PAGE = = = Op Dave McCullough Publisher Scott David Harrison Editor Bob Proctor Marketing Manager Mickey Read Composing Room Foreman Warren Chernoff Accountant Mary Ann Fullerton Circulation Manager OurWiEWS Adrian RAESIDE A scandal in waiting he New Democrat PL Meovernment has a scandal waiting to happen. After 14 months of friction-free government, the NDP has dropped the ball right here in the West Kootenay. The appointment of Dr. Margaret Fulton to chair a review of post-secondary services in the West Kootenay isn’t merely an oversight, it is a down-right screw up. Asking the former Nelson University Centre consultant to chair this all-important review is like asking B.C. Federation of Labor President Ken Georgetti to single- handedly pencil the province’s new Labor Relations Code. Both are experts in their fields and both come with impeccable credentials, but neither is suited for the position. Their well-documented biases render objective judgement impossible. Fulton, for whom the utmost in respect is warranted, has publicly endorsed NUC’s degree-granting aspirations since 1989, saying “Nelson is a university town.” How Corky Evans and Ministers Tom Perry, David Zirnhelt and Darlene Marzari overlooked this is inexcusable. And why the four NDP members would now defend this obvious conflict of interest is unforgivable. Fulton deserves an apology from these members for dragging her into this mess. That must be followed by the resignation of the principles involved. Sorry folks, council deserves raise So, Castlegar city council wants a raise. Why not? It would be easy for me to point to all the misgivings that have occurred at city council this year and say these clowns deserve squat, but I won’t. Instead, I believe that Castlegar city council does deserve a raise, clowning around and all. Let’s face it, the current level of pay for our elected officials is nothing short of s.D.HARRISON —— Harrison Comparison Castlegar council — each and every one of them — deserves a pay hike. The paltry-pay our councillors are currently raking in is hardly worth the relentless questions from your average citizen. Presently, councillors earn slightly more than $6,000 a year, while Mayor Audrey Moore gets a tad above $12,000. Quite frankly, the __| headaches from me alone chicken feed. Sure, there’s the fringe benefits — the odd paid-trip here and dressy social function there — but when it comes right down it, our council earns its money and more. There are probably a few people out there wondering where the punch line is, waiting for me to put the Doc Marten boots to our council. If that’s the case, you'll have to wait for another column, because I whole-heartedly agree that the present don’t make up for the money our seven-member council is getting. Serving on city council may be seen as a desirable position, but when it comes right down to it, it can be a dirty job. The past year alone has proven this, what with the Price Waterhouse report, the Coalition Unaccepting Rash Bureaucracy and a news- thirsty media ready to pounce on every issue. please see HARRISON page 7 Street TALK Burt Campbell Publisher Emeritus L.V. Campbell Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 Laura Hoolaef ~ Ootischenia “Yes, a lot of women bring up children on their own.” Marg Webster Castlegar “Yes, it makes sense.” Tom Chrismas Robson “Sure — everyone is capable of working.” Army Hartley Blueberry Creek “Certainly, it’s a good idea.” Question: Do you agree with the NDP government's plans for equal employment hiring? Marilyn Friedrich Castlegar “Yeah, a lot of single women have to support families.” @ Wednesday, December 16, 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 9a.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 be disclosed to the editor. The News reserves the right to edit letters for brevity, clarity, legality, grammar and taste. Letters coWHE EDITOR Snow removal inadequate What is it going to take for the people responsible for maintaining the streets of Castlegar to do a quicker better job? Does somebody have to die in a major vehicle accident for the job to be done better? Columbia Avenue and the road between Castlegar and Celgar Pulp Co. are poorly maintained most of the time during and after snow falls and something has to be done about it. This is only the first month of the winter season. Too much ice is allowed to collect and stay on the roads and that cannot and should not be allowed to continue. What happened to sand and salt, is there a by- law that states that they cannot be used to make the streets safer? Tractor trailers and all kinds of trucks carrying heavy equipment to the mill side- by-side with cars and pick-ups are dangerous. at the best of times, but with ice on the roads they precipitate an accident waiting to happen. Something has to be done about the roads. The snow removal trucks need to be out on snowy days much earlier and later. I should hear them at 4 a.m. on the roads and late at night after snow storms or heavy snow falls. The people responsible for cleaning the roads must use preventive not reactive measures. They should maintain the streets better during the winter season because as we all know this prevents accidents. Elizabeth Miller Castlegar Oh Castlegar, if you only knew... Oh Castlegar, while you sleep the few de- cide for the many. The council members give recognition to the city staff and workers with silence, work loads shift and the beat goes on. Even with a choice of two candidates for representation on the Regional District of Central Kootenay, one councillor chooses a third. Even with a second ballot, a third can- didate is still chosen. The ballot went to a third round before Mayor Audrey Moore was final- ly selected. After, council tries catching up to business license fees, adding a cost of living increase. But whom are we catching up to. Who is in this race? Perhaps some of this fee could go to the Castlegar and District Chamber of Commerce who promote shopping in this city? Perhaps not! Bylaw 630 will tax the downtown business improvement area by $50,000 for the next five years for continuing marketing, beautifica- tion, research, maintenance and management for their particular area. For that, the taxes go up. Service or to be served. That is the question. Perhaps this is a world disease where the elect- ed wish to be served and we continue to pay the bills. Merry Christmas and enjoy, for ’93 will be more expensive than ’92. And the beat goes on. Peter Popoff Castlegar stop throwing spears, arrows I think The News hit the wrong season for its crucifying. This is supposed to be the ho-ho- ho time of year. From the editorial to the two pieces by Mike O’Connor — one reported by Scott David Harrison — to George Cady’s sad article (maybe he is afraid of competition or his high paying job?), you did great at trying to crucify Mayor Audrey Moore. If one could get through the “backroom politicking”, “mockery”, and “I regret the loss of Doreen” as though she had died, and all the other spears and arrows, it seems to me that the bottom line is there was a nomination, eventually a completed vote and our elected representatives gave a majority vote to Moore. Accepted. Both Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Smecher do an excellent job for our community. Over 95 per cent of council’s accomplishments are A-OK, so why do you continuously ignite every little thing that they do not agree on unanimously? I think the quiet majority is not as upset as your little group seems to be. Dorothy Martini Castlegar CBC distorts the real story of Sons of Freedom I find it absolutely necessary to comment on the latest CBC TV production about the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors. CBC personnel approached one of the Krestova people to make arrangements for an interview regarding the 1950s government abduction of Doukhobor children; who were imprisoned in New Denver for seven years, under dire conditions, for forced education. Due to previous knowledge and experience with the CBC, their evil distortion of facts and deliberate lies, no one wished to speak with them. Obviously, the CBC’s evil intention at this time, is to scratch open the deep wound created by the inhumane abduction of our children and to mold public opinion from the awful truth to what the CBC wants people to believe. The public generally does not know what happens in their own back yard, so the CBC takes advantage of this fact and brainwashes society. The Sons of Freedom had absolutely nothing to gain by burning their own homes. But those who pledged to “break the backs of the Sons of Freedom” did have much to gain for their election campaigns. The instructions of their paid advisor, Emmet Gulley, was to remove the children in order to educate and assimilate them forcibly. This was not a simple matter to openly accomplish without extreme static from the public, but would have to be strategically manoeuvred with the assistance of inside personnel and in the name of religion. The professional advisor, Emmet Gulley, was able to befriend John J. Verigin, possibly by threat and inducements, to assist the authorities in this matter of inside instigation. (Verigin was eventually awarded the order of Canada.) He managed to proclaim John Lebedoff as leader of the Sons of Freedom. Lebedoff, in turn, managed to persuade the Sons of Freedom to burn their homes and create a tent village in Perry’s Siding, an isolated location out of sight of the public. please see CBC page 19 Harrison continued from page 6 Outside of the mini-scandals, there are the things that are con- tinually overlooked... namely, the next-to-nightly meetings our councillors attend because it is ex- pected of them. OK, so its strange to see me de- fending city council, but I’m not. And I won't. Rather, I am defend- ing the position of a councillor, whether that councillor be from Castlegar or Tuktoyaktuk. Excluding Lower Mainland communities where councillors are paid in upwards of $60,000 per year, while mayors hit the $100,000 mark, municipal politics is hardly a well-paying position. Truth is, most municipal councils are grossly underpaid and Castle- gar is no exception. Despite that, Castlegar won’t vote itself a raise. Instead, fearful of the criticism that could follow should it vote itself a raise one year before the 1993 municipal election, council has put that re- sponsibility in the hands of a three-person committee. This committee will review Castlegar’s current pay structure and decide if a raise is warranted. To do this, it will review the wages — oops... the technical term is stipends — of other B.C. municipalities. With. that said, I have a few suggestions for this review com- mittee. First, council deserves a raise... this much is a given. But how much and when is another matter? I could suggest that council re- ceive increases equal to that of the marketplace, but that won't cover the cost of a year’s supply of Tums, let alone the water to wash it down with. Instead, believe it or not, I’d like to see council receive a hefty increase. Something in the neigh- borhood of $1,000 per councillor and $2,000 for our mayor. Collectively, that’s represents an $8,000 increase to the annual budget. Sure, it sounds like a lot, but when you consider that its rough- ly an extra $1.16 per citizen per year or 9.6 cents per month, we're talking about peanuts. Let’s face it, there are a lot of things about our city council that I don’t agree with and I won't agree with, but pay hikes isn’t one of them. Even at $7,000 a councillor and $14,000 a mayor, Castlegar will be getting the most out of its tax dol- lars. It’s time we recognized this and paid councillors — present and future — at least a fraction of their worth. Castlegar has been getting bar- gain-basement representation for far too long. :