BACK in 1988, Terrace was just emerging from a harsh recession caused by a downturn in the forest industry. Unemployment ran in the high teens and a number of work programs kept food on the table for many people.
But there was a growing optimism. Construction of a new Skeena Cellulose sawmill was well underway, part of a regional network of processing facilities undertaken by the company’s owner, Repap Enterprises, which promised to put the region on a solid footing.
That was the backdrop when the first edition of The Terrace Standard hit the streets on April 27, 1988.
Since then, some 1,300 issues of The Terrace Standard have been printed and this issue of April 24, 2013 marks 25 years of publication.
Those issues chronicled the opening of the Skeena Cellulose mill in the fall of 1988, the boom years which followed, the death throes of that company beginning in 1997 which touched off a regional recession lasting more than a decade, the intricate negotiations leading to the signing of the Nisga’a Final Agreement in 2000, closures of schools and businesses, the loss of population, the passings of residents, the births of others, community celebrations both large and small, the 2007 flood and that amazing period of time culminating in Hockeyville 2009.
No one can predict next week let alone 25 years. But count on The Terrace Standard being there.