Saturday, June 6, 1992 Dave McCullough Publisher Scott David Composing Room Foreman Warren Chernoff Ou;WiEWS Adrian RAESIDE We expect more, Ed “The Americans don't have to send in the Marines. They’ve taken us with the stroke of a pen.” — MLA Ed Conroy Ed Conroy's remarks about the effects of the Columbia River Treaty make great copy, but we should expect much more than that from the person who speaks on our behalf in Victoria and elsewhere. We should expect, for example, a and cons. We should expect a balanced explanation of why our water is flowing south so rapidly. See And we should expect him to inject some perspective into the debate — like the fact that the water level at the end of June this year will be only seven feet below last year. _ Instead, we get a few off-the-cuff comments that sound disturbingly like jingoism. Conroy and others seem to think the fact that American reservoirs are as low as or lower than ours is irrelevant. They casually dismiss legitimate American power require- ments, dehumanizing the issue by “machine” rather than the need for electric light in a child's bedroom. Canadian interests in this debate are equally legitimate, and neither Ed Conroy nor anyone else need be an apoligist for our aggressive southern neighbors. : But our most constructive course will be to learn what we can from the mistakes we may have made when we signed the last treaty, and make sure we don't repeat them in the next. reasoned analysis of the Treaty's pros |- referring to the Grand Coulee CSS THC, CDENS OB FROECING HBR i en yr AG Take heart Castlegar City books in fairly good shape figures from 1988. taxpayers, your city is in a firm. great shape, but then = “reasonable” financial posi- a tion. . =a That’s the assessment of = ¥ Urban Planning Systems of Kamloops says the City of they’re not a mess either. 2 Urban Planning Systems So an independent consulting Castlegar books aren’t in reviewed the city’s financial Ser ment Planning Study it prepared for the city last August. : There are a couple of caveats. The first is that. UPS used figures prepared by city staff, though the consultants say in their report that they-reviewed and confirmed the numbers. The second caveat is that the figures are a couple of years old. They were prepared in 1990 for a presentation to the Celgar Review Panel. So that means they used - Comments _| $560. from the | Still, the figures give us a good idea of how the city stacks up‘against other municipalities of similar size in this area. First the bad news. The city’s debt is one of the highest in the area — $528 per capita. That is second only to Kimberley’s Nelson boasted the jlowest debt at $208, | followed by Merritt’s $295, ssroads position as part of the Cro. | Ww ve ; Comprehensive Develop- —_——! Trail’s $329 an evel- stoke’s $407. Castlegar, then, had more than twice the debt load of neighboring Nelson. But that’s not all. The city’s debt was a whopping $929 per capita-in 1980. The consultants point out that the’ steady decline in the debt load through the 1980s was due to the city not borrowing any more money during that decade. Meanwhile, Castlegar’s reserves and sur- please see Norman page 7 Heather Hadley Circulation Manager Burt Campbell Publisher Emeritus L.V. Campbell Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 Streei TALK Sherry Heagy Robson “J think it will put a lot of people out of work.” Melissa Dunlop Castlegar “It'll be pretty bad.” Nikki Perrin Castlegar “A lot of people won't be working.” Dave Redding “Nobody will be buying anything.” Question: How do you think a pulp mill strike would affect Castlegar? = “SE ‘ George Cheveldave Trail Castlegar “It certainly will affect the citizens and the businesses.” | Saturday, June 6, 1992 7a ithe News OtherVIEWS Please address all letters to: Letters to the Editor Castlegar News P.O. Box 3007 Castlegar, B.C. V1N 3H4 or deliver 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 anda telephone number at which the writer can be reached between 9 a.m. and 5 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 be disclosed to the editor. The News reserves the right to edit letters for brevity, clarity, legality, grammar and taste. Mention Nanaimo to an Liberals missing mark MLAs get about $3,600 a NDP MLA these days and he looks alarmed; add the words commonwealth holding society, and his day is shot. ; The Nanaimo Common- wealth Holding Society is at the centre of the controversy which has turned the government benches into a bunch of very sombre folks. So far, the row has resulted in three con- Hubert BEYER Report from Victoria month to operate their constituency offices, but the cheques can’t be made out to them personally. For that reason, the MLAs let accounting firms administer the funds for them. The firms will, on behalf of the MLAs, pay the rent for constituency offices, pay salaries, and purchase office equipment and supplies. Over the years, many of the NDP MLAs have been current investigations by the government, and the RCMP has said it would look at the matter if someone brought charges. -First let me explain what the Nanaimo Commonwealth Society is all about. Founded in 1958 to “promote socialism,” the society has had close links to the NDP ever since. The society raises and administers party funds; it has undertaken, not very success- fully I might say, big construction projects, and until recently, it has also operated charity bingos out of its Nanaimo offices. And that’s where the rub lies. The government requires that at least 25 per cent of the proceeds from the bingo operations go to charities, which hasn’t been the case with the bingos run by Nanaimo Commonwealth Society. In fact, in one year, the society raked in $658,000, but forwarded only $20,000 to charitable organizations. What’s more, it did so legally, by becoming a charitable organization itself and thereby being eligible for some of the proceeds from its own bingos. Not that the society didn’t need the money. It did, in the worst way. The society ran into severe financial problems as a result of its ambitious construction projects — the Bastion Hotel and the Dunsmuir Place Building, nicknamed “Red Square” because of its NDP origins. Then money diverted from the bingo proceeds was used to get the society out of its financial woes by paying off debentures. The other aspect that has had the legislature brimming with accusations, most of which might be considered slanderous outside the House, is the fact that a management. pany, operating out of Red Square, has handled constituency funds for a good many NDP Members of the Legislature. using Marwood Services to disburse their constituency funds, the same firm that also handles the accounts for the Nanaimo Commonwealth Holding Society. Having established the relationship between the society and its NDP roots, Marwood Services and the NDP MLAs, the Liberals have pelted the government with embarrassing questions day after day. Rhetorical questions like “will the premier commit today to instruct the Nanaimo Commonwealth Holding Society to stop robbing the poor (by diverting bingo proceeds) and giving it to the NDP?” have done little to gladden the hearts of the NDP members. Unable to ignore the issue, the government responded by initiating a number of investigations. Attorney General Colin Gabelmann instructed his deputy to look into the matter. Government Services Minister Lois Boone told the Gaming Commission to investigate any possible irregularities, and Premier Harcourt has asked Conflict of Interest Commissioner Ted Hughes to look for any possible improprieties with regard to the administering of constituency funds. Considering all the smoke the opposition has been blowing in the legislature, the fire burning around the controversy is pretty small, and that’s really no surprise. When you strip the issue of its rhetoric, there is little substance left. First off, the issue isn’t a new one. Provincial affairs reporters have been writing about he Nanaimo Commonwealth Holding Society for going on 15 years. Five years ago, the RCMP investigated the society and concluded that it had done nothing illegal. Rookies one and all, the Liberals probably didn’t know about that and are running with the only issue they’ve been able to generate any media coverage with. NDP putting its stamp on things MUNICIPAL CHANGES The NDP government. introduced legislation last week it believes will eliminate “scores of minor annoyances” for municipal governments. The changes to the Municipal Act, many of which had been requested by the Union of B.C. Municipalities, include allowing local governments to set their own fee schedules for a variety of administrative services, instead of being tied to a fixed rate set by the provincial government. Another change eliminates the word “alderman,” replacing it with “councillor.” QUALITY AND SERVICE High-quality products and good service are more important than price to many overseas users, according to a report on export and marketing techniques for British Columbia specialty wood products manufacturers. The report, released last week by the economic development ministry, said that well-packaged,high-quality products with good after-sales service and stability of supply are essential to establishing a successful export market. GREENING THE LEGISLATURE A project to “green” the provincial legislature in Victoria was announced last week by Speaker Joan Sawicki. The project involves the replacement of more than 1,100 incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs; the use of recycled paper towels and toilet paper in washrooms; the friendly cleaning products and floor waxes, and the elimination of disposable dishes and cutlery in the legislative dining room. ENVIRONMENT UPDATE Five charges under the Waste Management Act were laid last week against. Weyerhaeuser Canada Ltd: and Richard Mathew Morgan, a businessman operating under contract to the company for illegal transportation of special waste and introduding business waste into the environment at the firm’s Merritt operations, -Hubert Beyer Norman continued from page 6 plus funds — the subject of some discussion by CURB and other critics of city council, is about mid- dle of the road. Castlegar had reserves of $198 per capita, fourth best of the six municipalities surveyed. Trail had the highest reserves with $512 per capita, while Nel- son had $258 and Merritt was the lowest at $126. What Castlegar spends of mu- nicipal services is also about aver- age. Castlegar spends $113 per capita on general government ser- vices, while Nelson spends $105 per capita and Trail $123. Revel- stoke is the lowest at $60 and Kimberley the highest at $147. Both Trail and Nelson spend more than Castlegar for policing. Trail spends $121 per capita and Nelson $132, while Castlegar spends only $80. Similarly, Nelson spends $83 per capita on fire protection — more than three times Castlegar’s $23 per capita. : And both Trail and Nelson spend much more on recreational and cultural services. Trail comes in at a whopping $184 per capita, while Nelson is $131. Castlegar rings in at just $41 — in large part because the regional district shares in the cost of recreational services. However, this figure will be significantly higher now because it does not in- clude the cost of operating the Aquatic Centre, which opened in 1990. The study says Castlegar’s tax base is “good, but not excellent” when compared to the other mu- nicipalities. Homeowners account for 35 per cent of all taxes collected in Castlegar. In Nelson, residents pay 68 per cent, while in Trail the rate is only 14 per cent. But despite a good tax base and an average level of spending, the consultants say Castlegar home- owners pay “relatively high tax- es.” The consultants blame a weak- ening tax base and Castlegar’s heavy reliance on property taxes as a revenue source. All taxes — industrial, residen- tial and commercial — account for 72 per cent of the city’s total rev- enue. That is the highest portion of the municipalities. Nelson, for instance, relies on property taxes for only 43 per cent of its revenues, while in Trail property taxes amount to 64 per cent of total revenue. So there you have it. Castle- gar’s financial picture compared to other municipalities. It’s not great, but then it’s not terrible, either.