When Marshall Mcluhon
coined the phrase “the medium is
the message”, he meant that the °
way o message is delivered often
has more impact than the message
itself.

Mr. McLuhan was referring to
the media, but his concept can be
applied to the busing controversy
that surtaced last week.

The parents of a Glade kin-
dergarten student say they are
being treated as ‘second-class
citizens” because the Castlegar
school board has refused to
provide full busing service for their
son.

Their son takes the morning
bus from Glade to kindergarten at
Tarry’s Elementary school in
Thrums five days a week for half-
day classes.

However, the school board
decided it is too expensive to take
the boy home at noon by school
bus because he is the only Glade
passenger on the bus.

The father of the student has
presented a strong case for the
board to provide full busing for his
son, though the school board is
also on solid ground.

But even more significant is
the way the school board made the
decision to stop busing the kin-
dergarten student. The board
decided in camera. in camera
means the discussion is not open to
the public or press.

And in this instance, the
decision was not even made
public, except to the parents of the
student.

In most school districts, busing
requests are rarely — if ever —
held in camera. in fact, the only

-that should be held in

with far too many items in comera
or in committees which are also
not open to the public.

tn the Glade busing case, the
parents of the student were forced
to take their complaint to the
Castlegar News after feeling they
had not been fairly treated by the
school board. That was a direct
result of the board hearing the
case and making a decision in
private.

Holding the discussion at a
regular board meeting wouldn't
necessarily have meant a different
decision; but it would have given
the parents the satisfaction of
knowing their views had been
aired in a proper forum — a public
forum.

It is another example that the
school board not only has to be
fair, it has to appear to be fair

And it can only do that in
public

It's that.
time again

It's that time of year — fall. A
time of clear, crisp, cool days when
Castlegar area residents begin
preparing for the winter by collec-
ting firewood, cleaning out their
chimneys and cutting the lawn for
perhaps the final time this year
(let's hope).

It's also time to remember that
daylight saving time will end at the
end of October, so we better get
out and do all those things we
promised to do while we still have
time.

Fred
Merriman

The names have been changed.
The details are generalized to make
a point. Readers are invited to
debate through the letters to the
editor section on one of the more
controversial subjects of the day:
health care for the elderly is »
misuse of public funds. In fact health
care is a flagrant misuse of the
English language. We shall save
that idea for a future opinion

Jim and Mary abide in a beautiful
home overlooking the jewelled
lights of Vancouver. All of their
children have completed their for.
mal education and are now suc.
cessfully settled in the noble prof.
essions.

Jim's father, meanwhile, is inter
ned in an extended care hospital
somewhere in the Interior.

Jim, of course, is particularily
grateful to his father who mort-
gaged the family home to provide
and education in engineering.

These many years later, Jim
remembers the difficult years be
fore the consulting firm was es
tablished. His mother mercifully
passed away after a brief bout with
pneumonia as it was sometimes
called before emphysema became
popular.

Meantime, both he and Mary
decided the dryness of the Interior
would be more beneficial for Dad
They confided to close friends that
their North Shore house saw much
of the grandchildren which left little
room to provide a sick room for Dad.

They did not confide in friends
that Mary had weekly commitments
at the Capilano Club which pre
cluded any spare time on her part
to attend to the needs of Dad;
besides, Dad was his father.

Her parents, fortunately, remain.
ed well and independent on the
Island. Some sleepless nights had
been spent when the doctor ex
pressed the opinion that the old man
could no longer maintain the old
place in

Jim and Mary did interview 2 few
home care nurses to determine the

of attending to old Pete
im the North Vancouver home. Jim

&

_—

even shared the problem with his
golfing buddies at the club.

“Get off your ancestor worship
horse, Jim. The government spends
$68 million annually on citizens who
have run afoul of the law

“Your Dad paid taxes most of his
life and were it not for the tax
loopholes, most of the men at this
table would be in the 75 percent tax
bracket. If the government can
spend $200 a day to feed, house and
entertain some two-bit pusher, they
surely can do at least for an
old-timer like your Dad who lived
honestly, worked hard and truned
out a productive established family

“Smarten up, Jim. Your Dad
deserves s little taxpayer assis
tanee. So do you.”

His conscience was clear. It was
good business. The system believes
in univerality

Jim did not hire the home care
nurse. They promised the old fellow
they would call as often as they
could. Mary did write him almost
once a month to tell about the
granchildren. The nurse read the
letter to Peter because his eyes
were not good and it did not make
sense to purchase giasses for a man
well into his 80s.

The nurses at the old folks home
worked six shifts straight, lifting
and diapering, the forgotten. Old
Pete sat in a wheelchair. He was
now quite senile. His mind would
wander. He tapped his fingers on
the table for hours at a time. The old
man was waiting to die.

The nurses tried very hard to
replace the errant concern and
misplaced attention of his busy
family. They beeame either hard
and bitter or emotionally drawn,
depending on their nature

Btuntly put, despite the noblest
efforts by the servants to the
elderly. It is death by banishment.

Liken it to an attitude which

Letters to the Editor

would also say to a small baby:
“Come, back, kid, when you can take
of yourself.” It's enough to make a
grown man ery — and many of them
do.

Westar ad ‘nonsense’

Editer, News:

In the “Help Wanted” column of a
recent issue of the Vancouver Sun,
Westar Lumber Division advertised
applications for the position of Quality
Control Superintendent. The duties
included Quality Control (Lumber
Grading) and other highly technical
jobs including a study and

would insert such an ad ought to be
fired, (maybe this has already hap-
pened) because he certainly doesn't
know his job.

And if Sandy Fulton, Westar's
new president, goes along with this
kind of nonsense, he too should be
fired. Do they believe that the
— if he can be

of saw kerfing — on which a recent
study carried out at UBC came to no
definite conclusion.

I could hardly believe my eyes when
I read underneath the job require-
ments: “The applicant need not have
any sawmil! experience so long as he
has a degree from B.C.I.T.” How any-
one without sawmill experience could
possibly fill such a position is com
pletely beyond me. All applications
were to be sent to the Mill Manager
(not the Industrial Relations Manager,
who normally handles the applica
tions). In my opinion any manager who

Busing
article
disturbing

Editer, Castlegar News:

This letter is in response to the front
page article titled “Busing service
denied” in the Sunday, Sept. 23 paper.
I am a little disturbed by reporter

found — will be taught his job by the
people at the mill who already have
their pink slips tucked in their back
pockets or those who are expecting
theirs any day?

The question of a supervisors’ union
was never once mentioned to me
during the 16 years I was at the
sawmill, but a few years ago a
supervisors’ union was considered at
the pulp mill and in view of the
treatment of at the sawmill of the
supervisory staff, supervisors- at the

pulp mill must be getting worried at ©

the present company policies. »

Also, the office staff at the pulp mill
which has had the advantage of the
sawmill union's office staff salaries
since 1973, will no doubt be thinking
about their future now that the union
office staff at the sawmill has been cut
from 12 to two employees.

To be fair, it must be said that the
company has to make severe cuts in
both union and supervisory categories,
in this ongoing recession. When one
considers the massive layoffs that have
been made in the lumber industry all
over this province, including the total
shutdown of some large operations like

I agree entirely with the view of
your correspondent J.W. Gouk in his
letter last Sunday. An experienced
manager would have done exactly what
Mr. Gouk says should have done and on
the few occasions during my time at
the mill it became necessary to release
anyone — supervisor or union — it was
always carefully considered by man-
agement first. Then, in making its
decision, the factor of human relations
was also included, sadly lacking under
the present management.

For those people — both union and
management who have been cut back
— I offer the following opinion: Do not
waste time in the hopes you may get
back on. If possible get yourself trained
for something else, or seek work
elsewhere.

It's easy to say, I know. But I am
convineed that the sawmill will-never
againreach its former stature of one of
the finest sawmills in B.C.

It will be permanently reduced to
the status of a small log mill or even to
just a chipper mill supplying the pulp
mill or perhaps a part of the pulp mill
expansion as the woodroom.

On what do I base this prediction?
Before the new sawmill was built I was
at a meeting with Columbia Cellulose
officials with Dennis Brookes and
Charlie Dunham. Dennis was sawmill,
Charlie was logging. Columbia Cell-
ulose officials said they were pulp
people and knew nothing about saw-
mills and didn't want any part of one.
However, both Dennis and Charlie

Adrian Chamberlain's dency to
represent everything Castlegar School
District secretary-treasurer John Da
scher said as fact and to represent the
points that I brought forward as
speculation. Mr. Dascher has no
monopoly on the truth.

I did say that the whole thing stinks,
but I also gave the reporter several
reasons for my thinking that; un
fortunately he chose not to print most
of them

The facts presented to the board
were as follows: 10.6 kilometres of
extra driving and half an hour of the
driver's time. This would indeed come
toa saving of $1,600 per year if it were
true, but niga ‘it, is not

The sehool-bus passes right by the
turnoff 3 G' on its way to
Shoreacres. distance from the
turnoff to the BUs stop in Glade (which
is a mile from my home) is exactly two
miles or 3.2 km. Therefore the extra
distance travelled is a total of 6.4 km.

If we use the same 40 cents per km.
quoted by Mr. Dascher, that comes to
$2.56 saving per day. The driver's time
is a total red herring as far as savings
go, as he is paid for the day anyway; so
the only difference is that he spends
possibly 20 minutes of his time
delivering my son home instead of on
what Mr. Dascher calls “other duties.”

Sinee the district will pay us travel
assistance of 16 cents per km. or $2.38
per day, the total saving is $2.56 minus
$2.88 which equals 18 cents per day
However, sinee the government, ac
cording to Mr. Dascher, pays approx
imately 50 per cent of this cost, the
district's share of the saving is nine
cents per day.

Mr. Dascher also told me that board
members and administrators are paid
24 cents to 27 cents per km. to use their
vehicles on school business. Why are
we being offered only 16 cents per km?

The board originally justified this
decision on the grounds af government
budget cuts. Two of the trustees have
since admitted that cost is not the
major factor. If not, then what is?

Red Retziaff
Cade

Bloedel's V: Ply-

wood. I am quite sure that most of the
I am quite sure that most of the
Celgar Lumber employees feel that
they are darned lucky to have a job.
No, it is not what is being done that

is being called into question, but the
simply brutal redneck way in which it
is being done, which is way outdated in
this day and age, the actions of
obviously inexperienced management.
The action of firing a supervisor on
his return from vacation, as reported
by Ray Senger, is particularly re
pulsive and I hope Mr. Senger is

sful in the

pay he is entitled to.

them that a sawmill could be
operated profitably for the next 26
years.

The 25 year forecast has proved to
be remarkably accurate. The mill
began operating in 1961, add 25 years
and you get to 1986. In 1983 a Forest
Service report stated that the Tree
Farm Licence No. 23 held by then
Canadian Cellulose and now held by
Westar, consisted of 83 per cent
over-mature hemlock which is fine for
the pulp mill but no good for the
sawmill. Simply put, Westar has just
about run out of saw logs.

Bob Rivers
Castlegar

Huge response to ad

Editor, Castlegar News:

On Sept. 9, the Kootenay Columbia
Child Care Society placed an ad in the
Castlegar News requesting applic
ations for the position of secretary
bookkeepr for the Society. I don’t know
what kind of response we anticipated,
but the one we got surpassed all
expectation. In two weeks we have
received over 80 resumes and they
continue to come in.

The volume of response to our little
ad speaks loudly about the economic
state of many of the people of this
community. 80 too speaks the content
of the letters. In one household an older
woman needs to return to the
workforee because her husband has
been laid off. Both members of another
household have been out of work for
two years, and the applicant writes

bookkeeping. What happens to the
enthusiasm and aspirations of
young people who have worked to
attain skills which they then cannot use

because there are no jobs for them?

We don't have any answers, but
wished to share the message we
received.

To our 80-odd applicants, I would like
to say that the position of secretary
bookkeeper for the Kootenay Columbia
Child Care Society has been filled. 'm
sorry that the volume of response has
been too great for me to thank you all
individually for taking the time to ap-
ply. I wish you suecess in your
job search. Although this is one in-
stance where it may not be especially
comforting to know you are not alone
— obviously you are not alone.

Tam also going to forward a copy of
this letter both to MP Bob Brisco and
MLA Chris D'Arcy. I would like to say
to each of them, “Sir, we all read that
the employment rate is high. But the
weekly release of numbers and per
centages sometimes numbs us to the
awful urgency in so many individual
lives. I would like to bring that urgency
to you as it was recently brought so
clearly to our Society.”

Miss Betty Carison of Kinnaird left
for Normal School at Victoria by plane
recently.

. 8 @

Some 50 parishioners of St. Rita's

Church attended the Rosary Rally held

Trail on Tuesday night, many
making the journey on the special train

from Nelson.
. 28 «

On Sunday, Sept. 24, an exhibition
baseball game between a Castlegar
Kinnaird Rep. team and the Trail Elks
was held at Castlegar.

25 YEARS AGO
From the Oct. 1, 1959

Castlegar News

A 21-year-old Venetian “knight of
the road” spent Monday night in
on his 4,900-mile tramp from

Atlantic to Pacific.
Guy Macchia, a former apprentice
captain in the Italian merchant marine,
has covered about 4,500 miles since he

the “hum-drum” life he led in Toronto
as a shipping clerk in a department
store.

oe 6

The Stanley Humphries PTA held its
first meeting of the year Monday night
with J. Paluck in the chair.

A large crowd with the majority
being Grade 7 parents, showed great
interest-In the talk given by-W. Roy
Brown, principal, on the Grade 7 place-
ment. Mr. Brown explained how’ the
students are selected for each of the
different Grade 7 classes.

. 28 e

Rt. Rev. P.R. Beattie of Kelowna,
Bishop of Kootenay, officiated at the
induction last week of Rev. H.1.G
Ragg, new minister of St. Alban's
Anglican Church.

Mr. Ragg succeeds Ven. B.A. Res
ker, Archdeacon of Kootenay, who has

Several hundred Dutch bulbs were
planted on the grounds of the Castlegar
and District Hospital this week by
Nielsen's Flowers of Kinnaird.

About 400 Notre Dame University
and Selkirk College students plan to
blockade four U.S.-Canadian border
points today to protest Millrow — the
nuclear blast on Amchitka Island
scheduled for Thursday.

Notre Dame students will send 100
to Patterson, 100 to Nelway, and 50 to
Porthill. About 150 Selkirk students
have agreed to go to Northport, south
of Rossland.

* 28 6

Castlegar and District Senior Citi
zens held their regular meeting Friday
evening with 46 members and two
visitors present.

The subject of a permanent meeting
place for senior citizens was discussed.

anket ta

tell us about one “issue.”
The 1968 taxation statistics reported

There are many deductions which
could reduce a high “total assessed
income” to a zero tax liability which are
legal, and which were enacted to
promote a national social purpose or to
reduce hardship. These 8,031 Cana-
dians were not getting away with
something.

A blanket 20 per cent tax on a “total
assessed income” is not only absurd,
but could injure people whose real
income is quite low.

At present for example. someone
who retires early and transfers accum.
ulated pension amounts or early
retirement gratuity to'a registered
retirement savings plan will pay no tax
on this until future years, but the lump
sum shows as “total assessed income.”

Also, a person who borrowed money
to run a business may have interest
costs off-setting the “total assessed
income.”

Or a farmer could have had losses in
previous years which could reduce, by
present rules, the current year taxable
income to zero.

Perhaps there are too many ded
uetions for too much of taxpayer's

“total assessed income.” But deceitful

allegations about “fairness”, although
popular, are hardly likely to improve
the tax system.

If these deductions are to be changed
or eliminated we should expect that
our politicians will take the time and
trouble to examine the detailed effect
of each item. Anything less than this is
certainly not “speaking for the average
Canadian”.

We need answers to questions like:
Should the federal government en
courage investment in Canadian bus-
inesses, and if so how? Or should
expenses to earn income be allowed as
deductions? Or should taxpayers be
allowed to offset one year's losses

ee
x ‘absurd

We should hope that questions like
these can be addressed without the
oratory of the new demagogues.

B. McDonnell
Trafl

Bicycle
stolen

Editer, News:

For most of the residents living in
Castlegar, the large hills, swerving
streets and flowing rivers are every-
day, natural substances of the com-
munity. Recently, the population of
this city has increased by 12 young
adults. For these 12 people, the river
and mountains are a very exciting first.

Thse new inhabitants come from all
across Canada. They are a part of
Katimavik. Katimavik is a federally-
funded program that offers young
Canadians the chance to experience
something different. They volunteer
their services, organize events and
learn about their host communities.

For the group in this Kootenay
community, living with a restricted
budget has proven to be a challenge.
Looking, or scrounging, for the best
food buys, cheapest second-hand clo-
thes and the least expensive work
materials is one part of the Katimavik
experience.

Castlegar has been hospitable and
generous towards the newcomers. The
continued support for the learning and
growth for these youths will always be
greatly appreciated.

Thus, if anyone in the Castlegar area
knows the whereabouts of one recently
stolen red, woman's bicycle with
warped handlebars, please contact
Katimavik at 365-6933. That bike is the
only means of transportation for a
certain Katimavik member to get to
and from work.

Helen Cibere
Castlegar

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JUST BROWSING . . . Pair of stamp collectors take a look at what one of the exhibit
tables has to offer during the David Thompson Stamp Club 14th annual exhibit
Saturday. Exhibit is also open to public today at the Community Complex from 10
a.m.-3:30 p.m. CosNewsPhoto by Ron Norman

Joy Keillor
Bridge

-Baby boom last year

Castlegar recorded 191
births in 1983 — the most for
any area covered by West
Kootenay Health Unit, in
cluding Trail which had 176
births.

The total number of births

for

Castlegar, Trail, Fruitvale,
Grand Forks, .

WWWWWWWWW WWW WWW WW WWW WWW WW WWW WW WW WW

=WWWWWW

wi bog
By CasNews Staff

ures released
annual report

August, says
the area — which covers

This is a decrease of 30
births or about four per cent
from 1982, according to fig.

Kootenay Health Unit.
The report,

cline is “probably due to the
economic environment.”

in the 1983
of the West
enrolment of 2,296.

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the slight de

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area also declined in 1983 —
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Castlegar had the highest
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There were 299 deaths in
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d over 1982 which had

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