S TANDARD TERRACE
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VOL. 27 NO. 34
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Jack Talstra remembered THE TERRACE mayor who took the city through one of its darkest periods when a major forest industry employer closed down and who then laid the foundations for an economic turnaround has died. Jack Talstra was 68. He passed away in Mills Memorial Hospital, surrounded by family, early in the morning of Dec. 5. Talstra served as mayor from 1985 to 2008, a period of 23 years, the longest anyone has served in that capacity. That period took in an economic revival of the
city’s fortunes when a forest products company called Repap opened a new Skeena Cellulose sawmill here in 1988 but also years of instability when the company ran into financial troubles in 1997, ultimately resulting in it closing down completely early in the next decade. Without the city’s largest industrial taxpayer, Talstra and the city council of that period trimmed the city’s expenses and operations. But he also took part in a campaign to position the city as the northwest’s shopping and service centre to
cial contributor to a locally-
Former mayor remembered for formed company called the Terrace Lumber Company leadership in tough times. See Page A5. surrounding communities, pursuing big box stores and other amenities. Talstra also lobbied the provincial government aggressively for ownership of several thousand acres of crown land off of Hwy 37 South just south of the Northwest Regional Airport on which to locate taxpaying industries. Known first as the airport industrial lands, it’s now
known formally as the Skeena Industrial Development Park in partnership with the Kitselas First Nation, half of which has now been sold to a Chinese economic development agency. The city just last month renamed the main road into the industrial park as Jack Talstra Way. Following the complete closure of the Skeena Cellulose mill, Talstra placed the city as a finan-
to purchase the facility. That took place in the spring of 2005 but market and other conditions forced the mill’s closure again the following year and it was eventually dismantled. The city ended up with the Keith Ave. acreage on which the mill and accompanying log yard was located, making it one of the larger holders of real estate within city boundaries.
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Jack Talstra
LNG holds up treaty talks By ANNA KILLEN
ANNA KILLEN PHOTO
■■ Your torch team HERE’S THE Terrace contingent of the 2015 Canada Winter Games torch relay, which passed through town Saturday, Dec. 6 and illuminated its way from Kitsumkalum to George Little Park, the Roly McLenahan Torch in the hands of northwest notables. A regional celebration then took place in the park, as part of the annual Festival of Lights celebration. The games take place in Prince George in February of next year.
THE PROVINCE’S single-minded focus on developing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry is getting in the way of treaty negotiations, according to the chief negotiator for Kitselas and Kitsumkalum, two local First Nations trying to craft final agreements. “It’s taking resources that normally, I feel, would have been addressed to treaty making and they’re going into LNG requirements,” said Gerald Wesley, who is also working with the Metlakatla First Nation on treaty talks as Tsimshian chief negotiator. “It’s creating a little bit of uncertainty in all of our levels of discussion now – Kitselas and Kitsumkalum negotiations, it’s certainly a factor for Metlakatla negotiations. B.C. has clearly identified LNG as their primary objective right now … and it’s interfering, I feel, with our treaty negotiations.” Kitselas and Kitsumkalum negotiators signed off on agreements in principle (AIP) nearly two years ago in January of 2013. By the spring, both AIPs were approved by Kitselas and Kitsumkalum members, with the understanding B.C. and Canada would soon follow. Earlier this year, the province indicated it had approved the AIP and was ready for an official signing ceremony whenever the federal government was, but the federal government has not yet made an official commitment to a formal signing, with a statement from the federal aboriginal affairs ministry indicating the AIPs are still under review. “It’s been very frustrating for those two communities,” said Wesley of events so far. He said the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum had hoped the province would move on officially signing off on the AIP ahead of the federal government, putting pressure on the federal government to follow. But the provincial government backed away from that suggestion, said Wesley.
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Angels among us
Nisga’a and LNG
Well done
Not-for-profit to provide finances to seriously ill people short on money \COMMUNITY A10
Provincial government working with First Nation to develop LNG plants \NEWS A18
Caledonia’s Sr. Girls volleyball team finishes strong at provincials \SPORTS A24