Worle ay’ Saptshibel 38. Yo02 mt Dave McCullough Publisher Scott David Harrison Editor Mickey Read Composing Room Foreman Warren Chernoff Accountant Mary Ann Fullerton Circulation Manager OurWiEWS AdrianRAESIDE Bill 13 must be examined hat is supposed to be a short junket into the West Kootenay to promote the constitutional accord could turn out to be one troublesome journey for Moe Sihota. The Constitutional Affairs and Labor Minister may be getting more than he bargains for when he touches down at the Castlegar airport. Sihota has plenty of explaining to about the performance of his government, starting and ending with his role on controversial Bill 13. The Labor Minister promised but failed to revamp the law which prevents secondary pickets during disputes. Bill 13 was a_ source of consternation during the pulp industry’s summer of discontent and it is proving to be equally as frustrating for members of West Kootenay Powers two striking unions. The labor law will certainly be addressed when Sihota meets with members of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada for a 10- minute session this Friday. Whether you agree with this law or not, Sihota must speak to it instead of hiding behind the provincial committee that is taking its sweet time coming up with anything resembling action. Unionized workers are the allies of the New Democrat Party and until Sihota lives up to his promise, you can’t blame them for taking his constitutional message with a grain of salt. LL Tey < » \ 2 at CANADIAN | E 2) 3 ES Tm re vt 2 S fe CANADIAN Y ECONOMY Cominco getting mixed Forgive me if I’m a little messages comment for the Sept. 23. confused about the things that are going on at Cominco these days, I’m not getting much help. See, last Tuesday the government issued a seven- page news release announcing that Trail’s giant lead and zinc smelter wasn’t getting one red nickel from the frugal folks in Victoria. Taking a bold stand, Economic Development s.D.HARRISON Harrison Comparison paper. Being the diligent lad I claim to be, I spoked to Ed Conroy about this bureaucratic brouhaha the following day. Being the foot-soldier that he is, Conroy put on his team-player’s face to tow the party line, saying the government can’t continue to use taxpayers’ dollar to bail out troubled industries. Minister David Zirnhelt said the taxpayers of British Columbia could have contributed to Cominco’s economic survival. Instead, from the safety of his Victoria office, Zirnhelt put a huge red-inked ‘X’ through a plan that would see the government cough up some cash to help Cominco ease the pain of hefty tax and water rates. “OK, the government’s playing hardball,” I say to myself, scanning the release, knowing it arrived far too late to get Enter Moe _ Sihota. Using that classic good- cop, bad-cop scenario, Sihota stepped into the limelight to offer Cominco $50 million in loan guarantees. Needless to say, Sihota’s announcement came as a pleasant — if not confusing — surprise to Cominco. After all, this same government turned its noses up at the Trail operation just one day earlier. please see HARRISON page 7 Street( TALK Burt C. LV. Camp Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 Question: How are you going to vote in the constitutional referendum on October 28? A Sandy Nichol Castlegar “I don’t know. I haven’t read enough on it.” Deanna Benson Genelle “If they’re trying to keep Quebec in Canada, that’s fine.” He 4 Joan Blais Castlegar “There isn’t much coverage on what we're voting on.” Dennis Rayburn “Yes. Because it would be better to have 10 provinces.” Mabel Willness Trail Pass Creek “] think it should be revealed what is in the package.” @ Wednesday, September 30, 1992 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 and a 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. Letters coWHE OR aR. A recent newspaper article about the failure of the British Co- lumbia Forest Service to require pre-harvest silviculture prescrip- tions (PHSPs) on logging was pret- ty revelatory. Arrow Forest District opera- tions manager Ian Hamann’s statement that “the key to this whole thing is the way we view it” is mind boggling in its implica- tions. But it corroborates the mind set of the forest service which has been evident for years. The ‘old boys’ in command here have been serving the interests of industry for years. As a result the B.C. Forest Act and the duties of the Forest Min- istry to protect and rightly utilize the forest resource to serve the public interest have been nullified. It’s the forest companies who have dictated the terms, which have acquired public lands for next to nothing, which have reaped big profits over the years, and have shut down employment after they've creamed the wood re- source. Small wonder that half of all the timber cut in rate of logging is in- creasing. Meanwhile, as the actual cut has gone up, forest jobs have gone down. The ministry continues to be- tray the public trust under the NDP as it did under the Socreds. This is because top-level NDP intentions are sandbagged, sabo- taged, deformed or inverted as they filter through the bureau- cratic hierarchy, or ‘old boys’ net- work which built up in the system under long years of the corrupt So- cred party leadership. Mr. Hamman’s statement un- wittingly tells us — in astonishing succinctness — what is wrong with the forest service attitude. They support what benefits the interests of forest companies and attempt to hide audits or investi- gations which reveal their failure to uphold the law and enforce good forest practices. Wrong doing by companies is ig- nored; challenge or exposure of it is what is hated; proper questions and concerns by the public are greeted with arrogance, mis-state- ment, contempt and belligerence. The forest service has too long been permitted its corrupt al- liances with industry and the ex- ercise of its powers in contraven- tion of the very act which they are Forest service ignores public concerns responsible to enforce. It’s made the forest service the front door of the logging company’s profiteering. What good is it then to change a government and seek new leaders when they end up administrating the same old mess, while telling us things are getting better? I voted for the NDP as the only party capable of putting the Socre- ds out of office yet the old abuses continue along with the same old justifications. What is needed is a revamp of the entire forest ministry. Their conduct and attitude is an inseparable part of the problem of the dwindling forest resource. Richard Caniell New Denver We wish to respond to comments made by Dr. David Williams in his Sept. 16th letter to The News titled ICBC refuses to accept the facts: Referring to President Robyn Allan’s statements concerning ICBC’s policy to deny whiplash injury claims resulting from accidents in which the vehicles involved suffer little or no damage. ICBC’s position is clear. Unless there is damage to a vehicle’s ICBC stands behind its whiplash claims policies claim of whiplash. Otherwise healthy and robust individuals who believe they have been injured in these incidents, which involve collisions at a normal person’s strolling speed, can take legal action. However, our experience since announcing this policy on August 12th is that many people have simply walked away from these “injury” claims. Every cent of every dollar motorists pay settlements for people who have suffered no loss. Without urgent action by everyone involved to keep claim costs down, auto aang will no longer be affordable in B.C. Clearly, everyone — that includes drivers, ICBC and Dr. Williams alike — must work together to make that happen. Ken Hardie sheet metal,.bumper or sub-structure, or unless the occupant has a pre-existing medical or physical condition that would tend to make them vulnerable to harm in these accidents, ICBC will not accept a in premiums to ICBC goes to pay for damage and injury claims. The vast majority of motorists, those who are accident-free, should not be asked to pay higher and higher rates to finance Public Information Department Manager, Media Relations ICBC North Vancouver Harrison continued from page 6 But Cominco wasn’t the only one forced to take a ride on that bureaucratic rollercoaster known as the New Democrat government. So, too, was our own Ed Conroy. One day after begrudgingly biting the bullet, the Rossland- Trail MLA is backpedaling because the $50 million he said the government can’t dig into its pockets for is suddenly found. (Is it me, or was it part of the New Democrat mandate to turn Ed Conroy into a contortionist before the next provincial election?) Depending on the rumors you believe, Cominco forced the government’s hand, saying in no uncertain terms that the Trail smelter would close if the government didn’t provide some sort of financial relief — aka, the-$50 million. Elsewhere, it is rumored that the government simply made a boo-boo, disregarding the suggestions of a Job Protection Commission report which stated that Cominco could save $50 million if the provincial and local governments agreed to relax its water and tax rates. Now, I’m no expert on the affairs of this government but I do have one theory on why the $50 million that was unavailable one day appeared the next. Here it goes: The government was trying to deliver a message to its major industries. It wanted to tell them that the long ride on the Taxpayer Express was over. And indeed, it is. What the government didn’t count on, though, was that Cominco has a few tricks up its sleeve. First, the financial tears Cominco has been shedding for the past two years are real... as real as the 500-plus layoffs the Trail operation issued in 1992. Second, Cominco did play hardball, forecasting a bleak future for the Trail site unless the government anteed up. The clincher of my theory lies with Ken Georgetti, though. A former United Steelworkers of America president in Trail, the local lad has done well for himself, rising through the ranks to become the President of the B.C. Federation of Labor. And because of that, Georgetti is no stranger to Moe Sihota. Considering Georgetti’s might and his ties to Cominco, it wouldn’t take much for him to pick up the phone and contact his buddy Moe regarding the fate of his former union members. After a few ‘hellos’ and ‘howdoyados,’ Georgetti demands some sort of deal that will keep his friends and family employed. Enter the $50 million. Now, don’t get me wrong here, this is only my theory. But it’s a theory that goes a long way towards explaining why our Labor Minister announced the $50 million in loan guarantees instead of the man who supposedly nailed the coffin shut — David Zirnhelt. It would also help to explain the surprise in Ed Conroy’s voice when I contacted him last week about Sihota’s offer. I guess we'll never know what really happened. All I know is that the 2,000-plus jobs that were in doubt one week ago appear salvageable because the government is now willing to negotiate. Why it didn’t do that in the first place, I don’t know. But, then again, I suspect the few folks that remain in a tiny town known as Cassiar are asking the same question.