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www.northernsentinel.com
Volume 61 No. 11
Strike goes on but sides are bargaining Publicly it was a quiet week regarding the strike, but the District of Kitimat and Unifor 2300 are indeed back at the bargaining table. Members of the bargaining team for both the District and the union were unavailable for comment at our deadlines Monday but Mayor Phil Germuth did confirm that work was being done and that the sides had met last week and would be this week too. He said he hopes the work going on now will pave the way to developing trust between the two sides in the future. With the two sides talking again it will hopefully quickly lead to a new collective agreement, replacing the one which expired at the end of 2014. This year’s strike has beat out the length of the last District strike in 1997, which lasted 16 days. By Monday this week the strike had reached 17 days since it began on February 28. The only true glimpse to what has been offered in a new contract came from a February 28 news release from the District which laid out a 2.5 per cent wage increase from 2015 to 2017 as well as the additions of 10 full time employees over two years in the Leisure Services department. Other details from that release included adding two heavy equipment operators and offering enhanced training programs. Being over two weeks old the details in that offer could very possibly be out of date at this time. If there are updates to this story through the week they will be posted to www.northernsentinel.com.
Long serving SAR volunteers honoured. /page 11 Leadership the focus in this month’s Buzz. /page 12 PM477761
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
1.30 INCLUDES TAX
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Dishing it out The Multicultural Society’s annual potluck dinner was a popular outing. These ladies dishing out food at the final station of the food line were certainly in festive spirits with their garbs. Some more photos from the event on page 7.
Resident alarmed at LNG letters Cameron Orr Residents within a 3.3 km circle from the proposed LNG Canada site received letters in their mail which had some concerned. Residents in much of the Kildala area, received registered letters which included a map showing the outline of an affected zone that comes just shy of the Riverlodge and as far north as Yukon and Skeena Streets. The zone is for homes that could see any physical impact from the facility, including light pollution and air quality. Kildala homeowner Edward Prochot said the letter, to him, means that homeowners such as him may be among the few people who won’t see the community benefits of a project like that. “We’re going to be the only ones in this one little area that are actually going to lose from it,” said Prochot about how the LNG Canada project will impact his neighbourhood in light of the letters, which indicate an area that could be physically affected by the facility. He said he’s brought up the question about if residents will receive any compensation for being in the affected zone but he says the answer from the company has been no. Prochot was interested in attending an information session for affected homeowners but missed it when he didn’t realize the date was so soon after receiving the letter, and for the fact he would have a hard time getting transportation to the office at the former Methanex site. The letters, according to LNG Canada, are a requirement of the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission (OCG). In addition to things such as an environmental review for
People viewing the LNG Canada site model at the March 10 open house. the project, LNG Canada would need a facility permit from the OCG. Such a process requires its own set of community consultations. The OCG sets parameters for reaching out to affected neighbours and in the case of an LNG facility they’ve set 3.3 km, LNG Canada explained in an e-mail. The company set a sit-down meeting with interested homeowners in that zone which took place on March 10, and was followed by a community open house at their information centre on Ocelot Road. The issues discussed ranged from noise, traffic, dust, odour, safety and even what the site would look like at night. LNG Canada says 160 people attended their March 10 open house The OCG permit, the company says, focuses on safety aspects of the project.