S TANDARD TERRACE
1.34
$
$1.20 PLUS 14¢ HST
VOL. 25 NO. 47
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Jobs conference starts today WHAT’S BEING called a landmark gathering starts today as more than 100 people begin to consider what’s needed to provide a trained workforce for any number of major industrial projects either underway or planned for the region. The object is to connect employers with training agencies and institutions to ensure the right number of people with the right kind of skills are ready when needed, explains Don Ramsay, the or-
ganizer of Partnerships 2020. “I’d hate to think this will result in people walking away and saying they’ve been to a conference,” said Ramsay last week. “I would want this to be something where the actual work begins.” He’s also hoping there will be a foundation of collaboration and cooperation established so that needs of both employers and trainers can be identified and met. “We hope that cooperation be-
tween companies will be better than competing for workers,” said Ramsay. There’s also an element of education for companies that should take place for successful projects here, he added. “The companies that are coming here are very, very large. They each have their own history and all have different ways of doing things,” said Ramsay. “Not all will recognize the his-
tory and the different kind of environment that is here in the northwest.” “People are as much a resource as any mineral in the ground,” said Ramsay. Any kind of northwest employee training strategy must also recognize the region’s substantial aboriginal population because of the potential number of workers it can produce, he added. Research prepared by govern-
Name change sought for Sockeye Creek By Josh Massey THE name Sockeye Creek doesn't sit right for local residents who have a passion for local history. Terrace city councillor Lynne Christiansen believes it should be changed back to its original name Eliza Creek in acknowledgement of an important figure in local history – a female icon central to both aboriginal and settler culture. Eliza was a sister to Kitselas chief Walter Wright and after marrying Tom Thornhill from England, the couple settled down to live in a cabin near the Kitselas Canyon on the Skeena River in 1892. Eliza was also a trapper and would routinely hike to her trapline located near a creek that eventually bore her name. But the name was changed to Sockeye Creek sometime in the 1930s. Both Christiansen and former Thornhill Kitimat-Stikine regional district director Les Watmough have tried unsuccessfully at different times to get the name restored. “We've brought it up before but the staff runs into roadblocks and it fades away,” Christiansen said. Christiansen raised the issue once again at the February Kitimat-Stikine regional district meet-
ing where she sits as a City of Terrace director as well as last week at a city council meeting. Sockeye Creek is wrong for several reasons, said Watmough. It’s his belief that a group of summer surveyors from federal fisheries who came through the area sometime in the 1930s were responsible. The problem began when the surveyors changed the name of a larger creek known to the locals as Sockeye Creek located south of Terrace. “Their leader was a bureaucrat. Williams was his name. They disregarded the local map and changed Sockeye to Williams,” Watmough said of the surveyors. Having placed the name of the group leader on their own map, Watmough said they now had to find a new creek on which to stick the name sockeye. They found another nearby, the one locals called Eliza. Apparently aware of what he had done, Watmough said, Williams pencilled in the note “officially Eliza Creek” on his survey map. What further riles Watmough is the fact that Sockeye Creek is home to more coho salmon than it is to sockeye.
Cont’d Page 24
ment-sponsored bodies suggest that should the number of largescale projects being planned get underway, close to 6,000 workers will be needed in the next decade on the construction projects. But while the focus now may be on construction requirements, Ramsay said it’s also important to consider the kind of jobs that will be required as projects begin their operations phase.
Cont’d Page 24
Josh Massey PHOTO
■■ Treasure hunters Skylynn Phillips and Relna Gray show off some potential purchases at the Thornhill Elementary School garage sale on Saturday, March 2. The garage sale was a fundraiser for the school’s Parent Advisory Committee.
Laughter wanted
Verdict’s in
Midget madness
Book finds humour in Northwest Coast art from now back thru history \COMMUNITY A14
A decision has been made in Cain the dog’s controversial court case \NEWS A10
After winning zones, the Terrace Totem Ford Midget reps are off to provincials \SPORTS A22