Saturday, January 9, 1993 z 5 1992 ~~ D S = = > consonant [ Who can forget September? The most commonly heard topic on the streets — and certainly in the back rooms of the City of Castlegar’s decision makers — was Price Waterhouse’s report on the running of our city. The city received failing grades in six of seven categories including a four out of 10 for honesty, respect and teamwork. The highest grade was a five out of 10 for service. After two weeks of much talk about what the fallout from the reports release would be, Mayor Audrey Moore spoke out. “Personally, I think that I took extremely responsible action. “For a report like that to be commissioned, you need a council that is courageous,” Moore told The News in a Sept. 16 story. Moore defended council’s decision to hush the two-year-old report and said “80 to 85 per cent of the recommendations have been actioned.” For some people, the information that was released only whetted their appetite for more. The Coalition Unaccepting Rash Bureaucracy’s president, Mike O’Connor began calling for the release of more information. But Victoria lawyer Murray Rankin, who had been instructed to pick through the study and determine what could be made public, stuck to his guns. No further information was released. Well, the full affects of the report are still unknown and won't be fully realized until the next city election this fall. Council wasn’t the only one having a difficult month. While council was grappling with the issue of Price Waterhouse, the Castlegar and District Hospital was trying to keep up with changes to health care in B.C. as It was standing room only when Su the provincial government looked at ways to cut spending. “Certainly there are a lot of changes coming in the health care field but we won’t know what those are until the Royal Commission (on Health Care Service ) releases its report,” Ken Talarico said. “Money is certainly becoming tighter, that’s for sure, but as far as I know there are no changes planned (at the Castlegar hospital) at this point in time,” the hospital’s administrator said. Talarico may have kept a cool head, others, however, were concerned with the possibility of the provincial government regionalizing health care. Talk of one “supercommittee” being formed to represent health interests in the Kootenay — and the possibility of Castlegar losing it’s independent voice — created concern for some members of city bway opened its doors in Castlegar. council and the Regional District of Central Kootenay. RDCK chair George Cady urged people to “make our feelings known. “We should be fighting for our own areas.” eee September notes: A 17-year-old Selkirk College student is facing seven criminal charges including sexually assaulting a fellow student with a weapon. Meanwhile, both students are still attending classes at campus after the accused is released on bail... Labor Minister Moe Sihota offers Cominco $50 million in loan guarantees to help offset some $100 million in losses over the past two years. The announcement is made two days after Economic Development Minister David Zirnhelt says “no deal” to the smelter. @ Saturday, January 9, 1993 24 = dThe News October1992 Mtwys OCTOBER 1992 Well, the big news of October was undoubtedly the two votes we were asked to participate in. The first was Castlegar’ s Oct. 17 by- election, the second was_ the constitutional referendum vote on Oct. 26. Although debate on the referendum had been raging months before the actual vote, it looked like the by-election may have been a little boring to follow for a while. The Coalition Unaccepting Rash Bureaucracy put Doug Green forth as their candidate of choice as early as Sept. 24. But it looked like he was going to win the vacant council seat by acclamation. Finally, at the eleventh hour things got interesting. Renee Read and Dave Gairns tossed their hats into the ring minutes before nominations closed. Election promises were substituted for swipes at each others’ character as the days before the election wound down. Of course, the Price Waterhouse report came up and Gairns — a former city administrator — was asked about his connection to it. Read’s aspirations for office were questioned as being in conflict of interest with her management position to the Castlegar and District Chamber of Commerce. Her ability to make responsible financial decisions for Castlegar residents considering she lives in Blueberry was also questioned. Not to be left out — Green’s connection to CURB was criticized. Bouncing back, Green said “I will go against CURB if I disagree. “I’m not a puppet of CURB, I’ma candidate of CURB,” Green said. In the end, Green was elected with 45 per cent of the vote. Read received 30 per cent and Gairns 24 per cent. — — ae OCTOBER 1991 s 20 By-election votes were much more divided than what we were to see as the results of the referendum vote poured in nine days later. Castlegar and area residents voted a resounding 69 per cent against the referendum package. That was 15 percentage points higher than the 54 per cent of Canadians who voted against the deal. Jim Gouk called the result an indication that “politicians aren’t listening to what Canadians are saying.” But not everyone agreed with the Kootenay-West Revelstoke’s Reform Party candidate. “I still believe it is the best deal that we could have achieved,” Kootenay-West Revelstoke MP Lyle Kristiansen said. eee October notes: Victoria lawyer Murray Rankin presents a bill for $3,300 aaah meee to Castlegar. Rankin was hired to look through the Price Waterhouse report and decide what information should be released to the public. B.C. gets a new labor law amid praise by some and criticism by others. The Labor Relations Code includes an “anti- scab” law and allows secondary boycotts of materials, enabling workers to refuse to handle goods from companies involved in labor disputes. Concern among School District No. 9 trustees and Castlegar city councillors arises after Coun. Doreen Smecher presents a brief to the Education Funding Review Panel. In the brief, Smecher recommends school boards should only be elected as an advisory body, and that teacher bargaining and superintendent hiring be provincial matters. The recommendations are criticized as questioning the board’s authority.