S TANDARD TERRACE
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VOL. 28 NO. 3
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Shelter search back to square one By JACKIE LIEUWEN THE KSAN House Society says it is back to square one in its attempt to find a permanent location for a homeless shelter that would be open during the cold weather months and possibly longer, where it hopes to provide additional services. It had found a building to buy on Lazelle Ave. in the
downtown core but a needed rezoning was rejected by council in a 4-3 vote April 25 after councillors decided the location wasn’t suitable. The decision left Ksan with a mixed message, said Ksan executive director Amanda Bains last week. “It’s a bit frustrating because we have been given direction from city staff to look in the downtown area,
and now that the city council has rejected our rezoning application, we feel like anything we propose in the downtown area would be rejected,” said Bains. “So where does that leave us?” At a public hearing on April 25 which preceded the council vote, councillors heard from a number of business owners and others
that businesses downtown would continue to suffer from public intoxication and loitering downtown if council approved of the rezoning and Ksan opened a shelter in the building between the post office and Terrace Interiors. There were also worries about public safety. Also presented was a petition of 613 signatures
opposing the rezoning as well as over 600 form letters - 423 letters in support and 258 in opposition to the rezone and shelter. For the past two winters Ksan has rented space overnight at the All Nations Centre on Sparks, close to downtown, for its 20-bed extreme weather shelter but the space did not have adequate kitchen or washroom facilities.
BEN BENGTSON PHOTO
■ It’s back THE FIRST Skeena Valley Farmers Market of the summer drew a fair-sized crowd on May 7, despite the rainy weather. Pictured here is Kerry Giesbrecht from the Greater Terrace Beautification Society posing by a bunch of plants she was selling by donation for the society.
That shelter is popularly called a “damp” shelter because it allows in people who have been drinking. Ksan also operates a homeless shelter at its Hall St. complex on the southside but that shelter does not allow in people who have been drinking.
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Delegation visits China
A DELEGATION led by the City of Terrace left for China May 8 to visit with officials from the economic development zone which purchased nearly 1,200 acres at the city’s Skeena Industrial Development Park in 2014. Also on the trip are officials from the city’s development park partner, the Kitselas First Nation, and officials from the Coast Mountains School District and Northwest Community College, all travelling to the Chinese city of Qinhuangdao and the Qinhuangdao Economic and Technological Development Zone. The trip is a follow up to a visit by Chinese officials here last November which featured the signing of a friendship agreement to broaden economic, cultural and educational ties. To date, the Qinhuangdao zone is about to start drilling for water on the lands it purchased in Terrace, where it hopes to attract Chinese-owned enterprises to set up shop here. On the trip are mayor Carol Leclerc along with city councillors Brian Downie, Stacey Tyers and Michael Prevost. The Kitselas are represented by Kitselas First Nation chief councillor Joe Bevan and Jim Dopson from the Kitselas Development Corporation. The Coast Mountains School District is being represented by superintendent Katherine McIntosh and Janet Meyer, one of its directors of instruction. Northwest Community College’s student success director Holly Hovland and the college’s academic head, Gord Weary, round out the delegation. Three days are being spent in Qinhuangdao and two days in Beijing, touring the Chinese capital. Also on the trip are representatives from Burnaby-based Taisheng International Investments which is acting for the Qinhuangdao development zone in Canada. Expenses in China are being covered by the delegation’s Chinese hosts while travel and associated costs are the responsibility of those on the tour.
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Fond farewell
Donating aid
Top honours
Child development worker retires after 38 years. \COMMUNITY A10
Terrace gathering help for evacuated victims of Fort McMurray fire. \NEWS A26
Young skater wins “Can Skater of the Year” for the B.C. and Yukon region. \SPORTS A24