Vol. 44, No, 49
Castlegar, B.c.

3 Sections (A,B &C)

75 Cents

Creston pro
wins open

...-B1

Selkirk grads
collect awards
...bB3

WEATHER |

Toman: Cloudy with clear breaks. Lows near 106.
Thursday: Cloudy with periods, scattered

site at
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~~.

RS yo,

‘\épar News

MOTORISTS BEWARE |

The driver of the vehicle who hit Castlegar motorcyclist Alan Dow on Tuesda
requires extra caution. Dow was taken to hospital for possible back injuries, Castlegar RCMP said.

ty learned the hard way that driving during motorcycle season

Minister ‘playing politics’

Proposed provincewide bargaining for teachers opposed

By DONNA ZUBER
Staff Writer

Education Minister Stan
Hagen is “clearly playing poli-
tics” with a proposal to legislate
provincewide bargaining for
public school teachers, Castlegar
school district trustee Mickey
Kinakin said Monday at the
board’s monthly meeting.

“This is clear-cut politicking
in the schools in an election
year,” Kinakin told the board. “If
we were responsible trustees,
we'd call it that. What the min-
ister is doing is giving us the
Social Credit agenda.”

Kinakin wanted the board to
support a motion that would
refuse to deal with the ministry
“in any way” regarding Hagen’s
proposal.

However, while the board
does not support provincewide
bargaining, the remaining
trustees agreed that they want
to have their say in a new bar-

Meeting

A
By DONNA ZUBER
Staff Writer

About 40 people took a look at
Castlegar’s future in waste man-
agement at a “public input ses-
sion” Monday at the Community
Complex.

The Regional istrict of

gaining process if it is success-
fully legislated.

“I think very few people out
there want the government to
take over ... but I think we owe
it to ourselves (to participate),”
trustee Evelyn Voykin said.

Hagen has proposed imple-
menting provincewide bargain-
ing before the next round of
negotiations in 1992-93, citing
difficulties in settling contracts
this year.

“The current bargaining
model has led to disruptions in
schools and classrooms in many
parts of the province,” Hagen
said in a news release. “It is
clear that a new system of
teacher bargaining is needed. I
believe that we can find a better
model for bargaining teacher
contracts, one which will avoid
the difficulties of the current
system.”

Hagen has asked various edu-
cation-related associations for

MICKEY KINAKIN
. ‘Clear-cut politicking’

help in developing the new bar-
gaining procedure.

However, he also invited the
Business Council of B.C. and the
Canadian Federation of Inde-

di i to par

Joyce Adams, president of the
Castlegar and District Teachers
Association — indirectly invited
to provide input through its
association with the B.C.
Teachers Federation — said busi-
ness involvement was politically
motivated.

“I don’t understand how those
two business organizations are
involved with teacher bargain-
ing in any way,” she said.
“There’s nothing in it as I see
that has a direct relevance to
business, except in a political
realm.”

Adams agreed negotiations
have been difficult.

“No one is trying to say it
isn’t.”

please see TEACHERS page A2

on waste plan draws 40

hoped about 100 people would
attend Monday’s session, one of
several scheduled throughout
the' West Kootenay.

However, she said she’s
pleased with the enthusiasm
shown by the people who did
attend.

said the purpose of

Central Ki ly

plan, which iaiooae recycling,
to meet provincial government
deadlines requiring regional dis-
tricts to have a plan ready by
1995.

The province’s goal is to

Local recycling consultant
Eva Walters said the N
district and its cons ts

the session was to get an idea of

what kind of waste management

people want and how much
willing to pay for it.

~ pick ups from a ¢en-

I bos, ov frees

one central
“The

said they would be delighted

je that came out
to

have just a depot,” Walters said,
adding that most of the people
at the meeting are now taking
their recyclables to Nelson.

“But to achieve 50 per cent
reduction you Pretty much have
to go curbside,” she said.

“The more convenient it

Curbside is the most expen-
sive option and the depot is the
least expensive. However,

the Castlegar area haven't been
determined.
Other concerns raised at the
ting ineleded the ‘

“But what we're finding is
that people still want access to
materials that are still useful.”

A “free store” — a place where
“perfectly good materials” could
be put for other people to take
home — was also suggested,
Walters said.

Thé two consulting firms
working with the regional dis-
trict, Stanley and Associates and
R.W. Beck and Associates, will
consider the public’s concerns
and chose the options they con-
sider most likely to succeed,
Walters said.

ey second public input session

will be scheduled for the fall. By

tendency for making landfills
less accessible to the public, she

that time a plan will be drafted
for the public to comment on,
she said.

City eyes
active role
Th] cleanups

By SIMON BIRCH
Editor

Ald. Lawrence Chernoff
wants the city to become more
active in getting owners of
messy property to clean up their
yards.

“A whole lot needs to be
done,” Chernoff said during
council’s committee of the whole
meeting Tuesday. “There’s a lot
of places that definitely need
some clean up. We have derelict
vehicles, old sheds falling down
and nothing seems to be done.”

City administrator Gary
Williams said the city’s existing
policy is to react to complaints.

“But we don’t go out_and
patrol the community and say,
‘You've got a messy yard, you've
got to clean it up.”

Chernoff suggested the city
could identify some of the worst
properties, starting with
Columbia Avenue, which he
aéscribed as Castlegar’s most
highly visible area.

But the thought of city staff
patrolling Castlegar and forcing
people to clean up their yards
worries Ald. Doreen Smecher.

“It sure would be heavy-l hand-
ed if we were proactive and
deliberately toured the town,”
she said. “If it’s not bothering
anybody else, why \ wos we do

LAWRENCE CHERNOFF
- ‘a whole lot needs to be done’

simply go out and pick on some-

Smecher said 's cur-
rent bylaws “certainly handle
complgints” and suggested the
city could write letters to owners
of unsightly properties asking
them to clean up.

However, Williams said the
city eventually ends up with two
options when people refuse to
clean up their property — take
— to court after other means

ion are exh d or

it? I'm not opp
up the community far it doesn't
have to get heavy-handed,” she
added later.

Williams said the city simply
wants to clean up the communi-
ty, not to treat people unfairly.
He said the city could deal with
the worst properties first, “not

pf in and clean up the property
and tack the cost on to the prop-
erty owner’s tax bill.

Acting mayor Kirk Duff said
council needs “a recommenda-
tion in print” before proceeding
further with a tougher stand on
cleaning up Castlegar.

to court in

By DONNA ZUBER
Staff Writer

Celgar Pulp Co. is pursu-
ing legal action against the
Pulp, Paper and Woodwork-
ers of Canada, Local 1, over
an outstanding arbitration
award that now totals more
than $651,000.

Local 1 president Michael
Espenhain has been ordered
to produce all related docu-
ments, including financial
record of the union,
Thursday at the Castlegar
courthouse.

The union was directed

* last November to pay Celgar
a damage award of $505,000
plus interest accrued from
1988 after an arbitrator
found the union was at fault
for stopping work at the mill
over a seniority dispute.

Union spokesman Cal Him
said he is disappointed the
company has pursued legal
action.

“This isn't the way to solve
it,” he said Tuesday. “I think
they (the company) have to be
patient realizing that the
union is having a tough time
with the agreement.”

Celgar has offered the
union a settlement calling for
the union to pay $3,000 if it
agrees not to picket, or in any
way “attempt to disrupt or

Celgar takes union

to recover damages

attempt

interfere with construction
activities” connected with the
mill’s modernization and
expansion project.

The union agrees to those
terms but won’t sign the
agreement until other terms
involving training issues,
such as seniority and pay, are
renegotiated.

“The union members do not
feel that we can sign any
agreement that is contrary to
our own labor agreement that
stipulates jobs have to be
given by seniority,” Him said.

“We cannot go against that
agreement in order to save

“And remember, the whole
thing started over seniority in
the first place so to give up
seniority now doesn’t seem
right.”

The letter of agreement
states that employees will be
selected for training “on the
basis of individual interest

Consultant screening.”

The union disagrees, say-

ing employees should be
on the basis of senior-
ity.

Furthermore, the company
hasn't set out what
involves or what kind of mini-