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Sentinel
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Northern
Years est. 1954
www.northernsentinel.com
Volume 60 No. 22
Teachers rotate strikes
Cameron Orr and Tom Fletcher On Monday Kitimat’s teachers would have joined the rest of the Coast Mountain School District in a strike day, part of a rotating strike schedule outlined by the BC Teachers Federation. However that’s as far as Kitimat’s teachers could plan last week in a rapidly changing job action scene. Kitimat District Teachers Association (KDTA) President Kim Meyer said Friday that the local members were still trying to sort out the details from a letter outlin- “No more calls to parents, no ing lock-out details for the province’s teachers. more emails The partial lockout, home.” effective Monday, mirrors the B.C. Teachers’ Federation’s first stage of strike action, refusing student supervision outside classroom hours and communication with management. With rotating strikes beginning this week, the lockout is an attempt to bolster the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association case for cutting salaries by 10 per cent in response to the strike action. “As it stands I expect a lot of things to be affected. Field trips, I’m pretty sure we’re going to start cancelling those. In fact I think one got cancelled in Terrace today,” said Meyer. She said she wasn’t aware of any Kitimat field trips being cancelled. This week is Kitimat’s student awards night as well and unless it gets moved to a new location she said teachers won’t be attending that either. “We can’t attend those, we’re locked out, so we can’t be there.” Meyer said she was unsure what this week would bring as far as developments in the job action. BCTF president Jim Iker told a news conference Thursday the stop-work order will disrupt after-hours activities, including graduation ceremonies, which the union had sought to protect with the early stages of strike action. “No more calls to parents, no more emails home, it all comes to an end because of the lockout,” Iker said. BCPSEA administrator Michael Marchbank notified the union of the lockout terms in a letter delivered last Wednesday. The letter also confirmed that if no agreement is reached, secondary school teachers will be locked out June 25 and 26, and all BCTF members will be locked out June 27, the last day of the school year for most schools. Iker said the year-end lockout may disrupt year-end report cards and marking of provincial exams for graduating students. BCPSEA says the BCTF’s wage and benefit demands add up to 21.5 per cent over four years.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
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1.30 INCLUDES TAX
Italians on a cultural exchange to Kitimat, along with organizers, pose with a bear statue inside the Rio Tinto Alcan community office in the City Centre Mall. For more on the Italians’ trip see page 9.
LNG Canada signs contractor Cameron Orr LNG Canada, the proposed liquefied natural gas export facility planned for Kitimat, has announced it has awarded its main contract to CFSW LNG Constructors. CFSW is a consortium composed of Chiyoda, Foster Wheeler, SAIPEM and WorleyParsons. The contract incorporates the front end engineering and design (FEED) as well as project execution. FEED studies will begin on June 1, the company says. LNG Canada CEO Andy Calitz still emphasizes that the announcement is not a final investment decision, which is still “some time away.” Representatives of LNG Canada and CFSW were on hand in Kitimat for
the official signing of the agreements on May 20. CFSW will lead the hiring of general contractors for the construction phase of the project as well. The minister of natural gas development in B.C., Rich Coleman, released a statement following the announcement that this recent decision “is great news, moving the province closer to a new LNG export facility and the company another step forward toward a final investment decision.” He continued that, “Developing an LNG industry will result in some of the largest private-sector investments in British Columbia’s history, and will produce new economic activity for our communities, creating thousands of jobs for British Columbians.”
Meanwhile Mayor Joanne Monaghan, who joined others at LNG Canada’s Kitimat announcement, said the announcement last Tuesday was historic. “It’s really nice that they made the announcement here in Kitimat because our community and our citizens are the ones who will be working with them,” she said. “So now we’re very glad that this step has happened, now we’re waiting for the final investment decision.” LNG Canada is a joint venture of Shell Canada, PetroChina, KOGAS and Mitsubishi. Earlier this month the partners officially incorporated LNG Canada into its own operating entity, LNG Canada Development Incorporate.
LNG proponents forge alliance Shaun Thomas Four of the largest liquefied natural gas proponents have come together to push for the export of B.C. gas to Asia. The B.C. LNG Developers Alliance, formed earlier this month, includes Lelu Island terminal developers Pacific North-
West LNG, Ridley Island LNG developers the BG Group, Shell-led LNG Canada and Chevron-led Kitimat LNG. Rod Maier, manager of external communications with Chevron Canada for LNG Canada, said the alliance is still very much in its infancy.
“We have been having discussions and have created a framework for the alliance ... we are still working out the details around governance and hiring staff, so we have not entirely gone live yet,” he said. Continued on page 2
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Parents worry about bus fee ... page 7