S TANDARD TERRACE
1.30
$
$1.24 PLUS 6¢ GST
VOL. 27 NO. 9
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO
■■ Pedal pushers THE BANK of Montreal / Medical Marvels team starts its ride on the Big Bike for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC and Yukon from Market Square June 16. Seven teams signed up to raise money for the foundation and to have fun.
Benefits alliance gathers steam A BID to have the provincial government return a share of northwest resource taxation revenue to the area now has the support of all local governments from Vanderhoof to the North Coast. The commitment of all 21 local governments in the region and the rural directors from its three regional districts will strengthen the case being made by the Northwest B.C. Resource Benefits Alliance, says Stacey Tyers, the chair of the Kitimat-Stikine regional district. “I feel optimistic. The larger the voice, the louder you are,” said Tyers who is also a City of Terrace councillor.
The alliance was formed last year through the City of Terrace and the KitimatStikine regional district with other local northwest governments and it has been adding members since. Its basis is that should large industrial projects take hold in the area, they’ll have an impact on local government services. But since those projects will by and large be beyond the taxing powers of local governments, the province should return a portion of its tax revenue from those projects to help local governments cope with increased service demand and costs. The alliance has already been turned down by the
province for money to continue its work but it now has a letter from Premier Christy Clark saying local government minister Coralee Oakes will be in touch, said Tyers. Having all local governments now as members of the alliance should speed up that contact, she added. “Agreements reached with industry, individual local governments, and First Nations prove that it is possible to be proactive when it comes to the negotiation of revenue sharing for the multi-sector economic expansion now underway across northwest B.C.,” she said. First Nations govern-
ments in the area aren’t members of the alliance as they already have a place at the resource revenue sharing table with the province, she said. “For them, it would be a step backward. What we’re trying to do is get a place at
the table,” said Tyers. The alliance is modelled after agreements between the province in other parts of the province, including the northeast where it has guaranteed annual payments to local governments there. Tyers said the alliance
is following up on a 2013 provincial election promise, since repeated by Clark, for a rural dividend from resource development. Alliance members will gather in Terrace in midAugust to discuss their next steps.
Mother not at fault By MARGARET SPEIRS A CIVIL B.C. Supreme Court case to decide who was at fault in a 2010 car accident has found that the mother of a local teen left a paraplegic was not to blame. Madame Justice Neena Sharma in the written decision of her June 9, 2015 judgment cleared driver and former Terrace resi-
dent Karen Millard for a Nov. 15, 2010 crash on Hwy16 outside of Vanderhoof that left Millard’s older daughter Rheann Armes in a wheelchair paralyzed from the waist down. Millard’s younger daughter, Celin, suffered a broken back but there was no permanent damage.
Cont’d Page A5
Sunday Market
Be aware
Silver success
A new group takes over the newly popular weekly event at Skeena Landing \COMMUNITY A10
Police receive two more reports of a driver trying to lure teens into vehicle \NEWS A14
The regional 17U boys basketball team places second in the province \SPORTS A24