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VOL. 27 NO. 29
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Mom’s home hunt leads to Alberta By JOSH MASSEY A HOMELESS mother of four is again calling for greater awareness of affordable housing problems facing northern B.C. after a five month homeless stint which has led her to seek a new path in Grande Prairie, Alberta. During her nomadic adventures Anna Martin had been living with her family out of a van in campgrounds and emergency shelters while looking for a low income home or apartment – first in Hazelton, then Terrace where they camped out at the cityowned Ferry Island campground for a period, Prince Rupert, Prince George and now across the border into Alberta. “I was in Prince George living in a hotel and Children Services said I can’t keep living in hotels and the transition house so they said I had to come to Grand Prairie to be with my mom because she is the only one who has supported me,” said Martin, adding that she was told her children would be taken from her if she came back to B.C. “Children’s Services said that if I go back to B.C. without having a place to stay they will phone the cops and the cops would stop me and they would get a court order to take my kids away from me,” she said. According to a statement from the provincial Ministry of Children and Family Development it is not in the government’s power to prevent Martin’s return.
JOSH MASSEY PHOTO
■■ Rotary’s marathon auction ROTARIANS DONNA Demers and Bryan Gascon preparing for the Rotary Club of Terrace’s 54th annual auction. Predicted to be 13 hours long, the auction spanned two days and saw 400 items sold to the highest bidders. Local businesses donated a variety of goods to be auctioned totalling $70,000. Money goes towards various community projects paid for by the Rotary Club.
Election forum on tonight THE two people running for mayor and the 12 running for the six Terrace city council spots will be on the REM Lee stage tonight beginning at 7 p.m. for an all candidates forum. Each of the candidates will be making statements and there will be opportunity for
members of the audience to ask questions. For those unable to attend tonight, CityWest Cable 10 will be broadcasting the forum. The Terrace Standard’s municipal election coverage continues with profiles on Pages A13, A14, A16 and A17.
“The ministry and delegated aboriginal agencies have no authority to prevent someone from entering the province,” said the statement. “Homelessness, in and of itself, may not necessarily be a determining factor in a child welfare assessment,” the ministry statement continued. Martin’s children are all in school in Grande Prairie now but her housing woes have not gone away. “Grande Prairie is the same as B.C., rents are sky high and there’s just nothing here. But there are a lot of jobs here which is the good thing about it. There’s lots that I can do, it’s just a matter of finding a place.” Currently she is looking to find work in the service industry or as a groundskeeper. She even said there is a homeless count underway in Grande Prairie, similar to the one that the City of Terrace commissioned this spring which detailed a swelling homeless population. Of Nisga’a ancestry, Martin said she grew up in a foster home in Grande Prairie and moved to the Terrace area at age 13. Her mom died when she was just five. “I lived here [Grande Prairie] until I was about 13 and then I went to B.C. after that.” She said she was upset nobody could help her find a home in her traditional territory but says she plans to return at a time when it won’t affect her children’s education.
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Nisga’a ink pipeline deal THE NISGA’A NATION has signed a deal with a natural gas pipeline builder to bring substantial economic benefits to its residents and others in the Nass Valley. Monetary terms of the deal are confidential, Nisga’a Lisims Government president Mitchell Stevens said last week, but he did say the deal with TransCanada Pipelines for its planned Prince Rupert Gas Transmission project to pump natural gas from northeastern B.C. to a planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant near Prince Rupert calls for annual payments and business opportunities. “It’s been a good week for everyone in the northwest,” said Stevens, adding that should the pipeline be built, its benefits will reach down as far as Terrace. The agreement with TransCanada, signed Oct. 29, comes at the same time as the provincial government has introduced legisla-
tion to provide the Nisga’a with taxation powers for industrial activity on Nisga’a lands and for the removal of land from the Nisga’a Memorial Lava Bed Park to allow for a better route for the pipeline. Stevens said the taxation legislation, the legislation to remove park land and the benefits deal are part of a package aimed at improving the economy in the Nass Valley. The pipeline is to end at Lelu Island near Prince Rupert at an LNG plant to be built by Petronas, a company owned by the Malaysian government. It could reach a final investment decision by the end of this year. At 900 kilometres long, the 48-inch pipeline will run 85 kilometres through Nisga’a Lands and approximately 12 kilometres adjacent to Hwy113 on land to be removed from the lava bed park.
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High honour
Built to spec
He’s got heart
Local veterans receive French govt’s top award for their part in D-Day \COMMUNITY A10
The improving economy means home construction is on the rise \NEWS A29
Henry Hart is playing for the University of Victoria Vikes hockey team \SPORTS A27