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OurVWiEWS

Dave McCullough

‘Advertising Manager

Warren Chernoff

An act of
betrayal

Ihe more things change, the
| more they stay the same —just
ask the Robson-Raspberry Fer-

ry Users Ad Hoc Committee.
Armed with a promise from British
Columbia’s new leading man, the com-

mittee watched its pet project blow up

in its face.

On Dec. 20, Mike Harcourt and his
New Democrat government proved they
were like any other by refusing to live up
to a promise made three years ago.

This is a shameful move by a govern-
ment that campaigned on honesty and
integrity. He

Put simply, the government's refusal
of the Robson ferry is an act of betrayal.
Is it any wonder the public perception of
politicians is tainted at best?

Is the Robson ferry just a sign of
things to come for British Columbia? We
can only hope not. i

The government says it can not jus-
tify spending the $220,000 needed to re-
turn the ferry. Hogwash.

That $220,000 is a mere spit in the fi-
nancial bucket, especially for a govern-
ment of honesty and integrity

True, the provincial deficit is about as
pretty as a clear-cut logging site, but a
promise is a promise. And trying to mea-
sure the worth of a promise in dollars
and cents is a political mistake.

The citizens of Robson, Raspberry,
Pass Creek, Brilliant, Thrums, and
Castlegar have been cheated. It is that
simple.

How they choose to react to being
cheated is theirs, but the bottom line is
they were sold an empty promise, com-

AdrianRAESIDE

CLL)

Z,

Kinnaird a heritage site — ha!

Did I read Ald. Marilyn
Mathieson correctly? Did
she really suggest saving
Kinnaird Hall as a heritage
site? :

That noise you hear is
the guffaws all the way
from Nelson, where there
are actual heritage
buildings worth saving.

I can understand those
who support retaining
Kinnaird Hall because they fe
have sentimental ties to the be
facility. They helped build

Comments
from the
Crossroads

I’m not so sure it should —
then it has to be on the
basis of its worth to the
community.

One of the arguments
against retaining the hall

year. I don’t have a
problem with that as long
as the hall is being heavily
used by community groups.
After all, we don’t expect
our government operations
to make money. That’s why
we pay taxes.

the community hall when :
Castlegar was in its infancy. It has meaning
for them. They can’t stand the thought of
tearing it down.

Fair enough.

But to suggest the hall has some worth
as a heritage building is ludicrous. The hall
is not an example of any particular
architectural style, other than perhaps late
1940s stucco.

plete with broken dream.

No, if Kinnaird Hall is to be saved — and

But is it really worth
$14,000 a year to see the hall used one
night a week or on the odd Saturday for a
rummage sale? f

It might be cheaper for taxpayers if
council simply paid for community groups
that use the facility to rent another facility.

I certainly can’t see spending $80,000 to
upgrade the hall. That doesn’t make any
sense.

please see Norman page 7

is that it loses $14,000 a ~

Hadley
Circulation Manager

Burt Campbell
Publisher Emeritus

LV. Campbell
‘Aug. 7, 1947-
Feb. 15, 1973

Street TALK

Orval Coe
Glade

“I have to lose
weight. Doctor's
orders.”

Kathleen Terry
Castlegar

“Eat healthier,
losing weight.”

Question: What is your new year’s resolution?

John Houston
Castlegar

“Not to listen to
anymore politicians.”

~~ Don Stanchfield
Kamloops

“I’m going to stay
away from the
women.”

Ida Lust
Nanaimo

“Get out in the
natural world more
than the commercial
world.”

@ Sunday, December 29, 1991

OtherVIEWS |

Please address
all letters to:

Letters to the
Editor

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
9am. and 5
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,

Letters tcoWHE

EDITOR

Setting the record straight

I wish to correct a serious misconception cre-
ated by your article: “WKP Eyes Hefty Rate In-
crease”, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 1991. In it, your
newspaper gave broad coverage to figures es-
poused by the ECA as a measure of financial
performance. Unfortunately, the ECA has con-
fused return on capital with return on equity.
This is an apples and oranges comparison
which has left many of your readers, our cus-
tomers, unduly concerned over the company’s
recent rate application.,

The ECA cited WKP’s 17.41 per cent return
on capital as the highest among electrical util-
ities in Canada. It compares us to TransAlta
Utilities in Alberta, which earned 11.85 per
cent in 1990 and B,C. Hydro which has earned
12.05 per cent over the past five years.

What the ECA neglected to point out is that
neither of these two utilities include income
taxes in their return on capital. B.C. Hydro is
not required to pay income tax, because it is a
Crown Corporation and TransAlta has its fed-
eral income tax rebated to it by the Province of
Alberta. Meanwhile, West Kootenay Power
faithfully pays its fair share of federal and
provincial income taxes each year.

If our return on capital is to be compared to
other utilities, then the ECA should compare
apples to apples and subtract 4.4 per cent ($6.2
million) which we paid in 1990 income taxes.
This means our return on capital is 13 per cent,
in line with the utilities to which we have been
compared. In fact, the return on UtiliCorp in-
vestment comprises just 6.6 per cent of this to-
tal 17.41 per cent, a qualified figure which you
will not hear from the ECA when they are
bandying numbers about.

As for our recent rate application, 4.2 per
cent in 1992 and 5.8 per cent in 1993 are near
inflationary increases. Again, taxes — includ-
ing an extraordinary $500,000 increase in
property taxes — have a very real effect on the
size of these proposed increases.

Certainly, we don't mind having the ECA,
or any other group as a critic of West Kootenay
Power. After all, we quite properly operate in
ath ghly re d envir under the
watchful eye of the B.C. Utilities Commission.
However, if the ECA intends to position itself
as a watchdog then'the media should be mind-
ful of the fact that most watchdogs bark gra-
tuitously at every passing shadow. Before the
ECA's alarm is passed onto the rest of our cus-
tomers it should be checked.

M.C. Bradshaw
Director, Community &
Public Affairs

It’s high time we make drinking drivers pay

“She will never graduate from

college, marry nor have children.
Her life ended before it actually
began.”
i Those haunting words were
penned by Elmyra Tamashiro of
Hilo, Hawaii, in a victim-impact
statement, read in the New West-
minster Court last week by B.C.
Supreme Court Justice Ross Lan-
der.

The case involved the death of
Mrs. Tamashir’s daughter, Leila,
an 18-year-old American college
student, who was killed by a
drunk driver last year.

The accident occurred after 1
a.m., March 10, 1990, when Leila
and two friends from Western
Washington University were be-
ing driven home to Bellingham af-

Report
from

Victoria

Hubert BEYER

obvious to all but the most stupid
that the courts have had it with
. drunk drivers. And none too soon,

I might add.
And just in case you think
Sware’s sentence was too stiff,
ider this: Sware had received

ter an ig in V: and
White Rock.

The car in which Leila was a
passenger was rear-ended on 8th
Avenue in White Rock and sent
hurling into a tree. The driver of
the other car was Jason Bryan
Sware of Surrey. He was drunk.
Sware left the scene of the acci-
dent, but was later arrested.

Last week, Justice Lander sen-
tenced Sware to four years in jail
and lifted his driver’s licénce for
five years.

The sentence should make it

four speeding tickets before the
accident, one 24-hour suspension,
and seven tickets for failing to pro-
duce his driver’s licence or insur-
ance.

Worse yet, after the accident,
Sware got another five speeding
tickets and a further 24-hour sus-
pension.

Tm at a loss to understand
what might motivate a person, no
matter how young, to continue be-
ing a menace on the road after

snuffing out a life.

Justice Lander made some jin-
teresting remarks while sentenc-
ing Sware. He said the names of
people convicted of drinking and
driving should be posted in bars,
or the provincial government
should pay to publish lists in
newspapers as a general deter-
rence to others.

A great idea. Governments
think nothing of ding the tax-

nounced a number of measurés
that could have a dramatic effect
on drinking drivers, including
more hand-held breathalizers for
police.

The most galling aspect of the
whole drinking driving problem is
that there’s no logical explanation
for it. With the advent of neigh-
borhood pubs, there is a drinking
establish just about near ev-

payers’ money on perpetuating
their own power. Why not spend a
little more on something that may
save lives?

At present, few newspapers re-
port drunk-driving cases, unless
there’s some interesting angle to
it, or if the accused is well known
in the community.

Far more people die at the
hands of drunk drivers every year
than from the most publicized and
feared disease — AIDS, but fewer
resources are allocated to fighting
the war against drinking than
battling AIDS.

Labor Minister Moe Sihota,
who is also responsible for the In-
surance Corporation of B.C., has
indicated that the government
may, at long last, declare all-out
war on drinking driving.

Commenting on the 19-per-cent
increase next year in auto insur-
ance premiums, Sihota an-

eryone’s home or place of work.

As for going out on the town at
night, the price of cab fare is neg-
ligible, compared with the tab for
food and drink.

And yet, there isn’t a beer par-
lor, a hotel bar, a neighborhood
pub, whose parking lot isn’t full at
any time of day or night.

How many more people will
have to die before the courts follow
Justice Lander’s example and
throw the book at offenders?

Leila’s mother said it all in her
letter to the court: “Nothing can
compensate for Leila’s life. But we
do not think that an irresponsible
driver such as Jason Sware
should be allowed to continue
killing other innocent victims. We
ask only that justice be served.”

Lander set an example courts
should follow. No more pussy-foot-
ing around. Hammer the beggars,
and hammer them hard.

Norman

continued from page 6

It’s taken nearly 10 years, but
downtown revitalization is finally
a reality.

In case the details have slipped

your mind, the plan calls for $3.7
million in improvements over four
years.
The first stage begins this
spring. The second stage will take
place the following year and the
third stage in 1995 or whenever
the new Robson bridge is finished
(because the final stage involves
Columbia Avenue from the bridge
to just past Castlegar Foods.)

revitalization area — with a total
assessment of $90 million — will
pick up 50 per cent of the cost and
the city the other 50 per cent.
Now, I’ve always wondered
about the city picking up half the
cost of improvements that will
benefit businesses. And so have
some busi not included in

behold, I found out that Castlegar
is actually a good deal for local tax-
payers.

Summerland, for instance, is in
the second phase of its revitaliza-
tion program — a program that
closely resembles Castlegar’s.

And how much are Summer-

the downtown area. They com-
plain — with some justification —
that they shouldn't have to pay to
fix up the streets in front of their
competitors’ places.

So I checked into how other
communities have funded their re-

legality,

and taste.

And ‘lo and

The bu luded in the
mee

land b paying?

Zippo.

The city is picking up 100 per
cent of the cost.

It has managed to get a low-in-
terest loan from the provincial
government and is paying it back
from reserves the city had accu-
mulated.

Mind you; Summerland’s plan
is a scaled-down version of Castle-

gar’s.

The first phase involved only
two downtown blocks and cost just
$750,000 — about half of the $1.42
million Castlegar will spend in its
first phase.

Although Castlegar doesn’t
have the reserves to pay for its
downtown plan, it will have in-
creased revenues from Celgar. So
local residents — and local busi-
nesses outside the downtown area
—shouldn't have to pay any of the
cost.

Seems fair to me