perience tne LE SATAN PM PN ARNT EN Wednesday, April 15, 1992 @ atheNews | Ou, VIEWS Ferry users win the war t last, the veil of silence has Av: lifted. Friday, the rovincial government released the infamous Inland Ferry Report. The report — some 100 pages of recommendations, requests and rantings — proves that the government had eyes on the Robson ferry all along. That comes as no big surprise to this community, who watched helplessly as its ferry chugged its way up the Columbia River, but other communities will be shocked. Take Langley, for example. The report recommended that the much- travelled and highly popular Albion ferry be scrapped. With it, the government also had designs on ending the lives of the McLure and Marguerite ferries. The bureaucratic alienation of British Columbia communities doesn’t end there, though. The government also had eyes on the Arrow Park crossing — the same crossing that the Robson ferry was whisked away to. These ferries remain afloat, though, largely because of the Robson-Raspberry Ferry Users Ad Hoc Committee. When most of us stood idly by, the committee decided alt \ Environmental ist, | think not I had my stomach turn this weekend. = Not that fun, bashful turning sensation you get as you blush your way through (dp) your first kiss. Hardly. oc _Imstead, there was: nothing sensational about oc the turning I felt. It left me P= feeling naked, wondering just what the hell is going Fa Ee on in British Columbia. g By now you’ve hopefully Harrison Saturday newspaper, I came across a story on the tree-spiking incident. The featured speaker in this article happened to be Paul Watson, that well- known-for-all-the-wrong- reasons leader of the Sea Shepherd Society. Watson, a former Greenpeace executive who left the organization, % saying it had become too heard of the despicable acts| 2 Comparison soft, applauded Walbran of environmental sabotage tree spiking as the way to taking place in the Walbran Valley on Vancouver Island. If you haven’t, allow me to refresh your go. He also accused the Western Canada Wilderness Committee of Wednesday, April 15, 1992 The News Other VIEWS Please address all letters to: Letters to the . Editor Castlegar News P.O. Box 3007 Castlegar, B.C. V1N 3H4 Letters :oWHE EDITOR The Art-ful dodger An open letter to Transport Minister Art Charbonneau: fi You have not yet responded to the Castlegar and District Chamber of Commerce’s two previous letters regarding the Robson-Castlegar bridge. We request that you address the concerns that we expressed in those letters. We also request that you provide us with the status of the local highway improvements the province also committed to as part of the approval process for the Celgar Modernization Project. Steve Pelton President Job creation needed now How much international condemnation can the provincial government withstand before it makes positive changes for the environment in the forest industry? In recent days, both the World Wildlife Fund and Canada’s federal government have seen fit to criticize B.C. forest practices. They join a growing list of outspoken, informed, credible groups who understand the long term implications of forest rape. In today’s mainstream society, it is recognized that workers must expect upwards of three career changes in their working lives. Traditionally, British dock workers not only had their jobs guaranteed for life, but also a job for their sons, alongside them. This is no longer the case, and while our society insists on measuring human activity with a dollar bill, it cannot be so in the forest industry. No job can be protected today, and the share groups of B.C. would serve their supporters much better if they redirected their resources towards job retraining and job creation. Donna Whitta Nelson Canada Post has a plan In 1988 Canada Post Corporation was presented with the dubious distinction of “Annual Doublespeak” award by the Canadian Association of Teachers of English. Only fitting, then, that Canada Post spokesperson Ilona Beiks should say that Castlegar’s post office would close only “if better service could be provided for Castlegar,” i.e. if Canada Post could find businesses willing (and silly enough) to take on a postal franchise. Since, in Beiks and Canada Post’s eyes, franchises always provide “better customer service,” what she is really saying is that the sooner the post office closes the better. Certainly not for the businesses that are saddled with franchises and the typically poor renumeration they receive from Canada Post for this service. And certainly not for the consumer, who must now deal with loss of parcel security, poorly-trained staff in a franchise, and often wildly fluctuating rates of parcel postage charged from one franchise to the next. (A Montreal newspaper story on this last phenomenon recently prompted me to - undertake my own survey between the two franchises operating currently in Castlegar and Robson: $7 mailing cost at one franchise rose.to $14 at the other, for an identical package.) This latest “Beikspeak,” to coin a term, is reflective of the fundamental chicanery of Canada Post Corporation. While the one hand joins ranks with the Bronfmans to sponsor TV ads in praise of Canadian heritage, the other hand has systematically replaced hundreds of genuine, properly staffed post offices across our nation with sub-standard “retail postal outlets.” And these postal closures or rationalizations, in Canada Post lingo, are not rationalized on the basis of community needs.. They are simply part of a documented corporate plan — one which, despite a facade of concern for satisfying consumer wishes on the part of the corporation, has nothing to do with serving the best interests of communities and everything to do with maximizing profits (perhaps to put towards such noble national causes as purchasing SkyDome seats for corporate big shots). For anyone still believing otherwise simply consider this: except for those communities whose businesses wisely united against accepting franchises, Canada Post has, in virtually every case where it has met with public opposition to postal closures, never even considered the taxpayers’ wishes for retention of their post offices to be an option. Richard Widdifield Robson B.C. wheels and deals with speeders 3 ea aa: « Rea casi pa to rock the boat. So much-so, that the government didn’t dare touching any got ening of the other inland fleets. Editor Our ferry may be lost forever, but Mickey Read thanks to this small but diligent Composing Room committee, other communities will Biedeatdneh never know our hardships. Warren Chernoff memory. Last week, some unsuspecting, just-out- to-earn-a-paycheque loggers discovered that 27 trees in the Walbran had been spiked. Just dandy. What’s worse, is those 27 are said to be just a tiny portion of the hundreds that have been spiked. Flash forward to Saturday with me. Laying in couch-mode flipping through a buckling to pressure, by offering a $1,000 reward for the heads of any known tree spikers. Ridiculous comments from a ridiculous man, I thought to myself. That’s when it hit me, that acid-like grumble, centred in the pit of my suddenly- fearful stomach. please see HARRISON page 7 LV. Campbell Streef TALK 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 Rob Keller Question: Who do you think wo Ivan Salekin Wayne Stupnikoff n the hockey strike — the players or the owners? Jana MacLeod Darren Ballard Castlegar Castlegar Robson Castlegar Trail “The owners.” “The players.” “J couldn’t tell you, “Everybody. It was “The players.” . ie : but I sympathize with a great marketing the players.” technique.” — or deli them-to. 197 Columbia Ave. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not longer than 300 words. Letters MUST be signed and include the writer's first and last names, address and a telephone number at which the writer can be reached between 9 a.m. and5 p.m. The writer’s name and city or town of residence only _ will be published. Only in exceptional cases will letters be published anonymously. Even in those cases, the name, address and _Phone number of the writer MUST reserves the right to edit letters for brevity . clarity ° legality, grammar and taste. Be warned, all you speed freaks . whose driving habits have browned me off for years: if you keep up your irresponsible behav- jor behind the steering wheels, it’s going to cost you. You'll notice, we’re not talking That’s a separate problem. His measure is aimed at people who are transformed into absolute speed. . They accelerate in the middle of a block to beat an amber light. They disregard pedestrian crossings. Traffic fines were hiked dra- matically last week in an attempt to lower British Columbia’s acci- dent and death rate which, ac- cording to Attorney General Colin Gabelmann is “absolutely intoler- able.” The fine for not wearing a seat- belt or not using a child car seat went up to $75 from $35. Speeding fines were increased to $100 from $75, fines for exces- sive speeding jumped to $150 from $100 and driving too fast in school and playground zones will cost $125, up from the previously- Harrison continued from page 6 See, my family has a long histo- ry in the forest industry — every- thing from fallers and chokers to shake and shingle producers. Why for two long, hard sum- mers, I helped an uncle fall, buck and split the cedar used for shakes. I passed on the third sum- mer. Locally, I think we’d be hard Report from Victoria Hubert BEYER paltry $50. “We need to get B.C.’s attention ~ about the problem we have with traffic violations, and hopefully this will help accomplish it,” Gabelmann said. pressed to find anyone who isn’t reliant on our forest industry to help supply their paycheque. A recent study produced by the B.C. Forest Resourses Commis- sion found 75 per cent of Castle- gar’s population was dependent on the forest industry — that was tops among all Kootenays com- munties. We can’t and shouldn't ignore maniacs the moment they get be- hind the wheel of their car. I’m sure that most of us have, at one time or another, exceeded the legal speed limit, and I’m not making excuses for that. But the driver who occasionally drives 60 kilometres in a 50-kilometre zone isn’t the problem. The problem is the reckless dri- ver who thinks nothing of racing at 80 kilometres an hour through town, or the driver who doesn't take his foot off the accelerator in a playground or school zone. You see them every day. They pass you at break-neck the mammoth role the forest in- dustry plays within our communi- ties. Nor, should we ignore the re- sponsibilty forest companies have to preserve the industry through strictly regulated management practices. They would rather speed up than let you change lanes. They are the morons who make driving a very dangerous busi- ness. The attention the government appears to be giving the problem of reckless driving should make any responsible driver happy. Stiffer fines, it seems, are a start. is And even if hitting them in the pocket book doesn’t bring bad dri- vers to their senses, at least we'll have the satisfaction that the id- iots will put an additional $15 mil- lion into provincial coffers. I’m not adovcating the destrcu- tion of B.C. forests, heck, I’ve even been known to hug the odd tree. But I have to draw the line at these selfish acts of terrorism. For one to think tree spikers are acting in the interest of the en- Tree spiking is nor . it puts human life at risk under a guise of preservation. Is there any bigger joke? vir . is a ludicrous notion. Put simply, they are acting for themselves. Nothing more, noth- ing less. roth te cote