S TANDARD TERRACE
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VOL. 27 NO. 4
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Aid coming for region By JOSH MASSEY SKEENA NDP MLA Robin Austin hopes an announcement from the provincial government to be made here Friday finally demonstrates its paying attention to municipalities straining under the weight of expanding demands from the growing northwestern industrial boom. Austin, who has tangled recently in the legislature with natural gas and housing minister Rich Coleman over housing pressures as people and companies move in anticipation of the development of a liquefied natural gas industry in the region, says the province is behind in responding. The announcement, to be made by community, sport and cultural minister Coralee Oakes at Terrace city hall, is expected to confirm the province is sending up interns to help municipalities and to provide details on how $150,000 in planning money is to be spent. “Northern communities are having real trouble, and companies are having real trouble, processing a bunch of initiatives and they are allocating a number of interns to Terrace and Prince Rupert and Kitimat to help deal
with the backlog on the work,” Austin said. “This announcement recognizes that the cuts to staffing levels in all areas of government have been so brutal over the last 10 years that there are not enough full-time civil servants to do the work.” Austin says the announcement responds to problems he has been hearing from his constituents for some time. “It’s good that all the communities are being supported, because I have heard a lot of complaints from communities and from companies that they don’t have the capacity. “They are completely strapped and overwrought with the amount of work that’s coming in and they were looking to government to say, ‘look part of what we need—yes its housing, yes it’s infrastructure, but it’s also simply bodies to actually administer this work.’” According to Terrace mayor Dave Pernarowski, the plan will also address the allocation of money promised by Premier Christy Clark last September to local governments in the northwest.
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MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO
■■ Cancer fighters SUWILAAWKS COMMUNITY School drummers walk in the survivors’ lap at the Relay for Life at the Skeena Middle School track May 10. Holding the banner from left is Jamie Casey, Nikita Pippy and Jasmine Smith. About 122 survivors registered this year, one of the highest numbers ever.
Housing, rents top residents’ worry list By MARGARET SPEIRS HOUSING AND rental prices came up as the top negative about living here in an informal survey done by Skeena Diversity Society at the recent Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. Out of the 94 people who responded, 66, which is 70 per cent, shared mostly negative comments with lack of housing as the major impact of current changes here. The survey, “Impacts of Chang-
es in Terrace and the Northwest,” was done to get a sense of the impact on housing due to the improving economy here. “Most of the answers confirmed what we were hearing from others but we did hear more examples of what was going on – personal stories of people struggling to find housing, being at the mercy of landlords, but we also came across landlords who have not raised their rents in any significant ways,” said Sasa Loggin of the Skeena Diversity Society.
It included only three questions with room to add in comments: “How have you been impacted by the recent changes?” “Are the changes mostly positive or negative?” and “Any suggestions what could be done?” Housing comments included rapidly growing costs, “renovictions,” low income families having to leave to avoid homelessness, unaffordability and increased stress as people take in family or friends, hard to find housing for younger people and higher property taxes.
“As landlords can’t legally evict tenants just because they want to raise rents, they come up with renovations as an excuse. In some cases, the renovations are quite minor and one can see that the real reason was changing tenants and increasing rents. Hence the term ‘renoviction,’” said Loggin. One comment emphasized increased costs: “This town has gone crazy – too much greed. Rents and price of housing is way too much. It’s way too expensive for low income and single families living on
one income. We are being evicted and can’t afford to buy a house.” More traffic and the difficulty of getting around at the beginning and end of lunch hour or after work, more truck traffic and the challenge of parking were noted as second highest negative responses with 29 per cent. Of the 20 people who shared mostly positive experiences, more jobs, work and training opportunities were at the top of the list.
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Hard work
Higher numbers
Get pumped
Local brain injury advocate honoured with two awards \COMMUNITY A10
More people here are homeless now compared to a several years ago \NEWS A13
Upcoming weightlifting competition dares locals to test their strength \SPORTS A27