S TANDARD TERRACE
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VOL. 27 NO. 25
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Taxation pursuit set to continue
JACKIE LIEUWEN PHOTO
■■ Escaping fire JORDAN BECKLEY escapes from the smoking fire safety house assisted by firefighter Brady Champoux. Beckley is a student at the Jack Cook Francophone School, one of more than six schools visited by the fire department during Fire Prevention Week last week. Firefighter Jason Arsenault told students that fire alarms are essential, and should be in every room or at least on every floor. Many students were quick to answer questions about escaping a home safely, which includes tips such as testing the temperature of a door, staying low, and going to a planned meeting place after they exit a home.
AN UPCOMING tour of the region is planned by the provincial cabinet minister who could hold a key to northwestern local governments receiving a share of provincial resource taxation revenue. It is being regarded as a good sign by Skeena New Democratic MLA Robin Austin. That’s because Peter Fassbender, who became responsible for local governments following a cabinet shuffle in early summer, has more clout than his predecessor, Coralee Oakes, Austin said. “The good news is that at least minister Fassbender is somebody who has a lot more heft in cabinet then Coralee Oakes ever did,” said Austin. “He has handled big files, for example the teachers’ file, and he’s been moved over to difficult files down here, like he’s now in charge of TransLink, which has proven to be a very complicated file for the government,” he said. When he was education minister, Fassbender represented the province during an escalating series of teacher job actions which resulted in a full-scale work stoppage in 2014. The teachers and the province negotiated a five-year contract in late September of that year. Austin said he hopes northwestern local government officials who have joined the Northwest B.C. Resource Benefits Alliance, the coalition formed to promote the issue of resource taxation for northwestern governments, press Fassbender during his tour. “The line in the past has been until there is an LNG deal signed, we aren’t doing anything. Well, that’s too late,” said Austin in noting that roads, bridges and schools need to be in place even before final investment decisions are made. He said the Liberals committed themselves to a more general rural dividend during the 2013 election, a program that would provide monies across all rural areas on the province. “All I would say is the BC Liberals promised this, so it’s time for them to actually action it now and do something around it and hopefully minister Fassbender will be told that,” said Austin. The regional resource benefits alliance is framed around having local governments coming under pressure to provide services because of large scale industrial activity yet not having the ability to tax corporations because they are not within their boundaries. Stacey Tyers, a City of Terrace council-
lor and Kitimat-Regional district chair who is also chair of the resource benefits alliance, says she’s ready to meet with Fassbender again following a session she and other northwestern local government officials had with him last month in Vancouver. She did detect a change in the spring when the province turned down a benefits alliance request for $1.1 million to further its work. “The global market crashed. To be fair, the amount of revenue they thought they were going to get changed pretty drastically. They passed LNG legislation that only gives them 3.5 per cent taxes, and then the market also dropped,” said Tyers. But she thinks the resource revenue sharing framework that the benefits alliance is presenting is one that will work no matter what the economy is like. “They can’t overcommit if it’s negotiated on a percentage basis. We are talking about resources, mining too, large resource projects, it doesn’t just have to be LNG,” said Tyers.
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Prices level out
SEVERAL YEARS of significant jumps in residential detached home price increases appear to have come to an end, indicate the latest figures from the BC Northern Real Estate Board. For the first nine months of this year, the average price was $308,266 with 131 homes sold compared to $307,507 for the first nine months of 2014 with 136 homes sold. And that 2014 price was considerably higher than the $250,157 for the first nine months of 2013 with 170 homes sold which itself was higher than the $219,242 for 2012 with 148 homes sold. Kitimat’s single family residential prices dropped to $303,510 for the first nine months of this year with 57 homes sold compared to $318,270 for the first nine months of last year with 67 homes sold. Prince Rupert, on the other hand, saw a rise, from $214,136 for the first nine months of 2014 through the sale of 192 homes to $248,865 with the sale of 126 homes sold for the first nine months of this year.
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Point of view
Still missing
River Kings
Researchers are asking hitchhikers to share their experiences for study \COMMUNITY A10
Family holds vigil for teen who disappeared 20 years ago \NEWS A17
Kickoff to CIHL season sees our team split a pair of games \SPORTS A25