Saturday, October 3, 1992 m@ Kr At the professional stick chaser's training camp. WKP gets one agreement Wl IBEW inks deal in principle with utility Corinne Jackson NEWS REPORTER One down, one to go. West Kootenay Power and the International Brother- hood of Electrical Workers walked away from the table at 2:15 a.m. Wednesday with an agreement in principle af- ter 18 hours of negotiating. “Hopefully this is it,” Mike Bradshaw said. WKP’s director of commu- nity and public affairs said, ‘I don’t take any (tentative agreements) for granted.” But Bradshaw said “we are looking forward to getting back to normal.” It may take WKP opera- tions a while to get back on track. : : Mediator Don Cott said PolicCBEAT Three people are in the hos- pital with serious back in- that union members may be meeting to vote on the deal next week. Even if members agrees with the terms of the deal it may be a while before they re- turn to work. Cott said “because the (Of- fice of Technical Employees Union) is on strike, they'd have picket lines that would cause problems for IBEW Although the OTEU has been on strike since Aug. 30, they walked off the job on Ju- ly 20 —honoring IBEW picket lines that had been up since July 17. : Cott said that by the begin- ning of this week WKP and the OTEU will be back in ne- gotiations. “We've dealt with one. Now we have to deal with the sec- ond union.” ing. The driver of Mont Carmel, Que., was with a 33- Candidates call for change Fifty-eight-year-old Gairns was Dave the city’s former ad- ministrator from 1984 to 1990. Among his activities in the © |community Gairns is president of "the Castlegar Rotary Club, and a '\director with the Castlegar and 1 District Development Board. Prior to living in Castlegar, Gairns was a director-with the Municipal Administration Branch J of the Yukon government. His staff experience with mu- nicipalities dates back to the City) of Whitehorse where he spent six years as the city clerk and city) manager. Gairns is married to wife Phyl- lis.. They have two'sons, aged 34) and 33, and a daughter 30. yea old. Gairns says he will enter city ; hall with no set agenda. ~~ ‘ He says he’d like to be involved j with the city at the local govern? ment level. j Doug Green is a 45-year-old ca- ble-splicer with B.C. Tel. : He is married to wife Linda and has two sons. Green has lived in the Kootenays all his life. As a community member he has been active with minor sports, assisting in fundraisers and serv- ing on the executive board for the Castlegar Rebels Hockey Club. Green as a repl 1ent candidate for Walter Flux from the Coalition Unaccepting Rash Bureaucracy. : : CURB is a self-appointed city watchdog organization. The group reports some 100 local residents and merchants are members but those identities are kept secret. Green is looking at developing open communication between the city and its electorate. He has also stressed seniors’ is- sues and would like to develop a seniors housing project in Castle- gar. Thirty-three year-old Renee Read is a newcomer to the West Kootenay. She arrived in June 1991 from Fort St. John were she was man- ager of that city’s chamber of com- merce. 1 She now manages the Castle- gar and District Chamber of Com- merce. In addition, she operates her own business, Read Ventures, which facilitates job training pro- grams for the provincial and fed- eral governments. Read is in the process of earn ing her Bachelor’s degree in Busi ness Administration. Inher candidacy Read brings 4 focus on economic issues. She has stated a need for di versifying Castlegar’s employs ment base and developing sup# port between business and they community. Read is married to husband Phil and has two children. TGS SS TREIES (on ee a a, ee? S| © F 227 Pi Zé...» 5s 105, Li maw, iv, CERAL MALOFF, OCT. 2 From the Family VERA TERRY, SEPT. 30 From the Family MOM Love Verona, Danny, Lindsay & Katrine - LAUCHLAN DANIEL JOHNSON, Happy 1st Birthday, Oct. 4 _ From Darline, Sonny & Aaron TARA KABATOFF, Happy 16th Birthday Love from Buba Shukin SHER! LEROY, Oct. 5 Love Mom, Dad & Alan Va @ Saturday, October 3, 1992 SecondFRONT ! CALL THE NEWS @General Inquiries 365-7266 OUR HOURS The News is located at 197 Columbia Ave. Our office hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed on weekends and statutory holidays. M@ Hallbauer says province must live up to Job Protection Commission report Scott David Harrison EDITOR Ken Hallbauer wants nothing to do with B.C. Federation of Labor President Ken Geot- getti. The President and CEO of Cominco says comments made by Georgetti to The News were nothing more “than rantings and rav- ings.” Georgetti criticized Cominco Tuesday, say- ing its Trail operation squandered millions in taxpayers’ money. He also said that Cominco was not a good corporate citizen. “We'll let the people who know Cominco de- cide whether we are a good corporate citizen or not,” Hallbauer said. The president also took the time to dismiss any thoughts that Cominco would accept a provincial government offer of $50 million in loan guarantees. “Nobody has talked to us about this offer, we have never talked with the government,” Hall- bauer said. “We're not asking for any loan guar- antees, nor do we want any. They are worthless to us. If we wanted to borrow money we could go out and do it.” Hallbauer said he simply wants the govern- ment to agree to the recommendations outlined in a Job Protection Commission report, some- thing he says it already did in June. “We want to see the implementation of that report,” he said. “It was a fair, honest evalua- tion of our operation completed by an indepen- dent party and they should be implemented.” Hallbauer said the report identified the Trail smelter as a money-losing operation. He also said commissioner Bill Sleeman stated that lo- cal and provincial tax and water breaks could save Cominco $13 million annually. “And instead, we got a $7 million increase.” The company reported losses of $100 million over the past two years. In an effort to prevent further losses, Cominco began a restructuring Cominco says no to loan guarantees campaign in January which has seen it hand out some 500 permanent layoffs. “The problem is tax levels and, sooner or lat- er, it will have to be addressed,” he said. “We don’t need loan guarantees and we don’t want loan guarantees, we want the government to listen to the recommendation of the Job Pro- tection Commission.” Hallbauer said recent publicity surrounding the fate of the Trail smelter has been unfortu- nate. He said he’s still trying to figure out why the government is talking to everyone but Com- inco. “There seems to be some sort of publicity cam- paign out there, but Cominco hasn't been part of it. No one in the government has ever talked to us and we don’t know why,” he said. “It’s almost like there is a movement out there to damage the credibility of Cominco.” Hallbauer wouldn’t comment on the long- term viability of the Trail operation. Instead, he said “I don’t see how anything can be resolved until the issue of taxes are addressed.” |DOUBLE YOUR FUN AS os News photo by Neil Rachynski Alisha Pion, 10, gives her friend Sandra Ellis, 9, a ride. The two girls were enjoying the good weather and the good company after a day at school on Thursday. Ketchums form ‘yes’ movement Scott David Harrison EDITOR Bruce and Nancy Ketchum are at it again. Fresh from their cross- Canada unity tour, the Ketchums are forming a West Kootenay ‘yes’ movement aimed at seeing the Charlottetown Accord passed. “We started talking about this during our trip,” Nancy said. “We knew B.C. and Quebec were going to be the hotbeds and we want to help in any way we can.” Bruce Ketchum said he has been in contact with the provincial yes movement and he ae is attempting to get keynote speakers — like Joe Clark — into the Kootenays to help promote the constitutional Duff calls for regional hospital Scott David Harrison EDITOR Kirk Duff says he can’t stay quiet anymore. The city councillor says he wants Castlegar hospital preserved and he’s willing to fight to keep it that way. “The bottom line is we have to make some year old from St. Maurice, Que., and a 23-year old from Vancouver at the time of the accident. juries following an accident on Sept. 28. : The 38-year-old driver of a 1977 Gremlin was driving eastbound 15 kilometres west of Castlegar on Highway 3 when the vehicle entered a right hand curve and entered the left ditch and overturned. package which will go to a national referendum on Oct. 26. “B.C. has always said that it wants a package that will allow it to run its own show,” Bruce said. “This deal does that.” The Ketchums agreed that they are committed to seeing Love from Dad, Mom, Aaron & Leah ree i irthday wish or THIS WEEK'S WINNER IS INDICATED BY THE DAIRY QUEEN LOGO. Phone in your bi : pi by the Castlegar News office. We will print i9t free of charge. All birthday greetings must be in by 10 a.m. Thursday for our Saturday paper. Our phone number is-365-7226. Castlegar is excluded. What does that say about any government plans.” Duff said if the government is planning to scale back services to some communities and establish a regional hospital for the West Kootenay, it must select Castlegar. He said the Castlegar and District Hospital is central to the SUB RATES eee Stanley Humphries Sec- ondary School reported a theft of a sound system speaker on Sept. 25. The speaker went The News is published by Castle News Ltd. for Canwest Pick Up Your Royal The vehicle is totally de- molished. Police report that witnesses thought the acci- dent may be caused by speed- missing between Sept. 22 and 25. The value of the speaker is $100. There are no suspects. For ACCOUNTABILITY Vote Treat At The Castlegar Dairy WE TREAT YOU RIGHT” SINGLE BURGER SINGLE SHAKE Publishers Ltd. Mail subscription rate to The News is $37.50 per year. The price on newsstands is 75¢ for each edition. The price delivered editions is only 90¢ a week (collected monthly). GST extra. Second class mail registration number 0019. we're not loud enough we won’t get heard.” million is far too much. dark. noise,” Duff said Thursday. “We have to start fighting to make sure our hospital becomes the top-notch facility it should be. My fear is that if Duff said he is concerned over reports that may see the Kootenay Lake and District Hospital rebuilt for some $23 million. While he agreed the Nelson hospital needed renovation, he said $23 Duff said the government must come clean on its plan for hospital services in the West Kootenay, saying-Castlegar is being kept in the “Right now, all that we see happening is a giant tug-o-war between Trail and Nelson. nothing.” emergencies arise. deserves. entire West Kootenay and the local airport makes it easy to transport patients should medical “My feeling is that Castlegar is being ignored,” Duff said. “I’m getting tired of hearing what everyone else needs. I think it’s time that we start talking about what Castlegar needs and “Our citizens, everyone, has to start taking a closer look at what the government wants to do. The government is being too quiet on things and we have the right to know what is being planned. “Castlegar is the most logical place to put any kind of regional hospital,” he said. “We don’t call ourselves the Crossroads of the Kootenays for the Charlottetown Accord unite the country they love. But they said they can’t do it alone. “We need as much help as we can get on this,”Bruce said. The Ketchums said their West Kootenay yes campaign wouldn’t focus on scare tactics about the possible demise of Canada. Instead, Nancy said the Castlegar couple “will focus on the positive side of things and there are lots of them.” Anyone interested in joining the Ketchum campaign can contact them at 365-2566.