bayiis explained. “We have enough work to justify keeping this office open, but we’ll cut back staff a bit.”
The main change will be that most routine matters will be handled through correspondence with the Vegreville centre. These include extensions to visitor’s permits, student authorizations and employment authorizations, as well as many applications to sponsor spouses and other family members.
The day-to-day business where people come in to ask about their files or submit applications soon won’t be handled by immigration staff at the Prince George office. Most people inquiring about immigration concerns will have to correspond with the Vegreville centre, although a toll-free 800 number will probably be set up for those who have routine questions.
TORONTO (CP) — The Bank of Canada bank rate fell Tuesday for the seventh week in a row while one bank announced its lowest mortgage rate since 1957.
The bank rate was set at 5.56 per cent, down from 5.66 per cent last week. It has now reached its lowest level since last September, when concern over the constitutional referendum sent rates shooting up.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Montreal introduced a mortgage with a rate of 5.75 per cent.
The new three-year variable rate enables homeowners to convert their mortgage to a fixed rate without penalty within the first six months of the term. As well, they can convert to another term on each six-month anniversary of the mortgage.
Variable-rate mortgages float up and down with movements in the prime lending rate.
When the 5.75 per cent rate was last available 3Vl decades ago, it applied to 20- and 25-year fixed-rate mortgages. Such long-term loans disappeared years ago, and currently a 10-year rate of 9.95 per cent appears to be the lowest long-term rate available.
escapes
closure
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen Staff
Prince George’s immigration office will suy open, but with reduced staff, after a Central Processing Centre opens in Ve-greviUe, Alta., next year, says a local immigration officer.
Staff here will be permanently reduced to four — a manager, two immigration officers and one support staff person, Rick Bayiis said today. There had been three immigration officers here.
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