107th Year - Week 49
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
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ATOM TOURNEY Driftwood Drillers win silver on Sunday.
SPORTS/A9
MIRACLE ON MAIN ST Hampers spread Christmas cheer.
COMMUNITY/A15
HARNESSING THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT Smithereens and visitors braved the cold enjoy the annual Christmas in the Valley celebrations downtown on Friday night. Christmas trees were lit, the Smithers Fire Department handed out hot dogs and hot chocolate and people lined up by Bugwood Bean for sleigh rides. Shops along Main Street were also open late, allowing people to get more of their holiday shopping done. Kendra Wong photo
FUTURE CHEFS Culinary training for high school students.
THREE RIVERS/B3
Stikine MLA aims to make Arena converting pipelines tougher opening soon By Chris Gareau
Smithers/Interior News
INSIDE LETTERS A6 SPORTS A8 COMMUNITY A15 OUR TOWN A16 THREE RIVERS B1 CLASSIFIEDS B5
The day after the province issued environmental assessment certificates to two liquified natural gas (LNG) pipelines planned for northern B.C. and an LNG export facility in Prince Rupert, Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson put forward a bill that would forbid the Oil and Gas Commission from allowing LNG pipelines to be converted for oil or bitumen transport. Donaldson said if the bill passed, it would apply to all pipelines in B.C., including those already built. “I think [companies] should
be made to go back to the environmental assessment process if they’re going to change its use to oil, and if that becomes the will of the people, if there’s social license, then the bill can be amended... but right now people do not want to see a natural gas pipeline turned into an end run in order to get oil from the tarsands to our coast,” said Donaldson, who plans on reintroducing the bill when the legislature is back in session in February. Donaldson said he felt the need to propose the bill after chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en expressed concern that Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Minister John Rustad appeared to
be backing away from a promise to introduce similar legislation, opting to instead use regulatory measures that would not have to go through the legislature. Hereditary Chief John Ridsdale (Na’moks) was in Victoria for the bill’s introduction last Wednesday. Ridsdale said Rustad had promised legislation during a Moricetown visit in April. “We accept legislation, but we don’t accept regulation because it is too easy to change,” is what Ridsdale said Rustad was told again less than a month ago, adding the chiefs also had a problem with the routes. See APPROVED on A4
By Chris Gareau Smithers/Interior News
Timber Peak Construction spent the weekend putting the finishing touches on the nearly completed second arena in Smithers. The new scoreboard and more handrails still needed to be installed, but Timber Peak owner Rob Trampuh and the town believed substantial completion would be done by the afternoon
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Grade A Turkeys .99 / lb 2.18 / kg Limit two per family purchase
of the Dec. 1 deadline (after The Interior News press deadline). When the occupancy permit is issued and the ice is put in, it will be the town’s first regulationsize ice surface. “This has been a big project. It’s a project that a huge part of the community has had a hand in making a reality, and it’s something that has been talked about and worked on for 20 years,” said mayor Taylor Bachrach. See ARENA on A2