WEDNESDAY, January 25, 19

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editorial comment

Hoist on his petard

Slocan Valley director Eric Nygren was hoist on
his own petard at the last Regional District of Cen-
tral Kootenay board meeting.

It all started when 20 of Mr. Nygren’s constituents.
jammed into the regional district boardroom to
protest a proposed neighborhood pub at Winlaw.
The residents—and many more who wrote to the
regional district—charged that Mr. Nygren had not
consulted with Winlaw residents before bringing
the pub proposal to the board for approval

They argued that the whole affair had been
rushed through in order to be put on the agenda for
the Jan. 14 board meeting.

They had a point.

Notices for the pub application weren’t published
until Dec. 22, just three days before Christmas. The
public information meeting was held on Dec 28,
the week between Christmas and New Year’s. And
the deadline for input was Jan. 2—the day after
New Year’s Day.

One of Mr. Nygren’s fellow directors, Ken Wyllie
of Loyer Arrow-Columbia, pointed to the’irony of
the situation, because it was Mr. Nygren who was
on the other side of the table a little more than 18
months earlier.

That was when Bylaw 923, the Slocan Valley’s
unsightly premises bylaw, was under fire from Mr.
Nygren and his supporters. At that time, Mr. Nygren,
who was just another Slocan Valley resident, argued
that the then-director had rushed the bylaw through
without proper consultation. :

It is ironic, then, that a little more than a year
after he was elected he should find himself in much
the same position—facing charges by residents that
he had failed to properly consult them on a contro-
versial issue.

Mr. Nygren called the comparison of the Winlaw
pub to Bylaw 923 like comparing apples to
oranges. But it can’t be dismissed so easily.

Neighborhood pubs, wherever they are proposed,
are contreversial.. They neéd more time than Mr.
Nygren gave them. The regional board made the
right decision in postponing any approval of the
pub application until its February meeting, allow-
ing residents time to fully understand the proposal.

Ron Norman

A dog is a dog is a dog

Castlegar council has decided to redefine the
meaning of the word “dog”. No longer does “dog”
mean “a canine animal”

Now it means a canine animal “older than eight
months of age.”

But only within city limits, making it the’ only
definition with strict physical boundaries.

Whatever the definition—either by Webster’s or
council’s—a dog is a dog is a dog. Or as Shake-
speare said 400 years ago: a rose by any other
name is still a rose

Ron Norman

ERRORS:

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date. No contingent orders accepted

O.K.... IN OCTOBER. A

MASOAITY OF THE ELECTORATE

ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY

..AND IN NOVEMBER.
THEY DETESTED US:

3

IF THIS TREND CONTINUES,

WE CAN LOOK AT A

SPRING ELECTION.
2 Le

=

>

Library referendum a good deal

It could cost rural residents only $1 a month

It's official

Voters in Lower Arrow-
Columbia will go to the polls on
Saturday, March 18 to decide if
they want to help pay for the
Castlegar -and District Library
through their property taxes.

Ken Wyllie, the regional direc-
tor for the area, introduced the ref-
erendum bylaw at the Jan. 14
Regional District of Central
Kootenay board meeting, where it
was given three readings and sent
off to the Municipal Affairs Min-
istry for approval

Mr. Wyllie and his advisory
planning committee, which recom-
mended the referendum, deserve
full marks for their decision to take
the library issue to a vote

Mind you, it has been a long
time coming. ___

I should know. I helped initiate
discussions with the regional dis-
trict back in 1989 when I was a
director on the library board. So
you know up front where my bias-
es are

I have felt for years that Lower
Arrow-Columbia and Area I resi-
dents should be helping to pay for
the library through their taxes rather
than through membership fees.

Why? Simple: residents in
those areas are some of the heavi-
est library users and, therefore,
should be full-fledged supporters.

They have been such avid library
users despite somewhat hefty
library membership fees. I believe
that if memberships are free, resi-
dents from the outlying areas will
make far greater use of the library.

I point, as proof, to the. history
of library user fees. Back in 1987
the fee was $20 for a family living
in Robson, Raspberry, Ootische-
nia, ete! to join the library

It went from 680 in 1993 when
there was a $50 family fee, to 1,613
im 1994 when there was no fee—an
increase of nearly 1,000 members.

And that was in just one year.

Can you imagine

The total

number of cm
The view

from here

members from
the outlying
Ron
Norman

areas back them
was about
800—or rough-
ly a quarter of
the total library

membership.

the growth in,
say, three years
as library use
becomes a part
of everyday life?

To give you an
idea, in 1993 the
library had a cir-
culation of some

But the rev-
enue generated by that $20 user
fee made up less than five per cent
of the library budget. So we had a
situation where 25 per cent of the
members paid less than five per
cent of the revenue.

In order to make it more equi-
table, the library raised the mem-
bership fee to $50. Guess what
happened?

Rural memberships promptly
plunged to about half of what they
once were. No surprise there. Over
the years, membership from the
outlying areas slowly climbed
again, but never to the 800 or so
they were in 1987

Then in 1994, after much nego-
tiation, Mr. Wyllie and Area I
director John Voykin agreed to
give the library $25,000 in
exchange for free library access
for their residents.

What happened?

Library membership from the
outlying areas catapulted. Sky-
rocketed. Shot through the roof.

107,000. That
means library users borrowed
107,000 books, audiotapes, video-
tapes, magazines, ctc

With the increase in rural mem-
bers, circulation increased 17 per
cent or 18,000 in 1994 to a total
of 125,000,

That is phenomenal for a com-
munity of some 7,000. It is higher
than both Nelson and Trail
libraries

In fact, Castlegar library boasts
the highest circulation for a library
of its size in B.C.

Now, even if residents in Lower
Arrow-Columbia approve the ref-
erendum, it's not like the library
will actually be free. Nothing is
free, as we all know too well.

But the costs will be more
affordable. How much?

Well, based on the 1994 library
budget, city residents would pay
$136,000, Lower Arrow-
Columbia residents $45,000 and
Area I $42,000. <

By the way, that Is the same

sharing arrangement that the city
and the outlying areas have for the
Community Complex, the Aquatic
Centre, Pioneer Arena, regional
parks, transit, economic develop-
ment and the_rest_of the regional
services. The city pays 60 per cent
and the outlying areas 40 per cent

So what will it cost homeown-
ers in Lower Arrow-Columbia to
have free access to the library?
Based on the 1994 budget, about 19
cents per $1,000 of assessed value
In other words, a house assessed at
$100,000 would pay $19.

But the average house price in
Lower-Arrow Columbia is
$65,000, so that house would pay
a little over $12

That amounts to $1 a month
Not a bad deal at all, I'd say, for
access to one of the best libraries
in the province

And make no mistake—Castle-
gar and District Public Library is
one of the best libraries in B.C.

One of the reasons is the book
budget. Castlegar library spends
more than $30,000 a year on new
books, more than either Trail or
Nelson.

It has resulted in one of the
best collections for a library of
its size anywhere in the province
And it is a major reason for its
popularity.

A library, they say, is only as
good as its collection. It is imper-
ative, then that the library be able
to maintain its collection.

A yes vote in, the Lower
Arrow-Columbia on March 18
will help do just that.

Encountering Canada and other things

After single-handedly landing
the jet, replacing the landing gear
in mid-flight, delivering a baby
and holding off seven terrorists
with my bare hands, the rest of my
trip was a lot of fun. O.K., now
that'I have your attention, I'll tell
you about my experiences on:the
rest of the trip.

Encounters with Canada is a
federally sponsored program in
which selected students from
across Canada meet for a week in
Ottawa. Two students from Stan-
ley Humphries are chosen to go
each year.

This year's lucky participants
were Brad Kristian and myself
Both of us attended the sub-theme
of Science and Technology. This
meant that we visited the Museum
of Science and Technology, the
science wing of the University of
Ottawa, the Chalk River Power
Plant and other science-oriented
places.

We also had science speakers
come and talk to us, including a
slightly deranged chemist.

The places we went, sights we
saw, and the beautiful city of

Wy “lem

Ottawa in the fall was only part of
the trip, though. The people I met
made the trip unbelievable and
unforgettable. It was incredible
how so many teens could come
together and have so much fun

There were hurdles to over-
come, such as the different places
everybody came from, accents and
language. All sessions were bilin-
gual, apd we quickly found most
of the people from Quebec spoke
English very well and put my lim-
ited French to shame

Also, the Quebecers weren't the
least bit worried about the Quebec
separation. They didn’t want to

leave Canada and it just wasn't an
issue for them, which makes me
more hopeful for a united Canada.

But, there were also more sub-
tle differences. Like the majority
of students with an Asian heritage
came from B.C. And try to find
anybody in the west that knew
what’ “pogie” was. I finally got a
Maritimer tg tell me. The term is
used for somebody on unemploy-
ment insurance or welfare, another
harsh economic reality of our
country.

On the lighter side of things,
much to my surprise, on the bus,
on the way back from the sym-
phony I overheard two guys from
Saskatchewan talking. Both of
them lived on farms and were
talking about their tractors and
balers the way_ guys here would
discuss their hotrods or snow-
boards. I guess you had to be
there

Anyway, it was pointed out that
we all went to Ottawa with differ-
ent hopes and dreams, speaking
different languages and not realiz-

ing what we were in for. We went
as people representing our
provinces and we came back as
Canadians, with a better under-
standing of our country and the
people in it.

The biggest thing I took away
with me was that no matter how
far apart we are, or how many dif-
ferences we have, we can work
through them because we are all
Canadians.

My patriotic duty done, I will
sign off with this last note: what a
totally awesome trip!

Amelia Gracey is a Stanley
Humphrics Secondary School stu
dent. Encountérs Canada is a fed
erally-sponsored program using
the Terry Fox Center in Ottawa
Each year SHSS selects two
deserving students, on the recom
mendation of staff, to attend a
week-long seminar on a selected
theme. This year, Grade 11 stu-
dents Brad Kristian and Garcey
represented SHSS, both attending
Science and technology sessions

Wednesday, January 25, 1995

The Castlegar Sun

Letters to the Editor

4

Howe's feelings understandable

Dear Editor;

Re: Leonard Howe's letter to
the, Editor in the Jan. 18 Castle-
gar Sun (“Take back CP Rail’s
land grants”).

I can well understand Mr.
Howe's feelings regarding the sale
Of CPR lands. I too felt that way in
the beginning; but have had the
benefit of some historically cor-
rect information regarding the
original grants of land to them.

The government of the. day
made a commitment to build a
transcontinental railway, but did
not have the money to do so. It
approached the CPR and offered
it land in return for building that
rail line.

The manner in which this was
done was really one of the
shrewder moves any government
has ever pulled off.

In addition to the right-of-way,
the government gave the CPR
every other section of land across
the prairies as payment for the
rail line, retaining alternating land
sections for future development.

The CPR had no money, so it
had to sell off much of the grant-
ed land to raise those funds. It

also had to create a need for a rail
line across the prairies where one
did not exist.

To do this, the CPR set up

recruitment centres in Europe to ‘

get people to immigrate to the
prairies so that it had purchasers
for the land and users for the
railway.

The government simply sat
back and waited until the CPR
had done all the recruitment and
raised the land values.

The right-of-way itself does
not amount to the millions of
acres that Mr. Howe mentioned,
Even if a right-of-way were 300
feet wide, 3,500 miles of right-of-
way amounts to 127,000 acres.
Many other rail properties owned
by the CPR were actually pur-
chased by it, sometimes from
other small rail operators.

I would rather concentrate on
the retention of our rail system
than how to reacquire the land.
History again shows us, several
options that should be consid-
eréd, and I am pursuing these
options at this time.

On the matter of deficit
reduction, I agree completely

with Mr, Howe's position that
further tax increases are not
acceptable. The deficit can be
reduced ‘and ultimately can-
celled by prudent spending
reductions by the government.

As he pointed out, everyone but
the government understands that
you cannot continually spend more
than you receive,

Unfortunately Mr. Howe's
concept of using chartered bank
profits to pay off the deficit won't
work. First of all, the profits for ‘
all chartered banks in:1994 is no
where near our current $40 bil-
lion deficit.

Secondly, the deficit feoccurs

every year unless we deal with-it~

through spending reductions. To
use the bank profits as a soluti

banks and corporations pay off all
deficits using unpaid taxes owing
is also something that cannot be
done. The figures as to how much
corporations oWe in unpaid taxes
is one of the great exaggerations
floating around.

If the government confiscated
100 per cent of all Canadian cor-
porate profits, it would only bring
in $20 - $25 billion. If you also
confiscated every penny of
income everyone made over
$50,000, you would raise about
$10 billion.

These two acts combined still
youldn/t pay the deficit for a sin-
gle year and as I pointed out, that
deficit reoccurs annually.

What it would do is drive most

the banks would have to make
that profit every year and turn it
over against the deficit.

Banks are public companies,
and if they have no profits over a
long period of time, they would
suffer the same consequences as
any other non-profitable compa-
ny: they would lose investor con-
fidence and ultimately be closed.

Mr., Howe’s proposal that

Let scientists make the call

Dear Editor: .

When CORE began I was
very mindful of the warning
issued by members of the Union
of Concemed Scientists on Nov.
18, 1992.

These scientists, including half
the living Nobel from

sive, tampering with the world’s
interdependent web of life - cou-
pled with the environmental
d inflicted by def a-
tion, species loss, and climate
change - could trigger
widespread adverse effects,
inched 4

many of the most prestigious’ sci-
entific academies in Europe,
Asia, North America, Africa and
Latin America, stated in very
clear terms that: “natural systems
can no longer absorb the burden
of current human practices” and
that, “No more than one or a few
decades remain before the chance
to avert the threats we now con-
front will be lost and the
prospects for humanity immea-
surably diminished”.

With specific reference to
forestry they stated: “At present
rates (of cutting), some critical
forest types will be gone in a few
years...With them will go large
numbers of plants and animal
species...Much of this damage is
irreversible on a scale of cen-
turies or permanent...Our mas-

pred ap
of critical biological systems
whose interactions and dynamics

we only imperfectly

they wish to carry on harvesting
at or above the current rate.

The government, rather than
risk the loss of thousands and
thousands of jobs in the not too
distant future, should appoint a
scientific panel to review the
evidence and concerns of local
environmentalists.

They should also speed up

for i ion of a

This fall, for example, British
Columbians, saw the Adams’
River salmon run cut to a third.

As local environmentalists
note: “A shocking federal gov-
ernment report cited opinion that
over 283 species of plants and
animals are threatened or endan-
gered in B.C., and over 634 oth-
ers are rare or vulnerable”.

Al Beix of Share B.C. and
those individuals from the West
Kootenay/Boundary CORE table
who support his position obvious-
ly do not regard the scientific
warnings as valid

Like those who ignored the
warnings about the decline of the
cod stocks in the Atlantic fishery,

P np
transition process, reform of for-
est tenure and considef restructur-
ing ‘taxation policy so that those
individuals and corporations who
harvest in an ecologically sound
manner are rewarded.

In this way the fears of those
who work in the forest industry
could begin to be addressed:

‘We will also start the long pro-
cess towards assuring that future
generations will have the right to
live and work in healthy and
intact ecosystems.

Andy Shadrack
Kaslo

[ More letters 8A ‘|

Last year we introduced a new
RRSP option called StockLink*
It was a hit! Probably because it
offers all the high return potential
of the stock market, but none of
the risk

Customers have already been
asking about StockLink for this
year's RRSP purchase, so we're

Kootenay Savin
‘Where You Belong

Trail + Frustvale + Castlegar

+ South Slocan +

pleased to let you know that yes,
it will be available. And, we'll be
announcing the details soon

So stay tuned. Watch for our
ads and keep pestering us at your
branch. After all, why gamble
when there's StockLink, an RRSP
option that let's you play and
never lose

ings

‘

Nakusp + + Waneta Plaza + Kaslo,

New Denver

ap and P gut
of the country. If that occurred,
the problems we have now would
seem small by comparison
Deficit control must be done
by prudent spending reductions.
This can be accomplished
and I will continue to press the
government to move in this
direction.
Jim Gouk, M.P.
West-Revelstok

Hike a slap

» Dear Editor:

I have paid taxes in north
Castlegar since 1950, | am a
senior widow in my own home. I
hardly ever have any garbage. I
bring all recyclables to the depot.
I put all kitchen scraps on my
garden compost. I burn all other

in a burner in

Disposal.
The business people are the
individuals benefitting from the
boom in this city, not the senior

in the face

widows like myself, 80 double
their garbage rates.

1 consider this garbage
increase a slap in the face 16 all
seniors who were here before
some of the city council mem-
bers were even, born.

Those council members sure
did not hesitate to vote for a raise

Fern Schwartzenhaver
Castlegar

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Thanks,
seniors

Dear Editor:

The seniors in Castlegar
deserve our thanks and praise for
the work they did to bring about
the improvements in our bus ser-
vice. Thanks to the seniors for a
job well done

A. Croft
Robson

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