Cassiar Courier the Voice of Cassiar Country October 1985 10 cents Cabins Finally Legalized Since 1983 the Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing has been trying to solve the problem of trespass on Crown land in the Cassiar and Dease River areas. Bob Brodie, Senior Land Officer, Smithers, said the Ministry has now made a decision to legalize eighteen existing cabins and the owners will be able to lease the land for an annual rent, the amount not yet finalized for each cabin. The owners will be assessed back rent, to a maximum of five years. During an open meeting in Cassiar on June 27, a dis- cussion was held regarding future recreational options available for the Dease River Corridor. Brodie said no de- cision had been reached in this regard but by October 1, 1985, his department should know whether applications will be accepted in other areas for cabins. Bob Brodie and Bill Irwin, Manager of Land Adminis- tration, will be in Cassiar on October 1 and 2 and will meet with individual cabin owners between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on October 1 and 2, and between 6:00 p.m and 10:00 p.m. on October 1 in the Arena Lounge. Ap- pointments may be made through the Government Agent in Cassiar, phone 778-7507. There will also be a public meeting on October 1, 1985, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Arena Lounge. Local Residents Question School Board The Stikine District School Board found itself under fire September 14th when it held its meeting in Cassiar. Local residents presented hard-hitting questions to the board and they expected answers. They were mainly concerned with the cost-cutting measures the board has taken in order to meet the funding supplied by the - provincial government. Residents also wanted to know why certain other actions have not been taken. Dave Brocklebank asked why School District 87 has employed a full time superintendent and a full time secretary treasurer when the district is only funded for a half time person in each position. He pointed out that in School District 64, Gulf Islands, one person adequately fills both posts. Board Chairperson Sherry Sethen said the other half of the superintendent’s and secretary treasurer’s salaries comes out of the remoteness and dispersion monies allocated to our district. The board feels this money is well spent in view of the large geographical size of the district. Travel by school board personnel was also questioned. Ida Walters wanted to know how many days the superin- tendent and the director of instruction were out of the district last year. The information is available in school board files. She also wanted to know if the superintendent and the director of instruction were making use of the bonus points given by C P Air and if so why the previous Continued on Page 14. Funding Approved For Northern Lights College Northern Lights College has more than doubled its investment in the Stikine district compared to last year. Stikine College Administrator Tom O’Connor said the college portion of the total budget is up, although our district had more government money to work with last year. Overall he said the district’s funding is about 25% higher than last year. The college’s Chief Executive Officer, Jim Kassen, visited the Stikine area in August. Following his tour of the district the board approved the following grants: $30,000 for Dease Lake $5,000 each for Iskut, Telegraph Creek, Lower Post and Good Hope Lake O’Connor said the increased funding reflects the college board’s confidence in the Stikine district and said, “The area definitely has the full support of the college board.” In Cassiar courses are offered on a cost recovery basis. However, O’Connor said the bulk of the $20,000 approved for equipment purchases earlier this year will be spent in Cassiar. The college has bought two video recorder units for use in Cassiar. One is a BETA unit which will allow the college to access the system used by the school district. Seven computers also will be Continued on Page 15. ~ $400,000 Spent Four kilometres along the Cassiar Road between Quartz Creek and Steadman’s Corner were rebuilt during August and September. District Highways Manager Loren Kelly said the prim- _ ary purpose of the work was to build up the road so it has sufficient base strength to support the heavy trucks going into and out of Cassiar. Kelly said the improvements will also help highways»crews maintain the road more easily. The work should eliminate the ice and water problems experienced on that stretch of the road and should help them plow the road better in winter. In addition to building up the base strength, some curves were straightened, the road was widened and re- aligned horizontally and vertically. A total of $400,000 was allocated for the work. A crew of approximately 24 people has been operating “The Cookery” Restaurant Opens A wat wet “The Cookery”’, Cassiar’s weekend restaurant, opened Friday, September 6, 1985. The restaurant is located in the newly renovated cookhouse and features pre-dinner drinks and a dining room that seats 92. The fully licensed restaurant offers an extensive menu of fine food from shrimp cocktail to steak and lobster. It is open on weekends: Fridays from 8:00 p.m. to midnight Saturdays for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and for dinner from 8:00 p.m. to midnight, and Sundays for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and for dinner from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. “The Cookery” is also operating a very successful take-out service that features short order items as well as pizza. The new restaurant is a welcome addition to the com- munity which has never had a first class restaurant. On Casstar Road ) loaders, D—8’s, dump trucks, scrapers and compactors. Most of the equipment belonged to private contractors. The highways department has on-going plans to improve the road all the way to the airport turnoff. That work will be done when the funds become avail- able. Meanwhile, they are looking at seal-coating the section improved this year sometime in 1986. The Ministry of Highways is also building three new bridges on Highway 37 south of Cassiar. A three span double wide concrete bridge on Thomas Creek is ex- pected to be finished by the end of November. Thomas Creek is about 10 miles north of Bob Quinn. Twenty miles south of Bob Quinn a double span concrete bridge on Beaverpond Creek is expected to be finished by November Ist. Also at Spruce Creek, 20 miles north of Meziaden Lake in the Prince Rupert highways district, a double lane concrete bridge is under construction. More Changes At Brinco Brinco Limited and Dorset Resources Ltd. jointly an- nounced recently that their respective Boards of Directors approved in principle a plan of arrangement subject to the sanction of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland, approv- als of the shareholders of both companies and certain reg- ulatory approvals. Brinco currently has outstanding approximately 18.6 million common: shares, 1.9 million Series A Preferred shares and 7.3 million Series C Preferred shares, Dorset currently owns 67 percent of the outstanding common shares of Brinco and all of the Brinco Series C Preferred shares. The proposed plan of arrangement will involve the ex- change of each Brinco Series A Preferred share outstand- ing into 4 Brinco Common shares and each Series C Pre- ferred share into 1.35 Brinco Common shares. Brinco will then distribute to all of its shareholders units consisting of approximately 55 percent of the Common shares of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Cassiar Mining Corporation (formerly Brinco Mining Limited) together with warrants to purchase additional common shares of Cassiar. Dorset will distribute the Cassiar Mining units which it receives from Brinco to its own common shareholders. Finally, Dorset will transfer all of its oil and gas assets to Brinco in exchange for 7.5 million Brinco common shares and 10,5 million dollars of 10 percent redeemable retractable pre- ferred shares of Brinco. These 7.5 million Brinco Common shares will not be entitled to Cassiar units. Upon completion of the plan of arrangement, Brinco will have approximately 43.4 million common shares out- standing of which 69 per cent will be held by Dorset. Brin- co will own all of the oil and gas assets of Dorset together with its own oil and gas assets. These combined assets have been independently valued at approximately 73 mil- lion dollars using a 20 percent discount rate of projected future net production revenue. Brinco will also own 45 percent of Cassiar Mining Corporation, together with cer- tain other mining interests. The remaining 55 per cent of Cassiar will be owned by the shareholders of Dorset and the shareholders of Brinco other than Dorset. Continued on Page 14