Page 2 September 1982 Cassiar Courier Cabinet Committee replies to local brief The Cassiar community presented a brief to the Cab- inet Committee on Economic Development when they vis- ited in February. Topics covered in this brief were Health, Recreation Services, Education, Power, Land, Northern Allowance, Communications in northern Communities, Incorporation of the Community of Cassiar, Highway Construction and Improvements, Relocation of Highway crew to Cassiar and Load Restriction period. The follow- ing is the reply received. Introduction: The government welcomed the brief to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Development from the Commun- ity of Cassiar as it is essential to hear the views of the peo- ple living in Northwest British Columbia. We are pleased that the community chose to focus its presentation on the local concerns in the Cassiar area. It is important for the government to be aware of these con- cerns if it is to serve the people of the Northwest. This re- port combined with our oral discussion should cover many of the points raised. HEALTH The provincial government has recently reached an agreement with Brinco Mining Ltd. to establish a hospital society to manage and operate Cassiar Hospital as a public facility. The change is expected to cost the provincial gov- ernment about $400,000 a year. When the hospital becomes public, Brinco will be de- signated as a Community Health District for either five years, or until a Regional District Hospital is formed. The Cassiar Hospital Society will be responsible for preparing and forwarding budgets to the Ministry of Health, and each budget will be reviewed and approved ac- cording to Ministry guidelines. The society will be respon- sible for selecting and employing such personnel as are nec- essary for the proper operation of the hospital. RECREATION SERVICES Cassiar has received every consideration under the Re- creation Facilities Assistance Program and will continue to do so when the present moratorium is removed, To date, Cassiar has made two applications under this program and its predecessor, the Community Recreation Facilities Fund. The first one, submitted in Februry 1974, was to help upgrade the curling rink and swimming pool, This ap- plication was later withdrawn by the applicant as the own- er of the property was unable or unwilling to guarantee the minimum tenure of twenty years required to assure that the benefits of the grant would be enjoyed by the public and thus justify this expenditure of public funds. The second application, submitted in October, 1980 was to replace the roof of the arena. This application was not -approved because the project was considered to be of maintenance nature and was not of a high enough priority to receive Provincial funding when judged against other projects competing for the limited funds available. Regarding the recommendation that the community of Cassiar be given the opportunity to apply for capital assistance when the present moratorium is lifted, you may rest assured that this opportunity will be provided on the same basis as for any other community in the Province. This means that the owner or owners of facilities or pro- posed facilities must guarantee public access and security of tenure in exactly the same way as everyone else in the Province is required to do, Further, the community must appreciate that, with limited resources, the Province must attach certain priorities and guidelines to any funding pro- gram in order to provide fair and equitable benefits to all. The problems of remote communities are certainly taken into account, and in that respect, applications from Cas- siar will receive every consideration. The Cassiar Community Club has not applied for any of the other grants or services for which they are eligible. We understand the government recreation consultant for the area, Colin Reid, has met with the club on numerous Occasions and the community knows what is available. The Club, which represents the recreation and sport inter- ests of the community, has a copy of the Recreation and Sport Branch Guide to Grants and Services and has been shown a slide-tape presentation that explains them. The Prince George office of Recreation and Sports will contin: ue to provide any necessary assistance as of course is the case for all similar communities in the North. With respect to assisting the participation of Cassiar residents in Yukon sporting events, the government exam- ined this matter as a result of our meeting we have initi- ated measures so that residents in northern communities such as Cassiar would be eligible for consideration of fund ing to help defray costs for travelling to sporting events in Yukon communities. The Honourable Tom Waterland in- itiated this for the community and if further information is required please contact his office in Victoria. The charge that the Recreation and Sport. Branch does not recognize Cassiar is not quite correct, particular- ly as the programs that they mention, such as the coach- ing program, the Youth Development Camp and the grants for the Northern B.C. Games are all initiatives sup- ported by the Branch. Mr. Ron Butlin, the Chairman of the B.C.Games, ap- preciates the problems faced by communities such as Cas- siar and has discussed these with their Recreation Director Mr. Garry Perriard. Cont’d. on page 6 Hospital takeover Following meetings of representatives of the Hos- pital Society, Ministry of Health and the Comp- any in mid June, the various agreements between the three groups were given to Health Minister Hon. James A. Nielsen, for signature. We were ad- vised at the end of July that the Minister had sign- ed the agreements on July 26th. Financing and operating of the Hospital is now under the auspices of the Cassiar Hospital Society although in fact the transfer of the operations from Brinco Mining Limited to the Society will be phased in over a period of months. PODOSDOCSHOCSOOIOSOTSOCOVO CUSAC INDUSTRIES LIMITED, by Gil Brett Cusac Industries Ltd., commences the 1982 production season at its high grade gold property in the Cassiar region. The Cusac mill which has a rated capacity of 50 tons per day, is now in operation. A stockpile of approximately 300 tons of ore grading in the .) to .8 oz. of gold per ton range, (diluted) is ready for processing. 300 tons of undiluted quartz vein material from this section, milled at Erickson Gold Mine in 1981, averaged 2.19 oz. of gold per ton. The ‘Hot’ vein in the Line 9 area has been pre- pared for immediate mining. The grade, as indi- cated by drilling, in this portion of the vein ranges between .5 and 2.0 oz of gold per ton over widths of 2 to 4 feet. Ore from this area together with ore from the ‘Dino’ vein is sufficient to operate the mill at its’ rated capacity. Surface exploration is continuing and the sev- eral high gold anomolies discovered during the 1981 field season, are being actively investigated. The property adjoins Nu-Energy (Erickson Gold Mines) to the South. TAURUS RESOURCES Taurus Resources previously known as United Hearne is still in operation although it has under- gone a few changes in management. The property was formerly owned 60% by United Hearne and 40% of Taurus Resources. Re- cently Taurus acquired a further 10% interest in the property and it is now under their manage- ment. Resident Manager, Rolly Trenaman said that although the Mill is not operating at full cap- acity things are going fairly well considering the present day economic climate. RCMP NEWS On July 23, Willie Jakesta’s body was recovered from the Dease River approximately three miles from the scene of the canoe accident which occurred in June. On August 5, the body of Walter Johnny, the other victim was recover- ed in the same vicinity. i On July 13, 1982, an American visitor, William Kukla, drowned as a result of a boating accident on the Dease River about one-half mile north of Pinetree Lake. He and his brother were in a boat which overturned. His brother swam to shore and it is believed William held onto the boat until he got close to shore, jumped and slipped and hit his head on something. His brother found him drown- ed in six inches of water. In both boating accidents, no one was wearing life jackets. Ed Kneeland was charged with two counts of forgery in relation to offences to the Wildlife Act. He will appear in court on September 23. On July 22, two miles north of Cottonwood River a jeep left the road, went across the old road, down a bank and landed in the creek. The driver, Michael Batey, and pas- senger Randall Butz, both from United States, were injur- ed and were flown to Whitehorse. On July 5 a vehicle driven by Porty Nitti went out of con- trol going around a corner near Vines Lake on Highway 37. The vehicle skidded a considerable distance, went in- to the ditch and caught on fire, burning completely. The passenger, Christine Tates, was seriously injured and is still in hospital in Vancouver. Court was held on July 18 and the following cases were handled: S HENRY JOHNNY — charged with possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace. The case was dismissed. TOMMY HAWKINS — charged with assault and theft. He did not appear so a warrant has been issued for his arrest. LARRY SPACZYNSKY — charged with impaired driving. He was fined $700.00 and his license was suspended. TIMOTHY WYLIE — charged with impaired driving. Fin- ed $450.00 and his license was suspended, MARC BOWES ~— charged with impaired driving. Fined $700.00 and his licence was suspended. ERIN McPHAIL — charged with driving while disqualified Fined $300.00 and sentenced to seven days in jail. MICHAEL JOHNNY — charged with wounding with in- tent. Did not appear so a warrant was issued for his arrest. TO THE 6: ESDITOR Dear Sir: While it is a fundamental duty of the ‘Opposition to criticize Government policy, a recent column by Al Pas- sarell is not so much critical as it is hypocritical. Like his NDP colleagues, Mr. Passarell prefers to con- centrate on expenditures that not only took place two years ago, but amount to hundreds of dollars or less. At the same time, he and his colleagues have opposed the Government's restraint program that over time will reduce the amount of money that the taxpayer is asked to send to Victoria by hundreds of millions, and even billions of dollars! I, too, am concerned about smaller amounts of ‘money, but | think the people of Atlin Constituency ~ particularly those who may be unemployed at this time -- should demand to know why Mr. Passarell has opposed re- straint legislation that will save the taxpayer so much money in these difficult economic times. This “‘declaration of war’’ on the taxpayer is especial- ly puzzling when one considers how gentle is the restraint program. in contrast to the State of Washington, for exam-. ple -- which has a similar economy to B.C. -- public sector workers are not being asked to freeze or roll back their sal- aries but only to moderate their demands so as to keep as many working as possible. Mr. Passarell goes on to allege that the restraint pro- gram results from an alliance between the Government of | British Columbia and Prime Minister Trudeau. How any- one can claim that the federal government is practising re- straint at a time when its deficit is approaching $18 billion and 25 cents of every tax dollar is going to pay the inter- est on old debt -- is beyond me! Moreover, | am sure your readers will recall that it was Mr. Barrett’s counterpart in Ontario -- the present leader of the NDP, Mr. Bob Rae - who proposed the motion that brought down the Clark Government and brought Pierre Trudeau back into power. This should be of no surprise to your readers. After all, Mr. Barrett did offer to give Mr. Trudeau British Colum- bia’s sacred heritage of oil and gas resources. He and his federal colleagues did support Mr. Trudeau’s original con- stitutional proposal that gave only to Quebec and Ontario a veto, make B.C. a second-class Province and placed in jeopardy British Columbia’s ownership of its resources. And the NDP consistently supported the Trudeau/La- londe National Energy Program which has had such a dis- astrous impact on Western Canada. | understand that such facts may be uncomfortable for the NDP and perhaps this explains the distorted con- tent of Mr. Passarell’s column. However, if we are to recov- er from our current economic difficulties, we will need re- sponsible criticism and the co-operation of everybody, rather than cynical and inconsistent opposition. Yours sincerely, Andy Burton President, Atlin Constituency Social Credit League CASSIAR Bits & Pieces Yes! Lee finally has a current drivers licence - seems she was driving for five years without one — someone slipped up somewhere along the line. Needless to say our local law enforcement offic- er has rectified the matter tho’ Lee had to take another test. Bob L. said he may not come to visit the friend- ly Courier staff any more. We don’t know why but he has the impression we were ‘ganging up on him" We hear that Scott M. was run off the road by ‘B’ Trains while the other fellow at the local ‘Cop Shop’ got chased off the road by a plane. Seems Moccassin Telegraph forgot to tell us that George H. got his bush machine stuck and had - to be towed out - could George be censoring the news? We'd like to say “Hi” to all the visitors in town this summer. It would be nice to list them all but there just isn’t room. Hoped they enjoyed their stay. : = t : : It’s nice to see so many beautiful yards around town. Bill and Bore must be really proud of this one. Some people have no respect for the property of others. We hear that someone took off with the mats from Bill Storie’s sluice box. What happen- ed to that good old Northern honesty? Is that just another thing of the past??? Frank finally finished his yard also and very nice it looks too Frank! You must have been sweet- talking the plants ‘cause we see some flowers growing. While you’re jailing to the flowers Frank you should have a word with Floyd. Seems Floyd lets everyone know when Frank’s out - and- what’s worse - what time he comes in. Everyone is looking extremely healthy sporting their summer tans. However we hear that the best weather in the Province was right here at home. Great for those who remained during the shut-down but not so great for our fire fighters. Condolences to Maria and Dragon Cvetkovich on the passing of Maria’s father in Yugoslavia. Also to Guido and Cathy De Cecco on the death of Guido’s mother recently. The Cassiar Ball team did well at a ball tourna- ment held in Watson Lake August 14 - 16. They made the ‘play-offs and put up a good fight against Whitehorse being edged out by a score of 3 - 1. They came third in the tournament and came away with $100 in prize money. Danny Harrison had a great tournament and won the trophy for the Best Batting Average. While we’re on the subject of soft-ball, the tournament held in Vancouver on the July long week-end was a great success. About 20 people from Cassiar turned up - some to play and some just for moral support. The Vancouver office man- aged to get a team too although they had to rope in outside ‘help’. Cassiar won the first game 15-13 ~ and the Vancouver office won the second game. Apparantly the ball field was the only sunny spot in Vancouver that day. After such glowing reports about the weather we were really surprised to see some of that Merry Christmas Stuff the other morning. It was certainly a shock to the system. Some people just can’t do without ‘Them thar’ modern conveniences. Seems that only one hot - day at his gold claim was enough to make Milan realize that something had to be done. This in- genious shower was the result. The fishing has been great at Chain Lakes - Larry Spaczynski caught a 21 Ib. lake trout one week- end and the following weekend went back and caught a nineteen pounder. He's not telling us where his particular fishing spot is though! Good luck to all our students returning to Universities this fall, to continue their education, WELCOME TO: Clyde and Eileen Millar and their daughters Diana and Catherine. ; Dr. aid Mrs. Ted Bradley. Eric and Allana Stump and_ their daughter Geri. Robert and Joyce Jarvis and son Billy. Don and Sheilagh Best and their family. BORN TO: Reg Duke and Cindy Chasin, a girl, Tabota Olinda Slbs 20z on June I3th 1982 in White- horse General Hospital. Darlene Hykawy and Ken Larden, a boy, Blaine Ryan, Slbs 80z June 20th at the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. Fiona and Tim Carew - a daughter, Christy Sara, 7lbs- 130z on the 13th August at the New Grace Hospital in Vancouver. OBITUARY { Many people were sad to hear of the pass- ing of Istvan (Steve) Molnar on July 10, 1982 in the Cassiar Hospital. He was 75 years old. Steve came to Canada from Budapest, Hungary, in 1957. He hired on with Cassiar Asbestos Corp. Ltd..on May 7, 1957, and worked for Cassiar until his retirement on July 15, 1977. He was still a resident of Cas- siar at the time of his death. A funeral service was conducted at the All Saints Anglican Church on July 14th with the Rev. Bill Morrison officiating and interment took place at the Cassiar Cemetery. Steve is survived by his three children Istvan, Jidka and Anita, all of Edmonton. Cassiar Courier September 1982 Page 3 Erickson Creek Column wy ; gyracte’: ~ aoe ae by Pat Lewis Beaton Erickson’s First Aiders have a lot to be proud of these days. Our team won the 1982 B.C.Pro- vincial Three Man First Aid competition. Captain _ Jim Bondesen, Tom McGrail and Tom Williams, | under coach Joe Hebert, defeated teams from ac- cross the province to walk away with first prize. This is only the second year Erickson has partici, . pated in the competition. Forests fires kept us on the alert this summer. On several occasions we saw huge clouds of smoke billowing over Table Mountain. At times the clouds reflected the red flames of the nearby fires, ashes settled on the camp and smoke filled .the valley. An all night fire watch was in effect one night as the wind whipped the flames past the back of Table Mountain at speeds estimated to be over 50 mph. It was quite a sight! This will surely be remembered as the summer the north burned! While other mines throughout B.C. had shut- downs this summer, Erickson plowed on with no down time. Our crew remains stable at about 60 personnel at the Erickson site. This month, though, we say goodbye to Dave George, one of the long serving employees at Erickson. Dave has been with us since 1979. He joined Erickson as a mill operator, then went on to serve as Surface Foreman. We’ll miss his happy face around camp. Dave plans to go trapping in Ontario this winter. We also say goodbye to geologist Eric Dussell and his talented wife Susan, and to surveyor Mark Price. Mark will be touring Europe this winter. And. we’re happy to welcome GiGi and Nayma McGlynn to our camp. They’re joining” Don McGlynn,who is Erickson’s machinist. Summer always brings lots of visitors to Erick- son. In August we had a visit from Silver Stand- ard’s Bill Dunn and his wife Betty. Bill first came to Cassiar country in the early 50’s. He was re- sponsible for staking Table Mountain for his com- pany. Bill was among the first B.C. prospectors to use airplanes, helicopters and aerial maps to seek out ore bodies. Now he’s seeing the north from the windows of his camper, but I’m willing to bet he’s still checking out the rocks as he heads to- wards Inuvik! '@000GE00000600000000000 PARENTS ADVISORY The Parent Advisory Council meetings are again being held on a regular basis. One of the functions of the Council is to try to solve any school problems which parents are unable to re- solve with the teacher and/or principal. However, they feel that a sincere effort should be made to resolve the problems with the teaching staff. If they are not able to do so then the parents should feel free to contact any member of the Advisory Council to discuss their problem. Parent Advisory Council members are: Alan Davies 778-7675 Pat Riddle 778-7502 Mary Elhorn 7718-7452 Ida Walters 778-7792 John Gwilliam 778-7326 ~ Carmen Bondesen 778-7454. Peter Jones 778-7371 Stefan Dyk 778-7621 The next meeting will be held on September | 1982 and will be advertized on Channel 8 cable service well ahead of time to encourage parents to approach Parent Advisory members if they have anything to bring up. by Pat Riddle Sec.-Treas. TRINA-ANNE RIVER EXCURSIONS TELEGRAPH CREEK, B.C. TO WRANGELL, ALASKA On the Stikine River Tourist & Commercial Trips Francis & Anne Gleason Box 96 Cassiar, B.C. Telegraph Creek, B.C. (604) 778-7316 (604) 235-3161